^^^g 
 
 
Y^ASHINGTON TAKING THE OATH AS PRESIDENT. 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 -AND- 
 
 THE PRESIDENTS t'/b UNITED STATES 
 
 TKe Story of their Lives 
 
 :AND= 
 
 HOW THEY REACHED 
 THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE BOYHOOD 
 DAYS, ADVENTURES, CAREERS 
 AND HOMES OF THE TWENTY- 
 SIX PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED 
 STATES OF AMERICA J» Jt jt 
 
 By CHARLES MORRIS, LL.D. 
 
 Author of the "Child's History of the United 
 States," "The Child's Story of the Nineteenth 
 Century," "Our Naval Heroes," Etc., Etc., Etc. 
 
 1 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED 
 
 WITH BEAUTIFUL COLOR PLATES, HALF-TONES 
 AND LINE DRAWINGS 
 
 WORLD BIBLE HOUSE 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
)0\, a 1905 
 ^Zi,^ jo. tfai~ 
 
 avpr a. 
 
 Entered according to act of 
 Congress In the yea-r 1905 by 
 George A. PaLrker, in the office 
 of tKe Libra>.ria^rh of Congress* 
 a.t Wa.shlrvgton, D. C. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 Copyright 1903, 1904, liy W. E. Scull 
 
OUR PRESIDENTS. 
 
 E honor our Presidents, and well we may. They 
 have all risen to greatness through honorable 
 effort. They were representative men. They 
 were just such men as are made from boys hav- 
 ing no better, if as good, opportunities as the 
 boys who are living to-day. Each made for himself the story 
 of his own life. Greatness was not thrust upon them, nor 
 were any of them born with the promise that they should be 
 the chief rulers of their land ; nor were they taught in their 
 boyhood that any one had to obey them, but rather were they 
 taught that they should be obedient to others. 
 
 The men who were to become our early Presidents lived 
 at a time when the colonists were throwing off the yoke of 
 King George III. Others of them were boys in those exciting 
 times. They early learned that a man born to be a king was 
 not, for that reason, a great man. On the contrary they were 
 taught that greatness was something which they had to work 
 for. When they were boys, most of our Presidents had to 
 start far down the ladder and climb step by step to the top, 
 
li OUR PRESIDENTS 
 
 and the stories of all of them are filled with patience, endur- 
 ance, intelligence and ability which make them a hundred 
 times better worth reading than the lives of most kings who 
 are only great because they are born in a palace. 
 
 It is for this reason we put before you here the stories 
 of the Presidents of the United States, for we are sure if you 
 read one of them you will be glad to read them all. 
 
 Those of you who have read much in history must know 
 a good deal about the way other nations are governed. Their 
 rulers have many names. We call them kings and emperors 
 and czars and sultans and other names, and are apt to look 
 upon them as very high and mighty potentates, with their fine 
 robes and gay palaces and all the show and ceremony with 
 ivhich they try to make themselves look great. But when we 
 come to look at them closely we find of what little worth 
 the most of them really were. 
 
 This then is the difference between Kings and Presidents. 
 Kings are born to their offices, and the crown is put on their 
 heads if they have no more sense than an owl, who may look 
 wise but is not. Presidents are born among the common 
 people, and they must be men of very superior powers to 
 carry them up to the head of the nation. The people of a 
 kingdom do not pick out their rulers at all. They come by 
 llie chance of birth. But when the United States wants a 
 ruler it goes among its seventy-five million people and selects 
 the man who seems to be the best of them all. Of course, 
 there are mistakes made. Our people do not always get the 
 best. But they get the man they want, not the man that 
 chance offers them, and are sure to get men far above the 
 general run of kings. Why, if we take our twenty-five Presi- 
 dents and put them beside twenty-five of the best Kings that 
 history tells us about, we would have reason to feel proud. 
 
OUR PRESIDENTS iii 
 
 Let us look at the character of our Presidents. There 
 was Washington, the first of them all. Where in all the 
 world has there ever been a greater and nobler man ? We are 
 all proud of him still and are glad to say that we were born 
 in the land of Washington. There were John Adams and 
 his son, men of the highest private virtues, patriotism, earnest- 
 ness, and devotion to duty. There was Jefferson, a student 
 and philosopher, with a lofty mind but with an earnest trust 
 in the common people and the rights of man. There was 
 Madison, whose named is identified with our noble Constitu- 
 tion ; Monroe, the guardian of American independence; Jack- 
 son, a fine example of strength and manliness ; Lincoln, dis- 
 tinguished for his public and private virtues, his patriotism 
 and magnanimity. I might go on to the end of the list and 
 show how each stands above his fellow-citizens in some virtue. 
 
 It is true we have not always chosen the best man. Mis' 
 takes may be made, even when a whole nation lifts its voice. 
 In choosing a President there are two things to be considered, 
 the man himself, and the principles he stands for. If the 
 mass of the people wish a certain policy to be carried out, 
 they will vote for the man who stands for that policy, even if 
 a better man stands for a different policy. In that way some 
 weak men have been chosen. Then there is the worship of 
 military glory. That has put some men at our head who 
 made better generals than Presidents. But on the whole we 
 have done very well and have good reason to be proud of 
 our choice. 
 
 This is a book of the lives of our Presidents. I do not 
 think you could find anywhere more interesting lives. We 
 are not talking here of boys born in palaces and fed on cream 
 and cakes, some of them bowed down to as kings before 
 they left their cradles; but of boys like Abraham Lincoln, 
 
Iv OUR PRESIDENTS 
 
 born in a rude hut in the wilderness and studying by the aid 
 of a kitchen fire and a wooden shovel ; or like James A. Gar- 
 field, driving mules on a canal path to help his poor mother ; 
 or of a dozen others who had to scramble along, inch by inch, 
 until they showed themselves so noble and brave and sensiljlc 
 and honorable that the people of our great nation were glad 
 to put them at their head. 
 
 Talk about the romance of history ! Have we not plenty 
 of it here? The story of Kings begins after they get on the 
 throne. And then it is more their people's history than their 
 own. But the best of the story of Presidents comes before 
 they get to their high office. There is where we find the 
 romance of their lives. After they get to be Presidents it is 
 all official work, very important, but not very interesting. But 
 the way they got there is what you will like best to read 
 about; how some were born in log huts and some in man- 
 sions ; how some went to college and some to the little coun- 
 try school ; how some ruled plantations and some chopped 
 wood or drove mules; how some fought and won in great 
 wars and some rose to be famous orators and statesmen ; and 
 how in the end they were chosen by the people to l)c Presi- 
 dents of the United States. It is all very wonderful and very 
 interesting and I am sure all who read this book will say the 
 same. 
 
Table of Contents 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON 17 
 
 The Father of His Country 
 
 JOHN ADAMS . . 33 
 
 The Massachusetts Patriot * 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON . , . . , . . ,45 
 
 The Writer of the Declaration of Independence 
 
 JAMES MADISON . 59 
 
 The Father of the Constitution 
 
 JAMES MONROE . 7° 
 
 V America for the Americans" 
 
 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 80 
 
 Scholar, Diplomat, Statesman 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON 90, 
 
 "Old Hickory" 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN .....',.. 103 
 
 The New York Politician 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON in 
 
 The Hero of Tippecanoe 
 
 JOHN TYLER 123 
 
 The Surprise President 
 
 JAMES KNOX POLK .130 
 
 A North Carolina Boy 
 
 T 
 
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 2ACHARY TAYLOR 
 
 "Old Rough and Ready" 
 
 MILLARD FILLMORE 
 
 The Second-Hand President 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE 
 
 The New Hampshire Man 
 
 JAMES BUCHANAN 
 
 The Man from Wheatlands 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 The Great Emancipator 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSON 
 
 The Tailor who Became President 
 
 ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT ..... 
 
 America's Greatest General 
 
 • «.• 
 
 RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES 
 
 A President by a Small Majority 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 The Second Martyred President 
 
 CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR 
 
 The Green Mountain State President 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 The Veto President 
 
 BENJAMIN HARRISON 
 
 The Orator President 
 
 WILLIAM Mckinley 
 
 The Third Martyr President 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 The Man of a Strenuous Life 
 
 «37 
 
 145 
 
 150 
 
 156 
 
 161 
 
 173 
 
 179 
 
 I go 
 
 196 
 
 209 
 
 214 
 
 222 
 
 228 
 
 238 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 THE FATHER OP HIS COUNTRT. 
 
 Very many years ago, on the 
 twenty-second day of February, of the 
 year 1732, a little boy was born in an 
 old-fashioned farm-house down in Vir- 
 ginia. On this farm, or plantation, as 
 it was called, tobacco was grown, in- 
 ^ stead of wheat or corn, and this was 
 ;'/' ^sent to England to be sold. 
 
 The name of the child's father was 
 Augustine Washington. His mother's 
 name was Mary. They gave him the 
 name of George Washington, a name 
 now known to everybody. 
 When George was a very small boy his father died, and 
 he was brought up by his mother in an old farm-house on the 
 Rappahannock River, just opposite the town of Fredericksburg. 
 The boy grew up to be honest, truthful, obedient, bold 
 and strong. He could jump the farthest, run the fastest, climb 
 the highest, wrestle the best, ride the swiftest, swim the long 
 est of all the boys he played with. They all liked him, for 
 he was gentle, kind and brave ; and always told the truth. 
 
 When a boy grows up and gets to be a great and famous 
 man many stories come to be told about him, some of which 
 are not true. Here is a story which is often told about Wash- 
 ington, though no one knows whether it is true or not. 
 
 17 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
i8 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 It is said that Mrs. Washington had a fine colt, which she 
 hoped would grow into a very fast horse. But it was wild 
 and had never been ridden, and the men on the plantation 
 were afraid to get on its back. George was now a well-grown 
 boy and a good rider, and he said that he could ride the colt. 
 He did ride it, too, so the story goes. The wild creature 
 did all it could to throw him off, but he kept on its back and 
 
 rode it around the field. In 
 the end the animal grew so 
 violent that it burst a blood- 
 vessel and fell dead. George 
 was very sorry, but he went 
 straight to his mother and 
 told her the truth. 
 
 She looked at him a 
 moment, then she said : " I 
 am sorry to lose the colt ; but 
 I am very glad to have my 
 son tell me of his fault." 
 
 Such is the story. It may 
 
 not be true, for young boys 
 
 do not ride wild colts ; but it 
 
 AFTERWARD THE MOTHER OP hclos US to know what kind 
 
 HINGTON, SPINNING HER FLAX. *■ r 1 • 
 
 of a boy Washmgton was. 
 
 When young Washington was sixteen years old < gave 
 up going to school and became a surveyor. A surveyor is 
 one who goes around measuring land, so that men can know 
 just how much they own, and just where the lines run that 
 divide it from other people's land. 
 
 This work kept George out of doors most of the time, and 
 made him healthy and big and strong. He went off into the 
 woods and over the mountains, surveying land for the owners. 
 
 MARY BALL 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 19 
 
 He was a fine-looking young fellow then. He was almost 
 six feet tall, was strong and active, and could stand almost 
 anything in the way of out-of-door dangers and labors. 
 He had light brown hair, blue eyes and a frank face, and he 
 had such a firm and friendly way about him, although he was 
 quiet and never talked much, that people always believed what 
 he said, and those who worked with him were always ready 
 and willing to do just as he told them. 
 
 WASHINGTON IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 
 
 The Colonial Troops were led by George Washington who is said to have 
 
 fired the first shot in the battle at Great Meadows. 
 
 He liked the work, because he liked the free life of the 
 woods and mountains, and his work was so well done that 
 some of it holds good to-day. He liked to hunt and swim 
 and ride and row, and all these things and all these rough 
 experiences helped him greatly to be a bold, healthy, active 
 and courageous man, when the time came for him to be a 
 leader and a soldier. 
 
20 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 People thought so much of him that when trouble began 
 between the two nations that then owned almost all the land 
 in America, he was sent ^vith a party to try and settle a quar- 
 rel as to which nation owned the land west of the mountains. 
 
 These two nations were France and England. They were 
 far beyond the Atlantic Ocean. Virginia and all the country 
 between the mountains and the sea, from Maine to Georgia, 
 belonged to the King of England. There was no President 
 then, and there were no United States, for all this country was 
 under the rule of far-off monarchs. 
 
 George Washington went off to the western country and 
 tried to settle the quarrel, but the French soldiers would not 
 settle it as the English wished them to. They built forts in 
 the country, and said they meant to keep it all for the King of 
 France. It was a long and dangerous journey that young 
 Washington made, through hundreds of miles of woods, with 
 rivers and mountains to cross, and among Indians who tried 
 to kill him. But he came back safe — after crossing a great 
 river full of floating ice and going through other perils — and 
 told the Governor of Virginia what the French had said. 
 
 Washington was soon sent out again, this time- with a 
 party of soldiers. He fought with the French and Indians, 
 but there were too many of them for his few men. The King 
 of England was very angry when he learned that the French 
 were building forts on what he said was his land, though no- 
 body really owned it but the Indians. 
 
 He determined to drive them away, and sent soldiers 
 from England to fight them. They were led by a general 
 named Braddock, who knew all about war in Europe, and had 
 plenty of courage, but had never fought in such a land as Amer- 
 ica, where there were great forests and Indians, and other 
 things very different from what he was used to. But he 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 21 
 
 thought he knew all about war, and would not listen to what 
 anyone told him. Poor Braddock paid dearly for his conceit. 
 George Washington knew that if General Braddock and 
 the British soldiers wished to whip the French, and the Indi- 
 ans who were on the French side, they must be very careful 
 when they were marching through the forests to battle. He 
 tried to make General Braddock see this.too, and to tell him 
 what to do, but the British general ^vi. ^^ rf^. 
 
 thought he knew 
 best, and told Wash- 
 ington to mind his 
 own business. 
 ^ So the British 
 soldiers .marched 
 through the forests 
 just as if they were parading down the 
 streets of London. They looked very 
 fine, but they were not careful of themselves, and one day, in 
 the midst of the forest, the French and Indians, who were 
 hiding behind trees waiting for them, began to fire at them 
 from the thick, dark woods. 
 
 The British were caught in a trap. They could not see 
 their enemies. They did not know what to do. General 
 Braddock was killed ; so were many of his soldiers. They 
 
 BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT. 
 
2 2 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 would all have been killed or taken prisoners if George Wash- 
 ington had not been there. He knew just what to do. He 
 fought bravely, and when the British soldiers ran away he 
 and his Americans kept back the French and Indians, and 
 saved what was left of the army. 
 
 But it was a terrible defeat for the soldiers of the King of 
 England. He had to send more soldiers to America, and the 
 war went on for years. Washington was kept busy fighting 
 the Indians, to save the lives of the poor settlers on the bor- 
 ders. In the end the French were defeated, and had to give 
 up all their land in America to the English. That was the 
 war which is called the French and Indian War. 
 
 Washington had been so brave that the Legislature of 
 Virginia spoke in very great praise of his services. Washing- 
 ton was there and rose to thank them, but he was so confused 
 that he blushed, stammered, trembled and could not speak. 
 
 "Sit down, Mr. Washington," said the Speaker. "Your 
 modesty equals your valor, and that is greater than any lan- 
 guage I can use." 
 
 Soon after this Washington married. His wife, whose 
 name was Martha Custis, brought him a large fortune, and he 
 had a good deal of property of his own. They went to live 
 in a beautiful house on the banks of the Potomac River, in 
 Virginia. It is called Mount Vernon. It was Washington's 
 home all the rest of his life. The house is still standing, and 
 people nowadays go to visit this beautiful place, just to see 
 the spot that everyone thinks so much of because it was the 
 home of Washington. 
 
 Washington showed himself as good a farmer as he had 
 been a soldier. Daily he rode over his great estate, and every- 
 thing" he had to do with went on like clock-work. He was 
 prompt, careful, and full of method, fond of his work and of 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 23 
 
 hunting with horse and hounds, and would have liked nothing 
 better than to spend all his life at Mount Vernon. But that 
 was not to be, for a new war was coming on, and the farmer 
 had to buckle on his old sword again. 
 
 The trouble came from King George of England, who 
 was not satisfied with the way things were going in the colon- 
 ies. He tried to 
 make the people 
 pay him more 
 money in taxes 
 than they thought 
 was right and just. 
 The Americans 
 said that the king 
 was acting very 
 wrongly toward 
 them, and that they 
 would not stand it. 
 
 They did not. 
 When the king's 
 soldiers tried to 
 make them do as 
 the king ordered, 
 they said they 
 would die rather 
 than yield, and in 
 a place called Lexington, in Massachusetts, there was a fight 
 with the soldiers, and another at Concord. The British had 
 to hurry back to Boston, and many of them were killed. 
 
 This is what is called rebellion. It made the king very 
 angry, and he sent over ships full of soldiers to punish the 
 rebels. The men in the colonies said they would fight the 
 
 NOMINATION OF WASHINGTON AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 
 OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY 
 
24 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 soldiers if the king tried to make them do as he wished. So 
 an army gathered around Boston, and there they had a famous 
 battle with the king's soldiers, called the Battle of Bunker 
 Hill, in which they showed how well they could fight. 
 
 The leading men in the colonies saw that they must put 
 a brave man at the head of their army, and for this they chose 
 Washington, whom they knew to be one of their best soldiers. 
 
 Washington rode all the way from Philadelphia, where 
 he then was, to Cambridge, in Massachusetts, on horse- 
 back, for they had no steamcars or steamboats in those days, 
 and there was no other way to travel. As he was riding 
 through Connecticut, with a few soldiers as his guard, a man 
 came galloping across the country, telling people how the bat- 
 tle of Bunker Hill had been fought. The British soldiers had 
 driven the Americans from the fort, he said, but it had been 
 hard work for them. 
 
 Washington stopped the rider, and asked him why the 
 Americans had given up the fort. 
 
 "Because they had no powder and shot left," replied the 
 messenger. 
 
 "And did they stand the fire of the British guns as long 
 is they could fire back?" asked Washington. 
 
 "That they did," replied the horseman. "They waited, 
 too, vmtil the British were close to the fort, before they fired." 
 
 That was what Washington wished to know. He felt 
 ;ertain that if the American farmer boys who stood out against 
 :he king's soldiers did not get frightened or timid in the face 
 ':>{ the trained soldiers of the king, that they would be the kind 
 Df soldiers he needed to win with. 
 
 He turned to his companions and said: "Then the liber- 
 :ies of the country are safe," and he rode on to Cambridge to 
 ake command of the army. 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 25 
 
 It was July 3, 1775, when he took command of the Ameri- 
 can forces. He was then forty-three years of age, tall, stately, 
 dignified, noble in face, and a soldier all through. In his 
 continental uniform of blue and buff he sat his horse under a 
 shady elm, and drew tlie sword with whose help he hoped tc 
 ,make his country free. ^^*j^ '» 
 
 Yet years were to pass, *:^^^^^ <fe 
 
 and many sad days to 
 come and go, before he 
 would succeed. 
 
 We cannot tell here 
 the story of this long 
 and terrible war, nor 
 even of all Washington 
 had to do in it. There 
 was fighting for seven 
 years, and through it 
 all the chief man in 
 America, the man who 
 led the soldiers and 
 fought the British, and 
 never gave up, nor let 
 himself or his soldiers 
 grow afraid even when 
 he was beaten, was 
 General Washington. 
 
 If the British drove him away from one place, he marched 
 to another, and he fought and marched, and kept his army 
 brave and determined, even when ragged and tired, and when 
 everything looked as if the British would be successful. 
 
 He drilled his army of farmers at Cambridge and forced 
 the British to lea^^e Boston without having to fight a battle. 
 
 MEETING OF WASHINGTON AND ROCHAMBEAO. 
 
 The French Allies in the Revolutionary War were 
 commanded by General Rochambeau. 
 
26 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 But he did not always have such good luck as that. They 
 defeated him at Brooklyn, on Long Island, and made him 
 leave New York, and chased him across New Jersey. But 
 when all looked dark for the Americans, he led his army, one 
 terrible winter's night, across the Delaware River and fell upon' 
 the British, when they were not expecting him, and won the 
 Battle of Trenton, taking many prisoners. After that the 
 Americans felt in much better spirits. 
 
 But there were many hard and bitter days for George 
 Washington through those years of fighting. A winter came 
 in which the British soldiers seemed victorious everywhere. 
 They held the cities of New York and Philadelphia, and the 
 small American army was half-starved, cold and shivering at 
 a place in Pennsylvania called Valley Forge. When their 
 log huts were all covered with snow, and they had hardly 
 clothes enough to keep them warm, or food to keep them 
 from being hungr}^, it was not easy for the soldiers to see vic- 
 tory ahead. If it had not been for Washington, the Ameri- 
 can army would have melted away during that dreadful winter 
 at Valley Forge. 
 
 But he held it together, and when spring came marched 
 away with it from Valley Forge, following the British, who 
 had been forced to leave Philadelphia, where they had been 
 living well all winter. Part of his army was attacked by the 
 British at a place called Monmouth Court House, and was 
 almost beaten and driven back, when General Washington 
 came galloping up. He stopped the soldiers who were run- 
 ning away ; he brought up other soldiers to help them, and he 
 fought so boldly and bravely, and was so determined, thax . 
 last he drove off the British, and won the battle of Monmouth. 
 
 You see, Washington would not give up when people 
 told him he would have to, and that the British would gret all 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 27 
 
 the cities and towns. He said tliat the country was large, and 
 that, sooner than give in, he would go with his soldiers into 
 the mountains and keep up the war until the British were so 
 sick of it that they would finally go away. 
 
 So he kept on marching and fighting, and never gave up, 
 even when things looked worst, and at last, on the 19th of 
 October in the year 1781, he captured a whole British army, 
 commanded by Lord Cornwallis, at a place called Yorktown, 
 in Virginia. That brought the war to an end. 
 
 So the United States won their freedom. They have 
 been a great nation ever since, and every American, from that 
 day to this, knows that they became a free people because they 
 had such a great, brave, noble, patriotic, strong and glorious 
 leader as General George Washington. 
 
 After the Revolution was over, and Washington had said 
 good-bye to his soldiers and his generals, he went back to 
 Mount Vernon and became a farmer again. He was glad 
 enough of the chance, for he loved a quiet life, and he hoped 
 now to spend the rest of his days in quiet on his farm. 
 
 But the people of America would not let him stay a far- 
 mer. They were not done with him yet. A convention met 
 in Philadelphia, and, after much thought and talk, they drew 
 up a paper that said just how the new nation should be gov- 
 erned. That is called the Constitution of the United States. 
 It declared that, instead of a king, the people should choose 
 a man to be the head of the nation for four years at a time. 
 He was to preside over the affairs of the nation and be chief 
 ruler, and so he was called the President. 
 
 When the time came to elect the first President, there 
 was one man in the United States that everybody wanted. 
 This man was George Washington, to whom the people felt 
 that they owed their liberty. It was a great day for the new 
 
28 . GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 nation when he was declared President. All along the way, 
 as he rode from Mount Vernon to New York, people came 
 out to welcome him. They fired cannon and rang bells, and 
 made bonfires and put up arches and decorations ; little girls 
 scattered flowers in his path and sang songs of greeting, and 
 whenever he came to a town or city every one marched in 
 procession, escorting Washington through their town. 
 
 When he got to New York, after he had crossed the bay 
 in a big rowboat, he went in a fine procession to a building 
 called " Federal Hall," on Wall Street, and there he stood, 
 on the front balcony of the building, in face of all the people, 
 and, with his hand on an open Bible, he said he would be a 
 wise and good and faithful President. Then the judge who 
 had read to him the words he repeated, lifted his hand and 
 cried out: "Long live George Washington, President of the 
 United States!" A flag was run up to the cupola of the hall, 
 cannon boomed, bells rang, and all the people cheered and 
 cheered their hero and general, whom they had now made the 
 head of the whole nation. 
 
 So George Washington became President of the LInited 
 States. He worked just as hard to make the new nation 
 'strong and great and peaceful, as he had done when he led the 
 army in the Revolution. People had all sorts of things to 
 suggest. Some of these things were foolish, some were wrong, 
 and some would have been certain to have broken up the Uni- 
 ted States, and lost all the things for which the country fought 
 in the Revolution. 
 
 But Washington was at the head. He knew just what to 
 do, and he did it. From the day when, in the City of New 
 York, he was made President, he gave all his thought and all 
 his time and all his strength to making the United States 
 united and prosperous and strong. And when his four years 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 29 
 
 as President were over, the people would not give him up, 
 but elected him for their President for another four years. 
 
 When Washington was President, the Capital of the Uni- 
 ted States was first at New York, and afterward at Philadelphia. 
 Washington and his wife, whom we know of as Martha Wash- 
 ington, lived 
 in fine style, 
 and made a 
 very noble- 
 looking cou- 
 ple. They 
 
 THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON RECEIVING MARQUIS LAFAYETTE 
 
 Previous to his departure for Europe, in the Fall of 1784, the Marquis de Lafayette, the distinguished 
 
 French Officer and friend of Washington, repaired to Fredericksburg to pay his parting 
 
 respects to Washington's mother and to ask her blessing. 
 
 gave receptions, to which the people would come to be intro- 
 duced and to see the man of whom all the world was talking. 
 Washington was then a splendid-looking man. He was tall 
 and well-built. He dressed in black velvet, with silver knee 
 and shoe buckles ; his hair was powdered and tied up in what 
 
30 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 was called a "queue." He wore yellow gloves, and held his 
 three-cornered hat in his hand. A sword, in a polished white- 
 leather sheath, hung at his side, and he would bow to each 
 one who was introduced to him. . He had so good a memory, 
 that, if he heard a man's name and saw his face at one intro- 
 duction, he could remember and call him by name when he 
 met him again. But though he was so grand and noble, he 
 was very simple in his tastes and his talk, and desired to 
 have no title, like prince or king or duke, but only this — the 
 President of the United States. 
 
 His second term as President was just as successful as 
 his first four years had been. He kept the people from get- 
 ting into trouble with other countries ; he kept them from war 
 and danger, and quarrels and losses. But it tired him out, 
 and made him an old man before his time. He had given 
 almost all his life to America. 
 
 When his second term was ended, the people wished him 
 to be President for the third time. But he would not. He 
 wrote a long letter to the people of America. It is called 
 "Washington's Farewell Address." He told them they were 
 growing stronger and better, but that he was worn out and 
 must have rest. He said also that if they would be wise and 
 peaceful and good, they would become a great nation ; and 
 that all they had fought for and all they had gained would 
 last, if they would only act right. If they did this they would 
 become great, united and powerful. 
 
 So another man was made President, and Washington 
 went back to his farm at Mount Vernon. He was the great- 
 est, the wisest and the most famous man in all America. Peo- 
 ple said it was because of what he had done for them that 
 their country was free and powerful and strong. They said 
 that he was "The Father of his Country," and was "First 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 31 
 
 in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country- 
 men." But what pleased pF 
 
 him most was to get back I 
 to his quiet life at Mount 
 Vernon, and be done with 
 courts and armies. He 
 found very much to do, and 
 he mended and built and 
 enlarged things and rode 
 over his broad plantations, 
 or received in his fine old 
 house the visitors who 
 came there to see the great- 
 est man in all America, and 
 lived a very happy and 
 peaceful life. 
 
 There came a time 
 when he thought he would 
 have to give up this pleas- 
 ant life and go to be a sol- 
 dier once more. For it 
 seemed as if there would 
 be war between France and 
 the United States, and Con- 
 gress begged Washington 
 to take command of the 
 army once more. He was 
 made lieutenant-general 
 and commander-in-chief, 
 and hurried to Philadelphia 
 to gather his army together. Fortunately the war did not 
 occur, and the new nation was saved all that trouble and 
 
 tORD CORNWALLIS WHO SURRENDERED TO 
 WASHINGTON AT YORKTOWN. 
 
32 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 bloodshed. But Washington was ready, if needed. So he 
 went back again to his beloved Mount Vernon. But he did 
 not live long to enjoy the peace and quiet that were his right. 
 For one December day, as he was riding over his farm, he 
 caught cold and had the croup. He had not the strength 
 that most boys and girls have to carry him through such a 
 sickness. He was worn out, and, though the doctors tried 
 hard to save his life, they could not, and in two days he died. 
 It was a sad day for America — the twelfth day of December, 
 in the year 1799. ■. 
 
 All the world was sorry, for all the world had come to 
 look upon George Washington as the greatest man of the 
 time. Kings and nations put on mourning for him, and, all 
 over the world, bells tolled, drums beat, and flags were dropped 
 to half-mast, when the news came that Washington was dead. 
 
 More than a hundred years have passed since then, but 
 the memory of Washington is loved as much as he was loved 
 himself when alive. In the country he set free cities and 
 towns and a State have been named after him, and there are 
 fine statues to his honor in the cities, and streets and build- 
 ings bear his name, and beautiful old Mount Vernon, where 
 he lived and died, is a place which all Americans love to visit. 
 
 No man nobler and purer than George Washington ever 
 lived in America, and if you want to grow up good and noble 
 men and women you cannot do better than to read the life of 
 Washington, and try to be like him. 
 
JOHN ADAMS 
 
 THE SECOND PRESmENT. 
 
 THE MASSACHUSETTS PATRIOT. 
 
 What do you think of a his- 
 tory written in letters ? Some per- 
 sons' histories are all written that 
 way, and that is the way a great 
 deal of John Adams's life was writ- 
 ten. His wife was a fine letter 
 I writer, and so was he, and as they 
 had to live apart for years, they 
 kept writing to one another. These 
 letters have been kept and pub- 
 lished, and good ones they are. 
 They tell us much about the stirring 
 times of the Revolution that we 
 would not know only for them. I shall have to give you 
 some passages from these letters as I go on. 
 
 The name of Adams is a great one in American history. 
 Sam Adams has been called the " Father of the Revolution." 
 He was a Boston man and a cousin of John Adams. It was 
 he that set the people to throw the tea overboard ; and when 
 the British marched to Lexington they went there to catch him, 
 but they didn't. They caught something a good deal worse. 
 John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams both 
 became Presidents of the United States. His grandson. 
 Charles Francis Adams, was an able statesman, who was once 
 
 33 
 
 JOHN ADAMS. 
 
34 JOHN ADAMS 
 
 minister to England and was once nominated for Vice-Presi- 
 dent ; and his great-grandson, another Charles Francis Adams, 
 is one of our leading railroad men. I do not know any other 
 family in America which can show foui generations of such 
 able men. 
 
 John Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on 
 October 19, 1735. This place is on the south shore of the 
 great bay which is now known as Boston Harbor. His father 
 had a small farm in the poor and rocky New England ground, 
 where it took a good deal of hard digging and scratching to 
 make a small living. While the little fellow was helping to 
 chop wood, and clear away snow, and look after the horses 
 and cows, and work in the fields, I doubt if any dream came 
 to him that he would one time live in a great mansion and 
 rule over a great nation. There is a thick cloud over the 
 future, and it is often well that we cannot see through it. 
 
 The boy did his share of v;ork ; but he had his share of 
 fun, too ; for he was a healthy and wholesome little fellow. 
 In the winter there were skating and sleighing, and in the 
 summer there were fishing in the streams, and hunting in the 
 woods, and plenty of boyish sports besides. He went to 
 school in a little old school-house near his home, but he was 
 fonder of play than he was of books. When he got old 
 enough, his father asked him what he would rather do ; go to 
 college, or go to work; and what work he would like. 
 
 " I think I would rather try farming," said John. 
 
 •'Very well, you may go to work in the fields." 
 
 John did go to work next day, working from sunrise to 
 sunset, as farmers did in those days and long after. That was 
 real work ; it was not half play, as he had been used to. He 
 came home at night hungry, and thirsty, and tired, and dusty, 
 and stiff as an old log. 
 
JOHN ADAMS 
 
 35 
 
 " I think I would rather go to work among the books," 
 he said, with his eyes on the ground, for he was ashamed to 
 look his father in the fac 
 
 "Very well. This is what I want you to do ; to go to 
 college and get an education." 
 
 And to Harvard College he went. He graduated in 
 1755, just as the French and Indian War began, and when 
 Washington and Braddock were marching over the mountains 
 to find the Indians waiting for them behind the trees. 
 
 The young college graduate did not know what to do any 
 more than before. He tried school-teaching, but soon got 
 
 tired of that. Then he had one notion 
 to be a minister, and another to be a 
 lawyer. He was restless and uneasy 
 and often out of 
 spirits. For a time 
 he was eager to be a 
 soldier and fight in 
 the great war. But 
 he did not care to 
 carry a musket. He 
 wanted to be a captain and to command " a company of 
 foot, a troop of horse." 
 
 But he soon found that no captains were wanted, so he 
 set himself to study the law. And he studied hard and long. 
 He had got over playing with his books. In 1758 he began 
 to practice law. He got plenty to do, but he did not make 
 nmch money, for the people of Braintree were poor and could 
 not pay large fees. Yet he became well known as an able 
 lawyer and a man of strong mind and clear thoughts. He 
 had a fine sounding voice, too, and people liked to hear him 
 speak. 
 
 A CHAISE OF THK EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
36 JOHN ADAMS 
 
 In 1 764 he did one of the best things of his life ; he mar- 
 ried Abigail Smith, the handsome young daughter of a clergy- 
 man of Weymouth. She was a woman in a hundred, bright, 
 intelligent, refined, tender and loving. None of our Presi- 
 dents had a better wife, and you may be sure she helped her 
 husband greatly in the stormy times that followed. No one can 
 write about John Adams without a very good word for his wife. 
 
 The stormy times soon began. The year after John 
 Adams was married the British Stamp Act was passed. The 
 king had determined to tax the Americans by making them 
 buy stamps for their papers, and without giving them the 
 chance to say a word about it. Then there was an uproar. 
 No one would use a stamp or pay a penny of the tax. • 
 Adams was bitter against it. He made a great speech, telling 
 what he thought about it. The people of America were ready 
 to tax themselves and help the king with money, but they 
 said that no Parliament across the seas should tax them 
 against their will. 
 
 All the people were not on the patriot side. There were 
 plenty of Tories, men who said the king must be right, what- 
 ever he did. But Adams had been a strong patriot from the 
 beginning. He wrote and spoke his mind very plainly. There 
 was nothing going on that he did not take a hand in. He 
 wrote strong articles for the papers, and some of these were 
 copied by the London papers and thought to be very good. 
 
 All this worried the British leaders, you may well think. 
 They saw the sort of man that Adams was and tried to get him 
 on their side. A good paying position was offered him, that 
 of Advocate-General, but he would not take it, for he looked 
 on it as a bribe to turn him away from his country. 
 
 One of the best and noblest things John Adams ever did 
 was in 1770. He then showed that it was justice and not 
 
JOHN ADAMS 
 
 37 
 
 passion that ruled him. Have you ever read of the " Boston 
 Massacre ?" A party of soldiers were attacked by a mob, and 
 they fired on them and some of the people were killed. 
 
 This made a terrible excitement. The Bostonians were so 
 furious that the troops had to be taken out of the city. The 
 soldiers who fired were arrested and tried for murder. What 
 did John Adams, the great patriot, do ? He became their 
 lawyer and defen- 
 ded them before 
 the court. He said 
 it was the people 
 and not the soldiers 
 who were in fault. 
 
 — -^^ 
 
 FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON, "THF CRADLE OF LIBERTY. 
 
 And he won his case, too. All but two of tl-ie soldiers 
 were set free. These two had killed men by their shots and 
 they were sentenced to be branded in the hand. They were 
 then set free like the others. It was a great victory for justice 
 and for John Adams, and nobody thought the worse of him 
 for it 
 
3S JOHN ADAMS 
 
 Four years now passed by and the trouble in the colonies 
 kept getting worse. The tea that was sent to Boston was 
 thrown overboard by the people, and it made things boil. 
 After that more soldiers were sent to Boston and no vessels 
 were let in or out of, the harbor. That was done to punish 
 the citizens. Business stopped, and it looked as if many of 
 the people of Boston would starve. 
 
 By this time John Adams had become a great lawyer and 
 had a large practice. But he set that aside in 1774, when the 
 First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and he was 
 elected one of the members. He had never been out of New 
 England before, but he rode boldly and bravely away. There 
 he was to meet George Washington and Patrick Henry and 
 other great and famous men. In all the work done by that 
 Congress John Adams had a hand, and he was looked on as 
 one of its best men. 
 
 Now began those interesting letters between him and 
 his wife, which were kept up whenever they were apart. It 
 was a sore trial for him to leave his home. One of his letters 
 closes with, "My babes are never out of my mind, nor absent 
 from my heart." On the same day his wife wrote : 
 
 " Five weeks have passed, and not one line have I 
 received. I would rather give a dollar for a letter by the post, 
 though the consequence should be that I ate but one meal a 
 day these three weeks to come." 
 
 Those were not the days of rapid mails and cheap post- 
 age. Boston then seemed ten times as far from Philadelphia 
 as it is to-day. It was a million times as far away, if we 
 consider the speed of the telegraph. 
 
 The next year another Congress met, and it had new and 
 strong woik to do. The famous fight of Lexington and Con- 
 cord had been fought, and the Yankee farmers, in their 
 
JOHN ADAMS 39 
 
 homespun clothes and with their old guns in their hands, 
 were all around Boston, with the British fast inside. 
 
 Adams was in Philadelphia again. He could not help 
 feeling worried about his family in Braintree. Rewrote to his 
 wife, "In case of real danger fly to the woods with our children." 
 
 Soon after there were fifteen thousand armed farmers 
 about Boston, and she wrote about the troubles and confusion 
 of the times : 
 
 "Soldiers coming in for a lodging, for breakfast, for 
 supper, for drinks. Sometimes refugees from Boston, tired 
 and fatigued, seek an asylum for a day, a night, a week. You 
 can hardly imagine how we live. Yet 
 
 " To the houseless child of want 
 Our doors are open still; 
 And though our portions are but scant, 
 We give them with good will. 
 
 " Hitherto I have been able to maintain a calmness and 
 presence of mind. I hope I shall, let the exigency of the 
 time be what it will." 
 
 A strong, earnest, kindly soul was that of Abigail Adams, 
 as you would see abundantly, if I could quote more from her 
 letters. 
 
 There were weak men in Congress, as there were strong 
 ones, and John Adams grew angry when steps of a feeble 
 kind were taken. He was for liberty, at any cost. It did his 
 Iheart good when George Washington, the brave Virginian, 
 came into Congress in his uniform, before setting out for 
 Boston. It was he who had proposed Washington for 
 commander-in-chief And it made his heart bound with joy 
 the next year when Richard Henry Lee, another Virginian, 
 brought in a resolution " that these United Colonies are, and 
 of right ought to be, Free and Independent States." 
 
40 JOHN ADAMS 
 
 John Adams could not be restrained. He sprang to his 
 feet and warmly seconded the resolution. Congress thought 
 that so great a resolution should be put in the best shape, so 
 it chose five men as a comfmittee to do this. Their names 
 were John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, 
 Ro^er Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. 
 
 Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and it 
 ivas so good that only a few changes were made in it. On 
 July 2, 1776, it was brought before Congress. Some mem- 
 bers opposed it and spoke against it. John Adams upheld it 
 in one of the greatest speeches that Congress heard. Jeffer- 
 son said of the speaker and his speech : 
 
 "John Adams was the ablest advocate and champion 
 of independence on the floor of the House. He was the 
 colossus of that Congress. Not graceful, not eloquent, not 
 always fluent in his public addresses, he yet came out with a 
 power of thought and expression which moved his hearers 
 from their seats." 
 
 The next day he wrote a famous letter to his wife. It 
 has often been quoted, and it is well worth quoting again : 
 Here is its celebrated passage : 
 
 " Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever 
 was debated in America ; and a greater, perhaps, never was, 
 nor will be, decided among men. The second day of July, 
 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history ol 
 America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by 
 succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It 
 ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by 
 solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be 
 solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, 
 guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the 
 continent to the other from this time forward, forevermore." 
 
JOHN ADAMS 41 
 
 This is the kind of patriot John Adams was. His words 
 have come true, but for the fourth, not the second, of July. 
 The fourth was the day when the Declaration was signed, 
 when Independence bell was rung, and when John Hancock, 
 another Bostonian, who was President of Congress and wrote 
 his name first, did it in that broad, bold hand, which he said 
 " the king of England could read without spectacles." 
 
 Now we nmst go on faster. John Adams worked hard 
 in that Congress. He was placed at the head of the War 
 Department, which gave him plenty to do. He was chairman 
 of very many committees. In 1777 he was selected to go to 
 France and try and make a treaty with that country. 
 
 It was a dangerous journey he made across the ocean the 
 next winter. The British said he was a ringleader among the 
 rebels. If they had caught him it would have gone hard \vith 
 him. They might have hung him or cut off his head. 
 
 But he went, in the frigate Boston. His oldest son, who 
 was to be President after him, went with him. They had not 
 been out a week before an English warship chased the Boston. 
 Adams urged the crew to fight like heroes. They had better 
 sink with their ship than go to a British prison. But the 
 Boston escaped. 
 
 After that there was a fight with a British privateer. It 
 was a hard battle. Cannon were roaring, and when they got 
 close enough guns began to flash and crack. Captain Tucker 
 saw his passenger on deck and asked him to go below to a 
 safer place. But Adams had too much fight in him. Soon 
 after the captain saw him with a musket in his hand, firing 
 away like a common sailor. 
 
 "Why are you here, sir," cried the captain angrily. "I 
 am commanded to carry you safely to Europe, and I will do 
 
42 JOHN ADAMS 
 
 it." And he picked up the Httle man in his arms as if he had 
 been a child, and carried him below deck. 
 
 The privateer was captured, and the Boston kept on and 
 got safely to France in March, 1778. But Adams got there 
 ,'too late for the business on which he had been sent, for Ben- 
 jamin Franklin was there, and had already made the treaty. 
 
 After that John Adams spent many years in Europe. He 
 did some good work there. One good piece of work was in 
 April, 1782, when he got Holland to recognize the United 
 States. For that he was made Minister to Holland. In 
 November of that year he was one of the four men who made 
 the treaty of peace with Great Britain. He had been in the 
 Revolution at its start and he was in it at the close. 
 
 A great honor came to him in 1784, when he was ap- 
 pointed the first United States Minister to Great Britain. He 
 had been in London the year before, helping to make a treaty 
 of commerce. Now he stood before George III, the king, as 
 the representative of a new nation. 
 
 The king acted like a gentleman when they met, and 
 said something which brought from the dauntless patriot the 
 answer : 
 
 '* I must tell Your Majesty that I love no country but 
 my own," 
 
 " An honest man will never love any other," said the 
 king, in a gracious tone. 
 
 Adams' great love for his country was shown in what 
 he had said years before : " Sink or swim, survive or perish 
 with my country, is my unalterable determination." 
 
 But Adams met many cold looks in the British cap- 
 ital, and was very glad to get home again in 1788. He 
 had seen his last of Europe and seen all he wanted to of 
 foreign lands. His wife, who had been with him, and was 
 
JOHN ADAMS 43 
 
 treated coldly by the British queen, was as glad as he to get 
 back to the land of liberty and equal rights. 
 
 The next year a still greater honor came to John Adams, 
 for he was selected to be the first Vice-President of the United 
 States, as Washington was for the first President. For eight 
 years he held this post of honor, and then, when Washington 
 declined to serve any longer, John Adams was elected Presi- 
 dent in his place. Thomas Jefferson, his associate in the 
 Declaration, was made Vice-President. 
 
 Adams, as President, had many difficulties to meet, as 
 Washington had before him. The worst of these was with 
 France, which had just gone through its great Revolution. 
 Its new rulers wanted to see Jefferson, whom they liked, made 
 President, and were so angry when Adams was elected that 
 they refused to receive the new Minister he sent them. 
 
 This was a bitter insult. Then they passed a shameful 
 decree against American commerce. It was hard for Adams, 
 with his fiery temper, to bear all this, much as he wanted 
 peace. It was worse when the French rulers tried to make 
 the Americans pay them for peace. They wanted to be bribed, 
 but Charles Pinckney, one of the envoys, cried out indig- 
 nantly, " Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute." 
 
 That was a good motto for Americans, and everybody 
 repeated it. All over the country there was a cry for war. 
 Adams had tried to keep peace with France, but this was 
 more than he could stand. An army was called out, and 
 Washington agreed to lead it. The navy was ordered to 
 fight, and it did. It captured two French frigates and many 
 smaller vessels. That was enough for the French. They 
 backed down and a treaty of peace was made. 
 
 This made Adams very popular. But there were things 
 done in his administration that made him unpopular, and 
 
44 JOHN ADAMS 
 
 when the time came for the next election he was defeated 
 and Jefferson was elected. The old Federal party, to which 
 Adams belonged, was going down hill, and the new Demo- 
 cratic party, of which Jefferson was the head, was coming up. 
 
 Adams was bitterly disappointed. He had been sure of 
 a second term as President. He felt so sore that he would not 
 wait at Washington to welcome the new President, which was 
 a very unwise thing for him to do, and only served to make 
 him more enemies. 
 
 That ended the public life of John Adams. He was 
 never called into service airain. For the rest of his life he 
 remained at home, happy, no doubt, with his wife and family, 
 his books and his writings. But it was hard for him to for- 
 give his enemies ; for under his greatness there was a little- 
 ness of vanity, self-conceit and obstinacy. He never could 
 see any side but his own, and always thought himself to be 
 right. And there were no soft, smooth ways in John Adams. 
 He was always blunt and plain spoken, and often offended 
 the smiling diplomats of Europe, who knew how to lie in a 
 very courteous tone. Franklin was much better fitted to deal 
 with them than Adams. He wrote about him, " Mr. Adams 
 is always an honest man, often a wise one ; bi,it he is some- 
 times completely out of his senses." 
 
 But as he grew older he grew softer, and finally forgave 
 them all. The bad feeling between him and Jefferson passed 
 away, and they once more became friends. If he was not 
 called to office again, he had the great satisfaction and pride 
 of seeing his son President of the United States. 
 
 Then, on July 4, 1826, he closed his eyes and passed 
 away, on the same day that Jefferson died. His last words 
 were, "Thomas Jefferson still lives." He was mistaken. 
 Jefferson had died a few hours before. 
 
^^^^3^«^^ 
 
 ^:^^AW^ 
 
 "I AM READY FOR ANY SERVICE THAT I CAN GIVE MY COUNTRY" 
 
 1798 our Government was about to declare war against France. Congress appointed Washingtnn commander-in-chief 
 
 of the American Army. The Secretary of War carried the commission in person lo Mt. Vernon. The old 
 
 hero, sitting on his horse in the harvest field accepted in the above patriotic words. 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 THE THIRD PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE WRrrER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 I need not ask you if you have 
 ever heard of the "Declaration of In- 
 dependence." The American who 
 does not know about that great paper, 
 whether he be man or boy, ought to go 
 right back to school, for he has some- 
 thing still to learn. But it is not 
 enough to know about the Declara- 
 H'tion ; he should know also about the 
 man who wrote it, the famous Thomas 
 Jefferson. 
 
 Nearly two hundred years ago a 
 man named Peter Jefferson married a wife and brought her to 
 live on his plantation, which was in Virginia, near where the 
 town of Charlottesville now stands. He named his place 
 Shadwell, because his wife was born in a place of that name 
 in England. A great, sturdy fellow was Peter Jefferson, as 
 strong as three common men. And he was as sensible as he 
 was strong, which is not always the case. 
 
 It was a fine old mansion in which the Jeffersons lived, 
 and in which Thomas Jefferson, the oldest son, was born in 
 the year 1743. It stood near the Blue Ridge Mountains, and 
 from its windows one could have a fine view over mountains 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 45 
 
46 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 and forests for miles. Here the children played and studied 
 and grew. There was quite a little flock of them, boys and 
 girls. But, by bad fortune, their father died when Thomas was 
 only fourteen years old, and left the mother and children to 
 make their way alone. 
 
 The poor mother had them all to take care of now. She 
 
 thought ever so 
 much of Thomas, 
 and let him do 
 much as he pleased. 
 It was well he was 
 I a good boy, and 
 did not please to 
 do anything that 
 was wrong. He 
 learned to ride, and 
 swim, and shoot, 
 and he was a great 
 reader besides. 
 
 There were wild 
 Indians about in 
 those days, but 
 they did not harm 
 the boy. Thomas 
 
 JEFFERSON AND THE COMMITTEE, PREPARING THE DECLARA- gOt tO DC VCry lOnCl 
 TION OF INDEPENDENCE. IN EARNEST DEBATE. ^^^^^^^^ ^ud SpCUt 
 
 many hours in learning to play the violin, or fiddle, as he 
 called it. We are told that, instead of shooting Indians, as 
 some people did, he played tunes for their boys to dance to, 
 and the older Indians grew to like him very much. 
 
 The boy began to study when he was only five years old, 
 and he kept at it as he grew older, for he was fond of reading 
 
THOMAS lEF PERSON 47 
 
 and thinking. After his father died he was sent to a very 
 good school, fourteen miles from his home, and two years 
 afterward he was sent to William and Mary College, at Wil- 
 liamsburg, which was then the capital of Virginia. The boy 
 had never seen even a village of twenty houses, and this lit- 
 tle place of a thousand people must have seemed like a large 
 city to him. 
 
 A tall, straight, slender lad was Thomas, with large hands 
 and feet, a freckled face, and reddish hair. He was no beauty, 
 but he had bright eyes and a very pleasant v/ay, and he soon 
 made friends. He studied long and hard, but when he had 
 a holiday he spent it in hunting, and was so swift of foot that 
 the deer had to run fast to escape him. Every night he would 
 run a mile out of town and back again for exercise. He liked 
 to dance, too, and did not forget his violin, and was so cheer- 
 ful and genial that everybody liked him. 
 
 After he left college he studied law. And all the time 
 he was doing this he was also taking care of his mother's 
 large plantation, riding about the place, hunting in the woods, 
 and keeping as busy as a bee. After he became a lawyer he 
 had plenty to do in the courts, and he was soon elected to 
 the Virginia legislature, where he was not long in showing how 
 sturdy a patriot he was. Those were the days of the Stamp 
 Act and the Tea Tax, and the other things that made Ameri- 
 cans wish for liberty. Among the lovers of liberty there were 
 none who went ahead of Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 In 1770 his old home at Shadwell took fire and burned 
 to the ground when he and his mother were away. When he 
 heard of it he was much troubled about his books, and asked 
 the messenger who brought the news if any had been saved. 
 
 "No, massa," said the slave. "Day is all burnt up; but 
 de fire didn't burn your fiddle. We saved dat" 
 
48 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 No doubt the innocent negro thought that a fiddle was 
 worth more than a houseful of law books. The fire was a 
 serious loss. A new home had to be built, and this was a 
 home which became famous in later years. Like Washing- 
 ton's home at Mount Vernon, it is a place of pilgrimage for 
 good Americans to-day. Let us tell the story of this historic 
 mansion, for it has a romance of its own. 
 
 In the summer of 1765 Martha Jefferson, a sister of 
 Thomas, and a beautiful girl of nineteen, was married to 
 Dabney Carr, the best loved of Jefferson's college classmates. 
 Young Carr had a charming and lovable nature, and he and 
 Jefferson were very intimate, studying law together. Even 
 before they became brothers-in-law they were constantly in 
 company. They had a favorite resort two miles from Shad- 
 well, on a lonely mountain, five hundred and eighty feet in 
 height. This was covered with trees. Some distance up 
 its side grew a great oak under whose shade the young men 
 made a rustic seat. Here they sat amid the green stillness, 
 and had long and confidential talks. 
 
 What delightful chats those must have been, with nobody 
 to hear them but the singing-birds and the squirrels. It was 
 these hours which afterward made that spot famous in history. 
 The two friends decided that he who died first should be 
 buried under the favorite oak. Jefferson kept his word. His 
 friend Carr died a few years afterward and Was buried in the 
 chosen spot. In later years it became the burial plot of the 
 family, and when Jefferson died, full of years and honors, he 
 was laid by the side of his friend, beneath the very soil on 
 which they had sat and studied, and had held the long and 
 earnest talks of their youth. 
 
 The hill was given the name of Monticello, or " Little 
 Mountain." It had a broad, flat top which Jefferson had 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 49 
 
 leveled off, and here he built a handsome manor-house which 
 has ever since been known as Monticello. It is a charming 
 old place, with its dome and its pillared porticos, and the clock 
 and weather dial on its front porch, and with its large and 
 beautiful rooms, and its magnificent views. 
 \ It was built of brick made on the place, and all the tim- 
 iber was cut and shaped from trees on the ground. Jefferson 
 planned the house himself, and much of the furniture was 
 made on the place, from designs of his own. Near by Monti- 
 cello is the University of Virginia, which was built after his 
 plans, and a little farther away is the old Virginian town of 
 Charlottesville. Beside the carriage road, leading up to the 
 hill-top and the mansion, visitors may see the grave of Jeffer- 
 son, with its modest monument. 
 
 The young planter had need of a home, for he was going 
 to be married. He had been deeply in love with a pretty girl 
 when he was a boy at college ; but she married some one 
 else, and left him to get over his love. This time, like Wash- 
 ington, he fell in love with a widow, and, like Washington's 
 wife, she was named Martha. She was beautiful, she was 
 young, and she was wealthy, for she owned forty thousand 
 acres of land and a large number of slaves. So by marrying 
 Jefferson became one of the great land-holders of Virginia. 
 
 There is quite an interesting story told about how he 
 brought his wife home. They were married on New Year's 
 |day, 1772, and set out for their home, more than a hundred 
 miles away, in a carriage drawn by two horses. There was 
 no better way of traveling in those days, — except by putting 
 more horses to their carriage. 
 
 It was the middle of the winter. As they drove along it 
 began to snow, and long before they got to their distant home 
 the road was covered with a thick white carpet. Night came 
 
5° 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 on, and it was late when they reached the " little mountain " 
 and began to climb up the steep road to the house on the 
 summit. When they came near there was not a light to be 
 seen and darkness lay all around. The slaves, who did not 
 
 expect their master and 
 mistress at that hour, were 
 all fast asleep in their 
 cabins, and there was not 
 a fire in the house. 
 
 What a chilly home- 
 coming was that to the 
 young wife ! They had to 
 go straight to bed to keep 
 from freezing. But the 
 next day the fires were set 
 blazing and all was warm 
 and cheerful, and that one 
 gloomy night was to be 
 followed by many happy 
 clays in the house to which 
 they had come in the d;^rk- 
 ness and the snow. 
 
 After that Thomas 
 Jefferson became one of 
 the great men of the 
 country, and I must now 
 tell about his public life. 
 But first, you will want to know a little about his family. There 
 were six children, though all but one died young. Only Martha, 
 the oldest, lived to see her father die. But he had a large 
 family for all that, for his dear friend, Dabney Carr, who had 
 married his sister Martha, died about this time, leaving six 
 
 A HORSEMAN SPURRING HIS HORSE TO AROUSE 
 
 THE PEOPLE AND ANNOUNCE THAT 
 
 THE BRITISH WERE COMING. 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 51 
 
 children— three boys and three girls. He left his wife poor, 
 and Jefferson took her and all her children home, and brought 
 them up as tenderly as if they had been his own. So Monti- 
 cello was not wanting in young faces and young voices, and 
 no doubt it saw plenty of the jolly pranks of boys and girls. 
 
 But while abundant life and happiness were to be seen in 
 the mansion on the hill-top, war and ruin were fast coming on 
 in the country. The stupid English king was driving the 
 people wild by his foolish ways. Jefferson was one of the 
 leading rebels of Virginia, and when the Continental Congress 
 was elected in 1 775 he was one of the members whom Vir- 
 ginia sent. Only one man in Congress was as young as he, 
 but he was known to be an able writer, and the other mem- 
 bers looked up to him as one of their best thinkers. 
 
 It was a long journey in those days from Monticello to 
 Philadelphia, where the Congress was held. Part of the road 
 ran through the wilderness, and it took more than a week to 
 get there. The day he took his seat was the day news came 
 of the battle of Bunker Hill, and of the splendid way the 
 "rebels" had fought. Washington was then on his way to 
 Boston to take command of the army, and the whole country 
 was getting ready to fight for liberty. 
 
 Congress, you may be sure, had plenty to do in those 
 days, and Jefferson was kept busy enough. His great work 
 was the "Declaration of Independence." No doubt all of you 
 have read this famous document, which told England and the 
 world that America was determined to be free. When the 
 time came for writing this great paper, five men, three of whom 
 were Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, 
 were chosen to do it. But it was Jefferson that wrote it, and 
 it was John Adams that presented it to Congress in a splendid 
 speech. Ever since that day Jefferson has been of world-wide 
 
5 2 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 fame as the author of the " Declaration." You must go back in 
 spirit to the times in which it was written to know how great 
 a paper it was. One writer truly says, "It is the most famous 
 state-paper in the world." 
 
 After that, Jefferson was looked upon as one of the 
 greatest statesmen of America. Congress wished to send him 
 to France with Dr. Franklin, but his wife was too weak to go 
 with him, and he would not go so far away from her. He 
 was too good a lover for that. And there was plenty for him 
 to do at home, for Virginia had bad old laws which had come 
 ov.er from. England, and which he set himself to have repealed^ 
 And he did, too. He fought them till they were all gone. 
 
 The people of Virginia honored him for what he had done, 
 and chose him for their governor in 1779. I do not know 
 if Jefferson thought this so great an honor, for Virginia was 
 then in a sad strait. The British had got tired of fighting in 
 the North, and were now coming South. They would soon 
 be in Virginia, and most of its fighting men had been sent 
 away. The Governor had great trouble to raise a few soldiers 
 to defend the State. 
 
 Let us look at Virginia in the year 1781. In the first 
 days of that year Benedict Arnold, the traitor, sailed up the 
 James River with a large fleet. Jefferson was at Richmond, 
 which had been made the capital of the new State. He 
 hurried his family away to a place of safety, and then rode 
 back with full speed toward the capital. On the way his horse 
 broke down, and he had to borrow a wild colt from a farmer. 
 Before he got to Richmond Arnold held the town. 
 
 Jefferson raised the militia for miles around, and they 
 swarmed like hornets on Arnold's track. The traitor hurried 
 back to his vessels and sailed away down the river, after doing 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
ANDREW JACKSON 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 53 
 
 a great deal of damage to the capital city — though it was a 
 very small city then. 
 
 Now I have to tell you one of the famous adventures in 
 Jefferson's life. There was a bold cavalry leader in the British 
 army named Colonel Tarleton. He had long been in South 
 Carolina fighting with Marion and Morgan and other heroes 
 of the South. Now he was in Virginia, and thought he saw 
 the chance for a fine piece of work. Jefferson was then at his 
 home in Monticello, and the legislature of Virginia was at Char- 
 lottesville, three miles away. Tarleton said to himself, "Here 
 is a good chance to take the whole nest of rebels at once." 
 
 One morning before breakfast the family at Monticello 
 saw a horseman spurring his horse wildly up the hill-side. 
 The poor animal was white with foam. They ran to the door 
 to hear him shoi.it out, "The British are coming I Tarleton 
 is coming with his dragoons I You must fly for your lives !" 
 
 Jefferson questioned the messenger, and learned that 
 Tarleton, with two hundred and fifty men, had galloped at 
 midnight into Louisa, a town twenty miles away. They were 
 now coming at full speed for Monticello. The news threw 
 the family into a panic. Jefferson was the only cool one 
 among them. He told them there was time enough, and 
 made them eat their breakfast. Then he sent them away to a 
 place of safety. He stayed behind, for there were precious 
 papers which he wanted to save. 
 
 While he was getting these another messenger came 
 rushing in, calling out that the British were coming up the 
 mountain. Jefferson listened. There was no sound of troops 
 to be heard. He sprang on his horse and rode to a point 
 where he could look down on Charlottesville. All was quiet 
 and peaceful there. It seemed like a false alarm, and he 
 turned back homeward, hoping to 'get more of his papers. 
 
54 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 _ A mere chance now saved Jefferson from being made a 
 that his sword was missmg. It had fallen from the scabbard 
 
 There was a marvelous 
 change. The little place, 
 just before so quiet, Vv^as 
 now in a bustle. Arm 
 
 TARLETON'S MEN LOOKING FOR THE REHKLS. 
 
 horsemen filled its streets, and some of them were galloping 
 along the road to Monticello. Jefferson put spu?s to hi! 
 horse and rode away. He was barely in time. In little more 
 than five mmutes Tarleton's men were in his house. The lost 
 sword had saved him from capture, perhaps from death. 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON S S 
 
 If any of you should go to Monticello, you will likely be 
 shown a dosed passage, a sort of tunnel, leading from the man- 
 sion to one of the outhouses, and you maybe told that Jefferson 
 escaped that way when the British were rushing in at his front 
 door. That is what I was told when at Monticello. It is 
 one of the fancy stories that gather round historic buildings. 
 
 Another story is told which goes to show how faithful the 
 old Virginia slaves were to their masters. We are told that 
 two of the old negroes were trying to save the silver by hiding 
 it in a secret place closed by a trap-door. One of them was 
 inside while the other handed down the precious silver. Be- 
 fore they had finished they heard the British bursting into the 
 house. The slave above at once closed the trap, shutting his 
 fellow in the close, dark, stifling place. The prisoner could 
 easily have got out by lifting the trap-door, but he v/as too 
 faithful for that. He stayed in the dark hole till the soldiers 
 were gone, and thus saved his master's precious wares. 
 
 There is one good thing to be said in favor of Tarleton. 
 He left Jefferson's house without doing it any great harm. 
 That was not the case with another of Jefferson's plantations 
 on the James River, to which a party of soldiers were sent. 
 Here the barns and fences were burned, the crops destroyed, 
 the cattle and horses carried off and the place left a smoking 
 waste. The slaves were taken, also. " If they had carried 
 off the slaves to set them free they would have done right," 
 said Jefferson, who did not like slavery. 
 
 Now we must hurry on with our story. The next year 
 was a sad one to Jefferson, for his beloved wife died. Before 
 she died she made him promise never to marry again. He 
 kept his word. He loved her too dearly to want another wife. 
 
 Soon public duties called Jefferson from home. He was 
 sent to Congress again in 1783, and in 1784 was chosen as 
 
S6 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 Minister to France, with liis old friends, Dr. Franklin and John 
 Adams. These were three of the old committee on the 
 Declaration, now sent abroad to make treaties with foreign 
 nations. 
 
 Jeffeison remained five years abroad. They were stirring 
 years. The great French Revolution was coming on, and 
 everybody in France was talking about liberty and the rights 
 of man. What he saw and heard in France made him a 
 greater lover of human rights than ever. While he was in 
 Paris he never forgot his country. He was always sending 
 home seeds, plants, roots, everything which he thought would 
 be of use to grow in American soil. 
 
 It was 1789 when Jefferson came home. Washington 
 had just been made President and had appointed him Secre- 
 tary of State. It was an honor he did not want. He tried 
 hard to beg off, but Washington wanted the best men of the 
 country in his Cabinet, and persuaded him to accept. 
 
 Jefferson spent five years in Washington's Cabinet, but 
 those were not happy years. There were men at that time 
 who Avould have liked to have a king over this country. 
 Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, v/as one of 
 these. Jefferson was a strong democrat, and he and Hamil- 
 ton did not get on well together. There were quarrels in the 
 Cabinet, and in January, 1 784, Jefferson gave up his office and 
 went home to Monticello. 
 
 Jefferson was like Washington in one thing ; he was fond 
 of home life and of farming. He had a great taste for land- 
 scape gardening and for architecture, and was never more 
 happy than when he was improving and beautifying his 
 grounds. And he had abundance of company, for many 
 guests were glad to visit and talk with the great statesman, 
 and every hour brought him pleasant occupation. 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 57 
 
 He would have likcJ to spend his hfe at Monticello, 
 busily and happily engaged, but his country wanted him again, 
 and he felt it his duty to obey. He was elected Vice-Presi- 
 dent, with John Adams as President, and for four years he 
 spent his time again in public affairs. I doubt if he enjoyed 
 them much, for the times were stormy and the old bad feeling 
 between him and Hamilton kept up. 
 
 In 1800 came another change. The Democratic party, 
 of which Jefferson was the head, had grown to be the great 
 party of the country, and he was elected President. The 
 country was filled with joy when the news of his election were 
 received, for he had friends and followers in every part of the 
 land, and the old Federal party, of which Hamilton was the 
 head, was fast going down. The people did not want a king, 
 nor a President with kingly power. 
 
 How would the great Democrat act? people asked. 
 Would he go to be inaugurated in grand state and ceremony, 
 like Washington and Adams — perhaps drawn by six cream- 
 colored horses like Washington ? Those who went to Wash- 
 ington to see the inauguration on March 4, 1801, must have 
 been much surprised when, instead of a grand parade, they 
 saw a plainly-dressed man ride up to the Capitol, without 
 guard or servant, spring from his horse, and fasten its bridle 
 to the fence. Then he walked to the Capitol to be inaugu- 
 rated, for this was Thomas Jefferson, President of the United 
 States. He wanted to let the people see that there was no 
 royal pride about him. He loved simple ways and hated 
 pomp and display. For eight years Jefferson was President. 
 They were years full of excitement, for a great war between 
 France and England was going on, and there was so much 
 meddling with American ships and sailors that it was hard to 
 keep our country from going to war. too. Yet this war did 
 
58 THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 one splendid thing for America. France then held the vast 
 country west of the Mississippi River called Louisiana. Napo- 
 leon was afraid the British would take it from him, so he sold 
 it for a small price to the United States. That was a hun- 
 dred years ago. To-day this great domain has many millions 
 of people and great cities, and St. Louis, the greatest of its 
 cities, is about to celebrate President Jefferson's grand work 
 by a magnificent World's Fair. 
 
 Never was there a happier man in this country than 
 Thomas Jefferson in 1809, when he got rid of the cares of 
 office, and went home to his family, his books and his farm. 
 
 One great pleasure -of his life was his guests. He was 
 the most hospitable of men. People came to Monticello in a 
 steady stream, and his house was always full. Whole fami- 
 lies would come, and stay for months. One family of six 
 persons came from Europe and stayed ten months. Then 
 they went away for a time, but came back and stayed six 
 months more. All were welcomed by the genial host, though 
 no doubt he was often tired enough of them. 
 
 They did not only tire him, they almost beggared him. 
 Large as was his estate, he found himself in poverty in the 
 last year of his life. He was forced to sell his precious 
 library, and there was danger of his losing his home. For- 
 tunately some of his admirers came to his aid, and money 
 was sent him to pay his debts. 
 
 The veteran had not much longer to live. He failed fast 
 as the summer of 1826 came on. At last he had but one 
 wish, to live until the 4th of July. This wish was granted 
 him. About noon of July 4th the great statesman and patriot 
 breathed his last — exactly fifty years after the Declaration of 
 Independence was signed, and on the same day with John 
 Adams, who was with him on the committee that made it 
 
JAMES MADISON 
 
 THE FOURTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE FATHER OP THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Very far back in the history of 
 Virginia, back in its early days, we 
 meet with the well-known names of 
 Jefferson and Madison. In 1619, 
 when the first legislature met in 
 America, one of its members was a 
 planter named Jefferson. From him 
 came down the great Thomas Jeffer- 
 son. And about that time the ship 
 which brought the Madisons to Vir- 
 ginia dropped its anchor in the 
 Chesapeake. Thus the Jeffersoru; and 
 the Madisons began their life in Vir- 
 Their descendants were close friends 
 and neighbors all their lives. 
 
 It was on the i6th of March, 1751, that the little boy who 
 was to be our fourth President, first opened his eyes in the world. 
 iHewas born in his grandfather's house at Port Conway, King 
 George County, Virginia, but he was still very young when 
 he went to live on his father's great farm at Montpelier. 
 
 This place was in the beautiful country of the Blue Ridge, 
 only twenty-five miles away from Jefferson's home at Monti- 
 cello. That was almost next door in the thinly settled country 
 of Virginia, and the two were all their life great friends. 
 
 JAMES MADISON. 
 
 ginia at an early date. 
 
6o 
 
 JAMES MADISON 
 
 There is not much to be said about James Madison's boy- 
 hood. He was not a bit like Washington and Jefferson. 
 While they were busy at out-door life, hunting, riding, work- 
 ing, he was as busy reading and studying. He was a home- 
 body, fond of books, and caring very little for play and the 
 rough sports of hearty boys. Shy and thoughtful, he seemed/ 
 like a little man before he was a big boy. What do you think 
 
 of a boy who could 
 read French and Span- 
 ish while he was quite 
 young, and who was 
 already hard at work at 
 Greek and Latin? I 
 think it would have 
 been better for him to 
 have mixed a cfood deal 
 of play with his hard 
 study. The old say- 
 ing goes that "All work 
 and no play make Jack 
 a dull boy." All study 
 and no play are not 
 much better. 
 
 When James Madi- 
 son was seventeen; 
 years old he went to 
 Princeton College, at the quiet little college town of Prince- 
 ton, in New Jersey. Here he was more of a student than 
 ever. Such a tireless bookworm has not often been seen. He 
 wanted to know everything. He gave himself, we are told, 
 only three hours' sleep out of the twenty-four. All other time 
 was given to his books and his classes, none of it to play. 
 
 CARPENTERS HALL, PHILADELPHIA, WHERE THE 
 CONVENTION MET TO MAKE THE CONSTITUTION 
 OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
JAMES MADISON 6i 
 
 What must the fun-loving college boys have thought of 
 such a hopeless case as that? No doubt they made fun of 
 him ; but he went on all the same. He made himself a fine 
 scholar, it is true, but he injured his health so that he was 
 never strong, and passed many a miserable day in later life. 
 That is what comes of overwork of any kind. Our bodies 
 and our constitutions are not given us to deal with as though 
 they were as tough as hickory wood. It is a wonder that 
 his twenty-one hours of study in a day did not kill him in 
 college. But he came of sound stock and lived to be an 
 old man. 
 
 When his college life was over he studied law. He was 
 a small-sized, pale, delicate young man, with a grave, serious 
 face. He hardly knew what it was to laugh, and was often 
 so miserable that he made up his mind he was near the end 
 of his life. He was already being punished for studying too 
 much, as others are punished for eating or drinking too much. 
 
 But Madison was a good thinker and knew well how to 
 put his thoughts on paper. People Soon learned to look on 
 him as an able man. In 1776 his public life began, when he 
 took part in making a constitution for the new State of Vir- 
 ginia, which was born that year. 
 
 The next year his name was up for election to the Virginia 
 legislature, but he was defeated. Why? Because " he refused 
 to treat the voters with whisky." I think you will say with 
 mc that it was an honor to be defeated on those grounds. 
 Now-a-days money is used to get men to vote. In those 
 days it was whisky. But very likely the money soon gets 
 turned into whisky, and there is not much difference. 
 
 All the better people thought Madison did right not to 
 try and win votes by making the voters drunk. He was made 
 a member of the Governor's Council when Patrick Henry and 
 
62 JAMES MADISON 
 
 Thomas Jefferson were governors, and both these great men 
 had a high regard for him. 
 
 After Jefferson's wife died and he grew sad and lonely, 
 he tried to get some of his friends to come and live near him, 
 so that they could meet and have long and pleasant talks. 
 Madison was one of these. Jefferson wanted him to take a 
 little farm near his own, and live in a small old house on it. 
 But Madison did not care to give up his fine home at Mont- 
 pelier, and live in a rude farm-house, even to meet and talk 
 with Jefferson. 
 
 The young student was elected to the Continental Con- 
 gress in 1 780. This was a high honor for one not thirty years 
 old, but Virginia had come to look on him as one of its great 
 statesmen. He stayed there three years, and stormy years 
 they were, for they were the closing years of the Revolution- 
 ary War. But he found it a splendid school in politics, even 
 if it was a trying one for a quiet man like him. 
 
 From this time on Madison took an active part in all that 
 went on in the new Republic. When he got back in the Vir- 
 ginia legislature in 1784, he and Jefferson worked hard to do 
 away with the bad old religious laws, which made everybody 
 pay taxes to support the Episcopal Church, which was the 
 government church in Virginia. He did not believe in the 
 union of Church and State, and he wrote a powerful paper 
 against it which put an end to it in Virginia Since then 
 religion has been free in all parts of this country, and no one 
 can be taxed for its support All money for religion must 
 be a free-will offering. 
 
 And now Madison became a leader in the greatest work 
 of the times. After the Revolution the young nation was in a 
 sad way. It was over head and ears in debt ; the States were 
 jealous of one another : what was called the Union was no 
 
JAMES MADISON 63 
 
 stronger than a rope of sand ; it must be bound by something 
 as strong as an iron chain or it would soon fall apart. 
 
 Madison was one of the first to see this. A strong gov- 
 ernment must be formed or there would soon be no united 
 government at all. Washington said, "We are one nation 
 to-day and thirteen to-morrow." Madison saw that we must 
 form one powerful nation or we would soon break up into 
 thirteen weak ones, which England might pick up again, one 
 by one. 
 
 Let us see what steps were taken. The first was a meet- 
 ing held at Mount Vernon in 1785 to settle disputes about 
 the waters between Virginia and Maryland. Madison was 
 there, and when he went back to the Assembly of Virginia he 
 had a law passed to call a convention at Annapolis the next 
 year to regulate commerce between the States. 
 
 Here he and Alexander Hamilton brought up the ques- 
 tion of a stronger union of the States, and it was decided to 
 call another convention, to meet at Philadelphia in 1787, to 
 see what could be done to increase the powers of the Federal 
 Government. It was his great service in bringing this about 
 that gave Madison the proud title of "The Father of the 
 Constitution," for it was this convention that formed the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, and established in this country 
 the powerful Union it now possesses. % 
 
 I am not going to tell you the story of that great con- 
 vention, with Washington at its head, and Franklin, Hamilton, 
 Madison, and other great men among its members. Never 
 was there an abler body of men. Some of them wanted to 
 revise the old Articles of Confederation formed during the 
 Revolution, but Madison and Hamilton said that would be a 
 waste of time. There must be a new system or none at all. 
 They had their way, and the new Constitution was formed. 
 
64 
 
 /AMES MAD/SON 
 
 What took place in that convention, which sat for six 
 months behind closed doors, we know mostly from Madison. 
 He made notes of all that went on, and these were published 
 after his death, and very useful reading they are. 
 
 When the Constitution was offered to the country there 
 was a desperate fight over it. Madison and Hamilton and 
 John Jay wrote splendid essays about it, and these were pub- 
 lished in a work called "The Federalist." And while Hamil- 
 ton was fighting for it in Nev.^ 
 York, Madison was fighting for 
 it in Virginia. Here he made 
 the greatest speeches of his life. 
 He had against him such splen- 
 did orators as Patrick Henry 
 and George Mason, yet he won 
 his cause and brought Virginia 
 into the Union. 
 
 When the First Congress 
 of the United States met, in the 
 old City Hall of New York, 
 Madison was one of its mem- 
 bers. Washington wanted to 
 make him Secretary of State, 
 and also asked hmi to serve as 
 Minister to France, but he declined both. He was democratic 
 in his views, like Jefferson, and did not like Hamilton's ideas 
 about a strong central government. But he held back, for 
 he was never fond of controversy. 
 
 Now let us step aside a while from politics, and follow 
 Madison into other and more flowery fields. Like Jefferson, 
 he fell in love twice. The first time was with a pretty girl of 
 sixteen named Catharine Floyd. The two were engaged, but 
 
 PAUL JONES, THE NAVAL HERO OF 
 THE REVOLUTION. 
 
JAMES MADISON 65 
 
 the girl saw somebody she liked better and she threw her old 
 lover aside. 
 
 Madison moped for a while, but Jefferson told him to go 
 back to his books and he would soon forget the pretty face. 
 Jefferson had done the same thing himself 
 
 Eleven years passed before Madison fell in love again. 
 He was now forty-three and the lady was a lovely young 
 Quakeress of twenty-two. She was a very young widow, 
 named Mrs. Dorothy Todd. Madison met her one day when 
 he was out walking in Philadelphia and fell in love with her 
 sweet face at sight. 
 
 He tried to get an introduction, and soon got one. We 
 have a letter from Mrs. Todd to a friend, in which she said, 
 "Thou must come to me. Aaron Burr says that 'the great little 
 Madison' has asked to be brought to see me this evening." 
 
 Mrs. Todd did not throw her lover overboard. Though 
 he was nearly twice her age, she accepted " the great little 
 Madison." In September, 1794, the dainty young widow 
 went to her sister's house at Harwood, in Virginia, and here 
 soon after the wedding took place. It was a gay one, as was 
 the habit in that old time. So pretty and sweet was the bride 
 that in her earlier days, when she wore her quiet little Quaker 
 gown of gray, a friend said to her: "Dolly, truly thou must 
 hide thy face, so many stare at thee." 
 
 Dolly Madison, as she was afterward known, needs a 
 good introduction, for she was to play a large part in Ameri- 
 can life. For sixteen years she was to be the mistress of the 
 White House, twice as long a term as any other woman 
 enjoyed. And a cherished and favorite mistress she was for 
 all that time. 
 
 When Washington retired from the Presidency in 1797, 
 Madison went home to Montpelier. There had been talk of 
 
66 
 
 JAMES MADISON 
 
 nominating him to succeed Washington, but he positively 
 decHned. He wanted some home Hfe. He was rich, he was 
 famous, he was delicate, he had a charming young wife, and 
 Montpelier was a delightful home. It lay between Jefferson's 
 and Washington's homes, and was as comfortable a country 
 mansion as either of these. And there were his cherished books. 
 There he lived in peace and happiness for four years. 
 Then Jefferson was elected President and selected Madison 
 for his Secretary of State. For the next sixteen years he 
 made his home in Washington, which had been made the 
 
 National Capi- 
 
 w/b^ro 
 
 ONE SIXTH OFA SPANISH 
 
 WU'd J)alUtr.'orlhe\kUK/ 
 Ihtreof Cn GoCdorSiiver 
 /o^£ given in. exchaiige at ^ 
 Treasury of VlRGHflA, 
 Tursuani fo ACT of 
 
 ASSE^MBXiY 
 
 ONB SIXTH 
 
 OPABOIiliAR 
 
 de ath : to 
 
 i)c<ktntebi1e1t 
 
 cx^ 
 
 A^lRGINIACURRElS^Clir!- 
 
 tal in 1800. 
 The new Pres- 
 ident had long 
 been a widow- 
 er, and the dut- 
 ies of mistress 
 of the White 
 House fell up- 
 on Dolly Mad- 
 ison. And she 
 
 filled them 
 
 with a charm and ease and a gracious dignity that won all 
 hearts. She was kind and thoughtful and had a social gift 
 and tact that made her hosts of friends. It is said that "Mrs. 
 Madison never forgot a name or a face," and that is a faculty 
 of rare value in high places. For eight years Madison held 
 his important office. France and England were then at war, 
 and were interfering with American ships and sailors in a 
 way that made our people very angry. It was no easy matter 
 to keep the country out of war, but Jefferson and Madison 
 both wanted peace, and managed to preserve it. 
 
JAMES MADISON 67 
 
 In 1809 Jefferson's term ended and James Madison was 
 elected President of the United States. The hard-work- 
 ing student of Princeton had reached the highest post in the 
 nation, and his wife, Mistress Dolly Madison, was now by 
 right of position the " Lady of the White House." 
 
 There is a good story told about Madison at this time. 
 One of the Senators was being shaved in a Washington barber 
 shop, the morning after Madison was nominated. The barber 
 talked as he shaved, in a way barbers have. It must be re- 
 membered that in those days men wore their hair in long 
 queues. "This country is going to ruin, sir," confided the bar- 
 ber. "See what elegant Presidents we might have. There 
 is Daggett of Connecticut and Stockton of New Jersey. What 
 queues they have got, sir ; as big as your wrist and powdered 
 every day, like real gentlemen. Such men as this would give 
 dignity to the office. But this little Jim Madison, with a queue 
 no bigger than a pipe-stem, sir. It is enough to make a man 
 forswear his country." 
 
 But little Madison was elected in spite of his pipe-stem 
 queue, and by a large majority. He might not have been, if 
 all the voters had been barbers. 
 
 Madison as President tried as hard to keep the country 
 out of war as he had done while Secretary of State. But it 
 could not be done. From taking sailors out of American 
 merchant ships, England began to insult our men-of-war, and 
 took steps that would ruin our commerce. Matters grew so 
 bad that Congress declared war against Great Britain, and on 
 June 8, 1 81 2, President Madison signed the declaration of war. 
 
 The history of that war has very little to do with the life 
 of the President. It was only in 18 14, when the British 
 landed an army and marched on Washington, that the war 
 cam.e very near to him. The militia who had gathered were 
 
68 JAMES MADISON' 
 
 sent flying, and Washington lay at the mercy of a foreign foe. 
 Then there was a wild coming and going. Madison had 
 to flee to save himself from capture. Mrs. Madison, left in 
 the White House, was in equal danger. He sent her word 
 to flee in time, but to save the Cabinet papers. 
 
 Dolly Madison now showed herself a woman of nerve. 
 She got all the papers and the plate, but she would not leave 
 till a large portrait of Washington, which was screwed against 
 a wall, was secured. The cannon were sounding loudly and 
 the British soldiers were near at hand when she got into her 
 carriage with the papers, plate and portrait and drove away. 
 She had not been gone long before the city swarmed with 
 soldiers, and that night all the public buildings were in flames. 
 
 Mrs. Madison spent the night in a little tavern in an apple 
 orchard, while a furious rain-storm raged outside. The wind 
 was so strong that the apples were flung like musket balls 
 against the house. Here the President joined her, but at 
 midnight a scared courier rode up and told him that the Brit- 
 ish were close on his track. His friends made him go out 
 into the storm, and he spent the rest of that night in a 
 wretched hovel in the woods. 
 
 The next day word came that the British were leaving, 
 and the fugitives made their way back. They reached Wash- 
 ington to find the Capitol and the White House heaps of 
 blackened ruins. They had gone through an experience 
 which no other American President has had anything to match. 
 
 When Mrs, Madison got to the Long Bridge on the way 
 back, she found that it Avas barred at both ends. There was 
 an officer there in charge with a ferry boat, but he did not 
 know the lady and refused to take her across. Her husband 
 had sent her word to go home in disguise, but after begging 
 for a while in vain, she had to tell the officer her name. Then 
 
JAMES MADISON 69 
 
 he ferried her and her carriage across the river, and she made 
 her way through the desolate. and ash-covered streets to the 
 ruins of what had been her home. 
 
 A Httle more tlian two years later President Madison's 
 second term reached its end, and he left Washington for his 
 quiet, beautiful home at Montpelicr. Here, in his "dear 
 library," in taking care of his estate, in generous hospitality,' 
 and in happy domestic life the scholarly Madison spent the 
 remainder of his days. In 1829 he took part in the work of 
 the convention to make a new Constitution for Virginia. 
 That was his last public work. He died on the 28th of June, 
 1836. The delicate scholar had lived to be eighty-five 
 years old. 
 
 His beloved wife survived him for thirteen years. She 
 had business troubles towards the end. There had been 
 losses. But Congress purchased her husband's valuable 
 papers, and her difficulties came to an end. Conifort and 
 peace lay around her later days. But there is an incident 
 which goes to show that she was growing tired of life. One 
 of her nieces went to her for sympathy in some slight trouble. 
 
 "My dear," said the old lady, "do not trouble about it. 
 There is nothing in tJiis world really worth caring for. Yes." 
 she continued, looking intently out of a window, " I who have 
 lived so long, repeat to you, there is nothing in this world 
 here below worth caring for." 
 
JAMES MONROE 
 
 THE FIFTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 ' AMERICA FOR THE AMERICANS." 
 
 Of all our Presidents of early 
 times there is none whose name is 
 more familiar to the newspaper 
 reader of to-day than that of James 
 Monroe. And that is because he 
 was the author of a "doctrine." 
 "The Monroe Doctrine" stands 
 before us in big print at least a dozen 
 times a year. Do I hear any one 
 ask, who was Monroe, and what was 
 his doctrine? I am about to tell 
 you who Monroe was. His doc- 
 trine, to put it in plain English, 
 means, "America for the Americans." 
 
 When James Monroe was President, the' United States 
 was not the great nation it is to-day, and some of the hungry 
 powers of Europe went prowling about like wolves, thinking 
 they might snatch up a bit of America here and there. What 
 President Monroe said to them was, in effect, "Keep off. If 
 you attempt to bite at America you will find a watch-dog here 
 ready to bite back." And ever since that day the United 
 States has been the watch-dog of America, and more than 
 once it has shown its teeth to the hungry wolves of Europe. 
 
 That is what is meant by the "Monroe Doctrine," 
 70 
 
 JAMBS MONROE. 
 
JAMES MONROE 
 
 - ?i 
 
 James Monroe had good fighting blood in his veins. He 
 had fought by the side of Washington in the Revolution. He 
 came of sound old Scotch stock, which had come to Virginia 
 a century before he was born. His father was a planter who 
 had a fine estate on Monroe Creek, a stream which emptied into 
 the Potomac River. It was very near where Washington 
 
 lived and played as a 
 child; though he had long 
 been fighting against the 
 French and Indians when 
 James Monroe first 
 opened his eyes in his 
 father's home, on the i8th 
 of April, 1758. 
 
 The boy was not ten 
 years old when the trou- 
 I bles with England began. 
 No doubt he opened his 
 blue eyes with wonder 
 .'^when he heard loud and 
 angry talk about the 
 "Stamp Act" and the 
 "Tea Tax." He must 
 have picked up a good 
 many new ideas about 
 liberty and human rights 
 in his early school-days. When he was sixteen years old he 
 was sent to the famous William and Mary College, where so 
 many Virginians then got their education. 
 
 I am afraid the boy must have been greatly disturbed 
 in his lessons. Likely he learned some Latin and Greek, but 
 he must have picked up a number of things not in the books 
 
 JAMES MONROE AS ENVOY PURCHASES LOUISIANA 
 FROM THE GREAT NAPOLEON. 
 
72 JAMBS MONROE 
 
 There was the Virginia Assembly meeting in the college town 
 and talking plain treason, and no doubt he heard them. There 
 was Patrick Henry thundering out defiance of England in the 
 near town of Richmond. From the north came the echoes 
 of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. The whole 
 country was like a volcano, spouting fire. 
 
 The fighting blood in James Monroe was warmed up by 
 these events. He was a true American, and, young as he 
 was, it was hard for him to keep at school while his country 
 was at war for freedom. Just after he was eighteen the De- 
 claration of Independence was signed. That was more than 
 the eager young patriot could stand. He flung his books 
 into his desk, said good-bye to his teachers, and rode away 
 at full speed for New York, where he took his place bravely 
 in the ranks of Washington's army. 
 
 These were dark days for the young republic. The trained 
 British soldiers were carrying everything before them. Wash- 
 ington's army of volunteers was driven from Long Island 
 and from New York. There were fights and retreats at Har- 
 lem Heights and White Plains, in which the boy soldier took 
 part. Then began that miserable march across New Jersey, 
 with the British close upon the heels of the American army. 
 
 Young Monroe must have done well in these fights, for 
 he was promoted from a cadet to a lieutenant. But it was 
 amid the cold and snows of that famous Christmas night of 
 1776, when Washington's ragged army attacked the Hessians 
 at Trenton, that the boy soldier won his spurs. History tells 
 us of his gallant act: 
 
 " Perceiving that the enemy were endeavoring to erect 
 a battery to rake the American lines, he advanced at the head 
 of a small detachment, drove the artillery men from the guns, 
 and took possession of the pieces." 
 
JAMES MONROE 1% 
 
 The young hero was wounded. A ball hit him in the 
 shoulder. But Washington made him a captain for his daring 
 deed, and that was some salve for his wound. 
 
 After that we meet with Monroe as an aide-de-camp on 
 the staff of Lord Stirling. He was a major now, and fought 
 in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, 
 and spent a freezing and starving winter at Valley Forge with 
 the army. Washington had a high opinion of the young Vir- 
 ginian, born so near his own boyhood playgrounds. He now 
 sent him to Virginia to organize a new regiment, of which he 
 was to be colonel. 
 
 This proved unlucky for Monroe. Virginia had no more 
 men to spare. She had sent Washington so many of her 
 sons that she had to keep the few left for home defence. 
 Monroe was disappointed. He could not enlist a regiment, 
 and he had lost his post in the army. He was still only 
 twenty years old when he made up his mind to go back to 
 his books. So he began to study law under Thomas Jefferson, 
 who was then Governor of Virginia. 
 
 In the years that followed Virginia had its share of the 
 war. Arnold and Tarleton and Cornwallis invaded its soil. 
 Lafayette came to defend it from its foes, and Colonel Mon- 
 roe more than once shut up his law books and hurried to the 
 front. And so it was till Washington at Yorktown scooped 
 up Cornwallis and his men and put an end to the war. Then 
 Monroe opened his books and went at his studies again. 
 
 He studied law, but he did not have much chance to 
 practice it. In 1782, when he was only twenty-three, he was 
 elected to the Assembly of Virginia and was made a member 
 of the Governor's Council. The next year he was elected to 
 the Continental Congress. It was then at Annapolis, and he 
 got there in time to see a famous, historic scene, when George 
 
74 JAMES MONROE 
 
 Washington came before it to resign his commission as com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army of the Revolution. 
 
 Monroe was wide awake to all that went on around him. 
 Like Madison and others, he saw that the old Union was fall- 
 ing to pieces. It had been all right when there was war to 
 hold it together, but when peace came it grew weak and shaky, 
 iand he did all he could to bring about the convention that 
 framed the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 There was another union that young Monroe was inter- 
 ested in about this time. Living in New York was an Eng- 
 lishman named Kortright, who had been a captain in the 
 British army, but became a good American after the war. 
 Among his children was a beautiful and accomplished daugh- 
 ter named Elizabeth. Monroe met her when the Congress was 
 in session at New York, and straightway -fell in love with her. 
 His marriage with her took place in 1786, and this union was 
 a very close and happy one. All the Virginia Presidents 
 seem to have found good and loving wives. 
 
 When the Constitution was formed Monroe did not like 
 it. He thought it gave too much power to the central gov- 
 ernment, and was afraid the President might come to wear a 
 crown and act as a king. He helped Patrick Henry fight 
 against it in the Virginia convention, while Madison fought 
 for it. He was wrong, as he lived to find out. 
 
 In 1790 Monroe was sent by Virginia to the Senate of 
 the United States. He belonged to the Anti-Federalist party 
 along with Jefferson and many others. This afterward grew 
 into the Democratic party. He did not like the bold measures 
 of Alexander Hamilton, who took the leading part in organiz- 
 ing the new government. Monroe and Madison and Jeffer- 
 son and many others feared that Hamilton was trying to put 
 
JAMES MONROE 75 
 
 a king over this country. Perhaps they were right ; but tlic 
 people would have had something to say about that king. 
 
 In the- Senate Monroe opposed many acts of the Govern- 
 ment. But for all that President Washington sent him to 
 France in 1795 as United States Minister. The great general 
 had not forgotten his old liking for his young soldier comrade. 
 
 Plave you ever read the terrible story of the French Rev- 
 olution — how the mob ruled Paris and France, and the guillo- 
 tine cut off the heads of thousands, among them the king and 
 the queen ? This dreadful knife was still at its bloody work 
 when Monroe reached Paris. Every day blood flowed and 
 heads fell. But the terrible Robespierre was dead and the 
 dark clouds were beginning to break. 
 
 It was a sight to see the handsome young American, as 
 he stood before the National Convention, with his frank blue 
 eyes, his fair hair, and his tall and erect figure, looking with 
 the courage of a soldier at that dread tribunal which had dared 
 to condemn a king and queen to death. 
 
 But Monroe got a warm welcome, and the flags of the 
 two nations were twined together, to show the close union of 
 the two republics. He looked upon those men, not as mur- 
 derers, but as the makers of liberty, and he made a speech that 
 was full of admiration for France. It made England very 
 angry and was not liked by the Government at home, and the 
 new minister, who had been guilty of talking too much, was 
 soon called home ag^ain. 
 
 One fine thing he did. Lafayette, the friend of Wash- 
 ington, was then in prison in Austria. His wife, the Mar- 
 chioness of Lafayette, was in prison in Paris and might be 
 sent to the guillotine any day. Monroe sent his wife to see her 
 and she had a pathetic interview with the sad prisoner. It is 
 said that she was to have been executed that same afternoon 
 
76 JAMES MONROE 
 
 and that the visit of Mrs. Monroe saved her life. She was 
 set at liberty the next day. So much Monroe did for the old 
 comrade by whose side he had fought in the Revolution. 
 
 Soon after his return home Monroe was elected Governor 
 of Virginia. This high office he held until 1802, when Presi- 
 dent Jefferson sent him to France again, this time on a very 
 important mission. The great territory of Louisiana, lying 
 west of the Mississippi River, had just before been given by 
 Spain to France — to please Napoleon, who could have nearly 
 anything he asked for. One part of it the American people 
 wanted, New Orleans and the lower Mississippi. Monroe was 
 sent to try and buy this part of Louisiana from Napoleon. 
 
 He got to Paris just at the right time. Napoleon wanted 
 money to fight England with. He was afraid that, when war 
 broke out again, as it soon would, the British fleets and armies 
 would rob him of his Mississippi lands. He had better sell 
 them for money now than lose them for nothing soon. So 
 when Monroe and Livingston, the American Minister at Paris, 
 offered ^2,500,000 for the island of New Orleans, Avord came 
 back from Napoleon that they could have the whole vast terri- 
 tory of Louisiana for $15,000,000. 
 
 This offer almost took their breaths away. They had no 
 authority to buy the great tract. But they could not wait to 
 send to America to ask permission. That would take weeks 
 or months, and Napoleon might change his mind. So they 
 took the law in their own hands and closed the bargain then 
 and there. 
 
 That was one of the great things in Monroe's life. The 
 President and Congress were glad enough to make the bar- 
 gain good ; and one of the great events of 1903 and 1904 is 
 the grand "Louisiana Purchase Exposition," held at St. 
 Louis in memory of this splendid act of wisdom. 
 
JAMES MONROE 77 
 
 Monroe stayed in Europe till 1808 on political business 
 with England and Spain, and came home much disappointed, 
 because he could do nothing satisfactory with those two 
 countries. A treaty he made with England the Senate would 
 not accept, because it said nothing about taking seamen from 
 our ships. 
 
 Honors awaited him at home. In 181 1 he was again 
 elected Governor of Virginia. Soon after that President 
 Madison chose him for Secretary of State. Then the war 
 with England broke out and he had his hands more than full. 
 The President trusted everything to him, and he had more to 
 do with carrying on that war than Madison had. After the 
 capture of Washington by the British he became Secretary of 
 war, also. He was just the man for the place, for the Gov- 
 ernment needed spirit just then. 
 
 The Government had no money and no credit. Monroe 
 came to its aid, and pledged his fortune to help it in its need. 
 He took hold of the war with a strong hand and proposed to 
 make the army a hundred thousand strong. When England 
 sent her great fleet and army to capture New Orleans, Monroe 
 sent ringing orders to the southwest. He was now the sol- 
 dier again, not the politician. 
 
 " Hasten your militia to New Orleans," he wrote. "Do 
 not wait for this Government to arm them ; put all the arms 
 you have into their hands ; let every man bring his rifle with 
 him ; we shall see you paid." 
 
 That was the kind of talk to inspire Jackson. The rifle- 
 men of the west rushed under "Old Hickory" to the cotton- 
 bale ramparts, and New Orleans was saved. 
 
 Monroe served as Secretary of State till March 4, i8i7v 
 when he gave up the office to take that of President of the 
 United States- He had been elected by the Democratic party, 
 
7S JAMES MONROE 
 
 with one hundred and eighty-three electoral votes against 
 thirty-four for his opponent. 
 
 For eight years he was President, and they were the 
 quietest in American politics any President has ever known. 
 There were no party disputes, and it was called the " era of 
 good feeling." When he was re-elected in 1820 there was 
 no opposition. He was the only American President, except 
 Washington, who had this wonderful fortune. Only one 
 electoral vote was cast against him, and that was by an 
 eccentric member from Pennsylvania, who said that nobody 
 but Washington should go in with an unanimous vote. 
 
 Soon after his first election Monroe made a great tour of 
 the country. He wore the old uniform and cocked hat of the 
 Revolution, and the people, especially the old soldiers, went 
 wild over him. He went as far northwest as Detroit, and 
 that was thought a great journey in those davs of stage-coach 
 travel. 
 
 The great events of Monroe's term were the purchase of 
 Florida from Spain, the Missouri Compromise, and the Mon- 
 roe Doctrine. This celebrated "Doctrine" was given in the 
 message to Congress of December, 1823. The nations of 
 Europe were talking of helping Spain to get back her Ameri- 
 can colonics, which had just become free. They expected to 
 pay themselves by keeping part of those colonics. But when 
 Monroe told them, with a fine show of politeness, that if they 
 tried to meddle in America they would have the United States 
 to deal with, they backed down. Since that time the Monroe 
 Doctrine has stood like a wall of defence between America 
 and Europe. 
 
 In 1825 Monroe went home to live in his beautiful man- 
 sion at Oak Hill, in Loudoun County, Virginia. This house, we 
 are told, was planned for him by Jefferson, who also gave him 
 
JAMES MONROE 79 
 
 the nails to build it with. It was a handsome brick building, 
 with a wide portico and great columns. Around it was a 
 grove of splendid oak trees. 
 
 His life here was happy and restful, kindly and sincere. 
 There was plenty to occupy him. He had a large corre- 
 spondence, was a Regent of the University of Virginia, and, 
 President of the Virginia Constitutional Convention. But 
 sorrow and trouble came to him. His wife, who was still a 
 handsome and charming woman, died in 1830, throwing him 
 into the deepest grief His fortune became so reduced that 
 he was in danger of losing his home at Oak Hill. His wife's 
 death had left this home so sad and lonely that he went to 
 live with one of his daughters in New York. Here he died 
 on the Fourth of July, 1831, the third of our Presidents to die 
 on Independence Day. 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 
 
 THE SIXTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 SCHOLAR, DIPLOMAT, STATESMAN. 
 
 Many, many years ago, a grave- 
 faced little child, five or six years old, 
 might have been seen in Boston, look- 
 ing with startled eyes on the red- 
 coated soldiers as they marched 
 through the streets ; or listening in 
 his father's house to the loud talk, 
 that he did not understand, about 
 i England and King George and the 
 ^ Tea Party and other subjects of an- 
 ger. A few years later this boy and 
 his mother climbed to a hill-top in 
 Braintree, where they then lived, and 
 from there saw a terrible sight, for red flames and dark smoke 
 were bursting from the warships in the harbor, and the roar 
 of cannon came sounding far across the water. They saw 
 great sheets of fire mount high into the air, for the wooden 
 houses of Charlestown were burning furiously, and on Bunker 
 Hill, ten miles away, the flash of shots could be seen. The 
 first great battle in the American Revolution was being fought, 
 and the British were learning that the Yankee farmers could 
 fight. 
 
 After the British left Boston, this little fellow, still only 
 nine years old, used to ride on horseback into the city to 
 
 So 
 
 lOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 8i 
 
 bring "back to his mother the latest news. It was twenty-two 
 miles going and coming, which was a pretty long ride for a 
 boy of that age. 
 
 The boy we are speaking of was the oldest son of 
 John Adams, the great patriot, who was then in the Con- 
 gress at Philadelphia, helping with the famous Declaration 
 of Independence. The boy had been born on July 1 1, 1767, 
 in the old Adams home at Braintree. When he was baptized 
 his mother's great-grandfather, John Quincy, lay dying, and 
 the child was given his name. So he is known to us as John 
 Quincy Adams. A great destiny awaited him, for, like his 
 father, he was to become President of the United States. 
 
 A grave, thoughtful little boy he was, one who would 
 rather hear the old folks talk' than play with his schoolmates, 
 and who was to do the work of a man long before he ceased 
 being a boy. Like his father, he was honest in grain, and 
 like his father, he was fearless and obstinate. To the day of 
 his death, nothing could scare him, and nothing could turn 
 him from his course. He was a true son of his father. 
 
 The boy began life in the great world early. He was 
 just past ten years of age when his father was sent by his 
 country to France, and took him along. A long and stormy 
 voyage it was ; and on the way they were chased by a British 
 war-vessel, and had a desperate battle with a privateer, in 
 which his father wanted to help the sailors fight, but the cap- 
 tain would not let him. 
 
 The ship got safe through all this, and they came at 
 length to Paris. Here little John was sent to school and put 
 to studying French. He learned a good deal more, for when 
 they came back, a year and a half later, we find the boy giv- 
 ing lessons in English to the French ambassador, who was 
 on board the ship. He was a severe teacher, too. He would 
 
82 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 
 
 stand no idleness. And he showed so much learning that the 
 ambassador stared at him in wonder. The boy of twelve was 
 more than half a man already. 
 
 " He is a better teacher than you are," said the ambas- 
 sador to Mr. Adams. 
 
 They did not stay home long. In three months John 
 Adams was sent back again, and once more he took his son 
 along. This time the boy saw more of the world, for his 
 father traveled from Paris to Holland and met many of the 
 leading people. Young John Quincy must have shown him- 
 self wonderfully bright, for he was in public service himself 
 before he was fourteen years old. Francis Dana, envoy from 
 the United States to Russia, took him as his private secretary. 
 
 I have not read in history of any other boy in so high an 
 office while so young. But the youthful secretary did his work 
 like a master. He stayed in Russia over a year, and then left 
 and came back himself, traveling through Sweden and Den- 
 mark, and keeping his eyes wide open for all there was to be 
 seen. Then he went to school again at the Hague in Holland. 
 He had been getting his schooling in bits all along, but the 
 school of courts was one where there was much to learn. 
 
 Soon he had other important work to do. The Revolu- 
 tion was over and his father and Franklin and Jefferson were 
 chosen to make a treaty of peace with Great Britain. The 
 bright boy became one of their secretaries, and had his share 
 in drawing up the famous paper which settled the indepen- 
 dence of the United States. 
 
 What do you think of a boy like this ? He was just a 
 little over sixteen, an age when boys are often in the thick of 
 their school life. Yet for years he had been doing the work 
 of an experienced man. Certainly history does not tell of 
 many boys like him. 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 
 
 83 
 
 In 1785, before John Quincy was eighteen, his father was 
 appointed Minister to England. The boy had then lived 
 seven years in Europe. He liked foreign travel ; he liked the 
 life in courts; it v/ould be pleasant to see and talk with the 
 famous men of England. And his mother had come to 
 London, which made that city like home to him. Here was 
 a charming prospect, which 
 most boys would have 
 jumped to take. 
 
 But John Quincy Adams 
 was not a boy of that sort 
 He knew he had only hal 
 an education. And when 
 his parents gave him the 
 choice to stay in London 
 with them or go to Amer- 
 ica and enter Harvard Col- 
 lege, it did not take him 
 long to decide. He felt 
 that he had his own way 
 to make in the world, and 
 to loiter about London was 
 not the way to prepare for 
 that, no matter how pleas- 
 ant it mitjht be. So home the old south church, boston, in this 
 
 ° church great meetings WERE HELD IN REV- 
 
 he came, entered collee'e, olutionary times, the -boston tea party- 
 
 . , , followed one of these meetings. 
 
 and graduated with honor 
 
 in 1787, then studied law, and began to practice when he 
 
 was twenty-three years old. 
 
 The learned bov was a man at last and was launched in 
 business. He had seen more of the world than most men 
 ever see. He had a deep training in public affairs, and this 
 
84 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 
 
 he soon showed by writing able political papers, which were 
 much read in America and Europe. He did not put his name 
 to them, but it became known that he was the writer, and 
 they showed such fine knowledge and judgment in political 
 affairs that President Washington sent him abroad again as 
 Minister to Holland. 
 
 It was now 1794. He was twenty-seven years old. The 
 storm of the French Revolution was spreading all over 
 Europe. French armies were marching through Holland, and 
 the ruler of that country, with all the European ministers, fled 
 before the conquerors. Adams stuck to his post. He had a 
 hard task, between the French party on one side and the 
 Dutch party on the other ; but he kept his head level and 
 steered between them. Neither side succeeded in making a 
 tool of him. 
 
 Soon after that he went to England. Here he met new 
 difficulties, for the British court treated him as if he was the 
 American minister, and tried to get him to commit himself to 
 some foolish act. But his good sense carried him safe through 
 all their plots. 
 
 The youthful diplomat, however, got caught in another 
 fashion. Joshua Johnson, the American Consul at London, 
 had with him his daughter, Louise Catharine Johnson, a hand- 
 some and accomplished girl, whose charms were too much 
 even for steady-going John Quincy Adams. He fell in love 
 with her, and she with him, and in July, 1797, the happy 
 lovers were married. It was a marriage that brought him 
 the deepest happiness throughout his future life. 
 
 New honors were now showered rapidly upon the keen- 
 witted diplomat. President Washington appointed him 
 Minister to Portugal, but before he set out the post was 
 changed, and he was ordered to Prussia. This was at the end 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 85 
 
 of Washington's term. John Adams succeeded as President. 
 What was to be done ? Was it right for him to keep his son 
 in ofhce ? What would the people say ? The son felt the 
 same scruples and wanted to resign. He would have done so 
 but for Washington, who insisted that the young Minister had 
 well earned his post and must not be cut short in his career. 
 
 But John Quincy had a queer trouble in getting into 
 Berlin. When he got to the gates of that city he was stopped 
 by the lieutenant on guard and asked who he was and what 
 he wanted. He told the officer that he came from the 
 United States. 
 
 " The United States ? Where is that ? I never heard 
 of such a place." 
 
 One of the soldiers had to tell the lieutenant where the 
 United States was, and then the new Minister was allowed to 
 go in. I hardly think any American would be stopped to-day 
 at the gates of Berlin with that odd question. Adams remained 
 abroad until his father's term was near its end, when he was 
 recalled home, and settled back to his law business again. 
 
 Now let us run along faster in his life. His political 
 career in America began in 1802, when he was elected to the 
 Senate of Massachusetts. The next year he was sent to the 
 Senate of the United States. He was a Federalist and the 
 Democrats were in power, and things were made lively for 
 him. He had to fight his political foes, and when he sup- 
 ported some of Jefferson's measures his own party bitterly 
 blamed him. He was between two fires, and it took all his 
 sturdy honesty and obstinate spirit to hold his own between 
 the opposite forces. 
 
 He supported the Louisiana Purchase, which his own 
 party opposed. He supported other acts which he thought 
 good ones, and they thought bad ones. The worst of all was 
 
86 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 
 
 the Embargo Act, which cut off commerce with England. 
 When Adams voted for that the Federalists were wild with 
 anger. They called him "traitor," and "renegade," and 
 nominated his successor to the Senate in an insulting way. 
 Adams was not the man to stay where he was not wanted, 
 and at once he resigned. 
 
 This was in 1808. On the 4th of March of the next year 
 James Madison became President, and two days later he 
 nominated Adams for Minister to Russia. And he sent him 
 there, too, in spite of all his enemies in the Senate, who tried 
 their best to stop him. 
 
 Minister Adams spent four years and a half in St. Peters- 
 burg. They were some of the stormiest years the world has 
 ever known. Napoleon was trampling all Europe under his 
 feet. While he was there the great invasion of Russia took 
 place. There was the march of the mighty French army, the 
 burning of Moscow, and the terrible march back of the French 
 army — what was left of it. 
 
 And while Adams was in Russia there was war also at 
 home — three years of war with England. When the treaty 
 of peace was made in 1814 John Quincy Adams was one of 
 those who made it. After the treaty he went to Paris, and 
 stayed there during the famous " hundred days " after Napo- 
 leon returned from exile to Elba and fought his last fight at 
 Waterloo. 
 
 He had left his wife at St. Petersburg, the capital of 
 Russia, and she started by herself for Paris while all this was 
 going on. It was a hard and dangerous journey. At one 
 place the carriage was buried in a snow-drift, with night com- 
 ing on, and the peasants around had to be roused up to dig 
 the travelers out. Then there was much talk of murder and 
 robbery on the road, from the rough fellows the war had set 
 
JOHN QUmCY ADAMS 87 
 
 adrift. When France was reached the roads were found full 
 of soldiers, rushing to Paris to meet the emperor. Mrs. 
 Adams reached that city on March 21, 18 15, just after Napo- 
 leon had got thete. There must have been thrilling sights to 
 see, in those desperate days. 
 
 At this time Adams received the highest diplomatic honor 
 this country could give. He was appointed United States 
 Minister to England. Washington had said that he was on 
 the road to "the highest rank in the American diplomatic 
 service." He had now reached it, for the ministry to London 
 was viewed as the highest in Europe. 
 
 He came home in 1817 to a still greater post. A new 
 President, James Monroe, was in the chair, and he had chosen 
 the brilliant statesman and diplomatist for his Secretary of 
 State. Step by step Adams was going up. 
 
 If any of my readers have ever been in the splendid city 
 of Washington as it is to-day, they cannot well picture to 
 themselves the Washington to which John Quincy Adams 
 came in 18 17. He had been used to the beautiful capitals of 
 Europe, and this ugly, dreary, comfortless place made his 
 soul sick. He spoke of it as " this miserable desert, this 
 scene of desolation and horror." It was still just rising out 
 of the ashes which the British had left and must have been a 
 cheerless place. 
 
 But he went to work all the same. There were many 
 fquestions to handle. The greatest of these was that of keep- 
 ing America out of European politics and keeping Europe out 
 of America. Adams had his share in the " Monroe Doctrine," 
 of which you have just read. Some say that he had as much 
 to do with it as Monroe himself Two years before Monroe's 
 message was written Secretary Adams had told the Russian 
 minister that the United States would not consent to any 
 
88 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 
 
 European control on American soil. That was the "Monroe 
 Doctrine " in brief. 
 
 In 1824 a new President was to be elected. Four men 
 were named, Andrew Jackson, the great soldier ; Jokn Quincy 
 Adams, tne great diplomatist ; Henry Clay, the great states- 
 man ; and William H. Crawford, the late Secretary of the 
 Treasury. Jackson was the popular favorite and got the 
 largest number of votes. But he did not get a majority of 
 them all, and the election was thrown into the House of Rep- 
 resentatives. This chose Adams, who thus became President 
 of the United States. 
 
 The new President was a very busy man when in office. 
 But we are told he took a great deal of exercise. When he 
 was at home in Quincy he thought little of walking to Boston, 
 seven miles away, before breakfast. In Washington he was 
 one of the first men up in the city, and the rising sun often 
 saw him already at work in his library. He was an expert 
 swimmer and was very fond of bathing. Every morning in 
 the summer he was in the habit of plunging into the Potomac 
 and swimming about, with all the sportive spirit of a boy. 
 
 Adams, like his father before him, was in office only four 
 years. He was a hard worker and an able President, but he 
 had very little of the art of the politician. There was no soft- 
 ness :n his manner, and he made more enemies than he made 
 friends. Mrs. Adams was a woman of fine social manners 
 and showed much grace and dignity in her high position. But 
 the friends she made were lost by her husband's coldness of 
 manner. So when the next election came round he got fewer 
 votes than before, and Jackson was elected President by a 
 large majority. 
 
 John Quincy Adams did not stay moping at home. He 
 did what no other President has ever done ; he went back to 
 
JOHN QUjNCY ADAMS 89 
 
 Congress. He was elected to the House of Representatives 
 in 1830, and remained thereuntil his death in 1848. And he 
 played a prominent part there. The great slavery contest 
 came on and Adams made himself the champion of the Anti- 
 Slavery party. He was not a handsome man, with his bald 
 head and short figure. He was not a graceful orator. His 
 voice was high and shrill, and had no rich, deep tones. But 
 he had something to say, and he said it in a way that won 
 him the title of " the old man eloquent." 
 
 For years he kept the slavery question alive. The 
 Southern members tried in vain to stop his voice, but nothing 
 could check him. Hundreds of anti-slavery petitions were 
 sent to Congress. Nobody but Adams was ready to present 
 them, but he continued to do so in spite of all the anger he 
 met and the savage clamor around him. Those were days 
 when it needed a strong man in Congress to face the passion- 
 ate Southern members. Adams was that man. 
 
 In 1846 a stroke of paralysis came to warn the old man 
 that death was at hand. But he kept at his post. He had 
 kept a diary for years, and the last words in it were these : 
 
 "A stout heart, a clear conscience, and never despair." 
 
 He was in his seat in Congress on February 21, 1848. 
 He rose, with a paper in his hand, to address the Speaker, 
 when he suddenly fell to the floor. He was picked up insen- 
 sible. Paralysis had seized him again. When he came to 
 himself he said, "This is the end of earth. I am content." 
 
 They were his last words. He died two days later. 
 They buried him under the church portal at Quincy, where 
 the bodies of his father and mother lay. 
 
ANDREW JACKSON 
 
 THE SEVENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 "OLD mCKORY.' 
 
 Every boy and girl should be 
 interested in the Hfe and adventures 
 of the famous Andrew Jackson, for 
 his career was the most exciting of 
 those of any of the presidents, un- 
 less it be that of our first and 
 greatest President, George Wash- 
 ington. Like most boys who lived 
 in the new States of the South and 
 West, Jackson had exciting adven- 
 tures with Indians and with soldiers. 
 And like many boys he had to work 
 hard and do a man's work when he 
 v/as still quite young. 
 Andrew Jackson was just such a boy as we like to read 
 His father and mother came from Ireland when George 
 III, was King of England. This was the king, you know, 
 with whom the American colonists had so much trouble, that 
 they determined to fight for their liberty, and our hero was 
 still quite young when the War of Independence was being 
 fought. His father and mother landed at Charleston, and 
 went out into the wilderness nearly one hundred and sixty 
 miles, and built a log hut on a stream which ran into a creek 
 near the boundary line between North and South Carolina. 
 90 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 of. 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON 9 1 
 
 Mr. Jackson had just planted and raised his first crop 
 when he was taken sick and died, leaving the mother and two 
 little boys, the older brothers of Andrew, for he was born 
 only a few weeks after his father's death, in 1767, in a rough 
 log cabin in which there was very little furniture. A few kind 
 neighbor wom-^.n came in and brought food and clothing for the 
 poor mother and her fatherless children. Little did his mother 
 expect that this little boy, born in her lonely log cabin out in 
 the wilderness, peopled by wandering Indians who would 
 come to the door and look in, would become a famous Presi- 
 dent of these great United States. 
 
 The father of the family being dead, the home had to be 
 given up, and the mother and her three children went to a rela- 
 tive's house to live. Here she and her boys did such work 
 as they could to help pay for the food they ate and the clothes 
 that were given them. In this way Andrew, or "Andy," as 
 people called him, grew up, and at the age of five or six years 
 went to a wretched school held in a log cabin out in the 
 woods. Here he learned to read, but he never became a 
 good speller. His uTiting was never good, but he learned 
 enough of arithmetic to do ordinary sums. 
 
 Andrew was not an attractive-looking boy, as you may 
 imagine, with his running wild in the woods and having no 
 father to train and control him. He was so rough in his 
 ways, and got into so many fights with his fellows, that most 
 people thought him a very bad boy. His good mother, how- 
 ever, never gave up hope of making a noble man of him, and 
 by her prayers and gentle guidance she made her influence felt 
 It showed itself in many ways in later years. The boy who 
 swore and used bad language in his youth, became later in life 
 a devout Christian, and learned to revere the memory of the 
 good mother who had endured so many hardships for his sake. 
 
92 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON 
 
 When the Declaration of Independence was signed An- 
 drew Jackson was only nine years old. As you know, the 
 War of Independence was fought in the South as well as in 
 the North. There were many 
 people in the South who be- 
 lieved that King George 
 should have his way, and that 
 the colonists had no right to 
 
 THE INDIAN CHIEF, WEATHERSFORD, WHO LED THE CREEKS AGA1N3T THE O. 8. PORCBS 
 IN WAR OF 1811, AFTER A STORMY INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL JACKSON, SURRENDERS. 
 
 oppose him. These people were called Tories. But there 
 were many others who believed that George III was a tyrant, 
 
PRESIDENTS OF THEIUNITED STATES FROM 1789 TO 1829 
 
i|jAME5K.P0LK 
 
 7>\CHARY 7 
 TAYLOR ! 
 
 ^2849-1850 jl 
 
 PRESIDENTS OF THE U N ITED,:STATES FROM 1829 TO 1850 
 
ANDRE W J A CKSON 93 
 
 and that the colonies should be free and independent of Eng- 
 land. These were called Patriots. 
 
 When the British General Tarleton and his Tory horse- 
 men laid waste the country, Andy's hrother Hugh was among 
 the Patriots who went to meet them, and he was killed by them 
 in the most cruel way. When Andy heard of this he felt 
 that he would like to avenge his brother's death ; but he was 
 too young to take up the sword and fight. His mother took 
 the children and fled to a safer place, and Andy was placed 
 in a family in Charlotte to earn his board doing servant's work. 
 
 He grew very rapidly, and when he was fourteen years 
 old he was almost a man in size. He was as strong and bold 
 as many men. When the British forces came that way and 
 captured the town, they made Andy and his brother Robert 
 prisoners, and one of the officers wished to make Andy his 
 servant. One day he ordered the boy to clean his muddy 
 boots, but Andy who was full of spirit and courage, for he 
 never was afraid of anybody, boldly replied, " I am a prisoner 
 of war, not your servant;" 
 
 The officer flew into a passion, drew his sword, and aimed 
 a blow at the head of the helpless boy. Fortunately he did 
 not kill him, but he gave him wounds on hands and face 
 which he carried as long as he 1,'^c^ed. The officer then tried 
 to make Andrew's brother Robert do what Andrew refused 
 to do, but Robert, with the same spirit, said that he would not 
 clean the officer's boots. The brutal officer then struck him 
 also with his sword, giving him a wound from the effects of 
 which he afterwards died. 
 
 The two boys, while still suffering from their wounds, 
 were taken off to prison with a lot of grown men, and were 
 not given enough food to eat. They would have died had 
 not their mother, moved by her love for her boys, hunted them 
 
94 ANDREW JACKSON 
 
 out and succeeded in getting the British to let her take them 
 away. Robert died soon after, and Andrew became very sick, 
 and for a long time his mother thought that she would lose 
 him, too. It is sad to say that this dear mother, who had done 
 so much for her boys, was herself taken sick with the disease 
 which her sons had, and after a very severe illness she died, 
 leaving Andrew, a boy of fourteen years, all alone in the 
 world, without a father, mother, sister or brother, without any 
 money, and with very few friends. 
 
 He started to learn the saddler's trade, but did not stick 
 at it long. In fact, the death of his parents left him free from 
 any restraint or home influence, and open to all bad counsels. 
 He became a very wild young man, attended the horse-races, 
 gambled, and did almost everything which a boy should not 
 do. No one could expect that a boy like this would ever come 
 to any good, and such boys seldom do. They are more likely 
 to become bad and often criminal men. Andrew Jackson 
 often spoke afterward of his escape from vice. 
 
 Fortunately for him, he soon learned that a young man 
 who followed such a life as he was leading would be despised 
 and shunned by all respectable persons, and he resolved to 
 do better. One thing he undertook was to teach school. 
 You may be surprised that a boy who had gone to school as 
 little as Andrew Jackson had would attempt to teach others; 
 but he could read a little, write a little, and do small sums in 
 arithmetic, and the teachers in those days did not have to 
 know much. 
 
 A little later he decided that he would study law, and he 
 used what little money he had saved to go to a small town in 
 North Carolina, where he found a lawyer who was willing to 
 take him into his office. There he stayed two years studying 
 law, or rather pretending to study, for you know that a young 
 
ANDRE W JACKSON g 5 
 
 man who had led such a wild life as Andrew had could not 
 very easily keep his mind at his books for a very long time. 
 But it was like teaching, one did not need to know much law 
 in those days to be a lawyer. 
 
 Andrew was now a young man of twenty- two years of 
 age. He had spent most of his life in North Carolina, had 
 taught school, had been a clerk in a store, and had studied 
 law. He was bold, daring, and even reckless, and was very 
 fond of adventure. He was not satisfied to settle down in 
 North Carolina, but wanted to go farther west, where there 
 were better chances for young men. So we find him crossing 
 the Alleghany Mountains on a journey of nearly five hundred 
 miles through wild forests and wildernesses in which only the 
 Indians had traveled, and finally coming to a settlement on 
 the banks of the Cumberland River where now is the city of 
 Nashville. Here he hung up his sign as a lawyer. Lawyers 
 must have been scarce there, for he was soon elected to a 
 position as the public prosecutor of that district. 
 
 There is an interesting story told of an adventure he had 
 while on the way to Nashville with a company of nearly one 
 hundred people, who traveled together as a protection against 
 the Indians. One night, after they had had a long march, 
 and every one was very tired, they made a camp in what 
 appeared to be a safe place, and the women and children crept 
 into the tents and were soon asleep. The men wrapped them- 
 selves in blankets and slept out on the ground with their feet 
 to the fire, as men do who camp out at night Sentinels had 
 been placed to watch the camp. 
 
 Andrew did not lie down as soon as the rest, and as he 
 was smoking his pipe by the fire he noticed that owls seemed 
 to be hooting in the trees about him. Then he heard close by 
 a louder hoot than the rest. He immediately became suspicious 
 
96 ANDRE W J A CKSON 
 
 that something was wrong, and that perhaps there were 
 Indians about him. He quietly aroused the men near by and 
 whispered in their ears, "There are Indians all around us. I 
 have heard them in every direction. They mean to attack us 
 before daybreak." Quietly they broke up their camp and 
 moved away. 
 
 A company of hunters who were in the neighborhood 
 happened to come to the deserted camp and went to sleep 
 there. Just before daybreak the Indians attacked the camp 
 and only one of the hunters escaped, but Andrew Jackson and 
 his party got away, and none of them were lost. 
 
 As I have said, Andrew Jackson began the practice of law 
 in Nashville, and his business as public prosecutor was to see 
 that robbers and thieves and murderers were punished. This 
 was not at all a popular thing for him to do. In those wild 
 times it was very common for men to carry revolvers and 
 hunting-knives, and to use them, too. Even in the court- 
 house men would not hesitate to use these weapons if they 
 became angry. Besides, in going from one place to another 
 to attend court Jackson was in danger of meeting some of 
 these people whom he had tried for their crimes. But he was 
 a fearless man, and just the one to know what to do ; so he 
 did not let that stop him. He had many hair-breadth escapes 
 in his journeys from one place to another. Wherever he 
 camped at night he was always on the alert for fear that 
 Indians or desperadoes would attack him, and by his courage 
 and caution he escaped all danger in that wild country. 
 
 During the years that Andrew Jackson lived in Tennes- 
 see he showed his thrift by purchasing large tracts of land and 
 selling off small farms to settlers. In this way he made a 
 great deal of money and became what people then thought to 
 be rich. 
 
ANDREW /ACKSON 9? 
 
 The territory of Tennessee, in which our hero had already 
 gone through many adventures, finally had enough people in 
 it to make a State; so a Constitution was prepared, and 
 in June, 1796, Tennessee came into the Union as the six- 
 teenth State. Andrew Jackson was chosen as its first repre- 
 sentative to Congress. He rode on horseback all the way to 
 Philadelphia, where Congress was then in session. Just think 
 of traveling eight hundred miles on horseback to go to Con- 
 gress ! But in those days people did singular things, just as 
 they do now. 
 
 His appearance at the time he came to Philadelphia as a 
 member of Congress is thus described : "A tall, lank, uncouth- 
 looking personage, with lots of hair around his face, and a 
 queue down his back tied with an eel skin, his dress singular, 
 his manner and deportment those of a rough backwoodsman." 
 You can imagine from this description just how he looked, and 
 we are not surprised that no one there ever expected that this 
 odd-looking westerner would ever be heard of again ; but in 
 this every one was mistaken. 
 
 At this time General George Washington was completing 
 his second term as President of the United States, and every- 
 body spoke of him as the good President. Congress wished 
 to express their great admiration for him, and a committee 
 was; appointed to tell General Washington how much they 
 thought of him. Andrew Jackson, who had led such a rough 
 life, did not have the respect and regard for this great man 
 that we would think he should have, and he objected to their 
 speaking of Washington as wise, firm and patriotic. He was 
 OIK? of the few men in the country who did not respect and 
 revere Washington. But that did not matter. General 
 Washington was a great man, and so was Andrew Jackson in 
 
98 ANDREW JACKSON 
 
 his own way. No doubt, you and I adnu're George Washing- 
 ton more than we do Andrew Jackson, and yet each one was 
 a patriotic citizen, and did what he thought was right for his 
 country. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was very popular in his own State, and 
 what he did in Congress was so highly thought of that he was 
 a little later elected to the Senate of the United States. At 
 that time John Adams was President and Thomas Jefferson 
 Vice-President. Very likely he found the Senate too prim 
 and dignified a place for him. It was much too formal and 
 respectable. At any rate he soon left it and went back to 
 Tennessee, where he was soon after chosen a judge of the 
 Supreme Court. Andrew Jackson must have changed very 
 greatly from his boyhood ways to have the highest honors of 
 his State thus given to him. 
 
 I will not tell you of all the things Andrew Jackson 
 did while serving in Congress or acting as one of the high 
 officials of his native State. Many things that he did none of 
 us would approve of The people in those days did not think 
 it was a bad thing to fight duels, to gamble, and to have 
 horse races. We all know how wrong it is, and people who 
 do such things are not considered to be of the genteel class, 
 nor are they much admired ; but then things were very dif- 
 ferent. Andrew Jackson, if he were living in the twentieth 
 century, could not lead such a life as he did and win the 
 respect of the people. But as he did not have the advantages 
 that we have we should not judge him too severely. 
 
 Andrew Jackson proved himself to be an able and daring 
 soldier more than once in his life. You may remember, if you 
 have read your history, that in 1 813 or 1 814 the Creek Indians 
 and other Indians of the North rose in arms, determined to 
 kill the settlers between Florida and the Great I^es. They 
 
ANDREW JACKSON 99 
 
 took a fort called Fort Mimms and murdered all the people in it, 
 men, women and children. Jackson at once began to raise troops 
 with which to invade the country. With an army of 2000 men 
 he pushed his way through the wilderness, and reached the 
 camp of the Indians near the centre of Alabama, where there 
 were nearly 900 warriors with plenty of arms and ammunition. 
 
 Jackson immediately attacked the Indians, who were pro- 
 tected by forts and fought desperately. The troops fought 
 their way into the forts, where no mercy was shown to the 
 Indians, nearly all of them being killed. The few that 
 remained sought Jackson's camp and begged for mercy. This 
 was a very bloody war, but there was never any trouble with 
 Indians in that part of the country afterward. 
 
 At this time, you may remember, the United States had its 
 second war with England. One of the plans of the British 
 was to capture New Orleans, which, as you know, is an im- 
 portant city situated at the mouth of the Mississippi River. 
 They thought, if they once got possession of this, it would be 
 easy to march up the Mississippi Valley and take possession 
 of the western country. Andrew Jackson's success with the 
 Indians ha.d made him very popular, and he was appointed a 
 general and ordered to fight the British. He collected a force 
 of soldiers with which to march to New Orleans and defend it 
 against the British soldiers. 
 
 The British had sent a fleet of sixty ships, which carried 
 1,000 great guns and 10,000 soldiers, and these were men 
 who had fought many battles in Europe and were thought to 
 be some of the best soldiers in the world. They had also well 
 trained generals to command them. General Jackson had 
 a force of only 4,000 or 5,000 men. There were no forts to 
 protect the city, but there were plenty of cotton-bales on the 
 wharves. These Jackson thought would make an excellent 
 
 LOfC. 
 
I oo ANDRE W JACKSON 
 
 fort ; so he had the cotton-bales piled up on the side of the 
 city toward which th'^' British would march. The British used 
 sugar hogsheads for the same purpose. 
 
 When Jackson came to place his soldiers he found he had 
 only 3,000 men who could handle a gun. No one thought 
 that a few thousand untrained backwoodsmen would be a 
 match for 10,000 British soldiers with their fine guns arid 
 splendid training ; but the Americans were used to fighting 
 the Indians, and were not easily frightened. Besides, they 
 were all splendid shots with the rifle. The British made three 
 desperate attacks upon the forts, but each time they were 
 driven off. They left the ground behind them covered with 
 their dead and wounded. 
 
 While the battle was fiercest, General Jackson walked 
 among his soldiers, encouraging his men, and saying, "Stand 
 to your guns. Don't waste your ammunition, and see that 
 every shot tells. Let us finish the business to-day." The busi- 
 ness was finished that day, for the British were terribly beaten, 
 and after that they had great respect for the American soldiers. 
 
 When the battle of New Orleans was fought there were no 
 ocean steamers carrying letters to and from England ; there 
 was no telegraph or cable under the sea to bring or take mes- 
 sages, as there is now. You know it takes only a few moments 
 of time to send a long message to London ; but then it took a 
 considerable time. At the very time that the battle of New 
 Or-leans was being fought a treaty of peace had already been 
 signed between the representatives of the United States and 
 England across the ocean. It took weeks for sailing vessels 
 to bring communications to this country in those days. Had 
 there been a telegraph the message would have reached 
 Washington and been telegraphed to New Orleans, and the 
 battle would never have taken place. 
 
GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR'S GREAT VICTORY AT RESACA DE LA PALMA 
 
 A famous victory was Rcsaca de la Pal ma. where, with 2( oo men. General Taylor defeated the Mexican Army of 5000 men. 
 Ihis piciure shows one of his brave oflicers leading a charge. 
 
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ANDREW JACKSON loi 
 
 You can imagine what a hero Andrew Jackson became 
 after this great victory. The way he had put an end to the 
 war with the Indians and driven the British away from New 
 Orleans gave him fame, and he became known all over the 
 country as a hero and a soldier. 
 
 Andrew Jackson had thus made himself famous, and in, 
 1824, and again in 1828, when the time for the election of the 
 President came, one of the great parties, which we now know 
 as the Democratic party, asked him to be their candidate for 
 President. He was elected in 1828 to succeed John Quincy 
 Adams, who, although a good President, was not a popular one. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was then a hero in the eyes of the 
 people. He was very different from any man who had been 
 President before him. All the other Presidents had had 
 opportunites of getting a good education. The Adamses had 
 been educated in college, and had the advantage of good 
 home training. George Washington had the careful training 
 which a good father and mother could give him, and had a 
 good home with pleasant surroundings. Andrew Jackson, on 
 account of his early life, believed that the Presidents should 
 live much as common people live, and should avoid all appear- 
 ance of trying to imitate kings or emperors. He made a 
 good President, and was honest and true, if he was plain- 
 spoken and not very courtly. He would not allow people to 
 have their own way, unless he thought it was the right way. 
 
 Although he was born in the South, and believed that the 
 people of the South were right in many of their wishes, yet, when 
 the people of one of the Southern States thought that they 
 could withdraw from the United States and become an inde- 
 pendent State, and that they could refuse to obey the laws of 
 the United States, he gave them to understand very soon that 
 he was the President, and that the laws must be obeyed. 
 
'loz ANDREW JACKSON 
 
 Again, in many ways he showed that he could not be 
 turned from doing what he believed was the best thing for the 
 country. You read in your histories how he thought the 
 National Bank was not good for the country, and therefore 
 he refused to give it permission to continue business as it had 
 done before. This made him unpopular in many places ; but 
 that made no difference to him. He continued to serve two 
 terms, or eight years, as President, which is the longest time 
 any man has been in the President's office. To this day he is 
 spoken of as one of the most interesting of the Presidents, 
 and one of the great parties of the country, which we know 
 as the Democratic party, consider Andrew Jackson as their 
 greatest representative. 
 
 We should not fail to tell you that Andrew Jackson's 
 wife was one who was a great help to him, and influenced his 
 life greatly. He married her soon after he went to Nashville, 
 Tennessee. She was a woman who loved her home and her 
 family, and did not care to appear much in public. Andrew 
 Jackson was devoted to her, made her a good home, and was 
 happiest when he was with her. 
 
 Soon after he was elected President, she was taken sick 
 and died. This brought a cloud over his life which remained 
 with him as long as he lived, especially as she could not share 
 the great honors which had come to him. So much did he 
 grieve for her, that it is said that every night after her death 
 until his own death he read a prayer from her prayer-book. 
 His wife was buried in a little graveyard near his home in 
 Tennessee, and there on June 21, 1845, not many years after 
 he had retired from serving his country as President, he 
 passed quietly away at his home, the " Hermitage," and was 
 laid to rest in a grave by the side of his wife. 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 THE EIGHTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE NEW YORK POUTICIAN. 
 
 When Captain Henry Hudson 
 came, in his ship the Half Moon, to 
 Manhattan Island in 1609, he brought 
 there a sturdy stock of people which 
 has not yet died out. These were 
 the Dutch, a race of strong fibre and 
 shrewd brain. The English came, 
 but the Dutch remained. Their de- 
 scendants remain to-day, and we owe 
 to this TOod old Holland stock two 
 of our Presidents, Martin Van Buren 
 and Theodore Roosevelt. It is the 
 first of these we have before us now 
 Martin came into the world in a lucky time, just as the 
 British were letting go their hold on the fighting colonies 
 He was born December 5, 1782, when the war had ended ana 
 the treaty of peace between the United States and England 
 was being considered. He was born in a litde town with a 
 strong Dutch name, Kinderhook. His mother's name was 
 Hoes and his father's was Van Buren, both good Dutch names. 
 Kinderhook is a little town still, on the Hudson River, 
 about sixteen miles below Albany. Here his father, a shrewd, 
 thrifty, good-natured Dutchman, kept the village tavern and 
 worked a small farm, and made both pay him well. His 
 
 103 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN. 
 
I04 MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 mother was pious and sensible. Both parents had good 
 qualities, and Martin got his share of them. He was an active 
 little lad, with the shrewdness and sense of his parents, and 
 plenty of his father's good nature. 
 
 The boy was sent to the best schools of the old town. 
 And there was a school of politics inside his father's hostelry, 
 where the neighbors gathered to talk over the events of the 
 day, and where no doubt the quick-witted boy picked up 
 many useful lessons : for there is often much sense in what 
 the common people say. 
 
 His father did not send him to college. Perhaps he 
 thought too much learning would do more harm than good. 
 He wanted to give him knowledge that would pay, so he set 
 him at studying law when he was fourteen and kept him at it 
 till he was twenty-one. His last year of study was spent in 
 New York City, under William P. Van Ness, who was a 
 friend of Aaron Burr, and was to be his second in his famous 
 duel with Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 The boy from up the Hudson saw much of Burr, who was 
 one of the most brilliant men of his time. He was what we 
 would call to-day a party boss. He could talk over anybody 
 to his side and knew all about the art of handling parties, and 
 it is very likely Van Buren learned many lessons from him, 
 for in later years he showed that he was well up in this art. 
 
 He went home in 1803 and began practicing law. Very 
 likely he expected to be a country lawyer all his life. He 
 could not know how splendid a gift fortune had in hand for 
 him. But he was bright and quick-witted enough to take all 
 the chances that came and make the best of them. 
 
 In the village academy he had learned some Latin, and 
 was very fond of preparing declamations, and reciting them 
 before the school. He made the very best use of his 
 
MARTIN VAN BVREN 105 
 
 advantages, and it was well he did so, for he had to fight his 
 way to the top of the ladder of fame. 
 
 There is an interesting story told of him while he was 
 studying law at Kinderhook. In those days the old lawyers 
 often gave their students a chance to try small cases, where 
 they had a chance to talk before juries. This was very good 
 practice for them. 
 
 When he was only sixteen years old little Van Buren 
 was given a case to be tried before a Justice of the Peace and 
 a jury in his native village of Kinderhook. Against him was 
 an old lawyer of great experience and ability who had won 
 almost every case he had undertaken ; but Martin, noth- 
 ing daunted, went into court, and caused a great deal of 
 amusement and fun at the trial. When the trial came on he 
 was such a little fellow that his friends got a table and lifted 
 him up on it to address the jury. You can imagine this boy 
 of sixteen addressing a jury of gray-headed men ; but he had 
 thoroughly prepared his case, and spoke so eloquently that he 
 won it. No doubt the tall platform and his youthful appear- 
 ance gained for him much better attention than he would 
 otherwise have had. The court-room was crowded, and the 
 trial gave the lookers-on a great deal of amusement. 
 
 When he got through his law studies Martin began to 
 practice in his native town of Kinderhook. Here he stayed 
 for six years and was very successful. Then he moved to the 
 city of Hudson. But before he left his native town he mar- 
 ried Miss Hannah Hoes, an old playmate, and a relative of 
 his mother. For twelve years they lived happily together. 
 Then she died. Her husband kept her memory green in his 
 heart and never married again. 
 
 The young lawyer, like many other lawyers before him, 
 quickly went into politics. The Federal party was the strong 
 
lo6 
 
 MARTIN- VAJV BUREN 
 
 one in his neighborhood, and his friends blamed him for join- 
 ing the Democrats, saying that he could never be elected 
 to any office by that party. He told them plainly that he 
 was going to live up to what he thought right if he never got 
 into office. 
 
 But the young man was born to win success. He had a 
 good nature and a smiling and kindly manner that brought 
 
 yOUNG MARTIN VAN BUREN WINS HIS FIRST CASE BEFORE JUDGE AND JURY. 
 
 him plenty of friends. He was very industrious, and he was 
 very fond of books, reading everything that came in his way. 
 In those days books were not so plentiful as they are now, 
 but he managed to learn a good many things outside of 
 the law. After his six years' practice at Kinderhook Mr. Van 
 Buren removed to the city of Hudson, where he had the 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN 107 
 
 chance to come in contact with the best lawyers of the State. 
 Here he gained a wide legal reputation, and grew so popular 
 among the people that in 181 2 he was elected to the Senate 
 of New York State. The war with England began that year. 
 He did not believe in the war, but he worked for it, and 
 helped pass a law for raising troops. This made him very 
 popular with many people. After General Jackson's great vic- 
 tory "at New Orleans, he offered a resolution in the Senp.te to 
 give the thanks of the State to that famous general. You will 
 learn later on how well Jackson paid him for that resolution. 
 
 As time went on Van Buren became very popular with 
 his party. In 181 8 the New York Democratic party was 
 reorganized by him, and his power in it became so great that 
 " he held absolute control for twenty years." He had made 
 himself what we call to-day a " Party Boss." Nothing was 
 done in the party except at his command. 
 
 New honors came to him fast. In 182 1 he was sent by 
 the Legislature of New York to the Senate of the United 
 States. In the next Presidential election he fought hard 
 against John Quincy Adams and for Andrew Jackson, and in 
 1829, when Jackson was elected, many people said that he 
 owed his election to Martin Van Buren, who had shown a 
 wonderful power in managing political movements. He did 
 not forget the lessons he had learned from Aaron Burr, the 
 first great party manager. 
 
 When Jackson became President Van Buren was Governor 
 of the State of New York, to which he had been elected after he 
 left the Senate. But the new President, who was very thank- 
 ful to Van Buren for what he had done for him, asked him to 
 give up his high office and come into his Cabinet as Secretary 
 of State. Many people were surprised that Mr. Van Buren 
 would give up the greatest position that he could hold in his 
 
io8 MARTIN VAN BUREN 
 
 native State to become a member of the President's Cabinet, 
 but he understood thoroughly what he was doing-. To many 
 people this would not have been a promotion, but to him it 
 certainly was, for it kept for him the friendship of Andrew Jack- 
 son ; other Secretaries of State had been made Presidents 
 and he might be. No doubt he looked that far ahead. 
 
 After he had acted as Secretaiy of State for a short time, 
 President Jackson sent him to represent his government in 
 England as Minister of the United States. This was a very 
 important position, and he hurried to London. But he was 
 not there long before he met with a great disappointment, for 
 the United States Senate refused to approve his appointment. 
 When he heard of it he was at a great banquet given by the 
 Jamous Talleyrand, the French Minister. Everybody looked 
 at Van Buren to see how he would bear the news. But if 
 they expected to see a gloomy and sour face they were mis- 
 taken, for he was as gracious, smiling and courteous as ever, 
 and acted as if it was an every-day affair. 
 
 When he came back he was a greater favorite with Presi- 
 dent Jackson than ever. He had always known how to rub 
 down the old war-horse the right way, and no matter what 
 question Jackson brought up, whether wise or unwise. Van 
 Buren gave it his full support. That was what we call curry- 
 ing favor. Jackson paid him well for it, for when the next 
 election came he used his great influence to have Van Buren 
 made Vice-President. The smiling lawyer from Kinderhook 
 had made his sharp practice in politics pay. 
 
 The Vice-Presidency was the stepping-stone to a still 
 higher honor, for in 1836, when Jackson's second term was 
 near its end, he used all his vast influence to have his friend 
 Van Buren nominated for President. The Whigs nominated 
 General Harrison to run against him, but the Democratic 
 
MARTIN VAN BUREN rcg 
 
 party won, and the lawyer from Kinderhook was now lifted 
 to the highest position in the nation, that of President of the 
 United States. That was a great raise for the man who had 
 made his way upward, first by managing a party then by 
 managing a President. 
 
 On March 4, 1837, ^'^ immense crowd collected to see 
 his inauguration. A striking scene it was when he rode 
 side by side with Andrew Jackson in a phaeton drawn by four 
 grays to take the oath of office. They were both uncovered 
 and bowing to the cheers of the crowd. But the gaunt, iron, 
 face of "Old Hickory" was in strange contrast with the 
 shrewd, smiling, handsome countenance of the man beside him. 
 
 But Jackson, while he had made Van Buren President, 
 had left plenty of trouble for him. By ruining the United 
 States Bank, and by other acts, he brought a great business panic 
 on the country^ which lasted through all of the new Presi- 
 dent's term. So in 1840, when the time for an election again 
 came round, the people wanted a change, and the Whigs won 
 by a large majority. Van Buren was badly beaten, and 
 General Harrison was elected in his place. Of course, Van 
 Buren would have liked to hold the Presidency for a second 
 term ; but he bore his disappointment with his usual good 
 nature and dignity, and retired to his New York home. But 
 he had been a politician so long that it was not easy for him 
 to withdraw entirely from taking a part in the great questions 
 of the day, and there was not much went on that he did not 
 have a hand in. 
 
 He had lost favor with the South because he was not in 
 favor of extending slavery into new territory, so he could not 
 expect any further honors from his old party ; yet he had a 
 great many friends who believed in him still, and who chose 
 him to be their candidate in 1848. They were called Free- 
 
HO MARTIN VAN BURBN 
 
 Soilers, and by some were called Barn-Burners ; but when the 
 election came on he had a very small vote. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Van Buren decided to take a tour of Europe 
 in company with one of his sons. This was the first time an 
 Ex- President of the United States had visited a foreign coun- 
 try. He had never been in the army, and therefore could not 
 wear a uniform. Many questions arose as to how he should 
 be received by the royalty abroad and what rank they would 
 give him in their receptions. Mr. Van Buren made himself 
 very agreeable and popular wherever he went, and did much 
 to do away with any embarrassment. He visited England, 
 Ireland, Scotland, and the principal countries and cities of 
 Europe. 
 
 The remainder of his days he passed quietly at his beau- 
 tiful home, which he called Lindcnwald, and where he ended 
 his long and busy life on July 24, 1862. He was born just as 
 the war of tne Revolution came to an end. He lived to see 
 the opening of the great Civil War, dying at eighty years 
 of age. 
 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 
 
 THE NINTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE HERO OP TIPPECANOE. 
 
 
 Old Virginia is often called the 
 mother of Presidents, and with good 
 reason, for six of our Presidents 
 have been born within her borders. 
 This is nearly one-fourth the whole 
 number. It was Virginia which fur- 
 nished George Washington, the 
 commander-in-chief of the revolu- 
 tionary armies. It gave us also 
 Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, the 
 famous patriots of our early days, 
 and we come to Virginia again, 
 when we wish to know of William 
 Henry Harrison. 
 Benjamin Harrison, his father, had been one of the sign- 
 ers of the Declaration of Independence, at Philadelphia, July 
 4, 1776, and was one of the great men of his time. He was 
 the friend of George Washington, and was among the first of 
 those who said that the English should not make the colonists 
 pay taxes and accept laws which they thought were unjust. 
 
 If you have seen a picture of the names under the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, you will remember in what a bold 
 handwriting John Hancock signed his name. He and Mr. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 
 
 Jill 
 
ti2 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 
 
 Harrison, the father of the boy who afterwards became Presi- 
 dent of the United States, were great friends, and were once 
 candidates f jr the same office in the convention which framed 
 (he Declaration of Independence. Mr. Hancock was a very 
 small and modest man, and Mr. Harrison was a very large 
 and good natured fellow, full of fun. Mr. Hancock was 
 elected to the office of chairman, and Mr. Harrison picked him 
 
 GENERAL HARRISON MEETS TECUMSEH, THE INDIAN CHIEF, AND IS 
 NOT AFRAID OF HIS THREAT OF WAR. 
 
 Iip as though he were a child, and carried him and set him on 
 jthe chairrnan's seat, saying to the convention: "Gentlemen, 
 ,we will show Mother Britain how much we care for her, by 
 .making our President a Massachusetts man whom she has 
 refused to pardon by a public proclamation." This caused a 
 great laugh, because Mr. Harrison was so large and Mr. Han- 
 cock looked so small beside hini that his playful remark spenjed 
 the funnier. 
 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 113 
 
 William Henry Harrison was born on the banks of the 
 James River, in Virginia, February 9, 1773. Fortunately for 
 him, his father was well-to-do and able to give him a good 
 education, so he was sent to college and graduated with a great 
 deal of honor to himself and his family. In the meantime 
 his father had died, and the young college graduate went to 
 Philadelphia to study medicine. A great many of his father's 
 friends lived there, and he was very kindly received, but he 
 did not continue the study of medicine very long. If he had 
 done so, he might have made a great doctor, but he never 
 would have been President of the United States. So far no 
 doctor has ever become President of the United States. 
 
 George Washington was President when Harrison was 
 studying medicine, and there was a great deal of trouble with 
 the Indians in the Northwest Territory, where now are the 
 States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Washington had sent 
 an army out there under General St. Clair to protect the set- 
 tlers. Young Harrison heard a great deal of the cruelties 
 the Indians were practising upon the settlers, and as he had 
 much love of adventure, he joined the army, in which he was 
 made ensign or corporal. These were low positions in the 
 army. 
 
 He was at this time slender in form, and frail in health 
 His many friends tried to persuade him to give up his com- 
 mission and continue his study in medicine ; but he wanted 
 to see some fighting, and started for the western country 
 with the army. In the very first battle in which St. Clair's 
 army was engaged it was almost totally destroyed by the 
 Indians, but young Harrison escaped. 
 
 His first experience in the army was in command of a 
 pack-train, which in the winter time carried supplies to th^ 
 Sjaiall body of troops stationed near the western forts Had 
 
114 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 
 
 he not had a great deal of pluck and daring, he could not 
 have been successful in this work. He was exposed to great 
 danger from sudden attacks by the Indians, but showed- him- 
 self so brave and capable that he was promoted to the rank 
 of lieutenant, and was sent with the main army to attack the 
 Indians who were then making war against the western 
 colonies. 
 
 Although I have said that young Harrison was slight in 
 build and appeared to his friends not to be strong, yet he 
 found that he could endure more exposure by a great deal 
 than many men who seemed to be much stronger. One reason 
 he gave for this was that he made it a rule from the very first 
 not to touch intoxicating liquors ; and he was always a 
 thorough temperance man. His influence for temperance did 
 much good with the young men who were with him in the army. 
 
 You have no doubt heard of Mad Anthony Wayne, one 
 of the heroes of the Revolutionary War. After St. Clair was 
 killed he took command of the army, and while marching 
 through the forests of Indiana he was attacked by a strong 
 force of Indians in ambush — that is, they were hiding behind 
 trees. A bloody battle followed, but Wayne and his men 
 were good fighters and the Indians were driven away, hun- 
 dreds of them being killed. Lieutenant Harrison was espe- 
 cially commended by General Wayne for his courage and 
 ability. Wayne said, " Wherever duty called he hastened, 
 regardless of danger, and by his efforts and example con- 
 tributed as much to securing the fortunes of the day as any 
 other officer subordinate to the commander-in-chief." This 
 won for him the higher rank of Captain, and he was put in 
 command of one of the large forts. 
 
 After this great Territory had been freed from the attacks 
 of the Indians, it was necessary to organize a government for it 
 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 
 
 "S 
 
 There were not enough people to make it into a State, or to 
 divide it into several States ; but a Governor and Secretary 
 were appointed to take charge of it. Young Harrison, who 
 was then only twenty-four years of age, gave up his position 
 in the army and accepted the office of Secretary. 
 
 Three years later, when the Northwest Territory was 
 divided into two Territories, one of them being called Indiana, 
 he was made governor of the latter, and given more power than 
 was ever given to any other governor of a Territory. He made 
 thirteen treaties with the Indians, by which the United States 
 came into possession of millions and millions of acres of land. 
 For twelve years he was Governor of the Territory of Indiana, 
 and he performed his duties with the greatest skill and care 
 and the most perfect honesty. 
 
 You will remember that in 1803, when Thomas Jefferson 
 was President of the United States, there was bought from 
 France the great strip of territory which is called the " Louis- 
 iana Purchase," and in which there are many large cities, 
 including New Orleans and St. Louis. This was such a great 
 event that now, one hundred years later, it is being celebrated 
 by holding a great Exposition at St. Louis, on the banks of the 
 Mississippi River. Our Mr. Harrison was the first governor of 
 this vast territory, which was put under his charge as a part of 
 Indiana Territory. 
 
 At that time it was one vast wilderness, occupied by many 
 tribes of Indians. Among these Indians were two remarkable 
 chiefs who afterward gave a great deal of trouble. One was a 
 great Indian warrior named Tecumseh, who was also known as 
 "The Crouching Panther"; the other was Olliwacheca, "The 
 Prophet." The former was a splendid fighter; the latter knew 
 how to stir up the Indians by his eloquence and by his incanta- 
 tions. He was called a " Medicine Man," or a " Magician." 
 
1 1 6 tVILLIAM HENR Y HARRISON" 
 
 These two Indians traveled about among the tribes, 
 doing all they could to stir them up to revolt. Governor 
 Harrison heard of the trouble they were making and tried to 
 quiet them by inviting them to a council. This was held on 
 the 12th of August, 1809. Tecumseh came to the council 
 with four hundred Indian warriors in their war-paint and com- 
 pletely armed. Governor Harrison had only a small body- 
 guard of twelve men and a few of the officers and citizens of 
 the Territory. The Indians were very haughty, and said that 
 " no more of their land should be given to the white man, 
 and that they were determined to drive the whites away from 
 that part of the territory." 
 
 Tecumseh grew so angry as the council went on, that his 
 warriors sprang to their feet and threatened to attack the white 
 men with their war-clubs and guns. Governor Harrison 
 sprang up also and drew his sword, and his guard got their 
 guns ready to fire, but the Governor ordered them not to 
 shoot, and told Tecumseh that he could go away unharmed.. 
 The Indians did so. They were scared by Harrison's bold- 
 ness and spirit. 
 
 You can readily see how frightened the settlers were at 
 this state of affairs. With only a small guard of soldiers at 
 the fort, they did not know at what moment the Indians might 
 attack their cabins and kill the women and children ; but they 
 had a brave governor who did not fear the Indians and was 
 wise enough to know just how to act. He tried to persuade 
 the Indians to lay down their arms and to believe that the 
 white men would treat them fairly ; but in this he did not suc- 
 ceed. But they did not then attack the settlers. 
 
 In 18 1 2 war came on with Great Britain, and an English 
 army marched down from Canada. Its general coaxed the 
 Indians to become his allies, and furnished them with guns 
 
WILL/AM HENRY HARRISON 117 
 
 and powder. This was a very wrong thing for him to do, for 
 the Indian way of fighting was by murder and torture. Gov- 
 ernor Harrison had all he could do and more than he cared 
 for. He learned that a strong body of Indians had col- 
 lected on the Wabash River, at a place called Tippecanoe, and 
 he set out with a small army. When he approached the vil- 
 lage, he found that there were several thousand Indians, and 
 selected a suitable place for his camp. Some of the Indian 
 chiefs visited his camp and asked him why he came to fight 
 them. They tried to make him believe that they were peace- 
 able and meant no harm, but he did not trust them. 
 
 That night the soldiers slept with their guns by their 
 sides and with the camp-fires put out. In the middle of the 
 night the Indians crept upon the camp, expecting to find the 
 soldiers asleep ; but General Harrison had expected such an 
 attack, and the soldiers were not quietly sleeping, as the 
 Indians thought. When they heard the savage yells of the 
 red men, they sprang up with their guns and fired so fast 
 that they drove the Indians away and killed great numbers 
 of them. 
 
 The Indian Prophet had told his followers that by his 
 charms they would be protected from the bullets and from the 
 bayonets. They soon discovered that he had deceived them 
 and they fled to the swamps. Tecumseh, their great chief, 
 was not there to lead them. 
 
 This great victory at Tippecanoe made Governor Harri- 
 son very famous, and afterward, when he was nominated for 
 the Presidency, " Old Tippecanoe '' was a favorite motto 
 printed on all the banners. You see from what I have already 
 told you that this frail young man, who had started out to be 
 a doctor, proved himself to be a great general ; for it really 
 requires more ability to command such soldiers as he had, and 
 
ii8 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 
 
 to fight the wild-wood Indians, than to command a vvell- 
 Irilled army and to fight trained soldiers. 
 
 I cannot tell you of all his bravery and skill in leading 
 his troops during the war with Great Britain. It is only 
 necessary to say that he was victorious in forcing the British 
 to leave Detroit, which they had captured from General Hull. 
 He also pursued the British into Canada. How popular 
 he was with his soldiers is illustrated by an incident which 1 
 shall tell : Once when his little army was making its way 
 through the forest, night came on. It was very dark and 
 rainy. The ground was covered with water, and they had no 
 axes and could build no fires. Neither had they any food, 
 and they had to pass the night in leaning up against trees or 
 sittinsr on wooden logs. 
 
 General Harrison passed the night with his men, with no 
 more comforts than they had. In the middle of the night, in 
 order to cheer them up, he asked one of the men to start 
 a comic Irish song, which set everybody laughing, and, 
 though hungry, they kept up brave hearts. Once when he 
 had captured five British officers he invited them to take sup- 
 per with him. They were surprised to find that the great 
 American General had nothing to give them except beef, 
 roasted in the fire, and without bread or salt. 
 
 After the close of the war with Great Britain he resigned 
 his commission in the army, and was elected a Representative 
 of Congress by the new Territory of Ohio, which had been 
 made out of a great wilderness. Congress recognized his 
 splendid services by passing a resolution of thanks and giving 
 him a gold medal. 
 
 General Harrison, while in Congress, became known as one 
 of the finest and best speakers among all the able men who 
 were there with him. As I have told you, he had received a 
 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 119 
 
 good education and had a well-trained mind. This showed itself 
 when he had the opportunity to debate with his fellows in 
 Congress. Although he had won his fame as a soldier, he 
 did not think that this was the greatest glory which a man 
 could win. He believed that a man should be truthful and 
 honest, and kind to his fellows. His motto was: "To be 
 eminently great, it is necessary to be eminently good." This 
 motto describes General Harrison's life. 
 
 After serving his country in Congress, and for a time as 
 a Minister to Colombia, in South America, he retired to his 
 home, near North Bend, on the Ohio River, and became a 
 farmer. Although he was a great man in the eyes of his 
 countrymen, yet he returned to his farm and performed the 
 ordinary duties of a farmer in the West. You will remember 
 that I have spoken of his temperance principles. After he had 
 retired to his farm, a whiskey distillery was left him by a rela- 
 tive ; but his temperance habits and principles would not 
 allow him to own such a place and manufacture a poisonous 
 drink which destroyed the lives and happiness of his fellow- 
 men. At a great loss in money he gave up the business. 
 
 There were other things besides temperance on which 
 General Harrison had good ideas, and about which he was not 
 afraid to speak, though other great men were keeping silence on 
 them. One of these was the subject of slavery. Although he 
 was born in a State where slaves were kept, and belonged to 
 'a family which owned slaves, yet he never thought it was 
 right for one man to own another. At the age of eighteen 
 he became a member of an Abolition Society in Richmond, 
 Virginia, the object of which was to make better the condition 
 of the slaves, and to improve their treatment by their masters. 
 While in Congress, he was the first to introduce a law that 
 slaves should not be kept in States made out of new territory. 
 
I20 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 
 
 For nearly ten years General Harrison lived quietly on 
 his farm near North Bend, in the State of Ohio. In 1840 he 
 was nominated by the Whig party for President, and John 
 Tyler of Virginia was the candidate for Vice-President 
 
 At this time he lived in a log-cabin built many years 
 before by a pioneer, and aftenvard covered with pine 
 boards. He lived in such a simple way that visitors to the 
 house said that " his table, instead of being supplied with 
 costly wines, was furnished with an abundance of the best cider." 
 Many began to make fun and sneer at the log-cabin and hard 
 cider ; but the people liked the man who could be simple and 
 moderate, so that during the camipaign log-cabins were erected 
 in every village and city and hard cider was the principal 
 beverage. People went marching around carrying pictures of 
 the log-cabin and singing such songs as, 
 
 "Oh ! where, tell me where, was the log-cabin made ? 
 It was made by the boys that wield the plow and the spade I" 
 
 Often at night horsemen could be heard riding home singmg 
 the praises of "Old Tippecanoe." The story is told that. 
 in one of the back-woods churches of Ohio, after the preacher 
 had announced the hymn of the evening, an old and staid 
 deacon who led the singing broke in with the Plarrison 
 "Campaign Song," in which the whole congregation, after the 
 first moment's shock, heartily joined, while the preacher himself 
 had all he could do to refrain from coming in on the chorus. 
 You can imagine what excitement prevailed during thi; 
 election. Our grandmothers and grandfathers never saw such 
 times before. When they came to counting the votes, it was 
 found that Martin van Buren, who was then President, had 
 received only sixty electoral votes, while General Harrison had 
 received two hundred and thirty-four. It is said that the 
 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 
 
 131 
 
 supply of hard cider was almost all exhausted within three 
 days after the election. The people evidently were happy. 
 
 But the rest of our story must be very brief. No one ot 
 our Presidents was better prepared by education and experi- 
 ence to become an able President than was William Henry 
 Harrison. Like General Washington, he was greatly beloved 
 by the people for his good habits, kindness of heart and 
 
 THE DEFEAT OF THE INDIANS BY GENERAL WAYNE. 
 LieDtenant William Henry Hariisoa tendered consplcuoua aervlce and won promotion. 
 
 honesty. His journey from his home in Ohio to the White 
 House was marked by enthusiastic festivities. The people 
 met him in crowds and gave him a grand reception. A vast 
 collection of people attended the inaugural ceremonies at 
 Washington, and he made an address in which he set forth 
 the high aims which he had for the performance of his duties. 
 He selected as his Secretary of State Daniel Webster, 
 who was one of the greatest statesmen of his time. The 
 
122 WILLIAM HENR Y HARRISON 
 
 other men in the Cabinet were also distinguished men, and 
 every one looked forward to four prosperous and happy years 
 which would come in the presidency of such a good and great 
 man. But in the midst of these bright and joyous expecta- 
 tions, President Harrison was taken very sick with a fever, 
 and after a few days he died, in one short month after his 
 inauguration. 
 
 It was considered at the time that his death was the 
 greatest misfortune that could have happened to the country, 
 and the people mourned him in every village and city. It 
 was the first time in our history that a President had died in 
 office. According to our laws the Vice-President, John Tyler, 
 succeeded to the office, and became President of the United 
 States to finish the uncompleted term. 
 
 You who have read the biographies of the other Presi- 
 dents must agree with me that President Harrison was a good 
 and great man, and that his life was one of the most interest- 
 ing of those of all the Presidents, for he had been great as a 
 soldier, a governor, a member of Congress, and a man. 
 
JOHN TYLER 
 
 THE TENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE SURPRISE PRESIDENT. 
 
 There are many boys and men 
 in our country with an ambition only 
 to make good lawyers, good doctors, 
 good merchants, good farmers or 
 good mechanics. By dint of good 
 work they will be likely enough to 
 succeed in this. But the world may 
 , hold a great surprise for them, and 
 Iv'take them far beyond what they ex- 
 1W0 pected. It is of one of these great 
 ^p^ surprises I wish to speak. Certainly 
 no man could have been more sur- 
 prised than John Tyler, when a mes- 
 senger, riding desperately from Washington, arrived early 
 one morning at his country seat with a letter which told him 
 that he was the President of the United States. Here is the 
 
 letter : 
 
 Washington, April 4, 1841. 
 
 "To John Tyler, Vice-President of the United States; 
 
 " Sir : — It becomes our painful duty to inform you that 
 William Henry Harrison, late President of the United 
 States, has departed this life. 
 
 "This distressing event took place this day, at the 
 President's mansion in this city, at thirty minutes before one 
 
 JOHN TYLER. 
 
 in the morning. 
 
 123 
 
1^4 JOHN TYLER 
 
 "We lose no time in despatching the chief clerk in the 
 State Department as a special messenger to bear you these 
 melancholy tidings. 
 
 '* We have the honor to be with highest regard, 
 
 " Your obedient servants." 
 
 To this letter was signed the names of Daniel Webster and 
 other members of President Harrison's Cabinet. 
 
 John Tyler was the first man to become President of the 
 United States by the death of another President. You know 
 that in our form of government the people elect a President, 
 who rules the country with the aid of Congress, and whose 
 place must be filled if he should die during the four years for 
 which he is elected. At the same time that the President is 
 elected, a Vice-President is also elected, to succeed him in 
 office in case of his death ; so when William Henry Harrison 
 was nominated for President, John Tyler was the candidate 
 for Vice-President. I have told you already how, during the 
 exciting election of these two men, the banners carried the 
 strange words " Tippecanoe and Tyler too." 
 
 Before I tell you what Tyler did as President, you will 
 be interested in learning something of his early life, and you 
 will also see why we say it is very important for every boy or 
 girl who begins life to try and do everything so well, that if 
 he should be called upon to fill a great office, or even tC' 
 become President of the United States, he will be well pre- 
 pared for it. This is just what John Tyler did. 
 
 He was born in Virginia, near Charles City, March 29, 1790. 
 His father, whose name was also John Tyler, was a staunch 
 old Virginia patriot, and had been Speaker of the Continental 
 Congress. He was now a prominent lawyer, and it was his 
 wish that his son, if possible, should also be well educated 
 and study law It is a great help to a boy when a father can 
 
JOHN TYLER 125 
 
 help him decide what he shall do, and give him a good 
 start. 
 
 Unlike some other Presidents of whom we have read, John 
 Tyler's early home surroundings were very good. He came of 
 the old planter class, with its culture and high social distinc- 
 tion. Although his father was not a man of wealth, yet he 
 had sufficient means to give his son a good education. Very 
 early did his father and mother begin to teach him things at 
 home ; so when he began to go to school he knew how to 
 read and write, and also was very fond of books. 
 
 He very soon showed that he was a boy of more than 
 ordinary ability. He had a quick mind, an excellent memory, 
 was very fond of his books, and got a good start in his 
 happy home under the training of his parents. He was 
 only twelve years old when he was prepared to enter the Wil- 
 liam and Mary College, at Williamsburg, in Virginia, Here 
 he studied so hard and did so well that he graduated with 
 honor from this famous old college at the age of seventeen. 
 
 The boy was ambitious and determined to rise to the top 
 of his profession, the law. His father was prominent in poli- 
 tics, and had served, as we have seen, in the Continental 
 Congress. He had also served in the House of Burgesses, 
 which was the name given to the Legislature of Virginia. He 
 was still more honored in 1838, when he was made Governor 
 of that State, This was a great help to the young lawyer, 
 who eagerly went into politics and began to deliver political 
 speeches — or stump speeches, as they are often called to-day 
 
 The young orator belonged to the Democratic party, 
 which was then the leading party of the country, the one to 
 which Jefferson and Madison had belonged. He was only 
 twenty-one years of age when his neighbors and friends nomi- 
 nated him for the House of Burgesses, and he was elected* 
 
126 
 
 JOHN TYLER 
 
 This was a great honor for one so young, and he was sent to 
 represent the county for five terms in succession. Before the 
 war with England began, in 1812, young Tyler had won a 
 fine business and had a high reputation as a lawyer. When 
 the w^ar broke out he showed that he was as warm a patriot 
 as his father had been before him. When the British sailed 
 up the Chesapeake and began to burn and plunder, he did all 
 he could to stir up the people and gather the militia to oppose 
 
 - them. No man was more 
 
 ^= =- __ energetic than he in this work. 
 
 
 WESTERN RAILROAD IN 
 EARLIER DAYS 
 
 He was a young man of 
 very easy and graceful man- 
 ners, a good speaker, and 
 ready to be friends with 
 every one, and in the year 
 1 81 6 his admirers nomi- 
 nated him for Congress, 
 and he was sent to Wash- 
 ington to represent his dis- 
 trict. He was then only 
 '"/^^ twenty-siK years old. Very iow men have 
 F]^ entered Congress so young. But although 
 young in years, his experience in the politic^: 
 of his State gave him the skill and power of a much 
 older man. While in Congress he worked so hard that he 
 found it necessary to resign in his second term and retire 
 to his native county to regain health and strength. But his 
 friends did riot allow him to remain at home long. They sent 
 him to the State Legislature, and a little later, in 1825, elected 
 him by a large majority to become Governor of their State. 
 
 As Governor, he showed that he was deeply interested 
 in the welfare of his State, and through his efforts a great 
 
JOHN TYLER 127 
 
 many useful laws were passed improving the condition of the 
 people. Before this time Mr. Tyler was happily married. 
 He had fallen in love with an attractive young lady of Cedar 
 Grove, Virginia, named Miss Letitia Christian. He was 
 twenty-three years old when the wedding took place. The 
 newly wedded pair settled at Greenway, on a part of the Tyler 
 estate, where they lived in great harmony and happiness. 
 
 It was not long before there was an opportunity for the 
 young Governor to be elected to the United States Senate. 
 About that time John Randolph, a distinguished orator from 
 Virginia, but who had done a great many things to displease 
 the people of the State, was a candidate for re-election. John 
 Tyler was nominated to run against him, and was elected, 
 having the honor of defeating one of the most famous men of 
 the old Congress. This was in 1827, when he was only 
 thirty-seven years of age. At this time John Quincy Adams 
 was President of the United States. He served only a short 
 time when he resigned and returned to Virginia and to his 
 law practice. In this way he was able to earn a large amount 
 of money for those times. 
 
 Although he had withdrawn from Congress, he con- 
 tinued to be very popular in his State. He was a Democrat 
 still, but people began to call him the "Southern Whig" ; for 
 though he differed with the Whigs of the North in some 
 things, yet in many others he agreed with them. That was 
 why, when the time came for the Whigs to nominate a Presi- 
 dent, and wanted a Southern mafi to run with William Henry 
 Harrison for President, they nominated John Tyler for Vice- 
 President. It was the votes of the Northern Whigs that, in 
 the famous log-cabin campaign, made John Tyler the Demo- 
 crat Vice-President of the United States. 
 
 At the time this was done no one imagined that he would 
 
128 JOHN TYLER 
 
 be called upon to be President, and no one thought it made 
 much difference what ideas the Vice-President might hold. 
 You know the Vice-President is the man who presides over 
 the United States Senate. He is sometimes called the Presi- 
 dent of the Senate. So it occurred that when William Henry 
 Harrison was elected President, John Tyler became the pre- 
 siding officer of the United States Senate. 
 
 President Harrison, as you have been told, lived only 
 one month after he was inaugurated, and when he died the 
 Presidency came to John Tyler. It was then that word was 
 sent him, at his quiet home in Williamsburg, that he had 
 become President of the United States. On receiving this 
 important notice, he hurried with all speed to Washington 
 and took the oath of office. 
 
 At that time some of the high Cabinet officials did not 
 know what title to give him. He was the first Vice-President 
 to become President, and they said it was not right for him to 
 have the full title. There was a political question in this, for 
 they did not know if Mr. Tyler would carry out the Whig 
 policy. But he made short work of their objections, and at 
 once took the title of President, as the Constitution gave him 
 the right to do. 
 
 An interesting incident is told of what happened when he 
 came to Washington. President Harrison had several very 
 distinguished men in his Cabinet, probably the most distin- 
 guished being Daniel Webster, the great orator and states- 
 man. He himself had also been ^ candidate for the Presi- 
 dency. At the very first meeting the new President had with 
 the Cabinet, he was told that it was customary for the Presi- 
 dent to take the advice of his Cabinet, and not to act upon 
 anything before it was voted upon. The President, they said, 
 should have one vote, and each one of his Cabinet officers 
 
JOHN TYLER 129 
 
 should have one vote. Mr. Tyler listened quietly to what 
 they had to say, and then informed them that he considered 
 he was President of the United States. He was ready to fol- 
 low their advice and counsel, if he approved of it, but he him- 
 self was responsible for the decision that was reached, and 
 was not willing to have it settled by a Cabinet vote. If they 
 did not like it that way they could resign. This rather sur- 
 prised his Cabinet, but they knew very well that he was right, 
 and they concluded to stay where they were, 
 
 Mr. Tyler had nearly four years to serve as President of 
 the United States. He soon made it plain to the people of 
 the United States that he did not agree at all with the ideas 
 that President Harrison held on a great many subjects. He 
 had been elected as a Whig, but he was really a Democrat. 
 
 President Tyler's position became soon very unpleasant. 
 The people who had elected him did not like him, and many 
 of those who had voted against him did not approve of what 
 he had done ; so the four years he was in office were very 
 bitter and quarrelsome ones. When a new election took place 
 Mr. Tyler was not nominated, and on the 4th of March, 1845, 
 he was succeeded by James Knox Polk. 
 
 But the years that followed were very stirring years, for 
 the great slavery contest had now come on. Finally the 
 North and South could no longer agree, and the great Civil 
 War broke out. Mr. Tyler was then living in Virginia, 
 and he went with the South, He was elected to the Con- 
 federate Congress, but was not able to take much part. He 
 was an old man now, and the excitement of the time bore 
 heavily on him. He was attacked by a severe illness in 1862, 
 and on January i8th he died at his home near Charles City. 
 
JAMES KNOX POLK 
 
 THE ELEVENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 JAMES KNOX POLK. 
 
 A NORTH CAROLINA BOY. 
 
 We all know of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence which was 
 written by Thomas Jefferson, and 
 first made public at Philadelphia in 
 1776; but there was another Dec- 
 laration written more than a year 
 before this, which was also an inter- 
 e sting document, and perhaps 
 might be well called the first Dec- 
 laratian of Independence. Not 
 many boys and girls know of this, 
 so I shall tell it to you, as it was 
 the grandfather and great uncle of James Knox Polk, the 
 eleventh President of the United States, who helped to have 
 it adopted. 
 
 It was in a little country town in North Carolina that 
 this interesting event took place. A number of the people 
 met and made the following declaration : " We, the citizens 
 of Mecklenburg County, do hereby dissolve the political bonds 
 which have connected us to the mother-country, and hereby 
 absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and 
 we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people." 
 This was on the 19th of May, 1775. Perhaps Thomas 
 Jefferson and his fellow patriots had heard of it. At any rate, 
 130 
 
JAMES KNOX POLK 131 
 
 it showed the same spirit as did the more famous Declaration 
 issued in Philadelphia. When you think that this was the 
 declaration of a few hundred people at most, who lived in one 
 of the counties of North Carolina, it is almost enough to make 
 one laugh. Yet these same people afterward did valuable 
 service for the cause of independence, and their bold Declara- 
 tion will always be remembered. They were of that strong 
 and sturdy Scotch-Irish people who did so much in settling the 
 great wilderness of the Carolinas. Andrew Jackson was of the 
 same stock, and his mother at one time fled from the British to 
 Mecklenburg County and lived with neighbors of the Polks. 
 
 It was in this same Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, 
 that, on the 2d of November, 1 795, James Knox Polk was 
 born. His father, Samuel Polk, was a plain farmer, but the 
 mother is said to have been a superior woman. Soon after 
 James was born, the father took his little family and moved 
 west some two hundred miles, to the frontier of Tennessee, 
 where, in a rich valley on Duck River, he and his neighbors 
 built their log huts and started their homes. Others soon fol- 
 lowed, until there was' quite a settlement on Duck River. 
 
 It was as a farmer's boy, working hard in felling trees, 
 building fences, and planting crops, that James Knox Polk 
 spent his childhood days. His father was a surveyor as well 
 as a farmer, and soon became one of the leading men in that 
 section of the country. He took with him on his long sur- 
 veying expeditions his son James, then a bright but rather 
 frail boy. They climbed mountains, waded through mountain 
 gorges, and often had narrow escapes from the Indians. The 
 boy, no doubt, had fine times helping to build the camp fires 
 and cook the game at night in the Tennessee woods. 
 
 He was fond of study and was sent to the public schools 
 and soon showed a taste for reading the best books he could 
 
132 JAMES KNOX POLK 
 
 get. A boy who is willing to learn and desires to get good 
 books is very likely to succeed. So it was with young Polk. 
 His mother did much to assist him, and through her training 
 he became a very careful student, and cultivated a fondness 
 for books. 
 
 When he got older his father placed him in a store ; but 
 that kind of life did not please the boy at all, so his father soon 
 took him away and sent him to a college at Murfreesboro that 
 he might get a better education. He afterward sent him to 
 the University of North Carolina. Here he was so regular in 
 his habits and so punctual that his fellow students said, when 
 they desired to declare that something was sure to happen, 
 " It is as certain as that Polk will get up at the first call." 
 
 He was twenty-three years old when he graduated from 
 the University. He graduated the best scholar of his class, 
 but he studied so hard that his health was affected, and he 
 had to take a good rest. 
 
 He was getting pretty old for school life, but he was not 
 through yet, for now he decided to study the law. So he 
 went to Nashville, in Tennessee, and there he entered the 
 office of a lawyer named Felix Grundy. 
 
 You may remember that " Old Hickory," the hero of 
 New Orleans, lived near Nashville, in his home called the 
 Hermitage. He often stopped at Grundy's office for a chat, 
 and young Polk was much attracted to him. His friendship 
 for Andrew Jackson lasted through his life and had much 
 influence on his character and career. 
 
 In due time the student became a lawyer, and hung out 
 his sign in Columbia, in the "Duck River District." He had 
 most pleasant manners, and had learned to speak with a great 
 deal of ease and eloquence, so it was not long before he was 
 in great demand to make speeches on all kinds of subjects. 
 
JAMES KNOX POLK 133 
 
 Some one has said, "There is nothing in this world so profit- 
 able as pleasant words and friendly smiles, provided that these 
 words and smiles come honestly from the heart." This describes 
 the young man of whom we are speaking, for he had kind words 
 and sunny smiles for every one, and they came from his heart." 
 
 He grew so popular as a political speaker that his friends 
 called him the " Napoleon of the stump." I do not know why, 
 except because he conquered the good will of his audiences. 
 In politics he was a Democrat of a strenuous kind, and in 
 1823 his neighbors elected him to the Legislature of Tennes- 
 see. In the next year he worked with all his strength and 
 power of oratory for the election of his old friend, Andrew 
 Jackson, to the Presidency. One bill he carried through the 
 legislature was to put an end to the practice of dueling. 
 
 Mr. Polk was very fortunate in marrying a young woman 
 of great beauty and culture. Her name was Miss Sarah 
 Childless. She little dreamed that her husband would become 
 President and she mistress of the White House and the 
 first lady of the land. But she was of fine character and had 
 the grace and dignity suited to that high position. The 
 marriage was a very happy one. 
 
 While she was mistress of the White House a pleasing 
 story is told of her and Henry Clay, one of the most famous 
 statesmen and orators of the United States. While sitting at 
 table one day, Mr. Clay said in his most courtly way, " Madam, 
 I must say that in my travels, wherever I have been, in all 
 companies and among all parties, I have heard but one 
 opinion of you. All agree in praising in the highest terms 
 your management of the domestic affairs of the White House ; 
 but, as for that young gentleman there (meaning her husband^ 
 the President), I cannot say as much. There is some little 
 difference in regard to the policy of his course." 
 
134 JAMES KNOX POLK 
 
 Mrs. Polk was quite equal to the distinguished statesman, 
 and replied, " Indeed, I am glad to hear that my administration 
 is popular, and in return for your compliment I will say that \\ 
 the country should elect a Whig next fall, I know of no one 
 whose elevation would please me more than that of Henry 
 Clay ; and I assure you of one thing, if you do have occasion 
 to occupy the White House on the 4th of March next, it shall 
 be surrendered to you in perfect order from garret to cellar." 
 Her reply caused a loud shout of laughter. 
 
 Mr. Polk rose rapidly in popular favor, and was elected 
 to high offices. In 1825 he was elected a member of Con- 
 gress, where he served for fourteen years. Afterward he 
 became Governor of his native State. While in Congress, he 
 was a great friend of General Jackson, and always took his 
 side whenever he was criticised, and this was pretty often, for 
 Jackson did many things which people did not like. 
 
 . For five sessions Mr. Polk was Speaker of the House, a 
 position which needed all his courtesy and strength of mind. 
 In 1839 he resigned from Congress and was elected Governor 
 of Tennessee. But he was defeated for a second term, for the 
 Whigs were in power there. We are told the amusing story 
 that Polk rode about the country with the Whig who was 
 contesting with him for the governorship, and that they even 
 slept in the same bed. Two years after he ran for governor 
 again, and was once more defeated by his old bed-fellow. 
 
 But his time for much higher honors was coming. A 
 great question had arisen in the southwest. I will tell you 
 all about it when I come to speak of President Taylor, and 
 will only say here that Texas had broken away from Mexico 
 and was asking the United States to take it in. A fierce 
 excitement arose over this. The Southern people thought it 
 would make a fine slave State and wanted it badly. The 
 
JAMhii KNOX POLK 135 
 
 anti-slavery people of the North fought against it with all 
 their strength. 
 
 Among those who worked for annexation none were more 
 active and earnest than James K. Polk. I do not fancy that 
 he thought this would help him much. He simply thought it 
 was the right thing to do. But it did help him a great deal, 
 for it made him President of the United States. When the 
 time for the election of 1844 came on, the Democrats took him 
 up for their candidate for the Presidency. "Old Hickory" 
 was still a great power in American politics and gave him 
 much help in getting the nomination. Henry Clay, the great 
 Southern orator, was the Whig candidate. Everybody thought 
 he would be elected ; but he did not want Texas annexed, 
 and that lost him many votes, so that Polk was elected by a 
 small majority. 
 
 On his way from Nashville to the Capital, the new Presi- 
 dent traveled part way by steamer and the rest of the way by 
 stage. There were railroads in those days, but they were very 
 few. It was during President Polk's term of office that we 
 had the war with Mexico on account of the admission of 
 Texas to the United States. The hero ot this war was 
 General Zachary Taylor, who afterward became President, 
 and when you read of his life you will learn more about it. 
 At the end of the war the United States acquired a large ter- 
 ritory, which included in addition to Texas, all of California, 
 Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. All this territory, equal 
 to many times the size of the States of Pennsylvania or New 
 York, was obtained from Mexico. 
 
 Mr. Polk served only one term as President, and was 
 succeeded by General Zachary Taylor. As the 4th of March, 
 the day on which the inaugural ceremonies are held, fell on 
 Sunday, they were held on Monday, March 5th. Mr. Polk 
 
136 JAMES KNOX POLK 
 
 and General Taylor rode to the Capitol in the same carriage, 
 as was customary, and the same evening Mr. Polk returned 
 to his home in Tennessee. 
 
 On his way south the late President was met everywhere 
 with the greatest enthusiasm, and the large cities gave him 
 receptions. He passed through Wilmington, Charleston, 
 Savannah, ^nd New Orleans, in each of which he had a grand 
 ovation. He made his home in Nashville, Tennessee, where 
 he had bought a beautiful mansion, but he did not live long 
 to enjoy the rest he so well deserved. Cholera was in the air 
 that summer, and he became one of the victims of the subtle 
 disease. He had seemed well, and could be seen every day 
 about his dwelling giving directions for improvements. He 
 appeared erect and healthful and with an activity of manner 
 which gave promise of a long life. He was but fifty-four 
 years of age, and only his flowing gray locks made him look 
 beyond the middle age of life. Yet he had felt symptoms of 
 the prevailing disease when coming up the Mississippi River, 
 and soon after his return home became suddenly ill. In a 
 few days afterward he died. 
 
 Kneeling at his bedside as he passed away was his aged 
 mother, who offered up a beautiful prayer to the Lord of lords 
 and the King of kings committing the soul of her son to his 
 heavenly keeping. He died on June 15, 1849. 
 
ZACHARY TAYLOR 
 
 THE TWELFTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 "OLD ROUGH AND RE3ADT." 
 
 " Old Rough and Ready " was 
 what the soldiers called Zachary Tay- 
 lor when he was fighting the battles 
 of the United States in the war with 
 Mexico. He was not a tall, hand- 
 some soldier, like General Scott, who 
 fought in the same war, but short 
 and dumpy, with a blunt, plain face. 
 But anybody could see that he was 
 kind and honest, and he was brave 
 as a lion. He was just what the sol- 
 diers called him. He could be rough, 
 but he was always ready. 
 "General Taylor never surrenders," he said, when Santa 
 Anna, with his twenty thousand trained Mexican troops, sent 
 word to him to surrender with his feeble five thousand. 
 
 Then he rode along the ranks and said to his men, 
 " Soldiers, I intend to stay here, not only as long as a man 
 remains, but as long as 2i piece of a man is left." 
 
 That is the kind of man that wins battles. And Santa 
 Anna learned that when his twenty-five thousand were put to 
 flight by the five thousand Americans at Buena Vista. 
 
 Zachary Taylor was born in Virginia, though he lived 
 most of his life in Kentucky and Louisiana. He was born on 
 
 9 137 
 
 ZACHARY TAYLOR. 
 
tgS ZACHARY TAYLOR 
 
 the 20th of November, 1 784, the year after the treaty of peace 
 with England brought the war of the Revolution to an end. 
 His father, Colonel Richard Taylor, had fought in that war 
 and was greatly admired by his friends and neighbors for his 
 patriotism and bravery. Like many people even in the 
 present day who have small families, and desire to obtain 
 more land and have greater opportunities to make money, he 
 decided to move west. Zachary was only a baby when the 
 old home in Virginia was left, and the father, mother, and 
 three children set out on their long journey through the wil- 
 derness to Kentucky, which was then a wild and dangerous 
 land, with few people except savage Indians. Daniel Boone, 
 the famous Indian fighter, was still there. 
 
 Mr. Taylor settled down in the blue-grass country a few 
 miles from where the city of Louisville now stands. He built 
 a rude cottage, and began to clear the ground for his farm. 
 There were no school-houses near, and so young Zachary had 
 very limited opportunities to acquire an education. He began 
 to go to school when six years old, attending only a few 
 months in the year a school held in a log cabin quite a dis- 
 tance from his home. He was known as a bright, active boy 
 who had a mind of his own. He was as brave as a boy could 
 be, was afraid neither of wild animals nor Indians, and learned 
 learned to rely upon himself and to defend the weak. 
 
 Very early he showed a strong desire to go into the army 
 and fight the Indians, who were at that time making attacks 
 upon the frontier towns, burning the farm-houses and killing 
 the people. Knowing his son's desire to enter the army, his 
 father, who was now a man of influence in the new State of 
 Kentucky, succeeded in getting for him a commission, and he 
 was appointed a lieutenant in the regular United States army. 
 He was sent to New Orleans to join the troops stationed 
 
ZACHARY TAYLOR 139 
 
 there under General Wilkinson. Young Taylor was then 
 twenty-four years of age. 
 
 You will remember, from what I have said in previous 
 stories, that the United States had a second war with Great 
 Britain in 18 12. For two or three years before this there were 
 quarrels between the two countries, for the British interfered 
 greatly with American ships and sailors. The English officers 
 in Canada were doing their best to rouse the Indians against 
 us, though they knew very well the dreadful way the Indians 
 dealt with the white people. 
 
 By the time war broke out, Zachary Taylor had been pro- 
 moted, and was now called Captain Taylor. He was put in 
 command of Fort Harrison on the Wabash River. This fort, 
 which had been built by General Harrison before the battle of 
 Tippecanoe, was only a row of log huts and high pickets, with 
 a block-house at each end. It had for its guard a small com- 
 pany of foot soldiers numbering about fifty men. 
 
 One night, soon after Captain Taylor took command, the 
 Indians crept up stealthily in large numbers upon the fort. It 
 was midnight when the soldiers in the fort were roused by 
 the fearful war-whoop and the wild yells of the savage war- 
 riors. But Captain Taylor was not taken by surprise, and his 
 men were on the alert. They knew that if the fort was taken 
 every being captured in it would be put to death with the 
 greatest torture. 
 
 I wish I could paint for you the scene. It is really too 
 awful to attempt. The Indians set fire to one of the cabins 
 where there was a large amount of whiskey stored. The 
 sheets of flame rising up made the sky as bright as day, 
 bringing into clear view the surrounding woods and fields. 
 As the soldiers and the women and children looked out from 
 their cabins, they saw the dancing savages, the blaze of the 
 
I40 ZACHARY TAYLOR 
 
 fire, and everything calculated to strike terror to the bravest 
 heart. But no one thought of surrender. The few men in 
 the fort, invalids and all, fought with splendid courage, keep- 
 ing up the fight until six o'clock in the morning, when the 
 savages, howling with rage, disappeared in the wilderness. 
 
 In 1836 the Government sent Colonel Taylor to Florida 
 to make the Seminole Indians move from that territory across 
 the Mississippi, as their chiefs had promised they would do. 
 As they refused to move, Colonel Taylor was told either to 
 make them move or capture them. It was a disagreeable 
 duty, for the Indians had been very badly treated by the 
 whites. But he was a soldier and it was his business to do 
 what he was ordered. The Indians had built a fort for them- 
 selves on an island in the swamps around Lake Okeechobee. 
 In order to get at them Taylor had to march through a wild 
 country which had no roads or paths, and for nearly one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles his little army of one thousand men had 
 to cut down trees, build bridges, wade across streams, and 
 sleep on the wet ground. They had to carry their own pro- 
 visions, and often marched under the greatest difficulties. 
 
 The Indians were hard to catch. They could run like so 
 many deer, and, knowing all the country round, they could 
 easily keep out of the way of the soldiers. Finally Colonel 
 Taylor found them in their stronghold on Lake Okeechobee. 
 He ordered his soldiers to rush upon them, and try to dri\e 
 them out. This was not easy to do. At first the soldiers 
 were driven back by the Indians, but they finally attacked 
 them from another side, drove them out from their strong 
 place and killed a great number. The remainder of the 
 Indians surrendered and consented to move to the region 
 where the Government wanted them to go. 
 
 For his skill and courage in conducting this war against 
 
ZACHARY TAYLOR 
 
 141 
 
 the poor Seminole Indians, Colonel Taylor was promoted 
 again and made Brigadier-General. He spent two years more 
 in Florida, and then was put in charge of the department of 
 the Southwest, which took in the States from Georgia to 
 Louisiana. He bought a plantation near Baton Rouge, in 
 
 OSCEOLA-S INDIGNATION. 
 
 Osceola, the Seminole chief, drew his hunting knife and drove it through the treaty which some of his fellow 
 
 chiefs bad signedp and thus started the Seminole war, 1832, in which General Tavlor was engaged. 
 
 Louisiana, moved his family there, and saw his wife's eyes 
 grow glad as they rested on the fair southern landscape, with 
 its carpet of flowers. Here he had a true home at last, and 
 here he lived nearly five years. At the end of that time a 
 new war broke out in which General Taylor was one of the 
 leading generals, and had an opportunity of winning the 
 
142 ZACHARY TAYLOR 
 
 renown which finally brought him to the Presidency. This 
 was the war with Mexico. 
 
 General Taylor, who was at that time at New Orleans, 
 was ordered to march with the force under his command into 
 Texas, and take up a position on the banks of the Rio Grande 
 River. This the Texans claimed as their western boundary, 
 while the Mexicans said the boundary was on the Neuces 
 River, which was a hundred miles or more furthei east. 
 
 General Taylor was a soldier, and knew that it was his 
 business to obey orders. Although he did not think there 
 was a good cause for war, he did as he was directed, and 
 marched his troops to the Rio Grande. Mexican troops had 
 crossed this river and soon there was fighting. This was fol- 
 lowed by a declaration of war. General Taylor won two 
 small victories on Texas soil and then crossed the Rio Grande 
 into Mexico. He had been given the thanks of Congress and 
 been made a Major-General for the victories already won. 
 
 The most famous battle in which General Taylor was 
 engaged was the battle of Buena Vista. There he met the 
 Mexican General Santa Anna. He had only about 5000 
 men, while the Mexicans had about 20,000. They were 
 in the mountains, where Taylor selected a good position for 
 his army, and drew them up to the best possible advantage. 
 Anxiously the soldiers awaited the approach of the Mexicans, 
 who could be seen coming amid great clouds of dust. Every- 
 body watched the face of the commanding officer. Some one 
 told General Taylor that a Mexican with a flag of truce wished 
 to see him. It was a messenger from Santa Anna telling 
 General Taylor that he had 20,000 troops and asking him to 
 surrender. You have already been told the bold answer 
 which the blunt soldier sent back, and what he said to his sol- 
 diers. You may be sure they cheered him warmly as he rode 
 
ZACHARY TAYLOR 143 
 
 along their ranks on his old white horse and In his rusty 
 uniform. 
 
 When the battle was hottest, and the Mexicans were 
 coming on very boldly, General Taylor rode up to a captain 
 of artillery and quietly said, " Captain Bragg, give them a 
 little more grape." By this he meant that Captain Bragg 
 should load his cannon with fine shot and drive back the 
 enemy. And that was what the captain did, driving the 
 Mexicans back in dismay. 
 
 It was a fearful battle, and at the close of the day over 700 
 of the American soldiers were killed or wounded, and nearly 
 three times as many Mexicans. Many a time that day it was 
 doubtful which side would win ; but finally General Taylor's 
 little band won the victory over Santa Anna's great army of 
 20,000 men. This victory caused the wildest enthusiasm 
 throughout the United States. Everybody praised General 
 Taylor as one of the greatest of soldiers. 
 
 Soon after this came the time for nominating a man for 
 the Presidency to succeed President Polk. The Whig party 
 thought that it was a good opportunity to take advantage of 
 the popularity of General Taylor, and he was nominated for 
 the Presidency. When he heard of it he said he would not 
 consent to such a thing, declaring that he was only a soldier 
 and was not fit to be President. For nearly forty years he 
 had not cast a vote. There were many distinguished men 
 who wanted the honor, and who had rendered their country 
 valuable services, and these, of course, were sorely disap- 
 pointed when General Taylor was nominated for the Presi- 
 dency. 
 
 General Taylor had been given very little education. He 
 did not know much of the ways of the world nor the history 
 of different countries. Like every one else who undertakes 
 
144 ZACHAR Y TA YLOR 
 
 something that he does not know much about, it caused him 
 a great deal of worry when he found that he was elected 
 President over two other candidates, Martin van Buren, who 
 already had served one term as President, and General Cass. 
 
 However, his friends helped him write his speeches and 
 prepare his public documents. When he went into office he 
 found the people were very much agitated over the slavery 
 question, and those who were opposed to slavery were very 
 bitter against those who were for it. This gave much trouble 
 to the poor. President, who knew nothing about politics 
 or the great national questions. It was easier for him to 
 fight a battle than to try to please the different parties. All 
 this worried him greatly and no doubt hastened his death. 
 At any rate, he had not been in office much over a year before 
 he took a severe cold, and after a brief illness of five days 
 died July 5, 1850. His last words were: "I am not afraid to 
 die. I am ready. I have endeavored to do my duty.'' He 
 was the second President who had died in office. The people 
 loved him dearly and respected him for his honesty. 
 
 So the kindly, honest, faithful old soldier, well named 
 " Rough and Ready," left the world. Simple in his habits, 
 kind-hearted, and true to his friends, brave as a lion before 
 the enemy, and eager to do his duty in every position in life, 
 his country had rewarded him with the highest honor it could 
 bestow. But the weight of his new duties were too heavy for 
 the old soldier, and soon he laid his high office down as 
 another old soldier had done nine years before. 
 
MILLARD FILLMORE 
 
 THE THIRTEENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE SECOND-HAND PRESIDENT. 
 
 As far away as 1723 we come 
 across a man named Fillmore who 
 did a brave and daring deed. He 
 was a fisherman, and the sloop in. 
 which he sailed was taken by a 
 pirate vessel. A fine, strong sea- 
 man was Fillmore, and the pirate 
 captain took him for one of his 
 crew. But he refused to be a 
 pirate, and he was treated harshly 
 and cruelly. In the end, after 
 several months, he and two others 
 rose against the pirates wfien they 
 were all drunk, killed four of them, and brought six others 
 into Boston harbor. They were all hung, and the gun and 
 sword, the gold rings and silver shoe buckles and other 
 things, of the pirate captain were given as rewards to John 
 Fillmore. 
 
 He had a son named Nathaniel, to whom, in time, he 
 left the pirate captain's silver-hilted sword and other relics. 
 Nathaniel went into the wilderness and made himself a home 
 near what is now Bennington, in the State of Vermont. He 
 fought against the red men in the French and Indian War. 
 In the Revolution he was one of General Stark's Green 
 
 145 
 
 MILLARD FILLMORE. 
 
146 MILLARD FILLMORE 
 
 Mountain Boys. He was a lieutenant at the battle of Ben- 
 nington. He lived till the end of the war of 1812. 
 
 His son, also named Nathaniel, left Vermont for the wil- 
 derness of western New York, and built himself a home near 
 what is called Sumners Hill, in Cayuga County. Here his 
 son Millard was born on January 7, 1800. It was a humble 
 home to which the boy came. There was little chance for an 
 education or any other advantage. He got a little schooling, 
 of the poorest kind, and certainly did not do much reading, 
 for there were only two books in the house, one of them a 
 Bible and the other a hymn-book. But the child was a merry, 
 good-tempered little fellow, who did not shed any tears for 
 the want of books, and no doubt had a good time at play. 
 
 He had some hard work to do on the farm, but it was a 
 poor bit of ground, and the father thought that his son ought 
 to learn a better business. So when the boy was fourteen he 
 was sent to a place a hundred miles from home. Here he 
 was to try his hand for a few months, at "carding wool and 
 dressing cloth." 
 
 Young Fillmore did not take to the business, nor to his 
 Ti aster either, for he was hard and severe. But he stayed out 
 nis months, and then he shouldered his knapsack and started 
 out on foot through the wilderness for home, a hundred miles 
 away. You may see from this that he was a boy of great 
 pluck and energy. 
 
 After he got home he went as apprentice to a place near 
 by to learn the cloth and clothing business. The boy now 
 began to show that he had a mind of his own. As soon as 
 he got a little money he bought a small English dictionary, 
 which he studied while at work. And there was a small 
 library in the village whose books he eagerly read. In that 
 way he got to know a great deal about history and other things. 
 
MILLARD FILLMORE 147 
 
 He grew to be a very handsome youth, and showed 
 already much grace and polish of manner. His reading had 
 roused in him a new ambition, and a rich lawyer near by 
 advised him to study law, and offered him the use of his own 
 office and his law books. The boy jumped at the chance. 
 He had three years still to serve at his trade, but he bought 
 out the balance of the time from his master, giving him his 
 note instead of money, and promising to pay it out of the 
 money he might earn as a lawyer. So we see the growing 
 statesman launched at nineteen in the study of the law. 
 
 When he was twenty-one he went to Buffalo and there 
 got into a good law office where he had an excellent chance. 
 He paid his way by teaching school. You may see that the 
 Bible and hymn-book in his father's home and the library in 
 the village had borne good fruit. He was twenty-three years 
 old when he began to practice law. He settled in the pretty 
 little village of Aurora, and won his first suit, for which he 
 was paid four dollars. Very likely he felt quite rich with his 
 first earnings in his pocket. 
 
 In three years he was making money enough ,to get 
 married, and chose for his wife Mrs. Abigail Powers, a clergy- 
 man's daughter, and a young lady of fine character and much 
 good sense. Three years later he moved to Buffalo, where 
 he began a prosperous practice. But certainly there was 
 nothing in his life up to that time to show that, in little more 
 than twenty years later on, he would be President of the 
 United States. 
 
 Yet he now began to make his way in politics. He was 
 sent to the Legislature and made some good speeches there. 
 In 1832 he was elected to Congress. He continued to serve 
 in Congress for three terms with an intermission. He was 
 elected as Governor of his State and served with honor. 
 
148 MILLARD FILLMORH 
 
 A new and much greater honor was in waiting for him. 
 In 1844, when the Whig party had its National Convention, 
 the members for New York spoke of Millard Fillmore for 
 Vice-President. In 1848, when Zachary Taylor, the old hero 
 fresh from victory in Mexico, was named by the Whigs for 
 President, Millard Fillmore was named for Vice-President 
 The old soldier was a slave-holder, and it was thought the 
 Northern lawyer would win many votes that might be lost. 
 So the rugged Southern warrior and the polished Northern 
 lawyer, were harnessed together and went briskly to the win- 
 ning post. Taylor was elected President and Fillmore Vice- 
 President of the United States. 
 
 Sixteen months passed by and the soldier President went 
 to a soldier's grave. The Buffalo lawyer was President. 
 Fortune had come to his side. As in the case of Tyler, he 
 had risen to an honor which he probably never could have 
 reached if death had not cleared the way for him. 
 
 You will be interested in an amusing little anecdote of 
 President Fillmore. Soon after he took the oath of office he 
 concluded that he must have a new carriage. He was told 
 of one that could be bought, belonging to a gentleman who 
 was about to leave Washington. There was about the White 
 House an old Irish servant named Edward Moran, who was 
 full of ready wit and had been much liked by President Taylor. 
 The old chap did not quite approve of the change that had 
 been made in Presidents. 
 
 When Fillmore went to look at the carriage he took 
 "Old Edward" with him. They inspected it closely and con- 
 cluded it would do. 
 
 "This is all very well, Edward," said the President, with 
 a smile, "but how will it do for the President of the United 
 States to ride in a second-hand carriage ? " 
 
MILLARD FILLMORE 149 
 
 "Sure that's all right, your Honor," said the old man, 
 with a twinkling eye. " You're ovvnly a sicond hand Prisi- 
 dent, you know." 
 
 Did Fillmore get angry at this remark ? Not he. He 
 was good-natured enough to laugh at it heartily, and he told 
 it in after years as a good joke. 
 
 After leaving the Presidential chair, Mr. Fillmore spent 
 much of the remainder of his life among his books and his 
 friends. He visited Europe two years afterward and had a 
 flattering reception. And after he came home the " Know 
 Nothing" party nominated him for President, but he carried 
 only one State, the State of Maryland. 
 
 We cannot end without a word for Mrs. Fillmore. For 
 a woman of her quiet habits and delicate health the duties of 
 her position as mistress of the White House had been very 
 trying. One serious deficiency she found. She was a great 
 reader and the White House was nearly empty of books. To 
 please her. Congress was asked to make an appropriation for 
 a library. This was the beginning of the fine library which is 
 now to be seen there. Her husband's term as President 
 ended in March, 1853, and she died in the same month. Soon 
 after her only daughter followed her to the grave. 
 
 Mr. Fillmore married again, his second wife being a Miss 
 Mcintosh of Buffalo. After that his life moved on serenely. 
 The Civil War came and went, but he took no part and had 
 not a word to say. Many thought that his sympathies were 
 with the South. But he had sunk out of the channel of poli- 
 tics, and neither party troubled itself about what he might say 
 or think. He lived on at his handsome home in Buffalo, amid 
 his friends and his books, and died there on March 8, 1874, 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE 
 
 THE FOURTEENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 "THE NEW HAMPSHIRE MAN." 
 
 I do not think there are many of 
 my readers who have not read the 
 story of the famous ride of Paul 
 Revere, on that historic night of April 
 1 8, 1775, when the British were 
 marching from Boston to Lexington 
 and Concord. As he rode along- he 
 gave warning to the people that the 
 British troops were coming, and 
 many a patriot began to put his gun 
 in order for the coming fight. 
 
 Other messengers than Paul 
 Revere were sent out by the patriots 
 of Boston, and rode to the north, the west and the south, 
 stopping before every farm house and in every hamlet to 
 shout out the news they brought. They told the story of the 
 shots at Lexington and the fight at Concord, and on every 
 side farmers and farmers' boys seized their muskets and with 
 stern faces took the road to Boston. 
 
 Among these was a strong and hardy young fellow of 
 
 seventeen, a boy in years but a man in spirit. With his 
 
 father's old gun over his shoulder and his powder horn by his 
 
 side, he trudged resolutely onward to Boston, and here he 
 
 150 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE 151 
 
 soon distinguished himself by the brave way in which he 
 fought at Bunker Hill. He fought as well in other fields, and 
 when the war ended and the old Continentals were disbanded, 
 Benjamin Pierce — for that was his name — was mustered out 
 with the full rank of captain and with two hundred dollars in 
 his pocket, which was all the Government had to pay him. 
 
 The boy of seventeen was now a man, and a strong and 
 vigorous one. He had been brought up a farmer and decided 
 that he must have a farm. So he set out north, looking for 
 good and cheap land, and one day found a place to his liking, 
 with plenty of water and good soil. It was in the State of 
 New Hampshire, near the present town of Hillsborough. 
 
 After some hunting he found the owner in a log hut with 
 a small clearing around it. 
 
 "Would you like to sell this land?" he asked. 
 
 " Don't keer much if I do," said the backwoodsman. 
 
 "How much is there of it?" 
 
 "A good hundred and fifty acres and this patch of it 
 cleared." 
 
 "Well, I'll give you a hundred and fifty dollars for it." 
 
 The frontiersman, who wanted to go deeper into the 
 wilderness, as all frontiersmen did, took the offer, and for 
 one dollar an acre, with log-house and clearing thrown in, 
 Benjamin Pierce got his farm. 
 
 He soon cleared and added to it ; other settlers came ; farms 
 were opened around him ; villages grew up ; it became quite 
 a settlement, and in this Captain Pierce was the leading man. 
 He was a bluff, hearty, kind-hearted man, liberal and hospita- 
 ble, and won wide esteem in New Hampshire. He was made 
 a general in the militia, was sent to the Legislature, was 
 elected sheriff of his county, and in 1827 and again in 1829, 
 was made governor of the State. 
 
1 5 2 FRANKLIN PIERCE 
 
 He married early and had eight children, five sons and 
 three daughters. It is with one of these sons that we have to 
 do, Franklin Pierce, born at Hillsborough, November 22, 
 1804. He was a boy after his father's heart, full of spirit, fond 
 of fun and of out-door sport, and a favorite with all who knew 
 him. He had plenty of schooling, ending his education in 
 Bowdoin College. Here he grew very popular in his class, 
 but likely not with his teachers, for he wasted two years of his 
 time in idleness and dissipation. The college boys formed a 
 military company and made him the captain, and he cut up 
 such lawless pranks with his company that he came near 
 being sent home in disgrace. 
 
 But he made a good friend of Zenas Caldwell, a studious 
 and religious boy, who gained such influence over wild Frank- 
 lin Pierce, that the young rebel began to study hard to make 
 up for lost time, and he graduated with fair honor. Among 
 his schoolmates were John P. Hale, who became well known 
 as a United States Senator, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, the 
 famous novelist, who was a private in his military company. 
 
 With all his wildness, Franklin Pierce was a loivable. 
 boy, a favorite with everybody. He had a natural courtesy 
 and a grace of speech and manner which won him friends on 
 all sides. These qualities clung to him through life. 
 
 When he left college he studied law, as did so many who 
 were to become Presidents. He became a good lawyer, 
 though he lost his first case. But he showed his spirit by 
 saying, " I will try nine hundred and ninety-nine cases, if 
 clients trust me ; and if I fail, as I have to-day, I will try the 
 thousandth." Men like that do not fail. 
 
 Young Pierce soon became an active politician. In those 
 days New England was a centre of political excitement. His 
 father was an ardent believer in Thomas Jefferson and his 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE 153 
 
 party, and the boy followed in his footsteps. He became a 
 Democrat in grain. He was elected or appointed to many 
 offices of trust and honor, serving in the Legislature of his own 
 State and in both Houses of Congress. 
 
 Franklin Pierce married in 1834, his wife being Jane 
 Means Appleton, the daughter of a President of Bowdoin Col- 
 lege. She was a young lady of fine intelligence and estima- 
 ble character, but highly sensitive in organization, which was 
 due to her delicate health. They made a happy and har- 
 monious pair, for he was deeply devoted to her, and he seemed 
 to prefer to live at home and attend to his law business, to 
 holding any office. 
 
 But now came an event that took him from home. 
 When Texas asked to be admitted to the Union, and the 
 country was divided on that question. Pierce, like a good 
 Democrat, and a strong opponent of the Anti-slavery party, 
 was warm in its favor. He even declared that if it should 
 bring on war with Mexico he was ready to enlist as a private 
 in a Concord company. That was a very modest start, 
 but soon after the President appointed him colonel of a 
 regiment, and before he got to Mexico he was made Brigadier- 
 General. Don't you think that was going up pretty rapidly, 
 from private to general before he had seen a shot fired ? 
 
 At the battle of Contreras his horse got frightened and 
 threw him heavily among some rocks. He was severely hurt, 
 but stayed with his men. The next day, when he attempted 
 to march as usual, he fainted from his hurt. This was 
 brought up against him when he ran for the Presidency, and 
 some Tigly things were said, but General Grant, who was there, 
 says that he showed himself a brave man and a gentleman. 
 
 Soon after that the war ended and he came home. The 
 people of Concord gave him a hearty reception and the 
 10 ^ 
 
154 FRANKLIN PIERCE 
 
 Legislature voted him a sword of honor. He went back to his 
 practice, but he kept up his interest in politics. And he was 
 so strong a Democrat and an upholder of slavery' that the 
 people of the South looked on him as one of their special 
 friends, a Northern man with Southern principles. 
 
 Time went on. General Taylor was elected President. 
 He died and Fillmore took his place. Then came 1852 and 
 a new election was at hand. The Whigs had won in 1848, 
 but they were very weak now, and the Democrats were in the 
 lead. When the Democratic National Convention met, the 
 names of many statesmen were brought before it. There were 
 Lewis Cass, James Buchanan, William L. Marcy, Stephen A. 
 Douglas, Samuel Houston, and a dozen others. For four 
 days the balloting went on, but no one got enough votes. 
 
 Then, on the fourth day, some one cast a vote for General 
 Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire. That took well, espe- 
 cially with the delegates from the South, and soon he had the 
 States of New Hampshire and Virginia in his favor. After a 
 dozen more ballots all opposition went down, and he was 
 unanimously nominated for President. 
 
 No man in the country was more surprised than himself. 
 He did not dream of such a thing. A friend met him when 
 he was out driving in his carriage, and shouted out to him : 
 
 " General, have you heard the news from Baltimore ? " 
 
 "No," said Pierce in a quiet tone. "Who is nominated?" 
 
 " General Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire. Let me 
 congratulate you." 
 
 "I nominated? Well, you could not congratulate a 
 more astonished man." 
 
 The nomination was sure to be an election, for the Whigs 
 had grown very wealc. They carried only four States. Twenty- 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE 155 
 
 seven went for the Democrats, and Franklin Pierce was Presi- 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 He had a stormy time before him. The Missouri Com- 
 promise was repealed and the territories left open for slavery. 
 Then the fight in Kansas came on and blood was shed in the 
 slavery contest. The President's sympathy was with the pro- 
 slavery party, but the anti-slavery feeling in the North gradu- 
 ally got together in the new Republican party, which was soon 
 to gain a great victory. The country was very prosperous 
 during his four years in office, and all looked well for the 
 Democracy in 1856, when James Buchanan was elected to 
 succeed Franklin Pierce. 
 
 When Pierce left Washington in 1857, he went to a 
 childless home. The last of his children, a bright boy of thir- 
 teen, had been killed in a railroad accident in 1852. His wife, 
 too, was growing more feeble. He traveled in Europe for 
 her health, but she gradually sank, and died in 1863. 
 
 Once more Franklin Pierce's voice was heard strongly 
 and earnestly before the people. In 1861, when volunteers 
 were gathering in Concord, Pierce, the Democratic ex-Presi- 
 dent, made a ringing war speech at a great mass-meeting, 
 calling on the people to rally for the Union. He lived to see 
 its end, dying quietly and peacefully, on October 8, 1869. 
 
JAMES BUCHANAN 
 
 THE FIFTEENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE MAN PROM WHEATLAND. 
 
 In 1783, the year in which the 
 American Revolution ended, James 
 Buchanan, a young Scotch-Irish far- 
 mer from the County of Donegal, 
 landed in Philadelphia. He had 
 come to make his home in the land 
 of promise beyond the seas. After 
 looking around him for a good loca- 
 tion, he settled at a place with the 
 queer name of Stony Butter, " in a 
 mountain gorge at the foot of the 
 eastern ridge of the Alleghanies." 
 Here he got a position in a store, and 
 did so well that in five years he had a store of his own — and 
 a wife, too, for he got married that year. In 1791, on April 
 23d, his first son was born, and was given his own name, that 
 of James Buchanan. It was a name that he would make 
 widely and well known. 
 
 Young James was a boy of promise and a good student. 
 At fourteen he was ready to enter Dickinson College, in Car- 
 lisle, Pennsylvania. He graduated at the head of his class. 
 Then he studied law, and in 181 2, when he was twenty-one 
 years old, was admitted to the bar. 
 156 
 
 JAMES BUCHANAN. 
 
JAMES BUCHANAN 157 
 
 In 1 814 there came an exciting time, when the British 
 plundered and burned Washington. The people were furious 
 when they heard of it. A great meeting was held at Lan- 
 caster, in Pennsylvania, and a young lawyer, who had never 
 made a public speech, now burst out in an address full of fire 
 and patriotic spirit. His name was James Buchanan. As 
 soon as he was done speaking he volunteered in a company 
 that was organized on the spot. They got out their horses, 
 called themselves dragoons, and rode away for Baltimore ; 
 but the British were gone before they got there, and they 
 were discharged with honor. 
 
 Young Buchanan's fiery speech made him very popular 
 in Lancaster, and he was elected soon after to the Pennsyl- 
 vania Legislature. Here he made another ardent speech, 
 demanding that soldiers should be enlisted for the war and 
 properly supported. He said that Congress had not done its 
 duty, and the people must take the matter in their own hands. 
 
 He did not know then that the war was at an end and a 
 treaty of peace signed. At any rate, what he said was to the 
 point and made him very prominent in the House. 
 
 From that time the Lancaster lawyer went on rapidly. 
 His law business grew fast, and he was looked on as one of 
 the leading lawyers of the State. He was sent twice to the 
 Legislature and in 1820 was elected to Congress. Here he 
 remained for ten years, his political feelings changing frorti a 
 Federalist until he became a strong Democrat. 
 
 Now let us go back to his home affairs. All our Presi- 
 dents have had their love stories, and Buchanan had his. 
 But his was a very sad one. He fell in love in 181 8 with a 
 beautiful girl, Anne C. Coleman, the daughter of a wealthy 
 citizen of Lancaster. They were betrothed, and all went hap- 
 pily till the summer of 18 19, when a letter came from her, 
 
158 /AMES BUCHANAN 
 
 breaking off the engagement, and nearly breaking his heart 
 Some evil tongue had made sad mischief between the lovers. 
 
 Whatever the trouble, the lady refused to be reconciled, 
 and a few months afterward, while on a visit to Philadelphia, 
 she suddenly died. The shock was a great one to Buchanan, 
 who loved her dearly. " My prospects are all cut off," he 
 wrote to her father, " and I feel that my happiness is buried 
 with her in the grave. The time will come when you will 
 discover that she, as well as I, have been much abused. God 
 forgive the authors of it." It was his last love affair, and he 
 lived and died unwedded. 
 
 In the famous Presidential election of 1824, Buchanan 
 used all his influence in favor of General Jackson for the 
 Presidency. The old hero of New Orleans never forgot his 
 friends, and when, four years later, he won his seat, he repaid 
 Buchanan by making him United States Minister to Russia. 
 
 Buchanan was just the man for the place. He was 
 refined, courteous and polished, knew how to yield gracefully 
 when it was wise to do so, and was of a disposition and 
 manner that fitted him for the associations of court life. He 
 obtained a treaty of commerce from Russia, and won the 
 favor of the Czar, who asked him, when the time came to 
 leave, " to tell President Jackson to send him another minister 
 like himself" 
 
 When he came home in 1834 he was elected to one 
 of the highest offices in the gift of the people, that of Senator 
 of the United States. He had now become a decided Demo- 
 crat and a strong advocate of State-rights. In 1 844 James K. 
 Polk was made President, and in forming his Cabinet he chose 
 Mr. Buchanan for the most important office in it, that of Sec- 
 retary of State. 
 
 The name of James Buchanan was first brought up for 
 
/AMES BUCHANAN 159 
 
 President in 1852. But it was one among more than a dozen, 
 and as no one was strong enough to beat the others, a new 
 name, that of Franklin Pierce, was brought up and carried 
 through. When the new President came into office, he 
 appointed Buchanan minister to England. 
 
 The courtly Pennsylvanian was well received at the Court 
 of St. James ; but he had his troubles, for a question arose 
 that made some annoyance for the ministers abroad and some 
 fun for the journalists of the United States. Up to this time 
 our ministers had worn a simple uniform which complied with 
 the court dress regulations in Europe. But now Mr. Marcy, 
 the new Secretary of State, sent them word that they must 
 appear "iij the simple dress of an American citizen." 
 
 What was this "simple dress?" One writer said it 
 must mean war paint and leggings, with feathers, perhaps. 
 Another suggested a red shirt and tow trousers. Those who 
 had been military officers put on their uniform. Some kep1 
 away from court. Minister Buchanan kept away, too, for ? 
 time. Then he got over the difficulty by adding a sword to 
 his swallow-tail black suit. 
 
 It cannot be said that Buchanan enjoyed his new position 
 any too much. There were other questions to be settled — 
 ugly ones, some of them — and a good deal of bad feeling 
 arose between the two countries. For that reason he was 
 glad when the time was up and he could return home. 
 
 He was soon to be wanted for a higher post at home, 
 for when the time came in 1856 for another Presidential elec- 
 tion, it was soon seen that Mr. Buchanan was the strongest 
 man in his party, so he was nominated and elected. A terrible 
 time lay before the new President. None before him had been 
 in so desperate a strait The country was fast drifting into 
 
i6o JAMES BUCHANAN 
 
 war. It was impossible for him to stop it, and it cannot be 
 said that he made any strong efforts to do so. 
 
 Meanwhile the courtesies and amenities of the White 
 House went on as usual. President Buchanan had no wife, 
 but his beautiful and accomplished niece. Miss Harriet Lane, 
 who had been with him in London, now ably took up the 
 duties of mistress of the Presidential mansion, and performed 
 them with a grace that has never been surpassed. Among 
 those received by her was the Prince of Wales, now King 
 Edward of England. 
 
 In i860 the deluge came. The Republican party was 
 triumphant and elected its candidate, Abraham Lincoln, to 
 the Presidential chair. Now was the time for a resolute soul 
 and a strong hand in the executive office. An Andrew Jack- 
 son or a man of his kind was sadly needed. But James 
 Buchanan was utterly unfit for the exigency, and he let the 
 South drift into secession while scarcely lifting his hand to 
 hinder or prevent. 
 
 No doubt, his position was a very trying and difficult one. 
 The wisest of men would have been in doubt as to what was 
 best to do. But for a crisis like this no weaker man could 
 have been found. He helped neither North nor South ; he 
 only waited and watched, and when his successor took his 
 place he found the situation made very much worse by the 
 lack of energy in James Buchanan. 
 
 The final years of Buchanan's life were passed at his 
 home at Wheatland, near Lancaster, amid leisure, wealth and 
 affection. He saw the end of the Civil War and was glad 
 enough that the Union was preserved, though very sorry, we 
 may be sure, that he had had the misfortune to be President 
 in such perilous times. On June i, 1868, the old statesman 
 and ex-President passed away. 
 
<:-.T 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THE SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE GREAT EMANCIPATOR. 
 
 Did you ever read a fairy story 
 about a poor boy who became a 
 prince? If you would like I can 
 tell you as good a story as that — 
 a true story about a poor boy who 
 became president — and that is better 
 than being" a prince. The boy I am 
 going to speak about was as poor 
 as any one that ever lived in Amer- 
 ica ; but he rose to a grander posi- 
 tion than any prince or king ever 
 reached. Listen to the story of his 
 life. There was once a very poor 
 man who lived in a miserable little log cabin in the wild part 
 of what was then called "away out West." It was on a stony, 
 weedy hillside, at a place called Nolin's Creek, in the State 
 of Kentucky. In that log cabin, on the twelfth day of Feb- 
 ruary, in the year 1809, a little baby was born. He was 
 named Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 I don't believe you ever saw a much poorer or meaner 
 place in which to be born and brought up than that little log 
 cabin. Abraham Lincoln's father was ignorant and lazy. He 
 could not read and he hated to work. Their house had no 
 windows, it had no floor, it had none of the thing^s you have 
 
 161 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
l62 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 In your pleasant homes. In all America no baby was ever 
 born with fewer comforts and poorer surroundings than little 
 Abraham Lincoln. He grew from a baby to a homely little 
 boy, and to a homelier young man. His clothes never 
 fitted him ; he never, in all his life, went to school but one 
 year; he had to work hard, he could play but little, and 
 many a day he knew what it was to be cold and hungry ami 
 
 EARLY HOME OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, GENTRYVILLE, INDIANA 
 
 almost homeless. But with all this he had that in him which 
 makes a man great. 
 
 His father kept moving about from place to place, living 
 almost always in the wild regions. He went from Kentucky 
 to Indiana and then to Illinois. Sometimes their home would 
 be a log cabin, sometimes it was just a hut with only three 
 sides boarded up. Abraham Lincoln was a neglected and 
 forlorn little fellow. His mother died when he was only eight 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 163 
 
 years old. Then Abraham and his sister Sarah were worse 
 off than ever. But pretty soon his father married a second 
 wife, and Abraham's new mother was a good and wise woman, 
 which was a very good thing for the boy. 
 
 She took care of him and gave him new clothes ; she 
 taught him how to make the most and do the best with the few 
 things he had and the chances that came to him; she made 
 him wish for better things ; she helped him fix himself up, 
 and encouraged him to read and study. 
 
 This last was what Abraham liked most of all, and he 
 was reading and studying all the time. There were not many 
 books where he lived, but he borrowed all he could lay his hands 
 on, and read them over and over. He studied all the hard 
 things he could find books about, from arithmetic and gram- 
 mar to surveying and law. He wrote on a shingle, when he 
 could not get paper, and by the light of a log fire, when he 
 could not get candles. He worked out questions in arithme- 
 tic on the back of a wooden shovel, and when it was full of 
 figures he scraped them off and began again. He read and 
 studied in the fields, when he was not working ; on wood- 
 piles, when he was chopping wood ; or in the kitchen, rocking 
 the cradle of any baby whose father or mother had a book to 
 lend him. His favorite position for studying was to be 
 stretched out like the long boy he was, on an old chair, in 
 front of an open fire. Here he would read and write and 
 tipher, after the day's work was over, until at last he grew to 
 be one of the best scholars of all the boys round. You may 
 see from this what hard study will do, even without teachers. 
 
 Once he borrowed a book of an old farmer. It was a 
 " Life of Washington." He read it and read it again, and 
 when he was not reading it he put it safely awa)' between the 
 logs that made the wall of his log-cabin home. But one day 
 
1 64 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 there came a hard storm ; it beat against the cabin and soaked 
 in between the logs and spoiled the book. Young Abraham 
 did not try to hide the book nor get out of the trouble. He 
 never did a mean thing of that sort. He took the soaked and 
 ruined book to the old farmer, told him how it happened, and 
 asked how he could pay for it. 
 
 "Wall," said the old farmer, "'faint much account to me 
 now. You pull fodder for three days and the book is yours." 
 
 So the boy set to work, and for three days " pulled fod- 
 der" to feed the farmer's cattle. 
 
 He dried and smoothed and pressed out the "Life of 
 Washington," for it was his now. And that is the way he 
 bought his first book. 
 
 He was the strongest boy in all the country around. He 
 could mow the most, plow the deepest, split wood the best, 
 toss the farthest, run the swiftest, jump the highest and 
 wrestle the best of any boy or man in the neighborhood. 
 But though he was so strong, he was always so kind, so 
 gentle, so obliging, so just and so helpful that everybody 
 liked him, few dared to stand up against him, and all came 
 to him to get work done, settle disputes, or find help in 
 quarrels or trouble. 
 
 So he grew amid the woods and farms, to be a bright, 
 willing, obliging, active, good-natured, fun-loving boy. He 
 had to work early and late, and when he was a big boy he 
 hired out to work for the farmers. He could do anything, 
 from splitting rails for fences to rocking the baby's cradle ; or 
 from hoeing corn in the field to telling stories in the kitchen. 
 
 And how he did like to tell funny stories ! Not always 
 funny, either. For, you see, he had read so much and 
 remembered things so \Vt\\ that he could tell stories to make 
 people laugh and stories to make people think. He liked to 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 i6s 
 
 recite poetry and " speak pieces," and do all the things that 
 make a person good company for every one. He would sit 
 in front of the country store or on the counter inside and tell 
 of all the funny things he had seen, or heard, or knew. He 
 would make up poetry about the men and women of the 
 neighborhood, or 
 make a speech upon 
 things that the people 
 were interested in, 
 until all the boys and 
 girls, and the men 
 and women too, said 
 "Abe Lincoln," as 
 they called him, knew 
 everything worth 
 knowing, and was an 
 "awful smart chap." 
 He worked on 
 farms, ran a ferry- 
 boat across the river, 
 split rails for farm 
 fences, kept store, did 
 all sorts of "odd 
 jobs" for the farmers 
 and their wives, and 
 was, in fact, what we 
 call a regular "Jack 
 of all trades." And 
 all the time, though he was jolly and liked a good time, he 
 kept studying, studying, studying, until, as I have told you, 
 the people where he lived said he knew more than anybody 
 else. Some of them even said that they knew he would be 
 
 YOUNG ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 STUDYING BY THE LIGHT OF THE FIREPLACE. 
 
1 66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 President of the United States some day, he was so smart. 
 Wasn't that wonderful for a boy brought up as he was and 
 with such a father as he had ? 
 
 The work he did most of all was splitting great logs into 
 rails for fences. He could do as much as three men at this 
 work ; he was so strong. With one blow he could bury the 
 axe in the wood. Once he split enough rails for a woman to 
 pay for a suit of clothes she made him, and all the farmers 
 around liked to have "Abe Lincoln" split their rails. 
 
 He could take the heavy axe by the end of the handle 
 and hold it out straight from his shoulder. That is some- 
 thing that only a very strong-armed person can do. In fact, 
 as I have told you, he was the champion strong-boy of his 
 neighborhood, and, though he was never quarrelsome or a 
 fighter, he did enjoy a friendly wrestle. He made two trips 
 down the long Ohio and the broad Mississippi rivers to the 
 big city of New Orleans. He sailed on a clumsy, square, flat- 
 bottomed scow, called a flat-boat. Lincoln worked the for- 
 ward oar on the flat-boat, to guide the big craft through the 
 river currents and over snags. 
 
 After that Lincoln tried store-keeping. He had already 
 been a clerk in a country store ; now he set up a store of his 
 own. He was not very successful. He loved to read and 
 study better than to wait on customers, and his business was 
 not looked after very well, and he had a partner that was lazy 
 and good for nothing, and who got him into trouble. But, 
 through it all, Lincoln never did a mean or dishonest thing. 
 He paid all the debts of the store, though it took him years to 
 do this, and he could be so completely trusted to do the right 
 thing that all the people round about came to call him 
 " Honest Abe Lincoln." That's a good nick-name, isn't it ? 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 167 
 
 After Lincoln got through keeping store he was so much 
 liked by the people, arid they thought him so smart and such 
 a fine speaker, that they chose him to go to the Legislature of 
 Illinois again and again, and here he began to express in 
 many ways his disapproval of slavery. 
 
 After he served several terms in the Legislature he 
 became a lawyer — he had already been studying law, you 
 know. He was a bright, smart and successful lawyer. What 
 is better still, he was a good and honest one. He never 
 would take a case he did not believe in, and once when 
 a man came to engage him to help get some money from 
 a poor widow, Lincoln refused, and gave the man such a 
 scolding that he did not try it again. So Mr. Lincoln grew 
 to be one of the best lawyers in all that Western country. 
 
 Because he was so honest and thoughtful in speech and 
 action, Lincoln rose to be what is called an able orator and 
 statesman. He and another famous man, named Douglas, 
 looked at things differently, and they had long discussions 
 about politics and slavery. These discussions were held 
 where all the people could hear them, in big halls or out of 
 doors, and crowds of people went tc listen to them, so that 
 very soon everybody " out West " and people all over the 
 country had heard of Lincoln and Douglas. 
 
 They had much to say about slavery, which everybody 
 was then talking and thinking about. Douglas said that slave- 
 holders should have the right to take their slaves into new 
 States or Territories, and Lincoln said they should not. 
 There were two great parties in the country, the Democrats, 
 who said the same as Douglas did, and the Republicans, who 
 said the same as Lincoln, and between these parties there was 
 much bad feeling. They fought with words in Congress 
 long before they began to fight with guns in the field. 
 
iC8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 At last came a time when the people of the United States 
 were to choose a new President. And what do you think ? 
 These two men were picked out by the opposite parties to be 
 voted for by the people — Lincoln by the Republicans, and 
 Douglas by the Democrats. You may see by this that they 
 had both become famous, though they lived in a back county, 
 far " out West." 
 
 When election day came the Republicans won. The 
 poor little back-woods boy, the rail-splitter, the flat-boatman, 
 the farm-hand, was raised to the highest place over all the 
 people. Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the 
 United States. Is not that as good as the fairy story of the 
 poor boy who became a prince ? It is better, for it is true. 
 
 But there were terrible times coming, and Lincoln was 
 to be President through four years of dreadful war. For 
 the people of the South, who owned the slaves then in the 
 country, said that the Republican party wanted to rob them 
 of their slaves and that they would not live under a Republi- 
 can President. They would take their States out of the Union 
 and form a new Union of their own. 
 
 Lincoln, you may be sure, was much troubled. He 
 begged the people not to quarrel, but he said that the Union 
 must not be broken. The people of the South cared very 
 little for what he said. They tried to secede — that is, to draw 
 out of the Union — and they fired on a fort over which waved 
 the flag of the United States. That stirred up the people of 
 the North, and soon there were drilling, and marching, and 
 fighting, and the whole country was full of the spirit of war. 
 
 For four dreadful years the war went on. Many despe- 
 rate and terrible battles were fought, for each side was eager 
 to win. Neither side would give in, and brave soldiers, under 
 brave leaders, did many gallant deeds under that terrible 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 169 
 
 necessity that men call war. This war was especially dread- 
 ful, because it was like two brothers fighting with each other, 
 and you know how dreadful that must be. There are times 
 when brothers grow to hate each other more than strangers, 
 and that was the way then between the North and South. It 
 is not the way to-day, for the North and South have become 
 like true brothers again. 
 
 During all those four years of war Abraham Lincoln lived 
 in the President's house at Washington — the White House, 
 as it is called. He had but one wish — to save the Union. He 
 did not mean to let war, nor trouble, nor wicked men destroy 
 the nation that Washington had founded, if he could help it. 
 He was always ready to say, "We forgive you," if the men 
 of the South would only stop fighting and say, " We are 
 sorry." But they would not do this, much as the great, kind, 
 patient, loving President wished them to do it. 
 
 That he was kind and loving all through that terrible war 
 we know very well. War is a dreadful thing, and when it is 
 going on many hard and cruel things are done. As the 
 wounded soldiers lay in their hospitals, after some dreadful 
 battle had torn and maimed them, the good President would 
 walk through the long lines of cot-beds, talking kindly with 
 them, and would send them good things, and do everything he 
 could to relieve their sufferings and make them comfortable. 
 
 In war, too, you know, even brave soldiers often get tired 
 of the fighting and the privations and the delay, and wish to 
 go home to see their wives and children. But they cannot 
 do so, unless their captain permits. So sometimes they get 
 impatient and run away. This is called desertion, and when 
 a deserter is caught and brought back to the army he is shot. 
 
 Now President Lincoln was so loving and tender-hearted 
 that he could not bear to have any of his soldiers shot because 
 11 
 
170 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 they had tried to go home. So, where the case was not too 
 bad, he would write a paper saying the soldier must not be 
 shot. This is called a pardon, and often when a weak or 
 timid soldier was arrested and sentenced to be shot as a 
 deserter, his friends would hurry to the good President and 
 beg him to give the man a pardon. 
 
 He almost always did it. " I don't see how it will do 
 the man any good to shoot him," he would say. "Give me 
 the paper, I'll sign it," and so the deserter would go free, and 
 perhaps make a better soldier than ever, because the good 
 President had saved him. 
 
 The question of slavery kept coming up during the war. 
 Many men at the North asked Lincoln to set all the slaves in 
 the land free, but he said : "The first thing to do is to save 
 the Union ; after that we'll see about slavery." 
 
 Some of them did not like that. They said the President 
 was too slow. But he knew very well what he was about. 
 He waited patiently until the right time came. He saw that 
 the South was not willing to give in, and that something 
 must be done to show them that the North was just as deter- 
 mined as they were. So, after a great victory had been won 
 by the soldiers of the Union, Abraham Lincoln wrote a paper 
 and sent it out to the world, saying that on the first day of 
 January, 1863, all slaves in America should be free men and 
 women — what we call emancipated — and that, forever after, 
 there should be no such thing as slavery in free America. 
 
 It was a great thing to do. It was a greater thing to do 
 it just as Lincoln did it, and while the world lasts no one 
 will ever forget the Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Still the war went on. But, little by little, the South was 
 growing weaker, and at last, in the month of April, 1865, the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN T71 
 
 end came. The Southern soldiers gave up the fight. The 
 North was victorious. The Union was saved. 
 
 You may be sure that the great and good President was 
 glad. He did not think that he had done so very much. It 
 was the people who had done it all, he said. But the people 
 knew that Lincoln had been the leader and captain who had 
 led them safely through all their troubles, and they cheered 
 and praised him accordingly. As for the black people who 
 had been set free, they blessed him for saving them. 
 
 When President Lincoln at last stood in the streets of 
 Richmond, which had been the capital of the Southern States, 
 he was almost worshiped by the colored people. They 
 danced, they sang, they cried, they prayed, they called down 
 jlessings on the head of the man who had set them free. 
 They knelt at his feet, while the good President, greatly 
 noved by what he saw, bowed pleasantly to the shouting 
 throng, with tears of joy and pity rolling down his care- 
 wrinkled face. Don't you think it must have been a great and 
 blessed moment for this good and great and noble man ? But 
 it was the same all over the land. There were cheering and 
 shouting and thanksgiving everywhere for a re-united nation, 
 and even the South, weary with four years of unsuccessful 
 war, welcomed peace and quiet once more. 
 
 Then, who in all the world was greater than Abraham 
 Lincoln ? He had done it all, people said, by his wisdom, his 
 patience and his determination, and the splendid way in which 
 he had directed everything from his home in the White House. 
 
 The year before, in the midst of the war, he had been 
 elected President for the second time. "It is not safe to swap 
 horses when you are crossing a stream," he said. So the 
 people voted not to " swap horses." 
 
 Lincoln made a beautiful speech to the people when he 
 
173 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 was again made President. He spoke only of love and kind- 
 ness for the men of the South, and while he said the North 
 must fight on to the end and save the Union, they must do it 
 not hating the South, but loving it. And this is the way he 
 ended that famous speech. Remember his words, boys and 
 girls, they are glorious: "With malice toward none, with 
 charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to 
 see the right, let us finish the work we are in . . . and 
 achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves 
 and with all nations." 
 
 But, just when the war was ended, when peace came to 
 the land again ; when all men saw what a grand and noble 
 and loving and strong man the great President was ; when it 
 looked as if, after four years of worry, weariness and work, he 
 could at last rest from his labors and be happy, a wicked, 
 foolish and miserable man shot the President, behind his back. 
 And, on the morning of the fifteenth of April, in the year 1865, 
 just after the end of the war, Abraham Lincoln died. 
 
 Then how all the land mourned ! South, as well as 
 North, wept for the dead President. All the world sorrowed, 
 and men and women began to see what a great and noble 
 man had been taken from them. 
 
 The world has not got over it yet. Every year and 
 every day only make Abraham Lincoln greater, nobler, 
 mightier. No boy ever, in all the world, rose higher from 
 poor beginnings. No man who ever lived did more for the 
 world than Abraham Lincoln, the American. He saw what 
 was right, and he did it ; he knew what was true, and he said 
 it ; he felt what was just, and he kept to it. So he stands 
 to-day, for justice, truth and right. 
 
J^ii^^'^*^^^^^^' 
 
 MRS. GRANT VISITING GENERAL GRANT AT CITY POINT BELOW RICHMOND, 
 NEAR THE CLOSE OF THE WAR 
 
THE PEACE COMMISSIONERS 
 
 Three commissioners from the Confederacy suggesting lerms of Peace to President Lincoln and Secretary 
 beward in fortress Monroe, January, 1865. - 
 
ANDREW JOHNSON 
 
 THE SEVENTEENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE TAILOR WHO BECAME PRESIDENT. 
 
 There are many things which 
 have had to do with making men 
 Presidents of the United States, but 
 it was not until April, 1865, that 
 murder was one of those things. 
 In that fair month, just after the 
 Civil War came to its end, and 
 peace and happiness seemed ready 
 again to settle down upon the land, 
 the foul hand of an assassin took 
 from us one of the best Presidents 
 we had ever known, the revered 
 Abraham Lincoln. Then according 
 to law, Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President, became President. 
 He and Abraham Lincoln, who were elected together to 
 these two great offices, both began life as very poor boys. 
 Johnson began, in one way, lower than Lincoln, for he did 
 not even know how to read and write until after he was six- 
 teen years old, and by that age Lincoln had read many books 
 and was getting to be what the people called learned. 
 
 Andrew Johnson was born in the city of Raleigh, North 
 Carolina, on the 29th of September, 1808. Like Lincoln, he 
 was born in a small log-cabin. His parents belonged to that 
 class known as "poor white trash," whom even the slaves of 
 the South looked down on and despised. But his father 
 
 173 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSON. 
 
174 ANDREW JOHNSON 
 
 must have been a good and brave man, for he was drowned 
 in trying to save a friend who had fallen overboard. 
 
 Little Andrew was then only four years old. His mother 
 had to work hard to keep both of them alive, and he had to 
 help all he could, so he had no chance to go to school. He 
 was only ten years old when he was made a tailor's appren- 
 tice, and he worked hard for five years before he ever heard 
 a man read. In those days there was not much education 
 for the poor, and hardly any at all in the South. 
 
 When the ignorant prentice boy heard a man read to 
 the tailors he thought it was wonderful. It seemed to him 
 almost like magic. A strong wish came to him to do this 
 wonderful thing himself, and he got some of the men in the 
 shop to teach him his letters. He was quick to learn them, 
 for he had a very good mind. 
 
 But Andrew Johnson did not get what we may call an 
 education until he was eighteen years old, and then he oweJ 
 it to a good woman whom he made his wife. His mother anc 
 he had moved to Greenville, a small town in the mountair 
 part of Tennessee, and here he did the best thing in his lift, 
 for he met and married a bright young girl who was well 
 educated and had read a great many books. 
 
 The young couple were poor enough, but they both 
 wanted to get on in life, and the young wife, who was a very 
 attractive and ambitious girl, set herself to teaching her hus- , 
 band. She read to him while he worked at his trade, and in 
 the evenings she became an earnest teacher and he became an 
 eager pupil. In that way he soon got something of an educa- 
 tion. He had a very good memory and held on to all that 
 was read to him or that he read himself, and few boys ever 
 got along more rapidly than the poor young tailor under the 
 careful teaching of his wife. 
 
ANDREW JOHNSON i75 
 
 Young Johnson soon began to take part in affairs in his 
 town. From the first he was on the side of the poor. He 
 was one of them, and knew all they had to bear. And he 
 soon showed that he was a born orator. He could speak in 
 a sharp and fiery manner that took with all who heard it, and 
 the people who lived near gathered in numbers to hear him. 
 When he was only twenty they elected him for one of their 
 aldermen, and when he was twenty-two he was made Mayor 
 of Greenville. That was getting along very fast for the boy 
 who had first begun to read six years before. 
 
 And now we come to the story of the rapid way the 
 tailor's apprentice climbed upward. When he was twenty- 
 seven his friends, the common people, sent him to the Ten- 
 nessee Legislature, first to the House and afterward to the 
 Senate. That was not honor enough for their favorite, and 
 he was sent to Congress in 1843 ^^^d kept there for ten years. 
 In 1853 came another great lift, for he was elected Governor 
 of Tennessee. When his term was up he was elected again. 
 The tailor of Greenville was getting along famously, was 
 he not? 
 
 In fact, there was then no more popular man in the State 
 of Tennessee than Andrew Johnson. He kept doing things 
 that amazed and interested the people. He was not ashamed 
 of his early business, and here is one of the odd things he did 
 when he was Governor of Tennessee. He made with his 
 own hands a very handsome suit of clothes and sent it as a 
 present to the Governor of Kentucky, one of his old friends. 
 But the Kentucky Governor had been a blacksmith in his 
 young days, and was not ashamed of it either, so he forged 
 on the anvil a shovel and tongs and sent them to Governor 
 Johnson, saying that he " hoped they would keep alive the 
 flame of their old friendship," 
 
iie 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSON 
 
 When Johnson's second term as Governor had ended he 
 was as great a favorite as ever, and was elected to a still 
 higher office, that of Senator of the United States. This was 
 in 1857, when politics in Congress were red-hot. He was a 
 Democrat and a Southerner and might be expected to be a 
 strong advocate for the cause of the'slave-holders, but he was 
 not. While the other States of the South were leaving the 
 Union, he worked with all his strength to save Tennessee. 
 
 President Lincoln made 
 Andrew Johnson Military Gov- 
 ernor of Tennessee. He went 
 South determined to hold, by the 
 hand of authority, what had been 
 gained by the hand of war. He 
 did not mince words v/ith his 
 ^sv. enemies, but threatened to send 
 them to prison or to hang them. 
 ~ When the Mayor and Council of 
 Nashville refused to take the oath 
 of allegiance he locked them up 
 in the city jail. 
 
 Some time after that the 
 Confederate armies marched back 
 mto the State. Their coming filled many people with alarm, 
 but it did not frighten the bold Governor This is what he 
 said : " I am no military man, but any one who talks of sur- 
 rendering I will shoot." You may be sure that all this made 
 Governor Johnson very popular in the North, and that, in 
 1864, it brought him the nomination for the Vice-Presidency. 
 The greatest day and most famous speech of Andrew 
 Johnson came in October, 1864. Then, in the streets of 
 Nashville, a great assembly of colored men gathered to hear 
 
 JEFFERSON DAVIS. 
 PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERACY. 
 
ANDREW JOHNSON 177 
 
 him speak. Never did he show more fire and spirit The 
 vast audience went wild with enthusiasm. When he reached 
 the climax of his speech, and said that he would be the Moses 
 to lead them from bondage into liberty and peace, his hearers 
 broke into sobs of feeling and shouts of joy. That speech 
 went like wildfire through the North. It won him a host of 
 votes. In a week or two after he was elected Vice-President 
 of the United States. Inauguration day came on the 4th of 
 March, 1865, and six weeks later the murder of Abraham 
 Lincoln lifted Andrew Johnson to the highest place in his 
 country, that of President of the United States. Never had 
 the country known anything like the progress of these two 
 men — that of Lincoln from the lowly position of wood- 
 chopper, that of Johnson from the bench of the tailor's appren- 
 tice, to preside over one of the greatest nations of the earth 
 and make the White House at Washington their palatial home. 
 
 The war was at an end. The South, which had fought 
 with all its strength, lay conquered and prostrate before the 
 Government at Washington. To the astonishment of every- 
 body the new President did not treat the South with severity. 
 Instead of seeking to punish the rebels severely, he wished to let 
 them off without any punishment at all. He did not wait for 
 Congress to act, but at once invited them back into the Union, 
 without asking of them any security against future troubles. 
 
 The whole country stood amazed. The members of Con- 
 gress were incensed by his hasty and unwise action. When 
 they came together in December they hastened to undo all 
 that the President had done, and made it plain that the South 
 would not be brought back into the Union until the powers 
 of secession were tied hand and feet. 
 
 Then there came a war of a different kind from that in 
 the field. It was between the President and Congress. He 
 
178 ANDREW JOHNSON 
 
 went so far at length that they declared he had broken the 
 
 Constitution and must be impeached — that is, he was put on 
 trial for what were called " high crimes and misdemeanors." 
 
 Never had such a charge been brought against a Presi- 
 dent of the United States. It is to be hoped it never will be 
 again. The Senate of the United States was formed into a 
 great court, before which the President was tried as a breaker 
 of the law and a traitor to his oath. He was not convicted ; 
 it took a two-thirds vote to do that ; but he escaped by only 
 a single vote. Soon after that his term of office came to an 
 end and he was succeeded by a very different man, Ulysses 
 S. Grant, the great war general. But President Johnson had 
 many friends in the South, for his course as President had 
 pleased the Southern people highly, and six years after his 
 term as President had ended he was sent back to the Senate 
 by Tennessee. But his term was very short, for in July, 1875, 
 soon after he had returned to Tennessee from his first session 
 in Congress, he suddenly died. 
 
 No other President ever had so stormy a career as Andre\\ 
 Johnson. Yet he was a man of kindly nature and had qualities 
 which endeared him to his friends. He always had women 
 of fine character about him. His wife, who had done so much 
 to start him in his career, was too feeble in health to take on 
 herself the duties of mistress of the White House, but her 
 daughter, Mrs. Martha Patterson, took her place, and per- 
 formed the social duties of the position with suitable grace and 
 dignity. He was surrounded to the last by those who loved 
 and believed in him, and died in the full assurance that he 
 had done his best for the country's welfare, and had b^^^n very 
 badly treated by Congress. 
 
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 
 
 THE EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 AMERICA'S GREATEST GENERAL. 
 
 Would you like to be a sol- 
 dier? Do not all say yes to that, 
 for a soldier's life is not all holiday 
 and parade. We all like to see 
 soldiers marching, with their drums 
 and guns and flags and uniforms. 
 They make a fine sight, and most 
 of us hurrah and clap our hands as 
 the regiments march by ; and many 
 think that a soldier's life must be a 
 splendid one. But when these sol- 
 diers go marching to battle it is 
 quite another thing. For war is 
 terrible, and some of the bravest soldiers hate it the most. 
 
 Sometimes, however, great questions and bitter quarrels 
 can only be settled by war and fighting, and then it is well for 
 the people to have their armies led to battle by such a great 
 and gallant soldier as I am going to speak of 
 
 His name was Ulysses Simpson Grant. He was born 
 in a little town, out in Ohio, called Point Pleasant, on the 
 twenty-seventh of April, in the year 1822. The house in 
 which he was born is still standing. It is on the banks of the 
 Ohio River, and you can look across to Kentucky, on the 
 other side of the river. But he did not live there long, for 
 
 1*9 
 
i8o ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 
 
 when he was only a year old his father moved to a place called 
 Georgetown, not far away, where Ulysses spent his boyhood. 
 
 Ulysses was a strong, healthy, go-ahead little fellow, who 
 did not like to go to school very well. But, if he had any- 
 thing to do, either in work or play, he stuck to it until it was 
 done. At seven or eight years of age he drove the wagons 
 loaded with wood from the forest to the house. At eleven he 
 was strong enough to hold a plough. When he was seventeen 
 years old, he was sent to the splendid school among the beau- 
 tiful highlands of the Hudson River, in New York, where 
 boys are taught to become soldiers of the United States Army. 
 This is called the United States Military Academy, and is at 
 a place named West Point. 
 
 Young Grant stayed four years at this famous school. 
 He did not like the school part of it any more at West Point 
 than he did at his Ohio school-house, but he loved horses, 
 and became a fine horseback rider. When he left West Point 
 he was made second lieutenant in the United States Army. 
 He went home, but in a year or two there was a war between 
 the United States and Mexico, the country that joins us on 
 the south. This war is called the Mexican War. 
 
 Young Ulysses Grant went to this war, and fought the 
 Mexicans in many bloody battles. He was a daring young 
 officer, and his men followed willingly wherever he led. In 
 one of the hardest battles of the war — the battle of Monterey 
 — the American soldiers charged into the town and then got 
 out of ammunition — that is, their powder and shot ran out. 
 To get any more, some one would have to ride straight through 
 the fire of the Mexicans, who were in the houses of the town; 
 so the general did not think he could order any soldier to do 
 this. But he asked who would do it. 
 
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 5 
 
 
 
 -^'^v^^O^' 
 
 
 Abraham LiNcoLNj^ 
 
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 PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROIV il850 TO 1877 
 
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1877 TO 1901 
 
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 
 
 f8. 
 
 Lieutenant Grant at once said he would go. He mounted 
 his horse, but slipped over on the side furthest from the houses 
 
 GKNERAL GRANT WAS A SKILLED AND FEARLESS HORSEMAN. HE ONCE RODE HIS 
 HORSE OVER A NARROW GANG-PLANK ON TO A STEAMBOAT. 
 
 in which the Mexicans were hiding. Then he set his horse 
 on a gallop, and so dashed through the town and past all the 
 hostile houses, and brought back th^e ammunition in safety. 
 
1 82 t/LYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 
 
 He did many other brave and soldierly things when he 
 was a young officer in this war with Mexico, but he was 
 always such a modest man that he never liked to tell of his 
 courageous deeds. When he did, he would generally say : 
 " O, well ; the battle would have been won, just as it was, if I 
 I had not been there." The brave men and the bravest boys, 
 you know, never boast. 
 
 At another time, when a strong fort was in the path of 
 the Americans, Lieutenant Grant dragged a small cannon 
 away up into a church steeple, and, pointing it at the fort, fired 
 his cannon balls so swift and straight and sure that the Mexi 
 can soldiers had to run out of the fort, and the Americart 
 marched into it and soon after took the city it had defended 
 The Mexicans were defeated in many battles, and at last the 
 cruel war was ended. The Americans were victorious and 
 marched back north to their homes. 
 
 Soon after he came back. Grant got married. Three 
 years afterward he had to go without his wife to California 
 and Oregon, where his regiment was sent. 
 
 He soon got tired of being away from his wife and chil- 
 dren, so he gave up the business of soldier, and went back to 
 his little farm near St. Louis, in Missouri. 
 
 He lived in a log-house on his farm with his wife and 
 children. At times he was quite poor. He moved from St. 
 Louis to the town of Galena, in Illinois, where he became a 
 tanner and made leather with his father and brothers. 
 
 One evening, in the spring of 1861, there was great 
 excitement at Hanover, a little town a few miles from Galena, 
 where Grant lived. The firing on the flag and the call for 
 soldiers to defend the Union had aroused all the Northern 
 land. A mass-meeting had been called at the town-hall, but 
 the crowds were too large for the building, so they met at the 
 
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 183 
 
 Presbyterian Church, which was much larger. There were 
 many fiery speeches, and at last a man whom few there knew 
 was called upon for a speech ; he rose, looking scared and 
 nervous. He was a rather heavy man, of average height, with 
 square features and resolute jaws. What made the crowd 
 look at him was his old blue army-coat — the only one in the 
 audience. Some of the people there knew that he had been 
 in the Mexican War, and bore the rank of captain. 
 
 Everybody was quiet, and all eyes were turned to the 
 man in the blue army-coat At last he said, in a quiet, homely 
 'ashion, after a good deal of effort : 
 
 " Boys, I can't make a speech. I never made a speech 
 in my life. But when the time comes to go to the front, I 
 im ready to go with you," 
 
 The man who said this in the old brick meeting-house at 
 tianover was Ulysses S. Grant. That he was ready to march, 
 S not ready to talk, he soon showed. 
 
 Grant was a very modest man. He had no pride and 
 no vanity, and did not think he was much of a soldier. There 
 are men who do not know what they can do till they are tried. 
 Instead of asking for a high office, as so many paper soldiers 
 did, he began in a very humble way by drilling some awkward 
 . :ountrymen. Then he was put to mustering in regiments, but 
 when he asked to be made colonel of a regiment, no notice 
 was taken of his request. He was too quiet about it, and he 
 tells us he was afraid he did not know enough to command a 
 regiment. Do you not think that Grant was much too modest? 
 
 Anyhow, old soldiers were badly wanted, and Captain 
 Grant was soon made a colonel. He marched away with his 
 raw soldiers until he came near where there were some Con- 
 federate soldiers. Grant does not tell us that he was afraid, 
 but that he "would have eiven anything to be back in Illinois." 
 
1 84 ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 
 
 But he marched ahead, all the same, and when he came where 
 the Confederates had been, he found they were all gone. They 
 must have felt the same way as he did. Soon after that some 
 one told President Lincoln that Colonel Grant was a good 
 soldier. The President just then wanted good soldiers and 
 
 AN INCIDENT OP THB WAR-CUSHING'S LAST SHOT. 
 
 lo th« llarce ilruggle at Gettysburg, Cushing's Battery was overwhelmed by the Confederats 
 General Armlstead. Gushing fired bis gun as he fell mortally wouaded. 
 
 gave him the rank of brigadier-general. That was a big movt 
 up from drilling raw recruits. 
 
 After the war had been going on for several months the 
 men who were at the head of things began to find out that 
 General Grant knew his business, and he was given command 
 of a large number of men and marched with them against the 
 
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 185 
 
 Confederates, as the Southern soldiers were called. There 
 were some hard battles fought, among them one at Belmont, 
 on the Mississippi River, at which village a severe engage- 
 ment took place. This was General Grant's first fight, and he 
 got the worst of it, for the enemy had more men and guns 
 than he had. But he got his men off all right. That was his 
 first battle and the only time he met with any sort of a defeat. 
 
 I cannot tell the whole story of his battles. You will 
 read them some time in history. All I can do here is to run 
 over them very fast. Grant's first great victory was at a place 
 in Kentucky called Fort Donelson. Here he got 15,000 Con- 
 federate soldiers cooped up as tightly as so many rats in a 
 trap. " What terms can you give us ?" asked the Confederate 
 general. " No terms except unconditional surrender," said 
 Grant. That meant that they must give up everything — their 
 fort, their men, and their arms. And they did. 
 
 This was the first great victory of the war, and the people 
 praised General Grant highly and said that he was a fine sol- 
 dier. Some said that his name, U. S. Grant, stood for 
 "Unconditional Surrender Grant," and everybody liked the 
 sound of that. 
 
 Grant's next great battle was at a place in Tennessee 
 called Shiloh. It was one of the most dreadful battles of the 
 war. General Grant was not nervous any longer and did not 
 wish he was back in Illinois. He went in to fight and to win. 
 The battle lasted through two days in April, 1862. Albert 
 Sidney Johnston, a brave and able general, led the Confede- 
 rates. Had not General Grant hung on like a bulldog and 
 shown a wonderful skill in handling his men, the Northern 
 troops would surely have been beaten, and the Union cause 
 would have been sadly put back. 
 
 But he stuck to it He must win, that was all. And he 
 12 
 
i86 t/LYSSES SIMPSON GkAMT 
 
 did win. He rode up and down the line all that terrible 
 Saturday and Sunday, giving orders, directing and encourag- 
 ing his men. For he knew that they were mostly soldiers 
 who had never seen a battle, and he knew that unless they 
 were made braver by the courage and bravery of their leaders, 
 they would not make good soldiers. 
 
 So all through this dreadful battle of Shiloh, in which the 
 dash and bravery of the South first met the courage and 
 endurance of the North, General Grant was in the thick of it, 
 always where he was wanted, inspiring his soldiers, bringing 
 victory out of defeat, and showing the world what a great 
 general he really was. 
 
 After that great victory he kept defeating the Confederate 
 soldiers whenever he fdught them. They were very brave, 
 for they were Americans. But they had not so able a general 
 to lead them in battle. At last Grant got a large Southern 
 army surrounded in a town called Vicksburg. He marched 
 his soldiers against it and built forts around it and banged 
 away at it with his great cannons until at last, when the Con- 
 federates in the town could get no help and could not get 
 away, they gave up the town and all its forts and soldiers and 
 guns to General Grant. That is called the surrender of 
 Vicksburg. After another great victory at Chattanooga, among 
 the mountains, General Grant was given command of all the 
 armies of the United States, and men began to say that he 
 was one of the greatest generals of the world. 
 
 So far he had fought in the West. Now he came East 
 and took command of the Northern soldiers in Virginia — 
 what was called the Army of the Potomac. Here he fought 
 the Confederates and their brave leader. General Lee, for a 
 whole year. There were many dreadful battles. There never 
 were narder ones in all the world. But General Grant knew 
 
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 1S7 
 
 that if he wished to win he must fight hard and terribly. The 
 fighting was in the region that separated the two capitals — 
 Washington, the capital of the United States, and Richmond, 
 the capital of the Confederate States, as the Southern govern- 
 ment was called. 
 
 Here the two greatest generals of the war, Grant and 
 Lee, were face to face. Neither were defeated, but Lee had 
 to go back, step by step, till Grant and his soldiers got near 
 to Richmond. When Grant was asked what he was going to 
 do, he said, in his grim way, " I will fight it out on this line 
 if it takes all summer." 
 
 It did take all summer, and all winter, too ; but Grant 
 kept "fighting it out on that line." He did not know what 
 it meant to give up, and at last General Lee could hold out 
 no longer. Probably no other soldier in America could have 
 defeated General Lee and his soldiers except General Grant. 
 The Southern soldiers were brave and determined ; they were 
 desperate ; they knew if they did not beat Grant and capture 
 Washington the cause of the South must be given up ; and 
 they, too, had one of the best generals in the world. 
 
 So they fought on, even after they began to get hungry 
 and ragged, and long after the South was poor and empty. 
 Gradually, however, they grew weaker ; and still General 
 Grant kept at it, forcing them back, back, until at last they 
 had to leave Richmond, and General Lee was forced to make 
 an " unconditional surrender," with all his army. This was 
 on the 9th of April, 1865, at a place in Virginia called Appo- 
 mattox. It was the end of a long and cruel war. 
 
 And now General Grant showed his fine spirit. The men 
 he had conquered were Americans. They were brave and 
 thought they were fighting for their rights. Grant might have 
 treated them harshly and cruelly, but he was not that kind of 
 
1 88 ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 
 
 a. man. He told them to keep their horses so that when they 
 got home they could plough their fields and get them ready 
 for planting; he gave them food and clothes, and sent them 
 away friends ; he said to North and South alike : •' The war 
 is over. Let us have peace." 
 
 Of course his great success made him a hero. He was 
 a splendid one, as great a soldier as Napoleon and a much 
 better man. General Grant was quiet, modest and silent. Of 
 course, the world thought all the more of him because he did 
 not try to put himself forward. The people of his own coun- 
 try thought so much of him that they twice made him Presi- 
 dent of the United States, just as they had done Washington 
 and Lincoln. That was a pretty good rise for a little Wes- 
 tern farmer boy and tanner. 
 
 At the end of his second term as President he made a 
 journey around the world, for he had always wished to see 
 foreign lands. Wherever he went he was received with the 
 greatest honor. Kings and queens and princes invited him 
 to their palaces and were glad to see him. He visited the 
 Queen of England in her palace of Windsor Castle ; he talked 
 with the soldiers and statesmen of the world, while emperors 
 honored him as one of the world's famous men, and cities 
 welcomed him as the foremost general of the day and the 
 man who had been President of the great Republic. 
 
 I am sorry to say that this is not the whole story ol 
 General Grant's life, but that misfortune and misery came 
 upon him in his later years. Some men in New York City 
 induced him to put his money in a business which they had 
 started, telling him that they could make much money for 
 him. One of them proved a fraud and cheat. He used 
 General Grant's name to deceive the people, and managed 
 
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRAm" 189 
 
 the business so that everything was lost Then he ran away, 
 after robbing Grant and the others who had trusted in him. 
 
 The news of this shameful affair broke the great general 
 down. It almost defeated the soldier who had never known 
 defeat. It made him weak and sick. But, just as he had 
 marched to war courageously, so now he faced disaster just 
 as bravely. He set to work to make his losses good, and, 
 because all the world wished to hear about him, he began to 
 write the story of his life and his battles. 
 
 He kept himself alive to do this. He was taken sick with 
 a frightful disease, but for over a year he fought ruin and a ter- 
 rible pain as stoutly as he had ever battled with real soldiers, 
 while all the world looked on in love and pity. He won the 
 fight, for he did not give up until his book was finished. On 
 the twenty-first of July, 1885, on the mountain-top to which 
 he had been carried, near Saratoga, in New York, General 
 Grant died, and all the world mourned a great man gone. 
 
 The world mourned, for men and women everywhere had 
 learned to honor the great general as much for his victories 
 over disaster, disgrace and pain as for his conquests in war 
 and his governing in peace. His funeral, on Saturday, 
 August 8, 1885, was one of the grandest public ceremonials 
 ever seen in America. The President of the United States, 
 senators, governors, generals, judges and famous men came 
 to New York to show their sorrow and esteem, and the poor 
 boy of the Western prairies was buried on the banks of the 
 Hudson in a tomb erected by the great General's friends, amid 
 the solemn tolling of bells and firing of cannon, while all 
 people and all lands sent words of sorrow and of sympathy 
 to the Republic which had honored him in death as it had 
 honored him in life. 
 
RUTHEEiFORD BIRCHARD HAYES 
 
 THE NINETEENTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 are 
 gles 
 
 A PRESIDENT BY A SMALL MAJORITY. 
 
 There are men whose lives 
 were full of incident and adventure, 
 who had a hard struggle with pov- 
 erty in their youth, or whose career 
 was otherwise of great interest. Of 
 such men there is much to say, and 
 several of these have been Presi- 
 dents of the United States. There 
 others who had no strug- 
 and little adventure, and 
 whose lives have moved calmly and 
 quietly on. Such a man was Ruther- 
 ford Birchard Hayes, the nineteenth 
 President of this great Republic. 
 Mr. Hayes was of sound New England stock, for his 
 family came from the Green Mountain State, where they had 
 been earnest patriots in " the times that tried men's souls." 
 Thence they went west and settled in the new State of Ohio. 
 Here, in the town of Delaware, the future President was born, 
 on the 4th of October, 1822. 
 
 No trouble or distress, no hard work or scant fare, no 
 
 visions of poverty and want came to the growing boy, for his 
 
 father owned and worked a large farm and kept a store as 
 
 well, so that there was plenty for all, and the boy grew up 
 
 igo 
 
 RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 
 
RUTHERFORD BIRCH ARD HAYES 191 
 
 in a comfortable and happy home. He was a stout, happy 
 little fellow, so rosy of countenance that they gave him the 
 pet name of Ruddy. His family had been one of soldiers, for 
 some of its sons had fought in the Revolution and the war of 
 181 2, and he grew up with the soldier spirit which they passed 
 on to him. 
 
 His father died when he was a child, but all went well 
 with the family, for he left them plenty to live on. Ruther- 
 ford and his little sister Fanny went to a small school near 
 their home, and their mother helped them with their lessons, 
 so that they got on very nicely. He was a good scholar, and 
 when he got older was sent to academies at a distance from 
 home, and afterward to Kenyon College, in Ohio. 
 
 He was sixteen years old then, a hearty, strong boy, good 
 at his books, but also fond of fun and sport, as all hearty boys 
 should be, and he was strong and hardy, for we are told that 
 once, when winter's snows lay deep on the ground, he walked 
 all the way from college to his home and back again, a dis- 
 tance of forty miles. At college he had plenty of friends ; all 
 liked him, for he was very genial and sociable. He graduated 
 in 1842, and his valedictory speech won him much praise. 
 
 The young student had made up his mind to take up the 
 profession which so many of our Presidents have followed, that 
 of the law ; and after studying for a time at Columbus, Ohio, 
 he went to the Law School of Harvard College, where he 
 spent two years of close study. I think he must have worked 
 a little too hard over the dry books of the law, for when he 
 came home and tried to practice he found himself so weak and 
 sickly that he had to go far down South and spend a winter 
 there for his health. 
 
 He got quite hearty there. People often do, for the soft 
 ?iirs and the spicy odors of the far South are great healers. 
 
192 RUTHERFORD BIRCH ARD HAYES 
 
 When he got to feeling well and strong again he came back 
 and opened an office in Cincinnati. Here he was soon busy 
 enough and he made hosts of friends, for he was very friendly 
 and fond of good society. He met and married a very attrac- 
 tive young woman named Lucy W. Webb. She was the 
 daughter of a doctor, and was a student at a college in 
 Cincinnati when he got acquainted with her. She was young 
 and pretty, of a fine character and very attractive in manner, 
 and she proved to have a rare and lovely soul. The two were 
 very happy indeed, and Mr. Hayes soon got a good practice 
 in his profession, and became so popular that he was chosen 
 to fill important positions in the city government. Such was 
 the state of affairs in his life when 1861 came round and the 
 Civil War broke out. 
 
 Now the soldier spirit in Rutherford Hayes showed itself 
 He was an earnest lover of the Union, and when he heard 
 that Fort Sumter had been fired on by the secessionists, he 
 was eager to fight for the old flag. When word came to 
 Cincinnati that the flag of the stars and stripes had been 
 insulted, a great mass-meeting was held, of which Mr. Hayes 
 was made chairman. He was chosen because it was known 
 that he was a warm patriot and one of the leaders of the war 
 party. When men began to volunteer for the war he was 
 quick to join them, and the Twenty-third Ohio Regiment chose 
 him for its major. A few months after that he was made 
 lieutenant-colonel, and he kept going up in rank, till he 
 became a general. 
 
 There is a very interesting thing to be said about the 
 Twenty-third Regiment. It had in it two men who were to 
 become Presidents of the United States, One of these was 
 Major Hayes, and the other was a boy who carried a musket 
 in the ranks. His name was William McKinley. It is well 
 
RUTHERFORD BIRCH ARD HAYES 193 
 
 to say here that the Major got to know and think a great deal 
 of the boy private. They became in time very good friends, 
 and as long as they lived they were close companions. When 
 Hayes became President, McKinley was in Congress, and they 
 kept up in Washington the old friendly feeling that they had 
 felt on the battle-field. 
 
 Great battles were fought and the Twenty-third Ohio took 
 part in them. Hayes was promoted to be colonel of the regi- 
 ment, and at the famous battle of South Mountain he fought 
 like a hero. He was wounded four times, and in one battle 
 his horse was shot dead under him. This was in the Shenan- 
 doah Valley, where he fought in a number of severe battles. 
 He did his duty so nobly that he was made a brigadier- 
 general. 
 
 Mrs. Hayes showed herself to be a true soldier's wife. 
 She left home and sought her husband's camp, where she 
 brought a ray of brightness into his life and won the hearts of 
 the wounded by her devoted services. She mended the torn 
 clothes of the rough soldiers, she nursed the wounded with 
 loving care, and showed a sympathy that did them more good 
 than all their medicines. While he was fighting so bravely he 
 was nominated for Congress. 
 
 General Hayes did not need to go home to electioneer. 
 He was elected while he was in the field. The people at 
 home liked him better as a fighter than they would have done 
 as a politician. The next spring the war ended and he went 
 home. He had now won the brevet rank of major-general, 
 and his friend McKinley had risen from the ranks to his former 
 grade of major. When the next Congress met, on the 4th of 
 December, 1865, Hayes took his seat in the House. 
 
 He spent only two years in Congress. His services there 
 were not as brilliant as on the field of battle. He was not a 
 
194 RUTHERFORD BIRCH ARD HAYES 
 
 splendid orator, but he had good sense and sound judgment ; 
 he was fearless in his struggle for right and justice, and he 
 won the respect and regard of his fellow members. 
 
 The people of his State must have thought very highly of 
 him, for at the end of his term in Congress they chose him 
 for Governor of Ohio, and twice afterward they re-elected him 
 to that important and honorable post. That brought him on 
 to 1873. Since 1861 he had been busily engaged in public 
 duties, as soldier, Congressman, and as Governor. Now he 
 thought he had earned a rest and made up his mind to go 
 back to private life. So he sought a home in Fremont, Ohio, 
 where he had lived for a short time after he left college, and 
 settled down for a good long life in peace and quiet. 
 
 Little did he dream what was coming. It is not likely 
 the modest lawyer ever thought of going higher than Governor 
 of Ohio. But the people of the country thought differently. 
 When the Republican National Convention met in 1876 to 
 choose a candidate for the Presidency the names of many 
 brilliant men were brought before it. But gradually the name 
 of Governor Hayes rose above them all, and after a sharp 
 contest he was chosen as the party's candidate for President. 
 Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, was nominated by the Demo- 
 cratic party, and the fight was on. 
 
 It was a famous contest. It was so close that no one 
 could be sure who was elected. The Republicans claimed 
 that they had elected Hayes and the Democrats that they had 
 elected Tilden, and both parties grew very angry. There was 
 much bitter talk ; men called their opponents frauds and 
 cheats ; the country was full of dread of the evil passions that 
 had been raised, for even threats of civil war were made. 
 
 The trouble came from the election in the South, where 
 the votes of some of the States were so close that it was hard 
 
RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES 195 
 
 to decide who was elected. In Florida and Louisiana the 
 largest number of votes were counted for the Democratic can- 
 didates. But the Returning Boards, whose duty it was to 
 count the votes, said that there were frauds in certain districts 
 and would not count their votes. This gave the Republicans 
 the majority. 
 
 The Democrats cried out that they had been cheated and 
 that Tilden was elected. The Republicans cried out as loudly 
 that the Returning Boards were right and that Hayes was 
 elected. When the question came before Congress the fight 
 was as severe there, and no decision could be reached. The 
 House was for Tilden and the Senate was for Hayes. In the 
 end the dispute had to be given over to an Electoral Com- 
 mission, made up of five Senators, five Representatives, and 
 five Judges of the Supreme Court. The Commission decided, 
 by a majority of one, that Hayes was elected. 
 
 After his term of office was ended President Hayes went 
 back to his home in Fremont, Ohio, where he settled down 
 with hopes of a long and happy life. He was still less than 
 sixty years old and was wide-awake to all the great questions 
 of the day. He lived, respected by all who knew him, till 
 January 17, 1893, when death took him away. 
 
 There is one thing more to be said. While Hayes was 
 President, and his noble wife was mistress of the White 
 House, no wine was ever put on the table, even when ban- 
 quets were given and foreign ministers were invited. Mrs. 
 Hayes was a very earnest temperance woman, and her hus- 
 band supported her in this, though there were many severe 
 things said about them. This was the first and only time in 
 the history of the country that wine has not had its place on 
 the White House table, at least, in the great State banquets. 
 
JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 THE TWENTIETH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE SECOND MARTYRED PRESIDENT. 
 
 I am about to tell you the story 
 of another boy who began life 
 almost as poor as Abraham Lin- 
 coln, and who like him rose to be 
 President of the United States. He, 
 too, was without warning killed by a 
 base and wicked murderer. He was 
 the second American President to be 
 murdered, and there was soon to 
 be a third. Men are often killed for 
 some wrong or injustice they have 
 done, but these were three of the 
 best and kindest men, as woll as 
 the ablest, who ever held the office of President, and this 
 makes their murder all the more dreadful. 
 
 But this comes later on in my story. What I have now 
 'to tell is how another farmer boy, like Lincoln and Grant, rose 
 by the same qualities of industry and push to greatness, and 
 was elected to the highest office in the United States. 
 
 About seventy years ago, when the great State of Ohio 
 was little more than a wilderness, a man by the name of 
 Abram Garfield moved from the State of New York out into 
 that wild country, and settled in Cuyahoga County. The 
 name Cuyahoga is an Indian word, and at that time there 
 19C 
 
 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 197 
 
 were a great many Indians in the State. Abram Garfield had 
 married, before going to Ohio, a young woman by the name 
 of Eliza Ballon, whose ancestors had fled from persecution in 
 France about one hundred and fifty years before. 
 
 When Abram Garfield and his young wife moved to Ohio 
 '•bey settled in what was known as "The Wilderness," where 
 pite a number of other people from Connecticut had recentl)' 
 
 GARFIELD'S BIRTHPLACE AND THE HOME OF HIS CHILDHOOD. 
 
 moved and built houses for themselves. The whole country 
 was covered with great forests, and the first work to be done 
 was to clear away a place in the woods and build a log cabin. 
 It had but one room, with a door, three windows, and a 
 chimney at one end. Abram Garfield and his wife had three 
 children when they moved to this rough country, and about a 
 year after they got there their voungest son was born. They 
 
198 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 named him James Abram — "Abram" being for his father. 
 There were now mother and father and four children living in 
 this little log-cabin out in the wilderness. 
 
 All day long the father cut trees in the forest, or worked 
 in his new fields among the stumps which were still left in the 
 ground; but he was very industrious and raised enough on 
 the farm to support his family, while Mrs. Garfield, with her 
 spinning-wheel and loom, was all day busy in spinning thread 
 and weaving cloth to make them clothes. 
 
 They had no servant, but waited on themselves, not only 
 growing cattle, hogs and chickens on their little farm, and 
 raising the corn and wheat which they ate, but also spinning 
 and weaving the cloth which Mrs. Garfield made into clothes 
 for the children. Don't you think this was a very hard life? 
 So it would be to most of our young people now, but it was 
 the kind of life which many of the settlers in the wild western 
 country had to lead. Yet they owned their little farm and 
 house; both together, perhaps, worth two or three hundred 
 dollars. Of course, they had to do their cooking, eating, 
 sleeping, receive their company, spin and weave and make 
 their clothes, all in their little one-room house. 
 
 Still they were honest and contented, and every morning 
 when Mr. Garfield went away, with his axe on his shoulder 
 or to follow the plough, you might have heard him whistling 
 or singing a merry tune. As soon as breakfast was over the 
 little fellows, in the summer, were out of doors, or away in 
 the woods to pick berries, or to bring wood for their mother 
 to cook with, or to carry water from the spring, which was 
 some distance from the house. 
 
 At night, when they sat alone in their little cabin, their 
 father or mother would read, or they would tell them storie? 
 about the old times in Connecticut or New York, or about 
 
/AMES ABRAAf GARFIELD 
 
 *V* 
 
 the long and weary journey from New York to Ohio, and the 
 wonderful things that they saw on their way. So, with all, 
 as I have told you, it was a very happy and contented little 
 household. 
 
 Mr, Garfield was beginning to be prosperous. It did not 
 'ake much to be prosperous in those days. What he looked 
 .orward to was to have a big farm some day, and build a house 
 which would have as many as three rooms, or maybe four. 
 
 GARFIELD ON THE TOW-PATH. 
 
 But suddenly, one day, he came home very ill. There were 
 few doctors in that wild wilderness, and those who were there, 
 as a rule, knew very little about the practice of medicine ; so, 
 after a short illness, the good man died when he was only 
 thirty-three years of age. 
 
 Can you think of anything more sad than this — a Tittle 
 one-room log-cabin, far out in the forests of Ohio, with very 
 few neighbors near enough to vi_sit_them, the husband dead. 
 
200 /AMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 and the poor woman with her four little children, left alone so 
 far away from her friends and relatives in the East? Do you 
 not think the first thing she should do would be to try to sell 
 her little farm, and with her children go back to New York or 
 Connecticut? 
 
 But this was not what Mrs. Garfield did. She determined 
 to remain in her little home, and, with her own hands, try to 
 make a living and raise her children. She was a good woman 
 and had a fair education, and she taught her little ones and 
 read to them out of good books. 
 
 James was still a baby, and for several years it was a life 
 of struggle and privation. The mother was so poor that, if 
 she had lived in one of the great cities, the people would have 
 thought they must go to her aid and send her food and clothing 
 to help her in her distress, and so they should ; but it was 
 different far out in the wilderness. Almost everybody was 
 poor there, and lived on the plainest of food, and dressed in 
 the plainest clothes, and there were no rich people to be seen. 
 
 When little James was only three years old a neighbor- 
 ing school was started in a little log-hut, and he was sent 
 along with the other children. Before he was four years of 
 age he had learned to read ; and by the time he was ten, it is 
 said, he had borrowed and read nearly all the books in his 
 neighborhood. From that time until the close of his life he 
 was a great reader and student. 
 
 By the time he was ten years of age he had learned to 
 do almost everything about the farm which could be done by 
 so small a boy. He not only helped the other children and 
 his mother, but, when they had done their own work, he 
 frequently went to other farms and worked for the neighbors 
 that he might make a little money to help his mother along. 
 
 He had very little time to play, so he made play out c5 
 
JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 201 
 
 his work by doing it always clieerfully. All the spring and 
 summer the children worked, but every winter their mother 
 sent them to the little neighborhood school. It is said there 
 was never a day in Mrs, Garfield's home that she and the 
 children did not read certain parts of the Bible. In this way 
 Garfield came to manhood knowing a large portion of the 
 Bible by heart and very familiar with it all. 
 
 He was fond of reading Cooper's "Sea Tales ;" and the 
 story of " Long Tom " and his wonderful adventures on the 
 ocean filled him with delight. It made him want to go to sea 
 himself so much that in 1848, when he was seventeen years 
 old, he left home and went to Cleveland, Ohio, and offered to 
 go on board of one of the great lake schooners as a sailor. 
 
 It was a day or two before the ship would go out, and 
 during that time Garfield learned that the sailors, as a rule, 
 were very rough men and that life on the sea was not so jolly 
 and pleasant as he had supposed. So he decided he would 
 not go on the lake, and immediately turned away from the 
 shore and started home ; but he had not gone very far 
 before he began to feel ashamed of himself 
 
 He had used all his money, and he did not like to go 
 'back home that way. Besides, like many other ambitious 
 boys, he thought he ought to do something to tell the people 
 about when he got home. So he went to the Ohio ^nd Penn- 
 sylvania Canal, on which they ran boats drawn by horses on 
 the bank, and he hired himself to drive the horses on one of 
 these boats. He was to receive twelve dollars a month for 
 his work. 
 
 James had been used to driving horses at home on the 
 farm, and during his trip on the towpath he did his work so 
 well and pleased his employers so much that at the end of the 
 round trip they promoted him from the position of a driver, 
 
 13 
 
302 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 by putting him on board the boat to steer it instead of 
 driving the horses. James thought this was quite an advance ; 
 but it proved to be very much more dangerous than driving 
 the horses, for he had to stand on the edge of the boat and 
 work the rudder ; and several times he fell overboard, and was 
 
 in danger of drowning. 
 
 It was not long befoi e 
 he felt the need of an edu- 
 cation, so he left his work 
 on the canal and entered a 
 high school, called a 
 seminary, at Chester, 
 Ohio, about ten miles 
 from his home. He 
 had very little money, 
 and he and three 
 young men boarded 
 themselves. They 
 rented a room for a 
 small price, made 
 their o^vn beds, 
 cooked their own 
 food, and ate in their 
 own room. 
 
 In his vacations 
 he did carpenter work 
 when he could get it 
 to do, and at other times he worked in the harvest-fields, 
 and did anything and everything to earn money for his school- 
 ing. After his first term, he was able, in this way, to take 
 care of himself entirely, and did not ask his mother or any 
 one else for their aid. 
 
 3AC£ rir 
 
 THE BOY JAMES OARPIELD BRINGING HX8 FIRST 
 DAY 3 EARNINGS TO Hid MOTHER. 
 
JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 203 
 
 Garfield was always one of the best students in the school. 
 
 He also joined heartily in athletic sports with the other young 
 
 men to keep up his bodily strength. He was as good at all 
 
 kinds of sports, and as ready for them, as he was at hard study, 
 
 I He played ball and practiced boxing and other active exer- 
 
 ^dses, and was always a manly and brave fellow. ' 
 
 Garfield attended this school for three winters, and in 
 August, 185 1, he entered a higher school known as Hiram 
 College. From this moment his desire to get a good educa- 
 tion grew stronger. He paid all his expenses at this school by 
 teaching in one of the departments and working during his 
 vacation. After three years he was not only prepared to go 
 to one of the finest colleges in the East, but had saved three 
 hundred and fifty dollars toward paying his expenses. 
 
 In the fall of 1853 he left his native State, Ohio, and 
 journeyed east and entered Williams College, Massachusetts. 
 Two years, later he graduated from that fine school, and 
 straightway was made the Professor of Languages and Liter- 
 ature in Hiram College, which he had formerly attended ; and 
 the very next year, when he was twenty-six years old, he was 
 made President of Hiram College. 
 
 One year later, he married Miss Lucretia Rudolph, one 
 of his old schoolmates with whom he had fallen in love while 
 at Chester Seminary. 
 
 Mr. Garfield continued to be President of Hiram Colleee 
 for five years, and under his wise management the college 
 took on new life. There were very soon twice as many stu- 
 dents as there had been before, and everybody seemed to 
 get some of Mr. Garfield's zeal. He grew so popular that 
 in 1858, when some of his friends were running for an office, 
 they begged him to make some speeches for them, which 
 he did. 
 
204 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 This made him still more popular. There is a good 
 opening for a man who can make a sensible political speech, 
 and in 1859 Garfield was elected to the State Senate of Ohio, 
 where he became a very influential member. In 1861, when 
 the war broke out, he persuaded the Ohio Senate to vote 
 twenty thousand soldiers and three millions of dollars to fight 
 for the Union. 
 
 This made Mr. Garfield so great a favorite in the State 
 that the Governor of Ohio offered him the command of the 
 Forty-second Regiment, which was then being organized for 
 the war. Many of the young men in the regiment were, or 
 had been, students, of Hiram College, of which Mr. Garfield 
 had been President; so he consented to command the regi- 
 ment, and in December, 1861, he took them down into Ken- 
 tucky and West Virginia to join in the fighting. 
 
 One of the brave things that Garfield did as a soldier 
 was at the great battle of Chickamauga, near Chattanooga, 
 Tennessee. The fighting had been very hard, and it looked 
 as if the Confederates would be victorious. General Rosecrans 
 thought they would surely win the day, so he with Colonel 
 Garfield left the fighting ground and hastened to Chattanooga 
 to make arrangements for his army to retreat so they would 
 not be captured. 
 
 General Thomas was left to command the Union forces. 
 As soon as they reached Chattanooga, Garfield begged 
 General Rosecrans to let him go back to the battlefield 
 and join General Thomas. This he did, and with his 
 help General Thomas made a fresh assault on the Confeder- 
 ates, and drove them back far enough to permit the Union 
 forces to retreat in perfect safety that night. For this gallant 
 service, Colonel Garfield was made major-general. 
 
 Soon after the great battle of Chickamauga, Garfield was 
 
JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 2P5 
 
 elected to Congress, and though his salary as major-general 
 was double that of a congressman, he felt that he could do 
 more good at Washington, so he gave up his position in the 
 army and went to Congress. 
 
 Here he was as attentive to business and as industrious 
 as he had been when a boy at work, a student at school and 
 president of a college. He had many honors given him in 
 Congress, and in 1877, when Mr. Blaine became a Senator, 
 Mr, Garfield was made leader of his party, and three years later 
 the State of Ohio elected him to the United States Senate. 
 
 But his great honor came in June of that same year,^ 
 when the Republican National Convention in Chicago nomi- 
 nated him for President of the United States over and above 
 all the other great statesmen and warriors whom the nation 
 wanted to honor. General Hancock, who had also fought in 
 the war with General Garfield, was nominated by the Demo- 
 cratic party for the same office; but General Garfield was 
 elected. In a little while he removed with his family from 
 Ohio to the White House at Washington. Was not this a 
 great step up from his early home with its log walls and its 
 one room ? 
 
 Some of Mr. Garfield's most determined enemies were 
 the leading men of the nation. By that we do not mean the 
 best men, but they were brilliant and learned and shrewd 
 men, and great politicians, like Mr. Conkling of New York, 
 who was a member of the United States Senate. Mr. Conk- 
 ling did everything he could to make President Garfield 
 unhappy, and to throw all the difficulties possible in his way. 
 This was because the President would not appoint to office 
 the men that Conkling wanted, but chose men that he thought 
 better fitted for the work to be done. 
 
 Finally, Mr. Conkling, finding that he could not control 
 
206 
 
 /AMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 the Senators as he tried to do, resigned his place in the 
 United States Senate and went home. Mr. Piatt, another 
 Senator from New York, did the same thing. These things 
 made a great commotion among the political leaders, and per- 
 haps was the cause of the tragedy which followed. 
 
 On July 2, 1 88 1, after Mr. Garfield had been in office 
 
 ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD 
 
 only a few months, he rose early and went to the railway sta 
 tion to take the train for Massachusetts. He was going baciv 
 to Williams College to attend the closing exercises of that 
 school, and several members of his cabinet and their friends 
 were going with him. 
 
 James G. Blaine, the great Maine statesman and orator, 
 was his Secretary of State, and rode with President Garfield 
 
JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 207 
 
 to the station. Mrs. Garfield, who had been at Long Branch, 
 New Jersey, where she had gone to cure herself of malarial 
 fever, was to join them at New York. A fine private car was 
 waiting foi the President and his party. 
 
 Presently the carriage drove up to the door, and President 
 Garfield and Secretary Blaine, looking very happy, stepped 
 out, smiling to the crowd that stood around. They passed 
 inside the door of the waiting-room. A slender, middle- 
 aged man had for some time been walking nervously up and 
 down the room. As the President and Mr. Blaine came 
 in, he quickly drew a pistol from his pocket and, taking 
 deliberate aim, shot the President in the shoulder. Mr. Gar- 
 field turned quickly to see who had shot him, when the 
 assassin fired again, and the President sank to the floor, the 
 blood gushing from his side. Secretary Blaine sprang for the 
 murderer, but others caught him, and Mr. Blaine went back 
 to the President's side. 
 
 They placed the wounded President on a mattress and 
 carried him swiftly to the White House, where he quickly 
 gave orders that a message should be sent to Mrs. Garfield, 
 asking her to come home immediately. Mr. Garfield's mes- 
 sage was : " Tell her I am seriously hurt, but I am myself, 
 and hope she will come to see me soon. I send her my love." 
 
 That evening Mrs. Garfield was at her husband's side. 
 For almost three months the brave, strong man struggled 
 between life and death through the hot summer days. At 
 last he was removed to Elberon, on the ocean shore near 
 Long Branch, New Jersey, and placed in a cottage where the 
 cooling breezes of the sea brought him much relief, and it was 
 hoped would save his life ; but it was not to be. 
 
 President Garfield died at night, September 19th, almost 
 without a struggle. The news were flashed all over the world 
 
?o8 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD 
 
 by telegraph wires, and nearly every town and all the cities in 
 the United States were draped in mourning. 
 
 The President's remains were taken back to Washington, 
 where great throngs of people viewed them, and thousands of 
 faces were wet with tears as they passed his coffin. The sad 
 funeral procession then moved slowly to Cleveland, Ohio, 
 where a splendid tomb was prepared on the shores of Lake 
 Erie, not far from his old home, and it was there they laid 
 him down to rest. All along the way the moving train passed 
 through lines of sorrowful-faced people, who stood with 
 uncovered heads and with tearful eyes as the train moved by. 
 In the House of Representatives at Washington, a few months 
 later, Secretary Blaine delivered a great speech in praise of 
 the dead President, telling how grand a man he had been, 
 and the splendid service the Ohio canal boy had given to 
 his country. 
 
CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR 
 
 THE TWENTY-FIRST PRESIDENT 
 
 THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE PRESIDENT. 
 
 In 1 88 1 a second terrible 
 tragedy came to the supreme offi- 
 cial of the United States. As Lin- 
 coln had fallen by the hand of an 
 assassin, Garfield fell in the same 
 dread way, and the country was 
 filled with grief and regret. I have 
 told how the wounded President 
 lay, awaiting the death that slowly 
 came. The people had a double 
 cause for concern. While full of 
 sympathy for their dying chief, they 
 felt much dismay when they thought 
 Three times before a Vice-President 
 had become President, and each time had bitterly disappointed 
 those who elected him. What would be the case now? 
 
 For the answer to this we must wait till we have told 
 the story of the Vice-President's life. His name was Chester 
 Alan Arthur, and he was born in Vermont. He was the son 
 of a Baptist clergyman, who had come from Ireland some 
 years before, and who found life a hard one in this country, 
 with a large family and a small income. This clergyman 
 was a preacher at Fairfield, Vermont, when Chester, his oldest 
 son, was born on October 28, 1830. 
 
 - 209 
 
 CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR. 
 
 of what might follow. 
 
2IO CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR 
 
 The boy was born to comparative poverty, for country 
 ministers got very little to live on in those days. Like several 
 of our Presidents, he was born in a log-cabin, where his father 
 lived while a house was being built for him. But the boy 
 was a happy little fellow, bright in mind, active in disposition, 
 full of impulse, given to boyish pranks and frolics. He was 
 not afraid to work, and now and then earned some small 
 sums by helping on farms or doing other odd jobs. He was 
 fond of reading and study as well as of play and sport, and 
 his father's books and teachings helped him along in this. 
 
 When he was fourteen years old he was sent to Union 
 College, in New York State. Here he studied some, but 
 amused himself a good deal. He gave his books only what 
 time he could spare from his sports. None of the boys were 
 fonder of wild freaks and adventures, and he liked these all 
 the better if they had a spice of danger. In this way he 
 became a leader in college pranks. He was fond of parades 
 and processions, of class games and fun, and was in every 
 way a jovial, wide-awake, active and sociable boy. 
 
 But he did not quite forget what he went to college for, 
 and managed to graduate with a fair showing. Then he had 
 something else before him than college sports. He must 
 begin the business of life. He had taught school to help pay 
 his way while at college, and he kept at it for two years more, 
 saving what money he could, till he had a few hundred dol- 
 lars in his purse. While he was teaching he was studying 
 law, which he afterward kept up in New York City with the 
 money he had saved. He was in the market for a more 
 profitable employment than that of teaching country boys how 
 to read, write and cipher. 
 
 Young Arthur was not wanting in ambition. It was his 
 wish, as it has been with many others, to make his way fast 
 
CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR 211 
 
 to fame and fortune, and it seemed to him that the great and 
 growing West was the place for that. There brains and hard 
 work were sure to tell — or at least he thought so — and at 
 length, after a period of practice in New York, he and another 
 young lawyer, Henry S. Gardner, set out to try their luck. 
 
 They went west. They looked around. They traveled 
 here and there, but nowhere could they see fortune in the 
 air. They would have to work as hard there as in New 
 York; perhaps much harder. So back to New York they 
 came. Here Arthur and Gardner became partners and found 
 the great city much better for them than the great West. 
 They soon found themselves making money. For ten years 
 Arthur kept up his law practice, now in partnership and now 
 by himself, and he became known as a very able lawyer. 
 
 All his time was not given to the law. He became an 
 active abolitionist. He was very indignant when he heard of 
 the way William Lloyd Garrison was treated in Boston, and 
 he appeared as an earnest defender of the colored people. 
 He made a fine argument in what was known as the Lemmon 
 slave case, which decided that a slave brought into New York 
 became a free man. He also won for the colored people the 
 right to ride on the street cars in New York. A black girl 
 had been put off a car, and he took up her case and won it, 
 and thus gave black people that right. 
 
 He was active as a politician, too ; at first as a Whig, then 
 as a Republican, when the new party was formed. And he 
 gained honors in the State militia. In 1855 he became judge- 
 advocate of a brigade of New York soldiers. In 1 860 Governor 
 Morgan made him chief engineer on his staff. This position 
 was not of much importance then, but it was soon to be. 
 
 When the Civil War broke out Arthur's knowledge of 
 military affairs came into play. The Governor raised him to 
 
212 CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR 
 
 the rank of brigadier-general, and soon after he gave him the 
 entire charge of preparing and equipping the soldiers of the 
 State. In 1862 he was made inspector-general, which office 
 he held till December, 1863, when a new Governor was 
 elected and a new man was chosen to take his place. But 
 this new man spoke in the very highest terms of praise of the 
 way General Arthur had done his work. 
 
 After that Arthur went back to his law practice and kept 
 it up till 1 87 1, steadily making money and winning reputation. 
 But he kept up his political work also, and did much to helpi 
 General Grant in the 1868 election. He was rewarded in 
 1 87 1 by being appointed to the profitable office of collector of 
 the port of New York. This is what is usually called Custom 
 House officer. He had to attend to the collection of the cus- 
 toms, or the tariff on imported goods. 
 
 General Arthur held this office for four years and then 
 was again appointed to the same office. He remained in 
 office till 1878, when he was dismissed by President Hayes. 
 
 This dismissal was not because he did not do his duty 
 well and honestly, but was for another reason. President 
 Hayes was a great believer in Civil Service Reform. He 
 thought that office-holders should take no part in politico. 
 
 President Hayes could not have served Chester Arthur 
 better than he did by turning him out of office for taking an 
 active part in politics. Only for that it is not likely he would 
 ever have become President of the United States. For it! 
 brought him into great notice. It was the first great step in 
 the struggle for Civil Service Reform which was soon to cost 
 President Garfield his life. 
 
 When the time for the Presidential nomination of 1880 
 came round, General Arthur was sent to Chicago as one of 
 the delegates from New York to the Republican National 
 
CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR 8ia 
 
 Convention. There he gave his voice warmly in favor of 
 General Grant for a third term. When that could not be had, 
 and Garfield was chosen, Arthur's name was among those 
 offered for Vice-President. A New Yorker was wanted on 
 the ticket, and Arthur's name was offered by Conkling and 
 the other New York delegates. So he was nominated and 
 elected. In July, 1881, came the great tragedy I have spoken 
 of, and on September 19th the wounded President died, and 
 Chester Alan Arthur became President of the United States. 
 
 I have spoken of the alarm many men felt when they 
 found that a Vice-President, of whose sentiments they knew 
 very little, was raised suddenly to the head of the nation. 
 Arthur had said nothing while Garfield lay dying. He had 
 the good sense and discretion to keep quiet then about public 
 affairs. But his first message to Congress greatly pleased the 
 people. It was quiet and temperate in tone, and he soon 
 showed that he proposed to be President of the people, not of 
 a faction. He gave offence to some of his political friends, 
 but he gave satisfaction to the nation. 
 
 The country needed a period of calm and quiet after the 
 strain and excitement through which it had passed. It had it 
 under President Arthur, and the people learned to respect 
 him as a good, safe, moderate man. He left office with the 
 favor and confidence of his party, not with the bitter feeling 
 which had followed Tyler, Fillmore and Johnson. 
 
 President Arthur did not live long to enjoy his repose 
 after the cares of office. His wife, a daughter of Commodore 
 Herndon, had died in 1879. He was soon to follow her. 
 He was taken suddenly ill in the year after his term ended, 
 and the country he had well served was surprised to hear of 
 his death on November 18, 1886. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 THE TWENTY-SECOND AND TWENTY-FOURTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 GROVER CLEVELAND, 
 
 THE VETO PRESroENT. 
 
 I do not think you can find any- 
 where a man whose career was more 
 remarkable than that of Grover Cleve- 
 land. Honesty in office made him 
 President of the United States, and 
 that is a splendid thing to say of any 
 man. In 1880 he was just a plain, 
 |.\ / ordinary la\vyer in Buffalo, New York, 
 and very few people knew him outside 
 of that city. In 1884 he was being 
 talked about from Maine to Cali- 
 fornia and was elected President by 
 a large majority. That was certainly a wonderful lift upward 
 in four years for a man whose whole political capital was 
 plain, every-day honesty — -just living up to his duty. 
 
 And after he went home and stayed home for four years, 
 working away at his old business of the law, the people took 
 him up again and sent liim back to Washington with a bigger 
 majority than before, to act as President for another four years. 
 That is something which cannot be said of any other Presi- 
 dent, and is a great feather in Grover Cleveland's cap. For 
 this reason he is called the twenty-second and twenty-fourth 
 President, for another President came between his two terms 
 I must tell you the story of this man's strange life. 
 214 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 215 
 
 The Clevelands made their first home in America as far 
 back as 1 635, when a family of that name crossed the seas to 
 Massachusetts, soon after the first settlers came. They 
 belonged to the sturdy stock of the early New England 
 people. Down they came from father to son till we meet 
 with Richard F. Cleveland, who was the preacher in a small 
 Presbyterian church in the town of Caldwell, New Jersey. 
 Here, on the i8th of March, 1837, his son Grover, the future 
 President, was born. 
 
 The boy was named Stephen Grover Cleveland, but he 
 took to calling himself Grover, without the Stephen, and 
 everybody knows him as Grover Cleveland to-day. When 
 he was four years old his father moved to Fayetteville, New 
 York, and afterward to Clinton, in that State. At these places 
 the boy went to school. He must have been a good scholar, 
 for he got into the high school when he was several years 
 younger than the other boys. And it was his ambition there 
 to be at the head of his class. 
 
 But a village clergyman in those days had very little to 
 live on, and his boys had often to take hold and help. We 
 are told that Grover went into a store near his home when he 
 was only twelve years old and worked there for two years. 
 Then he went back to his books again. When he was seven- 
 teen he began to teach in a home for the blind in New York 
 , City. His older brother, who was a minister like his father, 
 was teaching there and very likely got him the place. 
 
 Grover did not like this place very much, and, like many 
 other young people at that time, he took a notion to go West 
 and see what chance there was there to make his way in the 
 world. But he got only as far as Buffalo. An uncle of his 
 lived near there, who had a farm and was writing a book of 
 some kind, and he asked young Grover to stop and help him 
 
3i6 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 What the boy wanted to do was to study law, and after some 
 time he got a chance to become a clerk and copyist in a law- 
 yer's ofifice in Buffalo, where he spent all his spare time in 
 reading law books. 
 
 He still lived with his uncle, whose place was two miles 
 away, and every day, rain or shine, he walked those two 
 miles back and forth. It was not much for a strong boy like 
 him, and he had to live very cheaply, for he got only four 
 dollars a week for his work. We are told that the first day 
 he began to read a law book he kept at it till it was too dark 
 to see the words. Then he found that everybody else had 
 gone home and locked up the place, and he had to stay there 
 all night. After that he kept one eye open for what was going 
 on around him, if he had the other eye on his book. 
 
 Grover Cleveland was a determined youth. He had 
 that power of steady work and that resolute purpose which 
 help men to make their way upward. When he was twenty- 
 two years old he was admitted to the bar, but all the time he 
 was trying to get some law practice he kept on working as a 
 clerk for the lawyers in whose office he had studied. His 
 father had died and he had to help his mother, who was left 
 with very little money. 
 
 The young lawyer was not long in getting \vork in his 
 profession, and seems to have made headway pretty fast. In 
 1863 he was made assistant district attorney for Erie County, 
 and this must have brought him some good practice. 
 
 In 1870 came his first lift upward. He was a Democrat 
 in politics and the Democrats of Buffalo wanted a good, 
 strong man to run for sheriff of the county. The story has 
 been told that the selection of Cleveland for this office was 
 largely due to chance. One of his law partners was asked to 
 be a candidate for sheriff. He did not care to be, but told 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 217 
 
 his visitors that Mr. Cleveland would make a very good one. 
 At any rate, whether that is true or not, Cleveland was 
 the man they picked out. He was elected and held the office 
 for three years, and made as good a sheriff as they could have 
 found if they had tried every man in the county. When his 
 time was up he went back quietly to his law office and began 
 his old work again as if he were done with politics for the 
 rest of his life. And he may have thought he was, for no 
 one can see far into the future. 
 
 It was in 1881, three years before he was nominated for 
 President, that Grover Cleveland's remarkable career reallv 
 began. The Democrats wanted a man for Mayor of Buffalo 
 now, as they had wanted a man for sheriff eleven years before. 
 Buffalo was a Republican city, and only a strong Democratic 
 candidate had a chance to be elected. They remembered 
 that Grover Cleveland had made a sheriff who pleased the 
 people, and had always tried to do the right and just thing, 
 and thev selected him as their candidate. 
 
 Cleveland did not brag or make a thousand promises. 
 What he said was that if he was made mayor he would see 
 that the business of the city was done in the same way that a 
 good business man manages his private affairs. The people 
 must have liked that kind of talk, for they elected him by the 
 largest majority a Buffalo Mayor had ever received. 
 
 No man ever kept his word more faithfully. The politi- 
 cians, who had been handling their mayors with or without 
 gloves, found that the new mayor was not to be handled. 
 The Councils, which had been passing laws more for their 
 own pockets than the public good, found their plans spoiled. 
 Cleveland was called the "Veto Mayor." He vetoed bad 
 bills by the dozens, and in a few months he saved the city 
 nearly $1,000,000. He was running the city on business 
 
 14 
 
ii& GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 principles, as he had promised to do. The politicians would 
 have got rid of him in a hurry if they could. No doubt they 
 said many ugly things about him in private, but they were 
 careful in public, for fear he might veto them, too. But the 
 people looked on him as the best mayor they had ever known 
 or heard of. 
 
 Soon all over the State the voters were praising the 
 " Veto Mayor," and when, the next year, the Democratic 
 Convention met to select a candidate for Governor of New 
 York, they thought they could not do better than to take up 
 this very popular Mayor of Buffalo. And they were wise in 
 doing so, for he beat the Republican candidate by nearly two 
 hundred thousand votes. That was a great majority to gain 
 on the basis of honesty in office. 
 
 Governor Cleveland did for the State just what Mayor 
 Cleveland had done for the city. He did not believe in forms 
 and ceremonies. When he went to take the oath of office in 
 Albany, he walked through the streets with a friend, instead 
 of riding up in great state in a carriage. And all the time he 
 was Governor he kept no carriage, but walked from his home 
 to the State House. He went in for economy and honesty. 
 He had promised "to serve the people faithfully and well," 
 and he cut down political jobs as a farmer cuts down weeds. 
 Honor in office was his watchword, and he made New York 
 a poor place for rascals. 
 
 The Democratic party saw that they had a very popular 
 man for Governor of New York. He was being talked about 
 all over the country. So in 1884, when they were in the field 
 for a candidate for President, they picked out the Governor of 
 New York as their strongest man. The party had not elected 
 a President for twenty-four years, and they wanted the best 
 man they could get 
 
G ROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 ;!y 
 
 The contest was an ugly and bitter one. Everything 
 unpleasant that newspaper editors could think of was said about 
 the two candidates, Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine. 
 You might have thought they were both fit for the penitentiary. 
 The election was a very close one. When all was over it was 
 found that everything depended on the vote of New York 
 State, and there the election was so close that it took a week 
 or more to find who was the victor. Then it was found that 
 Cleveland had a majority of a few hundred votes. 
 
 MAChi^^ERY HALL— CHICAGO EXPOSITION, 1893. 
 
 When the new President came to take the oath of office 
 he did not kiss the big Bible which other Presidents had used, 
 but a little book, worn with use, which his mother had given 
 him when he left home. That was a fine thing for him to do. 
 
 As President he was the same kind of man he had always 
 been. He did not now have to look out for political jobbers, 
 but there were many laws passed which he did not like, and 
 he vetoed every one which did not please him. It is said that 
 in the first session of Congress aftc he became President he 
 
220 GROVER CLEVELAND 
 
 vetoed one hundred and fifteen bills. Some of them were 
 passed afterward, but he did what he thought his duty. 
 
 The President was now forty-eight years of age. He was 
 in the prime of life, a man of large, rather massive build, with 
 a face of strength and intelligence, and a very simple and 
 direct manner of speech. He was a very hard worker and 
 examined every paper for himself, which no other President 
 had thought of doing. He was not married, and his sister, 
 Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, a lady of literary tastes, 
 became mistress of the White House. 
 
 But in 1886 the President took for his wife Miss Frances 
 Folsom, a charming and beautiful young lady, the ■ daughter 
 of his friend and partner in his old law office. He was the 
 first President who married while in office. They were mar- 
 ried in the White House, and his attractive young wife became 
 very popular. Her grace and sweetness of manner won her 
 many friends and admirers. 
 
 When the time for a new presidential election came 
 round, in 1888, Mr. Cleveland was again nominated by the 
 Democrats, while Benjamin Harrison was the Republican can- 
 didate. This time the campaign was conducted with good 
 temper, and there was none of the "mud slinging" of four 
 years before. Neither party tried to win by calling the candi- 
 date of the other party hard names. But the Republicans 
 had come back to their strength again, and Harrison was 
 elected with a good majority. 
 
 The late President now made his home in New York 
 City, and went into the law business there. But though he 
 kept quiet and attended strictly to his business, he was not 
 forgotten by his party, which still looked on him as its 
 strongest man. So in 1892, after four years more had passed, 
 
 ^.ri.ii:.^tiiii^^i.y 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND 221 
 
 he was nominated again, while the Republicans chose Presi- 
 dent Harrison once more for their candidate. This time there 
 was another change. Cleveland was elected by a large major- 
 ity. It looked as if the people had changed their minds or did 
 not like the way things were going. He was the first Presi- 
 dent who had come back to office after being away. 
 
 The greatest event of President Cleveland's second term 
 was the splendid World's Fair held at Chicago in 1893, one 
 of the finest that had ever been seen in any country. During 
 his term an important question came up about the South 
 American country named Venezuela, which declared that 
 England was robbing it of much of its land. This was against 
 the " Monroe Doctrine," and the President said plainly that 
 England must stop, or the United States would help Vene- 
 zuela to make her stop. He did not use just those words, but 
 that is what he meant. After a good deal of talk England 
 concluded to have the matter settled by arbitration, which was 
 what the President wanted. 
 
 President Cleveland believed strongly in Civil Service 
 Reform, and did all. he could to help it on, and brought many 
 of the offices under the Civil Service law. But he did not 
 believe in bi-metalism ; that is, in having gold and silver both 
 freely coined and made the standard of our money. He 
 believed in a gold standard only. As he did not agree with 
 this and other things in the platform of the Democratic party, 
 he would not let his name be used as a candidate aeain. 
 
 On March 4, 1897, when his term of office ended, he 
 bought a mansion at Princeton, New Jersey, and made that* 
 city his home. Since then he has lived there quietly, taking 
 much enjoyment in fishing, of which he was always very fond, 
 and now and then speaking with much good sense and discre- 
 tion on public and other subjects. 
 
BENJAMIN HARRISON 
 
 THE TWENTY-THIRD PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE ORATOR PRESmENT. 
 
 You have been told in an ear- 
 lier story of the great part that was 
 played by the Adams family in the 
 history of the United States ; how 
 two Presidents came from that 
 family, and how it had two younger 
 members of much note. We may 
 say the same of the Harrison fam- 
 ily. It also gave two Presidents to 
 this country, while an older Harri- 
 son had the high honor of signing 
 the Declaration of Independence, 
 and had other honors besides. 
 He bore the same name as his great-grandson, who 
 became President more than a hundred years afterward. If 
 you examine the list of names of the men who signed the 
 Declaration you will find among them, the name of Benjamin 
 Harrison. That is not all to be said about him. He was in 
 the Continental Congress through the Revolution, and then 
 became Governor of the great State of Virginia. And he was 
 also one of the wise men who made the Constitution of the 
 United States. 
 
 The Harrisons were from Virginia, the State which has 
 been named the "Mother of Presidents." But William 
 
 BENJAMIN HARRISON. 
 
 323 
 
BENJAMIN HARRISON 223 
 
 Henry Harrison, who was born in that State, was an Ohio 
 man when he was made President. And his grandson Ben- 
 jamin, who was born in Ohio, was a citizen of Indiana when 
 he was chosen to fill that high office. 
 
 The second Benjamin was born in his grandfather's 
 homestead, at North Bend, Ohio. Here the boy's father, John, 
 Scott Harrison, lived with his father, and here Benjamin was 
 born on the 20th of August, 1833, over seven years before his 
 famous grandfather was to be elected President. 
 
 The Harrison estate lay in the southwest corner of Ohio, 
 between the Ohio and Miami Rivers. It was not a grand 
 mansion in which little Benjamin grew up. It was a farmer's 
 simple home, and the first school he went to was kept in a 
 small log-cabin, not far from his father's house. I do not 
 think many of you would have liked much to go to the school 
 he studied in, for the children had to sit on seats made of 
 planks, with no backs, and so high that their feet could not 
 touch the floor. Benjamin went there only in winter, for in 
 summer he had to work on the farm. 
 
 When he grew old enough Benjamin was sent to a school 
 named Farmer's College, near Cincinnati. After he had been 
 there two years he was sent to Miami University, in the town 
 of Oxford, Ohio. He was a little fellow for a college boy at 
 that time, and was much given to study, though he liked the 
 college games as much as the other boys. He was only eigh- 
 teen when he graduated, but he showed that he had been 
 a good scholar by the honors of his graduation. 
 
 The young graduate now had to start out in life for him- 
 self. His father was too poor to let his children lead an idle 
 life. Benjamin made up his mind to be a lawyer, and entered 
 a law-office in Cincinnati. He was bound to get to the place 
 he started for if he had to work through sand and rocks. The 
 
224 BENJAMIN HARRISON 
 
 boys and men who get to the top are the ones who do not 
 stop for any hard places on the road. 
 
 But he did one thing that looked a little bit hasty. He 
 fell in love while a mere boy, and married when he was only 
 twenty years old. His bride was Miss Caroline W. Scott, 
 whose father was at the head of an academy near Miami Uni- 
 versity. There the schoolboy had met and fallen in love with 
 her. Very likely his parents thought their son had done a 
 foolish thing to marry before he was ready to earn a penny. 
 
 When the young student finished his studies he went to 
 Indiana, where he hung up his sign as a lawyer in Indiana- 
 polis, the capital of that State. All the money he had was 
 a few hundred dollars, which an aunt had left him. He could 
 not venture to rent a house with that, and hardly an office, and 
 he had much trouble to live till business came. He knew no- 
 body of importance in the city, and for several years he had 
 very little practice and money was very scarce with him. In 
 those days, as he has told us, "a five dollar bill was an event." 
 
 We are told that in one of his first law suits he had made 
 a careful set of notes, to help him in pleading his case. But 
 when he came to look at them he could not read them. The 
 room was so dark that he could not make out a word. Here 
 was a tight place for a young lawyer. He must have been 
 very nervous and shaky, but he let the notes go and set in to 
 do his best without them. And he did it so well that he won 
 his case, and won the praise of the lawyers who heard him. 
 He afterward became a very ready speaker, and this may have 
 been the first time he found out what he could do. 
 
 When the Civil War began Harrison was very busy at 
 the bar, making money and reputation both. But when, in 
 1862, the state of affairs began to look very gloomy for the 
 North, he felt that it was his duty to set business aside and 
 
BENJAMIN HARRISON 325 
 
 Strike a blow for the safety of the Union. New regiments 
 were forming and he set in to recruit and drill a company of 
 soldiers. Other companies joined it, and it became the 
 Seventieth Indiana Volunteers, He began as a lieutenant, 
 but was made colonel of the new regiment. People did not 
 forget that his grandfather had been a famous general, and 
 they felt sure that he would make a good soldier. 
 
 When the chance came he showed them that they were 
 right and that he was a good soldier. At the battle of Peach 
 Tree Creek we hear his ringing shout, " Come on, boys I 
 We've never been licked yet, and we won't begin now." 
 
 His men were proud and fond of him. To them he was 
 " Little Ben." No woman could have been kinder and more 
 tender. After the battle of New Hope Church he went to the 
 little frame house which had been made a hospital for his 
 wounded men, and there threw off his coat, rolled up his 
 sleeves, and set to work dressing their wounds in the dim 
 candle light. For hour after hour he worked on gently and 
 tenderly, till midnight came, and with it the surgeons. 
 
 There is one more story of his kind thoughtfulness for 
 his men. It was near the end of the war, when his regiment 
 was in camp near Nashville. A night of terrible cold came 
 on, with fierce snow and sleet. Ice covered the ground. 
 Some of the men on picket duty froze stiff at their posts. 
 Others were frost-bitten by the intense cold. Out from his 
 warm quarters came Colonel Harrison into the bitter chill, 
 carrying a can of hot coffee to the men on picket duty. " I 
 was afraid the men would freeze," he said, "and I knew the 
 hot coffee would keep them alive." 
 
 He took part in other hard battles and fought well in 
 them all. He was made brevet brigadier-general for his gal- 
 lantry at the battle of Peach Tree Creek. When Sherman 
 
2 26 BENJAMIN HARRISON 
 
 marched through Georgia and up north, Harrison and his old 
 regiment was with him. Only after Johnston surrendered 
 and the war ended did General Harrison's service come to 
 an end. When the lawyer-soldier got back to Indianapolis 
 and to his law practice, he found that he had been elected 
 Reporter of the Supreme Court. As time went on he entered 
 actively into the political field, and when Grant was nominated 
 for President in 1868, and "again in 1872, Harrison worked 
 like a beaver for him, making many speeches before large 
 audiences. 
 
 In 1876 his friends asked him to run for Governor of 
 Indiana, He declared that he would not. But Hayes was 
 on the ticket for President and the Republicans were very 
 anxious to elect him. They were sure that Harrison's name 
 would help him in Indiana, and insisted so strongly on his 
 running that in the end he gave way. But after all they lost 
 the State. The Democrats won and he was defeated. 
 
 Our Indianapolis lawyer was now a prominent man in 
 his party. His fine work as a soldier hade done him a great 
 deal of good, and his telling oratory helped him very much. 
 And they did not forget that he was the grandson of General 
 Harrison, who had been President of the United States. So, 
 in 1880, when the Republican Convention was having a great 
 contest over the nomination for President, General Harrison's 
 name was brought up. But he would not let it be used, and 
 did his best to have Garfield nominated. 
 
 When Garfield became President, he asked Harrison to 
 accept a place in his cabinet. He had to decline, for he had 
 just been elected to the United States Senate, and thought he 
 would rather be Senator than cabinet officer. And a good 
 Senator he made, too, and won great honor by his ability as 
 a statesman and an orator. 
 
 J 
 
BENJAMIN HARRISON 327 
 
 In 1884 there was again talk of nominating him for 
 President, and in 1888 the Convention that met at Chicago 
 selected him as its candidate for this office. His opponent 
 was Grover Cleveland, who had just served one term as Presi- 
 dent. Harrison defeated him, and was elected with 233 
 electoral votes to 168 for Cleveland. There is one interesting 
 point in Harrison's election. Just one hundred years before, 
 Washington took his seat as President ; so he began the 
 second century of the Presidency. The anniversary was cele- 
 brated with great demonstrations of joy in New York, where 
 the new President was one of the spectators. 
 
 President Harrison's term of office was a quiet and pros- 
 perous one. All went well with the country ; business was 
 active, the people were happy, and the great national debt of 
 the country was much reduced. One important event was 
 the dedication of the great World's Fair at Chicago, in mem- 
 ory of the discovery of America by Columbus four hundred 
 years before. The President was there and opened the Fair 
 with an excellent speech, on October 14, 1892. The Fair 
 itself, as you may know, was not ready for the public till the 
 next year, after Harrison's term as President was over. 
 
 In 1892 Harrison and Cleveland were both nominated 
 as Presidential candidates again. This time the Democrats 
 won, Cleveland receiving 277 votes and Harrison 145 ; while 
 Weaver, the Populist candidate, got 22 votes. 
 
 When his term ended, on March 4, 1893, Harrison went 
 home to his law office in Indianapolis. He was afterward 
 appointed a lecturer on law in the great Leland Stanford Uni- 
 versity of California. But he did not live very long afterward, 
 for death came to him on March 13, 1901. 
 
WE.LIAM McKINLEY 
 
 TWENTY-FIFTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE THIRD MARTYR PRESIDENT. 
 
 Is it not strange and sad that, 
 within forty years, three of our Presi- 
 dents have been killed by assassins? 
 No other nation has met with such 
 misfortunes. And it is sadder still 
 when we think that these three were 
 among the gentlest and kindest of 
 ''^ them all. They were men who felt 
 only good-will for everybody, y&t, 
 strange to say, these were the men 
 whom the miserable murderers chose 
 for "iheir fatal bullets. You have read 
 the 5tory of two of them, Abraham 
 Lincoln and James A. Garfield. The third was William 
 McKinley, of whose life I am now about to speak. 
 
 Everybody begins as a boy, and so we must begin with 
 McKinley in his boyhood days. He was one of the kind of 
 boys we like to read about. I'he stories of his life as a fisher, 
 a skater, a blackberry picker, a playmate, and of the boy who 
 had his boyish battles to fight and win, are such as to make 
 every boy's and man's heart warm with memories of similar 
 experiences. Niles, Ohio, was McKinley's birthplace. He 
 was born there on the 29th of January, 1843. The house in 
 
 22S 
 
 WILLIAM McKINLEY. 
 
WILLIAM McR'INLEY 229 
 
 which he was born has recently been cut in two, and the sec- 
 tion which includes the room of his birth has been moved a 
 mile away, to a pi-etty spot known to the people of Niles as 
 Riverside Park. 
 
 It was a poor little two-story frame house, but was far 
 better than the log-huts in which some of our Presidents were 
 born. McKinley's parents were not rich, but they had enough 
 to live on, and he had plenty of time for play and for school- 
 life. He was a good student and a good boy. His pious 
 mother read her Bible to him till he knew much of it by heart, 
 and he joined the Methodist Church when he was fifteen years 
 old. He was a member of this Church all the rest of his life. 
 
 One WDuld think he was born to be a fine public speaker 
 by the way he argued and debated and spoke pieces in his 
 school-boy days. He was always ready. At Poland, where 
 he lived when he got older, there was a literary society and 
 debating club, and of it he was, for some time, president. The 
 story is told that the boys and girls saved up their spending 
 money until they had enough to buy a carpet for the meeting- 
 room of the club. They purchased at a neighboring carpet 
 •store what they thought a very handsome one. Its ground- 
 work was green, and it was ornamented with great golden 
 wreaths. The society decided that no boots should ever soil 
 that sacred carpet, and the girl members volunteered to knit 
 slippers for all the members to wear. Unfortunately, the slippers 
 were not ready for the first meeting, and so all the members 
 who attended, and the visitors, too, were required to put off 
 their shoes from their feet and listen to the debate shod only 
 in stockings. The debaters did the same, and young McKin- 
 ley presided over the meeting in his stocking feet 
 
 McKinley got a good education. He went to the com- 
 mon school at Niles, to *iie academy at Poland, and to 
 
2iO 
 
 WILLIAM McKINLEY 
 
 Alleghany College at Meadville, in Pennsylvania. Here he 
 soon got sick and had to go home ; and now he became a 
 school-teacher himself, for his father had lost much of his 
 money, and the boy had to help the family along. 
 
 All this was before the great civil war began. When 
 'Fort Sumter was fired on, 
 and the people every- \ 
 where were getting ready 
 to fight, young McKinley"^ \' 
 was just past his eight- 
 eenth year. He was a 
 short, slender, pale-faced 
 boy, but he was full of 
 fight, and away he 
 marched to the war with 
 the first company of Po- 
 land volunteers. His 
 regiment was the 23d 
 Ohio Volunteers, whose 
 major was Rutherford B. 
 Hayes. You will remem- 
 ber his name among our 
 list of Presidents. ,Sothis 
 regiment had one coming 
 President among its offi- 
 cers and one in its ranks. 
 That was something to be proud of, if it had been known, for 
 no other regiment ever had such good fortune. 
 
 For fourteen months our young recruit carried a musket 
 in the ranks. He was a good soldier, obeyed all orders, and 
 was always pleasant to his comrades. And he had plenty of 
 
 LIEUTENANT WILLIAM McKINLEY. 
 Shells exploding around, about and over blm. 
 
 soldiering 
 
 among 
 
 the West 
 
 Virginia 
 
 mountains, where he 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY 231 
 
 now soaked with rain, now half-starved from lack of food, and 
 worn out with marching, fighting and going through all sorts 
 of rough work. The Ohio boys were kept chasing the raiders 
 through the rough hills, and they had a hard enough time. 
 
 Let us get on with the boy soldier's story. He had been 
 .♦made a sergeant for his good work in West Virginia. He 
 was made a lieutenant for his good work at the terrible battle 
 of Antietam. This is how it came about. 
 
 McKinley was commissary sergeant of his regiment. 
 That is, he had charge of the food supplies. He did not 
 have to fight ; but was two miles back from the fighting line. 
 Most boys would have thought that a good place to stay, but 
 the boy sergeant did not think so. He thought only of the 
 poor fellows in the ranks, fighting all day under the burning 
 sun. How parched and hungry they must be ! What would 
 they not give for a cup of hot coffee ! 
 
 As soon as he thought of this, he got hold of some of 
 the stragglers in the rear and set them to making coffee. 
 There were plenty of them, as there are in all battles. Then 
 he filled two wagons with steaming cans of hot coffee and 
 with food, and drove off with his mule teams for the line of 
 battle. One of the wagons broke down, but the other kept 
 on. He was ordered back, but nothing could stop him, and 
 on to the lines he went at full speed. 
 
 One of the officers says : "It was nearly dark when we 
 heard tremendous cheering from the left of our regiment As 
 we had been having heavy fighting right up to this time, our 
 division commander, General Scammon, sent me to find out 
 the cause, which I very soon found to be cheers for McKinley 
 and his hot coffee. You can readily imagine the rousing wel- 
 come he received from both officers and men. When you 
 consider the fact of his leaving his post of security and 
 
232 WILUAhf McKINLEY 
 
 driving into the middle of a bloody battle with a team of 
 mules, it needs no words of mine to show the character and 
 determination of McKinley, a boy of, at this time, not twenty 
 years of age." 
 
 When the Governor of Ohio heard the story of McKin- 
 ley and his hot coffee for the fighting boys, he made him a 
 lieutenant. Don't you think he well deserved it? 
 
 There are other stories of McKinley's gallant conduct. 
 One of them comes from the time of the fighting in the Shen- 
 andoah Valley, in July, 1864. Here the confederate General 
 Early attacked General Crook and his men with so strong a 
 force that Crook was driven back. General Hastings tells us 
 how the young lieutenant in the face of death at the command 
 of General Hayes, his commander, rode into the thick of the 
 battle through a rain of shot and bursting shells, and brought 
 out the regiment safely. This deed made a captain of the 
 brave lieutenant. 
 
 The fighting was over. The country was at peace. 
 Everybody was getting back to work again. What would 
 the young major do ? He had his living to make. He had 
 tried teaching and fighting, and now he thought he would 
 like to be a lawyer, as he was so good a talker. So he 
 entered a law office and began to study as hard as he had 
 fought. In two years he was ready to practice, and hung out 
 his sign in Canton, Ohio. This place was his home for the 
 rest of his life, and here was he buried when he died. 
 
 Here is the story of how he got his first case. One day, 
 as he sat waiting for clients and thinking they would never 
 come. Judge Glidden, who had been his law instructor, came 
 into his office and said : " McKinley, here are the papers in a 
 case of mine. It comes up to-morrow. I have got to go out 
 of town, and I want you to take charge of it for me." 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY 2,33 
 
 McKinley declared that he could not do justice to the 
 case at so short a notice. " I never tried a single case yet, 
 Judge," said he. 
 
 "Well, begin on this one, then," was the Judge's reply. 
 And it was finally settled that McKinley should do so. He 
 sat up all night working on the case, tried it the next day, and 
 won it. A few days later Judge Glidden entered his office 
 and handed him $25. McKinley did not wish to take it. 
 
 "It is too much for one day's work," he said. 
 
 " Don't let that worry you," replied Glidden, good- 
 naturedly. "I charged $100 for this case, and I can well 
 afford a quarter of it to you." 
 
 He became a good public speaker and was in great de- 
 mand. His first office was as district attorney of his county. 
 In due time the rising lawyer got married and settled down as 
 a family man. His wife was Miss Ida Saxton, a beautiful 
 and intelligent girl, the daughter of a rich banker of Canton. 
 McKinley loved her dearly, and never did two people pass 
 happier lives together, for it was a case of true love all through. 
 Mrs. McKinley was an invalid nearly all her life, and he was 
 always kind and devoted to her. 
 
 Major McKinley was elected to Congress in 1876, nine 
 years after he began to practice law. General Hayes, who 
 had been the first major of his old regiment, was now Presi- 
 dent. He and McKinley were as warm friends now as when 
 they had been in the army together. 
 
 McKinley was fourteen years in Congress, and in every 
 one of those years he made his mark in some way or other. 
 In 1890 he was defeated in the election for Congress, 
 but he was too well known and too much liked to stay 
 defeated long. If the country did not want him the State did, 
 and the next year he was elected Governor of Ohio by a good 
 
 15 
 
834 WILLIAM McKINLEY 
 
 majority. In 1893 he was re-elected by over 80,000 votes. 
 The soldier-boy was coming on well, wasn't he ? 
 
 He made a good Governor, but he met with a sad mis- 
 fortune through his kindness of heart For he put his name 
 on the notes of an old friend, and when this man soon after 
 failed in business McKinley found that he had been sadly 
 cheated. He had signed for only $15,000, but his seeming 
 friend had made him liable for nearly $100,000. 
 
 This was like the story of Jefferson in his old days. 
 Every cent he owned would have gone if some friends had 
 not raised the money to pay his debt, as Jefferson's friends did 
 for him. McKinley said he would not take any money, but 
 he could not help himself All the notes were paid as they 
 came due and he never knew who paid them, so he could not 
 return the money. In that way his kind friends got the better 
 of him. 
 
 And now came the time when the people of the whole 
 country wanted McKinley. Ohio was not big enough to hold 
 a man like him any longer. In 1896 a new President was to 
 be chosen, and McKinley was the people's favorite and was 
 elected by a very large number of votes. 
 
 It was not a quiet chair to which President McKinley' 
 came. If you recall the lives of some of the other Presidents, 
 you will find that they had no great troubles to meet. But 
 McKinley had to face war and insurrection and all the difficult 
 questions these brought on, and that was a good deal for a 
 man who had grown to love peace and quiet. 
 
 The map of your country will show you in the ocean just 
 south of Florida, the long, narrow island of Cuba. It is so 
 close to us that it really should have belonged to the United 
 States, but Spain had owned it ever since it was discovered 
 by Columbus, more than four hundred years before. 
 
 x^>^MSMM^^M^^. 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY 
 
 835 
 
 Spain had no right to own any island, for she did not 
 know how to treat the people. The Cubans were treated so 
 badly that they began to fight for liberty. Then the Spaniards 
 treated them worse than ever, causing thousands of them to 
 starve to death. That was more than Americans could stand. 
 McKinley asked Spain to stop her cruelty. When she would 
 not, the people of the United States so sympathized with the 
 poor Cubans that armies and fleets were sent to fight the 
 Spaniards in Cuba. President McKinley did not want war. 
 He did all he could to keep it off. But when he found that 
 Spain would not listen to reason there 
 was nothing left to do but to teach the 
 Spaniards a lesson. 
 
 Only a few great battles were fought. 
 Admiral Dewey won a great naval vic- 
 tory in the Philippines and then there 
 were battles in Cuba. You know how 
 the war ended. Cuba was taken from 
 Spain and made a free nation. Porto 
 Rico, in the West Indies, and the Phil- 
 ippine Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, were 
 given over to this country. Then there 
 came another war in the Philippines, an outbreak of the people, 
 which lasted much longer than the war in Cuba. There was 
 also a great rebellion in China, and the United States Minister 
 at Peking, the capital of China, was in great danger from the 
 rebels, and troops had to be sent to rescue him. 
 
 All this made plenty of work for the President. He did 
 not please everybody with what he did, but no one can do 
 that. He dealt ably and wisely with all the questions that 
 came up, and in 1900, when there was another Presidential 
 election, he was more popular than ever. He was chosen by 
 
 ADMIRAL GEORGE DEWEY. 
 
236 WILLIAM McKlNLEY 
 
 the whole Republican Convention, and was elected with the 
 great majority of 137 electoral votes. 
 
 It was a time of splendid prosperity during President 
 McKinley's first term. Business was booming, commerce was 
 active, thousands were growing rich, millions were living well 
 and were happy and contented. That was one good reason 
 for wanting him again. But the country was not to keep 
 him long, for a dreadful event was close at hand, as I have 
 now to tell. 
 
 The second inauguration of President McKinley took 
 place on March 4, 1901. All looked promising. The war in 
 the Philippines was nearly at an end, the country was grow- 
 ing greater and grander, business was better than ever, 
 nobody dreamed of a great coming tragedy. The President 
 and his wife took a long journey that spring through the 
 South and West, from Washington to San Francisco. The 
 people of all the towns and cities turned out in multitudes to 
 see and hear him. It was plain that he was a great public 
 favorite. One would have thought he had not an enemy in 
 the land. 
 
 In September he went to Buffalo, in New York State, to 
 see the great Fair that was being held there, in which the 
 best and most beautiful things in America were being shown. 
 Here, too, the people greeted him like a beloved friend. 
 On the 6th, that he might meet them the more closely, a 
 reception was held in the Temple of Music, where they would 
 have an opportunity to shake hands with their President. 
 
 Perhaps some of my readers may have been in Buffalo 
 that day, visiting the Fair. Some of them may have been in 
 the Temple of Music and have seen the long line of people 
 taking the President's hand and looking into his kindly, smil- 
 ing face. Some of them may even have heard the fatal sound 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY 237 
 
 when a desperate villain fired a pistol at the President, and 
 have seen the good man turn pale and fall back. " Let no 
 one hurt him," he gasped, as the guards rushed furiously at 
 the murderer. 
 
 After that there was a week of terrible anxiety in the 
 country. Two bullets had struck the President, but for a time 
 the doctors thought he would get well, and the people were 
 full of hope. Then he suddenly began to sink, and on Friday, 
 just one week from the time he was shot, death was very near. 
 His wife was brought in and wept bitterly as she begged the 
 doctors to save him. 
 
 "Good bye, all; good bye," whispered the dying man. 
 " It is God's way. His will be done." 
 
 These were his last words. A few hours afterward he 
 was dead. 
 
 So passed away this great and noble-hearted man, tl"we 
 third' of our martyred Presidents and one of the kindest and 
 gentlest of them all. He was buried with all the ceremony 
 and all the demonstrations of respect and affection the country 
 could give. At the time his body was lowered into the grave, 
 for five minutes the whole people came to rest, all business 
 ceased, and a solemn silence overspread the land from sea to 
 sea. Then the stir began again, and once more the wodd 
 roared on. It never stops long for the greatest of men. 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 THE TWENTY-SIXTH PRESIDENT. 
 
 THE MAN OP A STRENUOUS LIFE. 
 
 What do you think of the mis- 
 erable men who go around trying 
 to kill kings and presidents? Do 
 you not think they are great fools 
 as well as great villains ? I do. 
 Why, as soon as they kill one king 
 or president, another takes his place, 
 and all goes on just the same as 
 even So they do a great deal of 
 harm and no good at all. 
 
 It was that way when President 
 McKinley was shot. All it did was 
 to make a new president. Vice- 
 President Roosevelt became President, and the country was 
 not a minute without a head. And if Roosevelt had been 
 killed there were half a dozen cabinet officers ready to take 
 his place. So you see that shooting presidents is just a waste 
 of powder and bullets. Nobody but a fool or an idiot would 
 think of doing it. 
 
 Now we are to talk about the new President, Theodore 
 Roosevelt. He was a very different kind of a man from 
 McKinley. He was not at all like any president we have ever 
 had. He was a great worker, a great hunter, a great fighter. 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 239 
 
 but not a great politician. He was too honest and straight- 
 forward for poHtics. He never said anything but just what he 
 meant, and when he put his foot down whatever was under it 
 was going to be hurt. There was no slipping round corners 
 with the new President. He always went straight to the 
 mark. That is not the way with politicians. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt was a New York boy. He was born 
 in that great city on October 27, 1858. He was not a poor 
 boy. His parents were wealthy, and he could have all the 
 good things that money can bring. But he was brought up 
 in a very different way from many sons of the rich. He was 
 taught at home to be active and industrious. He tells us 
 himself: "My father, all my people, held that no one had a 
 right to merely cumber the earth ; that the most contemptible 
 of created beings is the man who does nothing. I imbibed 
 the idea that I must work hard, whether at making money Oi 
 whatever. The whole family training taught me that I must 
 be doing, must be working — and at decent work. I made my 
 health what it is. I determined to be strong and well, and did 
 everything to make myself so. By the time I entered Har- 
 vard College I was able to take my part in whatever sports I 
 liked. I wrestled and sparred and ran a great deal while in 
 college, and, though I never came in first, I got more good 
 out of the exercise than those who did, because I immensely 
 enjoyed it and never injured myself" 
 
 That is the kind of boy he was. He never hurt himself 
 by trying to do too much, but did all that he had strength for. 
 That is a thing it would be well for some college boys to 
 remember. One who helps himself by running a mile, may 
 hurt himself a great deal by trying to run two miles. 
 
 When a little fellow Theodore was thin, pale and deli- 
 cate. No one thought he would make much of a man — if he 
 
240 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 lived to be one. He was taught at home and in private 
 schools, for his parents were afraid to trust him to the rough 
 play of the public schools. He did not like that. He wanted 
 to be strong and to do what other boys did, and when he was 
 old enough he began to do all he could to make himself 
 strong. "I was deter- 
 mined to make a man of 
 myself," he says. 
 
 There was not much 
 he did not try. He 
 learned to swim, he 
 learned to row, he learned 
 to ride. He climbed, he 
 jumped, he ran, he 
 tramped over the hills. 
 If any one asked him to 
 ride, he said he would 
 rather walk. If asked to 
 take a sail, he said he 
 would rather row. That 
 is the way the delicate 
 child grew to be a hardy 
 boy and a man with mus- 
 cles like steel. He 
 showed what nearly any ^ 
 weak boy might do, if he 
 chose to take the trouble. 
 
 He was always fond of stories of animals and adventure. 
 When he was only six years old he used to tell such stones 
 to his little brother and sisters. All his animals talked and 
 acted like boys or men, and his men were as strong as giants. 
 
 When lie got older he did not let anybody impose on 
 
 W.f. 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT IN HIS 
 HUNTING COSTUME. 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT a4t 
 
 him. One day, when he was only a little fellow and went to 
 a private school, he set out with his chum in a fine new sailor 
 suit. Some of the public-school boys got in his way and 
 called him a "dude." But they did not stay long, for Teddy 
 and his chum went at them with their fists and fought their 
 way through. Every day for a week it was the same thing. 
 One day, after a hard battle, Teddy said to his chum: "Let's 
 go round the block and come back and fight them again." 
 He seemed to like fighting as much as he did later on. 
 
 He was always ready to fight for his rights. One day he 
 came home from school with his clothes covered with mud 
 and his face and hands scratched and bleeding. 
 
 "What is the matter, Teddy?" asked his father. 
 
 "Why, a boy up the street made a face at me and said, 
 'Your father's a fakir.' He was a good deal bigger than me, 
 but I wouldn't stand that ; so I just pitched in. I had a pretty 
 hard time, but I licked him." 
 
 "That's right; I'm glad you licked him," said his father. 
 You may see that old Roosevelt was a good deal like young 
 Roosevelt. 
 
 When he was old enough the boy was sent to Harvard 
 University. He studied well and graduated in 1880, and then 
 spent a year in Europe. When he came to Switzerland and 
 saw the Alps, the first thought he had was to climb them. He 
 did it, too ; he went to the top of the Matterhorn and the 
 Jungfrau, two of the hard ones to climb. 
 
 When he came home in 1881 he was twenty-three years 
 old. Nobody would have thought that this young fellow, with 
 his strong frame, stout shoulders, and square jaws, had ever 
 been delicate. He had fought his way to health and strength. 
 He had plenty of money, and he might have spent the rest 
 of his life in having a good, easy, lazy sort of time, but that 
 
242 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 was not Teddy Roosevelt's way. He was already at work, 
 writing a book. It is called "The Naval War of 1812," and 
 a good book it is, too. It shows that he was then a thinker, 
 and that he had read a great deal about the wars of the world. 
 
 That was only home work. Out of doors he at once 
 went in for politics. And he did it so well that he was 
 quickly elected to the New York Legislature. He took his 
 seat there in 1882, the youngest member in the House. 
 Many of the old members looked on him with scorn and 
 called him "silk stocking." They thought he was a rich 
 man's son who had come there to play at politics. They did 
 not dream what he meant to do. He went at their little games, 
 " hammer and tongs." In two months' time he had all the 
 reformers on his side, and was going for the political tricksters 
 as he had gone for the school-boys. He stayed six years 
 in the Legislature, and in that time he carried through a 
 number of very useful bills. 
 
 This is only one side of Theodore Roosevelt's life. I 
 have told you that he was fond of stories of animals and wild 
 life from the time he was six years old. When he grew older 
 he read all the books he could get on the subject of hunting 
 and natural history, and was very fond of Cooper's novels of 
 Indian life. And when he reached manhood he becamie a 
 hunter himself, going every year to the "Wild West," where 
 he had splendid times in hunting the big game of that region. 
 There were no lions and tigers to hunt, but there were bears 
 and catamounts, and they were bad enough. 
 
 After he left the Legislature he was several years out of 
 office, and these he spent in the West, hunting, fishing, ranch- 
 ing, and doing all sorts of rough work. He started a cattle 
 ranch of his own, and put up a rough log building on wlfich 
 he worked himself. It was so far in the wilderness that he 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 2^3 
 
 shot a deer from his own front door. Here he had herds of 
 cattle, and acted as cowboy as well as hunter. He would 
 dress in a flannel shirt and overalls tucked into alligator boots, 
 and would help his own cowboys in rounding up the cattle, 
 riding with the best of them. Then he would go home to 
 'sleep in bear-skins and buffalo robes, whose old wearers had 
 fallen under his own rifle. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt has always been very short-sighted and 
 has had to wear glasses. They called him " Four Eyes" in 
 the West, and looked on him as a •' tenderfoot " — that is, a 
 man from the East who knows nothing of Western life. 
 
 One day, when it was snowing and he had been out look- 
 ing for lost cattle, he stopped at the hotel of a village in 
 North Dakota. Here there was a "bad man" who wanted 
 some one to fight with. He settled on Roosevelt. 
 
 " Here, you, take a drink," he said roughly. 
 
 " No, thank you. I don't want to drink," said Roose- 
 velt, smiling. 
 
 '•You've got to drink." 
 
 ♦' I guess not," said Roosevelt, with another smile. 
 
 " I say you have." And the " bad man " pulled his 
 pistol. 
 
 In a second he thought a sky-rocket had struck him, but 
 it was Teddy Roosevelt's fist, which knocked him sprawling. 
 ( "Where was I shot?" he asked, when he came to. 
 
 It took a good hour to make him believe that he had 
 been shot by a " tenderfoot's " fist. After that the wild folks 
 had too much respect for " Four Eyes " to meddle with him. 
 
 But he had a quarrel with one of his neighbors. There 
 was a Frenchman, the Marquis de Mores, who owned a ranch 
 next to his, and a quarrel broke out between the cowboys of 
 the two ranches. Roosevelt heard the story and backed up 
 
244 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 his own cowboys, for he thought they were right. This made 
 the Marquis very angry, and he said some ugly things about 
 his neighbor, adding that he would shoot him the next time 
 he met him. As soon as Roosevelt heard of this, he sprang 
 on his horse and rode off at full speed to the Marquis's house. 
 He strode in to where the Frenchman was sitting. 
 
 " I understand you said you would shoot me the next 
 time you saw me," said the visitor. " Here I am, you can 
 have the chance now." 
 
 The Marquis didn't shoot In fact, after a talk over the 
 quarrel, the two became very good friends. 
 
 " I am not so fond of • bronco busting ' and riding wild 
 horses as some people think," said Roosevelt, in later days. 
 " It wasn't because I liked that kind of work that I did it. 
 But I always took just what came, and if it happened to be 
 the wildest animal in the bunch, I got on, and stayed on, too, 
 for when I got on I made up my mind to stay, and I have 
 yet to see the bronco that could make me give in." 
 
 Now let us go back to his political life. In April, 1897, 
 Roosevelt became Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He liked 
 the position, for it began to look very much like war with 
 Spain, and he saw that there was plenty of work to do. 
 That always suited him — plenty of work. 
 
 He jumped into it. The ships wanted fitting up. The 
 gunners needed to be taught how to aim and fire. He made 
 things boom. He asked for ^800,000 for ammunition. It 
 was given to him, and a few months later he asked for 
 $500,000 more. " What have you done with the $800,000 ?" 
 he was asked. " Spent every cent of it for powder and shot 
 and fired it all away." *' And what are you going to do with 
 the $500,000.'*" "Use it the same way, to teach the men 
 how to shoot" 
 
ROOSEVELT AND HIS ROUGH RIDERS STORMING SAN 
 
 JUAN HILL 
 
 This was Ihe most exchina incident, and ihe most destructive battle of the "Spanish War. 1 he Rouch Riders 
 disraounted, boldly dashed up the hill, and assisted in driving the enemy from the forts. 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 Twenty-si-xlh President of the United Statet 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 245 
 
 In less than a year after that the men showed the good 
 of Roosevelt's work, by their splendid aiming and firing in 
 the battles of Manila Bay and off Santiago coast. 
 
 But when war actually came, in May, 1898, wild horses, 
 "ould not have kept Roosevelt at office work. He offered his 
 resignation at once and asked to be appointed on General 
 Lee's staff. Then came the idea of the " Rough Riders' " 
 Regiment — to be made up of cowboys, whom no horse could 
 throw, and of daring riders from any quarter. " Roosevelt's 
 Rough Riders " they were called, and the title hit the popular 
 fancy. The papers were full of it. 
 
 No doubt, you know something of how he fought in 
 Cuba, at Las Guasimas and in the terrible charge up San Juan 
 Hill, in the face of the Spanish works. He was a fighter,' 
 out and out. He did not know what it was to be afraid. 
 "You'd give a lifetime to see that man leading a charge or- 
 hear him yell," said one of his soldiers. "Talk about cour-' 
 age and grit and all that — he's got it." This is what a 
 reporter says of the charge up San Juan Hill : 
 
 " Roosevelt was a hundred feet ahead of his troops, yell- ' 
 ing like a Sioux, while his own men and the colored cavalry . 
 cheered him as they charged up the hill. There was no stop- 
 ping as men's neighbors fell, but on they went, faster and 
 faster. Suddenly, Roosevelt's horse stopped, pawed the air 
 for a moment, and fell in a heap. Before the horse was down- 
 Roosevelt disengaged himself from the saddle and, landing 
 on his feet, again yelled to his men, and, sword in hand,' 
 charged on afoot." 
 
 Colonel Roosevelt was the popular hero of the war. 
 Everybody was talking of him, his boldness, his free and easy 
 ways, his kindness to his men, his gepial manner. When he 
 got back to the United States, he found that men were talking 
 
746 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 of making him the next Governor of New York. They did, 
 too. He went on the stump himself and made many speeches. 
 On the night after the election he went to bed, not waiting for 
 the returns, and was roused up about two o'clock in the morn- 
 ing by men knocking hard on the front door. 
 
 He came to the door with sleepy eyes. 
 
 "What is the matter?" he asked. 
 
 "You're elected by eighteen thousand." 
 
 " Am I ? That's bully. Come in and tell me about it." 
 
 But after a few minutes he bade them good night, saying 
 that he was so sleepy that he must go to bed again. 
 
 We need not. say that Governor Roosevelt did his work 
 as well in the capitol as he had done in the legislature. 
 "Jobs" could not get past him. He put his foot down heavy 
 on all sorts of rascality. He did not stay long in Albany, for 
 he was soon wanted at Washington. When the Republican 
 convention to nominate a candidate for President was held in 
 1900, McKinley was the man wanted. But for Vice-President 
 Roosevelt's was the most popular name. 
 
 He did not want the office. He was coaxed to accept, 
 and was fairly forced into it. He made a campaign of the 
 country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, speaking for McKin- 
 ley. Of course, McKinley won — he was bound to win — and 
 Roosevelt won with him. This was in November, 1900. In 
 September, 1901, the President was shot, and there came a 
 great change in Roosevelt's career. On Friday morning, Sep- 
 tember 13th, being told that the wounded President was out 
 of danger, he left the hotel in the Adirondacks, where he was 
 staying, for a long tramp in the mountains. Then came news 
 that the President was dying and the Vice-President was 
 wanted. It took hours to find him. It was nearly night when 
 the guides and hunters came up to him, many miles away. 
 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 247 
 
 He was filled with surprise and grief when he was told 
 the news. All that night he rode in a stagecoach to the 
 nearest railroad station. When he got there he was startled 
 to learn that McKinley had died three hours before and that 
 he himself was now President of the United States. H^ had 
 jumped from a do-nothing to a do-everything. j 
 
 No man ever liked better to go where he pleased and do 
 what he pleased. It was felt necessary to keep guards and 
 detectives near him, for fear some wretch might try to kill 
 him as they had done McKinley. He hated this. He was 
 afraid of nothing, and thought he could take care of himself, 
 and the poor guards had a hard time keeping him in sight. 
 Sometimes he would give them the slip and ride away without 
 their knowing it. Then he was happy. 
 
 His first message to Congress, in December, 1901, was 
 a great state paper, which gave everybody satisfaction. After 
 reading it, people all over the country said, " Roosevelt is a 
 safe man. We can trust the country to him." 
 
 And that feeling has not died away yet, i for he soon 
 showed he meant to do all he had promised, and in his first 
 term of office he proved himself a hard worker, an able 
 statesman, and a man of the strictest integrity. When the 
 great coal strike took place in 1902 and people were afraid 
 of freezing in the wintry chill. President Roosevelt did what 
 no President had ever done before. He took a hand in the 
 settlement of the strike and soon had the men at work again. 
 
 There were many who said this was wrong, that it was 
 unconstitutional, and all that ; but the President only smiled. 
 He felt satisfied he had done right, and most of the people said 
 the same. In the spring of 1902 he went to Charleston, South 
 Carolina, to see the great exposition there. He was very 
 well received by the people of the South, and made a number 
 
248 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 of speeches with which they were greatly pleased. During the 
 next spring he made a great journey all over the country ^giv- 
 ing fine speeches everywhere, and telling the people just what 
 he thought on a hundred subjects. Crowds came to see and 
 hear him, he was wildly greeted and cheered, but through it 
 all he was the same simple, plain Theodore Roosevelt. When 
 ^ a crippled boy was brought to see him, he leaned down and 
 ' took his hand and spoke kindly words to him. When a little 
 child offered him some flowers, he lifted her up and kissed her. 
 And this was not done for show, but was the earnest feeling 
 of a great, warm heart. 
 
 President Roosevelt's home is near Oyster Bay, Long 
 Island, New York. The house is full of trophies of his many 
 hunting trips. It is situated on Cove Neck, three miles by 
 carriage from the village of Oyster Bay. It is approached by 
 a steep, winding roadway, which takes the visitor through a 
 dense wood before revealing to him the house itself Once '■ 
 on the crest of the little hill which he has selected for his • 
 home, the visitor has a beautiful view in every direction, espe- 
 cially to the north and east, where the waters of the Sound 
 and Cold Spring Harbor are seen. Around the house on all 
 sides is a closely cropped lawn, studded with shade trees, big 
 and little, and of many kinds. 
 
 Mrs. Roosevelt, "the lady of the White House," is rather 
 small, has brown hair and eyes and a clear complexion, but 
 her chief beauty is her mouth, which is highly expressive. 
 She is one of the women who have the art of making them- 
 selves popular, and is very well fitted for her high position, to 
 which she does honor on every public occasion. I have 'no 
 doubt she is very proud of her husband, and so are the people 
 of the United States, whatever party they belong to. 
 
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