:|i§i|^g|^yi^i|;;i5 150. Meeting the Expenses of the War 467 151. Industry and Commerce in War Times 470 152. War Time Politics 473 XL THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 153. Lincoln's Policy of Reconstruction ; His Assassination . . 476 154. Johnson's Efforts in the Work of Reconstruction .... 478 155. The Congressional Plan of Reconstruction 479 156. The Quarrel Between the President and Congress; Impeach- ment 484 J '57. The Final Measures of Reconstruction 487 CONTENTS xiii XLI EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES (1869-1877) page 158. Western Development (1862-1877) 490 159. Industrial Prosperity and Industrial Reverses 493 160. The Currency and the Tariff 496 161. The Aftermath of Reconstruction 499 162. Corruption in High Places 500 163. The Election of 1876 502 XLII EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH (1877-1885) 164. Hayes ; Garfield ; Arthur 505 165. Industrial Progress (1877-1885) 509 166. Progress in Education 515 167. The Growth of Cities 518 168. The Growth of Labor Organizations 519 169. The Election of Grover Cleveland 521 XLIII THE BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA (1885-1897) 170. The Regulation of Commerce ; Industrial Unrest .... 524 171. The New Northwest and the New Southwest 530 172. The Surplus, The Tariff, and the Trusts 533 173. Four Years of Financial and Industrial Depression (1893- 1897) 537 174. The Election of 1896 542 XLIV THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 175. The Dingley Bill 546 176 Intervention in Cuba; the Spanish War; Expansion . . . 547 177. The Reelection of McKinley; His Assassination .... 554 178. Roosevelt Continues the Policy of McKinley (1901-1905) . 556 XLV A PROGRESSIVE ERA (1905-1914) 179. Twentieth Century Progress in Social Matters 564 180. The Rule of the People 5(3g 181. Commercial and Industrial Progress (1900-1912) .... 573 182. The Roosevelt Policies ( 1905-1909) 578 183. The Administration of President Taft (1909-1913) . . . s8o 184. The Election of 1912 585 XLV I THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION 185. Three Great Laws 589 186. Grave International Problems 591 187. Progress in Reform 594 188. War with Germany S98 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY I ^ GLANCE AT EUROPE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY The serious study of American history may properly begin with a survey of Europe in the fifteenth century. What kind of a place was the Old World at the time the New World was discovered? What kind of a civilization did the people of Europe enjoy at the time they first began to go out to the wilds of America? What, in brief, was the European background of early American history? I. POPULATION. A striking and highly important fact about the Europe of smau- the fifteenth century was the smallness of its population. No of the 1 (-/' • 1 <• Popular complete official census of any modern country had as yet tion been taken, but it is safe to say that the population of Europe five hundred years ago was hardly a tenth as great as it is now. Germany alone to-day can boast of more people than could be counted in all Europe at the time of the dis- covery of America. In the year 1500 all England contained less than half as many people as London contains to-day, and all Prussia contained less than a third as many as Berlin now contains. France was by far the most populous country, but even France did not have a fourth as many people as she has to-day. X ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Sparso- ness of Popu- lation The population ^ of luirope in the fifteenth century was sparse as well as small. People for the most part lived on farms or in villages. There were many towns, but no great cities, riie two largest places were Paris and Venice, but Paris was not as large as our Indianai)olis, while Venice was scarcely larger than our Toledo, London was still a town, Berlin was The Strand in 1560. From the map of Ralph Aggas. only a fishing village, while Petrograd did not exist at all. So, when thinking of the Europe of the fifteenth century we must dismiss from our minds the teeming population and crowded centers of to-day and picture a very thinly populated continent where there were no great cities and where urban life on a large scale was unknown. 1 The estimated population of Europe in tlie year 1500 is as follows: England 3,700,000 France 1 2,600,000 Prussia 800,000 Russia 2,000,000 Austria 9,500,000 Italy 9,200,000 Spain 8,500,000 Total 46,300,000 EUROPE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 3 2. THE LEADING NATIONS. Another striking fact about Europe in the fifteenth century was the looseness and weakness of the political organization which existed in the several countries. There were no great, compact, well-organized sovereign States. Power, like popula- tion, was scattered. Most of the countries were broken up into numerous political divisions and were without strong central governing powers, without truly national governments. Russia Russia was just emerging from a condition of barbarism and her influ- ence was as yet hardly felt at all in the affairs of Europe. Ger- many consisted of a multitude of political fragments, with each oer- fragment conducting its own affairs pretty much as it pleased. Italy made no pretense of bein^j a nation ; it was simply a geographical expression. It consisted for the most part of free cities or republics such as Venice, Florence, Sienna, Genoa, itaiy These cities, extremely jealous and independent of each other, kept the Italian peninsula in a turmoil with their rivalries and made it impossible for Italy to become a great, united country. Austria had a central government with an emperor Austria at the head, but the emperor was held in check by nobles and petty princes. France, after many centuries of disunion and France discord, had by the end of the fifteenth century been consoli- dated into something like a national power and could fittingly be called a nation. This century saw likewise the consolidation of Spain. For in 1479, by the marriage of Ferdinand and spain Isabella, Aragon and Castile were united into a single king- dom and in the very year in which America was discovered Spain spread her power over Granada and forthwith took a foremost place among the States of Europe. England, too, at the end of the fifteenth century could be called a nation, for by 1485 the King (Henry VII) had put down rebellious England nobles and the central government was receiving the obedi- ence of all subjects. Thus, four powers, Austria, Spain, France, and England, were the only countries of Europe in the fifteenth century that could properly be called nations; 4 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY all the others were too small or too weak and insignificant to deserve the name. 3. GOVERNMENT; RELIGION; EDUCATION. Mon- The prevailing type of government was monarchy. The only republics w^ere the free cities of Italy and — in the last years of the century — Switzerland. In England there was a representative Parliament and the semblance, at least, of representative government. In most of the countries, how- ever, the monarch was absolute ; such power as the King could wield he wielded as a despot. In the cities and towns the people were usually allowed to manage their own affairs The in their own way, but in the management of the affairs of leged the country at large the people had no voice. The larger affairs of government, whether of a legislative, executive, or judicial nature, were in the hands of privileged classes — kings, nobles, clergy. Popular government, as we understand the term, had no existence whatever. The If in its political organization Europe in the fifteenth century Church was decentralized and weak, in its religious organization it was centralized and strong. The Catholic faith was universal. The Greek Catholic church with its head at Constantinople prevailed in southeastern Europe and throughout " all the Russias." Throughout western Europe — Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, England — the supreme and all pervasive religious and spiritual force was the Roman Catholic church with the Pope (the Bishop of Rome) at its head. Protestant- ism as a religious movement or as a distinct form of religious belief had not yet appeared. With the exception of a few Jews and skeptics the entire population was Catholic. So in the fifteenth century Europe was Catholic to the core, and the strongest of social forces was the Catholic church, univer- The schools were under the control and direction of the Im" Church. Education for the most part was confined to the Schools clergy and to the wealthy and favored classes. There were universities — about fifty in all Europe — ^at which students were trained in grammar, rhetoric, logic, theology, philosophy, EUROPE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY s and medicine. Below the universities there were in all the larger towns church schools in which pupils were taught read- ing, writing, arithmetic, and the rudiments of Latin. The number of pupils who received the benefits of education was but an insignificant portion of the whole population. In every country the vast majority of the people were illiterate and ignorant. 4. INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. Where the population was so sparse and the masses so ig- Agricui norant there could be of course only a very smiple mdustrial life. Everywhere Ae chief occupation of the people was agriculture. All classes from the king to the serfs were en- gaged in tilling the soil. Even the artisans in the towns tilled little plots of land. But agriculture was still in a very rude state. Plows were constructed chiefly of wood and the reaping of grain was done with a sickle. In the towns spin- ning, weaving, tanning, shoe-making, and other trades flour- ished. The manufacturing industry was in the household Manufao- stage of development and was extremely simple, both m its Indus- organization and in its methods. The typical industrial estab- lishment was a little shop — usually one of the rooms of a dwelling — in which the entire working force consisted of three persons : the master, one skilled workman known as a journeyman, and an apprentice. Mechanical devices were few. The use of steam as a motive power had not yet been discovered, and almost all kinds of work were performed by hand. Commerce in Europe at the opening of the fifteenth century Trado was in a prosperous condition. During the long period of orient the Crusades (i 100-1350) the merchants of Europe estab- lished a thriving trade with the Orient. They sent to the Far East woolen goods, tin, copper, and other metals and received in exchange spices, drugs, dyes, precious stones, silks, and various articles of Oriental luxury. The Mediterranean Sea was the center of the world's commercial activity. The metropolis of the world was Venice. This remarkable city ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY located at the head of the Adriatic was the place of exchange for most of the trade that passed between the Orient and Europe. The commercial glory of Venice is a favorite theme of historians, yet the volume of her commerce seems to our eyes really very small. For example, her best customer was Germany, yet the annual value of the German trade with Venice in the fifteenth century amounted to only a little more than a million dollars. Commerce on a grand scale was impossible where the means of communication were so bad as they were in Europe in the fifteenth century. Trade by water was everywhere ex- posed to piracy and the vessels in which the goods were carried were small and ill-fitted to sustain the heavy gales of the ocean. Trade by land was everywhere exposed to highway robbery which was so com- mon that it was almost respectable. There were but few roads and these few were usually in a wretched con- dition. Sometimes a road was so bad that it required seven or eight horses or oxen to draw one of the clumsy wagons of the time. As bridges were rare the difficulty and danger of crossing streams often proved to be insuperable obstacles to the movement of goods. Worse than all this there was lacking that indispensable hand- maid of commerce, the post-office ; there was in all Europe as yet no regularly organized postal system. A ship of the Fifteenth Century. 5. THE PROGRESSIVE SPIRIT OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Such was the civilization which Europeans of the fifteenth century enjoyed and which they could take with them to trans- plant in a newly-found world. It was a simple and crude civilization, to be sure, but it was vigorous and progressive, and it contained within itself the seeds of a marvelous growth. Indeed, the fifteenth century has to its credit some of the EUROPE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 7 greatest movements and events recorded in the history of human progress. It was the century of the Renaissance, TUe^^ that movement in art and Hterature which restored to man- sanco kind the priceless heritage of Greek and Roman culture which had been lost when the Roman world was overrun by bar- barians in the fifth and sixth centuries. It was the century which saw (about 1455) the invention of printing with movable Printing type. It was the century in which the mariner's compass came The 1111-1 1 • Compass mto general use and enabled the sailor to pursue his way across trackless waters to undiscovered lands. Above all, the fif- teenth century was a period of geographical exploration and discovery. At the opening of the century all that was known of the world was what had been revealed by daring Phoeni- cians two thousand years before and by medieval travelers like Marco Polo in China and Tartary. Geographical knowl- edge was confined chiefly to Europe, southern and middle Asia, and northern Africa. The fifteenth century was not far advanced when an impulse to exploration began to show itself. Bold spirits sailed farther and farther into unknown seas and Expiora= penetrated deeper and deeper into unknown lands and by the time the century closed the boundaries of geographical knowl- edge had extended so far as to include all the continents of the earth. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The growth of commerce and its results: Adams, 1 279-312. 2. Describe the principal medieval trade routes between the Far East and Europe : Cheyney, 22-26. 3. Give an account of the travels and adventures of Marco Polo. 4. The Crusades : Adams, 259-278. 5. The Renaissance: Adams, 364-391; also Green, 302-310. 6. State in the form of a summary the important features of European civilization in the fifteenth century. 1 For the full name of the author and the full title of the book see Reading List (Appendix C) where the names of the authors are arranged in alphabetical order. II "THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS" What led to the great discoveries and explorations of the fifteenth century? How did it happen that more new countries were discovered by Europeans in that one century than were discovered in all the ages that had gone before? What parts of the earth were then reached for the first time and by what nations and what persons were the first great discoveries made? The Con- quests of the Turks Constan- tiQople Interfer- ence with the Trade of the Orient 6. THE BLOCKING OF THE OLD TRADE ROUTES. The impulse which led men of Europe in the fifteenth century to go out upon unknown waters and find strange coasts v/as due almost wholly to a pressure of commercial conditions. About 1450, the trade which the Mediterranean cities were carrying on with the Orient received a serious check at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. These truculent and con- quering barbarians began to overrun Asia Minor in the four- teenth century and did not halt in their career of conquest until they had spread their power over all the countries bordering upon the Black Sea and the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. In 1453 they captured Constantinople, and from that date the overland trade with the Orient began rapidly to decline. The new Turkish masters committed such depredations upon com- merce that merchants were forced to abandon the old overland routes to the Orient and seek a passage for their goods by way of the River Nile and the Red Sea. But they could not long avail themselves even of this outlet, for the Turks, after taking Constantinople, carried their conquest southwards and by 15 17 had all Syria and Egypt in their power. The Ottoman Gov- ernment was as unfriendly to commerce in Cairo and Alex- andria as it was in Constantinople. It imposed such heavy tolls upon goods moving upon the Nile and the Red Sea as to 8 "THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS" 9 render trade by this route unprofitable. Thus by the opening of the sixteenth century the Turkish conquerors had interposed insurmountable barriers to all trade moving by the old routes between Europe and the Far East. 7. EXPLORATIONS OF THE PORTUGUESE. But the movements of commerce are well nigh irresistible. Henry Trade will have an outlet; if it cannot surmount barriers it gator will go around them. As soon as the Turks began to interfere with trade moving by the old routes, men began to seek new routes to the Orient. In this search Portugal took the lead. Even before the fall of Constantinople, Prince Henry of Portugal, — known as Henry the Navigator, — a man distin- guished above all his contemporaries for his encouragement of science and geographical discovery, began to explore the African coast, and by 1434 his sailors had passed Cape Bojador, the southernmost point then known to Europeans, Ten years later Cape Verde had been passed and before the Prince died (1460) Portuguese ships had reached Sierra L.eone. The work of exploration begun by Henry the Navigator was carried forward by those who came later, and by 1471 Portu- guese sailors had followed the A f rican coast beyond the Equa- tor. In 1487 Bartholomeu Dias, a Portuguese captain, Barthoio* reached the Cape of Good Hope and caught sight of the Indian Bias Ocean. Dias wanted to sail on, but his crew refused to go further. He returned to Lisbon convinced that he had found an ocean route to the Indies. 8. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND VASCO DA GAMA. About the time Dias was making his brilliant and ever mem- The Views of orable voyage, Christopher Columbus appeared in Portugal coiumbus with a plan for reaching the Indies by sailing directly west shape across the Atlantic. Columbus thought that such a voyage Eartb was possible because he believed the earth to be round like a ball. Learned men of the time quite generally believed the earth to be a globe, but with the exception of a few astrono- 10 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY mers like Toscanelli of Florence this belief was half-hearted and theoretical. To the mind of Columbus the sphericity of the earth was a living truth. That India could be reached by sailing westward was a proposition concerning which he had no doubt whatever. He believed that a voyage westward from Lis- bon straight across to Cipango (Japan) was about as simple and as practicable as a trip from his native city of Genoa across to the island of Corsica. Such a voyage seemed to him much shorter than it actually was because he enter- tained the common error that the earth was much smaller than it ac- tually is. We do not know precisely when venture upon a westward voyage, the time of the discovery of the whole being was absorbed in plans Christopher Columbus. Columbus decided to but we know that at Cape of Good Hope hi 5 for the undertaking. Such a voyage required the support of the rich and powerful, and Columbus labored for years, now in Portugal, now in Spain, to secure royal assistance and approval. The way of the suppliant was long and hard, but Columbus was as persistent a man as ever lived, and his indomitable perseverance was at length rewarded and the needed assistance secured. On August 3, 1492, under the powerful auspices of Spain, Columbus sailed westward from Palos and on October 12 he landed at a little island (possibly San Salvador) of the Ba- hama group. After skirting the coast of Cuba and landing at Haiti, where he left some men to build a fort and make a settlement — the first to be made in the New World — he returned to Spain (March 1493), with the startling news that he had reached the coast of India by a westward route. This was glorious news for Spain, for it now seemed that the trade of the Orient, the great prize for which the commer- "THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS" ii cial world was contending, would be carried in Spanish bot- toms and landed at Spanish ports, and that the enormous profits of this trade would go into the coffers of Spanish merchants. Columbus followed up his first voyage with three others. On his third voyage (begun in 1498) he reached the mainland Later Voyages of South America. On his last voyage he skirted the coast of Columbus of Central America. These strange coasts he was sure be- longed to Asia. That they were the coasts of a new conti- nent, a New World, seems never to have occurred to the great discoverer himself or to any of his contemporaries. The discoveries made by Columbus shed glory upon Spain, vasco da but they failed to bring to Spanish merchants the coveted trade ^^ of the Orient. The splendid cities of the Far East for which Columbus always headed his ships were touched first by Portu- guese prows. In 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed for India in the path marked out by Dias, and in May 1498, entered the harbor of Calicut, on the coast of India. The next year he returned to Lisbon, bringing with him a cargo of nutmegs, cloves, pepper, rubies, emeralds, silks, and satins. Here in- deed was the trade of the Orient and here at last was a new route to the Indies. And Portugal made the best of her great discovery. Portuguese ships at once began to make regular trips to the Orient. In the very next year after the return of da Gama to Lisbon, Cabral, a Portuguese captain, cabrai sailed with a fleet from Lisbon for India by the route round the Cape of Good Hope. On the voyage down the coast of Africa, Cabral swung too far westward and by chance touched the coast of Brazil. Thus, if America had not been discovered by Columbus in 1492, it would have been discovered by a Portu- guese captain a few years later than that. 9. THE VOYAGE OF CABOT. England, as a maritime nation, was deeply interested in a cabot water route to the Orient, and Englishmen were not slow in Henry vii finding their way tO the strange coasts which were discovered by Columbus and which were thought to be the gateways to ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Line of Demarca- tion the riches of India. But the leader of England's achieve- ments in the work of discovery was not an Englishman : as with Spain, so with England, the work of *' finding strange coasts " in the West was carried forward by an Italian sailor. In 1496 John Cabot, probably a native of Genoa and certainly at one time a citizen of Venice, appeared at the court of Henry VII of England, seeking royal authority and protection for a voyage to be made to the island of Cathay (China) by a west- ern or northwestern route. The object of the voyage was to " traffique for the spices as the Portingals (Portuguese) did." The King lent a willing hand to the enterprise and authorized Cabot " to sail to all ports, countries, and seas of the East and West and North under our banners and ensigns — to set up our banners and ensigns in any village, town, castle, isle, or maine land, newly found, getting unto us the rule, title, and jurisdiction of the same." Cabot was not authorized to sail in a southerly course because in that direction there was dan- ger of conflict with Spain. In giving Cabot authority to lay claim to any part whatever of the western continent the English King was ignoring the terms of a treaty made in 1494 between the King of Spain and the King of Portugal. This treaty, which was made in accordance with the wishes of Pope Alexander VI, provided that a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands should be a " line of demarcation," and that all heathen lands east of this line should belong to Portugal, and that all heathen lands west of this line should belong to Spain. When Brazil was discovered by Cabral, it was promptly claimed by Portugal on the ground that it was east of the line of demarca- tion. So, when Henry \^II au- thorized Cabot to make his west- ern voyage the New World in its entirety had already been appropriated by Spain and Portugal. ;^y,^ The Line of Demarcation. " THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS " 13 Cabot set sail from Bristol, then the chief seaport of Eng- ^^^°*g| land, in May 1497, and in June I497 discovered that " land which no man ^ before that time had at- tempted." The place where Cabot landed cannot be precisely located, but it was on the coast of North America somewhere between southern Lab- rador and Halifax. He, on the other hand, thought he had landed on the coast of China in the territory of the Grand Cham. Like Columbus he was searching for the east- ern coast of Asia and, like Columbus, he thought he had found the object of his quest. The region discovered was cold and barren, and was without riches of any kind. In 1498 Cabot made a second voyage to America, and it is generally believed that 1 The Norsemen. — For a long time it was quite generally believed, and by some it is still believed, that neither Cabot nor Vespucius was the first European to reach North America. According to the sagas or Scandinavian legends, a Norse sea-rover named Leif Ericson sailed from Iceland about the year looo, and steering in a southwesterly direction, explored the American coast as far south as New England. Leif is said to have landed somewhere on the coast of what is now Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where he made a settlement called Vinland, but just where Vinland was historians are unable to decide. Many reject outright the story of Leif Ericson on the ground that the sagas upon which the story rests cannot be taken as narratives of historical truth. Even if the voyage of Leif was actually made, it could have had but little importance in the history of exploration, for it did not lead sailors of other nations to make voyages to America, and it is likely that all memory of it had faded from men's minds by the time of Columbus. statute Miles The discoveries of Cabot and Cartier. 14 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY New Centers of trade on the second voyage he sailed along the American coast from Labrador to the Delaware Bay. The voyages of Cabot are surrounded by much doubt and uncertainty, yet this much is clear: a voyage was made in the summer of 1497, and it resulted in the dis- covery of the continent of America. The significance of the voyage was that Cabot claimed the " new- found-land " for England, and that this claim became the foun- dation-stone of the English power in the New World. ^ So, the interference of the Turk in the fifteenth century with the trade of the Orient influenced pro- foundly the course of human his- tory. In the first place it caused Americus Vespucius. commerce to flow in new channels, and it directed trade to new centers. The voyage of da Gama marked the beginning of a movement that was to take the best trade of the world from the cities of the Mediterranean and give it to the cities of northern and western Europe. After that voyage Venice and Genoa declined, while Lisbon 1 The Naming of America. That Cabot was the first of the great navigators to reach the American mainland is a matter of dispute. Some historians contend that Americus Vespucius, a native of Florence, Italy, sailed from Cadiz in May 1497, and having crossed the Atlantic, landed on the coast of Honduras a few days before it had been reached by Columbus. Whether this contention is true or not, it is certain that \'espucius was among the first who made voyages to the newly-found world. It is also certain that he gave to the New World its name. The naming of America was accomplished in a roundabout way and without the knowledge of Vespucius himself. In 1504 Vespucius wrote an account of his voyage to the newly-found tvorld and his narrative fell into the hands of Martin Waldseemiiller, a professor of geography in the College of St. Die in Lorraine. In 1507 WaldseemiillL-r published a new geography in which he suggested that the new world be given the name America. The suggestion of the geographer was followed. Waldseemiiller intended that only Brazil — the region described by Vespucius in his narrative — should be called America, but the name spread northward and southward and in time the whole western continent came to be called -Vmerica. Thus it was an Italian that discovered the western world, an Italian that first reached its mainland, and an Italian that gave it its name. "THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS" 15 and Antwerp prospered as never before. In the second place Extent the conduct of the Turks caused navigators of Europe to go discov out and find strange coasts in all quarters of the globe. Be- fore the close of the fifteenth century Portuguese captains sailing southward had explored the west coast of Africa throughout its entire length, while Columbus and Cabot after sailing westward had explored the eastern coast of the western continent from the frozen shores of Labrador to the region of the Orinoco river. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. What services to navigation were rendered by Henry the Navi- gator? Cheyney, 60-78. 2. Why were Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century eager to find a new route to the Indies? Cheyney, 9-21. 3. Give an account of the discovery of America as the event was described by Columbus himself : Halsey, I, 30-37 ; or Hart I, 35-40. Give an account of the voyage as described by Washington Irving: Halsey I, 23-30. 4. What experiences had prepared Columbus for making his great voyage? Bourne, 8-19. 5. The voyages of the Cabots: Bourne, 54-61; Halsey I, 46-53. 6. Describe the voyages of Vespucius according to his own account of them : Halsey I, 54-63. 7. The men from Asia and Norway : Halsey I, 3-9. 8. How the Norwegians came to Vinland : Halsey I, 10-16. 9. The naming of America: Bourne, 84-103; Channing I, 42-48. 10. When and where was Christopher Columbus born? Where are his remains now buried? Is there a picture of Columbits that is known to be a true likeness of the man? 11. The three important dates in this chapter are 1453, 1492 and 1497. With these dates begin the preparation of a chronological table of American History. Thus — 1453. Constantinople captured by the Turks. 1492. America discovered by Christopher Columbus. 1497. North America reached by John Cabot. 12. Special Reading. C. R. Beazley, Prince Henry the Nazigator. C. H. McCarthy, Columbus and His Predecessors. John Fiske, Dis- cover y of America. HI ABORIGINAL AMERICA What kind of a continent was it which Cabot discovered? What kind of a place was al)original America? Especially, what kind of a place was our own country at the time when white men first began to come to its shores? 10. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. The Beginning on the Atlantic side of the United States and piafns passing westward to the Pacific we find five distinct physical regions: (i) The Atlantic Coast Plain consists of a strip of lowlands of a mean breadth of about loo miles lying between the ocean and the Appalachian Mountains and extending from the region where Cabot probably landed to the Gulf of Mex- ico.* The coastal region invited settlement, for the gently sloping plain was indented by fine land-locked bays into which flowed rivers that were navigable far up into the interior. (2) Going up from the coastal plain we come by easy ascent The to the Appalachian Region, a system of table-lands, mountain- ^hian^ ranges, and intervening valleys extending from Nova Scotia Kegion ^^ Alabama. The elevation of this region varies from a few hundred to several thousand feet above sea-level. The Ap- palachian System includes the greater part of the States of New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, the total area being about 300,000 square miles. (3) Descending the western slope of the Ap- The jialachian highland we enter the great Mississippi Valley, issfppi which is drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries, VaUey ___^ 1 The ijortion of this region embraced by New England and New York is for the most part the worn-out end of the Appalachian mountain-system and is lacking in many of the features of a coastal plain. 16 ABORIGINAL AMERICA 17 the waters of the valley finding their way to the Gulf of Mex- ico. This valley has an area of more than 1,000,000 square miles, and throughout its whole extent its surface is either perfectly level or slightly rolling, the only mountains to break the monotony being the Ozarks of Missouri and Oklahoma. North of the Mississippi Valley and separated from it by an almost imperceptible watershed is the vast basin known as the Lake Regrion. This is drained by the Great Lakes, a se- The Lako ries of mediterranean seas which have an outlet to the Atlan- Region tic through the St. Lawrence River. The Mississippi Valley and the Lake Region may be taken together and regarded as one mighty trough, for the ridge of land which divides the two basins is so low that in flood-time it is sometimes covered with water so that canoes can glide from the rivers of one region into the rivers of the other. (4) Leaving the Mis- sissippi Valley we ascend the ever rising ridges of the Cor- The dillera, a vast plateau, which extends from Alaska to Central lera America and which in the United States has an elevation of from five to ten thousand feet and a breadth of a thousand miles. Upon the broad and lofty base of the Cordillera rise the Rocky, the Sierra Nevada, and the Cascade ranges. (5) From the Cordillera we pass down the Pacific Slope to the sea. The • • Pacific This slope consists of a series of mountain-ranges with m- slope tervening valleys and table-lands. Along the greater part of the coast the land goes down quite abruptly to the ocean. The western coast did not invite settlement, for on that side there are but few good harbors, and but few navigable streams lead up into the land. II. CLIMATE AND SOIL. The climate of North America south of the Arctic region Mean resembles in all important respects the climate of Europe. The ture breezes and warm streams of the two oceans which wash the coasts of the continent supply it with needful heat and mois- ture. The mean annual temperature of the United States is about 53° Fahrenheit, which is substantially the same as that of western Europe, although the extremes of heat and cold i8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY in North America are much greater than they are in Europe. The conditions of moisture and rainfall in America also re- semble those which prevail in Europe. The average annual ■Rainfau rainfall in the United States is about 30 inches ; yet west of the looth meridian are vast areas where the rainfall is insuffi- cient for successful farming. In the region of the Cordillera the climate is colder and the rainfall is less, because the lofty Sierras rob the winds blowing from the Pacific of much of their heat and moisture. Besides having a good climate the United States has a good Sou soil. East of the looth meridian the soil of America is even more fertile than that of Europe. The Atlantic Coast Plain, the part first settled by Europeans, consists almost entirely of tillable land with soil suitable for the growing of a variety of crops. Wheat, maize, tobacco, rice, indigo, and cotton can all be profitably raised on the coastal plain. The Appa- lachian Region includes some of the most fertile valleys in the world, and in this region also were almost inexhaustible treasures of iron and coal. The Mississippi Valley, fertile throughout its whole vast extent and capable of supporting a population of more than 100,000,000 people, has been fittingly called " the most magnificent dwelling place prepared by God for man's abode." In the Cordillera region the soil is for the most part sterile and therefore unfit for agricultural pur- poses unless redeemed by irrigation. This region, however, is rich in mines of gold, silver, copper, and lead. The Pacific Slope with its well-watered valleys is a region of such great fertility that it has been called the garden-spot of the world. So, when the white men first landed on the American shores they found the climate as agreeable as that of Europe and the soil as fertile. 12. PLANTS AND ANIMALS. Forests The first Europeans who came to America beheld a plant life more wondrous and more luxuriant than that which they left behind. Over most of the seaboard region, over all the Appalachian highland, and over most of the Mississippi Val- / ABORIGINAL AMERICA 19 ley was spread a rich mantle of primeval forest. The trees of this forest were so thick and the undergrowth so dense that the settler had to carve his way through a wall of living green. Along the east coast the trees were for the most part of soft wood, " the towering pine and the hemlock." In the Appalachian Region and the Mississippi Valley were forests of hardwoods : oaks, hickories, maples, sycamores, beeches, elms. West of the Mississippi River were the prairies, Prairies stretches of land made treeless by the fires of the aborigines. On the Cordillera trees were in many places wanting, but in the valleys of the Pacific Slope there were great forests of the tallest and largest trees that could be found on the globe. Since almost the entire surface of aboriginal America was Maize covered with forests the area of agriculture was of necessity small. The chief products of the field were beans, tobacco, pumpkins, potatoes, and, most important of all, maize, or Indian corn. " It would be difficult," says Shaler, " to convey an adequate impression of the importance of this grain in the early history of America. It yields not less than twice the amount of food per acre of tilled land with much less labor than is required for one acre of small grain, it is far less dependent upon the change of the seasons, and the yield is much more uniform than that of the old European grains. Probably the greatest advantage of all that this beneficent plant afforded to the early settlers was the way in which it could be planted. The aborigines with no other implements than stone axes and a sort of spade also armed with stone would kill the trees by girdling or cutting. This admitted The . J' & t, fe Girdling light to the soil. Then breaking up patches of earth they of Trees planted the grains of maize among the standing trees. The grain was ready for domestic use within three months from the time of planting." The pumpkin, too, was a product of Pumpkin aboriginal tillage. This was raised in the corn-field, being planted in the spaces between the stalks of corn. Settlers in America quickly learned the art of raising corn and pumpkins, with the result that these crops were for a long time the chief sources of food for the colonists. 20 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY In aboriginal times the forests of the United States abounded Game in animals and game to an extent that cannot now be easily conceived. A small party of ex])lorers in the Appalachian region on a single trip killed 12 buffaloes, 8 elks, 53 bears, 20 deer, 4 wild geese, 150 turkeys, a quantity of small game and reported that '* they might have killed three times as much if they had wanted it." Wild pigeons swarmed above the primeval forests in such nunil)crs that they darkened the heavens like a cloud. The most important of the animals were the fur-bearers: the beaver, the otter, the sable, the The badger, the wolverine, and, above all, the buffalo. This ma- jestic animal, now practically extinct, formerly roamed in countless numbers over the greater part of North America. Its value to the aborigines was inestimable, for its flesh was used for food, its hides were used for clothing, its bones were fashioned into weapons and implements, and its sinews were . made into bowstrings. More important to the early settlers Fishes than the animals in the forest were the fishes in the rivers and lakes, and in the waters along the coast. Here were shad and perch and trout and salmon and bass, and, especially, the cod and mackerel that were found in great shoals along the coast from Newfoundland to Cape Hatteras. 13. THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN, The To the first European settlers the most important fact of Amerkian aboriginal America was the aboriginal man — the American Indian. Columbus found a strange kind of people in the tropics and called them Indians because he thought they were inhabitants of the East Indies. Cabot also found a new race of men on the ice-bound shores of the " new-found-land." Indeed, wherever the white man landed in the new world he .met with a new type of human beings who in time came to be known by the name which Columbus gave them. Physical The aborigines from Labrador to Patagonia constituted a race distinct from all other races. There were, to be sure, local differences between the several tribes of this race; some tribes had considerable culture, others had none ; some were Numbers ABORIGINAL AMERICA 21 engaged chiefly in hunting, while others were chiefly tillers of the soil. Yet all Indians, almost without exception, had certain physical traits in common: all had straight black hair, all had crimson- (or copper-) colored complexions, all had high cheek-bones and angular faces, and all wore a grave demeanor. Although Indians were found everywhere in the New World, their actual numbers were surprisingly small. Within the en- tire territory of what is now the United States there were probably not more than 300,000 Indians — men, women, and children. That is to say, at the time the white men came to America the density of the Indian population was about one person for every eight or ten square miles of territory. The distinct tribes into which the Indians were divided were The Leading over three hundred in number. In the South these tribes were Tribes sometimes very small, ten or twenty wigwams constituting an independent nation. Among the larger tribes of the South were the Cherokees, the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles. In the North was the great Algonquin family which held most of the country from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River and from the Great Lakes to the Carolinas. In the region of what is now northern New York lived the Iroquois family surroimded by the Algonquins " like The an Iroquoian island in an Algonquian ocean." West of the Mississippi River were the wandering bands of the fierce Sioux family. For purposes of government the Indians of a tribe were clans organized into clans. The clan was a group the members of which were united, or were supposed to be united, by ties of blood. The civil head of the clan was the sachem ; its military leader was the chief. In large clans there were sometimes several chiefs. Both the sachems and the chiefs were elected by the vote of the clans, the women sometimes participating in the election. Each clan had a council con- sisting usually of male adults, although the women were also admitted to the council. In the council public questions were freely discussed, and the policy of the clan in respect to impor- tant matters was determined. Where the tribes were com- 22 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Confeder- acies Religion The Manitou Civiliza- tioa posed of many clans — which was usually the case — there was a tribal council which consisted of the chiefs of the several clans. For purposes of mutual defense tribes would often unite and form a confederacy. Of these confederacies the most important in North America was that formed by the five Iroquois tribes: the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, Cayugas, and the Senecas. This union was known as the Five Nations.^ More important to the Indian than his govern- ment was his religion. This was a low form of polytheism, consisting of a blind worship of the spirits which were thought to reside in the objects of nature. Every object, whether animate or inanimate, had its spirit or god — its manitou — and it was to the manitou that the Indian directed his prayer. The sup- pliant invoked the manitou that could give the aid desired. The agricultural tribes prayed to the rain gods ; the hunters to the manitous of animals ; the doctors to the god of plants and herbs. Religion dominated all the important acts of life, and the priest was a more powerful person than the chief himself. Broadly speakmg the Indians with whom the Europeans first had to deal were wild and uncivilized. They lived chiefly by fishing and by the chase. The men did the hunting and fighting. The women did the housework and also tilled the soil, when any was tilled. They were generally regarded as 1 In 1 713 the Iroquois were joined by the Tuscaroras from the South and thereafter the Iroquois Confederacy was known as the Six Nations. An Indian Village ABORIGINAL AMERICA 23 inferior to men; yet the woman was regarded as the undis- puted mistress of household affairs and she was allowed to hold property in her own name. The dwellings were, as a rule, huts or wigwams made of skin or bark, but the Iroquois lived in long, low houses which were sloped " much like an arbor over-arching a garden-walk." The " long-house " was sometimes more than two hundred feet in length and con- tained twenty or thirty families, each family occupying its own apartment. The principal arts in which the Indians were skilled were basket-making, weaving, and pottery. The Indians preparing their food. Indian wore but little clothing except in the cold weather. Both the men and the women were fond of glittering orna- ments, and it was the universal custom to paint and tattoo the body with fanciful designs. The character of the American Indian has been depicted The by Parkman as follows : " The Indian is a true child of of the the forest and the desert. The wastes and solitudes of na- Indian (Park- ture are his congenial home. His unruly pride and untamed man) freedom are in harmony with the lonely mountains, cataracts, and rivers among which he dwells. In an Indian community each man is his own master. He abhors restraint and owns no other authority than his own capricious will. Ambition, revenge, envy, jealousy are his ruling passions, and his cold 24 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY temperament is little exposed to those effeminate vices which are the bane of milder races. His pride sets all language at defiance. He loathes the thought of coercion and few of his race have ever stooped to discharge a menial office. A wild love of liberty, an utter intolerance of control lie at the basis of his character and fire his whole existence. With him the love for glory kindles into a burning passion and to allay its cravings he will dare cold and famine, fire, tempest, torture, and death itself. He is trained to conceal passion and not subdue it. In the midst of his family and friends he hides his affection under a mask of icy coldness, and in the tor- turing fires of his enemy the haughty sufferer maintains to the last his look of grim defiance." REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Waterways, Portages, Trails and Mountain Passes: Farrand, 23-38. 2. The antiquity of man in North America : Farrand, 70-87. 3. Social organization of the Indians: Farrand, 195-214. 4. A concise character of the Indians: Hart 11, 334-336. 5. What important geographical names in this State are of Indian origin? Give an account of any Indian remains that may be in your neighborhood. Name two novelists whose books abound in descrip- tions of Indian life. 6. Read in the class the passage in Hiawatha describing the build- ing of a birch-bark canoe. 7. The continent and its early inhabitants: Bassett, 1-21. 8. Special Reading. E. C. Semple, American History and its Geo- graphic Conditions. D. G. Brinton, American Races. George Ban- croft, History of the United States II, 86-136. N. C. Shaler, United States of America. See also articles on " North America " and " United States " in Mill's International Geography. IV THE GOLD-HUNTERS OF SPAIN AND THE FISHERMEN OF FRANCE What advantage did Europeans take of the splendid opportunities which the New World offered? What were the immediate results of the discoveries made by Columbus and Cabot? What nations were the first to come forward and explore the New World and avail them- selves of its resources? 14. THE GOLD-HUNTERS FROM SPAIN There was no immediate rush of emigrants from Europe slowness to the new continent discovered by Columbus. Not as many settie- came in a hundred years as now come in a single year. In- deed, many years passed before it was known that a new con- tinent had really been found, and even after it was known that America was a separate continent and not a part of Asia, it was still many years before there was anything like a distinct movement of population to the western world. There was no overcrowding in Europe as yet, and there was no good reason why the comforts of civilized life should be exchanged for a wretched existence in a far-off desolate land. Nevertheless, Europeans in small numbers began to go out The 1-1 (T'l Spanish to the New World almost as soon as it was discovered. The Power in the first to go were Spanish adventurers, who followed in the west ° '^ Indies wake of Columbus. Some of these promptly took up the work of colonizing the newly-found islands. The settlement of Haiti (p. 10) was pushed forward and as early as 1496 Santo Domingo, the first town inhabited by white men in the New World, was founded. The settlement of Porto Rico was also quickly begun and by 15 10 the island had a regularly organized colonial government. In 1509 Diego Columbus, 25 26 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Gold Hunters Balboa Ponce da Leon a brother of Christopher, took possession of Jamaica. Two years later the colonization of Cuba began, and by 15 19 the foundations of Havana were laid. Thus an almost immediate result of the voyages of Columbus was the formal estal:)lish- ment of the Spanish power in tlie West Indies. But many of the early Spanish adventurers went to the New World not to found colonies but to search for the gold which was said to exist in such great abundance in the East ; for, be it remembered, in the minds of these gold-himters it was not a New West that Columbus had discovered but the Old East. When no gold was found along the coast the soldiers of fortune were always told by the natives that in- land, far back from the coast, there were great mountains of the shining metal. So the adventurers would leave their ships and make their way to the place where the gold was said to be. Among the first to leave the coast and strike out into the wilderness was Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa. In 15 13 this restless Spaniard gathered around him some comrades on the coast of what is now Panama and set out to find the gold which he had heard was plentiful in the region toward the south. Making his way through forests and jungles, Bal- boa climbed the lofty mountain-ridge which extends across the Isthmus. From the crest of the mountain he beheld (Septem- ber 1 5 13) in the distance a great body of water. Then de- scending to the shore, he waded into the water and took formal possession of it in the name of the King of Spain. He had reached the new sea by traveling south, so he called it the South Sea.^ It was, of course, the Pacific Ocean. But even before Balboa had started southward in his search for gold, another adventurer had sought to find the precious metal by traveling northward. Ponce de Leon, who had 1 Something of tlie extent of the ocean discovered by Balboa was learned by Magellan, a Portuguese captain in the service of Spain; Magellan starting from St. Lucar in Spain in 15 19 sailed along the eastern coast of South America, passed through the strait which bears his name, and crossed the Pacific, making his way to the Philippine Islands, where he was killed by the natives. His companions continued the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to Spain, thus completing (in 1522) the first circumnavigation of the world. THE GOLD-HUNTERS OF SPAIN 27 come out with Columbus on his second voyage, and who in 1509 was made governor of Porto Rico, was told by the Indians that to northward there lay an island where gold was abundant and where there was a river whose waters would restore youth to the aged. Ponce, being no longer young, set out in 1 5 13 to find the water of Bimini, as the wonderful island was called. Winding through the Bahamas, he ap- proached (April 2) a coast which he called Florida (Flozver- land), taking possession of it in the name of the King of Spain. Ponce was soon followed by other Spanish explorers, and by Explorations of Ponce de Leon, De Soto, and Coronado. 1525 the Atlantic coast of North America from Florida to Labrador had been visited by Spaniards and had been claimed in the name of Spain. Thus at this early date both England and Spain were claiming the Atlantic seaboard. The voyage of Ponce de Leon also led to the exploration uarvaez by Spaniards of portions of North America bordering upon cabeza the Gulf of Mexico. In 1528 Panfilo de Narvaez set out from Tampa Bay with three hundred men to march by land 28 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Soto along the entire Icnglli of the gulf coast, but by the time the coast of Texas was reached the expedition had ended in fail- ure, and in the death of most of those who had joined it. One of the survivors, Cabeza de Vaca, an officer, took up the work begun by Narvaez. He pushed on to the west and by 1536 had traversed the country from the Texas coast to the Pacific. De Vaca was soon followed by the most famous of all the Spanish explorers, Hernando de Soto. This dashing knight-errant of Spain was given power to conquer and settle the whole region now included in the southern part of the United States. In 1539 De Soto landed at Tampa Bay with six hundred men and began to explore the interior of the continent. When he reached what is now northern Alabama, he turned westward and marched by a zigzag course until he came (in 1541) to the Mississippi River. Here he fell sick of a fever and died, and his expedition came to a disastrous end. About the time De Soto was exploring the region east of the Mississippi, the region west of the great river was being explored by Coronado. This gold-hunter had heard from Indians of the Seven Cities of Cibola, mythical cities of fabu- lous wealth, and in 1540 he had set out from Mexico to find them and to enrich himself with their treasures. He traversed what is now New Mexico and pushed eastward as far as the plains of what is now Kansas, but he found no wonderful cities and he found no gold. Though these adventurers found no gold, they greatly en- riched geographical knowledge and widely extended the Span- ish power in the New World. By virtue of the explorations made by Ponce de Leon, De Soto, and Coronado, Spain laid claim to a large part of North America, but she did not at once follow up her claims with actual settlement. She found that riches lay at the South rather than at the North ; so she neglected North America and gave her attention to the south- ern parts of the New World. Here the Spanish gold-hunters were successful beyond the dreams of avarice. In 15 19 Cor- tez conquered Mexico and about ten years later Pizarro over- ran Peru. These men became masters of untold wealth and THE GOLD-HUNTERS OF SPAIN 29 their conquests made Spain not only the richest nation in the world but also the mistress of Mexico, Central America, the greater part of South America, and the greater part of North America. Indeed, by the middle of the sixteenth century Spain was the virtual possessor of every foot of the western world from Patagonia to Labrador, excepting only Brazil, which belonged to Portugal. 15. THE FISHERMEN OF FRANCE. But Spain could not hope to hold the New World without The Fisheries a struggle ; other nations were bound to come forward and of dispute her claims. France was the first to give trouble. found- While Spaniards were exploiting the southern part of Amer- ica for its gold. Frenchmen were exploiting the northern part for its fish. When Cabot returned from his voyage he re- ported that the waters of the newly-found region teemed with fish, and the report went out that in the " new-found-land " there was a great abundance of cod and that the salmon there were as large as seals. This was good news for Europe, for inasmuch as all Christendom was Catholic and the fast days in a year numbered nearly one hundred and fifty the de- The mand for fish was very great. In several countries it was for the law that on fast-days only fish should be eaten and heavy fines were imposed on all persons who zvould eat flesh on fish-days. In England fishing was encouraged for the sake of the navy and additional fast-days were established, not from a religious motive, but for the expressed purpose of in- creasing the consumption of fish. The first fishermen to follow in the wake of Cabot went out, ^he not from England, but from the ports of Dieppe and St. Malo me^n^'^" in France. As early as 1504 fishermen from these towns pr^ce went to Newfoundland and they found the fishing so good that they returned again and again. By 1522 there had been built along the coast of Newfoundland as many as forty or fifty huts for the accommodation of fishermen. These rude fishermen's huts were perhaps the first structures erected by white men in North America. Thus the French at a very 30 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY early date not only made good use of the fishing grounds ot North America, but also did something in the way of establish- ing settlements on land. i6. THE CLASH BETWEEN SPAIN AND FRANCE. When the fishermen of Dieppe and St. Malo had once shown Frenchmen the way to the New World it was not long before France began to think of doing something more in America than merely catching fish. In 1524 Francis I, King of France and an arch enemy of Spain, sent out Giovanni Vcr- razano, a Florentine navigator, " to discover new lands by the ocean " and to claim them in the name of France — an ex- pedition made in utter disregard of the claims of Spain. In- deed, France flatly denied the validity of these claims and asked Charles V of Spain by what right he and the King of Portugal had claimed to own the earth. Had Father Adam made them his sole heirs, and would he produce a copy of the will? Verrazano first reached that part of the Ameri- can coast now known as the Carolinas. Sailing south for some distance he then turned his ships and skirted the coast as far as Newfoundland, entering New York Bay and Nar- ragansett Bay on his way. Ten years after the voyage of Verrazano, Jacques Car- tier, a sailor and fisherman of St. Malo, was sent out by France to find a passage to China by a northwest route. Cartier passed around Newfoundland to the north, sailed southward through the Strait of Belle Isle, explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and returned to France. The next year he sailed again to the St. Lawrence region and made his way up the St. Lawrence River as far as Montreal Cartier found the region " as fair as was ever seen." The country, he said, was full of all sorts of goodly trees : oaks, elms, cedars, firs, willows ; the forests were full of all sorts of fur-bearing ani- mals: hares, martens, foxes, beavers, otters; and the rivers were " the plentifullest of fish that any man ever hath seen or heard of," The second voyage of Cartier was followed by an attempt to establish (in 1540) a French colony on the THE GOLD-HUNTERS OF SPAIN 31 banks of the St. Lawrence, but disease soon swept away most of the colonists and the colony was broken up. In 1562 another attempt was made to plant a French col- Ribauit ony in America. In that year Jean Ribault, a mariner of Dieppe, sailed to the Florida coast, — Florida, according to Spanish notions, extended from Mexico to Newfoundland, — and planted a colony of thirty men at a place which he called Port Royal, near the present city of Beaufort. The colony was on soil which had been explored and claimed by Spain (p. 2y), but Ribault took possession of the place in the name of the King of France just as if Spain had no right to the place whatever. After building a fort, Ribault sailed back to France with the plan of bringing more men out to the colony. But the little settlement did not prosper. Be- fore Ribault could return it had suffered heavily by lawless- ness and famine and the few survivors had been picked up by an English vessel and carried to Europe. In ic;64 Laudonniere, a French ofificer who had been with Laudon- ^ . mere Ribault on his voyage, planted another colony on the Florida coast. This time the settlement was made at the mouth of the St. Johns River on a spot " so fair that melan- choly itself could not but change to humor as it gazed." But Fort Caro- lina, as this colony was called, fared almost as badly as Port Royal, and the colonists were on the point of ret-urning to France when Ribault ar- Fort Carolina. rived with seven ships laden with supplies, bringing several hundred new colonists. xA.bout a wefk after Ribault's arrival, Pedro Menendez, in ^^^^"^'"^^ command of a large force of men and a well-equipped Span- Jl^H^' ish fleet, appeared off the mouth of the St. Johns. Menen- dez came under the auspices of the King of Spain with the 32 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Hugue- nots The Result of the Clash St. Augus- tine avowed purpose of destroying the French colony. In the mind of the Spanish commander and in the mind of the Spanish monarch also there were two good reasons why the colony should be destroyed : first, the colonists were trespass- ing upon land which belonged to Spain ; and, second, they were enemies of the Catholic religion.^ We saw (p. 4) that in the fifteenth century Europe was solidly Catholic. By the time of Ribault and Menendez all this was changed. In the early part of the sixteenth century Martin Luther had started a movement against the authority of the Pope, and by the middle of the century the movement — known as the Reformation — had split the Catholic church in twain and had divided western Europe into two hostile religious camps. Catholics and Protestants. Now Ribault and his colonists belonged to the Protestant camp : they were Huguenots, as the French Protestants were called. So Menendez could proceed against these trespassing Huguenots with good will, for he was devoted to the interests of his King and a most zealous champion of the Catholic faith. Therefore he pressed on with energy to the accomplishment of his purpose, and by the time he had finished his cruel task the colony had been wiped from the face of the earth. Thus France and Spain were the first nations to quarrel about the possession of territory in the New World, and, in the clash which followed, Spain came out a victor. After the failure of Laudonniere's colony the French made no fur- ther attempts to gain a foothold in the southern part of the Atlantic seaboard, and Spain was left in undisputed posses- sion of the coast from Florida to Labrador. Menendez built a fort (September 1565) which he called St. Augustine, thus laying the foundation of the oldest town in the United States. The fort stood on the lonely Florida coast as the only visilile sign of Spanish power. In 1586 the fort was sacked 1 There was still another reason why the Spaniards would be likely to deal harshly with the French at Fort Carolina; they regarded the settlement as a nest of pirates. French cruisers about this time were in the habit of scouring the seas and capturing Spanish vessels. In 1555 Havana was plundered and burned by the French buccaneers, and many of its inhabitants were put to death. THE GOLD-HUNTERS OF SPAIN 33 by a captain (Drake), who sailed under the flag of a nation that was gathering strength and power to contest with Spain and all other nations the mastery of the American coast. This rising nation was England. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Outline the achievements of Spain in America between 1492 and 1580: Bourne, 190-201. 2. Balboa: Halsey I, 74-81; Bourne, 108-112. 3. Describe the system of commerce which was established between Spain and her American colonies : Bourne, 282-298. 4. Verrazano's voyage along the Atlantic coast : Hart I, 102-107 ; Halsey I, 92-103. 5. Give an account of the destruction of Ribault's colony basing it upon the account given by Mendoza, the chaplain of the expedition : Halsey II, 13-22; also give an account of the destruction of this colony, following Doyle: Halsey II, 3-12; also consult Bourne, 175-189; Parkman, 27-68. 6. The Reformation : Adams, 416-442. 7. The Spanish discovery of the Mississippi : Ogg, 8-44. 8. Coronado's own account of his expedition : Halsey I, 134-136. 9. The voyages of the Cortereal brothers : Bourne, 64-66. 10. Who were the Incas? Give an account of the capture of Monte- zuma by Cortez. Locate the Seven Cities of Cibola. What was the origin of the name "Florida"? What contributions to explorations were made by the Italians? What was the origin of the word "Huguenot"? Describe the Spanish colonial policy. Relate the story of Cartier's discoveries, following Parkman (69-82). 11. Dates for the chronological table: 1524, 1541, 1562, 1565. 12. Special Reading. The second volume of Justin Winsor's Nar- rative and Critical History of America. Francis Parkman, Pioneers of France in the Neiv World. W. H. Woodward, The Expansion of the British Empire. V THE RISE OF ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Throughout the first half of the sixteenth century and far into the second half, Spain was supreme in the New World, both on land and on sea, and could prevent any nation from making settlements on the American continent. Before the end of the century England had become the mistress of the seas and was free to plant colonies in America and elsewhere. How did England rise to this place of power? What immediate use did she make of her power to plant colonies ? 17. ENGLAND PUSHES OUT UPON THE SEAS. The Fishermen showed France the way to the New World, men of and it was fishermen also who showed Englishmen the way, although the fishermen of England began to go out to the American fisheries much later than those who went out from France. In 1527 there were along the coast of Newfound- land twelve fishing-vessels from France and only one from England. But about this time England began to give serious attention to the western fisheries. In 1536 a Mr. Hore of London attempted to found a colony on the coast of New- foundland, but the venture ended in failure. Twelve years later the English Parliament passed a measure — the first English statute relating to America — providing that all the inhabitants of England should be allowed to fish in the New- foundland waters free of any tax or charge. During these years the interest of England in the fisheries of the West was all the time increasing and was causing Englishmen to look to the New World as a place for the extension of the Eng- lish power Why did not Englishmen look to the New World sooner? Why did they allow so many years to slip by without at- 34 RISE OF ENGLAND IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY 35 tempting to take possession of the continent discovered by England Cabot and claimed as iheir own? Because England at the ward Nation opening of the sixteenth century was a weak and backward nation. Her population was small (p. 2), her commerce and industries were unimportant, her resources in general were limited. Especially was she weak on the seas, the very place where she would have to be strong if she should dare to defy the power of Spain and undertake to plant her colo- nies in America. But while England was neglecting America she was in the England's ° . ... Growth meantime growing stronger as a nation. Her industries were increasing, her commerce w-as expanding, her middle class was growing rapidly in wealth and in numbers. Above all, she was adding strength to her navy. Henry VHI, who has been called the father of the English navy, encouraged ship- England's building in every way he could, and during his reign (1509- 1547) ships were built larger and stronger and were armed with heavier guns. And more important still, the ships were manned with better crews, for the fisheries of Newfoundland proved to be the best of schools for the making of good sail- ors. On the rough voyages across the ocean to the fishing- grounds and in the hard conditions of the fisherman's life there was trained a race of bold and hardy seamen to whom " no land was uninhabitable and no sea unnavigable." This fresh spirit of maritime adventure first showed it- North- self in voyages which were made to find a shorter route from p^^s*sage Europe to the east coast of Asia, a search begun by Columbus and not wholly discontinued until far into the nineteenth century. In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby undertook to reach China by a northeast route. He sailed around the north coast of Norway into the Arctic ocean, but was lost amid the ice- bergs of the polar seas. Later began the long search for the northwest passage to Asia. In 1576 Martin Frobisher sailed North- to find this passage and reached the inlet on the American passage coast which he called Frobisher Strait, and which he believed was a passage to the Pacific. He took back to England some samples of black-stone which were thought to contain gold 36 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY John Hawkins The Slave Trade Spain's Monopoly in the West Indies but which were really worthless. Still, the stones at first de- ceived even the gold-refiners of London, and the hope of finding the precious metal in the Arctic lands led Frobisher to make other voyages to the ice-bound coast. But no gold was found and the northwest passage remained a will-of-the- wisp to lure English sailors to their destruction. i8. THE CLASH BETWEEN SPAIN AND ENGLAND. The voyages of discovery and exploration at the North were matched at the South by voyages made for trade and for plunder. In 1562 John Hawkins, a seaman of Devonshire, England, sailed from the Guinea coast to the West Indies with a cargo of negroes who had been captured in the wilds of Africa. The negroes were sold as slaves to Spanish set- tlers in Haiti. In the act of taking the negroes from their native soil and selling theni into slavery Hawkins saw no wrong whatever. Indeed he rather felt that Providence smiled with favor upon the business of the slave-trade. Once he was attacked by some negroes whom he was trying to en- slave and he barely escaped with his life. When writing of this incident he piously reflected " that God worketh all things for the best and by Him we escaped without danger." Nor was the conscience of Hawkins any worse than the conscience of Christendom at large ; in no country was the voice of public opinion raised against negro slavery. Hawkins found the profits on the first cargo of slaves so great that he was encouraged to make other voyages and bring over more slaves. The voyages of Hawkins marked the beginning of the Eng- lish traffic in slaves and it also marked the beginning of one of the most momentous conflicts in the history of the world. Spain, desh'ing all the trade of the West Indies for her- self, regarded men like Hawkins as " pirates, rovers and thieves." So, in 1570, in order to preserve completely his monopoly, Philip II, the King of Spain, forbade outsiders to trade in the West Indies on pain of death. This decree, which meant that foreigners trading in the West Indies would RISE OF ENGLAND IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY Z7 Queen Elizabeth. suffer the pirate's fate, was a heavy blow to Englishmen who had tasted of the forbidden trade. England and Spain at Hostility this time pretended to be at peace with each other, but in spainand reality they were at each other's throats. The people of Eng- °^ ^ land, like the people of most of the countries of western Europe, were divided into Catholics and Protes- tants Philip II was the warm friend of the Catholics and the bitter foe of the Protestants. It was thought that Philip had it in his mind to crush the Protestant party in England and dethrone Queen Elizabeth, who was a Protestant. Elizabeth therefore distrusted Philip profoundly and was only too glad to take the side of her merchants. She did not declare open war against Spain, but she let loose in the West Indies a swarm of English buccaneers who ruthlessly plundered the Spanish coasts and robbed Spanish vessels and thus " touched the King of Spain in the apple of his eye, for they took away the treasure which is the sinew of war." The leader of these English buc- sir /caneers was Francis Drake. This Drake greatest of all English seamen hated Spain with his whole heart and de- voted his whole life to inflicting injury upon the Spanish race. In the pursuit of his vengeance Drake was relentless, being held back neither by twinges of conscience, nor by fear, nor by bodily pain. Once while sacking a town in the West Indies he received a wound which caused him to bleed profusely. His men wished him to retire to his ship, but he went on with his work of pillage. Having occasion to guard a door where the treasure Sir Francis Drake. 38 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Drake's Voyage Around the World The Invincible Armada was he stood at his post while his wound bled so profusely that a pool of blood formed at his feet. This terrible corsair — the Dragon, the Spanish called him, playing- on his name — not only plundered the West Indies, but struck Spain on the west- ern coast of South America. In September 1577, setting sail from Plymouth in England he began his famous voyage on which he became " the pioneer of England in the Pacific " and with wiiich he " put a girdle round the world." Coasting along the east main of South America and passing through the Strait of Magellan, he swept up the western shore of South America and took the seaports of Chili and Peru. Here he carried away treasure in jewels and silver amounting to more than £1,000,000. From Peru he sailed north as far as Cali- fornia and Oregon, skirting the coast until he came to the 48th parallel. Then he turned to the west and sped homeward by the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at Plymouth in November, 1580. Queen Elizabeth had secretly helped Drake to make the great voyage, so when the freebooter returned she received him with favor and placed in her crown one of the jewels which had been taken as plunder. The Spanish ambassador to the English court protested and threatened that if such out- rages did not cease " matters would come to the cannon." And soon matters did come to the cannon. In 1588 Philip II began to collect a large army and prepare an immense fleet for the invasion of England and its complete subjugation. Elizabeth and her statesmen made every effort for defense and when the great fleet of Philip — the Invincible Armada — sailed into the English channel it met the full strength of the English navy under the command of Lord Charles How- ard of Effingham. The English felt they were fighting for their honor and for their firesides and they went at the Spanish in a life-and-death struggle. Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher were present and joined in the battle. Catholics and Protes- tants alike rallied to the defense of England. The battle ended in a tremendous victory for Drake and his companions. Many of the Spanish ships were sunk and many that escaped were soon destroyed by a terrible storm. The naval strength of RISE OF ENGLAND IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY 39 Spain was completely shattered. This battle was one of the decisive struggles of history and the greatest event in the life of the English nation. The defeat of the Armada led rapidly to the downfall of Spain and gave England a place among the foremost nations of the world. 19. ENGLAND'S FIRST EFFORTS AT COLONIZATION. At the time that Drake and his " sea-dogs " were plunder- Sir Hum- . . phrey ing the West Indies and South America and sinking the Gilbert ships of Spain wherever they could find them, other English- men, ignoring the claims of Spain and defying her power, were going out to America and taking actual possession of the land. In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, "first of the Eng- lish nation that carried people to erect an habitation and gov- ernment in those northerly countries of America," received from Queen Elizabeth a patent for establishing a colony in North America. The first effort of Gilbert under his patent was a failure, but in 1583 he succeeded in landing a body of settlers on the coast of Newfoundland. He took possession of the island in the name of the queen and thus " signified unto all men that from that time forward they should take the same land as a territory appertaining and belonging to the Queen of England." Gilbert on his return voyage passed to a watery grave, but he had won for himself imperishable fame, for his colony was the corner-stone of the British power in the western world. The work begun by Gilbert was carried forward by his Amidas half brother. Sir Walter Raleigh, the greatest of names con- Bariow nected with the history of English colonization. In 1584, Raleigh sent out two sea-captains, Amidas and Barlow, to explore the American coast toward the south. These explor- ers touched the shore of what is now North Carolina and took back a report of the country that was full of hope and promise. " We smelt," they said, " so sweet and strong a smell as if we had been in the midst of some delicate garden abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers. We found the people, the Indians, the most gentle, loving, and faithful. 40 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY void of all guile and treason and such as live after the man- ner of the golden age." For this earthly paradise the Queen herself suggested the name of Virginia. Raleigh at once (1585) sent out about a hundred men under Ralph Lane to found a colony on the Virginia coast. Lane made a settle- ment at Roanoke Island, but he and his men did not know how to live amid the primitive conditions of a barbarous land. Virginia was not such a great paradise after all, nor were the Indians so gentle and loving as they were reported to be. Misfortune overtook the settlement, and when Drake, in 1586, stopped at the island on one of his homeward voyages the settlers persuaded him to carry them one and all home with him to England. So Raleigh's first attempt at colonization failed. But he was not discouraged. In 1587 he fitted out a second colony of 150 persons, among whom were seventeen women. This colony was placed under the control of John White, who was an artist as well as an adventurer. White planted his colony at Roanoke on the site of the settlement abandoned by Lane. He remained with his settlers for a time and then returned to England for more colonists and fresh supplies of food. He left behind him a daughter, Eleanor Dare, and a new-born grandchild, Mrginia Dare, the first child born of English par- ents on American soil. When White reached England he found Raleigh and Lane and other pow- erful friends of the Virginia movement busy in defending the country against the designs of Philip. So, the colony in Vir- ginia was left for a while to take care of itself. White returned to Roanoke in 1591, but the island was deserted ; not a trace of the colony could be found. Raleigh sent out ships again and again to find his lost colonists, but the search was vain. There was a tradition that part of the Sir Walter Raleigh. RISE OF ENGLAND IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY 41 colonists were slain by the Indians and that those who es- caped were adopted into the neighboring tribes, but the tradi- tion is hardly more than conjecture. Raleigh could now go no further with his plans for colon- ization. Enemies began to pursue him and at last he was sent (in 1618) to the scaffold on a false charge of treason. His efforts toward colonization failed because his country- men did not yet know how to found a colony, how to live in a wilderness. But they were to learn this art in good time. British colonies were to be planted not only in America, but in all parts of the world for " wherever thought wanders, eyes turn or footsteps are directed throughout the earthly universe the flag of Britain, the emblem of sovereignty, is not far distant." REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The English seamen: Channing I, 115-142, 2. Give an account of Drake's voyage around the world as told by one of his companions : Hart I, 81-88. 3. Drake's visit to California: Halsey I, 156-167. 4. Slavery in the West Indies: Halsey II, 70-74; Bourne, 271-280. 5. Describe the England of Elizabeth : Green, 392-394. 6. Prepare a character sketch of Queen Elizabeth : Green, 369-379. 7. The Reformation in England; the Protestants: Green, 349-360. 8. Describe the social conditions that prevailed in England about the end of the sixteenth century: Hart I, 145-152. 9. The Armada : Green, 405-420. 10. Dates for chronological table: 15S0, 1583, 1587, 1588. 11. Describe piracy as it existed in the sixteenth century. Tell in the class two anecdotes relating to Sir Walter Raleigh. Give an account of the introduction of tobacco and potatoes into Great Britain from America. What in your opinion was the fate of the lost colony at Roanoke? Trace the route followed by Drake in his voyage around the world. Give reasons why the defeat of the Ar- mada was of vital consequence to England. 12. Special Reading. E. J. Payne, Voyages of Elizabethan Seamen J. A. Doyle, English Colonies in America, Vol. I, i-ioi. George Ban- croft, History of the United States, Vol. I, 60-83. VI THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH, THE FRENCH, AND THE DUTCH Now that the navy of Spain was gone, the Atlantic seaboard from the St. Johns River in Florida to the St. Lawrence was free to be oc- cupied by any nation that would seize upon the land and hold it. The maritime countries of Europe saw their opportunity and early in the seventeenth century three nations, England, France, and Holland, almost at the same moment sprang forward to secure a permanent foothold on the American continent. The Surplus of Labor The Surplus of Capital 20. THE COMLNG OF THE ENGLISH; VIRGINIA. In the race for empire in North America, England led the way. Why at the opening of the seventeenth century was England eager to plant colonies in America? In the first place there was at this time in England a great deal of dis- content among the people. Thousands of able-bodied men were unable to earn a living. For a long time landholders had been giving their lands over to the pasturing of sheep rather than to the raising of crops. The price of wool was very liigh and farmers found by experience that " the foot of the sheep turned the sand into gold." But the change from a system of tillage to a system of pasturage took away the employment of the men who worked on the farms. These unemployed laborers found their way in large numbers to the cities, where they were often forced to live in idleness and beggary. So, by the end of Elizabeth's reign (1603) there was a large unemployed class that was only too will- ing to go to America in order to escape poverty and suffer- ing at home. Again, while the poor were thus growing poorer the rich were growing richer. By 1600 there was in England for the 42 COMING OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH 43 first time in its history a class of bankers and capitalists who had money to invest in new enterprises. This was highly favorable to schemes of colonization, for it required large sums of money to fit out a colony with needed supplies, transport it to a far-ofif land, and support it until it could support itself. A third spur to colonization was the hope that by means The Surplus of her colonies England would be able to increase her trade, of . . , ManufaC' In his book, " A Discourse on Western Plantmg," Richard tures Hakluyt tells the queen (in 1584) that if she will plant col- onies in the West, England in a short time will be selling as much clothing in America as she ever sold in the Nether- lands, " and in tyme moche more." English wares, it was thought, could be exchanged in the colonies for raw material, for lumber and iron and copper, and England would no longer be compelled to buy these things at a high price from the countries of Europe. England was becoming a great in- dustrial nation and was expanding its commerce in every direction. So when the seventeenth century opened, condi- tions in England were extremely favorable to colonization : hordes of laborers were seeking employment ; a surplus of capital was seeking investment in new enterprises ; and an expanding industry was seeking a market in foreign parts. The first permanent colony planted by the English and The the germ of the United States of to-day was a business venture. Grant In 1606 a company of prosperous and prominent Englishmen obtained from King James I permission to plant colonies ^ on the American coast between the 34th and 45th parallels of north latitude or between Cape Fear River and Halifax. This vast stretch of territory, called Virginia, was to be taken possession of and exploited by two groups of adventurers, the Plymouth Company and the London Company. The Plymouth Company was to plant its first colony between the 41st and 45th parallels while the London Company was to plant between the 34th and 38th parallels. The zone between 1 Among other English companies organized about this time for colonization and trade was the great East India Company, which received its charter in 1600. This company was the agency by means of which the power of England was established in the Far East. 44 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY parallels 38 and 41 was to 1)C open to settlement by either company. The land granted to each company extended one hundred miles inland. Here was a definite claim by an English king to a large and most desirable portion of the American continent. The Spanish ambassador in England protested against the planting of the colony on the ground that James was giving away land that belonged to Spain, but the protest was disregarded. Each company promptly began the work of colonization. The Plymouth Company at once planted on the coast of Maine a short-lived colony the history of which will be given in another place (p. 56). The London Company sent out a colony of 120 persons, 104 of whom reached the Capes at the en- trance of the Ches- apeake Bay at day- light on May 6, 1607. The colo- nists were en- tranced at the sight of the fair mead- ows and tall trees, but later in the day their fears were excited when they saw " savages creeping on all fours from the hills like bears, with their bows in their mouths." Ascending a river which they called the James, the colonists landed at a small peninsula and began the building of a town which they called Jamestown. Unfortunately the I^lace selected for a settlement was extremely unhealthy, and by September ( 1607) one-half of the settlers had died. Those who survived were idle and incapable and wholly unfit for pioneer life. Most of them were unaccustomed to manual labor. At one time the colony consisted of one mason, one Jamestown and vicinity. COMING OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH 45 blacksmith, four carpenters, fifty-two " gentlemen," and a bar- ber! In 1608 additional colonists to the number of nearly 200 were brought over, but these also were chiefly persons who would not or could not perform hard labor. How was this motley collection of isolated Englishmen oovem- ■' ment to be governed ? The government of the colony was planned by King James himself. Supreme authority was placed in the hands of a general council which was to reside in England. This general council was appointed by the king and was directed by his instructions. A second council, also appointed by the king and subject to his instructions, was to reside in the colony and have the direct management of colonial affairs. Thus the government was so planned that all power flowed from the king. The colonists, however, were to have the rights and privileges of English subjects. Jury trial was guaranteed and all ordinances made by the resident or colonial council were to be " consonant to the laws of England." What were the business features of this colonial venture? Business The land of the colony was to be owned by the company which secured the charter. The business affairs of the colony were to be conducted by the chosen agents of the company. The colonists themselves, even when they w^ere stockholding mem- bers of the company, were forced to work. Each able-bodied man had to work at the task assigned him and the products of the labor of all were to be thrown into a common stock for five years. Out of this common stock the colonists were to be fed and supported. If after the needs of the settlers were supplied there should be a surplus, this was to be sent to England in the vessels of the company and sold for the benefit of the merchant adventurers who risked their capital in the enterprise. The colony, therefore, was planted primarily not for the benefit of those who went over the seas but for the benefit of those who remained at home. It turned out that neither the form of government nor the captain business arrangements were satisfactory. The first resident smith or colonial council was soon torn asunder by faction and 46 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY before many months had passed its authority had completely vanished. At a moment when all was confusion and chaos and when it seemed that the Jamestown colonists would suffer the same fate that liad o\ertaken the Roanoke settlers, Captain ■ - ,. John Smith, a member of the council, came forward and by his good sense and energy saved the colony from the impending ruin. The greatest drawback in the colony was idleness. Since the men were fed out (jf the common stock there \ as no strong incentive to work. But Smith suc- ceeded in putting every- body to work, using a strong hand when neces- sary. He announced that all who woidd not work would be banished from the colony and set adrift in the great forest where they would be at the mercy of savages and wild beasts. This had a good effect, for the fine gentlemen and the idlers now began to chop wood and dig in the ground and help in the building of the houses. Smith also rendered a great service to the colony by visiting the Indians and establishing peaceful relations with them. He traded with them, giving them trinkets for the corn which the colonists needed so badly. In 1608 Smith explored the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. He made the voyage not only in order to acc|uaint himself wdth the region bordering upon the bay, but for the further pur- pose of finding a waterway to China, for the colonists believed that the Pacific Ocean lay only a short distance from the Chesapeake. When some savages told Smith and his com- panions that the bay stretched to the South Sea the story was received as a piece of good news. Smith remained with the Captain John Smith. COMING OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH 47 colonists until 1609, when he sailed for England, leaving be- hind him a fairly prosperous settlement. After Smith's departure the colony again fell upon evil The^ times and almost perished of starvation. In the summer of charter 1 610 the starving colonists were on the point of leaving James- town and returning to England in a body when the company in London came to the rescue with fresh supplies of food. The company had recently (in 1609) secured a new charter for the government of the colony. Under this charter the gov- ernment of the colony was entrusted to a council of fifty members who were to hold their sessions in London. The colonial council already existing in Virginia was to be abolished. The council in London was to appoint a governor for the colony and he, in turn, was to appoint the colonial council and other necessary officers. Thus under the charter of 1609 the company gained for itself many of the powers which before had been reserved for the king. It also secured a much larger grant of land, for under the new charter the territory of Virginia was to extend along the coast two hun- dred miles each way from Old Point Comfort and " up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest." ^ Moreover under the charter of 1609 greater inducements were offered to the settlers. Every planter, even the humblest, was promised his food and clothing and a hundred acres of land for himself and each member of his family. Lord Dela- ware was made " sole and absolute governor " under the new charter. It was his timely arrival with provisions (June 1610) that saved the abandonment of Jamestown and the utter extinction of the colony. Delaware soon returned to England and for five years 1 The vague expression " west and northwest " led to serious controversies respecting the boundaries of Virginia. " If the northwest line was drawn from the southern end of the 400 miles of coast, and another boundary line was drawn westward from the northern extremity of the coast, the domain thus limited would constitute a triangle of moderate area. If, on the other hand, one line was drawn westerly from the southern of the two points fixed in the coast and the remaining boundary was drawn northwesterly from the fixed point north of Old Point Comfort, the included territory would embrace a great part of the continent and extend from sea to sea. This was the construction given by Virginia to the language of the charter." Avery, Vol. II, p. 52. 48 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Sir Thomas Dale Extent of Virginia according to one interpretation of the Charter of 1609. (1611-1616) Virginia was ruled by Sir Thomas Dale. Dale's policy was to make the colony a permanent success and to return as much money as possible to the company in London, and he carried it out by ruling with a strong hand. He changed materially the plan by which the colonists had been fed out of the common store ; he made a luunber of the colonists tenants on the company's land, for which they either paid rent or rendered lim- ited services ; he gave a number of servants small tracts of land which they could work as gardens. He worked the labor- ers hard and if any attempted to run away he brought them back and punished them in the most cruel manner. When the Indians showed any disposition to be troublesome Dale marched against them in person and brought them to terms. In 161 3 he sent Samuel Argall to break up some settlements which the French were attempting to make in Acadia (Nova Scotia) and along the coast of Maine. Argall obeyed his orders to the letter and thus delivered the first British blow at Extent of Virginia according to an- other interpretation of the Charter of 1609. COMING OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH 49 French colonization in America. The rule of Dale was harsh but it was energetic and it seemed to be what the colony needed. When he left Virginia in 1616 the colonists were glad to get rid of him, but they themselves did not care to follow him to England. The colony was now securely planted and there was no longer a thought of abandoning it. England had at last gained a foothold on the American continent. The thing that did most for early Virginia was tobacco. Tobacco In 1612 John Rolfe began the systematic cultivation of the tobacco plant and by 1616 he was able to ship to England a cargo of tobacco which was sold in London at a good price. Elere was the opportunity of the colonists. Soon every set- tler who had any land was raising tobacco, and planters began to grow rich from the profits of the weed. Since tobacco was so much more profitable than any other commodity the cultivation of food-products was neglected. The settlers would plant all their land in tobacco and trade their firearms to the Indians for food. The colonial authorities tried to compel the planters to raise more grain and less tobacco but their efforts in this direction did not meet with much success. As long as tobacco was the most profitable crop the planter would raise no other. The widespread cultivation of tobacco created a brisk de- slavery mand for laborers and there were not enough white men in Virginia the colonies to supply the demand. Indian labor was out of the question, for the Indians could not be tamed and they would not work. So the planters had recourse to the labor of negro servants. The first negroes who came to Virginia were twenty that were brought in a Dutch man-of-war in the year 1619. These negroes were held in a condition of temporary servitude as many whites were held.^ At first 1 Negroes were not the only class held in temporary servitude. In Virginia a large class of servants consisted of persons who had been found guilty of com- mitting crime or taking part in rebellious movements. Another class consisted of "indented" servants who came to America under contract to work a certain number of years for the master who had advanced the money to pay for their passage across the ocean. Sometimes the term was as long as ten years, but often it was much shorter. When the term of service was completed the " in- dented " servant became a freeman. 50 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Represen- tative Govern- ment An Indian Massacre The Loss of the Charter negroes were brought to Virginia only in small numbers but by 1661 the blacks had become so numerous that they pre- sented a labor problem which was solved by changing the negro's condition of temporary servitude to one of perpetual servitude. Thus negro slaverv was regularly established. The year 1619 marked the beginning of negro servitude in Virginia and also the beginning of representative government and civil liberty. In that year Sir George Yeardley, who came over as the governor of the colony, announced that the company in London had decided that the planters were hence- forth to have a voice in the governing of themselves. Yeardley provided for the calling of a general assembly that should consist of the governor and his council and two bur- gesses from each plantation (or agricultural settlement) " freely elected by the inhabitants thereof." Delegates from eleven plantations were at once elected and the first assembly met (July 30, 1619) in the wooden church at Jamestown, The little legislature consisting of the governor, six coun- cilors, and the twenty-two burgesses, opened the session with prayer and began to make laws for the government of the colony. The proceedings of this assembly were the begin- nings of representative government in the New World. The colony was now fairly firm on its feet and was slowly growing in wealth and population. In 1623, however, it suffered a serious setback. In that year the Indians fell upon the colonists and in a single hour cut down several hundred men, women, and children. The colonists retaliated, punishing the savages so severely that many years passed before there was another Indian uprising. At the time the colonists were having so much trouble with the Indians the London Company was having trouble with the king. James, having come to believe that Virginia should be placed under his direct control, decided to deprive the company of its charter. The company resisted, but in vain. In 1624 its charter was abolished and Virginia passed under the immediate control of the king; that is, it became a roycd province. COMING OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH 51 James was preparing a new form of government for this Virginia colony but he died (in 1625) before the plan was finished, commu- His son and successor, Charles I, dealt with the colony in a liberal and friendly manner. He retained for himself the power of appointing the colonial governors and the colonial council, but he allowed the colony to have its own assembly and govern itself by its own laws. Upon the whole the change in government was favorable to the colony, for under this new order of things Virginia was a political community ; it was no longer a mere group of distant colonists laboring for the benefit of a trading-corporation in London. With the downfall of the London Company (1624) the first Eesuits chapter of Virginia history comes to an end. The company during the sixteen years of its existence had spent about £200,000 (or about $5,000,000 in our money of to-day) and had sent over about 14,000 colonists. The company lost heavily on its investment and a vast majority of the emi- grants perished. In 1625 the population of the colony was only about 1,200. The cost of the first colony in life was tremendous but it was a price that had to be paid, for the path to colonization is " whitened by the bones of the pioneer." 21. THE COMING OF THE FRENCH; QUEBEC. With the weakening of the Spanish power upon the seas Quebeo Frenchmen as well as Englishmen began to plan for an empire in America. We saw that in 1613 the English destroyed a settlement which the French were trying to make on the coast of Maine. But several years before this event the French had already succeeded in making a permanent settlement in another part of North America. About the time Captain John Smith was exploring the Chesapeake and its tributaries with the vague hope of finding a waterway to China, Samuel Champlain, a French explorer, was in Canada also searching for a water route to the Far East. But Champlain had come to America to establish a colony as well as to make explorations ; in 1608 he planted the French flag on the bold headland of Quebec and there laid the foundations of a town 52 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Cham- plain English and French Methods of Coloniza- tion. Con- trasted The Fur Trade The first house in Quebec. which was given tliat name. The colony was attacked by dis- ease and pestilence, and it had to struggle hard for its life, yet it survived, and Quebec became the corner-stone of the French power in Canada. l-'rom Quebec Champlain pushed his explorations in almost every di- rection. The great Frenchman was well fitted for pioneer work. " His person was rugged. His strength was equal to almost any physical task. His constitu- tion did not succumb to extremes either of cold or heat. His senses were keen and sharpened by experience. Flis spirit knew not what it was to falter when facing danger." In 1609 he came into conflict with a band of Iroquois warriors and killed two of their number. The skirmish was most un- fortunate for the French, for it brought upon them the bitter and lasting enmity of the great Iroquois nation (p. 22). In 1613 Champlain ascended the Ottawa River hoping that by this stream he would surely find the long-sought way to China. Of course he failed in his quest, but his explora- tions were all the time enlarging the claims of France and extending the boundaries of geographical knowledge. By 161 5 Champlain had in person pushed west as far as the shores of Lake Huron, and before he died (in 1635) the French flag waved in the far-ofif wilds of Michigan and Wis- consin. The French power was thus spread over a vast extent of territory, but it was spread very thin. French dominion in America was not rooted in the earth. The English in Vir- ginia looked to the soil as the source of their fortunes, while the French in Canada avoided the hard labor of the farm and gave all their energies to the fur-trade. When Champlain returned from the Ottawa region in 1613 he found seven ships on the St. Lawrence trading in furs. This trade yielded large profits, but it was not an occupation that would lead to the building up of a strong and populous empire. Quebec COMING OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH 53 in 1629 — more than twenty years after its foundation — had but two permanently settled families. Its other inhabit- ants, only a few score in number, consisted of a floating popu- lation of officers, missionaries, hunters, and traders, and now and then a stray savage who had come to the settlement in search of food or strong drink. 22. THE COMING OF THE DUTCH; NEW AMSTERDAM'. The English and the French had hardly landed in America Jf^^'^y ° -' Hudson when the Dutch also appeared upon the scene. Almost at the very moment that Champlain was in the neighborhood of Ticonderoga fighting with the powerful Iroquois and making deadly enemies of them, Henry Hudson, an English navigator in the service of the Dutch, was a few miles away trading with the Iroquois and entertaining their chiefs " royally with g biscuit and grog ! " Hudson was in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, a powerful trading-corporation of Hol- land, the country which had just risen from obscurity to a commanding place in the world of commerce. The East India Company sent Hudson out to seek a passage to China by a northeast route but the captain soon turned the prow of his vessel, the Half Moon, toward the west and in Sep- tember 1609, he was inside Sandy Hook. Hudson was told by the natives that the broad stream which he saw flowing from the North came from the mountain ranges visible in the distance and he believed the waterway led to the Pacific. He ascended the river which bears his name to a point where the city of Troy now stands. Here the Half Moon ran aground and the baffled explorer was compelled to retrace his course. Before leaving the Hudson valley, however, he traded with the Indians and secured a good load of otter and beaver. Hudson took back to Europe a glowing report of the coun- New try he had explored and showed what an excellent place it \vas lands^"^ for carrying on a trade in furs. The Dutch were quick to take advantage of the fur-trade. In 1613 they began to build huts on Manhattan Island for the storage of furs. In 1619 an English captain when sailing by the island saw these huts and 54 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY warned the settlers that they were trespassing upon English territory, but the Dutch did not heed the warning. In 1623 the Dutch West India Company sent out colonists to make a permanent settlement in a New Amster- dam region which was then called New Netherlands and which was to include the territory out of which the four middle states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Dela- ware) have been formed. When the Dutch vessel car- rying the colonists entered the harbor at the mouth of the Hudson they found a French vessel already there preparing to establish a col- ony. The Dutch gave no- tice that the country was theirs and that they would hold it against all comers. The French took the hint and withdrew. Meanwhile the English king was com- plaining because the Dutch were preparing to settle upon land which he had granted to the Plymouth \^-^ # ? '■' '.° L" Company (p. 44). I I l/f statute Miles '- -' ^ ^^ J I — ^ — il But the Dutch went on with their plans. Settle- ments were made at Fort Orange, where Albany now stands, at Lewes in Dela- ware and at Fort Nassau (now Gloucester, New Jer- sey) and on Manhattan Island. In 1626 this island was bought from the Indians by Peter Minuits, an agent of the Early settiements in New York and New Jersey. COMING OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH S5 West India Company, for the sum of 6o guilders, or about $ioo of our present currency. The price was not paid in coin, for the Indians did not use stamped money; the island was paid for in cloth and trinkets. Soon after the purchase a stone fort was built at the southern end of the island and the settlement, which already numbered several hundred per- sons, was given the name of New Amsterdam. Thus the Dutch planted themselves in a region which was claimed by the English and which was looked upon with wistful eyes by the French. No wonder all three of these nations desired the Hudson country, for it was the best place for trade that could be found in all the Western Hemisphere. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Summarize the English claims to North America: Hart I, 164-167. 2. Motives for exploration and colonization : Bogart, 29-34. 3. Give the history of the founding of Jamestown following the ac- count given by Captain John Smith : Halsey II, 49-62. 4. Champlain's own account of his battle with the Iroquois on Lake Champlain: Halsey I, 179-185. 5. The political institutions of France in the seventeenth century: Cheyncy, 1 14-120. 6. The founding of Quebec : Parkman, 88-95. 7. Dates for the chronological table : 1607, 1608, 1609, 1619, 1624. 8. Summarize the chief events connected with early English, French, and Dutch colonization in America. 9. Special Reading. John Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors and The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. P. A. Bruce, Eco- nomic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. L. G. Tyler, England in America. Justin Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac. G. L. Beers, Origins of the British Colonial System. YII THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND About the time the Virginia colony had taken root and was be- ginning to prosper, permanent settlements began to be made in New England. What led to the colonization of this region? What were the motives and purposes of the men who first came to New England? What colonies were planted there and what was their early history? 23. THE BACKGROUND OF NEW ENGLAND COLONIZATION. Pring At the opening of the seventeenth century EngHsh fisher- wey- men began to learn that there was good fishing on the American coast south of Newfoundland. In 1603 Martin Pring visited the coast of Maine where he found the fishing excellent. In 1605 George Weymouth also went to Maine and in an account of his voyage declared that fisheries on the Maine coast would be more profitable than those on the coast of Newfoundland. Saga- These voyages and these glowing reports attracted the at- tention of English adventurers and led to plans for making settlements on the Maine coast. In 1607 one hundred and twenty colonists sent out by the Plymouth Company (p. 44) landed at the mouth of the Kennebec (or Sagadahoc) and be- gan the work of settlement. They built a fort, a church, a store-house, and several cabins. They also constructed a pinnace called the Virginia, the first seagoing vessel built by white men in North America. But the colonists became discontented and more than half of them returned to England in December. Those who remained through the winter ex- perienced such hardships and suflfering that they too became disheartened and in the spring of 1608 gladly embarked for home. " And that was the end of that northern colony upon the river Sagadahoc." S6 dahoc THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND 57 The result of these voyages and attempts at colonization The was to develop English fisheries along the Maine coast. In nsheries 16 14 Captain John Smith, the hero of Virginia, explored the coasts of what are now the States of Maine, New Hamp- shire, and Massachusetts and gave to the region the name New England. On this voyage Smith examined the fisheries along the New England coast and made the prediction that they would prove to be a source of untold wealth. He him- self on this voyage caught off the coast of Maine 47,000 fish, 40,000 of which he dried and 7,000 of which he pickled. The profit of the voyage was $7,000. After this the New England fisheries became more attractive than ever, with the result that in a few years the huts of English fishermen were scattered all along the coast of Maine. Thus through the enterprise of fishermen the rivers and harbors of New Eng- land became familiar to English sailors and the resources of the country became known to English adventurers. By 1620 New England was ready and waiting to be colonized by Englishmen. 24. THE PILGRIMS: PLYMOUTH. Soon the colonists began to arrive. To understand why they came it will be necessary to take a glance at the religious conditions which prevailed in England at the time of their coming, for in the settlement of New England religion was a powerful and controlling force. "If a man," said Hig- ginson, " counts religion as being twelve and all other things as being thirteen he has not the true New England spirit." We saw (p. 32) that by 1550 Christians in England were The divided into two bodies. Catholics and Protestants. By the ushed" end of the sixteenth century the Protestants themselves were '^^""'^ divided into several groups. The great body of Protestants consisted of the members of the Established Church, or Church of England. This denomination, known also as the Episcopal Church, was the state church ; it was supported by the state ; its bishops received their offices and their powers from the state ; its liturgy and services were prescribed by state au- S8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY thority ; and its official head was the King (or Queen) ot England. Within the Episcopal Church there began to appear in the latter half of the sixteenth century many worshipers who were dissatisfied with the manner in which the afifairs of their church were conducted. Thinking that the forms and cere- monies of the Established Church resembled too closely the services held in Catholic churches, they desired a plainer and simpler form of worship ; thinking that the doctrine of the Established Church was being misstated and corrupted, they desired a pure doctrine. For the purity of Christian doctrine they looked to the I'ible and to no other source. Because these people wished to reform the church and purify it they were called Puritans. Among the Puritans there were some who flatly denied the authority of the Established Church and claimed the right to set up churches of their own, elect their own preachers, and worship in their own way. These people, because they separated themselves from the Established Church, were called Separatists or Independents. They ditTered from most Puri- tans in this : most Puritans wished to remain in the Church and reform it from within, while the Independents wished to withdraw from the Church altogether. Both Puritans and Independents were distasteful to those in authority and severe laws were passed against all who re- fused to conform to the rules of the Established Church. Any person who absolutely refused to attend the services of the Church or persuaded others from attending could be thrown into prison until he conformed. If imprisonment failed to bring conformity the dissenter could be driven into perpetual exile. James I was especially harsh in dealing with the non- conforming Puritans and Separatists. *' I will make them con- form themselves," he said in 1604, " or I will harry them, out of the land or else do worse." It was this persecution of Puritans and Independents that hastened the colonization of New England. The first permanent New England settlement was made by THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND 59 a group of Independents who, harried out of Nottinghamshire, The England, in 1608, had settled in the city of Leyden. Holland in was chosen as the place of refuge because it was the country in which religious freedom could be most fully enjoyed. But the Pilgrims — as this roving body of Independents was called • — were not content in Holland, They saw " that many of their children by the manifold temptations were drawn into evil examples and were getting the reins off their necks and departing from their parents." Moreover the Pilgrims were speaking the Dutch language and learning Dutch customs, and if they remained in Holland they would become out-and- out Dutchmen. This they did not wish to do. They still loved England and they wanted to remain Englishmen. So they decided to leave Holland. Accordingly, in July 1620, they bade that country farewell and started for America where they expected to find a permanent home. Permission to settle in America was given to the Pilgrims Business by James I, who said he " would connive with them, and not molest them, providing they carried themselves peaceably.'* The land upon which they were to settle was granted to them by the London Company (p. 43). The money necessary for planting the colony was furnished by some London mer- chants who entered into a partnership with the Pilgrims. The merchants were to hold stock in the enterprise on the basis of one share for each ten pounds of money contributed, and each colonist was entitled to one share of stock. For seven years all that was produced in the colony was to go into the common store, and during this time the colonists were to be supported out of the common store. At the end of the seven years all the property of tlie colony was to be divided among the merchants and the colonists, each per- son receiving an amount in proportion to the number of his shares. After leaving Holland the Pilgrims stopped at Southampton The where they made final arrangements for the long voyage that JAhe* was before them. On September i6th they embarked in the flower Mayilozver and spread sail for America. They were about 6o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY one hundred in numl)er. It was their phm to settle within the territory of the London Company somewhere hetween the Hudson and the Delaware, that is, they were to settle upon the land claimed by the Dutch (p, 54). Rut when the sandy shores of Cape Cod were reached the Mayflower was steered into the harbor of what is now Provincetown. Here, on November it, 1620, the Pilgrims first set foot on American soil. The first landing place, however, was soon abandoned and a spot where the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, now stands was chosen as a place of permanent settlement. Here the Pilgrims went ashore on the 21st of December and began to build houses for a permanent settlement which they called Plymouth. The Pilgrims settled upon territory to which their charter ^ gave them no legal title and they were therefore wholly without power in respect to matters of government. So they found it necessary to provide a government for themselves. "While yet on board the Mayfloiver they entered into an agreement or compact which bound them to give their submission and obedience to all such laws as the general good of the colony might require. This agreement was signed by the whole body of men. This compact was the beginning of the New England democracy and the signing of the document was a most impor- tant event in the history of human liberty. " In the cabin of the Mayflower," says Bancroft, " humanity secured its rights and instituted a government on the basis of equal laws enacted by the people for the general good." As soon as the compact was signed John Carver was elected the first governor of the colony. Carver, however, lived only a few months. He was succeeded by William Bradford, who served the colony faithfully and well for many years. An- other leader of the colony was the preacher, William Brewster, whose helpfulness in spiritual matters was " the life and the stay of the plantation." Still another leader was the re- 1 In 1621, the settlers received from the Council of New England — the new name of the old Plymouth Company — a grant of territory, but the boundaries of the grant were not clearly defined. THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND 6l doubtable Miles Standish, a man of the type of Captain John Smith. Standish was the Plymouth fighter and his sword was drawn more than once in defense of the colony. His services were sometimes needed to put down the Indians, although the relations between the Pilgrims and the redmen were for the most part peaceful. It was the dead of winter wdien the Pilgrims landed and The rr • • 1 n r • Common for several months their suffermg was terrible. Before spring store was well open half of their number had perished. After a few winters of hardship, however, good times came and it was not many years before Plymouth was a thriving colony. At first all the products of the colony were thrown into the common store under a system of joint ownership, but this system was not satisfactory. " The younger men did not care to work so hard and found that they gained no more than the weak and aged ; nor were the married men pleased with the idea of their wives cooking, washing, and scouring for the bachelors." So the system of communal labor grad- ually broke down and by 1627, each settler was working for himself and depending upon his own labor. The colonists tilled the soil, raising chiefly corn and pump- occupa- tions kins, but they by no means relied wholly upon agriculture. While in Holland they had learned how to trade, and their com- mercial spirit soon showed itself in America. In 1623 they built a pinnace and sent it to the country south of them to get a cargo of furs from the Indians. Two years later the Pilgrims were selling corn to the Indians along the Ken- nebec and receiving furs in exchange. By 1631 they were carrying on a fur-trade with the Indians as far away as the region of the Connecticut River. Thus Plymouth besides be- ing an agricultural community was also a trading and seafar- ing community. At first the colony governed itself as a pure democracy ; Represen- all the freemen met in a primary meeting at Plymouth and Govem- attended personally to the public business. But by 1643 the colony consisted of nine " prim, clean, and comfortable towns," containing in all about 3,000 inhabitants. Pure democracy 62 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY by this time had become impractical and a representative sys- tem bad been established. The affairs of the colony were at- tended to by a General Court which met at Plymouth and which consisted of delegates sent from the several towns. The General Court attended to the affairs that concerned the whole colony, while each town in a primary meeting of its freemen attended to the affairs that concerned only itself. The form of government which was developed in Plymouth was the form which was established in all the other New England colonies. Indeed it was at Plymouth that the founda- tions of Xew England were laid. 25. THE PURITANS: MASSACHUSETTS. It was the Pilgrims who laid the foundations of New Eng- land, but the little Plymouth colony was destined to be swal- lowed up by one which soon arose not many miles away at the north — the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. This colony owed its existence to a grant made in 1629 by the council of New England — a new name for the old Plymouth Com- pany — of "all that part of New England which lies and extends between a great river there commonly called the Merrimac and a certain other river there called Charles River, ])eing at the bottom of a certain bay there commonly called Massa- chusetts, and lying within the space of three English miles in the south part of said Charles River and also within the space of three English miles to the northward of the said river called Merrimac, throughout the main lands there from the At- lantic ... on the east part to the South Sea [the Pacific] on the west part." It will be observed that the grant ignored the presence of the Dutch on the Hudson and extended straight across the continent from ocean to ocean. John Winthrop. Second Governor of Massachusetts. THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND 63 The first settlement under the grant was made at Naumkeag Saiem — afterwards called Salem — under the leadership of John Endicott, who came over in 1629 with about forty persons. But the active coloni- zation of Massachu- setts began in 1630 when John Winthrop, the newly elected gov- ernor, landed with 800 colonists, the largest body of emi- grants that had as vet left England for America. Born in 1588 near Groton, England, Winthrop came to America in the prime of life and for twenty years was the leading spirit in Massachusetts, hav- ing been chosen gov- ernor of the colony Settlements around Massachusetts Bay. twelve times and having died in office in 1649. In his youth he cast his lot with the Puritans and he embodied in his char- acter the most conspicuous features of Puritanism. His na- ture was deeply spiritual and the precepts of the Bible guided him in every action of his life. He was stern, inflexible, un- winthrop compromising, and grievously intolerant in matters of re- ligion. His chief purpose in coming to America was to " help raise and support a particular church " — the Puritan church. When Winthrop reached Salem he found affairs there in such a sad plight that he decided to settle elsewhere. He chose the shores of what is now the Boston Harbor as the best place for the newcomers to land. Here the w^ork of settlement be- 64 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Boetou The Great Migration Religious Persecu- tion Tyranny of Charles I gan and in a short time several towns were rising around Bos- ton Bay. The town of Boston was the central community and in 1630 it was made the capital of the colony. Vor two or three years the colony experienced the usual hardships of a new settlement in a wilderness, and settlers did not come over in great numbers. In 1633, however, the tide of emigration set in so strong that the population of the colony at once jumped to 4,000. In less than ten years the population of Massachusetts J>ay was over 16,000. This was greater than the population of all other British colonies in America put together. The settlers who came to Massachusetts during these years in such great numbers were Puritans. Many of them were rich, able, and well-educated men who when departing from Eng- land left the good things of the world behind them. They left their homes because they were no longer safe in England, for the harsh policy of James I against Puritans (p. 58) was being continued by his son Charles I. At the time Winthrop and his followers came to America Puritans were sufifering imprisonment, and having their ears cropped and their noses slit on account of their religious opinions. So persecution was one of the causes which drove the Puritans to Massa- chusetts. Another cause of their leaving was the despotic rule of the Stuart kings. James I had played the tyrant and Charles I seemed to the Puritans even a worse despot than his father. At the time of the great Puritan migration to Massachusetts, Charles was attempting to establish a personal government. He was ruling without a Parliament, he was taking money out of the pockets of his subjects in an un- lawful manner and he was throwing English citizens into jail without giving them a fair trial. " Thus in Church as in State the sky was black with signs of coming evil. . . . When Winthrop sailed, the storm had not yet broken but the first warning sounds were heard. Well might Englishmen long for a refuge where they might preserve their constitutional forms whose day seemed in England fo have passed away." (Doyle.) So when the Puritans left England they felt that THE COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND 65 they were fleeing from political tyranny as well as from re- ligious persecution. The stockholders of the Massachusetts Company came to The America in person and brought with them their charter which dence^of" was issued directly by the King. The settlers of this colony chuset'ts therefore were not subject like those of Virginia to the con- trol of a company residing in England. Under their charter the colonists of Massachusetts established a colonial govern- ment which was quite independent of any other authority ex- cept the direct authority of the King and Parliament. Four times a year the freemen (the stockholders), the governor, and the assistants met at Boston as a General Court to attend to the public business of the colony. At first the General Court The was a primary meeting as at Plymouth, but with the increase in court population and the founding of new towns a representative system soon became necessary. By 1634 each town was send- ing to the General Court representatives elected by the free- men. No man, however, could be a freeman of the colony unless The Test of he was a member of some Puritan church. This rule ex- cmzen- cluded from a share in government all who would not pro- ^ ^^ fess a belief in certain church doctrines and it left the gov- ernment in the hands of men who believed that human affairs should be conducted in accordance with the words of Holy Writ. That is to say, the rule went far toward making Massa- chusetts a Bible commonwealth, a city of God, a Puritan theocracy. One of the most important duties of the General Court was The to establish new towns. This was usually done by granting ^"'^ a tract of unimproved and uncultivated land about six miles square to a group of settlers who wished to push out from the older towns and establish a new one. The land thus granted was a gift not to individuals but to the new com- munity considered as a local body politically known as a township or town. The land was then allotted to indi- vidual owners by the action of the town-meeting. Waste or unallotted land was held in common for the benefit of all. 66 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The town-meeting, a popular assembly, was a pure democ- racy consisting of all the citizens of the town who were entitled to vote. In the early days while government was getting under way town-meetings w-ere held with great fre- quency. In Boston in 1635 ten general town-meetings were held. But as the people found that they could not give so much time to public affairs, it became the custom to hold only one town-meeting in a year. At thi^ meeting town officers were elected, local representatives to the General Court w^ere chosen, taxes levied, and by-law's enacted relating to the common fields and pastures, to the town church — for every town had its Puritan church, — to the schools, to the roadways, to boundary lines, and to many other matters of local concern. No detail of the civil or religious life of the community was too small for the attention of the town- meeting. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Describe New England as it was before the Pilgrims landed, fol- lowing the description given by John Smith: Halsey II, 78-85. 2. The Puritans in England: Cheyney, 216-227; Green, 462-464. 3. Describe Puritanism as embodied in the bfe of John Milton: Green, 464-466. 4. The Bible in English life in Puritan times: Green, 460-462. 5. New England: Green, 505-514. 6. Describe the proceedings of a New England town-meeting: Plart II, 214-220. 7. Popular Government : ^ Forman, 9-15. 8. Representative Government. Forman, 17-22. 9. Dates for the chronological table : 1620, 1629. 10. Special Reading. John Fiske, Beginnings of New England. Ed- ward Eggleston, The Transit of Civilization. Charles Francis Adams, Massachusetts, Its Historians and History. William Elliot Griffis, The Pilgrims in Their Three Homes — England, Holland, and America. 1 For the convenience of schools in which Civics is not regularly taught refer- ences have been made throughout this text to the leading subjects of Civil Government. These references have been made at appropriate places with tiie Tiew of acquainting the pupil with the fundamental principles of our political system. If the work indicated is thoroughly done it will correlate the subjects ot History and Civics with the result that the history work will be greatly strength- ened. VIII THE EXPANSION OF MASSACHUSETTS; THE DE- VELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND After the colony of Massachusetts Bay had been planted, the further colonization of New England was in the main simply an expansion of Massachusetts. What was the result of this expansion? What colonies' were the offshoots of Massachusetts and what was their early his- tory? What were the leading events in the development of New England ? 26. NEW HAMPSHIRE. By the time the foundations of Massachusetts Bay were Laconia well laid the fishermen on the Piscataqua River were laying those of New Hampshire. In 1622 the council of New Eng- land (p. 62) granted to John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges the province of Laconia, which was to comprise all the land between the Merrimac and Sagadahoc (Kennebec) Rivers, " extending back to the Great Lakes and to the rivers of Canada." In the following year Mason and Gorges sent out to Laconia some fishermen " and other people " in two divisions. One division landed on the shore of the Piscataqua River and established a fishing-station on the spot where Portsmouth now stands. The other division went eight miles further up the river and settled at Dover. In 1629 Mason and Gorges agreed to divide Laconia. The New wild region east of the Piscataqua was given to Gorges and fh^^' took the name of Maine. The still wilder region west of the river was given to Tvlason and was called New Hampshire. In 1638 John Wheelwright, a religious exile of Massachusetts, moved up into New Hampshire and made a settlement at Exeter, and about the same time a settlement was begun at Hampton. The four little towns. Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter, 67 68 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY and Hampton, governed themselves in their own way until 1643, when New Hampshire by the consent of the towns was annexed to Massachusetts. In 1691 New Hampshire was separated from IMassachusetts and was made a colony with a government of its own. In the same year Maine was given to Massachusetts and was known as the district of Maine. The Doctrines of Roger Williams His Banish- ment 27. RHODE ISLAND. A religious exile of Massachusetts took a leading part in the settlement of New Hampshire and it was a religious exile also from Massachusetts who first made settlements in what is now Rhode Island. The founder of Rhode Island was Roger Williams, a brilliant, over-zealous, and " con- scientiously contentious " minister of the gospel, who set- tled at Salem (1631), and who by the character of his preaching soon became a source of great discomfort to the authorities of Massachusetts. Williams denied the right of the English king to grant land to anybody in North America, contending that the Indians were the sole owners of the land and that all titles to land should be held for them and for them alone. He also contended that the government should exercise no control in respect to religious matters. Such doctrines brought upon the preacher's head the dis- pleasure of the rulers of Massachusetts, and in October 1635, the General Court voted ** that whereas Mr. Roger Williams hath broached and divulged diverse new and dangerous opinions against the authority of the magistrates . . . and yet maintaineth the same without retraction, it is therefore ordered that tile said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this jurisdiction within six weeks, which if he neglect to perform it shall be lawful of the governor to send him out of the jurisdiction not to return any more without license from this Court." In the spring of 1636 when the General Court was upon the point of seizing the banished man and sending him to England, Williams fled, steering his course through a driving snow to a spot where the city of Providence now stands. Here having been joined by several persons he " began to build and THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND 69 In Providence the church and State plant." In 1637 the householders of Mr. Williams' settle- ment entered into the following compact : " We whose names are hereunder, desirous to inhabit the town of Providence, do promise to subject ourselves in obedience to all such orders as shall be made for the public good by the major consent of the present inhabitants and others whom they shall admit unto them, only in civil things." In this compact we see the great idea for which Williams stood, namely, the separation separa- of church matters from state matters government was to have authority only in " civil things in respect to religious affairs it was to have no power what- ever. According to the teachings of Williams religion was a matter of personal, private, and individual concern. Gov- ernment, he thought, had no right to interfere with the re- ligious views of any person. " It hath fallen out sometimes," he said, " that both Papists and Protestants, Jews and Turks may be embarked in one ship ; upon which supposal I affirm that all the liberty of conscience that I ever pleaded for, turns upon these two hinges: that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews, or Turks be forced to come to the ship's prayers or wor- ship nor compelled from [i. e. forcibly kept away from] their own particular prayers or worship, if they practice any." But Williams did not believe that this liberty meant license and lawlessness, for he goes on to say: " If any of the sea- men refvise to per- form their services or passengers to pay their freight, if any shall mutiny and rise up against their com- manders and officers ; I say, I never denied but in such cases the commander may iudge and punish such transgressors according to their deserts." Connecticut and Rhode Island. 70 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Rhode Island and exileS Provi- dence Planta- tions The colony founded by Williams attracted other religious In 1638, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a gifted and earnest woman who had been banished from Massachusetts for " tra- ducing the ministers and their ministry " went with some fol- lowers to Rhode Island and founded the towns of Pocasset (near Pawtucket) and Newport. l""ive years later Samuel Gor- ton, also an exile from Massachusetts, founded the town of Warwick. In 1644 these settlements were united under a char- ter which Williams secured from the luiglish government. Later Charles II granted (1663) to the "Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation " a new charter. This instru- ment gave the colonists of Rhode Island tlie religious freedom which they so much desired and it granted them the j^irivilege of electing their own officers and making their own laws. The Connecti- cut Valley The Beginning of the West- ward Move- ment 28. CONNECTICUT. While the colony of Rhode Island was being planted along the shores of the Narragansett Bay, the colony of Connecticut, another offshoot of Massachusetts, was taking root on the banks of the Connecticut River.^ The charming and fertile valley through which this stream flowed was a prize for which both the English and the Dutch contended. The Dutch were the first to enter it and take possession, but they could not hold their ground, for in 1634 emigrants from Massachusetts began to settle in the valley, and in a few years the Dutch were crowded out. The settlement of Connecticut by the English began in earnest in 1636 when Thomas Hooker, the pastor of the church at Newtown (now Cambridge) moved with his entire congrega- tion to the banks of the Connecticut and founded the city of Hartford. This migration was due in part to a desire for the arable land of the valley, and in part to discontent with the illiberal rule of the Puritan theocracy. The movement was not one of individuals, but of an organized religious com- 1 In 1 63 1 Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke, and others obtained from the New England Company a tract of land in the Connecticut valley, but very little was done under this grant in the way of settlement. THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND 71 munity. Hooker and his people carried their household goods with them and drove their cattle before them. Their migra- tion westward through the roadless forests of Massachusetts seeking the rich and ample lands of the Connecticut Valley was the first movement of that great wave of civilization, which for more than two hundred years was always moving toward the West. Within two years after the arrival of Hooker the new colony of Connecticut had a population of 800 souls grouped in the three towns of Hartford, Wethers- field, and Windsor. The nev/ towns thrived, but the lives of the settlers were The harassed by the attacks of the Indians, who were now be- war ginning to see that the white man was gradually driving them from their hunting-grounds. The Pequot tribe were so trouble- some to the Connecticut settlers that it became necessary to send a force of armed men against them. In 1637 ninety men from Connecticut attacked the Pequot stronghold at the mouth, of the Mystic River and inflicted upon the tribe a punishment so terrible that the colonists were not disturbed again by In- dians for forty years. As offshoots of Massachusetts the new towns naturally The came under the jurisdiction of that colony, but inasmuch as written they lay outside of the boundaries of Massachusetts (p. 62) tion the parent colony could not very well exercise its rightful authority over them.^ So when the people of Connecticut un- dertook to set up a government of their own Massachusetts made no attempt to hold them. A general government for Connecticut was organized in 1639 when the freemen of Weth- ersfield, Windsor, and Hartford came together and adopted the " Fundamental Orders." This was an organic act estab- lishing a definite plan by which the new colony was to be gov- erned " as a public state or commonwealth." This frame-work of government drawn up by the Connecticut settlers is the first example in history of a written constitution, for never 1 Agawam (Springfield) was also a river town founded (1636) by the Con- necticut settlers, but as it lay within the boundaries of Massachusetts, it took no part in Connecticut affairs. 72 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY New Haven before had a people in person planned for their own govern- ment and at the same time written out the details of the plan in plain black and white. \\'hile the settlers of the river towns were laying the founda- tions of Connecticut, another colony was forming on the north shore of Long Island Sound. In 1638 a small company of Puritans under the leadership of John Davenport, a preacher, and Theophilus Eaton, a merchant, settled at " Quinnipiac," afterwards called New Haven. In 1639 the New Haven set- tlers met in a barn and drew up a covenant, pledging them- selves to be guided by the precepts of the Scriptures, and for many years the colony was governed like Judea of old by the rules of the Mosaic law. The towns of Mil ford, Guil- ford, Stamford, and Branford quickly sprang up in the neigh- borhood of New Haven and these were united to the parent colony. In 1662 Charles II gave out a charter which united New Haven to the Connecticut Colony and thus ended the existence of " the Bible Commonwealth," as New Haven was called. The charter provided that Connecticut should extend westward to the Pacific Ocean just as if the Dutch on the Hudson had no right to be there. In matters of government the king was as liberal to Connecticut as he was to Rhode Island ; he allowed the colony to govern itself. The New England Confed- eration 29. THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND (1643-1689). Thus within a score of years after the landing of the Pil- grim fathers the foundation of New England was fully laid. In 1640 the combined population of New Hampshire, Massa- chusetts, Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Ha- ven was probably about 25,000. By this time the colonies were beginning to feel the need of some kind of union. Accordingly in 1643 commissioners from Plymouth, Massachusetts, Con- necticut, and New Haven met at Boston and formed a compact known as the New England Confederation. New Hampshire was denied membership in the Confederation because it " ran a different course " from the other colonies " in its ministry and administration." Rhode Island was not allowed to join THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND ^2, because it was regarded " as tumultuous and schismatic." The avowed purpose of the Confederation was to defend the colo- nies against the French, the Dutch, and the Indians. More- over, there was a secret hope that if the tyranny of Charles "f I (p. 64) should show it- tj ' ^l'^ i" ^^'^ ""^ ^'^^^ England the t5 '^ i ^ Confederation would help • <^ ^ 1 % ^ ^ i' *^^ colonies in the defense ^ ^1 1 11- Ic^ of their liberties. This Con- "jS ^»'<£s ernment. Indeed New ^ ^^ °f I I Id ^ i England at this tmie was ** ^ T*%>1 cL?^ ^cr* breaking away from the "§ ^ -1^^ ^% 1 \ J%- authority of the mother- & s" I9 "^ 5 r i country. The storm which i I -^^i 4^ 1 "to/^ ^ '^^^ gathering in England ^ tV^ciri"^ ^^^^" ^'^^ Puritans began « J^ 2^ 4 4^ ? ^° ^^^^^ ^P- ^5) broke in § § r ■ G-^ ^ ^ between the King and the § ^ 1^^ ^- i ^ Parliament. The King was t 1^ t> I 5-^ ■ defeated and (in 1649) f") "^ ^"^"l ^^'^^ beheaded. Then came 1qL f^l rt^ the rule of Oliver Crom- V. well and the Parliament 74 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY which lasted until 1660, when Charles II was restored to the throne. During the years of civil strife the English govern- ment, whether it was the King or the Parliament that was rul- ing, was so busy with affairs at home that it could give but little attention to what was going on in the colonies. As a result of this freedom of control there grew up in the colonies a spirit of independence and a disposition to manage colonial affairs without regard to the wishes of England. This independent spirit was strongest in Massachusetts, where the colonial gov- ernment assumed to act almost as if England were not in the world. The rulers of Massachusetts ceased to issue writs in the King's name, dropped the English oath of allegiance, and adopted a new oath in which public officers and the peo- ple swore allegiance, not to England, but to Massachusetts. In matters of religion the people of New England were even more independent than they were in matters of govern- ment. Especially was this true of Massachusetts. Here Pu- ritanism soon became something entirely different from what it was in England. In England the Puritans had been will- ing to accept the authority of the Established Church, but once in the free atmosphere of New England they had broken away from the EstaliHshed Church, with the result that by 1650 they were as truly a body of Independents as were the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The We have seen that the close union of church and state in Theocracy Massachusetts made that colony a Puritan theocracy. Since this theocracy was virtually independent of England it could rule with a high hand, for there was nothing to withstand its power. And it did rule with a high hand. The clergy were all powerful in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. They not only argued cases in the courts, but even acted as judges. They would boldly go into lawsuits which were in progress, " observe what was going on and if they were not pleased with the judge's decision would overrule it, and if they did not like the action of the jury they would overrule it and pronounce the verdict themselves." The harshness of the Puritan rule was seen in the case of THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND 75 the Quakers. Members of this sect began to come to Massa- The^^^^ chusetts in 1656 and they quickly became troublesome. They oj^^^^sa- disregarded the formalities of religion, they paid no respect to the clergy as a class, they did not venerate the Sabbath, they would not attend church, they would not contribute to the support of religion. They were therefore regarded by the Puritans as extremely dangerous people and were ordered to leave Massachusetts. In their efforts to get rid of the Quakers the rulers of Massachusetts followed a course of persecution, which was perhaps more bitter than was visited upon this sect anywhere else, and it was bitterly persecuted everywhere both in the Old World and in the new. In 'Massa- chusetts the Quakers were whipped, imprisoned, and even put to death. Public sentiment, however, revolted against these cruelties. In 1660 the severest of the laws against the Quakers were repealed, and soon the persecution ceased almost entirely. Still, many of the good people of Massachusetts felt that King the Quakers had been treated too mildly. When in 1674 the war people of Boston set apart a day for humiliation and prayer, one of the sins repented for was the mildness which was being shown to Quakers. This day of supplication was ordered be- cause it seemed that the city was about to be attacked by a powerful band of In- dians. The city of Boston, as it hap- pened, escaped, but in 1675 the Indians, un- der the leadership of a chief known as King Philip, fell upon the whites not far away. This uprising, like most others of its kind, was due chiefly to the pressure of population upon the territory of the red man. " The Eng- lish cattle and swine trespassed upon the land of the Indians aajemsj jtLA XTIC H.USETTS f ^iC Scene of Kingf Philip's War. ^e ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY and were killed. A fine was imposed. Thus by steps, legal it may be, but wholly inadequate in the case of an illiterate and ignorant race, more land was taken under pretext of com- pensation." In order to avert the coming destruction of his people King Philip determined to strike a decisive blow. He attacked the whites at Swansea in Rhode Island and killed eight men. A cruel warfare now spread over a large part of New England, and before the Indians could be subdued they had burned and pillaged thirteen towns and had killed more than 2,000 settlers. King Philip, who was the cause of all this destruction, was (in 1676) hunted down and shot. "The seasonable prey was soon divided ; they cut off his head and hands and quartered his body and hung it upon four trees."' With this act of barbarism King Philip's War came to an end and the Indian power in New England was forever destroyed, E^ For ten years following King Philip's War, peace and quiet Andros reigned in New England. Then the Puritan Colonies w'ere again thrown into a state of alarm, for the independence and liberty which they had so long enjoyed was suddenly threat- ened with extinction. This happened soon after Charles II died (in 1685), and his brother, James II, was proclaimed King. James II, desiring to give the colonies a more efficient government and to bring them more directly under the con- trol of the crown — just what Charles II had desired — sent out (1686) Sir Edmund Andros to act as governor of all New England. Andros had power to make laws, levy taxes, ad- minister justice, and all the armed forces of all the colonies were brought under his rule. Besides this he was empowered to deprive the colonies of their charters and give them new forms of grant. Rhode Island and Plymouth submitted grace- fully to the new order of things. Connecticut protested against the surrender of the Charter and Andros failed to get his hands upon the precious document. In Massachusetts, as was to be expected, the opposition was strong, but it was ineffectual ; the new governor took from the colony the old charter which Winthrop brought over (p. 65) and Massachusetts was made THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ENGLAND 77 a royal province with Andros officially established as its gov- ernor (1689). But the rule of Andros was short, for the rule of his mas- The ter was soon brought to an end. When James II ascended Revoiu- the throne the perversity of the Stuart house renewed itself, of 1688 The new King attempted to establish a permanent despotism, but his tyranny brought on a revolution — the " Glorious Revo- lution of 1688 " — which resulted in his own dethronement. Parliament, when choosing William III as the successor of James, declared as an act of precaution the conditions upon which the crown was to be held. This declaration, known as the English Bill of Rights, stated plainly the rights which Englishmen were henceforth to enjoy. It stated that laws The should not be suspended or repealed by the executive, that Rights taxes should not be levied without the consent of Parliament, that citizens should not be denied the right of petition, that freedom of speech and debate in Parliament should not be impeached or questioned in any place out of Parliament, that excessive bail ought not to be required, that cruel and unusual punishments ought not to be inflicted. The Bill of Rights was of the utmost importance to the colonists, because the rights won in England accrued to Englishmen in America. No sooner had James been driven from his throne than Massa- Andros was sent out of Massachusetts. But Massachusetts a Eoyai was not restored to its former state of independence. In 169 1 William III joined Plymouth to Massachusetts and in the fol- lowing year Massachusetts was again made a royal province.^ The colony still had its representative assembly — its General 1 When the first royal governor arrived in Massachusetts he found the colony in a state of great excitement caused by an outburst of the witchcraft delusion; for a belief in witches, even among the most intelligent, was still quite general, both in England and in the colonies. In 1692 the people of Salem and several neighboring towns became possessed of the notion that witches — persons in secret alliance with Satan — were in the midst of them. About two hundred persons were accused, and since witchcraft was legally recognized as a crime scores of the supposed witches were arrested. Before the magistrates and people could regain their senses twenty innocent persons were tried, found guilty, and put to death. 78 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Court — but its governor was to be appointed 1)y the Crown. The old theocracy was abolished, and the right of suffrage, once limited to church members (p. 65), was bestowed on all male adults possessing a certain amount of property. Con- necticut and Rhode Island received their old charters back and were allowed to govern themselves as they had always done. Thus by the end of the seventeenth century all the New England colonies were established on what seemed a permanent basis of loyalty to the crown and all enjoyed a large measure of local independence. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. New Hampshire and Maine: Tyler, 266-281. 2. Roger Williams: Halsey II, 131-134. 3. Give an account of the trial of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson : Hart 1 382-387. 4. Rhode Island : Hart I, 407-409. 5. The founding of Connecticut: Halsey II, 135-144. 6. What were the leading provisions of the Fundamental Orders? Hart I, 415-419. 7. The conquest of the Pequots : Hitchcock, 32-42. 8. The New England Confederation: Tyler, 297-317. 9. The personal government of Charles I: Green, 514-534. 10. Characterize Oliver Cromwell : Green, 466-467. 11. The Civil War in England: Green, 547-559. 12. The defeat of King Philip: Hitchcock, 44-56. 13. The growth of civil liberty: Forman, 87-93. 14. What were some of the so-called Connecticut "Blue Laws"? Under what circumstances was Thanksgiving Day first observed? Why were the doctrines of the Quakers offensive to the Puritans? Why were the followers of Charles I called Cavaliers? Why were the fol- lowers of Cromwell called Roundheads? Describe the trial of a witch. Sketch the life and character of Cotton Mather. Tell the story of the Charter Oak. Why did Charles II grant liberal charters to Rhode Island and Connecticut? 15. Special Reading. Andrew Johnston, Connecticut. J. G. Pal- frey, History of Nczv England during the Stuart Dynasty. O. S. Straus, Roger IVilliams. S. G. Arnold, History of Rhode Island. IX THE OLD DOMINION AND ITS NEIGHBORS In a previous chapter the history of Virginia was brought down to the year 1625, when the colony became a royal province, which in time came to be known as the " Old Dominion." What was the early history of the Old Dominion? About the time Virginia began to prosper and flourish another colony (Maryland) arose at the north, and a little later two other colonies (the Carolinas) were planted at the south. What was the early history of these neighbors of the Old Dominion ? 30. VIRGINIA AS A ROYAL PROVINCE. After Virginia passed (in 1624) under the control of the The crown, her history was no longer the story of a terrible strug- tiolf**" gle for existence, but was rather " a tale of a steady but un- y^*®™ heroic prosperity among a rich class of planters." Tobacco continued to be the staple product, wheat being the only other article which was exported. Tobacco was most profitably cultivated upon a large scale and the plantations ranged in area from one thousand to fifty thousand acres. The lay- ing out of new estates followed the courses of the numerous streams and the great size of the plantations gave every planter a water-front and a private wharf. The goods of English merchants ^ — ^ fine cloths, rich carpets, mahogany furniture — were brought direct to the planter's wharf and paid for in tobacco. This system of large estates and direct trade with English merchants led to two important results in Virginia : it created a rich and luxurious class of land-holders, and it prevented the growth of large towns. For more than a hun- dred years after its settlement there was not a single large town in all Virginia. 79 8o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The After the downfall of Charles I (p. 73) the Cavaliers, as the faithful followers of the King were called, found life in England extremely unpleasant. On this account large num- bers of them sought homes in the Old Dominion, where the Royalist sentiment was strong. Among these Cavaliers were many of England's leading men : nobles, gentlemen, and clergy. One of them was John Washington, " the great grandfather of a greater Washington." In a single year — the year (1649), the year of the King's execution — seven shiploads of such men set sail for Virginia. Cromwell When Oliver Cromwell, a plain English citizen, was chosen and the ' r & ' Virginians as the ruler to succeed Charles I, the Cavalier element in Vir- ginia was so strong for monarchy that the Assembly refused to recognize anybody but the son of a King (Charles II) as the " naturall sovereigne." But Cromwell was in fact the mas- ter. He sent a fleet to Virginia and demanded the surrender of Jamestown. The Virginians at first planned for resistance, but the governor. Sir William Berkeley, gave the government into the hands of the commissioners whom Cromwell had sent to take charge of the colony's affairs. The commissioners established for the colony a government which differed but slightly from the one it already had, and which left the Vir- ginians in possession of all the rights and liberties enjoyed by free-born persons in England. Governor In 1660 the rule of the Cromwellians came to an end and Berkeley Charles II was restored to the throne. The restoration was a pleasing event to the Virginians. Repenting of their sub- mission to Cromwell, they desired that " their sorrows might expiate their crime and that their tears might wash away their guilt." Charles II appreciated this loyalty " of the best of his distant children," yet his dealings with Virginia caused irritation and discontent. He appointed as governor. Sir William Berkeley, the man who had been dislodged by Crom- well. Berkeley was an able man, but he was of a most tyran- nical disposition, and inclined to give more attention to his private affairs than to his duties as governor. When in 1676 Virginia was attacked in the dead of night by the Indians, and THE OLD DOMINION AND ITS NEIGHBORS 8i about forty white persons were murdered, Berkeley, who was carrying on a profitable fur-trade with the Indians, allowed the outrage to go unpunished. This inactivity caused a re- volt. Nathaniel Bacon, in defiance of the Governor's wishes. Bacon's gathered a body of fighting men and inflicted upon the Indians the punishment they deserved. This brought on a conflict which ended in the burning of Jamestown and in the expulsion of Berkeley from the colony. Bacon was now master of Vir- ginia, but he died just as he was at the height of his power. Berkeley returned to Virginia and wreaked upon the followers of Bacon a terrible vengeance. Twenty-three persons were put to death. " That old fool," said Charles II, " has taken away more lives in that naked country than I did here for the death of my father." The King in disgust deprived Berke- ley of his office. Another cause of irritation and discontent in Virginia dur- JJ^^. ^ ing the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) was the Navigation ^°^g Laws. In 165 1 Parliament had enacted that no European goods could be brought to England or to her colonies except in English-built and English-manned vessels. The purpose of the act was to build up English shipping and at the same time cripple the shipping of Holland, the country which had recently pushed to the front and become the great rival of England in matters of trade. Most of Eng- land's carrying trade was done in Dutch vessels. In 1663 Parlia- ment, wishing the English to carry their own goods in their own ves- sels, took still another step, and ^ '^'^ ° Cent'ufy^'"*''''*^ practically prohibited the colonies from receiving any commodities which were not laden and shipped in Great Britain. These laws bore heavily upon Virginia, for they compelled the tobacco-growers to deal only with English merchants who fixed the price to be paid for tobacco and the price to be paid for goods brought into the colony. 82 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Life in the Old Dominion (Ban- croft) But in spite of unpopular governors and restrictive Naviga- tion Laws, the Old Dominion prospered and became more and more attractive as a home for settlers. " The clear at- mosphere, especially of autumn, and the milder winter de- lighted the comers from England. Many objects in nature were new and wonderful : the loud and frequent thunder- storms ; trees clothed in flowers of brilliant colors; birds with gay plumage and varied melodies. Every traveler admired the mocking-bird which repeated and excelled the notes of its rival; and the humming-bird, so bright in its lines and delicate in its form. The lover of the garden found the fruits of Europe improved in flavor by the joint influence of climate and soil. The chase furnished a perpetual resource. The hospitality of the Virginians was proverbial. Land was cheap and competence followed industry. There was no need of a scramble. The morasses were alive with water-fowl, the creeks abounded with oysters heaped together in inexhaustible beds ; the rivers were crowded with fish ; the forests were alive with game, the wind rustled with covies of quails and wild turkeys, and hogs ran at large in troops. It was the best poor men's country in the world." The stream of emi- gration to this delightful place was steady, and by 1675, ^^^ population of the Old Dominion was nearly fifty thousand. The Maryland Grant 31. MARYLAND. Among the Englishmen who were early attracted to the far Virginia country was George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore and founder of Maryland. Calvert had long been interested in colonization, having held shares in the Virginia enterprise and having been a member of the Council for New England. In 1623 he secured a charter for planting a colony at Avalon, in Newfoundland. In 1628 he went to Avalon with his fam- ily, but the climate there was too severe. So the Newfound- land colony was abandoned. In 1629 Calvert visited James- town, taking with him his family and some followers, l)ut he was an unwelcome visitor because he was a Roman Catholic. He was commanded to take the oath upholding the Church THE OLD DOMINION AND ITS NEIGHBORS 83 of England, and when he refused to do this, he was ordered out of the colony. However, being in high favor with Charles I, he was able to secure from that monarch a tract of land lying between the Potomac River and the fortieth parallel. This grant, called Maryland, included not only the Maryland of to-day, but in addition Delaware, a part of Pennsylvania, and a part of West Virginia. '^ Of this splendid estate Baltimore was made absolute owner and lord proprietor. George Calvert died before the charter passed the royal seals, but the grant was transferred to his son, Cecilius Calvert. Under this . charter the proprietor was vested with almost unlimited politi- cal power. He could declare war, make peace, appoint all colonial officers, pardon criminals, and con- fer titles. He could also make laws for the government of his colony, but all such laws had to receive the approval of the free- men. They did not, however, have to receive the approval of the King. Maryland was thus almost entirely independent of the Crown in matters of government. The actual settlement of Maryland began in 1634, when The ^ ^ . Founding Leonard Calvert, a brother of Cecilius, and the first governor ot of the province, founded the town of St. Marys near the mouth ^l of the Potomac River. With him came over about 200 colo- nists. Of these, twenty were persons of leisure, while the others were laborers and artisans. Since Englishmen had by this time learned the art of colonization, the settlement of Maryland was easily accomplished. The neighboring Indians, George Calvert. First Lord Baltimore, born at Kipling, Yorkshire, England, about 15S0; died, 1632. 1 When Pennsylvania was granted to Penn a dispute arose between Lord Baltimore and Penn as to the boundary between their grants. The matter was settled in 1767, when the Mason and Dixon's Line was established. This line separated Maryland from Delaware and Pennsylvania. The boundary between Maryland and West Virginia was not definitely settled until 1912. 84 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY William Clai- borne Govern- ment who were of a very peaceful and kindly disposition, received the colonists with open arms. They sold Baltimore a large tract of land and assisted the settlers in planting corn, the first yield of which was so large that the colony could supply its own needs and sell a portion of the crop to New England. Tobacco at an early date began to be raised and was soon the staple product, just as it was in Virginia. The growth of the colony was steady and healthful. " We know," says Doyle, " but little of the early economical history of Maryland. What little we do know, however, indicates a high degree of pros- perity. We hear nothing of the trials which usually beset a young colony, and we find no trace of material sufifering." Still, early Maryland was not entirely without its troubles. Its relations with its neighbor, Virginia, were by no means friendly, because the Virginians thought that the land which was given to Calvert really belonged to their own colony. The Mrginian who gave the Marylanders the most trouble was William Claiborne, who was called the " evil genius of Mary- land." Claiborne had received from Charles I license to trade within the region included in the Maryland grant, and in 1 63 1 he had built a traders' post on Kent Island in the Chesapeake Ray. When Calvert came to claim his land he informed Claiborne that the settlers on Kent Island owed their allegiance to Maryland. Claiborne refused to acknowledge the proprietorship of Calvert on the ground that Kent Island was a part of \'irginia. As a matter of fact the island at the time was represented in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Soon one of Claiborne's boats was seized for trading in Mary- land without a Maryland license. This led to the first naval battle upon the inland waters of America, for Claiborne at- tempted to recapture his boat, and in the fight which ensued several men were killed. The quarrel between Claiborne and the Calverts continued for many years, but in the end Kent Island was won for Maryland. Within the colony there was some trouble in regard to the form of government Maryland was to have. The charter gave the people power to reject laws proposed by the proprietor, THE OLD DOxMINlON AND ITS NEIGHBORS 85 but it gave them no right to initiate laws. This right the free- men demanded, and taking matters into their own hands, they drew up (1635) a code of laws for the province. The code was rejected by the proprietor on the ground that he alone had the right of initiative. In 1638 the proprietor drew up a code which in turn was rejected by the freemen. Thus, for a time there was a deadlock. But Lord Baltimore soon gave way and allowed the freemen to make the laws subject to the veto of the governor. Thus, in order to meet the demands of the freemen, the terms of the charter were reversed. Some years passed before the organization of the government was fully determined, but by 1649 Maryland had a representative assembly, a council, and a governor — the usual form of co- lonial government. But the most important feature of early Maryland history The was the religious toleration which was practised in the colony, tion Cecilius Calvert was a Catholic, and he wished Maryland to be a place where the Catholics of England might find refuge from persecution, for the laws of England were even more severe against Catholics than they were against Puritans (p. 58). But he was willing to accord to others the toler- ation he desired for himself. So from the very beginning the people of Maryland enjoyed religious freedom. " Toleration in the province grew up silently as the custom of the land.'' In 1649 the Maryland Assembly, in which Catholics had the ma- jority of votes, passed an act providing that " no person pro- fessing to believe in Jesus Christ shall from henceforth be anywise troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for or in re- spect of his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof, within this province." Thus there was established in Mary- land that religious liberty for which Roger Williams about the same time (p. 69) was pleading so strongly. But the plans of Williams were broader than those of Lord Baltimore, for in Maryland only Christians were welcome, while in Rhode Island men of any faith and men of no faith were welcome. Still, the toleration act passed by the little Maryland assembly was a most important step in the march of human progress, 86 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY and it well deserves the praise which Bancroft gives it when he calls it the " morning star of religious freedom." Mary- During the long conflict between the King and Parliament, and the Lord Baltimore "trimmed his sails with masterly art,"' now weiiians inclining to one party, now to the other. Once while the Cromwellians were in power (1649-1660) Claiborne came for- ward and secured control of the Alaryland government, but Baltimore soon regained his power. When Charles II was re- stored to his throne he upheld the authority of the proprietor. Pros- Maryland now had a population of 12,000, and was a highly prosperous colony. The tobacco-crop was extremely profit- able, sea food was abundant, the eastern shore of the Chesa- peake being especially famous for its oysters, terrapin, and canvasback ducks. For hospitality and social graces Maryland was as famous as its neighbor, Virginia. The colony remained under the rule of the proprietor until 1692, when it was made a royal province. In 1715, however, Maryland was again restored to the Baltimore family, and it remained a proprietary colony until the Revolution. 2,2. THE CAROLINAS. The About the time Charles I granted Maryland to George Cal- lina ' vert, he likewise granted (1629) Carolina to Sir Robert Heath. No settlement, however, was made under the Heath grant, and all rights under it fell into disuse. In 1663, Charles II made a second grant of Carolina, giving it to eight proprietors, of whom the Earl of Clarendon was the leading man. Carolina at this time was a vast and empty territory lying between English Virginia and Spanish Florida. As described by the charter, Carolina lay between the 31st and 36th parallels and extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The powers given to the proprietors were similar to those given to Lord Baltimore, the only difference between the Maryland charter and the Carolina charter being that the former gave a vast estate to one man, while the latter bestowed an empire upon a group of eight men. North The settlement of Carolina really began some years before Carolina ^ o THE OLD DOMINION AND ITS NEIGHBORS 87. the grant to the proprietors was made. About 1650, frontiers- men began to leave Virginia and settle along Albemarle Sound, where the farming-lands were good and where the freedom of pioneer life could be fully enjoyed. It was in the Albe- marle region that the proprietors of Carolina began to develop their grant and institute their government. In 1664, William Drummond was sent to rule over the little settlements in the Albemarle district. The next year there was held in the Albe- marle colony a general assembly composed of a governor, a council and twelve delegates. The assembling of this legis- lature marks the beginning of the political history of North Carolina. For, although Carolina was granted to a single group of proprietors and was regarded as a single province, the territory was divided into two clearly defined jurisdictions, one of which was called North Carolina and the other South Carolina. South Carolina had its beginning in 1670, when about 150 South colonists settled at the mouth of the Ashley River and built a cluster of cabins which they called Charlestown, in honor of the King. Old Charlestown, as this first settlement was called, was gradually abandoned and by 1680 a new Charles- town (now called Charleston), with a population of 1000 in- habitants, had arisen in the peninsula between the Ashley and the Cooper Rivers. The proprietors attempted to govern South Carolina according to the plan of the Grand Model, a fantastical scheme of government drawn up by the philosopher, John Locke. The Grand Model provided in great detail for Grand the division of the colonists into classes. There was to be an upper or governing class consisting of landgraves (earls) and caciques (barons). Below the governing class there was to be a lower class whose status was to be practically that of serfs. Locke's scheme was wholly unsuitable to the condi- tions which prevailed in the colony, and it failed to work. The people desired a simple form of government and they es- tablished one of the usual colonial type. The proprietors were diligent in their efiforts to secure set- The tiers for the Carolinas and they took great pains to advertise rfarounas 88 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Devel- opment of the Carollnaa the resources and advantages of their great estate. In the pamphlets describing CaroHna, the country is pictured in the most glowing terms. " The air is of so serene and excellent a temper that the Indian natives pro- long their days to the extremity of old age. The soil is clothed with odor- iferous and fragrant woods : the lofty pine, the sweet-smell- ing cedar and Cyprus. Fruit trees there are Along the Carolina coast. in abundance, the orange, lemon, pome- granate, fig and almond. The peach trees in incredible num- bers grow wild. Indian corn produces a vast increase, yearly yielding two plentiful harvests. Tobacco grows very well. Of tar, made of the resinous juice of the pine (which boiled to a thick consistency is pitch), they make great quantities yearly. Indigo they have made, and that good. Of beasts bearing furs they have great store of variety. Birds the country yields of different kinds and colors, pelican, hawk, eagle, swan, goose, duck, plover, partridge. The seas and rivers of the same bounty participate in the variety of excellent and wholesome fish : sturgeon, salmon, trout, bass, drum, cat. The neighbor- ing Indians are very kind and serviceable, doing for our nation such civilities and good turns as lie in their power." Such alluring pictures could hardly fail of their purpose. A tide of emigration to the Carolinas at once set in. From Holland came some Dutch settlers, bringing with them their money and their industrious habits. From Scotland came a large body of Covenanters, fearing the establishment of the Catholic power at home. In South Carolina the Huguenots THE OLD DOMIxNION AND ITS NEIGHBORS 89 (p. 2)2) found refuge from religious persecution. In 1598 the French king, Henry of Navarre, issued the Edict of Nan- tes, under which Huguenots were allowed to live in peace ; but in 1685 the Edict was revoked and a persecution of Hugue- nots followed. Thousands of the persecuted sect fled from France and sought refuge in foreign lands. Many of them came to the English colonies and settled in New York, in Maryland, in Virginia, in the Carolinas. Some of them went to Charleston, where they rendered noble service in the up- building of South Carolina. From England came large num- bers of Quakers who settled in North Carolina and became the ruling element in public affairs. These accessions gave to the Carolinas a motley population and a mixed social organi- zation, but they built up the new colonies quite rapidly. By 1690 the two Carolinas together contained nearly 8,000 inhab- itants. In North Carolina the population was scattered, and it was fifty years before the colony could boast of a village with a dozen houses. In South Carolina everything centered around Charleston, which as early as 1685 had a population of several thousand and contained " buildings of great orna- ment and beauty." Rice and indigo were the chief products of South Carolina. In the cultivation of the rice fields slave labor was employed. In North Carolina the products of the forest were the chief sources of profit, tar and turpentine being exported in large quantities. The Carolinas in their early days had a stormy and troublous Pirates existence. For one thing, they were greatly annoyed by pi- rates. The leader of the pirates was Edward Teach, usually known as " Blackbeard." Teach and his gang would dart from their hiding-places along the coast and capture merchant ships that passed by. After they had kept the coast in a state of terror for many years they were attacked by a naval force sent out from Virginia and the war upon them did not cease until Blackbeard and his followers were shot or hanged. Then the Carolina colonists were troubled by the Spaniards who lived at St. Augustine and who more than once appeared in force along the coast, destroying life and property. 90 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY lUit the greatest trouble in the Carohnas came from the colonists themselves. The relations between the proprietors and the people were never satisfactory, and there was ceaseless bickering and strife. Once the regular proprietary govern^ ment was overthrown by rebellious colonists. The proprietors having reaped but little gain from their Carolina possessions, at last decided to get rid of them entirely. In 1729 they sold North Carolina and South Carolina to the King of England, each proprietor receiving £5,000 for his share. The two Caro- linas were soon under the direct control of the King, where they remained until the Revolution. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Navigation Acts and Colonial Trade : Andrews, 3-21. 2. The Old Dominion: Channing I, 205-241. 3. Sketch the life of Nathaniel Bacon: Halsey II, 164-172. 4. The settlement of Maryland : Halsey II, 125-130. 5. The founding of Maryland: Tyler, 1 18-132. 6. Describe conditions in Maryland as they existed in 1666: Hart T, 242-246. 7. The development of Virginia : Andrews, 202-214. 8. The development of Maryland : Andrews, 232-252 ; also Cheney, 202-215. 9. The founding of the Carolinas : Andrews, 129-144. 10. Dates for the chronological table : 1634, 1662, 1675. 11. Describe the life of a southern planter in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Give a full account of the uprising of the In- dians m Virginia in 1676. Examine the statute for toleration referred to in the text and compare the religious freedom guaranteed by the statute with that enjoyed in America to-day. (For the statute see Hart I, 291-294.) What articles enumerated by the Navigation Act of 1660 could be shipped only to England or to other English colo- nies? Was Nathaniel Bacon a traitor? 12. Special Reading. Doyle, English Colonics in America, I, 230- 280. Bancroft I, 154-175, 346-352, 429-436, 427-474. Fiske, The Old Dominion and Its Neighbors, Vol. II. P. A. Bruce, Economic History of Virginia. J. C. Ballagh, White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia. H. L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Sc^rntccnth Century, Vol. III. THE MIDDLE COLONIES We saw (p. 54) that the territory l:ietween Connecticut at the north and Maryland at the south was settled by the Dutch and claimed by them as their rightful possession. Before many years passed, the Dutch were ousted from New Netherland and their colony passed under English control. This change led to the de- velopment of four English colonies known as the Middle colonies: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. How was this change brought about? What was the early history of the four colonies which arose within the region claimed by the Dutch? 33. THE END OF DUTCH RULE IN NEW YORK AND THE BEGINNING OF ENGLISH RULE. The settlement on Manhattan Island (p. 53) flourished as Patroon a trading-station, but agriculture in New Netherlands did not thrive. The Dutch were good traders and seafarers, but they did not take kindly to the hoe and the ax, nor to the hard life of the pioneer farmer. Yet the Dutch West India Company knew that if its occupancy of the Hudson region was to be permanent the colony must have its roots in the soil. So in order to attract farmers, it established (in 1629) what was called the patroon system. This provided for the develop- ment of immense private estates along the banks of the rivers ?nd bays of New Netherlands, especially along the banks of the Hudson River. Each patroon, or proprietor, who could bring over fifty settlers was granted a tract of land sixteen miles wide along the river if on one side, or eight miles wide if on both sides, the tract extending " so far into the country as the situation of the occupier would permit." The patroon was vested with almost complete political power over his colo- nists whose position was little better than that of serfs. But 91 92 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY the patroon system failed of its purpose : it did not attract set- tlers enough to make New Netherlands a colony of farm- ers. Even the patroons themselves neglected their fields for the profits of the fur-trade. Life in the Dutch colony centered at New Amsterdam, which, in 1653. was incorporated as a city. The population of the future metropolis of the Western Hemisphere con- sisted at this time of about 800 persons, a motley collec- tion of fur-traders, sailors, wharf-keepers, and longshoremen. From the outset the little city showed its metropolitan character, for besides Dutchmen it contained Englishmen, Scotchmen, Jews, Walloons, and men of other nationali- ties. The laws had to be published in several different lan- guages, and on Broadway more than a dozen tongues were spoken. Since the Dutch colony was not firmly planted in the soil, and since its population was mixed and shifting, its footing was at no time very secure. The Dutch indeed claimed all the Atlantic coast from Capef Cod to Cape Henlopen, but other nations were not inclined to respect their claims. We saw (p. 70) that they were quickly crowded out of the Connecticut Valley by the English. They were next troubled by the en- croachments of the Swedes. In 1638 a colony from Sweden settled at Christiana, in Delaware, near the spot where the city of Wilmington now stands. The newcomers built a fort there and began a brisk trade in furs. This was plainly tres- passing upon Dutch territory, for there was already one Dutch settlement at Lewes (in Delaware) and another at Gloucester (in New Jersey). The Swedes were informed by the Dutch that they were intruders, but they paid little attention to the warning. They bought lands of the Indians, extended their settlements, and in a few years a New Sweden was beginning to rise in the Delaware region. But the power of Sweden in the New World was soon to be broken. In 1655, Peter Stuy- vesant, governor of New Netherlands, led an overwhelming force against the Swedish settlement and compelled it to sur- render. The settlers were not disturbed in their possessions, THE MIDDLE COLONIES 93 but they were obliged to acknowledge the Dutch as their law- ful rulers. It was not long before the Dutch themselves were treated The . End precisely as they had treated the Swedes. The Navigation Act of tto ' -' -^ ° Dutch of 1651 (p. 81) brought on war (1653) between England and Rule Holland. The news of the war alarmed the Dutch of New Amsterdam and preparations were made for defending the city. One of the defenses was a wall built across the island. This structure gave a name to the famous Wall Street of to-day, but its strength as a defense was never tested, because peace between the two nations was quickly made (1654). The peace lasted ten years and then was broken by the action of Charles II, who in 1664 decided to push the claims which Eng- land had always made to the territory held by the Dutch. He sent out four armed vessels to take possession of New Neth- erlands in the name of his brother, James, the Duke of York. The fleet appeared before New Amsterdam in August 1664, and its commander, Richard Nichols, demanded the surrender of the town, promising that if surrender was made no harm would be done to life or property. Resistance upon the part of the Dutch would have been madness, for their poor guns would have availed little against the powerful broadsides of the English. The surrender was made without a shot being fired by either side. The Dutch flag which waved over the fort was hauled down and the rule of the Dutch in New Neth- erlands came peacefully to an end.^ It was bound to come to an end soon, for the Dutch in America could not long hold out against the numbers that were against them. There were in all New Netherlands in 1664 less than 10,000 inhabitants, and nearly half of these were Englishmen. North of the Dutch, in New England, there were about 50,000 Englishmen, and south of them in Virginia and Maryland there were 50,- 000 more Englishmen. So, if the English King had not taken New Netherlands by force, English colonists would doubt- less have overrun the country and crowded the Dutch out. 1 In 1673 New York was recaptured by the Dutch and remained in their possession for fifteen months. In 1674 it was restored to the English. 94 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Transfer Represen- tative Govern- ment The County- Town- ship Type for Local Govern- ment Changes in Govern- ment With the Dutch out of the way, the English came into full possession of the .Atlantic seaboard from Nova Scotia to Florida. The Duke of ^'ork was made proprietor of the conquered ])rovince, and New Netherlands soon took the name of New York. The city of New Amsterdam was also called New York. The Dutch officials gave up their places to English officials and a code of English laws was substituted for the Dutch laws. Upon the whole, the change from Dutch to English rule did not profoundly affect the affairs of the colony. The charter of the proprietor enabled him to make laws for the colony without the consent of the freemen, but such an arrangement was contrary to English notions of civil liberty. The people soon began to clamor for a share in lawmaking, and before the close of the seventeenth century New York, like the other colonies, had an assembly consisting of representa- tives chosen by the freemen. There was also evolved in early New York a system of local government which has had far-reaching influence. Under a legal code known as the Duke's laws, the freeholders of a town were permitted to elect a governing board for the town (or township). By 1683 counties were organized, and in 1703 it was provided that the governing body of the county should consist of a board of supervisors elected by the townships, each township being represented on the county board by one su- pervisor. Here was the origin of the county-township sys- tem of local government, which prevails in so many States and wdiich in many respects is superior to any other system which the Teuton mind has yet produced. When James II became king (in 1685) New York passed from the position of a proprietary to a royal province. James as king could do many things that he could not do when he was only a proprietor, and he used his new accession of power to the fullest extent. lie deprived his colony of its represen- tative assembly and set out to rule in the most despotic fash- ion. He annexed New York to New England, and (in 1688) THE MIDDLE COLONIES 95 over this Dominion of New England — as the amalgamated colonies were styled — he placed Andros as Governor. But the power of Andros lasted no longer in New York than it did in New England (p. JJ). When James II abdicated his throne, his successor (William III) sent out a new governor^ to New York and the colony remained a royal province until the Revolution. 34. NEW JERSEY. The Duke of York began to give New Netherlands away The ... Begin- even before the provmce was actually in his possession. In ningsof June 1664 — several months before the surrender of New Jersey Amsterdam — he granted to Sir George Carteret and John Lord Berkeley, favorites who had shared in the Carolina grant (p. 86), all the land between the Hudson and the Delaware, the grant including the territory which is now the State of New Jersey. The settlement of this region began before the English came. The Dutch had already established trading- posts at Bergen — now Jersey City — at Hoboken, and at Wee- hawken, while on the Delaware there were the settlements of the Dutch and the Swedes. The settlement of New Jersey — Nova Cresarea — under its English masters began in 1665, when Fhilip Carteret, a cousin of Sir George and the first governor of the province, founded the town, which, in honor of his wife, he called Elizabeth. In 1667 Newark was founded by settlers from New Haven. In the same year, some emigrants from Massachusetts settled in Woodbridge. Thus in the settlement of northern New Jersey the Puritan influence was strong. Colonists poured into the new province so rapidly that by 1668 it was thought necessary to hold at Elizabeth an as- sembly consisting of delegates from the several towns. This 1 After Andros was driven from power in New York, Jacob Leisler, a wealthy merchant, secured control of affairs. When the new governor arrived (1691) Leisler refused to recognize his authority, and for his obstinacy he was hanged as a traitor. Leisler had a strong following among the common people and the treatment which he received was regarded by many as foul and unjust. The incident created a bitter feeling between the lower and upper classes and the memory of Leisler's execution remained for many years as a " legacy of hate " to vex the colony. 96 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY East Jersey and West Jersey The Conces- sions and Agree- ment was the beginning of representative government in New Jer- sey. For ten years the two proprietors held New Jersey as joint owners of an undivided estate. In 1674, Lord Berkeley sold his half interest to two Quakers, John Fen wick and Ed- ward Byllynge. This sale led to the division of the province into East New Jersey and West New Jersey, the dividing line running from Little Egg Harbor northwesterly to the junction of the Dela- ware River with the 41st parallel of latitude. East New Jersey continued to have Carteret as its pro- prietor, while West New Jersey had the two Quakers as its proprietors. Fenwick and Byllynge could not agree as to their respective interests in West New Jersey, so William Penn, a prominent Quaker, was called in to judge between the two. After the dispute was set- tled, the colonization of West New Jersey began in earnest. In 1677 two hundred colonists, chiefly Quak- ers, arrived on the banks of the Delaware and laid the founda- tions of Burlington. These colonists brought with them a document known as the Concessions and Agreement, which was signed by William Penn and one hundred and fifty oth- ers. This document, which was probably drawn up by Penn himself, was the " broadest, sanest, and most equitable char- ter draughted for any body of colonists up to this time." It provided for an assembly elected by the people and stated clearly the rights which the colonists were to enjoy : abso- New Jersey. THE MIDDLE COLONIES 97 iiile religious freedom, the right of trial by jury, no arbitrary imprisonment for debt, publicity of courts of justice, and the right of petition. Under this liberal government the new colony prospered. A fruit plantation was started at Cape May, and a pottery at Burlington. The last named town built up an extensive trade and for some time was a rival of Phila- delphia. Both the Jerseys made excellent progress, but in East New Changes Jersey there was for a long time a great deal of trouble be- Go^ern- tween the Carterets and the governor of New York, who con- tended that his authority extended over New Jersey. When the dispute was finally settled (in 1680) the Carterets were left in full possession of their province. They were, however, un- able to hold it long. In 1682 it was sold for debt and passed into the hands of William Penn and eleven Quaker associates. Thus in both the Jerseys in the early days there was a strong Quaker influence. In 1688 both East New Jersey and West New Jersey were annexed to the Dominion of New England, just as New York had been the year before, but after 1689 the two colonies were restored to their respective proprietors. They remained separate provinces until 1702, when the pro- prietors surrendered their rights to the Crown, and the two provinces were united as one royal province. After this union New Jersey had its own assembly, but its governors were the same as those of New York until 1738, when it was given a governor of its own. With this change New Jersey became a distinct and separate royal province and remained such until the Revolution. 35. PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. The interest which William Penn took in the settlement of Wiiiiam New Jersey led him on to greater schemes of colonization. In his youth Penn had embraced the doctrines of the Quak- ers, or Society of Friends, and had sufifered persecution on account of his religious beliefs. He was turned out of col- lege and driven from his father's door because of his hereti- cal notions. Pie was thrown into prison for writing a book Charter 98 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY that contained what was thought to be dangerous doctrine. He was fined for not removing his hat in the presence of the court. He was arrested again and again for preaching at Quaker meetings. These bitter experi- ences caused Penn to see in the clearest light the rightfulness of toleration, and he longed for a society where there would be per- fect freedom of conscience and complete toleration in religious matters. While he was occupied with the afifairs of New Jersey his thoughts turned to the great wilderness William Penn. which lay on the west side of the Delaware, where he believed a " holy experiment " might be tried and a godly commonwealth established. In 1680 he petitioned Charles H to grant him a tract of land in America, penn's " lying north of Maryland, on the east bound by the Delaware land River, on the west limited as Maryland, and northward as far as the presence of the Indians would permit." The King owed a large debt to the Penn estate, which circumstance induced His Majesty to confer the grant. Accordingly Penn was made the proprietor of a dominion almost as large as England itself. The province was given the appropriate name of Pennsylvania. Penn's The charter granted to Penn resembled in general that granted to Lord Baltimore, but in two particulars the char- ters differed widely. In Maryland the laws passed by the assembly were valid without the approval of the King, while in Pennsylvania the colonial laws had to be sent to England for royal approval. Moreover, in the Pennsylvania charter the right of Parliament to levy taxes in the colony was asserted, while in the Maryland charter no such right was maintained. Penn began at once to prepare for his " holy experiment." fSri- In 1681 he sent his cousin, William Markham, to Pennsyl- ^^^^ vania to act as governor until he himself should arrive. To The THE MIDDLE COLONIES 99 the Swedish and Dutch settlers already on his lands he sent words of good-will and encouragement, assuring them that if they would only be industrious and sober they would not be disturbed in their rights or deprived of their freedom. In 1682 Penn received from the Duke of York a title to the three counties (Kent, New Castle, and Sussex) which now form the State of Delaware. Penn desired this strip of land in order that Pennsylvania might have a free outlet to the ocean. By October 1682, Penn himself had arrived in his province. Pennsylvania at the time was indeed a forest. Be- sides the Indians it contained not more than 500 inhabitants: Dutch, Swedish, and English. The only settlement that could be called a village was Upland (Chester), where Markham had organized a govern- ment and where Penn met his first assembly, a body of lawmakers chosen by the people. This assembly formal- ly united the three low- er counties (Dela- ware) to Pennsylva- nia, and enacted a code of laws for the govern- ment of the province. This code, known as the Great Law, was prepared and proposed by Penn, and its pro- visions were character- The Great Law Delaware River and Delaware Bay. delphia ized by temperance, love, and justice. From Chester, Penn went to the place which had been Phiia chosen as a site for the city of Philadelphia. The " city of brotherly love '' at the time consisted of three or four little cottages. " The conies were yet undisturbed in their heredi- 100 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY tary burrows ; the deer fearlessly bounded past blazed trees that foreboded streets ; and the stranger who wandered from the river bank was lost in the forest." Penn took a personal interest in the building of his new city, which he saw rise in the wilderness as if by the hand of magic. Penn One of the first things done by Penn was to establish friendly Indians relations with the Indians. " He made himself," says Watson, " endeared to the Indians by his marked condescension and ac- quiescence in their ways. He walked with them, sat with them on the ground, and ate with them of their roasted acorns and hominy. At this they expressed their great delight, and soon began to show how they could hop and jump ; at which William Penn, to cap the climax, sprang up and outdanced them all." This personal influence was of immense value to Penn when bargaining with the Indians for their lands, for it w^as his firm policy not to allow any land to be occupied until the consent of the Indians had been secured. In 1683, Penn met the chiefs of the leading tribes at Shackamaxon (now Ken- sington) and made a treaty of peace with them, the agree- ment being that the English and the Indians should " live in love as long as the sun gave light." This famous treaty was the basis of a friendship that lasted for more than sixty years. Growth In 1684, Penn was obliged to return to England, where he Pros- remained for fifteen years. During these years he was bit- terly attacked by his friends and once (in 1692) his col- ony was taken from him by the King. It was restored to him, however, two years later. Amid the trials and suflferings and injustices of this period, Penn was al- ways true to his principles ; Friends Meeting House in hg was always tolerant, al- Pennsylvania. ,, . , ^ ways on the side of peace. " In a season of passionate and almost universal war, he pub- lished a plea for eternal peace among the nations." In 1699 ware THE MIDDLE COLONIES loi Penn was once more with his colony. Philadelphia was now a thriving city of 10,000 souls, and Pennsylvania had a popu- lation of 20,000. In 1701 he returned to England, leaving behind him a colony as happy, as well governed, and as pros- perous as any that had been planted in America. The " holy experiment " thus turned out to be a most distinguished suc- cess. The settlers in the three lower counties, — that is, in Delaware, — were not satisfied to be a part of Pennsylvania, and in 1703 they refused to send members to the assembly which met at Philadelphia. The next year Delaware es- ^«J,^ tablished a legislature of its own. The " charter of privi- leges," however, which was the constitution of Pennsylvania, continued to be in force in Delaware. And likewise, the governor of Pennsylvania continued to be the governor of the three lower counties until the Revolution, when Delaware organized as a separate State, REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Give a full account of the English conquest of New York : Hal- sey II, 153-163; also Andrews, 74-90. 2. The Swedes and Dutch in New Jersey and Delaware : Halsey II, 106-113; Hart I, 548-551. 3. The foundation and development of the Jerseys : Andrews, loi- 129. 4. The Quakers in New England: Cheney, 231-236. 5. Describe the founding of Pennsylvania following the account given by Penn himself: Halsey II, 180-187. 6. The prosecution of Zenger for criticismg the government : Hart II, 192-199; Also Channing II, 483-488. (John Zenger was arrested (1735) for publishing attacks upon the government but was acquitted upon the ground that what he published was true. The result of the trial was a great victory for the freedom of the press.) 7. Give an account of Leisler's Rebellion: Hart I, 544-547; An- drews, 283-287. 8. Dates for chronological table : 1664, 1665, 1682. 9. Special Reading. J. C. Doyle, English Colonies in America, Vol. IV. John Fiske, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. Ban- croft I, 528-585. S. G. Fisher, The Making of Pennsylvania. XI THE COLONIES IN 1700 With the settlement of the Middle Colonies the English conquest of the Atlantic coast was completed. The closing years of the seven- teenth century saw a solid wall of English civilization extending along the seaboard from Nova Scotia to Florida. What was the character of this civilization? What was accomplished by a century of hard work, of wood-chopping, building, plowing, and planting? What kind of a country was British America in 1700? 26. THE AREA OF SETTLEMENT; POPULATION: AND CITIES. TOWNS The Trontier Line in New Eng- land; in New York and Penn- sylvania ; in Vir- ginia; In 1700 the settled portion of British America consisted of a strip of seaboard territory which was more than 1200 mites in length, but which in many places extended into the interior only a few miles. At no point did the settled area extend more than a hundred miles back from the sea. With the exception of Pennsylvania, the colonies were all maritime communities. Still, the Frontier Line — the line which di- vided the settled country from the wilderness, civilization from savagery — was all the time moving back further and further from the coast. In New England, settlers had pushed out into the forest as far as Haverhill and Andover, and had crept up the Connecticut Valley almost as far as what is now the \^ermont line. In New York for a long time the settlement of the interior proceeded very slowly. Nevertheless, the fur trade had taken men up the Hudson and out into the Mohawk Valley, where settlements had been made as far west as Schenectady. In Pennsylvania, of course, only the outer edge of Penn's great forest had been subdued by the white man's ax. In Maryland and Virginia, however, the planta- tions extended along the rivers as far as the piedmont region, 102 The Frontier line ^ thus: _^ e Frontier line in 1700 is shown thus: .___^^^^^_i (This line marks t be fullv settled ai \st. AoSUBtina (This line marks the extreme western edge of the fully settled areas but takes no account of military posts or detached settlements.) 50 100 900 300 Statute Miles THE M.-N. WORKS The Frontier Line in 1700. 103 I04 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY caro^^ and even a part of the upland country had been brought under Unas cultivation. In the Carolinas, the Frontier Line was still very close to the seaboard, closer in fact, than in any of the other colonies. Only in the Albemarle region and around Charles- ton had settlers pushed westward and inland more than a few miles from the coast. Between Albemarle and Charles- ton there were long stretches of the seaboard that were still uninhabited. Popuia- The combined population of the twelve colonies in 1700 was, according to the most reliable estimates, about 250,000, not counting Indians, but including negro slaves. In New Hampshire there were about 5,000; in Massachusetts, 60,000; in Rhode Island, 5,000; in Connecticut, 20,000; in New York, 25,000; in New Jersey, 15,000; in Pennsylvania and Delaware, 30,000; in Maryland, 30,000; in Virginia, 60,000, and in the Carolinas, 10,000. Where so few people were scattered over such an immense area the civilization could be only a Towns rural one. Towns and cities were, indeed, few and far be- cities tween. Along the Maine coast there were some villages, but nothing that could be called a town. In New Hampshire, Portsmouth was a " real town where merchants lived in spa- cious houses and gave splendid treats to their guests." Bos- ton was the largest and most important place in New Eng- land, its population being about 7,000. From Boston one could travel to New York and not pass through a single place that could be called a city. The population of New York city was a little more than 5,000. In New Jersey the only town of importance was Burlington, which was " a very nice borough built in the Dutch fashion.'' Philadelphia, although but recently founded, was already the largest city in America. Its population was over 10,000, and it was growing at a rapid rate. In Maryland and Virginia life was almost entirely rural. Norfolk, indeed, was a busy little seaport, but it was in no sense a city. In North Carolina the largest places were mere villages. South Carolina had a real city in Charleston, a place which " concentrated in itself the economic, social, and political activity of the colony to which it belonged." THE COLONIES IN 1700 lOS m m 37. INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS. The chief occupation in all the colonies was farming. In Agricui- . . . t'l'^c the Carolinas maize and rice were the chief products. In Virginia and Maryland, on every farm, tobacco was the staple crop. In the northern colonies, maize, wheat, potatoes, and fruits were cultivated. But the farmer in colonial times did a great deal more than till the soil. He hunted in the woods, he fished along the banks of the streams, he trapped the fur- bearing animals, he felled trees and made rough planks, staves, and shingles. So the colonial farmer had something besides grain to sell, for there was always a good market for his fish, his furs, and his timber. In New England and in the Middle Colonies the farms, as a rule, were small. In New York, however, this was not the case. The great estates which under Dutch rule had been granted to the patroons (p. 91) were handed on to the English, who themselves followed the plan of granting vast tracts of land to single owners. Some of these New York estates were of enormous size, the Van Rensselaer plantation alone containing more than a million acres and comprising several townships. In the South, also, as we have seen (p. 79), the plantations were very large. On the small farms in New England and the Middle Colo- Ths nies most of the work could be done by the owner of the system farm and his children. Often the farmers helped one an- other. " Was a house to be erected," says Bogart, " a barn to be raised, or a ship built and launched, the settler called upon his neighbors to assist him in the larger operations that were beyond his strength or skill, or that called for the associated effort of several workers. The typical event that called for li ttmmrmammrr^ Old sawmill. J I06 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY this cooperative system of labor was a house- or barn-raisiiig; this was made a social occasion, the women attending to pro- vide a bountiful repast, while the men strove with one an- other in a spirit of emulation." In the north when help was needed on the farms, free laborers as a rule were employed. sia- But not always, for slavery existed in all the colonies. North ^^'^ of Maryland, however, slaves formed only a small part of the whole population and were found chiefly in the towns. In riiiladeljihia and New York there was a considerable slave pop- ulation. Slave labor was also employed on the great farms bordering on the Hudson. In New England slaves were few in number and a sentiment against slavery was already show- ing itself. In 1701 Samufci Sewall of Massachusetts wrote a vigorous pamphlet denouncing slavery as a wicked and un- christian institution. In the South slaves formed a large part of the population ; thirty per cent, in Maryland, forty per cent, in Virginia, and more than fifty per cent, in South Carolina. In North Carolina slavery had made but little headway, hardly Qne person in twenty being a slave. rur Next to farming the most important occupation was fur- trading. In the seventeenth century furs were used not only as w^earing apparel but also for bedclothing and carpets. There was accordingly a strong demand in Europe for Ameri- can furs and the colonial fur-trade was highly profitable. This trade was not confined to any one section, for in every rishing colony the forests abounded in fur-bearing animals. Fishing was also a leading industry. The most extensive fisheries were in New England, where from the beginning (p. 61) the chief source of wealth was found in maritime pursuits. In Massachusetts alone hundreds of vessels and thousands of seamen were engaged in the cod and whale fisheries. Shin. Another flourishing colonial industry was ship-building. ^g " American ship yards had important advantages over those of Great Britain. Materials of the best quality were to be had at little cost. Masts of fir and planks of oak were sup- plied from primeval forests, everywhere there was pitch pine for the making of tar and turpentine, and hemp THE COLONIES IN 1700 107 for cordage was soon j^rovided. Tlic rivers furnished water power for sawmills and brought lumber down to the harbors where the ships were built and launched."^ Most of the ship- building was carried on in New England. In Massachusetts nearly every week three newly-built vessels were launched. Manufactures had made little progress. England had manu- Manu- facture factures of her own, and they were the breath of her industrial life. So she did not want colonial manufactures to flourish. She wanted the colonists to buy goods, not make them (p. 43). Nor did England intend that the colonies should be independent in respect to matters of industry and trade. " I declare," said Lord Cornbury, one of the governors of New York, " that all these colonies which are but twigs belonging to the main tree, ought to be kept entirely dependent upon and subservient to England, and that can never be if they are suffered to go on in the notions they have, that as they are Englishmen so they may set up the same manufactures here as people may in England ; for the consequence will be that if once they can clothe themselves without the help of England, they who are already not very fond of submitting to government, would soon think of putting into execution designs they had long harbored in their breasts." In this spirit England took measures to nip colonial manu- England's factures in the bud. In 1600, Parliament passed the Woolen sive Policy Act, a law which made it unlawful to send woolen goods out of the colony, or from one colony to another, or from one place to another in the same colony, for purposes of sale. This meant that colonial-made cloth could not be sold at all ; if any was made it must be used in the household in which it was woven.- The policy of restricting the colonies to the production of The . , . , . , . , . Men- raw materials was m accordance with an economic doctrine — tiie Theory iComan: "Industrial History of the United States," p. 8i. 2 There was one manufacturing industry, however, which flourished in New England from the beginning. This was the tanning of hides and the manu- facture of shoes. Lynn was famous as a place where good shoes were made, and Massachusetts made all the shoes her people could use and had a surplus to sell to other colonies. Mercan* lo8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY known as the Mercantile Theory — which prevailed through- out Europe at the time. According to this theory if a nation is to be rich and great and strong it must have a large popu- lation, a large navy, and a large volume of money in its treas- ury. In order to attain these ends " each state ought to in- crease its available wealth by monopolizing specie wherever found; by fostering trade for the sake of increasing the cus- toms revenue, and by creating a favorable balance of trade so that exports, which brought coin into the realm, might exceed imports, bought from other countries with money and hence drawing money out of the Kingdom." How was this balance of trade to be secured? By importing only raw materials and working these up at home into manufactured articles and sell- ing them abroad. Thus when England confined the colonies to raw materials she did so not with the view of oppressing the colonists, but for the purpose of increasing her power in the only way that she then believed it could be increased. Eoads Trade w\is confined chiefly to the seaports. Road-build- ing on a large scale had not yet begun. In Massachusetts the principal towns were joined by roads, and by 1704 Madam Knight could travel on horseback from Boston to New York, but she was compelled to say that the journey was one of great discomforts and inconveniences. In New York the roads were so bad that vehicles could not move on them and there were only two coaches in the whole colony. From New York southward the traveler on horseback might make his way safely as far as Norfolk, but it was still impossible to make such a journey in a wheeled vehicle. Still the means of communication permitted the operation of a postal system. The colonial post-office had been established and a letter could be carried from Boston to Williamsburg in Virginia. Exports 15ut if the cross-country trade was difficult, transportation by water was everywhere easy. In Virginia and the Caro- linas the waterways were so satisfactory that little effort was made to build roads. The waterways of the Middle Colonies and of New England were also favorable to trade. Commerce accordingly flourished along the whole length of the colonial THE COLONIES IN 1700 109 seaboard. In South Carolina the exports were rice and in- digo ; in North Carolina it was naval stores : tar, pitch, and turpentine; in Maryland and Virginia the staple export was tobacco ; the Middle Colonies sold grain, lumber products, hides, and furs. In New England trade was chiefly with the West Indies. To these islands the merchants of Massachu- The SIevg setts and Rhode Island sent fish, salted meats, barrel-staves, Trade and lumber, receiving in exchange molasses, much of which was manufactured into rum. The rum was carried to the Guinea coast and exchanged for captive negroes, most of whom were carried to the West Indies and exchanged for molasses. Some of the slaves were brought to Virginia and a few to New England. The profit of this triangular trafific was some- times enormous. " A slave purchased in Africa for 100 gal- lons of rum, worth ten pounds, brought from twenty to fifty pounds when offered for sale in America." The greatest drawback to commerce in the early colonial Colonial days was the lack of money. Trade with the Indians was °^^^ carried on largely through the use of wampum or shell-money. In no colony was there much gold or silver. Much of the trading had to be effected by barter, that is, one commodity had to be exchanged for another, corn for fish, a horse for a cow, a pair of shoes for a coat. In Maryland and Virginia tobacco was used as a substitute for money. In New York wampum often passed as money among the settlers. In New England corn was used as a medium of exchange. Massachu- setts in 1652 established a mint at which shillings and sixpence were coined, and the pine-tree shillings coined at this mint had a wide circulation. In 1690 Massachusetts set the exam- ple of issuing paper money, and it was not long before paper currency became quite common not only in Massachusetts but in the other colonies also. 38. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS. By 1700, religion in the colonies was no longer the powerful ReUgion element in the lives of the people that it was in the days of Winthrop and Calvert and Williams. The colonists almost no ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY in the South; in the Middle Colonies: in New England Lattii Puritan- ism Education everywhere were still a highly religious folk, but they went about their church duties in a quiet, matter-of-fact way. There was more toleration than in the early colonial days, and there was a greater number of denominations of different faiths. In Virginia and the Carolinas, the Church of England — the Episcopal Church — was the leading denomination, although in these colonies there was a large number of Quakers and Baptists. In Maryland the Catholics were still strong in num- bers, but the ruling classes belonged to the Episcopal Church. In Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, the Quakers were the most powerful sect, although Lutherans, Baptists, and Presbyterians had gained a foothold in Pennsylvania. New York was as cosmopolitan in the matter of religion as it was in other matters. There was in the colony almost every denomination that could be mentioned, but there was no one church that greatly overshadowed the others. In New Eng- land the change that had taken place in religion was greater than in any other section. In Massachusetts, which was the heart of New England, the power of the old Puritan theocracy (p. 74) was waning and Puritans were liberal and more tolerant. Indeed, it was said that Boston by 1700 was becom- ing " a cemetery of lost ideals." Puritanism still ruled, it is true, but its rule was less harsh and severe. " The Massa- chusetts merchant," says Doyle, " could now build a fine house. He could choose furniture made of costly woods. He could cover his sideboard with valuable silver-plate. He could im- port an English coach and horses. He and his family could dress expensively in imported stuffs." But it must not be thought that the old Puritan spirit had died out completely. Life in New England was still a sober and somber affair. Amusements were largely frowned upon : dancing was not yet allowed, stage plays were prohibited, and the players of foot- ball found little favor in the eyes of the rulers. In most of the colonies education had made but little prog- ress. In the Carolinas no schools at all iiad been established. In Virginia there were perhaps half-a-dozen private ones where the elementary branches were taught, but there were THE COLONIES IN 1700 in no public schools. The Old Dominion, however, could boast in the of William and Mary College, which was founded in 1693. In Maryland there was an occasional private school, but no regular public schools had as yet been established. In the middle colonies education was faring better. The Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1682 passed a law providing that all who had charge of children should see that they were taught to read and write by the time they were twelve years old, and numerous records show that the law was enforced. In 1697 i^ t^e the Penn Charter School of Philadelphia was opened. In ^ofonfes- New Jersey a free public school was established by the Dutch at Bergen (Jersey City) in 1662, but the tax-payers did not contribute willingly to the enterprise. Efforts were made in New Jersey in the latter part of the seventeenth century to establish a system of public schools, but the century closed without any success in that direction. In New York educa- tion had flourished under the Dutch, but the English were slow in establishing schools. In 1702, however, a public school was established, the schoolmaster securing a salary of £50, raised by taxation. In New England schools were becoming in New quite common. In 1634 the Latin Grammar School was es- •^'^s^*°<^ tablished at Boston, and two years later Harvard College was founded. Yale was founded in 1701. In 1639 the first public school in America supported by taxation was estab- lished at Dorchester, Massachusetts. The idea of maintaining schools at public expense gained ground, and by the end of the seventeenth century, at least a score of public schools had been established in New England. In respect to government, the colonies by 1700 could be Govern- grouped into three classes, charter colonies, proprietary col- ™®°* onies, and royal or provincial colonies. Massachusetts, Con- necticut, and Rhode Island were the charter colonies. Here charter the charter — granted by the King — was the written funda- ('lyo^^)®^ mental law under which the government was organized and from which officers received their authority. The charters of these colonies resembled the State constitutions of to-day. Indeed, the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island served 112 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Proprie- tary Colonies (1700) Eoyal Colonies (1700) The Charters Constitu- tions The Three Depart- ments of Gov- ernment The Colonial Legisla- ture as State constitutions for many years. Pennsylvania, Dela- ware, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina were the proprietary colonies. Here the colony was governed by the proprietor under a charter or patent granted by the King. Thus the proprietor stood in the place of the King. Inasmuch as the proprietary charter itself granted certain rights and privileges to the people, the government of the proprietary colonies did not differ much from that of the charter col- onies. New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia were royal or provincial colonies. Here the colony was under the direct control of the King. No charter stood between the King and the colony. Inasm.uch as the King allowed the royal colonies to have substantially the same form of government that was enjoyed by the other colonies, the royal colonies differed little from the proprietary or charter col- onies. In fact, by 1700 the government in all the colonies was pretty much the same. The groundwork of government was the charter, or the royal grant or concession. This was regarded as a pledge of good faith on the part of the home govern- ment and it was the doctrine in the colonies that neither the King nor his officers could rightfully violate the provisions of the charter. Even a law of the colonial legislature was regarded as void if it was contrary to the charter. Thus the colonists by 1700 were forming a habit of looking to a written instrument (the charter, or royal grant, or conces- sion) as the fundamental law which all officers of government as well as all citizens must obey. In all the colonies government was organized on the principle that power should flow in three streams, and in every col- ony there were three great departments, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. The legislative branch in nearly all the colonies consisted of the lower house elected by the voters, and of a small upper house — usually known as the council — appointed by the governor. The legislature could pass any law that was not contrary to the law of England. The lower house had full control in respect to the raising THE COLONIES IN 1700 113 and spending of money, and this power had the effect of mak- ing the lower branch of the legislature the supreme ruling force in the colony. The governor could veto a law of the Governor legislature, but as his salary was regulated by the lower house, he did not often interfere with the passing of bills, for when he did interfere he was likely to have trouble in getting his salary. At the head of the executive department was the governor, a most important personage in colonial life. In Connecticut and Rhode Island the governor was elected by the people ; in the other colonies he was appointed either by the proprietor or by the King. The council, besides actmg as one of the branches of the legislature, assisted the gov- ernor in the discharge of his duties. In every colony there was a judicial system, the judges of which were appointed by the governor, or by the King through the governor. In all the colonies the right of suffrage was made dependent upon suffrage the ownership of a certain amount of property, and only the male adults could vote. In every colony there was a system of local government for the management of local affairs. In Loca! every colony there were counties and county officers. In the ment Southern Colonies the county was the only local government. In New England and to some extent in the Middle Colonies also, townships (towns) were established within the county to attend to the affairs of the immediate neighborhood. The powers exercised by the colonial governments were coiouiai very large. The colonial legislature could legislate on all govern- matters pertaining to the welfare of the colony, but it could ^^^ not infringe upon the law of England. If a colonial law v/as contrary to the law of England it could be vetoed by the King. The royal veto was sometimes brought into use, but in most things each colony was a self-governing community left to manage its own affairs in its own way ; it was a recognized principle that the colonies might legislate for them- selves as they pleased, provided their laws were consistent with allegiance to the Crown and were not contrary to those acts of Parliament in which the colonies were expressly men- tioned. 114 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Colonial agriculture: Bogart, 36-48. 2. Colonial industry : Bogart, 53-63. 3. Describe the system of land tenure in the several colonies : Bo- gart, 48-50. 4. In what way did the cultivation of tobacco effect the economic organization of Virginia? Coman, 56-57; Bogart, 43-45. 5. Why was slavery introduced into the southern colonies? Halsey II, 75-77- 6. Describe the several systems of labor which prevailed in the colonies : Bogart, 65-74. 7. What action did England take in order to maintain the Mercan- tile system? Bogart, 90-103; also Howard, 47-67. 8. The Lords of Trade: Andrews, 26-33. (The Lords of Trade was a standing committee of the king's council appointed in 1675 for the supervision of the colonies. In 1696 it was superseded by a body known as the Board of Trade and Plantations which henceforth had the management of colonial affairs.) For the establishment of the Board of Trade see Hart II, 129-131. 9. Social Progress in the Colonies: Bassett, 134-158. 10. Local Government: Forman, 72-78, 195-201. 203-207, 210-214. 11. Read in the class New England's opinion of itself: Hart I, 451- 452. 12. Early Colonial education : Dexter, 1-72. 13. Dates for chronological table: 1636, 1696. 14. Describe the town of Philadelphia as it appeared about 1700; the town of New York ; the town of Boston. Compare the organization of local government in New England about 1700 with that which prevailed in the Southern Colonies. Give an account of church going in New Eng- land in Puritan times. Describe the family life of the Puritans. Show that up to 1700 settlements followed in the main the course of navigable streams. 15. Special Reading. O. M. Dickerson, American Colonial Govern- ment. Andrews, 288-307. H. L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century. Bancroft II, 3-85. J. L. Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol I, Alice Morse Earle, Home Life in Colonial Days. XII A HALF-CENTURY OF COLONIAL GROWTH (1700-1750) In the last chapter we saw that by lyoo a second England had been carried across the sea and firmly planted on the Atlantic Coast. In this chapter we shall trace the course of colonial development during the first half of the eighteenth century. To what extent was the area of settlement enlarged between 1700 and 1750? What important acces- sions to the population were made during this period? What advance was made in the work of colonization ? 39. PUSHING BACK THE FRONTIER LINE. After the founding of Pennsylvania a half-century passed The before another colony was founded. During this interval Line it was more desirable to develop the existing colonies than to organize new ones. The development consisted mainly in pushing back the Frontier Line and bringing vacant lands under cultivation. In New England the settlement of the back country was in New checked by a series of wars ^ which for three-fourths of a century — from 1689 to 1763 — kept the French and English in America in a state of bitter enmity. During much of this time the Frenchmen of Canada and their Indian allies were lurking along the New England borders, ready to destroy any settlements that the English might make. The Frontier Line, therefore, in New England could advance but slowly. The chief gains upon the wilderness were made in Connecti- cut and in western Massachusetts where the frontier was not exposed to the depredations of the French. By 1750 settle- ments had crept up the Housatonic River to the Berkshires, and the towns of Litchfield, Great Barrington, and Westfield had been established. Thus the movement begun by Hooker » These wars will be the principal theme of the following chapter. 115 Il6 VDVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY in New York; In Vir- ginia (p. 70) iiad in the course of a century extended the area of settlement westward to the New York line and had brought practically all of Connecticut and Massachusetts within the pale of civilization. In New York expansion was checked in much the same way that it was checked in New England. On the north- ern border of New York were the hostile Canadians. In central and western New York the Iroquois tribes blocked the progress of the white men. Moreover, the land-policy (p. 91) of New York was unfavorable to growth. So, set- tlements in New York were carried into the interior even more slowly than they were in New England. We saw that by 1700 Schenectady was the outpost of civilization. Fifty years later settlements had been pushed westward hardly further than the site of the city of Utica. It was in Virginia and Maryland and Pennsylvania that the area settled was extended most rapidly. In 1700 the Frontier Line in Virginia was fifty miles east of the Blue Ridge Mountains; by 1750 the line had been carried over the mountains into the valley beyond. In 1716 Alexander Spottswood, the governor of Virginia and a most energetic pioneer, took with him a party of fifty men and pushed out into the Shenandoah Valley. Every day's march was en- livened by the chase, and at night " red wine and white wine, rum, champagne, and cider, were mingled with game, story, song, and laughter." Spottswood entered the valley near the Spottswood's Route: The first road to the West. A HALF-CENTURY OF COLONIAL GROWTH 117 present site of Port Republic, and on the bank of the Shen- andoah River buried a bottle in which there was a paper declaring that the river and the valley belonged to the King of Great Britain. The French at this time, as will be learned more fully in the next chapter, were in the Mississippi Valley building forts and extending their power eastward as fast as they could and as far as they dared, and it was the purpose of Spottswood in taking possession of the Valley to check the eastward movement of the French. This expedition of Spottswood was the first step in the mighty Westward Move- ment which was soon to carry the English clear over the Alleghanies and make them masters of the country beyond. Although the first settlers in the Shenandoah Valley were The '^ . -^ Peiinsyl Virginians, the settlers who came m largest numbers were vania * ° . Dutch the Pennsylvania Dutch and Scotch-Irish. The Pennsylvania Dutch were not Dutch at all, but were Germans who in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries left the Rhine country because it was so often overrun by soldiers and devastated by war that life and property were never safe. In 1689 the French determined to depopulate completely the Rhine Val- ley. " The Commander," says Macaulay, " announced to nearly half a million human beings that he granted them three days of grace and that within that time they must shift for themselves. Soon the roads and fields, which then lay deep in snow, were blocked by innumerable multitudes of men, women, and children flying from their homes. The flames went up from every market-place, every parish church, every county-seat within the devoted province. The fields where the corn had been sowed were plowed up. The orchards were cut down." These poor hunted creatures fled to America where they plowed new fields and planted new orchards. A few of them settled in New York in the Mohawk Valley. The greater part, however, settled in Pennsylvania, whither they began to come soon after the founding of the colony. As early as 1692, under their leader, Pastorius, they founded the town of Germantown, just north of Philadelphia. In 1700 they founded Lancaster. The Germans were excellent pioneers. Ii8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY and the great forests of Pennsylvania fell rapidly before the heavy strokes of their axes. By 1730 they had reached the Susquehanna, and had founded Harrisburg. They settled the Cumberland Valley and moved on down into the Shenandoah Valley, where they joined the few Virginians who were al- ready there. In 1732 a clearing was made near the present town of Winchester by one Joist Hite, and from that time " the tide of settlers advanced rapidly up to the sources of the Shenandoah River and beyond to where the head- waters of the James and Roanoke interlace with those of the northward-flowing New River." The Hand in hand with the Germans in the settlement of west- Scotch- irish in ern Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley went the Scotch- Irelaud . ■ Irish. These were not Irish at all but simply Scotchmen who had lived in Ireland. Most of them were Presbyterians. They had left their homes in the north of Ireland because they had not been well treated by the English government. In 1698 upon the demand of the English manufacturers, Parliament by a series of repressive acts destroyed the woolen industry of northern Ireland. "As a result of this legislation, twenty thousand of the Protestant citizens of Ulster, deprived of employment, left Ireland for America, carrying with them the remembrance of how English faith plighted to their forefathers had been broken under the influence of English greed." This blow to the industry of Ulster was followed in the reign of Queen Anne by laws which persecuted the Scotch-Irish on account of their re- ligious beliefs Hence this poor people had good reason for leaving Ireland. Scotch- The Scotch-Irish began to emigrate to America in the America early years of the eighteenth century and it is probable that by 1770 half a million had settled in the colonies. They settled in all parts of British America and there was hardly a colony upon which they did not leave their mark. But most of the Scotch-Irish settled in Pennsylvania. In 1729 the governor of this colony became alarmed lest these new- comers should make themselves the masters of his province. A HALF-CENTURY OF COLONIAL GROWTH 119 " It looks," said the governor, " as if all Ireland would send all its inhabitants hither, for last week not less than six ships arrived." Sometimes ten thousand Scotch-Irish came to Pennsylvania in a single year. There had not been such an influx of immigrants since the days of the great Puritan migration (p. 64). The Scotch-Irish, however, were the best of pioneers and they soon were out on the frontier, mak- ing settlements wherever they could find good vacant lands. They paid but little attention to the claims of the Indians, for they thought " it was against the laws of God and nature that so much good land should be idle while so many Chris- tians wanted it to work on and to raise their bread." They pushed out in Pennsylvania in almost every direction, but during the first years of the eighteenth century they moved along for the most part with the Germans and settled in the Cumberland and Shenandoah V'alleys. In tracing the West- ward Movement we meet with Scotch-Irish again and again, and wherever we meet them, we always find them in the vanguard of American progress. Maryland received its full share of the wave of emigra- Westerr tion which rolled down from Pennsylvania, and the develop- land ment of the western part of the colony was greatly hastened by the coming of the German and Scotch-Irish homeseekers. In 1745 a Marylander wrote, " You would be surprised to see how much the country is improved beyond the mountains, especially by the Germans." The pioneers in western Mary- land and in the Shenandoah Valley carried their coarsely- woven cloth, their grain and apples and butter to the towns on the sea-coast To do this it was often necessary to cut their way through dense forests, to bridge streams, and es- tablish ferries. Thus, the Indian trails and bridle paths were widened into wagon roads, the back country was brought into communication with the seaboard and trade between the East and the West was set into motion. One of the towns which early profited by this trade was Baltimore, which was laid out in 1730. The onward moving mass of Scotch-Irish and German '"'■"stable Mai?*" The Frontier Line in 1740. I20 A HALF-CENTURY OF COLONIAL GROWTH 121 emigrants did not halt until it reached the interior districts The of the Carolinas. After the best lands m the Shenandoah linas Valley had been taken, the pioneers pressed on to the val- leys of the Yadkin and the Catawba. By 1750 the Frontier Line in the Carolinas had been carried back from the coast for a distance of more than a hundred miles, and the founda- tions of the interior towns of Hillsboro, Salisbury, and Cam- den had been laid. Thus between 1700 and 1750, the strip of English civiliza- Popula- tion along the Atlantic seaboard was greatly widened (Map, p. 120) and the Frontier Line in some places was carried westward over the Blue Ridge Mountains even to the crest of the Alleghanies. With this increase in the area of set- tlement there was of course a corresponding increase in population. It is probable that in 1750 there were in the thirteen colonies a million whites and a quarter of a million negro slaves. 40. GEORGL\. A few of the Germans and Scotch-Irish found their way The down the valleys to the new colony of Georgia which in ogie- 1733 was founded on the Carolina coast. But the original °^^^ settlers of Georgia were men of pure English blood. The settlement of this colony was due to the enterprise of James Oglethorpe, who may justly be regarded as the father of modern philanthropy, for it was " Oglethorpe who first saw and acknowledged that the community was largely respon- sible for the sufferings of its poorer members and that to remedy and prevent such suffering was a task which needed, if not the interference of government, at least some systematic and organized effort." The peculiar object of Oglethorpe's care was the suffering of the insolvent debtor class. The laws of England at this time bore very hard upon a man who could not pay his debts, and in the prisons of London were men whose only crime was that they could not meet their obligations. Oglethorpe proposed to take a colony of imprisoned debtors and other unfortunate people and ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Founding of Georgia James Oglethorpe. plant it on the Atlantic coast south of Carolina. Such s colony, he uri^ud, \^.iuld serve two purposes: it would relieve the distress of the people who joined in the undertaking, and it would protect the southern bound- ary of Carolina against the Span- iards, who had never wholly re- linquished their claims to the Carolina coast and were a con- stant menace to their English neighbors to the northward. The scheme of Oglethorpe was received with favor and a charter for the colony was granted by the King. In November 1732, Oglethorpe's colonists — 114 in number — left England, and by February of the following year they were on the banks of the Savannah River lay- ing the foundations of Savannah and of Georgia. The charter under which the colony was planted established a modified proprietary government. There were to be a gov- ernor and a board of trustees, but there was to be no representa- tive assembly. All legislative, ex- ecutive, and judicial power was lodged in the trustees. Ogle- thorpe was the first governor of the colony as well as its personal leader. Although the colonists did not possess even the sem- blance of self-government, never- theless the spirit of democracy prevailed. No one could be the owner of more than five hun- dred acres of land, and all the houses were built exactly alike. Even Oglethorpe himself had no better house th^n Map of Georgia. A HALF-CENTURY OF COLONIAL GROWTH 123 the others. The rules adopted by the trustees for the government of the colony were those of a benevolent des- potism. All were required to work a certain number of hours in the day at some useful labor, a rule which Oglethorpe himself faithfully observed. Negro slavery was absolutely forbidden, and intoxicating liquors were prohibited. Indians were to be dealt with in the spirit of kindness and justice. The religious interests of the colonists were not neglected: through the influence of Oglethorpe and the trustees John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield, three of the most distinguished preachers of the time, were brought to the colony. Oglethorpe's experiment quickly showed signs of success. The His colonists, who were literally prisoners set free, enjoyed of the the novelty of their new surroundings. Building went on with great rapidity and Savannah soon had the appearance of a city. Within two years after its founding, the colony was raising all the grain it needed for itself and had some to ex- port. The fame of Georgia spread abroad and soon the col- ony began to attract immigrants other than Englishmen. Of course it got some of the Germans and some of the Scotch- Irish. In 1734 Protestant Germans (Moravians) from Salz- burg began to arrive and it is estimated that by 1741 twelve ' hundred of these people had found homes in the colony. In 1735 about 180 Scotch Highlanders settled on the Altamaha River where they formed the colony of Darien, which served as a military post on the southern frontier. There was need for such an outpost, for in 1739, when war Georgia broke out between Spain and England, the conflict spread to span- America and the Georgia settlers were threatened with de- struction at the hands of the Spaniards of Florida.. Ogle- thorpe, who was a soldier as well as a philanthropist, personally conducted the defense of his colony. In 1740, he marched into Florida and attacked St. Augustine, but dissension and sick- ness among his troops caused him to abandon the siege. In i 1742 the Spaniards in turn invaded Georgia and threatened the colony on the Altamaha, but Oglethorpe by strategy caused 124 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY the invaders to withdraw. This was the last time Georgia was disturbed by the Spaniards. Georgia, In 1743 Oglethorpe left Georgia and never returned. The Province colony felt his absence keenly, for he had been its guide, de- fender, and support. Now that the colonists were left alone they soon became discontented with the rules which the trustees had made. They wanted the privilege of holding large estates; they wanted to own slaves so that they could cultivate rice on a large scale; they desired to import rum; they wished to govern themselves by laws of their own making. They secured all these demands. In 1749 slavery was made legal and the importation of rum was allowed. In 1750 the restrictions upon the holding of land were removed. In 1752 the plan of governing by trustees was given up and Georgia was made a royal colony, with a governor and council appointed by the King, and an assembly chosen by the people. It remained a royal province until the Revolution, when it had a population of 50,000 souls. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The coming of the foreigners : Channing II, 401-422. 2. Immigration and expansion : Greene, 228-248. 3. Colonial industry and commerce: Channing II, 491-527. 4. Colonial industry (i 690-1 740) : Greene, 270-282. 5. Colonial commerce (1690-1740): Greene, 283-300. 6. Germans in Pennsylvania (Pastorius) : Hart I, 559-562. 7. For what purposes, according to his own statement, did Ogle- thorpe establish the colony of Georgia? Hart II, 110-114. 8. The founding of Georgia : Greene, 249-270. 9. Oglethorpe in Georgia : Halsey II, 204-208. 10. Dates for the chronological table: 1716, 1733. 11. What colonial towns were built between 1700 and 1750? (See maps pages 103 and 120). 12. Special Reading. J. A. Doyle, English in America, Vol. V. Oscar Kuhns, The German and Swede Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania. C. A. Hanna, The ScotcJt-Irish. C. C. Jones, History of Georgia. F. W. Halsey, The Old New York Frontier. XIII THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT When looked at broadly the struggle for the possession of North America presents " a grand historic drama in four acts, in each of which one contestant is driven from the field." Thus far we have witnessed the performance of two of these acts and have seen two of the contestants worsted : we have seen Spain baffled and checked, and we have seen Holland driven away. The third act shows France and England on the stage, battling for supremacy on the American conti- nent. The struggles of the third act will be the main theme of this chapter. 41. THE EXTENSION OF THE FRENCH POWER IN AMERICA. In the beginning the French came to Canada in very small ^fj^j^ numbers (p. 52) and at no time did they come in large Canada numbers. Fifty years after the date of its founding Quebec had a population of less than eight hundred, while all Canada numbered hardly two thousand soiils. However, when in 1660 Louis XIV entered personally upon his duties as King of France, the ambitious young monarch soon .showed a desire to strengthen the French power in America. In 1664 he reorganized the government of Canada, and with the new officers there came over 2,000 colonists and 1,200 trained soldiers. The population of Canada was thus suddenly doubled and the people of the colony were thrilled with the prospect of an empire in America which would redound " to the glory of God and to the honor of the French King." Explora- tions in every direction were carried forward with renewed zeal, and every excursion into the wilderness was regarded by the French as an extension of their power. In 1670 at the Sault Ste. Marie, Saint Lusson, in the pres- Saint . Lusson 2nce of a multitude of savages, took possession in the name 1 23 126 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY and JoUet of Louis XIV of " all the territory from the North to the South Sea, extending to the ocean on the west." Three years Marquotte later Jolict and Marquette by the route of the Fox- Wisconsin waterway reached the Mississippi and in their light canoes paddled down the stream as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. The travelers at this point felt that they had gone far enough to establish the truth that the Mississippi discharged its waters not into the Gulf of California as was generally believed, but into the Gulf of Mex- ico. At the Arkansas, Marquette and his com- panions decided that it would not be prudent to follow the Mississippi to its mouth lest they fall into the hands of the Span- iards. So they returned, urging their tiresome way northward against the swift-flowing stream till they came to the Illinois River, which they as- cended to its headwaters, where a short portage ex- tending through what is now the city of Chicago enabled them easily to reach Lake Michigan. They had consumed four months of time, had traversed a distance of about 2,500 miles, and had explored a large and most important portion of the Mississippi Valley. The mission of Marquette, who was a Jesuit priest — a member of the Society of Jesus — was to go among the Indians and bring them into the Christian fold. His labors were typical of the missionary work performed by the Jesuits in the settlement of Canada. " The story of the Jesuit fathers," says Parkman, " is replete with marvels — miracles of Josiiit Mijsion- aries Louis XIV. THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 127 patient suffering and daring enterprise. They were the pioneers of Northern America. We see them among the frozen forests of Acadia, struggling on snow-shoes with some wandering Algonquin horde. . . . Again we see the black- robed priest wading among the rapids of the Ottawa, toiling with his savage comrades to drag the canoe against the head- long waters. Again radiant in the vestments of his priestly ofhce he administers the sacramental bread to kneeling crowds of plumed and painted proselytes in the forests of the Huron; or bearing his life in his hands carries his sacred mission into the strongholds of the Iroquois like one who invades unarmed a den of angry tigers." The work begun by Marquette and Joliet was carried for- La Sau© ward to a glorious end by Robert La Salle, the bravest, most adventurous and most brilliant of all French pioneers. As early as 1670 La Salle, in the hope of discovering a route to China — men were still seeking the route which was sought by Columbus — had plunged into the wild region south of the Great Lakes and had reached the Ohio River. After hearing of the voyage of Marquette, La Salle began to plan for a vast French empire in America. His plan was to ex- plore the Mississippi to its mouth and effect a military oc- cupation of the entire Mississippi Valley. If this could be done the French flag would wave over a wide expanse of new territory, great numbers of savages would be converted to the Christian religion, and the fur-trade would be enormously increased. The scheme of La Salle was supported by Louis XIV and the adventurer was assisted in his undertaking by the Government of Canada. In the autumn of 1681 he left the southern end of Lake Huron with about fifty French- men and Indians and by the following spring he had explored the Mississippi clear to its mouth. Landing on one of the banks of the great stream. La Salle in 1682 — the same year in which Penn took possession of the Delaware region — took possession of the surrounding country in the name of the King of France, calling it Louisiana in honor of the Lonis- King. A leaden plate inscribed with an account of the event 128 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY and the name of the discoverer was buried in the ground, the Tc Dciim was chanted, a cross was erected, and the French flag was raised. France was now in possession of the St. Lawrence \'alley, the (ireat Lake region, and the Mississippi \"alley. The EngHsh l)y this time were the masters of only a narrow strip of coast land ; the French liad gained possession of the heart of the American continent. 42. THE BORDER WARFARE OF THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH. The But England and France were jealous rivals for power both Iroquois . , , , 1 1 1 • 1 1 • 1 Alliance m the old world and in the new, and it was only a matter of time when the ancient enmity of these two nations would show itself in American affairs. As early as 1684 the rela- tions between the English colonists and the French in Canada were so unfriendly that Governor Dongan of New York thought it prudent .to secure as firmly as possible the friend- ship of the Iroquois Indians. He held a conference with the chiefs of the Five Nations at Albany and entered into a treaty which brought the Iroquois under the protection of the English King. The Iroquois were now British sub- jects and their territory was British territory. This treaty was one of the most important ever struck between the white men and the redmen. The alliance with the Iroquois gave to the English a defense on the frontier which they sorely needed and which was to be in the near future a most effectual aid to the English in the struggle with the French. Moreover, the treaty gave the English a title to the Iroquois country, a region which extended northward to Lake Ontario and westward and south westward' to the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. It was high time that England should make a show of extending her boundaries, for France was claiming every- thing. " If the French," wrote Governor Dongan, " have all they pretend to have discovered in those parts, the King of England will not have a hundred miles from the sea any- where." The first clash in the inevitable conflict between the French THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 129 and English colonists came in 1689, when James II was King compelled to abdicate his throne (p. y'j) and William III was lam's crowned in his stead. Louis XIV, who was friendly to the cause of the deposed English monarch, contributed money and gave the assistance of his fleet and his soldiers to bring about the restoration of the Stuart Kings. This interference of the French king in the affairs of England brought on a war which spread to America and which is known to us as King William's War. In this war, most of the fighting on the English side was done by the colonists of New York and New England. In point of numbers the advantage was all on the side of the English, for the population of New York and New England alone was about 100,000, while the population of all New France was scarcely 12,000. The fight- ing in the war was done almost wholly along the frontier, and consisted chiefly of raids upon the English settlements, and of retaliatory expeditions of the English against the French. In 1689 a body of Indians, incited by the French, fell upon the little village of Dover in New Hampshire, mas- sacring a large number of people. A little later, Pemaquid in Maine suffered in like manner. In 1690 in the dead of winter and in the night, Schenectady was attacked by a band of Frenchmen and Indians and a horrible massacre of the defenseless inhabitants followed. The only important naval event of the war was an expedition against Quebec, led by Sir William Phipps of Massachusetts. Phipps sailed against Quebec with a fleet of thirty vessels, but he found the town so strongly fortified that it could not be taken. So the expedition ended in failure. During the war Acadia was captured by the English but was recaptured by the French. Newfoundland fell (in 1696) into the hands of the French. The war was brought to an end in 1697 by the treaty of Ryswick. Under the terms of this treaty each country re- ceived the territory it possessed at the outbreak of the v^ar. So, Newfoundland was given back to England, and Acadia remained in the hands of the French. Nothing of real importance was settled by the treaty of 130 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Queen Anne ' s War (The War of the Spanish Succes- sion) King George' War, 17il- 1748 Louis- burg Ryswick, and within five years after the treaty, England and France were again at war. In 1702 the King of France placed liis grandson on the throne of S[)ain, and this extension of the French influence brought on war between England and France. The war, known in Europe as the War of the Spanish Succes- sion, spread to America where it was known as Queen Anne's War, Anne being at the time the Queen of Eng- land. This war was simply King William's War over again, except that in Queen Anne's War the frontier line of New York escaped the ravages of the French and Indians. The frontier communities of New England, however, suffered heavily from Indian scalping-parties. At Deerfield, Massachu- setts, there was a general slaughter of the inhabitants. In 1706 the French fleet attacked Charleston, South Carolina, but it was unable to capture the town. In 17 10 an expedition from New England attacked Acadia (Nova Scotia) and gained possession of the peninsula. In 1713 the war was brought to a close by the treaty of Utrecht. Under the terms of this treaty Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay Territory were given to England. So, in Queen Anne's War France re- ceived a real Ijlow, for she lost a portion of her territory and a portion that she had every right to claim as her own. For thirty years after the treaty of Utrecht the French and English in America lived in peace. Then there was a third clash. From 1740 to 1748 nearly all the nations of Europe were at war with each other. In 1744 England took a hand in the struggle, arra)ing herself as usual against France. The European war now spread to America, where it was known as King George's War. In this war there was the usual border warfare between the French and the Eng- lish. There was also a military event of real importance. In 1745, Sir William Pepperell of Boston, with three thousand men from New England, captured the great fortress of Louis- burg, a stronghold which the French had built at great ex- pense and which they regarded as impregnable. King George's War was brought to an end ( 1748) by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, by the terms of which all conquests made during THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 131 the war were mutually restored. This gave Louisburg back to the French. The taking of the great fortress, therefore, seemed hardly worth while. Nevertheless, its capture by colonial soldiers showed that the colonists had grown strong enough to carry out great undertakings if they desired to do so. 43. THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. All the time the border wars were in progress, and during The the intervals of peace as well, the French were strengthening Forts their power in the Mississippi Valley. One of the first pre- cautions taken by the French was to secure firmly the terri- tory at the mouth of the Mississippi. In 1699 Iberville built a fort about fifty miles from the mouth of the river and established a colony, but the settlement languished and died. In 1716 Natchez was founded. This was the oldest per- manent settlement in the Mississippi Valley south of Illinois. In 1718 the streets of New Or- leans were laid out. In order to make the military occupation com- plete, important points throughout the valley were fortified. Forts were built on the Mississippi, the Illinois, and the Wabash, and on the shores of the Great Lakes. By the time the French had fin- ished with their plans their flag waved over a chain of sixty forts extending from Montreal to New Orleans. Thus the French power was spread over the entire Missis- sippi Valley. The French forts and Br&d- dock's campaig'n. But, as in the case of Canada (p. 125), the power was The Charac- spread very thin. The forts were only fur-trading stations, ter of French The forests of the great Valley were untouched and its soil coioniza, was untilled. And of course so long as there was no farm- ing there could not be a large population. Indeed, the French 132 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The issae Frencn and Bnglisb Claims Bienville and the Leaden Plates came into Louisiana even more slowly than they came into Canada. In 1750 the inhabitants of the entire Mississippi Valley, exclusive of the Indian population, numbered only about 6,000 persons, 2,000 of whom were negro slaves. Still, by 1750, and even before that date, the French in the Valley were sufficiently numerous to excite the fears of the English. As early as 17 16, Governor Spottswood of Vir- ginia wrote the King of England: "Should they [the French] multiply their settlements along these lakes [the Great Lakes] so as to join the Dominion of Canada to their new colony of Louisiana, they might even possess them- selves of any of these plantations they pleased." Spottswood here, with prophetic eye, foresaw the real danger which the English would have to face if the French should secure a firm and lasting foothold in the country beyond the moun- tains : if the Mississippi Valley should fill uj) with Frenchmen, France would become the most powerful nation on earth, and a tide of French power and French civilization would sweep eastivard over the Alleghanies and subjugate the English col- onies along the coast, and at last drive England from off the face of the American continent. So the possession of the Mississippi Valley raised a question which involved the very existence of the contending nations. The life-and-death struggle began with a quarrel in re- gard to the possession of the Ohio Valley. France claimed this magnificent region on the ground of La Salle's discovery. England claimed it upon the ground of Cabot's discovery, and upon the further ground that the Iroquois Indians who were holding the Ohio country had by the treaty of 1684 acknowl- edged themselves to be English subjects and had ceded the Ohio land to the English Crown. Neither country, however, recognized the claims of the other as being just. In 1749 the King of England granted to the Ohio Com- pany, an organization consisting chiefly of Virginia gentle- men, two hundred thousand acres of land along the Ohio be- tween the Monongahela and the Kanawha rivers. This move- ment was regarded by the French as an encroachment and THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 133 measures were at once taken to prevent the expansion of the English beyond the mountains, Celeron de Bienville with a small company of soldiers was sent, in 1749, from Montreal with instructions to take formal possession of the Ohio Val- ley and drive away all English intruders. As Celeron trav- ersed the valley, he took possession at various points by the ceremony of burying leaden plates bearing the inscription : " We have placed this plate here as a memorial of the estab- lishment of our power in the territory which is claimed by us on the Ohio River and throughout its tributaries to its source, and confirmed by the treaties of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix la Chapelle." Celeron encountered two bands of English traders, one band from South Carolina and the other from Virginia. The traders were given a warning to carry to their respective governors, informing them that if the Eng- lish persisted in intruding upon the upper Ohio, it would be- come necessary for the French to expel them by force. This warning was in effect a challenge and it was under- The stood and accepted as such. But the English disregarded com- >■ o o pauies the warning and went on with their plans for the oc- cupation of the Ohio Valley. In 1750 the Ohio Company sent Christopher Gist as its agent to explore the Ohio country and select lands for settlement. Gist visited the Indians on the Big Miami, with the result that Picktown, not far from the present Belief ontaine, was founded. In 1751 the Vir- ginia Assembly gave another land-company 800,000 acres west of the Alleghanies. Dr. Thomas Walker with some com- panions was sent out by the company to select and survey the land. Alaking his way through the Cumberland Gap, Walker built, near the spot where Barbourville now stands, the first houses erected by white men within the present State of Ken- tucky. The persistent activity of the land-companies so thoroughly The aroused the French that they at once began to prepare for rrencb a conflict. In 1752, in order to strengthen their position at the entrance of the Ohio region, they built a chain of three forts, one at Presque Isle (Erie), one twenty miles awav at 134 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Dinwid- dle's Protest The Spirit of Disunion Leba'uf, and one at Venango (Franklin, Pennsylvania). Din- widdie, the governor of Virginia and a most energetic officer, sent George W'ashington, the young adjutant-general of the Virginia militia, to remonstrate with the French against oc- cupying territory which was " so notoriously known to be the property of the Crown of Great Britain." Washington was received with politeness but was given to understand that the French would not budge an inch from their position. Dinwiddie was determined to force the issue. In 1754 he undertook to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio — the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela — and thus com- mand the gateway to the Ohio Valley. But Dinwiddie's men were driven from the forts by the French, who themselves built a fort on the spot, calling the place Fort Duquesne in honor of the governor of Canada. So in the first movement 10 secure possession of the gateway to the Ohio country the French won their point ; New France was now in complete possession of the West. Realizing that the capture of the Forks of the Ohio con- cerned all the colonies, Dinwiddie commenced a campaign for a concerted intercolonial movement against the French, but the movement did not meet with a hearty response. In nearly every colony petty jealousies arose to prevent union and cooperation. In Pennsylvania it was thought that the dis- lodgment of the French would simply give the Ohio region to Virginia, and the Quaker colony was by no means eager to pull chestnuts out of the fire for its southern neighbor. In the Carolinas there was a slight disposition to assist in driving back the French. " Maryland, like the church of Laodicea, blew neither hot nor cold in the coming struggle. She made no show of zeal but she did not at any time actively hinder the operations of the war." New Jersey having no frontier to protect also held aloof. New York at first was disposed to withhold her aid altogether, but in the end rendered substantial assistance. Only in Virginia and New England were the people eager to help in driving the French from the stronghold which they had gained. THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 135 The spirit of disunion which pervaded the colonies showed J^^ itself in the reception given to a scheme of union which was uiuon^ drawn up in 1754 by Benjamin Franklin ^ and adopted at Albany by delegates from seven colonies. This scheme pro- vided for a central council in which each colony should be represented according to its population, — a foreshadowing of the present national House of Representatives. The central government of Franklin's plan was given powers that would have en- abled the colonies to throw their united strength against the French. If such a union cotdd have been effected, the outcome of the strug- gle could not have been in doubt for a single moment, for the Eng- lish colonists outnumbered the Frenchmen thirteen to one. '* The disparity of wealth was equally striking. In 1754 there was more real civilization — more seeds of Benjamin Franklin, things — in the town of Boston than in all New France." But superiority in wealth and population could not outweigh the spirit of dissension which prevailed in the colonies. Frank- lin's plan of union was not well received either at home or in England. When it was submitted to the several colonial as- semblies it was in every instance rejected. 44. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR (1755-1763.) While the colonists were hesitating and wavering, England Prepara- ° fe' to tions for was taking decisive action. In the French and Indian war - war 1 Born at Boston, 1706; died at Philadelphia, 1790. Learned the printer's trade and in 1729 established himself at Philadelphia as editor of The Pennsyl- vania Gazette. Began to publish Poor Richard's Almanac in 1732; became post- master of Philadelphia in 1737; founded the University of Pennsylvania in 1743; in 1752 demonstrated by experiments made with a kite during a thunderstorm that lightning is a discharge of electricity; was deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in America, 1752-1774. 2 It was called the French and Indian War because the Indians — with the im- portant exception of the Iroquois, who were on the side of the English — were generally found on the side of the French. 136 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY — as the coming struggle was called — it was England and not the colonies that offered determined and successful re- sistance to France. The commanders on the English side were officers who came over from the mother country, and a majority of the soldiers were British regulars; the ex- •penses of the war were for the most part paid out of the English treasury ; the large movements of the war were planned by English minds. Plan of ^^^ ^755 General Braddock, with two regiments of British paien regulars, was sent by the English government to \'irginia for the purpose of attacking the French at Fort Duquesne. At Alexandria Braddock held a conference with several colonial governors and a plan of campaign was agreed upcn. Four expeditions were to be sent against the French. One was to proceed from Fort Cumberland in Maryland against Fort Duquesne. Another was to proceed by water from New England against Acadia and Louisburg; a third was to move from Albany against the French fort at Niagara ; and a fourth was to march against Forts Ticondcroga and Crown Point and thence against Quebec. If successful, the first expe- dition would give the English entrance into the Ohio Valley ; the second would give them mastery of the sea-coast ; the third would give them control of the water routes between Canada and the Mississippi Valley; while the fourth would lead to the complete conquest of Canada. This plan, mapped out at the opening of the conquest, was followed quite faithfully till the struggle was ended. Brad- The expedition against Fort Duquesne was led by General ClOCiC s Defeat Braddock, who had George Washington as a member of his staff. On July 3, 1755, Braddock, at a point about eight miles from Fort Duquesne was ambuscaded by a body of French and Indians, and his army met with a disaster " such as no pen can describe." Nearly 800 of his men were killed. He himself was wounded so severely that he died in a few days. When Braddock fell, Washington took charge of the troops and led them out of the trap into which they had marched, but he did not proceed further against the French. THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 137 So the first expedition ended in awful failure and left the French stronger than ever in their position at the Forks of the Ohio. The second expedition, that against Acadia, was more sue- Acadia cessful. In June 1755, the English sailed into the Bay of Fundy and took possession of the country round about, a region which was usually known as Acadia. As the Acadians Scene of the French and Indian War. were wholly disloyal to the rule of the English, it was thought good policy to rid the land of them. So seven thousand of these simple folk — men, women, and children — were seized and carried to the colonies, being scattered along the coast from Massachusetts to Georgia. After the conquest of Acadia, little of importance was The ... Policy done until 1758 when William Pitt became the leading spirit of Pitt xt5J$ ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY in the English cabinet and the virtual ruler of the country. This great man not only gave new life to the contest but ne completely changed the policy of England in regard to Amer- ican affairs. Up to this time the policy had been simply to prevent the French from encroaching upon iMiglish territory ; her new policy, as moulded by Pitt, was to drive the French from the American continent, cicfse ^" carrying out his bold design, Pitt did not depart widely of the from the military plan which had already been marked out. He completed the expedition along the sea-coast, and in a few mouths the great fortress of Louisburg (in 1758) was in the Quebec (About 1750). hands of the English, and the gateway of the St. Lawrence was closed to the French. The expedition against Fort Duquesne was renewed and on Christmas Day, 1758, that stronghold also fell into the hands of the English, who changed the name of it to Fort Pitt. The next year, in July, Sir William John- son moved against the fort at Niagara and captured it, thus cutting off the French in Canada from the Ohio Valley. The purpose of three of the expeditions had now l)een accomplished. The fourth expedition was begun by General Amherst, who captured Crown Point, and was finished by General Wolfe who met Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham and precipitated the unconditional surrender of Quebec to the English (Sep- BEFORE THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR AFTER THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR THE STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 130 tember 1759). About a year after the fall of Quebec, Montreal was captured, and the war ended. Canada was now completely under English control. In the diplomatic negotiations which followed upon the con- The . Treaty elusion of the war, it scenied at one time that England would of Paris give Canada back to France, just as she had given Louisburg back in 1748. But Benjamin Franklin strongly opposed the surrender of Canada, and in the end it was retained by Eng- land. After France had agreed to the loss of Canada, it seemed hardly worth while to hold the adjacent territory at the south. So by the treaty of Paris which was concluded in February 1763, it was agreed that all French possessions east of the Mississippi except the city of New Orleans and the island on which it stood, should be given to England. Thus the French and Indian War gave England not only Canada but also the eastern portion of the Mississippi Valley. In 1759 England, waging war with Spain as well as v.'ith France, had taken possession of the Island of Cuba. At the treaty of Paris she agreed to give Cuba back to Spain and in return to receive Florida and all the remaining territory that Spain possessed in North America east of the Mississippi River. On the same day that the treaty was signed the French King secretly ceded to Spain the city of New Orleans, and under the name of Louisiana gave to Spain the vast region spreading westward from the Mississippi toward the Pacific. Thus France lost every foot of land she had in North America ex- cepting only two little islands — Miquelon and St. Pierre — in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, upon which she retained fishing rights. The Euroi^ean background of the French and Indian War The , o - . -1 • • • Seven was the Seven Years' War which, beginning in 1756 and ending '^^^^' in 1763, was waged against Frederick the Great of Prussia by an alliance whose chief members were Austria, France, and Russia. Great Britain threw her aid to Frederick for the reason that France Avas not only hostile to English interests in America but was trying to drive the English out of India. The war resulted in a victory for Prussia. For England the I40 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Seven Years' War, of which the French and Indian War was but a phase, had a tremendous significance. " The Seven Years' War," says Parkman, " made England what she is. It ruined France in two continents and blighted her as a world power. It gave to England the control of the seas and the mastery of North America and India, made her the first of commercial nations, and prepared that vast colonial system that has planted New England in every (juarter of the globe." REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The discovery of the Mississippi: Thwaites, 49-71; Halsey II, 196-202 ; Parkman, 186-195. 2. Give an account of the discovery of the Mississippi following Mar- quette's own account: Halsey I, 186-192; also Hart I, 136-140. 3. The rivalry of England and France: Thwaites, 89-104; Ogg, 214- 293. 4. England and France in America (1684-1740) : Channing II, 527- 563 ; Robinson and Beard I, 101-120. 5. Give an account of Washington's expedition to the Ohio and the battle of Great Meadows: Halsey HI, 25-38; Thwaites, 157-172. 6. Give the outline of Franklin's Plan of Union: Halsey HI, 15-24; Thwaites, 170-172. 7. Give an account of Pitt's policy toward America : Green, 755-756. 8. Characterize William Pitt : Green, 748-753. 9. The deportation of the Acadians : Hart II, 360-365 ; Halsey HI, 55-57; Thwaites, 184-187. ID. The Seven Years' War: Robinson and Beard I, 68-71. 11. Dates for the chronological table: 1673, 1682, 1684, i68g, 1697, 17 13, 1748, 1754, 1759, 1763. 12. Summarize the chief events which led to the expulsion of the French from America. 13. Of the five treaties mentioned in this chapter which was of most importance to Americans? Which was second in importance? 14. Special Reading. Francis Parkman, The Old Regime in Canada; Jesuits in North America; A Half Century of Conflict; Montcalm and Wolfe. Justin Winsor, The Mississippi Basin. A. B. Bradley, Fight linth France for North America. Bancroft II, 137-313; 377- 388. XIV OVER THE MOUNTAINS What did England do with the territory which she acquired by the Treaty of 1763? Especially, what did she do with her new possessions west of the Alleghanies? How did she deal with the Indian tribes of this region? How was the country beyond the mountains opened up to settlement? What was the early history of the first western set- tlements, and what was the character of the settlers? 45. CLEARING THE WAY FOR THE WHITE MAN. The expulsion of the French from America was felt by the The Indians to be a severe blow to their fortunes. As long as of the both the French and the English were present as rivals, the after Indian held a position of importance in American affairs. Fie could throw his strength now to this nation and now to that and hold both in check. While both nations were on the ground and the Indians held the balance of power, it was the policy of the French and the English alike to treat the red man well, to make favorable bargains with him, to load him with presents, to give him plenty of brandy and rum, for in this way his good-will and assistance were secured. But with the French absent from the scene, the Indians at once lost much of their importance. As the English had now no need of them as allies, their good-will was a matter of little concern. The red tribes in the Ohio Valley saw plainly enough that the expul- sion of the French meant their own expulsion ; that the English would conquer the Indians as they had conquered the French, and would drive them from their hunting-grounds or make them slaves. Even before the close of the French and Indian War they saw their best hunting-grounds invaded and on the eastern ridges of the Alleghanies they could see " the smoke from the settled clearings rise in tall columns from the dark 141 142 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The King's Proclama- tion Pontiac's Con- spiracy green bosom of the forest." The threatened invasion of their country thoroughly ahirnied the savages, and when the Ohio Valley passed under English control the redskins in this region were already threatening to rebel against their new masters. The English government, wishing to avoid trouble with the Indians, took measures to conciliate them. In 1763 George III issued a proclamation reserving for the use of the Indians all the territory west of the heads or sources of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic. This shut the white man out from all the land which lay between the Alleghanies and the Missis- sippi. " We do hereby strictly forbid," said the King in his proclamation, " all our loving subjects from making any pur- chase or settlements whatever, or taking possession of the lands above reserved, without our special leave or license for that purpose first obtained." All persons who had already settled on any of the land west of the forbidden limit were forthwith to remove themselves. The proclamation created widespread dissatisfaction in the colonies, for it was a virtual surrender to the Indians of the best and largest part of the territory which had just been received from the Erench. If the King's plan had been carried out, English civilization would have been confined to the seaboard, and the richest and fairest por- tion of America would have been permanently reserved as a hunting-ground for savages and as a lair for wild beasts. The proclamation was issued in order to pacify the Indians, l)ut it came too late for its purpose. For before its terms were made known to the redmen they had been led into a conspiracy by Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas, to drive the English out of the Ohio Valley. The blow of the conspirators fell in the spring of 1763, when a reign of terror began along the western borders. In a few months hundreds of pioneer families were murdered, outlying plantations were burned, and the colonies themselves were threatened with invasion. Cy the end of 1763, only Eorts Pitt and Detroit were left as senti- nels of English authority west of the Alleghanies. In 1764, however, General Henry Bouquet led a force into the heart of the Indian country and brought the savages into subjection. OVER THE MOUNTAINS 143 Pontiac himself kept up a show of resistance until 1766 when he formally submitted to British rule. After Bouquet had brought the Indians to terms, he made The^^ ^ with them a preliminary treaty which provided that the tribes |ort living south of the Ohio should withdraw to the region north 1768 of it. This arrangement was confirmed by the treaty made in 1768 at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, New York). By this .famous treaty it was further agreed that for the sum of $6,000 in money and goods, the title to a large part of western Vir- ginia and to what is now the State of Kentucky west as far as the Tennessee River, should be transferred to the British crown. At Fort Stanwix, also, Pennsylvania secured from the Indians a title to what is now the western portion of the State. Thus a vast territory across the mountains was cleared of Indians and thrown open to the whites for settlement. 46. EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY. The suppression of Pontiac and the consequent pushing back of the Indians gave new life to schemes of western settle- ment. White men on the borders of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas now turned their faces eagerly toward the west. Among the first to seek homes across the mountains were the Scotch-Irish, who were ever pressing onward and westward in search of fertile lands. Some of these early pioneers had settled in western Pennsylvania even before the way had been made clear by the treaty of Fort Stanwix. In 1765 the town of Pittsburgh was laid out and five years later puts- it was a village of twenty houses. Between 1766 and 1770 ^^'^^^ many settlers established homes in the Monongahela Valley. By 1770, in the country lying between the Ohio and the Mo- nongahela Rivers there were about fifteen hundred whites, most of them Scotch-Irish. In 1769, Ebenezer Zane, a " God- fearing, Bible-loving, Scotch Presbyterian,'' made the first clearing at the mouth of Wheeling Creek and laid the founda- wheeling tions of the city of Wheeling. These settlements were all made on the south bank of the Ohio. The north side of the Dun- more 's 144 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Ohio was strictly " Indian country," and no permanent set- tlements were made on that side of the river before the Revolution. The settlement of the south bank of the ( )hio was strongly War resented by the Indians, and it was not long before the whites and the redmen were engaged in a conflict which is known as Dunmore's War, Lord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, having taken a leading part in the struggle. The decisive battle in this war was fought (October 1774) at Point Pleas- ant near the mouth of the Great Kanawha River. The Indians were commanded by Cornstalk, the chief of the Shawnees ; the settlers, by Colonel Andrew Lewis of Virginia. The contestants were about equal in numbers and the battle was one of the most stubborn ever waged between white men and redmen. The Indians were badly defeated and driven back into their country north of the Ohio. Soon after the battle Lord Dunmore made a treaty whereby the Indians agreed not to hunt south of the Ohio and not to molest voy- agers on that river. 47. KENTUCKY. The results of Dunmore's War made the settlement of the Boone's countrv south of the Ohio an easy matter as far as the In- Expedi- . ^ .... tion dians were concerned, and a steady stream of emigration began to flow into the region now included within the borders of Kentucky and Tennessee. But the opening up of the region had begun several years before the battle at Point Pleasant. In 1769, Daniel Boone, a Scotch-Irishman and one of the most remarkable of American pioneers, setting out from North Carolina with a few companions and " threading his way through tangled mountain and gloomy forest," passed through the gorges of the Cumberland Gap — as Walker before him (p. 133) had passed — and reached the blue-grass region of Kentucky; a land of running waters, groves, glades, and prai- ries, over which roamed herds of countless bufifalo, deer, and round-horned elk. Boone's expedition prepared the way for the rapid settle- OVER THE MOUNTAINS 145 Daniel Boone in the cos- tume of a western hunter. ment of Kentucky. In 1775 Colonel Richard Henderson Transyi- bought from the Cherokee Indians for the sum of £10,000, their claims to all the country be- —.-—-- tween the Kentucky and the Cum- berland. Here Henderson began the founding of a colony which was called Transylvania. Boone was employed to take thirty men and open up a road between Transylva- nia and the older settlements. After great labor, Boone's Wilderness Road was finished and the settle- ment of Transylvania was begun. But the first settlement in Transyl- vania was made before Boone's road was completed. In 1774 James Harrod of Virginia with fifty men floated down the Ohio River in flat-boats and, ascending the Kentucky River, founded the town of Harrodsburg. The next year, Boone with about thirty settlers founded the town of Boonesboro. In 1775 Lexington also was founded, and two years later the foundations of Louisville were laid. Transylvania was now so far on the road to prosperity that a government for the colony was established. But the col- ony was located on land which belonged to Virginia. In 1778 the latter asserted her claims and blotted out the existence of the Transylvania government. The new set- The tlements in the West were then organized as a regular 0/^ "'^ \'irginia county, bearing the name of Kentucky, with Har- rodstown as the county-seat. Kentucky county flourished and was soon divided into three counties (Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln). The name Kentucky was then used to describe the entire region, which was known as the " district of Ken- tucky." The settlement of this district went on so rapidly that before the close of the colonial period there were prob- ably 20,000 inhabitants within its borders. 146 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Kentucky, Tennessee, and early Ohio. 48. TENNESSEE. Watauga While Booiie aiul his followers were laying the foundations of Kentucky, other pioneers from Virginia and North Caro- lina were laying the foundations of Tennessee. The actual settlement of Tennessee began in 1769, when William Bean of Virginia built himself a log cabin on the Watauga River. Pioneers from North Carolina followed Bean, and within a few years several hundred people had built homes on the banks of the Watauga. " Most of these pioneer^, like most of the pioneers of Kentucky, were backwoodsmen of sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, venturesome and turbulent, determined and religious, good hunters and good fighters." Since the Wa- tauga settlement was located in the Tennessee region on land which belonged to North Carolina, the people of the settle- ment looked to the parent community to provide them with a government, but North Carolina neglected the little settle- ment in the woods. So th^ settlers under the leadership of OVER THE MOUNTAINS 147 James Robertson did what was done so often by communities of American pioneers: they drew up (1772) a plan of government — a written constitution — and proceeded to gov- ern themselves. The " Articles of the Watauga Association," as the rude constitution of these backwoodsmen was called, was the first written constitution adopted west of the Alle- ghany Mountains. It provided for an elective law-making body and for a committee of five men who were to exercise executive and judicial functions. Two members of the com- mittee were James Robertson and John Sevier, the leading spirits of the settlement and the real founders of Tennessee. The constitution continued in force for six years, when the Watauga settlements were brought (in 1778) under the pro- tection of North Carolina and organized as a county. The settlement of Tennessee now went steadily on so that by 1780 John Sevier and Isaac Shelby could muster several hundred ^^^±^^J^^1^E^J^^ ^f^^W^^ii^'^3^-':^-^ James Robertson. John Sevier. Tennessee riflemen for service in the cause of American in- dependence. Thus within a few years after the signing of the treaty of Paris, the Westward Movement had carried settlers far beyond the base of the Alleghanies and the foundations of two great western States had been firmly laid. 148 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Fro.itier Fotts j-iangers of Pioneer Life Simplicity of Pioneer liife foundations of the great 49. LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS The frontier folk who laid the West were confronted by the hard conditions of life in a wilderness. The great forests had to be subdued by the ax and held by the rifle ; for, in spite of treaties, a red foe was always lurking near with mischief in his heart. One of the first things done by a group of settlers was to build a fort consisting of cabins and strongly fortified blockhouses. The cabins were often arranged in the form of a hollow square, at each corner of which was a blockhouse. Both cabins and blockhouses were provided with little portholes for rifles. The fort usually was simply a " City of Refuge." Each set- tler had his own cabin on his farm and the cabins at the fort were only used in time of danger. These frontier forts were a leading feature of pio- neer life, and they played a most important part in the development of the n\r^iritain, and that the English government had full power and authority to make laws for the government of the colonies in all cases zvhatever. In this declaration Eng- land practically said that although she would repeal the Stamp Tax out of deference to the colonies, she would nevertheless tax them whenever it was her pleasure to do so, and that she would tax them in whatever way she desired. Accordingly, in 1767 Parliament passed what is known as the Townshend Act, or the Paint, Glass, and Paper Act. This law imposed duties on glass, paint, paper, and tea imported into the colonies. The revenue was to be used for paying the salaries of the governors, judges, and other colonial officers, it being the purpose of the English government to make these officials independent of the assemblies (p. 113). For the collection of the duties, strong measures were to be taken: the hated writs of assistance were to be employed and persons accused of evading the customs duties were to be tried by admiralty courts without juries. Parliament hoped that the Paint, Glass, and Paper Act would meet with little resistance because it imposed only external taxes, the kind of taxes which the colonists had acknowledged were 'lawful. But the hope of Parliament proved to be vain. When the colonists were brought face to face with an import duty which could not be evaded by smuggling, they forgot the THE QUARREL 165 distinction between external and internal taxation, and ob- jected to any kind of tax whatever. The opposition to the Townshend Act was as strong as it had been to the Stamp Act, although it was not so disorderly and riotous. In the case of the Townshend Act the colonists were content simply to protest strongly against the new duties and to enter into agreements not to import English goods so long as the duties were laid. The non-importation agreements were so effective that, to the alarm of British merchants, English exports to America fell within a year fi;om £2,400,000 to £1,600,000. In order to remove the disastrous boycott, the Paint, Glass, and Paper Act was repealed (April 1770). The duty on tea, how- ever, was retained in order that the right of Parliament to tax the colonies might still be asserted and maintained. So Parliament was almost as unsuccessful with the import taxes as it had been with the stamp tax. As for the trifling tax which had been retained on tea, that brought England no revenue, although, as we shall see, it brought her infinite trouble. 54. PARTY DIVISIONS; LAWLESSNESS. The bitter controversy over taxation and the long and Division exciting contest with Parliament gradually brought about English . . . . Senti- a division in sentiment among the people, so that by 1770 two ment parties in the colonies were in the process of formation. One was the Loyalist or Tory party. This took the side of Eng- land in the quarrel and upheld the English government in its dealings with the colonists. To the Tory party belonged the more important colonial officials and many of the leading men of wealth. The other party was known as the American or Patriot party. This consisted of men who were intensely loyal to America, but cared little for England. The Patriots were ready to resist the mother country the moment she at- tempted to encroach upon the liberties or independence which \ the colonies had so long enjoyed. The Patriot party consisted chiefly of the lower and middle classes, although among the Patriots were men of substance and rank such as George i66 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Loyalists and Patriots The Boston Massacre Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Dickinson, and John Adams. The Patriot party from the beginning was the stronger in New England and Virginia, bnt in the Middle Colonies it was not strongly supported. English sentiment was also divided on the subject of tax- ing the Americans, the division following rather closely the line of existing party cleavage. The Whigs generally took sides with the Patriots. Indeed the Patriots often called them- selves Whigs because they felt they were in accord with the principles of the Whig party in the mother- country, a fundamental doctrine of that party being that taxation and representation are inseparably con- nected. The Patriot cause in Eng- land was openly espoused in Par- liament by able Whig leaders. Lord Chatham declared that the revolting Americans were Whigs in principle and heroes in conduct. The Tory party in England was ranged almost solidly against the Patriots, who as lovers of liberty and as advocates of popular gov- ernment, were hateful to the Tory mind. There were con- tradictions and inconsistencies in the arguments used by the Whigs in defense of the Americans and in those used by the Tories in opposing them, but as the quarrel deepened party division grew sharper until at last the whole strength of the Tories with George III at their head was thrown against the Americans, while the Whigs made the cause of the colonies their own. The quarrel about taxes, besides dividing men into parties, also led to a spirit and condition of lawlessness which by 1770 was beginning to resemble rebellion. Indeed, Parlia- ment in 1769 declared that the colonies were in a state of dis- George III. THE QUARREL 167 obedience to law and government, and events soon showed that this judgment was not too harsh. In 1770 occurred the shooting affair called the " Boston Massacre." For several years British troops had been stationed in Boston to assist the revenue officers in collecting the odious customs duties, and the presence of the red-coats was extremely irritating to the citizens. The Bostonians taunted and insulted the soldiers, and the soldiers repaid the Bostonians in kind. At last there was an outbreak of violence. One night (March 5, 1770), the citizens began to pelt the soldiers with snowballs and dared them to fire. The red-coats fired and four Americans were killed. The soldiers were arrested and tried. Two of them were slightly punished while all the others were ac- quitted. The court and jury were inclined to the opinion that the soldiers had been sorely provoked and that they were not seriously to blame for firing. The Patriot party, however, painted the affair in its darkest colors, representing it to be a " ferocious and unprovoked assault by brutal soldiers upon a defenseless people." A meeting of citizens was held in Faneuil Hall, where Samuel Adams urged that the troops be removed from Boston, contending that the British gov- ernment had no more right to maintain a standing army in the colonies than it had to tax them. So, the troops were re- moved to a place where their presence caused less resentment, and for a time there was peace in Massachusetts. But more lawlessness soon showed itself in the neighboring colony of Rhode Island. In Tune 1772, the Gaspee, a British revenue The . . ' , . Burning- vessel which had been active m preventmg smugglmg, ran of the ashore not far from Providence. When the news reached the town, a party headed by a prominent merchant was organized to destroy the vessel, and at midnight she was boarded, her crew set ashore, and the hated craft was burned to the wa- ter's edge. An attempt was made to bring the offenders to justice, but " no one could be found who knew anything about the matter any more than if it had been a case of spontaneous combustion." In the meantime, the Patriot party was busy in its efforts i68 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Com- mitteas of Corre- spondence Boycot- ting the Tea to weld the colonies into some kind of union, so that if trouble arose the full strength of the Patriots could be thrown against England. In Massachusetts, under the leadership of Samuel Adams, Committees of Correspondence were established with the view of communicating with the other colonies in refer- ence to measures that should be taken to protect the rights of Americans. Patriots in Virginia, such as Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, heartily approved of such committees, and one was appointed to serve in the Old Dominion. By July 1773 Committees of Correspondence had been estab- lished in six colonies. These committees were the beginning of a political union which grew stronger and stronger and which within a quarter of a century had developed into the great American commonwealth under which we are now liv- ing. The organization of the Committees of Correspondence was followed by acts of disorder and lawlessness. In the autumn of 1773 ships of the East India Company began to arrive with ■ cargoes of tea, an article upon seen, pence per pound) was re- tained when the Town- shend Act was repealed. It was retained as a matter of principle. " There must be one tax," said Lord North, " to keep up the right." But eight years of discussion had confirmed the colonists in the opinion that England had no right to tax the colonies even to the amount of a farthing without their consent. So the tea was boycotted as the glass, paper, and paint had been. Ships loaded with tea arrived at New York, Philadelphia^ Boston, and Annapolis, but at none which, as we have a small duty (three- Tearing down the III. in New statue of George York City. THE QUARREL 169 of these ports could the tea he landed and sold. In Charleston tea was landed and stored in vaults. Several years later it was sold by the authority of South Carolina and the money was paid into the State treasury. In Boston the Patriot party de- manded that the tea be sent back to England in the ships in which it came. When the consignees of the tea refused to do this, they were branded as " enemies to their country." But the Patriots were not satisfied with merely calling names. They determined that the tea should not be landed. A band The . . Boston of men disguised as Indians boarded the vessels contammg Tea Party the tea and threw into the Boston harbor the contents of three hundred chests. At Annapolis the citizens compelled a rich merchant to set fire to his own ship which was loaded with tea. 55. THE INTOLERABLE ACTS. The destruction of the tea was a wanton and deliberate de- struction of property, and the outrage convinced the English The government that the time had come when the colonies must abi.r feel the heavy hand of its power. So, Parliament quickly 1 passed (1774) a series of repressive measures designed to bring the Patriots of Massachusetts to their senses : ( i ) No ship was to enter or leave the port of Boston until the town should pay for the tea; (2) Massachusetts was to lose its charter and was to be brought under the King's direct control; (3) English officers or soldiers when questioned in the colonies concerning acts done while in the discharge of their duties, might be taken to England for trial ; (4) Troops might be quartered in any colony, and if quarters were not promptly furnished, " uninhabited houses, barns, or other buildings might be used, payment at reasonable rates being made for such use." These four intolerable acts — as the coercive measures were called — were aimed directly at Massachusetts. A fifth act had no direct reference to Massachusetts xhe i and was not intended to be offensive to New England in Act j any way. This was the Quebec Act, which annexed to the province of Quebec the region which soon came to be 170 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY known as the Northwest Territory and inckided what are now the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This region, by the terms of the act, was to be ruled by an arbitrary government. It was to have no elective legis- lature, and, except for local purposes, it was to be taxed by Parliament. Moreover it was provided by the act that the Catholic religion might be freely exercised throughout the region. Although the Quebec Act was an honest attempt by England to provide a suitable government for a part of the territory taken from France in 1763, it was nevertheless re- garded by the colonies as inimical to their interests. It seemed to give the Ohio country over to a French rather than an English civilization. The measure pleased Canada greatly, but it displeased Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, the colonies which claimed territory in the region, and were ex- pecting some day to profit by their claims. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Describe the British Empire as it existed under George III: Howard, 22-46. 2. The Tea Party and the Coercive Acts : Howard, 259-279. 3. Taxation : Forman, 265-270 ; 296-302. 4. Fundamental and immediate causes of the American Revolution: Bassett, 161-176; Van Tyne, 3-24. 5. May Parliament tax Americans? Howard, 126-130, 164-167. 6. Dates for the chronological table : 1733, 1764, 1765, 1770, 1774. 7. Summarize the causes of the quarrel between Great Britain and her American colonies. 8. What arguments could the Loyalists have used in defense of their loyalty to Great Britain? Why did the Americans not desire representation? Did the Americans desire taxation with rep- resentation? Give the history of the American flag. In what year did the population of the United States begin to exceed that of Great Britain? 9. Special Reading. Richard Frothingham, Rise of the Republic of the United States. G. O. Trevelyan, The American Revolution. Syd- ney George Fisher, The Struggle for American Independence. XVII BLOWS AND SEPARATION The passage of the Intolerable Acts caused the Patriots of Massachu- setts to hasten the work of organization, and when the EngHsh Gov- ernment undertook to carry the acts into effect it found itself opposed by a force of American soldiers. Bloody encounters followed, a cen- tral government was established by the colonists, and independence declared. 56. THE SPIRIT OF UNION. On the first of June 1774, the law which closed the port Boston of Boston went into effect, and it was executed with great leaguered rigor. " Not a scow could be manned by oars to bring an ox, or a sheep, or a bundle of hay from the islands. All water carriage froin wharf to wharf was strictly forbidden. The fishermen from Marblehead when from their hard pursuit they bestowed quintals of dried fish on the poor of Boston, were obliged to transport their offerings in wagons by a cir- cuit of thirty miles." (Bancroft.) The punishment inflicted upon Boston was resented not Assist- only in Massachusetts but in all the other colonies as well, for® Assistance for the beleaguered town came from every direc- *'^*°° tion. South Carolina sent two hundred barrels of rice. North Carolina and Maryland made liberal contributions in money. From near-by Connecticut came large supplies of provisions and with them the cheering words, " We are willing to sacri- fice all that is dear and valuable to us rather than suffer the patriotic inhabitants of Boston to be overwhelmed by their adversaries." From far-off Virginia came money and sup- plies, and the sympathetic words of George Washington, "If need be, I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my own expense, and niarch myself at their head for the relief of Boston." 171 172 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY THe First Conti- nental Congress The harsh treatment of Boston also hastened the establish- ment of a central organ of government through which the colonies might act in unison. The chief agency in bringing about the desired union was the Committees of Correspond- ence (p. i68), which were already in existence. Through these committees the colonies were urged to send delegates — in some cases the committees themselves sent the delegates — to a colonial or continental congress to meet at Philadelphia in September 1774. All the colonies (excepting Georgia), acting in most cases through their legislatures, sent delegates to the proposed Congress, which became known as the First f H i L A D E L P H I A, InCONGREJS, Iburjday^ September 22, 1774.- RnsOLVFD, ^■^ H.A T th.c Congrefs requeft the Merchants and Others, ill ihe ivvcra! <-.olonics, not to fetid to Great Britain any Orders for Goods, at\d to dired the execution of all Orders already fent, to be delayed or fuf- pcndeJ, uRtil the fcnfe of the Congrels, on the means to be taken for the prefervation ot the Liberties of America, \> made public. A^. ExtraSi from tj>c Minutety Ca4.Ri^ji_ Thomson 5 Sec. Resolution Boycotting British Goods. Continental Congress. In this body were many of the leading men of America : John Adams and Samuel Adams from Massachusetts; Stephen Hopkins and Samuel West from Rhode Island; Roger Sherman and Silas Deane from Con- necticut ; John Jay and Philip Livingston from New York ; John Dickinson and Joseph Callaway from Pennsylvania; Samuel Chase from Maryland ; Peyton Randolph, Henry Lee, George Washington, and Patrick Henry from Virginia; John Rutledge and Christopher Gadsden from South Carolina. The congress, of course, had no powers that it could claim as lawfully belonging to it; it was simply a gathering of British BLOWS AND SEPARATION 173 subjects met to discuss the unhappy relations which existed between England and her colonies and to restore harmony if that were possible. The congress approved the opposition of Massachusetts to the Intolerable Acts and suggested that if force was used by England, all America ought to go to the assistance of the oppressed colony; it declared that the colo- nies could not be taxed except by their own assemblies ; and — • what was most important — it planned for an American " As- sociation," the purpose of which was to carry into eflect a policy of non-importation and non-consumption of British goods. Tlie congress of 1774 provided for the holding of an- other congress in Alay 1775, at Philadelphia, " unless the redress of grievances which we have discussed be obtained be- fore that time." 57. WAR AND REVOLT. But the grievances were not to be at once redressed, and Lexing- stirring events were to occur before the dale set for the sec- and Concord end congress. General Gage, who had been made Governor of Massachusetts and had been placed in complete command at Boston, was checked at every turn by the actions of the Patriots. The authority of the new royal government for Massachusetts received no recognition outside of Boston, for the Patriots formed a provincial congress which virtually ruled the colony. This provincial congress, a wholly revolu- tionary body, in utter defiance of Gage's authority, organized regiments of colonial soldiers and before the winter of 1775 had passed eastern Massachusetts was alive with troops. So Gage determined to disarm the provincials and destroy their munitions of war. On April 19, 1775, he sent a detachment of troops to destroy the military stores at Concord and to ar- rest Samuel Adams and John Hancock at Lexington. The expedition was a wretched failure. At Concord the British troops met such a sturdy resistance from the rustic militia that they beat a hasty retreat to Boston, losing many of their men by the way, and barely escaping capture. The British garrison at Boston was now closely besieged 174 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Bunker HIU The Colonies Revolt by the colonial troops that kept swarming to the scene and in Jnne the red-coats were compelled to meet the Americans in a pitched battle on Breed's HilP (Bunker Hill). The Brit- ish won the hill and held it, but a few victories of this kind would have resulted in the complete destruction of their army, for they lost more than a thousand men, while the Americans lost less than five hundred. " In the eight years of the Revo- lution," says F. \'. Greene, " there was no battle more bloody, none more impor- tant. The Ameri- cans without prop- er organization, equipment, or sup- plies, had the best troops of and had fought regular Europe repulsed them until their ammunition had given out. All the advantages of vic- tory were on their side." After this disastrous battle the British soldiers in Boston did not again encounter the Ameri- cans, but remained shut up in the town for nearly a year. The news of Lexington and Concord was carried by swift relays of heralds from one end of the land to the other, and by the middle of 1775 ^^^ ^^^^ colonies were seething with the spirit of revolt. In colony after colony the legislature passed into the control of the Patriots, and the royal governor, the representative of British sovereignty, was forl)idden to exer- cise his functions. In some of the colonics the governor was forciI:)ly ejected from his office. This was the case in Virginia, where the banished governor took refuge on a British man- of-war at Yorktown and undertook to govern his province from 1 The Americans, preparing for the battle at night, mistook Breed's Ilill for Bunker Hill, which they had intended to fortify and which gave its name to the battle Boston and vicinity. BLOWS AND SEPARATION 175 / his place on the water. But his proclamations were disre- garded and laughed at. In New York also the royal governor fled to the water and from the refuge of a ship vainly en- deavored to govern his rebellious people. And so it was in every colony at the end of 1775: outside the beleaguered town of Boston the power of government was everywhere wielded by Patriots, 58. THE LOYALISTS. But the Patriots did not everywhere have smooth sailing. TheOp. -' '^ position In some of the colonies they w^ere strongly opposed by the ?^*^|. ., Loyalists, who by 1775 had come to believe that the Patriots were downright rebels and that their conduct should no longer be tolerated. In some places, as in New York and Pennsyl- vania, the Loyalists were very numerous, and they had it in their power to do much harm to the patriot cause. They could keep the British informed of the movements of the patriot forces; they could supply the British troops with pro- visions ; they could enlist in the British regiments. They could do these things and did do them as far as they dared. But the Patriots saw that the Loyalists would be a most dan- gerous foe and at the outset they undertook to suppress and crush the Loyalist party completely. In order to do this they resorted to measures of the utmost severity. One of the first things they did was to disarm the Loyalists. They en- The tered the homes of Loyalists and seized all the weapons and ment ammunition they could find. . This disarming, systematic and Loyal- thorough, was a most important step, for without their guns the Loyalists could offer but a lame and impotent resistance. But the Patriots did not stop with the disarming of their opponents; they subjected them to a reign of terror. The Loyalists were " ridden and tossed on fence rails ; were gagged and bound for days at a time; pelted with stones; fastened in rooms where there was a fire with the chimney stopped on top. Their homes and shops were burned ; they were compelled to pay the guards who watched them in their homes." ^ Such 1 Fisher, " American Revolution," I, 26.%. 176 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY treatment was violative of every principle of civil liberty, but the Patriots justified their conduct on the ground that an American Loyalist was as dangerous as a British soldier and had to be dealt with as severely. " A Loyalist," said they, " is a thing whose head is in England, whose body is in America, and its neck ought to be stretched." The rough treatment to which the Loyalists were early subjected had the effect of completely subduing and cowing them. If they had been permitted to gain a headway and exert their full strength, the course of events might have been entirely dif- ferent from what it was, for in many places the Loyalists outnumbered the Patriots. The Meeting of the Second Couti- nental Congress The Meas- ures of the Congress 59. THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. The Loyalists were strongly opposed to the meeting of a second Congress, but they were terrorized, outvoted, an'^ otherwise beaten down in their opposition. All the colonies were successful in sending delegates to the Second Conti- nental Congress which met at Philadelphia, May lo, 1775 — the natal day of the United States, for with the assembling of this Congress the American government had its begin- ning. At that moment the colonies and England were in a state of actual warfare. The Lexington affair had occurred only a few weeks before, and on the very day upon which the Congress met, an important fort ^ fell into the hands of the Patriots. Not only was war in progress, but civil government in the colonies was in the utmost confusion be- cause of the ejection of the royal governors and of the sub- stitution of a new authority in their stead. In this chaotic state of affairs the eyes of the country turned to the Congress at Philadelphia. The provincial con- gress of Massachusetts sought advice " respecting taking up 1 This was Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. The capture of this fort was planned by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen, a dasiiing leader of the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont. Arnold and Allen acting together with a few troops surprised the fort and as it had but a handful of men it was obliged to surrender (May lo. 1775). The surrender of Crown Point quickly followed. BLOWS AND SEPARATION 177 and exercising the powers of civil government " and pledged its submission to such advice as might be given. Here was a grave question indeed. The provincial congress of Mas- sachusetts was an extra-legal revolutionary body acting in open defiance of Parliament ; was it to be recognized as a lawful body? The Continental Congress, after considering the question carefully, decided that no obedience was due to the Intolerable Acts which (p. 169) changed the Govern- ment of Massachusetts, and that the provincial congress had the right to organize a new assembly. The Congress was also expected to deal with the military situation and it did not shrink from the task. It adopted as its own the troops which had gathered around Boston, and provided for this new continental army a full staff of officers. But since the army had to be equipped and supported, it was necessary for Congress to deal with certain questions of finance. For the purchase of powder six thousand pounds sterling were borrowed and thus a national debt was incurred. To meet other expenses, two million dollars in paper money ^ was issued. Thus in a business-like way Congress dealt with the various questions that came up before it. It was an extra legal body, to be sure, and it possessed only such powers as it chose to assume, yet it had the confidence and sup- port of the Patriot party and it felt that it could act as a duly authorized government is accustomed to act. Besides providing for the organization and support of the army, the Second Continental Congress at its first session put itself into communication with foreign nations ; it assumed the management of the post-office, and it created a department 1 As the Revolution advanced, issues of paper money became larger and more frequent, and by 1779 more than $200,000,000 of paper currency was in circula- tion. In addition to this sum about $200,000,000 of paper money was issued upon the authority of the individual States. At first the paper money was ac- cepted willingly and circulated freely at its face value, but in 1777 it began to decline in value, and by 1779, eight dollars in paper money was worth only one dollar in silver. Congress enacted that the man who refused to accept the Con- tinental paper was an enemy of his country. People, however, would not receive it. It continued to depreciate in value until it became absolutely worthless — " not worth a Continental." 178 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY of Indian afifairs. Thus it gave form and direction to the scattered and unorganized forces of the colonies and laid the foundation of a central government and of national sov- ereignty. Washing- ton, the Com- mander- in-Chief The Evacua- tion of Boston 60. THE BRITISH EXPELLED FROM BOSTON. On June 16, 1775, the Continental Congress unanimously elected George Washington the commander-in-chief of the newly organized army. Washington set out at once for Bos- ton. A few hours after leaving Philadelphia he received news of the battle of Bunker Hill. Arriving in Cambridge in July, he took command of the forces which had gathered to try conclusions with the British in Boston. His army consisted of about 15,000 troops, poorly armed, raw, and inexperienced, but capable of hard fighting, as Bunker Hill had clearly shown. The first task of Washington was to drill his men and equip them with ammunition and supplies.^ This he did with such success and despatch that, by the open- ing of spring in 1776 he felt that he could give battle to the British. Accordingly, on March 2 he began a furious cannonade against his foes in Boston, and on March 4 oc- cupied Dorchester Heights, a commanding hill which over- looked the town. Here he built forts and planted heavy cannon. Howe, who was in command of the British, saw that either Washington's forts would have to be taken or the British would have to leave Boston. He at first de- cided to attack the forts, but a storm arose and interfered with this plan so seriously that it was abandoned, and it was decided to evacuate the town. So, Howe put his men on board ships and sailed away March 17, 1776. taking with him about 11,000 soldiers and 1,000 loyalist refugees. He left behind him a large amount of supplies and military stores of all kinds in excellent condition. This dislodgment of the 1 While Washington was drilling his army, Richard Montgomery and Arnolrl undertook to capture Quebec, Montgomery advancing by way of Lake Champlain and Arnold by the way of the Maine wilderness. The two armies joined and laid siege to Quebec, but were unable to take it. BLOWS AND SEPARATION 179 British from their position in Boston was the first stroke which Washington made, and it was a most successful one, for it rid New England of the British troops. As far as actual warfare was concerned, therefore, the Revolution in New England ended almost as soon as it began. 61. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. The expulsion of the British from Boston was soon fol- Lord North's lowed by an event for which the Patriots had long been Plan of ... . Concilia- eagerly waitmg. This was the declaration by Congress of "on the independence of the colonies. Leaders like John Adams, Jefferson, and Dickinson, for a long time shrank from a measure so desperate as complete separation. Yet every week was hurrying them on to take the fatal step. It is true there were efforts at conciliation. Lord North proposed (June 1775) a plan by which Parliament was to declare its sov- ereign authority over the colonies while the colonies were to be allowed to tax themselves provided they did this in a way that was satisfactory to Parliament. The King and Parliament approved of the plan, but the colonists would not accede to it. Indeed, after the fighting in Massachusetts began, neither side was in a humor for compromise. By the end of 1775 the English government had shown plainly that it would be satisfied with nothing less than the complete submission of the colonists. In December 1775, Parliament ijie passed the law known as the Prohibitory Act, by which all to'r'y.^ct nations were prohibited from trading with the colonies, and all ships engaged in colonial trade were to be forfeited with their cargoes and become lawful prizes of war. This Act was virtually a declaration of war. It quickened the spirit of independence and hastened separation. It gave the col- onists what they regarded as a just excuse for throwing off all allegiance to the King. " It throws thirteen colonies," said John Adams, " out of the Royal protection and makes us independent in spite of our supplications and entreaties." Congress when it heard of the Act (March 21, 1776) re- sponded by promptly passing a retaliatory measure which gave i8o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Paine '8 Common Sense The Declara- tion of Inde- pendence Americans permission to fit out j^rivate armed vessels and prey on British commerce. The feehng created hy the Prohibitory Act was intensified by the sentiments expressed in Thomas Paine's Common Sense, a pamphlet which was published early in 1776 and scattered broadcast over the land. " I challenge," said Paine in his passionate appeal to the Patriots, " I challenge the warmest advocate of reconciliation to show a single ad- vantage this continent can reap by being connected with Great Britain. Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of Nature cries, 'Tis time to jiart. lu'cn the distance at which the Almighty hath placed England and America is a strong and natural proof that the authority of one over the other was never the design of Heaven. I am not in- duced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to espouse the doctrine of independence. I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true interest of the continent to be so ; that everything short of that is mere patchwork." Edition after edition of Common Sense was printed and its influence was tremendous. Thousands who had been opposed to independence were converted to the cause by the telling logic and fervid language of Paine's re- markable tractate. In the spring of 1776 measures for separation began to assume definite form. The first colony to declare outright for separation was North Carolina. On April 5, 1775 that colony instructed her delegates in Congress to vote for in- dependence. On June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee of Vir- ginia moved in Congress that the colonies be declared independent. After two days of debate, action upon the mo- tion was postponed for twenty days in order that public opinion in the lukewarm colonies, especially in the IMiddle Colonies, might have time to crystallize in favor of inde- pendence. On the first of July Lee's motion for independence was brought up again in Congress and was carried by the votes of nine colonies. In this vote New York and Pennsyl- BLOWS AND SEPARATION i8i vania were against independence, Delaware was divided, and South Carolina wanted time for further consideration. This was granted, and when the question was put to a vote the next day (July 2), all the colonies voted for independence except New York, which withheld its consent until July 9. Having resolved upon independence, Congress at once took up for discussion the form in which the Decla- ration was to be made and after a long debate agreed on the 4th of July to the draft sub- mitted by Thomas Jefferson upon whom the impor- tant task of writ- ing the Declara- tion had devolved. Congress ordered the Declaration to be sent to the as- semblies of the several colonies, to various conven- tions and commit- tees of safety, and to all the officers of the continental armies. In this way it was soon Everywhere it met From The manner in which Independence was declared, July 4, 1776. proclaimed throughout the United States with the most enthusiastic ratification and adoption New Hampshire to Georgia there were bonfires, torchlight processions, the firing of guns and the ringing of bells. " The people," said Samuel Adams, " seemed to recognize the resolu- tion as though it was a decree promulgated from heaven." l82 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The outbreak of the wrir : Van Tyno, 25-^('); Cliannin^t^^^' ^^^P-'^:'-^^^, Facsimile of a portion of Washing-ton's resignation as Commander of the Army. power of the Confederation : when it was proposed in the legislature of Massachusetts to call upon Congress for help in putting down the rebellion, the measure was defeated, one of the arguments used to defeat it being that it was incompatible with the dignity of Massachusetts to allow United States troops to set foot upon her soil ! Provi- sions of the Ordi- nance of 1787 70. THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. During the troublesome times just described, the Congress of the Confederation was engaged in a memorable work of legislation ; it was planning a government for the Northwest Territory. By 1786 the Confederation had gained full title to A CRITICAL PERIOD 205 all this territory except the Western Reserve, a strip which ex tended along the shore of Lake Erie, and which was still claimed by Connecticut. In 1787 in response to the needs of a land-company which was projecting a settlement at the con- fluence of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers, Congress passed an ordinance setting forth the manner in which new communi- ties in the Northwest should be governed. The Ordinance of 1787 provided ( i ) that not less than three nor more than five States should be formed out of the Northwest Territory; (2) that each State should have a republican form of government ; (3) that there should be no slavery; (4) that religious liberty should be guaranteed; (5) that education should be encour- aged; (6) that the Indians should be justly treated; (7) that when one of the political communities should have 60,000 in- habitants, it should be admitted into the Union with all the rights of a State- (8) that until a community should be large enough for statehood, it should be governed as a Territory. While under the territorial form of government the community was to be governed in part by Congress and in part by the people of the Territory. The Ordinance of 1787, the last law to be passed by the old ^g^J^g^ Congress of the Confederation, was reenacted at an early date q^^^ by the Congress organized under the Constitution. So far- ^^^'^^ reaching were the effects of this statute upon the course of ^"^^^ American history that it is regarded by many as being a law almost as important as the Constitution itself. The most sig- nificant feature ot the Ordinance was the clause providing the lorm of government that should prevail in the Northwest Ter- ritory. Here was foreshadowed the policy that resulted in giv- ing to new communities in the W^est the precious boon of self- government. The Territories while in their infancy were to be treated as colonial dependencies, but so soon as they were large enough and strong enough to govern themselves they were to be clothed with all the powers and rights possessed by the original States. Another very significant feature of the Ordinance was the clause prohibiting slavery in the Northwest Territory, It is true that slavery would very probably have 210 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY been excluded from this region by other causes, by an un- favorable climate and by settlers desiring a system of free labor, but it is also true — as will be seen hereafter (p. 283) — that whenever efforts w^ere made to introduce slavery into the country northwest of the Ohio the Ordinance always proved the most troublesome of barriers to the introduction. " It im- pressed," said Rhodes, " on the soil itself, while yet a wilder- ness, an incapacity to sustain any others than freemen." REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The Stale Legislature: Forman, 162-168. 2. The State Executive: Forman, 170-175. 3. The State Judiciary: Forman, 177-182. 4. What problems of organization confronted American statesmen after the Revolution? McLaughlin, 35-52. 5. Describe the commercial and financial conditions which prevailed in the United States during the period of the Confederation : Mc- Laughlin, 71-88; also McMaster I, 204-207. 6. Monetary conditions during the critical period: McMaster I, 189-197, 400, 404. 7. Paper money (1783-1789): McMaster I, 281-294; Dewey, 36-44. 8. Give a full account of Shays's Rebellion; McMaster I, 310-325. 9. The navigation of the Mississippi River: McMaster I, 371-383. ID. Why England would not make a treaty with us (1785) : Hart III, 171-177. 11. The failure of the Confederation: Hart III, 154-158. 12. Describe the meeting of John Adams with George III : Halsey IV, 25-30. 13. The Northwest Ordinance (17S7) : Hart III, 154-158. 14. A date for the chronological table: 1787. 15. Special Reading. John Fiske, The Critical Period of American History, 1783-1789. Bancroft, History of the Formation of the Con- stitution of the United Sfates. Richard Hildreth, History of the United States. Vol. IV. H. E. Van Hoist, The Constitutional and Political History of the United States, Vol. I, chapters i and ii. XX FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION The conditions described in the last chapter caused thoughtful men to see that if the powers of the central government were not increased the Union would fall to pieces. So the statesmen of the time rallied their forces and secured for the United States a new Constitution, the one which we have to-day. What led to the formation of the new Con- stitution? What kind of a government did the new Constitution estab- lish? What was the organization of that government and what were its powers? 71. CENTRIFUGAL AND CENTRIPETAL FORCES. When statesmen in 1786 and 1787 took up the task of in- The Forces creasing the powers of the central government, strong forces of pis- were operating to keep the States apart and prevent the forma- tion of a more perfect union. Geographical conditions were unfavorable to union. Long distances and imperfect means of communication made it impossible for the people of one State to know much of the lives and the thoughts of the peo- ple of another. Men seldom passed beyond the boundaries of the State in which they were born. " Of the affairs of Georgia," wrote James Madison, of Virginia, in 1786, " I know as little as of those of Kamchatka." Then, too, the in- terests of one section of the country were opposed to the interests of another section. The North had manufacturing interests which it desired to protect and augment by imposing duties upon importations. The South, on the other hand, having no factories, welcomed the importation of foreign goods free of customs duties. Since this was so, how could a central government enact a customs law which would be equally acceptable to all the ports along the Atlantic coast? But the thing that operated most powerfully against union 211 212 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY was the fact that the people ahnost everywhere feared the power of a central government. In 1787 the people of the United States were such lovers of liberty, were so enamored of the rights of the individual, that they were loath to bestow power upon any government, whether local, State, or national. They were inclined to distrust government. Indeed, many peo- ple cherished an attitude of mind that was positively hostile to government. Jefferson, the greatest of the popular leaders, said in 1787: " I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical ... it is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government." INIen who entertained such extreme individualistic notions — and they were probably in the ma- jority — believed that to give the United States a strong cen- tral government would but set up an instrument of tyranny and oppression. The But there were centripetal as well as centrifugal forces at of work. First, the States were alike in their social and politi- Union _ , . . , r i • cal structure and were fitted for union by reason of their com- mon origin and the similarity of their laws, manners, and customs. Second, there was the great national domain beyond the mountains, the Northwest Territory. This belonged to the United States, and, if the States would only hold together, the countless acres of this vast heritage would be sold and the money would be turned into the treasury of the United States for the common benefit. But if the Union should be dissolved, most of the States would be shut out of all interest and claim in the western lands. So the possession of the Northwest Territory was a powerful factor in holding the Union together. Lastly, the very dangers of disunion were by 1786 drawing the States together. Shays's Rebellion and kindred acts of lawlessness opened men's eyes to the actual condition of affairs and caused them to see the evils of dis- union in their true light. Men saw that if the central gov- ernment should pass completely out of existence and each State should become an independent power, there would be scattered along the coast thirteen weak, quarrelsome, and bcl- FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION 213 ligerent little nations instead of one strong one. In such a condition of disunion the country would be the easy prey of the invader. State would quarrel with State, and all the so- cial, moral, and intellectual advantages which flow from union would be lost. Such dangers were really impending in 1786, and they alarmed men and caused them to seek safety in union. 72. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1787. Efforts to amend and strengthen the Articles of Confedera- TheCaU * . . . lor a tion began to be made almost immediately after their adoption conven- ..." tion m 1 78 1, and contmued to be made from time to time in the years following, but every effort of the kind met with fail- ure. To amend the Articles required the consent of every State, and this complete unanimity could in no case be se- cured. By 1786 statesmen like Washington, Madison, and Alexander Hamilton were working hard in behalf of a stronger central government, and through their influence Congress was prevailed upon to call for a Convention to meet at Philadel- phia ^ in May 1787, for the sole and express purpose of re- vising the Articles of Confederation and to report such alter- ations as should render the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of government, and the preservation of the union." All the States responded to the call excepting Rhode Island. The men sent to the Convention were the ablest in America, and some of them were profound students of government. The leaders in carrying forward the work of the Convention were George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Edmund Randolph, Rufus King, James Wilson, William Paterson, and William Johnson. Although the Convention was called for the sole purpose Federal of revising the Articles of Confederation, it was soon seen ment that a mere revision would be patchwork and would bring 1 In 1785 the States were invited to appoint commissioners to meet at Annapolis for the discussion of subjects relating to the regulation of inter-state commerce. Five States sent representatives to this meeting, which was considered too small for the transaction of business. At this Annapolis meeting, however, it was recommended that a convention of all the States be held at Philadelphia. 214 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY no relief to the country. So it was decided to strike out boldly and plan an entirely new government that would have power to accomplish the purposes for which it was established. The new Government was to be a federal government : it was to be sovereign in respect to matters which concerned the States taken collectively, while each separate State was to retain unimpaired its sovereignty in respect to those matters which concerned only itself. The power of this new federal government was to be real : it was to act independently of the States, and was not to be restrained by them ; it was to have its own organization, its own laws, and its own officers ; and in the execution of its laws it was to deal with individuals and not with States. Under the Articles of Confederation the central government (Congress) could deal only with the States, and over a State it could exert no real power. If Congress in 1785 had sent its officers to Massachusetts to com- pel that State to do something it did not wish to do, the offi- cers of Congress would have been as fiercely resisted as the officers of George III were resisted ten years before. But the power of the new federal government was not to clash with the power of a State ; it was to reach the individual di- rectly, make laws for him, take money out of his pocket for taxes, try him in federal courts, and punish him if he vio- lated federal laws. The new government was to rest upon the power of the people (1)\ and w^as to be proclaimed as having been established by them. The A new scheme of organization was regarded as necessary Organi- - , . . , , * • , , , zation tor the organization under the Articles was a mere shadow. greas A model for the organization of the new federal government was seen in the existing State governments (p. 218), and it was quickly determined by the Convention that the proposed federal government should consist of a legislative, an execu- tive, and a judicial department. The legislative department was to be a Congress consisting of a Senate and a House 1 The numbers which hereafter occur in heavy-faced type refer to passages in the Constitution of the United States (Appendix A) which are distinguished by corresponding numbers on the margin. FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION 215 of Representatives (2). But how were the States to be represented in Congress? This question gave the Con- vention a vast amount of trouble. The large States wished to be represented according to population. The small States wished representation in the new Congress to be on the same basis as it was under the Confederation ; that is, one State, large or small, was to have one vote and no more. After a long debate a compromise was reached : in the Senate the States were to have equal representation, each State being al- lowed two Senators (15); in the House of Representatives the States were to be represented in proportion to population (7). After it was agreed that a State was to have a num- ber of representatives apportioned to its population, a question of enumeration arose. When counting the people of a State should every human being count one? In the South there were vast numbers of slaves : should these be included in the enumeration which was to determine the number of repre- sentatives a State was to have? The members in the Con- vention from the southern States wished them to be included ; the members from the northern States, where the slaves were few in number, thought the slaves ought not to be counted. This disagreement also ended in a compromise. It was pro- vided that five slaves should be counted as three persons (8). In order to determine the number of representa- tives a State was to have, the census (9) was to be taken every ten years; until such census was taken, New Hampshire was to have three representatives, Massachusetts 8, Rhode Island i, Connecticut 5, New York 6, New Jersey 4, Pennsylvania 8, Delaware l, Maryland 6, Virginia 10, North Carolina 5, South Carolina 5, and Georgia 3. Thus the new Congress was to have 26 Senators and 65 representa- tives. In the first Congress a State was entitled to one Rep- resentative for every 30,000 inhabitants (10). If this ratio had been retained, the present House of Representa- tives would have over 3,000 members. But the ratio of rep- resentation has been raised from time to time and is now one to every 211,877. This gives a House of 435 members. 2i6 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Under the Articles of Confederation there had been no pro- ExeCU- ... . , rr^, , . . tive Vision for a separate executive department, ihe adminis- trative work of the Confederation had been attended to by specially appointed committees of Congress. But the mem- bers of the Convention established a strong executive depart- ment and placed a President at its head (78). The manner of selecting the President gave rise to a vast amount of dis- cussion. Some wanted him to be elected by Congress, but this plan was strongly opposed on the ground that it would tend to subordinate the executive to the law-making branch. An election by a popular vote of the whole country was sug- gested, but this plan was opposed on the ground that the ordinary citizen was unable to judge who was fit to be the Chief h'xecutive of a great nation. The discussion was ended by adopting a plan of indirect election : The President was to be chosen by State colleges of electors, the electoral col- lege of each State to have a number of electors equal to the combined number of Senators and Representatives to which it was entitled in Congress (81). Each State was to select its electors in a way agreeable to the legislature (80) ; the legislature could appoint the electors itself ; it could vest their appointment in some other body or it could call upon the people to elect them. When selecting a President each elector was to vote for the man of his choice. The The organization of the new government was completed by the establishment of a judicial department, at the head of which was the Supreme Court of the United States (105). The position of a federal judge under the new government was to be one of great responsibility. He was to administer justice not only between man and man, but between State and State. The framers of the Constitution therefore thought it necessary to make the federal judiciary as independent as a department of government could be. It gave the appointment of the federal judges to the President (97), but it provided that they could be removed only by the process of impeachment, that is, they were to hold their ofiices for life. It provided also that the salary of a federal Judiciary FORMLNG A MORE PERFECT UNION 217 judge could not be decreased, although it might be increased if Congress so desired. What powers were given to the new government? When The bestowing power upon the federal government the members of the . . . . Federal of the Convention were inclined to deal with a sparmg hand. Govem- The States, extremely jealous of their rights, were unwill- ing to surrender to the new government any power that it did not seem absolutely necessary to surrender. The two new powers that the central government needed the most were the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce and the power to borrow money and levy taxes. These two powers were given. Add to these the old powers which Con- gress already had under the Articles of Confederation (p. 220) and we have the principal powers which the fed- eral government was to have under the Constitution. (See Article I. section 8 of the Constitution.) The authority of the new central government was to be The complete and undisputed. All lawmakers, both State and na- Law tional, and all the executive and judicial officers, both of the Land United States and of the several States, were bound by oath to support the Constitution (128) ; while the Constitution itself, the laws of Congress and all treaties made under the authority of the United States, were to be the supreme /aw of the land (127), and judges in every State were to be bound thereby, no matter what the State constitution or State laws might be. Here was the most important provision of the new scheme of government — the Constitution was to be the supreme law of the land. " Draw out this particular bolt and the machinery falls to pieces." 73. THE RATIFICATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. The draft of a constitution was finished in September 1787, Manner and was promptly submitted to the Congress of the Confed- scation eration which was then holding sessions in New York. Ac- cording to its own provisions, the new Constitution was to be valid when ratified by nine States (129). This was a bold provision, for the Articles of Confederation, which were to 2l8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Feder- alists and Anti- Feder- alists be superseded by the proposed Constitution, could not be changed without the consent of thirteen States. The Consti- tution itself, therefore, was in a sense unconstitutional. When the Constitution was received by Congress it was trans- Parade in honor of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1788. mitted by that body to the legislatures of the several States. The State legislatures in turn submitted it to conventions of delegates chosen expressly for the purpose of ratifying or rejecting the new scheme of government. The question of ratifying or rejecting the Constitution di- vided men into two distinct parties. The friends of the Con- stitution were called Federalists, while its enemies were given the name of Anti-Federalists. Among the Anti-Federalists were Patrick Henry, Richard TTenry Lee, Samuel Adams, and other strong patriots who, cherishing individualistic notions of government, opposed the Constitution because they thought it created a central government that would destroy the rights of the States and become subversive of liberty. The advocates of paper money opposed it because it forbade a State to issue bills of credit (72). Among the Federal- ists were Alexander Flamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. These joined in writing in behalf of the Constitution a series of articles which were brought together in a book entitled The Federalist. These articles, setting forth in a most lucid and FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION 219 impressive manner the advantages to be derived from the Constitution, exerted a powerful influence upon pubHc opin- ion. Delaware was the first State to take action in regard to the proposed Constitution : on December 7 it decided in f a- STATE OP NORTH-CAROLINAt In Ccmmtim, Ifntmhtr J3, 1 789. \\ ESOLVED: nnanUnoufly, that it be rccom.- fluU hare the eicMiTe i^lil of naUa^ liuji ix«l' 1\^ mended and enjoined on the reprefentatives of ^nd regulatioos for the abowparpo&aas tbcT flkatt tnU fiate in Congfe^aiTeinbled, to make appUcatioa Uunk proper, to CcngreTi and endearour to obtain the following amendment* to the conllUution for the future go> %• That the nembeis of die (am and boofe of >emment of the United States agreeable to the fe- jNerefenutint (hall be raelligible to, ud bcmpibl* cond mode propoled bjr the nfth article of the faid .'ofnolding any cifil office under the aatherity of th« conditation, which, when ratiEed agreeably to the United Staut, duiitg tht time for which tMJ ftall faid articls, fhall become a part of the conllftution, tcfpefiirelf ke cleAeA and that the eiecotife of thii ftaie be dircAcd to tranfmit a copy of the &id amcodmcota to each of 4- That the jonmali of the procecdhigi of the fl^ tU>« UDitcd ibtci. liateandhoDfeof reprefeouciTet flull be publiOted at leaft oiKe in ererj Tear, except fuch paru there<]f * m-%TTMrF-tT>Tis relating lo treatief, aOiancea, or military opentiaM AMENDMENTS. u in theirjudgmcnt require fecrecr. t(l. That Congrefi (hall not alter, modify, or ia> That ■ regular Aaleirieiit and leeooit cf ih< terfere in the timet; places, and manner of holdijtg receipts and eipenditurei. of all pablk ' ' ■* f ledioai for fenatort and reprefentaiifes, or either of be publiflied at leaA once tvery year. Ihem, eicept when the legtflature of any (late dial) Bcgle<9, reftiTe, or be difablcd by inrafion or rebdlioa & ThfltnoiUTigationIaw,orbwTtgiilatin|tna» to p^fcribe tlii fame, or iti cafe when the provifioa Oerce, (ball be pafled withont the coifent it t** IDSi)* by the (late is fo impetfefi aa that co tit&- tliirdiof the memben preint io both hoofet. fatat clcdion is had. ft. Tlut at no foldier Aall be enliftcd for any losgcC ti. ThatCongreft (haH not (Ereflly or iiwiirealy, term than four years, eicept in tiaie.ofvv, u4 cither by tbemfeWes or throagh the judiciary, inter- then for no longs term than the continoaact of tiw fere with any one of the dates, in the redemptoo ot var. «aper money already emitted,and now in circulation, —m.r 1 % t. i t. ». l. or jnliqoidating and difchirging the public fectiritiea •• ">« «»"« tribunal, other than the Aatf% ■« ofnoy one of the fiate.) but each and every ftate prontled far trying impeachmenu affaatt** Amendments Recommended for Adoption. vor of ratification. Five days later Pennsylvania did likewise. State after State now agreed to the Constitution, so that by the end of June, 1788, it had been ratified by nine States.^ It was now certain that the new federal government would The End , . . of the come mto power. Accordmgly, on July 2, 1788, the Presi- confedet- dent of the old Congress of the Confederation announced that nine States had ratified the Constitution and that steps should be taken to put the new government into operation. 1 In several of the States where the Constitution was ratified certain amend- ments were recommended for subsequent adoption. Accordingly when the new government was organized Congress submitted (122) to the States for ratifica- tion the first ten amendments. These were promptly ratified and declared to be in force in 1791. The chief purpose of these amendments was to limit the power of Congress and to prevent the federal government from encroaching upon the rights and privileges of individuals. 220 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISIORY With this purpose in view Congress ordered that the States should choose presidential electors on the first Wednesday in January 1789; that the electors should vote for President and Vice-President on the first Wednesday in February, and the Senate and House of Representatives should meet in New York on the first Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth of March. Thus the old government passed quietly out of existence, and thus the way was prepared for the installation of the new governmciil. The The old Congress, which by 1788 had become so weak and Services .. , /, • i of the meffective that it felt constramed to put an end to its own Old Con- . . . grass existence, was a body that had rendered services of the high- est value during the formative period of our national life. It had given us the Declaration of Independence ; it had con- ducted the Revolution to a successful issue; it had held the country together through eight years of war and five of peace; it had plunged into the mysteries of national self-gov- ernment and laid the foundations for a permanent political system. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Constitutional government: Forman, 31-36. 2. Reasons for a new constitution: Hart III, 177-184; Harding, 88- 102. 3. What were the views of Samuel Adams upon popular govern- ment? Hart III, 93-96. 4. The members of the Convention of 1787: McMaster I, 419-423. 5. The debates on representation in the Convention : McMaster I, 441-443, 446-451- 6. Federal and State Powers : Forman, 49-60 ; 72-74. 7. Congress under the Constitution: Forman, 115-130. 8. The Presidency: Forman, 132-137. 9. The Law of the Land : McLaughlin, 236-252. 10. The Constitution before the people : McMaster I, 434-504 ; Mc- Laughlin, 277-229. 11. Hamilton's defense of the Constitution (1788): Hart HI, 241- 243- 12. A plea for the rights of the States : Hart III, 247-240, 13. Dates for the chronological table: 1787, 1788. FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION 221 14. Read in the class a striking passage from Patrick Henry's speech against the Constitution : Harding, 67-87 ; a passage from Madison's speech in favor of the Constitution : Harding, 88-102. What were the views of Alexander Hamilton in regard to popular government? Tell two anecdotes relating to Franklin in the Convention. Why did Rhode Island refuse to send delegates to the Convention ? Read in the class "Good Advice in Bad Verse: Hart III, 200-203. What is the elastic clause of the Constitution? Prepare a chart showing the powers which belong to the federal government and those which belong to the State. Give the dates showing the progress of the ratification of the Constitution: Harding, 50-51. Why were Rhode Island and North Carolina late in joining the Union? If they had not joined it at all what would probably have been their history? 15. Special Reading. Max Farrand, The Framing of the Constitu- tion. C. A. Beard, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. James Schouler, History of the United States, Vol. I. XXI SETTING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION Between 1789 and 1801 the political machinery provided by the Con- stitution was set in motion and our federal system of government was firmly established. Who were the men that laid the foundation of this system and what organization of government did they effect? With what problems, foreign and domestic, did the new government have to deal? How did it meet these problems? 74. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW FEDERAL GOVERN- MENT. The In accordance with the terms of the Constitution, presiden- £lection of tial electors were chosen in January 1789, and in February ington the electoral colleges expressed their choice for President and Vice-President. The electoral vote should have been counted by Congress on the fourth of March in New York, the tem- porary capital, but bad roads and long distances prevented a prompt meeting of the newly-elected body. On the sixth of April, however, Congress assembled and the electoral votes were counted. It was found that every elector had cast his vote for George Washington and that John Adams of Mas- sachusetts stood second on the list. Washington was there- fore (83) declared to be elected President and Adams Vice- President. Wash- In selecting Washington as the first executive of the new a°^a°° nation the electors made the wisest choice possible. No other man man in America was endowed with qualities of statesman- ship higher than those possessed by Washington. He was tolerant, far-seeing, charitable, judicious, patient, firm. " In civil as in military life," says the English historian Lecky, " Washington was preeminent among his contemporaries for the clearness and soundness of his judgment, for his perfect George Washington. || From the portrait by John Tiuniljull now in the City Hall, New York, 224 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY moderation and self-control, for the quiet dignity and the indomitable firmness with which he pursued every path which he had deliberately chosen Of all the great men in history he was the most invariably judicious." The choice of the electors was as popular as it was wise, for Washington was not only first in war and first in peace, but he was also " first The First Inaugura- tion The Organi- zation of the Execu- tive Depart- ment Washington entering Trenton. in the hearts of his countrymen." " Our jealousy," said Jef- ferson in 1788. " is put to sleep by the unlimited confidence we all repose in the person to whom we all look as our Presi- dent." As soon as Washington was informed of his election he set out from Mount Vernon to the scene of his duties. His journey northward was a triumphal march. When he reached New York he found that April 30th had been fixed as the date of his inauguration. Accordingly, on that day, in the presence of the two houses of Congress, he took the oath of ofifice and the history of the United States under the Constitution began. One of the first things to be done by Congress and the President was to breathe life into the Constitution by provid- ing an effective organization for the new government. Three executive departments were speedily created : a department THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 225 of finance (Treasury), a department of foreign affairs ( State); and a Department of War.^ At the head of each department (93) was placed an officer known as the Secretary, who was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Sen- ate. When choosing men to fill these offices, Washington dis- regarded party affiliations and political beliefs. His sole aim was to secure the services of the best men available. For his Secretary of State — as the head of the department of foreign affairs was called — he chose Thomas Jefferson, a man as well fitted for the place by natural aptitude and by experience as any that could be found in America. For the Secretary of the Treasury — as the head of the department of finance was called — he chose Alexander Hamilton, who had been his military secretary during the Revolution. Ham- Alex- ilton was only thirty-two years of age, yet his great abilities Hamii had already won for him a foremost place among public men Washington chose him for the post of the Treasury because he believed the young man was endowed with special genius for finance and the expectations of the President were more than realized. In the management of the dis- ordered finances of the country Hamilton achieved a success that placed him among the great finan- ciers of history. " He smote," said Daniel Webster, " the rock of the national resources and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprang upon its feet." In the work of launching 1 From time to time Congress created new departments, as follows: The Post- Officc Department in 1794; the Department of the Navy in 1798; the Department of the Interior in 1849; the Department of Agriculture in 1862; the Department of Justice in 1870; the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903. In 1913 the Department of Commerce and Labor was abolished and in its stead two de- partments w-ere created, viz., the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor. bj peiiiH»biuin.£ AUa,iMtU:ie hiiiinl Alexander Hamilton. Painted by James Stiarpless. 226 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Organi- ?ation of the federal Judiciary the new government under the Constitution the services of Hamilton were ahnost as important as those of the President himself. For his Secretary of War Washington chose Gen- eral Henry Knox of Massachusetts. The task of Knox was light, for the little army which he was to manage numbered less than a thousand men. As the law oflicer of the new government Edmund Randolph of Virginia was selected and was given the title of Attorney General.^ Congress also speedily organized a new federal judicial system. In September 1789, it passed the famous Judiciary Act which provided that the Supreme Court of the United States should consist of a Chief Justice (22) and five asso- ciate Justices. The same law provided that the inferior tri- bunals (106) of the federal system should consist. of four cir- cuit and thirteen district courts. The federal judges like the federal executive officers were appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate (97). John Jay of New York was appointed the first Chief Justice. At first the business of the federal courts was small and insignificant. Chief Jus- tice Jay soon resigned, his reason being that " the office was so unimportant that it was not worth his while to retain it." On some of the circuits the judges had so little to do that they thought it necessary to formally notify the public that the new courts were in existence. It was not many years, how- ever, before the judicial department of the new government was as important as either of the other two departments. - The First Tariff 75. THE FINANCIAL MEASURES OF THE NEW GOVERN- MENT. The thing most needed by the new government was money, for the Confederation had ended its days in a penniless condi- 1 The Attorney General was regarded as a member of the cabinet, although the Department of Justice, of which he is now the head, was not established until 1870. 2 In 1793 one Chisholm of South Carolina sued the State of Georgia in the federal courts for the recovery of a claim and won his case. Here a State was brought into a federal court by an individual from another State. This was a wound to State pride, so the Eleventh Amendment was speedily adopted (in 1798) and after its adoption a State could not be sued against its will in a federal court by a citizen of anotiiei State (145). THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 227 tion. Even before Washington was inaugurated, James Madi- son, then a Representative from Virginia, brought before Congress a measure for raising the revenue which was so sorely needed. His plan was to lay a tariff on foreign im- ports. But upon what principle should the tariff law be framed? Should the duties be levied simply with the view of raising a revenue, or should they be fixed with the view of protecting home manufactures from competition with foreign goods? The debate in Congress indicated a strong leaning among some of the members toward the principle of protec- tion, and the bill itself bore the sub-title of " An Act for the Encouragement and Protection of Manufactures." Neverthe- less, the law as passed (July 4, 1789) was in the main a revenue rather than a protective measure. It laid moderate duties on tea, coft"ee, molasses, wines, spirits, glass, and tin. The average rate of duties was only 8 per cent., the lowest scale ever imposed by Congress in a general tariff act. In- deed, it was so low that the revenue thus derived was found to be insufficient. Therefore in 1792 an excise, or internal tax, was levied on liquor and wines, which, added to the customs duties, yielded the necessary revenue. Thus at the outset the new government was placed on a sound financial basis. But the internal taxes were not everywhere willingly paid. The „ , . J Whisky The frontiersmen of western Pennsylvania, accustomed to insurrec- tion convert their corn into whisky, thought they ought to be per- mitted to market their crop in the form of a beverage un- hindered by a government tax. So, when the federal reve- nue officers attempted to collect the whisky tax they were stoutly resisted and in some cases violently attacked. But Washington sent 15,000 soldiers against the law-breakers, and the Whisky Insurrection was soon put down. This incident showed that a new order of things had indeed been estab- lished; it showed that there was now a central government which had an arm strong enough to enforce its laws. The new government inherited from the Confederation a Provid- "^ ing burdensome debt, for the debts contracted by Congress un- for the der the Confederation were to be valid against the United 228 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Assump- tion and the Selection of a Site for a Capital States under the Constitution (125). Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury, promptly came forward with a plan for meet- ing the public debt and restoring the lost credit of the United States. There was a foreign debt of $12,000,000, a domes- tic debt of $42,000,000, and a war debt contracted by the sev- eral States of $21,000,000. Hamilton's plan was to pay not only the foreign and domestic debt of the Confederation, but to assume the war debts of the several States as well. Every- body was for paying the foreign debt in full, but there were serious objections against paying the domestic debt in full. Many of the certificates of this debt had passed out of the hands of the original holders into those of speculators who had bought up the certificates at a price far below their full value ; for which reason some men in Congress thought it unjust to pay full value to holders who had purchased their certificates perhaps at an absurdly low rate. But Hamilton urged payment in full, contending that this payment would strengthen the credit of the new government. The views of the great financier prevailed; all holders of the old obliga- tions of the Confederation were permitted to exchange their certificates at face value for new bonds. The strongest opposition to Hamilton's plan was that which was directed against the proposed assumption of the State debts. Such assumption, it was said, would be an encroachment upon the revenue powers of the State, and would saddle upon the States that had small debts more than their just propor- ti(m. The scheme for assumption was about to be rejected by Congress when it was carried to success by being coupled with another question, namely, the location of the new na- tional capital (61). Many of the Southern members of Con- gress wished the new federal city to be located on the Po- tomac ; many of the Northern members wished it at some point further north. " The Pennsylvania delegates entered into a bargain with the Southern delegates to oppose assump- tion ; in return the capital was to be fixed at Philadelphia for fifteen years, after which it was to be removed to the Po- tomac. r>iit the slorv got abroad and the House struck out THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 229 Philadelphia and inserted Baltimore. Then Hamilton had an interview with Jefferson and on the next day Hamilton, Madison, and others took dinner at Jefferson's house, where the bargain was completed over fine punch and Madeira. The capital was to be removed to Philadelphia for ten years and then permanently established on the banks of the Potomac ; the State debts were to be assumed." (Avery.) This agreement was faithfully kept : before Congress adjourned it passed Hamilton's plan of assumption and made provision for locating the new capital on the banks of the Poto- mac. Another financial measure of Hamilton related to the estab- The First lishment of a bank in which the new federal government should Bank of the have a direct interest. At the time there were but three banks umted states HI the entire country, one at Boston, one at New York, and one at Philadelphia. But these were all State banks. Hamil- ton desired to have a strong central national bank which should act as the fiscal agent of the national government, a bank which could be relied upon to lend money to the government and which would furnish a safe depository for the government's funds. Accordingly, in the face of strong opposition, the Bank of the United States was chartered by Congress (in 1791) for twenty years, with a capital stock of $10,000,000. The government took $2,000,000 of the stock, thereby becom- ing an active partner in the banking business. The bank was in every way successful. When it was opened in Philadel- phia for the sale of stock, all the shares were taken within an hour. The notes of the bank were everywhere received at their face value, and its stock paid a dividend of 8 per cent. " The services of the bank to the infant government were important. It gave an easy and safe means -of handling the public revenue, it provided a steady and ample currency . . . and it offered facilities for the business of the country." Yet, notwithstanding its great usefulness, the bank had many ene- mies. When its charter expired in 181 1, its friends were unable to secure a renewal and the First Bank of the United States passed out of existence. 230 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Congress also took steps for improving the currency, which, of Gold under the Confederation, was in such a disordered condition. and . . . . ... suver The Constitution, depriving the individual States of the right of coinage (72), had lodged that power entirely with the Fed- eral government. Accordingly in 1792 Congress established a mint and enacted a coinage law which provided for the free coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of fifteen ^ to one, the gold dollar to contain 24.75 grains of pure metal and the sil- ver dollar 371.25 grains. Any person with gold or silver bullion could take it to the mint and have it made into coins free of expense. All gold and silver coins issued by the mint were made a " lawful tender in all payments whatso- ever." ^e. THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL PARTIES. The financial measures of the new Government were of The inestimable value to the country, yet the opposition which crauc- they stirred up was so powerful that it led to the formation lican^" of a political party whose organization has been continued *'*^ to the preseuit day. This was the Democratic-Republican party, soon to be known simply as the Democratic party. This new party was led by Thomas Jefferson, who opposed the measures of Hamilton on the ground that they gave the federal government more power than it ought to have, and more power than the Constitution said it should have. Jef- ferson believed in a strict construction of the Constitution : he believed that the only powers which the federal govern- ment could lawfully and rightfully bring into use were those which were explicitly enumerated in the Constitution. For example, he thought that Hamilton's bank scheme was un- lawful because the Constitution nowhere explicitly gives the federal government the power to establish banks. The Demo- cratic party, therefore, stood for a strict and narrow construc- tion of the Constitution, and for the preservation of the rights of the States. " I consider," said Jefferson, " the foundation of the Constitution is laid on this ground, that all powers not 1 In 1834 the ratio was fixed at sixteen to one. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 231 delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor pro- hibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States and to the people (144). To take a single step beyond the boundaries specially drawn around the power of Congress is to take pos- session of a boundless field of power." Opposed to JetTerson's party of strict construction was the The Federalist ^ party, which during Washington's administration aiist held the reins of government. The dominant spirit of this party was Alexander Hamilton. That great man believed in a liberal or broad construction of the Constitution. He be- lieved that in addition to the powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution there were many other reserved and implied powers which could be rightfully exercised by the federal government. For example, he justified his bank scheme on the ground that there was a natural and obvious relation be- tween the institution of a bank and the execution of such enumerated powers as the collection of taxes (44) and the borrowing of money (46). The Federalist party, there- fore, stood for a broad and liberal construction of the Con- stitution and for a strong federal government. The Federalists and the Republicans distrusted each other Party profoundly and opposed each other with great bitterness. The Federalists regarded their opponents as anarchists, as ene- mies not only of the Constitution but of all government. In the opinion of the Federalists, a Republican hated the Con- stitution because he hated to obey the laws and pay his debts and taxes and carry out his contracts. The Republicans in turn accused the Federalists of being hostile to liberty and to republican institutions. In Hamilton's financial schemes the Republicans saw deep-laid plans for corrupting members of Congress and for organizing the Government on the Eng- lish plan of King, Lords, and Commons. Jefferson asserted again and again that the Federalists desired to establish a monarchy. Party lines between the Federalists and Repub- licans were sharply drawn and party warfare soon became so 1 The Anti-Federalist party dissolved after the ratification of the Constitution. Many of its members naturally found their proper places in the Republican party. 232 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Election of 1792 Govern- ment by Party fierce that close personal friends belonging to different parties ceased to speak to each other. The results of party division were clearly seen in 1792 in the second presidential election. Washington, it is true, was reelected unanimously, for both the Republican and the Fed- eralist electors gave him their votes. But in the election of a \'ice-President there was a division along party lines. The Republicans tried to defeat Adams, who was a strong Feder- alist, by bringing out George Clinton of New York, but Adams was successful, receiving 'j'j electoral votes while Clinton received only 50. In Congress the Republicans had better success, for in the House of Representatives which was elected in 1792 they had a majority. Washington was himself a Federalist. Throughout his first term, however, he tried to maintain a non-partisan ad- ministration. But the experiment was a failure. By the time his second term was well under way he was convinced that a bi-partisan cabinet was undesirable. " I shall not," he said in 1795, " while I have the honor to administer the gov- ernment, bring a man into any office of consequence knowingly whose political tenets are adverse to the measures which the general government are pursuing." Tims early in our history our government became a government of parties, and it has never ceased to be administered on a party basis. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The election and inauguration of Washington: Halsej^ IV, 51-61; McMaster I, 525-541. 2. Jefferson's opinion of Hamilton : Hart III, 286-289. 3. Hamilton's opinion of Jefferson: Hart III, 289-292. 4. Hamilton's financial system; McMaster I, 569-583. 5. Public debt : Forman, 288-294. 6. The federal executive departments : Forman, 139-145. 7. The federal judiciary: Forman, 147-153. 8. The first tariff debate: Hart HI, 262-264. 9. Party government in the United States : Forman, 79-85. 10. A date for the chronological table: 1789. 11. Prepare a list of all the Secretaries of States. How many of THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 233 these have either been Presidents or candidates for the Presidency? To what extent did the tariff of 1789 attempt to protect American manu- factures? Give a full account of the Whisky Insurrection: Mc- Master II, 189-202. What prominent man was among those who joined in the uprising? Compare the action of the federal government in respect to the Whisky Insurrection with the action of the government of the Confederation in respect to Shays's Rebellion. What was the origin of the word "caucus"? Read in the class a striking passage from the speech of Fisher Ames in favor of Jay's Treaty : Harding, 128-149. 12. Special Reading. John S. Bassett, The Federalist System. J. P. Gordy, History of Political Parties. R. W. Griswold, The Republican Court. James Schouler, History of ihe United States, Vol. I. XXII SETTING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MO- TION, 1789-1801 (continued) •JT. FOREIGN RELATIONS. The During Washington's first term the new government was Revoiu- engaged chiefly with domestic affairs ; during his second term foreign affairs came in for the largest share of attention. The event which drew the United States into the whirlpool of foreign affairs was the mighty social upheaval known as the French Revolution. For centuries the common people of France had been overtaxed by a corrupt and extravagant government and had been oppressed by a cruel and arrogant aristocracy. About the time, however, that Americans were battling for their independence, the French people were also beginning to think of freedom, and by 1789 were ripe for a revolt against their masters. And they asserted their power in a terrible fashion. They tore up society from its founda- tions. They swept away nobles, peers, and all institutions that were out of harmony with their doctrines of liberty and their notions of human rights. For a time the King was al- lowed to retain his throne. But monarchy too was doomed. In Sei)tember, 1792, the National Convention proclaimed France a republic, and a few months later Louis X\T, the proud descendant of a hundred kings, was guillotined near the broken statue of one of his own ancestors. This act alarmed every monarch in Europe, and within a year France was at war with the combined forces of England, Spain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Sympathy In America the new French republic was hailed almost French everywhere with delight. The news of a great French victory over the forces of the allied nations at Valmy brought forth tremendous rejoicings. At Philadelphia, now the temporary 234 THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 255 ^•apital, church bells were rung, shops were closed, and the people could talk of nothing but the liai)penings in I'rance. " At New York a whole day was given over to feasting and firing of cannon. At Boston the birth of the new republic and the expulsion of its invaders was celebrated with a grand civic feast, and men and women seemed to have gone mad with enthusiasm." But while the people generallv were delirious with joy Prociaraa- . " . tionof in government circles there were cool heads. Washington Neu- saw that the United States was compelled to take a stand in regard to the war that was being waged between France and England. The problem which confronted him was a difficult one. We owed a debt of gratitude to France for the aid she gave us during the Revolution and by the terms of the treaty of 1778 (p. 190) we were expected to defend the French interests in the West Indies and to grant to France cer- tain special privileges in our own ports. On the other hand to incur the hostility of England by taking sides with her enemy would expose the United States to great danger. Washing- ton, after consulting with his secretaries, decided upon a course of strict neutrality. In April 1793, he issued a proc- lamation to the efifect that the United States would take the side of neither England nor France, but would remain on friendly relations with both belligerent powers. Thus at the very outset the American government entered upon a policy of keeping clear of European entanglements. About the time the proclamation was issued, Edmond Genet, Genet's . . Mission a Minister of the new French republic and an ebullient patriot, appeared in America and in an over-zealous manner appealed to the people to take up the cause of France in spite of the action of Washington. But his appeal was in vain. The sympathies of thousands of Americans were undoubtedly with France, but the best interests of the country required a policy of neutrality. The people saw this and supported Washing- ton, as they always supported him. Although our government refused to take sides against f®^^^"' England in 1793, we nevertheless at the time had no great ^^^1^*^ 22>(i ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY reason to be very friendly toward that country. England still held the western forts and she was still doing what she could to injure American commerce (p. 221). Soon after the outbreak of war between France and England, the English government issued orders instructing British warships to seize all vessels loaded wholly or in part with corn, flour, or meat bound to any port in France, or to any French colony. In the execution of these orders hundreds of American vessels were seized and in many instances valuable cargoes were con- demned. Moreover, British naval officers persisted in search- ing American ships for seamen of British birth, and if any English-born subjects were found they were taken and im- pressed into the service of England. Even American-born citizens were sometimes thus taken from American vessels and impressed. So great were the outrages committed by England that we would have been justified in going to war. Jay's But Washington held firmly to a peaceful course. He Treaty ° . sent John Jay to London to negotiate a treaty that would establish better relations between the United States and Great Britain. Jay succeeded in efifecting a treaty by which the western forts were to be given up, but which otherwise was not very favorable to the United States. Jay was unable to secure a guarantee that American vessels w^ould be no longer disturbed and that American seamen would be no longer im- pressed. Still, it was thought that half a loaf was better than no loaf at all, and accordingly the treaty was ratified (June 1795) by Washington and the Senate (95). The House of Representatives voted the money necessary to execute the treaty, but passed a resolution which virtually asserted the right of the House to deliberate upon any regulation for a treaty requiring the expenditure (69) of money. The treaty was unpopular in the extreme. All over the country it was bit- terly denounced and in many places effigies of Jay and the treaty were burned together. As it turned out, however, the treaty was not so unfavorable to the Americans after all. Under its workings our commerce increased in volume and the seizures of our vessels diminished in number. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 237 7Z. THE RETIREMENT OF WASHINGTON AND THE ELEC- TION OF JOHN ADAMS. About the time the Jay treaty was meeting with such bit- TheRe- ter denunciation, Washington's second term was drawing to ^ a close. The great man was now by no means so popular as ington he had been. About 1794 he began to show a distinct prefer- ence for the Federalist party, which caused the Republicans to regard him as their greatest enemy. In February 1796, the House of Representatives, then controlled by the Re- publicans (Democrats), refused to adjourn for half an hour in order to go and pay him its respects, as it up to that time had been accustomed to do. All over the country there could be found those who denounced him as an aristocrat, an An- glomaniac. and a monocrat. He was even accused of over- drawing his salary. Yet, in spite of these violent outbursts of opposition, Washington was still strono- in the affections of the people, and there is - no doubt that if he had desired a third term he would have been elected. But he felt that the time had come for him to retire to private life. In 1796 he published his farewell address and when his sec- ond term ended (March 4, ^^^ ^°^"* ^""°"- 1797) he retired to Mount Vernon, where he lived quietly and happily until his death. By the withdrawal of Washington, the Presidency was for The -' . . . Election the first time thrown open to the rivalry of candidates. The of Federalist party had several candidates, the chief aspirants Adams being Adams, Hamilton, and Jay. The Republicans centered their forces upon their great leader, Thomas Jefferson. The result of the election showed that the party division had been made along sectional lines : every Southern State except Mary- land was Republican, while every Northern State was Fed- 238 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY eralist. When the electoral votes were counted, Adams re- ceived 71, Jefferson 68, Thomas Pinckney 59, Aaron Burr 30, while the others were scattered. In accordance with the Con- stitution as it then stood, Adams was declared to be elected President and Jefferson Vice-President (83). Thus under the cumbersome electoral system as it was first devised, it was possible for the candidate of one political party to be chosen President while the leader of another party was chosen Vice- President. The Trouble with Trance 79. MORE TROUBLE WITH FRANCE. Adams inherited from his predecessor a legacy of trou- ble with France. The Jay treaty had deeply offended the French people, who construed it as being unfriendly to the interests of their country. Accordingly, the treaty was no sooner signed than the French Republic began to show its dis- pleasure. By the time Adams took his place at the helm (March 4, 1797) the American Minister to France had been sent out of the country and French cruisers were seizing American vessels on the high seas. In April 1797, Adams re- ceived a message informing him that the French government would have nothing further to do with the United States until the grievances of France were re- dressed. Expecting war, he at once convened Congress in special session (100) in order that pro- vision might be made for organiz- ing an army and for defending the coast. But Adams did not wish war any more than Washington had wished it. With the hope of heal- ing the breach through treaty ar- rangements, he despatched as en- voys to l-'rancc Charles C. Pinckney, Elbridgc Gerry, and John Marshall. These envoys were met at Paris by three un- John Adams. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 239 official agents ^ of the P>cnch government and were informed that if a treaty were secured a considerable sum of money The by way of bribe would first have to be paid to French officials, Affair and that the United States would have to lend money to France to enable her to carry on the war against England. A direct official interview with the French government was denied to the envoys. When Adams heard of the insulting manner in which his Prepara- . tions envoys had been treated, he declared he would never again for . . ~ War send a minister to France unless he was first assured that the minister " would be received and honored as the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation." The re- port of the envoys caused much bitterness of feeling through- out the United States and there went up a clamor for a war with France. Congress responded to the clamor and passed warlike measures. A navy department was created, ves- sels were equipped for fighting, and extra taxes for meet- ing the expenses of the war were laid. A new regiment was added to the little army and 10,000 volunteers were enlisted for a term of three years. Adams encouraged the war-spirit and for a while he tasted the sweets of popularity. But this was not to last long. In 1799 France expressed a willingness to receive envoys from the United States. Adams, still wish- ing to avert war if possible, responded to the overtures. He sent envoys to France, and in September 1800, a treaty was entered into by which peaceful relations between the two countries were restored and stipulations for the better pro- tection of American commerce were made. This treaty was very unpopular with those who were clamoring for war, and it brought upon the head of Adams a storm of censure and abuse. There can be no doubt, however, that Adams acted wisely, for he saved the United States from a costly, unneces- sary, and perhaps a disastrous war. 1 The names of the French agents who dealt with the American envoys were known in the diplomatic records as x, y, z, and these letters have always been used to give a name to the affair. The names of the agents were Hottingeur (x), Bellamy (y), and Hauteval (z). 240 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Alien Act The Sedi- tion Act The Kentucky and Virginia Eesolu- tions 80. THE DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALIST PARTY. By the time the first term of x\dams was drawing to a close, the Federahst party was approaching its downfall. One cause of its decadence was dissension among the leaders. Hamilton and Adams had quarreled hitterly and their differences had caused a split in the party. But a greater cause of weakness was the legislation which the Federalists enacted while the trou- ble with France was brewing. In June 1798, the Federalists forced through Congress the so-called Alien Law. This law be- stowed upon the President the power to order all such aliens as he should judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, or should have reasonable ground to believe were concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof, to leave the United States within such time as he might direct. If any alien thus or- dered to depart should refuse, he was to be imprisoned for not more than three years. If he obeyed the order and then returned, he was to be imprisoned at the will of the Presi- dent. As a further discouragement to aliens a law extending the period of naturalization (48) to 14 years was passed. The Alien Act was followed in a few weeks by the Sedi- tion Act. This imposed a heavy fine upon any person con- spiring to oppose any measure of government, and upon any persons publishing any false or scandalous or malicious writ- ing against the National Government, Congress, or the Presi- dent. The chief purpose of these laws was to frustrate the plans and silence the tongues of those who sympathized with France, and criticized the President for his action in regard to French affairs. The Alien Law enforced itself: the ob- noxious persons against whom it was directed took alarm and fled — Adams did not deport a single man. But ten editors and printers, all of them Republicans, were convicted under the Sedition Act. The Republicans felt that the Alien and Sedition Acts were aimed at themselves, and they protested strongly against the measures, contending that Congress was forbidden by the Con- THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN MOTION 241 stitution to pass laws interfering with freedom of speech (132) or personal liberty (138). In November 1798 the Republican legislature of Kentucky passed the famous Ken- tucky Resolutions, drawn up by the hand of Thomas Jeffer- son, declaring that the Alien and Sedition Laws were con- trary to the Constitution and that it was the duty of the States to combine and refuse obedience to the two oppressive statutes. The next month, resolutions of the same nature, drawn up by James Madison, were adopted by the Legislature of \irginia. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were sent to the other States for consideration. In the North where the Federalists were in control the replies were unfavorable ; in the South no replies were made. The hidden meaning of the Resolutions was that if the States desired they could by combined action " nullify " or set aside a law of Congress. The nullification foreshadowed in the Resolutions, however, was to be accomplished by a combination of several States, not by a single State. The irritation caused by the Alien and Sedition Laws and The the strength of the Republican opposition to these laws were of Jef- • fcrsou seen in the presidential election of 1800. The Federalist can- didates for President and Vice-President in that year were John Adams and C. C. Pinckney of South Carolina, while the Republicans brought forward Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. These candidates were nominated by caucuses of mem- bers of Congress, the system of nominating conventions not having yet made its appearance. When the electoral votes were counted it was found that Jefferson and Burr had each received y^ votes and Adams 65. Inasmuch as no name was highest on the list (83) the election had to be carried to the House of Representatives. After a long struggle ^ Jeffer- son was elected President and Burr Vice-President. With the defeat of Adams the national government passed out of the hands of the Federalist party into those of the Re- 1 With the view of preventing such dis]nites as arose at this time, the adoption of the XII Amendment vi'as secured (in 1804). By this Amendment the election of the President (147) is made an affair entirely distinct from the election of a Vice-President. 242 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY publican — or as we may now call it — the Democratic party The Federalist party never fully recovered from the defeat. However, during its short life of twelve years it had accom- plished a great work: it had breathed life and power into the Constitution and set the new federal government firmly on its feet. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. International Relations: Forman, 256-262. 2. The French Revolution : Robinson and P>eard I, 224-247 ; Hart in, 303-305. 3. Genet's complaint: Hart HI, 307-312. 4. Neutrality and the mission of Genet: IMcMaster II, 8^-141; Hart III, 305-307. 5. The seizure of American vessels: Hart III, 312-314. 6. Jay's Treaty: McMaster II, 212-229. 7. The quarrel with France (1797-1798) : McMaster II, 311-320; Hart III, 322-326. 8. The Alien and Sedition Laws: McMaster II. 389-399. 9. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutiors: McMaster II, 418-426; McElroy, 211-264. 10. Dates for the chronological table: 1795, 1798, 1799. 11. Read in the class the passage of Washington's Farewell Address which you think is most significant: Harding, 152-163. Why did France expect the cooperation of the United States in 1793? What celebrated novel describes the scenes of the French Revolution? Sum- marize the achievements of the federal government during the ad- ministrations of Washington and John Adams. 12. Special Reading. J. P. Gordy, History of Political Parties in the United States. John Marshall, Life of George Washington. Wood- row Wilson, George Washington. John T. Morse, Jr., John Adams. Henry Cabot Lodge, Ale.vander Hamilton. J. S. Bassett, The Fed- eralist System. XXITI A SURV'EY OF THE NEW -BORN NATION What kind of a country did \vc have when Jefferson took his place at the head of the National Government? What social and political con- ditions prevailed? What progress had been made in commerce and manufactures? What movements in population were taking place and what new settlements were being made? 8i. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS. In 1790 when the first census (9) was taken the popu- Popuia- tion lation of the United States was 3,929,214; in 1800 it was 5,308,483. In 1800 about 95 per cent, of the inhabitants lived in the open country or in small villages. Only five cities (Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Boston, and Charles- ton) had a population of more than 8,000, and the combined population of the five was less than the present population of the single city of Denver. Philadelphia, with a popuia- The tion of 70,000, was the largest city in the United States, and cities in the opinion of a French traveler was one of the most beautiful cities in the world. New York came second, with a population of 60,000; Baltimore was third in rank with 26,000. Boston followed Baltimore with 25,000. Charles- ton, still the metropolis of the South, had a population of 10,000. The everyday life of the people in the new nation was still Religion the plain, simple affair it had been in colonial times. In all the States religion still held a foremost place in the lives and consciences of the people, although in most all of the States the affairs of religion had been entirely separated from the affairs of government, and churches were no longer supported at public expense. Common schools were few and illiteracy was widespread. In respect to higher education, however, y^"*'*" 243 244 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY some progress was being made. In addition to the nine col- leges founded before the Revolution (p. 157) there had been established by 1800 Bowdoin College in Maine, Middlebury College in Vermont, Williams College in Massachusetts, Cnion College in New York, Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, Georgetown College in the District of Cohnnbia, and St. John's College in Maryland. Covcrnment was still in the Th^ hands of a learned, aristocratic class, and the right to vote \\a^ Still I li' I .' i.i ciiiiin classes — to those who owned » ^ - -.--f-wr-ja* - .^ certain amount , JIK^ WL i)i property or held High Stieet (now Market Street), PhiladcipiuLi fi,„,, oT^.^o'.,- t-r^ (about 1800). ^"^y aPPe'ir to- day. The only use Material to which steam was ])ut was to dri\e machinerv in factories. Conditions ' _ - _ Streets were poorly paved and were lighted only by dingy lamps. Most of the useful inventions which now do so much to make life agreeable and comfortable w-ere still in the realm of the undiscovered. Slavery About ouc-fifth of the entire population consisted of negro men" slaves. An overwhelming majority of these were in the States south of the Potomac. In the Northern States slavery as an institution was declining. At the opening of the nine- teenth century every State north of the Mason and Dixon's Line had either abolished slavery or had taken steps that would lead to universal freedom. In the South, too, there was a strong sentiment against slavery. Before 1800 Maryland, Vir- ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia had all for- bidden the importation of slaves and in some of these States A SURVEY OF THE NEW-BORN NATION 245 there were movements for the enianoipation of the bhick race. Thomas Jefiferson was ahiiost bitter in his opposition to slavery, while Washington by his last will emancipated the slaves on his plantation. But the invention of the cotton-gin — presently to be noticed more fully — and the consequent ex- pansion of cotton culture soon checked the anti-slavery move- ment in the South and caused the Southern planter to cling tenaciously to the institution. When the question of dealing with slavery came up before Congress that body declared that it had no power in regard to slaves ^ except to assist masters in securing the return of fugitive slaves — a power which by implication was given to it The by the Constitution (117). In 1793 Congress passed a fugi- Fugitive- tive-slave law which remained in force fifty-seven years. By Law the terms of this law a master or his agent might recover a slave by taking him before a federal judge, or a local magis- trate, who, without a jury trial, could determine the question of ownership. In regard to the conditions of slave life a traveler (Isaac The ° Conditions Weld) in 170"; made the following observations: " The of ''-'-} ° Slave slaves on the large plantations are in general very well pro- Life vided for and treated with mildness. During the three months, isoo nearly, that I was in Virginia, two or three instances of ill treatment towards them came under my observation. Their quarters, the name whereby their habitations are called, are usually situated one or two hundred yards from the dwell- ing-house, which gives the appearance of a village. Adjoin- ing their little habitations the slave commtmity have small gardens and yards for poultry which are all their own prop- erty ; they have ample time to attend to their own concerns and their gardens are generally well stocked and their flocks of poultry numerous. Besides the poultry they raise for themselves they are allowed liberal rations of salted pork and Indian corn. In short, their condition is by no means so wretched as might be imagined. They are forced to work 1 Congress had the power to prohibit the importation of slaves after January i, j8o8 (63), and in 1807 it passed a law making such importation unlawful. 246 ADVANCIiU AMERICAN IIISIORY certain liours in the day, hut in return they are clothed, dieted, and lodged comfortably, and saved all anxiety about provi- sion for their offspring." But this description of slavery, the same traveler said, applied mainly to \'irginia. In some of the other States he found that slaves were treated in a manner that could iiot possibly be defended upon grounds either of humanity or justice. The Prosper- ity of the Farmer The Back- ward Condi- tion of Agricul- ture The Plow 82. INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS. Agriculture was the mainstay of the new nation as it had been the mainstay of the colonies. More than nine-tenths of the people were engaged in farming. The wars which raged in Europe for more than twenty years after 1793 (p. 234) created a brisk and unusual demand for provisions. Ameri- can farmers, quick to take advantage of this market were, by 1800, sending abroad large quantites of wheat, corn, hams, beef, and pork, and were receiving for these commodities ex- cellent prices. Although farming was the chief source of our wealth, agri- culture as an art had advanced little beyond what it was in Europe in the fifteenth century (p. 5). Fertilizers for improving land were seldom used. When a piece of land would no longer yield a crop, it was abandoned for a bet- ter piece, for land in almost every State was abundant. The plow was still made mostly of wood. On the rudely constructed wooden mold-boards were fastened the blades of old hoes, thin strips of iron, or worn-out horseshoes. The beam was a simple straight stick. The handles were cut from the branches of a tree. Thomas Jefferson improved the plow by designing a mold-board constructed according to scientific principles. In 1796 Charles Newbold of Fjurling- ton, New Jersey, made a plow wholly of cast iron, but the New Jersey farmers did not take kindly to the iron plow. They said that iron poisoned the crops and caused weeds to grow. So, Newbold could not sell his iron plows. The methods of harvesting crops were as primitive as the method of tilling the ground. The grain was still cut by the sickle. A SURVEY OF THE NEW-BORN NATION 247 altliniigh about 1800 the grain-cradle was coming into use and was driving out the ancient sickle. Grain was still th resiled from the straw by the flail or tramped out by the slow feet of oxen. In 1800 there was one product of the farm that was in- The . . Cotton creasing at a startling rate. This was cotton. At the begin- Gin and . . . . . Cotton ning of the national period we were raising but little cotton Culture because the difficulty of separating the cotton from its seed was so great. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented a machine by which the separation could be easily made. With the ap- pearance of Whitney's Cotton Gin the cultivation of cotton enormously increased. In 1791 we produced only two mil- lion pounds of cotton ; in 1801 we produced forty-eight million pounds. The great output of cotton was necessary in order to supply The , r , ,11, • . . Indus- the vast number 01 looms that had been set m motion in trial England by the flying-shuttle of Kay, the spinning-machine tion of Arkwright, and the steam engine of Watt. Before the appearance of these inventions textiles were generally woven in the home or in a little shop where there were seldom more than two or three looms. But after the power-loom and the steam engine came into use the little shop with its two or three looms disappeared and in its stead there arose the great factory with its hundreds of looms and scores of operators. As it was with weaving so it was with many other industries : during the second half of the eighteenth century great inventions and improved machinery caused the household and the shop system of industry to be abandoned and the factory system to be established. This reorganization was so complete and so radical that it was in fact an industrial revolution. In England, and to some extent on the continent, the in- House dustrial revolution was well under way by the end of the Indus eighteenth century. In America, however, industry in 1800 was still in the household stage. " Furniture, hats, shoes, simple iron instruments, and many other articles which in later times were made by machinery were then made by 248 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Begin- ning of the Factory System Commer- cial Matters Roads and Bridges Carding, drawing, roving, and spinning as introduced by Samuel Slater, 1790. village artisans or by plaiitalioii mechanics."" In some i)arts of the country nearly all the clothing of the people was made by the people themselves on their own looms. Neverthelcs'^, bv 1800 we were making some progress in manufacturing. In 1790 Samuel Slat- er, an Englishman by birth, but the father of Ameri- can manufacturing, went to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and set up a good-sized cotton factory, equipping it with machinery such as was used in England. The Pawtucket mill was a success and its establishment may be regarded as the beginning of the in- dustrial revolution in America. Notwithstanding this progress. however, we were by no means able in 1800 to supply all our wants in respect to manufactured articles; we were still de- pendent upon England for those manufactures which required skill in making. If in 1800 the United States was backward in manufactur- ing, it was progressive in commercial matters. Especially prosperous was our foreign commerce, thanks again to the European wars. Our total foreign trade increased from less than $50,000,000 in 1790 to more than $200,000,000 in 1800. During the same period our exports rose from $19,000,000 to $94,000,000. Our shipping interests were also in a highly prosperous condition, the freight earnings of American ves- sels amounting to more than $30,000,000 a year. Our coast- wise and river trade was also in a flourishing condition. Rut our inland and overland trade was light. This was due to bad methods of travel and transportation. The day of bridge-building and road-building had not yet arrived. " The same bad roads and difficult rivers connecting the same A SURVEY OF THE NEW-BORN NATION 249 small towns stretched into the same forests in 1800 as when the armies of i'.raddock and Amherst pierced the western and northern wilderness." In 1801, of the eight rivers and creeks between JetTerson's home (Monticello) and Wash- ington, five were without bridges or boats for crossing. By 1800 post-offices had been established in all parts of The^^ the country but postage was regulated according to distance, o^^e For distances under 30 miles the postage on a letter was six cents : between 30 miles and 60 miles eight cents, and so on, the rate increasing until for a distance of 500 miles the postage was twenty-five cents. Newspapers were not yet carried in the mails and postage stamps for letters had not yet been invented. Although the rates of postage were so high, the total receipts of the Post-office Department in 1801 ' J were only $320,000, or less than is received now in a single / small city. Nothing could show more plainly the separated and isolated existence which the people lived than this meager- ness of postal receipts. A grown person mailed on an average only about one letter a year. ,j 83. A WESTWARD-MOVING PEOPLE. The most significant fact of American life at the close of West- ..... ward the eighteenth century was the wave of civilization which was Move- , ° -' . . ment moving toward the West. After the Revolution, especiallv of Popu ^ . lation after 1789, settlers began to push out into the vacant lands beyond the mountains at a startling rate. At the close of the Revolution there were probably not more than 50,000 white inhabitants within the boundaries of the United States west of the Alleghanies. Between 1790 and 1800 the popu- lation of western Pennsylvania increased 60,000. In 1790 the total population of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Northwest Territory was little more than 100,000; by 1800 it had jumped I to nearly 400,000. By 1800 the whole western country as far as the Missis- Kentucky sippi had been marked oflf and organized for purposes of government. Kentucky, as we have seen (p. 145), originally belonged to Virginia, but the Kentuckians desired to live under 250 ADVANCIiD AMERICAN HISTORY Tennes- see Missis- sippi Terri- tory Settle- ments along the Ohio the government of a separate State. After years of agitation their -wishes were f ulfihed : in 1789 Virginia consented to a separation and in 1792 Kentucky was admitted (118) to the Union as the second ^ of the adopted States. In 1784 the Tennessee country (p. 146) was organized as a separate State called I'ranklin, in honor of Benjamin Franklin. John Sevier was elected governor of Franklin, and Greenville was made the capital of the State. But the State of Franklin had only a short life. In 1788 North Carolina asserted its rights to the Tennessee country and the officers of Franklin were divested of power. In 1790 Tennessee was given over by North Caro- lina to Congress to be governed as a Territory, and in 1796 it was admitted to the Union. In 1798 a strip of land " bounded on the west by the Mississippi, on the north by a line drawn due east from the mouth of the Yazoo to the Chat- tahoochee River, and on the south by the thirty-first de- gree of north latitude " w'as set off as the Mississippi Terri- tory. But the most important extension of the area of settlement during the closing years of the eighteenth century was to- ward the Northwest. We saw (p. 209) that the Ordinance of 1787 was passed mainly for the purpose of providing a govern- ment for a settlement which was projected by a company of New Englanders. This settlement was made at the mouth of the Muskingum River, where the foundations of Marietta were laid in 1788 and where a territorial government ^ for the Northwest Territory was at once established, the first governor being General Arthur St. Clair, a soldier of the Revolution 1 The first State to be admitted into the Union under the Constitution was Ver- mont. The Vermont people during the Revolution had adopted a constitution and had declared Vermont to be an independent State, but it was not recognized as such for the reason that the Vermont region was claimed by New York. In 1790 New York withdrew her claim and in 1791 Vermont was admitted. * Usually a Territory passed through two stages of government. In its first stage, while the number of its legal voters was less than S.ooo, it had no law- making body, and was governed entirely by the governor, judges, and other officers appointed by the President. When the number of legal voters came to be more than 5,000 the Territory passed into the second stage of government and was given a territorial legislature elected by popular vote, the executive officer* and the judges still being appointed by the President. A SURVEY OF THE NEW-BORN NATION 251 and a warm personal friend of President Washington. Cin- cinnati was founded in the same year, and within a few yearj- the towns of Belpre, Gallipolis, Portsmouth, Manchester, and South Bend sprang up on the banks of the Ohio. The interior of the Territory teemed with Indians, who in The TrsEtv 1791 became so troublesome that General St. Clair was com- of pelled to march against them. But St. Clair sufifered a ter- viUe rible defeat. General Anthony Wayne was then sent against the red warriors. Meeting them in battle at Fallen Timbers (in 1794), he dealt them such a blow that they gladly en- Boundaries established by the Treaty of Greenville. tered into an agreement known as the Treaty of Greenville (1795)- By this treaty a boundary line between the Indians and the whites was established. The region south and east of the line, including about two-thirds of the present State of Ohio, was ceded to the whites. The region north and west of the line was to remain in possession of the Indians. With the Indians out of the way the settlement of the The . Terri- Ohio country went on unimpeded. Towns now were built tory farther up the streams and further inland. In 1795 Dayton west and Chillicothe were founded, and the next year saw the Ohio beginnings of Cleveland. In 1800 the Northwest Territory 252 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Frontier Line in 1800 was divided, the eastern portion l)eing set off as the Terri- tory Northwest of the Ohio, while the western portion was called Indiana Territory and was given a territorial govern- ment of its own. The population of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio was now more than 40,000 and its people were already clamoring for statehood under the terms of the Ordi- nance of 1787. Thus by 1800 two flourishing States west of the Alleghany Mountains had been added to the Union and three great ter- Wolf Creek Mills— The First Mill in Ohio. ritories had been organized and furnished with the machinery of civil government. Of course this meant an enormous in- crease in the area of settlement and a decided westward ad- vance of the Frontier Line. The settled area of the United States in 1790 was about 240,000 square miles; in 1800 it was upwards of 300,000 square miles. The Frontier Line in 1790 — 'if we disregard the detached settlements — was in some places still east of the Alleghanies and in no place was it far west of those mountains. By 1800 the Frontier Line in many places ran hundreds of miles west of the Alle- ghanies, the limits of western settlement being marked by a line running from Osv/ego, New York, to Cleveland, to Cin- cinnati, to Louisville, to Nashville, to Savannah. A SURVEY OF THE NEW-BORN NATION 253 REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK I. Begin llic preparation of a Table oi Admitted States according to tlie following plan : , -a , CJ fXj Name (/■J '*-> c <*- -" ^ Popula- Origin or n f, c s •" tion Derivation of State s a; r. C rtii in 1910 of name Q ^ Ph -" < Vermort .... 1791 Fort o..Sfi5 355-956 From the Dummcr French J'ert Mom Kentucky . . 1774 179J Harrods- burg 40,400 2.jS'9,095 From an Indian word Kentake meaning "]\Ieadow Land" Tennessee . .. 1769 1796 Watau- ga 42.050 -.184,789 From an Indian word meaning ■'River of the Big Bend" 2. Social life in the United States in 1800: AIcMaster II, 538-582; Hart III, 14-48. 3. Describe the economic conditions which prevailed in the LInited States between 1789-1801 ; Hart III, 49-72. 4. The industrial revolution: Robinson and Beard II, 30-52; Bo- gart. 106, 162-163. 5. Territories and Dependencies : Fot man, 184-193. 6. The postal service in the early days : McMaster II, 59-65. 7. The navigation of the Mississippi : Ogg, 400-459. 8. Early land cessions: McMaster II, 476-481. 9. Life in the West in 1800: McMaster II, 144-146. 10. The introduction of manufactures into the United States : Bogart, 140-158. 11. The invention of the cotton gin (Greely) : Halsey IV, 74-82. 12. The settlement of Ohio: Halsey IV, 108-113; McMaster I, 505- 516. 13. A date for the chronological table: 1793. 14. How to found a settlement: Hart HI, 97-101. 254 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY 15. Characteristics of America (1800) : Hart III, 23-27. 16. The people of the woods: Hart III, 464-467. 17. The Steam-Engine : S. E. Forman, Useful Inventions, 54-72. 18. The Loom : Forman, Useful Inventions, 109-124. 19. Grozvth in Population: — -The growth of the United States in population is shown in the following table : 1 790 3,929,214 1800 5.308,483 1810 7,J39,88i 1820 9,638,453 1830 , 12,866,020 1840 17,069,453 1850 23,191,876 i860 31,443,321 1870 38,558,371 1880 50,155,783 1890 62,947,714 1900 75,994,575 1910 91,972,266 li-M^) ! i - ■' - f ■ ■■ 20. Special Reading. S. A. Drake, The Making of the Ohio Valley. F. S. Riley, History of Mississippi. Avery, History of the United States Vol. VII. XXIV THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM (1801-1817) In the opening years of the nineteenth century the chief task of our national government was to protect the commerce of the United States against the depredations of the warring powers of Europe. What were the wrongs which were inflicted upon our commerce? How were these wrongs redressed, and how was our commercial freedom secured and preserved ? 84. JEFFERSONIAN SIMPLICITY. "When the time came for Jefferson's inauguration the Fed- JJ^^ eral government was estabhshed in its new home on the cfty'**^ banks of the Potomac. The offices of the government had been removed from Philadelphia to Washington in June 1800, and in December of that year Congress had met for the first time in the new capital. The city which is now the pride of the nation was then in a rude and primitive condition. Indeed the place was hardly more than a wilderness. From the site of the unfinished capitol one could look over the country for miles and see only a few lime-kilns, a few tem- porary huts for laborers, and long stretches of forest. In the autumn of 1801 Abigail Adams, the wife of President Adanis. while on her way from Baltimore to Washington was actually lost in the woods. When this first Lady of the White House arrived at the residence intended for the President it was so far from being completed that it was almost uninhabitable. For several months Mrs. Adams used the great East Room of the White House as a place for drying clothes. The ceremonies with which Jefferson was inducted into Jeffer- office were in keeping with the primitive character of the sim- surroundings. The inauguration of Washington, and also 255 2S6 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Jeffer- sonian Princi- ples that of Adams, had been marked by a dignity that was almost regal. But in the forest city in which Jefferson was in- augurated pomp and splendor were out of the question. The ceremonies were of necessity plain and simple, just as Jef- ferson desired they should be. The President-elect went from his own lodging to the unfinished Capitol on foot and in ordinary dress. His escort consisted of a small troop of mili- tia and a few citi- zens who joined the line of the little pro- cession. Jeft'erson felt — and he was justified in so feeling — that he was the leader of a great movement in popular government and in his inaugural address he gave a complete summary of his political faith. The principles an- nounced by Jeffer- son were : equal and exact justice to all men ; peace, com- Thomas Jeflferson. j^^j-ce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights ; the preservation of the general (national) government in its con- stitutional vigor as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people; absolute acquiescence in the decision of the majority, the vital principle of republics ; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority ; economy in the public expenses ; encourage- son s Cabinet THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM 257 ment of agriculture and of commerce as its handmaid ; the diffusion of information (popular education) ; freedom of re- ligion ; freedom of the press ; freedom of the person under the writ of habeas corpus; trial by juries impartially selected. As heads of two of the great departments Jefferson selected J^ffer at once James Madison as Secretary of State, Henry Dear born of Massachusetts as Secretary of War. In a short time he chose as Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin of Penn- sylvania, one of the greatest financiers of the age. A Sec- retary of the Navy was so hard to find that at one time Jefferson thought he would have to advertise in the papers for a man. Finally, however, Robert Smith of Maryland accepted the position. Levi Lincoln of Massachusetts was chosen as Attorney General. With these associates Jefferson conferred freely. When Sr^H°®* -' _ _ -^ _ Meetings a question came up of sufficient magnitude to require the opinions of all the heads of departments, he called them together, had the subject discussed and, when a vote was taken, counted himself but one. Washington had usually com- I municated with the heads of the departments in writing (93), although both he and Adams sometimes conferred with them around the council board, as if in a cabinet meeting. With Jefferson, however, the holding of a cabinet meeting became a fixed custom of executive procedure. When the time (December 1801) came for Jefferson to The \, . . Presi- communicate with Congress he sent a written message to dent's ^ , , . ° Message that body mstead of appearmg m person as his predecessors had done. During the administrations of Washington and Adams, the communications of the President with Congress had been attended with much pomp and ceremony. There had been a cavalcade, an oration by the President, a proces- sion of the members of Congress, and an address of reply. Jefferson's method was regarded as being in keeping with republican simplicity and the example set by him was fol- lowed by his successors for more than a hundred years. In his first message Jefferson recommended the rej)eal of Jeflfer- the internal taxes (p. 227), the payment of the public debt, Measures 2S8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY economy in public expenditures, and a reduction in the num- ber of officials. This message was sent to a Congress that was Democratic in both branches and that was in full sym- pathy with the President's plans. So, Congress enacted most of the legislation which Jefferson desired. It repealed the hateful whisky tax (p. 227) and left the customs duties as the principal source of federal revenue ; it provided for a rapid reduction of the national debt ; it reduced the expenses of the government from $7,500,000 to $5,000,000; it repealed the law passed at the previous session creating a number of new federal courts (53) which Jeft'erson regarded as useless; it shortened the term of residence required for naturalization from fourteen (p. 240) years to five years; it provided for a Congressional Library ; and it authorized the establishment of a military academy at West Point. ^ 85. THE TRIPOLITAN WAR. Throughout his entire administration Jefferson was kept busy in protecting American commerce from the aggression of outsiders. First, there were the pirates of the Mediter- ranean to deal with. For centuries it was the custom of the little states of northern Africa to plunder the commerce of any nation trading in the Mediterranean unless immunity was purchased by the payment of tribute. Strange to say, most of the European powers found it more convenient to pay tribute than to fight. The United States at first followed the example of other nations, paying annually a sum of money for the sake of peace. Early in Jefferson's administra- tion the pirates demanded an additional sum for keeping the peace, pretending that the sum that had been paid before was for making peace. This was carrying the exactions too far; so the peace-loving Jefferson abandoned a cherished policy and determined to fight rather than pay tribute. The little navy of the United States was strengthened and sent (in 1801) against Tripoli, the most offensive of the piratical states. The war, which was marked by many splendid deeds J A naval academy was established at Annapolis in 1S45, THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM 259 of courage on the part of Americans, came to an end in 1804 when a treaty of peace was made which reheved American vessels from paying further tribute. The Tripolitan War was costly, but it was worth more than it cost; for if there had not been an exhibition of American spirit there would doubt- less have been no end to the exactions and depredations of the piratical states. Moreover, in this war our navy gained what it lacked before — discipline and experience in real fight- ing. 86. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. While Jefferson was defending our commerce against the The JlTi ggjg. pirates in the far-off Mediterranean he was called upon to sippi . ... 1 T o Closed uphold the mterests of American trade nearer home, in 1802 to the the Spanish authorities at New Orleans, in flagrant violation cans of a treaty made in 1795, closed the navigation of the Mis- sissippi River to American citizens. This meant that Amer- icans in the Ohio Valley could no longer take the products of their farms down to New Orleans and there sell them as they had been accustomed to do. It meant that Amer- icans in the Ohio Valley would have no outlet at all for their commodities, for as yet it was impracticable to carry heavy articles eastward over the mountains to the sea- board cities. So, when the western people heard what Spain had done they flew into a rage and threatened to march against New Orleans with their own troops if the govern- ment at Washington did not come to their aid. Jefferson came to their aid, but in a way they did not ex- The pect. In 1800 Spain, by the treaty of San Ildefonso, made lana in secret, ceded Louisiana back to France (p. 139), but the execution of the treaty moved very slowly. Jefferson was pleased to see it move slowly, for he needed time to deal with the important question raised by the retrocession. He was strongly opposed to the occupancy of Louisiana by France. As long as a weak and exhausted nation like .Sj)ain occupied 1 the country west of the Mississippi the United States had little to fear, but if an aggressive and powerful nation like 26o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Opposi- tion to tbe Purchase France should take possession of Louisiana, Americans in the West might have a great deal to fear. Jefferson saw clearly that France must be kept out of Louisiana, yet he did not want a war. He desired to accomplish his purpose through diplomacy and this required time and some delay. But the outrage of closing the navigation of the Mississippi spurred him to immediate action, lie hurried off James Monroe to Paris to assist the American minister, Robert Livingston, in " enlarging and more efficiently securing our rights in the river Mississippi and in the territory eastward thereof." Mon- roe and Livingston were instructed either to buy New Orleans and the Floridas outright, or, if such a purchase could not be made, to secure the right of deposit at New Orleans. But before Monroe reached Paris, England and France were again at war with each other.^ After the renewal of hostilities Napoleon Bonaparte, the first consul of France and its virtual ruler, fearing that Louisiana would fall into the hands of England, and needing more money for carrymg on his wars, determined to sell the province to the United States and di- rected his minister to negotiate an immediate sale. The American envoys were without specific authority to make such a purchase, yet they decided to assume the responsibility of go- ing beyond their instructions. Accordingly in April 1803, they concluded a treaty by which France ceded to the United States the whole territory of Louisiana " forever and in full sovereignty." The purchase price was $15,000,000, or about 3 cents per acre. It was a great bargain, but the treaty did not escape op- position. It was opposed by New England because that sec- tion was afraid there would be carved out of the new territory powerful States that would care nothing for the interests of the East. Jefferson himself at first looked askance at the treaty because he did not believe that the Constitution gave Congress power to purchase territory. Nevertheless, he 1 The long war I)etween France and England, which began in 1793 (i). -'34), was brought temporarily to an end in 1802 by the treaty of Amiens. The peace, however, continued only about a year. THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM 261 urged the ratification of the treaty and quieted his constitu- tional scruples by recommending that the Constitution be so amended as to give Congress explicit power to make territorial acquisitions. This purchase was the greatest transaction in real estate The the world has ever seen. The acquisition not only doubled of the Farcbase the area of the United States, but gave us control of all the great river systems of North America. Out of the area in- The United States after the Louisiana Purchase. eluded in the purchase have been carved the States of Louisi- ana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota (in part), Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado (in part), North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana (in part), Wyoming (in part), and Oklahoma (in part) . Jefferson claimed that the purchase also included Texas and West Florida to the Perdido. 87. THE UNFRIENDLY CONDUCT OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE. Jefferson's first term was so crowded with successes that he was chosen for a second term by an overwhelming ma- 262 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Depre- dations upon Ameri- can Com- merce The Impress- ment of Seamen jority of the electoral college, but his second term brought him some disappointments and failures. The thing that gave him the most trouble was the unfriendly conduct of England and France. When war between these two nations was renewed in 1803 both powers began to make aggressions upon the com- merce of neutral nations and since the United States was a neutral power its commerce did not escape. In his message to Congress in December 1805. Jefferson thus described the depredations which were being made upon American vessels: " Our coasts have been infested and our harbors watched by private armed vessels, some of these without commissions, some with legal commissions, but committing piratical acts beyond the authority of their commissions. They have cap- tured in the very entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high seas, not only the vessels of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own also. They have carried them off under pretense of legal adjudicature, but not daring to affront a court of justice. They have plundered and sunk them by the way, maltreating the crews and abandoning them in boats in the open sea or on desert shores without food or cover- ing." In their treatment of neutrals both France and Great Britain went as far toward the total prohibition and destruc- tion of neutral commerce as it was possible to go. Their decrees and orders taken together were so broad and so sweeping that they amounted practically to a declaration that every neutral vessel found on the high seas, whatever might be its cargo and whatever might be the place of departure and destination, could be lawfully captured as a prize of war. In this assault upon neutral commerce, the United States suffered the greatest loss because it was the greatest neutral carrying power (p. 248). Between 1803 and 181 2 the British captured more than 900 American ships, while the French captured more than 500. In addition to the depredations upon our commerce we were sorely afflicted by the evil of impressment. In the mat- ter of impressment several nations were the offenders, for it was a custom of all maritime countries to impress seamen. THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM 263 But the worst offender was Great Britain. This nation al- ways claimed the right to retake deserting seamen by force, but after Nelson's great victory at Trafalgar (in 1805) made Britannia the undisputed mistress of the seas she carried out her impressment policy in an unusually high-handed man- ner. " Asserting," says McMaster, " the principle, once a sub- ject always a subject, she claimed the services of every British sailor wherever and whenever found. Nothing could release him. If he produced naturalization papers from the country under whose flag he sailed he was told that England did not admit the right of expatriation. If he claimed to have volun- tarily enlisted in the service of a neutral and to be under con- tract for the voyage he was told that such agreements must give way at the call of his King." ^ In 1807 a downright outrage was committed in the name The of impressment. As the Chesapeake, an American frigate, peake' was leaving the port of Norfolk, Virginia, it was fired into by a British man-of-war and three of its men were killed and eighteen were wounded. The American vessel, being seriously crippled, was compelled to surrender and was searched for deserters. This outrage caused Congress to at- tempt to remedy some of the wrongs which were being in- flicted upon American commerce. In December 1807, the Embargo Act was passed. This act prohibited American The vessels from leaving the ports of the United States for the a^ ^^^'^ ports of any foreign power. The purpose of the act was to cripple the trade of England, it being the hope of Jef- ferson, who proposed the measure, that British merchants and laborers would feel the result of the embargo so keenly that Parliament would be forced to redress the many griev- ances of which the Americans complained. But in this hope Jefferson was disappointed : England was not seriously hurt by the Embargo and she paid little attention to it. But the Embargo, of course, did inflict great injury upon American The trade. The value of our exports dropped in a single year of the from $110,000,000 to $22,000,000, while our customs revenues 1 History of the People of the United States, Vol. Ill, p. 243. 264 ADVANCED AAU'KICAN HISTORY The Non-inter- course Act Jefifer- son's Retire- ment fell from $16,000,000 to $7,000,000. The results of the stag- nation in trade were seen in all the cities along the coast. An English traveler (Lambert) gives the following descrij)- tion of the conditions in New York after the Embargo had been in force five months : " The port indeed was full of shipping, but they were dismantled and laid up. Their decks were cleared, their hatches fastened down, and scarcely a sailor was to be found on board. Not a bale, cask, barrel, or package was to be seen on the wharves. The few mer- chants, clerks, porters, and laborers that were to be seen were walking about with their hands in their pockets. A few coasting sloo])s and schooners which were clearing for some of the ports in the United States were all that remained of that immense business which was carried on a few months before. The streets near the waterside were almost deserted, the grass had begun to grow up on the wharves." Indeed the effects of the Embargo were so disastrous and the op- position to it was so strong that it had to be repealed fourteen months after it was enacted. In its place was substitued the Non-intercourse Act of 1809. This forbade American vessels to trade with England and France but permitted them to trade with other nations. About the time the Embargo was giving Jefferson so much trouble, his second term was drawing to a close. ^ He could easily have been elected for a third term, but rotation in of- fice was one of the cardinal points in his political creed. '* There are in our country,'' he said in 1807, " a great number of characters equal to the management of the affairs of the presidency. Many of them indeed have not had the op- portunities of making themselves known to their fellow-cit- 1 The Burr Conspiracy. — Early in his second administration, Jefferson had to deal with the treasonable action of Aaron Burr. This restless and ambitious man had (in 1804) killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel and this act had made him so unpopular that he decided to leave New York. He went to the South- west, where he entered into a plot to form a new nation somewhere in the West with himself as President. Jefferson kept himself informed as to what Burr was trying to do, and in good time he caused the schemer to be arrested and brought to trial on a charge of treason against his country (1807). The govern- ment failed to convict him of treason and he was released. THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM 265 izens ; but many have had, and the only difficulty will be to chose among them. These changes are necessary to the security of republican government. If some period be not fixed, either by the Constitution or practice, to the services of the first magistrate, his office though nominally elective will in fact be for life ; and that will soon degenerate into an inheritance." So, Jefiferson followed the example set by Washington and E^g^g^ion refused a third term. His choice for a successor to him- °J^^j_ self fell upon James Madison. As Jefferson was the un- ^°^ disputed leader of his party his favorite was chosen as the candidate of the Democratic party. The Federalists put forth their former candidate Finckney (p. 241). The Democrats were easily the victors: Madison received 122 electoral votes, and Finckney 47. A better selection could hardly have been made, for next to Jefiferson himself, Madison at the time of his election was perhaps the greatest of American statesmen. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The National Capital: Hart III, 331-333; McMaster II, 482-489. 2. Jefferson's influence: Halsey IV, 132-139. 3. Sketch the history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition : Halsey IV, 15^-169; Hart III, 381-384. 4. What effect did the Embargo have upon the economic develop- ment of Nevi' England? McMaster III, 412; Coman, 173-175. 5. Give an account of the effect of the continental wars upon the carrying trade: Bogart, 120-123. 6. Sketch the history of the Louisiana Purchase : Halsey IV, 140- 154; McMaster II, 625-630; Ogg, 495-538. 7. Napoleon Bonaparte : Robinson and Beard I, 284-298. 8. The vi'ar with Tripoli: McMaster III, 200-207. 9. Enumerate the restrictions made by Great Britain and France upon foreign trade: Hart III, 400-403. 10. Dates for the chronological table : 1803, 1806, 1809. 11. Compare the present value of the region covered by the Louis- iana Purchase with its past value. Give a full account of the con- spiracy of Aaron Burr. (See Halsey IV, 180-185.) Read in the class "How Jefferson's Embargo Paralyzed Business" (Halsey IV, 201-204). 266 ADVANCED AiMERICAN HISTORY Describe fully Hamilton's duel with Burr. Was Burr a traitor? What were the Jeffersonian principles of government? 12. Special Reading. Henry Adams, History of the United States During the Administration of Jefferson and Madison, Vols. I-IV. John T. Moore, Jr., Thomas Jefferson. S. E. Forman, The Life and Writings of Thomas Jefferson. E. Channing, The Jeffersonian Sys- ton. H. B. Learned, The President's Cabinet. XXV THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM (continued) 88. DRIFTING TOWARD WAR. When Madison came to the Presidency (March 4, 1809), The ... - Orders France and England were still at war, and the shipping of in the United States was still suffering at the hands of these and the . . , . . . - , Non-inter- rival powers. At one time it seemed as if satisfactory rela- course tions with England at least would be established. In April 1809, Erskine, the British minister at Washington, gave Mad- ison to understand that if the United States would repeal the Non-intercourse Act (p. 264) Great Britain would rescind the Orders in Council, the decrees which gave authority for the many depredations upon our commerce. Relying upon Erskine's word, Congress in special session suspended (June 1809) the Non-intercourse Act in so far as it applied to England. But Great Britain flatly disavowed the offer of Erskine. and Madison was obliged to declare the Non-inter- course Act still in force. In regard to our relations with France, Napoleon so adroitly managed affairs that it was al- most impossible to decide whether the French decrees against our commerce had been withdrawn or not. Still, Congress considered them as withdrawn and repealed (1810) the Non-in- tercourse Act in so far as it applied to France. Madison tried to persuade England to withdraw her Orders in Council, but England refused to do this because she believed that France had not actually revoked her decrees and was not acting in good faith. So while the restrictions of the Non-intercourse Act were removed in respect to France they were enforced in respect to England. Of course. Great Britain could not be pleased by a policy that on its face showed partiality toward 267 268 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Strained Relations with England the country with which she was engaged in a Hfe-and-death struggle, for the triumph of France at this time meant the downfall and ruin of England as a nation. But the Orders in Council were not the sole source of ill-feeling between England and the United States. In 1811 on the frontier in the Northwest we were having a great deal of trouble with the Indians and there was reason to believe that the dis- content of the red- men was fostered by British traders. Governor William Henry Harrison of Indiana Territory said in December 1811 : " Within the last three months the whole of the In- dians on the fron- tier have been com- pletely armed and equipped at the King's stores at Maiden." Although there is no good reason for believing that the British gov- ernment directly as- sisted the Indians in their uprisings, there was nevertheless a widespread belief in the United States that such assistance was given. Moreover, our diplo- matic relations with England suffered a severe stfain when in 1811 William IMnkney, our minister to Great Britain, left his post in disgust because he could see no prospect of securing fair treatment at the hands of the Brit- ish government. The withdrawal of Pinkney was almost James Madison. THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM 269 equivalent to a severance of peaceful relations. Angry feel- ings between the two nations were further stirred (August 181 1 ) by an actual encounter between the American frigate President and the British ship Little Belt. In the encounter the British vessel was worsted, and the exultations and re- joicings of the Americans over the affair showed plainly that a war spirit was rife. Indeed the war spirit had been rife The . War for some years, with the result that by 1812 there was in spirit the United States a vigorous war party demanding hostile acts against Great Britain. In Congress the war party was led by Henry Clay who spoke for the West and by John C. Calhoun who spoke for the South. Under the leader- ship of these rising young statesmen Congress was induced to wage war upon Britain. Madison was informed that if he wished reelection ^ he must come out for war. Though a man of peace, like Jefferson, he yielded to the war party, signing in June 1812, an act of Congress which declared peciara- that a state of war existed between the United States and of war Great Britain. The grievances recited in the declaration were : the violation of the American flag on the high seas ; the block- ading of our ports ; the impressment of our seamen ; the refusal of Great Britain to repeal the Orders in Council ; the Indian disturbances in the Northwest. Five days later and before the declaration reached England the British government with- drew its objectionable Orders in Council. If there could have been cable communication the war in all probability would never have begun. But as it was the action of the British government was too late. The storm that had been brewing for twenty years had at last gathered and broken. 89. THE WAR OF 1812. When war was declared we were in an almost wholly de- The fenseless condition. Our little army of 6,000 men was scattered states at posts along the western and northern frontiers where soldiers pared 11 1 r • , T 1- ^^ for War were needed as a defense agamst the Indians. Our navy con- 1 Madison, was reelected in 1813 without a jjarty contest. 2^o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Divided Senti- ment The Begin- nings of the War British Liner full sail. under sisted of about a dozen good fighting ships, while our enemy was the mistress of the seas with nearly a thousand war vessels. Our national finances were in a bad condition, for the revenues had been greatly reduced by the many interruptions to commerce during the preceding years. Our military leaders were nearly all old men, the veterans of the Revolutionary War. Even worse than this lack of preparation for war was the di- vided sentiment of the country. The North, especially New York and New England, did not want war because it would injure the commercial interests. Only in the frontier districts of the South and West was there a de- sire for hostilities. Of the members of Congress who voted for the declaration of war, three-fourths were from the Southern and Western States. In Massachusetts, Con- necticut, and Rhode Island the sentiment against the war was so strong that the quota of soldiers which should have been sent from these States was flatly refused. One thing, however, was in our favor: Great Britain could not throw her full force against the United States, for her mighty struggle with Napoleon was at its height when the War of 1812 was declared. The War of 18 12 began with an invasion of Canada by William Hull, who had served in the Revolutionary War. Hull crossed (July 12) from Detroit into Canada with about 2,000 men, but in a little more than a month he had retreated and had surrendered without a blow to General Brock, the Governor of Canada. Michigan Territory quickly passed into the hands of the British and Ohio was saved with difficulty. In a few months the Americans made a second attack upon Canada in the neighborhood of Niagara, but they met with little success. THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM 271 Our success upon' the water, however, the first year of the JJ^^^j war, was much greater than it was upon land. Although our Jj^^^f^®^ War navy was but a small affair it achieved a series of not- able triumphs over the ships of England. The most fa- mous of these naval victories was that which the United States frigate, the Constitution, \no\\ (August 181 2) over the British frigate Guerricre. This victory upon the ocean was matched by the achievement of Oliver Hazard Perry who with a hastily constructed fleet attacked a British squadron on Lake Erie off Sandusky, and totally defeated it (September 10, 1813). The conduct of Perry and his comrades upon this occasion was, in the opinion of President Madison, such as to entitle them to the admiration and gratitude of their country, for it was a victory " never surpassed in lustre, however much it might be in magnitude." Perry's triumph saved Ohio from the British and made it easy for the Americans to regain control of Detroit and the Michigan country. 272 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Cam- paign in the North in 1814 A Diver- sion By 1814 the power of Napoleon had been broken and after his downfall England was free to send larger fleets and armies to America. The British now undertook a double campaign and threw a part of their strength against the North and a part against the South. A great number of the veterans who had fought in the Napoleonic wars were sent to the Canadian frontier. An invading force moved down Lake Champlain, with the purpose of taking possession of the upper Hudson country. But Captain McDonough with an impro- vised fleet met the invading squadron of the British at Platts- burg and defeated it in a victory which " added one more hero who could rank with Perry in public estimation." There was also in 18 14 much fierce fighting in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls. General Jacob Brown and Winfield Scott, crossing into Canada, defeated the British at Chippewa Falls (J^^b' 5)- A few days later at Lundy's Lane the bloodiest battle of the war was fought, neither side winning a decided victory. The Americans held their ground for a while and then withdrew from Canada. Thus the result of all the fight- ing on the northern frontier was that the British failed to get a foothold upon the American soil and the Americans failed to secure a foothold in Canada. Before entering upon the campaign at the South the British by way of a diversion made several attacks at points along the Atlantic seaboard. In the summer of 1814 Gen- eral Ross led a trained army against Washington. After routing the militia (at Bladensburg) and driving the officers of the federal government into the woods, he plundered and burned the Capitol and the President's mansion. Having ac- complished their purposes at Washington, the British moved up to the larger and richer city of Baltimore. Here they were less successful than they had been at the little, unde- fended capital. Baltimore was prepared for the attack and when the British fleet attempted to pass Fort McHenry the defense was so spirited that the British abandoned the siege of the city and the fleet sailed away. Tt sailed to the Gulf of Mexico and joining with another THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM The Capitol in 1814. British force began its canipaigii in the Soutli. It was the plan of the British to unite with the IncHans of the (iuit region and with the disaffected '^ 1 French and Spaniards and drive the Americans en- tirely out of Louisiana. But l:)efore the English were read)' for oi)crations in the South, (ieneral An- drew Jackson had niarclied against the Creeks, the most powerful of \hc Southern Indians, and had defeated them in battle alter lit- tle. Having thus i)roken completely the power of the Indians, Jackson seized Pensacola in order to head off the British at that point and promptly prepared to defend New Orleans against the impending attack. The advance upon New Or- leans was begun late in 1814 when Sir Edvrard Pakenham with a fleet of fifty vessels and a force of nearly 10,000 veterans began to move against the city. Though Jackson had a much smaller force, there were among his men a great many excellent riflemen of Tennessee and Kentucky. After several skirmishes Pakenham made a last charge upon the Americans (January 8, 1815)) but his men could not with- stand the terrific fire of the riflemen. Whole platoons of the British fell in their tracks. The invaders lost their com- mander and were repelled with a loss of more than 2,000 men. The American loss was 8 killed and 13 wounded. So, Louisiana was saved to the T^nited States and its savior, Andrew Jackson, became the great hero of the South and West. When the battle of New Orleans was fought England and the United States were at peace, for a treaty ending the war had been signed by the contracting nations at Ghent on De- cember 24, 1814. The treaty settled nothing of importance; it was simply an a'^jreement to stop fighting. Nothing was said in the treatv about the impressment of seamen^ — a chief The Cam- paign in the South in 1814 New Orleans The Treaty of Ghent 274 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY cause of the war — and there was no giving up of territory by either side. So far as outward and immediate results were concerned the treaty left both nations at the end of the war precisely where they were at the beginning. It introduced, however, an era of peaceful relations between the two nations which lasted for a hundred years. Commer- cial Freedom The Growth of Manu- factures Competi- tion with England 90. EFFECTS OF THE WAR OF 1812. Although the War of 181 2 was not a great struggle from the military point of view, although its direct results were small, it nevertheless affected profoundly the course of Amer- ican history. First of all, the war gave us our commercial freedom. Although England made no concessions in regard to impressment and the rights of neutrality, she nevertheless after the treaty of Ghent ceased to impress our seamen and desisted from interfering with our commerce. And other nations accorded us equal respect. After the War of 181 2 we were done with Embargoes and Orders in Council and French decrees, and could work out our commercial destiny in peace ; trade on the ocean was free and sailors' rights se- cure. Then the industrial consequences of the War of 1812 were far-reaching. The Embargo and the war almost wholly ex- cluded foreign importations and rendered idle a large amount of capital that had been employed in the carrying trade. Much of this idle capital was invested in manufacturing. As a result, manufacturing in the United States was stimulated to a high degree. The greatest development took place in the textile industries of New England where the number of spindles increased from 80,000 in 181 1 to 500,000 in 181 5. and where the consumption of raw cotton increased from 10,000 bales in 1810 to nearly 100,000 bales in 181 5. With the return of peace in 181 5 the new-born manufactur- ing industries were compelled to compete with the factories of Europe. England rushed into our markets with her wares as if to the attack of a fortress. In 181 5 she sent us goods to the amount of $83,000,000, and the next year she sent THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FREEDOM 275 nearly twice as much. These goods were sold without regard to cost. Often they were disposed of at auction. " It was well worth while," said a member of Parliament, " to incur a loss upon the first exportations, in order, by a glut, to stifle in the cradle those rising manufactures in the United States which the war had forced into existence, contrary to the natural course of things." Such fierce competition quickly brought our infant industry The almost to a standstill. Woolen and cotton mills closed down tive . r- r- Tariff and the manufacturers of iron put out their fires. Congress was asked to come to the relief of the manufacturers with a tariff that would protect our market against the flood of foreign importations, and the relief was given. In 1816 Congress imposed a duty of 25 per cent, on woolen and cotton goods and also imposed protective duties upon hats, carriages, leather and its manufactures, rolled and hammered iron, paper, and sugar. Thus the War of 1812 led to the upbuilding of American manufacturing and to the adoption of the policy of protecting those manufactures by the imposition of a high tariff. The chief political effect of the War of 181 2 was the com- The ^ . Hart- plete destruction of the moribund Federalist party. The ford Conven- immediate agency of the Federalist collapse was the Hartford uon Convention. This body, consisting of twenty-six delegates from the five New England States, met at Hartford near the close of the war for the purpose of giving a voice to the dis- content of New England in regard to the progress of the war. After a long discussion behind closed doors the Convention adjourned (January 1815), having placed itself on record as favoring the doctrines enunciated in the Kentucky Resolu- tions (p. 241). In its report the Convention strongly hinted that the time might come when the States would be justified in withdrawing from the Union. Thus it was becoming the fashion to resort to the threat of secession whenever the meas- ures of the federal government conflicted with the interests of a section. Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts made (in 1812) such a threat on the floor of the House of Representatives 276 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY when opposing the admission of Louisiana into the l^nion. " It is my deliberate opinit)n, " said (Juincy, " tliat if this bill passes the bonds of the Union are virtually dissolved; that the Stales which compose it are free from their obligations ; and that as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation • — ■ amicably if they can, violently if they must." The doctrine of nullification was espoused by the Hartford Convention as well as the doctrine of secession. " Acts of Congress in violation of the Con>ti- tution," said the report, " are absolutely void, and States that have no common umpire must be their own judges and execute their own decisions." A committee was sent by the Conven- tion to wait upon Congress and ask it for certain amendments to the Constitution, but by the time the committee reached Washington the war was over. So nothing was done by the committee and the work of the Convention came to naught. The But the meeting at Hartford raised a storm of disapproval Down- ° . ^ fau throughout the country, and since the members of the Con- Feder- veution were Federalists the h^ederalist i)arty had to sulifer alist . . . Party for what the Convention did. The unpoj)ulanty which the Convention brought upon the Federalist cause was more than the party could bear. " Not only did the Convention," says F. A. Walker, " destroy the Federalist party beyond all pos- sibility of resuscitation; but it proved to be the blighting of many a fair and promising career. Every man who took part in it was a marked man and so far as the utmost rage of the Republican party and press could go he was outcast and out- lawed politically." REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The election of Madison: McMaster III, 314-317. 2. The reign of faction : Babcock, 3-21. 3. Frencli duplicity and English stubbornness : Babcock, 37-49. 4. What were the English Orders in Council and Napoleon's Ber- lin and Milan Decrees? McMaster III, 249-251, 272-274, 292-293. 5. What, according to John Quincy Adams, was the origin of the War of 1812? Halsey V, 3-10. THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL FRl'.l".nOM 277 6. Clay's justification of the War of 1812: ll.iit III, 417 l-'o; ]<:iu- dolph's demniciation of tlic War: Harding. 173 njo. 7. Defense : Forman, 249-255. 8. Describe the burning of Washington consuliing an American and also a British account: Halsey V, 69-79. 9. Foreign Commerce: Forman, 328-335. 10. The Battle of New Orleans (Roosevelt): Halsey V, 102-112. 11. What were the commercial and industrial effects of the War of 1812? Hart HI, 430-433; Coman, 175-206. 12. Dates for the chronological tables: 1812, 1814, 1815. 13. Why did the British government refuse to ratify Erskine's treaty? Read in the class "The Star Spangled Banner" and relate the circumstances of its writing. Give an account of Jackson's de- feat of the Creek Indians. Why did manufacturing flourish in New England? In what way did the War of 1812 affect the Westward Movement? Describe fully the battle between the Constitution and the Guerricre. Read in the class " Old Ironsides." Summarize the chief events connected with the struggle for commercial freedom (1801- 1817). 14. Special Reading. Henry Adams, History of the United States, Vols. V to X. Gaillard Hunt, Life of James Madison. Theodore Roosevelt, The Naral JJ'ar of 1812. James Schouler, History of the United States, Vol. XL XXVI THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT (1800-1820) While Jefferson and Madison were asserting our rights as a nation and achieving our commercial independence, the great work of winning the West did not cease for a single day. During the hard times of the Embargo and the War of 1812 the stream of western migration flowed faster than ever. Between 1800 and 1820 the population of the West and Southwest increased nearly 2,000,000, and nearly half a million square miles of territory were rescued from savages and wild beasts and brought under the influence of American civilization. How was this stupendous task achieved? What was the story of the Westward Movement between 1800 and 1820? 91. THE LAND POLICY OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. The The wave of civilization which we saw (p. 249) moving Land westward so rapidly at the close of the eighteen century began to move even more rapidly during the opening years of the nineteenth century. The acceleration was due chiefly to the liberal policy of the national government in respect to the sale of public lands. At first Congress regarded the public domain much as a landlord regards a private estate : it was a possession which was to be exploited solely with a view to revenue and was to be sold for its full money value. Accordingly, the early policy of Congress was to sell only in very large tracts and at the highest possible price. Under the system nobody but the rich could buy. Cheap It was not long, however, before Congress began to regard Lands the public doinain as a national possession to be exploited not so much for the benefit of the national treasury as for the benefit of all the people. Accordingly, in 1800, Congress, changing its policy, passed a law which made it much easier to secure a portion of the public land. Under this law a per- son could purchase a half-section of land — 320 acres — at 278 THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 279 $2.00 per acre and pay for it in four yearly instalments. In 1820 Congress carried its liberal policy even further; it re- duced the price to $1.25 per acre and provided that lots as small as 80 acres could be purchased. Under the workings of this beneficent law of 1820 almost anybody, even the poor- est, could become the owner of a little farm. The national government in 1810 had for sale more than The * _ .... Influence 150,000,000 acres of good tillable land east of the Mississippi, °f and west of that river it had countless millions of acres more, ^^nd Here was the secret not only of the strength and swiftness of the Westward Movement, but also of the strength and p»-os- perity of the American nation during its formative period. The almost inexhaustible supply of public land at a nominal price made us from the beginning a nation of landholders. " The pride and delight of Americans," said Harriet Mar- tineau, " is the quantity of land. The possession of land is the aim of all actions, generally speaking, and the cure for all social evils among men in the United States. If a man is disappointed in politics or love he goes and buys land. If he disgraces himself, he betakes himself to a lot in the West. If the demand for any article of manufacture slackens, the oper- atives drop into the unsettled lands. If a citizen's neighbors rise above him in the town he betakes himself where he can be monarch of all he surveys. An artisan works that he may die on land of his own. He is frugal that he may enable his son to be a landowner. Farmers' daughters go into factories that they may clear off the mortgages from their fathers' farms ; that they may be independent landowners again." 92. ALONG THE OHIO RIVER: OHIO; INDIANA; ILLINOIS. The first fruits of the liberal land policy were seen in the ^j|*g region of the Old Northwest. We saw (p. 252) that a con- jji*^^ siderable portion of the country north of the Ohio was settled ^m^' before the close of the eighteenth century. After land was made cheap in 1800 settlers poured into the Old Northwest by the thousands and tens of thousands, filling it up as if by magic. The home-seekers came from all the old sections of the Union. 28o ADVANCED AAIERICAN HISTORY Early Routes to the Old North- west CJreat nunihcrs canic from tlie South, especially from Virginia and North Carolina. Many also came from the North, from New l{ngland. New York, and Pennsylvania. The Southern stock, however, was for many years the preponderating class in the States north of the Ohio. But the Southerners who set- tled in the Old Northwest did not as a rule belong to the aris- tocratic, slaveholding class, because slavery, by the Ordinance of 1787, was excluded from this region. The journey to the northwestern wilderness — for in 1800 except for a fringe of settlement along the Ohio River the Northwest Territory was still a wilderness — was made along several well-defined routes. New Englanders made their way By permisMcn of The Railway World Conestoga wagon transportation. up to the Mohawk Valley and along the Genesee turnpike to Lake Erie. But all the New England home-seekers did not push on to the West. Many reniained on the lands between the sources of the Mohawk and Lake Erie, where they cleared forests, erected mills, built towns, and laid the foundations of Western New York. Settlers from Pennsylvania followed the old Forbes road, which, during the French and Indian wars, had been cut from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.^ At this flour- 1 John Mellish, who visited Pittsburgh about 1818, tells us that the town had 767 buildings, a steam-mill that could grind 500 bushels of grain in a day, 4 glass factories, several breweries and distilleries,, two cotton manufactories, a wire mill, and an iron mill. The population of Pittsburgh at this time was nearly 5,000. THE W ESI' WARD MOVEiMENT 281 isliin^ gateway to the West, the jMoneer {ilaced his goods on a flathf>at and made his way l)y wattT to the place where he wished to settle, i'ioiieers starting out from l^)altimore fol- lowed a turnpike to t 'uml)erland, where they struck out across the mountains, going either to Pittsburgh or to Wheeling. From the region further south the journey to the Ohio coun- try was made by way of the Cumberland Gap along Boone's Routes to the West during the Turnpike Era (1800-1825). Wilderness Road (p. 145), or along the Ohio River, or along the Kanawha to the Ohio. But whatever route the pioneer took he found the journey long, toilsome, and beset with diffi- culties and dangers. The conditions of this migration to the Northwest Terri- Condi- tory were described by a traveler (Imlay) as follows: "If Trans- the emigrant has a family or goods of any sort to remove tion his best way would be to purchase a wagon and team of horses. The wagon may be covered with canvas, and if it is the 282 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY choice of the people they may sleep in it at nights with the greatest safety. But if they should dislike that, there are inns of accommodation the whole, distance on the different roads. The provisions of the family I would purchase of the farmers as you pass along, and by having two or three camp kettles and stopping every evening when the weather is fine upon the brink of some rivulet and by kindling a fire they may soon dress their food. The best way is to convey their tea and coffee from the place they may set out at. The dis- tance which one of those wagons may travel in one day is little short of twenty miles. So that it will be a journey from Alexandria (in Virginia) to Redstone Old Fort (on the Monongahela River) of eleven or twelve days, and from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, it would require nearly twenty days." Ohio The first State to be carved out of the Northwest Territory was Ohio. In 1802 Congress passed a law enabling the people of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio (p. 252) to frame a constitution for the government of the proposed State. This was done, and in 1803, after the constitution had been accepted by Congress the Territory was admitted as the State of Ohio. Indiana From Ohio the wave of settlement passed on to the Indiana Territory (p. 252). Here there was trouble with the Indians, just as there had been in Ohio (p. 251). Under the leader- ship of Tecumseh the redskins in 181 1 were plotting to drive ^ Indianapolis in 1825. THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 283 all the whites out of Indiana. But General William Henry Harrison turned the tables upon the conspirators. Meeting the Indians in battle at Tippecanoe (November 7, 181 1), he defeated them with great slaughter. After this battle the Indians gave the settlers but little trouble. Land-seekers now rushed into Indiana in such great numbers that by 181 5 the Territory contained a population large enough for statehood. In 1 8 16 a constitutional convention met at Cory don, then the capital ^ of the Territory, and framed a State constitution. This was accepted by Congress and Indiana was admitted as a State (1816). By the time Indiana was admitted as a State, her neighbor Illinois on the west was also preparing to enter the Union. In 1809 Indiana and Illinois were separated, the latter being made a territory with the old French town of Kaskaskia as the capi- tal. In the conditions of their growth and settlement Indiana and Illinois were twin sisters. Both had to deal with the Indians, although in Illinois the redmen gave little trouble after the battle of Tippecanoe." Both had to deal with the slavery question, for in the old French settlement of Indiana and Illi- "^^^ nois slaves were still held in spite of the Ordinance of 1787. Question Moreover, slaveholders from the South often brought their slaves up into Indiana and Illinois. As a result there was in these two Territories a strong sentiment in favor of slavery. Yet there was also a strong anti-slavery sentiment, for in the northern sections of Indiana and Illinois there were settlers from New England and New York. These people resisted the efforts that were made to legalize slavery in Illinois, and in their opposition were assisted by Congress, which demanded a compliance with the terms of the Ordinance of 1787 (p. 209). So, Illinois came into the Union (t8i8) as a free State, just as Ohio and Indiana had come in as free States. About the time Illinois was made a State the great national The turnpike from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, then in Eoad 1 Indianapolis became the capital of Indiana in 1824. 2 During the War of 1812 at Fort Dearborn on the present site of Chicago there was a terrible massacre of white men. Not only the soldierai- but many- women and children were killed or taken captive. 284 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Steam- boat \ irginia, was completed. The huildiiif;- of this ruacl was begun in i8ii and by 1818 mail coaches were running between Wash- ington, D. C, and Wheeling. The road was built at the ex- pense of the national government, nearly $7,000,000 in all being spent on its construction. But it was worth many times its cost, for it proved a powerful factor in the develop- ment of the West, Immediately upon the completion of this highway great streams of traffic began to move over it. Pas- senger coaches rushed along its smooth surface at the rate of ten miles an hour, and freight wagons drawn by twelve horses Along the Ohio River: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. carried loads that sometimes weighed as much as 20,000 pounds. Another event that quickened the growth of the Northwest was the appearance of the steamboat u])on western rivers. The first really successful steamboat was built by Robert Ful- ton, whose Clermont in 1807 made a trip on the Hudson River from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours and returned in thirty hours. Four years later the first steamboat was built on the Ohio, and by 1820 this new kind of craft was becoming a familiar object on all the western rivers. Thus between 1800 and 1820 everything was favorable to THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 285 the development of the Old Northwest, and the growth of Growth this region in wealth and population was wonderful. In Ohio, oid North- in Indiana, in Illinois, forests and swamps disappeared and west in their places there appeared smiling fields of wheat and corn. Population grew at a startling rate. In 1800 the popu- lation of the entire Northwest was only a little more than 50,000. fjy 1820 the comhined population of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois was nearly 900,000. At the time of its admission in 1803 the population of Ohio was in the neighborhood of 50,000; seventeen years later the figure had jumped to nearly 600,000, and Ohio was more populous than Massachusetts. 93. AROUND THE GULF OF MEXICO: LOUISIANA; MISSIS- SIPPI; ALABAMA; FLORIDA. There were cheap lands in the Southwest as well as in the Northwest ; while a kingdom of wheat and corn was rising in the country north of the Ohio, there was rising in the South- west a kingdom of cotton and sugar. " By the side of the pic- ture of the advance of the pioneer farmer bearing his house- hold goods on his covered wagon to his new home across the Ohio must be placed the picture of the Southern planter crossing through the forests of western Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi in his family carriage . . . with servants, packs of hunting dogs, and a train of slaves." (Turner.) The story of the development of the Southwest region be- The eins with Louisiana at the time it was purchased from France tpryof ° ' Orleanf (p. 260). Congress placed the government of the new ac- quisition in the hands of President Jefiferson, who turned it over to his friend, William Claiborne, to be governed as he thought best until a regular form of government should be provided. Claiborne met the French officials in New Orleans on December 17, 1803, and took formal possession of Loui- siana. At first Claiborne could govern with despotic power, for he was governor, lawmaker, and judge. But Congress soon gave the people of Louisiana a better form of government. In 1804 it divided the great purchase into two parts. The part south of the 33rd parallel of latitude (the present State of 286 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Louisiana) was given a separate territorial government and was called The Territory of Orleans. The heart of Orleans was New Orleans, a city of perhaps 8,cmdo inhabitants. The part of the purcliase north of the 33rd parallel of latitude, the wild and almost uninhabitable region that stretched northward toward Canada and that lay between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, was given to the Territory of Indiana to be governed and was called the District of Louisiana. The largest settlement in all this northern district was St. Louis, at that time only a little fur-trading village. Loui- After Orleans was brought under American rule it flourished liana '^ as never before. Planters moved down from the older States with their slaves and brought under control the rich sugar and cotton lands of the lower Mississippi. New Orleans in a very few years became a city with a population of 25,000 souls. So rapidly did Orleans grow that by 18 12 it had the number of people usually required for Statehood. In that year it entered the Union as the State of Louisiana, the first State carved out of the Louisiana Purchase. Missis- While planters were moving down into Louisiana pioneers were also entering the Mississippi Territory (p. 250) which, by 18 10, had come to include what are now the two States of Mississippi and Alabama. Louisiana in its development had the advantage of an old French civilization upon which it could build, but the Mississippi country at the opening of the nineteenth century was almost as wild and as deso- late as it was in the days of De Soto. After the defeat of the Creek Indians by Jackson, however, settlers poured into Mississippi so fast that by 1816 the population of the Territory was 75,000. Application was made for admis- sion into the Union and this was granted, but a division of the Territory was made, the dividing line extending from the mouth of Bear Creek southward to the Gulf of Mexico. The part west of the line was called Mississippi and in 1817 was admitted into the L'^^nion with Natchez as its capital. The part Ala- east of the dividing line was set off as Alabama Territory. But planters were spreading over Alabama as well as over sippi bama THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 287 Mississippi with the result that within two years Alabama Territory had a population large enough for Statehood. So in 1819 Alabama joined the Union, its first capital being Hunts- ville, although Mobile was the largest town in the State. By the time Alabama was settled and admitted we had Florida secured a treaty providing for the acquisition of Florida. The United States having claimed from the beginning that West Around the Gulf of Mexico. Florida was a part of the Louisiana Purchase (p. 261), Madi- son in 1810 directed the Governor of Orleans Territory to take possession of the district between the Mississippi and the Perdido River and govern it as a part of his own Territory. Spain protested, but was too weak to offer effective resistance ; West Florida passed into our possession. But we also coveted the great peninsula of East Florida, and we were not long in securing it. The Seminole Indians of Florida furnished a ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Slavery and Cotton Culture reason for decisive action on the i)art of the United States. Tliese wandering savages would rush up into Georgia, destroy property and human lives, and then return to their hiding- places in Florida. In 1817 Andrew Jackson was sent against the Seminoles and they were severely punished. After re- ducing the Indians, he took virtual possession of IHorida. Spain was informed that she nnist either place a force in Florida sufficient to govern the peninsula in a projjcr manner or " cede to the United States a province of which she re- tained nothing but the nominal possession." As Spain was again powerless to resist, she formally ceded (in i8iy ThMiiias JIarsliall Smith John Marshall. AN ERA OF GOOD FEELING 297 centralized government, but the great jurist did not waver in his course. In decision after decision he continued to assert the power of the national government and to uphold the su- premacy of the Constitution. At the same time he raised the Supreme Court from a position of relative insignificance (p. 226) to one of great influence and power. 97. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. The first question to disturb the public mind during the The Era of Good Feeling was one which related to slavery. While madge . . . . Amend- the bill for the admission of Missouri (p. 291) was on its ment passage through the House, James Tallmadge of New York proposed (Feb. 13, 1819) an amendment which provided that further introduction of slavery in the new States should be prohibited and that all children born within the State after ad- mission should be free at the age of twenty-five years. The House passed the amendment, but the Senate refused to accept it. As it was now late in the session Congress adjourned with- out action in regard to Missouri. The question raised by the Tallmadge amendment was this : views as to the Was the area of slavery to be extended? or was slavery to Extension be confined within the States where it already existed ? ^ It Slavery was a question of the highest importance, and it was discussed freely in all parts of the Union. In the North public senti- ment was strongly opposed to the spread of slavery into the Territories. The North had its face turned to the West, and it did not enjoy the prospect of the western country being given over to slavery ; accustomed to a system of free labor, it believed that freemen would not work side by side with slaves. But the South, too, had its face toward the West. Southern planters were already crossing the Mississippi with their slaves and they did not wish the extension of slavery to be checked. The South, accustomed to a system of slave labor, believed that its prosperity depended upon the free 1 The slave States at this time were Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 1 Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama — eleven in all. In the other eleven States slavery was not allowed. 298 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY extension of the slave area. More than this, the South de- nied the right of Congress to prohibit slavery in a Territory or to make the prohibition of slavery a condition upon which a State might enter the Union. It was the Southern view that slavery was a matter with which Congress had nothing what- ever to do (p. 245). Hence the South bitterly opposed the Tallmadge amendment. Debate When Congress met in December 18 10, the admission of and tne ° -^ compro- Missouri became the overshadowing issue of the session. But mise ... the Missouri question was soon coupled with the question of admitting the District of Maine as a State. The House passed a bill admitting Maine, but when the bill came to the Senate that body voted to admit Maine ^ provided Missouri was at the same time admitted as a slave State. The House at first refused to comply with this arrangement and a lively and acrimonious debate followed. The Northern leaders de- manded the Tallmadge amendment, contending that Congress had the power to admit States under any conditions that it might choose to impose. Southern members flatly de- nied such a right, contending that if Congress could impose conditions upon a State entering the Union it could " squeeze a new-born sovereign State to the size of a pigmy." The angry debate, which threatened to be interminable, was at last brought to an end by a compromise : it was agreed to admit Missouri as a slave State and Maine as a free State, while in all the rest of the territory possessed by the United States west of the Mississippi and north of the parallel of 36° 30' slavery was to be forever prohibited. The compromise meas- ure was passed (March 1820) and sent to Monroe, who signed it with great reluctance. At the time of the Missouri Compromise the Mason and Dixon's Line (p. 83) and the Ohio River were regarded as the line that separated freedom and slavery. So the drawing 1 Maine remained a part of Massachusetts (p. 68) until 1819 when she was given permission by the latter Stale to form a government of her own if her people desired to do so. The sentiment was in favor of a separation and Maine (in 1820) applied for admission into the Union. AN ERA OF GOOD FEELING 299 of parallel 36° 30' as the boundary line between slave terri- The tory and free territory was only extending westward a line ing of demarcation that already existed. Furthermore, in bring- Free ing Maine in as a free State to offset Missouri as a slave and . . . Slave State, Congress was only following a well-established policy states of preserving a balance between the North and the South. The admission of Kentucky as a slave State had been an offset to Vermont as a free State : Ohio had been an offset to Ten- nessee ; Indiana to Mississippi ; Illinois to Alabama. This bal- The result of the Missouri Compromise. ancing of free States against slave States had been attended to so carefully that with the admission of Maine and Mis- souri the equilibrium was perfect : there were exactly twelve free States and twelve slave States. As long as this nice balance could be preserved — and it was preserved for more than half a century — the North and the South would be equally divided in the Senate, and it would therefore be ex- tremely difficult to pass a measure that was displeasing to either section. 300 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Effect of the Compro- mise The Compro- mise the Be- ginning of a Great Struggle The ^lissouri Compromise satisfied neither the North nor the South. It was on its face a Southern measure and the immediate advantage was with the South, for it gave that section an additional slave State at once, wdiilc another (Ar- kansas) would almost certainly be admitted in a very short time. Yet in the end the South lost by the Compromise, for south of 36° 30' there was room for only two or three States, while north of the line there was room for seven or eight : and according to the strict terms of the Compromise, there might oe free States even south of the line. Many men ventured the hojie that the Missouri Compro- mise would settle the slavery question for all time ; but far- sighted men indulged in no such illusions, for they saw that the Missouri question was only one phase of the slavery ques- tion, only the beginning of a prolonged struggle between the North and the South. " You have kindled a fire," said Cobb of Georgia in reference to the debate on the Compromise, " You have kindled a fire which all the waters of the ocean cannot ]uit out, which only seas of blood can extinguish." The aged Jefferson with remarkable prescience foresaw the trou- ble that was ahead. " This momentous question," he said, " like a fire bell in the night, awakened me and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed indeed for the moment. But this as a re- prieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line co- inciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men will never be obliterated, and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper." John Quincy Adams saw in the Missouri ques- tion the " title page to a great tragic volume." The Advance of Russia 98. THE MONROE DOCTRINE. Throughout both terms ^ of his administration Monroe was kept busv with foreign affairs. No sooner had the southern boundary of Oregon been settled (p. 290) than trouble arose 1 In 1820 Monroe was reelected, receiving 231 of the 232 electoral votes. AN ERA OF GOOD FEELING 301 in regard to its northern boundary. Russia during the latter half of the eighteenth century had secured a firm foothold in Alaska and early in the nineteenth century she was extend- ing her power along the Pacific, moving further and further southward. By 1812 she had advanced down the coast as far as California, where she built a fort. In 1821 the Rus- sian Czar issued a ukase asserting Russia's right to territory along the Pacific coast as far south as the fifty-first parallel and forbidding the vessels of other powers to approach within one hundred miles of the territory claimed. This was an encroachment upon the Oregon country, which at the time (p. 290) was held in joint occupation by Great Britain and the United States. Both these countries promptly protested against the imperial ukase. The government at Washington declared its dissent in the strongest terms. It informed the Russian minister that '' we should contest the right of Rus- sia to any territorial establishment on the continent and that we should assume distinctly the principle that the American con- tinents are no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments." After negotiations Russia entered into a treaty (in 1824) by which she agreed to make no settlements on the Pacific coast south of 54° 40', the United States in l^u^^^jy turn agreeing to make no establishments north of that line. °^o 40- Thus the advance of Russia 'on the coast of the Pacific was checked. This advance of Russia upon American territory was con- The nected with a larger problem which Monroe was called upon Alliance to solve. Jn 1808 the Spanish colonies of South America began to rebel and throw off the yoke of the mother-country, and by 1822 Chili, Peru, Buenos Aires (now Argentine Repub- lic), Colombia, and Venezuela had won their independence and had been recognized by the United States as free and inde- ])endent States. But their independence was threatened by a combination of European countries known as the floly Al- liance^ and consisting of Austria, Erance, Russia, and Prus- 1 The Holy Alliance was formed in 181 5, soon after the downfall of Napoleon. Its professed object was to unite the countries of Europe into a Christian 3Q2 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY sia. These great powers in 1823 seemed to be on the point of The intervening in American affairs with the view of restoring of to Spain her lost colonies. What would be the result of such John . . , Quincy intervention? What would happen if the Allies should sub- Adams . ^* jugate the newly-born republics of South America? To the mind of John Quincy Adams, Monroe's Secretary of State, alarming results would follow if the nations of Europe should interfere in South America. California, Peru, and Chili, he thought, would fall to Russia ; Cuba would go to England, for England at the time coveted Cuba ; and Mexico would go to France. Thus the United States would be danger- ously encircled by three of the great nations of Europe. Therefore, Adams urged Monroe to take a firm stand and warn Europe against any attempt at intervention in the West- ern Hemisphere. England was against intervention by the Allies and her Secretary for Foreign Affairs, George Canning, proposed that Great Britain and the United States should jointly declare their opposition to the threatened interference. Monroe was inclined to accept the proposal of Canning, but Adams insisted that the protest against intervention be made independent of England, for to join with England would be to entangle the United States with the affairs of Europe, and thus violate a well-established policy of American diplomacy. In the end the view of Adams prevailed and the protest was made independently of England. In December 1823, Monroe sent to Congress a message which declared in effect : The ( i) That the United States would not look with favor upon Doctrine the planting of any more European colonies on this conti- nent. (2) That the United States would not meddle in the political affairs of Europe. (3) That the governments of Europe must not meddle in American affairs. brotherhood, but its real purpose was to perpetuate the power of the existing rulecs and to prevent the growth of liberal political movements in Europe. The Alliance came to an end in 1830. AN ERA OF GOOD FEELING 303 This message received the warm approval of the American people and the pohcy outlined in it became known as the Mon- roe Doctrine.^ And it was received with respect by the na- tions of Europe; the Holy .Mliance refrained from interfering in the affairs of South America. The doctrine declared by Monroe began a " new chapter, yet unfinished, in the history of the predominance of the United States in the New World." 99. THE TARIFF OF 1824. Monroe's second term closed with the enactment of a highly ciay's *■ -' American important tariff measure. The tariff of 1816 proved to be System disappointing to the manufacturers. English goods continued to be imported in spite of the duties. So, Congress was asked to give more protection, that is, to impose higher duties. Ac- cordingly in 1824 an act was brought forward to increase the duties on wool and woolen goods, on hemp, on pig iron, and on iron manufactures. The most powerful champion of the act was Henry Clay, who made a plea for the American farmer and the American manufacturer. " We must speedily adopt," said Clay, " a genuine American policy. Still cherishing the foreign market let us create a home market to give further scope to the consumption of the products of American in- dustry. . . . The creation of a home market is not only neces- sary to procure for our agriculture a just reward for its labors, but it is indispensable to obtain a supply for our neces- sary wants. If we cannot sell we cannot buy." The measure was opposed by Daniel Webster, who spoke for the importers and the ship-owners, but Clay's " American System '' carried the day. The votes of the Middle States and the West were cast in favor of the tariff of 1824, while those of New England and of the South were for the most part against it. 1 The general principles involved in the doctrine were clearly stated by Jefferson, with whom Monroe consulted while dealing with the question. Accord- ing to Calhoun, Adams wrote the clause in reference to the colonies. The mes- sage, however, was chiefly the work of Monroe. 304 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY New Leaders The Election of Adams loo. NEW LEADERS: THE ELECTION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. With the expiration of Monroe's second term the " Virginia dynasty " came to an end and new leaders appeared upon the scene. There was John Oiiincy Adams, whom we have seen rendering notable service in the management of foreign affairs. There was William II. Crawford of Georgia, a man of wealth, of large experience in public life, and withal a most astute politician. Then there were Webster, Clay, and Calhoim. three intellectual giants who for more than thirty years were foremost in all the great struggles of American poli- tics. Lastly, there was Andrew Jackson, whose reputation as a soldier had led to his securing a place among statesmen. In the election of 1824 Jackson, Clay, Calhoun, Adams, and Crawford all came forward as candidates to succeed Monroe to the Presidency. Before the election was held, however, Calhoun withdrew to become the candidate for Vice-President. Jackson received 99 of the electoral votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. No one of the candidates having secured a majority, it became necessary for the House of Representa- tives to elect, its choice being limited to the three highest on the list of persons voted for by the electors (148). Clay was therefore ineligible for election. But he named the suc- cessful candidate ; he threw his strength to Adams and thus brought about his election. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The Supreme Court and the Constitution: Forman, 157-160. 2. The great decisions of the Supreme Court: Babcock, 290-308. 3. State fully Marshall's doctrine of implied powers: Hart HI, 446-450. 4. The Missouri Compromise: Halsey V, 147-153; Turner, 149- 171 ; McMaster IV, 573-592. 5. Give account of the Panama Congress: Halsey V, i76-i7(;; Hart III, 506-508; McMaster V, 441-443. 6. The Monroe Doctrine: Turner. \i}<.)-22T,\ McMaster ill, ^9-,i9. 45-48. 51-53; Halsey, 133-143. AN ERA OF GOOD FEELING 305 7. The Monroe Doctrine as Monroe stated it: Hart III, 494-498! 8. Why did the South oppose protection? Wilson, 39-61. 9. The Holy Alliance: McMaster V, 31-32, n ; Hart III, 479-480; Robinson and Beard, 343-362. ID. Dates for the chronological table: 1821, 1823. 11. Give an account of Lafayette's visit to the United States in 1824. Sketch the life of John Randolph and tell some of the anecdotes re- lating to him. What were his objections to the protective tariff? What arguments did Clay urge in favor of the "American System"? Compare the Monroe Doctrine with the policy adopted in 1793 by Washington relating to foreign affairs. Is the Monroe Doctrine slill upheld by public sentiment? 12. Special Reading. James Schouler, History of tJie United States, Vol. III. Frederick Trevor Hill, Decisive Battles of the Law. D. C. Gilman, James Monroe. The Alleged Bargain Between Adams and Clay XXVIII THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) The sixteen years (1825-1841) following the Era of Good Feeling may be called the Jacksonian Era, for during these years Andrew Jack- son was the overshadowing figure in American politics. What influ- ence did Jackson have upon the politics of his time? What were the leading events of the Jacksonian Era? loi. JACKSON'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST ADAMS. The administration of Adams was little else than a political battle with Andrew Jackson and his friends. Adams was no sooner inaugurated (March 4, 1825) than he appointed Henr^ Clay as Secretary of State. This appointiuent was at once declared by Jackson's friends to have been Clay's reward for the support which he gave Adams in the contest for the Presidency. A corruj)t bargain, said the Jackson men, had been inade: Clay had helped Adams because Adams had promised to give Clay the highest place in his cabinet. As a matter of fact no evidence has been found to substantiate Jackson's charge. Adams was as honest and as straightforward as any man that ever sat in the Presidential chair and he was wholly incapable of making a corrupt bargain of any kind. • He appointed Clay simply because he thought the Kentuckian would give strength to his cabinet. But Jackson believed that a bargain had been made and he openly charged Clay with purchasing a cabinet position by making a President. It was not only the alleged bargain between Clay and 306 John Quincy Adams. THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 307 Adams that caused Jackson to be dissatisfied with the result The •' Candi- of the election of 1824; Jackson had received more electoral date '' , of the votes than any other candidate and he felt that he was the Peopio people's choice. Whether or not he actually was the choice of the people in 1824 cannot be determined, for in some of the States the electors were not yet chosen by a popular vote. But Jackson, feeling that by the election of Adams the will of the people had been defeated, resolved that the people should have their will and that he would be their leader. Early in 1825 he resigned his seat in the Senate and announced him- self as Presidential candidate for election in 1828. He at once began a campaign in which for the first time in our history a direct appeal was made to the voters for their support. As we shall see presently, the campaign of Jackson re- Jackson's suited in the organization of a new political party and in ter bringing about a revolution in American politics. What were the characteristics of the man who was to exert such a power- ful influence upon his time ? " Jackson," says Professor Bur- gess, " was ignorant and unschooled, indeed, but virtuous, brave, and patriotic beyond any r — cavil or question ; faithful and de- voted in his domestic life, abso- lutely unapproachable by pecun- iary mducements ; the best of friends and the most implacable of enemies ; quick, hasty in form- ing his judgments and tenacious beyond expression in holding to them ; earnest, terrible in the in- flexibility of his purposes; unflinch- ing and recklessly daring in the performance of what he felt to be his duty ; hostile to all gradations of power and privilege ; the military hero of the country and a martyr to the persecutions of the politicians — here were certainly qualities to raise the enthu- siasm of the masses if not of the classes." Andrew Jackson. 3o8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The National Repub- licans An Ill- fated Adminis- tration The Tariff of 1828 The entrance of such a strong personaHty into politics was bound to produce a division of parties on personal lines. Soon the old Democratic party found itself split into a Jackson party and an anti-Jackson party. The Jackson men claimed to be Democrats of the old Jefifersonian type, but in reality they were simply zealous and devoted followers of their chief. They rallied around Jackson not as a political thinker or even as the leader of a particular party, but as the man whom they trusted and whom the nation could trust. The anti-Jackson men under the leadership of Adams and Clay soon began to call themselves National Republicans, but they too cared little for party names or party principles ; their only aim was to prevent Jackson from coming into power. The Jackson men, of course, early directed their attacks against Adams with the view of discrediting his administration and rendering it unpopular. This was not difficult to do, as Adams himself was a very unpopular man. While faithful to duty he was at the same time so cold and stifif in his manner that it has been said of him that at every step he took he made an enemy. He was very unpopular with Con- gress, and the Jackson men in that body were powerful enough to thwart him in his plans. Not one administrative measure of importance was carried through Congress during the four years that Adams was President. Indeed, Congress seldom vouchsafed so much as a respectful consideration of the meas- ures which he proposed. He strongly advocated a broad policy of internal improvements, believing that Congress should make liberal appropriations for the construction of in- terstate highways and canals and for deepening and otherwise improving rivers and harbors, but in this policy he was op- posed by the leaders of his party, especially by those of the South, who feared that such an expenditure would unduly in' crease the power of the federal government. Nevertheless, during the administration of Adams more than $2,000,000 were expended on roads and harbors. While the Jackson men in Congress were beating down Adams they were at the same time doing all they couUI to THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 309 advance the interests of their leader. As an incident in this campaign the tariff law of 1828 was passed. This law car- ried the protective principle beyond any point it had yet reached. The duties which it placed on hemp, pig iron, wool, coarse cotton, and woolen goods, iron manufactures, sugar, and salt, were so high as to prohibit importations. The law was intended, of course, to benefit the manufacturers, but John Randolph was close to the truth when he said " it re- ferred to manufactures of no kind except the manufacture of a President of the United States," for in the framing of the bill political considerations were dominant and both the Adams men and the Jackson men manoeuvered for advantage. As it turned out the advantage was with the Jackson men, for the law was satisfactory to the Middle States and the West, the two sections upon which Jackson relied for his strength. While Jackson's friends were making political capital for The •' , . . . Election him in Washington, the candidate himself was moving aljout of among the people, the central figure of receptions and public dinners. When the time for the election of 1828 arrived the anti-Jackson men put Adams forward as their candidate. Adams did almost nothing to strengthen his candidacy, rely- ing upon his excellent record as a statesman. Jackson's sole reliance was on the good-will of the people and the results of the election showed that he had secured their good-will. The popular vote was 647,276 for Jackson and 508,064 for Adams; the electoral vote was 178 for Jackson and 83 for Adams. The strength of Adams was in New England and the Middle States. Jackson was supported by the South, but his main strength was in the West. Himself a frontiersman, he voiced as no other man could the sentiments and the as- \ pirations of the democracy that was acquiring such head- . way (p. 293) in the western country. Every electoral vote west of the Alleghanies was cast for him. In the campaign of 1828 Jackson did not seek the nomina- Jackson- lion through the aid of politicians and through the action Democ- of the congressional caucus (p. 241), but carried his candi- dacy directly to the voters. This direct method of campaigning 310 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY led rapidly to a complete change in the method of nominating Presidential candidates. In 1823 the people of Blount County, Tennessee, at a mass-meeting, nominated Jackson for President. From that time on, nominating influences began at the bottom instead of at the top. Mass-meetings, State legislatures, and State conventions began to express their views as to presi- dential candidates and by 1832 the Congressional Caucus had disappeared and a national convention consisting of dele- gates from all the States had begun to name the party candi- dates for President and Vice-President. Along with this pop- ular method of naming the presidential candidate there was established the custom of electing the presidential electors by a direct vote of the people. At the beginning of the nine- teenth century, in most of the States, the electors were chosen by the legislature, but by 1832 all the States but one (South Carolina) were electing the electors by a popular vote. The triumph of Jackson, therefore, was a triumph of direct or pure democracy. And herein we find the essence of Jack- sonian democracy. Jackson brought the people and the gov- ernment together ; he made the government a partnership in which the people themselves were the partners. The Inaugura- tion of Jackson The Spoils System 102. JACKSON AND THE OFFICES. On the day of Jackson's inauguration (March 4, 1829) Washington was crowded to overflowing with visitors shouting and hurrahing for Jackson. " I never saw such a crowd be- fore," said Webster. " Persons have come hundreds of miles to see General Jackson and they really seem to think that the country is rescued from some dreadful danger. At the White House the crowds upset the pails of punch, broke the glasses, and stood with their muddy boots on the satin covered chairs to see the people's President." Many of those who flocked to the inauguration came as oftice-seekers. It was one of the doctrines of Jacksonian democracy that office was a thing to be fought for at the polls and that to the victors belonged the spoils. Now that the battle had been fought and won thousands of the followers THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 3" of Jackson came forward for their share in the spoils of office. Jackson did not wish to disappoint them and he soon began to turn men out of their offices in order to make room for his friends. This was something new in the administration of the national government. Before Jackson's time postmasters, clerks, customs-house officers, and the like, were allowed, as a rule, to remain in office as long as they behaved themselves properly and did their work well. But Jackson was hardly in office before a general proscription began. " Age, length of service, satisfactory performance of duties, or financial de- pendence were no protection. Men who had grown old in the government service were dismissed at a moment's notice and without recourse." It was estimated that within a year more than 2,000 persons were deprived of their offices. Jack- son could make these wholesale removals with a good con- science for he believed that in most cases no special fitness was required for holding office. One man, he said, could perform the duties of an office about as well as another. He did not think that those who were dismissed had any real ground for complaint. " He who is removed," he said, " has the same means of obtaining a living that are enjoyed by the millions who never hold office." Although the public service was greatly crippled by the removals, and although considerable distress was brought upon those who suddenly lost their employment, the mass of the people nevertheless approved of Jackson's course. The spoils system was popular from the beginning and the example set by Jackson of using the offices to reward political friends was followed by suc- ceeding Presidents for more than fifty years. So, one of the first fruits of Jacksonian democracy was the establishment of the spoils system. 103. JACKSON AND NULLIFICATION. Jackson soon had to face a question much graver than that The involved in the distribution of federal patronage. Before he of*" had been in office a year there arose a question which involved tion™'°*' the very existence of the Union. This was the old ques- 312 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY tion of Nullification, which had loomed up in 1799 (p. 241) and later, in 1814 (p. 276). The thing that revived the nul- lification idea was the tariff law of 1828, the " tariff of abom- inations " as it was called. This law incurred the instant resentment of the South. When its passage was announced in Charleston, flags were displayed at half-mast in the harbor and at a public meeting the people were urged not to buy the manufactures of the North. The protest of South Caro- lina was followed by similar ones in Georgia, Mississippi, and Virginia. These complaints for the most part were just. The tariff of 1828 benefited the North at the expense of the South. The high duties on hemp and iron manufactures and on woolens and cottons operated to prevent the South from buying in foreign markets. The prohibitory duties on coarse cottons and woolens were especially onerous to the South ; for the slaves were clothed with these coarse fabrics and, since the South had no manufacturing of its own, the planters were compelled to buy from Northern manufactur- ers at a price 40 per cent, higher than in the markets of Europe. This exclusion from the foreign market appeared all the more unjust when it was considered that in 1829 nearly three-fourths of our agricultural exports and nearly three-fifths of our exports of every kind consisted of the cotton and to- bacco and rice which were shipped from southern ports. That is to say, the section of the country which sold the most to foreign markets was prevented from buying in those markets. At first the South supported the protection measures, but by 1829 the Southern people, convinced that the protective system was inimical to their interests, were prepared to offer resistance to that system, "interpo- Resistance first showed itself in South Carolina. The lead- ing men of this State took the ground that a tariff that favored one section of the country at the expense of another was not uniform (68) and was therefore unconstitutional, void, and of no effect. How was a State to protect itself against a law that was unconstitutional ? Calhoun had an answer to the question. This great man for many years was the leader sition" THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 313 of the South and its ablest spokesman. He was born of Scotch-Irish parents in Abbeville, South Carolina, in 1782. After graduating with honors at Yale College he fitted him- self for the practice of the law. In 181 1 he entered Congress caihoun where we saw (p. 269) him active in bringing on the War of 1812. He was Secretary of War under Monroe and was elected Vice-President of the United States in 1825 and reelected in 1829, In the early part of his political career he was an advocate of a protective tariff but later he declared for free trade. When the tariff and slavery began to section- alize the country he came forward as the champion of the South and as the defender of the rights of the States. His speeches were clear, forcible, and logical ; and his power J , , , 1 J J John C. Calhoun, m debate was acknowledged even by the greatest of his opponents. For the protection of a State that was about to have its interests adversely affected by a federal law Calhoun proposed a remedy known as " Inter- position." A State coni'ention was to determine whether an act complained of was unconstitutional or not, and if it were found unconstitutional the convention was then to determine in what manner the State was to " interpose " and render the obnoxious law null and void. This plan for setting in motion the forces of nullification was adopted by the legislature of South Carolina in 1828 and was circulated throughout the State as an official manifesto. It was impossible for the government at Washington to The ignore what was going on in South Carolina. In 1830 the on question of nullification was brought up on the floor of Con- cation gress and a memorable debate followed. Senator Hayne of South Carolina plainly declared " that in case the federal gov- ernment should make aggressions which seemed deliberate, pal- pable, and dangerous violations of the rights reserved to the 314 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Webster The Tarifif of 1832 States under the Constitution, any State would be justified, when her solemn protests failed of effect, in resisting the efforts of the federal government to execute the measure complained of within her jurisdiction." This doctrine of nul- lification was promptly attacked by Daniel Webster, then a Senator from Massacluisetts. Webster was born in the same year as Calhoun, he entered Con- gress (in 1813) two years after Calhoun first made his appearance in that body, and for nearly twenty years the two men served in the Senate together. As Calhoun was the defender of the rights of the State, so Webster was the defender of the Constitution. " Webster defended the Constitution," said Edward Everett, " because he felt that it was a kind of earthly provi- dence surrounding us alike while we wake and while we sleep, and assuring us blessings such as never before were enjoyed by any people since the creation of the world." Webster saw that the authority of the Constitution was threatened by the doctrine of nullification and against the doctrine enunciated by Hayne he threw all the force of his matchless eloquence. He contended that a State had no right to judge for itself whether a law was contrary to the Constitution or not ; only the Supreme Court of the United States had the right to make such a decision (p. 296). "If each State," he asked, "had the right to find judgment on questions in which she is in- terested, is not the whole Union a rope of sand ? " Inasmuch as it was the tariff" that was responsible for so much unrest in the South, Congress in 1832 overhauled the " tariff of abominations " and passed a law which reduced some of the rates of which the Southern people complained. But in the law there was a specific declaration to the effect that it was the purpose of Congress to establish the protective Daniel Webster. THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 315 system upon a permanent basis. Heretofore the system of protection was regarded by most persons as a shifting and temporary policy. The tariff of 1832 therefore marked a new era in the history of protection : for the system that had been tentative and temporary was now fixed and permanent. When the South saw that it was to be burdened by a The NuUifi- permanent protective system its indignation rose higher than catioa ever. South CaroHna at once prepared for " interposition." ^^^.y^^ Her lesiislature called a convention which met at Columbia Caro- ° liua and declared (November 1832), that the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 were void and that they need not be obeyed by the citizens or officers of the State. Following the doctrine of "Interposition" (Nullification) to its logical conclusion the convention went on to declare : " We, the people of South Caro- lina, to the end that it may be fully understood by the Govern- ment of the United States, and the people of the co-States, that we are determined to maintain this, our ordinance and declaration, at every hazard, do further declare that we will not submit to the application of force, on the part of the Federal Government, to reduce this State to obedience ; but that we will consider the passage, by Congress, of any act authorizing the employment of a military or naval force against the State of South Carolina, her constituted author- ities or citizens, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union: and that the people of this State will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political con- nexion with the people of the other States, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of right do." In order to show that this declaration was not an idle threat the State armed itself and prepared for war. The nullification ordinance struck at the authority of the Jackson 1 , . , , ^ , . ... Attitude national government and it aroused the fighting spirit in Toward Jackson. He promptly informed South Carolina that the fication laws of the United States must be obeyed by the people of all the States and he warned her of the danger into which she 1833 3l6 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY was running. " If force should be necessary," he said, " I will have 40,000 men in South Carolina to put down resist- ance and enforce the law." To a member of Congress he said : " Please give my compliments to my friends in your State and say to them that if a single drop of blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States I will hang the first man I lay my hands on engaged in such conduct upon the first tree I can reach." Congress in re- sponse to Jackson's request quickly passed what is known as the Force-Bill — ■ a measure which gave the President power to employ force in the execution of the tariff laws. The But there was no occasion to use force, for Henry Clay Compro- . . . 1 • 1 J mise came forward with a timely compromise measure which saved of the situation from violence. Next to Tackson, Clay was the most striking figure upon the political stage. He was less eloquent than Webster and less logical and profound than Calhoun, but he was more popular and influential than either. Like Jackson, he was a man of the people, but he was better loved than Jackson. " Other Americans," says Rhodes, " have been intellectually greater, others have been greater benefac- tors to the country, yet no man has been loved as the people of the United States loved Henry Clay." The power of Clay consisted in a rare ability to organize the forces that work for compromise, for to his mind compromise was one of the " white virtues." " All wise human legislators," he said, " must consult in some degree the passions and prejudices and feelings, as well as the interests of the people. It eniy ay. would be vain and foolish to proceed at all times and under all circumstances upon the notion of al)Solute certainty in any system or infallibility in any dogma." In this spirit of concession and compromise Clay pushed through Congress (ii? 1833) ^ tariff bill that was more favor- THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 317 able to the South. The compromise measure provided for a gradual reduction of rates so that by 1842 there should be a uniform duty of 20 per cent, upon all dutiable articles and no article thereafter should pay a duty higher than 20 per cent. This concession was satisfactory to the South and it had the effect of bringing the nullification movement to an end, for South Carolina repealed the nullifying ordinance and yielded obedience to the new tarifif law. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. President Adams and the opposition: Turner, 265-284; McMaster V, 498-501, 505-S08. 2. Internal improvements: Turner, 287-299; McDonald, 137-141. 3. The Tariff of Abominations: Wilson, 25-50; McMaster V, 254- 263. 4. Give the history of Jackson's first election: Halsey VI, 3-12; Mc- Donald, 28-41. 5. Nullification: Halsey VI, 36-41; MacDonald, 154-167; Wilson, 59-62. 6. The Spoils System: Hart III, 531-535; Wilson, 30-34. 7. Indian affairs (1825-1837) : MacDonald, 169-181 ; McMaster V, 175-183, 537-54'o. 8. Foreign Affairs under Jackson : MacDonald, 200-227. 9. Dates for the chronological table: 1825, 1828, 1830. 10. Sketch the early life of Andrew Jackson. What was the "Kitchen cabinet"? State Calhoun's views on nullification. Give an account of the " Albany Regency." Why did Jackson receive the nick- name of "Old Hickory"? What were the terms of the Force Bill of 1833? Read in the class a strong passage from the speech of Hayne; a strong passage from the speech of Webster. 11. Special Rending. J. S. Bassett, The Life of Andrew Jackson. John T. Morse, Jr., JoJin Qiiincy Adams. Carl Schurz, Henry Clay. James Schouler, History of the United States, Vols. Ill and IV. XXIX THE JACKSONIAN ERA (continued) 104. JACKSON AND THE BANK. While the nuhification storm was brewing, the presidential campaign of 1832 was in progress. The candidates were Jackson and Clay. Jackson had hardly begun his first tern-t before his friends began to plan for his reelection. It did not accord with Jackson's notions of democracy that a President should hold office for more than one term, and in his messages to Congress he repeatedly urged that there should be an amend- ment to the Constitution limiting the eligibility of the Presi- dent to a single term of four or six years. But as no ac- tion was taken in regard to the matter he did not hesitate to avail himself of the privilege of reelection. As far as his personal inclinations were concerned he did not desire a second term, but political considerations and the pressure of his friends caused him to accept the nomination which was tendered him by legislatures and political societies in all parts of the Union. Perhaps the thing that did most to prevent Jackson from returning to private life at the close of his first term was his deep-seated determination to destroy the second Bank of the United States, an institution which in 18 16 had been re-char- tered for a period of twenty years. The opposition of the President was due chiefly to the fact that some of the officials of the bank had presumed to meddle in political affairs. In his first message (1829) Jackson had used threatening words in re- gard to this bank and his hostility to it seemed to increase year by year. He came to hate the bank so bitterly that it is said that he would sometimes choke when he uttered its name. In 1832 the bank applied to Congress for a renewal of its charter 318 THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 319 wliich was to expire in 1836. A charter was granted, but Jackson vetoed the bill on the ground that the privileges granted to the bank were monopolistic in character and on the further ground that the bank was unconstitutional. It was true the Supreme Court had declared such a bank to be con- stitutional, " but this tribunal," said Jackson, " ought not to control the coordinate authority of this government. Each public officer who takes an oath (128) to support the Con- stitution swears that he v.^ill support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others. . . . The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges and on that point the President is independent of both." Strong efforts were made to override the veto, but it was sustained. The veto carried the bank question into the campaign of The . . - . . Campaign 1832 and caused a sharp division of party lines. Enemies of of the banks called themselves Democrats and rallied around Jackson. Friends of the bank called themselves National Re- publicans and rallied to the support of Clay. The candidates were nominated by a National Convention.^ Jackson was nominated at Baltimore, delegates from every State but one being present. Clay was also nominated at Baltimore, sev- enteen States being represented by delegates. The campaign was a spirited one. The bank was the chief question and the stumps throughout the country rang with cries for and against the bank until the November election was held. Jack- son's 219 electoral votes to Clay's 49 showed that the country was against the bank. Jackson, accepting the result of the election as the voice The of the people, waged war upon the bank more ferociously than of the ever. In 1833 he directed the Secretary of the Treasury to issue an order forbidding the collectors of the United States to deposit any more money in the bank. The money that was 1 The first national nominating convention was held at Baltimore in 1831 by the Anti-Masons. This party was organized to oppose the alleged influence of freemasonry in politics. It nominated William Wirt for President in 183 1. The party soon dissolved and was absorbed by the Whigs. 320 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY already on deposit — about $10,000,000 — was drawn out in the ordinary course of meeting the expenses of the govern- ment. The bank was thus depleted of the government depos- its. Jackson's reason for causing the deposits to be removed was that he was convinced the bank had violated its charter by employing its funds to influence elections. The bank never re- covered from the blo^v which Jackson gave it when he ceased to make it a depository of the public funds. As a national institution it expired with its charter in 1836, although it was re-chartered in Pennsylvania as a State bank. The In the removal of the deposits Jackson acted in a high- of handed manner and his course brought upon him the censure Censure of the Senate. In 1834 that body resolved: "That the Presi- dent in the late Executive proceedings in relation to the pub- lic revenue has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both." This vote of censure stung Jackson to the quick and he did not rest until ii was expunged. Through the exer- tions of his friend, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, the odious words of censure were expunged by the order of the Senate (December 1836). With this act of the Senate the bank incident came to an end. 105. JACKSON AND THE INDIANS. Throughout both terms of his administration Jackson was called upon to deal with important questions relating to In- dian affairs. At the beginning of his first term nearly 50,000 Indians — Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and oth- ers — were living in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Ten- nessee and were occupying upward of 30,000,000 acres of the best land of the South. The white men wanted these lands, but the Indians were reluctant to give them up. Jackson, though he had been the scourge of the Indians in warfare, was nevertheless disposed to treat them fairly. In his first message he indicated the chief points of his Indian policy : the redmen were to be given the choice either of remaining on so much of their lands as they could use and obeying the laws of THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 321 the State in which they happened to Hve, or of surrendering' their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands west of that river. Experience showed that because of their tribal relations it was not practicable for them to remain on their lands and submit to the white man's laws; therefore in 1830 Congress provided for the exchange of Indian lands in the South for lands in the West and appropriated money for the removal of the Indians to the trans-Mississippi country. Most of the tribes acquiesced in the policy of removal ; the Cherokees, however, offered a stubborn resistance, and were not removed until Jackson threw the force of the federal government against them. The policy of removal was steadily carried out, so that by 1840 most of the tribes east of the Mississippi had been transplanted west of that river in the country long known as the Indian Territory. 106. THE ADMINISTRATION OF MARTIN VAN BUREN (1837-1841). One of the most faithful followers of Jackson was Martin The Van Buren of New York. Van Buren had served Jackson of successfully in the field of prac- Buren tical politics and as his Secre- tary of State had managed ques- tions of foreign diplomacy in a manner highly creditable to the administration. So when Jackson came to express a choice as to his successor, he named Van Buren, and Van Buren with little difficulty was elected. Van Buren was only the length- wud- r T *^ cat ened shadow of Jackson. He re- cur- Martin Van Buren. ^ • j t 1 ' 1 • , 1 rency tamed Jackson s cabmet and an- nounced his intention of " treading in the footsteps of his illus- trious predecessor." But Van Buren soon found that Jackson had not left him a path of roses in which to tread. In his finan- cial measures Jackson had sowed the wind and it was the lot of 322 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Specula- tion "Specie Circu- lar" Van Buren to reap the whirlwind. When Jackson crushed the Bank of the United States he at the same time increased the power of the hundreds of State banks that were scattered throughout the country. These banks could issue notes like the promissory notes of an individual, but these notes could not be made legal tender (72) ; one could accept them or not as one pleased. Even while the Bank of the United States still ex- isted the notes of the State banks formed a large part of the currency. After the destruction of the great national bank the State banks were encouraged to issue notes in larger quan- tities than ever. In some of the States, especially in the West, the State banks issued notes regardless of their ability to redeem them, that is, regardless of their ability to take them up and give gold and silver for them. Since this " wild- cat " currency — as the worthless paper issues of banks were called — cost only the printing, banks with very little capital, or with none at all, would put out their notes as freely as banks that had gold and silver with which to redeem their issues. The result of this wild-cat banking was to stimulate specu- lation of every kind. Money was easy to get and men went into all kinds of schemes. A favorite field of speculation was the public lands. In 1834, the sales of the public lands amounted in value to $5,000,000; two years later when specu- lation was at fever heat the land sales brought nearly $25,000,- 000 into the national treasury.^ Much of this land was paid for in wild-cat currency. Jackson believed that the only sound currency was gold and silver. So, in July 1836, he caused to be sent out to the land agents his famous " Specie Circu- lar," This directed that public lands could be paid for only in gold or silver. This order was a wholesome check upon the wild issue of paper money, but it brought distress to many who were dealing in public lands. 1 These heavy receipts from land sales enabled the government to pay off the national debt (1835) and still have a surplus of more than $35,000,000. Of this surplus about $28,000,000 was distributed to the several States in proportion to their respective representation in the Senate and House. In name the money thus given to the States was a deposit, but in fact it was a gift. To this day not a dollar of the surplus money deposited with the States has been called for. THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 323 When the Specie Circular was issued the country was on The . • li A 11 1 I- M TT it Condi- the verge of a panic. All the conditions, says Hart, were tions , 1 •,-•,111 r • 1 Tavora- ripe for a crash : an artincial and reckless system 01 private and bie to a public finance ; the States plunging into debt out of all propor- tion to their means and incurring interest charges which would require higher taxes than their people had ever known. Pri- vate banking expanded from the ease of raising funds abroad and of placing them at home ; the country merchant stretching his credit to buy new stocks of goods, and giving credit to his farmer customers ; real estate soaring upward . . . men will- ing even in financial centers to pay ruinous discounts. In seven years a balance of trade of $140,000,000 was created against the United States. Cotton was very high, rising to sixteen cents; and thousands of southwestern planters bought negroes on credit, expecting to pay for them out of their cot- ton crop. If anything occurred to check this feeling of buoy- ant confidence a crash must come." Van Buren had hardly entered upon his duties before the The . ^ Panic effects of the Specie Circular began to be felt. The large of volumes of paper currency which had been intended for the purchase of lands began to come back to the banks for re- demption, and redemption was impossible. Confidence was thus shaken and the crash came. Prices rose suddenly ; flour from five to eleven dollars per barrel ; corn from fifty cents to a dollar a bushel. In New York there were bread riots. Mills and factories were shut down, business houses closed their doors, workmen were thrown out of employment and distress was general. Van Buren was appealed to for relief and in response to pub- The ,. . 1 11 1 • r i^ T-. Independ he sentiment he called an extra session of Congress. But ent there was little that either the President or Congress could do to bring back good times. Van Buren refused to withdraw the order for the Specie Circular. Indeed he went even fur- ther than Jackson in his opposition to paper money by de- manding that the business of the post-office be conducted on a specie basis. He did, however, urge Congress to establish an independent treasury so that the federal government could 1840 324 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY keep its money in its own vaults and not be dependent upon banks for the safe-keeping of its funds. Although the in- fluence of the banks was thrown against the plan, neverthe- less after long debates extending through several sessions Con- gress passed (in 1840) an act under which the Treasury of the United States was directed to keep in its own vaults the monies coming into its hands. Thus the Independent Treas- ury system was established. Under it the funds of the govern- ment were deposited in the treasury building at Washington and in sub-treasuries located in the principal cities of the country.^ The Although the real causes of a panic are usually so deep- of ^^ seated that they cannot be clearly ascertained, the political party which is in power during a period of financial depression is generally held responsible for the hard times. So, \'an Bu- ren and the Democratic party had to bear the blame for the panic of 1837. In 1840 when the Democrats nominated Van Buren for reelection their candidate was a discredited man. The country had come to regard him as a selfish, scheming politician, unfit for the high office of President. The Whig party — as the National Republi- can party was now called — nomi- nated William Henry Harrison of Ohio for President and John Tyler of Virginia for Vice-President. A picturesque and noisy campaign — the log-cabin, hard cider cam- paign — followed with the result of an overwhelming victory for the Whigs. Jackson could not save even his own State of Tennessee for \'an Buren, and Van Buren William Henry Harrison. 1 1 <_ 1 • o^. ^ could not even save his own State of New York for himself. Thus the Jacksonian Era closed with the defeat of the Demo- 1 The sub-treasury system was abolished in 1841, but was restored in 1846 and was not ai'ani disturbed. THE JACKSONIAN ERA (1825-1841) 325 cratic party which had been in control for forty years. The wwgs successful Whig party was not an organization with fixed po- Demo- litical principles; it was a heterogeneous body composed of a number of diverse and conflicting elements, the only bond of union between which was opposition to the Democratic party. On the other hand, the Democratic party in 1840 was still true to Jefi^ersonian doctrines (p. 256) ; it still professed to stand up for the rights of the States, to construe the constitu- tion strictly, and to practice economy in public affairs. But the Whig party professed nothing and raised no questions ; " it ventured but twice in its history (1848 and 1852) to adopt a platform of principles, and it ventured but once (1844) to nominate a candidate for the Presidency with any avowed political principles." REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The election of 1832: MacDonald, 183-199; McMaster VI, 114- 152- 2. The Bank question: Wilson, 69-84; Burgess, 190-209; MacDon- ald, 218-239; McMaster VI, 183-198; Dewey, 198-216. 3. The distribution of the surplus: Wilson, 86-88; Dewey, 217-222. 4. Public lands and the Specie Circular : MacDonald, 276-291 ; Wil- son, 41-48. 5. The election of 1836 : MacDonald, 292-305. 6. The Panic of 1837: McMaster VI, 389-415; Dewey, 224-247. 7. The administration of Martin Van Buren : Wilson, 93-100. 8. The election of 1840: Garrison, 123-140; McMaster VI, 550-592, 9. Dates for the chronological table : 1832, 1837, 1840. 10. Summarize the political events of the Jacksonian Era. 11. What was the origin of the word "stump speaker"? Who were the "barnburners"? Who were the "Hunkers"? Who were the "Loco Focos"? Sketch the life of Thomas Hart Benton; of Martin Van Buren. Describe the duel between Clay and John Randolph (see Halsey V, 192-204). Name in the order of their greatness six of the most prominent politicians of the Jacksonian Era (1825-1841). Give reasons for the assignment of rank. Give a graphic account of the " Tippecanoe and Tyler Too " campaign. 12. Special Reading. Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas H. Benton. Ed- ward M. Shepard, Martin Van Buren. XXX PROGRESS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840 While statesmen during the Era of Good FeeHng and during the Jacksonian Era were struggling with great political problems, business men and toilers far removed from the scene of political struggles, were working with all their might to develop the nation's marvelous re- sources. What was the story of our development between 1820 and 1840? What new territory was opened up to settlement? What in- dustrial and social progress was made? Exten- sion of the National Road The Erie Canal 107. THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840. The Westward Movement which was already in full swing by 1820 was accelerated and strengthened between 1820 and 1840 by a most remarkable development in the routes of trans- portation between the East and the West and between the interior parts of the West itself. We saw that by the aid of Congress a great national turnpike was constructed between Cumberland and Wheeling (p. 283). In 1824 plans for ex- tending this road were laid, and by 1840 it had passed through Zanesville and Columbus in Ohio ; through Richmond, Indian- apolis, and Terre Haute, in Indiana, and had reached its west- ern terminus at Vandalia in Illinois. Tiie great National Road thus traversed the central portion of three large States, forming for many years the principal tie between the East and the West. Traffic on this highway was always heavy ; at times the road was so crowded that it resemljled a great street in a populous city. The construction of the National Road was brought about largely by the influence of Baltimore merchants who wished to secure for their city an easy route to the West. But the merchants from the city of New York also wished an easy route to the West. They especially desired better commiini- 326 i 327 328 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Clin- ton's Prophecy The Pennsyl- vania Canals cation with the western part of their own State, for in the early years of the nineteenth century much of the wheat and flour of western New York went down the Susquehanna to Baltimore.^ Indeed it was the Susquehanna trade that gave Baltimore its start as a commercial city. To reach the west- ern country the people of New York constructed the Erie Canal, which extended from Albany to Buffalo, connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie. The digging of this " great ditch " was begun in 1817 when De Witt Clinton, the governor of New York, turned the first spadeful of earth. In 1825 the canal was completed and thrown open to the public. In the mind of Clinton the canal was to be a political as well as a commercial tie between the East and the West. As a bond of union between the Atlantic and the western States he said " it may prevent the dismemberment of the American empire. As an organ of communication between the Hudson, the Mis- sissippi, the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes of the North and West and their tributary rivers, it will create the greatest in- land trade ever witnessed. The most fertile and extensive regions of America will avail themselves of its facilities for a market. All their surplus productions, whether of the soil, the forest, the mines, or the water, their fabrics of art, and their supplies of foreign commodities, will concentrate in the city of New York. That city will in the course of time become the granary of the world, the emporium of commerce, the seat of manufacturing, the focus of great moneyed operations . . . and before the revolution of a century the whole island of Manhattan, covered with habitations and replenished with a dense population, will constitute one vast city." The opening of the Erie Canal was a signal for canal con- struction in other States. Pennsylvania promptly began to plan for a system of canals leading from Philadelphia to Pitts- burgh. In 1826 work on such a system was begun and nine 1 Rough boats known as " arks " were built and floated down the river in the high water caused by the melting of the snows in the Alleghany highlands. From two to five hundred barrels of flour were carried in one of these crafts. /\s the boats could not be sailed up the river, they were taken to pieces at the end of the voyage and sold for lumber. Brigham, From Trail to Railway, p. 4i- PROGRESS BETWEExN 1820 AND 1840 329 years later one could travel by a horse-railway from Philadel- phia to the town of Columbia on the Susquehanna ; thence by a canal along the Susquehanna and Juniata to Hollidaysburg : thence over the mountains by a portage railway to Johnstown and thence to Pittsburgh on the Ohio River. Nor was the canal building confined to the East. By 18^^ Canais . . ^ . -^ ^"^ inthe the State of Ohio had joined Lake Erie to the Ohio River by West a canal which ran from Cleveland to Portsmouth, and by 1835 had connected Cincinnati, Dayton, and Toledo by means of the Miami Canal. Thus in the work of opening up the coun- try by means of canals the West supplemented the great achievements of the East. In addition to the canals the railroad also began during this Early • 1 J 1 % r • Rail- period to make its appearance as an agency of transportation, roads At first the cars on the railroads were drawn by horses, but in 1830 a steam locomotive, invented by Peter Cooper, was put upon the tracks for a trial trip between Baltimore and Ellicott Mills. The trip was in the main successful and marked the beginning of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In ' '*»• 1834 a railroad 136 miles in length was completed from Charleston, South Carolina, to Hamburg, op- posite Augusta. In 1835 twenty-two railroads were in operation and by 1840 ^1 ., ., r ^1 The first passenger train in Mich- the railway mileage of the j^^n. Erie & Kalamazoo R. R., 1835. country had reached nearly 3,000 miles. Railroads, however, had not yet demonstrated their great efficiency as carriers ; the wagon-road, the canal, and the river were still the chief means of inland transporta- tion. The canals did all their projectors claimed they would do. The ^ Xv6SU1lS The immediate results of the Erie Canal outran even the ex- of the Erie pectations of Clinton himself. Before this waterway was canai built it cost $100 to carry a ton of goods from Buffalo to New 330 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY York City ; the Canal reduced the cost to $20. The cheap freight rate caused trade in great volumes to flow toward the Canal. The grain and fruit of Western New York were no longer sent to Baltimore or Philadelphia, but were shipped to iSfew York City. Within a year after the Canal was opened 19,000 boats loaded with lumber, grain, furs, and various other kinds of freight were counted as they passed West Troy on their way to New York. But the Canal was not entirely given up to carrying freight, for there were special boats, known as packets, upon which passengers could travel comfortably and at cheap rates. The journey from New York to Buffalo re- quired six days and cost $18, including berth and meals. The Canal made New York City the commercial center of the United States, and it caused western New York to " blossom as the rose," as Clinton prophesied it would. Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo, mere villages when the Canal was opened, had grown by 1840 to be flourishing cities. Moreover the influence of the Erie Canal extended far be- yond the State of New York. The westward moving packets carried emigrants — most of them being from New England or New York — who settled the country bordering on the Great Lakes, with the result that after the Canal was opened northern Ohio rapidly filled up with settlers. By 1840 Cleve- land was a bustling city and Toledo a thriving town. Great numbers of those who went out by the Canal made, their way to Michigan Territory,^ where the forests were al- most as unbroken and untrodden as they were when explored by the followers of Champlain two hundred years before. At the time the Erie Canal was opened there were probably not more than ten thousand inhabitants in all the Michigan country. The only place of any importance was Detroit, and it was only a small fur-trading station. But after the immi- grants from New York and New England began to pour into the Michigan country the population of the Territory increased 1 In 1805 the lower peninsula of Michigan was cut off from Indiana Territory and organized as Michigan Territory. When Michigan was admitted as a State the upper peninsula was added to it. PROGRESS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840 331 by leaps and bounds, jumping from 8,000 in 1820 to 32,000 in 1830. By 1837 it was nearly 100,000, and in that year Michigan was admitted as a State. But the new routes of transportation did much more than ^[l^^^ to build up the regions around the Great Lakes. The in- ^^^^f^ fluence of the Pennsylvania and Ohio systems of canals, and of the extended national road, was felt throughout all the North- west. Between 1820-1840 the combined population of Ohio, By permission of The Railway World Canal movements near Allegheny, Portage Railroad. Indiana, and Illinois increased nearly fourfold, having attained at the latter date nearly 3,000,000. Ohio ranked third in pop- ulation and was almost as populous as Pennsylvania. Thus, thanks to the new routes of transportation, the Middle West by 1840 had risen to be almost an empire in itself. The rapid development around the Great Lakes and in the Trade States north of the Ohio between 1820 and 1840 was matched the West by a development equally rapid in the South and Southwest, and the The development of the South was due largely to the pres- ence of the steamboat upon Western waters and to the numer- ous navigable rivers which joined in commercial union the States of the Mississippi Valley and the States bordering on the Gulf. In the Gulf States cotton culture had become so profit- able that the planters desired to raise nothing but cotton ; their foodstuflfs and horses and cattle they preferred to buy out- 332 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Exten- sion of Cotton Culture side of the South. In the States north of the Ohio there was a surplus of the products needed by Southern planters. Hence the grain-growing States supplied the wants of the cot- ton-growing States, which they were enabled to do by the Navigable Rivers about 1820. steamboat and the network of rivers. Vast quantities of pork, bacon, lard, beef, butter, cheese, corn, flour, and whisky were shipped from the Ohio Valley to the cotton States. Inasmuch as the Southern planters could secure from the outside the necessaries of life they were free to devote their energies to the raising of larger and larger quantities of cot- ton. The ambition of every planter was " to raise more cot- ton, to buy more negroes ; to raise more cotton, to buy more negroes." Under such conditions the area of cotton culture was of course constantly extended. The removal of the Indians (p. 320) threw open many millions of acres of good cotton-lands, which were soon filled up by plant- ers with their slaves. Between 1833 and 1840 more than PROGRESS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840 332 20,000,000 acres of public lands were sold in the cotton States. In 1836 the cotton kingdom was still further enlarged by Arkansas the admission of Arkansas. This Territory (p. 300) received an overflow population from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mis- souri, and its growth was rapid. Its soil was adapted to the raising of cotton and, by the terms of the ]\Iissouri Compro- mise, it could become slave soil. So, it was admitted as a slave State, being regarded as an offset to Michigan, which was about to come in as a free State. 108. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS. Commercial progress between 1820 and 1840 consisted chiefly ^^® in the development of an inland trade. To understand the ments movements of commerce at this time we must begin with the ^^^^^ trade situation at the South. The planters sold their cotton to the New England and Middle States and to Europe and bought from the West its surplus of agricultural products. This surplus in some years amounted to as much as $100,000,- 000. With the money which they received from the South the View of Cincinnati (about 1830). Western people bought the manufactures of the East. So, by 1840 the South was getting rich selling its cotton to the East ; the West was getting rich by selling its grain to the South ; 334 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY and the East was getting rich by selHng its wares to the South and the West. Between the East and the West trade moved for the most part in one direction. The Erie and Penn- sylvania Canals carried great quantities of Eastern manufac- tures to the West, but produce from the W^est did not begin to move to the East in large volumes until railroads had been built over the Alleghanies, and this was considerably after 1840. Foreign Foreign commerce between 1820 and 1840 made no such merce progress as was made by the inland trade. The Embargo and the War of 1812 had inflicted injuries upon it that it took many years to recover from. In 1830 the combined value of our exports and imports was considerably less than in 1800 (p. 248), and it was not until 1840 that our foreign trade passed the $200,000,000 mark, our imports being at that time a little less than $100,000,000 and our exports a little more than $100,000,000. More than eighty per cent, of our exports con- sisted of agricultural products, and three-fourths of all the agricultural products exported consisted of cotton. So in 1840 our foreign commerce depended almost wholly upon the prod- ucts of the farm. Less than ten per cent, of what we had to sell abroad consisted of manufactured articles. The Nevertheless, by 1840 manufacturing in the United States Factory . ' j ~r o System was m a most flourishing condition. The Embargo, the War of 1812, and the successive protective tariffs encouraged the establishment of manufactures, and the ever growing demand for goods in the South and West kept the wheels of the fac- tories turning. We saw (p. 247) that in 1800 the effects of the industrial revolution were beginning to be felt in the United States, and that at least one factory had been built. By 1830 the factory system ^ had secured a firm foothold and by 1840 factory-made articles w^ere forcing from the market nearly every class of articles manufactured in the household. And the American factory readily attained a high degree of efii- 1 " By the factory system is meant the concentration of all the processes of manufacturing in a factory involving their withdrawal from the hou!;ehold and shop where they had been previously carried on; it involves also the organiza- tion of the workers under skilled management, for stipulated wages and fixei hours." (I£. C. Bogart.) PROGRESS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840 335 ciency. A writer describing our cotton-manufactures in 1840 said of Lowell, Massachusetts : " Here the factory system is perhaps in a more perfect operation than in any other part of the United States. Here are the largest establishments, the most perfect arrangement, and the richest corporations. And it may without fear of contradiction be asserted that the fac- tories at Lowell produced a greater quantity of yarn and cloth from each spindle and loom (in a given time) than is produced in any other factory without exception in the world." The three most important manufacturing industries between ^°^^°^ 1830 and 1840 were those of cotton, wool, and iron. In 1830 the United States was second only to England in the amount of cotton consumed. A table ^ giving statistics of cotton-man- ufacturing in 1831 shows that of the 33,000 looms in the whole country more than half were in New England. The same table shows that the labor conditions in the factories were by no means creditable. Of the 60,000 persons employed in the cotton-mills more than 40,000 were women or children under 12 years of age. Of the 8,500 persons thus employed in Rhode Island more than 3,000 were women who worked for $2.20 a week, and nearly 3,500 were children under twelve who worked for $1.50 a week. The manufacturing of woolen goods, like that of cotton wooien goods, was stimulated by the Embargo and fostered by the protective tariff, but it did not keep pace with the cotton-manu- facturing. Although improved machinery was brought into use in the manufacture of woolens, and although the tariff on woolens was raised from time to time, it was a long time before the American woolens could compete successfully with the English product. In 1820, the value of the product of American woolens was $19,000,000; twenty years later the product was $20,000,000. Compared with the manufacture of iron this was a slow rate iron of progress. In 1820 the output of iron was 20,000 tons; in factures 1840 it was 315,000 tons. This increase was due both to bet- ter processes of manufacturing and to a more lively demand. 1 See Callander, Economic History of the United States, p. 420. 336 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Indus- trial Independ- ence About 1830 the hot-air blast began to be used in the smelting of iron, and in 1837 anthracite coal was first used as a fuel in the furnaces for smelting. These improvements were timely, for about 1835 iron began to be in great demand for railroad purposes. Of course, besides cotton, wool, and iron there were by 1840 other manufactures, many of them in a prosperous con- dition. For the year 1840 the census reported our manufac- turing at nearly half a billion of dollars. Indeed by 1840 we had almost passed from a state of dependence to a state of inde- pendence in respect to manufacturing. Free Schools North and South Educa- tion in the West 109. EDUCATION AND LITERATURE. But it was not only material progress we were making in 1840. Men were now giving attention to higher things, and a desire for more education and more culture was showing itself in all parts of the country. Statesmen were beginning to realize that in a democracy citizens must be educated and in a number of States a system of popular education had been established. About 1837 Horace Mann began to urge upon the people of Massachusetts and other New England States the necessity of spending more money upon their schools and of employing better teachers. INIann's efforts were appre- ciated, and it was not long before there was a general im- provement in public education throughout all New England. The Middle and Southern States were also advancing in mat- ters of public education. In the State of New York there were in 1830 more than 9,000 school districts and nearly 500,- 000 pupils. In Pennsylvania a common-school system was es- tablished by law in 1834. Maryland and Virginia and other Southern States had made provisions by law for public educa- tion, but many years were yet to pass before the South began to enjoy a complete system of free schools. In the West popular education had made but little headway by 1840, yet the foundations of a free-school system had been laid. In the maintenance of their schools the people of the \\''est were helped by liberal gifts of the public lands. In the PROGRESS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840 237 Ordinance of 1787 it was provided that in the government of the Northwest Territory education was to be encouraged (p. 209), and this provision was faithfully carried out. When a State entered the Union one section (No. 16) of the public domain of every township — one square mile in every thirty- six — was set aside for public schools. After 1800 every Girard Collegre in 1840. State — with the exception of Maine, Texas, and West Vir- ginia — when admitted received at least two townships — sev- enty-two square miles — of land for the purpose of founding a State university. These school lands were given to the States for school purposes, and when they were sold to private purchasers the money received for them was invested, the interest being spent from year to year in supporting the schools. These land grants for schools encouraged the people of the West to foster education from the beginning. Thus in 18 16 the people of Indiana in their constitution provided that " it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide by law for a general system of education, ascending in regular grada- tion from township schools to a State university where tuition shall be gratis and equally open to all." The lawmakers of Indiana carried out the provision of their constitution and in good time Indiana had a complete free-school system extend- 338 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Litera- ture ing from the primary school to the university. And so it was in almost all the States west of the Alleghanies : by 1840 they were all laying the foundation of a complete system for free education/ Along with this more general diffusion of knowledge there came a greater and wider demand for good reading. Accord- ingly there came to the front a group of writers, whose works won for American literature an imperishable fame. In 1809 Irving published his inimitable Knickerbocker's History of Nezv York and eight years later Bryant surprised the literary world with his Thanatopsis. Cooper began to publish in 182 1, Hawthorne in 1825, Poe in 1829, Whittier in 1831, Longfel- low and Prescott in 1833, Bancroft in 1834, Emerson and Holmes in 1836, Lowell in 1841, and Parkman in 1847. Social Reforms Dorr's Kebel- lion no. SOCIAL BETTERMENT. The progress made in education between 1820 and 1840 was only one of many achievements along the line of social better- ment. During this period societies were formed for advanc- ing the cause of temperance ; for relieving the sufferings of the poor ; for securing the proper treatment of the insane ; for preventing the causes of pauperism; for reforming juve- nile delinquents; for the abolition of imprisonment for debt. In some cases the agitation for reform resulted in consid- erable trouble. In Rhode Island many of the people became dissatisfied because the constitution of the State did not permit a man to vote unless he owned real estate worth at least $134 or paid a yearly rent of at least $7. As this prop- erty qualification excluded from the suffrage a large proportion of the men of voting age, efforts were made in 1841 to change the constitution, but those in authority stubbornly resisted 1 Among the private institutions of learning established during this period were Amherst, Hamilton, Oberlin, Randolph-Macon, Haverford, De Pauw, Knox, Lafayette, Wabash, and Marietta Colleges,, and Tulane, Wesleyan, and New York Universities. In 183: Stephen Girard of Philadelphia left a great amount of money for the founding of the famous orphan school which bears the name of Girard College. The University of Virginia, founded in 1819, owes its existence to the efforts of Thomas Jefferson. PROGRESS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840 339 change. The malcontents elected as governor Thomas W. Dorr, who attempted to take possession of the State govern- ment by force, but before there was any bloodshed. Dorr's followers deserted him and he was arrested and imprisoned. Dorr was soon pardoned, however, and in 1843 the restric- tions upon the suffrage were in part removed. In New York the tenants of the Van Rensselaer estates on Anti- the Hudson (p. 105) complained bitterly because they were Troubles compelled to pay their rents in the products of the farms in- stead of in cash, and because they paid all the local and State taxes while the owners paid none. In the agitation for relief the tenants in some cases resorted to lawlessness. Most of the reforms for which the anti-renters clamored were secured by the new constitution which New York adopted in 1846. It was about this time that labor unions began to thrive. Labor ° ... Associa- As the factory system developed, workingmen organized for tions the protection of their interests, and by 1825 most of the trades had their associations. In 1833 twenty-two labor societies par- ticipated in a parade in New York city. The chief aim of these associations was to improve the conditions of the working classes. The societies had benefit funds for the sick and for those out of work and on strike. They demanded a ten- hour day and insisted upon the establishment of free schools for all children. In some cases the reform movements of the period had for sociaustic . . . Move- their aim the reorganization of society on a socialistic or com- ments munistic basis. -In 1825 Robert Owen, a rich manufacturer of England, purchased a tract of 30,cxx) acres along the Wabash River and established the community known as New Har- mony. To his community Owen invited all industrious and well-disposed people who desired to test the socializing potency of human brotherhood. His aim was to found a community in which property was to be held in common. About 900 people gathered at New Harmony in response to Owen's in- vitation and began the experiment of communistic life. But I after three years of trial the comrnunity dissolved. Owen ex- plained the failure as follows : " There was not disinterested 340 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY industry ; there was not mutual confidence ; there was not prac- tical experience ; there was not union of action because there was not unanimity of counsel. These were the points of dif- ference and dissension, the rock upon which the social bark struck and was wrecked." In 1842 another cooperative ex- periment was tried on the lirook Farm just outside of Bos- ton. This farm was owned l)y about 100 shareholders, among whom were such men as Theodore Parker, Charles A. Dana, and George William Curtis. The shareholders, even the most famous, took part in the manual labor of the farm, and dined in a common central hall. But Brook Farm succeeded little better than New Harmony. Yet, although these experiments accomplished but little, they nevertheless were in harmony with the humanizing spirit of the time ^ and they marked the beginnings of the socialistic propaganda in America. The The most important of all the reform movements of the tion period was that which had for its aim the complete abolition ment xft slavery. Long before this time there had been manifested in all parts of the country considerable sentiment against slav- ery, and movements had been set on foot to cure some of its evils. Societies had been organized for the purpose of secur- ing the gradual emancipation of the slaves and there was a movement for transporting the negroes to Africa and organiz- ing them into colonies. The ])ur])ose of these earlier move- ments was to ameliorate the conditions of the slaves rather than to abolish slavery. But the purpose of the abolition movement was to wipe slavery from the face of the earth, to destroy it root and branch, and to destroy it immedi- ately. 1 The United States was not the only country over which during this period there swept a wave of reform. " It was a time," says Woodrow Wilson, " when the world at large was quivering under the impact of new forces, both moral and intellectual. The year 1830 marks not only a period of sharp political revolution in Europe, but also a season of awakened social conscience everywhere. Nowhere were the new forces more profoundly felt than in England. ... In i8-'9 Catholic emancipation was effected; in 1832 the first reform bill [a law providing for a better representation in Parliament] was passed; in 1833 slavery was abolished throughout the British empire; in 1834 the system of poor relief was reformed; in 1835 the long needed reconstitution of the government of municipal corpora- tions was accomplished." PROGRESS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840 341 The greatest leader of the abolitionists was William Lloyd wiiuam Garrison,^ one of the boldest and most successful of agitators Garrison the world has ever seen. In 1831 Garrison began the publica- tion of the Liberator. In the first number of this paper he wrote these words : " I will be as harsh as the truth and as un- compromising 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 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 ! I am in earnest ! I will not equivocate ; I will not excuse ; I will not retreat a single inch ; and I will be heard." Garrison's words were not overbold. He was heard and The Work under his leadership the abolition movement grew rapidly, of the \ . . Abolition- In 183s there were m the North — the section to which the ists movement was confined — about 200 abolition societies ; by 1840 there were 2,000 of these societies. In the beginning the abolitionists stood for a despised cause and few men of prominence joined the movement. In some places abolitionists were so unpopular that they were subjected to persecution. Frequently their meetings were broken up. Garrison himself was set upon by a mob in the streets of Boston and treated in a shameful manner. In Alton, Illinois, Elijah Lovejoy, the editor of an abolition paper, was brutally murdered. This treatment of the abolitionists was due in part to their ultra- radicalism, for devotion to their cause animated them with a spirit of lawlessness ; they were for liberating the slaves in spite of the Constitution and in spite of the law. Garrison flouted the Constitution and proclaimed it a covenant with death and an agreement with hell. The abolitionists in their efforts to strengthen their cause and spread their doctrine 1 Another noted pioneer in the abolition movement was Benjamin Lundy, who as early as 1821 began to publish at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, the Genius of Uni- versal Emancipation, a periodical devoted to the cause of abolition. Afterward Lundy moved to Baltimore, where Garrison, in 1829, joined him as assistant editor of the Genius. The articles in the Genius were so radical that they created a bitter spirit in Baltimore. Lundy soon moved to Washington, where his paper in a few years failed. 342 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY resorted to various methods of agitation. They printed books illustrated with pictures showing the horrors of slavery; they sent petitions to State legislatures and to Congress asking that slavery be abolished ; they founricd abolition newspapers ; they flooded the mails with abolition literature. The Southern slaveholders, fearing that abolition newspapers falling into the hands of slaves might in- cite them to insurrection ^ protested bitterly against the use of the mails for carrying abolition publications, but the post-office department failed to come to their relief. The petitions to Congress asking for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia led (1836) to the pas- sage of a " gag " resolution which had for its purpose the stifling of all discussion on the subject of slavery. The resolution provided that petitions relating to slavery should be laid on the table without further debate. This rule was fiercely attacked by John Ouincy Adams — then a member of Congress — who regarded it as a violation of the Constitu- tion (133). AdaiHs spoke against the resolution again and again and in 1844 it was abandoned. The abolitionists did not organize as a political party, yet as a result of the abolition propaganda a Liberty party was organized. In 1840 the presi- dential candidate of this party received over 7.000 votes ; in 1844 the vote of the Liberty party was over 60,000. In the meantime the abolitionists went on urging their views upon the country regardless of all parties. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The Erie Canal: Halsey V, 161-175; Turner, 32-36; iMcMaster V, 132-136. 2. The first American locomotive: Halsey VI, \2~16. 1 In 1831, Nat Turner, a slave who could read and write, gathered together a band of twenty or thirty negroes and attacked the whites living near Cross Keys in Virginia and killed fifty-five persons — men, women, and children. Forces were hurried to the scene of the uprising and the insurrection was quickly quelled. Turner was captured and executed. The abolitionists were charged with having incited this insurrection, it being alleged that Turner had received a copy of the Liberator. There is no evidence, however, that this was true. Nevertheless, the Turner uprising did much to embitter the South against the abolitionists. PROGRESS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1840 343 3. A period of Material development: Wilson, 102-115. 4. Beyond the Mississippi in 1832 (Washington Irving) : Halsey VI, 1 21-129. 5. The West (1820-1830): Turner, 84-110; Bogart, 189-197. 6. The rise of the factory system in the United States : Bogart, 162-173; Coman, 152-156. 7. Educational development: Dexter, go-113. 8. Education: Forman, 351-358. 9. The early labor movement : Bogart, 253-255 ; McMaster VI, 101-102, 181-182, 220-223. 10. The Abolitionists: Halsey VI, 50-64; McMaster' VI, 178-180, 274-281. 11. Dates for the chronological table: 1825, 1831, 1836. 12. For the table of States: Michigan, Arkansas. 13. Tlie Locomotive: Forman, Useful Iiiz'cntio)is, 180-189. 14. What was Fourierism? Sketch the life of Edgar Allan Poe. Give an account of the public services of Dorothy Dix. Give an ac- count of the " Toledo War." State the views of three northern men — Blaine, Roosevelt, and Carl Schurz — in regard to the Abolitionists. What State undertook the building of railroads in the early days of railroad construction? Who was Jenny Lind? Give an account of her first concert in New York. Give an account of the reforms made in spelling by Noah Webster and of the books prepared by him. Read in the class Garrison's own account of how he was mobbed. 15. Special Reading. Thomas M. Cooley, Michigan. J. H. Reynolds, Makers of Arkansas. A. B. Hulbert, Great American Canals. XXXI THE GREAT WESTWARD EXTENSION During the two administrations following the Jacksonian Era, pres- sure of population westward and hunger for new land resulted in carry- ing our flag to the Pacific and in adding to our territory an area of more than a million square miles. The chief aim of this chapter will he to give an account of how this enormous acquisition was made. III. TYLER AND THE WHIGS. Harrison was sworn into office March 4, 184 1, but before his administration had gained any headway a brief ilhiess re- suked in his death (April 4, 1841). Accordingly, John Tyler became President. This was the first time in our history that a Vice-President succeeded to the Presidential office and Tyler's task was a difficult one. His chief trouble was with the Whigs who had elected him. Tyler had been nominated by the Whigs mainly because of his hostility to Andrew Jackson, yet as far as his own political beliefs were con- cerned he was as good a Democrat as Jackson himself. So, when the Whigs in Congress came forward with a bill to incorporate a Bank of the United States. Tyler found himself at odds with the law-making branch. Congress (in 1841) passed the ImII, and Tyler vetoed it. The Whigs had control of Congress and they had the advantage of the power- ful leadership of Clay, but they could not muster a two-thirds 344 John Tyler. THE GREAT WESTWARD EXTENSION 345 majority to pass the bill over the President's veto. Still, they did not despair ; after their first failure they passed a new bill which they thought would meet with the approval of the President. But in this they were disappointed; Tyler vetoed the second bill and again his veto could not be over- come. This action caused a breach between Tyler and the Whigs. Every member of the Cabinet except Webster ^ resigned and the Whig members of Congress issued a formal address to the people in which they declared that ' all political connection between them and John Tyler was at an end from that day forth.' This rupture resulted in the demoralization of the Whigs and in the undoing of Tyler's administration. Tyler turned to the Democrats for support, but they would not trust him. So, the Whig victory of 1840 came to naught and Tyler, on the threshold of his administration, was left politically stranded, — a President without a party. 112. THE TEXAN QUESTION. Although the Democrats could not trust Tyler they could use him to pull their political chestnuts out of the fire. This they did in connection with the Texan question, a question that had been before the American people for many years and that by Tyler's time was demanding a solution. In the treaty made with Spain in 181Q (p. 200) assurance The . , . , . „ Republic was given to the United States that grants of land in Texas to of American citizens could be regarded as valid. This encouraged Americans to settle in Texas in large numbers. As early as 1828 the population of Texas consisted of twelve thousand Americans and only three thousand Mexicans. Texas was now one of the States of Mexico, a country which had revolted from Spain in 1820 and had organized as an independent federal 1 Webster, who was the Secretary of State, remained in the cabinet in order to settle with Great Britain the question of the true boundary between the northeastern States and Canada. There had been a bitter controversy between Maine and Canada over some disputed territory and in 1839 actual hostilities seemed likely. War, however, was averted, and in 1842 the boundary line was fixed by an agreement known as the Webster-Ashburton treaty. 346 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY republic. The constitution of Texas prohibited slavery, but in spite of this ])rohibition slave-owners from the United States kept moving into the State with their slaves. In 1835 there arose between Texas and the Mexican government a friction which led to a struggle for the absolute independence of Texas. In this struggle Americans were the allies and tlie chief reliance of the Texans.^ In April 1836, General Sam Houston, an American, led an army of Texan adherents against the Mexican leader Santa Anna, defeating him at San Jacinto. Texas was now organized as an independent re- public and in 1837 its independence was recognized by the United States, England, France, and Belgium. Mexico, how- ever, refused recognition. In the constitution of the new re- public of Texas slavery was established as a lawful institu- tion. This could hardly have been otherwise, for Texas by 1836 had become an American community in which the pre- dominating influence was exerted by slaveholders. The peo])le of Texas did not desire to remain independent. As Americans they wished Texas to be annexed to the United States. But annexation was bound to meet with opposi- tion, for Texas was a region larger than France and to ad- mit it to the Union would enormously extend the area of slavery, and would take from the North the advantage which it had secured by the Missouri Compromise. The question of annexation was presented to Jackson but he postponed action in regard to it. Overtures for annexation were made to \'an I'uren, but they were declined. Tyler, however, fa- vored the project of annexation. In April 1844, he sub- mitted to the Senate a treaty of annexation which he had negotiated with the Texas authorities. But he was unaJ^le to secure the ratification of the treaty: it was rejected in the Senate by a decisive vote. 1 During this war occurred the siege of the Alamo, a fort at San Antonio, where a band of about 140 Texans resisted a Mexican force of ten times their number and all but six perished rather than surrender. The six who surrendered were murdered by the Mexicans; not a man of tlie garrison was left alive. Among the dead were David Crockett, a famous frontiersman, and James Bowie, the inventor of the deadly bowie-knife. The heroic defense of the fort gave the Toxans the war cry, " Remember the Alamo! " THE GREAT WESTWARD EXTENSION 347 But Tyler went far enough with annexation to make it ^^^gti^n the leading issue in the election of 1844. In that year the °fg^^ Whigs unanimously nominated Henry Clay for President. Their platform declared for a protective tariff and for a single term for the presidency, but in regard to the Texas question it was silent. The Democrats, after adopting a rule making a two-thirds vote necessary for a choice,^ nominated James K. Polk of Tennessee. The platform of the Democrats in regard to annexation was as follows : " Resolved, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable ; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power and that the reoccu- pation of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas at the earliest practicable period are great American measures which this convention recommends to the cordial support of the Democracy of the Union." Here w^as an appeal to the ex- pansion sentiment which was strong both at the North and at the South. The people of the North wanted Oregon; the people of the South wanted Texas. The success of the Demo- crats, therefore, would bring satisfaction to both sections. Clay was at the height of his popularity but he blew hot and cold on the Texas question and his vacillation cost him many votes both in the North and in the South. In New York the Liberty party drew away from the Whigs enough votes to give that State to the Democrats. If Clay had carried New York he would have been elected, but as it was Polk was victorious. Tyler regarded the results of the election as a mandate Annexa, from the people to proceed with measures for the annexation com- . pleted of Texas. Accordingly, he urged Congress to admit Texas to the Union by the method of a joint resolution of both houses. Congress, acting upon his suggestion, passed, in Janu- ary 1845, ^ resolution providing that the territory rightfully belonging to the Republic of Texas might be erected into 1 This rule was adopted for the purpose of defeating Van Buren, who was able to secure the votes of ? majority of the delegates, but who could not secure two-thirds of the votes. 348 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY a new State to be called the State of Texas, and that after a government republican in form (120) had been established by the people of Texas it might be admitted as one of the States of the Union. The resolution further jjrovided that additional States not exceeding four in number might be formed from the territory of Texas with its consent. As the Texans were eager to enter the Union there was little delay in completing the work of annexation. By October 1845, t'le peo])le of Texas liad ratified a State constitution and on December 29, 1845, 'i'exas was admitted as a State. 113. THE OREGON QUESTION. At the very beginning of his administration (March 4, 1845) Polk entered upon the policy of expansion which had been the keynote of the campaign.^ The annexation of Texas having been accomplished by Tyler, Polk directed his at- tention to the Oregon question. We saw (p. 290) that in 1818 the United States and England entered into an agree- ment for the joint occupation of the Oregon country. In 1828 this agreement was indefinitely continued, but the joint occupation might be terminated by a twelve months' notice by either party at any time. But the settlement of Oregon by Americans soon rendered joint occupation impracticable. By 1835 small bodies of pioneers had found their way to Oregon and by the time of Polk there was a steady stream of emigration to the far-ofif country. An eye-witness at Inde- pendence, in Kansas, thus describes the trains of emigrants as they moved along in the spring of 1845, making their slow journey to the Oregon country: ''Even as we write," says he, '* we see a long train of wagons coming through our streets. As they go they are hailed with joyous shouts of welcome by 1 The subject cf the tariff was not very prominent in the campaign, yet Polk secured an important piece of tariff legislation. This was the Walker tariff of J846, which lowered the duties on many commodities and fixed the rates with the aim of raising revenue without regard to protection. While it was not a free trade measure pure and simple, it was nevertheless a step in that direction. The Walker tariff remained in force until 1857 when another reduction was made in the rates. THE GREAT WESTWARD EXTENSION 349 James K. Polk. their fellow-travelers. Looking out at the passing train we see, among the foremost, a comfortable covered wagon with one of its sheets so drawn aside as to reveal a quiet-looking woman seated inside, and sewing. The bottom of the wagon is carpeted; at one end is a bureau and mirror ; near by are three chairs, and hang- ing along the sides are articles of ornament and use. Then comes team after team, each drawn by six or eight stout oxen driven by stout sons of Anak, not one of them under six-feet-two in his stockings. We are in a perfect Oregon fever. Then comes stock of every description — negroes, horses, mules, cows, oxen, and there seems to be no end of them. Not less than two or three thousand people are gathered at this point, ready to set off over the broad prairie about May tenth. A train of two hundred wagons left our town, on Tuesday and Wednesday last, bound for- Oregon. Yester- day twenty-eight passed this town. They came from about Fort Madi- son, Iowa. Two hundred more have crossed the Missouri at St. Joseph and fifty The Oregon country. ^^^e said to be crossing at the Lower Ferry. May fourth, the advance guard set off from Independence hi four cotnpanies. Men and boys 350 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY nunil)cre(l four hundred and two ; women and girls, three hundred and thirty-four; the wagons one hundred and sixty- five, and the horses, mules, oxen, and cattle over three thou- sand. One who met the great body of emigrants after they had set out on their long journey declares that the trail from fifteen miles beyond the Big Blue to the State line was crowded with emigrants, and that he passed five hundred wagons and the usual proportion of men, women, children, and cattle.'' ^ Joint By 1845 nearly 10,000 Americans had settled m the Oregon OCCU- ' , . r 1 ■ , 1 1 pancy couutry and it was necessary tor the region to have a regular nated and orderly government. Polk was eager and ready to give them one. In his first annual message he recommended that Great Britain be notified that the agreement of joint occu- pancy should be terminated and that the jurisdiction of the United States government should be extended over the citizens of the United States in Oregon. Congress acceded to Polk's plans ; the notice was given and the federal government as- sumed authority in the Oregon country. The Polk also quickly settled the vexed question of the Oregon Boun'-'^ boundary. Our government claimed as the northern boundary of our territory in Oregon the parallel of 54° 40', and in the campaign of 1844 the cry had been " fifty- four forty or fight." The British government claimed the Columbia River as the southern boundary of British territory in Oregon. The ques- tion was settled by a compromise: it was agreed that the dividing line between American and British territory in Oregon should be the forty-ninth parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the middle of the channel that separates Vancouver Island from the mainland, and thence should run southward along the middle of the channel and Fuca's Strait to the Pacific. In dealing with the Oregon question, Polk acted in a most energetic manner and in the opinion of most Englishmen his action was arbitrary and unjust. British resentment at his course was at one time so bitter that war was threatened. Happily, however, the two nations did not come to blows. 1 See McMaster, Vol. VII, p. 411. THE GREAT WESTWARD EXTENSION 351 114. THE ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA AND NEW MEXICO. An ardent expansionist, Polk was not content with secur- Poik and ing a firm title to the Oregon country. He desired as a further caii- acquisition to American territory the Mexican -province of California. Two things encouraged him to believe that this acquisition could be peacefully made. First there were claims amounting to several millions of dollars which citizens of the United States held against the Mexican government. These claims were overdue, and there was no money in the Mexican treasury with which they could be paid. Second, in the joint resolution which annexed Texas it was stipulated that the boundaries between Mexico and Texas should be adjusted by the government of the United States. In these claims and in the adjustment of the boundaries Polk saw his opportunity. He would take up with Mexico the question of the claims and at the same time the question of boundaries. Since Mexico could not settle the claims in cash he would allow her to pay in land. The boundaries therefore could be so extended as to include California. If this could be done Polk was will- ing to pay the claims and give to Mexico a large sum of money in addition. It was not only the impulse for expansion that urged Polk Eng- to the acquisition of California. The President feared that Designs r . . upon if the United States did not take the province some foreign Caii- power would. California at the time was inhabited by only a handful of Spaniards and was wholly unable to defend itself. Nor could it be successfully defended by the weak and distant Mexican government. It was therefore danger- ously exposed to the attack of any nation that might wish to possess it. Polk believed that Great Britain had designs upon California. His suspicion was based partly upon rumors and partly upon the fact that the British on the Pacific coast were acting in a mysterious manner. Polk was ready to op- pose Great Britain or any other power that might attempt to occupy California. " No future European colony or do- minion," he declared, " shall with our consent be planted or 352 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Slidell's Mission The Declara- tion of War established on any part of the North American continent." In saying this he was of course only reasserting in a vigorous fashion the doctrine proclaimed by Monroe. In dealing with the California situation Polk allowed no grass to grow under his feet. In November 1845, ^'th the consent of his Cabinet, he despatched John Slidell to the city of Mexico for the purpose of renewing with the Mexican government the diplomatic relations which had been abruptly severed by Mexico immediately after Texas had been annexed. As soon as Slidell should be received as a representative, he was to take up with the Mexican government the subject of the claims and of the boundaries. He was to insist upon the Rio Grande as the boundary between Texas and Mexico and was to secure California, and possibly New Mexico, for the United States. For such a cession of territory the United States would pay the claims and as much as $25,000,000 in ad- dition. But Slidell did not gain a hearing. In some way the purport of his mission leaked out and when it became known that he was planning for the dismemberment of Mexico, the Mexican government peremptorily refused to receive him. In truth, public sentiment in Mexico was strongly against the United States and there was little chance of securing Cal- ifornia by peaceful means. " Be assured," wrote Slidell, " that nothing is to be done with those people until they shall have been chastised." Polk was ready to chastise them if that were necessary; for while he carried the " olive branch of peace " in one hand, he carried the sword in the other. He sincerely desired peace but at the very time that he w^as trying to secure California by diplomatic methods, he was preparing to take it by force if war resulted. And war did result. On May 9 (1846) Polk decided to ask Congress to declare war against Mexico on the grounds that Slidell had been refused a hearing. On May 10, however, news came that Mexicans had crossed the Rio Grande (April 24) and had killed a number of American soldiers. Here was a better excuse for declaring war. When giving to Congress (May 13) reasons for the war, Polk could THE GREAT WESTWARD EXTENSION 353 now say: " Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon American soil." Congress agreed with Polk and im- mediately declared war, asserting that war existed by the act of Mexico itself. T^O 200 THE M.-N. WORKS Map of the war with Mexico. Polk went into the struggle with Mexico hoping to " conquer The a peace " by delivering a few sharp, decisive blows. But it War was by no means a little war that he had to fight. General Zachary Taylor was on the Rio Grande with an army at the outbreak of hostilities and he had already met the Mexicans in a battle at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma and had 354 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY defeated them even before war had been formally declared. In September 1846, Taylor, after a hard fought battle, cap- tured the strongly fortified city of Monterey. In February 1847, Taylor's army was attacked by Santa Anna at Buena Vista, but the Americans stubbornly held their ground. After the battle at Buena Vista the scene of the war shifted to Vera Cruz, where Winfield Scott, the commanding general of the American forces, landed in March with an army of 12,000 men. After taking Vera Cruz (March 29) Scott began a march to the city of Mexico. By August 10 the Americans had fought their way through the mountain passes of Cerro Gordo and had come to Pueblo. Here the Mexicans were of- fered liberal terms of peace. But the ofifer was refused. The Mexicans rallied their forces for the further defense of their country. But it was of no use: Scott won victory after vic- tory. On September 8 he took Molino del Rey ; on September 13 the strong fortress of Chapultepec fell; and on September 14 the American army triumphantly entered the city of Mexico and raised the American 'flag. After the surrender of the capital city there was no further resistance by the Mexicans at any place ; Polk had conquered a peace.^ • California, the great prize for which the war was really fought, was taken almost before the war had actually begun.- As early as June 1846, troops were sent to take pos- session of New ]\Iexico and California. The conquest of these provinces was made without a struggle. " We simply marched," said one of the soldiers, " all over California from Sonoma to San Diego and raised the American flag without opix)sition or protest. We tried to find an enemy but could not." 1 The Mexican War was a training school for many of the officers who later became leaders in the Civil War. Among those who rendered valuable service under Taylor and Scott in the Mexican campaign were: U. S. Grant, R. E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, T. J. (" Stonewall ") Jackson, J. E. Johnston, G. H. Thomas, Braxton Bragg, J. C. Pemberton, George B. McClellan, and H. W. Halleck. 2 In June 1846, Colonel Stephen Kearny left Fort Leavenworth and marched to Santa Fe. After capturing that town and taking possession of all New Mexico, he marched on to California, where he found that the country had been won for the Americans by Lieutenant John C. Fremont, who was in com- mand of a small body of soldiers, and by Commodore Stockton, who was hovering off the Pacific coast with a few ships. THE GREAT WESTWARD EXTENSION 355 The fruits of the peace which Polk had conquered were The seen in the treaty which was arranged in February 1848, at of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a village near to the city of Mexico. By lupe the terms of the treaty a disputed portion of the Texas terri- tory — the part between the Nueces and the Rio Grande Rivers — New Mexico ^ and California were ceded to the United States. In consideration of this great extension of our boundaries the government of the United States undertook to pay the claims and also to pay in addition to the Republic of Mexico the sum of $15,000,000, — precisely the amount paid for Louisiana. Thus during the administrations of Tyler and of Polk we extended our boundaries to the Pacific and added to the United States more than a million square miles of territory.- Out of the possessions acquired during this period of expansion have been carved the States of Texas, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Wyoming, Montana, Oklahoma, and Colorado. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The annexation of Texas: Garrison, 85-141; Wilson, 141-147; Halsey VII, 3-9. 2. The Oregon question: Garrison, 157-173; McMaster VII, 411- 414, 418-420, 532-534- 3. The rupture with Mexico: McMaster VII, 432-447; Garrison, 188-207; Wilson, 149-152. 4. Conquering a peace : Hitchcock, 189-197, 208-230 ; Garrison, 228- 253- 5. The acquisition of California: McMaster VII, 464-471; Gaf' rison, 234-238; Halsey VII, S3-60. 6. The Walker tariff: McMaster VII, 421-422; Bogart, 185-186; Garrison, 185-187. 1 The area of New Mexico was increased in 1853 by the Gadsden Purchase (p- 367)- 2 Polk was desirous of making even further additions to our possessions. In 1848 he made overtures to the Spanish government regarding the annexation of Cuba, but was told that Spain would sooner see the island sunk in the ocean than see it transferred to any power. Accordingly, the idea of Cuban annexa- tion was temporarily abandoned. 356 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY 7. Isthmian diplomacy: Garrison, 285-293; McMaster VII, 572- 577- 8. The emigration that saved Oregon: Ilalscy VII, 10-13. 9. Dates for the chronological table: 1842, 1846, 1848. 10. Summarize the territorial acquisitions made between 1803 and 1853. II Describe the " Aristook War." Describe the fall of the Alamo. Do you believe the Mexican war was unjust? Sketch the life of Jolm C. Fremont. Describe the battle of San Jacinto. Sketch the career 0/ Sam Houston. Who was Kit Carson? Give the history of the Bear Flag Republic. Explain the expression " manifold destiny " as ap- plied to American politics in the forties. 12. Territorial Expansion. The territorial growtli of the United States is shown in the following table : Accession Thirteen original States. Louisiana Purchase . . . . Florida Texas Oregon Mexican Cession Gadsden Purchase Alaska Hawaii Guam Philippine Islands Porto Rico Virgin Island Total Date of Accession 1803 1819 1845 1846 1848 1853 1867 1898 1899 1899 1899 1917 Area in Square Miles 843,799 890,921 58,680 389,616 285,123 526,444 31-017 590,884 201 119,542 3,435 138 3,746,249 13. Special Reading. Schouler, History of the United States, Vol. IV, Thomas Benton, Thirty Years' F/Vit'. R. S. Ripley, The War with Mexico. J. S. Reeves, American Diplomacy Under Tyler and Polk. XXXII THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT IN THE EORTIES (1840-1850) In extending our boundaries to the Pacific, Tyler and Polk were only yielding to the irresistible force of the Westward Movement. At no time in our history, perhaps, had the wave of civilization moved west- ward with greater strength and swiftness than it was moving between 1840 and 1850. During these years the population of the western country increased liy more than 2,000,000, and eight western communi- ties emerged from the wilderness and were organized either as States or Territories. What causes hastened this marvelous development? What States and Territories were created during the period and what were their historical beginnings? IIS. THE PREEMPTION ACT; AGRICULTURAL IMPLE- MENTS ; IMMIGRATION. Many things worked together to give strength to the West- The. ward Movement between 1840 and 1850. First, there was the tion^™^ Act lure held out to settlers by the Preemption Act which Congress of passed in 1841. Preemption acts had been passed as early as 1830, but the law of 1841 gave permanence to the preemption policy. It encouraged pioneers to push out into unoccupied lands and begin the actual work of settlement. By the law of 1841, if a settler entered upon a tract of land not greater than 160 acres, built himself a house, and began the tillage of the land, he was given the right of preemption ; that is, he had the first right against all comers of purchasing his tract from the government on the most favorable terms and at the established price, which was in most cases still $1.25 per acre (p. 279). Under the workings of this law the home- seeker could select an eligible tract of unoccupied land, im- prove it and feel assured that his land would not be sold away 357 Plow 358 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY from him and that the labor bestowed upon his farm wojld not be lost. The Another thing that helped wonderfully in the development of the West at this period was the great improvement that was being made in the construction of agricultural implements. Efforts to improve the plow did not cease with the experi- ments of Jefferson and Newbold (p. 246). Ry 1825 Jethro Wood of Scipio, New York, had constructed an iron plow, the several parts of which — the point, the share, and mold- board — were so fastened together that when one piece wore out or was broken, it could be easily replaced by another. This plow became very popular and by 1840 it was driving out City of Chicago, 1845. the half-wooden, half-iron plows of the olden time. But it was of no use for farmers to raise more grain than they could reap. If the great prairies were to be plowed and planted there v>ould have to be a reaping-machine that would cut the grain faster than it could be cut with the scythe. Such a machine was given to the farmer by Cyrus McCormick of Rockbridge County, Virginia. In the summer of 1831 McCor- mick made a trial of a reaper which he and his father in- vented. With two horses he cut six acres of oats in an after- noon. " Such a thing," says Casson, " at the time was in- credible. It was equal to the work of six laborers with scythes or twenty-four peasants with sickles. It was as marvelous as though a man had walked down the street carrying a THE UNITED STATES IN 1840 THE UNITED STATES IN 1850 WESTWARD MOVEMENT IN THE FORTIES 359 dray horse on his back.'' In 1844 McCormick took a trip through the West. In Illinois he saw how badly the reaper was needed. He saw great fields of ripe wheat rotting be- cause there were not enough laborers to harvest the crops. The farmers had worked night and day and their wives and children had worked, but more grain had been raised than the scythe could possibly cut. So, McCormick in 1847 built a factory in Chicago and began to make reapers. In less than ten years nearly 25,000 of his machines had been sold. Along with the reaper came the threshing-machine, which by 1840 ^^® had come into general use. At first this machine only threshed j°| j^. out the grain, leaving grain, chaff, and straw mixed together, but by 1850 improvements had been made and the grain was separated from the chaff and straw. With the improved plow, and with the reaper and threshing-machine, the Frontier Line could be carried westward at a rate faster than it was ever carried before. But the thing that did most to push the Frontier Line west- condi- . ... tions ward at this period was immigration. In the early years of ravora- our national life immigration was very small. In the thirty ipmigra- years prior to 1820 hardly more than 200,000 aliens had sought homes in the United States, and in the fifty years prior to 1840 fewer immigrants landed upon our shores than now land in a single year. But about 1840, conditions began to favor immigration. About this time it began to be easy for emigrants from Europe to reach America. By 1845 steam- ships were making regular trips across the Atlantic and the immigrants could make the long voyage in reasonable comfort and at little expense. Then, too, distress and political unrest in Europe gave an impulse to emigration. In parts of Ireland the potato was almost the only food of the people. " Whole generations grew up, lived, married, and passed away without ever having tasted flesh meat." In 1845, and in 1846 also, the potato crop in Ireland failed and the people were panic- stricken at the fear of hunger. So, the Irish in vast throngs emigrated to the United States. Moreover, in 1848, in most of the countries of Europe, especially in Germany, there were 36o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY political upheavals which resulted in sending large numbers of emigrants to America. These contributing forces raised the number of immigrants far beyond the highest point it had ever reached. Hitherto immigrants had come to America by the tens of thousands, but now they came by the hundreds of thousands. Between 1845 and 1850 the average annual influx reached the startling number of 300,000. A large number of these newcomers re- mained in the East, but multitudes of them went directly to the western country, " the glory of the sunshine in their faces and the love of the big prairies in their hearts." 116. ALONG THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI AND AROUND THE GREAT LAKES: IOWA; WISCONSIN. The scene of greatest development between 1840 and 1850 was the country bordering upon the banks of the Mississippi and upon the shores of the Great Lakes. Into this region poured settlers not only from Europe, but from almost every part of the Union, especially from New England and the Middle States. The Iowa country was the first to be opened up. The settlement of this beautiful region did not begin early, because it was occupied by savage tribes. But piece by piece the redman lost his lands. In 1832 the national government bought from the Sacs and Foxes about 6,000,000 acres lying west of the Mississippi and north of the Des Moines. In this tract — known as the Black Hawk Purchase — there were valuable deposits of lead, and as soon as the Indians were out of the way there was a rush for the lead mines. The settlement of the Iowa country now began in earnest. Dubuque was founded in 1833; Burlington in 1834; Davenport in 1836. In 1838 Iowa was given a territorial government and eight years later it entered the Union as a State, Iowa City being the first capital.' The rush to Iowa continued. Ferries were busy day and night carrying the pioneers across the Mississippi, and steamboats on the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Missouri were packed with passengers 1 In 1851 Des Moines was made the capital of Iowa. WESTWARD MOVEMENT IN THE FORTIES 361 for Iowa. In ten years — between 1840 and 1850 — the pop- ulation of Iowa jumped from 40,000 to 200,000. But Wisconsin also had deposits of lead which were at- tractive to settlers, and after Black Hawk and his band of warriors had been defeated (in 1832) at Bad Axe, emigrants began to move into the Wisconsin country in great streams. They came by overland routes and by the Ohio and Mississippi. Thousands came by way of the Great Lakes in steamers that Wis- consin THE M. N; "WORKS, Along the Upper Mississippi and around the Great Lakes. sometimes were so crowded that the passengers were obliged to sleep on mattresses spread on the decks and dining-room floor. In 1836 Wisconsin was created a Territory, and in 1839 the territorial legislature gathered for the first time in Madison, then a crude village in the heart of a great forest. The settlement of Milwaukee began in 1835. Within a year streets had been laid out, sixty houses had been built, a news- paper had been established and seven hundred people had chosen the place as a home. Emigration to Wisconsin con- 362 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY tinned to flow so strongly that by 1847 more than 200,000 wliites had settled in the Territory. Wisconsin was now more than ready for Statehood. Accordingly, in 1848 it was given its present boundaries and was admitted into the Union. ^ 117. ALONG THE PACIFIC COAST: OREGON; CALIFORNIA. Oregon lUit the tide of emigration in the forties flowed far beyond the shores of the Great Lakes and the banks of the Mississippi. To trace fully the course of the Westward Movement during this period we must go to the far-ofif Pacific Coast, and first to the Oregon country. We saw that when this region was acquired, emigrants were streaming into it by the thousands. A provisional government for Oregon had been formed several years before the boundary question had been settled. As early as 1843 the settlers in the Willamette \'alley met in a barn at Champoeg and drew up a plan for a temporary government which satisfied their needs for several years. But when it was definitely determined, in 1846, that Oregon was to be American territory, the settlers asked Congress for a per- manent government. Congress was slow to respond. The delay was due to the slavery question. Everybody was in favor of giving Oregon a territorial government but the Northern members of Congress wished to exclude slavery from the new Territory, while the Southern members wiere opposed to making any provision at all in regard to slavery. After a long and earnest struggle a bill was passed which gave Oregon a ter- ritorial government but declared that the Ordinance of 1787 should be applied to the Territory. This, of course, had the eflfect of excluding, slavery from Oregon. 1 The free States of Iowa and Wisconsin came in to offset the admission of Florida and Texas. In 1835 Florida Territory had a vast amount of trouble with the Seminoles, led by the chief Osceola, but after a long and expensive war the Indians were expelled. The people of Florida then began to seek admission into the Union. Congress, however, kept them waiting until Iowa was ready for admission. In 1845, by the same enabling act, both Florida and Iowa were ad- mitted. In December 1845, Texas was annexed (p. 348) and with its annexation the cotton kingdom bordering on the Gulf was rounded out and the limits of the area within which slavery was allowed was reached, for Texas was the last slave State to be admitted. WESTWARD MOVEMENT IN THE FORTIES 363 From Oregon we turn to her neighbor on the south. When The . ... . Cali- the spacious region of California came into our possession fomia . . . Missions as the prize of the Mexican War, it was practically unsettled territory. For nearly a hundred years it had been a field of missionary work conducted by Spanish priests of the Jesuit and Franciscan orders. When the Americans ap- peared upon the scene (in 1847) there were missions at San AW- ^ Iffission of San Jose. Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Jose, and San Francisco. The purpose ©f the mission was to teach the Indians Christianity and to train them in the arts of civilized life. The chief occupations of the missions were farming, cattle-raising, and fruit-growing. In the fields the priests set an example of industry and worked side by side with the Indians. About 1833 an order of the Mexican government brought the missions under the control of the civil authority. Even if the missions had not been molested by the ^^lexicans The they would have been destroyed by the fierce onset of Ameri- of Gold can progress. Nine days before the signing of the treaty of fornia Guadalupe it was discovered that gold was abundant in the Sacramento Valley. This news spread like a forest fire and soon there was a wild dash for California. Men of all ages and of all classes, especially the bold and adventurous, started for the far-ofif coast of the Pacific. Some went all the way by water, sailing around Cape Horn, a distance of seven thousand miles ; others went by water only to the Isth- Travel to U^ll- mus of Panama ^ where they crossed the unhealthful neck of fomia 1 The question of transportation across the American Isthmus gave rise to diplomatic negotiations between England and the United States which resulted in 564 ADVANCED AiMERICAN HISTORY land and reembarked on the Pacific side; still others went by an overland route, starting from the frontier town of Inde- pendence (near Kansas City) and following either the Santa P"e Trail or the Oregon Trail. On the overland routes there was much suffering and hardship. On the plains water was hard to get and many perished of thirst. When crossing streams wagons were sometimes swallowed up by quicksaml. On the rough paths in the mountains vehicles were often over- turned and their occupants injured or killed. But in spite of the long and dangerous journey gold-hunters went out to California by the tens of thousands. In the spring of 1849 nearly twenty-thousand emigrants set out from Inde- pendence for the gold-fields. San Francisco, which in 1847 was only a hamlet, grew in five years to be a city of nearly 35,000 inhabitants. The rapid growth of San Francisco was matched in a score of places. Stockton from a single ranch house, grew to be a town of a thousand souls in a few months. Sacramento, which had no ejfistence in 1848, was a thriving town in 1849. So great was the influx of gold-seekers that the population of California increased from 10,000 in 1848 to nearly 100,000 in 1850. California was therefore ready for Statehood in a very few months after it came into our possession. But Congress was slow to give the gold-miners a government although they sorely needed one. The old Mexican government was unable to cope with the new situation and for a time '' law was wanting, jus- tice was defeated, and villainy was rampant." The Califor- nians were preparing to take matters in their own hands and establish a government of their own accord, when in June 1849 General Riley, the military governor of California, issued a proclamation recommending the formation of a State consti- tution or a plan for a territorial government. The people de- sired statehood and a State constitution. Accordingly, in the 1850 in the ratification of tiie Clayton-Bulwer treaty. In this treaty the Ihiited States entered into an agreement with England not to build an Isthmian canal over which we should have exclusive control; if the United Slates should build a canal it was to be neutral. The treaty was formally annulled in 1901. WESTWARD MOVEMENT IN THE FORTIES 365 fall of 1849 a constitutional convention met at Monterey and drew up a constitution, which was ratified by the people and submitted to Congress. The constitution prohibited slavery and the debate ^ on the subject of admitting California was long and stormy. In 1850, however, Congress consented to admit it. So, California came into the Union without having first passed through the territorial stage of government. 118. UTAH; NEW MEXICO. At the same time that Congress was legislating for Oregon The , ^ ,.. . . ,, , , . , . , Mormons and California, it was called upon to legislate in regard to Utah, for it was during the Westward Movement of the forties that the foundations of Utah were laid. The pioneers of Utah were the Mormons, a body of people who were organized as a religious society in 1830 by Joseph Smith. The first home of the Mormons was in western New York, but they soon moved to Kirkland, Ohio, and afterward to Inde- pendence, Missouri. In 1838 they were driven out of Mis- souri, and a new home was found at Nauvoo, Illinois. Here they got into more trouble and in 1844 their leader, Joseph Smith, was killed. Under their new leader, Brigham Young, they set out for a new home in the Far West. In a thousand covered wagons they left Illinois and after a long and toil- some journey across the plains came at last to a valley in the Salt Lake basin. Here they found a permanent resting place. The region in which they settled had a soil which could be made productive only by irrigation. So the Mor- irriga- mons dug ditches to carry the water from the mountains down into the valley and in a few years their valley was producing many kinds of grass and fruit. This was the first time sys- tematic irrigation was used on a large scale in the United States. When the Mormons settled in the Salt Lake basin they (Deseret) •^ Utah were outside of the bounds of the United States, and on the Terri- tory soil of New Mexico, a province of Mexico. But the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo speedily brought them again under 1 An account of this debate will be given in Chapter XXXIV. 366 ADVANXED AMERICAN HISTORY the jurisdiction of the United States. Submitting reluctantly to the change, they began at once to form a State and seek admission into the Union. A convention was held (1849) at Salt Lake City and a constitution was adopted for a State which was to be called Deseret, Brigham Young was made Governor and a legislature was chosen. A dele- gate was sent to Washington praying for the admission of Deseret into the Union, but Congress took no action upon the petition. It did, however, recognize the fact that the IMomions needed a government, and in 1850 it gave them a territorial government, the name of the Territory being Utah. ■ The same day that Utah was made a territory, a territorial government was given to New Mexico. The population of The Santa Fe and Oregon trails to the Pacific Coast. WESTWARD MOVEMENT IN THE FORTIES 2^7 this province when it came into our possession was about 50,000. Santa Fe, the ancient capital of New Mexico and a place of more than 5,000 inhabitants, was the center of the travel and trade which moved along the Santa Fe trail. The value of the merchandise distributed annually at Santa Fe was more than half a million dollars. Albuquerque, an- other city of New Mexico, was almost as large as Santa Fe. This region, therefore, was a considerable province when it came into our possession.^ Many of the people of New Mexico felt that their province was entitled to Statehood and an attempt was made to secure the admission of New Mexico into the Union. But the province had to be content with the territorial government which was given to it in 1850. The movement into the Far \\'est during the forties quickly The Results brought to the United States benefits of incalculable value, of the' The prompt settlement of the Oregon country and of California, by Americans, shattered completely any hopes that any foreign na- tion may have had of secur- ing possession of the Pacific Coast. The vigorous oper- ation of the mines in Cali- fornia supplied the country with a vast amount of need- ed gold. The average an- nual output of gold from California between 1850 and i860 amounted to more than $60,000,000. Much of this gold was coined into money and this additional currency Returned Californians waiting with their gold at the Mint in Philadelphia. 1 New Mexico, as laid out in 1850, included the greater part of what is now Arizona. In 1853 James Gadsden, acting as an agent for the United States, purchased from Mexico, for the sum of $10,000,000, a tract of land 36,000 square miles in area. This tract, known as the Gadsden Purchase, now forms the southern part of Arizona, which was organized as a territory in 1863. 368 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY canic just in the nick of time, for our commerce and in- dustry were increasing with the expansion of the country and the conditions of business required a greater volume of currency. Then, too, with the acquisition of the Pacific Coast we turned our face to the Orient. In 1854 Commodore M. C. Perry prevailed upon Japan to abandon its policy of seclusion and open its ports to our vessels. With this event the trade of our Pacific ports began to increase and it con- tiiuicd to grow until in 1912 it amounted to the enormous sum of nearly a quarter of a billion of dollars, the trade with Japan alone being nearly $150,000,000. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The struggle for a constitution in Iowa: McMaster VII, 179-183. 2. The war with Black Hawk: McMaster VI, 327-329. 3. The establishment of Wisconsin Territory: R. G. Thwaites, Wis- consin, 229-245. 4. The discovery of gold in California: Halsey VII, 88-96; Mc- Master VII, 584-597. 5. Movement of popular government in California: McMaster Vli, 609-611; Wilson, 167-169. 6. The emigration to Oregon in the forties: McMaster VII, 298- 299, 41 1-4 1 3. 7. The early history of Mormonism: McMaster VI, 103-107, 249- 250; also VII, 208-210, 218-220. 8. New Mexico: McMaster VIII, 365-370. 9. Utah: McMaster VIII, 374-390. 10. For the table of admitted States : Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas, Cali- fornia, Florida. 11. Prepare a five minutes' paper on "The West in the Forties," bas- ing the account on McMaster VII, 190-227, 12. The Plow: Forman, Useful Inventions, 73-84. 13. The Reaper: Forman, Useful Inventions, S5-g6. 14. Special Reading. William Salter, lozva. R. G. Thwaites, Wis- consin. Joseph Shafer, History of the Pacific Northwest. Josiah Royce, California. XXXIII SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1850 We saw that in dealing with the new acquisitions the question arose as to whether or not slavery was to be permitted in the acquired terri- tory. Indeed this question arose in Congress even before we had actually acquired the Mexican provinces, and by 1850 sentiment on the subject of the extension of slavery was more sharply divided than ever before in our history. By that date it was plain that the North as a section was violently opposed to extension, and that the South as a section would bitterly resent a policy that did not permit ex- tension. We ought, therefore, at this point to take a close view of slavery and examine it as it existed in 1850. What was the character of this social institution about which the North and the South differed so widely? What were the conditions of slave life? What did it mean to be a slave? 119. SLAVEHOLDERS; POOR WHITES; FREE NEGROES. In 1850 fifteen States — Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, statistice North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, slavery Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Ar- kansas, and Texas — were recognizing slavery by law, while sixteen (counting California) made human bondage illegal. The total population of the slave States at this time was 9,569, 540. The number of whites was 6,282,965 ; the number of free negroes 238,187; and the number of slaves 3,204,051. Of the whole number of slaves nearly two-thirds were in the cotton States, engaged in cotton culture. The number of slaveholders was little less than 350,000. Among the whites about one person in eighteen was the owner of slaves. The majority of slaveholders owned less than five slaves each, and about one-fifth of them owned only one slave each. 369 370 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY About 8,000 slaveholders owned more than fifty slaves each. The The slaveholders, as distinguished from the non-slavehold- hoiding ing whites, constituted the ruling class. And they were a class well-fitted to rule. It was everywhere acknowledged that the South excelled in the training of statesmen. " While the Northern people," said a Northern man (Horace Bushnell) " were generally delving in labor for many generations to create a condition of comfort, slavery set the masters at once on a footing of ease, gave them leisure for elegant intercourse, for studies, and seasoned their character with that kind of cultivation which distinguishes men of society. A class of statesmen was thus raised up who were prepared to figure as leaders in scenes of public life where so much depends upon manners and social address." The slaveholders were the ruling class in the South and they were the leaders in the government of the nation as well. Up to 1850 every President but the two Adamses, \'an I'.uren and Harrison be- longed to the slaveholding class. The But there were upwards of four million whites in the slave States who did not belong to the slaveholding class. Many of these non-slaveholders were merchants, mechanics, small farmers, professional men, and the like, and were prosperous, well-to-do citizens, but vast numbers of those who were out- side the slaveholding class had but little property of any kind and were close to the poverty line. This class of non- slaveholders formed a rather distinct stratum of society known as "poor whites." The condition of the poor whites was indeed pitiful. Besides being poor they were illiterate, help- less, and abject, despised both by the slaveholders and the slaves. They enjoyed the right of suffrage, it is true, but when election day came they usually voted the way the slaveholder directed. They were almost completely shut out of the industrial world, for slavery required the presence of but few white men. " The theoretical perfection of such a system," says Weston in his Progress of Slavery, " requires that the proportion of whites should be no greater than is Poor SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1850 371 necessary for directing and coercing the blacks ; and any ex- cess of whites above that proportion is worse than superfluous, making a class of idlers, or worse than idlers, who in various ways, destroy or diminish the profits of the industry of others." Industrially regarded, the poor white was a hanger-on ; socially he was an outcast; politically he was the tool of the slave- holder. But immeasurably worse than the plight of the poor white was the plight of the free negro, for while all slaves were negroes, in every State, there were negroes who were not slaves. In 1850 there were nearly 200,000 free negroes in the North and a somewhat greater number in the South. But whether in the North or in the South, the free negro almost everywhere was branded as belonging to a separate and inferior caste and was discriminated against by unfriendly legisla- tion. In the South the free negro was nowhere allowed to vote, while in most of the Northern States he was either de- nied the suffrage outright or was compelled to meet an unusually high property qualification. Nor did the free negro anywhere escape the humiliating persecutions of racial preju- dice. A church in Boston excluded (in 1830) a colored family from the use of a pew to which the family had a clear legal title. In Rhode Island on the Boston and Providence Rail- road a special compartment was set apart for the negroes. In the slaveholding States free negroes were not in the eyes of the law full citizens. They could not hold meetings or teach each other to read and write, nor could they testify in a court of law against a white man. They could, however, ac- ciniuilate property and it is estimated that in i860 the free negroes of the South owned property amounting to $25,000,000. A part of the property of the more prosperous free negroes sometimes consisted of negro slaves. In Charleston there was a free negro who was the owner of more than fifty members of his own race. Free Negroes n2 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY 120. THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE SLAVE. The Regarded as a possession, the slave was a chattel ; he was in as completely a piece of property as a watch or a horse is a piece of property. Slaves, therefore, could be sold or given away at the will of the owner. All through the South there was a traffic in slaves and the advertisements in the papers about 1850 show that although the foreign slave-trade had been i)rohibited (p. 245 ) there was still a brisk domestic trade in domestic slaves. Between 1850 and i860 the border States — Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky — sold to the cotton States about 25,000 slaves every year. A slave-dealer at Natchez, advertised " ninety negroes just arrived from Rich- mond, consisting of field hands, house servants, several fine cooks, some excellent mules, and one very fine riding-horse." A slave-dealer at Baltimore advertised for five thousand ne- groes, announcing that families were " never separated." The provision in regard to separation was made out of deference to public opinion. In the traffic of slaves the best sentiment in the South disapproved of the breaking up of families if it was possible to keep them together. Protec- Although the slave was deprived of his liberty and was of the denied the right of owning property, he customarily did pos- Life sess and use considerable property, chiefly personal, and his life at least was in a measure protected by the law. In respect to murder the slave and the white man were on an equality, for in all the slave-holding States the willful, ma- licious, and deliberate killing of a slave was made a capital crime. A master, however, could lawfully kill a slave in self- defense. The master could inflict punishment upon a slave to almost any degree and if a slave died as the result of punish- ment the master was held guiltless if he could prove that the punishment was moderate. The wanton murder of a slave by a master did sometimes occur, but two things operated pow- erfully to prevent the occurrence of such an outrage. First, there was the financial loss. In 1850 a good slave was worth from $1,000 to $1,500 and to kill one was to lose a con- SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1850 373 siderable sum of money. Second, there was the lash of public opinion. Although a master who had killed a slave might escape the just penalty of the law, there was in all the South no community in which he could escape the opprobrium and scorn of his neighbors. An instance is cited where a man was driven to insanity and suicide by the execration which was visited upon him because he had whipped a slave to death. 121. CONDITIONS OF SLAVE LIFE. What were the ordinary conditions of slave life? What The Over- did it mean to be a slave? In the border States slavery was seer relieved of many of its most forbidding aspects. In Virginia the institution had as many agreeable features in 1850 as it had in 1800 (p. 245). But in the cotton, sugar, and rice States the industrial system required a greater number of large plantations which could not be managed directly by their owners, who were themselves disposed to be humane and to protect their slaves. On these large estates the slaves were under the supervision of an overseer whose object was to manage the plantation in a manner that would produce the best results in the form of profits. Too often the overseer was a brutal fellow who in the performance of his task sub- jected the slaves to rough and inhuman treatment. On the great plantations the overseer was at his worst, for here his salary frequently depended upon the amount of cotton raised, and in order to increase the yield he sometimes worked the slaves without regard to mercy and beyond the limits of endurance. Since the service of slaves could oftentimes be com- The manded only by physical force, the laws gave to the masters ment ample authority to use force in securing the obedience of slaves their negroes. Slaves were controlled either by imprison- ment or by flogging. Imprisonment was seldom practicable, for in prison the slave could not work although he must be fed. So the almost universal form of punishment for of- fenses, whether public or private, was flagellation. Whipping 374 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY three score years ago, it should he remembered, was very much more common than it is now. The lash was still regularly used in the navy, and to some extent in the army. In some places husbands could lawfully whip their wives, while in a number of States the less serious crimes of white men were punished at the whipping-post. I>ut the slave might be whipped not only for crimes but for the ordinary offenses of daily life, for carelessness, for disobedience, for insolence, and especially for idleness. When a task was set it had to be completed or a flogging would follow. In the cotton-fields the punish- ment was often administered by a negro foreman who followed the men and urged the laggards to greater exertion by laying on the whip. In the flogging of his slaves the master saw no harm whatever. It was his theory that the negroes were but children and that if the rod was spared the slave would be spoiled. But it must not be thought that in the flogging of slaves cruelty was the rule, for it was not. At times, it is true, a master in a fit of temper or in a state of intoxication, would use his power in a cruel manner, but as a rule the punishment inflicted upon slaves Avas merciful. Indeed, every- where in the South the brutal master found himself an un- popular member of the community in which he lived. Pood, The material welfare of the slave depended upon the Clothing, . . . . and^ good-will and humanity of his master. Generally speaking, the household slaves fared well in regard to food, clothing, and shelter. An English traveler (Buckingham) tells us that the condition of " the slaves of the household was quite as com- fortable as that of servants in the middle ranks of life in England. They are generally well-fed, well-dressed, attentive, orderly, respectful, and easy to be governed, but more by kindness than by severity." But on plantations where divi- dends were the main thing to be considered, slaves did not fare so well. The food of the field hand consisted of corn-bread, hominy, bacon, potatoes, and other vegetables. Of course it was to the interest of the master that the slave should not suflfer for want of food, yet in some of the States this matter was made a subject of legislation, and it was enacted that the Shelter SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1850 375 Negro hut in Virginia. quantity of food supplied to slaves should be sufficient to keep them in a healthful condition. So a slave could not legally be starved. The household slaves were well- dressed but the clothing of the field hands was coarse like their food and was as scant as was consistent with decency and bodily comfort. The cabins or quarters in which the slaves lived were humble struc- tures built in a row, form- ing a kind of street. As a rule each cabin had a garden and a pig-pen in which were two or three pigs. Sometimes the cab- ins were unfit for human occupancy, but on the well-managed plantations the sanitation of the quarters was attended to and the cabins at regular periods were thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed inside and outside. Very often a regular plan- tation doctor was employed to care for the health of the slaves. In regard to religious matters the slaves were not neglected, Religion for they were given oral instruction in the Bible, they had their Educa- own negro preachers, and, on the larger plantations, they had their own little church. Often they had a place set apart for them in the white men's church. But in matters of education the slave fared badly indeed. In most of the slave States it was against the law to teach a slave to read or write, be- cause it was feared that the educated negro might become a leader in plots or insurrections. ^lany masters believed that to educate the slaves would do them more harm than good. Said a Georgian planter : " The very slightest amount of education, merely teaching them to read, impairs their value as slaves, for it instantly destroys their contentedness ; and since you do not contemplate changing their condition it is surely doing them an ill service to destroy their acquiescence in it." Not all masters, however, took this view of the mat- ter, for household slaves were frequently taught to read and 376 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY write in spite of the law, and the instruction was often given bv the masters themselves. The Ethics of Slavery 122. MORAL AND INDUSTRIAL ASPECTS OF SLAVERY. The slaveholders as a class saw nothing wrong in negro slavery. In the early days of the Re])ublic. it is true, many leading men of the South expressed doubts as to the rightful- ness of slavery, but by 1850 such doubts rarely troubled the consciences of prominent Southerners. " But let me not," said Calhoun in 1837, " be understood as admitting even by implication that the existing relation between the two races in the slaveholding States is an evil ; — far otherwise. I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved to be to both." " Few persons in the South," said W. Gilmore Simms in 1852, " ques- tion their perfect right to the labor of their slaves ; and, more, their moral obligation to keep them still subject as slaves and to compel their labor so long as they remain the inferior beings which we find them now and which they seem to have been from the beginning." That is to say, in the minds of most Southerners, the maintenance of slavery was not only a right but a duty as well. One of the arguments in support of slavery was found in the fact that in both the Old and New Testament human bondage was fully recognized and was nowhere condemned. This was a powerful argument in the minds of most slaveholders, for they regarded the Bible as the supreme authority on all moral questions. An- other pro-slavery argument was that slavery had lifted the negro from the savage conditions of the African jungle and placed him under the influence of Christian civilization. Then it was urged in behalf of the institution that the slaves had In old Tennessee. SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1850 Z77 their material wants supplied and were relieved of all anxiety whether for the present or the future, whereas the free man was liable to suffer from the lack of employment or through the disabilities of sickness or old age. But doubtless the most coercive argument in favor of slavery The 1 • 1 r 1 11- J Econom was not that it was good for the negro but that it was good ics for the white man. The South believed that its prosperity slavery depended upon slave labor. Not that slave labor was cheap, for it was not. The slave himself had to be bought and at a very high price. Then he had to be housed, fed, and clothed, nursed and cared for in sickness, and supported in idleness in his old age. Planters often said that if they could employ laborers for their cotton-fields on terms as easy as those on which the manufacturer of the North employed work- men for their factories, they would give up their slaves, pro- viding they could do so with safety. But here was the trouble, and it was a double trouble : the planters were unable to hire white men and they did not dare free their slaves. The " poor whites " of the South would not work side by side with the slaves, much less would the sturdy workman of the North do this. So, if free labor was to be employed at all, it would have to supplant slave labor entirely, and all the slaves would have to be freed. The planters felt that to let loose three millions of free negroes in the South would re- sult in the destruction of society. Thus they looked upon slavery as an institution which was absolutely necessary for the industrial prosperity of the South and which was in the nature of things destined to be permanent. But while the South believed that slavery brought great The •1 • , , r ■ ^r ■ , , , , . Benefits industrial benefits to itself it contended that the entire country of shared in those benefits. '" Upon the South," said a defender of slavery, " as upon the strong arm of a brother, so long as negro slavery exists, the North can rely: it will furnish materials for its workshops, a market for its manufactures, wealth to its capitalists, wages to the laborer." In this con- tention the South was right. By 1850 every part of the Union was sharing in the profits which flowed from the employment 378 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY of slaves. It was the labor of slaves that supplied cotton to the mills of the North, that supported the foreign trade and the trade between Southern ports and Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, and that provided a market for the surplus produce of the Western States (p. 331). The Inasmuch as most slaveholders believed that slavery was a Opposi- ... tion positive good and that the benefits of the institution were tothe ^ ^^ . . Exten- diffused over the whole nation, it was no wonder that they Bion of favored the extension of slavery. But the North by 1850 Slavery . . -^ . was setting its face strongly against the extension of slavery. It did not yet wish to disturb slavery immediately, at least, in the slave States, but it did wish to confine it strictly within the area in which it already existed, believing that -in this way slavery would be ultimately extinguished. The opposi- tion to the extension of slavery was based in part on moral grounds. The twenty years of agitation conducted by the abolitionists bore fruit and by 1850 a large number of people in the North had come to believe that to hold a human being in bondage was a sin against God. Many opposed the ex- tension of slavery on political grounds. If slavery should be established in the territories and these should be admitted as slave States, the slaveholding power, it was feared in the North, would be irresistible and would rule the nation for all time. Then there were great numbers of small farmers, me- chanics, and tradesmen in the North who resisted the ex- tension of slavery for social and industrial reasons. They felt that they and their children had a share in the lands of the West and if one day they should go out to claim their little pieces of land they did not relish the thought of having as neighbors proud slaveholders who would look down upon ordi- nary people and treat them as the poor whites of the South were treated. Thus the forces opposing slavery extension were about the most powerful that could be directed against it. SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1850 379 REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Cotton and slavery: Bogart, 133-140. 2. A pro-slavery argument: Hart III, 597-602. 3. The "Underground Railroad": Halsey VII, 110-T15; Rhodes II, 74-77, 361-362. 4. A good-natured slaveholder's view of slavery: Hart IV, 72-75. 5. Calhoun on slavery : Harding, 249-257. 6. Jefferson on slavery: Rhodes I, 10-13, 16. 7. The slave-trade: Rhodes II, 2>67-t,72; McMaster VII, 278-279. 8. Describe the economical effects of the plantation system : Bogart, 296-300. 9. The poor whites: Rhodes I, 344-347; Hart IV, 59-62. 10. The free negro: McMaster VI, 70-78; Hart HI, 583-589. 11. Slavery and the churches: Bassett, 471-472. 12. Special Reading. A. B. Hart, Slavery and Abolition. W. P. and F. J. Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison. F. L. Olmstead, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States. Edward Ingle, Southern Sidelights. J. C. Ballagh, A History of Slavery in Virginia. B. T. Washington, The Story of the Negro. XXXIV SLAVERY AN OVERSHADOWING ISSUE; PARTY REORGANIZATION By the time the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was signed (in 1848) slavery had become an overshadowing issue, and for several years our political history was simply the history of the efforts made to solve the slavery problem and of the party disturbances which those efforts produced. This chapter, therefore, will cover the period between 1848 and 1854, and will give an account of the attempts which were made to solve the slavery question during these eventful years. 123. THE WILMOT PROVISO; THE ELECTION OF 1848. The In 1846, when a bill was in its passage through Congress ^ro^so giving money to Polk to aid him in his plans for acquiring New Mexico and California, David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed to amend the bill as follows: " Provided, That, as an express and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, in virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated be- tween them, and to the use by the Executive of the monies herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." In this at- tempt to prohibit the spread of slavery the Wilmot Proviso, as the amendment was called, woke up a question which poli- ticians since the days of the Missouri Compromise had allowed to slumber, but which the abolitionists would allow to slumber no longer. The Proviso arrested the attention of the public mind and called forth expressions of opinion in all parts of the Union. In the South the sentiment against 380 SLAVERY AN OVERSHADOWING ISSUE 381 the restriction of slavery was well expressed by the legisla- ture of Virginia, which affirmed in substance that the adoption and enforcement of the Proviso would lead to actual warfare. In the North the sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of the Proviso. The legislatures of all the free States except Senti- 111 ment Iowa passed resolutions to the effect that Congress had the North • 1 -1 • T • 1 ^^^ power and that it was its duty to prohibit slavery in the South territories. It was of ominous significance that opinion in regard to the Proviso did not run along party lines, but along sectional lines. Whigs and Democrats in the South joined in condemning the Proviso; Whigs and Democrats in the North joined in giving it their su])port. Wilmot's amendment was defeated in 1846, but it came up in Congress again and again. Indeed, the Proviso proved to be the thin edge of a wedge that was to sunder friendships and social ties and that was to be driven deeper and deeper until great religious denomina- tions,^ political parties, and even the Union itself, were split in twain. Although the Wilmot Proviso had made the question of Demo- . . ... cratic the extension of slavery the most vital of all political issues, andwwg • 1 1 r • -11 Nomina- this question was avoided — as far as it was possible to tions avoid it — by both the great political parties in the Presi- dential election of 1848. The Democrats in that year nom- inated Lewis Cass of Michigan and adopted a platform of the strict constructionist type. An effort was made in their convention to pass a resolution condemning the W^ilmot Pro- viso, but the resolution was voted down by a heavy majority. The Wliigs adopted no platform at all. They simply nom- inated General Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, for President and Millard Fillmore, of New York, for Vice-President, and went before the country in the hope that Taylor's war record would bring them victory. Clay was before the convention — this t The Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church were both split by the slavery (juestion. In 1844 the Methodist Church divided upon the question whether a bishop could hold slaves, the Southern members withdrawing and organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In 1850 the Presbyterians divided upon the question whether a slaveholder should be admitted to member- ship in the Presbyterian Church. 382 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Free Soilers The Results of the Election of 1848 was the fifth time he had come forward as a candidate for the Presidency — but on the first ballot Taylor showed greater strength. Resolutions affirming the Wilmot Proviso were of- fered in the Whig convention, but they were rejected. Thus the Democrats in 1848 were not ready to tie themselves U]) to the cause of slavery and the Whigs were unwilling to be- come an anti-slavery party. But the Free Soil party/ which met at Buffalo and nom- inated ex-President Van Buren for the Presidency, came out against slavery in the strongest of terms. The Free Soilers declared that Congress had no more power to make a slave than to make a King. They resolved : " That we accept the issue which the slave power has forced upon us ; and to their demand for more slave States and more slave territory, our calm but final answer is : No more slave States, and no more slave territory. Let the soil of our extensive domain be kept free for the hardy pioneers of our land and the oppressed and banished of other lands." This ultimatum of the Free Soilers was a clear statement of the aims of most anti- slavery men : a majority of the opponents of slavery in 1848 did not wish to abol- ish slavery ; they wished to prevent the spread of slavery. But in 1848 men generally were not ready to take sides on the slav- ery question. Van Buren failed to secure a single electoral vote, although in Massachusetts and New York he polled a larger popular vote tb.m Cass. Taylor was not a great Zachary Taylor. 1 The organization of the Free Soil party resulted in breaking up the Liberty party (p. 342). SLAVERY AN OVERSHADOWING ISSUE 383 statesman, but in the Mexican War he had shown himself to be a good fighting man and he therefore went mto the campaign with the glamour of a hero. He received 163 electoral votes, and Cass 128. " It will hardly be speaking too strongly to characterize the election of 1848 as a contest without an issue. Neither of the two great parties which alone might expect to win sought to rally the ]:)eople to the defense of any important principle. Practically the only thing decided was that a Whig general should bi- made President because he had done effective work in carrying on a Democratic war. It was only an eddy in the historical current in which force and direction seem to have been lost." ^ 124. THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. But much as statesmen and party leaders desired to avoid The . Ques- the slavery question they were compelled to meet it. By 1849 tio°sat it was imperative upon Congress to consider the question of admitting California as a State and to provide territorial gov- ernments for Utah and New Mexico. Congress soon found that proper legislation for the government of these new lands would bring up the whole subject of slavery extension and restriction. Should California come in as a free State or as a slave State? In providing territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico should slavery be excluded from these new territories as it had recently been excluded from Oregon Terri- tory (p. 362) or should slavery be allowed? Then there was the question of slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia : slavery was legal in the District, and the anti- slavery people wished it abolished. Here Congress had full power (119): would it use that power to suppress slavery in the District or would it leave it undisturbed ? Still another question that thrust itself before Congress at this time re- ferred to fugitive slaves. The abolitionists in their zeal for the freedom of the negro assisted in the escape of runaway slaves. When the fugitive slave reached Pennsylvania or Ohio he was often met by officers of what was called an X G. P. Garrison, Westward Extension, p. 284. 384 ADVANCED AMERICAN illSlORY The Desires of the North and of the South " underground railroad." This was a secret organization whose purpose was to aid runaway slaves to reach Canada, where slavery was illegal. If the master could find a slave anywhere in the United States he could, under the fugitive- slave law (p. 245), seize the fugitive and take him back home, but if the runaway could once get his foot on Canadian soil he was safe. Through the assistance of the conductors of the " underground railroad " the slave-holders by 1850 were every year losing hundreds of valuable slaves. So, the South demanded a new fugitive-slave law, one that would enable the master to retake his runaway slave in spite of the abolitionists and the " underground railroad." .Would Congress give the South such a law ? The above questions were squarely before Congress in the spring of 1850. Broadly speaking, the North and the South were directly opposed on every question. The North de- sired to let California come in as a free State. To this the vSouth was opposed, because if California came in free there would be sixteen free States and fifteen slave States and the balance of power (p. 299) between the North and the South would be disturbed. The North wished to prohibit slavery in New Mexico and Utah. The South opposed such a prohibition on the ground that if slaves could not be carried into New Mexico and Utah they would be shut out of the IMexican acquisitions altogether, for in California the people themselves had declared against slavery. To exclude slavery, therefore, from Utah and New Mexico would be to say to the South that not a single slave State should ever be carved out of the vast territory acquired from Mexico. The North desired to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia because it regarded its existence there as a national scandal. The South declared that it would regard the abolition of slavery in the District as a direct and unnecessary attack upon a cherished institution of Southern society. The North desired that the existing fugitive-slave law should remain unchanged. The South demanded a new and more stringent law, and threats were made that if the North did not deliver up fugitive SLAVERY AN OVERSHADOWING ISSUE 385 slaves the Southern States would by way of retaliation pass laws to prevent the sale of Northern products in the South. Upon the questions at issue Congress in 1850 was divided, ciay's In the House the majority was against the extension of slavery, mise In the Senate the majority was favorable to the South. So, if there was to be action at all there would have to be a compromise. The task of effecting a compromise was un- dertaken by Clay, then a member of the Senate. " Let me say," said the great Kentuckian, who was now in his seventy- third year and who honestly felt that his mission was to save the Union from dissolution, " let me say to the North and to the South what husband and wife say to each other: we have mutual faults; neither of us is perfect; nothing in the form of humanity is perfect. Let us then be kind to each other, forbearing, forgiving each other's faults, and above all let us live in happiness and peace together." In this spirit of good-will Clay came forward with a plan that he hoped would please both North and South. His plan was ; (i) To admit California with her constitution forbidding slavery. (A concession to the North.) (2) To give New Mexico and Utah territorial governments providing that when ready for statehood the territories should be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitutions might prescribe. (A concession to the South.) (A concession to the South.) (3) To prohibit the slave trade in the District of Columbia. (A concession to the North.) (4) To declare it inexpedient to abolish slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia. (A concession to the South.) (5) To enact a more stringent fugitive-slave law. (A con- cession to the South. 1 Calhoun was present in the Senate while the compromise cai- measures were before that body, but he was suffering with '*°"" a disease and was unable to speak. His speech, however, was 1 It was also proposed in connection with the compromise measures to reduce he area of Texas and pay that State $10,000,000 in return for the territory taken from it. The proposition was adopted, although the North was opposed to it 386 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Webster read for him by a fellow Senator. Calhoun was opposed to Clay's plan for two reasons. First, he believed that Congress under the Constitution had no right to keep slavery out of California or any other territory belonging to the United States. Slavery, he contended, was a domestic institution with which Congress had nothing whatever to do except to make regulations regarding fugitive slaves (p. 245). Second, he believed that the South would be so highly displeased with 1 S S U B 1 "" <^0 OS T E B B I T (^^ R t;) \ C" ^ - ^H«i I L '"■• TERR IJC/^R ^ \^ ,; U T A H ^ T k' |V' K 1 Ij 15-Y ;, '--^ / •' "^l 'N E W%-^ E-^K }■ C 0..^ 100 200 \ " Results upon slavery of the Compromise of 1850. the compromise measures that she would withdraw from the Union. Calhoun did not threaten secession but he feared it. Webster also feared that the Union was in danger. In a speech that he regarded as the greatest of his life — his fa- mous Seventh of March Speech — he supported the com- promise measures, believing that they were necessary to save the Union. This speech was severely condemned by the radi- cal anti-slavery people, especially by those of his own State (Massachusetts). Theodore Parker said: " I know no deed in American history done by a son of New England to which. I can compare this but the act of Benedict Arnold. The only SLAVERY AN OVERSHADOWING ISSUE 387 reasonable way in which we can estimate this speech is as a bid for the Presidency." It is the sober judgment of history, however, that Webster supported the compromise purely for patriotic reasons. Certainly his support brought great strength to Clay's plan. After a debate that lasted through all the summer of 1850 the compromise measures — collectively known as the Omnibus Bill — were passed and signed by President Fillmore ^ in September, 1850. 125. THE EXECUTION OF THE FUGITIVE-SLAVE LAW. After the passage of the Compromise Acts of 1850 the poli- The ticians North and South did all they could to induce the people slave I . ^ 1 • T 1 r- 1 Ls-w of to accept the compromise measures as a finality. In the South i850 there was much bitter opposition and there was talk of with- drawing from the Union, but the advocates of peace and har- mony were able to check what promised to be a secession move- ment and to secure at least a half-hearted acceptance of the compromise acts. In the North the opposition was directed chiefly against the new fugitive-slave law. The famous statute denied the right of trial by jury to j the fugitive claiming to be a free- man ; it imposed a penalty of fine and imprisonment upon any per- son hindering the arrest of a fugi- tive or attempting to rescue one from custody or aiding one to es- cape ; it excluded the testimony of the negro whose freedom was at stake ; it provided that any citizen might be called upon to aid in en- forcing the law ; and it gave federal commissioners the power to pass on the merits of cases instead of leaving this power with State officials. The law was characterized by the anti-slavery people as 1 On July 9, President Taylor died and Vice-President Fillmore became Presi- dent in his stead. Millard Fillmore. 388 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Resist- ance and Acquies- cence The Election of 1852 unconstitutional (138), ininioral, and abhorrent to every in- stinct of justice. In Indiana some citizens at an anti-slavery meeting declared their purpose to make the law powerless by refusing to obey its " inhuman and diabolical provisions." At Syracuse, a mass-meeting declared the law utterly null and void. Leaders like Clay, Webster, Douglas, Cass, Choate, Buchanan, came forward in defense of the law and urged upon citizens their duty to obey it. In some places, however, counsel of this kind was received with defiance and scorn. In Boston a fugitive named Shadrach was violently rescued while in custody and was spirited away to Canada. In Syra- cuse a number of highly respectable citizens broke into a court-room, rescued an alleged fugitive named Jerry, and smuggled him safely across the Canadian boundary. Still, the campaigning in behalf of finality was in the main success- ful. " In spite of the efforts of the radicals the excitement over the fugitive-slave act diminished and the people of the free States settled down to an attitude of sincere but re- luctant acquiescence." That slavery agitation was no longer desirable was the keynote in the Presidential campaign of 1852. In that year the Democrats resolved in their national convention that they ^ would resist all attempts at renew- ing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question under whatever shape or color the attempt might be made. The Whigs expressed acquiescence in the Compromise Acts, promised to enforce them, and deprecated fur- ther agitation of the slavery ques- tion as dangerous. The Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire ; the Whigs nom- Franklin Pierce. -^^.^j^.^, ^ .^^^^^^ Wi.iiield Scott, hoping that his war record (]>. 354) would carry him into })ovver. lUit Scott did not apj)eal to the voters as Taylor SLAVERY AN OVERSHADOWING ISSUE 389 had. The business interests of the country were on the side of Pierce and he was elected by an overwhelming majority. Scott carried only four States/ With the election of Pierce it seemed that slavery agita- "Uncie tion was at an end and that the country would settle down cabm" and enjoy a long period of repose. But it was impossible to suppress discussion and agitation. " To be told," said James Russell Lowell, " that one ought not to agitate the question of slavery when it is that which is forever agitating us, is like telling a man with the fever and ague on him to stop shaking and he will be better." While the politicians in 1852 were waging their campaign against agitation, readers were devouring Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which had just appeared in book form. This novel was an outburst of passion against slavery. It gave a story of slave life that touched the heart and brought tears to the eyes. The book was written in a most charming style and it held the reader spellbound. One woman wrote that she could no more leave the story than she could have left a dying child. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a work of fiction, it is true, and it drew an unfair picture of the slave conditions, yet it left upon the minds of Northern readers the indelible im- pression that slavery was cruel, brutal, and unjust. The book had no appreciable effect upon the election of 1852, but count- less thousands of impressionable boys who read it in that year were voters in 1856 and i860. 126. THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE (1854). Even the politicians themselves were unable to steer clear The of the slavery question. In 1854 Stephen A. Douglas of Nebraska Illinois brought into the Senate a bill to organize the Nebraskan ^^ Territory, a region which comprised what are now the States of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Ij and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Douglas's bill — usually known as the Kansas-Nebraska Bill — in its final form pro- 1 The Free Soilers nominated a candidate, but they polled only about half as many votes as they received in 1848. 390 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY vided that the Nebraska region should be organized into two Territories, Kansas and Nebraska. All the Nebraska country was north of the parallel 36° 30', and by the terms of the Missouri Compromise was closed against slavery. But Doug- las proposed to throw it open to slavery and thus repeal the Missouri Compromise. This was a move by Northern Democrats which had not been asked for by the South. Douglas was able and ambitious and it was quite generally thought that this bill was offered as a bid for the support of the South in the coming presidential election. " A politician," writes Horace Mann from Washington about this time, " does not sneeze without reference to the next Presidency. All things are carried to that tribunal for decision." Douglas disavowed all selfish motives in bringing forward such a bold measure. He said it was due to the South and due to the Constitution that slavery be allowed in a new territory if the people of the territory desired it. In support of his measure he urged the doctrine of popular or " squatter " sovereignty : the people of each Territory were to vote on the question of slavery ; if the majority of votes were cast in favor of slavery it was to be a slave Territory, but if the majority of votes were cast against slavery then it was to be a free Territory. " If they wish slavery," said Douglas, " they have a right to it." The The Act itself declared that its true intent and meaning Exten- . sion was " not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor Slave to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof per- Terri- . ... . . tory fectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." What Douglas proposed for the two new Territories was almost precisely what Congress had ordained for Utah and New Mexico in the Compromise of 1850 (p. 385). But the most ardent pro-slavery men had not hoped for a repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Douglas was thoroughly in earnest and he pushed his bill with all his might. He received the votes of the Southern Democrats, who were only too glad to seize the magnificent opportunity for slavery extension, while Southern SLAVERY AN OVERSHADOWING ISSUE 391 Whigs and a few Northern Democrats also joined in support of the measure. The bill had a stormy time on its passage through Congress, but with whip and spur Douglas carried it through. In May 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill became a law and the work of the Missouri Compromise was un- done. So, it seemed that the agitation begun by Wilmot in 1846 in favor of restricting slavery was only to end in an enormous extension of slavery.^ The Kansas-Nebraska Bill threw the whole country into a ^f^^^ ferment of excitement. The South was delighted by the ^g^^as^g^ measure and the North was embittered by it. The immediate ^^^^ effect of the law was to cause men to divide upon the slavery question as they had never divided before. Hitherto there had been compromise and shuffling and evasion in regard to slavery matters, but now slavery was an overshadowing issue and men were compelled to take sides. Every man in the land had to decide whether he was for the extension of slavery or against it. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The Wilmot Proviso: Hart IV, 38-40; McMaster VII, 480-488. 2. The Compromise of 1850: Bassett, 454-460; Wilson, 169-173; Smith, 14-26. 3. Calhoun on the Compromise of 1850: McMaster VIII, 19-21. 4. Clay and the Compromise of 1850: McMaster VIII, 19-28, 40-42. 5. Webster's Seventh of March Speech: Hart IV, 52-55; McMas- ter VIII, 23-27. 6. The old leaders and the new : Smith, 40-58. 1 The Ostend Manifesto. — The pro-slavery leaders entertained hopes that Cuba might be annexed and made a field for the further extension of slavery. In the early fifties filibustering expeditions fitted out in the United States were sent against Cuba with the result that the island was kept in a state of turmoil. The remedy proposed by Southern leaders for the troubles in Cuba was annexation. In 1854 our ministers to Great Britain, France, and Spain met at Ostend and drew up what was known as the Ostend Manifesto. This in effect declared that Spain ought to sell Cuba to the United States; that Cuba was necessary for the safety of slavery in the Southern States; and that if Spain should refuse to sell, self-preservation required that it be wrested from her by force. The declaration, however, was not generally supported by public opinion in the United States, and it was strongly condemned in Europe. The movement for annexation was accordingly dropped and the Ostend Manifesto came to naught. 392 ADVANCKD AMERICAN HISTORY 7. The Fugitive-Slave Law: H-art IV, 56-58; Wilson, 174-178; Mc- Master VIII, 43-54- 8. The Kansas-Nchraska Bill: Sinilh, 94-108; Wilson, 182-185; Burgess, 580-406. 9. Dates for the chronological table : 1850, 1854. 10. Read in the class Whittier's " Ichabod." To whom did the poem refer? Give an account of the Gorsuch fugitive slave case. Read a passage of the speech of Clay on the Compromise of 1850; Harding, 270-291. XXXV THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY (1854-1860) The opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill resulted in a general break-up of the old political parties and led to the organization of the Republican party. What were the beginnings of this great party? What were its purposes and who were its leaders? What chain of events led to its triumph? 127. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Northern sentiment against the Kansas-Nebraska BJM was Renewed widespread and was manifested in a variety of ways. The ance^*" censure visited upon the author of the bill exceeded the bounds pug^tive- of moderation and the popular displeasure was shown in so Law^ many places that Douglas said he could travel by the light of his own burning effigies from Boston to Chicago. In many places the re- sentment assumed the form of re- taliation. The anti-slavery men of the North, feeling that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was an act of bad faith, retaliated by renewing their fight against the Fugitive-Slave Law. In Boston people of wealth and refinement re- sisted officers of the law in their attempts to retake runaway slaves. The " underground railroad " was started again with increased activity. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Michigan passed laws the plain purpose of which was to obstruct the prosecu- tion of the Fugitive-Slave Law. These laws, known as Per- sonal Liberty laws, came dangerously near nullifying the laws of the United States. They provided that State jails should 393 Stephen A. Douglas. 394 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY not be used for detaining fugitives ; that negroes who were claimed as slaves should be entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus and of trial by jury; and that the seizure of a free person with the intent of reducing him to slavery should be punished by fine and imprisonment. Still another effect of the Kansas-Nebraska Law was to strengthen the abo- lition movement. " Pierce and Douglas," said Horace Greeley in May 1854, " have made more abolitionists in three months than Garrison and Phillips could have made in half a century." Garrison himself felt that the slaveholders had won a complete triumph by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and to show his dissent and disgust he publicly burned the Fugitive- Slave Law and the Constitution of the United States at a meeting of abolitionists which was held at Framingham. on the Fourth of July, 1854. Rut the most important result of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was to crystallize the anti-slavery sentiment of the North and to organize anti-slavery men into a political party whose sole aim was to check the extension of slavery. The op- ponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill were Northern Whigs, some Northern Democrats, and Free Soilers. The dissat- isfied Whigs desired to reorganize the northern wing of the existing Whig party on an anti-slavery basis, but the dissatisfied Democrats and the Free Soilers desired an en- tirely new organization. The Whigs were most numerous, but the Democrats and Free Soilers would not consent to call themselves Whigs ; so it was necessary to build up a new party. The work of organization began in the West. While the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was pending in Congress a meeting of citizens of all parties was held at Ripon, Wisconsin, and at this meeting it was suggested that a new party be organized on the issue of slavery extension and that the name of the new party be " Republican." In July 1854, just after the pas- sage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, several thousand citizens of Michigan assembled in an oak-grove on the outskirts of the town of Jackson and resolved that they would act faith- fully in unison to oppose the extension of slavery and would THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 395 be known as Republicans until the contest should be terminated. They also nominated State officers and recommended that a general convention of the free States should be called. In other States the anti-slavery people followed the example of Michigan in organizing a new party and in Wisconsin, Mas- sachusetts, Vermont, and Maine the name Republican was adopted. In the fall elections of 1854 the Republicans of Wisconsin and Michigan were successful and in almost every Northern State there was evidence that the new party had a great future before it. Scene of the struggle in Kansas. The first concrete issue presented to the Republican party The grew out of the trouble which arose in Kansas. The Kansas- Factions Nebraska Bill made the fertile soil of Kansas a prize to be contended for by the forces of slavery and the forces of free- dom. Even before the bill became a law emigrants from the South, especially from Arkansas and Missouri, were rushing into Kansas with the purpose of making it a slave State, while emigrants from the North were hurrying to the new Territory with the purpose of making it a free State. The slave State people settled along the Missouri River and founded the towns of Atchison, Leavenworth, and Lecompton. The free State people settled along the Kansas River and founded the 396 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY towns of Topeka, Lawrence, and Osawatoniie. In March 1855, an election was held for a territorial legislature, and in this contest the pro-slavery people won, their victory being" due largely to the votes of an organized band of Missonrians who rode across the border on election day, cast their votes, and returned at once to Missouri. The anti-slavery men ig- nored this election as fraudulent and proceeded to organize a Free State party and to prepare for bringing Kansas into the Union as a Free State. Representatives of the Free State ])arty met in convention at Topeka (October 1855) and drew up for Kansas a constitution which prohibited slavery. This constitution was submitted to the voters of the Territory. It received the votes of the Free State party, but the pro-slavery men refused to take part in the voting. Douglas's i)lan of squatter sovereignty was now having its first practical application. Kansas was divided into two warring factions, one trying to establish slavery, the other to prohibit it. The quarrel between the two factions soon re- sulted in violence and outrage. In May 1856, the town of Lawrence was sacked by a mob of slave State men. In re- venge John Brown, with his four sons and three other men, went along the Pottawatomie Creek at midnight and killed five slave State men. Brown thought he was divinely commis- sioned to perform this bloody deed. " It has been decreed," he said, " by Almighty God, ordained for all eternity, that I should make an example of these men." By this time the Kansas question had been taken up by Congress. In the spring of 1856 the Free State people of Kansas asked that the Territory be admitted as a State under the Topeka constitution. In the Mouse, where many Repub- licans had already won seats, the vote was in favor of ad- mission. In the Senate, however, where the influence of the South was still dominant, admission was refused. Yet the debate on the Kansas question in the Senate showed that the Republicans had won some seats in that body also. Among the most distinguished of the Republican Senators was Charles Sumner of Massachusetts. Sumner in a .speech THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 397 (May 1856) on the Kansas question, directed some bitter re- The marks against Senator Butler of South Carolina, who was upon . Senator absent from the Senate. Two days after this speech was de- sumner livered Preston Brooks, a Representative from South Carolina and a kinsman of Butler, entered the Senate chamber, and struck Sumner £ heavy blow with a cane. Sumner was stunned by the blow and could make no resistance. Brooks followed up the first blow with others and by the time the last blow was struck Sumner was bleeding profusely and was in an insensible condition. The House passed a resolution of censure upon Brooks. He immediately resigned but was al- most unanimously reelected by his district. Thus the violence that was rife in Kansas over the extension of slavery had a counterpart in the very halls of Congress. Of course the Kansas question was carried to the theater Repub- lican of national politics. In 1856 the Republicans met at Phila- Leaders delphia in national convention and adopted a platform which declared against the spread of slavery in the Territories and demanded the immediate admission of Kansas as a free State. The Republican party was now fully organized and was re- ceiving the support of some of the ablest men in the North. Under its banner were Charles Sumner, William H. Seward of New York, Salmon P. Chase and Benjamin Wade of Ohio, and Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. The Republican candidate of 1856 was John C. Fremont, who as a young officer had ren- dered valuable service in the movement which led to the ac- quisition of California (p. 354). Fremont had been a Demo- crat, but his warm sympathy with the Free State party in Kansas had caused him to cast his lot with the Republicans. The Democrats in 1856 were hard pressed to find a suitable candidate. Either Pierce or Douglas would have been ac- The ° Candi. ceptable to the South but both of these men had lost their dates . ... in popularity in the North because of their position on the slavery i856 question. The most available candidate before the Democratic convention was James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. Buchanan had been absent from the country as minister to England and had not been obliged to take sides in the Kansas controversy. 398 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY He was regarded with favor in the South and was strong in Pennsylvania, a State whose vote it was thought would be greatly needed by the Democrats in the approaching election. So, Buchanan, on the seventeenth ballot, was nominated. The platform of the Democrats recognized the Kansas-Nebraska Bill as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the slavery question. The Whig party had all but perished in the presidential election of 1852 and by 1856 it was practically dead. A. rem- nant of the Whig wreckage met at Baltimore and accepted as a candidate ex-President Fillmore, who had been nominated by the Native American party. This party was composed mainly of members of the old Whig party and of discon- tented Northern Democrats. Its chief aim was to prevent foreign-born citizens from holding office. Its platform de- clared that Americans must rule America and that naturaliza- tion should be granted only after a residence of 21 years. The party held its meetings in secret and it threw around itself an atmosphere of mystery. When a member of the party was asked any ques- tion about political mat- ters, he would always re- ply, " I don't know." Hence the Native Ameri- can party was generally known as the Know-Noth- ing party. ^ The campaign of 1856 was a stirring one, the sole issue being, in the words of the stump orator, " Bleeding Kansas." Dur- ing the campaign the hap- penings in Kansas favored James Buchanan. 1 The Know-Nothing party carried one State (Maryland) in 1856 and died out soon after the election of that year. THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 399 the cause of the Repubhcans, but when the votes were counted it was found that Buchanan had been elected. The Re- publicans, however, received an enormous vote, the popular vote being 1,838,169 for Buchanan, 1,341,264 for Fremont, and 874,534 for Fillmore. Of the votes cast for Fremont nearly- all came from the North. The election showed too plainly that the Republican party was to be a sectional party and that the slavery question was to be a bitter contest beween the North and the South. 128. THE DRED SCOTT DECISION. When Buchanan entered upon his duties (March 4, 1857) he The X clCXS would fain have believed that the Kansas troubles were set- inthe Case tied and that the slavery question was at rest. In his in- augural address, when touching upon the legal power of the inhabitants of a Territory to prohibit slavery, he said : " This is happily a matter of but little practical importance. Besides it is a judicial question which legitimately belongs to the Su- preme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled." The decision to which Buchanan referred was the one rendered in the case of Dred Scott, a negro who was suing for the freedom of himself and family. The facts in this case were clear and simple enough. Scott was a slave who had been taken by his master first to Illinois where slavery was prohibited by the Ordinance of 1787; then to Minne- sota Territory where slavery was prohibited by the Missouri Compromise; and then to Missouri, a slave State. In Mis- souri, Dred, having been whipped for some ofifense, brought suit in the State courts for damages, claiming to have become a free man by his residence in Illinois and Minnesota. The master claimed that since Dred was descended from slave ancestors and had not been set free he was not a citizen and could not therefore sue in a court. This claim was at first decided against the master, and judgment was rendered in favor of the negro. After a long course of litigation the case finally reached the Supreme Court of the United 400 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY States and was decided two days after Buchanan was inaugu- rated, the decision being rendered by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. The decision in the Dred Scott case answered two questions : (i) Could a negro whose ancestors had been sold as slaves become a citizen of the United States? and (2) did Congress have power under the Constitution to prohibit slavery in the Territory in which it had been prohibited by the Missouri Compromise? In answer to the first question the Court de- clared that the ancestors of negro slaves were not regarded as persons by the founders of the government, but as chat- tels, as things that had " no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the government might choose to grant them.'' Dred Scott, therefore, was no citizen at all, but simply a thing, and as such he had no standing in court.' In answer to the second question the Court declared that the Missouri Compromise, prohibiting slavery north of 36° 30', (p. 299) was unconstitutional and void, and that Congress had no more right to prohibit the carrying of slaves into any State or Territory than it had to prohibit the carrying of horses or any other property. The decision delighted the South, of course, but it cut the ground from un,der the feet of the Republicans, for it virtually said to them that even if they gained control of Congress they could not prevent the ex- tension of slavery. Effects If Buchanan really believed that the famous decision would Decision quiet slavery agitation and bring about " the extinction of geographical parties " he was cruelly disappointed, for the Dred Scott case did little else than to cause the people at the North to distrust the Supreme Court and to incite the anti-slavery forces to put forth greater efforts. The decision, however, gave to the slavery question a new legal aspect : it stripped Congress of every right and power in regard to the extension or restriction of slavery. If, after this decision. Congress should attempt to interfere with the matter of slavery 1 Scott was remanded to slavery, but lie and his family were soon emancipated. THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 401 in Kansas, or anywhere else, the slaveholder could justly claim that his constitutional rights were being invaded. The de- cision accorded perfectly with the doctrine of Calhoun : slavery was a domestic institution wholly beyond the power and jurisdiction of the federal government. 129. THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. At the time the Dred Scott decision was handed down, the The ' Consti- pro-slavery people were attempting to bring Kansas in as a tution slave State. But this could hardly be done by fair means, for in 1857 the Free State people were in a decided majority. Slaveholders were reluctant to go to Kansas with their slaves until it was certain that slavery would be legal in the Terri- tory and also in the new State when it should be admitted. At no time were there in Kansas more than two or three hun- dred slaves. But the pro-slavery men were bent on making Kansas a slave State even if slaveholders and slaves were few in number. In 1857 about 2,200 voters — less than one ninth of the entire electorate — took part in choosing delegates to a convention that was to meet at Lecompton and frame a State constitution for Kansas. The Lecompton convention drew up a constitution and submitted it to the people for ratification. The voter was given the choice of voting for the constitution with slavery or for the constitution without slavery, but he could not vote against the constitution ; if he voted at all he would have to vote for the constitution whether he liked it or not. The form in which the constitution was sub- mitted was so objectionable to the Free State men that they refused to participate in the election. But the pro-slavery people ratified the constitution with a clause permitting slavery, and in February, 1858, President Buchanan sent a message to Congress recommending that Kansas be admitted as a State with the Lecompton constitution as its organic act. The Lecompton constitution met with fierce opposition in Tempo- Congress and no one opposed it more bitterly than Douglas, settie- who regarded it as a trick and a fraud upon the rights of the ^^^^^^ people. But the influence of the South was strong enough in Question 402 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Congress to pass a measure admitting Kansas as a State under the Lecompton constitution, providing the voters of Kansas should accept the constitution and along with it a large grant of government land. The land was ofifered as a lure to induce voters to accept the constitution. But it would seem that there was no way by which Kansas could be made a slave State : the Lecompton constitution and the land that went with it were rejected by an overwhelming majority. So Kansas had to remain a Territory, albeit a slave Territory, for it should be clearly understood that the Dred Scott decision legalized the slavery that existed in Kansas and gave it the full protection of the Constitution of the United States. 130. THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES. When Douglas ventured to oppose the Lecompton constitu- tion he brought upon himself the wrath of Southern Democrats and he also gravely offended many men of his own party in the North. In 1858 when he came up for reelection as Senator from Illinois he was so beset by enemies that he was forced to go before the people and plead his own cause. The Re- publican candidate for the senatorship was Abraham Lincoln, who, after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, entered the field of politics with the view of doing what he could to pre- vent the spread of slavery. Lincoln challenged Douglas to a joint-debate and the two candidates stumped the State together. Douglas was a New Englander by birth, but late in boyhood he went to Illinois, w^here he was admitted to the bar before he reached manhood. At the age of twenty-two he w^as elected to the office of State's attorney, at twenty-three he was a member of the State legislature, at twenty-eight he w-as a judge, at thirty a member of the national House of Representatives, and at thirty-three a United States Senator. A short body — he measured scarcely over five feet in height — a head of tremen- dous size, and great intellectual power combined to gain for him the title of the Little Ciant. In his manners and personal appearance he was outlandishly grotesque. When speaking he raved and roared and gesticulated frantically. Once, while THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 403 making a speech in the House, he took off and threw away his cravat, unbuttoned his waistcoat and assumed the air and aspect of a pugiUst ready for the fight. In marked contrast to the stormy Little Giant was the towering figure of his antagonist in debate, for Lincoln was truly a giant in stature and was of a reserved and quiet demeanor. Compared with the great and famous Douglas, Lincoln in 1858 was an ob- scure man. The story of his life up to the time of this debate has been told by himself in the following words : " I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. . . . My father removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. . , . There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called, but no qualifications were ever required of a teacher beyond readin', writin', and cipherin' to the rule of three. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. I have not been to school since. I was raised to farm-work, which I continued until I was twenty- two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk War and I was elected a captain of volunteers, which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I ran for the legislature the same year (1832) and was beaten, the only time I was ever beaten by the people. In 1846 I was elected to the lower house of Congress. ... I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since is pretty well known. I am in height six feet four inches nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an av- erage one hundred and eighty pounds ; dark complexion, with coarse black hair and gray eyes." In the Lincoln-Douglas debate the subject of slavery ex- a House tension was brought out into a clearer light than it had ever Agaiifst stood before. Lincoln, at Springfield (Illinois), had said : "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the 404 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — -North as well as South." Douglas attacked this utterance in the open- ing speech of the debate. He said : " \\'hy can't the Union endure divided into free and slave States? Why can't it exist upon the same principles upon which our fathers made it? Our fathers knew when they made this government that in a country as wide and broad as this — with such a variety of climate, of interests, of production — that the people neces- sarily required different local laws and local institutions in certain localities from those in other localities. They knew that the laws and regulations that would suit the granite hills of New Hampshire would be unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina. Hence they provided that each State should retain its own Legislature and its own sovereignty with the full and complete power to do as it pleased within its own limits in all that was local and not national. One of the reserved rights of the States was that of regulating the relation between master and slave, or the slavery question. At that time — that is, when the Constitution was made — there were thirteen States in the Union, twelve of which were slave States, and one was a free State. Suppose the doctrine of uniformity — all to be one or all to be the other — now preached by Mr. Lincoln, had prevailed then, what would have been the result? Of course the twelve slaveholding States would have overruled the one free State and slavery would have been fostered by a constitutional provision on every inch of the American continent instead of being left as our fathers wisely left it, each State to decide for itself." At Freeport the candidates asked each other questions. One of the questions asked by Lincoln was this : " Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the L^nited States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State constitution?" THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 405 This was equivalent to asking Douglas if the slavery which was existing in Kansas with a constitutional sanction could be abolished by the people of Kansas. The question was a fateful one for Douglas. If he answered " yes " he would be true to his doctrine of "squatter sovereignty " but he would ofifend the South, for the people of the South were un- willing to give up anything that the Constitution granted them. If he answered " no " he would offend those Democrats of the North, who wished to drive slavery out of the Territories. Douglas answered the question fairly and squarely. He said: " The right of the people to make it [a Territory of the United States] a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska Bill." Douglas by this answer rallied to his support the Democrats of the North and com- pletely alienated those of the South. The joint debates of Douglas and Lincoln attracted the attention of the entire country and the meetings were attended by thousands. Douglas won the senatorship but in the de- bates Lincoln showed himself to be a man of such force and power that the people of the North began to regard him with favor as the leader of the Republican party. 131. THE ELECTION OF i860. The excitement aroused by the Lincoln-Dougflas debates John .^ . , ^ . Brown's was mtensmed m the followmg year by an event known as Raid John Brown's Raid. In October 1859, John Brown, the man whom we saw engaged in the Kansas struggle, marched into Virginia with about twenty companions and seized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Brown's purpose was to stir up the ne- groes and cause them to rebel against their masters. He shot down a few innocent men and set free a few slaves but there was no general uprising of the negroes. After Brown had held the village for a few hours he and his band were sur- rounded by a small force of soldiers under Robert E. Lee and were captured and taken to the county jail. Brown was tried for treason and murder, was convicted, and was speedily hanged. The invasion caused a great uproar, but outside of 406 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Virginia and one or two other border States it probably had but little direct influence upon the course events were taking. " It does not appear," says Rhodes, " that the Harper's Ferry invasion gained votes for Lincoln in the presidential contest of i860; nor did it, as was at first feared, injure the Repub- lican cause." The Lincoln-Douglas debates and John Brown's Raid were but preludes to the presidential election of i860. When the Democrats met in national convention at Charleston in April i860, they found themselves split by the slavery question into two irreconcilable factions. One faction, composed of Northern Democrats, stood firm for the doctrines of squatter sovereignty and upheld Douglas in his Freeport speech. The other fac- tion, composed of Southern Democrats, stood just as firm for the doctrine laid down in the Dred Scott decision and was un- alterably opposed to Douglas. The Douglas Democrats re- fused to abandon their position in regard to slavery, whereupon the delegations from many of the Southern States protested and withdrew. The Convention being unable to nominate a candidate at Charleston, adjourned to meet in June at Balti- more. Here an attempt was made to secure harmony, but in vain. Two Democratic tickets were put in the field. The Northern Democrats nominated Douglas and declared for popular sovereignty. The Southern Democrats nominated John C. Brcckenridge of Kentucky and declared (i) that Congress had no right to abolish slavery in the Territories and (2) that a Territorial legislature had no right to abolish slavery in a Territory. The Republican convention met at Chicago and adopted a platform which ( i ) demanded the admission of Kansas as a free State, and (2) denied the au- thority of Congress or of a Territorial legislature to allow slavery in any Territory. It was generally thought that William H. Seward would be the Republican nominee, but on the third ballot Lincoln was nominated. A fourth party known as the Constitutional Union party nominated John Bell of Tennessee and declared for " the Constitution of the Country, the Union of the States and the enforcement of the laws." THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 407 The Presidential election of i860 was the most important The Cam- political contest in our history. But the tremendous sigmfi- paign cance of the election could not be understood until after the i860 votes were cast. The immediate question before the people was the extension or restriction of slavery. The issues were clearly defined and the voters knew precisely what they were called upon to decide. The campaign was serious but not exciting. In many places election day was dull. The Re- publicans won the day: Lincoln received 180 electoral votes, Douglas, 12, Breckenridge, ^2 and Bell, 39. Lincoln carried every free State except New Jersey, whose electoral vote was divided. Of the popular vote Lincoln had 1,857,610; Douglas, 1,291,574; Breckenridge, 850,082; Bell, 649,124. Thus the great Democratic party went down in defeat and the newly-formed Republican party was entrusted with power. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The struggle in Kansas: Smith, 125-135; Burgess, 407-488; Rhodes II, 98-105, 150-156; McMaster VIII, 232-276; Wilson, 169- 181. 2. The beginnings of the Republican party: Wilson, 187-igo; Rhodes II, 45-49; Smith, iio-iii, 147-148. 3. The Dred Scott Decision: Smith, 190-208; Burgess, 448-459; McMaster VIII, 277-281. 4. The Lecompton constitution: Smith, 209-221; Burgess, 460-474; Rhodes II, 278-299. 5. The Lincohi-Douglas debates : Smith, 230-233 ; McMaster VII, Z^Z-Z^T, Rhodes II, 318-339; Harding, 311-341. 6. John Brown's Raid: Rhodes II, 384-414; McMaster VIII, 407- 423. 7. The election of i860: Wilson, 204-210; Burgess, 45-73; Mc- Master VIII, 442-466; Rhodes II, 454-509. 8. The Panic of 1857: McMaster VIII, 288-295; Smith, 174-189; Dewey, 259-264; Coman, 242-243. 9. Dates for the chronological table : 1857, i860. 10. Summarize the chief events in the slavery struggle between 1846 and i860. 11. Give examples of personal liberty laws passed by some of the Northern States. What did Sewa^^d mean by the " Higher Law " '' 4o8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Give Mrs. Stowe's own account of the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin: Ilalscy VII, 128-136. Tell of the opcratiuns of the Emigrant Aid Societies. Give a graphic description of John Brown's trial and execution. What prevented the nomination of Seward in i860? Read in the class Halstead's account of the nomination of Lincoln: Halsey VIII, 9-13. What was the "Irrepressible Conflict"? Harding, 342- 357. 12. Special Readings for Chapters XXXIV and XXXV. Schouler's History of the United States, Vol. V. Ida Tarbell, Life of Abraham Lincoln. H. P. Willis, Stephen A. Douglas. Francis Curtis, History of the Republican Party. O. G. Villard, John Brotvn, A Biography. W. H. Smith, A Political History of Slavery. Frederick Bancroft, W. H. Seward. XXXVI PROGRESS IN THE FIFTIES (1850-1860) Since the election of Lincoln marked the ending of an old order of things and the beginning of a new order, it will be well at this point to turn from the course of political events and learn something of the material and intellectual progress which we were making during the years in which the great battle over slavery was being fought. In this chapter, therefore, we shall follow the progress in civilization made by the American people between 1850 and i860, a progress which, whether regarded absolutely or relatively, was amaz- ingly great. 132. THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT (1850-1860). In the fifties, as in previous decades, the current of American The ,...,,, , , , T,r T-. r o Build- hie still bore strongly toward the West. Before 1850 turn- ing pikes and canals were the most potent factors in the develop- Trunk ment of the western country. After 1850 railroads be- came the principal agency by which civilization was carried westward, twenty thousand miles of railroad having been built within a decade. Before 1850 the railroads built (p. 329) were, for the most part, short lines and were employed simply as feeders to the lakes, rivers, and canals, but in the fifties great trunk lines began to be carried from the seaboard cities across the Alleghanies clear to the Mississippi River. By 1850 the New York Central had grown from a little seventeen mile railroad built in 1832 to connect Albany and Schenectady, into a great system by which one could travel from New York City to Buffalo. The next year the Erie road was completed to Dunkirk, thus establishing a second trunk line between New York and Lake Erie. In 1852 the Pennsylvania road reached Pittsburgh, and by 1853 the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road had climbed over the Alleghanies to Wheeling. Two 409 410 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY years later St. Louis was given through rail connection to New York. Farther south, by 1854, roads ran from Charleston and Savannah to Chattanooga, and by 1858 a line connected Chattanooga and Memphis. In the meantime, railroad con- struction in the IMiddle West was carried forward at such an astonishing rate that by i860 the region had become a network Transportation between the East and West after the building of the Trunk Lines. of railways and much of the land beyond the Mississippi River had been brought into easy railroad communication with the cities of the Atlantic seaboard. The building of the lines to the West, by making it easier than ever for homeseekers to reach the trans-Mississippi coun- try, caused Western development to proceed at an accelerated velocity. The growth of Minnesota in the fifties was the most marvelous event in the entire history of Western settlement. PROGRESS IN THE FIFTIES 4H No Territory ever began its existence with fewer white inhab- itants than did Minnesota Territory when it was organized in 1849. Its population at that time was less than 5,000. " There was a trading-post at Wakasha, a stone house at the foot of Lake Pepin, a mission house at Red Wing, and at Kaposia, and a trading-post at Mendota, and that was all." The settlement of the Territory was at first hindered by the presence of redmen, but in 1851 a tract of land, consisting of 28,000,000 acres belonging to the Sioux Indians, was secured by treaty and was thrown open to the whites. Three years later Chicago and Rock Island on the Mississippi were joined by a railroad, and in 1856 the Sault Ste. Marie Canal was opened. Emigrants could now reach Minnesota by water route and by railroad and they fairly swarmed over the vacant lands of the Territory. In 1857 the population of Minnesota was found to be thirty times as great as it was in 1849. Accordingly, Minnesota Territory applied for admission as a State, and in 1858 it joined the Union. ^ It was the swift Westward Movement of the fifties that made Kansas it necessary for Congress to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Bill Nebraska and thus establish territorial governments for the new com- munities in the Nebraska country. The slavery contest kept early Kansas in a state of ferment, yet it hastened rather than retarded the settlement of the Territory. In i860 Kansas had a population of more than 100,000. It was now ready for statehood and in 1861 it was admitted into the Union as a free State. Nebraska Territory did not grow so rapidly as Kan- sas, but its growth was healthy. When the first legislature of Nebraska met at Omaha in 1855 the population of the Ter- ritory was about 5,000; by i860, the population had increased six fold. As early as 1859 the Nebraskans began to urge their claims for admission into the Union, but they were com- pelled to bide their time. It was in the fifties also that the first settlements in Colorado 1 The vast wilderness lying west of Minnesota and extending to the Rockies was left unorganized and continued without legal name or government until i86r when it was organized as the Territory of Dakota. 412 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Colorado and Nevada Oregon Growth In Popula- tion were made. The early development of Colorado, like the de- velopment of most of the Rocky Mountain States, was due to the discovery of valuable mines for precious metals. In 1859 a rich gold mine was discovered in the vicinity of Pike's Peak and forthwith there was a wild rush to the scene.^ It was estimated that within a year nearly 60,000 gold-seekers visited the newly discovered mines. Thousands of those " fifty- niners " remained and laid the foundations of Colorado. The mining towns of Denver, Boulder, and Pueblo were built so rapidly that they seemed to rfse out of the ground over night. The miners, feeling the need of law and order, at once organ- ized a new government under the name of the Territory of Jefiferson. In 1861, however, Congress organized the Territory of Colorado and the Territory of Jefferson passed out of ex- istence. Three days after Colorado was provided with a gov- ernment, Nevada was made a Territory. The development of Nevada was due almost wholly to the discovery of the great Comstock silver mine. The impulse of the Westward Movement in the fifties was felt clear across the continent. California by i860 had become a great State with a population of nearly 400,000. The rush to California threatened for a while the prosperity of Oregon. Many settlers left the Willamette Valley to seek their fortunes in the gold fields of the Sacramento region. But the tide soon turned toward Oregon again and in a few years the Territory had a population which was thought by Congress to be suffi- cient for Statehood. So, Oregon in 1859 was admitted to the Union. Salem was made the -capital of the new State, but Portland was then, as now, the largest city of Oregon and the commercial center of the Columbia Valley.- Thus the Westward Movement in the fifties resulted in the settlement and organization of a vast amount of territory. Within this period (1850-1861), California, Minnesota, Ore- 1 The settlement of Nevada was really the result of an eastward rather than a westward movement, for many of the first settlers of the Territory came from California. In 1864 Nevada was admitted as a State. 2 In 1853 a portion of Oregon was set off and organized as Washingtoii Territory. PROGRESS IN THE FIFTIES 413 gon, and Kansas were admitted as States, and Utah, New Mex- ico, Washington, Nebraska, Dakota, Nevada, and Colorado were organized as Territories. But the full significance of the Westward Movement in the fifties is to be seen not in the new States and Territories which were organized, but in the won-' derful development of the Western States which were already formed. The population of the United States in 1850 was 23,191,876; in i860, it was 31,443,321. The increase in popu- Center of population. lation of the whole country was a little more than 8,000,000; the increase in the Western States alone (not including Mis- souri) was more than 4,000,000.^ The population of Michigan increased in the fifties from 397,654 to 749,113; that of Wis- consin from 305,391 to 775,881 ; that of Illinois from 851,470 to 1,711,951 ; that of Iowa from 192,214 to 674,913. Much of this increase was due to immigration, for the stream immigra- tion of immigrants which began to flow in such volumes in the forties flowed in even greater volume in the fifties. In the ten years before i860, 2,598,214 foreigners came to our shores — a greater number than came in the thirty years before 1850. Nearly a million of these newcomers were Germans and nearly another million were Irish. Of the Germans, great throngs made their way directly to the States of the Northwest and began to give their brain and brawn to the building up of the country. 1 The center of population moved a greater distance westward in the fifties than ill any decade in our history, ^^n 1800 the center of population was about eighteen miles west of Baltimore; by 1840 it had crossed the Alleghanies; in 1850 it bad reached Parkersburg, West Virginia; and in i860 it was half-way across the State of Ohio. c 414 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY 133. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL GROWTH: INVENTIONS. The trunk lines of railroad established in the fifties gave a new life and a new movement to the commerce of the country/ Before 1850 the Western farmer was largely dependent upon the rivers of the Mississippi \'alley for the transi)ortation of his grain and he looked chiefly to the South for his market (p. 333). Rut the building of the trunk lines was like causing so many navigable rivers to flow direct from the West to the From "The Clipper Ship Era" by permission of Arthur H. Clftrk. A Clipper Ship. Atlantic seaboard. The railroads in the fifties became mighty channels of trade on which the products of Western farms could be borne to Eastern ports. And the trunk lines also en- abled the Western farmer to reach the markets of Europe. In the fifties our foreign shipments of grain assumed an impor- iTIie Panic of 1857. — The rapid development of the West in the fifties was accompanied by an over-investment in land and excessive railroad construction, with the result that in 1857 the country suffered a panic. Many of the Western railroads went into bankruptcy and business failures numbered nearly 5,000. The panic, however, was of short duration. In 1857 a slight reduction was made in the tariff and some writers claim that the change was partly responsible for the financial crisi? pf that year. PROGRESS IN THE FIFTIES 415 tance they had never had before. In the ten years before 1853 our exports of grain were valued at less than $200,000,- 000; in the ten years after 1853 they were valued at more than $500,000,000. This accession of grain shipments soon raised our foreign commerce to more than double its former volume, the value of our foreign trade being about $300,000,000 in 1850 and $700,000,000 in i860. The foreign trade of i860 consisted of about one-half exports and one-half imports ; we were thus buying about as much as we were selling and as a commercial nation we were standing on our own feet. Along v^^ith this growth in the volume of our foreign trade Growth there was a corresponding: growth in our merchant marine. Merchant ... . . Marine The prosperity of our shipping interest in the fifties was due to several causes. In 1849 England by the repeal of an unfavor- able navigation act admitted American vessels to the traffic between Great Britain and her colonies, thus enabling our ves- sels to secure their full share of the British carrying trade. The rush to California stimulated the building of fast sailing vessels that would make the long journey around the Horn. The famous American clippers, the fastest sailing vessels ever placed upon the ocean, were built in large numbers during this period. The lower rates of the Walker Tariff (p. 348) reduced to a considerable degree the cost of building ships. Then ship subsidies at this period played a part in stimulating the growth of our merchant marine. In 1845 our government came to the aid of steam navigation (p. 3SQ) by subsidizing a transat- Ship ° ^^ oo-^y :i & ^ Subsidies lantic line at the rate of $200,000 a year. The Collins line from New York to Liverpool was receiving in 1852 a subsidy of more than $850,000 a year. These favorable circumstances working together made the period of 1850 to i860 the most glorious in the history of our merchant marine. " We have now," said A. H. Stephens in i860, " an amount of shipping not only coastwise but to foreign countries which puts us in the front rank of the nations of the world." The progress of industry in the fifties was as marked as Agricui- the progress 01 commerce. Agriculture was our chief pursuit as it had always been. Within the decade the value of our 4i6 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY farms and farm property doubled and the products of our • ^ fields increased in proportion. Great quantities of tobacco, "■ wheat, and corn were raised, but cotton was still the most im- portant product of the farm. In i860 we raised seven-eighths of all the cotton used in the world. Manu- Although agriculture was still in the lead, manufacturing was not far behind. Indeed, manufacturing by i860 had prac- tically overtaken agriculture, for in that year our manufactured products were worth $1,885,000,000, while our farm products were worth $1,910,000,000. As agriculture made its way west- ward, manufacturing followed in its wake. In 1850 the center of manufactures in tlie United States was near Har- risburg in Pennsylvania; by i860 it had almost reached Pitts- burgh. This shifting of the location of manufactures was due mainly to the fact that in the populous Middle West there were rising large cities that could supply the labor and capital nec- essary for manufacturing enterprises and that could at the same time consume a portion of the manufactured articles. I'atcntB Foremost among the aids to progress in the fifties were Great the great inventions which appeared between 1840 and i860, tions The progress due to invention may be measured by the number of patents ^ issued. In 1850 the number of inventions patented was 5,943 ; between 1850 and i860 the number was 23,140. These patents related to every field of human endeavor, to methods of transportation, to the transmission of intelligence, to the manufacture of textiles, to sewing, to heating, to light- ing, and to scores of other matters connected with the com- fort and convenience of daily life. In 1846 Elias Howe in- vented a sewing-machine w^hich soon replaced the simple needle, and before many years had passed it was possible to make into garments all the cloth that the improved looms might produce. The telegraph, invented by S. F. B. Morse in 1844, was in the fifties beginning to reveal its wonderful possibilities. 1 In 1790 Congress passed the first law defining the rights of inventors (52). The term for which a patent was valid was first fixed at fourteen years. After 1836 an extension of seven years was permitted in some cases. In 1870 the original term of a patent right wa§ fiyed at seventeen years. PROGRESS IN THE FIFTIES 417 By 1858 England and America were joined by cable, and Queen Victoria and President Buchanan were exchanging congratulations over electric wires. ^ By i860 all the principal places in the country were connected by a telegraph, and in 1861 a telegraph line extending across the continent connected New York and San Francisco. The stimulus to business imparted by the telegraph was Post- intensified by reforms made in the postal service. In the forties adhesive postage-stamps began to be used and by the end of the fifties the use of stamps on letters was universal and was required by law. In 1845, Congress reduced the rates of postage on letters to five cents per half ounce for less than 300 miles and ten cents for distances over 300 miles. In 1 85 1 the rate was reduced to three cents for distances un- der 3,000 miles and six cents for distances over 3,000 miles. In 1863 the distance charge was abolished and the rate for letters in the United States was fixed at three cents with- out regard to distance. 134. THE GROWTH OF CITIES. Although we were still an agricultural nation in i860 we The nevertheless could boast of several large cities ; for conditions Cities in the forties and fifties were fav- orable to urban growth. In 1850 New York, Philadelphia, Balti- more, and New Orleans were the only cities that had a population greater than 100,000; in i860 Bos- ton, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, St. Lou- is, and Chicago had passed the 100,000 mark. The growth of St. . m.- n -v . ° . , A Chicago Omnibus. Louis and Chicago during this period exceeded anything that had yet been witnessed in the history of our urban development. In 1840 St. Louis was a 1 The first transatlantic cable was defective and soon ceased to work. By 1866, however, through the perseverance and energy of Cyrus W. Field of New York, cable communication between the Old World and the New was successfully established. 4i8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY St. Louis and CMcago South- ern Cities town of 16,000; in 1850 its population was 77,000; in i860 it contained 160,000 inhabitants and had practically overtaken Cincinnati and New Orleans. For a time St. Louis was the metropolis of the West, but in the end it was outnumbered by its rival on Lake Michigan. Chicago was fitted by nature to become a great mart. The railroads running to Eastern cities from Wisconsin and Minnesota passed by the head of Lake Michigan and much of the produce from the trans-Missis- sippian region and from northern Illinois and northern Indi- ana was naturally taken to the head of this lake for shipment. About 1840 Chicago, which was only a cluster of houses in 1832, began to ship large quantities of wheat to the East by the Lakes, and then it began to grow. Its growth was quick- ened by the coming of McCormick's factory (p. 358). But the wonderful growth of Chicago really began in 1854 when it was connected by railroads with the cities of the Atlantic and with points on the Mississippi River.^ In the South, cities were few indeed, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, Memphis, and New Orleans being the only places in i860 that had a population of over 20,000. " But two towns in Arkansas rose in degree above the merest villages, . . . Louisi- ana had but three towns of over two thousand population be- sides New Orleans and Baton Rouge . . . All but five towns in Mississippi were small villages. It was the same in North and South Carolina, the latter State having but three towns besides Charleston of over one thousand population. Mr- ginia was a State of petty villages." - 1 Besides the nine great cities mentioned above, there were in i860 many other places that were well started on the road to permanent and prosperous city^hood. In New England, there were Providence, Worcester, Lowell, and New Haven; in the Middle States there were Newark, Jersey City, Wilmington, Reading, Pittsburgh, Troy, Rochester, and Syracuse; in the West there were Milwaukee, Detroit, Louisville, and San Francisco. Each of these had a population of over 20,000, while five — Providence, Newark, Buffalo, Louisville, and San Francisco — had poDulations of over 50,000 each. 2 F. E. Chadwick, Causes of the Civil War, p. 31. PROGRESS IN THE FIFTIES 419 135. EDUCATION AND LITERATURE. Progress in material things went hand in hand with progress I"?*'","" in education. The educational movement begun in the early part of the century (p. 336) acquired greater force year by year and by i860 there was in most of the States a well-estab- lished system of fairly good common schools. This was true not only of the older States but of many of the newer States as well. In the fifties, Wisconsin, Iowa. Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, California, and Oregon all made provision for ele- mentary schools that should be free to all white children. But a school of the Middle ' ~] West in the fifties was a 1 primitive affair, as is * i shown in the following de- ' ' scription of an early Iowa schoolhouse : " It was built of round logs, the spaces between them chinked and then daubed with mud. . . . There was no floor. The seats were made of stools or benches constructed by splitting a log, shaving ofif the splinters from the flat side and then putting four pegs into it from the round side for legs The door was made of clapboards. On either side one log was cut out and over the aperture was pasted greased paper which answered for a window. Wooden pieces were driven into a log running lengthwise immediately beneath the windows upon which was laid a board and this constituted the writing desks." Before i860 the education provided at public expense was Higher as a rule elementary in character and consisted simply of in- uon struction in reading, writing, and arithmetic. But even before i860 in some places pupils in the public schools were carried The District School. 420 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY beyond the mere rudiments of knowledge and were given in- struction in advanced subjects. As early as 1821 a public high school had been established in Boston. Before 1840 seven high schools had been established in New England, and before 1850 seven had been established in the Middle States and in the States west of the Alleghanies. By i860 there were alto- gether in the United States about one hundred public schools of a grade that would entitle them to be called high schools. In a number of States by i860 the educational system in- cluded a State X^niversitv. This was the case in Alabama, The Golden Age of Literature -i '• f. An old view of the University of Wisconsin. Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia, South Carolina, and Utah (Territory). The Uni- versity of Iowa admitted women as well as men ; in the others women were not admitted until a later date than 1860.^ Nor- mal Schools for the training of teachers had also made their appearance by i860. Schools of this kind were maintained by State authority in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The literary production of the fifties surpassed anything that had gone before or that has followed after. The writers who first began to publish in the thirties (p. 338) were in their prime in the fifties and during these years they wrote the 1 In i860 there were more than 30 colleges for women scattered throughout the country, most of them being in the South. Of these, three — Mount Ilolyoke, Rockford (in Illinois), and Elmira — gained prominence and maintained a high standard of work. PROGRESS IN THE FIFTIES 421 great classics of American literature. Longfellow published his Hiazvatha and Miles Standish; Whittier, Bryant, and Lowell devoted much of their talent to the anti-slavery cause but in addition to the poetry which they directed against slavery they published masterpieces of verse which delighted their countrymen and which were free from partisan or sec- tional bias. " Hawthorne reached the summit of his genius in the Scarlet Letter at one end of the decade and the Marble Faun at the other." Holmes at this period produced the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, and Emerson gave to the world some of the finest of his incomparable essays. So fruit- ful, in fact, were the fifties in works of genius that it may rightly be called the " golden age " of American literature. But books in the fifties were not the chief agencies in the The . Daily diffusion of knowledge, for the day of the great daily news- News- paper had arrived. In large newspaper offices the simple printing press of the old type was being cast aside and the revolving press of Hoe — invented in 1846 — was printing newspapers so cheaply and rapidly that the daily paper could be enjoyed by all. While the price of the newspaper was low- ered its usefulness was increased by the freshness and variety of news which the newly-invented telegrapti made it possible to collect. The editorial page of the newspaper was perhaps never more potent than in the fifties. i\mong the great ed- itors of the time were James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald, H. J, Raymond of the New York Times, Samuel Bowles of the Springfield Republican, and Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune. Of these, Greeley was the most in- fluential, for his paper was widely circulated not only in the East but in the Middle West also, and he wrote with such force and conviction that his readers came to regard the Tribune as a kind of political Bible. Greeley and Raymond and Bowles all opposed the extension of slavery and it was to the power of their pens that the Republican success of i860 was largely due. 422 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS J-OR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The era of railroad building: Smith, 59-74; Bogart, 230-235. 2. Give the history of Morse's first telegraph line: Halsey VII, 36- 47; McMaster, VII, 125-130. 3. Give an account of Howe's invention of the sewing-machine: Halsey VII, 48-52. 4. Dr. Morton's introduction of anesthetic ether: Halsey VI T, 70-76; McMaster VII, 98-99. 5. The opening of the crystal palace in New York (1853) : Halsey VII, 137-143; Rhodes I, 414-416. 6. The growth of the industrial city: Bogart, 256-258. 7. The application of machinery to agriculture between 1840 and i860: Bogart, 276-278. 8. American shipping between 1840 and i860: Bogart, 222-226; Rhodes II, 7-10. 9. Educational development : Dexter, 155-203. 10. Dates for the chronological tables : 1858, 1859. 11. The Telegraph: Forman, Useful Inventions^ 252-265. 12. The Sewing-Machine : Forman, Useful Inventions, 129-136. 13. For the table of admitted States : Oregon, Minnesota, Kansas. 14. Summarize the Westward Movement between 1830 and i860. Summarize the development of transportation agencies between 1800 and i860. Give an account of railroad building prior to 1840. Summarize the progress made in inventions between 1840 and i860. Discuss the subsidy system. Would it be desirable to subsidize our shipping now? When was letter postage reduced to two cents? XXXVII SECESSION AND THE CALL TO ARMS The election of Lincoln was quickly followed by the withdrawal of eleven Southern States from the Union and by a rupture between the North and the South which led both sections to prepare for war. What were the beginnings of the secession movement? How was the movement dealt with by the national government? What occurrences brought the two sections to the verge of war? What was the strength of the North compared with that of the South? 136. SECESSION: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. Although the Republican platform declared only against the Effect extension of slavery and was silent on the subject of aboli- coin's 11-rT-i 11 111 Election tion, the election of Lincoln was nevertheless regarded bv upon the South as the first step in a movement that would lead south to abolition. " We cannot close our eyes to the fact," said Douglas in the Senate in January 1861, " that the Southern people have received the result of that election [the election of i860] as furnishing conclusive evidence that the dominant party of the North, which is soon to take possession of the federal government, are determined to invade and destroy their Constitutional rights. Believing that their domestic in- stitutions, their hearthstones and their family altars are all to be assailed, at least by indirect means, and that the federal government is to be used for the inauguration of a line of policy which shall have for its object the ultimate extinction of slavery in all the States — old as well as new, South as well as North — the Southern people are prepared to rush wildly, madly, as I think, into revolution, disunion, war — - and defy the consequences." 423 424 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Secession of Seven States The Forma- tion of the Confed- erate Govern- ment Donc^las did not state tlie case too strongly, for at the very nionient he was speaking, the South was rushing into disunion. J'^-ven before the election of Lincoln was an accomplished fact South Carolina began to look forward to a withdrawal from the Union, and by December 20, i860, a convention of dele- gates had repealed the ordinance whereby the Constitution of the United States was ratified by South Carolina in 1788, and had declared that the Union subsisting between that State and other States under the name of the United States of America was dissolved. The reasons given for this secession were that South Carolina had entered into the Union as by a compact with the other States and that the com- pact had been broken; that the Personal Liberty laws (p. 393) were destructive of the slaveholders' rights under the Constitu- tion ; that the non-slaveholding States had elected to the Pres- idency a man whose opinions and purposes were hostile to slavery; that after March 4, 1861, the federal government would be the enemy of the slaveholding States, the guar- antee of the Constitution would no longer exist, and the equal right of the States would be lost. South Carolina issued an address to the other slaveholding States appealing to them to join in forming a Confederacy, and by February i, Missis- sippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had responded to the appeal and had left the Union. Events in the South now moved forward with almost breath- less rapidity. No sooner had the seceding States withdrawn from the old Union than they at once took steps to form a new Union. On February 4, 1861, delegates from the seven seceding States met at Montgomery, Alabama, and drew up a constitution for the government of a new republic which was to be known as the Confederate States of America. The constitution of the Confederate States plainly asserted the doctrine of State sovereignty and fully and explicitly rec- ognized slavery as a lawful institution. " The corner-stone of our new government rests," said A. H. Stephens, " upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man : that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his I. i> L. ^'i)'!>"^ ^Lahe of '"/., ^"-^A St. i&N &»''* Sioux I irineajiol^is_ ^StTPaul I St. ^v II n u I -^ 1 1- Peter >\ \ ^ V =;' ( Sagina'' ' r^r a i A t; Lansing © dUy Km ilw_a^. eka S Scott — --i 0/3 Springfield ■' W^°/kent ^ \BowUi^9l''3i Aa'con\Y^e-ierM fi\«.VoSWtv\ 'V SECESSION AND THE CALL TO ARMS 425 natural and normal condition." The constitution drawn up for the Confederacy bore a close resemblance to the Consti- tution of the United States both in respect to the organization of the new Confederate government and to its powers. The constitution of the Confederacy, however, differed from the Constitution of the United States in the following impor- tant particulars: it forbade the importation of slaves from foreign countries ; it gave the President a term of six years but made him ineligible for reelection ; it provided that Con- gress could permit heads of departments to have seats upon the floor of either house, with the privilege of discuss- ing any measures affecting their several departments ; it forbade the enactment of a protective tariff. After the constitution of the Con- federacy was drawn up, a tempo- rary government was at once es- tablished. Jefferson Davis of Mis- sissippi was chosen President and A. H. Stephens of Georgia, Vice- President. On February 14 Davis was inaugurated with pomp and ceremony in Montgomery, the temporary capital. In his inau- gural address he said : " Doubly justified by the absence of v/rong on our part and by wanton ag- gression on the part of others, there can be no cause to doubt that the courage and patriotism of the people of the Confederate States will be found equal to any measure of defense which honor and security may re- quire." Davis promptly selected a cabinet and in a few days the new Confederate government was in full operation, doing the things that the government of a sovereign nation is accus- tomed to do. It was of ominous significance that the new government was especially active in preparing for the exi- gency of war. Jeiferson Davis. 4^6 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Buchan- an's Inactivity "Star of the West" 137. THE INACTIVITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT; EFFORTS AT COMPROMISE. While the men of the South were thus vigorously pushing forward with tiieir plans for secession, the government at Washington looked on as if stupefied and failed to raise a hand to check the movement which was tearing the country to pieces. Buchanan in his message to Congress (December i860) referred to secession as being neither more nor less than revolution, but it was a revolution that would have to run its course, for the federal government, in the opinion of the President, had no means of coercing a State : no State had a right to secede, but if a State should secede, there was no power to bring it back into the Union. " The message," said Seward in disgust, " shows conclusively that it is the duty of the President to execute the laws — unless some- body opposes him ; and that no State has a right to go out of the Union — unless it wants to." In this state of inde- cision and inactivity, Buchanan allowed the secessionists to seize the property and forts of the United States and to dis- regard the federal laws. By January i, 1861, South Carolina had actually taken possession of all the forts in Charleston harbor except Fort Sumter, which was held by federal troops under the command of Major Robert Anderson. Early in January Fort Sumter was in need of supplies and a merchant steamer, the Star of the West, was sent from New York to Charleston bearing men and provisions for the fort. As the steamer entered the harbor with the American flag flying, she was fired upon from masked batteries and compelled to turn back, for she was unarmed. Thus Buchanan's management of afifairs was so lacking in firmness that eflfectual aid could not be given to a fort that was in need of help. And this inactivity of the federal government was at a time (January 3) when only South Carolina had to be dealt with, for only she had as yet seceded. Buchanan was not altogether to blame for the weakness of the federal government, for if he had attempted to put SECESSION AND THE CALL TO ARMS 427 down secession with a strong hand he would doubtless have The . . . . , Critten- been blocked by the Congress which was in session and which den •^ . Compro- was largely under the influence of Southern leaders. The mise only solution Congress could offer for the difficulties con- fronting the country lay in the direction of compromise and concession. Many were the schemes of compromise that were brought forward, the most important being that offered (De- cember i860) by Senator Crittenden of Kentucky. Crit- tenden proposed to amend the Constitution in a way that would prohibit slavery north of parallel 36° 30', and permit it south of that line. The proposed compromise would have taken from the slaveholder his rights under the Dred Scott decision in so far as new States north of the Missouri Com- promise line were concerned, but it would have fortified him for all time in his rights south of that line. The Crittenden compromise was popular in the North, and opposi- it was quite generally believed that if it had been put to to the a popular vote it would have been sustained by an over- mise whelming majority. But many of the leaders in Congress, both among the Republicans and among the Democrats of the South, were opposed to compromise of any kind. Lin- coln also strongly opposed the Crittenden compromise. On February i, he wrote to Seward: "On the question of ex- tending slavery under the national auspices I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists or permits the ex- tension of this institution on soil owned by the nation." In taking this stand Lincoln was upholding the main plank in the platform of the party which elected him. If he had supported the Crittenden compromise it would in all prob- ability have been adopted by Congress and approved by the nation. But as it was, Crittenden's plan failed and with it perished all hope of compromise. Either the seceding States must be allowed to depart in peace or there must be war. 138. LINCOLN AND THE FORTS. Lincoln soon made it clear that if he was to have his way the seceding States would not be allowed to depart in peace. 428 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Lin- coln's First Inaugu- ral The Mean- ing of Lincoln's Speech In his inaugural address (March 4, 1861) he said: "No State upon its mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union ; resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void. . . . To the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Con- stitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union he faithfully executed (91) in all the States. In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and pos- sess the property and places belonging to the government and to collect the duties and imposts. . . . The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. . . . ( )ne section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the only substantial dispute. . . . Physically speaking, we cannot sepa- rate. ... In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." It was plain enough that these words could have been written only by a man whose heart was overflowing with kindness, but the country had yet to learn that the hand that wrote them was a hand of steel. There was no doul)t of the meaning of the address : it meant that Lincoln intended to execute the laws of the United States on the soil of the Confederate States ; that he would take possession of the Southern forts ; that he would collect the customs duties at Southern ports. He would do these things and if resistance were offered he would meet force with force. This was Abraham Lincoln. 430 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY what the country at large understood by the address. " We all put the same construction on the inaugural," said L. V. Washington, a Southern leader. " We agreed that it was Lincoln's purpose at once to attempt the collection of the reve- nue, to reenforce and hold Fort Sumter and Pickens, and retake the other places. He is a man of will and firmness. His cabinet will yield to him with alacrity, I think." Opinion The country soon witnessed a test of Lincoln's mettle. in re- ^ -^ gardto Fort Sumter was still held by federal troops, but the people Sumter of South Carolina desired the evacuation of the fort, for the flag that waved over it was now regarded by them as the emblem of a foreign nation and it was offensive to their eyes. Lincoln believed that the fort should not be evacuated, but that it should be furnished with supplies. Before taking action he consulted his cabinet.^ Five members of that body thought it would be unwise to hold the fort while only two were in favor of holding it. Among those who were in favor of evacuating the fort was the great and powerful Seward, who still hoped for conciliation and who thought that a quiet evacuation of Sumter would strengthen the Union sentiment in the South and would tend to restore peace. Many leading men in the country agreed with Seward. In the Senate, which was in extra session, Douglas on March 15 declared that peace was the only policy that could save the country or save the Republican party, and that the with- drawal of Major Anderson from Sumter was demanded by " duty, honor, patriotism, and humanity." But Lincoln was undeterred. He felt that if he surrendered Sumter he would surrender all. So he gave orders (April 6) to the army and navy to join forces and relieve Fort Sumter with men and provisions. 1 In choosing his cabinet Lincoln aimed to select men who would represent the different sections of the country. Seward was the Secretary of State; Chase (P- 397) the Secretary of the Treasury; Oideon Welles, of Connecticut, the Secre- tary of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, the Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, the Post-Master General; Edward Bates, of Missouri, the Attorney General; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, was for a while the Secretary of War, but he was soon replaced by Edwin M. Stanton, of Ohio. SECESSION AND THE CALL TO ARMS 431 But the relief of the fort was not achieved. When the The , Surrender government of the Confederate States heard of Lincoln s of the action, Davis and his cabinet decided to take the fort before the federal forces should arrive. In discussing the matter, Robert Toombs, a member of the Confederate Cabinet and a most fervent leader of the secessionists, said : " The fir- ing upon that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen. At this time it is suicide — mur- der — and would lose us every friend at the North. It is unnecessary ; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal." Nevertheless, Davis tele- graphed to Beauregard, an officer of the federal army who had joined the Con- federates, to demand the surrender of the fort and in case of refusal to open fire upon it and reduce it. On April 11, Beauregard made the demand, which was promptly refused. The next day firing began and as the fort had but sixty-four men and but little ammunition it could not offer effective resistance. So, on April 14, Fort Sumter was compelled to surrender. Al- thought there had been heavy firing, no life was lost on either side. IlKivANS I. Hat bor Ft.Moidtri — 7 Ft.Samter JAMEhJSLAND / ^^^jPt. Wagner A TLANTIC OCEAN '2T-sr'^^ ^ Charleston harbor. 139. PREPARATION FOR WAR: THE SECOND SECESSION. The firing on Fort Sumter made it certain that the South The , , . . , CaUto nitended to fight and it caused Lmcoln to prepare for a Armi bloody conflict. He could not rely upon the regular army to cope with the situation, for the federal troops mustered only about 18,000 men all told and they were so widely scattered over the country at the various army-posts that they were unavailable for instant use. Accordingly, the Pres- ident was compelled to summon the militia (92) to his aid. Response 432 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY As soon as the news of the bombardment of Sumter reached Washington, Lincoln telegr;.phed to the governors of the different States calling for militiamen to the number of 75,000 to aid in suppressing combinations of men in the South who were obstructing the execution of the laws of the United States. " I appeal,'' he said. " to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the in- tegrity and existence of our national honor and the per- petuity of popular government." The The effect of this call to arms was to cause men to take sides and decide whether they were for a Union consisting of all the States, the Union which Lincoln was trying to up- hold, or whether they were for letting the seceding States de])art in peace. For now all that the South asked was that it be allowed to withdraw in peace, that it be let alone. In the North the people rose almost as one man in support of the Union. The New York Times voiced Northern sentiment as follows: "The people will respond to this demand [for volunteers] with alacrity and exultation. They ask nothing better than to be allowed to fight for the Constitution which their fathers framed. Whatever may have been their jjolitical differences, there has never been a moment when they were not ready to sink them all in devotion to their common country and in defense of their national flag." The response came not only from native-born Americans but from foreigners who had only recently come to our shores. Out of the Eastern cities came the Irish who left their old home to escape fam- ine. Out of the West came the German immigrants of '48 (p. 359) who had left the Latherland to escape tyranny. The rush to arms was as prompt as it was universal. Massachu- setts was ready on the instant and within a day after the call was received, her Sixth Regiment mustered on Boston Com- mon and started for the scene of action. The popularity of Lincoln's action may be measured by the response ; in answer to the first call for 75.000 volunteers and to a subsequent call made a few weeks later for 40,000 more, there were by July I, in the field at the command of the government. 3io,cxx:) men. SECESSION AND THE CALL TO ARMS 433 At the time of the tirinsj on Sumter, seven slave States, The . ,^ . Second Delav^are, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolma, Tennessee, secession Kentucky, and Arkansas, were wavering between loyalty to the secession movement and loyalty to the Union. But the clash at the fort and the call for troops made it necessary for every State to decide whether it was for Union or disunion. Delaware quite promptly decided for the Union. Maryland hesitated and at one time seemed to be on the brink of se- cession, but at last she decided that a State had no right to withdraw from the Union. Kentucky remained in the Union, although she tried to pursue a course of neutrality. Mis- souri decided against secession some weeks before the call for troops and she remained loyal to the Union throughout, her death-roll in the Union army being as great as the death- roll of Massachusetts. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded and were admitted into the Confed- eracy. After the secession of Mrginia, Richmond was made the capital of the Confederacy. 140. THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. Lincoln's call for the troops was regarded in the South as a declaration of war. Accordingly, on May 6, 1861, the Confederate Congress passed an act recognizing the existence of war between the United States and the Confederate States. So, in less than a month after the firing upon Sumter the Union and the Confederacy were facing each other in battle array. What was the relative strength of the two contestants? In what respect was the outlook favorable to the North, and in what respect was it favorable to the South? In point of numbers the odds were all with the North. The Numbers twenty-two States that remained with the Union had a popula- tion of 22,000,000 ; the population of the seceding States was 5,500,000 whites and 3,500,000 blacks. The military popula- tion of the North was about 4,600,000; that of the South was about 1,150,000. Also in point of wealth and resources the North was far ahead of the South. The total value of all real and personal property in the South in i860 was about 434 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Wealth and Resources The Trans- portation System The Task of the South $5,000,000,000; in the North the value of these two kinds of property was nearly $11,000,000,000. Especially did the North surpass the South in the manufacturing industries The total value of Northern manufactures in i860 was $1,730,000,000, while the manufactures of the South were valued at only $155,000,000, the proportion being about eleven to one in favor of the North. In the manufacture of iron, the indispensable article of war, the South had made no prog- ress at all. Here the advantage of the North was very great, for it had in abundance the shops in which the weapons of war could be fashioned. If the South was to be properly sup- plied with the munitions of war it would have to buy them from abroad. This it hoped to be able to do by selling its cotton and tobacco to England and to other foreign countries. In the production of grain and meat and many other kinds of food-supplies the North was infinitely richer than the South. The transportation system of the country was also favor- able to the North. The net-work of railroads in the Northern States made it possible to mobilize troops quickly and place them at strategic points : at Washington, at Wheeling, at Cin- cinnati, at St. Louis. In the South railroads were compara- tively few in number and their assistance in the movement of troops could not be as great as that rendered by Northern railroads. Then the trunk lines built in the fifties vvere of incalculable value to the Union cause, for by means of these the channels of trade between the East and West could be kept open. The South could close the Mississippi but there would still be the railroads to carry the produce of the Western farmer to the seaboard and to act as bands of iron for holding the Western country in the Union. So important was the service rendered by the trunk lines during the war that many believe that the Union was saved by the railroads. In one important respect the outlook was favorable to the South: its task was much lighter than the task lai:5 out for itself by the North. For. what had the men of the North set out to do? They had undertaken to save the Union, to main- SECESSION AND THE CALL TO ARMS 435 tain the integrity of the nation. To do this they would have to subdue the wills of five and one-half millions of strong and determined people and they would have to conquer and crush piece by piece a country five times as large as France. It was an offensive warfare that the North had to wage. And what was the task of the South? Simply to preserve the independ- ence of the Confederate States. To do this the South had only to defend itself against attack and invasion. It was not compelled to go forth and conquer: it could win without conquering a single foot of territory ; all it had to do was to hold its ground. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Secession: Hart IV, 169-178; McMaster VIIi, 510, 521; Davis 1, 71, 168-170; Chadvvick, 126-150; Wilson, 239-244; Rhodes III, 114- 145- 2. Compromise : Chadwick, 166-183; McMaster VIII, 511-514; Rhodes HI, 150-170, 253-269, 310-312. 3. The Confederate States of America: Hart IV, 189-192; Chad- wick, 47-264; Rhodes III, 291-320; Wilson, 249-251; Davis I, 229-241. 4. The Forts: McMaster VIII, 493-509; Hitchcock, 252-272; Rhodes III, 325-359; Chadwick, 184-246; Halsey VIII, 58-67; Davis I, 269-288. 5. The call to arms: Hart IV, 221-224; Rhodes III, 368-404, Ropes I, 90-97- 6. Bull Run: Rhodes HI, 443-453; Ropes I, 121-156; Davis I, 356- 360. 7. What prevented the secession of Maryland? Characterize Lin- coln, Seward, Stanton, Chase, and Welles: Halsey VIII, 35-43. Was the South well prepared for war? State the grievances of the South from the Southern standpoint. Read in class a passage from the speech made by Davis upon withdrawing from the Senate : Harding, 364-369. To what extent was there opposition in the North to Lin- coln's course? Did Lincoln's course precipitate the war? What mo- tives led England to support the North? Was slavery the sole cause of the war? Was secession a popular movement? Give an account of Lincoln's journey to Washington. Tell the story of the Peace Con- vention. Read in class " Dixie." Read in class Bryant's " Our Country's Call." Give an account of how Lincoln made up his cabinet : (Halsey VIII, 18-27). 436 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY 8. Union Troops. The whole number of troops furnished during the entire period of the Civil War to the Union armies by each of the several States and Territories is shown in the following table : Alabama 2,576 Mississippi 545 Arkansas 8,289 California I5>725 Colorado 4,9^3 Connecticut 5J,937 Dakota 206 Delaware 11,230 District of Columbia 11,912 Florida 1,290 Illinois 255,037 Indiana 193.748 Iowa 75,797 Kansas 18,069 Kentucky 5i,743 Louisiana 5,324 Maine 64,973 Maryland 33,995 Massachusetts 122,785 Michigan 85,479 Minnesota 23,913 Missouri 100,616 Nebraska 3,i57 Nevada i ,080 New Hampshire 32,930 New Jersey 67,500 New Mexico 6,561 New York 409,561 Ohio 304,814 Oregon 1,810 Pennsylvania 315,017 Rhode Island 19,321 Tennessee 31,092 Texas 1,965 Vermont 3^,540 Washington 964 West Virginia 31,872 Wisconsin 91,029 Total . 2,494,592 9. Special Reading. J. K. Hosmer, The Appeal to Anus. J. W. Bur- gess, Civil War and the Constitution, Vol. I. J. C. Reed, Brothers' War. Alexander Stephens, The War Bctivcen the States. Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Tall of the Confederate Government, Vol. 1. XXXVIII THE CIVIL WAR The war which began with the firing on Sumter, on April 12, 1861, was not brought to an end until April 26, 1865. What was the history of those four long years of civil strife? What great questions, for- eign and domestic, did the war bring to the front? What were the leading military operations of the war? Who were its great leaders and what great battles were fought ? 141. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WAR: 1861. The first loss of life in the Civil War occurred in the city Baiti- more of Baltimore. On April 19, 1861, while the Sixth Massachu- setts Regiment (p. 432) was passing through the streets of Baltimore on its way to Washington, it was attacked by a crowd of secessionists, and several soldiers and a number of citizens were killed. The first skirmish between organized troops occurred in y®^^ what is now West Virginia. Less than four per cent, of the population of the trans-Alleghany counties of Virginia were slaves. The young men of western Virginia were sent to schools in free States. The products of the region were borne to market on rivers that flowed through Pittsburgh or to towns in the Mississippi Valley. The faces of the people in the western counties, therefore, were turned to the West and to the North rather than to the South. So when Vir- ginia seceded from the Union (April 17, 1861) the people beyond the Alleghany mountains refused to go out with her. They took steps at once to secede from the seceder and to form a government of their own. In order to check this move- ment, Confederate troops were hurried into western Vir- ginia. Union troops under General G. B. McClellan were on the ground and on June 3 there was a skirmish at Philippi 437 4.5S ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Manassas Wilson's Creek between the two armies.' The Confederate troops were routed, but the loss on both sides was small. The first real battle of the Civil War was fought near Manas- sas, about thirty miles southwest of Washington. Lincoln's call for troops quickly brought a large army to Washington and to the eastern part of Virginia, and by the middle of the summer it was determined to move a portion of this army against Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. On July 1 6 the Union general, McDowell, marched out of Wash- ington with about 30,000 men to give battle to the Confed- erate generals, Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston, who were stationed near Manassas along the stream of Bull Run with about 22,000 men. On July 21 the two armies met in battle and the Union army was disastrously defeated. The Union troops retreated and the retreat did not stop until many of the soldiers were within the fortifications at Washington. The retreat was not due to cowardice but to a lack of train- ing and to poor organization. Nevertheless, the defeat of the army at Bull Run caused the people of the North to sufi'er keen humiliation. Next to the battle of Bull Run, the severest engagement in 1 86 1 was at Wilson's Creek in Missouri. Although Missouri refused to secede (p. 433) there were, nevertheless, a great many secessionists in the State, and the secession movement was not put down without a sharp struggle. An army in sym- pathy with the Confederate cause was organized and by August there was a force of 10,000 men assembled under General Price at Wilson's Creek ready for battle. On August 19, Price was attacked by the Union general, Nathaniel Lyon, who had only 6,000 men. Lyon was killed in the battle, and as soon as their leader fell the Union soldiers became discouraged and retreated. The loss in life on the LTnion side was about the same as that on the side of the Confederates. 1 The people of western Virginia carried forward their plan of sciiaration. On June II, 1861, delegates from forty western counties met at W^heeling and organized a new State which in 1863 was admitted as the State of West X'irginia. THE CIVIL WAR 439 142. THE BLOCKADE; THE TRENT AFFAIR. As soon as Lincoln saw there was going to be a war, he The issued (April 19, 1861) a proclamation declaring a blockade of audits the ports of the seven States which had then seceded, and an- nounced that if any vessel should approach or attempt to leave any port of these States it would first be warned and if after warning it should again attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port it would be captured and treated as a prize of war. The purpose of the blockade was to prevent the South from sell- ing its cotton and tobacco to the countries of Europe and receiving in exchange guns, ammunition, and other military supplies. At first the blockade was ineft'ective, for at the outset the navy which was to maintain the blockade con- sisted of only ninety vessels, whereas the seacoast to be con- trolled contained nearly two hundred harbors and was more than three thousand miles in length. Congress,^ however, supported Lincoln in his effort to strengthen the navy and to render the blockade effective, and in less than a year after the blockading of the ports began, the coast was so well guarded that only the swiftest and boldest craft would risk the danger of breaking through the line. Considered as a war measure, the blockade was a success, The for it struck a deadly blow at the trade of the South. But of the 1 1 ti 1 r r • • • Blockade smce it also struck a blow at the trade of foreign nations it upon . . ^. . . , Foreign was unfortunate m its eirects upon our international relations. Nations It was the policy of Lincoln to regard the disturbance in the South not as a war, — Congress at no time formally de- clared war against the Confederacy — but as a mere insur- rection, an uprising which he could suppress by the arm of the militia, for Congress had given the President the power to use the militia in suppressing insurrections (59). But when Lincoln announced the blockade he virtually admitted that he was waging a war with the South, for in the eyes of inter- 1 Congress was summoned by Lincoln to meet in special session on July 4, 1861. It legalized all that Lincoln had done in respect to the army and navy; it gave the President authority to call for 500,000 more soldiers to serve for a period of three years; and it appropriated $500,000,000 for the support of the troops. 440 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY national law no blockade is Icijal unless there is war. This was the view taken by (ireat i'.rilain and France, and after the blockade was declared the governments of these two na- tions recognized the Confederate States as belligerents and proclaimed themselves neutral nations. England was only too willing to grant belligerents' rights to the South, for she wished to keep on friendly terms with the Southern people. More than half of the cotton raised in the South went to the spindles of British factories, and the great manufactur- ing cities of England were almost wholly dependent upon the supply of Southern cotton. But in the United States the action of England in recognizing the Confederacy as a belligerent was taken as an evidence of unfriendliness. The The unfriendly feeling caused by England's proclamation Affair of neutrality was intensified by an incident known as the Trent Affair. On November 8, 1861, the San Jacinto, an American man-of-war commanded by Captain Wilkes, over- hauled in the Bermuda Channel the British Mail-steamship Trent and took from her by force James Mason and John Slidell, who had been commissioned by the Confederate gov- ernment to represent its interests in England and France. The commissioners were carried to Fort Warren in Boston harbor and imprisoned. The English government at once demanded the liberation of Mason and Slidell, on the ground that Great Britain was a neutral power. In making this demand Eng- land was only insisting upon a principle which the United States itself had always strongly insisted upon, namely, that a neutral power should not be subjected to the right of search (p. 263). Seward, the Secretary of State, acceded to the English demand. " If I decide this case," said he, " in favor of my own government, I must disallow its most cherished prin- ciples and reverse and forever abandon its essential policy. . . . We are asked to do to the r)ritish nation just what we have always insisted all nations ought to do to us." Mason and Slidell were accordingly released, placed on an English vessel and taken to England. It was not pleasant to yield in this manner but it was highly THE CIVIL WAR 441 important to avoid a breach with Enj^land, for if the United The .,,.., . . . . IT- Attitude States had msisted on rctammg the commissioners, the ling- of England lish government would doubtless have retaliated by recogniz- ing the independence of the Confederacy. And England might have gone further and broken the blockade and renewed her trade with the South. It was to her interest to do this for her mills needed cotton, which could be secured only at Southern ports. But the English government resisted the temptation of recognizing the independence of the Confed- erate States and as far as outward forms were concerned, maintained friendly relations with the United States through- out the war. In doing so it acted in harmony with the main current of English sentiment. The governing classes in England were inclined to favor the South, but the working classes for the most part sympathized with the North. They felt that the contest in America was between free labor and slave labor and they wanted the North to win even though British factories should close and British workmen should be idle. 143- ORGANIZATION AND PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By the middle of the summer of 1861 it was plain to the Mcciei- . lan's mind of Lincoln that the raw regiments that were flock- work of . . . Organiza mg into Washington must be drilled and trained for fighting, uon Accordingly, he set about making radical changes in the or- ganization of the army. After the rout at Bull Run he sum- moned McClellan from West Virginia and placed him in command of all the forces in and around Washington. McClellan soon showed that he was just the man whom the oc- casion required. Pie was highly trained himself and he knew how to train others. He could win the love of soldiers and at the same time hold them under the strictest discipline. When he came to Washington he found the city infested with swarms of military loafers. The little Napoleon, as McClellan was called, quickly set officers and men to work, drilling and in other ways preparing for actual warfare. By the last of Oc- tober he had a well-drilled, well-organized, and well-equipped 41-' ADVANCKl) AMi-.KlCAK lllSTOin' The Opposing Forces at the Com- mence- ment Of 1862 army of 150,000 men. As a reward for his ^crv■ices McClel- lan was made (November i, 1861) the commander of all the armies of the United States. People in the North thought McClellan ought to lead his magnificent army promptly against Richmond, but McClellan held his forces in check, and al- lowed the year (1861) to pass without any advance upon Richmond. Although there was but little fighting in 1861 the work of preparation during the year was very great on both sides. At the commencement of 1862 the organized forces of the Union army consisted of nearly 500,000 men and the Union navv numbered more than 200 armed vessels. Of the land Territory held by the Confederates at the close of 1861. forces, about 15,000 were at Fortress Monroe; about 200,000 were stationed in the vicinity of Washington ; about 20,000 were in western Virginia ; about 100,000 were at Louisville ; about 100,000 were at St. Louis, and at Cairo, Illinois ; about 20,000 were on the extreme Western Frontier. The organized forces of the Confederate army at the commencement of 1862 were not far from 250,000 men. Of these about 175,000 were in eastern Virginia; about 30,000 were in Kentucky at Co- THE CIVIL WAR 445 lumbus, Fort Donelson, and Fort Henry ; about 20,000 were in Tennessee, at Nashville and Chattanooga ; and a consid- erable number were holding the Mississippi, being stationed at New Orleans, Natchez, Vicksburg, and Memphis. The year 1861 had been spent in preparation. When the ^*°°°^ year 1862 opened, Lincoln believed that the time had come aoenerai for action. On the 27th of January, as the commander-in- ment chief of the army and navy (92), he issued the following stir- Troops ring order : Ordered: That the 22 day of February 1862, be the day for a general movement of the land and naval forces of the United States against the insurgent forces. That especially The Army at and about Fortress Monroe, The Army of the Potomac [at Washington under McClellan], The Army of western Virginia, The Army near Mumfordsville [near Louisville] Kentucky, The Army and Flotilla ^ at Cairo, And a Naval Force in the Gulf of Mexico be ready for a movement on that day. That all other forces ... be ready to obey additional orders when duly given. That the Heads of Departments with all the subordinates and the General-in-Chief with all other commanders and subordinates of the land and naval forces will severally be held to their strict and full responsibilities for the prompt execution of this order." How were these great armies to be employed? What was The the plan of the campaign which was to be directed against cam- the South? During 1861 the Union troops had moved against the enemy in an irregular, haphazard fashion, but by the beginning of 1862 Lincoln and his advisers determined that the Union forces must undertake in a systematic manner the accomplishment of four things : ( i ) They must cap- ture Richmond; (2) they must keep the blockade effective so as not to let the South get any supplies from abroad; (3) they must gain possession of the Mississippi River so as to 1 The flotilla consisted of river craft armed and equipped as gunboats. 444 ADVANCED AMKRTCAN HISTORY give the Western peo|)lc an outlet to the ocean, and at the same time cut the Confederacy into two parts; (4) they must press upon the Confederate Hues, driving them back further and further, until all the territory of the seceding States should be under the control of the federal power. Forts Henry and Donel- sou General Grant 144. THE WAR IN THE WEST: 1862. The energetic movement of the armies in the West began even before the date assigned in Lincoln's order. In February. Commodore Foote with a flotilla of gunboats moved up the Tennessee River and captured Fort Flenry (February 6). Foote now returned with his gunboats to the Ohio and ascended the Cumberland to attack Fort Donelson by water, while General U. S. Grant was to attack it by land. The gun- boats were driven back, but Grant with an army of 30,000 men pressed hard upon the fort and after three days of fighting compelled it to surrender (February 16), capturing about 15,000 Confederate soldiers. The capture of these two forts was an event of the greatest importance for it gave to the Union forces the control of two waterways which led far into the South, and it wrested from the Confederacy the whole of Kentucky and a large part of Tennessee. The man who achieved the vic- tory of Fort Donelson was at the time wholly unknown to the Amer- ican pco])le. Like most of the lead- ers in the Civil War, whether Union or Confederate, Grant had graduated at West Point and like many of them (p. 354) he had served in the Mexican War. After that war was over he served at various military posts until 1854, when he retired from the army and undertook to conduct a real estate business in St. Louis. Failing in this, in i860 General Ulysses S. Grant. THE CIVIL WAR 445 he took a clerkship in his father's leather business at Galena, Illinois, where he remained till the outbreak of the Civil War. Up to this time Grant's life in its outward aspects, at least, had been a failure; he had allowed his great faculties to fall into disuse and ambition seemed to have faded from his nature. But when Lincoln called for soldiers Grant was aroused to action. He drilled a body of volunteers and wrote to the Adjutant-General at Washington, offering his services to the Union army. But he was too obscure a personage to secure consideration ; he did not receive even a reply to his letter. Nevertheless, in June 1861, he was successful in securing an appointment as colonel of an Illinois regiment; in August he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers ; in September he was made commander of the Union forces in southeastern Missouri. He now moved upward from one position to another until he became the central figure of the war. Grant was short in stature, round-shouldered and not at all striking in personal appearance. " He has rough, light-brown whiskers," said an observer, " blue eyes and a rather scrubby look withal. . . . But his face is firm and hard and his eye is clear and resolute." Upon the field of battle Grant's physical courage was marvelous even in the opinion of the bravest. Throughout rattling musketry fire he would sit in his saddle without moving a muscle or winking an eye, quiet, thoughtful, imperturbable. His great qualities as a general were manifested in the directness of his movements and in the perseverance of his actions. He went straight against the enemy to crush him and he fought on and on, hammering away until the victory was complete. After the fall of Fort Donelson the Confederate troops shiioh moved south to Corinth, a railroad center in northern Missis- sippi. Here a large army was collected under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston, one of the ablest and bravest of the Southern generals. The Union army, after its success at Don- elson. was led by Grant up the Tennessee to Pittsburgh Land- ing near Shiloh Church, where Grant expected to be joined by Buell, who was moving south with the army that had 446 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY been stationed at Louisville. But before Buell arrived John- ston suddenly attacked (April 6) the Union army and on the first day of the battle drove Grant from his position. About sundown, however, the advance forces of Buell oegan to arrive and during the night four divisions of his army reached the field. The next morning the battle was renewed and there was hard fighting on both sides, but after the arrival of The war in the West. Buell's army the Confederates were greatly outnumbered and were compelled to retire. On the first day of the battle Johnston was killed. He was succeeded by Beauregard, who led his forces back to Corinth. But he was unable to hold this position, for General Halleck, then commander of all the armies in the West, pressed upon Corinth (May 30) and compelled the Confederates to move farther south.^ 1 After Shiloh it was several months before there was any more desperate fight- ing in the West between th.; land forces. In the fall, however, Kentucky was raided by the Confederate general, Bragg, who moved northward until he was met THE CIVIL WAR 447 Stonewall Jackson. While llic forces of Grant and Halleck were pushinor back opening ' ^ of the the Confederate Hnes in the States of !\entuckv, Tennessee, Missis- sippi and Mississippi, other I'ninn forces were gaining control of the Mississippi River. On April 7, Foote with his gunboats and Gen- eral Pope with a land force took possession of Island Number 10. Two months later the Confederates abandoned Fort Pillow and Mem- phis, and this left the Union forces m control of the Upper Missis- sippi as far south as Vicksburg. In the meantime, Admiral Farra- gut was gaining control of the Lower Mississippi. In April, Far- ragut entered the mouth of the river with a great fleet, forced his way past Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, and captured New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The Union forces now had full control of the Mississippi, ex- cepting the stretch between Vicksburg and Port Hudson. 145- THE WAR IN THE EAST: MARCH 1862-MAY 1863. While the Union forces in the West in 1862 met with many Mcciei- successes, in the East they met with many failures. The year prepares opened with McClellan still inactive. The Potomac River was Against blockaded by the Confederates, and the Confederate flag floated mond on a nill in sight of W^ashington. General Joseph E. Johnston was close by at Manassas with a force of 50,000. McClellan had 150,000 men ready for duty, but he would not move upon Manassas because he was informed that Johnston's force was superior to his own. At last, on January 31 Lincoln took mat- ters in hand and issued to McClellan a peremptory order to move against Johnston not later than February 22, the date by Buell near Perryville (October 8) and driven back into Tennessee. On the last day of the year Bragg, while in winter-quarters at Murfreesboro, was attacked by the Union general, Rosecrans. After a fierce struggle the Confederate troops withdrew from the field, although it would hardly be correct to say they were defeated. 448 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY assigned for the general movement. But McClellan planned for a campaign that would not take him to Manassas: he de- sired to move down the Potomac, up the Rappahannock, across to the York River and thence to Richmond. To this plan Lincoln gave his consent. Just as McClellan was preparing to move, there occurred one The of the most interesting naval ^ events of the war. On March Ind tSr'' 8 the Confederate ironclad Merrimac suddenly moved out from m^-'"' Norfolk and attacked the Union fleet in Hampton Roads, sink- ing the wooden frigate Cumberland and capturing and destroy- ing the wooden frigate Congress. The next day the Merrimac went forth to renew its work of destruction but it was foiled by the Monitor, a low-decked, iron-clad vessel with a revolving turret carrying heavy guns. The Monitor had been sent down hurriedly from New York and upon her arrival in Hampton Roads she at once gave battle to the Confederate ram. The fight was now between two ironclads and it was a gallant struggle on both sides. Neither vessel won a decided victory but the Merrimac was prevented from doing further mischief to the Union navy.- 1 Naval warfare.— Since the Confederacy had no navy worthy of the name, the naval operations of the Civil War were not of great importance. Nevertheless, the South managed to inflict great injury upon the commerce of the North. She purchased abroad a small fleet of armed cruisers and sent them roving about the seas to capture American merchant ships wherever found. The most famous of these commerce-destroyers was the Alabama, commanded by Raphael Semmes. This vessel was built in England and fitted out at British ports with the full knowledge of the English government, although not with its official sanction. She was manned by English sailors, but was commanded by Confederate officers. The Alabama, sailing from England in the summer of 1862, cruised in the Atlantic ocean for two years and captured sixty-six merchant vessels. In June 1864, she was sunk off Cherbourg (France) by the American man-of-war Kear- sarge commanded by John A. Winslow. The Shenandoah was another famous comm'erce-destroyer. She was purchased in England and armed with guns deliv- ered to her by a British ship at a barren island near Madeira. She cruised^ in the Pacific and destroyed thirty-eight vessels before the end of the Civi. War. Our merchant marine, which was so flourishing in the fifties (p. 415). was almost swept from the seas by the commerce-destroyers of the Confederacy. After the war Great Britain was asked to pay damages for the injuries inflicted by the Alabama, and in 1871 a board of arbitration met at Geneva to settle the "Alabama Claims." The board made an award of $15,500,000. to be distributed among those whose ships and property had been destroyed. This finding of the board is known as the Geneva Award. -The events in Hampton Roads during these two days marked the beginning of a new era in naval architecture. The day of the wooden war-vessel was past THE CIVIL WAR 449 On March 17, 1862 McClellan began his long delayed ad- Fair vance upon Richmond. He took his army by water to For- tress Monroe and from this place he marched his troops up the Peninsula which lies between the York and James Rivers. At Williamsburg he came up with the Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston and gave them battle, but at night Johnston slipped away. McClellan followed to Fair Oaks, where he was at- tacked (May 31) by the Confederates who on the first day of The " Merrimac " ramming the " Cumberland." the battle were successful but on the second day were defeated. In the battle Johnston was wounded and Robert E. Lee was General appointed in his place. At the outbreak of the war, Lee, like many of the Confederate officers, was in the service of the Union army. His talents were recognized in military circles and the chief command of the Union forces was practically offered to him. But he refused the offer. He did not favor the secession movement when it was in its incipient stages, for in January 1861 he declared that secession was nothing less than revolution. But a few months later when his native State and the day of the ironclad had come. " The oak-ribbed and white-winged navies, whose dominion had been so long and picturesque, at last and forever gave way to steel and steam." 450 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Jackson in the Shenan- doah Valley The Seven Days' Battle Robert E. Lee. seceded he cast his lot with the Confederacy. " With all my devotion to the Union," he said, " and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home." Lee ])roved to be a tower of strength to the Confederate cause. His talent for organization was equal to that of McClellan. He not only managed the Southern forces with consummate skill and ability but he won the confidence of the Southern people. " Inspired by his example," says Charles Francis Adams, '' the whole South seemed to lean up against him in im])licit, loving reliance." McClellan in his movements against Richmond expected to be assisted by McDowell who had an army of 40,000 men. But the movements of " Stonewall " Jackson in the Shenan- doah Valley prevented most of McDowell's men from joining with McClellan. Jackson, with 15,000 men, rushed down the Valley, cleared it of Union troops and marched his army so close to Washington that Lincoln thought it prudent to recall McDowell to protect the capital. Jackson, after his brilliant movements in the Valley, joined Lee in the defense of Richmond. On June 25 fighting be- tween the two armies began at Mcchanicsville and continued in the neighborhood of Richmond for seven days. In this long battle — the Seven Days' battle — the Confederates lost 10,000 men, and the Union army 16,000. The victory — if there was a victory at all — was on the side of the Confederates, for they checked the advance of the Union army and thus saved their capital. On July 23 Halleck (p. 446) was appointed general- in-chief of all the armies of the United States and on August 23 he ordered McClellan to withdraw the Union forces to the vicinity of Washington. McClellan protested, but in vain. The THE CIVIL WAR 451 army was withdrawn and the ill-starred Peninsular campaign was brought to an end. " Thousands upon thousands of the flower of American manhood had sickened and died in the malarial swamps of the Chickahominy and thousands more had watered with their blood the fields about Richmond, and all to no purpose." About the time McClellan was withdrawing from the Penin- Second ° Battle sula, Lincoln placed Pope (p. 447) at the head of a newly of ...... „ Manassas organized force known as the Army of Virgmia. Pope met (August 29-30) Lee on the old battle-field of Manassas and General McClellan passing the firing line, Sept. 17th, 1862. was defeated. At his own request he was removed from com- mand, and his army was added to the Army of the Potomac. After his victory at Manassas, Lee crossed the Potomac and marched into Maryland hoping to rally the people of that State to the Confederate cause. McClellan followed and a great battle was fought (September 17) at Antietam Creek. The Antietam losses on both sides were enormous, but the loss of the Confed- erates was heavier. Lee recrossed the Potomac, but McClellan failed to pursue him. Because he did not follow up his vic- tory he was removed and his command was given to Burnside. But it was an unfortunate change, for Burnside was a poor 452 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Freder- icksburg Results of the Fight- ing in 1862 fighter. He attacked the Confederates under Lec^ (December 13) at Fredericksburg and was defeated with terrible slaughter. Burnside was soon removed and General Hooker — " fighting Joe Hooker " — was appointed in his place. The battle of Fredericksburg marked the close of the fighting in 1862. What had been accomplished during the year? To what extent had the plan of campaign been carried out? The capture of Richmond had not been achieved ; the Confederate capital was as secure at the end of the year as it was at the be- ginning. The blockade, however, had been maintained with increasing effectiveness. Great progress, too, had been made Territory held by the Confederates at the close of 1862. in the task of opening the Mississippi, for the Union forces had gained possession of the river throughout its entire length, ex- cepting the stretch between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. In the matter of driving back the Confederate lines and gaining possession of the Confederate territory, the Union forces had been highly successful. At the opening of the year 1862 the Confederates occupied a portion of western Virginia, half of Kentucky, half of Missouri, and all the eleven States of the Confederacy. At the close of 1862, all western Virginia, all THE CIVIL WAR 453 Missouri, all Kentucky, the greater part of Tennessee, half of Arkansas, and portions of Mississippi and Louisiana were in the possession of the Union forces. In the matter of fighting, of battles lost and won, the Union forces were for the most part successful in the West, while the Confederates were for the most part successful in the East. 146. EMANCIPATION. On the first day of 1863 Lincoln issued a proclamation eman- The cipating all persons held as slaves within the Confederate lines, limi- This blow at the South was not given without warning. When Emanci . ... pation Lee was invading Maryland, Lmcoln " made a promise to hmi- Procia- ° -^ I'll mation self and his Maker " that if the Confederates were driven back he would issue a proclamation of emancipation. Accordingly, five days after Lee was defeated at Antietam, Lincoln gave out (September 22) a preliminary proclamation which declared that on the first of January 1863 all " persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever, free ; and the execu- tive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, shall recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons." Lincoln had no authority under the Constitution or under Lincoln's the law to emancipate a single slave and did not pretend to for have.^ He regarded the proclamation as a fit and necessary the war measure. " The slaves were working on the farms and tion raising the food for the Confederate soldiers ; they were serving as teamsters in the Confederate army ; they were helping to throw up entrenchments for the Confederate de- fense." As a movement in the game of war, therefore, Lin- coln determined to deprive the masters of their slaves. The blow was struck for the Union rather than for the slaves. " My paramount object in this struggle," he said, " is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If 1 In 1862 Lincoln tried to secure the emancipation of the slaves in the border -States by compensating the masters, but he failed in the undertaking. 454 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Recep- tion of the Proclama- tion in the North The Final Proclama- tion The Eecep- tion of the Proclama- tion In the South I could save the Union without freeing any shive, I would do it; and if 1 could save it by freeing all the slaves, 1 would do it; and if 1 could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union.'' In the North the proclamation met with a rather luke-warm reception. " It [the preliminary proclamation] is six days old,"' said Lincoln on September 28, " and while the commenda- tion in newspapers and by distinguished individuals is all that a vain man could wish, the stocks have declined and troops come forward more slowly this year. This, looked soberly in the face, is not very satisfactory." The fall elections of 1862 must have been peculiarly discouraging to Lincoln, for the Democrats made great gains and the Republicans were barely successful in retaining the control of the House. Yet Lincoln held firm to his purpose. When January i, 1863 arrived the final proclamation was issued, for the Confederate States showed not the slightest sign of submission. After designating the States and parts of States in which the slaves were to be set free, the proclamation read : " And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence unless in necessary self-defense ; and I recommend to them that in all cases when allowed they labor faithfully for reasonable wages." The proclamation did not api)ly to the slave States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, or Missouri, for they were still loyal to the Union. Nor did it apply to the western part of Virginia or to certain designated parts of the Confederacy which were under the control of Union troops. In the parts excepted slavery was to remain undisturbed just as if the proclamation had not been issued. In the South the proclamation gave force to the argument that Lincoln was the abolitionist that the South had always contended he was, and that the war was only a crusade against slavery. The proclamation created consternation in the South, but it did little to change the course of events there, unless it was to incite the people to a more strenuous resist- THE CIVIL WAR 455 ance. President Davis in a message to the Confederate Con- gress declared (January 12) that the proclamation " encour- aged slaves to a general assassination of their masters." But there was no uprising. On the contrary, the slaves continued to display the usual fidelity to their masters. The proclama- tion, however, did have the effect of making the slaves the friends of the North and at the close of 1863 Lincoln an- nounced in his annual message that about 50,000 former slaves -''ere fighting in the ranks of the Union army. Pickett's charge, at Gettysburg. 45^> ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Chancel- lorsville Gettys- burg 147. THE WAR IN 1863. At the time the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, a deep gloom overspread the North because of the awful dis- aster at Fredericksburg. But the gloom of the North was presently to become deeper. On May i, Hooker with a well- organized and well-disciplined army of about 100,000 men ad- vanced upon Lee and Jackson who were then at Chancellors- ville, Virginia, with 60,000 men. But through the tactics of the Confederate generals the Union forces were defeated even SUtute Milea The war in the East. more disastrously than they had been at Fredericksburg. When the news of Chancellorsville reached the North, discour- agement was written on every brow, for it seemed that the South would never be conquered. But it was not long before the hopes of the North began to revive. After his great victory at Chancellorsville, Lee again crossed the Potomac. This time he led his army through Maryland into Pennsylvania, advancing as far as Chambers- burg and Carlisle, and even shaking the houses of Harrisburg THE CIVIL WAR 457 with the roar of his cannon. The Army of the Potomac, now under the Command of General Meade, was hurried north to check the Confederate advance. The two armies met near the town of Gettysburg on July i, and there followed the greatest battle of the Civil War. The fighting continued for three days and in the stubborn and bloody battle the Union army lost in killed and wounded and missing 23,000 out of 93,500 men, while the Confederates lost 20,500 out of 70,000. Lee led his army back into Virginia where he remained un- disturbed until the spring of 1864. Coincident with the victory at Gettysburg came another vicka- great Union victory at Vicksburg. In the fall of 1862 General Grant set out to capture Vicksburg and by May 1863 had invested the city with fortifications and with a large army. For weeks he stormed the place with shot and shell, by day and by night. But the city would not surrender. *' When the last pound of beef, bacon, and flour," said General Pemberton who commanded the forces within the city, " the last grain of corn, the last cow and hog and horse and dog shall have been consumed, and the last man shall have perished in the trenches, then, and only then, will I sell Vicksburg." At last when food was gone and further resistance seemed useless, Vicks- burg surrendered and 30,000 Confederate soldiers were made prisoners of war. The surrender occurred July 4, only a day after the Confederates were turned back at Gettysburg. On July 9, Port Hudson fell and one of the great purposes of the Union plan of campaign was accomplished : the Mississippi was opened throughout its entire length. But there was another great highway of trade and travel to chatta- be opened. This extended southeast from Chattanooga, the chief railway center of the South, to Atlanta and thence to the sea. In September 1863, Chattanooga fell into the I hands of the Union forces,^ but it was quickly surrounded , by Confederate troops and the beleaguered Union army was 1 On September 8 Bragg was driven from Chattanooga by General Rosecrans. Bragg took his position close by in Chickamauga, where there was fought (Sep- i!ember 21-22) a fierce battle which would doubtless have ended in the defeat of 458 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Gran; Com- mand threatened with starvation. Before it was too late fresh forces arrived upon the scene and under the leadership of Grant the strategic position of Lookout Mountain was cap- tured. Chattanooga was relieved, and by the end of Novem- ber the Union power was firmly established in the city and in the region round about. Chattanooga now became a doorway through which Union troops from the West might pour into Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia. Congress was so highly pleased by the victory at Chat- tanooga that it revived the military title of lieutenant-general 1^ — _y^ ' -^^ ^ \J ^ '•' '^^' ' '-^'•^■' -^■->-- / ^^V. I 1^ ] iNEBR. TER X"^- 'V* r^CMois'^ ;Cle^l»''*;v,]ttt'«^'";«: ^^A / rep '--^OLo. I V:-- X---'/ cu>aouau^^,,^u>st« "'■^^ ! yT T^R. ' KANs. r^KJuj^t-a ■ " <--. *^^^^>^^ INDIAN TERXAii*.HK. '/>!>" r' . .-' oaWeBtun ^ ..\ Territory held by the Confederates at the close of 1863. — a title that had hitherto been held by only Washington and Scott — and empowered the President to raise to that rank the major-general who was most distinguished for courage, skill, and ability. Since it was plain that Congress intended this honor for the hero of Vicksburg and Chattanooga, Lincoln called Grant to Washington and conferred upon him the title of lieutenant-general (March 1864) and placed him in com- the Union troops had not the day been saved by the bold stand of General Thomas, the " Rock of Chickaniauga." The result of the battle of Chickamauga was to leave the Union troops cooped up in Chattanooga. THE CIVIL WAR 459 mand of all the armies of the United States. Grant's com- mand in the West was given to General William T. Sherman who was holding Chattanooga. The relief of Chattanooga was the last important event of Results the war in 1863. During the year success had for the most right- part been on the side of the Union armies. In the East little ises progress had been made in the way of pushing back the Con- federate lines. Eastern Virginia was still held by the Con- federates and Richmond was still uncaptured. In the Missis- sippi Valley the capture of Vicksburg and of Chattanooga had resulted in spreading the Union power over new stretches of the Confederate territory. By December 1863. Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee had been brought under federal con- trol, and Lincoln was taking measures to restore these three States to their old time place in the Union. Indeed, the prog- ress of the Union cause in 1863 was so marked that men in the North quite generally believed that the power of the Con- federacy was broken. " The success of our arms," said the Secretary of War in December 1863, " during the last year has enabled the department to make a reduction of over $200,- 000,000 in the war estimates for the ensuing fiscal year." 148. THE CLOSE OF THE STRUGGLE. But there was much hard fighting after 1863. In 1864 the The Union forces began to move against the Confederates accord- Plan ing to a plan of cooperation between the armies of the East »am- and those of the West. The plans for this campaign of con- certed action were agreed upon by Grant and Sherman. Ac- cording to the final plan of campaign, Grant was to fight Lee in Virginia, while Sherman was to attack Johnston ^ at Dalton, conquer Georgia, and move northward with the purpose of joining the Union army in Virginia and assisting Grant in the capture of Richmond Both generals were to begin their movements on the same day, and both were to keep on fight- ing continuously, regardless of the season or weather. 1 After Bragg was beaten at Chattanooga he retreated to Dalton in Georgia. He was soon removed and his command was given to Joseph E. Johnston. 4^)0 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY From Chatta- nooga to At- lanta From Atlanta to the Bea On the appointed day (May 5, 1864), Sherman, going out from his headquarters in Chattanooga, began the most memo- rable march in the history of rhe war. He marched against Johnston at Dalton and drove him from his position. He then pushed on to Atlanta, Johnston stubbornly opposing his advance. Between Dalton and Atlanta the battles of Resaca, Dallas, Lost Mountain, and Kenesaw Mountain were fought. Before Atlanta was reached Johnston was relieved of his com- mand and General J. B. Hood was appointed in his place. Hood tried hard to check Sherman but failed. On September 2, 1864, Sherman took possession of Atlanta.^ The loss of this city was keenly felt by the Confederates, for it was a great railway center and it furnished to the Confederate armies supplies of ammunition and clothing. On Noveml^er 16, Sherman started with 60,000 men on his famous march from Atlanta to the sea. The army moved in four columns and in its path it laid waste a belt of country sixty miles wide. Nothing impeded Sherman's progress and on the 21st of December he entered the city of Savannah in triumph. He at once sent a letter to Lincoln sa3ing, ' I beg leave to present to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah." From Savannah, Sherman, in accordance with the plan of campaign, moved north- ward to join Grant in Virginia. By the last of March he had subdued the interior of South Carolina and had advanced far into North Caro- lina. With the exception of Vir- ginia, a part of North Carolina, and the coast line of South Caro- lina, the entire Confederacy was now in the control of the L'nion forces. 1 After withdrawing from Atlanta, Hood marched toward Xashville, hoping that Sherman would follow. But since Thomas was at Nashville, Sherman did not follow. Hood attacked Thomas at Nashville, but his army suffered a dis- astrous rout. William T. Sherman. THE CIVIL WAR 461 In the meantime, Grant was in Virginia carrying out his Grant's part of the program. On May 4, 1864, with an army of 130,- paign 000 men he set out to capture Richmond. He met Lee with Lee 70,000 men in a forest known as the Wilderness, and fought a Territory held by the Confederates at the close of 1864, battle in which the loss of life on both sides was frightful. From the Wilderness, Grant pushed on to Spottsylvania Court- House, where he again fought the Confederates and where he lost many thousands of his men. But whether losing or win- ning Grant pressed on, his plan being to defeat Lee by in- cessant pounding. In this policy of persistence he was sup- ported by the President. " Hold on," said Lincoln in his quaint fashion in a despatch to Grant, " hold on with a bull dog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible." At Cold Har- bor Grant met the Confederates again and was beaten back with terrible slaughter. He now pushed on to Petersburg, the back door of Richmond. Here a long siege ^ was necessary. 1 During the siege, Jubal Early with 20,000 Confederates moved dov/n the Shenandoah Valley, threatened Washington, and invaded Pennsylvania. Gen. Philip Sheridan was sent after Early with orders from Grant to " go in." Sheri- dan " went in " with a vengeance. He defeated Early and laid waste the beautiful 462 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Collapse of the Confed- eracy Muster- ing Out of the Union Army The stronghold maintained its resistance for several months, but Grant drew his lines tighter and tighter and at last (April 3, 1865) Petersburg fell and with it fell Richmond. Lee, after leaving the city he had defended so bravely for nearly four years, attempted to break through the Union lines, but he was checked at every step by a superior force and there was nothing for him to do but lay down his arms. On April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, he surrendered to Grant his little army of 28,000 men. On April 26, Johnston surrendered to Sherman, near Raleigh, and the war was over. After the fall of Richmond, the Confederate government (juickly collapsed. President Davis with his cabinet and clerks went to Charlotte, North Carolina. Davis was determined to " die in the last ditch," but he could not hold out long. The surrender of Johnston made it necessary for the members of his cabinet to disband and flee. Davis made his way to Georgia but was captured at Irwinsville (May 10, 1865). He was sent to Fortress Monroe, in Virginia, where he was held a prisoner until 1867, when he was released on bail. At the close of the war there were about 1,000,000 men in the Union ranks and war expenses amounted to more than a billion dollars a year. Immediately after the surrender of Lee, however, the Union army began to be mustered out. and between May and November about 800,000 men changed from soldiers to citizens. " This change in condition," says Rhodes, " was made as if it were the most natural transformation in the world. These soldiers were merged into the peaceful life of the communities without interruption to industry, with- out disturbance of social and moral order." REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Plans and preparations: Ropes I, 161-257. 2. Fort Donelson and Sliiloh : Ropes II, 3-96; Rhodes III, 585-600. 621-627; Davis II, 24-36, 52-71. valley, the devastation being so complete that " a crow flying over the country would need to carry his provisions with him." THE CIVIL WAR 463 3. Emancipation: Halsey VIII, 107-111; Rhodes IV, 17, 157-163; Davis II, 7-10, 169-187. 4 Fredericksburg: Ropes II, 434-472; Rhodes IV, 184-200; Davis n, 352-356. 5. Chancellorsville: Ropes III, 149-228; Rhodes IV, 261-266; Davis II, 357-365. 6. Vicksburg: Hitchcock, 295-305; Rhodes IV, 299-317; Davis II 392-417. 7. Gettysburg: Ropes III, 402-499; Davis II, 440-450; Rhodes IV, 282-293 ; Hitchcock, 306-328. 8. Give an account of Henry Ward Beecher's Liverpool address: Harding, 392-413. 9. The downfall of the Confederacy: Davis II, 638-660; Hart IV, 437-440; Rhodes V, 111-130; Hitchcock, 329-346. 10. Dates for the chronological table: 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865. 11. Give a graphic account of the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac. Describe a cavalry raid of " Jeb " Stuart. Name the three greatest Union generals; the three greatest Confederate generals. Characterize General R. E. Lee. Give an account of the arrest of Vai- landigham. Describe Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. Read in the class Lincoln's Gettysburg address. What services did the colored troops render the North? Give a full account of Sherman's march to the sea; of Sheridan's ride. Were the devastations of these two move- ments justified? Give an account of Davis' flight from Richmond: Halsey VIII, 195-209. Read in the class Blaine's account of the dis- banding of the Northern army: Halsey VIII, 201-204. 12. Special Reading. J. K. Hosmer, Outcome of the Civil War. U. S. Grant, Personal Memoirs. J. M. Callahan, Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy. John Fiske, Mississippi Valley in the Civil War. 4fi4 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY IMPORTANT MOVEMENTS IN THE WAR OF SECESSION WEST EAST Border fighting in West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri ® '61 © © © Fort Sumter Bull Run Coast Battles Forts Henry and Donelson © Island No. 10 © Shiloh ® New Orleans © Corinth © Union side successful in the West '62 © Peninsula Campaign © Jackson in the Shenandoah © Lee's First Invasion © Fredericksburg Confederate side successful in the East Vicksburg © Port Hudson © Mississippi River open Chickamaugd © Chattanooga © Central gateway open '63 © Chancellorsville © Lee's Second Invasion and Gettysburg Union Side has the advantage both in the East and in the West Sherman's March from Chattanooga © '64 Grant vs. Lee in © ® Wilderness Campaign ( Desperate fighting Victories fortjoth sides) to Atlanta and Savannah I'n the East Nashville ® ® Sheridan in the Shenandoah ® Union v/ciories (c) Confecferate v/ctorfoit '65 Grant, ShermanThomas and Sheridan all converging to- ward Lee's Army andliichmond Surrender of the Confederate Armies XXXIX WAR TIMES NORTH AND SOUTH The last chapter was chiefly an account of the mihtary operation of the Civil War. This chapter will deal chiefly with the economic and political conditions which prevailed during the war. 149. KEEPING THE RANKS TILLED. The cost of the war in blood was enormous. On the Union Tho Draft side more than 360,000 men were killed in battle or died from wounds and diseases The number of lives lost on the side of the Confederacy cannot be accurately stated, but it is likely that the South suffered as heavily as the North. Throughout the war a constant task of the authorities both in the North and in the South was to keep the ranks filled with good fight- ing men. At first, as we saw (p. 431), troops were raised in sutficient numbers by merely calling for volunteers. But as the war progressed it became more and more difficult to se- cure men in this way and it was found necessary to resort to the draft, that is, to draw by lot the names of a number of persons equal to the number of recruits required in a given lo- cality or district, and to compel the persons thus drafted to en- list whether willing or unwilling. Soldiers enrolled in this way were known as conscripts or drafted men. The South was the first to resort to the draft. In April praft- 1862, the Confederate Congress passed a Conscription Act North which made all citizens between the ages of 18 and 35 liable south, to military duty. Later, all males between 18 and 45 were conscribed, and before the war closed almost the entire adult male population of the South could be legally called upon either to enlist in the army or to assist in raising supplies. " It was not long before the North also began the forcible enlist- ment of men. In March 1863, Congress passed a Conscrip- 46s 466 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Resist- ance to the Draft Bounties The Numbers In the Field tion Act which enrolled all citizens of the United States be- tween the ages of 20 and 45 and provided that where quotas could not be filled by voluntary enlistment the draft should be brought into use. The execution of the Conscription Act caused much excite- ment and in some places the draft was forcibly resisted. In New York City, when officers untlertook to enlist men by means of the draft, rioting began and for four days the city w^as at the mercy of a mob. The unpopularity of the draft was due largely to the provision in the law which allowed a man to escape service by paying $300 into the treasury of the government. This was regarded by many as a device by which the rich man could transfer his burden of military duty to the back of the poor man. The Confederacy also had a system of enrollment which allowed substitutes, and it was estimated that in the South at least 50,000 men who would have made good soldiers purchased substitutes and stayed at home. The poor man was encouraged to enlist by a pecuniary in- ducement in the form of a bounty. For example, at one time (February, 1864) in New York county in the State of New York the county offered a bounty in cash of $300 and the State a bounty of $75. The United States at the same time offered a bounty of $302. This amounted in all to a bounty of $677 which was paid to the recruit at the beginning of his service. Besides the bounty a soldier in the ranks received $16 a month with clothing and rations. The bounty system brought into existence the crime known as " bounty-jumping." Dishonest men would enlist for the sake of the bounty, then desert, change their names and go to another place where they would enlist again and receive another bounty. One man was reported as having jumped his bounty 32 times, thereby se- curing for himself a small fortune. Yet in spite of draft evasions, bounty-jumping, and deser- tions, the ranks were not only kept full but the armies of the North, and those of the South as well, continued to grow until they reached immense proportions. On January i, 1863, the Union army contained over 900,000 men and the Confederate WAR TIMES NORTH AND SOUTH 467 army nearly 700,000 men. When the war closed, the Union army numbered over 1,000,000 men. These figures when compared with those showing the total military population (p. 433) indicate in the clearest manner that each of the war- ring sections was in the fullest sympathy with the cause for which it fought. 150. MEETING THE EXPENSES OF THE WAR. The great armies of the Civil War required vast sums for The their support. The cost of the war in money has been esti- of the mated by Edward Atkinson at the tremendous sum of $8,000,- 000,000, the cost to the Union according to this estimate being $5,000,000,000 and the cost to the South being $3,000,000,000.^ The South was unable to raise the funds required to meet War ^ Finances the expenses of the war. It had relied upon its cotton to of the ' South Confederate Money. bring the necessary money, but after the blockade became effective the cotton was a valueless thing, for it could be neither manufactured nor sold. So the South had to get along as best it could without the cotton. It levied a general tax on all property in the Confederacy, but the total Confederate revenue raised by taxation during the four years of warfare was prob- ably equivalent to not more than $100,000,000. The South also attempted borrowing. Bonds of the Confederate gov- 1 This includes the loss to the masters caused by the emancipation of the slaves, who were valued at something like $2,000,000,000. 468 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY War Finances of the Federal Govern- ment ernment were sold at home and in Europe, but the money raised by borrowing was insignificant. The chief reliance of the South was upon issues of paper money. By 1S63, $200.- 000,000 of paper currency was in circulation in the Con- federacy and before the war closed a billion dollars or more of this kind of money was afloat. For a short time this paper money circulated at its face value but it soon began to depre- ciate. In July 1863, a gold dollar would exchange for nine dollars in Confederate money ; in July 1864, it would ex- change for twenty dollars; and in March 1865, it would ex- change for sixty-one dollars. In the very last days of the war the Confederate paper money was worthless and the Con- federate treasury was bankrupt. In meeting the expenses of the Union armies the federal government adopted practically the same means as were re- sorted to by the Confederacy : it levied unusual taxes, it bor- rowed by issuing bonds and it put into circulation large amounts of paper money. In the four years of the war Con- gress raised by taxation $667,000.000 ; it borrowed more than $2,000,000,000 and issued more than $450,000,000 in paper money (greenbacks). In July 1862, Congress ])assed an internal revenue act which imposed a tax upon practi- cally " every article which enters into the mouth or covers the back or is placed under the foot ; upon everything which is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste ; upon warmth, light, and locomotion; upon the sauces which pamper man's appetite and the drug that restores him to health ; upon the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice." At the same time a tax of three ])er cent, on incomes less than $10,000 and of five per cent, on incomes over $10,000 was im- posed. In 1862 the duties on imports ^ w^ere materially in- creased, and in 1864 they were raised still higher, the increase being made in order to compensate for the tax laid upon do- 1 In the closing days of Buchanan's administration the Morrill Tariff Bill was passed. The law increased the duties on certain imports and was regarded as a protective measure. It was not a war tariff, however, for the war had not yet beg^n. WAR TIMES NORTH AND SOUTH 469 mestic manufactures by the internal revenue act. But taxa- tion had to be supplemented by issuing bonds — that is, by borrowing. In 1861 Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, sold bonds to the amount of nearly $200,000,000. The sale of these bonds was managed by the banks of New York, Phila- delphia, and Boston, but the people were given an oppor- tunity to purchase the bonds, and large numbers of patriotic citizens lent a helping hand to the government by pur- chasing them. But by the time the war was well ad- vanced the expenses of the Union army were $2,000,000 a day, and taxation and borrowing put together failed to yield the necessary funds. So, Congress early began to issue paper money. In February, 1862, it passed a Legal Tender Act Paper authorizing the issue of $150,000,000 in notes which had to be accepted when offered in payment of debts. These notes were paper currency pure and simple. They were officially called United States notes, but they became known popularly as greenbacks. Other issues of greenbacks were made as the war proceeded. The greenbacks soon fell below par, their value fluctuating with the fortunes of war. Generally a dol- lar in greenback money was worth from sixty to eighty cents in gold, although in the summer of 1864 the depreciation of the greenbacks was so great that a dollar of this paper money was worth only about forty cents in gold. The heavy taxes and the borrowing and the depreciated paper currency produced severe financial pressure but the Government managed to bear the strain and meet the expenses of the war. It emerged from the contest, however, with a national debt of $3,000,000,- 000.^ 1 National banks. — One of the great financial measures of the war was the establishment of National Banks. When the war broke out the only money in circulation was gold and silver coin and the notes which were issued by the State banks (p. 322). The notes of the State banks were often almost worthless. So, in order to drive them out of circulation and to establish a sound national currency Congress in 1863 created a system of National Banks. The law of 1863 allowed banks to organize under a federal charter and buy United States bonds and de- posit them in the United States treasury, these to be held as a security for the bank notes which might be issued up to 80% of the par value of the bonds. At first national banks were organized under the federal law but slowly. Accordingly, Congress in 1865 gave still further encouragement to the national banks by lav- 470 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Industry in the North Labor- saving Machin- ery The Home- stead Act Immi- grants 151. INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE IN WAR TIMES. By 1861 the country had recovered from the panic of 1857 (p. 414) and was on the threshold of a new period of good times. In the North and West industrial and commercial conditions were so favorable that even the war did not check the rising tide of prosperity. Indeed the war acted as a stimu- lus to industry in the North and West, for the clothing of the millions of soldiers and the vast quantities of the munitions of war had to be manufactured in northern shops and the pro- visions of the army had to be raised on western fields. More- over in the early sixties the harvest of several of the coun- tries of Europe were failures and there arose a tremendous de- mand from abroad for American grain. But how were these demands to be met when hundreds of thousands of workmen in the North and West were leaving the shops and fields for the war? For one thing invention came to the rescue and gave to the industrial world many new kinds of labor-saving machinery. Especially did the improve- ments which were made in agricultural machinery assist in doing the work of the farm. " The reaper," said Stanton, " releases our young men to do battle for the Union and at the same time keeps up the supply of the nation's bread." Con- gress also came to the rescue with favorable legislation. In 1862 it passed the Homestead Act, the most liberal of all our land laws. This law threw open to settlement millions upon millions of acres of the public domain and gave to the actual settler for a nominal fee a farm of 80 or 160 acres free of cost. The Homestead Act encouraged immigration. During the war more than 800,000 immigrants from Europe, most of them from Germany and Ireland, came to our shores and thousands of these newcomers took advantage of the Homestead Act and secured for themselves little farms in the West — in Iowa, in Minnesota, in Nebraska, in Kansas. ing a tax of 10% on the circulation of the State banks. This had the desired effect; the State banks, finding it unprofitable to pay the tax, redeemed and can- celled their outstanding notes and ceased to issue new ones. A monopoly of issuing notes was thus secured to the national banks. WAR TIMES NORTH AND SOUTH 471 Thanks to labor-saving machinery, to immigration, and to the Agricui- fostering care of Congress, the fields were tilled during the war and the factories were kept running. Agriculture, owing to the unusual demands and to fortunate crops, fared excep- tionally well during the war. Before the war we exported about 20,000,000 bushels of wheat annually ; in the second year of the war we exported 60,000,000 bushels. The only leading industry that suffered greatly during the war was the manufacture of cotton goods. The iron industry, responding iron to the demand for guns, cannon, and other munitions of war, flourished as never before, the production of pig iron increasing from 300,000 tons in i860 to 1,000,000 tons in 1864. The shoe shoes industry also made great strides, the progress being due largely to the invention of the McKay sewing-machine which could be operated by one man and could sew the uppers to the soles a hundred times faster than they could be sewed by a pair of human hands. The following picture of war-time industry a has been given us. " Look over these prairies," said a speaker of in Illinois in 1864, " and observe everywhere the life and activ- industry ity prevailing. See the railroads pressed beyond their capacity with the freight; the metropolis of the State (Chicago) rear- ing its stately buildings with a rapidity almost fabulous ; every » smaller city, town, village, and hamlet within our borders all astir with improvement ; every factory, mill, and machine shop running with its full complement of hands ; the hum of in- dustry in every household ; more acres of fertile land under cultivation, fuller granaries, and more prolific crops than ever before." But it was not thus in the South. Here the trade in cotton industry was almost completely destroyed and as a result the whole south industrial system was paralyzed. The war, however, had the effect of stimulating the manufacture of iron in the South, especially the manufacture of guns and cannon. It also had the effect of giving the South a more diversified agriculture. Before the war cotton was the only important crop (p. 23^)' During the war, however, when food-stuffs could not be se- cured from the outside, it became necessary to decrease the 472 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Blockade- Running Over- land Trade Between North and South acreage of cotton and increase the acreage of grain and wheat. A chief commercial activity in the Soutli (Uning the war consisted in l)lockade-rnnning. The articles brought into the South by running the blockade were arms, blankets, shoes, tea, soaps, linen, wool and silk, and, above all, medicines. The commodity taken out was cotton reduced by powerful presses to the smallest possible bulk. " For blockade-running vessels of a peculiar pattern were built, the typical one being a low, long, narrow, swift side-wheel steamer of four to six hundred tons. The hull was painted a dull gray or lead color which rendered the vessel invisible unless at short range, even in daylight. . . . When near the blockading squadron, all lights were put out and the steamer made her way forward in utter darkness. No noise was permitted ; necessary orders were given in muffled voices ; steam was blown off under water." The danger of running the blockade was great, but the profits w^ere enormous. One vessel made eight successful round trips and when she was captured on her ninth trip she had brought to her owners profits amounting to nine times her cost. Besides the trade which was carried on by blockade-running there was also a brisk overland trade between the North and the South. The mill-owners of the North wanted cotton and were willing to pay exorbitant prices for it. The Northern generals in the field were opposed to the trading in cotton for they saw that it was a greater disadvantage to the North than it was to the South. Still the government at Washington offered but a feeble resistance to the traffic. It was not until 1864 that Congress took the matter in hand and placed the proper restriction upon the trade. Before this was done, how- ever, the South had succeeded in selling more cotton to the North by the overland routes than it had sold to Great Britain by running the blockade. While the trade yielded enormous profits it nevertheless gave rise to scandal and to charges of corruption that must have made the cheeks of some men high in authority tingle with shame. It was declared on the floor of the Senate that in some quarters the object of the armies WAR TIMES NORTH AND SOUTH 473 seemed to l)e rather to procure the cotton of the South than to strike down the enemy, and that the trade on the Mississippi River had debauched tlie federal treasury agents and the officers of the ariry and navy. 152. WAR TIME POLITICS. Davis PoHtics during: the war revolved around the great conflict as an . ° . . Execu- that was waging. How was the war progressing? Was it tive being managed well or ill ? Would the North lose or win ? In the South the management of the war rested upon the shoulders of Davis. In the discharge of his duties as Presi- dent of the Confederacy and commander-in-chief of the Con- federate armies Davis displayed great ability and skill, but his actions were sometimes so arbitrary that he brought upon him- self the charge of being a tyrant. Still upon the whole the administration of Davis met with the approval of the South- ern people and they gave to him an almost undivided loyalty and support. ^^^^^^ Lincoln did not receive the undivided loyalty and support of °pp°^^' the North. Throughout the war he was obstructed in his war *°*'*6 measures in Congress, and outside by peace Democrats — Cop- perheads they were called — who did not believe that the South could be conquered and who were for peace at almost any price. In January 1863, C. L. Vallandigham, a member of the House of Representatives from Ohio, exclaimed, " You have not conquered the South ; you never will. The war for the Union is a most bloody and costly failure. . . . But ought this war to continue ? I answer, no ! ■ — not a day, not an hour." But Lincoln knew very well that the price that would be de- manded for peace was the acknowledgment of the independ- ence of the Confederacy. " The war must go on," said Davis in 1864, " till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks and his children seize his musket and fight our battles, unless you acknowledge our right to self-government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence." And Lincoln did not believe that the people of the North were 474 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY willing to sacrifice the Union for the sake of peace. So he went on with the war. The Re- Lincoln, like Davis, sometimes under the pressure of what of seemed to him to be necessity, exceeded his Constitutional au- Iiincoln . . . , , , thonty. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus and allowed men to be arrested and imprisoned in a manner that was not in strict accordance with the letter of the law. This arbitrary conduct made him many enemies. Moreover, there was all along great dissatisfaction with his management of the war. Nevertheless, when the time came for electing a President in 1864 Lincoln was nominated for reelection by the National Union Convention — another name for the regular Republi- can National Convention — while Andrew Johnson of Ten- nessee was nominated for Vice-President. The platform upon which Lincoln went before the people declared for the prose- cution of the war to the bitter end, and for an amendment to the Constitution that should prohibit slavery within the bounds of the United States. The Democrats nominated General McClellan, declaring the war a failure and demanding a ces- sation of hostilities. For a time the reelection of Lincoln was in doubt. In August, Lincoln himself wrote : " For some days past it seems exceedingly probable that the Administra- tion will not be reelected." But some victories for the Union armies caused the political skies to brighten. When the elec- tion took place Lincoln received 212 electoral votes, while McClellan received but 21. Lincoln had not misunderstood his people ; they wished to finish what they had begun. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The Sanitary Commission: Hart IV, 270-273; Rhodes V, 244- 259- 2. Conscription, North and Soutli : Hart IV, 256-259; Rhodes IV, 165, 322-325, also V, 230, 235, 431-437- 3. The draft riot in New York: Hart IV, 376-381. 4. Taxation during the war : Dewey, 298-330. 5. The finances of the Confederacy: Rhodes HI, 294, 543; V, 242, 509-510; Dewey, 271-207; Davis I, 485-492. WAR TIMES NORTH AND SOUTH 475 6. Social conditions, North and South: Rhodes I, 354-359; HI, 66- 82, 84-96; V, 209-221, 421-431. 7. Supplies of the Confederacy: Hart IV, 319-323- 8. When money was easy: Hart IV, 247-256; Rhodes III, 566-573; V, 344-346; Coman, 280-285. 9. Home life in the South during the war : Hart IV, 244-247. 10. Name some of the men in your community who fought in the Civil War. Give an account of the Hampton Roads Conference. To what extent were there desertions from the Union army? from the Confederate army? Describe life in a military prison during the Civil War. Give an account of the postal service in the South during the war. What effect did the war have upon our mercantile marine? Give a detailed statement of the cost of the war. Relate the experiences of a typical blockade-runner. 11. Special Reading. E. D. Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North During the War. J. C. Schwab, The South During the War, XL THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION When Lincoln entered upon his second term, the task that lay be- fore him was almost as formidable as the one that confronted him in 1861. How were the wounds made by the war to be healed? How were the unfinished problems connected with slavery to be solved? How were the seceding States to be treated? How were the political conditions that prevailed before the war to be restored? Lincoln's Condi- tions of Peace His Plan of Becon- ritructiou 153. LINCOLN'S POLICY OF RECONSTRUCTION; HIS ASSASSINATION. The day after Richmond fell (April 3, 1865), Lincoln visited the Confederate capital in person and while there he made it known that he would insist upon three indispensable conditions to peace: (i) The national authority must be restored throughout the Southern States; (2) the emancipation of the slaves must be accepted as an accomplished fact; (3) all forces hostile to the national government must be disarmed. Here, in a nutshell, was Lincoln's policy of reconstruction. All the South had to do was to obey the federal laws, accept the aboli- tion of slavery, and lay down its arms. When the question arose as to how the seceding States were to be dealt with, Lincoln chose to waive the question of secession entirely, con- sidering it " a pernicious abstraction." " We all agree," he said in his last public utterance, " that the seceding States, so- called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States, is to get them again into that proper practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union. Finding themselves safely at home it would be utterly 476 THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 477 immaterial whether they had ever been abroad." The work of reconstruction, Lincohi thought, could be done better by the President than by Congress. " 1 think it providential," he said at his last Cabinet meeting, " that this great rebellion is crushed just as Congress has adjourned and there are none of the dis- turbing elements of that body to hinder and embarrass us. If we are wise and discreet we shrdl reanimate the States and get their governments in successful operation, with order prevail- Abraham Lincoln entering Richmond at the close of the War. ing and the Union reestablished, before Congress comes to- gether in December." The policy which Lincoln intended to pursue was liberal, mild, and tolerant. " I hope," he said, " there will be no persecution, no bloody work after the war is over. No one need expect me to take any part in hanging or killing these men [the Confederate leaders], even the worst of them. Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must ex- tinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and Union." Hut Lincoln did not live to carry out the wise policy which The was so clearly foreshadowed by the above noble words. On tionof ^ ' , ,.,...,., . Lincoln April 14, 1865, the great man, while sitting m his box in a 478 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY theater in Washington, was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth, an actor who in his sympathy for the South became mentally unbalanced because the South had failed to win. Lincoln fell forward unconscious when he was shot and never regained consciousness. He sank rapidly and on the morning of April 15 he died. Three hours after Lincoln's death Vice- President Johnson was sworn in as President. Amnesty and Pardon Excep- tions 154. JOH'NSON'S EFFORTS IN THE WORK OF RECON- STRUCTION. Johnson took up the work of reconstruction at the precise point where Lincoln left it and in the performance of the task he followed closely the plans marked out by his predecessor. He reestablished federal authority within the limits of the several southern States ; he caused the post-office service to be renewed ; he caused the federal taxes to be collected ; he opened the federal courts for the administration of justice ; he rescinded the blockade and threw open the ports of the South to the trade of the world. On May 29, 1865, Johnson issued a proclamation granting to all who had been in arms against the Union " amnesty and par- don with restoration of all rights of property except as to slaves," pro- viding that those desiring pardon would take oath that they would henceforth support and defend the Constitution of the United States and abide by all laws and proclama- tions with reference to the emancipation of slaves. The am- nesty, however, did not apply to certain excepted classes of persons, the most important exceptions being civil or diplo- matic officers of the Confederacy ; military officers above the rank of colonel ; those who had left seats in Congress to aid the South in its war; and all who owned property worth more than $20,000. But even these excepted persons might receive Andrew Johnson. THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 479 pardon upon special application to the President. Speaking broadly, Johnson placed pardon within easy reach of all who had joined the Confederacy. In the meantime the machinery of government was moving The ... .. ,, Thir- swiftly to brmg about the constitutional emancipation of the teenth slave. Even before the war had ended, Congress, in accord- ment ance with the wishes of Lincoln, submitted (March 1865) to the States, for ratification, the Thirteenth Amendment, pro- viding for the complete abolition of slavery throughout the en- tire extent of the United States (149). The amendment was quickly ratified by three- fourths of the States (123) and in December 1865 it became valid as a part of the Constitution. By the time the federal amendment was adopted slavery was practically dead, for it had already been abolished by State action in all the States but three. Nevertheless, it was the Thirteenth Amendment that gave the moribund institution its death blow and made freedom henceforth the portion of every person whose feet should rest upon American soil. While the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment was be- John- ing secured, President Johnson was undertaking to bring the condi- seceded States back into "their proper practical relation" in of Recon- struction the constitutional system. He proposed to reorganize as a member of the Union any State that would (i) nullify its ordinance of secession; (2) ratify the Thirteenth Amendment; and (3) agree not to pay the war debts contracted by the Con- federate government. These conditions were quite readily complied with and by the time Congress met in December, 1865, Johnson was able to inform that body that " all the States except Texas had been reconstructed and were ready to resume their places in the two branches of the National Legislature." 155- THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION. But reconstruction was not to be achieved so easily and so Oppoei- •^ tion of quickly as Johnson hoped. Upon what basis were the States Congress to resume their places in Congress? This was a question that Joi^p- that body itself would have to settle (26). The Republican- ^ia° 48o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY leaders in Congress were unwilling that the seceded States when readmitted should have a representation in the lower House based upon the combined population of both whites and blacks, for under the Constitution as it then stood (153j the emancipated slaves would be counted when making an appor- tionment of Representatives. The old arrangement of count- ing three-fifths of the slaves (8) was always regarded by many in (he North as unjust ; but how much more unjust, the Repub- licans in 1865 asked, would it be to count all the blacks? The radical Republicans believed that the emancipated negroes ought not to be counted for purposes of representation unless they were given the right to vote. Until this ail-important ques- tion was settled no scheme of reconstruction would be satisfactory to the Republi- can majority in Congress. So the radical element in Congress refused to join w'th Johnson in his plans for dealing with the seceded States. The leader of the (tp])osition to the President was Thaddeus Stevens, a member of the House from I'ennsylvania. Stevens was now a venerable man of seventy- four, I'jut the fires of his strong nature still burned with a fierce heat. He was a violent partisan riiadcleus Stevens. 11 ,1 . 1 • 1 and he went about his work m a bitter and vindictive manner. " Speech with Stevens," said Charles Sumner, his friend and chief ally, " was at times a cat-of-nine tails, and woe to the victim on whom the terrible lash descended ! " l^^or nearly two years this iron-willed, imperious old man was the virtual dictator of the Rej^ublican party. , Yielding to his protest Con- THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 481 gress instead of admitting the Senators and Representatives from the South, as Johnson proposed, denied them (26) their seats, and created a joint committee — the famous " reconstruc- tion committee " — with authority to inquire into Southern af- fairs and report whether any of the States of the Confederacy were entitled to be represented in either house of Congress. One reason why Congress halted in carrying out Johnson's The program was that although the Thirteenth Amendment had Codes" been accepted in the South, the negro was nevertheless not being treated in all respects as if he were a free man. He was virtually forbidden to assemble with other negroes, his freedom of locomotion was restricted, and in some places he was deprived of the means of self-defense. In Mississippi the f reedman was not allowed to own land ; in Louisiana in one place every negro was required to be in the regular service of some white person or former owner ; in South Carolina persons of color were forbidden to engage in any occupation ex- cept farming or domestic service, unless under a special li- cense. These " black codes," as the laws aimed especially at the negro w^ere called, were regarded by the whites of the South as necessary to prevent vagrancy and disorder and to protect so- ciety generally. The freedmen, it was claimed, were not, and in the nature of things, could not be, on the same social and in- tellectual level with the white man and they could not therefore I be made equal with the white man before the law. But Congress was opposed to the " black codes " and was dis- The posed to treat the negroes as if they were the equals of the malf-s" whites. From the beginning Congress undertook to shield the freedman from the hardships of his new condition. As early as March 1865 it established a Freedman's Bureau which was to look after the interests of former slaves, protect them from injustice and assume a general guardianship over them. This bureau was to continue in existence for only one year after the termination of the war, but in January 1866, Congress passed a bill establishing the bureau for an in- definite period and increasing its powers. The purpose of the new bill was to use the federal military power to pro- Bureau 482 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY tect the freedman against the discriminations of State legis- latures. Johnson vetoed the bill and his veto was sustained. Nevertheless, a few months later a bill continuing the Freed- man's Bureau for two years was passed over the President's veto. The Congress was insistent in its efforts to protect the freed- Kights man against the provisions of the " black code." In March 1866, it passed the Civil Rights Bill, the purpose of which was to place the white man and the negro on an equal footing in the enjoyment of civil rights. "All persons," ran this law, "born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby de- clared to be citizens of the United States ; and such citizens of every race and color, without regard to any previous condi- tion of slavery or involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right in every State and Territory of the United States to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to the full and equal benefits of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, to the contrary, notwithstanding." The Civil Rights Bill was also vetoed by Johnson but Congress passed it over the Pres- ident's head (May 1866). ^ The In June 1866, Congress proposed to the States, for their teenth ratification, the Fourteenth Amendment. The purpose of the ment amendment was simply to embody the principles of the Civil Rights Bill in a permanent form in the fundamental law. In addition to defining who were citizens of the United States and declaring the civil rights of such citizens, the amendment 1 Another Civil Rights Bill passed in 1871 provided that blacks should not be distinguished from whites by hotel-keepers, teachers, or officers of schools, theater managers, railroads, steamboats, etc., but this law was declared by the Supreme Court to be unconstitutional. THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 483 provided a reduction of the Congressional representation of any State that should withhold the franchise from any adult male citizens (154) ; it excluded from federal office many ])rominent Confederate officers until Congress should pardon them (155) ; and it invalidated all debts incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States. The amendment was opposed bitterly by the South and by Feb- ruary 1867, it was voted down by every one of the seceding States except Tennessee, which accepted it. By July 1868, however, the amendment had been ratified by three-fourths of the States, and it was accordingly promulgated as part pf the Constitution. *~ ■ About the time the Fourteenth Amendment was proposed. Jhe ^ ^ ' Kecon- the reconstruction committee presented a report upon con- struction ^ ^ \ Program ditions in the South and upon the strength of this report of . Congress Congress enacted a law (March 2, 1867) which marked out the process by which the unreconstructed States were to be reconstructed. The program was as follows : (i). The ten ^ Southern States were to be grouped in five military districts which were to be put under the command of generals of the federal army. (2). These military commanders were to register in each State all the adult male citizens, black as well as white — but excluding such as might be disfranchised by the Fourteenth Amendment — and were to hold an election for delegates to a State convention. (3). These conventions were to frame constitutions, an in- dispensable condition of the constitution being that the fran- chise be extended to the blacks as well as to the whites. (4). The constitutions thus framed were to be submitted to the voters (blacks as well as whites) for adoption or re- jection. (5). If adopted by the State the constitution was to be ^ sent to Congress for its approval. 1 Tennessee, having ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, was admitted to representation in Congress in July 1866. 484 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY (6), If the constitution was approved the State was to be represented again in Congress as soon as the legislature of the State ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. (7). Until these conditions had all been complied with the State should be governed by the military governors and should in all things be subject to the paramount authority of the United States. Seven States Recon- structed Inasmuch as the Reconstruction Act disfranchised most of the natural leaders of the South, the effect of the law was to take authority from the intelligent and place it in the hands of the ignorant. In many of the States the freedmen out- numbered the whites and in the process of reorganization the government fell under the control of negroes led by un- scrupulous adventurers — '' carpet-baggers " they were called — from the North and the West. Nevertheless, the work of framing and ratifying the constitutions in accordance with the wishes of Congress was pushed forward with vigor all over the South, and by the end of June 1868 Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana had done the things required by the Reconstruction Act and had been reestablished in the Union. Virginia, Mis- sissippi, and Texas were unable to secure the proper ratification of the constitution and were therefore compelled to remain outside the Union under the rule of their military govern- ors. John- son and Congress 156. THE QUARREL BETWEEN THE PRESIDENT AND CON- GRESS: IMPEACHMENT. While Congress was pursuing its purposes in regard to re- construction, it was at the same time carrying on an un- seemly contest with the President. The quarrel between Johnson and Congress arose over a difference of opinion as to the proper method of dealing with the rcconstnictidii I)roblem. Johnson, like Lincoln, l)elicved thai the Civil War was a mere uprising (p. 439) with which the IVesident, and not Congress, should deal, and he contended that the THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 48s Southern States had never been out of the Union, He there- fore had no sympathy with the measure of Congress which encroached upon the power of the State. He vetoed the bill creating the Freedman's Bureau and also the Civil Rights Bill because he regarded those laws as contrary to the Consti- The „ Tenure tution. Congress resented this attitude of Johnson and it set of , 1 , • , , , . . Office about to hamper him and thwart his purposes m every way it Act could. In 1867 it passed the Tenure of Office Act prohibiting the President from removin"- ci\-i1 officers of tlip nrA\-.^i-nment The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. save with the consent of the Senate and imposing a punishment of a fine and imprisonment if the act should be violated. Johnson regarded this law as an outrage upon the executive, and in very intemperate language denounced Congress for passing it. He desired the resignation of his Secretary of War, Edwin 'M. Stanton, who opposed him in his plans for reconstruction and who was the author of the Tenure of Office Act. Stanton refused to resign, whereupon the President suspended him from office and when the Senate refused to 486 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Impeach- ment Proceed- ings sanction the removal, Johnson disobeyed the Tenure of Office Act comi)letely and compelled Stanton to give up his office. The removal of Stanton incensed Congress to such a degree that it brought (bY-bruary 1867) im])eachment proceedings against Johnson, In the House of Representatives it was de- cided by a vote of 126 to 47 that he 1)e impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors. The imj)eachment was then tried before the bar of the Senate. The trial was a mere form. The question was not whether Johnson had committed any crime — for everybody knew that there had been nothing crim- inal in his conduct — but whether he should be deposed from the Presidency because of his opposition to Congress. The trial lasted two months and when the vote was taken (May 16, 1868), thirty-five of the Senators present voted "guilty" and nineteen " not guilty." As a two-thirds vote was required for conviction, Johnson escaped by the narrow margin of one vote. So Congress failed to get rid of Johnson and he re- mained in the Presidency until the expiration of his term (March 4, 1869).^ 1 The French in Mexico (1861-67); the Purchase of Alaska. — While the domestic question of reconstruction was the all-absorbing theme during Johnson's administra- tion, there were two events connected with foreign affairs that require notice. One of these was our intervention in the affairs of Mexico. In 1861 France, England, and Spain, acting together, sent an armed force to Mexico to hold her seaports until certain debts were paid. But England and Spain soon withdrew their troops, leaving France to act alone. The Emperor of France, Napoleon III, desired to establish the French power in Mexico. He accordingly overthrew the Mexican government and made Maximilian, a brother of the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of Mexico. All this, it will be observed, was contrary to the Monroe Doctrine. Still, at the time, the United States could do nothing but pro- test, for it had the Civil War on its hands. As soon as the war was over, how- ever, General Sheridan, with a large army, was despatched to the Mexican frontier. France saw what was coming, and the French troops were at once withdrawn (in 1867) from Mexico. Maximilian fell into the hands of the Mexi- cans and was promptly shot. Another important event of Johnson's administration was the purchase of Alaska, which then belonged to Russia. In 1867, the Russian minister at Wash- ington offered to sell to the United States Russia's possession in America for the sum of $7,200,000. The offer was accepted " with almost comical alacrity," and an area of 577,000 square miles was added to our territory. At the time it was thought by many that we had made a bad bargain, but in fact we made a very good bargain, for the furs, fisheries, gold-fields, and coal lands of Alaska are worth the purchase price several hundred times over. [united states From 1776 to 1867 \ G r I t' i; The acquisitions made by the United States from 1776 to 1867 are shown by different colors. The boundaries of the States and Territories at-the close ot 186, are outlined by solid green lines: The Capitals of the States and Territories in 1S67 are shown on map by: THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 487 157. THE FINAL MEASURES OF RECONSTRUCTION. About the time the Senate was sitting in judgment upon The , ,. . . . Presi- the impeachment of Johnson, the pohticians were preparnig dentiai for the presidential election of 1868. The Republicans held of their National Convention in Chicago and nominated General (irant by a unanimous vote. The Republican platform ap- proved the reconstruction policy which had been followed by Congress, declaring that the granting of the suffrage to the ne- gro was demanded by every consideration of public safety, grat- itude, and justice. The Democrats held their Convention in New York City and nominated Horatio Seymour of New York. In their platform, the Democrats denounced the reconstruction acts as unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void, and praised Johnson for " resisting " the aggressions of Congress upon the constitutional rights of the States. Grant received 214 electoral votes, and Seymour 80. An analysis of the popular vote, however, showed that the victory for Grant was not so overwhelming as the electoral vote indicated. Seymour gained New York, New Jersey, and Oregon, while in the great States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, the vote was extremely close. Had the suffrage been confined to the whites in the former slaveholding States, and had these States all participated in the election, the Democrats in all probability would have been victorious. The returns showed plainly enough that the Republicans in 1868 were holding power by a rather slender thread. But the leaders of the Republicans soon attempted to The strengthen their hold. In the session of Congress following Amend- the election of 1868 the Fifteenth Amendment was proposed (February 1869) to the States for adoption. The true in- tent and spirit of this amendment was to place the colored man and the white man on the same footing in respect to voting, and to keep him on the same footing. It was true that the constitutions of the reconstructed States gave the negro the suffrage (p. 483) but it was also true that these constitutions might be changed. If, however, the Fifteenth Amendment 488 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY were once adopted, the negro, it was thought, would enjoy the right of suffrage for all time. The impulse that moved the Republican majority in Congress to pass the Fifteenth Amend- ment was largely a partisan impulse. The Republican party in 1868 was successful in several Southern States in which it would have been unsuccessful had it not been for the negro vote. Here was a reason why the amendment would bene- fit the Republican party : it would secure to that party a perma- nent element of political strength in the South. So the Fif- teenth Amendment, the climax of the reconstruction measures, was hurried through the State legislatures and on March 30. 1870 it was proclaimed as part of the Constitution. The On the same day upon which the Fifteenth Amendment was of the promulgated as the law of the land, the last of the seceding struction States was readmitted into the Union. President Grant in Meas- M- • ures his inaugural address foreshadowed a policy of conciliation in dealing with the Southern situation and he took as his motto. " Let us have peace." His administration was not far ad- vanced before the work of reconstruction was finished. Mis- sissippi and Virginia were readmitted on February 23, 1870, and Texas on March 30, 1870. In May 1872, an Amnesty Act removed the political disabilities of nearly all persons who were excluded from office (155) by the terms of the Four- teenth Amendment. This act was the last of the great re- construction measures and it was a most beneficent law. for it pardoned nearly 150,000 of the best citizens of the South and allowed them to participate in public affairs. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Problems of Reconstruction: Dunning, 3-17; Bassett, 594-596; Wilson, 254-257, 2. Lincoln's plan of Reconstruction: Bassett, 59^-599; Rhodes V, 134-138. 3. Johnson's policy of Reconstruction: Hart IV, 468-471; Dunning, 35-50; Rhodes V, 522-535; Bassett, 599-601; Wilson, 257-260. 4. The Congressional plan of Reconstruction: Dunning, 51-70; Hart IV, 471-475; Rhodes V, 549, 553, 554, 572-580, 600-602. THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION 489 5. The Fourteenth Amendment: Rhodes V, 595-597, 602-605; VI, 4-13; Bassett, 607-609; Dunning, 66-68, 83-85, 125; Hart IV, 482-485. 6. The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Rhodes VI, 98-156; Dun- ning, 92-108; Halsey IX, 82-97. 7. The Fifteenth Amendment: Dunning, 174-186, 261-263; Rhodes VI, 201-204 ; Hart IV, 482-494. 8. Civil Rights and Duties: Forman, 95-100. 9. Thaddeus Stevens on Reconstruction : Harding, 436-442. 10. Give a graphic account of the assassination of Lincoln. Why was the death of Lincoln unfortunate for the South? In what re- spect did the career of Johnson resemble that of Lincoln? Give an ac- count of Johnson's electioneering tour known as "swinging around the circle." Describe the South as it was at the close of the War: Hart IV, 448-452 ; Bassett, 619-622. Give a full account of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. Would you have supported the Reconstruction policy advocated by Congress or that advocated by Johnson ? Tell the story of the purchase of Alaska. Sketch the career of Maximilian, the Emperor of Mexico. 11. Special Reading. W. A. Dunning, Essays on flic Cwil JJ'ar and Reconstruction. J. W. Burgess. Reconstruction and the Constitution. James G. Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress. G. W. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America. XLI EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES (1869-1877) Although there was great industrial and commercial progress dur- ing the eight! years (1869-1877) of Grant's administration, it was nevertheless a period in which the aftermath of the Civil War showed itself in evil fashion; a period of agitation and unrest and lawless- ness and corruption in high places. The history of the years, there- fore, during which Grant was President is largely a tale of troublous times. 158. WESTERN DEVELOPMENT (1862-1877). weV At the close of the Civil War there was, west of the Missis- rfow- sippi, a wild, uncultivated, r.nd for the most part uninhabitable Tide legion more than a million square miles in extent. During the war the development of this western country was retarded, but as soon as the struggle was over the tide of population began to flow westward again. In 1864 Congress encouraged the development of the West by passing an immigration law which specifically exempted immigrants from military service and provided means for assisting newly-arrived foreigners c' to reach the end of their western journey with as little •^1 trouble and expense as possible. The mustering out of the '''^ Union troops at the close of the war was also a stiiuulus to the Westward Movement. Between May 1865 and June 1866, nearly 1,000,000 soldiers laid down their arms and entered into the pursuits of peaceful life. Vast numbers 1 In 1872 General Grant was reelected over Horace Greeley of New York by an electoral vote of 286 to 63. Greeley was nominated by the Democrats and also by the liberal Republicans, a group of Republicans who were dissatisfied with the way in which their party was managing the affairs of the country. Greeley was distasteful to the majority of the Democrats and he failed to poll the full party vote. EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES 491 - of these disbanded men, hardened to adventure and re- luctant to turn back to quiet Hfe, went straight to the West to try their fortunes. Another powerful agency for developing the West after The the war was the Union Pacific Railroad. The charter for Pacific Rail- building a great transcontinental highway was granted by "^d Congress in 1862. To encourage the building of the road Con- gress gave the companies constituting it (i) a right of way through the public domain; (2) the privilege of taking along the route such timber, stone, and earth as might be required for building the roadbed; (3) a loan from the Government varying from $16,000 to $48,000 per mile; (4) twenty sec- tions of land — 12,800 acres — alongside each mile of the road. The public land granted to the companies first and last amounted in all to 33,000,000 acres, an area considerably larger than the entire State of Pennsylvania. The road was built by two companies, one of which worked westward from Omaha and the other from Sacramento eastward. In Ne- braska the railroad was regarded by the Indians as an in- trusion and building operations had to be carried on under military protection, the engineers and workmen often being called upon " to exchange the peaceful theodolite, pick, and shovel for the ever-ready rifle." The construction was com- pleted at Ogden, Utah, where two trains, one eastbound, the other westbound, met in May 1869. The benefits of the Union Pacific were first felt in Nebraska Nebraska where a ribbon of settlements soon appeared along the line Wyoming of the road. We saw (p. 411) that the Nebraskans were urg- ing their claims to statehood as early as 1859. When the war was over the struggle for admission was renewed and in 1867 Nebraska was made a State. With the completion of the Union Pacific, Nebraska was connected with the markets of the world and her development was indeed rapid. By 1880 she had a population of nearly 500,000 and was taking her place as one of the great grain-growing States of the Union. Wyoming practically owes its existence to a railroad. In 1867 the Union Pacific laid out the town of Cheyenne, and the 492 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Colorado The New North- west The Custer Massacre next year the Territory of Wyoming was created by Congress. Colorado (p. 412), also, soon felt the benefits of the Union Pacific. In 1870 Denver was connected by a railroad with the Union Pacific system, and six years later Colorado was admitted as the " Centennial State.'' When it was admitted nearly all its wealth was in its mines (p. 412), but the people of Colorado understood the value of irrigation ; they watered by artificial means millions of acres of arid lands so that in time these irrigated lands more than equaled in value the products of the mines. Railroad-building also hastened the development of the section that may be called the New Northwest, a region ex- tending westward from Minnesota to the Pacific. The earliest settlement of this region began in 1863 when gold was dis- covered at the head-waters of the Missouri. The gold-fields were first reached by steamboats which ran from St. Louis to Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Upper Missouri. In 1864 Congress encouraged the opening of the Xew North- west by chartering the Northern Pacific Railroad and grant- ing it a subsidy of nearly 43,000,000 acres of the public lands, an area greater than that of all New England. The Northern Pacific was to connect Duluth on Lake Superior with Portland, Oregon, and with Tacoma and Seattle on Puget Sound. The presence of white men in the country of the U^pper Missouri was resented by the Indians even more bitterly than it was in the Nebraska country. To the workmen who built the Northern Pacific the redskins were especially troublesome. In 1876 it became necessary to send regular United States troops against the Indians in order that they might be sub- jugated and brought to terms. Before their reduction was achieved, however, they dealt our troops a terrible blow. In southern Montana a large force of Sioux Indians under Chief Sitting Bull suddenly surrounded a division of 260 men under General George Custer and killed every man, includ- ing the brave Custer himself. Notwithstanding this reverse, the task of subduing the Indian was continued and in a few EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES 493 years the white man was the undisputed master of the entire Northwest. With the Indians put down and the means of transporta- Idaho tion established, the New Northwest rapidly changed from a state of savagery to a state of civilization. Idaho was or- ganized as a Territory in 1863 and Montana was made a Montana Territory in 1864. The Dakotas (p. 411), which in i860 had a combined population of less than 5,000, by 1880 had a popu- lation of 135,000. In the wilderness along the banks of the Upper Missouri, where nothing dwelt except wild animals and fierce Indians, and where one could travel for days at a time without seeing a single white man, towns were built and fields were brought under cultivation. Yankton, Pierre, Sioux Falls, and Bismarck became thriving centers of trade. Civilization also made its way to the newly-found gold-fields and within a few years Virginia City and Helena were pros- perous cities. 159. INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY AND INDUSTRIAL REVERSES. The opening of the West led to an enormous extension Agricui- of our agricultural area. Between i860 and 1880 the number of our farms doubled and the accompanying increase of im- proved farm land amounted to about 120,000,000 acres. As a result, by 1880 we were producing 30 per cent, of the grain of the world. Since this was vastly more than we needed we had a surplus to send abroad. We could export this grain at a profit, for the competition of the railways lowered the rates of transportation from the West to the seaboard. Our foreign shipments of wheat, which before and during the Civil War were becoming considerable (p. 471), had by 1880 risen to 150,000,000 bushels a year. In truth, by 1880 we were by far the greatest grain-exporting nation in the world. With agriculture expanding in this manner, the manufactur- Manufac- ing industries were bound to prosper. Indeed, after the war manufacturing in the United States took on new life, and flourished as never before. There were several reasons why 494 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY this should be so. In the first place the ever-expanding West gave the Eastern manufacturers an ever-expanding market for their goods. Then, after the fighting of the Civil War was over, tiie South renewed its demands upon the North for its manufactures. But perhaps the most powerful stim- ulus to manufacturing during this period was the high tarifif which had been imposed during the war (p. 468). This tariff was so high — the average rate on imports was 47% — that in many cases it was prohibitive. Under these favorable con- ditions the growth of manufacturing in the years following the war was unprecedented. An official report declared that during the five years after 1864 more cotton spindles were put into operation, more iron furnaces erected, more iron smelted, more steel made, more coal and copper mined, more lumber sawed and hewn, more houses and shops constructed, more manufactures of different kinds started, and more petroleum collected, refined and exported, than during any equal period in the history of the country. The increase in railroad-build- ing was astounding. In the four years preceding 1873 over 25,000 miles of railroad were laid. The But this marvelous prosperity did not continue unbroken. Panic of^^^ In the autumn of 1873 the great banking-house of Jay Cooke & Co., in Philadelphia, failed to meet its obligations, and the failure was the beginning of the most disastrous panic the country had experienced. The chief cause of this panic was excessive railroad-building. An enormous amount of money had been spent in building roads that were either not needed at all or that could not yield a return for some years, and thousands of the investors in these roads found that their money was gone and that no dividends were being returned. As a result, money was scarce and with its scarcity came hard times. The period of hard times lasted from 1873 to 1878. " These five years," says Rhodes, " are a long, dismal tale of declining markets, exhaustion of capital, and a lowering in value of all kinds of property, including real estate, con- stant bankruptcies, close economy in business, and grinding frugality in living; mills, furnaces, and factories reduced to 1873 EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES 495 the value of a scrap-heap, laborers out of employment, reduc- tions of wages, strikes and lockouts, the great railroad riots of 1877, suffering of the unemployed, depression and de- spair." ^ The panic of 1873 ^^^ to many disturbances in the labor organiza- world. In order to offset the decline in business the wages "°° of employees were reduced. This reduction was strongly opposed by the workingmen, who by this time were fairly well organized. Before the war, labor organization was on a small scale and was local in character (p. 339). Probably not more than four national unions were in existence in i860. But during the war there was great activity in the labor world. The laboring man did not share in the prosperity that came to the employers in the war times (p. 471). He paid higher prices for the necessities of life but his wages did not rise in a corresponding degree. This failure of wages to rise with prices led workingmen to organize in a vigorous fashion and in many cases they formed national unions. So when employers in the seventies began to lower wages the workingmen were in a position to resist the reduction. The growing power of labor was shown in the railroad strike f^^^^ which occurred in 1877 on the Baltimore and Ohio, the ^iot^ Pennsylvania, and other roads. During these strikes violence was resorted to and property was destroyed. In Pittsburgh and in Baltimore there were conflicts between the strikers and soldiers that resulted in the loss of a number of lives and in the destruction of property worth many millions of dol- lars. For several days Pittsburgh was in the hands of a mob 'i- Great Fires — Another influence that may have hastened the panic of 1873 was the destruction of property by great fires. In October 1871, a fire broke out in Chicago and raged for two days, destroying 7,000 buildings and causing 20 deaths. Seventy thousand persons were rendered homeless and the property loss was nearly $200,000,000. In 1872 Boston was also visited by a fire which de- stroyed 800 of the finest buildings of the city and caused a property loss of _about $80,000,000. The Centennial — -A more cheerful event of Grant's administration was the cele- bration of the Centennial of America's Independence by the holding of a great International Exposition at Philadelphia. The Exposition furnished all nations an opportunity to exhibit their products, and forty of the great governments of the world took part in the display. It was opened on May 10, 1876, by President Grant, and continued open for 158 days. It was visited by nearly 10,000,000 people. 496 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Patrons of Hus- bandry The Granger Cases which burned depots, train-sheds, round-houses, and threat- ened to burn the entire city. The strikers for the most part failed in their contentions but they made it plain that labor organizations had become a force with which employers would have to reckon. The farmers of the Middle West also became restive, and began to organize for self-protection. The Patrons of Hus- bandry, who were first organized in 1866, became especially active in the seventies. They increased their organization until by 1876 their granges — local societies — numbered 10,000 and their membership nearly 1,500,000. One of the chief aims of the Grangers, — as the Patrons were usually called, — was to secure from the railroads reasonable rates for their farm products. They succeeded in inducing the legislatures of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to fix rates for transportation charges. The enforcement of the granger laws was vigorously op- posed by the railroad owners who contended that their busi- ness was a private one and that the legislatures had neither the right nor the power to fix the rates a railroad should charge. They carried their case to the courts and in 1877 the Supreme Court of the United States in the noted " granger cases " decided against them, declaring that the State laws fixing railroad rates were valid. ^ Thus the enactment of granger laws was the first step in a movement that at last resulted in bringing the railroads completely under the control of the government. The Betire- ment of the Green- backs 160. THE CURRENCY AND THE TARIFF. After reconstruction was accomplished, the most impor- tant political questions that arose for solution related to the public finances and to the tarilif. The national debt in 1869 amounted to a little more than $2,500,000,000 and consisted of bonds and United States notes (j). 468). How was this 1 In 1913, the .Supreme Court decided in the Minnesota Cases that a State can fix intrastate rates even though they affect interstate commerce, providing there is no federal statutt to ihe contrary. EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES 497 debt to be paid? Congress in March 1869, solemnly de- clared that both the bonds and the notes (greenbacks) should be paid in coin, that is, in gold or silver. Its pledge as to the bonds was kept but there was trouble about the green- backs. These, as we saw (p. 468), amounted at one time to about $450,000,000. After the war was over the govern- ment adopted the policy of retiring the greenbacks ; as the greenbacks found their way to the Treasury at Washington, they were destroyed, just as promissory notes are usually destroyed when they have been paid. The retirement of the greenbacks continued until 1868, when the amount of this kind of money had been reduced to $356,000,000. This contract- ing of the volume of the currency was opposed by a large num- ber of people who believed that the country needed more money, not less money. The opposition to retirement was strongest in the West where the expanding conditions of busi- ness required larger and larger sums of money. Congress in 1868 yielded to the sentiment against contraction and ceased to retire the greenbacks. But inasmuch as the greenbacks were to remain in circulation, it became necessary to give them the same currency value as gold. So, Congress in 1875 passed the Redemption Act, which provided that after June The 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury should redeem green- tion backs in gold, dollar for dollar, whenever they should be presented to the Treasury for redemption. In order that this might be done the Secretary sold bonds for gold and kept this gold in the treasury vaults as a special fund for redeem- ing the greenbacks. The amount of gold thus set aside for redemption purposes was $100,000,000. It was not expected that all the greenbacks would be presented for redemption. When redemption day arrived practically no greenbacks were presented. The mere knowledge that the notes could be ex- changed for gold satisfied the holders and no exchange was demanded. In 1878, Congress provided that when a greenback was redeemed in specie " it should not be retired, cancelled, or destroyed, but should be re-issued, and paid out again and kept in circulation." Thus the greenbacks- were perma- Act 498 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY ncntly established in our currency system on an equal footing with gold. They amounted in 1879 to about $346,000,000 and the amount has never been materially decreased. They re- main part of our national debt that has never been paid. The Another important currency measure of Grant's administra- Demoni- . . . . ., t^i • i- i i tization tion was the demonetization of silver. 1 his was accomplished of . . . . Silver in 1 873 when Congress discontinued the free coinage of silver (p, 230) and established the gold dollar as the standard of value. At the time of its passage the law demonetizing silver inflicted no hardship upon the holders of the white metal, for the bullion in a silver dollar was worth about $1.02 in gold and it was more profitable to keep silver in its bullion form than it was to coin it. But about the same time that silver was demonetized, Germany began to withdraw large quanti- ties of silver from circulation and several other countries of Europe began to restrict the coinage of silver. Moreover, there was presently an enormous increase in the output of the silver mines of Nevada. The result was that in the years following 1873 silver as compared to gold fell in value. By 1876 the silver in a dollar was worth only ninety cents. Those who held silver bullion now wanted the remonetiza- tion of silver; that is, they wanted free coinage at the old rate of 16 to i. Keduc- Several attempts were made in Congress during Grant's of administration to lower the tarifif rates, but very little was accomplished in that direction. In 1870, however, a half- hearted measure was passed reducing duties on some articles in which the American manufacturers had little interest. There was a slight reduction on pig iron, but this was offset by an increase of duty on steel rails. In 1870 there was also a substantial reduction in the internal taxes which had been so indiscriminately imposed (p. 468) on domestic articles during the war. In the same year the income tax was re- duced, and provision was made that it should speedily ex- pire. This tax was always unpopular and it was flagrantly evaded. Yet during the eleven years of its existence it yielded nearly $350,000,000 of revenue. EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES 499 i6i. THE AFTERMATH OF RECONSTRUCTION. While Congress was dealing with currency matters and the Carpet tariff it was also giving a share of its attention to the affairs ^"le of the South, for the settlement of the Southern question was by no means completed when the last of the reconstruc- tion (p. 488) acts was passed. A pernicious and disturbing element in the South consisted of the carpet-baggers (p. 484). These men, as a rule, were of such questionable character that they could not have been elected to a petty office in the Northern communities from which they came. In the South, however, by playing upon the prejudices of the ne- groes and taking advantage of their ignorance, they were able to secure the votes of the negroes and rise to the highest offices in the State. The purpose of the carpet-baggers was to make money out of politics, and in the States where carpet- bag government secured a foothold, there was the most shame- ful corruption. For instance, in South Carolina, where the carpet-baggers for a while held full sway, $200,000 was spent by the legislature for furniture and $150,000 for printing. Of course most of this money was what we would now call "graft." The most expensive wines, liquors, and cigars were ordered to be sent to the boarding-houses of the mem- bers, many of whom were ex-slaves. Upon one occasion the legislature of South Carolina appropriated $1,000 to re-imburse the speaker of the house for a loss he had sustained by betting on a horse-race. The winner of the bet was the negro mem- ber who made the motion that the money be appropriated ! In the conduct of the government the most shocking ignorance prevailed. In Alabama in one county the sheriff was a negro who could not read. In the legislatures the negroes were so ignorant that they could only watch their white leaders — carpet-baggers — and vote .aye or no as they were told. As early as 1866 the native whites of the South began to The •' . ° Ku-Klux- protect themselves agamst the carpet-baggers and the negroes. Kian They organized a secret society which was known as the Ku- Klux-Klan. The purpose of this organization was to prevent L 500 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY the negro from voting, to compel him to work at reasonable wages, and to lead a quiet, peaceable life. The society did everything it could to make the life of the carpet-bagger miserable. In order to terrify the negro the members of the Klan wore a l 4k , f ^ white mask, a tall card-board hat, and a gown that covered the whole body. When the Klan went on horseback the bod- ies of the horses were covered with white sheets and the feet of the horses were muf- The trial of an accused white man by the flg(J Qq ^J^g q^. Ku-Klux-Klan. . . , per contammg the threats sent to the negroes were pictures of crossed swords, skulls, owls, bloody moons, and the like. But in carrying out its purposes, the Klan sometimes went further than merely to terrify the negro; in some cases acts of violence were com- mitted. Indeed, the offenses of the Ku-Klux-Klan became so great that in 1871 Congress took matters in hand and passed a series of Force Laws, the enforcement of which caused the society to be suppressed and many of its members to be ar- rested. 162. CORRUPTION IN HIGH PLACES. The But bad government in the days of Grant's administration Ring was not confined to the carpet-bag regimes in the South. In 1870 William M. Tweed and his gang were robbing the tax- payers of New York City as shamefully as the carpet-bag- gers were robbing the taxpayers of South Carolina. Tweed was the " boss " of Tammany Hall and the local leader of the Democratic party. He secured the control of the city EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES 501 government and plundered the city treasury on a scale unparal- leled in the history of public theft. The favorite method of stealing was by raising the accounts of those who worked for the city or furnished it with supplies. For example, if a man had a bill against the city for $5,000 he was asked to raise it to $55,000. When this was done, the one presenting the bill received $5,000 while the remaining $50,000 were divided among the members of the Tweed Ring. In this manner a plasterer working on the court-house received $133,000 in two days ! After the ring had carried on its corrupt practices for two or three years and had stolen a sum variously es- timated at from $45,000,000 to $200,000,000, Tweed fell into the clutches of the law and was imprisoned, the man who did most to overthrow him being Samuel J. Tilden. The corruption of the time was so widespread that charges credit ,. , , . , J. ^ Mobilier of venality were brought even agamst members 01 Congress and of the President's Cabinet.^ In 1872 scandals began to come to light in regard to the transactions of the Credit Mobilier, the construction company which built the Union Pacific Railroad. It was charged that certain Senators and Representatives had been bribed by the Credit Mobilier to assist in securing legislation favorable to the interests of the com- pany. A report made by a committee of investigation showed clearly that at least two members of the House were guilty of the charges brought against them. But more disgraceful than the afifair of the Credit Mobilier ^^.^j^ were the frauds committed upon the government by the ^^^s Whisky Ring. This was composed of distillers of St. Louis and of several officers of the federal government. These men worked together to defraud the government of its lawful revenue upon liquor, and it is estimated that in six years they put into their pockets nearly $3,000,000 that ought to have been paid into the treasury of the United States. Even the name of President Grant himself was connected with these frauds for he accepted as a present from a leader of the 1 In 1876, W. W. Belknap, Secretary of War, was impeached for accepting bribes. Belknap at once resigned in order to escape conviction. 1876 502 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Whisky Ring a carriage and a pair of valuable horses, while his private secretary was a member of the ring and a sharer in its guilty profits. Grant, however, declared that he knew nothing of the wrong-doing of his secretary and of course he was innocent of any complicity with the Whisky Ring. Grant's administration suffered by reason of the wrong-doing and bad faith of some of his political associates, but every- body knew that personally the President was as pure and honest as he was brave and patriotic. 163. THE ELECTION OF 1876. The When the time came for the election of a successor to Election , , . . . ?i-7R Grant, the Republican party was under a cloud of suspicion and distrust. " The low tone of political morality," said George William Curtis, a leading Republican in 1876, " that has prevailed in ofiicial Republican service, the unceasing dis- position of the officers and agents of the administration of this country to prostitute the party organization relentlessly and at all costs to personal ends, has everywhere aroused the apprehension of the friends of free government." As their candidate for the Presidency in 1876 the Republicans nom- inated Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. The Democrats nom- inated Samuel J. Tilden and went before the country with a platform that had reform as its keynote.'^ Tilden received the largest popular vote, but there were only 184 electoral votes that were certainly his and he needed 185. The electoral votes of South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, and Oregon were claimed both for Hayes and for Tilden. If Hayes could secure all the electoral votes of all the doubtful States, he would be elected; if Tilden could secure only one electoral vote in any one of these States he would be elected. How was the dispute about the electoral votes of these doubt- ful States to be settled? Congress could not very well settle 1 The Greenback party nominated Peter Cooper of New York. This party was in favor of issues of paper money based solely on the credit of the country and on the good faith of the government. The Prohibition party in 1876 nominated Green Clay Smith of Kentucky. The purpose of the Prohibition party was to prevent the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLOUS TIMES So3 the dispute according to the terms of the Constitution (148), The for at the time the House of Representatives was Democratic commis- and the Senate was Republican. If the counting of the votes had been left to the Republican president of the Senate (147) the votes of all the doubtful States would almost certainly have been thrown to Hayes and he would have been elected. Nor could Congress very well settle the dispute by its own action. If the two houses had acted separately there would have been an interminable deadlock. If they had acted upon the question sitting together in joint session, Tilden would certainly have been elected without regard to the merits of the case. So, to settle the difficulty Congress availed itself of an outside agency: it provided for the appoint- ment of an Electoral Commission to be composed of five members of the House of Representatives, five Senators, and five associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States — fifteen members in all. After the organization of the Commission was completed its membership consisted of 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats. The Commission by a vote of 8 to 7 decided that all the electoral votes of all the doubt- ful States belonged to Hayes, who was accordingly declared to be elected, and was inaugurated March 4, 1877. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The South after the War: Halsey IX, 59-69; Dunning, 233-237; E. B. Andrews, The United States in Our Own Time, 111-130. 2. The first railroad across the continent: Halsey IX, 122-130; Dun- ning, 144-146, 231-233. 3. Trace the progress of manufacturing between i860 and 1880: Bogart, 408-421. 4. Giive an account of the Chicago Fire as described by an eye wit- ness : Halsey IX, 135-150. 5. The Greeley campaign: Halsey IX, 173-180; Rhodes VI, 412- 434- 6. The overthrow of the Tweed Ring: Rhodes VI, 392-411; Halsey IX, 151-157. 7. The Panic of 1873: Bassett, 665-668; Halsey IX, 181-187; Rhodes VII, 3^52. S04 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY 8. The Ku-Klux-Klan: Hart, 495-497; Rhodes VI, 180-183, 312- 316; Dunning, 121-123, 186-188. 9. The Electoral Commission: Dunning, 309-341; Rhodes, 254-279; Hart IV, 505-507. 10. Dates for the chronological table: 1872, 1876. 11. For the table of admitted States: West Virginia, Nevada, Ne- braska, Colorado. 12. Give an account of the capture of the Virginius. What was the "crime of 1873"? What was the "tidal wave of 1874"? Describe the " Black Friday " : Halsey IX, 131-134. What were the principal causes of the growth of our grain exports after i860? Bogart, 307- 315. Describe a " bonanzo " farm of the West: {World's Work, Vol. VIII). Give the history of the Alabama Claims and the Geneva Award; Bassett, 670-674; Haworth, 60-63, 13. Special Reading. W. G. Brown, The Lower South in American History. Woodrow Wilson, History of the American People, Vol V. R. E. Lee, Recollections and Letters. XLII EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH (1877-1885) By the time Hayes entered upon the Presidency (March 1877) the evils which followed in the wake of the Civil War were van- ishing and the country was approaching an era of industrial and commercial development more striking than any that had gone be- fore. This development absorbed by far the greater part of the nation's energy and received by far the greater part of the citizen's interest and attention. After the days of the Reconstruction political questions began to be neglected and the deep currents of American life were turned to commerce and industry. 164. HAYES; GARFIELD; ARTHUR. Hayes, tliroughout his administration, was beset by diffi- The culties of the most trying nature. He was handicapped by a cuiues widespread suspicion that his elec- Hayes tion had not been secured by fair means. He was confronted by a hostile majority in one or both Houses of Congress during his en- tire term of ofifice. Within six months after his inauguration he lost the support of the leaders of his own party, and he never re- gained their support. Neverthe- ' less, Hayes was an upright and J honorable administrator and he Rutherford B. Hayes. I proved to be precisely the kind of President the country needed. I The country needed a cessation of bitterness between the SOS 5o6 ADVANCED AlVIERICAN HISTORY The Removal of the Troops The Bland- Allison Silver Bill North and the Soutli, and at the outset Hayes undertook to estabhsh peaceful and harmonious relations between the two sections. One of liis first political acts was to withdraw from the South the troops that were being employed in maintain- ing the governments established during the process of re- construction (p. 484). Most of the Federal troops had been withdrawn from the South during the administration of Cirant, but a few hundred soldiers were still supporting the carpet-bag governments of South Carolina and Louisiana. Hayes ordered (April 1877) the troops in these two States to be withdrawn and with their withdrawal the carpet-bag governments fell. This action of the President incurred the displeasure of his party associates for it broke the power of the Republican party in the South. But the withdrawal of the troops was a blessing to the Southern people, for they could now assume control of their own affairs. The peaceful policy of Hayes bore fruit. The feeling of enmity between the North and the South began to pass away and the wounds caused by the war healed rapidly. Inasmuch as the President and the Congress belonged to different parties, the history of the administration of Hayes is largely a story of a contest between the law-making and the executive departments. The most important measure passed while Hayes was President was passed in 1878 over his veto. This was the Bland-Allison Silver Bill which at- tempted to undo in part the work which was done by the demonetization of silver (p. 498), The law provided that the Secretary of the Treasury should buy not less than $2,000,000 nor more than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion each month and coin it into silver dollars. The original bill provided for the free and unlimited coinage of silver, but .Senator Allison of Iowa secured an amendment restricting the amount to be coined. The debate and the voting on this bill showed that in the West there was a strong sentiment for the free coinage of silver. In his speech of acceptance Hayes announced that it was his " inflexible purpose " not to be a candidate for reelection. He EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH 507 would hardly have been able to secure a renomination if The Presi- he had desired one for he was extremely unpopular with the dentiai ,-,,,. - . . ,. Caudi- party managers. When the time came for nomniatmg a candi- dates in date to succeed Hayes, a determined effort was made to re- nominate General Grant. But cries of " Csesarism " and " no third term " were raised and the efforts to renominate the ex-President failed. The candidate chosen by the Republi- cans in 1880 was James A. Garfield of Ohio, the vice-presi- dential candidate being Chester A. Arthur of New York. The Republican platform called for protection to American labor, that is, for a protective tariff, and for a " thorough, rational, and complete reform of the civil service." The Democrats nominated General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania, and declared for a tariff for revenue. The Greenback party nominated General James B. Weaver of Iowa. The Prohibitionists nominated Neal Dow of Maine. The campaign of 1880 was a mild and uneventful affair. The There was little of the sectional bitterness that in previous paign ... ,-,, and its campaigns had shown itself in ugly ways. Orators some- ecsuUb times attempted to wave the " bloody shirt," that is, to arouse animosity against the South, but usually they met with a cool reception. The Democrats promised a tariff for revenue with incidental protection and the Republicans a tariff for protec- tion with incidental revenue. But in reality the tariff was not made a clear-cut issue, for it was discussed by both parties in a vague and evasive manner. Garfield secured the majority of electoral votes, although the thread by which the Republicans retained power was almost as slender as it had been in 1876. There were nearly 9,000,000 votes cast for Garfield and Han- cock together, yet the majority of the former over the latter was only 7018. When General Garfield entered upon his duties (March 4, The 1881) he found himself overwhelmed by applications for of- for . Office fice. The example set by Jackson (p. 310) of rewarding his political friends by giving them the offices gradually led to the custom of turning out large numbers of office-holders at every change in administration and replacing them by the friends 5o8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Assassina* tion of Garfield Arthur Presi- dent James A. Garfield. of the incoming administration. Of course this custom created an unhealthy thirst for office and by Garfield's time the demands upon a new President exceeded the bounds of reason. Thousands who had worked for Garfield in the campaign came for- ward to share in the distribution of the offices. Office-seekers way- laid the President " when he ven- tured from the shelter of his offi- cial residence and followed him to the door of the church in which he worshiped." In truth, by 1880 the spoils system had become a na- tional scandal and disgrace. While in the midst of a bitter contention with Senators Conk- ling and Piatt of New York about the distribution of patronage in that State, President Garfield was made the victim of an assassin's bullet. On July 2, 1881, in the Penn- sylvania Railroad Station at Washington, he was shot in the back by an unbalanced fanatic who was at the same time a disappointed office-seeker. The wounded President was taken to Elberon, New Jersey, where he lay for some months fight- ing against death with splendid courage. But he slowly suc- cumbed and on September 19 he passed away. On the day after (^larfield's death, Vice-President Arthur was sworn in as President. Arthur had l)een nominated with the view of placating a faction of Republicans in New York who desired the renomination of Grant. The political associates of the new President were of the machine type and it was feared by many that he would conduct the affairs of the nation on a low plane. But such fears were groundless. President Arthur performed the duties of his high office in a conscientious manner and with ability and dignity. " Firm, wise, and vigilant, his administration was one of the very best in all our history." The assassination of a President by the hands of an office- EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH 509 seeker called the attention of the country in a most forcible The manner to the evils of the spoils system, and spurred Congress service to take measures to abate those evils. In 1883 Senator Pen- dleton of Ohio introduced a bill which had for its purpose the abolition of the spoils system and the establishment of the " merit system " in the making of appointments to the civil service. This bill was passed and became known as the Civil Service Law. It authorized the President to appoint three commissioners — the Civil Service Commission — who should hold examinations to ascertain the qualifications of those who applied for office. The law guaranteed appointment upon the basis of merit, for it provided that only those could be ap- pointed who had passed the examinations and who were best qualified. Under the Pendleton Act the spoils system was gradually abandoned and the merit system established. 165. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS (1877-1885). During the administrations of Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur, Factors the progress made in political matters was indeed trivial, indus- Between 1877 and 1885 Congress gave the country only one progress reform ^ of lasting importance — the Civil Service Law of 1883. But the industrial forces which were at work during these years were so favorable to growth that they made the period one of the most remarkable in our history. The chief factors of this development were (i) the revival of industry in the South; (2) the continued advance of the railroads upon the wilderness of the Far West; (3) an enormous influx of desirable immigrants; and (4) an unusual number of ex- tremely useful inventions. (i). At the close of the War the South was in a deplor- The able condition. The planters were impoverished and deeply south in debt ; they had neither money nor credit. The plantations and farms were scenes of desolation. The buildings were di- 1 In 1883 Congress revised the tariff, but the measure was of small importance, as the act made an average reduction of only about 3%, the duties being reduced on the cheaper grades of woolen and cotton goods and raised on the finer grades. The act of 1883, although relatively unimportant, was the first serious revision made in the tariff after the Civil War. 510 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Railroad Build- ing in the Far West lapidated and the fields were untillcd. The system of slave labor was destroyed and the freedmen were in a demoralized condition in respect to employment and wages. Many of them did not want to work at all, for they thought that to be free meant to be free from toil. But in good time the people of the Southland rallied and created a new South. The labor system was adjusted to new conditions and the resources of the Southern States were exploited on a scale never before known. By 1880 the South was on its feet industrially and financially and by 1890 it was highly prosperous. It was rais- ing vastly more cotton than before the War, and besides it was establishing manufactures and working its rich mines of coal and iron. " We have found out," said a distinguished Southerner, Henry W. Grady, in 1886, " we have found out that in the general summing-up the free negro counts for more than he did as a slave. We have sown towns and cities in the place of theories and put business above politics. We have challenged your spinners in Massachusetts and your iron- workers in Pennsylvania. . . . We admit that the sun shines as brightly and the moon as softly as it did ' before the War.' We have established thrift in city and country. We have fallen in love with work." (2). The Far West was also in love with work. Especially was it industrious in building railroads and opening up new land to settlement. By 1880 the Northern Pacific (p. 492) had been built from Duluth clear across Minnesota and Dakota, and in 1883 trains bearing guests from Chicago and from Portland met at a point in Montana where a spike was driven to mark the completion of the great Northern highway. Even earlier than this, transcontinental railroads were opening up a new Southwest. In 1881 a railroad which was afterwards known as the Southern Pacific was in operation between New Orleans and the Pacific Coast. Two years later the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe was completed and one could travel by rail from Kansas City to Los Angeles, There were now four great iron highways extending across the continent, like four mighty navigable rivers, to bear the burden of travel and trade. EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH SH (3). The lands opened up by the railways invited the im- ^^^^src migrant and quickly the immigrant came. The period of good times which succeeded the period of panic (1873-1877) brought an influx of immigrants such as the country had never before seen. Between 1878 and 1885 more than 4,000,000 foreigners sought to im- prove their condition by coming to the United States. In the single year 1882 immigration reached the enormous total of 788,000. Mil- lions of these new-comers were able-bodied, intelligent toilers and there was a brisk demand in the .j^., ,jr ^u • u ■ 1 Chester A. Arthur. mdustnal world for their bram and brawn. In seeking new homes these immigrants spread over almost the entire country. Only a small proportion of them, however, settled in the South. Large numbers of them re- mained in the East where as artisans and skilled workmen they took their places in shops and factories. But large numbers also were farmers and these for the most part sought the free land of the West. Many were Swedes and Norwegians who went to the Northwest and helped to build up Minnesota and Dakota.^ (4). The demands of the time called for new inventions and as usual the inventor rose to the occasion. The develop- 1 Restrictions upon Immigration. — Foreigners were coming to our shores in such great numbers during this period that about 1880 we began to feel that unlimited and unrestricted immigration was no longer desirable, so we began to place restraints upon the admission of foreigners. On the Pacific Coast Dennis Kearney led a movement against the further admission of Chinese and in response to this agitation Congress, in 1882, passed a law excluding Chinese laborers from the United States for a period of ten years, an exclusion which was renewed in 1892, and again in 1902. In 1882 Congress also ordered the deportation of all immi- grants who by reason of physical or mental defects were found to be persons unable to take care of themselves. In 1885 Congress made it unlawful for certain classes of laborers to enter the United States if previous to their coming they had entered into a contract to perform labor here. As a further hindrance to immigration Congress from time to time raised the tax imposed upon immi- grants. The tax in 1913 was four dollars on each immigrant. 512 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The ment of the West was greatly hastened by improvements piovf in farm machinery. The gang-plow — a series of several Self- plows joined together, mounted on wheels and drawn by traction engines — replaced the plow that was drawn by horses and turned but a single furrow. The simple reaper of the early McCormick type was replaced by the self-binder/ whose steel fingers as if with human intelligence bound the sheaves as fast as they were cut. With the steam- plow and the improved reaper one agricultural laborer was as efficient in the production of grain as two had been before these inventions were brought into use. Transportation also received a stimulus from invention. In 1858 Sir Henry Bes- semer of England invented a process by which tons of molten iron could be run into a furnace and in a few minutes be converted into a fine quality of steel. By 1870 American iron manufacturers were taking advantage of this process and steel were making steel rails for railroads and were constructing steel boilers for locomotives. With a steel rail that could stand immense friction w'ithout being injured and a steel boiler that could carry steam at great pressure, it was pos- sible to build locomotives that would draw large trains, and it was also possible to run the trains faster. But these heavy, fast-running trains could not be stopped by the simple hand brake that was in use. Sometimes a train would run as much as half a mile beyond a station before it could be stopped, and then when " backed " it would again pass beyond the station. So the problem of stopping a train became almost as important as that of starting one. George Westinghouse Mr- solved the problem by inventing the air-brake, a powerful brake which was operated directly from the engine by means of compressed air. Electricity also was brought into use for pur- poses of transportation. In 1882 Thomas A. Edison, of j\Ienlo Park in New Jersey, showed that a car could be operated by electricity. About 1885, street cars began to take their power from wires charged with electricity and the day of the trolley- 1 Later the self-binder was followed by the complete harvester, which cut the grain, threshed it, and put it into sacks. ^ The first passenger train in America, 1831. Trevethick's engine^ 1803. Peter Cooper's engine, 1830. An engine in the Porties. An engine in the Seventies. Photograph used by permission of Baldwin Locomotive Works An engine of to-day. THE DEVELOPMENT OF RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION. graph 514 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY car was at hand. Electricity was also used for illumina- tion. In 1878 Charles F. Brush of Cleveland, Ohio, invented a system of arc-lighting and soon the streets of our cities were illuminated with a light that fairly rivaled the light of day. The arc-light was excellent for lighting streets but it was not well-fitted for use within doors. But Edison soon Electric invented (in 1879) the electric incandescent lamp which could irg be used indoors as well as Qut. But the most wonderful inventions of the period were the telephone and the phono- graph. In 1876 Professor Alexander Graham Bell of Boston constructed an electrical apparatus which developed into the telephone. At first the telephone was only a toy and would operate only at short distances, but as improvements were The made the distances grew greater and greater until at last one phone could talk in Boston and be heard in Denver, or talk in New Phono- York and be heard in London. A phonograph — a sound- writer — in a rude form was invented by Edison in 1878. Ten years later the " wizard of Menlo Park " placed upon the market a phonograph that performed its work in a successful manner. With all these factors of progress working together, there is little wonder that our growth in material things during these years (1877-1885) was marvelous. Th^ swift rate at which we were moving may be learned from the table given below : TABLE OF PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1870 AND 1890. 1870 1880 1890 Farms and Farm Prop- erty $ 8,900,000,000 ^ $12,180,000,000 $16,082,000,000 Farm Products 1,950,000,000 2,212,000,000 2,400,000,000 Products of Manufac- turing 4,232,000,000 5,309,000,000 9,372,000,000 Imports of Merchandise 436,000,000 668.000,000 789,000,000 Exports of Merchandise 392,000,000 835,000,000 837.000,000 Miles of Railroad 53.ooo 93.ooo 167,000 1 The numbers are stated roundly and are based on the Statistical Abstract of igio EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH 515 1870 1880 1890 Total Wealth 30,000,000,000 43,000,000,000 65.000,000.000 Population 38,500,000 50,000,000 63.000,000 Urban Population 8,000,000 11,300,000 18,200,000 Pupils enrolled in Public Schools 7,000,000 10,000,000 13,000,000 166. PROGRESS IN EDUCATION. This highly complex and progressive industrial develop- ^^^"'ti nient could not have been achieved without a very wide dif- fusion of knowledge among the people. The foundations of popular education laid before the war (p. 419) were broadened and deepened after the war, and by 1885 there had been es- tablished in every State an elaborate system of common schools which furnished the rudiments of education free to all chil- dren, both black and white. Moreover, there was now in al- most every State an elaborate system of high schools. The enrollment of pupils in the schools of the country assumed an enormous total. In 1870 there were 6,000,000 pupils in our public schools; in 1890 there were 13,000,000. Of course illiteracy was reduced in a corresponding degree, the percentage of illiterates over 10 years of age falling from 17 per cent, in 1880 to 13.3 per cent, in 1890. Although the heavy expense of the public school system The — an expense which by 1890 amounted annually to nearly Grant $150,000,000 — was borne almost wholly by the State and local governments, yet the federal government continued to con- tribute liberally (p. ^2>7) to the cause of popular education. In 1862 Congress, " recognizing the changes consequent upon the introduction of machinery and the advent of steam and electricity as elements of industrial progress," passed the Mor- rill Act — usually known as the Land Grant Act — which pro- vided for the sale of nearly 10,000,000 acres of public lands, the proceeds of which were to be devoted to the support in every State of higher institutions of learning where technical and agricultural branches should be taught. As a result of the aid thus given nearly every State in the Union by 1885 had established a school in which instruction was given in Si6 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Bureau of Educa- tion Colleges and Universi- ties Litera- ture agricultural aud other industrial arts. In a number of States the money received from the Morrill Act was used for found- ing a university, the Universities of California, Maine, Mon- tana, Nebraska, Nevada, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Cor- nell University being among the institutions that owe their origin to the beneficent statute. In 1867 Congress again showed its friendliness to the public school by establishing the federal Bureau of Education which under the management of such distinguished educators as Henry Barnard and "William Tor- rey Harris performed an admirable service by collecting and disseminating information upon almost every conceivable topic of educational interest. But it was not only public education that flourished during this period. Privately endowed colleges and universities in- creased in number at a rate never before known and the gifts to the higher institutions of learning were dazzling in their magnificence, amounting altogether to many millions of dol- lars. Smith, Wellesley, Johns Hopkins, Bryn Mawr, the Catholic University, Leland Stanford, Jr., and the University of Chicago were all founded between 1872 and 1892. As the higher institutions grew in number and in the extent of their resources they improved in their methods of instruc- tion. Under the leadership of Charles William Eliot, who for forty years was the President of Harvard, the rigid cur- riculum which had come down from the Middle Ages (p. 4) was discarded and in its place was adopted an elective system whereby the student was given large freedom in the choice of subjects to be studied. Under the leadership of Daniel Coit Oilman, the President of Johns Hopkins, universities began to emphasize the value of graduate work and to en- courage advanced students to make original contributions to knowledge. Alice Freeman Palmer, as the President of Wellesley, by insisting upon high standards, demonstrated that colleges for women can attain a grade of scholarship as advanced as that attained by colleges for men. The progress made in literature during this period fell short of that made in other directions. Literary productions Photographed by Underwood ft Uuderwou li. K. Lower New York City from the rivci. 5i8 ADVANCED AMI-RiC"AN IIISIOUV after the War did not maintain the high level reached by 1860. The great authors of the earHer period (p. 420) continued their excellent work, but books of real genius by new writers were few. Still, many volumes of solid worth appeared. By 1890 William Dean Howells, Bret Harte, F. Marion Craw- ford, Henry James, and George W, Cable had told many of their best stories ; Sidney Lanier, Eugene Field, Thomas J>ailey Aldrich, James WhitcomI) Riley, C. II. (Joaquin) Miller, and R. W. Gilder had published many of their entertaining poems. Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain"), and E. W. (Bill) Nye had delighted millions of readers with their in- imitable humor; John Fiske, Henry Adams, and John Bach McMaster had made scholarly contributions to American history. 167. THE GROWTH OF CITIES. We saw (p. 416) that by i860 manufacturing in the United States had almost overtaken agriculture. The Table on pages 514, 515 shows that by 1890 manufacturing had not only passed agriculture but had left it far in the rear. The Table also shows that by 1890 our foreign trade was in a most thriving condition. In fact by 1890, we had become a great manufactur- ing and a great commercial nation. One result of this growth was to bring larger numbers of people together in cities. In 1890 we were no longer a distinctly rural people, for we had many great cities and nearly 30 per cent, of our entire popula- tion was urban. In 1870 the number of towns and cities that had a population of over 8,000 was 226; in 1890 it was 447. New York, wdiich owed its growth chiefly to commerce, had in 1890 a population of nearly 2,500,000 ^ and was ranking with the very largest cities of the world. Chicago, whose growth was also largely due to commerce — that of the Great Lakes — had outstripped all the cities of the West and contained 1 This number includes the population of Brooklyn, which, however, in 1890 was a separate municipality. In 1898 Brooklyn and several other suburbs were annexed to New York proper, the newly incorporated city being known as " Greater New York." In 19 10 Greater New York contained nearly 5,000,000 inhabitants and was the largest city in the world except London. EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH 519 more than a million of souls. Philadelphia, known as the Manchester of America because of its vast manufactures, had also a "populationi^ over a million. St. Louis, Boston, and Baltimore each had a population of nearly half a million. Nine other (i^ties — Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Bufifalo, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Washing- ton, D. C. — had passed the two hundred thousand mark, while Newark and Minneapolis were rapidly approaching that mark. Cities grew wherever trade and manufacturing flourished, and this was in nearly every section of the country. In New Eng- land, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania where manu- factures were most highly developed, more than half the popu- lation lived in cities. 168. THE GROWTH OF LABOR ORGANIZATIONS. The growth in urban population was accompanied by a Knighu corresponding growth in labor organizations. This was to Labor DC expected, for in cities it is easy for workingmen to com- bine and protect their interests by acting in concert. After the great strikes of 1877 wage-earners began to organize on a broader and larger scale than ever before. Up to this period most labor organizations were composed only of those who were engaged in the same trade or occupation. There was one labor association which admitted not only wage-earn- ers of different trades but all persons over sixteen, whatever might be their occupation, except that it did not admit " saloon- keepers, gamblers, bankers, or lawyers." This was the society known as the Knights of Labor. The motto of the Knights was " an injury to one is the concern of all," and its object was " to secure to the workmen the full enjoyment of the wealth they create and sufficient leisure to develop their in- tellectual, moral, and social faculties." The Knights declared in favor of woman suffrage, an eight-hour day, government ownership of the railroads, and the prohibition of the em- ployment of children (p. 335) under fourteen years of age. The Knights of Labor were organized in 1869 but the real growth of the order began after the labor troubles of 1877. 520 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The American Federa- tion of Labor In 1882 the Knights had a membership of 140,000 and by 1886, under the leadership of Terence V. Powderly, the mem- bership reached the high mark of 730,000. After 1886 the Knights began to decHne both in power and in numbers. The decline of the Knights of Labor was due chiefly to the rise of the American Federation of Labor which dates its organization from 1881. The Federation of Labor was or- ganized with the purpose of uniting the trade unions into a federated body in much the same way as the States are united under the federal government. Each trade union joining the Federation of Labor was to be allowed to govern itself in respect to those matters which pertained to its own trade and it was to govern itself with its own officers. The dif- ference between the Knights of Labor and the Federation of Labor is stated by Samuel Gompers, for many years pres- ident of the Federation, as follows : " The Knights admitted any one to membership . . . ; the Federation confines mem- bership to workingmen, not admitting even farmers who are employers of labor on their farms. The Knights were a centralized society based on lodges established by the central union; the Federation is based on its unions' individuality. But chief of all, the Knights assumed that organization of all classes of workers in one union in each locality would bring about the best results, while the Federation realized that the organization of each trade in its particular union and the affiliation of all unions in a comprehensive federation was sure to strengthen each and bring advantage to all." The objects of the Federation are: to secure legislation in the interest of the working masses ; to encourage the sale of union- labeled goods ; to influence public opinion by peaceful and legal methods in favor of organized labor ; and to aid and en- courage the labor press of America. The Federation seemed to meet the needs of the workingmen and it saw its mem- bership grow from 262,000 in 1881 to more than 2,000,000 in 1914. The largest union affiliated with the Federation had a membership in 191 2 of over 200,000. EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH 521 169. THE ELECTION OF GROVER CLEVELAND. Although labor organizations flourished while Arthur was The President, there were few labor disturbances, for the country dentiai . ' 1 . Candi- was prosperous and workingmen had but few complaints, dates And the affairs of the country were well and wisely admin- i884 istered under Arthur's administration. But Arthur reaped no political advantage from the favorable condition of things. He failed to secure the support and confidence of his party, and when the Republicans made their nomination for Pres- ident in 1884 their choice fell upon James G. Blaine of Maine. Blaine was one of the most brilliant men of his time and with the rank and file of his party he was a popular idol. But in 1884 there were many Republicans who felt that their party had become corrupt and dishonest and who demanded that it reform its ways. These reformers — Independents as they called themselves. Mugwumps as they were called in derision by others — refused to support the Plumed Knight — as Blaine was called — on the ground that his record was bad and that he could not be trusted to put down corruption. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland of New York and a short time after his nomination a convention of Inde- pendent Republicans indorsed his candidacy as a rebuke to " increasing public corruption and the want of official in- tegrity in the highest trusts of government." The Prohibi- tionists named John P. St. John of Kansas as their candi- date. The Equal Rights party, which demanded the suffrage for women, nominated Mrs. Belva A. Lockwood, a woman lawyer of Washington. Again the campaign was lacking in well-defined issues. On The the all-important subject of the tariff the two great parties paign were even closer together than they were in 1880. The Re- issi publicans in 1884 declared for a tariff " not for revenue only, but to afford security to our domestic interests and protection to the rights and wages of the laborers." The Democrats aban- doned the demand made four years before for tariff for revenue only and were content to advocate a tariff which 522 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY " would not injure any domestic industry but rather promote their healthy growth, without depriving American labor of the ability to compete successfully with foreign labor.'' In other words, the Republicans in 1884 were in favor of a protective tarifif and the Democrats were not opposed to one. Since there was no great principle to contend for, the cam- paign degenerated into one of personalities and abuse, and no party contest was ever conducted with less regard to decency and good manners. The Republicans fought earnestly to re- tain the power which they had held so long, but in vain. When the official count was ended it was found that Cleve- land had 219 electoral votes and Blaine 182. The election, however, was extremely close. A majority of 1,149 votes in New York threw the 36 electoral votes of that State to Cleve- land and gave him the Presidency. The Although no great public question was definitely settled in of the the election of 1884, the contest, nevertheless, was one of the Election Utmost significance. By electing Cleveland the voters of the country not only broke the power, temporarily at least, of the great party that seemed to be well-nigh invincible, but they bestowed power upon a party that had its greatest strength in the South and that was largely controlled by Southern in- fluence. This was an expression of confidence which meant that Northern men were no longer afraid to have Southern men as leaders in the councils of the nation. The election of Cleveland, therefore, had the effect of drawing the North and South together and causing the two sections to deal with each other in a spirit of friendship and mutual good-will. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR SPECIAL WORK 1. President Hayes and the South: Sparks, 84-102; Andrews, 225- 228. 2. Civil Service evils: Sparks, 154-164; Andrews, 99, 243-247, 336- 341- 3. The assassination of Garfield: Halsey X, 27-35; Andrews, 329- 333- 4. The emergence of the labor problems : Bogart, 472-485. EIGHT YEARS OF WONDROUS GROWTH 5-^3 5. The Far West: Sparks, 251-264. 6. Educational development : Dexter, 223-340. 7. The invention of the telephone and electric light: Halsey X, 3-18. 8. Henry W. Grady on the New South : Harding, 489-500. 9. The Blaine-Cleveland campaign : Sparks, 305-326. 10. Dates for the chronological table: 1877, 1883. 1884. 11. Give an account of the methods by which negro suffrage in the South has been restricted. Who were the "half-breeds"? the "stal- warts"? the " holier-than-thou's "? Give an account of the " Murchi- son Letter." Tell the story of the Greely and Jcannclte Expeditions. ^ 12. The Growth of Urban Population: — The rapidity with which urban population has grown is shown in the following table which gives the total population of all places of 8,000 inhabitants or more from the earliest to the latest census : Census Year 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 i860 1870 1880 T890 1900 1910 Urban Population 131,472 210,373 356,920 475,175 864,509 1,433.994 2,897,566 5,072,256 8,071,875 11,450,894 18,327,987 25,142.978 Number of Places 6 6 II 13 26 44 85 141 226 291 449 556 778 Per cent. of total population 3-3 4.0 4.9 4.9 6.7 8.5 12.5 16.1 20.9 22.8 29.1 33-T 38.8 1 These expeditions inspired Robert E. Peary to engage in Arctic explorationr with the result that in September 1909, after a search of more than twenty years, he could announce to the world that on April 6, 1909, he had discovered the North Pole. XLIII THE BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA (1885-1897) The return of the Democrats to power strengthened the bonds of friendship between the North and South, but otherwise the large life of the nation was but slightly affected by the change in party con- trol. The forces that ruled the nation now were industrial rather than political. The overshadowing fact of the period between the inauguration of Cleveland and the opening of the twentieth century was that the "captains of industry" by combining their forces were achieving a concentration of wealth unparalleled in history. The underlying theme, therefore, of American history during the closing years of the nineteenth century is the growth of corporate power. This power was so radically different from anything that existed before that the period (1885-1897), covered by this chapter, may be regarded as the beginning of a new industrial era. 170. THE REGULATION OF COMMERCE; INDUSTRIAL UNREST. cieve- The first problem which confronted President Cleveland and related to the civil service. Should he carry out the Civil Merit Service Law in letter and in spirit, making merit the test of holding office, or should he adopt the Jacksonian maxim, " to the victor belong the spoils " and turn the Republicans out of office as fast as he legally could? His party associates w^ere hungry for office and they urged him to make a clean sweep. But Cleveland before his inauguration had given the country to understand that he would not make sweeping changes in the civil service, and when he assumed the reins of govern- ment he proved to be friendly to the merit system. Still there were in the federal service many officers who were " offensive partisans and unscrupulous manipulators of local party man- agement." These Cleveland regarded as having " forfeited 524 System BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 525 all just claims to retenti6n " and they were speedily removed. Cleveland's administration of the offices was not all that ardent civil service reformers desired, yet he did much for the merit system and he was friendly to it when it sorely needed a friend. During the entire period of the first Cleveland administration the Senate was Republican. It was impossible, therefore, that there could be any important legislation concerning which there might be a sharp difference of opinion be- tween the two parties. Never- theless, several measures of a non-partisan character were en- acted. In 1886 the Presidential Succession Act was passed Copr. 1903, Rockwood, UJth St., N. Y. Grover Cleveland. This law provides that if for any reason neither the President Presi^^ nor the Vice-President can discharge the duties of the presi- succcb- dential office, members of the President's cabinet shall succeed Acts to the Presidency in the following order : ( i ) The Secretary of State; (2) the Secretary of the Treasury; (3) the Secretary of War; (4) the Attorney-General; (5) the Post-Master General; (6) the Secretary of the Navy; (7) the Secretary of the Interior. The one succeeding to the Presidency serves during the remainder of the four years. With this statute on the books it was highly improbable that an emergency would arise which would leave the country without a President for a single day.^ Another act passed in 1886 provided for an increase of the navy. It authorized the building of a The battleship (the Texas), an armored cruiser (the Maine), and a protected cruiser (the Baltimore). This rehabihtation of the navy was sadly needed for in his report William C. \The Electoral Count Act — In 1887, Congress, in order to avoid such trouble as arose in 1876 over the counting of the electoral vote, passed an act providing that in the future each State should determine for itself the manner in which its electoral vote should be counted and that the certificate of a State announcing the result of the vote cast by its electors should be accepted as final. Navy 526 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Whitney, the Secretary of the Navy, stated that although $75,000,000 had been spent on the navy between 1868 and 1886 the money had been practically thrown away. " It is questionable," he said, " whether we have a single naval vessel finished ^ and afloat at the present time that could encounter the ships of any important Power — a single vessel that has either the necessary armor for protection, speed for escape, or weapons for defense." The , But by far the most important measure of the first Cleve- Regula- ... tion land admmistration was the act regulating commerce. We of Inter- ^n i • , • state saw (p. 496) that m the seventies several States in the West Com- \i 1^ / merce enacted laws regulating the charges made by railroads. But a State could only regulate the business carried on by the railroads wholly within its boundaries. Business carried on between points in different States would have to be regulated by Congress (47) if it were regulated at all. Now it was perfectly clear that the regulation of interstate commerce was as necessary as the regulation of intrastate commerce. As early as 1873 railroads doing an interstate business had formed the habit of granting special privileges to favored in- dividuals, to particular corporations, and to particular lo- calities. " We well know," said a responsible observer, " that it is their (the railroads') habit to break down certain localities and to build up others, and to monopolize certain business by means of the numerous corporations which they own and control." By 1879 petitions were pouring in upon Congress to correct the evils of interstate commerce. But the rail- roads were powerful and were able to secure a protracted and shameful delay. At last the people of the West and South in an angry mood demanded that Congress take action. Ac- cordingly, in 1887 Congress responded to the demand and The enacted an interstate commerce law providing for the appoint- state ment by the President of an Interstate Commerce Commission merce consisting of five members. The Commission was given power to compel railroad officers to produce their books and testify" Commis Bion 1 .\ policy for increasing the navy was bej^un during tiie administration Ar'.luir, l)ut liltle had been done at the time Whitney made his report. BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 527 to take notice of violations of the law and order the violator to desist from his illegal acts and fine him if he did not ; to provide a uniform system of railway accounting; and to obtain from each road an annual report of its operations and finances. The act creating the commission declared that freight and passenger rates should be just and reasonable; that there should be no discriminations between persons and localities ; that there should be proper facilities for the inter- change of traffic between connecting lines ; that free inter- state passes should not be issued ; and that railroads should print and make public their freight and passenger rates. The language of the statute was so indefinite and vague that a member of the House of Representatives was led to assert on the floor while the bill was upon its passage that it would take five years to ascertain precisely what the powers of the Commission were. As a matter of fact it took ten years to determine what these powers were, and when the question was at last settled (in 1897) ^^y ^'^^ courts, it was found that Con- gress had not given the Commission power to fix effectively the rates that the railroads should charge. The interstate commerce law of 1887 was full of defects but it was the first effort of Congress to regulate interstate traffic and it was a step in the right direction. At the time Congress was considering the interests of those Labor . . . . . Troubles who used the railroads it was also considermg the mterests of the employees, of the railroads. In 1886, upon the recom- mendation of Mr. Cleveland, a bill was brought in to establish a commission of arbitration that should have for its chief duty the peaceable settlement of controversies between inter- state railroad corporations and their employees. Although the bill failed to pass ^ it was a timely measure, for the year 1 In T898 Congress passed the Erdman Act, which accomplished in part the purpose of the arbitration commission proposed by President Cleveland. This act authorized the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission to endeavor to bring together the employers and employees of any railroad threatened with a strike and if possible effect an immediate and peaceful settlement of the dispute. In 191 3 Congress established the Board of Mediation and Conciliation to render s'Jch. services as had hitherto been rendered by the Mrdman Act. 528 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY 1886 was one of serious unrest in the labor world. From the shipyards of Maine to the railways of Texas and the Far West there were strikes and lockouts in nearly every branch of industry. In New York City the employees of the street- car lines struck and on one day all the lines in both New York and Brooklyn were completely tied up. In the labor dis- turbances of the year the Knights of Labor were especially active, for they were now at the height of their power (p. 520). In the summer of 1886 a member of the Knights of Labor employed by the Texas Pacific Railroad was discharged for what the railroad authorities regarded as a sufficient reason. The Knights resented the discharge of the man and demanded his reinstatement. When this was refused a strike was or- dered and soon six thousand miles of railway were tied up. In many places there was violence and loss of property. In East St. Louis a squad of deputies fired upon a crowd and several persons were killed. The strike lasted for seven weeks, but in the end the strikers lost. The But the most serious social disturbance of 1886 occurred in market Chicago where on the ist of May 40,000 workingmen went on a strike, their demand being an eight-hour day. On May 4th a mass-meeting of the workingmen was held in the Hay- market Square and was addressed by some anarchistic lead- ers although the meeting itself was not an anarchistic gather- ing. One of the speakers denounced all government and shouted, " The law is your enemy. We are rebels against it." The speakers were so violent in tone that the police felt that the meeting ought to be broken up. Accordingly, a battalion of nearly 200 policemen marched into the Square and the crowd was ordered to disperse. At the moment the order was given a pistol was fired as if for a signal and a bomb with a lighted fuse was instantly thrown into the ranks of the police. The bomb struck the ground, exploded, and killed and wounded sixty men. Eight men were ar- rested for the crime and tried. Six of them were sentenced to death although only four were executed. One committed suicide. Aflfair BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 529 The disturbed conditions of the labor world in i386 led to Henry a historic municipal campaign in New York City. The work- and the ingmen of the metropolis expressed a desire that Henry Tax George might lead them in the mayoralty campaign. George was the author of Progress and Poverty, a brilliant and power- ful book which maintained the doctrine that under existing so- cial conditions the rich must necessarily grow richer and the poor must necessarily grow poorer. The cause of this, accord- ing to George, is to be found in the private ownership of land. The remedy proposed was the single tax ; all revenues, federal, State, and local, were to be raised from a single tax imposed on land. Such a tax was held to be equitable and just on the ground that the value of land consists chiefly of an en- hanced increment which has been created not by the exertions of the land-holder but by the operation of social forces. George responded to the wishes of the workingmen and be- came a candidate for mayor, A. S. Hewitt being the Demo- cratic candidate, and Theodore Roosevelt the Republican candi- date. Although Hewitt was elected, George received a tre- mendous vote, polling 68,000 out of a total of 219,000. That such a heavy vote should be cast in favor of such a radical cause made a profound impression upon the public mind. Although Cleveland could not secure important legislation cieve- because of the Republican opposition in the Senate he never- Tariff theless urged upon Congress the necessity for reforms and ^f^^^*^^ 1887 he did so in a vigorous manner. On the subject of tariff reform he was particularly bold and aggressive. In December 1887, he transmitted to Congress a message wholly devoted to the subject of tariff. The text of the message was that the tariff duties which were being collected were largely in excess of the needs of the government. A surplus of nearly $140,- 000,000, the President estimated, would soon be heaped up in the Treasury. For this surplus there was no outlet except in useless or extravagant expenditures and these he would not countenance. His remedy for reducing the surplus was to reform the existing tariff laws which were denounced as 530 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Election of 1888 " the vicious, inequitable, and illogical source of unnecessary taxation." At the close of his message the President said : " Our progress toward a wise conclusion will not be im- proved by dwelling upon the themes of Protection and r>ee Trade. ... It is a condition which confronts us, not a theory." This message was the most straightforward utterance about the tariff that had been made for many a year. But it was an utterance fraught with great political danger, for it was sure to be construed by the Republicans as a direct attack upon the policy of protection. The boldness of the message frightened the Democratic leaders, yet they stood by the President. In 1888 Cleveland was nominated unanimously and by acclama- tion and his message in regard to the tariff was approved. The Republicans entered into the campaign in a hopeful spirit for they felt that the Democrats had given them an issue upon which they could win. They nominated Benjamin Harrison of Indiana and declared in their platform in favor of the American system of protection and against its destruction as proposed by Cleveland and his party. " They serve," said the platform, " the interests of Europe ; we will support the in- terests of America. We accept the issue and confidently ap- peal to the people for their judgment. The protective sys- tem must be maintained." In the campaign the Republicans made an almost desperate appeal to the protected interests, especially to the workingmen in the factories, and their appeal was successful. Harrison received a majority of the electoral votes, although Cleveland polled the larger popular vote. The New • North- west 171. THE NEW NORTHWEST AND THE NEW SOUTHWEST. One of the first things to engage the attention of the Har- rison administration was the organization of new States in the Far West. It fell to the lot of President Harrison to pro- claim the admission of more new States than were ever ad- mitted during the administration of any other President. The rapid development of the Western country was due chiefly to 25 50 Englibh Statute Miles States admitted before the Civil War: States admitted during and after the Civil War: Indian Reservations at the close of 1909 I THE M.-N. WORKS ,si^ YanUvot ,. « K. A Fremont \ pes ^l"^"*^* TVT V B B f ^<=^=S>A I ' M I /N~~GU'.^ r itted 189p V? ■ ^-^ ^^''e TS! E » " VnoCT j^iawlins.^/^ I ^---n:W admitted 1867 ^Denver ^^j ^\^^-^l=:^^^f'' ° ;, Colorado Sprs R |a D O I 'N Ore! LBend^ pueblo IsaNTA ^^ /^- ^^ admitted 1876 / M'-*""''" ^^ ~\\ai^*''_!!!, W I ^vTrinidad %dntaiTe \ V^I«/^ jj^AlbuquerqueV N E w// M E xl I q O I admitted 1^12 S^ | BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 531 Benjamin Harrison. the influence of the transcontinental railroads which were com- pleted in the early eighties (p. 511). Within seven years after the completion of the Northern Pacific (p. i;io) five new The Sakotas States were organized in the Northwest and were admitted into the Union. Farmers settled Da- kota so rapidly that some counties with scarcely an inhabitant at the beginning of the summer were well populated at the ertd of the year. In 1889 the great Territory of Da- kota (p. 411) was divided and erected into two States — North Dakota and South Dakota — which came into the Union on the same day. The Dakotas with their broad bonanza farms soon took high rank as wheat-growing States. In less than a week after the Dakotas were admitted Montana came into the Union. Here was a new Montana State with a grazing area as large as Illinois, a mining area as large as Ohio, and a farming area as large as Pennsyl- vania. Three days after the admission of Montana the ter- ritory of Washington (p. 412) became a State. The growth Waswng- • ^ ton of Washmgton had been slow but when the railroad came to develop its natural resources, its forests and mines and graz- ing-lands, it began to grow at a startling rate. Tacoma was transformed from a village in 1880 into a city of 36,000 in 1890, while the growth of Seattle and Spokane were even greater. The political development of the new Northwest was completed in 1890 when Idaho was admitted. Idaho While the Northwest was developing in this rapid manner, Wyoming the country traversed by the Union Pacific continued fill up with people. By 1890 Wyoming had a population of more than 60,000 and in that year it was admitted into the Union. Utah (p. 366) by this time had a population more than three times as great as that of Wyoming but it was pre- vented from entering the Union because the Mormons per- and to Utah 532 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY mitted the custom of polygamy. In 1893 polygamy was abolished by an act of Congress and three years later Utah, after long waiting, was admitted as a State. The But while the Northwest and the Central West were growing South- so rapidly, the Southwest also was responding to the influence of the transcontinental lines. In the eighties northern and western Texas were traversed by railroads and great vacant areas of the " Lone Star " State began to fill with people. San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Dallas soon became important inland centers of trade. The railroad also entered the Indian Terri- tory (p. 321) and with its coming many pale faces found their way into the redman's country. In 1889 the western portion of the so-called Indian Territory, known as Oklahoma, was thrown open to settlement by President Harrison. A horde of eager pioneers was already on the border waiting for the sig- nal when it would be lawful to enter upon the newly-opened lands. The signal was given by the blast of a bugle at twelve o'clock noon April 22, and a wild rush across the borders be- gan. " Men on horseback and afoot, in every conceivable vehicle, sought homes with the utmost speed and before night- fall town sites were laid out for several thousand inhabitants each." In 1890 Oklahoma was organized as a regular terri- tory. Indian In the rapid peopling of the West many problems connected lema with the Indians had to be solved. Many wars had to be fought and in the engagements scores of officers and hundreds of men lost their lives. Often these conflicts were due to the white man's desire for the redman's land. " The Indians," said Pres- ident Hayes in 1877, " have been driven from place to place. ... In many instances, when they had settled down upon lands assigned to them by compact and begun to support themselves by their own labor, they were rudely jostled off and thrust into the wilderness again. Many, if not most, of our Indian wars have had their origin in broken promises and acts of injustice on our part." But in time a more generous and hu- The mane Indian policy was adopted. In 1887 the Dawes Bill pro- BiU \ided that the Indians mi^^ht receive allotments of land to be BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 533 held as by private ownership, and further provided that In- dians holding land in this manner should be gTanted the right of citizenship. Under this law more than 150.000 Indians subsequently became citizens of the United States. The fed- eral government also, during the administrations of Cleveland and Harrison, began to give greater attention to the Indians on the reservations. It made liberal appropriations for the edu- cation of Indian youths on the reservations and it provided agencies for protecting the Indian against the injustice and rapacity of the white man. And this liberal policy has been continued to our own day. 172. THE SURPLUS, THE TARIFF, AND THE TRUSTS. Besides admitting new States and settling questions of The , TT • 1 • • • 11 1 Surplus Indian policy the Harrison administration was called upon to and the . . , , , .-^ , , Billion take action in respect to the surplus, the tariit, and the trusts. Dollar Congress These questions could be dealt with freely, for Congress at the opening of the Harrison administration was Republican in both branches. The problem of the surplus, which gave Cleveland so much anxiety, was solved effectually during the Harrison administration by the simple expedient of making generous expenditures. Money was appropriated in sums larger than was ever before known. Large sums were spent in coast defenses, rivers, harbors, and lighthouses ; many ves- sels were added to the navy ; small cities were provided with federal buildings ; a ship-subsidy bill was passed. The amount appropriated for soldiers' pensions was nearly double, the annual disbursement increasing during Harrison's term from $88,000,- 000 to $159,000,000. Altogether the expenditure of Har- rison's first Congress amounted to about one billion dollars. The tariff question was approached in a confident spirit for The the Republicans regarded their restoration to power in 1889 ley as a mandate from the people not merely to maintain the pro- tective principle but to carry it further than it had ever been carried before. Accordingly, in 1890 Congress passed the McKinley Bill. This law raised the tariff duties on a great number of articles and placed duties on many articles that 534 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY had been on the free list. As one means of reducing- the sur- plus it placed duties on some commodities so high that they could not possibly be imported with profit and could not there- fore yield any revenue. The duties were especially high upon articles of everyday use, on cotton and woolen goods, on iron and steel and glassware, and on many kinds of food. The duty on sugar was reduced from three and a half cents to one half a cent a pound, but compensation was accorded the do- mestic producers of sugar by granting them a bounty of two cents a pound. The bill recognized the principle of reciprocity by empowering the President to levy duties by proclamation on sugar, molasses, tea, coffee, and hides coming from a country which in his judgment levied unjust or unreasonable duties on our commodities. It was hoped by the framers of the bill that it would stimulate foreign trade, but James G. Blaine, the Sec- retary of State under Harrison, had no such hopes. " There is not," he said, " a section or line in the entire bill that will open the market for another bushel of wheat or another bar- rel of pork." It was charged by the Democrats that the proposed tariff would raise prices but the friends of protec- tion were now not afraid of high prices. Said McKinley, " I do not prize the word cheap. It is not a word of hope ; it is not a word of cheer ; it is not a word of inspiration ! It is the badge of poverty ; it is the signal of distress. . . . Cheap merchandise means cheap men and cheap men mean a cheap . country." The bill became a law in October 1890, thirty days before the Congressional election of that year. The As a solution for the trust problem Congress in 1890 of passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The purpose of this tion law was to check the onward march of giant industrial com- binations — trusts they were generally called — that were stifling competition and establishing monopoly in many lines of business. The trust made its appearance after the War. Before the War, it is true, many very large establishments had been built up under the workings of the factory system (p. 334) but competition as late as i860 was still the law and the life of trade. Any concern that managed its affairs wisely BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 535 and produced goods that were in demand could hope for suc- cess, for it entered the market on an equal footing with its competitors. But after the War industrial conditions became more and more unfavorable to competition. With the light- ning express to carry him from place to place and with the telegraph and telephone to keep him in touch with all parts of the country, the business man in the eighties could strike a hundred blows at his competitor for one he could strike in the forties. After the War conditions were especially fa- vorable to large establishments and to the production of goods on a large scale. The number of iron- and steel-mills de- creased by a third between 1880 and 1890 but the output of the mills increased by one-half. The number of establish- ments engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements fell from 1943 in 1880 to 910 in 1890, although the capital in- vested was more than doubled in the interval. In the leather industry three-fourths of the establishments disappeared in eight years while the value of leather manufactures increased fivefold. And thus it was in almost every branch of in- dustry; there was concentration all along the line. This con- The centration meant of course the triumph of the large producer of for he could sell at a small profit and still prosper, whereas tion if the small producer attempted to sell at the same small profit he would be ruined. Moreover, concentration was hastened by reason of the unjust and unfair conduct of busi- ness men. For example, the Standard Oil Company, the greatest of the oil-refining concerns, profited in its early days enormously by reason of the special favors it received from the railroads. From the railroads it received rebates and drawbacks ; it was given a better service than was given to its competitors ; it had rates manipulated for its own purpose ; it received secret information as to the business of its com- petitors. As a result of these favors the Standard Oil Com- pany ^ was able to beat down its rivals and establish a virtual 1 This company was chartered in Ohio in 1870 for the purpose of manufactur- ing illuminating oil from petroleum. The petroleum industry as we know it to- day may be said to have had its beginning in 1859 wh;n the first petroleum well 536 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY monopoly in the oil business. Thus by 1880 the forces at work in the industrial world were all leading toward con- centration and monopoly. The About 1880 the great corporations began to devise methods T^us't of protecting themselves against the ravages of competition, 1890 for they too carried on a destructive competitive warfare with each other. Their first efforts to check competition consisted in the formation of pools: several competitors would agree upon a scale of prices and upon the amount of goods that each separate competitor was to produce and sell. Under this arrangement there was to be no competition in prices. The buyer, if he bought from a company belonging to the pool, would have to pay the price fixed by the pool. Here plainly was an attempt to establish monopoly ^ and since monopoly has no place in American law, the pool was speedily de- clared (in 1882) illegal and was driven from the industrial world. But the corporations did not abandon their at- tempts to escape competition. They devised a new form of combination which came to be known generally as a trust, but which was simply a giant corporation consisting of a number of corporations whose separate interests were merged and blended into one concern. But trusts also were soon brought under the ban of the law. In 1890 Congress, as- serting its power to regulate interstate commerce, declared : " Every contract, combination in the form of trust or other- wise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States or with foreign nations, is hereby declared illegal. Every person who shall monopolize or attempt to monopolize or combine or conspire with any other person or persons to monopolize any part of the trade or conmierce was sunk near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Soon after this, wells were bored in Ohio and Indiana, and later in West Virginia, Kansas, Texas, California, and else- where. Scores of companies engaged in the petroleum business, but the Standard Oil Company, directed chiefly by John D. Rockefeller, had at an early date left all its competitors far in the rear. The property of the Standard Oil Company in 1870 was valued at $1,000,000; in 1900 it was valued at $500,000,000. 1 A monopoly, according to strict legal definition, is an exclusive privilege to deal in or control the sale of certain things. The only legal monopoly is that which is cranted. by Congress to authors and inventors (52). BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 537 among the several States or with foreign nations shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." Such was the Sherman Anti- Trust Law which statesmen in 1890 hoped would restore com- petition and check the growth of corporate power. The Anti-Trust Act met with general approval, but the Mc- ^^^^^^j^^jj Kinley tariff was visited with a storm of popular condemna- of ^^ tion. In the Congressional election of 1890 the Democrats came out squarely against the new tariff law with the result that they elected 235 members to Congress while the Republi- cans elected only 88. Two years later in the presidential election the Democrats again came out strongly against pro- tection, denouncing it as " a fraud, a robbery of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few.'' Upon this explicit platform they nominated ex-President Cleveland as their candidate. The Republicans in 1892 re- nominated President Harrison and reaffirmed strongly the doctrine of protection. The National People's party — the Populists — nominated James B. Weaver of Iowa and de- clared for the free coinage of silver, a graduated income tax, postal savings banks, and the government ownership of railroads. The campaign was in the main a quiet one and turned on the issue of protection. The result was a sweeping victory for the Democrats.^ Cleveland received 277 electoral votes, Harrison 145, and Weaver 22. 173. FOUR YEARS OF FINANCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DE- PRESSION (1893-1897). When Cleveland entered upon his second term (March 4, condi- ,. . . . tion 1893) he found the affairs of the national Treasury in a most of the -^^ . . . ^ National unsatisfactory condition. In 1890 Congress had passed the Treasury 1 The Democrats profited somewhat by the occurrence of several labor riots. At Homestead, a suburb of Pittsburgh, the emploj'ees of the Carnegie Steel Com- pany in the course of a strike came into conflict with the Pinkerton detectives ■who were hired to protect the property of the company. Both the Pinkerton men and the workingmen were well armed and for several days there was actual war- fare. Seven detectives and eleven workingmen were killed. That the Pinkerton men should be employed to shoot down workingmen created a bitter feeling among the laboring classes and on election day many votes were given to the Democrats simply to rebuke the party in power. 538 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY so-called Sherman Law which provided that the government should purchase each month 4,500,000 ounces of silver at the market price and pay for the silver with treasury notes re- deemable either in gold or in silver as the Secretary of the Treasury might decide. By 1893 the treasury notes issued under this law amounted to nearly $150,000,000 and the amount was increasing all the time. In addition to these treasury notes there were $346,000,000 of greenbacks (p. 468) which were also redeemable in gold. Here were nearly $500,- 000,000 in paper money, greenbacks, and treasury notes to- gether, and a gold reserve of only $100,000,000 available for redemption purposes. It is true the Secretary of the Treasury could have redeemed the treasury notes in silver but he chose to maintain the gold standard and redeem both greenbacks and treasury notes in gold. In June 1893 the gold reserve fell below $100,000,000. So, while the volume of treasury notes was increasing, the redemption fund was decreasing. Cleveland determined that this state of things should not continue. He called Congress in extra session and by dint of executive pressure he succeeded in securing the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman Act ; no more silver was to be bought and accordingly no more treasury notes with which to pay for the silver were to be issued. The But stopping the purchase of the silver did not bring the Issues desired relief. Notes continued to be presented to the treas- ury for redemption and the gold reserve continued to fall. Moreover the revenues of the government were decreasing and the gold reserve had to be drawn upon not only for pur- poses of redemption but also for the payment of ordinary expenses. In January 1894 the reserve was less than $65,- 000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury now began to sell bonds (borrow money) in order to secure enough gold to bring the reserve up to the $100,000,000 mark. But no ^/ ^sooner was the fresh supply of gold obtained than it was — drawn out again by fresh redemption of notes, for it must be remembered that when the notes were redeemed they were at once put in circulation again and could be presented again BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 539 for redemption (p. 497). The redemption process, therefore, was Hke the working of an endless chain. In November the reserve had fallen to $59,000,000. Accordingly another bond issue of $50,000,000 was necessary. Still the endless chain con- tinued to operate. Finally the banking houses of J. P. Mor- gan and August Belmont agreed to furnish the government with a certain amount of gold in exchange for bonds for which they paid a price considerably lower than the current market price, and as a part of the contract they agreed to use their influ- ence to protect the Treasury from further withdrawals of gold. This transaction was bitterly resented by the free sil- ver men of the West who contended that the drain upon the Treasury could be stopped simply by using silver for purposes of redemption and who insisted that it ought to be stopped in this manner. The agreement entered into with the banking houses brought a temporary relief to the Treasury. Never- theless, one more issue of the bonds was necessary. This time (January 1896) the sale of the bonds was thrown open to the public. The Treasury now ceased to suffer by reason of ex- cessive withdrawals from the gold reserve. " Wall Street had found that the siphon-process could no longer be made a source of private gain." In all, bonds to the amount of $262,000,000 were issued to maintain the gold standard. At the time the national finances were suffering such a se- The Panic vere strani the country was passing through one of the worst of panics in our history. The panic, which began in 1893 and lasted for several years, extended to almost every department of industrial and commercial life. Banks failed, railroads were thrown into the hands of receivers, factories closed, tlx)usands of merchants failed. The want and distress led to many strikes and riots. During the winter of 1893-1894 " armies of the unemployed " were organized in different parts of the country with the purpose of marching upon Washing- ton and demanding remedial measures from Congress. One of these armies led by J. S. Coxey marched from Massillon, coxey's Ohio, to Washington with the purpose of presenting a peti- tion to Congress. But Coxey was arrested for " trespassing S40 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Pullman Car £:ti'ike Oil the grass " on the Capitol lawn and his " army " of a few do2en men dwindled away. But the most serious disturh- ance during this panic was in Chicago where in May 1894 the employees of the Pullman Car Company struck against a WBI^KmmmmaBmm reduction of wages/ Un- .:,.-. ■■■ ""^ ^jgj. ^i^g leadership of Eu- gene V. Debs the members of the American Railway Union numbering about 150,000 men, espoused the cause of the Pullman em- ployees and demanded that the dispute be submitted to arbitration. When this de- mand was refused, the rail- road employees voted that they would handle no trains having Pullman cars and this led to a strike of railroads in twenty-seven States. In Chicago, the storm-center of the strike, mobs gathered in the freight-yards and hundreds of cars were burned. The Governor of Illinois, John P. Altgeld, delayed in calling out the militia to suppress the disorder. But when the post-office department complained that the mails were be- ing obstructed and when it was shown that interstate com- merce was being interfered with. President Cleveland or- dered regular troops to the scene of the disturbance. Gov- ernor Altgeld protested against the presence of the Federal troops on the ground that Illinois was able to take care of itself. But Cleveland persisted in sending the troops and 1 The strike occurred just after the closing of the World's Columbian Exposi- tion, which was opened at Chicago in May 1893, by President Cleveland. This Exposition was held to commemorate the four-hundredth anniversary of the dis- covery of America by Columbus. The buildings of the Exposition occupied 660 acres of ground. The building devoted to manufactures and liberal arts covered 25 aces. The total cost of the Exposition was nearly $40,000,000. The number oi paid admissions was over 22,000,000. Administration Building, Columbian Exposition, 1893. BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 541 soon after their arrival the rioting ceased and the strike came to an end. While the President was dealing with the Chicago strikers The . , „ , Wilson he was also having a controversy with Congress over the Tariff tariff. He desired a revision of the tariff that would carry out the promises of the platform upon which he was elected. But the protective system had many friends among the Demo- crats of Congress and only a timid, half-hearted revision was made. After a long debate the Wilson Act was passed. This placed wool and lumber on the free list, reduced the duties on some commodities and raised them on others, reimposed a tax on sugar, and provided for an income tax of 2 per cent, on all incomes over $4,000. The President regarded the bill as an act of party perfidy and party dishonor. " The livery," he wrote, " of Democratic tariff reform has been stolen and worn in the service of Republican protection." He was so displeased with the bill that he would not sign it but allowed it to become a law without his signature (41). The Wilson tariff proved to be an ill-fated measure. It The r-r • 11 • 1 • 1 1 • Failure went into effect at a time when the panic which began in of the . . , . ,. , , . , , Wilson 1893 was in its worst stages but it did nothing to remedy the Tariff hard times. It was intended especially to be a revenue meas- ure, yet under its workings the revenue collected was not at first sufficient to meet the expenses of government. Its clause taxing incomes was tested in the courts and was found (in May 1895) by the Supreme Court of the United States to be unconstitutional, the objection being that an income tax, in the opinion of the Court, is a direct tax and must therefore be apportioned among the States according to population (7), a condition which the Wilson law did not fulfil. In addition to dealing with a serious and disturbed condition The . . . Venezue- of affairs at home President Cleveland during his second ad- lan . Boundary ministration was called upon to give his attention to several Dispute foreign problems of perplexing nature. Foremost among the foreign questions was the Venezuelan boundary dispute. There had been a long-standing boundary controversy between Vet"e7uela and th^ British colonv of British Guiana, and in 542 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY 1895 it seemed that Great Britain was determined to extend the western boundary of British Guiana and thus encroach upon the territory of Venezuela. In the opinion of Cleveland and of his Secretary of State, Richard Olney, such an extension of British territory would be violative of the Monroe Doc- trine. But the British government was disposed to ignore the Monroe Doctrine entirely and when our State Depart- ment offered its services in securing an arbitration of the dis- pute the offers at first were flatly rejected. The brusque at- titude of Great Britain aroused our government to an ag- gressive and spirited course of action. Secretary Olney in a despatch to the English prime minister d^lared that the United States is " practically sovereign on this continent " and that " it would resent any sequestration of Venezuelan soil by Great Britain." President Cleveland in a message to Con- gress hinted strongly that if Great Britain extended her boundary further than was agreeable to the United States the act would be regarded as unfriendly. The message was distinctly menacing in tone and there was talk of war. Great Britain, however, gracefully yielded and the affair soon blew over. A commission was appointed by President Cleve- land to inquire into the merits of the controversy and the boundary dispute was finally settled (in 1899) by a treaty of arbitration. Seal- Another foreign question which arose during Cleveland's eries second administration related to the seal-fisheries of Alaska. The United States claimed that our possession of Alaska gave us the exclusive right to the seal-fisheries of the Behring Sea and Canadian vessels taking seals in that sea were regarded as trespassers and were captured by our revenue cutters. This led to a controversy which was settled in 1893 by a board of arbitration, the decision of the board being unfavor- able to our claims. 174. THE ELECTION OF 1896. By 1896 the Wilson Bill seemed to be discredited, and the Republicans felt that they could convince the country once BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 543 more that a tariff for revenue only was a failure and that the Tlie ,. , Ti 1 1 • Rcpub- protective policy was the true one. -But when the time came ucans in 1896 for the Republicans to take their stand upon the issues silver of the day they found that it was the silver question and not tion the tariff question that would have to be settled. In the West and South there were vast numbers of voters who insisted that the free coinage of silver should be resumed at the old ratio of 16 to i, the ratio which had prevailed from the earliest years of the government (p. 230) until the demonetization of silver in 1873 (p. 498). When the Republicans held their conventions in the spring of 1896, ten out of the forty-five State conventions- declared in favor of bi-metallism, that is, in favor of the coinage of both gold and silver, while very few conventions indeed declared explicitly in favor of a single gold standard. Nothwithstanding this diversity of opinion the Republicans in the National Convention in 1896 took a de- cided stand on the silver question: they nominated William McKinley and declared against the free coinage of silver. But the declaration caused thirty-four delegates headed by Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado to secede from the con- vention. If the Republican party was split by the silver question the The Democratic party was shattered by it. When the Democratic crats National Convention met in Chicago in 1896 the free silver silver advocates out-numbered the gold men. They promptly se- tion cured the adoption of a resolution which demanded " the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver at the present legal rate of 16 to i without waiting for the aid and consent of any other nation." In the debate on this resolution Wil- liam J. Bryan of Nebraska made a speech of such power that the convention was aroused to a frenzy of enthusiasm. Mr. Bryan was but little known at the time and very few had thought of him as a presidential candidate. But his remark- able eloquence in the convention caused the delegates to turn to him as a leader and on the fifth ballot he was nominated for the Presidency. The delegates who favored the gold standard — about 160 in number — showed their disapproba- 544 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY tion by refusing to vote. Bryan's nomination was indorsed l)y the national convention of the People's party whose plat- form also declared for the free coinage of silver. After the Democratic convention had adjourned a convention of gold Democrats organized under the name of the National Demo- cratic party, repudiated the action of the Chicago platform and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois for President. This nomination, however, w^as not made with the expectation of victory; it was niade for the sole purpose of catching the votes of Democrats who were opposed to free silver and who would not vote the Republican ticket. The The campaign of 1896 was one of the most bitter and ex- Cam- paign citing contests in all our history. The country was stirred to 1896 its depths by the appeal which was made to the voters. The Republicans would gladly have made the tariff the chief issue but they were not permitted to do this. Mr. Bryan forced the fighting on the silver c|uestion and it became the supreme issue. In the campaign the young man — he was barely old enough to qualify for the Presidency (87) — surpassed all records in the number of speeches made and in the distances traveled. Wherever he went he faced large audiences. It is estimated that five million persons came within the sound of his voice. In giving utterance to the free silver sentiment of the country he spoke chiefly for the West, and as far as the silver question was concerned the campaign was a contest between the East and the West. But there was more than the silver question involved in the campaign of 1896. There was a vast amount of discontent throughout the country and it was chiefly to those who were discontented with industrial conditions that the Democrats made their appeal. The Re- publicans at first felt confident of victory but they soon real- ized that hard fighting was necessary. Under the leadership of Marcus A. Hanna of Ohio they conducted what they called " a campaign of education." They pictured the disasters that would flow from the free coinage of silver : silver being the cheaper ^ metal nothing but silver would be used and gold would 1 TIic market price of the silver nielal in a silver dollar in 1896 was about 69 BEGINNING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL ERA 545 be driven out of circulation; the flood of silver would cause prices to rise and as they rose the value of fixed salaries, in- surance policies, deposits in saving banks, mortgages, and other evidences of debt, would fall ; the substitution of silver for gold as a payment of debt would mean repudiation and would bring disgrace and dishonor upon the name of the na- tion. The campaign of education supplemented by immense contributions to the campaign fund carried the day. When the bitter combat was over it was found that McKinley had received 271 electoral votes and that Bryan had secLrtd 176. Of the popular vote McKinley received 7,111,607 while Bryan received 6,502,600. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. The regulation of commerce: Forman, 328-342. 2. "A condition not a theory": Hart IV, 518-520. 3. The Wilson Tarifif: Halsey X, 88-95. 4. Labor : Forman, 369-375. 5. Corporations : Forman, 360-368. 6. The Columbia World's Fair : Halsey X, 81-87. 7. The Panic of 1893: Halsey X, 73-80. 8. Metallic currency: Forman, 311-317. 9. The election of 1896: Halsey, 108-124; Hart IV, 535-538. ID. Dates for the chronological table: 1887, 1890, 1894, i8g6. 11. For the table of admitted States: North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, Utah. 12. What were the "Blocks of Five"? Describe the Johnstown's flood. Name three lai-ge centers of iron and steel manufacture and explain the commercial importance of each center. Point out the ad- vantages and disadvantages of capitalistic combination : Bogart, 452- 463. Give a graphic account of the march of Coxey's army; of' the Debs' strike. Read in the class "The Opening of the Cherokee Strip": Halsey X, 68-72. What is meant by the " Solid South " ? Give an ac- count of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. cents; that is, one hundred silver dollars when melted contained enough S'lver to buy sixty-nine gold dollars. The Republicans in the campaign contended ttat under the plan proposed by the Democrats people would always pay their dfbts in silver; if a man owed $100 he would take $69 in gold, buy silver wit?, il, ^tt the silver coined into one hundred silver dollars, and pay his debt. The Lercio- crats met this contention by asserting that the enormous demand for silver under a free coinage law would greatly raise the market value of the white metal. XLIV THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER For more than a century the United States held an isolated position in respect to the other nations of the globe. We desired " peace, commerce, and honest friendship" with foreign countries (p. 257), but we steadfastly held ourselves aloof from their affairs. In the very last years of the nineteenth century this policy of " splendid isola- tion " was abandoned. War and an impulse for territorial expansion brought us into contact with distant nations and of necessity we assumed a responsible and important position among the great powers of the world. 175- THE DINGLEY BILL. Although the tariff was not the dominant issue in the elec- The tion of 1896, and although the revenues under the Wilson Dingley , ^ . ,, . ? . , . , Tariff law were rapidly nicreasnig and were almost certani to be sufficient in a short time for the needs of the government, nevertheless the Republicans decided that a new tariff law was necessary. The Wilson law was intended as a revenue measure whereas the Republicans explicitly demanded a tariff that would not only furnish adequate revenue for the neces- sary expenses of the government but would also protect our manufacturing industries from foreign competition. Accord- ingly, President McKinley after his inauguration (March 4, 1897) speedily convened Congress in special session for the purpose of revising the tariff. The manufacturers clamored for a restoration of the high protective duties and in response Congress gave the country the Dingley tariff which in regard to several important commodities pushed the protective prin- ciple further than ever before. The duty on wool was re- stored and the rates on sugar, woolen goods, silks, linens, and 546 THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 547 on many manufactures of iron and steel were increased. The principle of reciprocity authorized by the McKinley Bill (P- 534) was incorporated into the Dingley Bill although nothing of importance in the way of reciprocity was ever ac- complished by virtue of the Dingley Act. The tariff of 1897 remained in force for twelve years and was but slightly changed by the tariff which succeeded it. The workings of the protective system under the Dingley tariff may be fairly well learned from the following table which shows for the year 1903 the importation value of twelve leading classes of arti- cles, the amount of duty collected in each class of articles, and the rate of duty : Duties Rate of Articles Value collected duty Sugar $ 64,807,224 $ 63,214,744 97% Wool, raw 21,358,030 11,631,041 54% Woolen goods 19,302,006 17,564,694 91% Cotton goods 51,706,978 27,758,625 53% Tobacco 18,298,780 21,892,109 1 19% Silk goods 36,047,873 19,276,546 63% Iron arid steel goods 33.385,663 12,652,042 2,7% Goods made of fibers and grasses 41,294,963 15,81 1,703 38% Liquors 15,622,835 11,210,497 5i% Drugs and dyes 24,162,545 6,604,476 27% Stone and chinaware 10,534,041 6,153,463 58% Fruits and nuts 12,924,825 5,693,924 44% Total $349,445,763 $219,463,864 The sum collected in 1903 on all dutiable articles was $279,- 779,228. The above twelve classes of articles, therefore, paid more than three fourths of the entire customs revenue. 176. INTERVENTION IN CUBA: THE SPANISH WAR; EXPANSION. Congress had hardly finished with the Dingley Bill before Early it was called upon to deal with serious questions of foreign Reia- policy. In Cuba the government of Spain had lost its con- 54S ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY "Recon- centra- tion" The "Maine* trol and was powerless to protect the lives of resident Ameri- can citizens or to comply with its treaty obligations. Throughout the nineteenth century Cuba was an object of interest and concern to the United States, and at times our government, in accordance with the desires of the slave-hold- ing interests (p. 391), showed a willingness to annex the island. Spain, however, continued to hold Cuba although it was unhappy under Spanish rule. From 1868 to 1878 Cuba was in a state of revolt against Spain, and during these years the chaotic condition of affairs on the island affected Ameri- can interests so seriously that President Grant considered and even threatened intervention. The revolution, however, came to an end before intervention was actually necessary. In 1895 the Cubans again revolted and again American in- terests on the islands began to suffer. Moreover, American sympathy was aroused by the cruel measures to which Spain resorted in her efforts to crush the insurrection. General Weyler, the commander of the Spanish forces in Cuba in 1896, ordered the Cuban peasants who were in sympathy with the rebellion to gather — " reconcentrate themselves " — in the towns occupied by the regular troops. In carrying out this policy of " reconcentration " hundreds of thousands were penned up in towns " like cattle and were compelled to subsist under conditions which no cattle could have endured." Against such cruelty President McKinley, in June 1897, pro- tested in the name of humanity and in the interests of Ameri- can citizens who all too frequently were made the victims of Weyler's harsh measures. Spain in response promised self- government to Cuba. But the rebellion continued and the relations between Spain and the United States grew worse and worse. In February 1898, the battleship Maine made a visit, which was officially declared to be friendly, to Cuban waters. On the night of February 15, while the Maine was lying in the harbor of Havana, an explosion occurred which utterly wrecked her and killed her officers and two hundred and fifty-eight of her crew. An examination made by a board of naval officers showed that the vessel had been destroyed by THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 549 ihe explosion of a submarine mine, but the board was unable to fix the responsibility upon any person or persons. The peo- ple of the United States believed that Spain was responsible for the destruction of the Maine and there was a strong de- mand for war. President McKinley did not wish war but he felt that the time had come for dealing firmly with the Cuban situation. So he sent to Congress a message declar- ing that on grounds of humanity forcible intervention in Cuba inter- ^ A -1 /• 1 , • , vention was necessary. On April 19, Congress passed resolutions de- in Cubsn daring (i) that the people of Cuba were free and independ- Affairs ent; (2) that it was the duty of the United States to demand, and the government of the United States did demand, that Spain relinquish authority in the island of Cuba; (3) that the President should use the military forces of the United States to carry the resolutions into efifect ; (4) that the United States did not intend to exercise sovereignty over Cuba but that it was its intention to leave the government and control of the island to its people. These resolutions of course were equiva- lent to a declaration of war and were so imderstood by the Spanish government which on , April 24 formally declared war j against us. When the war began, Commo- dore (afterward Admiral) George Dewey was at Hong Kong with a squadron of the American navy. On the same day that Spain de- clared war Dewey received from the government at Washington the following cablegram : " War has commenced between the United States and Spain. Proceed at .^ . , t» ^ . . . Admiral Dewey. once to the Philippine Islands. Commence operations at once, particularly against Spanish Manila fleet. You must capture vessels or destroy." In obedience to these instructions, Dewey on May i attacked a Span- ish fleet which was stationed at Manila Bay. In the re- 550 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Santiago PACIFIC OCEAN markable battle which followed the American shijis were scarcely injured at all and not a single American was killed. On the Spanish side ten shii)s were destroyed, 381 men were killed, and numbers were wounded. J)ewey was soon rein- forced by land troops under General Merritt and on August 13 the city of Manila was taken. By the time Manila was taken the war was virtually over. As soon as hostilities were declared, the President called for 125,000 volunteer troops, and before the end of May 120,000 recruits had been mustered in. The fighting in Cuba took place near the city of Santiago. On July i. El Ca- ney and San Juan Hill, the outer defenses of Santiago, were as- saulted by the Americans and after two days fighting were car- ried by storm.^ At the time of this fighting a Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera was lying in the harbor of Santiago blockaded by a strong American fleet under Admiral Sampson.- When Cervera saw that Santiago was doomed he sailed out of the harbor and at- tempted to escape, but he was attacked by the American fleet and within a few hours his ships were destroyed. In this en- gagement the American fleet was directed by Commodore Schley, the actual commander (Sampson) being absent though not out of sight of the fighting.-"* Soon after the destruction BRITISH J,.. N^- •■• .^*' ISLANDS lORTM. OORStJO cH' ^'"'CELEBES SE . The Philippines. 1 In the fight distinguished service was rendered by the Rough Riders, a regi- ment made up of cow-boys, hunters, ranchmen, Indians, and college graduates. Ot this regiment Dr. Leonard Wood was the colonel and Theodore Roosevelt lieu- tenant-colonel. - On June 3 Lieutenant Richmond Pearson Ilobson undertook to " bottle up " the Spanish fleet within the harbor. He attempted to sink a collier in the narrowest place of the channel, but the ship did not sink at exactly the right place. So the Spanish were not " bottled up." 3 The battleship Oregon left San Francisco soon after the outbreak af the war and started to join Admiral Sampson's fleet in the West Indies. She made the THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 5Si of Cervera's fleet, Santiago surrendered (July 17). On July 25 General Miles captured Porto Rico. Spain now expressed a desire for peace. Accordingly, The President McKinley offered peace on the following terms : of first, the immediate evacuation of Cuba and the relinquish- ment of Spanish sovereignty ; second, the cession of Porto Rico; and third, the occupation by the United States of the city, bay, and harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of a treaty of peace which should determine the control, disposi- tion, and government of the Philippines. As the war was fought for Cuba, Spain desired to give up only that island. She was especially anxious to retain Porto Rico, *' the last memory of a glorious past." But the United States was the master of the situation and insisted upon taking more than Spain desired to give. By the terms of the treaty ratified in 1899 Spain relinquished all claim to sovereignty over Cuba GULF OF MEXICO (/ BAHAMA ISLANDS Statute Miles ATLANTIC O C S A N ^ V <,rf C^ ,rJ. #" Jamaica £ A The Spanish-American War in the West Indies. and ceded to the United States Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. As an indemnity for the Philippines the United voyage of 15,000 miles in fifty-nine days and arrived in time to take part in the engagement with the Spanish fleet. 552 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY States agreed to pay Spain the sum of $20,000,000. The treaty also provided that " the civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants of the territories hereby ceded to the United States shall be determined by the Congress." The How were Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines to be ment governed? Were they to be treated as dependent colonies or ofthe *= , , -^ , . * Insular were they to be governed as it was our custom to govern 1 er- 8ions ritories? In answering these questions Congress dealt with each of the new possessions singly and gave to each the kind of government which it seemed to need. Cuba, in accord- ance with the declaration made at the time of intervention, was allowed to form an independent government, but before the United States would withdraw its troops from the island, Cuba by the terms of the Piatt Amendment had to incorporate in its constitution a provision to the effect that it would never enter into any treaty or compact with any foreign power which would impair its own independence. Porto Rico and the Philippines were brought under the direct control of Con- gress. The Filipinos were regarded as incapable of self-gov- ernment and were placed under the control of a commission appointed by the President. Porto Rico was provided with a government whose executive branch was appointed by the President and whose legislative branch was in part appointed by the President and in part elected by the voters of the island. Neither the Filipinos nor the Porto Ricans were recognized as citizens of the United States. At first the Filipinos on some of the islands were discontented with American rule and in February 1899, insurgent forces led by Aguinaldo at- tacked the American army at Manila. The uprising, how- ever, was put down and gradually the Filipinos became rec- onciled to American rule. Hawau But the period of expansion brought us more than the ac- quisitions wrested from Spain. During the progress of the war the Hawaiian Islands were annexed to the United States. A treaty had been negotiated for the annexation of Hawaii in 1893, but before it was ratified Harrison's term expired. When Cleveland came back to power he withdrew the treaty THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 553 from the Senate. In 1898, however, the islands were for- mally annexed by a joint resolntion of Congress, the annexa- tion being thought wise because the Spanish War made it plain to us that Hawaii was important as a base for naval operations in the Far East. In 1900, Congress provided for Hawaii a regular territorial form of government (p. 250). We had hardly acquired Hawaii and the Philippines before The . . . . Boxer there occurred an incident which showed that our position Rebel- lion in the Far East was to involve us m new duties and responsi- bilities. In May 1900, an association of Chinese fanatics known as the Boxers, whose main purpose was to prevent China from adopting the " open door " policy in matters of trade, gained control of the territory around the city of Peking and began a war of extermination upon foreigners, being encouraged in their lawlessness by the Empress Dow- ager of China. For nearly two months they besieged the residences of foreign ambassadors and many Americans and Europeans were killed. In August a strong force consisting of soldiers and sailors furnished by the United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, and Russia, moved upon Peking, made a breach in the walls, and secured the besieged foreigners. In this work of relief our government took a leading part, for it promptly furnished several thousand American troops who were readily available by reason of our military occupa- tion of the Philippines. As an indemnity for the injuries caused by the Boxer uprising the European nations wished to seize upon Chinese territory but the influence of the United States, directed by John Hay, the Secretary of State, was exerted in favor of the territorial integrity of China and the " open door policy " — that is, that all nations should have equal commercial privileges at Chinese ports. In the end the policy advocated by Secretary Hay prevailed. China lost no part of her territory and her ports were thrown open to the rommerce of the world. 554 ADVATnICED AMERICAN HISTORY The Gold Basis Estab- lished 177. THE REELECTION OF McKINLEY; HIS ASSASSINA- TION. The war with Spain and the new foreign policies had the effect of diverting attention from the currency question, the very question that brought the Republicans into power. In fact, President AIcKinley was hardly inaugurated before cur- rency conditions began to improve. In 1897 the supply of gold for the mints was greatly increased by the output which came from the newly-discovered deposits of the Klondike region. Moreover, there arose about the same time an ex- traordinary demand from abroad for our food-stuffs with the result that an un- usual amount of foreign gold was poured into our coffers. The money in circulation rose from $23.24 per capita in 1895 to $26.93 in 1900. Ac- cordingly, when the Re- publicans late in the Mc- Kinley administration un- dertook to deal with the financial situation, condi- tions were favorable to success. In 1900 they passed the Gold Standard Act. This law placed our currency on a gold basis. It pro- vided that the dollar, consisting of 25.8 grains of gold nine- tenths pure, should be the standard of value. In order that this standard might be maintained, the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to set aside from the general funds of the treasury the sum of $150,000,000 in gold as a reserve for the redemption of all forms of money issued or coined. If the redemption fund should fall below $100,000,000 the secretary was authorized to borrow money by the issue Williata McKinley. THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 555 of bonds sufficient to bring the reserve up to $150,000,000. The law also amended the national banking act (p. 470) by providing for the organization of banks in places of 3,000 inhabitants or less with a capital of $25,000, and permitting banks to issue notes on the bonds deposited up to the par value of the bonds. When the presidential campaign of 1900 opened the Re- JJ°™g°*" publicans were confident of success. They had passed the ^^^ Dingley tariff, they had waged a war which resulted in gain- ["™^ ing us vast insular possessions, and they had established the ^^^^ gold standard. In their platform they reviewed their achieve- ments and on the strength of their record they asked the country to retain them in power. They renominated McKinley unani- mously on the first ballot. For Vice-President, Theodore Roosevelt, a member of the convention, received 923 votes, one less than the full number voting, he having refrained from voting. The Democrats unanimously nominated Mr. Bryan again. In accordance with the wishes of the nominee, but in opposition to the wishes of many Democratic lead- ers, the platform declared for the free coinage of silver in terms as strong as those used in 1896 (p. 543). But free silver was not made the leading issue. The Republicans when dealing with the new possessions in some instances ignored the principles of self-government and seemed to be entering upon a policy of imperialism. Here, the Demo- crats declared, was the supreme question of the hour. " The burning issue of imperialism," said the Democratic platform, " growing out of the Spanish War, involves the very ex- istence of the Republic and the destruction of our free insti- tutions. We regard it as the paramount issue of the cam- paign." The campaign of 1900 was marked by little enthusiasm cam- or excitement. The number of those who were really fright- of^^'^ ened by the prospect of imperialism was relatively small, while the champions of free silver were by no means so ardent as they had been in 1896. The country was prosperous in a high degree and when Mr. Hanna, who was again the cam- 556 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY "The Nations Linked To- gether" Reci- procity jjaign manager for the Republicans, sent out the word that voters should be told " to let well enough alone," and that a vote for McKinlev meant a vote for a " full dinner-pail," he advanced an argument that to many minds is the strongest that can be made. Bryan again made an earnest and bril- liant cami)aign but he led a forlorn iiope ; the whole trend of things was entirely unfavorable to a change in administration. The election resulted in an easy victory for the Republicans. McKinley received 292 electoral votes and Bryan 155. President McKinley entered upon his second term (Alarch 4. 1901) with every prospect for a successful administration. In the spring of 1901 he made an extended tour through South and West and wherever he went he was cordially re- ceived. In the autumn he was the honored guest at the Pan-American Exposition held at Buffalo. Here, on Sep- tember 5, he made a speech in which he called attention to the new position which the United States had assumed among the nations, and he outlined a commercial policy for his countrymen to pursue. " Isolation," he said, " is no longer possible or desirable. God and man have linked the nations together. No nation can longer be indifferent to another. Only a broad and enlightened policy will keep what we have. . . . Reciprocity is the natural growth of our wonder- ful industrial development. What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have a vent abroad. . . . We should sell everywhere w^e can buy and buy wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productiveness. The period of exclusiveness is past." The Assassi- nation of Presi- dent McKin- ley 178. ROOSEVELT CONTINUES THE POLICY OF McKINLEY (1901-1905). This was the last public utterance of President McKinley. On September 6, at a public reception given in his honor, he was shot by an assassin, who had been impelled to his mur- derous deed by the teachings of anarchists. At first it was hoped that the President would recover but his wounds were mortal ; on the 14th of September he passed away. His death THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 557 was mourned by the whole body of the American people. " He had been singularly pure and blameless in his private life, honest in his public service, kindly and gentle in his contact with men." Upon the death of President McKinley, the Vice-President, Theo- Theodore Roosevelt, at once took the oath of office as Pres- Roose. ident. To the members of McKinley 's Cabinet who stood J"^i. around him as he was sworn, the new President said : '" In this the hour of national bereavement I wish to state that it shall be my intention and endeavor to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley, for the peace and pros- perity of our beloved country." Soon after this he requested each member of the existing Cabinet to remain in office. The promise to carry out the policies of his prede- cessor and the retention of the Cabinet went far toward allaying the fears of those who may have felt that the new President was too young — he was only forty- three — and too inexperienced to guide the affairs of the nation. One of the first things to engage the attention of Pres- The Growtk ident Roosevelt was the subject of the Trusts. He found of the , Trust! that the forces for concentration (p. 537) had not been checked by the Sherman Law. In spite of that law and in spite of the anti-trust laws passed by the several States the trusts continued to flourish. " If there is any serious student of our economic life," said Professor Ely in 1899, " who believes that anything substantial has been gained by all the laws passed against trusts, by all the newspaper editorials which have thus far been penned, by all the sermons which have been preached against them, this authority has yet to be heard from. Forms and names have been changed in many instances, but the dreaded work of vast aggregation of cap- Copr 1904, by Arthur Ho Theodore Roosevelt. 558 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The War Against the Trusts The Labor Move- ment a ital has gone on practically as before." By 1902 nearly one- third of the total production of all industries, excluding that of agriculture, had been brought under the control of trusts. One trust controlled seventy-five per cent, of the steel in- dustry ; another sold ninety per cent, of the sugar output ; another refined seventy-five per cent, of the oil ; another manu- factured seventy-five per cent, of the paper. Much of this concentration of industry was due to the fact that the anti-trust law had not been rigidly enforced. Pres- ident Roosevelt early determined that his law-officers should move against the trusts and move against them in earnest. " No suit," he said, " will be undertaken for the sake of seeming to undertake it, and when a suit is undertaken it will not be compromised except upon the basis that the Govern- ment wins." In this spirit his Attorney-General brought suit against the Northern Securities Company, which was or- ganized for the purpose of merging the interests of the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific Railways in such a way as to destroy competition between the two roads. The suit was successful ; in 1904 the Northern Securities Company was forced by the Supreme Court of the United States to dis- solve. Suit was also brought against a combination of meat- packers known as the Beef Trust and an injunction was secured forbidding this trust from fixing prices arbitrarily, curtailing the supply of meat, or otherwise restraining the freedom of trade. This movement against the trusts awak- ened the resentment of the " captains of industry " but it was warmly a])proved by the people. While capitalists were organizing the Trusts workingmen were also concentrating their forces. The labor movement which l)egan to show strength in the eighties (p. 528) had by the opening of the twentieth century acquired tremendous momentum. By 1903 more than 2,000,000 wage-earners were organized into labor unions of one kind or another, one union alone having the enormous membership of 300,000. The power of the unions was seen in the laws which had been passed to promote the welfare of workingmen. By 1903 THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 559 in more than two-thirds of the States the employment of children under fourteen years of age was forbidden by law ; i in more than half the States women could not lawfully be j employed in factories more than ten hours a day; in nearly | half the States the working-day of State and municipal em- ' ployees was limited to eight hours ; in two-thirds of the States, there were bureaus of labor for collecting and giving out information on labor topics. But the chief thing the labor union did was to give the CoUect- workingmen the strength of organization when they were Bargain- bargaining with their employers in regard to wages and hours of labor. Under the trade union system the individual work- man ceased to bargain with his employers in regard to the conditions of employment. Instead of individual bargaining there was developed a system of collective bargaining: rep- resentatives of the labor organizations met in conference with the employers and there was higgling as to wages and hours of labor, and when a bargain was struck it was made bind- ing upon every member of the organization represented in the conference. Sometimes this collective bargaining was conducted on a vast scale, the agreement affecting hundreds of establishments and large sections of the country. But the collective bargain could not always be peacefully The made. In 1902 the miners in the anthracite coal region went strike on a strike because they could not reach an agreement with their employers in respect to wages and hours of labor. The miners were members of the United Mine Workers of Amer- ica, at whose head was John Mitchell, a man who himself had worked in the mines. Opposed to the miners was the Coal Trust, whose chief spokesman was George F. Baer, pres- ident of the Reading Coal Company. The miners at first offered to submit their claims to arbitration but their offer was bluntly rejected by Baer, who said there was nothing to arbitrate. " Anthracite mining," he said, " is a business, not a religious, sentimental, or academic proposition." The strike, which was declared in May, involved nearly 150,000 men. The mine-owners, relying upon their resources, hoped to tire f,6o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Panama Canal Copr. 1900, Pacli Bros. John Mitchell. the miners out. But the miners themselves were not without resources. The Mine Workers voted $2,000,000 a month for the support of the strikers. So the deadlock was protracted. The strike dragged on through the summer and far into the fall. The price of coal soared higher and higher. In some places it was $30 a ton. In many places it could not be bought at any price. The poor suffered, and schools and hospitals had to go without fires. In order to prevent the coal famine which was threat- ened, President Roosevelt under- took to settle the strike. After a great deal of trouble he succeeded in getting the strikers and the mine- owners to submit their differences to a commission which was ap- pointed by himself. Work in the mines was now promptly resumed and soon the people could get the coal for which they were suffering. In due time the arbitration commission brought in a decision favorable in the main to the miners. President Roosevelt had no legal authority to take action in regard to the strike but he felt that his intervention would be justified by public opinion and in this he was not disappointed. His act gave offense to the mine-owners but it pleased the majority of the people. While the President was wrestling with the coal strike he was at the same time furthering the project for constructing a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. We saw (p. 364) that the importance of an isthmian canal was fully recognized during the rush to California. During the Spanish War the long voyage of the Oregon around Cape Horn showed how important such a canal would be from a naval point of view. After we entered upon our policy of expansion it seemed that an inter-oceanic canal was almost a political and com- mercial necessity. But there were many perplexing problems THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 561 connected with the building of such a canal. In 1881, a French company organized by Ferdinand de Lesseps began to dig a canal across the Isthmus of Panama but the under taking ended in failure. According to the Clayton-Bulwer treaty (p. 364), if the United States should undertake to Photographed by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y Panama Canal nearly ready for the big ships. build an isthmian canal Great Britain would have to be a party to the undertaking But in time public opinion in the United States was opposed to this arrangement. President Hayes in 1880 declared that any canal that might be con- structed between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans should be under American control. And this was the American view when in 1901 the Hay-Pauncefote treaty was ratified. This treaty expressly abrogated the Clayton-Bulwer treaty and acknowledged the exclusive right of the United States to build, operate, and maintain a canal. Several routes for the proposed canal were considered but in 1902 the Panama route was finally agreed upon. The unfinished work of the French 562 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY company was purchased for the sum of $40,000,000. A treaty for a right of way across the isthmus was made with Colombia, the nation to which the Isthmus of Panama be- longed. As a consideration for the right of way $10,000,000 was to be paid to Colombia in cash and in addition an annuity of $250,000. But the Colombian Senate rejected the treaty. Still, the plans of the canal were only temporarily halted. In 1903, Panama, one of the States of the United States of Colombia, seceded. President Roosevelt sent United States troops to prevent Colombia from using force against Panama in the vicinity of the canal and he quickly recognized the new government organized by the seceding State, basing his action upon a treaty of 1846 between New Granada (after- wards Colombia) and the United States, by which the former was to guarantee the freedom of the canal route from hostile •demonstrations that would prevent its free use. In Feb- ruary 1904, a convention between Panama and the United States stipulated that the United States should guarantee the independence of the new republic of Panama, and that in return Panama should cede to the United States perpetual control of a zone of land ten miles wide for the construction of a canal. For the right of way the United States paid to Panama substantially what it had agreed to pay to Colombia. The task of building the canal was now taken up in earnest. A lock-type of canal was agreed upon and steps were taken " to make the dirt fly." At the close of 1 9 12 about 40,000 laborers were at work upon the canal and indications were that it would be finished and opened by January 191 5. Thus the quest begun by Columbus for a short route to the Indies at last bade fair to be crowned with success. The In the presidential campaign of 1904 Mr. Roosevelt came 1904 forward as the candidate for the Republican nomination and he was unanimously nominated. The Republican platform contained nothing that was startling or significant. It re- viewed the recent history of the Republican party and ex- pressed willingness to go before the country upon the strength THE UNITED STATES AS A WORLD POWER 563 of the party's achievements. The Democrats nominated Alton B. Parker of New York. Their platform was remarkable chiefly for what it did not contain : it was silent upon the money question. The reason for abandoning the free silver issue was stated as follows, although the statement did not appear in the platform : The discovery of gold in the last few years and the greatly increased production thereof, adding $2,000,000,000 to the world's supply, of which $700,000,000 falls to the share of the United States, have contributed to the maintenance of a money standard of values no longer open to question, removing that issue from the field of political contention," The Socialists in 1904 again nominated Mr. Debs. The issues between the two great parties in the cam- paign were not sharply drawn and the contest was without excitement. The victory of Roosevelt, however, was over- whelming. He received 336 electoral votes as against 140 for Judge Parker, and his majority over Parker was upwards of two and a half millions, the largest ever given to a candi- date for the Presidency. REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT WORK 1. Intervention in Cuba: Latane, 3-28. 2. The destruction of the Maine: Halsey X, 125-131. 3. The Battle of Manila Bay: Halsey X, 132-134; Hitchcock, 347- 356. 4. The Battle of Santiago: Hitchcock, 357-376; Halsey X, 135-1544 5. The assassination of President McKinley: Halsey X, 159-162. 6. The Philippine Insurrection : Latane, 82-99. 7. The annexation of Hawaii: Halsey X, 155-158. 8. The Monroe Doctrine and world poHtics : Latane, 255-266. 9. The election of 1904: Latane, 224-241. 10. The building of the Panama Canal: Halsey X, 169-176; Latane» 204-223. XLV A PROGRESSIVE ERA (1905-) In the last cliapter we saw tliat in the uponing years of the twentieth century a reforming or progressive spirit was manifest in the ad- ministration of the government. This forward-looking tendency was characteristic not only of the political world but of almost every de- partment of American life. So pervasive and general was the spirit of progressiveness during the early years of the twentieth century that the period was regarded by many as the beginning of a Pro- gressive Era. 179. TWENTIETH CENTURY PROGRESS IN SOCIAL MATTERS. Progress The progressive movement in the twentieth centtiry received Education its greatest strength from the educational achievements of the time. The cause of popular education which was in so flourishing a condition in the eighties (p. 515) continued to acquire force with each succeeding decade. By 1900 there were more than 15,000,000 pupils enrolled in our schools and by 1912 the mighty army of learners had increased to nearly 20,000.000. In 1913 more than 1,000,000 pupils were in our public high schools and academies and nearly 200,000 students were in our colleges and universities. While the schools were growing in number educators were striving to make them more useful. Besides the instruction given in the traditional subjects — in language, in mathematics, in science — courses were given in manual training and in the domestic arts. Some schools furnished even a vocational training which aimed ( i ) to assist the younger pupils in finding out what kind of work they were best fitted to perform, and (2) to give the older pupils the specific training necessary to prepare them for their chosen vocations. In addition to tlie regularly 564 A PROGRESSIVE ERA 565 organized schools many supplementary and indirect agencies assisted in spreading intelligence among the people. ^ The rural, free delivery carried the daily newspaper to millions who hitherto had not been accustomed to receive it ; hundreds of Carnegie libraries gave reading matter to millions who could not afford to buy books ; summer, vacation, and evening schools were attended by multitudes who could find no other opportunity for study ; free public lectures were established in the large cities and were attended by large audiences ; the university extension system, the Chautauqua circle, and the cor- respondence school reached hundreds of thousands of students. With all these opportunities for education it was little wonder illiteracy that few went untaught ; in 1910, of the persons in the United States above the age of ten, only seventy-seven in a thousand were illiterate; of the whites only forty-nine in a thousand were illiterate. One of the chief results of this wide diffusion of knowl- Progres- sive edge was to create a desire for the betterment of social con- Legisia- ditions. This desire showed itself in many ways and in many different lines of endeavor. The field of legislation was especially rich in measures designed for improving social con- ditions. In 1912 Congress established a Children's Bureau which was charged with the duty of investigating all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life. The next year Congress organized the Department of Labor and gave it power to make investigations in regard to the welfare of workingmen. But as most of the affairs pertaining to the 1 The cause of education was advanced by the gifts of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. The Carnegie Institution of Washington was founded in 1902 with the purpose of encouraging original investigation and research. The total endowment of this institution (in 1913) was $22,000,000. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching was founded in 1905 for the pur- pose of providing retiring-allowances for teachers and officers in certain colleges and universities. The endowment of the Foundation (1913) was $14,000,000. The Carnegie Corporation of New York was organized in 1911 with the purpose of promoting the advancement and diffusion of knowledge among the people of the United States by giving aid to institutions of higher learning. The endowment of this corporation (1913) was $25,000,000. The General Educational Board, char- tered in 1903 by Congress, was organized and endowed for the purpose of pro- jnoting education in the South. The gifts of Rockefeller brought the endowment of the board up to $30,000,000. 560 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY every-day life of the people are regulated by the State (p. 200) ^ it was by means of State legislation that most of the social ' ''■--J reforms were accomplished. The warfare against child-labor i^ and against the over-working of women in factories was con- ducted with such vigor that few States failed to enact laws ^\<^ forbidding the employment of children too young to work and ':' limiting the number of hours that women could be lawfully employed. Many States enacted Employers' Liability Laws which gave increased protection to workmen suffering in- jury from accidents. Thus in New Jersey and in Wiscon- sin laws were enacted which gave to employees injured by an accident of which the negligence of the employer was the cause, compensation according to a schedule of pay- ments, the compensation for temporary disabilities amounting to at least half the regular wages of the injured person. In a few of the States there was a movement for old age pensions. Thus in Massachusetts, cities and towns (other than Boston) were directed to retire and pension laborers that had been in their employ for 25 years and had attained the age of 65 years. Wisconsin undertook to furnish life insurance at the cheapest possible rates, having provided by law that the State Insurance Commissioner should conduct a life insurance busi- ness solely for the benefit of the policy-holders. Illinois, Colorado, and Pennsylvania ventured upon a system of pen- sions for indigent parents. In Illinois pensions were provided for parents who were so poor as to be unable to care for their children, it being left to a court to decide whether the pension should be granted or not and to determine the amount of the pension. In Michigan and Ohio a system of school pensions was adopted. In Michigan boards of education were given power to grant pensions not exceeding $3.00 a week to chil- dren whose services were absolutely necessary at home and who by law were compelled to go to school. Massachusetts and Utah went so far as to attempt to secure for laborers a minimum wage, that is, the lowest wage that employers should give, if they wish their employees to live in a decent and comfortable manner. A PROGRESSIVE ERA 567 But it was not only through the agencies of government Social that social reforms were undertaken. Private agencies were ment also potent in the movement for social betterment/ Charity organization societies — associated charities — extended their work and increased in number until almost every small city had an agency by which the poor could be helped in a ra- tional and scientific manner. Hospitals founded by private munificence also increased in number to such an extent that in some States there was hardly a locality where there was not a hospital in which the sick could be cared for at a reason- able rate." The work of the hospital was supplemented by visiting nurses who went into the homes of the poor and gave prac- tical instruction in the art of nursing. The Red Cross Society, which was originally or- ganized for the purpose of mitigating the horrors of war by alleviating the suffering of the sick and wounded, broadened the sphere of its usefulness and administered to the needs of those who suffered from disease or as a result of fire or flood, or the catastrophes of nature.^ The Boy Scout movement gained strength and hundreds of thousands of manly 1 Prominent among these agencies was the Russell Sage Foundation which was organized in 1907 with an endowment of $10,000,000, devoted to the broad social mission of " discovering and eradicating as far as possible the causes of poverty and ignorance." 2 In the city of New York alone there were in 1913 nearly no private hos- pitals. Notable among these is the Rockefeller Institute Hospital for Medical Re- search which was founded by John D. Rockefeller with an endowment of over $12,000,000. 3 Great Calamities. The services of the Red Cross Society were often sorely needed, for in the first years of the twentieth century there were a number of great calamities. In September, igoo, Galveston was swept by a tornado and submerged by a tidal wave, and in the fearful cataclysm 2000 people lost their lives and property worth $30,000,000 was destroyed. In ,1904 a fire in Baltimore destroyed $70,000,000 worth of property. In April, 1906, San Francisco was visited by an earthquake which caused the death of more than 400 people and destroyed between $200,000,000 and $300,000,000 worth of property. In 1913 Dayton was submerged by a flood which destroyed a vast amount of property and caused great loss of lif& 568 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY boys assumed the duties imposed by the Scout's vow : " On my honor I will do my best: to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the scout law ; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight." The The movement for peace among the nations which at the Movement opening of the twentieth century was gaining strength through- out the world met with favor in the United States and the cause was promoted in a striking manner by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an institution which was endowed with $10,000,000 for the purpose of establishing among nations a better understanding of international rights and duties and encouraging a general acceptance of peaceful methods of settling international disputes. Tjjg In most of these progressive movements women played a Mo^ment conspicuous part. In fact, with the opening of the twentieth century women began to assume a greater prominence in American life than they had ever before attained. Economic conditions had forced them into the industrial and professional world and had compelled them to face life as men must face it.^ They met the new conditions bravely and the Woman's Movement was not far advanced before it showed that some of the big tasks of the world could be performed as well by women as they could be by men. Two women — Clara Barton and Mabel Boardman — directed the heavy and responsible work of the Red Cross Society. Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, as superintendent of the Chicago public schools, and Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, as presi- Jane Addams. f|(,„^ ^f Wellcsley College, showed 1 According to the census of 1900 more than 5,000,000 women were engaged in self-supporting pursuits. About 400,000 of these were stenographers, clerks, and telegraph and telephone operators. More than 430,000 were teachers, physicians, and lawyers. About 1,200 women were bank oflficials, 1,900 were stock-raisers and 5,000 were classified as barbers. A PROGRESSIVE ERA 569 that great educational interests were safe in the hands of women. The work of Miss Jane Addams at the Hull House in Chicago was a conspicuous example of what devotion and good sense could accomplish in the way of uplifting the sub- merged classes in the heart of a great city. Miss Frances E. Willard led the temperance cause with such distinguished ability that it was thought proper to place her statue in the Capitol at Washington among the statues of the most famous men of the nation. 180. THE RULE OF THE PEOPLE. The general diffusion of knowledge also resulted in a num- J^^j^^j^g^ ber of reforms the purpose of which was to make the people ^®^'^®^°^ more completely the masters of government. Young citizens Recall who in the schools studied the history of their country and acquired a knowledge of civil government could be relied upon to support measures which made the government more re- sponsive to the popular will. A most important reform con- sisted in giving the people power to participate directly in the work of legislation. This was accomplished by the device known as the initiative and referendum.^ In 1898 the initia- tive and referendum was adopted by South Dakota and by 191 3 direct legislation in one form or another had been adopted by Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Maine, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, California, Nebraska, Washington, Wyoming, Michigan, and Ohio. As- sociated with the initiative and referendum was the " recall," a device whose aim was to give the people complete control over the officers whom they elected. Where this device was brought into use an officer could by a popular vote be deprived of (recalled from) his office before his term expired. Oregon 1 " The Initiative is a device whereby any person or persons may draft a statute and on securing the signatures of a small percentage of the voters may compel the State officials, with or without the intervention of the legislature, to submit the same to a popular vote; and if the required popular approval is secured, the proposal becomes a law. The Referendum is a plan whereby a small percentage of the voters may demand that any statute passed by the legislature (with the exception of certain laws) must be submitted to the electorate and ap- proved by a stipulated majority before going into effect." (Beard.) 570 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY Woman Suffrage adopted the recall in 1908 and by 1913 the device was also in use in California, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Washing- ton, and Nevada. In some of these States, however, the re- call does not apply to judges. Another wide-reaching political reform consisted in ex- tending the suffrage to women on equal terms with men.^ and Referend (States haviiiK the liiitu I the KccttU and Wmnaii Suffrage States having the Initiative and [~ Kef erendum and Woman Suffrage |_ States having the Initiative and Recall I Initiative and um,r ) States having the I ; i Referendum only 1 States having Woman Suffrage only Map showing the progress of popular rule. The conditions which forced women into the industrial world had a tendency to force her also into the political world, and in the opening years of the twentieth century women de- manded political rights with an insistence never before shown. Their claims were listened to and a wide extension of the suffrage was secured. In the later years of the nineteenth 1 The demand for votes for women was made at times during the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1848 a woman's suffrage convention under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton was held at Seneca Falls, New York. In, 1869 there was organized in New York the National Woman's Suffrage Associa- tion headed by Susan B. Anthony. In 1892 this association was merged into the American Woman's Suffrage Association of which Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt was elected the president. A PROGRESSIVE ERA 571 century four States — Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho — granted the suffrage to women upon equal terms with men. By 1914 California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and Kan- sas had been added to the list of equal suffrage States, while in Illinois women had been given the right to vote for presi- dential electors and for many important local officers. The movement for a more direct control of government Popular ° Election brought a change in the method of electing United States ot Senators. In the last half of the nineteenth century the plan of electing Senators by the State legislatures (15) began to work in a most unsatisfactory manner and in some cases did not work at all, for legislatures were sometimes so disor- ganized by factional wrangles that they were unable to make a choice. So, it was proposed to elect Senators by the direct vote of the people and after years of agitation the Seven- teenth Amendment ^ was submitted (in 19 12) to the States for ratification and in 1913 was adopted as a part of the Consti- tution (161). Many reforms designed to strengthen the rule of the people ^irect were also made in the organization of party machinery, tions The convention system of nominating candidates gave way to •a system of direct nominations. Instead of giving power to party-leaders to select a candidate, voters went to primary meetings and voted directly for the candidates they wanted to represent their party at the coming election. The system of direct nomination was carried so far that by 19 12 in many States voters were given an opportunity to express by direct vote their preference in respect to presidential candidates. In some States, as in North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, California, and Maryland, the selection of party delegates to national conventions was made a State affair by providing that such delegates should be elected by a popular vote of the State at large. Another political reform which found its strength in the Municipal , , , ... Eeforms progressive movement related to the government of cities. 1 The Sixteenth Amendment (160) giving Congress full power in respect to the taxation of incomes was also adopted in 1913. 572 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Commis- sion System There was need of reform in this direction, for at the opening of the twentieth century urban communities were developing at such a rapid rate ^ that their government was giving rise to serious and perplexing problems and there was so much mismanagement and corruption in our cities that municipal government was becoming a shame and disgrace. One of the most popular of municipal reforms consisted in establishing the commission form of government. This system of munici- pal organization, which originated in Galveston after the great inundation in 1900, had for its aim the focusing of responsi- bility in the management of city aflfairs and the elimination of partizanship in the election of city officers. Under the commission plan great power was lodged in a small group of men — usually five commissioners or councilmen — but this power was not likely to be abused, for wherever the commis- sion system was installed the people usually reserved for themselves the powers residing in the initiative, referendum, and recall. Des Moines followed Galveston in adopting the commission system and the new form of organization met with such favor that by 1914 it had been adopted by nearly 250 cities.- Another municipal reform which had for its aim a greater concentration of authority than that provided for by- the commission system was the city manager plan. Where this plan was adopted, as in Dayton and other Ohio cities, the entire administration of the affairs of a city was entrusted to a city manager appointed by the commission or council. In a number of States, as in California, Nebraska, and Michigan, Municipal municipal reform consisted in giving to the people of the city the privilege of framing their own charter just as the people of a State frame their own constitution. For ex- ample, the constitution of Ohio provided that if a municipality Home Rule 1 In 1910 about 35% of the entire population of the United States lived in in- corporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more. About 100 of these cities con- tained more than 50,000 inhabitants and about thirty more than 200,000 each. 2 Commission government recognizes the principle of the " short ballot," the purpose of which is to enable the voter to make an intelligent choice of candi- dates by making only the most important offices elective and voting for only a few officers at one time. A PROGRESSIVE ERA 573 so desired it might adopt its own charter by electing a com- mission of fifteen to frame the charter and submit it to the people for ratification. In California this principle of " home rule " was carried so far that counties were allowed to de- termine their own form of county government. i8i. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS (1900-1912). These social and political reforms were accomplished dur- Material . . . . . Progress ing a period of commercial and industrial activity that was almost feverish in its intensity. After the country recovered from the panic of 1893 the times which followed were so good that President McKinley in 1901 was constrained to say that our prosperity was appalling. This prosperous condition of affairs continued with but slight interruptions throughout the whole of the first decade of the twentieth century. How great was our progress during these years is shown in the table below : PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1900 AND igi2 1900 1912 Population! 75.944-575 96,410,5031 Wealth $88,000,000,000 $125,000,000,000 Money in circulation 2,055,150,000 3,276,786,000 Deposits in savings banks 2,458,000,000 5,825,000,000 Value of farms and farm property. 20,400,000,000 40,000,000,000 Value of farm products 4,000,000,000 8,000,000,000 Value of manufactured products. . . 8,000,000,000 20,000,000,000 Value of exports 1,394,000,000 2,204,000,000 Value of imports 849,900,000 1,653,000,000 Production of petroleum (gallons) 2,672,000,000 9,258,000,000 Production of pig iron (tons).... 13,789,000 23,649,000 Production of steel (tons) 10,188,000 23,676,000 Wheat (bushels) 522,000,000 621,000,000 Corn (bushels) 2,105,000,000 2,531,000,000 Cotton (bales) 10,245,000 16,109,000 Railways operated (miles) 194,000 246,000 Salaries of public school teachers. 137,687,000 253,915,000 Immigrants arrived 448,512 838,173 Urban population 31,000,000 42,000,000 1 The Table is based upon figures given out by the Bureau of Statistics and by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. The figures are given in most cases in round numbers. 574 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY progreBs Much of this prosperity was due to the progress that was Industrial made in the industrial arts. Never before were inventors Arts busier or more numerous than m the opening years of the twentieth century. Of the whole number of patents (about 1,000,000) issued from the foundation of the government up to 1914, nearly one-third of them were issued after 1900. In the single year of 1912 more than 35,000 patents were issued. The influence of invention was felt in almost every field of endeavor Manufacturing was greatly stimulated by the in- creased use of electricity as a motive power. In 1910 elec- r Progress In Trans- portation I'h,.tugrai)lied Ijy H M. A.isc)uil/.. Kc.kuk. Keokuk Dam. Down-stream side of dam immediately east of coffer-dam. trical energy amounting to more than 5,000,000 horse-power was generated by the fall of water and transmitted through wires to distant points. At Niagara a 250,000 horse-power force was generated at the Falls and distributed to points as far away as Syracuse. At Keokuk, Iowa, a dam was thrown across the Mississippi and an electrical power plant installed (1913) capable of generating 200,000 horse-power and sup- plying points as far away as St. Louis. The transportation of the ever-increasing volume of the world's products was made possible by the construction of more powerful locomotives and A PROGRESSIVE ERA 575 larger ships, The ocean liners continued to grow in size until they reached a length of more than 900 feet and at- tained a capacity for carrying a burden of 50,000 tons. Land transportation profited greatly by the invention of the auto- mobile. For some time the United States lagged behind the other nations in the use and manufacture of automobiles but about 1900 the new form of locomotion began to meet with favor and its manufacture on a large scale was undertaken, with the result that in 1913 we were making a quarter of a The Imperator coming into New York Harbor. million of automobiles worth a quarter of a billion of dollars. Aerial transportation began to receive serious attention in 1896 when Professor Langley of the Smithsonian Institution, with a flying-machine driven by a small steam-engine, made a flight of about three-fourths of a mile over the Potomac River near Washington. In 1903 Messrs. Orville and Wilbur Wright of Dayton, Ohio, constructed an aeroplane which made a successful flight of 852 feet. Two years later an aeroplane of the Wright brothers made a flight of 24 miles. 576 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY After this, interest in flying machines grew more intense, with the result that by 1913 aviation had reached a pitch at which long aerial flights were made with some degree of safety and the aeroplane was being seriously considered as a necessary implement of war. Long distance communication was ad- vanced in a marvelous manner by the invention of wireless telegrai:)hy. In 1901 William Marconi sent a signal across the Atlantic Ocean without a cable. By 19 14 the entire globe J Pluitopraphod by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. A modern aeroplane. was encircled with a series of wireless stations, and all the principal steamships of the world were provided with the wireless apparatus.^ Even express trains dashing along at great speed, and aeroplanes in their flight were kept in touch with each other by means of wireless messages. So efficient 1 A striking illustration of the great usefulness of wireless telegraiihy was given in the case of the Titanic disaster. At midnight, April 14, IQ12, the Titanic, the largest and finest ship afloat, collided with an enormous iceberg off the Newfoundland coast and sank in 2,700 fatlioms of water. As the ship was sinking wireless messages were sent out with the result that the Carpathia appeared upon the scene in time to save about 700 persons. Before the Cor- pathia arrived, however, more than 1,600 persons had been drowned. A PROGRESSIVE ERA 577 had this means of communication become that in 191 3 it was possible to flash a wireless telegram from Washington to Paris. Much of the material progress made between igoo and The 1 1 r^ • 1 r , • Concentrar 1912 was due to the emciency and power of concentrated capi- tionof tal. The industrial and commercial combinations which had made such headway when Mr. Roosevelt entered upon the Presidency continued to increase in number and to involve larger and larger amounts of capital. In 19 14 two hundred corporations owned $22,500,000,000 worth of property in the United States, a sum considerably greater than the value of all the property in the country in i860 (p. 434). In 1900 the total capitalization of the industrial Trusts was $3,650,000,- 000; in 1905 it was $6,800,000,000; in 191 1 it was $8,000,000,- 000. But concentration was not confined to industrial con- The cerns : there was concentration in the control of money and Report credit. According to the Pujo Report which was submitted to the House of Representatives in 1913, the firm members and directors in six banking institutions ^ in New York City held: " One hundred and eighteen directorships in 34 banks and trust companies having total resources of $2,679,000,000 and total deposits of $1,983,000,000. " Thirty directorships in 10 insurance companies having total assets of $2,293,000,000. " One hundred and five directorships in 32 transportation systems having a total capitalization of $11,784,000,000 and a total mileage (excluding express companies and steamship lines) of 150,200. " Sixty-three directorships in 24 producing and trading corporations having a total capitalization of $3,339,000,000. " Twenty- five directorships in 12 public utility corporations having a total capitalization of $2,150,000,000. 1 For a diagram showing in graphic form how these institutions are interre- lated and affiliated with the larger railroad, industrial, and public utility corpora- tions, and banks, trust companies, and insurance companies of the United States, see the Pujo Report. 5/8 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Rate Law of 1906 The Pure Food Law "In all, 341 directorships in 112 corporations having ag- gregate resources or capitalization of $22,245,000,000." i8j. the ROOSEVELT POLICIES (1905-1909). With the opening of the twentieth century the people hegan to look more and more to the national government as the agency that was to remedy economic evils and it was the policy of President Roosevelt to use the federal power for the regulation of commerce and industry wherever they could not be regulated by the State. He urged that Congress should exercise its power over interstate commerce and bring the railroads under proper control. In 1903 the Elkins Law for- bidding rebates was passed. But this was not enough. It was necessary not only that the rates be uniform as between different persons, but that they also be just and reasonable in all cases. Since under the law of 1887 the Interstate Com- merce Commission did not have the power to fix rates (P- 527) Congress in 1906 passed the Hepburn Act which gave the Commission, upon the complaint of an interested shipper (or passenger), the power to do away with a rate which it regarded as unjust or unreasonable, and to fix a new rate which it regarded as just and reasonable. The law broadened the term " common can ier " so as to bring under the power of the Commission not only railroads but express companies, sleeping-car companies and pipe-lines carrying oil. It also prohibited railroads from engaging in the busi- ness of mining iron or coal, or producing commodities which they were accustomed to carry as freight. This " commodity clause," however, was rendered practically ineffective (in 1908) by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. Another regulation of interstate commerce urged by Presi- dent Roosevelt referred to the sale of foods and drugs. Drug manufacturers and food companies had been supplying the public with adulterated and impure articles to such an extent that the practice had become dangerous to the public health. So Congress (in June, 1906) passed the Pure Food Act which ' A PROGRESSIVE ERA 579 imposed a penalty for using poisonous or otherwise injurious substances in the adulteration of articles shipped from one ■ State to another and forbade the false labeling and branding i of goods. Under this law it is permissible to sell adulterated i goods, but the nature of the adulteration must be stated so i that the public may know precisely what it is buying. President Roosevelt was especially zealous in his efforts to The . . Conser* conserve our natural resources. It had been the habit of past vation • , r i Policy administrations to deal with the mines, and forests and water- power sites of the national" domain in a lavish and wasteful manner. Roosevelt changed this policy of wastefulness to one of careful conservation. He set on foot plans for re- claiming by irrigation vast areas of arid lands ; he checked de- forestation by adding many millions of acres to the forest re- serves ; he prosecuted and brought to punishment men who were unlawfully seizing the public lands. In 1908 he called a conference of governors and of other prominent public men to discuss the subject of conservation and as an outcome of this conference popular and official interest in the movement , for conservation was stimulated in a remarkable degree. When President Roosevelt received the news of his sue- The . . . Nominees cess in the election of 1904 he gave out a written statement and the saying: "On the fourth of March next I shall have served in 1908 three and one-half years and this three and one-half years constitutes my first term. The wise custom which limits the , President to two terms regards the substance and not the form. Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for or accept another nomination." Nevertheless, in 1908 great pressure was brought to bear upon Roosevelt to stand for reelection. He refused, however, to be a candidate. He lent his support to the candidacy of William Howard Taft of Ohio, who re- ceived the Republican nomination. The Democrats for the third time nominated William Jennings Bryan and the . Socialists for the third time nominated Eugene V. Debs. The J Republican platform declared for a revision of the tariff but ,l did not indicate whether the revision was to raise or lower the rates. The Democratic platform declared that the ques- 58o ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Campaign of 1908 tion "Shall the people rule?" was the overshadowing issue of the campaign. In reference to the Trusts the platform said : " We favor the vigorous enforcement of the criminal law against guilty trust magnates and officials and demand the enactment of such additional legislation as may be neces- sary to make it impossible for a private monopoly to exist in the United States." The platform of the Socialists declared for the collective ownership of the means of transportation and also of those industries which were organized on a national scale and in which com- petition no longer existed. It also de- clared for a graduated inheritance and income tax ; for the initiative, referen- dum, and recall ; for the abolition of the Senate ; for an easier method of amend- ing the Constitution ; for the election of judges for short terms by a popular vote. The campaign of 1908 was a listless affair and was not in all respects a creditable incident in the history of party poli- tics. There was no clear-cut issue, the discussions were for the most part either vague or evasive, and the general trend of the campaign was to emphasize personalities rather than principles. In the East Mr. Bryan found himself opposed by the capitalistic forces ; in the West he had to face the great po])ularity of President Roosevelt who entered into the cam- paign personally and fought with all his might for Mr. Taft. The result of the election was an overwhelming victory for Taft who received 321 electoral votes against 162 for Bryan. Of the popular vote Taft received 7,678,908; Bryan, 6,409,104; and Debs 420,792. Eugene V. Debs The Payne- Aldrich BiU 183. THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT TAFT (i90£Hi9i3). Inasmuch as a pledge of tariff" revision was embodied in the Ivcpublican platform of 1908, the leaders of that party de- A PROGRESSIVE ERA 581 William H. Taft. termined that the work of revision should be speedily under- taken. President Taft immediately after his inauguration (March 4, 1909) called an extra session of Congress for the sole purpose of framing a new tariff. On August 5 the Payne- Aldrich bill was passed. This bill was framed in accordance with the doctrine that " the true principle of protection is best maintained by the imposition of such duties as will equal the difference between the cost of production at home and abroad, together with a reasonable profit to American industries." The Aldrich bill, like the McKinley and the Dingley bills, simply con- tinued the policy of protecting the laborer and guaranteeing a profit to the manufacturer. On metals, lumber, and leather, the duties were somewhat reduced, but the rates of woolen goods (Schedule K) were left practically untouched. Upon hosiery and all the better grades of cotton goods the rates which pre- vailed under the Dingley bill were raised. The bill was a great disappointment to the people in a number of the West- ern States, where it was expected and hoped that tariff revision meant a substantial revision in a downward direc- tion. In June 1910, Congress passed an act establishing a system postal of Postal Savings banks, to be managed by the Post Office Baii department. These banks were designed for the purpose of providing an absolutely safe depository for the savings of thrifty people. In the postal banks deposits may be made by any person of ten years or over in savings of not less than one dollar to a total amount of not more than $500, the rate of interest being two per cent. Any depositor may exchange his deposits in sums of $20, $40, $60, $80, or $100, or multiples thereof for United States gold bonds of like denomination 582 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY '1 Parcel Post Oklahoma New Mexico, Arizona The Congres- sional Election of 1910 bearing 23/' per cent, interest, redeemable after one year and payable after twenty years. After four years' operation the deposits in Postal Savings banks reached a total of about $40,- 000,000, the depositors numl^ering nearly 400,000. In August 19 1 2 Congress authorized the postal authorities to establish a domestic parcel post system. Accordingly in January 1913 the parcel post system was put into operation and in a year the business was so great that it was estimated that soon 1,000,000,000 parcels would be carried annually in the mails. During the Taft administration the federal organization of the contiguous territory of the United States was completed. The admission of Oklahoma as. a State was proclaimed by President Roosevelt. The stream of emigration which began to pour into the New Southwest in the early nineties (p. 530) flowed steadily, with the result that by 1900 the combined population of the so-called Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory amounted to nearly 800,000. A protracted struggle to obtain statehood for Oklahoma ended in 1907 by uniting Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory and admitting the amalgamated community as the State of Oklahoma. When Oklahoma entered the Union it was already a great and power- ful State for its population was nearly 1,500,000 and its wealth was vast. Development in the New Southwest extended to New Mexico and Arizona, and by 1912 these Territories were ready for statehood and were admitted. With the admission of New Mexico and Arizona the story of the Westward Move- ment came to an end and the sisterhood of States was rounded out. In the Congressional campaign of 1910 it was plain that the Payne- Aldrich tariff was an unpopular measure and that the Republicans had a fight ahead of them. Ex-President Roosevelt, who had recently returned from a hunting-trip in Africa, threw himself into the campaign with the utmost vigor. He wished his party to adopt progressive principles and in the campaign he especially favored the Insurgents, a small body of Republicans in Congress who had opposed the pas- A PROGRESSIVE ERA 583 sage of the Payne-Aldrich tariff and who had set their faces against what they regarded as the idtra-conservative, "stand- pat " methods and doctrines of some of the RepubHcan leaders. At Osawatomie, Kansas, Roosevelt announced what he called the platform of " New Nationalism " in seventeen planks, some of which were far more radical than any that had been proposed by his party. The result of the election was a sweeping victory for the Democrats who carried such Republi- can strongholds as Massachusetts, Vermont, and Ohio, and secured a handsome majority in the House of Representa- 'tives. Although President Taft was not regarded as a progressive, The his admmistration, nevertheless, was by no means barren of of progressive measures. In 1910 the Mann-Elkins Railway Act was passed. This law went further in the regulation of rail- roads than any law that had preceded it. Under the law of 1906 (p. 578) the Commission could change rates only after complaint was made by the shipper. The law of 19 10 gives the Interstate Commerce Commission power to make investi- gations upon its own initiative and when it finds certain rates unjust to change them even though shippers have made no complaint. Also by the law of 1910 proposed new rates may be suspended in their operation by the order of the Commis- sion and they cannot go into efifect at all. Thus the Mann- Elkins law gives the Commission very great power in the regulation of railroad rates. The railroads, however, may in all cases appeal to the courts of the United States where the decision of the Commission is overruled if it is found that the rates in question are unjust or unreasonable. Another progressive measure of the Taft administration had The for its aim the regulation of contributions to campaign funds. °^ The lavish expenditure of campaign committees, amounting in runds some instances to several millions of dollars at a single elec- tion, caused the public to inquire into the origin of the funds. In 1908 the Democrats in their platform declared in favor of publishing both before and after election the names of the contributors to the campaign fund and the amounts con- 584 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY tribtited. In 191 1 Congress, responding to the demand for publicity, passed a stringent act providing for the pubhcation before and after election of all receipts and expenditures of any candidate for a federal office and limiting the amount that might be lawfully expended. The law, however, did not re- strict the amount that might be expended in behalf of a candi- date by others or that might be contributed to the cami)aign funds of political parties. In 1912 Congress went further and provided for the publicity of receipts and expenditures in presidential primary elections. The movement for i)ublicity was not confined to federal elections for by 19 14 most of the States had enacted some sort of legislation providing for the publication of campaign expenditures and regulating the use of money at elections. President Taft's administration also showed a progressive spirit in the legal warfare which it waged against the Trusts. During President Roosevelt's administration the Department of Justice began ( 1906) in a federal Circuit Court a suit against the great Standard Oil Company on the ground that it was violating the Sherman Anti-Trust law. This suit was still unsettled at the end of Roosevelt's term, but it was pushed to completion by his successor. In 191 1 the case reached the Supreme Court of the United States and that tribunal decided that the Standard Oil Company was violating the Sherman Act and that it must be dissolved; that it must relinquish its control over the constituent companies, of which there were thirty-three, and give to each of these minor companies its proportional share of the stock. This was done and it was thought that a great victory was won over the Trusts. But it was not a very useful victory, for the small group of men who had controlled the consolidated company still controlled each of the independent companies and thus could prevent any- thing like vigorous competition. Two weeks after the de- cision in the Standard Oil case was handed down, a similar decision was handed down in the case of the American To- bacco Company, and that great trust was dissolved. Suits against the Harvester Trust and the Steel Trust were be- A PROGRESSIVE ERA 585 gun during Taft's administration, but were not brought to a close. 184. THE ELECTION OF 1912. But the progressive measures of the Taft administration did TheCan- ^ ^. . , didates not satisfy the insurgent RepubHcans, who by 1912 were calling C?''*^®,, themselves Progressives and were outspoken in their opposi- canNomt ° . . ^ . nation tion to the renomination of President Taft. Prominent among the leaders of the Progressives was Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, who had led a reform movement which had made his State a thoroughly progressive community. La Follette had an enthusiastic following among Progressive Republicans in parts of the West and Middle West, and re- lying upon this following for support he offered himself as a candidate for the Republican nomination. But there was also a strong sentiment among the Progressive Republicans that ex-President Roosevelt should be nominated. In February 1912, the governors of seven States addressed a letter to Roosevelt declaring the belief *' that a large majority of the Republican voters of the country desired his nomination and a large majority of the people favored his election as the next President of the United States." Replying to this letter Roosevelt said he would accept the nomination if it were tendered to him. When this decision of Roosevelt was announced, Taft, who was a candidate for reelection, de- clared that nothing but death would prevent him from striv- ing to seciire the nomination. Thus the campaign for the Republican nomination opened The . . Campaign with three candidates in the field. The contest for delegates for the Republi- was exciting and at times acrimonious. When the Conven- canNomi tion met at Chicago (June 18) there was another bitter con- test over the seating of delegates. Out of 254 disputed seats 235 were awarded to Taft men by the national committee which was controlled by anti-Roosevelt forces. The Roose- velt men charged fraud and when the action of the committee was sustained by the Convention Roosevelt advised his dele- gates to refrain from further participation in the proceedings. nation 586 ADVANCED AMERICAN HISTORY The Demo- cratic Nomi- uation The Or- ganization of the Progres- sive Party On the first ballot for the nomination of a candidate Taft re- ceived 561 votes, La Follette 41, and Roosevelt 106, the votes of 19 delegates being scattered and 344 having refrained from voting. So President Taft received the nomination, but it was clear that the Republican party was split in twain. Three days after the adjournment of the Republican Con- vention the Democratic National Convention met at Balti- more. The pre-convention campaign of the Democrats had been quiet and uneventful, but the convention itself was a stormy affair. A large portion of the delegates desired a conservative candidate and a conservative plat- form. Another large portion de- sired a progressive candidate and a progressive platform. After a long struggle the progressive element un- der the leadership of Mr. Bryan, who was a member of the Conven- tion, gained the ascendency. The four most prominent candidates be- fore the Convention were Judson Harmon, of Ohio, Oscar Under- wood of Alabama, Champ Clark of Missouri, and Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey. On the tenth ballot Clark received the votes of a majority of the delegates but as the two-third rule (p. 347) was still in force this did not constitute a choice. The voting continued until the forty- sixth ballot was taken when Wilson was nominated by a vote of 990, Clark receiving 84 and Harmon 12. At the close of the Republican convention the Roosevelt forces resolved to organize a new party. Accordingly, Au- gust 5, 191 2, a convention met at Chicago and organized the Progressive party, selecting ex-President Roosevelt as the candidate for President and adopting a platform declarative of the principles of the party. The Progressive platform re- sembled in many respects the one adopted by the Democrats. Some of the declarations of the new party were, however, William Jenningps Bryan. A PROGRESSIVE ERA 587 highly significant. One of the planks declared for national jurisdiction " over the problems which have expanded beyond the reach of the individual States," a formal statement of the doctrine of " new nationalism." Another plank demanded " national regulation of interstate corporations through a permanent federal commission." The Socialists, for the fourth time, nominated Mr. Debs JJ^jj^ug^g and declared substantially for the social and political reforms which they had demanded in previous campaigns (p. 580). The campaign of 19 12 was characterized by excitement and Campaign uproar but the issues at stake were by no means clearly de- ^^gj^g^ fined. The question which received the most attention was the tarifif. Upon this subject the Democrats declared for a tariff for revenue only on the ground that a protective tariff is unconstitutional (p. 312). The Republicans declared for the " maintenance of a protective tariff with a reduction of duties that may be too high." The Progressives demanded " immediate downward revision of those schedules where duties are shown to be unjust or excessive." The result was a sweeping Democratic victory. Of the 531 electoral votes Wilson received 435, Roosevelt 88, and Taft 8. The popular vote was 6,290,818 for Wilson, 4,123,206 for Roosevelt, 3,484,529 for Taft and 898,296 for Debs, Thus the great Re- publican party which had governed the country so long went down in defeat. President Wilson's Program XLVI THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION. During the years of the Wilson administration there was unusual activity in federal legislation and domestic reforms, while the inter- national problems of the period were far more serious than any that had yet confronted the American people. 185. THREE GREAT LAWS. On March 4, 1913, President Wilson in the presence of the largest throng that ever assembled in front of the Capitol de- livered an inaugural address that was brief, eloquent, and lofty in sentiment. Referring to the change which had brought the Democrats into power the President said : " It means much more than the mere success of a party. The success of a party means little except when the Nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose." The pur- poses which the President had in mind were foreshadowed in the following words, " We have itemized with some degree of particularity the things that ought to be altered and here are some of them : A tariff which cuts us from our proper part in the commerce of the world, vio- lates ^he just principles of taxation, and makes the Government a facile instrument in the hands of private interests ; a banking and currency system based upon the necessity of the Government to sell its bonds fifty years ago and perfectly adapted to concentrating cash and restricting credits ; an industrial system, which, take it on all its sides — financial as well as admin- istrative — holds capital in leading- strings, restricts the liberties and limits the opportunities of labor, and exploits, without renew- ing or conserving, the national resources of the countrv." It was plain that the President expected his party to take definite action upon the tariff question, upon the currency question, and upon the trust question. 588 Woodrow Wilson. A PROGRESSIVE ERA S89 The tariff question was the first to be taken up. On April The^^^ 7, President Wilson assembled Congress in extra-session and ^^°^^ on the following day read his message from the Speaker's desk to the members of both houses, urging upon them the necessity of a prompt, effective, and downward revision of the tariff. Congress responded to the wishes of the Presi- dent and (October 1913) passed the Underwood tariff. This law reduced the rates on nearly a thousand articles of im- port. The rates on cotton goods were cut from 45 per cent, to 30 per cent. The rates on woolen goods (Schedule K) were reduced far below the high mark of the Payne tariff (p. 581), but as a compensation to manufacturers wool was admitted free of duty. Sugar also was put upon the free list. Taking the bill as a whole the Underwood bill reduced the general average of tariff rates greatly below what they had been under the Payne-Aldrich Bill. One of the clauses of the Underwood bill imposed an in- 5:ax™* come tax (160) of i per cent, per annum upon every citizen of the United States, whether residing at home or abroad, and upon every person residing in the United States though not a citizen thereof. In computing the tax a deduction of $3,000 was made in the case of persons living alone, and a deduction of $4,000 in the case of persons living in the marriage relation. The law also imposed an " additional income tax of i per cent, per annum upon the amount by which the total net income exceeds $20,000 and does not exceed $50,000, and 2 per cent, per annum upon the amount by which the total net income exceeds $50,000 and does not exceed $75,000, 3 per cent, per annum upon the amount by which the total net income exceeds $75,000 and does not exceed $100,000, 4 per cent, per annum upon the amount by which the total net income exceeds $100,- 000 and does not exceed $250,000, 5 per cent, per annum upon the amount by which the total net income exceeds $250,000 and does not exceed $500,000 and 6 per cent, per annum upon the amount by which the total net income exceeds $500,000." In i8-3^o, 2,22 State Banks, 322, 469 National, 469, 5S5 Baptists, no Barlow, 39 Barnard, Henry, 516 Barton, Clara, 568 Bates, Edward, 430 Baton Kouge, 447 Battles, see under dificrent names. Bean, William, 146 Beauregard, General, 431, 438, 44^ Beef Trust, 558 Belknap, W. W., S"' Bell, Alexander G., 514 Bell, John. 406 Belmont, August, 539 Bennett, James Gordon, 421 Bennington, battle, 188 Benton, Thomas H., 320 Berkeley, lolia Lord, 95 Berkeley, 'William, 80, 81 Bessemer, Sir Henry, 512 Betterment, social, 33S -340, 567-568 Bible Commonwealth, 72 Bienville, Celeron dc, 133 Bill of Rights, 77 Billion Dollar Congress, the, 533 " Blackbeard," 89 "Black Codes" the, 481 Black Hawk, 361 Black Hawk Purchase, 360 Bladensburg, battle, 272 Blaine, James G., 521. S22, 534 Blair, Montgomery, 430 Bland-Allison Silver Bill, 506 Blockade, the, 439-440, 443, 472, 478 Boardman, Mabel, 568 Boards of Trade and Plantations, 114 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 260, 267, 272 Bond Issues, 538-539 Bonhomme Richard, the, 191 Boone, Daniel, 144-145 Boonesboro. 145 Boone's Wilderness Road, 145, 2S1 Pjooth, John Wilkes, 478 Boston: founded, 64 in 1700, 104 at end of colonial period, 154 Boston — Continued: during the Revolution, 166, 167, 168, ^ 169, 171, 173-174. 178 Its giowth, 243, 519 great fire in, 495 Boulder (Colorado), 412 Bounties, 466 Bouquet, General Henry, 142 Bowie, James, 346 Bowles, Samuel, 421 Boxer Rebellion, 553 Boy Scouts, 567 Braddock, General, 136 Braddock's Defeat, 136 Bradford, William, 60 Bragg, General Biaxton, 354, 447, 457, 459 Brandywine, battle, 187 Brazil, 11, 14 Breckinridge, John C, 406 Breed's Hill, 174 Brewster, William, 60 Brock, (j'eneral, 270 Brook l-"arni, 340 Brooklyn, 185, 417, 518, 528 Brooks, Preston, 397 Brown, Gen. Jacob, 272 Brown, John, 396, 405 Brush, Charles F., 514 Bryan, William J., 543^545. 555. 579. 580, 586 Bryant. William Cullcn, 338, 421 Buccaneers, 37 Buchanan, James, 397, 398, 399, 401, 417, 426 Buell, General, 446. 447 Buena Vista, battle, 354 Buffalo, the, 20 Buffalo, 33J, 418, 519, 556 Bull Run, jaltle, 438 Bunker Hill, battle, 174 Burgoyne, (General John, 187-189 Burlington (Iowa), 360 Burlingtou (N. J.), 96, 97 Burnside, General, 451, 452 Burr, Aaron, 238, 241, 264 Butler, Senator, 397 Byllynge, John, 96 Cabinet meetings, 257 Cabot, John, 12-14, 29 Cable, transatlantic, 417 Cabral. 1 1 Calamities, great, 567 Calhoun, John C. : advocates war with England, 269 candidate for the Presidency, 304 Vice President, 304 and nullification, 312 his career, 313 on slavery, 376 and the Compromise of 1850, 385 California: coast skirted by Drake, 38 the advance of Russia in, 301 the aims of Polk in respect to, 351, 352 England's designs upon, 351 conquest of, 354, 355 INDEX 627 California — Continued : ceded to the United States, 355 the missions, 363 the discovery of gold in, 363 travel to, 363-364 rapid settlement of, 364 admitted to the Union, 365, 385 question of slavery in, 383, 385 progressive measures in, 569, 570, 571, 572, 573 Calvert, Cecelius, 83, 85, 86 Calvert, George, 82-83 Calvert, Leonard, 83 Camden, battle, 193 Cameron, Simon, 430 Campaign funds, 583-584 Canada, 51, 125, 139, 170, 270, 384 Canals, 328-330, 560-562 Capital, location of, 228 " Captains of Industry," 524, 558 Carleton, General, 185, 187 Carnegie, Andrew, 565, 568 CaroHnas: French on the coast of, 30 the settlement of the, 86—90 in 1700, 104, 1 10, III extent of settlement in, in 1750, 121 their attitude toward the French, 134 see also North Carolina, South Caio- lina " Carpet baggers," 484, 499, 506 Carteret, Sir George, 95 Carteret, Philip, 95, 97 Cartier, Jacques, 30 Carver, John, 60 Cass, Lewis, 381 ^' Catholics, 4, 32, 37. 38, 85, no, 126' Catt, Carrie Chapman, 570 Caucus, Congressional, 2^1, 310 Cavaliers, 80 Censure, vote of, 320 Centennial Exposition, 495 Center of Population, 413 Cerro Gordo, battle, 354 Cervera, Admiral, 550 Champlain, Samuel, 51-52 Champoeg (Oregon), 362 Chancellorsville, battle, 456 Chapultepec, battle, 354 Charity, 338, 340, 567 Charles 1, 51, 64, 70, 73 Charles II 70, 72, 74, 76, 80, 81, 83, 86, 93 Charleston (South Carolina), 87, 89, 104, 130, 154, 169, 185, 192, 194, 243 Chase, Salmon P., 397, 469 Chase, Samuel, 172 Chatham, Lord, 166 Chattanooga, battle, 457-458 Chautauqua Circles, 565 Cherokees, 21, 145, 320 Cherry Valley, 19s Chesapeake, the affair, 263 Chester (Pa.), 99 Cheyenne (Wyoming), 491 Chicago: Fort Dearborn Massacre, 283 McCormick's factory in, 359 its growth, 417 in war times, 471 great fire in, 495 Chicago — Continued: the metropolis of the West, 518 the Haymarket affair, 528 labor disturbances in, 540 Columbian Exposition in, 540 Chickamauga, battle, 457 Chickasaws, 21, 320 Child Labor, 335, 566 Children's Bureau, 565 Chillicothe (Ohio), 251 China: search for route to, 12, 30, 35, 46, 53, 127 Boxer Rebellion in, 553 Chinese, the, 51 1 Chippewa Falls, 272 Chisholm, case of, 226 Choctaws, 21, 320 Christiana, 92 Cincinnati, 417, 519 Cities: in Europe in fifteenth century, 2 in the colonies in 1700, 104 at end of colonial period, 154 principal in 1800, 243 in i860, 417-418 growth in population of, 515-518, 523, 572, 573 reforms in government of, 571-573 City Manager plan, 572 Civil Rights Bill, 482 Civil Service Commission, 509 Civil Service Reform, 508, 509, 524-525 Civil War: events leading to, 423-431 preparation for, 431-433 strength of the North and the South compared, 433-435 the beginnings of, 437-438 the blockade, 439-441 organization and plan of campaign, 441-444 in the West (1862): Fort Donelson, Shiloh; opening of the Mississippi, 444-447 in the East (March, 1860-May 1863): the Monitor and the Merrimac: naval warfare; the Peninsular Cam- paign; Manassas; Antietam; Freder- icksburg, 447-452 results of the fighting in 1862, 452-453 in 1863: Chancellorsville; Gettysburg; Vicksburg; Chattanooga, 456-458 results of the fighting in 1863, 459 the close of the struggle: Atlanta; Savannah; the campaign against Lee; Appomatox, 459-462 keeping the ranks filled, 465-467 meeting the expenses of, 467-469 politics during, 473-474 Claiborne, William, 84, 86 Claiborne, William, governor of Louisi- ana, 285 Clans, 21 Clarendon, Ear] of, 86 Clark, Champ, 586 Clark, George Rogers, 195 Clark, William, 289 Clay, Henry: advocates war with England, 269 his American System, 303 628 INDEX Clay, Henry — Continued : candidate for the Presidency, 304, 319, 347. 381 Secretary of State, 306 character, 316 and the tariff of 1833, 316 and the Compromise of 1850, 385-307 Clayton- Bulwer Treaty, 364, 561 Clermont, the, 284 Cleveland, Grovcr, 5J1, s-'j, 5J4-5J7, 537-547. 55- Cleveland, J51, 330, 519 Climate of North Anieiica, 17-18 Clinton I)e Witt, 328 Clinton, George, 232 Clinton, Sir Henry, 192 Clipper Ships, 415 Coal Strike, 559 Cohens iw. Virginia, 296 Cold Harbor, battle, 461 Collective Bargaining, 559 Colleges and Universities, 4. 157, 244, 337-338, 420, 515 516, 564 See also Education Colombia, 562 Colonies: attempts of France to plant, 30-31, 48 first efforts of England to plant, 39—41 England's reason for planting, 42-43 business features of, 45, 59, 61, 65, 81, 91 government of, 45-47, 50, 61, 71, 83, 85, 87, 94, 96,111-113, 159 English and French contrasted, 52-53, 131 Dutch, 53-55, 91-94 Swedish, 92-93 in 1700, 102, 114 grovk'th of between 1700 and 1750, 115- 124 life in at end of Colonial period, 156- 158 their quarrel with tiie mother country, 159-170 revolt of the, 171 — 181 independence of secured, 183-198 see also names of the several colonies Colorado: carved (in part) out of Louisiana Purchase, 261 its early settlement, 411 made a Territory, 412 admitted to the Union, 492 progressive measures in, 570, 571 Columbian Exposition, 540 Columbus, Christopher, 9-11 Columbus, Diego, 25 Columbus (Ohio), 326 Commerce: in Europe in fifteenth century, 5 blocked by the Turks, 9 effect of the discovery of America upon, 14 England's efforts to increase, 41 effect of the Navigation Laws upon, 81 in the colonies in 1700, 108-109 at end of colonial peiiod, 152-153 regulation of, 203, 217 under the Confederation, 205 extent of in 1800, 248 depredations upon, 236, 262—264 Commerce — Continued : struggle for commercial freedom, 262- 274 legal meaning of the word, 296 movements of inland, 333-334, 414 foreign, 248, 334, 415, 471, 493, 514, 573 effect of trunk lines upon, 414 regulation of interstate, 296, 526-527 ^ 578, 583 during the Civil War, 470-473 progress in, between 1870 and 1890, 514 progress in, between 1900 and 1912, 573 the ■' open door policy," 553 Commission System of Municipal Govern- ment, 572 Committees of Correspondence, 168, 172 " Common Sense," Paine's, i8o Compass, the, 7 Conii)roniise, Crittenden. 427 Compromise of 1850, 383-387 Compromises of the Constitution, 215 Comstock mine, 412 Concessions and Agreement, 96 Concord, battle, 173 Confederate States of America, 424 Confederation, Articles of, 201-202 Congresses: Albany, 135 Stamj) Act, 163 First Continental, 172-173 Second Continental, 176-178, 179, 191 201, 220 of the Confederation, 201-203, 208 under the Constitution, 214-216 Conkling, Roscoe, 508 Connecticut: settlement of, 70—72 and its charter, 76, 78 population of, in 1700, 104 Its constitution, iii, 199 during the Revolution, 171 opposed to War of 1812, 270 and Pel sonal Liberty laws, 393 Conscription, 465—466 Conservation policy, 579 Constantinople, 8 Constitution, the, 271 Constitutions, 112, 199 Constitution, First Written, 71 Constitution of the United States: its formation, 213—217 its ratification, 217-220 Amendments, 219, 226, 241, 474, 479, . 48^, 484, 487, 571 Us interpretation, 230-231, 296, 314 Continental Congress (First), 172-175 Continental Congress (Second), 176-178, 179, 191, 201, 220 Convention of 1787, 213-217 Cooper, Fenimore, 338 Cooper, Peter, 329, 502 "Copperheads," 473 Cordillera, 17, 18 Corinth (Miss.), 445-446 Corn, 19, 573 Cornstalk, Chief, 144 Cornwallis, General, 186, 193, 196 Coronado, 28 INDEX 629 Corporations, 526, 536, 557, 577, 580, 584, 587 Correspondence Committees of, 168, 172 Correspondence Schools, 565 Cortez, 28 Corydon (Indiana), 283 Cotton, 288, 331-332, 334, 440, 471, 472, 573 County government, 113, 573 County-township system, 94 Cowpens, battle, 195 Coxey's Army, 539 Crawford, William H., 304 Credit Mobilier, 501 Creeks, 21, 273, 320 Crittendon Compromise, 427 Crockett, David, 346 Cromwell, Oliver, J3, 80 Crown Point, 176 Crusades, 5 Cuba, 10, 26, 139, 355, 391, 547-552 Cumberland dap, 133, 144, 281 Cumberland (Md.), 283 Currency, see Money and Monetary Mat- ters Curriculum of Colleges, 4, 516 Curtis, George William, 340, 502 Custer, General George, 492 Customs duties, see Tariff Dakota Territory, 411, 493 see North Dakota, South Dakota Dale, Sir Thomas, 48 Dallas, 532 Dalton (Georgia), 460 Dana, Charles A., 340 Dare, Virginia, 40 Davenport, John, 72 Davenport (Iowa), 360 Davis, Jefferson, 354, 425, 431, 455, 462, 473 Dawes Bill, 532 Dayton (Ohio), 251, 567, 572 Deane, Silas, 172 Dearborn, Henry, 257 Dearborn, Fort, 283 Debs, Eugene V., 540, 563, 579, 580, 587 Debt, national, 177, 204, 227-229, 322, 468, 469, 496 Declaration of Independence, 179— 181 Deerfield (Mass.), 130 De Kalb, General, 193 Delaiware, Lord, 47 Delaware: the Swedes in, 92 acquired by Penn, 99 has its own legislature, loi in the Revolution, 181 first ta ratify the Constitution, 219 remains in the Union, 433 Dermarcation, line of, 12 Democracy, 293 Democratic Party, 242, 265, 295, 319, 324, 32s, 347, 381-383, 388, 394, 397-399- 406-407, 474, 487, 490, 502, 507, 521, 530, 537, 543-545, 555, 563, 579. 586-587 Democratic-Republican Party, 230-232, 237 Denver. 412, 492 Departments, executive, of national gov- ernment, 224—226 Deposits, removal of, 319 Deseret, the proposed State of, 366 Des Moines, 360, 572 De Soto, Hernando, 28 Detroit, 142, 195, 330, 41S, 519 Dewey, Admiral George, 549-550 Dias Bartholomeu, 9 Dickinson, John, 166, 172 Dingley Tariff, 546-547 Dinwiddle, Governor, 134 Direct Nominations, 571 District of Columbia, 383, 385 Donelson, Fort, 443, 444 Dongan, Governor, 12a Dorr's Rebellion, 339 Douglas, Stephen A., 389-391, 393, 397, 401, 402-405, 40G, 407, 4^3, 430 Dover (New Hampshire), 67, 129 Drake, Sir Francis, 33, 37—39, 40 Draft, the, 465 Dred Scott Decision, 399—401 Drumniond, William, 87 Dubuque, 360 Duke of York, see James II Duluth, 492 Dunmore's War, 144 Duquesne, Fort, 134, 138 Dutch, the; plant the colony of New Netherlands, . S3 in Connecticut, 70 in the Carolinas, 88 in New Netherlands, 91 and the Swedes, 92 end of their rule in New Netherlands, 93-94 see also Holland Dutch West India Company, 54 Early, Jubal, 461 East India (Company, 43, 168 Eaton, Theophilus, 72 Edict of Nantes, 89 Edison, Thomas A., 512, 514 Education : in Europe in the fifteenth century, 4 in the colonies in 1700, no— iii at end of colonial period, 157 Colleges and Universities, 4, 157, 244, 337-338, 420, 515-516, 564 and the Ordinance of 1787, 209 in 1800, 243 public schools, in, 157, 243, 336-338, 419, 515-516, 564-565 of slaves, 375 high schools, 420, 515, 564 progress in, 515-516, 564-565 the Land Grant Act, 515 Bureau of Education, 516 improvement in methods of, 516 El Caney, battle, 550 Elections, Presidential: Washington (1788), 222 ^ , " (1792), 232 John Adams (1796), 238 Jefferson (1800), 241 (1804). 262 630 INDEX Elections — Contiii ucd : Madison (1808), 265 (1812), 269 Monroe (1816), 294 (1820), 300 J. Q. Adams (.1824), 304 Jackson (1828), 309 (1832), 319 Van Buren (1830), 321 Wm. II. Harrison (1840), 324 Polk (.1844), 347 Taylor (1848), 3S1-3SJ Pierce (1852), 388 Buchanan (1856), 397-399 Lincoln (i860), 405-400 (1864), 474 Grant (.1868), 487 (,1872), 490 Hayes (1876), So- Gartield (,1880), 507 Cleveland (.1884), 521 Benj. Harrison (1888), 530 Cleveland (1892), 537 McKinley (1896), 542-545 (1900), 555-556 Roosevelt (1904), 562-563 Taft (1908), 579 Wilson C1912). 5S5-S87 Electoral Commission, 503 Electoral Count Act, 525 Electors, presidential, 216, 220, 241, 310 Electricity, 512, 514, 574-575 Eliot, Charles W., 516 Elizabeth, Queen, 37-39 Elizabeth (N. J.), 95 Elkins Law, 578 Emanciiiation, 453^45^. 47^, 479 Embargo Act, 263— 2O4 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 338, 421 Employers' Liability Laws, 566 Endicott, John, 63 England : in fifteenth century, 1, 3 her claims to America, 12—14 extends her power upon the seas, 34—36 her clash with Spain, 36-39 her tiist efforts at colonization, 39—41 conditions in, 1600, 42—43 plants the Virginia colony, 43—51 takes possession of New York, 93—94 her repressive colonial policy, 107, 151 hei alliance with the Iroquois, 128 border warfare between English and French, 129—131 her struggle with France for the conti- nent of America, 132-139 overthrows French power in America, "39 . , . the first of commercial nations, 140 asserts her authority over the colonies, 159 taxes her colonies, 160-165 her action during the Revolution, 166 191, 197 unfriendly conduct of, 203, 236, 262- 264 strained relations with, 267-269 and the Oregon country, 350 designs of upon California, 351 during the Civil War, 440-441 lakes a part in Mexican affairs, 486 England — Continued : and the Venezuelan boundary, 541 -541 Episcopal Church, 57, 58, no Era of Good Feeling, 294—303 Erdman Act, 527 Ericson, Leif, 13 Erie Canal, 326—328, 330 Erskine, British Ministei, 267 Established Cluircii, see Episcopal Church Europe in the fifteenth century, 1-7 Expansion, Territorial, 356 I'aclory system, 247, 334-335 Fair Oaks, battle, 449 Fallen Timbers, battle, 251 Farming, sec Agriculture Farragut, Admiral, 447 Federal Government, the, 213, 214—217, 294-297 sec also Government Federalist Party, 231, 237, 240-^42, 265, 276 Federalist, the, 218 Federation of Labor, 520 Fenwick, John, 96 Ferdinand of Spain, 3 Field, Cyrus W., 417 Fifteenth Amendment, 487—488 Fillmore, Millard, 381, 387, 398, 399 Finance, see Money and Monetary Mat- ters, also Banks Fires, great, 495, 567 Fish and Fisheries, 20, 29, 34, 57, 106, 151. .197, 542 Five Nations, 22 Florida: discovered by Ponce, 27 invaded by Ogelthorpe, 123 ceded to the English, 139 given back to Spain, 197 acquired from Spain, 288 made a Territory, 288 admitted to the Union, 362 withdraws from the Union, 424 restored to the Union, 484 Flying-Machines, 575 Foote, Commodore, 444, 447 Force bill, 316 Force laws, 500 Forests, 18 Forts, see under different names Fort Worth, 532 Fourteenth Amendment, 482, 483, 484 France: in the fifteenth century, i, 3 the fishermen of, 29 challenges the claims of Spain, 30 sends Cartier to America, 30 her clash with Spain, 31 British blow at French colonization, 48 her power in Canada, 51-53 her method of colonization, 52 expansion of her power, 125-128 border warfare between French and English, 128-131 power of, in the Mississippi Valley, '3'-'3S . , . struggle for the control of America, 135-139 INDEX 631 France — Continued : loses American possessions, 139 enters into an alliance with the United States, 189— igi Revolution in, 234 appeals to United States for aid, 235 unfriendly conduct of, 239, 262—264 sells Louisiana to the United States, 260-262 her decrees against our commerce, 267 during the Civil War, 440 takes a part in Mexican affairs, 486 Francis I, 30 Franklin, Benjamin: his career, 135 his plan of union, 135 and the Treaty of Paris, 139 at head of postal system, 154 joins the Patriots, 166 his services in France, 189—191 peace commissioner, 197 a member of Convention of 1787, 213 Franklin, State of, 250 Fredericksburg, battle, 452 Freedman's Bureau, 481—482, 485 Freeport Speech, 404 Free Silver, 230, 498, 506, 543-545. 555. 563 Free Soil Party, 382, 389, 394 Fremont, John C, 354, 397, 399 French and Indian War, 135—140 French Revolution, 234 Frobisher, Martin, 35 frontier Line: in 1700, 102—104 in 1750, 115-121 in 1800, 252 in 1820, 291 Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, 384, 385, 387-388, 393-394 "Fundamental Orders," 71 Fur trade, 52, 53, 61, 106, 289 G Gadsden Purchase, 367 Gage, General, 173 Gallatin, Albert, 257 Galloway, Joseph, 172 Galveston, 567, 572 Gama, Vasco da, 1 1 Garfield, James A., 507, 508 Garrison, William Lloyd, 341-342, 394 Gaspee, the, 167 Gates, General Horatio, 188, 193 General Court, 62, 65 Genet, Edmond, 235 "Geneva Award," 448 George III, 142, 166, 197 George, Henry, 529 Georgia: settlement of, 121—123 becomes a royal colony, 124 during the Revolution, 172, 192 withdraws from the Union, 424 during the Civil War, 459-460 restored to the Union, 484 Germans, 117, 123, 359, 413, 432, 470 Germantown, 117, 187 Germany, 3, 359 (ierry, Elbridge, 238 ( iettysburg, battle, 456 Ghent, treaty of, 274 Gibbons vs. Ogden, 296 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 39 Gilman, Daniel Coit, 51b Gist, Christopher, 133 Gold, 26, 230, 363, 367, 412, 538, 554 Gold Standard Act, 554 Gompers, Samuel, 520 Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 67 Gorton, Samuel, 70 Government: in Europe in the fifteenth century, 4 in the Virginia colony, 45-47, 50, 112 in colonial New England, 61, 71, 112 suffrage, 65, 113, 199, 244, 293, 483, 5'9, 5^1, 570, 571 in colonial Maryland, 83, 85, i i r in the Carolinas, 87 in colonial New York, 94 in colonial New Jersey, 96, 97 in colonial Pennsylvania, 99 three types of, in the colonies, in— 113 the three departments of, 112, 200 in colonial Georgia, 122—123 of a State, 199-201 under the Confederation, 201—203 centrifugal and centripetal forces in, 21 1—213 as established by the Constitution, 213— 220 by parties, 2^2 territorial, 250 effect of frontier life, 293 reconstruction plan of, 482—484 of the insular possessions, 552 the rule of the people, 569—573 Governor, the colonial, 113 Grady, Henry W., gio Grand Model, the, 87 Granger cases, 496 Grant, Ulysses S. : in the Mexican War, 354 captures Fort Donelson, 444 his career and character, 444—445 at Shiloh, 445 at Vicksburg and Chattanooga, 457—458 in command of all the armies, 458 against Lee in Virginia, 461 elected President, 487 conciliatory policy of, 488 re-elected President, 490 corruption in his Cabinet, 501 effort to nominate for third term, 507 Grasse, Count de, 196 Gray, Robert, 289 Great Britain, see England Great Lakes, 17, 330 Great Law, the, 99 Greeley, Horace, 394, 421, 490 Greenback Party, 502, 507 Greenbacks, 467, 468, 496—498, 538 Greene, Natlianael, 194-196 Greenville, Treaty of, 251 Grenville (Prime Minister), 162 Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty, 35s Guam, 551 Guerriere, the, 271 Il 632 INDEX Habeas Corjuts, 474 Haiti, 10, J5 Ualf-Mouii, the, 53 Ilalleck, Gen. li. VV., 354. 446, 450 Hamilton, Alexander, 166, 213, 2-'5, 231. -i7< 264 Hancock, John, 173 Hanna, Marcus A., 544, 555 Harmon, Judson, 586 Harpers Ferry, 405 Harris, William Torrey, 516 Harrisburg 'Pa.), 118, 45O Harrison, Ht^njamin, 530, 533, 537 Harrison, William Henry, 268, 283, llarrod, James, 145 Harrodsburg, 145 Hartford, 70, 275 Hartford Convention, 275—276 Harvard College, 1 1 1 Harvester Trust, 584 Havana, 26, 32 Hawaii, 552-553 Hawkins, John, 36, 38 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 338, 421 Hay, Jolm, 553 Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, 561 Hayes, Rutherford B., 502, 503, S^S 532, 561 Haymarket Affair, 52S Hayne, Senator, 313 Heath, Sir Robert, 86 Henderson, Richard, 145 Henry VII, 3, 12 Henry \'11I, 35 Henry, Fort, 443. 444 Henry, the Navigator, 9 Henry, Patrick, 162, 172, 218 Hepburn Act, 578 Herald, the New York, 421 Herkimer, General, 188 Hessians, the, 183 Hewitt, A. S., 529 High Schools, 420, 515, 564 Hoboken, 95 Ilobson, Richard P., 550 Hoe printing press, 421 Holland, 53, 59, 81. 93 see also Dutch, the Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 338, 421 Holy Alliance, 301-302 "Holy Experiment," the, 98-101 Homestead Act, 470 Homestead, riots in, 537 Hood, General J. B., 460 Hooker, General, 452, 456 Hooker, Thomas, 70 Hopkins, Stephen, 172 Hospitals, 567 House of Representatives, 135, 215 Houston, Sam., 346 Howard, Lord Charles, 38 Howe, Elias, 416 Howe, General, 178, 185-187, 192 Hudson, Henry, ,s3 Huguenots, 32, 88 Hull, William, 270 Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, 70 Iberville, 131 Idaho: a ijart of the Oregon country, 355 made a Territory, 493 :28- admitted to the Union, 531 Illinois: a part of the Northwest Territory, 170 made a Territory, 283 admitted to the Union, 283 growth of, 285, 331, 413 in war times, 471 progressive legislation in, 566 equal suffrage in, 571 524 Illiteracy, 515, 565 Immigration, 25, 117-121, 359-360, 413, 470, 490, 5:1, 573 Impeachment of Johnson, 484-486 Imperialism, 555 Impressment, 235, 263, 274 Income Tax, 468, 498, 537. 54«. S7i. 589 "Indented" servants, 49 Independence, Declaration of, 1 79-181 Independents, 58, 74 Independent Treasury, 323-324 Indiana: a part of the Northwest Territory, 170 506, made a Territory, 252 admitted to the Union, 282 growth of, 285, 331 its public school system, 337 Indianapolis, 283, 326 Indians: origin of the name, 20 physical characteristics, 21 numbers and principal tribes, 21 government and civilization, 22—24 in colonial Virginia, 50, 80 in colonial New York, 52, 53, 116 in colonial New England, 61, 71, 75 in colonial Pennsylvania, loo alliance with the Five Nations, 128 and the Ordinance of 1787, 209 in the French and Indian War, 135 their position after 1763, 141 imder Pontiac, 142—143 and the treaty of Fort Stanwix, 143 during the Revolution, 195 and the Treaty of Greenville, 251 in the Northwest, 268, 282 in the Southwest, 273 removal of 320—321 in Iowa and Wisconsin, 360-361 in Florida, 288, 362 in Nebraska and Montana, 491, 492 the Custer Massacre, 492 the Dawes Bill, 532 Indian Territory, 321, 532, 582 Industry: , 480 in Europe in the fifteenth century, 5 in England in seventeeth century, 42 in colonial Virginia, 45 in the colonies in 1700, 105—108 at end of colonial period, 150—152 the industrial revolution, 247 effect of War of 1812 upon, 274-275 between 1830 and 1840, 334—336 panics, 323, 414, 494. 539-54' industrial independence, 336 and slavery, 377-37^ INDEX (^33 In liistiy — Continued ■ in the fifties, 415—417 during tlie Civil War, 470-472 condition alter the War, 493, 496 labor organizations 339, 495, 519—520, 558-560 strikes and lockouts, 495 progress in (1877-1885), 509-515 industrial unrest, 527—529 the decline of competition, 534-536 the Trusts, 536-537. 557-558, 580, 584 concentration in, 534-536, 557-558, 577 reforms in industrial conditions, 566 women in, 568 concentration of capital in, 577 twentieth century progress in, 573-577 Initiative and Referendum, 569-570 Insurgents, 582 Internal Improvements, 308 Internal Revenue, 468, 498 '"Interposition," 312, 315 Interstate Commerce Commission, 526— 5-'7, 578, S83 "Intolerable Acts," the, 169 Inventions, 358, 416—417, 470, 512-514, 574-576 Invincible Armada, 38 Iowa: carved out of Louisiana Purchase, 261 early settlement of, 360 admitted to the Union, 360 growth of, 361, 413 Irish, 3S9, 470 Iron, 151, 335-336, 471, 512. 573 Iroquois Indians, 21, 52, 53, 116, 128, 132, 135 Irrigation, 365, 492, 579 Irving, Washington, 338 Isabella of Spain, 3 Island Number 10, 447 Italy, 3 Jackson, Andrew: breaks the power of the Indians, 273 wins the battle of New Orleans, 273 crushes the Seminoles, 288 governor of Florida, 288 candidate for presidency, 304 his campaign against Adams, 306—309 his character, 307 Jacksonian Democracy, 309—310 and the offices, 310—311 and nullification, 312—317 and the Second Bank of the United States, 318—320 and the Indians, 320—321 and the annexation of Texas, 346 Jackson, Fort, 447 Jackson, T. J. ("Stonewall"), 354, 450, 456 Jackson (Michigan), 394 Jamaica, 26 James I, 43, 45, 50, 58 James II, 77, 93, 94, 95, 129 Jamestown, 44-47, 81 Japan, 368 Jay Cooke & Co., 494 Jay, John, 172, 197, 218, 226, 236 Jay's Treaty, 236 Jeiferson, Thomas: joins the Patriots, 166, 168 writes tlie Declaration of Independence, 181 simplifies monetary system, 207 attitude toward government, ji2 as Secretary of State, 225 leader of Democratic Party, 230—231 Vice President, 238 elected President, 241 opposed to slavery, 245 improves construction of plows, 246 his principles and measures, 255-258 puts down the pirates, 258-259 purchases Louisiana, 259-261 his dealings with France and England, 262-264 his retirement, 265 plans for exploration of Louisiana, 289 and the Missouri Compromise, 300 and the Monroe Doctrine, 303 founds the University of Virginia, 338 Jeffersonian principles, 256—258 "Jefferson Territory," 412 Jersey City (New Jersey), 95, 418 Jesuits, 126, 363 Johnson, Andrew, 474, 478, 479, 481, 482, 484, 485-486 Johnson, Sir William, 138 Johnson, William, 213 Johnston, Albert Sidney, 445 Johnston, Joseph E., 354, 438, 447, 449, 459, 460, 462 Joliet, Louis, 126 iones, John Paul, 191 udiciary, federal, 216, 226, 258, 295 Kansas: discovered by Coronado, 28 carved out of Louisiana Purchase, 261 organized as a Territory, 390 pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in, 395-396 the Lecompton Constitution, 401—402 admitted to the Union, 411 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 389—391, 394 Kaskaskia (111.), 195, 283 Kearney, Dennis, 511 Kearney, Stephen, 354 Kenesaw Mountain, battle, 460 Kent Island, 84 Kentucky: first house erected in, 133 early settlement of, 144—145 admitted to the Union, 250 remains in the Union, 433 during the Civil War, 446 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, 240, 275 Keokuk Dam, 574 King George's War, 130 King Philip's War, 75 King, Rufus, 213 King William's War, 129 King's Mountain, battle, 195 Klondike, 554 Knights of Labor, 519, 520, 528 634 INDEX Know-Nothing Party, 398 Knox, Henry, 226 Ku-Klux-Klan, 499—500 Labor Organizations, 339. 495- 519-520, 558-560 Laconia, 67 Lafayette, General, 196 La Follette, Robert, 585, 586 Lancaster (Pa.), 117 Land Grant Act, 515 Lands, public, 278-^79, 322, 3i7, 357. 47°. 491, 492 Lane, Ralph, 40 J^ngley, Professor, S7S La Salle, Robert, 127 l^tin Grammar School of Boston, iii Laudonniere,^ 31 Lawrence (Kansas), 396 Leavenworth, Fort, 354. 395 Leboeuf, 134 Lecompton Constitution, 401—402 Lee, General Charles, 192 Lee, Richard Henry, 180, 218 Lee, Robert E. : in the Mexican War, 354 captures John Brown, 405 offered the command of the Union forces, 449 his character as a general, 450 at Manassas, Antietam and Fredericks- burg, 451-452 at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 456- 457 his final struggle with Grant, 461-462 Legal Tender Act, 469 Leisler, Jacob, 95 Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 561 Lewes (Delaware), 54 Lewis, Andrew, 144 Lewis and Clark Expedition, 289 Lewis Meriwether, 289 Lexington (Kentucky), 145 Lexington (Massachusetts), battle, 173 Liberator, the, 341 Liberty Party, 342, 382 Libraries, 158, 565 Library of Congress, 258 Life: among the Indians, 21-23 in the Old Dominion, 82 in the colonies in 1700, 105—113 in the backwoods, 148—149 in the colonies at end of colonial period, 150-158 everyday, in about 1800, J43-249 on the frontier, 292, 293 Lincoln, Abraham: a Republican leader, 397 debates with Douglas, 402-405 his career up to 1858, 403 elected President, 406 effect of election of upon the South, 423-424 opposes the Crittenden Compromise, 427 his first inaugural, 428 and the forts, 427-431 prepares for war, 431-433 declares a blockade, 439 Lincoln, Abraham — Continued : reorganizes the army, 441—442 orders a general movement of troops, 443 urges McClellan to action, 447 issues emancipation proclamation, 453— 455 makes Grant Commander-in-Chief, 458 opposition to, 473 re-elected President, 474 states the conditions of peace, 476 his plan of reconstruction, 476-477 the assassination of, 477—478 Lincoln, Levi, 257 Literature, 157, 338, 420-421, 516-517 Little Belt, the, 269 Livingston, Philip, 172 Livingston, Robert, 260 Locke, John, 87 Lockwood, Belva A., 521 London, 2 London Company, 43, 44, 50, 51, 59 Longfellow, II. VV'., 338, 421 Long Island, battle, 185 Lookout Mountain, battle, 458 Lords of trade, 114 Los Angeles, 363, 510 Lost Mountain, battle, 460 Louis XIV', 125, 127, 129 Louis XVI, 234 Louisburg, 130, 131, 138 Louisiana: possession of by France, 127 character of French settlement in, 131— 132 ceded to Spain, 139 ceded back to France, 260 purchased by the United States, 260- 262 during the War of 181 2, 273 territory of Orleans, 285 admitted to the Union, 286 District of, 286, 291 boundary of, 288 withdrav^'s from the Union, 424 " black codes " in, 481 restored to the Union, 484 Louisville, 145, 418 Lovejoy, Elijah, 341 Lowell, James Russell, 389, 421 Lowell (Mass.), 335, 418 Loyalists, 165, 175-176, 197, 203 Lundy, Benjamin, 341 Lundy's Lane, 272 Luther, Martin, 32 Lutherans, 110 Lynn (Mass.), 107 Lyon, (General, 438 M McOellan, George B., 437, 441, 447—448, 449. 450, 4=;i. 474 McCormick, Cyrus, 358 McCulloch vs. Maryland, 296 McDonough, Captain, 272 McDowell, General, 438, 450 McHenry, Fort, 272 McKay Sewing Machine, 471 McKinley, William, 534, 543, 545, 546, 548, 549. 55 >. 555. 556, 557 INDEX f>35 McKmley Bill, 534 Madison, James, 213, 218, 227, 241, 257, 265, 267, 269, 287 Madison (Wisconsin), 361 Magellon, 26 Maine: French colonies on coast of, 48 English colony on coast of, 56 its fisheries, 57 made a part of Massachusetts, 68 admitted to he Union, 298 settlement of boundary, 345 " Maine," the, 548—549 Manassas, battles: first, 438 second, 451 Manhattan Island, 53-55, 328 Manila, battle, 549-551 . Manitou, the, 22 Mann, Horace, 336, 390 Mann-Elkins Act, 583 Manufactures: in Europe in the fifteenth century, 5 in England in seventeenth century, 43 in the colonies in 1700, 107 at end of colonial period, 151 — 152 household stage of, 5, 247, 334 the factory system, 248, 334 effects of War of 1812 upon, 274—275 cotton and woolen goods, 335 iron manufactures, 151, 335, 471 compared with agriculture, 416, 518 center of, 416 during the Civil War, 470—472 growth after the War, 493—494 in the South, 510 progress in between 1870 and 1890, 514 progress in between 1900 and 1912, 573 and the use of electricity, 574—576 Marbery vs. Madison, 296 Marconi, William, 576 Marco Polo, 7 Marietta (Ohio), 250 Marion, Francis, 193 Markham, William, 98 Marquette, Father James, 126 Marshall, John, 238, 295—297 Maryland: its settlement, 82—86 in 1700, 104, 1 10 education in, in colonial times, iii Germans and Scotch-Irish in, 119 its attitude toward the French, 134 during the Revolution, 171, 193 and western lands, 201 remains in the Union, 433 Mason, James, 440 Mason, John, 67 Mason and Dixon's Line, 83, 298 Massachusetts: settlement of, 62—66 expansion of, 67-72 its independent spirit, 74 a Puritan theocracy, 74 becomes a royal province, 77 in 1700, 102, 104, 106, 109, no during the Revolution, 162, :68, 169, 171, 173-174. 177 cedes claims to western lands, 201 Shays's rebellion in, 208 opposed to War of 1812, 270 Massachusetts — Continued . permits Maine to become a Slate, 298 in the Civil War, 432 progressive legislation in, 566 Maximilian, 486 Mayflower, the, 59 Mayflower Compact, 60 Meade, General, 457 Mechanicsville, battle, 450 Memphis, 418, 447 Menendez, Pedro, 31 Mercantile theory, the, 107 Merchant Marine, 415, 448 Merritt, General, 550 Methodist Church, 381 Mexican War, the, 352-354 Mexico, 28, 352-355, 486 Michigan : explored by the French. 52 a part of the Northwest Territory, 170 during the War of 1812, 271, 272 made a Territory, 330 admitted to the Union, 331 and Personal Liberty laws, 30^ beginning of Republican Partv in, 394 growth of, 330, 413 progressive legislation in, 566, 572 Miles, General, 551 Milwaukee, 361, 418, 519 Mine Workers, 559, 560 Minimum Wage, 566 Minneapolis, 519 Minnesota: carved (in part) out of Louisiana Pur- chase, 261 rapid settlement of, 410 admitted to the Union, 411 Minuits, Peter, 54 Miquelon, 139 Mississippi: made a Territory, 250 admitted to the Union, 286 withdraws from the Union, 424 " black codes " in, 481 restored to the Union, 488 Mississippi River, 28, 126, 260, 443, 447 Mississippi Valley, 16, 18, 117, 126, 131— „ - '^3 Missouri: carved out of Louisiana Purchase, 261 settlement of, 290 made a Territory, 291 admitted to the Union, 291 debate on the admission of, 297-298 remains in the Union, 433 in the Civil War, 4^8 Missouri Compromise, 297—300, 389-391, 400 Mitchell, John, 559 Mobile, 287 Molino del Rey, battle, 354 Money and Monetary Matters: in colonial times, 109 monetary system under the Confedera- tion, 206—207 paper money, 177, 207, 468-469 free silver, 230, 498, 506, 542, 545, 555, .563 wild cat currency, 322 financial operations during the Civil War, 468-469 636 INDEX Jloney and Monetary Matters — Contin- ued : the cost of the War, 467 468 Clreenbacks, 469, 496-498, 5J8-539 the demonetization ot silver, 498 lilaiui-Allison Silver bill, 500 disordered condition of National Treas- ury, 537 539 bond issues, 538-539 the silver question, 543-545 Gold Standard Act, 554 amount of currency in circulation, 573 see also Jianks Monitor and the Merrimac, 448. Monmouth, battle, 191 Monopoly, 534-537 Monroe Doctrine, 300-303. 486, 542 Monroe, James, 260, 294, 295, 298, 300, 302 Montana: carved (in part) out of Louisiana Pur- chase, 261 the Indians in, 492, 493 admitted to the Union, 531 Montcalm, General, 138 Montgomeiy, Richard, 178 Monterey, battle, 354 Montreal, 139 Moravians, 123 Morgan, J. P., 539 Mormons, the, 365-366 Morris, Gouverneur, 207 Morristown (.X. J.), 187 Morse, S. F. B., 416 Moultrie, Gen. William, 185 Mount Vernon, 151, 217 Mugwumps, 521 Municipal Home Rule, 572 Murfreesboro, battle, 447 N Nantes, Edict of, 89 Napoleon Bonaparte, 260, 267, 272 Napoleon 111, 486 Narvaez, 27 Nashville, 460 Natchez, 286 National Conventions, 3:0, 319, 571 National Republicans, 308, 319, 324 National Roads, 283, 326 National Union Convention, 474 Native American Party, 398 Naturalization, 240, 258 Nauvoo (Illinois), 365 Naval .-Ncademy, 258 Naval Warfare: in the Revolution, 191 in the War of 1812, 271 in the Civil War, 448 in the War with Spain, 549-551 Navigation Laws, 81, 160 Navy, increase of, 525 Nebraska: organized as a Territory, 391 seeks admission into the Union, 411 admitted into the Union, 491 progressive legislation in, ^69 Negroes, free, 371, 480, 481, 482, 487, 510 see also Slavery Nevada: part of the Mexican cession, 355 Nevada — Continued : m.-ide a Territory, 412 admitted to Union, 412 silver mines in, 498 New Am>lcrdam, 55, 9--93 Newark (N. .).), 95, 185, 418, 519 Newbold, Charles, 246 Ncwburgh Addresses, 204-205 New Lngland: the colonization of, 56-78 the develoi)ment of, 72-78 in 1700, 102, 106, 109, III extent of settlement in, in 1750, :is-ji6 its attitude toward the French, 134 life in, at end of colonial period, 155 the Revolution in, 179 during the War of 1812, 270, 275 manrtfactures in, 335 urban population in, 519 New Knglaiiil Company, 60 New England Confederation, 72—73 Newfoundland, 29, 35, 39, 56, 82, 129 New Hampshire, 67-68, 72, 104 New Harmony (Indians), 339 New Haven, 72 New Jersey: the Dutch in, 54 its settlement, 95-97 becomes a royal province, 97 in 1700, 104, iio, 1:1 her attitude toward the French, 134 during the Revolution, 185-187, 191 New Mexico: discovered by Coronado, 28 ceded to the United States, 355 made a Territory, 367 question of slavery in, 383, 385 admitted to the Union, 582 New Nationalism, 583 New Netherland, 54, 91, 93 New Orleans, 131, 259, 286, 417, 447, 519 New Orleans, battle, 273 Newport (R. I.) 70 Newspapers, 158, 421 New York (City): under the Dutch, 54, 92 end of Dutch rule in, 93 in 1700, 104, no at end of colonial period, 154 during the Revolution, 163, 168, 185, 192 _ temporary capital, 222 in 1800, 243 influence of Erie Canal upon, 328, 330 during the Civil War, 466 the Tweed Ring, 500, 501 the Greater, 518 labor troubles in, 528 New York (Colony and State) : reached by N'errazano, 30 under the Dutch, 53-55, 91 end of Dutch rule in, 93 annexed to New England, 94 becomes a royal province, 95 in 1700, 102, 104, 108, 1 10, III extent of settlement in, in 17^0, 116 her attitude toward the French, 134 during the Revolution, 175, 180, 187- 189, 195 cedes claims to western lands, 201 settlement of western, 280, 328, 330 INDEX 637 New York (Colony and State) — Con- tinued: during the War of 181J, 270 the anti-rent troubles, J39 urban population, 519 Niagara Falls, jyj, 574 Nichols, Richard, 93 Non-Intercourse Act, J64, 267 Norfolk (V'a.), 104, 154 Normal Schools, 420 Norsemen, 13 North, Lord, 168, 179, 197 North, the: ojiposed to slavery, 297 its power balanced against that of the South, 299 reception of Wilmot Proviso in, 381 and the Compromise Measures of 1850, 384-385, 387 ,.,,.., its strength compared with the South, 433-435 effect of Cleveland s election upon, 522 Northampton (Mass.), 207 North Carolina: coast explored by Amidas, 39 its settlement, 86—90 becomes a royal province, 90 pioneers from settle Tennessee, 146 first to declare for independence, 180 withdraws from the Union, 433 restored to the Union, 484 North Dakota: a part of the Louisiana Purchase, 261 its growth, 531 admitted to the Union, 531 North Pole, 523 Northern Pacific Railroad, 492 Northern Securities Company, 558 Norwegians, 511 North v/est Passage, 35 Northwest Territory, 170, 195, 201, 208- 210, 212, 250-252 Nova Scotia, 48, 129, 130 Nullification, 241, 276, 311-317 Nurses, instructive visiting, 567 Ogden (Utah) 491 Oglethorpe, James, 121— 123 Ohio: a part of the Northwest Territory, 170 settlement of, 250—251 organized as the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, 252 admitted to the Union, 282 growth of, 285, 331, 566 progressive measures in, 569, 572 Ohio Company, 132, 133 Ohio Valley, 132—135 Oklahoma: carved (in part) out of Louisiana Pur- chase, 261 made a Territory, 532 admitted to the Union, 582 Old Age Pensions, 566 Old Dominion, the, 79—82 Olney, Richard, 542 Omaha, 411, 491 Omnibus Bill, 383-387 " Open door " policy, 553 Orders in Council, 267, 269 Ordinance of 17S7, 20S— 210, 250, 283, 3S7 Oregon: coast skirted liy Drake, 38 explored by Lewis and Clark, 289 claims to, 288, 289-290 joint occupation of, 290, 348-350 question of boundary of, 301, 350 in the campaign of 184J, 347 emigration to, 348—350 made a Territory, 362 admitted to the Union, 412 progressive legislation in, 569, 571 Oregon, the, 550, 560 Orient, 5, 8, 10, 12, 368, 553 Oriskany, battle, 188 Orleans, Territory of, 285-286 Osawatomie (Kansas), 396 Osceola, 362 Ostend Manifesto, 391 Otis, James, 161 Overseer, the, 373 Owen, Robert, 339 Pacific Slope, 17, 18 Packenham, Edward, 273 Paine, Thomas, 180 Paint, Glass and Paper Act, 164—165 Palmer, Alice Freeman, 516, 568 Palmer, John M., 544 Palo Alto, battle, 353 Panama Canal, 560-562 Panama Isthmus, 26, 363, 562 Panama (Republic), 562 Panics: of 1837, 323 of 1857, 414 of 1873, 494-495 of 1893, 539-540 Paper Money, 109, 153, 177, 207, 408- 469, 497 Parcel Post, 582 Paris, treaty: of 1763, 139 of 1783, 197 Parker, Alton B., 563 Parker, Theodore, 340, 386 Parkman, Francis, 338 Parliament: English in fifteenth century, 4 first laws of, relative to America, 34 its war with the king, 73 declares the rights of Englishmen, 77 enacts the Navigation Laws, 81 passes the Woolen Act, 107 forbids issue of paper money, 153 and the colonies, 113 its authority disputed by the colonies, 159 , . taxes the colonies, 160—165 its action during the Revolution, 166, 169, 179, 191, 197 reform in representation, 340 Parties, Political: Anti-federalist, 218, 231 emergence of, 230, 232 Democratic-Republican, 230-232, 237 Federalist. 231, 240-242, 265, 276 638 INDEX Parties, Political — Continued: Democratic, 242, 265, 295, 319. 3^4. 3-S. 347. 381-383. 388, 394. 397-399. 405" 407, 474, 487, 490. 50-'. 507, 5-21. 530, 537. 543-545. 555. 5^3. 579. 586-587 National Republican, 308, 319 Whig, 324. 325. 344. 345. 347. 381- 383. 388, 394. 398 Liberty Party, 34-'. 347. 382 Free Soil Party, 382, 389, 394 Republican, 394-399. 405-407. 474. 480, 487, 488, 490, 502, 507. 5-2 1. 530. 537. 543-545, 555. 562. 579. 585-587 Knovv-Nolhing Party, 389 Greenback I'arty, 502, 507 Prohibition Party, 502, 507, 521 Populist Party, 537 Peoples' Party, 537. 544 Socialist Party, St>3. 579. 587 Progressive Party, 586-587 Pastorius, 117 Patents, 416. 574 Paterson, William, 213 Patriots, 165-166, 167, 168, 173, 174" 176, 179 Patroon System, 91 Pawtucket (R. I.), 70. 248 Payne-Aldrich Bill, 581 Peace Movement, 568 Peary, Robert E., 523 Pemberton, C/en. J. C, 354. 457 Pendleton Act, 509 Peninsular Campaign, 448—449 Penn, William, 96, 97-100 Penn Charter School, iii Pennsylvania: settlement of, 97-101 in 1700, 102, 104, 110, III Germans and Scotch-Irish in, 117-J19 her attitude toward the French, 134 settlement of western, 143, 249 during the Revolution, 175, 181, 195 insurrection in, 227 public schools in, 336 urban population in, 519 Pennsylvania Dutch, 1 17-1 18 Pensacola (Horida), 273 Pensions, 533, 566 Peoples' Party, 537. 544 Pepperell, Sir William, 130 Pequot War, 71 Perry, Commodore M. C., 368 Perry, O. H., 271 Perryville, battle, 446 Personal Liberty Laws, 393-394. 424 Petersburg, battle, 461-462 Petition, Right of, 342 Petroleum, 535-536. 573 Philadelphia: founding of, 99—101 in 1700, 104 at end of colonial period, 154-155 a fashionable city, 156 during the Revolution, 168, 172, 176, 187. 191 constitutional convention in, 213 temporary capital, 228 its growth, 243, 417, 519 exposition in, 495 Philip II of Spain, 36, 38 Philippine Islands, 26, 549, 550. 55i PhilHps-Andover Academy, 157 Phillips-Kxeter Academy, 157 Phipps, Sir William, 129 Phonograph, 514 Pierce, Franklin, 388, 397 Pike, Zebulon, 289 Pilgrims, 57-61 Pinckney, C. C, 213, 238, 241, 265 Pinckney, Thomas, 238 Pinkney, William, 269 Pioneer life, 147-148, 292-293 Piracy, 6, 36, 89, 258 Pitt, Fort, 138, 142 Pitt, William, 137 Pittsburgh, 143, 280, 418, 495, 519 Pittsburgh Landing, battle, 445 Pizarro, 28 Piatt, Senator (of New York), 508 Piatt Amendment, 552 Plattsburg, battle, 272 Plow, the, 5, 246, 358, 512 Plymouth (Colony) 57-61, 76, 77 Plymouth Company, 43, 44, 56 Plymouth (town), 60 Poe, Edgar Allen, 338 Point Pleasant, battle, 144 Polk, James K., 347, 348, 350-355 Ponce de Leon, 26 Pontiac's Conspiracy, 142-143 Pools, 536 " Poor Whites," 370 Pope, General, 447, 451 Population: in Europe in fifteenth century, 2 of colonies in 1700, 104 of colonies in 1750, 121 at end of colonial period, 154 of United States, 243, 254, 413, 515, 573 center of, 413 Populists, 537 Port Hudson, 457 Portland (Oregon), 412, 492 Porto Rico, 25, 551, 552 Portsmouth (New Hampshire), 67, 104 Portsmouth (Ohio), 251 Portugal 9, 10, 12 Postal Savings Banks, 537, 581-582 Post Office and Postal Matters, 6, 108, 154, 177. 249, 417, 581-582 Powderly, Terence V., 520 Prairies, 19 Preemption Act, 357 Presbyterians, no, 118, 381 Prescott, William, 338 President, office of, 216 Presidential Succession Act, 525 President, see under their several names Presque Isle, fort, 133 Price, General, 438 Princeton, battle, 186 Pring, Martin, 56 Printing, 7 Proclamation of 1763, 142 Progress, table of: between 1870 and 1890, 514 between 1900 and 1912, S73 Progress and Poverty, 529 Progressive Party, 586-587 Prohibatory Act, 179 Prohibition Party, 502, 507, 521 INDEX 639 Protection, 275, 303, 309, 314, 494, 530, 533 Protestantism, 4, 32, 37, 38, 57 Providence (R. I.), 69, 418 Provincetov/n, 60 Publicity of campaign funds, 583-584 Public Lands, 278-279, 337, 357, 470, 491, 492 Public Schools, III, 157, 243, 336-338, 419, 51S. 516, 564-56S see also Education Pueblo (Colorado), 412 Pujo Report, 577 Pullman Strike, 540-541 Pumpkins, 19 Pure Food Act, 578 Puritans and Puritanism, 58, 63—65, 74, 95, no, 155 Q Quakers, 75, 89, 95, 96, 97, no, 156 Quebec, 51-53. 129. 138, 178 Quebec Act, 169-170 Queen Anne's War, 130 Quincy, Josiah, 276 B Railroads, 329, 409-410, 414. 434, 49i, 492, 494, 496, 510, 514, 526-527, 537, 573, 578, 583 „ Rainfall, average, 18 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 39-41 Randolph, Edmund, 213, 226 Randolph, John, 309 Randolph, Peyton, 172 Rate Law: of 1906, 578 of 1910, 583 Raymond, H. J., 421 Reaper, the, 358, 470, 512 Recall, the, 569-570 Reciprocity, 534, 547, 556 " Reconcentration," 548 Reconstruction: Lincoln's policy of, 476-477 Johnson's efforts in the work of, 478- 479 Congressional plan of, 479-484 final measures of, 487-488, 506 aftermath of^ 499-500 Red Cross Society, 567 Redemption Act, 497 Referendum, 569-571 Reformation, 32 Religion : in Europe in the fifteenth century, 4 in England in sixteenth century, 37 in England in seventeenth century, 57, S8 in colonial New England, 65, no separation of Church and State, 69, 243 in colonial Maryland, 85, no in the colonies jn 1700, 109— no guarantee of religious liberty, 209 instruction of slaves in, 375 Renaissance, the, 7 Republican, the Springfield, 421 R.-^publican Party, 394-399, 405-407. 474. 480, 487, 488, 490, 502, 507, 521, 530, 537, 543-545, 555. 562, 579, 585-58? Resaca, battle, 460 Resaca de la Palma, 353 Revolution of 1688, 77 Revolution, War of: events leading to, 160—173 beginnings of, 173-179 the Declaration of Independence, 179— 181 the plan of campaign, 183-185 military operations of, 185-196 results, 197-198 Rhode Island: its settlement, 68—70 and the New England Confederation, 72 submits to Andros, 76 and its charter, 76, 78 in 1700, X04, 109, 113 its constitution, in, 199 issues paper money, 207 opposed to War of 181 2, 270 Dorr's Rebellion in, 338 and Personal Liberty Laws, 393 Ribault, Jean, 31 Richmond (Indiana), 326 Richmond (Virginia), 433, 442, 450, 462 Ripon (Wisconsin), 394 Roads, 108, 119, 145, 153, 248, 281, 284, 326 Roanoke, Colony, 40 Robertson, James, 147 Rochester, 330, 418 Rockefeller, John D., 536, 565, 567 Rolfe, John, 49 Rome (New York), 143 Roosevelt, Theodore: candidate for Mayor of New York, 529 in the Spanish War, =50 candidate for Vice President, 555 becomes President, 557 continues the policy of McKinley, 557— 562 elected President, 563 his policies, 578—579 advocates a " new nationalism," 583 in the campaign of 191 2, 585—587 candidate of the Progressive Party, 586 Rosecrans, General, 447, 457 Ross, General, 272 Rough Riders, 550 Russell Sage Foundation, 567 Russia, 3, 301 Rutledge, John, 172 Ryswick, treaty of, 129 S Sacramento, 364, 491 Sacs and Foxes, 360 Sagadahoc, 56 St. Augustine, 32, 123 St. Clair, Gen. Arthur, 250 St. John, John P., 521 St. Leger, General, 188 St. Louis, 286, 417, 519 St. Lusson, 125 St. Mary's (Maryland), 83 St. Philip, fort, 447 St. Pierre, 139 Salem (Mass.), 63, 77 Salem (Oregon), 412 Salt Lake City, 365 64U INDEX Sampson, Admiral, 550 San Antonio, 532 San Diego, 363 San Francisco, 363, 364, 418, 519, 567 San lldefonso, ^'^o San Jacinto, battle, 346 San Jose, 363 San Juan Hill, battle, sso San Salvador, 10 Santa Anna, 354 Santa l-'c, 354, 367 Santiago, 550-551 Santo Domingo, 25 Saratoga, battle, 188-189 Sault Ste. Marie, 125 Sault Ste. Marie Canal, 411 Savannali, 122-123, 460 Saye and Selc, Lord, 70 Schedule K, 581, 588 Schenectady, 116, 129 Schley, Coiriniodore, 550 Scotch-Irish, 11S-119, 123, 143, 146 Scott, General Wintield, 272, 354, 388 Seal fisheries, 542 Seattle, 492, 531 Secession, 276, 386, 387, 423-426, 431-433 Sedition Act, 240 Seminoles, 21, 287, 362 Semmes, Raphael, 448 Senators, election of, 215, 571 Separatists, 58 Serapis, the, 191 Seven Cities of Cibola, 28 Seven Days' Uattle, 450 Seventh of March Speech, 386 Seven Years' War, 139 Sevier, J5hn, 147, 250 Sewall, Samuel, 106 Seward, William H., 397, 406, 426, 430, 440 Sewing-Machine, 416 ' Seymour, Horatio, 487 Shays's Rebellion, 208 Shedrach, the fugitive, 388 Shelby, Isaac, 147 Shenandoah, the, 448 Shenandoah Valley, 116, 118, 450, 461 Sheridan, General Philip, 461, 486 Sherman Anti Trust Law, 534-537. 557. Sherman Silver Law, 538 Sherman, William T., 459, 460, 462 Shiloh, battle, 445 Ship-building, 106, 151, 415 Shoes, manufacture of, 107, 471 " Short Ballot," the, 572 Silver, 230, 412, 498, 506, 538, 543-545. 555. 563 Single Tax, 529 Sioux Falls, 493 Sioux Indians, 21, 411, 492 Sitting Hull, 492 Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, 432, 437 Slater, Samuel, 248 Slavery: how regarded in the sixteenth century, 36 in colonial Virginia, 49 in the colonies, 106, 156 in colonial Georgia, 123, 124 and the ordinance of 1787. 209 Slavery — Continued : sentiment against, 244 conditions of slave life (1800), 245 Fugitive Slave laws, 245 in Imiiana and Illinois, 283 i and cotton culture, 288 in Missouri, 290 and tile Missouri Compromise, 297-300 balancing of free States and slave States, 299 abolished throughout British Empire, 340 the abolition movement, 340-342 opi)osition to extension of, 297, 378, 401-407 in Texas, 346 reaches the limits of its area, 362 slaveholders, poor whites, free negroes^ 369 373 legal status of the slave, 372-373 conditions of slave life (1850), 373-376, moral and industrial aspects of slavery, 376-378 ^-^-'' ■ the Wilinot I'roviso, 380-382 the Compromise of 1850, 383-387 the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, 387-389 the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 389-391 " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 389 resistance to the Fvigitive Slave Law, 393-394 the question of in Kansas, 395-398, 401-402 the Dred Scott Decision, 399-401 ^ Lincoln-Douglas debate, 402-405^ legalized by the Constitution of the Confederacy, 424 Emancipation Proclamation, 453-455/ the abolition of, 479 ^ Slave trade, 36, 109, 244, 245, 372, 385 Slidell, John, 352, 440 Smith, Caleb B., 430 Smith, (jreen Clay, 502 Smith, John, 45-47, 57 Smith, Robert, 257 Smuggling, 160-161 Socialism, 339 Socialist Party, 563, 579, 587 South Bend (Ohio), 251 South, the: its system of slave labor, 297 its power balanced against that of the North, 299 and the Tariff of 1828, 312 its trade relations, 333, 414, 47'-473. 494 its interest in slavery, 377 reception of Wilmot Proviso, 381 and the Compromise Measures of 1850, 384-385. 387 effect of Lincoln's election upon, 423-424 its strength compared with the North, 433-435 industrial conditions in, during the War, 471-473 removal of troops from, 506 revival of, 509-510 effect of election of Cleveland upon, 522 South Carolina: its settlement, 87-90 INDEX 641 South Carolina — Continued: becomes a royal province, 90 during the Kevolution, 169, 171, 181, 185, 192 protests against tariff of i8j8, 312 nullihcation movement in, 315-317 withdraws from the Union, 4J4 during the Civil War, 4J6 " black codes " in, 481 restored to the L'nion, 484 carpet bag rule in, 499, 506 South Dakota: a part of the Louisiana I'urchase, 361 admitted to the Union, 531 Spain : in fifteenth century, 3 assists Columbus, 10 establishes the line of demarcation, u her power in the West Indies, 25, ^y extent of her claims, 29 in full possession of Atlantic coast, 32 clashes with England, 36-39 receives f>ouisiana, 139 unfriendly conduct of, 203 closes tiie Mississippi, 259 cedes Florida to United States, 288 relinquishes her claim to Oregon, 290 War with, 547-55^ loses Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philip- pines, 551 Spanish War: events leading to, 547-549 military operations of, 549-551 outcome of, 55'-55^ " Specie Circular," 322 Spoils System, 310-311, 507, 524-525 Spokane, 531 Spottswood, Alexander, 116, 132 Spottsylvania Courthouse, battle, 461 Springfield (Mass.), 71 " Squatter " sovereignty, 390 Stamp Act, 162-163 Stamp Act Congress, 163-164 Standard Oil Company, 535, 584 Standish, Miles, 61 Stanton, Edwin M., 430, 485 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 570 Slanwix, Fort, treaty of, 143 Stark, Colonel John, 188 Star of the West, 426 States: their constitution, iii, 199 their governments, 199-201 their powers, 200, 201 under the Confederation, 202, 204-206 under the Constitution, 214-215, 217 rights of, 230-231, 241, 276, 313 see also names of the several States Steamboat, 284, 331 Steel, 512 Steel Trust, 584 Stephens, A. H., 424, 42? Stevens, Thaddeus, 480 Stockton (California), 364 Stockton, Commodore, 354 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 389 Strikes, 495, 528, 540, 559 Stuyvesant, Peter, 92 Subsidies, ship, 415 gufirage, 65, 113, 199, 244, 293, 483, 519, 521. 570, 571 Sugar and Molasses Act, 161 Sullivan, General, 195 Sumner, Charles, 396, 397, 480 Sumter, Thomas, 193 Sumter, F'ort, 426, 430-431 Supreme Court of the United States, 216, 226, 295-297, 314, 399-401, 496, 503, ^ 541. 5S8, 578, 584 Surplus, tlie, 2:--, 5-^9. S.i.i Swedes, the, 92, 99, 511 Syracuse, 330, 388, 418 I acoma, 492, 531 Taft, William H., 579, 580, 581, 583, 584, 5S5, 586 lallmadge, James, 297 Tammany Hall, 500 Taney, Roger I'., 4or) Tariff, the: under the Confederation, 205-206 the first, 227 the first jirotectivc (1S16), 275 of 1824, 303 of "Abominations" (1828), 308-309. 312 of 1832, 314 compromise tariff of 1833, 316 the Walker, 348 of 1857, 414 the Morrill Bill, 468 the War tariff, 468 of 1883, 509 Cleveland's message on, 529 McKinley Bill, 533-534 the Wilson Act, 541, 542 tiie Dingley Bill, 546-547 Payne-Aldrich Bill, 581' the Underwood Bill, 588-589 Taxation: England taxes the colonies, 160-165 without representation, 163-164 under the Articles of Confederation, 204 under the Constitution, 217 internal revenue, 227, 258, 468, 498 during the Civil War, 467-469 Income Tax, 468, 498, 541, 571, 537, 589 single tax, 529 Taylor, Zachary, 353, 381, 387 Tea, tax on, 164, 165, 168, 169, 191 Teach, Edward, 89 Tecumseh, 282 Telegraph, 416-417 Telephone, 514 Tennessee: settlement of, 146-147 admitted to the Union, 250 withdraws from the Union, 433 during the Civil War, 444, 447, 457- 458, 460 restored to the Union, 483 Tenure of Office Act, 485, 486 Terre Haute, 326 Territorial government, 209, 250 Territories, see under separate names Territory Northwest of the Ohio, 252, 282 642 INDEX Texas: The Republic of, 345-346 movement for annexation of, 346-347 annexation of, 347, 3&J withdraws from the Union, 4J4 restored to the Union, 488 development of western, 532 Theocracy, the Puritan, 74 Third Term, --65, 507 Thomas, Gen. <',. H. 354, 458, 460 Threshing Machnie, the, 359 TiconUeroga, i'ort, 176, 187 Tilden, Samuel J., 501, 5uj Times, the New York, 4-'i, 432 Tippecanoe, baitle, 283 Titanic, the, 576 Tobacco, 49, 79, 84, 109 Toledo, 330 Toleration Act, 85 Toombs, Robert, 431 Topeka (Kansas), 396 Tories, 165, 195 Tory Party, 165-166 Toscanelli, 10 Towns (.New England), 65-66 Townships, 94 Townshend Act, 164-165 Trade, see Commerce Trade Unions, see Labor Organizations Transportation: roads, 6; 145, 248 roads in colonial times, 108, 153 trails widened into, 119 early travel to the West, 280-282 conditions of travel to the West, 282, 284 national road; 283, 326 the steamboat, 284 the Erie Canal; 326-328, 330 Pennsylvania canals, 328 canals in the West^ 329 early railroads, 329 the Santa Fe and Oregon trails, 364 the trunk lines, 409-410, 414, 434 clipper ships, 415 the railroads and the Civil War, 434 transcontinental railroads, 491-492, 510 improvements in, 512-514 Panama Canal, 562 twentieth century progress in, 574-576 Transylvania, 145 Treaties: Ryswick, 129 Utrecht, 130 Aixla-Chapelle, 130 Pans, (1763), 139 of alliance with France, 190 Paris (1783). 197-198 Jay's Treaty, 236, 238 Ghent, 274 WebsterAshburton, 345 Guadalupe Hidalgo, 355 Clayton-Bulwer, 364, 561 with Spain, 551 Hay-Pauncefote, 561 Trent Affair, 440-441 Trenton, battle of, 185-186 Tribune, the New York, 421 Tripoli, War with, 258-259 Trolley Cars, 512 Trusts, the, 536-537. 557-558, 580. ^84 Turks, 8 Turner, Nat, 342 Tuscaroras, 22 Tweed, William M., 500 Tyler, John, 324, 344-347 " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 389 Underwood, Oscar, 586 Underwood Rill, 588 " Underground railroad," 384, 393 Union: beginnings of, 73, 135, 168, 172, 178 forms a more perfect, 211-220 growth of American nationality, 294- 297 Union Pacific Railroad, 491, 531 Utah: settled by the Mormons, 365 question of slavery in, 383, 385 admitted to the Union, 531-532 Utica, 116^ 330 Utrecht, Treaty of, 130 Vaca, Cabeza de, 28 Vallandigham, C. L., 473 Valley Forge, 187 Van Buren, Martin, 321-324, 346, 347 382 Vandalia (Illinois), 326 Van Renselaer estate, 105, 339 Venango, Fort, 134 \'enezuela Boundary, 541-542 Venice, 5, 14 V^era Cruz, battle, 354 Vermont: during the Revolution, 176, 188 admitted to the Union, 250 Verrazano, 30 Vespucius, Americus, 14 Veto power, 113, 200 Vicksburg, battle, 447, 457 Victoria, Queen, 417 Vincennes (Indiana), 195 Vinland, 13 Virginia: named by Elizabeth, 40 as a trading colony, 43-50 as a royal province, 50, 79-82 life in the Old Dominion, 79, 82 its relations with Maryland, 84 in 1700, 102. 104, iio. III extent of settlement in in 1750, 116 her attitude toward the French, 134 settlement of Western, 143 at end of colonial period, 151, 156 during the Revolution, 162, 166, 168, 171, 174, 180, 195, 196 cedes claims to western lands, joi slave conditions in, 245, 373 Nat Turner's insurrection, 342 withdraws from the Union, 433 during the Civil War, 438, 448-4521 461-462 restored to the Union, 488 V'ocational Training, 564 INDEX 6^3 w Wade, Benjamin, 397 Waldseemuller, Marlm, 14 Walker, Dr. Thomas, 133 War of 1812: events leading to, 267--'7o military operations of, 270-274 effects of, 274-276, 334 Wars, see under separate names Washington, Fort, 185 Washington, George: a messenger to the French, IJ4 on Braddock's staff, 13O joins the Patriots, 166 ready to assist Boston, 171 in first Continental Congress, 172 Commander-in-Chief, 178 dislodges the British at Boston, 179 rank as a general, 184 campaign around New York, 185 campaign in northern New Jersey, 185- 187 around Philadelphia, 187 at Monmouth, 1 91-192 at Yorktovvn, 196 allays fears of soldiers, 205 in the Convention of 1787, 213 as President, 222-236 his retirement, 237 emancipates his slaves, 245 Washington, John, 80 Washington (D. C), 255, 272, 438, 442, 5:9 Washington ('State) : a part of the Oregon country, 355 made a Territory, 412 growth of, 531 admitted to the Union, 531 Watauga, 146, 147 Wayne, Gen. Anthony, 251 Wealth of the United States, 434, 515, S73 Weaver, James B., 507, 537 Webster, Daniel: opposes the tariff of 1824, 303 defends the Constitution, 314 the Secretary of State, 345 negotiates Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 345 supports compromise measures of 1850, 386-387 Welles, Gideon, 430 Wesley, Charles, 123 Western Reserve, 209 West Indies, 26. 109, 153 Westinghouse, George, 512 West Jersey, 96 West Point, 258 Westward Movement: beginnings of, 70 in New England, 116 in Virginia and Maryland, 116-118 in Pennsylvania, 1 18-120, 143 settlements in the upper Ohio valley, ^ 143-144 Kentucky, 144-145 Tennessee, 146-147 after the Revolution, till 1800, 249-252 the Territory northwest of the Ohio, 2=50-252 between 1800 and 1820, 278-293 Westward Movement — Continued : effect of land policy on, 278-279 along the Ohio River, 279-28S around the Gulf of JNIexico, 285-288 Missouri, 289-291 stages of frontier development, 291 extension of national road, 326 the Erie Canal, 326-328, 330 Michigan, 330 Arkansas, 333 in the forties, 357-368 the Preemption Act; agricultural imple- ments; immigration, 357-360 along the upper Mississippi and around the Great Lakes, 360-362 along the Pacific coast, 362-365 Utah, New Mexico, 365-367 in the fifties, 409-413 the Union Pacific Railroad, 491 the New Northwest, 492 effects of transcontinental roads upon, 510 the New Northwest and the New South- west, 530-532 the end of, 582 West Virginia: early settlements in, 143 secedes from Virginia, 437 admitted to the Union, 438 Wethersfield, 71 Weyler, General, 548 Weymouth, George, 56 Wheeling, 143, 283 Wheelwright, John^^67 Whig Party, 324, 325, 344, 345, 347, 38"- 383, 388, 394, 398 Whigs, (English), 166 Whisky Insurrection, 227 Whisky Ring, the, 501 White, John, 40 Whitfield, George, 123 Whitney, Eli, 247 Whitney, William C., 526 Whittier, John G., 338, 421 Wilderness, battle of, 461 Willard, Frances E., 569 William III, 77, 95 William and iSlary College, iii Williamsburg, battle, 449 Williams, Roger, 68-70 Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 35 Wilmington (Delaware), 92, 418 Wilmot Proviso, 380-382 Wilson Act, 541, S42 Wilson, James, 213 Wilson, Woodrow, 586r589 Wilson's Creek, battle, 438 Winchester (Virginia), 118 Windsor, 71 Winslow, John A., 448 Winthrop, John, 63 Wireless telegraph, 576 Wirt, William, 319 Wisconsin: Explored by the French, 52 a part of the Northwest Territory, 170 early settlement of, 361 admitted to the Union, 362 beginnings of Republican Party in, 394— 395 growth of, 413 644 INDEX Wisconsin — Continued: . progressive movement m, 566, 585 Witchcraft, 77 Wolfe, Jam.-, 138 Woman Suiirage, 519, 5^'. 57o-57i Woman's Movement, the, 568-569 Wood, Jcthro, 358 Wood, I.ionard, 550 Wright. Orville and Wilbur, 575 Wyoming: , , . . _ carved (in part) out of Louisiana rur- chase, 261 made a Territory, 491 admitted to the Union, 531 Wyoming massacre, 195 -/f X V Z Affair, 239 Yale College, iii Veardley, Sir George, 50 Yorktown, battle, 196 Young, Brigham, 365, 366 Young, Ella Flagg, 568 Zane, Eben'zer, 143 Zanesviile 'Ohio), 32S Zenger, John, 101 LbOi2 iiis'i