aass_ Li2?_ Book . ' S, COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES I y THE MACMILLAN COMPANY HEW YORK - BOSTON ■ CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA - SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltdw TORONTO A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 1492—1920 BY JOHN SPENCER BASSETT, Ph.D. PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN SMITH COLLEGE NfiD gorfe MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921 All ri^^his reserved Copyright, 1913 and 1921, By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and clectrotyped. Published September, 1913. With new chapters, February, 1921. PREFACE In this book I have sought to tell clearly and impartially the story of human achievement in what is now the United States, from the earliest traces of man's existence to the present time. Out of the "lultitude of facts which may be considered within the domain of merican history, those have been recounted which seem best suited • > explain the progress of the people as a nation. The influence of ..'lysical environment has been discussed in the opening chapter, '.vhich also deals with the primitive inhabitants. An attempt has been I'.ide to give the colonial period its proper unity and show in what M.anner the colonies were a part of the general British scheme of ini- i-^rial government. At the same time one must remember that it is 'merican and not British history which concerns us, and for that i.ason the narrative must not neglect the individual colonies. From 1 le end of the colonial period the dominant interest is the progress of civents which have to do with the common cause of independence, and after that wit^h national development. Much thought has been given to the proper distribution of em- phasis between the various historical factors. Political institutions are the most conscious expression of the national will. They determine the form of the story which the historian has to tell. But social and economic conditions and the actions of leading men give color and contour to the figure and decide whether it be attractive or unattractive, vivid or unimpressive. This volume contains at inter- vals summaries of the habits and social progress of the people, while throughout it seeks to present the decisions of congress and adminis- trations in the matters which relate to the most important phases of popular welfare. It is believed that, if well done, it thus becomes in the most vital sense a social history. My aim has been to lay the necessary foundation for those who wish to pursue further the subject of American history in whatever phase they may be interested. In a work like this it is impossible to discuss new historical evi- dence. I have had to content myself with what has already been done by patient and faithful investigators. I have drawn from the results of their labors freely and gratefully. It has also been necessary to orait many things which I should have desired to include had greater spact been allowed by the plan to which the book must conform. It seemed best to deal only with the main currents of history, and to follow these with considerable fullness rather than encumber the narra- tive with many details. If some of my readers are disappointed vi PREFACE through the omission of something they expected to find, I hope they will be consoled by finding that what has been attempted has gained in amplitude of treatment. The bibliographies at the ends of chapters are intended as an aid to those who wish to read further than this book can carry them. They are classified with respect to subjects, and while they are not critical, no book has been mentioned which does not contain useful information, although some of them must be perused with discrimina- tion. It is suggested that the investigator suppplement the informa- tion herein offered by consulting Larned, The Literature of American History (1902), Hart, editor, The American Nation, 27 vols. (1904- 1908), as well as special bibliographies. The books mentioned under the caption, For Independent Reading, are popular rather than scien- tific, but they generally contain reliable information. It is hoped that they may be of value to students who wish to read American history during vacations and to others who read through their own initiative. Finally, the author's thanks are due to Professor Marshall S. Brown of New York University, who kindly read and criticised the completed manuscript, but who is in no way responsible for the errors herein contained. J. S. B. 16 Rue Chaigrin, Paris, '913- PREFACE TO THE ENLARGED EDITION The progress of time makes it necessary to add to this book an account of the events that have occurred since the work was published in 1913. At that time a new administration was coming into office: at the present it is going out. To treat in proper perspective a period so close at hand and to interpret rightly its many disputed points may well tax the resources of the wisest historian. I hope for the same consideration from the public in this respect that has been so generously extended to the book in other respects. I have given my serious atten- tion to determining what to omit as comparatively unimportant, and how to combine and emphasize the facts that are presented. If I have made mistakes in doing so, I have at least avoided some I might have made by following another course. J. S. B. March 3, 1921. CONTENTS Chapter I. The Continent and its Early Inhabitants: Physical Factors in American History 1 Natural Resources '* Early Inhabitants 11 The Indians 1-^ Indian Culture 15 Chapter II. The Discovery ano Exploration of America : Events and Ideas leading to the Discovery 23 The Achievement of Columbus 27 Exploring the Coasts of the New World 31 Exploring the Interior 37 Chapter III. The First English Settlements in the South: The Gentlemen Adventurers 41 The Beginning of Virginia 45 Better Times in the Colony 50 The Settlement of Maryland 52 Chapter IV. The Settlement of New England: The Plymouth Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony The Settlement of Other New England Colonies New York under the Dutch ... Early Relations of the Colonies with England 59 63 68 72 76 Chapter V. Colonial Progress under the L.\ter Stuarts, 1660-1689 : Charles II and the Colonies 80 The Stuart Reaction 88 The Colonies under the Later Stuarts, 1660-1689 92 Chapter VI. Colonial Development, 1690-1763 : Development of the Colonial Conflict 99 Typical Colonial Controversies 101 Georgia Founded 109 Growth of New France HI The French and Indian Wars 115 The Last Conflict between the French and English in North America . 121 vii vm CONTENTS PAGB Chapter VII. Social Progress in Colonies : The Conditions of Settlement 134 Laboring Classes 137 Colonial Industry 140 Trade 142 Race Elements in Colony Planting 145 Religion in the Colonies 148 Education and Culture in the Colonies 153 Local Government in the Colonies 155 Paper Money in the Colonies 157 Chapter VIII. The Causes of the Revolution : The Principles at Stake 161 Grenville's Policy ........... 162 Growing Irritation 169 Continental Organization and Attempts at Adjustment .... 175 Chapter IX. The American Revolution : The Declaration of Independence . The Campaign around New York, 1775 . The Campaigns of 1777, Philadelphia and Saratoga The Alliance with France .... Minor Events in the North, 1778-1782 . The War in the West ..... The Navy in the Revolution .... The Campaign in the South, 177S-1781 . The Treaty of Peace Civil Progress during the Revolution 186 188 192 198 200 203 204 206 214 217 Chapter X. The First Years of Peace, 1783-1787 Financial Embarrassments ......... 222 Industry and Trade after the War ........ 225 Forming a New Society .......... 228 The Western Lands 231 Popular Dissatisfaction 235 Chapter XI. Making the Constitution : The Articles of Confederation 238 Moving toward a Stronger Union 240 The Adoption of the Constitution ........ 247 Nationality and State Integrity in the Constitution .... 250 CONTENTS ix rACB Chapter XII. Washington's Presidency — A Period of Organiza- tion : The Work of Organization 256 Financial Reorganization 259 Adjusting Foreign Relations 261 The United States and the European War 266 The Whisky Insurrection ' 267 Political Development under Washington 269 Chapter XIII. Adams and the Downfall of the Federalists: The Political Character of the Administration 276 The Quarrel with France 278 Overconfidence of the Federalists 283 Overthrow of the Federalists 287 Chapter XIV. Internal History and Foreign Affairs under Jefferson and Madison : Republican Reforms 291 The War with TripoU 295 The Purchase of Louisiana 296 Dissension in the Republican Party 300 The Schemes of Aaron Burr .......•• 303 Relations between England and the United States .... 306 Jefferson's Reply to Europe 309 Chapter XV. The War of 1812: Origin of the War ........... 313 The Struggle for Canada 321 Operations at Sea ........... 326 The British Campaign on Chesapeake Bay 329 The War on the Gulf Coast 331 New England Discontent 335 Chapter XVI. Social Development: Growth of the West and Southwest 341 Industrial Development • . . 345 Slavery made .Sectional .......... 350 Religious Development after the Revolution 352 Exploration in the Far West 355 Early Constitutional Interpretation ....... 357 Chapter XVII. The Last of the Virginia Presidents: Reforms of 1816-1817 ... 363 Party Cleavage under Monroe . ...... 367 X CONTENTS FAGS The Acquisition of Florida . . , 368 The Missouri Compromise 371 The Monroe Doctrine 375 The Election of 1824 377 The Presidential Election of 1825 379 Chapter XVIII. The Administration of John Quincy Adams: Party Formation under John Quincy Adams ...... 382 The Tariff and the Development of Sectionalism ..... 384 The Election of 1828 388 Chapter XIX. Problems of Jackson's First Administration: The New President in Charge 392 Internal Improvements Checkeu 394 Division in the Jacksonian Party 396 The Election of 1832 403 Chapter XX. Jackson's Presidency Completed : The End of Nullification 407 Jackson's " War " against the Bank 411 Foreign Affairs 415 The End of Jackson's Presidency 422 Chapter XXI. Early Period of the Slavery Controversy, 1831- 1850: The Antislavery Agitation 428 Van Buren's Presidency .......... 432 The Administration of Tyler 435 The Maine Boundary and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty . . . 437 The Annexation of Texas and the Occupation of Oregon . . . 438 The Election of 1844 441 Polk's Administration 445 The Slavery Question in a New Form 450 The Compromise of 1850 454 Chapter XXII. Social and Industrial Development, 1815-1861 : Growth of Population and the Results . 461 The Influence of Great Inventions 463 The Indians 465 Social Development in the South 468 The Development of Democracy in State and Nation .... 472 The Progress of Education 476 Gold in California 480 The Panic of 1857 482 CONTENTS xi rAGB Chapter XXIII. Events leading to the Civil War, 1850-1860: Overthrowing the Compromise of 1850 485 The Struggle for Kansas 489 A New Party and the Election of 1856 493 The Dred Scott Decision 497 The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 499 The John Brown Raid 502 The Election of 1860 504 Chapter XXIV. The Outbreak of the Civil War: War or Peace? 511 Lincoln and Secession 514 Preparations for War 516 The Bull Run Campaign 518 Relations with Great Britain 521 Chapter XXV. The Western Campaigns : A Bifurcated Invasion 526 Three Preliminary Operations, 1861 526 Grant's Campaign on the Tennessee, 1862 527 Confederate Counter- Movement in Tennessee and Kentucky . . 529 Vicksburg Captured 530 The Campaign for Chattanooga ........ 532 The Campaign against Atlanta ........ 535 Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas .... 539 The War beyond the Mississippi ........ 541 Chapter XXVI. The War in the East, 1862-1865: McClellan's Peninsular Campaign 545 Pope and Second Bull Run 550 The Campaign of Antietam 553 The Battle of Fredericksburg 555 The Battle of Chancellorsville 557 The Gettysburg Campaign ......... 558 From the Wilderness to Petersburg 563 The End of the War 564 Federal Naval Operations 569 Chapter XXVII. Civil Affairs during the War: Enhsting Troops, North and South 572 Federal Finances ........... 574 The Progress of Emancipation ........ 577 Political Parties during the Civil War ....... 581 The War Powers of the President 585 \ne Southern Problem and Southern Efforts 586 xiv CONTENTS PAGE Chapter XXXVIII. The War with Spain: Spain and Cuba . 782 American Intervention 786 The Work of the Navy 790 Land Operations against Santiago 795 The Destruction of the Spanish Squadron 799 Reflections on the War in Cuba 802 Peace Negotiations 805 Subsequent Relations with Cuba 806 Chapter XXXIX. E.xpansion and its Problems : The Philippines as an American Colony 809 An American Colonial Policy ........ 813 An Isthmian Canal 814 The Canal at Panama 817 Canal Construction ........... 821 American Diplomacy in the Orient 822 The Alaskan Boundary 825 The New Monroe Doctrine 826 Chapter XL. The Administrations of Roosevelt and Taft: Roosevelt's Corporation Policy 829 Roosevelt's Second Term ......... 832 Taft's Administration 837 The Presidential Election of 1912 843 Legislative Progress under Taft 849 Chapter XLI. Political Measures of the Wilson Administration : A New Administration 853 The Underwood Tariff 856 The Federal Reserve Banking Act 858 Laws Relating to Great Corporations 860 Our Caribbean Policy 863 Dealing with Mexico 867 Chapter XLII. The United States and the World War: Trying to Preserve Neutrality, 1914-1917 873 The Awakening of the People of the United States .... 878 At War with Germany — A Year of Preparation 882 The American Expeditionary Forces in France 886 American Troops to the Rescue 888 Operation in the American Sector 891 The United States Navy and the War 896 The Treaty of Versailles 897 FULL-PAGE MAPS FACING PAGE Physical Features of the United States 9 Early Explorations 30 The North during the Revolutionary War 184 The Northwest during the Revolution 202 The Revolutionary War in the South 208 The United States at the Close of the Revolution 216 California and Mexico, 1846 448 The United States during the Civil War 528 Operations in the East 550 The Battlefield of Gettysburg 559 The Transportation Problem of the South 574 The Far West 678 Territorial Development (dotihh page) . 792 The Panama Canal 820 The Battle Area of France during Four Years of War .... 886 The Capture of the St. Mihiel Angle 892 The Meuse-Argonne Region 894 MAPS IN THE TEXT PACK Bunker Hill and Boston . 181 Campaign around New York ......... 189 Valley Forge, Philadelphia, and Brandywine 193 The Saratoga Campaign 196 The Siege of Yorktown 213 The Canadian Border 322 Washington and Vicinity 329 The Erie Canal 366 The Gulf Region 369 The Vicksburg Campaign 532 Operations around Atlanta 537 The Santiago Campaign 797 CHAPTER I THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS Physical Factors in American History The history of the United States, hke that of other countries, has been modified by physical enNaronment. Nature has determined where man should begin to penetrate the continent, his routes of communication between the various portions of V^^ '°' , the country, and the resources out of which he has built Nature, up the national wealth. Climate has limited achievement, or aided it, the soil has determined the form of labor, and rainfall has marked out the area he inhabits. In some respects he has overcome natural conditions, but in most things he has had to conform his ac- tions to them. Speaking generally, nature has been favorable to man in the United States. Says Shaler: "There is no area, in either of the Americas, or for that matter in the world outside of Europe, where it would have been possible to plant English colonies, that would have been found so suitable for the purpose." The area of the United States, exclusive of Alaska and the island possessions, is 3,026,789 square miles, which is less than that of Europe by 725,000 square miles. Great irregularities mark the coast line of Europe and facilitate political subdivision. iE .'^ , Our own coast line is relatively regular, and most of the unity, interior is one vast river system. The Appalachian Moun- tains are not a formidable barrier between the coastal plain and the interior, since they are easily penetrated in Pennsylvania and fall away entirely in Georgia and New York. The Rockies are much higher, but they were not reached before the day of railroads, and through means of this invention most of their difficulties disappeared. It has therefore happened that the people from the Atlantic to the Pacific constitute one nation. They are relieved of the burdens which opposing interests lay upon the powers of Europe, and the size of the country has given it great influence in international affairs. Through this extent of territory there is a wide range of climate, but the mean temperature is mild. The fact that a great plain extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean without the interruption of a mountain chain accounts for a wide varia- variations tion in temperature for a given point. Through this means mighty currents of heated atmosphere are carried far northward in B I 2 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS summer and cold waves come far southward in winter. As a result, Arkansas, for example, has the winter climate of Edinburgh and the summer climate of Spain, while Minnesota has summers hke those of Venice and winters as cold as those of Scotland. The Pacific coast, protected from the disturbing force of the currents in the interior of the continent, has a more stable climate; but the Appalachians are not high enough to shield in a similar way the Atlantic coast. In all parts of the United States there is adequate rainfall e.xcept near the Rocky Mountains. An area beginning with the eastern slope _ . . .. of this range and extending westward to the Sierra Nevada range is deficient in this respect. A large part of it yields grass for ranches, but one fourth of it is entirely arid and makes a great desert with no vegetation except alkali plants and prickly shrubs. Much of this general region may be reclaimed by irrigation, and in 1902 Congress provided means of reclamation which will even- tually bring these parts wthin the area of fertile production. Two ocean currents modify the climate of the United States. The Gulf Stream on the east e.xerts an influence on the coast as far north as Cape Hatteras ; and the Japanese Current, sweeping down from Alaska, where its effects are marked, tempers the winters of all the Pacific slope north of Mexico. Means of water transportation are adequate. Harbors are nu- merous on the Atlantic coast, and rivers suitable for the ships of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are so well distributed The AUantic ^^lat if a line were drawn from Maine to Florida parallel System. with the coast and one hundred miles inland, there would hardly be a spot east of it which was more than a day's journey from water transportation. This rim of coast received the first colonies, and its natural advantages made easy the introduction of civilization. The plain west of it is traversed by several large rivers which by offering means of communication and an abundance of fertile bottom land marked out the lines of advance for future settle- ments. This took the frontier to the Alleghanies, to pass The Passage which three easy routes might be followed ; one around the Mississippi iiorthern end of the range to the lakes, another around the Basin. southern end, and another through central Pennsylvania to the upper waters of the Ohio. The Iroquois Indians held back immigration by the northern passage for many years, and the Creeks and Cherokees did the same on the south, so that the first English advance across the barrier was by way of the central route. The Mississippi basin, as the central portion of the continent is called, is entered from the sea by three great systems of mtenor water communication. One comes from the north by the Courses. St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes and gives access to the very heart of the central north. Another is the Missis- sippi and its tributaries. Its northeastern branches approach within MEANS OF COMMUNICATION 3 short distances of the streams which flow into the lakes of the north, and its western and northwestern tributaries penetrate the broad western plains. A third system is the Alabama, which reaches the sea through Mobile bay. Smaller than either of the others, it never- theless covers a large and important region north of the Gulf of Mexico. The currents of most of these rivers make it difficult for saDboats to come upstream, and the earliest transportation was by flatboat down the river; but the invention of steamboats in 1807 put the navigable rivers of the country entirely under human control. The Pacific slope differs from the Atlantic slope in both harbors and waterways. Only four of the former are important : Puget Sound, San Francisco, San Diego, and the mouth of the Columbia river, which is dangerous. The mountains approach so Harbors and near to the sea that the coastal plain is too narrow for large the^Padfic streams ; but in Oregon and southern California they recede Coast. enough to allow the exit of two great rivers which gather their waters in the high grounds of the interior. One of these is the Columbia, which flows through a fertile and well-timbered valley, the home of a numerous jjeople ; the other is the Colorado, whose course is twisted through an arid region, which can only hope for develop- ment through irrigation. Certain physical features have materially aided in the construction of artificial means of communication. After roads, which with their bridges were early made by the settlers to facilitate travel, „ canals were next undertaken, usually in order to reach the interior beyond the heads of navigation of the rivers. They generally paralleled small streams whose shallowness made them unfit for navi- gation. Philadelphia interests, seeking to reach the rich western trade which had its gateway at Pittsburg, planned a canal over the mountains. Starting from Harrisburg it followed the Juniata river to the base of the Alleghanies, where it was forced to stop. On the other side of the range it was resumed along the banks of the Conemaugh and Alleghany rivers to Pittsburg. The bu^^g Route ridge between these two links has an elevation of 2491 feet and a width of forty-two miles. Uncompromising advocates of canals proposed a tunnel throughout the whole distance, but a railroad was built instead. There were other attempts to reach Pittsburg from the coast, but the line just mentioned was the most continuous water route that was utilized. Its disadvantages were many, and it was used chiefly for freight, passengers preferring the quicker journey over one of the several post roads to the upper Ohio. When Pennsylvanians developed this line of transportation they had their eyes on a competing system in New York. From the Hudson at Albany to Buffalo is only three hundred and sixty-three miles. Much of the distance is traversed by the Mohawk river, and the highest elevation is only four hundred and forty-five feet above sea 4 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS level. To the north are the Adirondacks and to the south the Catskills. The valley is nature's gateway to the West, and as early as 1785 plans were considered for a canal through TheCen^tral j^ jj^ jgjj jjjgy came to fruition when the Erie canal Route. was comi)leted from Buffalo, on Lake Erie, to Albany, on the Hudson. It had two branches, one to Lake Champlain on the north and the other to Lake Ontario, at Oswego. It conducted the commerce of a large area to the port of New York. The results were striking. In 1826 nineteen thousand boats and rafts were carried down these New York canals to the Hudson. Ship- building sprang up on Lake Champlain, Buffalo became a Results of fjepot for the furs and other products of the Northwest struction. which formerly found outside markets by way of the St. Lawrence, and the settlement of the lands south of the Great Lakes was given a great stimulus. In 1825 the freight rate from Buffalo to Albany was eighty-eight dollars a ton : twenty-six years later it was less than si.x dollars. The lake region was thus made tributary to New York, and out of this fact grew the industrial su- premacy of that city. Up to this time Philadelphia was the leading American city : it fought hard to retain its supremacy, and its control of the best road to Pittsburg was an important factor; but access to the lake region was worth more in the future development of the coun- try than reaching the Ohio valley. When railroads were invented these two passes were still of great importance. One line followed the Juniata to Pittsburg, and two were built across the level Mohawk plain to Buffalo, where the lack of steep grades makes operating ex- penses relatively low. Natural Resources Natural resources have affected the history of the United States as much as means of communication. No colony could prosper without something which it could export for the accumulation of Early im- wealth. For the earliest comers such articles were furs p°^"^^° and fish. They were in ready demand in Europe and at- Fisheries. tracted the attention of hardy adventurers before the New World was .seriously thought of as a place for colonization. Fur traders and fishermen established temporary stations on the coast in advance of permanent settlements, and thus called the world's at- tention to the resources of the continent. Furs abounded in all parts of America, but they were better in the colder parts. The earliest traders came into harbors, FurTraders usually at the mouths of rivers, where the natives met to fnth'eln"^ barter skins for goods. As the trade developed they went terior. up the rivers into the interior, generally establishing trad- ing houses at the heads of navigation, as at Hartford on the Connecticut, Albany on the Hudson, and Richmond on the James. FUR TRADE AND FISHERIES S Next, individual traders went out from these centers to remote parts, gathering the furs from the natives rather than waiting for them to be brought to the stations. In every case the advent of settlements was the signal for the disappearance of the trade. To-day when the whole continent is known to man, furs are found only in the frozen parts of the north, where the climate forbids ordinary pursuits. In the in- terior, as well as on the coast, the fur trader marched in advance of the frontier. He explored unknown parts and re\-ealed to the settle- ments the portions best suited for habitation, he discovered the best means of penetrating the interior, and he established important re- lations with the Indians. Even earlier than the fur trader was the fisherman. The many indentations of the Atlantic coast abound in mackerel and salmon ; but more important still was the cod, whose proper habitat is the coasts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. At the ^l]^^°f^^^^ coming of the colonists this fish was found as far south as Fisheries, the cape which now bears its name. It was then already well known in Europe ; for enterprising fishermen from England and France were taking it on the banks of Newfoundland many years earlier. "The knob headed, richly fat, and succulent codfish," as Weeden calls it, is probably the most popular of our food fishes. Its special advantage is its e.xcellent keeping cjuality when salted and dried. With mackerel it was v^^dely sold in the Catholic countries of western Europe, where fish was demanded for use on Fridays. The poorer cod and mackerel were sent to the West Indies, where planters bought them for their slaves. The New England fisheries developed rapidly from the first and became the basis of an important foreign trade. Taking the cod supported an important sea-going population. The eastern towns of Massachusetts — Boston, Gloucester, Marblehead, Salem, Ipswich — were the centers of the industry. With the establishment of fishing on the coast the cod disap- ^u^^lu peared in that region ; but the New Englander followed it q^^ north as far as the Newfoundland banks. A ship of fifty tons and a crew of seven were considered adequate for the business ; and if fishing were good, they might e.xpect to take six hundred quintals a year. The men served for shares, and the owner of the boat got a share for his capital. A ship's company was selected for steadiness, agility of mind and body, and companionable qualities. The associa- tion was apt to be renewed from season to season, and it promoter the development of reliable and efficient cooperation. The fisheries bred sailors for the merchant marine and later for the navy. With the advance of the eighteenth century capital played a relatively larger part in the cod fisheries; larger ships were used, and wealthy _^. .. men who furnished outfits became a chief factor in the in- dustry. Out of this form of fishing grew whaling, which the hardy 6 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS New Englanders carried to the North, and South, Atlantic, and finally to Pacific waters. The trade in cod and mackerel had the pe- culiar advantage that it brought specie into the colonies at an early day, when it was much needed. Another important resource in the United States is lumber. Forests originally covered the entire Atlantic coast and all of the Mississippi basin but the prairies, which occurred in restricted areas north of the Ohio and in a large territory from the Rocky Mountains to a line some- what west of the Mississippi. The Pacific coast itself is Lumber ^^'^ wooded, but the rainless region from the Sierras to the Rockies is largely without forests. The settlers attacked the forests with a\ddity. Masts for all the shipbuilding countries of Europe, staves and lumber for the treeless West Indies, and naval stores from the Carolina pines were some of the first forest products. As the frontier was extended inward from the coast lumbering as- sumed better organized forms, saw mills lined the rivers, and forest products became of greater importance. From lumbering the col- onists quickly proceeded to shipbuilding, making excellent vessels for their own use and after a while for sale in Europe and the West Indies. As the frontier proceeded westward the attacks on the forests became most profligate. Thus a large part of the timber of the country was wastefully consumed before the people came to realize the importance of preserving it. In fertOity the soil of the United States compares favorably with that of Europe. It is peculiarly rich in limestone, which is favorable _ .. to the growth of grain and grass. A large proportion of the land is tillable, and even the mountain ranges of the Atlantic slope may be brought largely into cultivation through suffi- cient effort. There are few great swamps, the Dismal in North Caro- lina and the Everglades in southern Florida being the only consider- able ones on the Atlantic coast. The openness of the country made settlement easy in the early stages, and it has facilitated the e.xtension of the frontier through the interior. All the territory north of the Susquehannah and half of that north of the Ohio was once in the grasp of a great glacier. The effects were: I, to leave the soU full of stones which must be removed Period*"* before it could be cultivated successfully. This was par- ticularly true of New England, where, it is estimated, an average of thirty days' labor was necessary to clear of stones each acre of land ; 2, Glaciers leave behind them a tough clay soil which requires years to bring it into profitable production, but The New when once subdued it is not easily exhausted. Shaler S^y *° asserts that he has never known this kind of soil to be- come worn out through cultivation. The Indians were not able to subdue the New England soil, and they were, therefore, not numerous enough seriously to impede the early attempts at colo- SOILS AND THEIR PRODUCTS 7 nization. The whites succeeded better, but the difficulty was so great that agriculture progressed slowly in that region. Many of the people turned to other forms of industry, especially to trade and, in later years, to manufactures, for which their excellent water-power was adapted. This struggle with nature, it is believed, has also stimulated thrift, self-restramt, and resourcefidness in the inhabitants ; and the estab- hshment of manufactures lias pronioted town building. Tlie social results have been important. In the South, on the other hand, the tillable soil was fertile, though more easily exhausted. It was also abundant and cheap, so that the settlers had a tendency to take up large holdings. To work . . these plantations it was necessary to have a permanent cn' »!, labor supply, persons who would not become landowners themselves in the presence of the unusual opportunity for acquiring farms. No such laboring class could be had from Europe, but it could be found in Africa, and the result was negro slavery. Slave plantations became the rule, and they were so profitable that manu- facturing was excluded, trade was reduced to simple forms, and the South was given almost wholly to agriculture. In the Northwest the prairies were easily and rapidly settled. Im- migrants quickly became rich farmers. Never was the American frontier more prosperous and more democratic. Cities r ,1^ -rir . were built rapidly, and railroads, commerce, and all the other forms of a complex society were suddenly reared upon the luxuriant state of agricultural prosperity. In California a favorable soil and an equable climate have united to support a great fruit raising industry. The lands adjacent to rivers have played an important part in the history of the country, especially on the Atlantic coast and in the lower Mississippi basin. They were most accessible to the early inhabitants and had greatest fertility. They were jo'^^Land" the first lands reduced to cultivation, and when they were occupied the settlers turned to the tributary streams, where the bottom lands were less extensive. When the black borders of this drainage skeleton were taken up and made arable, the higher regions between them were attacked. The best plantations were the river plantations, and because their owners were rich, and could afTord to own large tracts, here were found the large plantations. This was somewhat true of the Connecticut, and essentially true of the Hudson and of all the Southern rivers. Raising their own food has never been a problem for Americans, since all parts of the continent are fertile enough for that, — and the colonists, once past the initial scarcity due to ^°°^ '° difficulty of adjustment to a new location, had no anxiety on this score. They were more concerned with having some staple crop for export which should serve as the basis of wealtla. New Eng- 8 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS land could promise little in this respect. Some corn, vegetables, and beef could be spared from home consumption, but high freights to Europe forbade sending them thither. The West Indies and the fish- ing stations of the North offered but a small market, and the middle colonies were competitors for it. With the increase of transportation facilities much grain was sent abroad from the latter colonies, the precursor of a trade which with the development of the West has become a great factor in our industrial life. Three staple crops developed in the colonial period ; tobacco in Virginia and Maryland and rice and indigo in South Carolina and Georgia. Late in the eighteenth century sugar became a '' ' staple in Louisiana. All were profitable and facilitated the rapid development of the regions in which they were grown. After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 cotton became the lead- ing staple of the country. It was grown throughout the South below Virginia and Kentucky from the foothills of the Alleghanies to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Me.xico. With the development of the coun- try many other crops have become vastly important. Of them wheat and corn are of first rank and must be called staples in a large part of the Mississippi basin. In the days of settlement Indian corn was a most prevalent food supply. Besides having e.xcellent nourishing qualities, it was more ... _ easily cultivated in newly cleared ground than any other grain. Following the custom of the Indians, the colonist removed the undergrowth from the forest, killed those trees he did not care to uproot, and dropped the seed in the spaces between stumps and dead trunks. European wheat could not have grown or been har- vested under such conditions. Corn has, also, these other advantages ; it remains uninjured on the stalk for weeks after it is ripe, it keeps well in indifferent barns, its grain is e.xcellent food for man and many of the domesticated animals, and its fodder is good winter forage. More- over, it grows well in all parts of the country, whereas wheat cannot be raised with profit in most of the Southern states. The mineral resources of the United States, which are abundant, were little exploited before the revolution. In that period men were satisfied to clear land, build roads, and develop trade, Deposfts naturally the first tasks to be done in a new country. Our revolutionary period happened to coincide with one of the turning points in the world's industrial history. The steam engine, the blast furnace, and power machinery came into existence at nearly the same time. Following them came a great demand for coal and the metals used in ordinary forms of industry, and the rapid Iron ^""^ development of manufactures in the early part of the nine- teenth century gave an added impulse to the process. The mining of coal and iron on a large scale opened the new period. WTien these two minerals are found together and close to water transporta- DISTRIBUTION OF COAL 9 tion they furnish the basis of great industrial activity. They represent enormous vakies in themselves, they support a large body of laborers, and they enter so extensively into modern production that many manufactories are sure to spring up in the neighborhood. The result is rich and densely settled areas, numerous cities, and the various important influences which naturally accompany them. Most parts of the United States are near coal deposits, but the richest coal-bearing area is that lying chiefly on the western slope of the Al- leghanies extending from northern Alabama in the southwest to southern New York in the North. This belt at the southern part is about thirty miles broad, but near the northern end it spreads out in a great bulb reacWng from Cumberland, Maryland, to Newark, Ohio. The deposit in most of the region is bituminous, but in the northeastern part, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, is a rich anthracite field, an area of four hundred and seventy-two square miles, which surpasses in mineral wealth any other region of the same size in the world. The anthracite coal fields were discovered in 1790 by a hunter whose strange stories of stones that burned in his campfire attracted atten- tion. Investigation revealed on the Mauch Chunk a hill of excellent coal fifty feet high with a surface of forty acres. It was long before the people came to understand the use of anthracite, or Discovery of "stone coal." Tradition relates that when it was first Anthracite, offered for sale in Philadelphia in 181 2 purchasers were unable to burn it and drove the seller out of town for a swindler. Another story is that an iron manufacturer not long after this tried to use it in his furnace. All the forenoon he poked at the fire to make it burn, but had no success. Finally he closed the furnace door in disgust and went to his dinner. On his return the coal was burning brightly ; he had left the drafts open, and the accident is supposed to have revealed the secret of the use of anthracite coal. At any rate, this fuel has been widely used in America from about 1825. Most of the Alleghany coal fields are bituminous. The best por- tion of them is around Pittsburg, where there are, also, good deposits of iron ore and limestone necessary for iron smelting. Other rich portions of the general field are in eastern Ohio, West l''sJ"'"ition Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Georgia, and Deposits. Alabama. Another considerable bituminous coal field is the Central. It lies in Indiana, Illinois, and western Kentucky, with sporadic deposits in some of the neighboring states. Its total area is fifty thousand scjuare miles, and the block coal which it yields is very satisfactory for furnaces. In the Rocky Mountains are much lignite and some bituminous coal. On the Pacific coast are moderate deposits in California, Oregon, and Washington ; and recent investigation has shown valuable deposits in Alaska. The coal supply of the United States is greater in proportion to the national area and more accessible than that of Europe. We have one 10 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS square mile of coal for every ten square miles of surface : Europe has one for one hundred and eighty-eight. Besides this, our seams are thicker and nearer the surface. In industrial endurance we are, there- fore, likely to surpass any other continent, except Asia, where China has immense beds. These coal beds bring the Orient into the range of world politics, and are apt to bring our own Pacific coast into close relations with that part of the world in the future. Iron ore was worked in most of the colonies before the revolution. At that time furnaces were fired with charcoal, which was plentifully obtained from the forests. Most of the enterprises were small. There were smelting furnaces, bloomeries for the production of wrought iron, and hammers for making bars ; and the total output gave the colonists a large part of their iron implements, and iron in some forms was sent abroad. Roebuck's invention in 1 760, by which coal was used in blast fur- naces, and the introduction in 1790 of the steam engine to operate the blast caused a revolution in iron mining. Charcoal furnaces were dis- carded, and the iron industry in the United States was confined to the regions which yielded mineral coal. Western Pennsylvania became a very important center of the industry, and northern Ohio in the Cleveland region, where the rich ores from Lake Superior could meet by water transportation the coal from the Alleghany coal region, became not only noted for the earlier forms of iron working, but it became the home of many factories established to produce the articles in wiiich iron is the chief material. The same thing may be said of other regions, as West Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and northern Alabama. The Alleghany and Central coal fields, and the regions contiguous to them, seem, therefore, to be one of the most important underlying physical factors of our history, and one which will probably gain influence in the future. Coal oils are abundant in the upper Ohio valley and are found in paying quantities in other regions, as Kansas, Nebraska, and Te.xas. ... _., In regions where there has been little geological disturbance they accumulate beneath the surface in great lakes. There is, also, in the Ohio valley and extending eastward into Virginia, an area of oil-bearing shale as large as the states of New York and Pennsyl- vania combined. It is one hundred and fifty feet deep and ten per cent of it is oil. If satisfactory means can be found to extract this product, it will become a vast resource when the oil deposits proper are exhausted. Gold in lodes is found on the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to central Alabama. Before its discovery in California in 1849 it was mined profitably in the southern part of this eastern belt, but the greater productiveness of the western fields has made it nearly unprofitable to work the eastern mines. All the Cordilleran region contains gold, and its discovery in California led to great results. EARL'i' MAN IN NORTH AMERICA ii ^ery rich mines have been opened in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and other neighboring states. The last notable gold area dis- covered in America is the Klondike fields, opened in 1S97. Although they are in Canadian territory access to them is through Alaska, and the historical results in that territory have been important. In 1859 two prospectors, Comstock and Jenrode, found a rich silver gy^^j. region on Mount Davidson, at what is now Virginia City, Nevada. Rapid developments followed, other regions were discov- ered, and it was at length seen that in Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Me.xico, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming were vast deposits. This development, with the progress of gold mining, gave a strong stimulus to the settlement of the mountain region. Railroads were built, the Indians were pressed back, states were created, and impor- tant industrial and political consequences followed. The natural conditions in the United States which most affect manufactures are factory power and labor supply. In the earliest times the most important form of the former was water- power. In New England the coastal plain is narrow and po^ef_ comparatively precipitous. Here water-power is excel- lent, and it was utilized long before the revolution. The coming of steam power lessened New England's advantage in this respect, but did not remove it entirely. As the coal supplies are reduced, water- power, whose force is constant, must tend to recover something of its former superiority. South of New England the coast plain becomes wider and the rivers have less fall. In the Carolinas the plain is so level and the evaporation through the long summers so great that water-powers are not very important, and only on the largest rivers is there a constant supply throughout the year. Generally speaking, the region between the Appalachians and the Rockies is level, and good water-power is scarce ; but there are exceptions, the most notable being Niagara Falls, where there is great possibility for service. That part of the Pacific coast which lies between the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevada Mountains has good water-power. The Willamette near Portland has a fall of forty feet which produces energy equal to a million horsepower. Early Inhabitants The most recent investigations have tended to show that man existed in England, Germany, and Java either within or before the glacial period, the basis of the contention being the discovery of very early skulls. His earliest authentic traces in America ^^^^^ g^ do not point to so remote a period. We have, however, a disputed claim, which, if conceded, would give the American man a very early origin. In 1866 workmen digging a mine-shaft in Calaveras county, California, reported the discovery of a human skull in gold- bearing gravel of what is generally held to be the pliocene age, although 12 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS some geologists have made it as late as pleistocene. The existence of human life at so early a time was so improbable that a dispute at once arose as to the genuineness of the discovery, with the result that most authorities rejected the claim becajse the skull was found by untrained persons, or concluded that it was either intruded into strata artificially or that the strata themselves were irregular. The reported discovery in 191 3 of a skull in pliocene strata in Sussex county, Eng- land, would, however, if confirmed by experts, give some support to those who defend the Calaveras skull. Another claim is that the presence of man in the glacial period, or immediately afterwards, is shown by finding stone implements fash- _ ., ^ ioned by man in river drift along the Delaware river and in Ohio and Minnesota. This claim is also disputed, the supposition being that the implements found were intruded from the surface at a much later period. The controversy over this matter has been long and warm, but the defenders have found a valuable ally in Volk, whose recent investigations have enabled him to say that the existence of man on the Delaware in the glacial period cannot be doubted. A surer basis of reasoning is the skulls found in 1902 at Lansing, Kansas, in a silt stratum on the banks of the Missouri. Two opinions arose as to their antiquity. One held that they were de- ing Skulls, posited in the glacial or post-glacial period and were cov- ered by debris which the river brought down from the melting glaciers. Others held that they were deposited much later and were covered with silt by the shifting currents of the Missouri. The second view is more conservative, and has been generally accepted. By it the Lansing skulls have been in position not less than one thou- sand, and possibly thirty thousand, years. Investigation shows that the skulls are those of American Indians. Eliminating the claims not universally received, they seem to be the earliest evidence of man in America. In various parts of the United States are earth mounds of great antiquity. Some are conical, others elongated, others pyramidal, and others are irregularly shaped. The first class are usually D -1^"" " burial mounds: the uses of the others are not known. Some Builders. . , , , ,. ... , persons have been able to discern in the irregular ones a resemblance to certain animals, as the Serpent Mound in Adams county, Ohio. They are so far superior in construction to the works of the Indians whom the whites found in North America, that it was thought that they were made by a distinct race. This conclusion is now generally discredited. It is agreed that they are of Indian origin, although they probably were created by a superior and now forgotten branch of that race. Of similar interest are the " Cliff Dwellers," so called from the nature of their dwellings, placed on inaccessible ledges on the steep sides of THE INDIANS CLASSIFIED 13 canons in the southwest. They Hved chiefly in the Mesa Verde re- gion of Colorado, where their houses vary in size from one room to more than a hundred. The buildings were evidently made ,, in secure places to protect the occupants from the attacks jj^gners " of stronger, though less civilized, enemies who roamed the plains. Their walls were of stone, and in the ruins are found evidences of a culture more advanced than that of most of the Indians. It was formerly assumed that the "Cliff Dwellers" were a distinct race, but it is now believed that with the Pueblo Indians, the ancient Mexicans, the Mayas of Yucatan, and the early Peruvians, they were only more highly cultivated branches of the one original American race which survives in the Indians. The Indians There has been much speculation about the origin of this race, but no theory advanced has been free from serious difficulties. The only point definitely received is that at one time northeastern . Asia and northwestern America ''formed one culture indf^ns" area" ; but it cannot be asserted that the Americans came from Asia or that the Asians came from America. Future investi- gation may give more satisfactory results, but in a field where so much is doubtful we are for the present forced to suspend judgment. Although there is unity of general characteristics, there are striking variations in the Indians, and it has become the rule to group the tribes by these variations, the most notable of which are in cul- ture, physical characteristics, and language. Linguistic Ciassifica- differences are most easily observed, and language is taken Indians, as the basis of the groups, or families, as they are called. But this kind of variation does not always coincide with the others, and sometimes we find a small number of Indians remotely settled from those to whom by language they seem to be closely related. On this basis the United States Bureau of Ethnology divides the Indians north of Mexico into fifty-nine families, the most important of which are: I. The Algonquian Family, inhabiting Canada from Hudson's Bay southward and extending west as far as British Columbia, and in the United States covering all New England, New Jersey, Delaware, east- ern Pennsylvania, most of Maryland and Virginia, and practically all of the Ohio valley, with the Northwest as far as the upper waters of the Mississippi. Among them were the Algonkins proper, Pequots, Narragansetts, Mohegans, Powhatans, Pamlicos, Dela wares, Shawnees, Miamis, Kickapoos, Illinois, Fox, Cheyennes, and Arapahoes. Here one sees the irregularity of the geographical distribution of tribes linguistically related. The Algonquian group on the north Atlantic coast was divided from the central body by the Iroquoian family, which persistently held the country between Lake Erie and the Hudson, and 14 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS far south were the Pamlicos in North Carolina, while much farther west, beyond a vast country occupied by a Siouan stock, were the Cheyennes and Arapahoes. By what means the sporadic tribes be- came isolated from the great mass of the family is not known. 2. The Iroquoian Family, whose chief group lived in New York and western Pennsylvania, on both shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, and on the St. Lawrence as far as Quebec. There were two southern groups, not connected with one another or with the northern group : one was the Cherokees in the southern extremity of the Appalachian Mountain chain, and the other comprised the Tuscaroras and Notto- ways in eastern North Carohna. Of the northern group the tribes of greatest historical significance were : the Mohawks, Oneidas, Sene- cas, Onondagas, and Cayugas, — generally called "The Five Na- tions," — and the Conestogas, Eries, and Wyandots or Hurons. 3. The Muskhogean Family, who occupied most of Georgia, the up)- per strip of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and that part of Tennessee lying south and west of the Cumberland. The chief tribes were the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Alabamas, and Apalachis. 4. The Siouan Family, the chief group of which lived west of the upper Mississippi and throughout most of the Missouri valley. It included the Dakotas, Omahas, Winnebagos, Crows, lowas, Mis- souris, and the Osage Indians. An eastern group lived in the western Carolinas, where their principal tribe was the Catawbas. A small sporadic tribe, the Biloxis, lived on the Gulf coast east of the mouth of the Pearl river. 5. The Caddoan Family, whose home on the Gulf west of the mouth of the Mississippi extended northward so as to cover most of Louisiana, the eastern half of Texas, and the southern parts of Arkansas and Indian Territory. The historically important tribes were the Caddos, Pawnees, and Wichitas. 6. The Shoshonean Family, living in western Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, northern Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and parts of Wyoming and Montana. Its notable tribes were the Shoshones, Comanches, Paiutes, and Utes. 7. The Shahaplian Family, living chiefly in southern Washington. Their important tribes were the Nez Perce, Umatillas, and Walla Wallas. 8. The Salishan Family, whose home was in northern Washington and British Columbia, and whose chief tribe was the Spokanes. 9. The Athapascan Family, who lived chiefly on the northern Pa- cific coast from British Columbia to Alaska, and extended into the interior so as to fill up the McKenzie valley. But there was a de- tached group in western Oregon, another in California, and still another in New Mexico and parts of Arizona and Texas, where lived the long remembered Apaches and Navajos. 10. The Eskimauan Family, living in Arctic regions from Greenland INDIAN SOCIETY 15 and Labrador on the east to the region beyond the Aleutian Islands on the west. They are divided by localities into Greenland, Labrador, Central, Alaskan, Aleutian, and Asiatic. The classification includes, also, a large number of very small fam- ilies, more than thirty of which are upon the Pacific slope. It repre- sents with reasonable accuracy the distribution of the more important historic families at the time they came within the knowledge of Euro- peans. The distance at which some detached tribe is located from the mass of the family indicates how far the Indians must have wandered, searching for good hunting grounds or impelled by struggles with other tribes. The dialectic differences between separated portions of the same family seem to indicate the lapse of long periods since sep- aration. The Indians had little capacity to subdue nature. Hunting and fishing were ever the chief means of subsistence of most of the tribes, and, except in a few quiet groups of the warm Southwest, agriculture was subsidiary to these natural supplies. Where Jj"^^")'^' so much depended on outside resources habits varied sigcation. widely with environment. Not only means of support, but the character of the houses, and to some extent social and religious ideals, were modified by external conditions. Thus it happened that in the area occupied by one of the large families there were apt to be wide variations of culture, and classification by culture would give different groups from the linguistic divisions. It is only through recent inves- tigations, largely by the United States Bureau of Ethnology, that enough has been learned about the languages of the various tribes to make a trustworthy classification on that basis, which is accepted as most fundamental. Indi.4n Culture The Indians lived in tribes, and most tribes were divided into clans. The basis of clan unity was kinship, although some members came in by adoption. Each clan had a totem, some animal or plant to which the members stood in special relation, and by whose name it was known, as "Wolf," "Bear," or "Turtle." Some believed themselves descended from the totem, others had no such idea. Marriage within the clan was strictly forbidden, usually under penalty of death. The wife retained membership in her own clan, and as her children took her clan, they had no clan-relation with their father's clan. This was the only kinship the aborigines knew anything about. They did not inherit the father's movable property, but took that of the mother. His possessions, if he left any, went to his own clan kindred. They could not go to his brothers' children, since they would follow the clan of their mothers, but passed to his sisters' chil- dren, who alone of his mother's children could be kin to him. If a man were killed, his clan held the murderer's clan responsible, either taking i6 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS "blood revenge," or demanding money instead. For one member to kill another member of the same clan was exceedingly shocking to the Indian's feelings, and they were loath to punish him with death, since that involved the shedding of a fellow member's blood. In some tribes the difficulty was obviated by first outlawing the mur- derer, after which he could be dealt with. The clan was the strongest knit of the social units, and its position was fundamental in Indian society. It had a kind of sanctity through blood, as is illustrated by the fact that some clans had the privilege of furnishing chiefs to the tribes. The clan had two kinds of leaders, a sachem and a chief. The former had civil function in times of peace, being judge and administrator of the ancient customs. He was elected by consent of the Sachem ^^"^^ members and might be deposed by the same authority. The office was permanent, and must be filled from the men of the clan as soon as there was a vacancy. Adults, men and women, had the right to vote for a sachem, and the choice usually fell on a brother of the deceased, or the son of a sister, never on a son of the former incumbent. The other clans in the tribe must approve of the chosen candidate, and he must be inducted into office with ap- propriate ceremonies in which the entire nation was represented. As head of his clan he sat in the council of the nation. As there was one sachem for each clan, and as the clans were long established divisions of a tribe, the number of sachems was limited. For example, there were eight clans in the Tuscarora tribe of the Iroquoian family ; they were called from their totems the " Grey Wolf," "Bear," "Great Turtle," "Beaver," "Yellow Wolf," "Snipe," "Eel," and "Little Turtle." Each had its sachem, and together they were the most distinguished men of the tribe. The chiefs were chosen for military purposes, and on account of some special quality or work. The office was not necessarily contin- _. „. . , uous, and the existence of a vacancy did not demand a new election. The number of chiefs varied with the size of the clan, in some modern tribes being one for each fifty persons, although this proportion is believed too high for ancient society. The chief was elected by the clan, which could depose him for unworthy conduct. The sachem was the exponent of clan kinship, the chief represented individual prowess. In some tribes there was a head chief, one of the sachems whose ability pleased the tribe. His functions were con- fined to the intervals between the meetings of the tribal council, and were not important. The clan and the tribe each had a council. Of the former all the free adult members of the clan, men and women, were con- I jj sidered members. It elected and deposed sachems and chiefs, decided what should be done to avenge or condone the murder of a clan member, adopted new members, and regulated other INDIAN WARFARE 17 matters pertaining essentially to the group. It was extremely demo- cratic, and as the lowest unit of government gave tone to the delibera- tions on affairs too large for its jurisdiction. There was also a tribal council, composed of all the sachems and chiefs within the tribe. It decided upon matters touching the entire tribe, as relations with other tribes or with the whites. Any freeman might attend its meetings and speak his sentiments there : even the women might be heard through an orator whom they chose to speak for them ; but the decision was left to the council. The Iroquois, and possibly some other tribes, required that a vote of the council be unanimous. In some of the large organizations there was a brotherhood, or phratry, a third group which was between the clan and the tribe. It was composed of clans, usually three or four. Its function was social and religious. In the celebrated ball games ^^ ^^j ^°^ "' the two sides would represent two brotherhoods. Disputes between two clans could be appealed to a council of sachems and chiefs from all the clans in the brotherhood. In the funerals of prominent men the brotherhood took conspicuous part, but its governmental functions were never well developed. Naming children was strictly regulated because it bore directly on clan organization. Each individual had two names within his life, one received at birth, the other at maturity ; that is, at si-xteen at eighteen years of age. Certain names were pg^gn/ peculiar to certain clans, and were not given to children of other clans. In some tribes a youth was required to go on the war- path and earn his new name by an act of courage or prowess. This new name must be approved by the tribal council. An adult might change his name if he could get a chief to announce it in council. When a man was elected sachem or chief he took a new name selected for him by the council. In conferring names, and in many other affairs, the authority of the clan or tribe was very great ; but in beginning war much was left to the individual. Perhaps it is wrong to speak of the begin- ning of war. Strictly speaking, wars between the tribes ^ai°°^ never ended, except those which resulted in alliances. An interval of several years might elapse between outbreaks of hostilities, but within that time each side considered itself in a state of conflict with its enemies. The old men, remembering former trials, might prefer peace, but the young men were apt to desire to fight. Under such circumstances the latter would form a war party under some chieftain of known ability, there would be a war dance, and immedi- ately the party would march against the enemy. Each member would take a pouch filled with Rockahominy, which was parched corn pounded into flour. Between Indian tribes there were usually broad, uninhabited zones, and the hostiles might, therefore, be many miles away. The Catawbas in upper South Carolina had for hereditary i8 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS enemy the Delawares, in the Delaware valley. The war party, painted so their mission might be known, marched through this neutral zone supporting themselves on game and fish until they were in the enemy's country, where no fires must be made lest the smoke reveal the approach of the warriors. Now they relied on the Rockahominy. So accustomed were they to fasting that two spoonfuls of it moistened with water and swallowed in haste was sufficient for several hours' nourishment. If they could surprise the foe, they struck quickly and returned with scalps and captives to their home to await some re- taliating blow from the injured tribe. While such a war party was out, the rest of the tribe might remain at their peaceful occupations. But when the war was general and all the fighting men were out, they were formed into war bands in the same way, each led by some noted brave under whom the warriors desired to serve. The most distinguished group of North American Indians was the Six Nations of the Iroquoian family, five of whom lived through most of our colonial period in western New York, and the other, Nations ^^^ Tuscaroras, in North Carolina. After suffering much from their enemies they established early in the fifteenth century a well-knit confederacy, with a common council and a strongly aggressive policy. They proved themselves the scourge of surrounding tribes. Their ancient enemies were the Algonkins of Canada and New England. They became friends of the white men in New York, and played an important part in the operations against the French of Canada, who early incurred their resentment by helping the Algonkins. A kindred southern branch, the Cherokees, played an important part in the early history of Tennessee and the region south of it. Trib*es Further southward were the Creeks and other members of the Muskhogean family, very numerous, and for a long time they held back whites in the Gulf region. A large number of tribes classified as the Siouan family lived in the northern Mississippi basin and were represented by some branches on the upper Potomac and in the Piedmont region of the East. They were especially de- pendent on the buffalo, and followed it westward before the advance of the whites. At the middle of the nineteenth century they were in the vast Missouri valley, and their representatives, Cheyennes, Arapa- hoes, and the Sioux, offered fierce resistance to the wliites in the pe- riod immediately following the Civil War. The white settler's contest with the savage for territory divides it- self into well-marked stages. The first colonies, weak and isolated, soon came into conflict with some neighboring small tribes f *d^*^ R ^^^° feared the loss of their land. The Pequot war in New sistance. England and the Virginia outbreak of 1622 are illustrations. The victory of the whites in these earliest struggles gave a respite; but as their settlements extended inland a larger number of Indians became alarmed, a stronger combination was formed, and a INDIAN THOUGHT ig sterner struggle ensued. For example, see King Phillip's war in New England, the Tuscarora war in North Carolina, and the Yemassee struggle in South CaroHna. Another defeat convinced the savages of their weakness, and there followed another period of peace until the Indians found external allies. On the north it was the French who helped them, and several bloody wars were fought before this combina- tion was broken. On the south outside aid came from Spain, though not openly, and the Indians themselves were numerous enough to be formidable. But the whites were now so well planted that the result was beyond question. From this time Indian wars were frontier struggles, the savages resisting their inevitable fate, sometimes stim- ulated to it by the designed oppression of white men and mixed breeds who wished an opportunity to seize Indian lands. In this way war has run over the land from ocean to ocean, extinguishing some tribes, greatly depleting others, and forcibly converting the remainder from nomads to agriculturalists. In the Indian's character were some of the best and some of the worst qualities. In warfare he was stoically indilTerent to his own suf- fering and also to that of his enemies ; he was true to friends and truculent to foes ; he was brave in battle, but he stalked character. his enemies as he hunted wild game, and murdered them by stealth if he could. When it was necessary he was abstemious, at other times he was gluttonous : his virtues and vices were those of the savage. His pathetic passage across the page of history has appealed to the idealist, but his cruelty and vindictiveness awakened horror in most of those who encountered him. His intellectual development was slight. The most advanced tribes had no system of written language higher than picture writing, which reached the stage of symbolism in Algonquian tribes, and was rudely hieroglyphical in Mexico and Yucatan. His j^j^^^ body of tradition, preserved orally, was limited ; and his music, chiefly religious, was lacking in harmony, a rhythmic chant with complex structure, designed to fire the will rather than please the ear. In decorative art he was most successful ; for although he knew nothing of higher forms, his designs for ornamental pottery, basketry, and weaving had a quiet beauty which appeals to the best modern taste. The same quality appears in the simple beauty of many of his myths. His religion was animism, a belief in the existence of numerous spirits. He was apt to stress most the importance of the spirit he attributed to the thing most influential in his life, as the _ j. . sun, the rain, or the moon. The tribes of the plains gave high place to the spirit of the buffalo. The name manitou, or mystery, was used by the Algonquian tribes for spirits, and it has become a general term. The early travelers and missionaries spoke of the belief in a "Great Spirit," single and inv^Lsible, but ethnologists have found no evidence that the Indian had such an elevated ideal. He believed, 20 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS however, that man had a soul — some tribes thought he had several — and that he lived after death in a "happy hunting ground." Some Indians buried their dead, others cremated them, and others preserved them as mummies. A man might make a manitou his friend, and if so he became a shaman, or medicine-man. He could now, through the aid of his manitou, drive away the evil spirit which was thought to inhabit a sick person. He accomplished the work by singing, dancing, and physical manipulations. Frequently the patient recovered : if he died, it was said that he was possessed by a manitou stronger than that of the shaman who treated him. In the more advanced tribes of the Southwest there were associations of shamans to preserve the secrets of their cult, among which were religious ceremonies. Recent comparative studies have thrown much light on Indian mythology. It reveals no well-defined idea of creation. Most of the stories say that the earth once differed from its present con- dition, and that men and animals then lived and talked together and were the prey of great monsters. There was no daylight or fire, and poverty and misery ruled the world. Finally came a beneficent person who reformed tribes, taught man to improve his habits, and gave him certain inventions. His work of betterment done, he departed to come again. The Messianic quality of this per- sonage probably suggested the idea that the Indians had a belief in a "Great Spirit"; but he was only a culture hero, and not altogether an admirable one ; for although he worked for others and had superior intelligence he was sometimes a sharp trickster and was frequently made ridiculous by his opponents. The houses of the Indians were sometimes communal and some- times designed for single families. Of the former the best type is _ the long house of the Iroquian tribes. It was made of bark and poles, and inner partitions divided it into several compartments. A door at each end and openings in the partitions gave an open passageway from one end to the other. In each alter- nate opening in the partitions was a fire pit with a hole in the roof above. One family occupied one compartment, and one fire thus served two families. Around the walls of the room were hurdles made of small poles, covered with mats and skins. By day they were benches and by night beds. Sometimes the houses were large and round, with one great fire pit in the center, at which the partitions converged, making triangular compartments. In a part of our Southwest, Mexico, and Central America the In- dians lived in pueblos, the Spanish word for \'illages. These were _ . , great communal houses several stories high, the front wall of each story dropping back so as to make a terrace. In the modern pueblos doors are made in the walls, but formerly the interior was reached through holes in the fiat roofs, or floors, of the terraces by means of ladders which were taken up at night or when THE INDIANS AND CIVILIZATION 21 ihere was danger of intruders. The building material was either adobe or rough stones laid in clay mortar. When the whites entered the Southwest there were about sbcty-five of these houses there. They were the usual type of Mexican dwelling, and the imaginative Spaniards who first saw them described them as palaces. In Yucatan they achieved a degree of massiveness and ornamentation which indicates, perhaps, the highest point of development in Indian architecture. Tribes of different linguistic stock adopted this kind of house, and the term Pueblo Indians has been used for all of them. It ought to be re- membered that it has no family significance. Contact with the white nian made it necessary for the Indian to adopt civilized habits or perish. In ordinary social evolution tliis change would have required many centuries. Stimulated by the liberal government of the United States the more ^^^ Indians advanced tribes have made progress, the less advanced -virhites. have caused disappointment to their well wishers. The Cherokee and Muskhogcan tribes have shown greatest power of assimilation, both in their eastern homes and in the now obliterated Indian Territory, where they resided for seventy-five years. They show, also, a slight gain in population, which cannot be said of most of the Indians who formerly lived on the western plains and who have been gathered into reservations under government supervision. In contact with civilization the Indian is alsnormally susceptible to dis- eases, particularly smallpo.x, measles, and tuberculosis. The use of spirituous liquors is also especially harmful. The males generally are averse to manual labor, and agricultural progress has often meant more idleness for the men and more work for the women. Idleness breeds bad habits, which retard racial progress. In 1500 there were about half a million Indians in North America, the great majority being in what is now the United States, where, by the best estimates, there are now, iQii, only 322,715. In the latter number are included 101,287 in the five civilized (.J^jiyons tribes, including freedmen and intermarried whites. Dur- ing the last half century the Indian population seems to have been about stationary. The Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles now included in Oklahoma are the five civilized tribes. They are self-supporting and prosperous. In 191 1 the total federal appropriation for Indians was $10,452,911. In this year $9,381,232 was spent on Indian education. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For physical features see : Farrand, Basis of Ameriran History (1Q04) ; Whitney, The United States (i88g); Shaler, Physiography of North America (in Winsor, Narrative and Cdtical History, 1884); and Ibid., The United Stales of America. 2 vols. (iSgy). See also the articles on " North America " and "United States \n Mill, International Geography (igoo). 22 THE CONTINENT AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS On means of communication see: Brighara, Geographic Influences in American History (1903), more geographical than historical; Semple, Ameri4:an History and its Geographic Conditions (1903), many facts poorly arranged; Russell, Rivers of North America (1898); Willis, The Northern Appalachians (1S95); and Hayes, The Southern Appalac/rians (1895). Besides Shaler, The United States of America, and Farrand, Basis of American History, just mentioned, a good treatment of natural resources is Patton, Natural Resources of the United States (iSgg). On American archaeology see Thomas, Introduction to tlw Study of N orth American Arcltaj:otogy (1898) ; and Moorchead, Prehistoric Implements (1900). On the same subject also consult Farrand, Basis of American History, mentioned above. On the Indians, valuable works are : Brinton, The American Race (1891) ; Dellen- baugh, North Americans of Yesterday (1901); Powell, Lilian Linguistic Families (U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, Seventh Annual Report, 1891); Farrand, Basis of American History (1904); and Thomas, Indians of North America (Vol. II of History of North America, Lee, Ed., 1903). For Independent Reading Dellenbaugh, North Americans of Yesterday (1901) ; Parkman, The Oregon Trail (1849) ; Matthews, Navaho Legends (1897) ; Brinton, American Hero Myths (1882) ; Grinnell, Pawnee Hero Stories (1889) ; and Lewis and Clark, Journals (in several editions). CHAPTER II THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA Events and Ideas Leading to the Discovery The first recorded contact of Europe and America was by way of the north. In 874 a Norse colony settled in Iceland and made it a center of culture and prosperity. Two years later a sliip blown out of her way returned to Iceland with the story of a great hq/s/ body of land to the westward. For a hundred years no efforts seem to have been made to investigate the report, but in 983 Eric the Red, e.viled from the island for manslaughter, solved the mystery, and named the newly discovered country Greenland, be- cause he thought a good name would attract settlers. A colony was planted, the remains of which are still visible, and in the year 1000 his son, Leif Ericsson, arrived from Norway with missionaries to con- vert the country to Christianity. Vague reports were in circulation of a great land to the west, and he set out to e.vplore it, coming after a time to a slaty shore, which he skirted southward for days, until he came at last to a pleasant place where a river ran out of a lake into the sea. He brought his ship into the haven and explored the country. It abounded in timber and "wild wheat," probably oats; and one of the crew, who came from the vine-growing portion of Europe, dis- covered grapes still hanging in the autumn sunlight. Leif, thinking, no doubt, that a good name would benefit this land as much ^. . as that of his father, called the place Vinland. An attempt to colonize Vinland now followed, and several voyages were made thither within the next twelve years. All ended disastrously. The place was too remote for successful exploitation, and the deeds of the adventurers survived only in the sagas, a part of the heroic achieve- ment of the Norse past. To the people of the time and to those who succeeded them the newly discovered land was not part of a great continent, but only an indefinite No Man's Land beyond the myste- rious seas. It was probably what we now know as the shores of Nova Scotia, although some students identify it with the New England coast and point out Martha's Vineyard as the particular spot. About 1390 two Venetian brothers named Zeno were employed by the Earl of the Orkneys and Caithness in di- Bj-othe*,"" recting his navy. They were skillful sailors, helping to con- quer the Shetland Islands, and about 1394 they made a voyage to 23 24 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA Greenland. Stories of a great land to the west were brought in by fish- ennen, and a few years later the younger brother, with the earl himself, sailed to discover it. The story goes that they found land some days' sail beyond Ireland, and that the earl remained to explore it. Zeno wrote an account of his adventures, which, with some letters and a map, were preserved in the family palace in Venice. In 1 558 all that re- mained of them was published by a descendant, the map confessedly improved by the editor. The text, much of which is lost through neglect, was probably altered to suit the then recently acquired knowledge of the New World. It is impossible to say what Zeno discovered, but he may well have fallen upon some part of the North Atlantic coast, to encounter which was easy if one only sailed long enough west of Ireland. Neither of these exnplorations served to bring the American continent within the knowledge of Europe, because (i) the lands discovered were not believed to be parts of a vast mainland, (2) the discoverers were not strong enough economically to develop the new lands, and (3) it was, after all, not a new continent that the Old World was look- ing for, but a new way to an old one. The voyage of Columbus really discovered America, but before it was made several things prepared the way. The most important was the disaster which overtook the trade between Europe and the East in the second half of the fifteen century. Spices, silk, perfumes, dyes, precious stones, and other '"'^T^P*'"" oriental goods were brought west by three principal routes. Trade. ^ne was by water along the southern shore of Asia to the Red Sea, thence by caravan to the Nile, and finally to Alexandria. Another was a middle journey by caravan and rivers through Persia and Syria to Acre, Antioch, and other Syrian ports. A third was by river, caravan, and interior seas to the Euxine, where Constantinople was the chief terminus of the trade. To these cities came merchants from Italy, France, and Spain, purchasing the eastern goods and passing them on to the interior and northern towns of Europe. Most aggressive were the traders from Venice and Genoa. From each eastern town they secured privileges of trade with perma- nent quarters in which they were ruled by their own laws and protected by their own home governments. These quarters, with their in- habitants, became the outposts of a valuable industrial life. Both towns also owned many colonies on the ^gean Islands. In 1453 the Turks seized Constantinople and began to take all the ports of the East, until in 1 5 1 7 Cairo was taken and Egypt became a Turkish prov- ince. Each step in the conquest was followed by trade restrictions. High tariffs were levied, privileges were curtailed, and the island pos- sessions of Venice and Genoa were seized by the conquerors. These disasters were felt by all the Mediterranean merchants, and stimulated a general desire for another way to the East. INTEREST IN THE EAST 25 Such a route, if discovered, must be by sea, and it must begin at the Straits of Gibraltar. For centuries the ocean beyond this point was a sea of terror on which sailors dreaded to venture. North of the straits the coast was Jinown as far as Scotland and Eflfects of Scandinavia : south of it men sailed as far as Cape Non, ,*„ p'**"* about seven hundred miles. The compass and the astrolabe edge, slowly came into use on the Mediterranean during the fifteenth century and enabled the mariner to sail confidently when either land or stars were not in sight. The renaissance of science by the middle of the fifteenth century dominated the minds of learned men and was beginning to reach the more independent spirits in navi- gation and other practical arts. Before such a process the sea of terror became merely a part of the unknown, and as such invited discovery. The first attempts to penetrate its mysteries were made by Por- tuguese. On the east coast of Africa, south of Egypt, tradition then located the native Christian kingdom of "Prester John," whose power and wealth were much exaggerated in the j^j^^ ., popular imagination. African traders in Morocco told about interior towns from which roads ran southward to a southern sea into which flowed a river great enough to be compared to the Nile. To pass from Cape Non to the region of Abyssinia seemed possible, and, since it would open a water communication to India, it would be profitable. It was Portugal's fortune to have the man who could lead in this work. Prince Henry the Navigator was a younger son of John I. Without family responsibilities or hope of the crown he could follow the prompt- ings of a scientific and adventurous disposition. In 14 19 at Sagres, on Cape St. Vincent, he established a home and ^^y drew around him a group of intelligent mariners, geog- raphers, and map makers. His father, brother, nephew, and great- nephew, four generations of kings, supported his work and carried it on after his death in 1460. The first results were unimportant. The Madeiras and Azores were rediscovered, explored, and colonized, but the timid captains were afraid to get far away from the shore, and Cape Boyador, under the Tropic of Cancer, was so dangerous that for a long time none dared pass it. But in 1434 Gil Eannes, bolder than his colleagues, sailed far out to sea, doubled the perilous point, and proved that the "Sea of Darkness" was safe. Progress was now more rapid. Year after year an additional por- tion of the desert coast was observed, until finally, in 1445, Dinis Fer- andez passing at last the glinting sands, came to a green point which he called Cape Verd. A fertile country now Exp^ojed"*^^ appeared, peopled by "Moors," or negroes, some of whom were taken to Portugal, where slaves were in demand. It was the beginning of a trade which threatened for a time to defeat the further exploration of the coast. One expedition after another sent to make 26 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA discoveries came back with nothing but slaves. In 1455 Cadamosto, passing the Cape Verd Islands, sailed so far into the Gulf of Guinea that it was believed the southern extremity of Africa was turned. His mistake was soon known, and the explorations were pushed on, more slowly after the death of Prince Henry, 1460, until at last in 1487 Bartholomew Diaz sailed past the Cape of Good Hope. The mutiny of his crew forced him to return to Portugal, but the world now knew that Africa could be circumnavigated. The Portuguese discoveries were important because they made explorations popular, created a school of bold navigators willing to attempt any seas, and at last brought men to the fabled East, tales of whose wealth up to that time fascinated the European imagination like a fairy dream. They en- larged the world's knowledge of geography, but threw little light upon the question of the earth's shape. The theory of the sphericity of the earth was held by Aristotle, who died in 322 B.C. He drew his conclusion from the circular shadow of the earth on the moon in eclipse and from the \'arying al- h T'^^ ^^' '•''-^'^^ °^ stars, and he announced that one common ocean Sphericity probably united Spain and India. A century later Eratos- of the Earth, thenes in Alexandria applied mathematics to this idea and calculated the circumference of the earth, making it four- teen per cent, too large. Other Greeks, probably very many, accepted sphericity, but it was rejected by the early Christian church, which had its own idea of the cosmos. Arabian scientists kept the spark of knowledge alive through many centuries, and Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century incorporated it in his Opus Majiis, whence it was abstracted by Pierre d'Ailly for his Imago Mundi (1410). The last was a widely read work in the day when explorations and all kinds of new knowledge were exceedingly popular. Astronomers and many others at the end of the fifteenth century were ready to accept the theory independently of the voyage of Columbus. Martin Behaim, a German geographer, in the very year Columbus made his memorable voyage, and without the discoverer's knowledge, made a copper globe with the known lands described on it. In calculating the circumfer- ence of the earth the astronomers made a mistake, estimating it at three fourths of its real magnitude. The result was to make China seem six thousand miles nearer Europe than it really is, a fortunate error. A better knowledge of the East also helped to prepare the way for the discoveries of Columbus. In the later thirteenth century three Venetian merchants named Polo went to Cathay, or China, Marco ^ °* for trade. One of them, Marco Polo, became a favorite of Polo. the ruler, or Grand Khan, and remained many years at the court, where he had opportunity to learn about the extent, geography, and wealth of the country. In 1295 the three returned to Venice with great quantities of gems. In 1298 Marco wrote an CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 27 account of his adventures, calling it The Book of Ser Marco Polo. Before this time China was beheved to be bordered by immense marshes, but he declared that it was washed by a vast ocean and that within this ocean lay Cipango, or Japan, a great island rich in gold and cities. The book fired the imagination of Europe, heightened the charm of the East, and stimulated the hope of reaching the East by sea. If the earth were a globe, why might not the ocean west of the Straits of Gibraltar be the same as that east of Cipango ? Thus through the merchants' desire for a western way to the East, through improvements in navigation, through the slowly evolved conviction that the world was round, and through the better acquaint- ance with the geography of China, the time was come when some adventurous man would compass the unknown by making a path from the Straits of Gibraltar to fabled Cipango. The scholars believed this possible but had not the courage to attempt it. Navigators had courage to accomplish it but had not the mind to believe in it. Chris- topher Columbus had the requisite skill and faith. He had also the persistence and endurance necessary to carry him successfully through the initial stages of an enterprise which the world could not understand. The Achievement of Columbus Columbus's father was a wool-worker, but the boy early became a navigator. An age which knows as ours how poor boys of mind become prominent will understand how he turned to the most progressive vocation then open to him. He learned V^^ Educa- Latin and read diligently the geographical books of the columbus. day. He was attracted to Portugal, where he married into the family of a prominent navigator. He sailed as far north as England, possibly to Iceland ; and he lived for a time on the island of Porto Santo, north of Madeira. We do not know how he came to believe he could reach China by the west, but we know he mastered all available knowledge on the subject. When he read in a book that the frigid and torrid zones were uninhabitable, he confuted it in the margin on the ground that the Portuguese sailed through the torrid zone and found it inhabited, while the English and the Norse visited the frigid zone. It was sound reasoning to set observation against tradition. But when tradition favored him he accepted it. He saw in the apocryphal book of Esdras that only one seventh of the surface of the earth was water : had he been an equally sound reasoner he would have withheld judgment until some one observed the quantity of earth and water. But Esdras suited his theory, and he accepted the state- ment without question. The error tended to make him think it was but a short distance from Europe to his goal. While in Portugal, about ten years before his famous voyage, Co- lumbus learned that Toscanelli, a noted Florentine astronomer, had 28 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA announced the possibility of sailing from the west to the east. He wrote to the Italian, asking for instructions, and received in reply a copy of a former letter by the astronomer in which the possi- Columbus bility of the fact in question was asserted, but no directions caneiu. " for making the journey were given. In fact, they could not have been given in the existing state of information about the western seas, for these seas were not explored. Toscanelli perhaps gave Columbus confidence in his ideas, but all the information in his letter was to be found elsewhere. Whatever the source, Columbus, when in Portugal, had the convic- tion that his project was feasible. He talked so much about it that he got the reputation of a boaster, and when he applied to Efforts to King John II for a ship to test his idea, he was turned aside ance.^^'^ ' '^^ ^ dreamer. It was then 1484, and he betook himself to Spain, where for seven years he urged his plans wdth little prospect of success. In the interval he sent his brother, Bartholomew, to London to see if help could be secured there. It has been said that Bartholomew gained a promise from Henry VII, but it was given after the king and queen of Spain relented. It was really the queen who gave the assistance. She was induced to do so by her former confes- sor, Juan Perez, and by the treasurer of Aragon, Luis de Santangel. To make his voyage, Columbus had three ships fully manned. The expense was assumed by Isabella, who in her own right was sovereign of Castile. The money, 1,000,000 maravedis, $59,000, Sh!"™''"^ ^ seems to have been borrowed on the queen's security. The old story that she pledged her jewels is now generally dis- credited. Columbus was made an hereditary grandee and admiral of Castile, with the right to govern the new lands he should discover. He and his heirs were to have one tenth of all the gold and silver he should find, and they might pay one eighth of the expenses of fitting out any e.xpedition and take a similar portion of the profits thus se- cured. Letters of introduction to the rulers of the East were also fur- nished, and with these in his pocket the stern discoverer, raised from the rank of adventurer to that of great lord and friend of sovereign princes, embarked his unwilling crew of less than one hundred men. August 3, 1492, in the early morning, the three ships, the Santa Maria, Pinla, and the Nina, stood out to sea from the port of '^arture " Palos, sailing first to the Canaries. The first was the largest, ^ ' and alone, of the three, had a deck. Her tonnage is esti- mated at one hundred to two hundred and eighty, and that of her companions at one hundred and forty and one hundred respectively. A great event never depended on frailer agencies. Stopping at the Canaries to refit, the fleet sailed again on September 6. Fear seized the hearts of the crew as they saw the land e oyage. ^^jg^ppg^^ ^^ j}^g eastern horizon. They were steering into seas hitherto une.xplored, under the orders of a visionary, and AMERICA DISCOVERED 29 were full of dismay. Columbus kept a diary of all that happened, re- porting it to the queen ; but for the sailors he kept another log in which he shortened the distance sailed. No storms were encountered, and the trade winds blew him steadily westward. Scowling at first, the crew at length became sullen, and finally, October 10, threatened to throw the admiral overboard. To none of these difliculties would he }ield : "He had come to go to the Indies," he said, "and he would keep on till he had found them with the aid of our Lord." It is well to remember that Columbus's greatness consisted, not so much in his original idea, as in the determined spirit in which he risked his life to execute it. On the evening of October 1 1 lights were seen in the darkness and soon the roar of the surf was heard. At dawn a low green shore was before them, an island which the natives called Guanahani, and which the pious Columbus renamed San Salvador, c^y^g '^' Its identity is lost, but the best guess is that it was Watling's Island, one of the Bahamas. It was inhabited by naked savages with whom the admiral conversed by signs. They reported a great king- dom to the south, and he turned in that direction, discovering Cuba, which he thought the mainland of India. The natives he called Indians, and the tenn has persisted to this day. He was impressed by seeing them drawing smoke through tubes made from the leaves of a certain plant, and noted that the natives called these tubes tobaccos. Sailing along the eastern half of the north coast of Cuba he came at length to Hayti, which he called La Isla Espanola, whence Hispaniola. It proved an Ul-fated country, for on its shores he lost his best ship, the Santa Maria. Columbus's thoughts now turned to Spain, and leaving forty-four men to establish a Spanish post, learn the language of the natives, and plant food crops, he departed early in 1493. Storms har- rassed his return, but March 15 he cast anchor at Palos. g*;^ ° All Spain echoed with his praise, and news of the discovery quickly ran throughout Europe. Many people doubted if the new lands were really India — among them the king of Portugal, who said plainly they were only a part of Guinea, discovered by the Portuguese and confirmed to his crown by papal bulls and by a treaty with Spain in 1480. A serious quarrel might have followed, but Spain appealed to the Pope, Alexander VI, a Spaniard, and May 3 and 4 he issued two bulls dixiding the new lands between the two countries. An imaginary line was authorized one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, all the lands discovered east of it being given to Portugal and all west and south of it going to Spain. The arrangement was not satisfactory, and it was modified ^t ^'^^^ by another bull, September, 1493, and by a treaty between Spain and Portugal, 1494, by which the line of demarcation was fixed at three hundred and seventy leagues west of Cape Verde Islands. 30 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA Columbus's reports occasioned great enthusiasm in Spain, and many expeditions were planned. Most of them ended in disappoint- ment, but the work of exploration was forwarded. The Expedition, ^^"o ^^d queen were delighted with their admiral and sent him forth in September, 1493, with seventeen ships and thirteen hundred persons, gentlemen adventurers, laborers, soldiers, and missionaries, to plant a Spanish colony. The settlement was to be under the admiral's absolute authority. A town was laid out in Hayti and called Isabella. Gold mines were found in the interior, and the neighboring natives, always submissive, were ordered to work them and bring in a certain amount of gold each month. A native chieftain, despairing of complying with the order, offered instead to cultivate a large tract of land for the benefit of the whites ; but Columbus re- jected the plan because he knew that gold alone %vould be valued in Treatment Spain. He saw that if he could not satisfy this desire of the he would have no support at home. The harsh meas- Natives. ujgg j^g ^qqJ^ \yj(j^ [}^g Indians reduced the native popula- tion of the island by two-thirds in three years. When he went to Spain in 1496 many of his returned companions declared that there was no gold in Columbus's Indies ; but the admiral managed to pro- duce enough of the precious stuff to satisfy the sovereigns that ex- plorations should continue. A portion of the natives were cannibals, and Columbus suggested that permission be granted to take these to Spain for slaves. He probably hoped by this means to support the explorations, as the negroes from Guinea supported the Por- tuguese enterprise ; but Ferdinand the Catholic was not willing to authorize the enslavement of the natives. Nevertheless Columbus and others sent Indian slaves to Spain, where they were generally liberated. Spite of the efforts of the government, enslavement was practiced in the colonies, until most of the natives of the West Indies disappeared. After 1496 Columbus made two voyages, one in 149S and another in 1502. On the former he steered far southward, hoping to pass all obstructions, reach the Indian ocean, and circumnavigate p'^rth*"'' ^'^^ globe. To his suq^rise he encountered a great body of Voyages. land, about which Marco Polo said nothing, sailing past it for days in a westward direction. A sailor let down a bucket at one point and found the water fresh. It was from the mouths of the Orinoco river, and Columbus rightly concluded that so great a river must flow out of a vast continent. He spoke of it as another world, never doubting, however, that the land discovered to the northward was part of India. His fourth voyage was made to find a passage between this new continent and the old. The journey was delayed by great storms, but steering a more northerly course, he came at length to the coast of Honduras. He sailed south about twelve hundred miles past the Isthmus of Panama, whose narrowness he did DEVELOPING THE COAST-LINE 31 not suspect, and returned to Spain in 1504 after many hardships. He died two years later, May 20, 1506. Columbus was most successful as an explorer. Here one needed courage, persistence, intelligence, and faith in a mission ; and he had them all. As an administrator he was not successful. He was sensitive, arbitrary, unyielding, and severe. Low-born ^•^^Pj"- and a foreigner, he could not govern Spanish noblemen columbus. without friction. His appointment to command colonies was unwise and brought him much sorrow. Numerous bitter enemies sprang up among those whom he tried to rule, and their denunciations cut his sensitive spirit deeply. The greatest indignity he suffered was when in 1500 he was sent back to Spain in irons, charged with mal- feasance. The spectacle aroused the sympathy of Spain, and the king and queen ordered his release. But his political authority in the New World was annulled, and his monopoly in discovery was limited. Exploring the Coasts of the New World Spain, Portugal, France, and England shared the labor of exploring the world Columbus discovered. Stopped by its position across the pathway to India, their mariners turned northward and southward in search of a way to the Orient. Thus every Two Phases gulf and bay of importance was explored until at last Cape f^g„_ Horn was passed and the spice islands reached across the vast Pacific. Then they took up the task of exploring the interior, led on by a consuming hunger for precious metal. The rest of this chapter deals with explorations by sea and land. In this work Spain took the lead. Hayti, colonized by Columbus, furnished a base for expeditions to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Cuba, first circumnavigated in 1508, was immediately thereafter conquered and colonized j'^j^J r"'" by Velasquez, and furnished a new and more westerly base. Lookout. Columbus's third voyage, I4g8, developed the coast line for nearly three hundred miles west of Trinidad, and his fourth, 1502, revealed the shore from near the Cape of Honduras past the isthmus to the Gulf of Uraba. In 1499 Hojeda, accompanied by Amerigo Vespucci, sailed for America on an important voyage. He reached the coast near Paramaribo, in Surinam, and sailed west to a point near the terminus of the third voyage of Columbus. North of Honduras, around to the south of Florida, ex-plorations were made by various persons from 1508 to 1522, and during the same period other Spaniards explored the Atlantic coast as far north as Cape Lookout, in North Carolina. This hollow coast line from Trinidad northward to North Carolina, with the islands between, was looked upon by Spain as hers by right of discovery, and the claim was generally allowed. 32 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA To her also belongs the honor of discovering Brazil and the region south of it. In 1499 Vicente Yanez Pinzon sailed for America. _ ., Driven out of his course by a great storm he crossed the equator and made land some distance south of it. Then turning north he followed the coast for two thousand miles, past the mouth of the Amazon, untU he set out for home with the wonderful news of a vast continent not hitherto mentioned in any then known account of the East. Before he could reach Spain another adventurer, Diego de Lepe, setting out later than Pinzon and returning earlier, reported a similar discovery in the same region. He reached a point as far south as Cape St. Augustine, in Brazil. Amerigo Vespucci is believed to have accompanied de Lepe. Spain had no advantage from these two important voyages ; for Brazil was east of the famous papal dividing line. The appearance of Vespucci in this narrative is interesting because his name was given to the New World. This came, as we shall see, „ . from a piece of fraud committed, not to get the honor of naming the continent, but to create the impression that he first discovered it. He was born in Florence, became a man of busi- ness, and in 1492 went to Sexdlle as an agent for the commercial house of the Medici. He became connected with the navigators, whose ships he lifted out, and finally decided to accompany them on some of their voyages. He made four journeys across the ocean, but was the leader of none of them. His fame rests on his faculty of writing and on his willingness to exaggerate his importance in the affairs he describes He later wrote two letters, in one of which he described his first voyage and in the other all of the four. These letters were widely published and created the impression that the writer deserved to have South America bear his given name. Vespucci says that he made the first voyage in 1497, that he sailed along the northern coast of South America, and by mentioning no other person as commander of the expedition he gives the liabilitT^' impression that the leadership was his. After much in- vestigation and reasonable deduction it is generally con- ceded that he antedated the expedition by two years in order to place it before that of Columbus in 1498, that he really made it in 1499 in company with Hojeda, who was sole connnander, and that his de- scriptions of the places discovered are almost exactly those of this later voyage. His second journey was made in 1 500. Again he omits the name of the commander but says that he himself commanded one of the ships. The latter statement is doubted because it is not sup- ported by the fairly complete naval records of the time. His third and fourth voyages are not important, being made to places admittedly already discovered. Vespucci's letter describing his third voyage was published in Latin in 1503 with the title Muiidus Noviis. It is the first published Latin THE WORLD CIRCUMNAVIGATED 33 account of the new continent south of what was still supposed to be India. Columbus's letter describing his discovery of 1497 was not published in Latin until 1508, whereas Vespucci's sec- ond letter, in which all his alleged discoveries were des- ., America*" cribed, was published in Latin in 1507. The story of the Florentine, therefore, first published in the language of learned men, alleged to belong to the year 1497, and told in an attractive style, created the false impression that he and not Columbus discovered the great unknown mainland, and in his honor the name "America," from the Latin form of his Christian name, was given to that region — but not at first to the region north of the Isthmus of Panama.' The order of development is something like this : first we have "America " south of the isthmus and "India" north of it ; ne.xt, "America" south of the isthmus and "North America" north of it finally; "South America" in the south and "North America" in the north. The first person to use the name "America" — although others earlier used "Mundus Novus " for South America — was Martin Waldseemiiller, a professor of geography at St. Die, who ^^^g^ in a book of his own published Columbus's second letter iia 1507. Thoroughly under the influence of Vespucci's narrative he described this newly discovered land and added, since " Americus dis- covered it, it maybe called Amerige; in other words, the land of Amer- icus, or America." He said further that he preferred the form "Amer- ica," since both Europe and Asia were named for women. A map which accompanied his book used the name, which was soon in gen- eral popular use in most of Europe outside of Spain, where the term "Indies" was used long after its absurdity was recognized. Wald- seemiiller later changed his mind about the name, and in a map which he made in 1513 substituted the term "Terra Incognita" ; but it was too late to overtake the error of 1507. But one more discovery was now needed to make the New World stand in clear relief before the eye of the old — and that was made by Magellan in 1519-1522. Although a Portuguese, he sailed under Spanish authority with five ships manned by un- Discovery^ willing and mutinous crews. He spent the first wmter on the eastern shore of South America, forty-nine degrees south, where the climate was like that of Newfoundland. Here he put down a mutiny by his individual courage, and in the spring resumed his jour- ney. October 21, in the Antarctic spring, he entered the straits which now bear his name — a channel from two to five miles wide and three hundred and twenty-five miles long. Its last half passes between high rocky banks with impressive mountains on each side. The little fleet passed through fearsomely, not knowing what mysterious terror the next league ahead might present. At length the cliffs receded and ■ The arguments in this connection are admirably given in Bourne, Spain in America, ch. vii. D 34 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA the straits opened to a broad ocean which Magellan called "Mare Pacificum." He struck out boldly to the northwest, and after much suffering came at last to the rich islands of the East. He was killed in battle with the natives in the island of Matau, one of the Philip- pines. A single ship survived the perils of the sea and reached Spain, having proved the truth of Columbus's dream. Next to Spain, Portugal took prominent part in American explora- tions. Her West African voyages throughout the fifteenth century Portuguese gave her a prestige which the immense activity of Spain at Explorations, the close of the century threatened to discredit. Spurred Vasco da by this thought she sent out Vasco da Gama in 1497. He Gama. went first to the Cape Verde Islands, then striking into the great South Atlantic, sailed without signs of land till he came to thirty degrees south latitude, when he turned to the southeast, and after a long time reached the coast at a point one hundred miles north of Cape of Good Hope. His course represented two sides of a triangle, to cover which he took ninety-three days, out of sight of land ; whereas Columbus on his first voyage took only thirty-five days from the Canaries to Guanahani. Passing then around the cape, wliich had been unvisited since Bartholomew Diaz was blown past it in 1487, he sailed on to India, where, indeed, the lands of spices and gems lay before him. His return to Lisbon brought the glow of old-time pride to the hearts of his compatriots. It shows in a letter the king sent to Ferdinand and Isabella, announcing that a Portuguese captain had reached the real India where there were real pepper and real rubies. In 1500 another Portuguese navigator saOed into the unknown seas, going as boldly into the north as da Gama went uito the south. This was Caspar Corte-Real, who sailed many days and found Reals" *" "'^ ^^"*^ which was very cool and with great woods," but not otherwise described. In 1 501 , with three ships he sailed for the same coasts. One of the vessels was lost with the com- mander aboard, but the others returned with fifty captive Eski- mos. Surviving stories and contemporary maps show that he visited Labrador and explored Newfoundland. In 1502 his brother, Miguel Corte-Real, went out to find the lost Caspar and was himself cast away. A year later the king sent out an ex-pedition to find the two brothers, but it was futile. These northern explorations are only geographically important : Portugal founded no territorial claims on them. More important were her attempts on the Brazilian coast. In 1500, a few months before Caspar Corte-Real sailed, one of her cap- _ . . tains, Cabral, with thirteen ships dropped down to the Cape Verde Islands, and, like da Gama, stood thence out into the ocean. But he turned farther west, where the ocean is narrowest, and reached land in eighteen degrees south latitude and took possession in the name of Portugal. He sent one ship to report his discovery aiid WORK OF THE CABOTS 35 with the others sought to pass beyond this land to India. Storms im- peded his progress and he was forced to turn back. While Spain and Portugal explored and acquired portions of the New World, England, through no inclination of her own rulers, ex- plored and secured title to the portion she was later to _ ,. . j. colonize. John Cabot, born in Genoa, but a naturahzed piorations. citizen of Venice, after unsuccessful attempts in Spain and j^tm cabot. Portugal, came to England, where the king, Henry VII, in 1496 gave him such lands as he might discover beyond the sea to hold the same in the English name. In a ship no larger than Columbus's Nina, with a crew of eighteen, he sailed in May, 1497, and four hundred leagues west of Ireland come to land, probably Newfoundland. He skirted the coast southward for three hundred leagues and returned to Eng- land, where the thrifty king rewarded him with a gift of ten, and an annual pension of twenty, pounds. A year later be sailed on a second voyage the detailed results of which we do not know ; but from various sources it seems probable that on this e.xpedition he explored the At- lantic coast from Long Island to South Carolina. With this voyage he disappears completely ; probably he perished on it. He was not an educated man, like Columbus, and the English were not interested in discoveries. Accordingly we have in England only the barest documentary evidence in regard to the voyages. Both this meager record and the fact that English exj^lorations were not notably con- tinued show how little interest our mother country had in the lands beyond the sea. But the agents of the Spanish and Italian govern- ments then in England felt a lively interest. They reported to their superiors all they heard about Cabot's achievements, and from this source we get most of our scanty information. John Cabot had a son, Sebastian, for thirty-sk years Chief Hydrog- rapher of Spain and after that adviser in matters of navigation to the English admiralty. He was highly esteemed by his • J * V A • • *• u- Sebastian contemporaries and posterity. An inscription on his pabot picture and another on a map which he made in 1544 assert that he was with his father when, in 1497, ^^.nd was discovered in the north. Sebastian talked freely in Spain to persons who have reported his words. From these three sources grew the impression that Sebas- tian was a great discoverer. Some of the statements in the story are contradicted by the scant contemporary records which refer to John Cabot, and the result is a lowering in later years of the fame of the son ; but it is impossible to come to a satisfactory conclusion in the matter. England forgot the Cabots for a century. But in the days of Raleigh and Hakluyt she recalled them to mind, and these voyages became the basis of her claim to the North Atlantic coast. France, through the efforts of two men, took part in American ex- ploration. In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazano tried to find a passage to India by the northwest. It is difficult to determine from his narra- 36 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA tive how much of the Atlantic coast he explored ; but it seems that he entered New York harbor and the Hudson river and oenetrated Narragansett Bay, after which he sailed north as far as piorations^' Newfoundland. In 1534 Jacques Cartier, a Breton, sailed ' with two ships on what proved a more important vcyage. zano." -^^ explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and was forced home by stormy weather. Next year he came again to the same place, took up his labors where he suspended them in 1534. and went up the St. Lawrence as far as what is now Quebec. Then he took rowboats, with which he reached the Indian vil- ^^"- lage of Hochelaga at the site of Montreal. The rapids which here stopped his search for a passage through the continent were later called "La Chine" in ridicule, it is said, of his attempt to find China through this river. Cartier's exploration was the basis of French title to Canada. It was followed in 1541 by an attempt to plant a colony, Roberval ha\ing the command and Cartier showing the way. A fort was built near Quebec, but the Indians drove off the garrison, and killed or discouraged the colonists so that they gladly escaped to France. The earliest maps after the discovery of America show us how Eu- rope gradually came to realize the shape of the new continent. The „ first preserved was by Juan de la Cosa (1500). He was ary aps. -^^jj-jj (;;;Ql^J^|3^g j^ j^g2 and 1493, and with Hojeda in 1499. He was informed about the other discoveries and accounted for them on his map. He shows the coast line of North and South America in the shape of a great letter U which lies on one side. The discoveries of Cabot represent the upper leg and the Spanish discoveries m the northern part of South America represent the lower leg. The curved interior takes the place of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, within which the Antilles are correctly placed. North and south of the temiinus of each leg the shores go off at right angles. Opposite the upper one and well out in the ocean he places the land discovered for Portugal by Corte-Real, not knowing it was nearly identical with Cabot's discovery. These Spanish, English, and Por- tuguese lands are located with approximate correctness, but the lines which connect them, the inner curved part of the figure, were drawn without e.xperimental knowledge, probably by guess. A map made for Cantino, an Italian envoy in Portugal, about 1502, adheres more closely to known facts. Unknown parts of the coast are entirely blank, the northern part takes a vertical position, Florida and the shore north of it comes into a semblance of itself, and the same is true of South America from the Gulf of Uraba to the Tropic of Capricorn. A map by Stobnicza, 1512, has the parts of coast line omitted from the Cantino map, and one by Waldseemiiller, 1513, gives an outline of the two continents with a suggestion of accuracy. A French globe, about 1527, shows Asia connected with South America. SPAIN IN CENTRAL AMERICA 37 Exploring the Interior The second stage of exploration was directed into the interior and it went hand in hand with colonization, Spain taking the lead. First Hayti (1494) and then Cuba (1508) were settled. These two islands soon developed a number of vigorous Spanish- Spanish Ex- born grandees who were willing to attempt ad\'entures on IheTnterfor" the unexplored mainland. Such a one was Hernando rortez Cortez, who in 1519 sailed to conquer Mexico, the wealth and advanced culture of which was previously reported to the whites. He took with him five hundred and fifty Spaniards, two hundred and three Indians, one negro, and sixteen horses. He destroyed his ships when he landed at Vera Cruz, and announced to his men his determina- tion to conquer Mexico or die. At that time the Mexicans ex-pected the return of a culture hero, Quetzalcoatl, who, tradition said, would come back to bless the people. Some of them considered the arrival of the Spaniards the fulfillment of the prophecy. Cortez was quick enough to use this opportunity, but his main reliance was his sword. His firearms, armor, and horses gave him an advantage, but the vast numbers of his enemies would have outweighed it had he been less capable or his enemies been well united. He forced his way to the Aztec city of Mexico, where the superstitious natives recei\'ed him darkly. Fearing an outbreak he seized Montezuma, the Mexican ruler, and when the capital flew to arms withdrew for the time and established a siege which was finally successful. After two and a half years of severe struggle he and his little army were masters of Mexico. Another explorer of the interior was Balboa. He was a bankrupt planter who left Santo Domingo secretly to escape his creditors, and joined an expedition wliich was trying to plant a col- _ . onynear the Isthmus of Panama. Small, ugly, and poor, he nevertheless was born to command and was soon the leading spirit in an otherwise failing enterprise. By liis resolution he resisted all attempts to supplant him and finally performed a feat which made him famous. Whc^ some Spaniards were disputing over a bit of gold, an Indian told them he could show them a great water over which came quantities of the yellow metal. Balboa remembered the words, and with about two hundred Spaniards set out to find this sea. His march of forty-five mUes was through a tropical tangle of jungle to penetrate which required the labor of eighteen days. At length he neared the sea. Halting his men he climbed the last impeding ridge so that he alone might first see the object of his search. Then this bankrupt adventurer, stern ruler of men, heartless betrayer of benefactors, and relentless victor over his personal enemies, knelt and thanked " God and all the Heavenly Host who had reserved the prize of so great a thing unto him, being a man but of small wit and 38 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA knowledge, of little experience, and lowly parentage." Thus it was that Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513. More interesting but less significant historically were the explora- tions of Ponce de Leon in 1513. Twenty years of adventure in the Ponce de West Indies had developed him into a great captain. Leon. He finally set out to find Bimini, a land in which the Indians said there was much gold and a fountain of perpetual youth. On Easter Sunday he discovered the mainland, which he called Florida, from Pasctia Florida, the Easter season. He landed at St. Augustine harbor, and thence explored the coast southward until he passed the extremity of the peninsula. The name "Florida" was later used by Spain for the coast as far north as the Chesapeake Bay. Another explorer was de Narvaez. In 1527 he sailed from Spain for Florida with a colony of six hundred persons. Desertion and , „ shipwreck reduced these to four hundred, most of whom landed in the western part of what is now Florida some- where north of Tampa Bay. Indian reports of a great town lured them into the interior, where they were surrounded by vast numbers of savages and forced back starving to the coast at Pensacola Bay. They built boats, converted their horses into food, made satis from horsehides and from their own clothes, and sailed — not for Cuba, but westward, where they hoped to join their fleet. In this they were disappointed : one by one their rude boats were destroyed : de Narvaez was drowned; and the remnant, now fifteen, took refuge with the Indians, who first beat them and then discovered that they were medicine-men. For five years they managed to keep in favor with the savages, passing from tribe to tribe in great honor. Finally four men, all who were left of the six hundred whom de Narvaez brought out nine years earlier, reached the city of Mexico. One of them was Cabeja de Vaca, historian of the expedition, whose journal makes a thrilling narrative. He described the interior of the continent in glowing terms and gave a stimulus to later disastrous attempts at exploration. One of the victims of this exaggeration was Hernando de Soto, who having gained a fortune in Peru with Pizarro was made governor -^ _ of Cuba and ruler of Florida, which he was to explore and colonize at his own expense. May 30, 1539, he landed at Tampa Bay with over six hundred and twenty men. He spent the summer and winter near the coast, and in the spring marched northward, across Georgia, South Carolina, and part of North Caro- lina. He crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains in the last-named state near the point where rise the highest peaks of the Appalachian system, then turning south again reached southern Alabama in October, 1540, always looking for "some rich country," fighting several battles with the Indians, and suffering much from hunger and sickness. De Soto learned that a fleet awaited him on the coast, but concealed CORONADO'S MARCH 39 the fact from his men and marched again for the interior. He wintered in northern Mississippi, and moving on in the spring came on May 8, 1541, to the Mississippi near Memphis. He crossed and spent the summer exploring what is now Arkansas. He encamped, and in the spring would have gone farther into the west if his men and horses had not failed him. Broken spirited, he fell sick, and May 21, 1542, he was buried in the river he had discovered. His adventures took three years. His followers built boats and escaped down the river and along the coast to Mexico. De Soto gave his fortune and his life to this enterprise and the result was expressed in the extension of geographical knowledge for the benefit of the world at large. In Mexico at this time a story was circulated of seven cities which an Indian had visited, each as great as Mexico City. The narrative of Cabeja de Vaca seemed to confimi it ; and the excitable _ . imagination of the adventurers seized it with avidity. A friar sent to investigate returned, saying he came in sight of one of the cities, probably the pueblo of Zuni, and preparations were made for a conquest of this wonderful region, believed to be as rich as Mexico. Francisco de Coronado was appointed to lead the colony. He set out in 1540 with eleven hundred men, Spaniards and Indians; but he left the main body on the north shore of the Gulf of California and went into the interior with fifty horsemen. He took Cibola, which proved to be a pueblo without treasure. Not discouraged, he ordered up the main body and struck into New Mexico. He went as far as the border of Oklahoma, and with an advance guard arrived at the center of Kansas within nine days' march of the point to which De Soto at that very time had penetrated in Arkansas. He found pueblos and Indian villages, but no treasure, and returned to Mexico in 1542 with the loss of only a few of his followers. Thus from 1513 to 1542 Spain explored Florida, Mexico, and the region north of the Rio Grande, discovering their real character and opening the way for colonization. Such was the work of Cortez, Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Narvaez, de Soto, and Coronado. They were strenuous men, sparing neither themselves, their followers, nor the natives, whom they Spanish plundered, enslaved, and slew with great cruelty. Through Colonial their efforts Spain in fifty years, from 1492 to 1542, explored Power, and held a vast region. Nor was gold-seeking their only interest : agricultural colonies cjuickly followed the adventurers ; and tbei'- strength is shown by the part they contributed to further explora- tions. No other colonizing nation in America did so much in so short a time. Had not the wars of Phillip II, soon to begin, paralyzed Spanish industry and checked emigration to the colonies, it seems likely that a very strong Spanish empire would have been established from Florida to the mouth of the Orinoco. 40 THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF AMERICA BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The discovery of America has been described in many books. Among them the most available for American students are : Harrisse, The Discovery oj North America (1897), scholarly and ample; Fiske, The Discovery of America, 2 vols. (i8q2), brilliant in style but disproved in some of its points by later writers; Bourne, Spain ill America (1904), the most reliable as well as the best written one-volume treatise on the subject in English; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, 8 vols. (18S8-1889), vol. II deals with the period of discovery, especially valuable for references; and Channing, History of the United States, vol. I (1905). On the Norse discoveries see: Reeves, Finding of Vincland the Good (1890), and Storm, Studies on the Vinland Voyages (trans., 1889). On Columbus see: Harrisse, Christoplie Colomb, 2 vols. (1884); Vignaud, La Vic de Colomb avant ses Decouverles (1905); Thacher, Christopher Columbus, 3 vols. (1903-1904); Winsor, Christopher Columbus (1892); Markham, Life of Columbus (1889), for the general reader; and Irving, Life of Columbus (1828- 1831), the most widely read book on the subject, and still in demand. Among contemporary Spanish works the following are important : The Life and Actions of Admiral Columbus, ascribed to his son, Ferdinand, most valuable for the period after the discovery when it follows the journals of Columbus (trans, in Chur hill. Voyages, 1744-1746, and Pinkerlon, Voyages, 1808-1814); Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, $ vols, (about 1525, published 1875-1876); Peter Martyr, De Orbo Novo (about 1555); Oviedo, Historia General y Natural de las Indias, 4 vols. (ed. 1851-1855); Herrara, Historia General de las Indias (1828- 1830) ; and Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos, 5 vols. (1825- '837)- On Spanish explorations see Bourne, Fiske, and Winsor, as described above, for brief accounts in English, and Navarrete for a reliable Spanish source. On English voyages of e.xploration see Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, etc., of the English Nation, 16 vols. (Edinburgh ed., 1SS5-1890); Harrisse, John Cabot . . . and Sebastian his Son (1896); Weare, Cabot's Discovery of North America (1897); Dean, chapter on Cabot in Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, vol. Ill (1S84) ; Markham, Letters of Vespucci (1894); Helps, Life of Cortez, 2 vols. (1871); Guillemard, Life of Magellan (1891) ; Bourne, ed.. Narratives of De Soto, 2 vols. (1904); Winship, ed.. Journey of Coronado (1904); and Smith, Cabcca de Vaca (1866). Important general works on Spanish settlements are: Lowery, Spanish Settlements, 2 vols. (1901, 1905) ; Helps, The Spanish Conquest in America, ^\'o\s. (Oppenheim, ed., igoo-1904) ; and Bancroft, History of Central America, 3 vols. (1886-1887). On the French explorations of the coast line see : Harrisse, Lcs Corle-Real ct leur Voyages (1883); Murphy, The Voyage of Verrazzano (1875); Parkman, Pioneers of France (1865) ; and Gaffarel, La Floride Franqaisc (1875). For Independent Reading Markham, Life of Columbus (1892); Irving, Life of Columbus (1828-1831); Fiske, Discovery of America, 2 vols. (1892); Bourne, Spain in America (1904); and Payne and Beazley, eds., Voyages of Elizabethan Seamen (1907), extracts from Hakluyt. CHAPTER III THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH The Gentlemen Adventurers Nothing shows better the rapid progress of Spanish colonies than the fact that England became interested in colonization through depredations on them. Captain John Hawkins, of „. _ ... Plymouth, Devonshire, did much to open this phase of geamen. ^ English history. Negro slaves were in demand in Spanish Hawkins. colonies, and although foreigners were forbidden to trade there, he determined to get access to the market. In 1 563 he arrived in Hayti with three hundred negroes, whom the planters, not knowing the king's law, or disregarding it, gladly purchased. He loaded his ships with produce, and sailed for Europe, sending two of them to Spain, where they were promptly seized by the authorities. His courage rose with opposition, and he soon reappeared with another cargo. When the timid colonists hesitated to purchase, he landed an armed force, and frightened off the officials, whereupon the slaves were sold. The king — it was Philip II — now sent a fleet to enforce the laws. It found Hawkins, recently returned from a third voyage, safe in the harbor of Vera Cruz, whose defenses he had seized. He hesitated to appeal to force and agreed to admit the Spanish com- mander to the harbor on the promise of immunity from attack. The pledge was broken, the English being cut to pieces by the superior numljer of their opponents. Two ships escaped, one commanded by Hawkins, the other by his nephew, Francis Drake. Both men were henceforth implacable eneinies to the Spaniards. They became the center of a group of hardy captains who dealt Spanish sliips many a blow, and who at last united to _ , overthrow in 1588 The Invincible Armada which Philip sent against England. Their most notable single adventure was when Drake in 1578 in The Pelican sailed around South America, took great quantities of gold from unwary Spaniards, explored the west coast to the forty-eighth parallel, and circumnavigating the globe re- turned to England to be knighted for his success. These adventures revived English interest in America and promoted colonization. Hawkins and Drake had many imitators. One of them. Sir Hum- phrey Gilbert, in 1578 received from Queen Elizabeth a patent grant- 41 42 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH ing him power, civil and proprietary, over all lands which he might colonize not held by a Christian prince. He wished to discover a „.„ northwest passage to China, and believed that a colony in America would be a useful base for his explorations. In the same year he went out with seven ships, one commanded by his half-brother, Walter Raleigh, then twenty-six years old. The expedition encountered the Spaniards, and soon returned to England. In 1583 GUbert sailed to Newfoundland to plant a colony there, but he was lost in a stonn and his expedition failed. He was a model knight and Christian, and his last known words shouted from the deck of his little ship, then battling for life in the waves, — "The way to heaven is as near by sea as by land," — have often been repeated by Englishmen. Walter Raleigh took up his dead brother's work, the queen issuing a new charter, and in 1584 he sent two ships under Philip Amadas _ , . , and Arthur Barlowe to explore the Atlantic coast before attempting to plant a colony. With an eye on the rich Spanish galleons, which English captains were accustomed to plunder on sight, they first sailed to the West Indies, then turning oeStion" northward came to the coast near Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and skirting the shore found an inlet which does not now exist, and so came in July through Pamlico Sound to Roanoke Island. The rich vegetation, the abundance of fish, and the friendliness of the natives delighted them, and they returned with wonderful stories of what they saw. They reported an abundance of grapes, which abound in that locality to this day ; and they found something — probably the persimmon — which they took for the date. Their written description of the place was designed to enlist the efforts of future adventurers, please the queen, and increase the glory of their employer. Elizabeth was enough gratified to confer knighthood on Raleigh, and to call the country Virginia in token of her unmarried state. In 1585 Raleigh sent Ralph Lane, a brave, tactless captain of infantry, with a hundred men to land at Roanoke Island, make a better investigation of the interior, and select a site for ^^diti^n^"" '^ permanent settlement. He explored Albemarle Sound, went up the Roanoke river until he realized that it was not a northwest passage, and heard from the Indians of Chesapeake Bay, which he properly concluded was better suited than Roanoke Island for the proposed colony. His abrupt manner brought him the hostility of the Indians, his supplies were soon gone, and when in 1586 Sir Francis Drake came to the coast, after a profitable cruise in the West Indies, Lane was glad to embark for England. A few days later Sir Richard Grenville touched at the place with supplies and recruits. He left fifteen men with food to hold the country in the name of the English and sailed off to the West Indies to capture Spanish treasure. EFFORTS OF RALEIGH 43 Raleigh now prepared to plant a pennancnt colony. May 8, 1587, he sent out three ships with one hundred and fifty colonists, twenty- five of whom were women and children. The commander was John White, who was with Lanein i ^S^and whoshowed „^^-.-^J^' , . •" ^ , . , . , ^ y . . , , . pedition. his confidence m the enterprise by bringing with him his own daughter, Eleanor, and her husband, Annanias Dare. Wliite was to pick up the garrison left by Grenville and plant the "Citie of Raleigh in Virginia" on the Chesapeake. But arrived at Roanoke the hired captain refused to go farther, and when White and the men of the colony were on shore, put their effects on land and saUed away with two of the ships. A more resolute explorer than White, as Cortez or De Soto, would have gone on board, overpowered the cap- tain, and taken the ships to their proper destination. The island was inaccessible from the sea and its soil was poor. The colonists soon became discouraged and urged White to return to England for supplies. Late in August he set sail in the one ship at the disposal of the settlers, leaving behind Cojo^^ °^ him a granddaughter, Virginia Dare, born August 18, the first offspring of the English race in what is now the United States. England at that moment was expecting the arrival of the Spanish Armada, and a strict embargo was laid on shipping. White was forced to remain in the country, and it was not until 1591 that he came, in a hired ship, to ascertain the fate of the colony. The island was deserted, the fort was in ruins, and the only evidence of the fate of the colonists was the word "Croatoan" carved on a tree. It was the name of a friendly tribe of Indians dwelling near Cape Hatteras. Before his departure it was agreed that if the colonists removed they would carve the name of their place of refuge on a tree, and if they went in distress a cross was to be added. As no cross appeared. White took courage. He would have gone to Croatoan, but the captain of the fleet, fearful of storms, would not delay, and spite of later efforts of Raleigh to find them, the colonists were never seen again by white men. The settlers at Jamestown, planted twenty years later, learned from the Indians that the people of Roanoke went to the Indians, but were later massacred through the agency of Pow- hatan. The Indians added that four men, two boys, and one maid were saved by a friendly chief. If so, they were probably adopted into the tribe according to the Indian custom.' The enterprise at Roanoke Island wasted Raleigh's fortune, and the colony itself was a failure, but he kept up his interest in Virginia, saying in 1602 when about to be sent to the ^i?"^„^^'^* Tower, "I shall yet live to see it an English nation." island. He did, indeed, at Roanoke Island plant the seed which 'The claim that the mixed breeds of Robeson county, N. C, formerly known as Scuifle- tonians, recently called "Croatans," are descended from the "Lost Colony" is unsup- ported by evidence and highly improbable. 44 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH produced fruit at Jamestown. His failure contained a lesson and showed the place at which success would be found. His faith in the expansion of English power was communicated to others, the pathetic fate of his colony hung over the imagination of his countrymen, and the cause of colonization was not forgotten. Raleigh's misfortunes showed that planting a colony was a large work and that it demanded the support of many people. He, indeed, _ . realized this, and in 1589 assigned to a group of "Associ- ates " the right to establish a colony in Virginia. Among them were ten men who were later connected with the Virginia Company. One of them was Richard Hakluyt, who in 1584 presented the queen with A Discourse of Western Planling, a little book of arguments to show why Elizabeth ought to encourage colonies. The appeal failed completely. English sovereigns ne\-er expended money in founding or nourishing colonies in America. Among Raleigh's "associates" was Thomas Smythe, a prominent merchant, and either he or his son by the same name was treasurer of the Virginia Company. In 1603 Raleigh was convicted of treason and the assign- ment of 1589 became null. The English opinion of Virginia at this time came from the reports of Raleigh's captains and was influenced by the Spanish experience in Mexico and Peru. The popular imagination added Exaggerated jj-,^(-}^ j-q these already exaggerated impressions. A Virginia. favorite comedy of the day, "Eastward Ho," gives the following e.xposition of Virginia in 1605: "Seagull. A whole country of English is there, bred of those that were left there in '79 [1587]; they have married with the Indians . . . who are so in love with them that all the treasures they have they lay at their feet. " Scapcthrift. But is there such treasure there, Captain, as I have heard?'' "Seagull. I tell thee gold is more plentiful there than copper is with us; and for as much red copper as I can bring I'll have thrice the weight in gold. Why man, all their dripping pans . . . are pure gold ; and all the chains with which they chain up their streets arc massy gold, all the prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds thc\' go forth on hohdaj's and gather 'em by the seashore to hang on their cliildren's coats, and stick in their children's caps, as commonly as our children wear salTron-gilt brooches and groats with holes in 'em. "Scapetlirtfl. And is it a pleasant coimtry withal? "Seagull. As ever the sun shined on : temperate, and full of all sorts of excellent viands; wild boar is as common there as our tamest bacon is here; and venison as mutton. And then you shall live freely there, without sergeants, or courtiers, or lawyers . . . Then for your means of advancement, there it is simple and not preposterously mixed. You may be an alderman there and never be scavenger ; you may be any other officer and ne\'cr be a slave. You may come to preferment enough, ... to riches and fortune enough, and have never the more villany nor the less wit. Besides, there we shall have no more law than conscience, and not too much of either; serve God enough, eat and drink enough, and enough is as good as a feast." COLONY-PLANTING UNDER JAMES I 45 The Beginning of Virginia Various adventurous sea captains were on the American coasts early in the seventeenth century, and they probably gave the impulse which resulted in renewed efforts to people the country. Two whose names stand out are George Weymouth and London Bartholomew Gosnold. They offered their ships and their ^°"^^°^ services and tried to get others to raise funds to send ^u^jj c^^. out colonies. They succeeded in enlisting the support pany. of a number of gentlemen and merchants, and applied to the king for permission to plant two colonies, — one in the south, where Raleigh's efforts were spent, and one in the north, in a region whose resources of fur, timber, and fisheries had attracted the atten- tion of Weymouth and others. The request was granted, and April 10, 1606, two groups of "adventurers," one resident in London and the other in Plymouth, Bristol, and other towns, were authorized to plant the "First Colony" and the "Second Colony" respectively. The London Company, as the first group came to be called, was to plant between the thirty-fourth and forty-hrst degrees of north latitude, and the Plymouth Company between the thirty-eighth and forty- fifth degrees ; but it was provided that when one colony was estab- lished the other should not be placed within a hundred miles of it. Each was to have jurisdiction over a region one hundred miles square, fifty on each side, north and south, of its first settlement, and one hundred into the interior. Various privileges were granted to each, among them authority to open mines, grant lands, coin money, defend themselves against intruders, and import certain articles for seven years without duty. Raleigh's grant said little about the government of the colony he should plant, the inference being that this was a matter left largely in the hands of the proprietor. The grants of 1606 show a better developed idea of a colonial system. The colony The King's was to be a national undertaking, dependent, not on J?^* °^ parliament, but on the king. He created the charter oovern- and reserved for himself the ultimate jurisdiction over ment. the colonial government. He also issued "instructions," in which was established or modified the internal constitution of the proposed colony. His direct representative was the superior council of Virginia, consisting of thirteen members appointed by the king. Virginia, as then conceived, was an immense domain in which could be established eight seacoast colonies, each one hundred miles square. The government now devised was to apply to the First and Second Colonies, and probably to all others to be set up in Virginia. Within the colony was to be a resident council of not more than thirteen members, appointed temporarily by the superior council 46 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH in London. It was to choose its president annually, and its func- tions were four: (i) to make ordinances in matters not touching life and members, such ordinances to be in keeping with within"thr' ^^^ "instructions" and with English law, and to be in Colony. force until repealed by the king; (2) to sit as a court of justice; (3) to appoint minor officials ; and (4) to exercise the functions of local administration. The "instructions" also estab- lished the Church of England and prescribed exile for persons preach- ing against it. There was to be a Cape Merchant, or treasurer, to receive the goods sent to the colony and to sell those sent home. He was to administer the common store, to which ever>' man's produce should go for five years. The inhabitants were to have the personal and property rights of British subjects, and trial by jury was not to be denied. The Second Colony, sent out by the Plymouth Company, sailed August 12, 1606. It was a small expedition and was taken by the Spaniards. The failure did not discourage the Company, Colony on ^^,j^q j^g^.). yg^j. ggj^(. ^j^g hundred and twenty settlers to j,ec. the mouth of the Kennebec. A bitter winter and other hardships discouraged them, and they returned to Eng- land in 1608. The London Company, mo\ing more slowly, sent forth a larger number of adventurers. December 20, 1606, they sailed from London, one hundred and twenty men, without women and children, Settlers^ '"^ three ships. The Sarah [Susan] Constant, The Goodspeed, and The Discovery. Captain Christopher Newport, aseaman experienced in the war against the Spaniards, commanded the ex-pedi- tion on the sea and was instructed to remain two months in Virginia making explorations. He carried a mysterious sealed packet, to be opened twenty-four hours after he made land, containing the names of the all-powerful seven who should make the governing council. Several men of high birth and pretensions were on board, and during the four months the little fleet took to pass first the Canaries, then to the West Indies, and thence northward to the Chesapeake, there was much speculation and some heart-burning in anticipation of the assign- ment of the coming honors. One man aboard was Captain John Smith, a veritable soldier of fortune, without famOy connections to speak of. He had real abUity, but was probably aggressive and boastful. He drew to himself a group of supporters, which displeased Edward Maria Wingfield, a proud man of high birth, who charged Smith with plotting mutiny, and got him put in irons for the rest of the voyage. April 26, Old Style, they sighted the Virginia capes and named them Henr>' and Charles after the two sons of their king. Before them was Hampton Roads, and beyond that a great river which they called the James. Seeking to reach it they were impeded by shallows, till at last they found the channel close to a spit of land, VIRGINIA SETTLED 47 which in gratitude they called Point Comfort. At last the sealed packet was opened. The three captains of the ships, Newport, Gosnold, and Ratcliffe, with Wingfield, Smith, and two others were to be the council. Wingfield's ascendancy was complete ; he was elected president, but Smith, though given his liberty, was not allowed to sit in the council. The colonists now divided into two parts ; one explored the river and bay and the other proceeded to lay out a town. The site was a peninsula thirty-two miles from the mouth of the James, large enough for a town and some fields. It was connected with the mainland by a narrow neck and was easily defensible. Though lying low, it was as high as most of the bank up to that point. The channel cut the southwest end and made a low bluff so that the ships could be tied up to the shore. Here a fort was constructed, with a church and a storehouse. In the rear of these was laid out a little street along which huts were built. The town was named Jamestown. June 15 the fort was completed, and the colonists felt safe against the Indians. A week later Captam Newport returned to England. He carried a quantity of pyrites which he took for gold. He valued it so highly, that arriving on the English shore he dared not leave his ship and proceed to London, lest the precious stuff be stolen. Virginia presented a fair appearance to the colonists. The great oaks, pines, and cypresses, with grapevines as large as a man's leg, showed the fertility of the soil. The great sturgeons in the river, the luscious oysters on the rocks, mussels charms with pearls in them, flowers in the woods, strawberries twice as large as those of England, and many other things tilled with admiration the imaginative gentlemen adventurers. They roamed through the woods in ecstasy. Every new bird, every shady nook carpeted with flowers, every fine view of river or grassy marsh, brought forth expressions of delight, as we may see from the writings of several of the more bookish members of the colony. It would be interesting to know what the laborers thought, who came to convert all this forest beauty into patient, corn-growing fields. The Indians at this time no longer looked on the whites with wonder. Spanish and English ships had inflicted enough cruelty to place war in their hearts. The Paspaheghs controlled the region and resented the intrusion at Jamestown. No treaty was offered them, and they would have destroyed the intruders had they found an opportunity. The sultry August days brought disaster. Gentle George Percy describes the situation with pathetic briefness. "The sLxt day of August," he says, "there died John Asbie, of the bloudie Flixe. The ninth day, died George Flowre, of the swelling, j oiseas^- the tenth day, died William Bruster Gentleman, of a VKound given by the Savages, and was buried the eleventh day. The 48 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH fourteenth day, Jerome Olikock, Ancient [i.e. Ensign], died of a wound. The same day, Francis Midwinter, and Edward Moris Corporal! died suddenly." Thus runs the account throughout August, closing with this, "Our men were destroyed with cruell diseases, such as Swellings, Fli.xes, Burning Fevers, and by warres; and some departed suddenly; but for the most part, they died of meere famine. ... It pleased God, after a while, to sende those peo- ple which were our mortall enemies, [the Indians] to relieve us with victuals, as Bread, Corne, Fish, and Flesh in great plentie; which was the setting up of our feeble men : otherwise we had all perished." This fortunate succor came from Powhatan, who lived on the York river, and from Indians south of the James, who were pleased to give food for trinkets. Captain John Smith going to them for trade. The starving settlers turned against Wingfield, who could think of no better means of meeting the difficulties than to husband the small store of food until help arrived from England. The Services of resourcefulness of Smith now attracted attention, and he john*'smith. '^^''^^ admitted to the council. Soon afterwards this body deposed the president and placed Ratcliffe in his place. Smith then became the most active man in the colony. He was sent out to trade with the natives, and besides securing food won their respect, so that even the Paspaheghs became friendly. Januarys, 1608, Newport, returning with supplies and no recruits, found the colony safe, although the numbers were reduced to 40. He was ordered by the Company to bring back a valuable cargo, and three months were spent in getting lumber to fill his ships. The time should have been given to clearing the forest for gram. As it was, when planting time came only four acres could be put into cultivation. A hundred would not have been too much. In August disease and famine reap- peared and the population was reduced to 50. Then Newport reap- peared, and precious time and strength must be given to the preparation of his cargo. Under such circumstances the arrival of a "supply" was a questionable benefit. In 1608 Smith became president, and when all the other councillors died he would not appoint successors, but ruled alone. The people accepted him, and in the spring of 1609 he got 40 acres into cultivation. He also erected better houses and dug a well, at that place a work of a few hours. Although a physician was among the colonists, the brackish river had for two years furnished the drinking water. In the autumn of 1609 Smith returned to England, and the winter which followed was termed "the starving time." The population, largely increased by recent arrivals, was reduced from in xlme*"' S°° ^'^ ^°- Some of the sufferers were tempted to canni- balism, and one desperate man threw his Bible into the fire, crying, "There is no God in heaven!" When Sir Thomas Gates, a new governor, arrived in the spring he decided the experiment GAINING EXPERIENCE AT JAMESTOWN 49 was a failure and embarked the whole company for England. Before he left the river he encountered still another governor, Delaware, with supplies and recruits. All returned to Jamestown, where the situation became a little better. In 1609 the government by council was abandoned and a governor appointed with practically the authority of military law. Such a man was Delaware, who was too mild to be a despot. In 161 1 he returned to England, remaining governor till p°^g^s^ his death in 1618, and ruling Virginia through a deputy Abolished, governor. In this capacity came Sir Thomas Dale, 1611-1616, as bitter a tyrant as ever held office in America. There was much to excuse his harshness. He found on his arrival that no crops were planted, although the planting season was past. The men's chief occupation was bowling in the streets, the houses were falling in pieces, and the Indians were defiant. He turned on New- port, who had continually deceived England about the state of the colony, pulled his beard in public, threatened to hang him, and asked "wheather it ware meant that the people heere (joygmor in Virginia shoulde feede upon trees." He set the colo- nists to digging sassafras roots and hewing cedar for the profit of the Company. The spiritless inhabitants did not resist, but fled to the woods : when he took them he burned them at the stake. For steal- ing food some were hanged, and one was tied to a tree to starve. The food was bad, either because the contractors cheated the Com- pany, or because provisions spoOed in transit. There was much com- plaint, and Dale de\'ised a scheme of relief. He distributed . small lots of land to the people, and all who had come as o/Land °° laborers were given one month of the year to raise food for themselves. Another group, jjrobably aU who were not laborers, were called farmers and given three acres of land each, for which they paid to the company each year seven and a half barrels of corn and one month's labor. It was exorbitant rent, but when men di- rected their own labor they worked as much in one day as formerly in a week. The large number of gentlemen adventurers who came to the colony had a bad effect. They came hoping to find gold as Spanish gentle- men had found it in Central America, but they were nevertheless honestly desirous of building up the enter- .^^ ^ ^^' prise. Unaccustomed to labor they did not readily take up the hard work of clearing the fields, and despair, disease, and death found them an easy prey. Not used to superior authority they turned to intrigue. On this group fell Dale like a thunderbolt. He had no troops to enforce his orders, but his iron will served instead. Hardened soldier that he was, he found it the most difficult task of his life. When he left Virginia in 1 6 1 6 the days of illusion were passed and the colonists realized that the chief thing was to develop the agri- 50 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH cultural resources of a fertile country. They then numbered 350 and were well supplied with cattle and hogs. It was within this period that the possibilities of tobacco were discovered. Virginia now had a profitable money crop, great estates became possible, and the early aristocratic impulses of the settlers might reassert themselves. Better Times in the Colony Meanwhile the London Company cast off its early enthusiasm. The public-spirited gentlemen who founded it soon ceased to con- tribute to its support. Threatened with failure, its friends Changes m attempted to make it a national trading company. The pany. clergy lent their influence on missionary grounds, with the result that the membership grew to 765, only 225 of whom were of the gentry. A share cost twelve pounds and ten shillings, and in 161 2 the king permitted all important business to be transacted by a majority of the stockholders. Now appeared at the quarterly meetings a group in support of the king's ideas and a popular party who declared that prosperity would not come to the colony until self-government was granted. Such a suggestion was abhorrent to James I, but the misery under the king's plan was e\ddent and the liberals triumphed in 1618. They were ably led by Sir Edwin Sandys, ever the friend of liberal ideas. Sir George Yardley, governor, arrived at Jamestown April 19, 1619, announcing the permanent end of common property and the beginning of self-government. Each colonist was to Government have an assignment of land — one hundred acres for those who came before 1616 and fifty for those who came afterwards. The laws were to be made by an assembly composed of a governor and sL\ councillors appointed by the company and two representatives elected by each town, hundred, or plantation. The governor and council had executive functions, assigned land, sat as a high court of justice, and composed the upper house of the assembly. The most honorable position in Virginia next to the governor was the councillor. The representatives made the House of Burgesses, or lower house. The assembly was to make laws not contrary to English laws and subject to veto in England. In the main, this was the frame of government for Virginia and the other royal colonies until the revolution. Tobacco was now worth five shillings a pound in London, but the price fell rapidly. One man on cleared ground could raise, in 1649, aljout 2000 pounds. Fifty acres of land, known as a AnnuUed head right, was given to each adult immigrant who settled in the colony, and fifty to a master for each serv- ant. Sir Edwin Sandys, the Company's treasurer, worked inde- fatigably to bring people to a country where wealth and liberty were FALL OF THE COMPANY 51 promised, and his success was marked. But the court party intrigued against him. They convinced the king that Virginia was a nest of sedition, and he set himself to defeat the reelection of the treasurer. "Choose the devil if you will," he said to the stockholders, "but not Sir Edwin Sandys." This warning was too plain to be mistaken, and the liberal faction elected the Earl of Southampton, as progressive as his predecessor. James's suspicions were not allayed, and many advisers incited his anger, among them the Spanish minister, Gon- domar, who resented the intrusion of the settlement into what he considered Spanish territory. Li 1623 one of his tools published a paper called "The Unmasking of Virginia," bitterly attacking the company and the colony. James sent a biased commission to Virginia to investigate, and on its report brought suit to annul the charter. All the past misfortunes were laid at the door of the London Company, and June 16, 1624, the Company fell, Virginia passing into the hands of the king. He probably intended to undo the liberal reforms, but he died within a year, and Charles I, more friendly than his father, allowed them to continue. Thus the first law-making assembly es- tablished in America remained as a model for the colonies not yet created, and liberal government under royal supervision became firmly rooted in our life. The governors sent by Charles were no worse than those sent by the Company. They had frecjuent C[uarrels with the assembly, which became the defender of colonial rights against the royal prerogative. Sometimes the council sided with them. Governors and in 1635 it even deposed Governor Harvey, who tried to lay taxes without an act of assembly and to remove officials by his mere word. He was promptly restored by King Charles, who re- sented the unmaking of a governor. But the king was greatly beset by his own enemies, and vacillated from party to party. He soon sent a liberal governor, and then changing again, sent in 1642 a sup- porter of the royal prerogative. Sir William Berkeley, destined to rule long in Virginia. Berkeley was a stout aristocrat and a sup- porter of the king's prerogative, but he was honest, and his adminis- tration was a period of economic prosperity. Planting the first permanent colony cost the English stock dearly. When it ceased to exist in 1624 the London Company had expended 200,000 pounds, equal to $5,000,000 in American values of to-day, and from this large expenditure the return was very slight. In the same period it sent to Virginia over 14,000 persons, nearly 13,000 of whom died from exjiosure and disease. But in spite of this waste of money and life the first lessons of colonization were learned for the benefit of colonies to be estabhshed in the future, and Virginia re- mained a permanent home of white men. Two Indian wars fell heavily on the colony within the early period of its existence, one in 1622 and another in 1644. Each marked an 52 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH attempt of the natives to save their land from the occupation of the strangers. Before the first of these attacks relations with the savages were peaceful, owing in the first instance to the exertions of Captain Smith and after that to the good will of Powhatan, head chief of a confederacy which included at least thirty-four tribes. His good will was much influencetl hy his daughter Pocohontas, who probably saved the life of Smith, made many visits to Jamestown, and finally married Rolfe, one of the colonists. In 1618 Powhatan died, and his able brother, Opechancanough, who disliked the English and wished to expel them before it was too late, began to plot war. In March, 1622, the tribes generally went on the warpath, and swept through the outlying plantations with a trail of blood. Nearly 400 persons perished, and the planters who survived the first attack fled to the older settlements. They were compelled to leave their cattle behind, which, with their homes, were destroyed. As soon as the spring crops were planted the whites divided in bands and took a terrible vengeance. For twenty-two years there was peace. But Opechancanough, at last the head chief, only waited an opportunity. In 1644 there was civil war in England, and he thought the ex-pected moment was at hand. Old and blind as he was he acted with energy, and in two days over 300 settlers were slain. Again the whites took up arms, and in 1646 the aged head chief himself was taken and killed. In this struggle the savages lost heavily and were forced to make a treaty by which they retired from the region between the James and the York rivers. Thenceforth tidewater Virginia had peace. The Settlement of Maryland In 1609 the London Company's jurisdiction was fixed at 200 miles north and south of Old Point Comfort, and it was to extend westward . . through this region to the Mississippi. The Jamestown Dwided settlement was not thought to have jurisdiction over all this area; for in 1619 the Company granted privOeges to the Pilgrims from Leyden, which, but for the unfavorable voyage of the Mayflower, would have resulted in a coordinate colony near the Delaware. With the fall of the Company, 1624, all Virginia again became the king's, and soon afterwards he cut oft" from it two great proprietary provinces. One, lying on the south of Virginia proper, he gave to Sir Robert Heath, 1629, who did not improve it, and the other was given to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who thus became the founder of Maryland. Calvert was a member of the London Company and a 1^\ *^d^°' favorite with the king. In 1625 he announced liimself Baltimore. ^ Catholic, resigned the principal secretaryship of state, and gave himself up to colonization. His first attempt was in Newfoundland, but it failed through the cold climate, and he MARYLAND PROJECTED S3 turned to Virginia, asking in the first instance for a grant of the lands between the James river and Albemarle Sound. To this request the friends of Virginia objected, and he was satisfied with a grant north of the Potomac, extending as far as the fortieth degree of latitude. To the colony, the charter of which was signed June 20, 1632, the king gav'e the name Maryland, in honor of his queen, Hen- rietta Maria. By the Maryland charter a government was created less liberal than that of the London Company. The model on which it was formed was the County Palatine of Durham, in northern England. The proprietor, Baltimore, was to have in ^^^ ^°t'a the colony the same authority as the Bishop of Durham Maryland, had in the county, of whom the old motto of law ran, Quicquid Rex habd extra, Episcopiis liabet intra. Thus the proprietor, besides having possession of the land, was the head of the adminis- trative, judicial, and military functions. The legislative function had no place in the system in force in Durham, and in this respect the Maryland system was more liberal ; for it provided that the proprietor might make laws in keeping with those of England "with the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen or the major part of them or their representatives." The inhabitants were thus to have a share in law making, but the proprietor could have the initiative and might exercise a veto. By the charter the church of Maryland was to con- form to the laws of England, and the right to nominate clergymen was reserved to the proprietor. He was to hold his estate at only a nom- inal rent, and without ta.xes to the royal treasury. George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore, died as his charter was about to be signed, and Maryland passed to his son, Cecihus, a wise and liberal-minded man. He proceeded with the work of colonization, and in October, 1633, sent two ships with ■joieration. twenty gentlemen and about two hundred laborers to make the first settlement. With them went liis brother, Leonard, as governor. He and most of the gentlemen were Catholics, and most of the laborers Protestants. In a country as strongly anti-Catholic as England it behooved the Calverts to be tolerant, but there is no reason to think that the liberty of conscience which they granted in Maryland did not arise from their sense of justice and liberality. At any rate, at a time when Virginia drove out non-conformists and Massachusetts persecuted Roger Williams, Maryland was the home of religious freedom. Toleration attracted to Maryland people of varying religious belief. Unfortunately, they were not so liberal as the proprietor, and when strong enough began to persecute one an- other, until civil war at last appeared in the colony. English Catholics suffered much from the laws against their faith, and it was thought that they would gladly seek an asylum in America. They were fined for not attending the established church, keeping 54 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH arms in their iiouses, educating their children abroad, maintaining Catholic schoohnasters, and converting Protestants to Catholicism. They might not be legally married by their own clergy, c'^rt'ti*^ serve as executors, or be buried in their own church- Migrate? yards. Fines were collected from them persistently : even James I, who had sympathy for their faith, took thirty- six thousand pounds a year in this way. For these reasons Catholics were deeply discouraged. But when Baltimore's charter was at length signed, King James was dead, and the English church seemed tending toward Catholicism. Laud was establishing high church practices and harrowing the Puritans, and the new king was giving willing approval. So hopeful were the Catholics of better times in England that the expected emigration did not occur, and Baltimore, who wished to see the colony grow, was the more willing to recei\'e settlers of other faiths. The first colony entered Chesapeake Bay late in February, 1634, giving thanks to Providence for bringing them through many storms. They were struck with admiration for the The settle- Potomac, "in comparison with which the Thames seemed Mary's. ' "^ rivulet." Near its mouth was a tributary which they called St. George : nine miles up its course they laid out a town and called it St. Mary's. The site was occupied by the Indians. Mindful of Captain Smith's e.\-perience in Virginia the Marylanders resorted to trade, and for some axes, knives, clotli, and hoes purchased the village. The neighboring savages were weak, and, suffering much from the Susquehannas, who lived near the mouth of the river which now bears their name, received the whites gladly, and were converted to Christianity by the Jesuits. Leonard Calvert took up the work of estabhshing his colony in an orderly manner, profiting by Virginia's e.xperience. The Indian fields were put in corn and tobacco and other land was cleared, the location selected was dry and healthy, and land was assigned individually from the first. The delusion of gold- hunting never troubled the colony. The result was that the first year a shipload of corn could be sent to New England to exchange for salt fish. Maryland was planted without a "starving time." February 26, 1635, the colonists held an assembly. They were not authorized to do it by the proprietor, but thought the charter gave them pemiission. They sent a number of laws to Independ- England, where Baltimore disallowed them because he Assembly. intended to have the initiative in law making. Three years later he sent a body of laws which were submitted to a second assembly. He now learned how little the right of initiating law is worth when the representatives are in a bad humor ; for the assembly was overwhelmingly against his code. Baltimore was a wise ruler and would not press his point. He authorized his brother, Governor Calvert, to allow the assembly to make laws as they desired, SOCIAL CONDITIONS 55 to be in force till he should pass on them in England. The proprietor tried again in 1649 to introduce a system of law favorable to his pre- dominance, and failed again. In 1650 Maryland was given a legis- lature with two houses, one composed of representatives and the other of the councillors and persons specially summoned by the governor. Baltimore learned in another way that the feudal ideas of the Stuarts could not be grafted on society in America. In pursuance of his grant he created manors consisting of one thousand or more acres. The lord of the manor was authorized Short-Liyed , , , , . , , . . . , ^ Manorial to hold manor courts, to which his tenants might come system. and vote under his direction. The tenants consisted of English laborers who might soon become famr owners. They felt the impulse to freedom which inhered in a society the natural basis of which was the ability to work. They took control of the lord's courts, held local popular meetings, and in a short time the Maryland manors disappeared. The Jesuits themselves felt the force of democracy. They were much interested in the experiment and used the opportunity to ac- quire large tracts of land, — some from the proprietor and some from the Indians, who trusted them. They checked"' ' began to talk of the supremacy of the church law over the proprietor and assembly. Lord Baltimore was a true Catholic, but he was not intolerant, and he realized that if the Jesuits obtained control, public opinion in England would demand the destruction of this cherished asylum for his fellow-believers. He sent an agent to Mar>'Iand to check the extreme Catholics there. The Jesuits re- sented this and talked of excommunication. The proprietor then took decisive action. In 1641 he issued new regulations to control the granting of land, and one provision was that lands should not be granted in mortmain; that is, to religious societies. In the same sagacious spirit he sought to restrain religious disputation between the two religious groups, and in 1643 he went so far as to send notice to New England that all creeds would be protected in Maryland. All these efforts brought slight increase of population. Protestants preferred to settle in one of the Protestant colonies and Catholics were not going to America in large numbers. The most notable ac- cession was the removal of more than one thousand Puritans from southern Virginia to escape Berkeley's strict regulations. Virginia did not relish the loss of what she considered her territory north of the Potomac. In 1630 she sent one of her chief citizens, William Claiborne, to England to try to defeat Balti- more's plans. He did not succeed, and returned to Vir- '^°°"^I"^J • • • , 1 1 1 TT !• 1 1 . • o^^'^ Kent s gmia in a mood to make trouble. He lived at what is island. now Hampton, Virginia, but was engaged in the fur trade on the northern shores of the Chesapeake, and had a trading station with a fort and a small garrison on Kent's Island, within Baltimore's S6 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH grant. Governor Leonard Calvert held that it ought to fall under Maryland jurisdiction, ajid the terms of the charter supported him. But Claiborne held that as it was settled under Virginia authority before the charter was issued it ought to remain under that juris- diction. When, therefore, Calvert called on Claiborne to submit to Maryland, the latter refused and Virginia supported him. Ri\-al fur traders stirred up feeling at St. Mary's, and August 5, 1635, they seized one of Claiborne's pinnaces. The Virginian was a high-spirited man and retaliated, blood being shed on both sides. Neither party cared to go further, and for nearly three years there was no more trouble, Claiborne continuing most of the time to trade in Maryland in defiance of Calvert. He was confident of his position, and in 1637 went to England on business. Governor Calvert then sent a force which surprised Kent's Island by night and forced its inhabitants to submit to his government. The following year Claiborne was at- tainted of treason by the Maryland assembly, and one of his followers was hanged for haxang committed manslaughter in one of the recent encounters. At the same time royal commissioners decided that the disputed island belonged to Lord Baltimore. Claiborne submitted unwillingly and bided his time. He had lost his island, but he found a means of annoying Maryland. From 1630 to 1650 Englishmen were divided into a king's party and a parliamentary party. The old court party of the London Company, still intriguing for the restoration of their charter, favored Maryland jj^g king, who in 1630 sent John Harvey to rule Virginia PoUtics'by° "^ ^^^^ interest of the royal prerogative. The former Virginians. supporters of Sandys and Southampton were still active and were very strong in Virginia, where Claiborne was one of their leaders. In 1635 they deposed the governor and sent him to England with charges of misconduct. Lord Baltunore was a supporter of the kmg and a friend of John Harvey. He used his influence with Charles and got the deposed governor restored ; but in 1639 the king felt the need of the liberal party and replaced Harvey by Wyatt, whom he removed in 1641 to make room for Sir William Berkeley, a thorough royalist. The popular party m Vir- ginia followed these movements closely and identified Baltimore with their enemies. When, therefore, the king and parliament were at last at war, 1642, they thought the time had come to strike Balti- more in Maryland. Although they were not willing to oppose Charles in Virginia, they were willing to urge the Puritans of Maryland to strike at his friend, the proprietor of that province. Claiborne saw in it an opportunity to recover his property, and in 1645 landed on Kent's Island and tried to get the inhabitants to join him in an attack on the proprietary government. They would not follow him, not because there was no discontent in Maryland, but because they did not want to take up Claiborne's quarrel. . MARYLAND CONTROVERSIES 57 This discontent came to the surface in 1644 when Edward Hill, naember of the popular Virginia party, appeared in Maryland to per- suade the Puritans to return to their old homes south of the James. They did not heed him, but persuaded him to ^^^ J^^^ '" espouse their cause against the Catholics. They or- ,g^^^ ganized a Protestant assembly, and elected Hill governor, m the absence of Governor Calvert in England. But at this juncture Calvert returned, and finding his pro\'ince in revolt got a body of soldiers from his brother royalist. Governor Berkeley, and made prisoners of Hill and his assembly. Six months later Governor Calvert died. He tried to pass the governorship to a Catholic and royalist, but affairs in England were ordered otherwise. In England the king's cause was now desperate, and astute Cecilius Calvert was looking for means of appeasing Parliament. The vacant governorship was just the opportunity; he gave it to William Stone, a Virginia liberal and a Protestant, and l^'^^^f began to think of laws for religious liberty. Stone's first Baltimore. assembly passed the famous Toleration Act of 1649, pro- tecting all who professed faith in Jesus Christ. It was honestly meant by the proprietor, but it was needed in order to protect the Catholics under a government thoroughly Protestant. Baltimore's reversal of policy created disgust among his old English friends, and Charles II in exile ordered that he surrender his government because he adhered to the Parliamentarians. This was an impotent thrust, and he used it as a good argument when his enemies tried to get Parliament to seize the province on the ground that it was a nest of Romanism. In 1651 Parliament, now completely under Cromwell, sent com- missioners — one of them being the ubiquitous Claiborne — to reduce to obedience Virginia, Maryland, Barbados, Antigua, and Bermuda. The islands submitted at once, Virginia '^"^^^l^^°!, made no resistance, and in 1652 Maryland also submitted, jants. Baltimore's property rights were maintained, but he lost the government, though Stone remained in ofhce under the parlia- mentary government. He was friendly to the proprietor, and in 1654 tried to get him recognized as head of the government under Parliament. This aroused the resentment of the commissioners, and Claiborne appeared with a Virginia army, deposed Stone, appointed commissioners in his stead, and disfranchised the Catholics. A new assembly was strongly Puritan and toleration was cast to the winds. The deposed governor appealed to force, the Catholics and some Protestants fighting under him for the proprietor and liberty of con- science. He marched against the Puritans in 1655 and p^^^^ g, sustained a complete defeat at Providence. The Vir- ^^^^^ ^^^^_ ginians now felt that they might reunite Maryland to their own colony. They sent a petition to England urging that the proprietary government be abolished and that the two colonies be 58 THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH made one. Baltimore's wise concessions to Puritans now bore fruit. He completely defeated his enemies ; and the government forced a settlement which left him in control of Maryland according to his charter and placed the Act of Toleration beyond question. With this settlement ended Virginia's interference with Maryland affairs and her hopes of recovering that province. At this time Baltimore's colony contained 8000 inhabitants on both sides of the Chesapeake as far north as the mouth of the Susquehanna. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The best general authorities are : Charming, History of the United Statts, vol. I (1905) ; Osgood, The A nierican Colonics in the Seventeenth Century, 3 vols. (1904-1907) ; Tyler, England in America (1904); Avery, History of the United Stales and Its People, 7 vols. (1905 — ) ; Doyle, English Colonies in America, 5 vols. (1882-1907) ; Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, 2 vols. (1900) ; and Eggleston, The Beginners of a Nation (1897). The leading original sources are : Records of tlte Virginia Company of London, 2 vols.. Miss Kingsbury, ed. (1906); Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, 16 vols. (Edinburgh ed., 1885-1890); Narratives of Early Virginia, Tyler, ed. (1907), contains the best of Smith with portions of other writers ; Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, vol. I (i860); Acts of Privy Council, 6 vols. (1908-1912); Brown, Genesis of the United States, 2 vols. (1891); Hening, Statutes at Large of Virginia, 13 vols. (1823); Archives of Maryland, 29 vols. (i8Sg — ); and Macdonald, Select Charters (1899). On the settlement on Roanoke Island see : Ashe, History of North Carolina, vol. I (igo8) ; Hawks, History of North Carolina, vol. I (1S57) ; Strachey, Travaile into Virginia (Hakluyt Soc, 1848) ; and Edwards, Life of Raleigh (1868). Contemporary works on early Virginia are : Captain Smith, True Relation (1608) ; Ibid., Ge«fra/ History of Virginia (1624), both in .-^rber's edition of Smith's It'orfc (1884); and minor writers in Narratives of Early Virginia (1907). The best histories of Virginia are those of Robert Beverley (1722), William Stith (1747), John D. Burke (1805), and Charles Campbell (1S47). Other important works are: Brown, First Republic in America (189S); Ibid., English Politics in America (1901); User, Origins of the British Colonial System (igo8), excellent for the British side of the colonial movement ; Bruce, Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, 2 vols, (igio); Ibid., Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, 2 vols. (1896) ; Ibid., Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (1907). On Maryland see : Mereness, Maryland, as a Proprietary Province (1901) ; Bozman, History of Maryland, 2 vols. (1837); Browne, History of Marylatul (iSg^); Neill Founders of Maryland (1876) ; Ibid., Terra Mariae (1867) ; Latan^, Early Relations of Virginia and Maryland (Johns Hopkins Studies, XIII, 1895) ; Steiner, The Beginnings of Maryland (Ibid., XXI, 1903); and Narratives of Early Maryland, Hall, ed. (1910), contains .-Msop's Character of Maryland, Hammond, Leah and Rachael, and other early tracts. An important source is the Fund Publications of the Maryland Historical Society, No. 34 of which contains The Calvert Papers. For Independent Reading Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, 2 vols. (1900) ; Eggleston, The Beginners of a Nation (1897); Browne, George and Cecilius Calvert (1S93); Bruce, Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (1907) ; and Ashton, Editor, Adventures and Discourses of Captain John Smith (1883), taken from Smith's own writings. CHAPTER IV THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND The Plymouth Colony When James I was driving non-conformist ministers from their livings, two of the victims, Richard Clifton and John Robinson, were received at Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, by William . Brewster, living in a manor house of the brother of Sir the Pilgrims Edwin Sandys. The region is the cradle of religious reform; for not only did the New England Pilgrims origi- nate here, but ten miles northeast of Scrooby is Epworth, whence issued a century later the founder of the great Wesleyan movement. Brewster, a man of stout heart, a retired diplomat, and a strong Puritan, gathered his neighbors under his roof to hear the words of Clifton and Robinson ; and in 1606 was organized a separatist con- gregation, with Robinson for pastor. Self-control, plainness in dress, honesty of speech, and absolute faith in the Bible were some of the features of its faith. The pastor was a fellow of Cambridge, wise in business matters, and capable of ruling others by his sweetness and strength of character. An antagonist called him "the most learned, polished, and modest spirit that ever separated from the Church of England." The congregation encountered persecutions immediately. The members were watched day and night and, as Bradford later wrote, "some were taken and clapt up in prison . . . andy" j t j most were faine to flie and leave their howses and habi- tations, and the means of their livlihood. Yet these and many other sharper things which afterwards befell them, were no other than they looked for, and therefore were y'' better prepared to bear them by y'' assistance of Gods grace and spirite." Fleeing one by one, the members at length arrived in Amsterdam and then went to Leyden, where they found employment and set up their church, their pastor going with them and sharing their sorrows. At the end of ten years their industrial condition was not improved, and their children were becoming Dutch in speech and ideas. They longed for a home in an EngHshlandandappliedforagrant in Virginia. February charter 2, 1620, a patent issued from the London Company per- mitting them to settle a plantation and to govern it by laws of their own in kepoing with the laws of England. Sandys got his friends to 6o THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND urge the king to promise that the settlement should not be molested ; but James would only wink at the enterprise. This satisfied the Pilgrims, as we may now call them; for they reflected that "a scale as broad as the house floor" would not keep James to his promise. Not all the congregation could leave Leyden. Some were held back by family bonds, others were too old or too young,- and others could _,. p . not sell their property for money. Thus it happened that ^ ' the majority remained m Leyden and the pastor stayed with them. By request, William Brewster went as leader. Robin- son's preaching in Leyden had drawn to his congregation fugitives from many Darts of England, and the result was that many of the emigrants were not of those who fled from Scrooby, and some were not members of the congregation. Seventy London merchants ad- vanced 7000 pounds to fit out the e.xpedition ; and it was agreed that the net earnings should go into a common fund for se\'en years and then be divided among the shareholders. Ten pounds was the value of a share and each immigrant was allowed one share for services. September 6, 1620, after many delays, the Pilgrims, 102 in number, set sail from Plymouth for Virginia, as they thought, in a hired ship, the Mayflower. November 11 they sighted land at Cape Voyage of Cod. Bearmg southward to pass it and come to the flower. Delaware river, where they designed to settle, they en- countered shoals and drew back, coming to anchor in the harbor of Provincetown. The captain of the ship refused to continue his journey southward, alleging the dangers of the sea. After five weeks of exploration they took the ship to Plymouth, a place marked and named on Captain John Smith's map. The place had deep water for the ships, a stream of fresh water for drinking, and some cleared fields where Indians had once grown corn. December 16 (26, New Style) they brought the Mayflmver to the place and began to buUd huts for the passengers. A hard winter and much suffering now followed. Hunger, cold, and illness played their parts relentlessly, and by the arrival of spring hardly fifty of the colonists were alive. Of the eighteen ing\ime°°" ^i"^^^ ^^^o Came in the ship only four survived. The seasoning process was as cruel here as in Virginia. But the spirit of the survivors did not flag. By hard work they raised a small amount of corn in 1621 and came to the autumn with hopeful- ness. But the arrival of thirty-five colonists without food necessitated a regime of half-rations. In the spring of 1622 came sLxty-five more, and the whole settlement was in dire want until the corn ripened. During these distressing months the fish and game were abundant, but the colonists were agriculturalists and had not learned to take them. Here, as in Virginia, it took time to develop the keen resource- fulness of the American frontiersman. THE MAYFLOWER COMPACT 6i Plymouth, outside the bounds of the London Company, could not profit by the original patent. But in 1621 it received a grant from the council for New England, which was created by the king in 1620 with authority to settle the coast from the ernment'" fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of latitude. The terms were not satisfactory, and in 1630 a more valid grant was secured. The colonists desired a charter lilce that of Massachusetts Bay, but the gift was denied them. Without a frame of government from the crown they were therefore thrown on their own initiative. The re- sult was the "Mayflower Compact," signed November 21, 1620, by each male adult except the servants and two hired seamen. It created "a. civil body politic" on democratic lines but fully sub- servient to the royal authority. In the absence of a charter it was the basis of civil government in Plymouth until the colony was united with Massachusetts in 1691. The first governor, John Carver, died in 162 1, and his successor, WOham Bradford, was an- nually reelected, until his death in 1657, with the exception of five years, when he refused to serve. The relations of the colonists to the Indians proved fortunate. Pestilence had swept away those in the immediate neighborhood. In the spring of 162 1 Samoset, from the island of Monhegan, arrived at the town crying "Welcome!" He had lived ^-f^t^"^ for some time with English traders and proved useful to Indians, the colonists. He brought to them Squanto, another Indian, who taught the whites to raise Indian corn and to fertilize their fields with fish. In 162 1 a treaty was made with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, and it resulted in fifty years of peace with the Indians south and east of Plymouth. To the west were the Narra- gansetts, who sent a war challenge, a bundle of arrows tied in a rattle- snake's skin. Bradford promptly returned the skin stuffed with bul- lets, and the threatened danger vanished. In 1623 the Indians to the northward planned to exterminate the whites whom the adventurer Weston had settled at WejTnouth. The whites asked Plymouth for aid, and Captain Miles Standish, with the fighting men of that colony, marched against the savages and taught them to respect the white man's arms. After that Plymouth had peaceful relations with all the Indians. Another difficulty overcome by Bradford's good sense was the communal form of labor, adopted for seven years at the instance of the merchants who promoted the colony. Lack of in- terest marked the system, and the colony seemed on the ^ommon verge of destruction when in 1623 Bradford assigned Abandoned, a parcel of land to each family for use. The result was good, and individual effort returned with the prospect of individual gain. The fur trade, well managed, proved profitable, and from the proceeds the debt to the company in England was paid off. 62 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND In church government the Pilgrims were thoroughgoing Separa- tists'. Pastor and elders were elected by the adult males of the con- . gregation. Religious ceremonies were rigorously es- Ideas'°"^ chewed, and for a time even marriages and funerals were conducted without religious forms. Attendance at meet- ing was compulsory on members and non-members. Theology ruled the minds of the people and the orthodox believed they saw on every hand revelations of the divdne will. In 1623 drought threatened to destroy the crop and a day of humiliation and prayer was observed ; after which came a copious rain which saved the harvest. In grati- tude a Thanksgixang Day was set apart for the autumn. There had been, however, a day of thanksgiving in 1621. The growth of Plymouth was slow, for the soil was not fertOe and but little remained from the annual product after the food of the colony was set aside. There was no staple crop, as tobacco in of^Pivmouth Virginia, from which a large money return could be e.x- pected. Immigration was naturally from the Separa- tists, who came slowly. Thus it happened that in 1624 the population was 180, and in 1626 it was 300. By this time a desire to disperse and settle on the better lands to the northward could not be restrained, though Bradford did his best. Men abandoned their house lots as they went, and Duxbury and Scituate sprang into thriving existence. Each had its own civil and ecclesiastical government like that of Plymouth ; and for common affairs of each kind there were represen- tative assemblies. To be admitted to citizenship in a town or mem- bership in a congregation required a vote of the existing citizens or members, as the case might be. Meanwhile, much attention was given to colonizing other parts of New England. The Plymouth Company of 1606 was reorganized in the Council for New England, 1620, and received a Other New valuable fishing monopoly. Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Setaements. Captain John Mason, king's men and churchmen, were the most active members. They made large plans which they had not the means of executing. In 1623 a settlement was made at Rye, in New Hamsphire, only to faU in 1626. In 1627 an attempt was made at Dover and another at York, while fishing stations were established at Pemaquid Point and on Monhegan Island. Saco and Biddeford soon followed. Other small settlements were Cape Anne, 1623, Hull, 1625, Salem, 1625, "Merry Mount," near Quincy, 1625, and Buzzard's Bay, 1627. Most of them were mere fishing stations, and none gave evidence of prosperity. The Council of New England could offer them little aid. After granting most of what is now New Hampshire and Maine to Mason and Gorges and smaller tracts to other persons, it asked the king in 1635 to annul its charter, saying, "what remains is only a breathless carcass." From this time we hear little more of the council. Most of the lands over which it had juris- THE PURITAN MIGRATION 63 diction had been granted to former members and the council, who now held of the king directly. The Massachusetts Bay Colony The Pilgrims were Separatists, but the Puritans, who founded Massachusetts, wished to remain in the established church, although they thought to reform its doctrines. They were es- pecially earnest against bishops, whom they considered Ongmofthe a relic of popery ; and they resented the wearing of sur- Migration, plices. They were very numerous, and Laud, Bishop of London and supporter of Charles I in his arbitrary government, began to harry the Puritan clergy out of their offices. Thus arose the impulse of the Puritan migration to New England, a place where prelates would not distress and religion would be preserved in Puritan integrity. Yet other motives were present. The New World offered wide industrial opportunity, and it seemed to be possible to found a government there free from the taint of absolutism which then alarmed many Englishmen. The Puritans were generally thrifty and practical business men and liberals in their political ideas. Among them, also, were many thoughtful and well-educated men who could give reasons for the doctrines they held. Of this class was John Winthrop, a well-to-do landowner, a former student but not a graduate of Cam- bridge, a lawyer, and a wise man of affairs. He would have been a leader of any community in which he lived. In 162S, before the Puritan migration was planned, six Englishmen, among them John Endicott, secured from the Council of New England a grant of land bounded on the north by the headwaters of the Merri- mac and on the south by the source of the Charles and stretching westward to the Pacific. They were authorized to es- tablish fisheries, trading stations, and agricultural settle- ^ff^^^jj ments, and were named the Massachusetts Bay Company, g^y charter. In 1629 the king confirmed the grant and gave the grantees civil jurisdiction within the limits of the grant. Endicott with about forty others arrived at Naumkeag in September, 1628, to plant the first town. He found there the remnant of the Cape Anne settlement and the two parties settled together amicably, changing the name of the place to Salem. Endicott and his associates were Puritans, but up to this time their enterprise had no religious significance. In 1629, however, the number of associates was enlarged, and among the new members was Winthrop. The struggle between parliament and crown was already begun, and many on the fonner side felt that tyranny would certainly triumph and were willing to escape betimes from its grasp. In August, 1629, twelve leaders of this group made the Cam- bridge Agreement, pledging themselves to emigrate to Massachusetts if the company would transfer the government entirely to the settlers. 64 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND The company accepted the proposal, and the transfer made, John Winthrop was elected governor by those who proposed to go with him. June 12, 1630, he arrived at Salem with eleven TrMisferred^ ships and 900 settlers. Here, he found, was much dis- couragement and some suffering, and he decided to make his chief settlement elsewhere. He selected a site at the mouth of the Charles and called the place Boston. But it was too small for such a large number of settlers, and the colonists dividing into Settled bands settled seven other towns from Salem to Dorchester. They did not escape sickness and hunger, and by the end of the first winter 20Q had died. But the governor strove hard to provide food and was able to bring the colony through the winter without serious discouragement. After that the growth was rapid, and in 1643 the total population was over 16,000. But the outbreak of war between parliament and king made it necessary for every Puritan to remain in England, and from that time the migration to New England was slow. Soon after the colony was settled there arose serious difficulty in regard to its government. The charter intrusted authority to the governor, the assistants of whom there were to be not more AConstitu- than eighteen, and the freemen, but it did not define tem Evolved, '^he power of each. The same difficulty appeared in other colonies, and in them, as in Massachusetts, it had to be worked out gradually into a practical solution. Trouble arose when Winthrop, a man of strong personality, began to act in important affairs on his own initiative. He lent powder to Plyinouth, established trading stations, and erected fortifications at Boston. Finally, acting with the assistants, he levied a tax to pay for fortifications at New- town. Watertown refused to pay, claiming that only the freemen might lay a tax. Here was defiance in the infant state, and Winthrop was not the man to tolerate it. The townsmen were called before him and withdrew their protest. But their cause was good and their action led to reform. Next year, 1632, the general court, the as- sembly of all the freemen, enacted that each town should elect two delegates to advise with the governor about taxation. This hardly restrained the stout will of the governor, and in 1634 three delegates appeared at the general court from each of the eight towns and se- cured the adoption by that body of a fundamental reform. Hence- forth, of the four courts held each year according to the charter, one, attended by all the freemen, was to elect governor, deputy governor, and assistants, and the others, composed of delegates from each town, was to make laws, grant land, and transact other important public business. At first both assistants and delegates sat together, but this was changed in 1644, when a bicameral system was adopted and the assistants became in reality an upper house. Winthrop and many others regretted these changes, for they believed government should PURITAN UNIFORMITY 65 rest with the upper class. But the popular party was strong and did not cease its efforts until in 1644 it defeated Winthrop's reelection. But in 1646 he was again successful, and retained the governorship until he died in 1649. We shall not understand Massachusetts his- tory if we do not remember that the colony was long ruled by the ideal of an aristocracy of virtue. To insure the supremacy of the virtuous it was enacted in 1631 that none but members of a church should be freemen. By this means the individual congregations, under the influence of their ministers, regulated the suffrage. Joining the church djige."^*"' thus became the means of enfranchisement. Although this practice must have secured the disfranchisement of the most worthless characters, it also excluded those who for conscience sake would not join a church, and those who held other than the Puritan faith. But such people were not desired in the colony. The settle- ment was planned as a Puritan commonwealth, and if non-Puritans came they might remain as long as they were cjuiet, but without the suffrage. If they sought to spread another faith, they must be sent away. A word must be said for the men who made such laws. The fathers of many of them remembered the days when "Bloody Mary" burned Protestants at Smithfield, and the religious wars of France were only recently extinguished, while a similar struggle in Germany was then in its worst stage of horror. Believing in the doctrines for which so many lives had been surrendered, they felt justified in safe- guarding it in the New World. Massachusetts was not established as a home for toleration, but as a well-defended fortress of the Puritan faith. There was frequent necessity for enforcing uniformity in the early years of the colony. European Protestantism at the time was beset with schism, and it was natural for the same symptoms to appear in America. They were repressed sternly, and the ?°^g'gjj^ ' \-ictims went back to England with loud complaints of j^g views, intolerance. But one of the chssenting ones would not return. Roger Williams, destined to found Rhode Island as a genuine home of tolerance, was a protege of Sir Edward Coke, the famous jurist. He had a brDliant career at Cambridge, but refused to take orders because he would not support the Establishment. In 1631 he became minister at Salem, then preached at Plymouth, and at length returned to Salem. He preached the separation of church and state, declared that an oath was only to be enforced morally, and said that it was a sin to worship according to the fonns of the established church. His rigid literalness led him to assert that the soil belonged to the Indians, from whom alone the whites could acquire title. All this would have aroused the authorities at any time, but in 1635 it occasioned especial alarm. Excluded schismatics return- ing to England had pronounced the colony a nest of separatism, 66 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND and the Privy Council had in 1634 stopped ten ships about to sail until their passengers agreed to conform with the Prayer Book. Meanwhile, a commission headed by Laud was appointed The Colony ^^ super\ise the colonies in America. The general court picion. "^f Massachusetts, much alarmed, took steps to fortify the harbors, but in a short time the tide turned. Good di- plomacy had thrust the danger aside, but no one knew when it would return. It was not a time for preaching such radicalism as WUliams's in the colony. The Puritans, claiming that they held the true Eng- lish faith, were accustomed at this time to assert rather stoutly their accord with the English Church, although, as a matter of fact, they had no bishop and paid not the slightest attention to the British hierarchy. Williams's views inevitably elicited a response, and one of those polemic conthcts ensued for which the age was noted. The defender of orthodoxy was John Cotton, of Boston, and under his Roger Wil- proddings WOliams took a still more radical position, ished. ^^ began to criticize other ministers; he advised his own flock not to affiliate with other churches, and when some of them ignored him he excommunicated them. This was too much, even for Salem, and it turned against the minister, who felt impelled to resign. He was now summoned before the general court, and re- fusing to recant he was ordered into e.xOe in October, 1635. As winter was approaching, he was permitted to remain until spring on condition that he did not preach his tenets. He seems to have made no promise in the matter, but when it was known in January that he was instructing a group of twenty persons, perparations were made to send him to England. Learning of this he escaped across the snows to the Narragansett Indians, who received him kindly. Here, outside of Massachusetts, he planted the settlement of Providence. He was followed by a small number of friends. A more important di\ision was occasioned by Mrs. Anne Hutch- inson. Of the best social rank in Boston, she had her following among the iniluential class. She was distinguished for Hutchinson mental acumen and piety and showed much ability in discussion. Her first achievement was to gather a num- ber of women to whom she explained sermons. From that she ad- vanced to the teaching of her own doctrines, and soon she had a large following, among whom were many men of importance. Then the orthodox became alarmed and began to warn the faithful against what they declared were her errors. Attack and counter-attack led to recrimination and intrigues, in which religion and politics were intermingled. At length a council of ministers assembled but did not openly condemn her doctrines. In 1635 young Sir Harry Vane arrived in Boston and became an adherent of her faith. He was ex- ceedingly popular, and in 1636 was elected governor. Thus strength- MRS. ANNE HUTCHINSON 67 ened, Mrs. Hutchinson's party had probably a majority in Boston, but in the other towns the orthodox side was stronger. In 1637, when the echoes of the controversy reached all parts of the colony, a synod of ministers convened and laid down eighty-nine points of orthodoxy, all in repudiation of the teachings of Mrs. Hutchinson, which were clearly Antinomian. Against an utterance by the ministers the poli- ticians dared not act, and now the weaker of the new sect began to de- sert it, among them Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, who had once been friendly to the new ideas. In the same year Governor Vane was de- feated for reelection by Winthrop, who took a conservative attitude in the dispute, and a short time afterwards the rejected candidate left Boston for England. In November, 1637, the situation came before the general court, which decided that only one form of religion should exist in the colony, and declared that the newer should go. The affair ended with a trial which seems to moderns a judicial horror ; but it was held in conformity with the usage of the English parliament when it sat to investigate a great and danger- „ . , , „ ous matter of state. Mrs. Hutchinson was summoned Hutchinson! before the court to explain her doctrines. Had she been cautious she might have baffled her opponents ; but having a sharp tongue she compromised herself by her replies. Being asked, "How do you know that it is God that did reveal these things to you and not Satan ?" she replied, "How did Abraham know that it was God that bid him offer his son?" "By an immediate voice," said one of the court. "So to me by an immediate re\'eIation," was the rejoinder. This was enough. The Puritan held the words of the Bible for the highest authority and had no tolerance for those who claimed special revelations. Winthrop, presiding over the court, put the question : Shall Mrs. Hutchinson be banished from Massachusetts? and only two votes were in the negative. When she asked why she was banished, the governor replied : "Say no more. The court knows wherefore and is satisfied." Her leading followers were fined or disfranchised. In the following spring she was brought before her own church to be dealt with as a church member. Broken in spirit by imprisonment and isolation, she recanted the most extreme of her doctrines, saying they arose from "the height and pride of her spirit." But this avaOed nothing. Several of the most pious ministers present denounced her as a liar and she was formally excommunicated. With her family she went southward to Narragansett Bay, and when, four years later, she and her family were massacred by the Indians the saints of Massa- chusetts took it as a judgment from heaven. The next important protest against dogmatic uniformity in Massa- chusetts came from the Quakers, and it was sternly repressed. The death of Winthrop in 1649 and Rev. John Cotton in 1652 left Endi- cott, a narrower-minded man, in control. In 1656 came to Boston 68 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND two Quakers, women, who felt it their duty to "bear witness" in that town. They were sent away, but eight others immediately ap- peared only to be driven back, also. This caused much anxiety among the ruling class, who considered Quakerism espe- '^^^ ■ daily dangerous. Accordingly, letters were sent to the Boston. other New England colonies urging that laws be passed for the exclusion of the pestiferous heresy. Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth gave favorable replies, and laws were passed to keep the new sect out of their bounds. Massachusetts passed similar acts, but as they were continuously violated she finally enacted that if any banished Quakers returned to the colony they should suffer death. Immediately William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, and Mrs. Dyer, wife of the secretary of Rhode Island, appeared in Boston. They were ordered to depart, but at once came back and were sentenced to be hanged. The two men were executed, 1659 ; but Mrs. Dyer was reprieved at the last moment when her son offered to take her to her home. In 1660 she returned and suffered martyr- dom. Other colonies forbade the Quakers to preach, as Virginia and New Netherland, but it was only Massachusetts that put them to death. In striking contrast was the course of Rhode Island, which made no restriction on liberty of speech. The Settlement or Other New England Colonies Four settlements, at Providence, Portsmouth, Newport, and War- wick, each made by religious refugees from Massachusetts, make up the early colony of Rhode Island. The first was es- Rhode tablished by Roger Williams and a small group of fol- Founded. lowers In 1636 on lands granted by the Indians. The second was made by Mrs. Hutchinson and her fol- lowers in 1638, the third by a portion of her followers who left Ports- mouth in 1639 and settled along the shore of the excellent harbor of Newport, and the fourth was planted in 1638 by Samuel Gorton, an insurgent from Massachusetts who could not stand the turbulent regime of Providence. There was much discussion among the settlers, as was to be expected from men whose very existence was religious dissent ; but out of it came a spirit of democracy which left a lasting impress on the settlements. They began without charters and had no other form of government than what they established by their own agreement. In 1643 Roger Wniiams,on a visit to England, got an act of incorporation under the government of the Long Parliament, confirming to the people of the four settlements their lands with the right to govern themselves in their own way. Under this act a common system was organized, and it remained the authority for Rhode Island and Providence until in 1663 a more regular charter was issued by the king. SETTLEMENTS IN CONNECTICUT 69 Meanwhile, the lands south of Massachusetts and west of Rhode Island had attracted settlers. On the Connecticut, Dutch trading forts had already been planted where Hartford and Wethersfield later stood, and one object of the English jg^'^f"^ was probably to save this rich valley from the control Connecticut, of New Amsterdam. The migration was begun in 1636 when Rev. Thomas Hooker and a large part of his congregation at Cambridge sold their lands and moved in a body to the upper Con- necticut valley. Other groups from Dorchester, Watertown, and Roxbury soon followed, those from the last-named town settling at Springfield, which proved to be within the bounds of Massachusetts. Out of this movement sprang English settlements at Hartford, Wind- sor, and Wethersfield, and later at other places in Connecticut. The newcomers did not drive out the Dutch, but in many ways made life uncomfortable for them. The river towns of Connecticut m 1639 adopted a written form of government with a governor, assistants, and a law-making general court composed of deputies from the towns. The suffrage was to be regulated by the towns. This, it will be seen, was but a copy of the Massachusetts system. The upper river towns were not planted before stLli another enter- prise was launched at the mouth of the Connecticut. In this region the Earl of Warwick held a large tract of land from the Council of New England. In 1631 he transferred it to Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke, and others, who sent out a colony under Jolin Winthrop, Jr. At the mouth of the river it settled the town of Saybrook, and its territory was known as the colony of Connecticut. For many years it languished through lack of funds. A third enterprise was the colony of New Haven, planted in 1638 by Theophilus Eaton and Rev. John Davenport. It was a strong band of immigrants, and they came with great hopes of making their port the commercial metropolis of the region. Established But various disasters intervened, and for a time prosperity came slowly. In 1646 they buUt a ship and sent her away with a cargo worth 5000 pounds, but nothing further was heard of her. Tradi- tion says that once afterwards she appeared as a phantom ship and suddenly disappeared as she seemed about to enter the harbor. The settlement was founded without charter or land grant, and the inhabitants proceeded to constitution-making of their own will. Tak- ing the Bible as guide and law book they transformed the congregation into a body politic to rule in civil as in eccle- ^ ^ siastical affairs. Thus none but church members should emment. vote, and a committee of seven members was provided with authority to determine who should be admitted to church member- ship and consequently to the franchise. This oligarchical govern ■ ment remained in force until in 1662 New Haven was merged into the Connecticut Colony, when that enteq:)rise got a charter from 70 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND Charles II. But we must not forget that narrow as the basis of gov- ernment was in New Haven, as in other New England colonies, it was an honest and beneficent government in most of the affairs of life. Its sole severity was in requiring a rigid observance of Puritan practices, and to most of the inhabitants this was not a hardship. The advance of the whites along the coast alarmed the Pequot Indians, who lived in the central part of the present state of Con- necticut. The origin of the trouble does not clearly ap- War i^^r?" pC'^r, but the settlers were convinced that the times demanded a most signal chastisement. Massachusetts lent a hand, and in 1637 a combined force of whites from Massa- chusetts and Connecticut, with 2S0 Indian allies, ancient foes of the Pequots, surprised the enemy in a fort near the Rhode Island bound- ary line and of the 400 men, women, and children within it not more than five escaped alive. The Pequots were then pursued vigorously. Overtaken in a swamp near New Haven, another great slaughter occurred, and the result of the two engagements was the complete ex- tinction of the Pequot tribe as such. It was grim dealing, but it gave the whites peace from the Indians for many years. Meanwhile the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine had been dotted with fishing and trading villages which gradually grew into agricultural towns. In some cases they received fugitives New Hamp- f j.q,-,-^ {]^g religious persecutions in Massachusetts. These Maine. settlements were usually made under the protection of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason, who held grants for nearly the whole region, although some were direct from the Council of New England. In 1635 Mason obtained con- firmation of a grant for the region between Salem and the Piscataqua as his own property, and called it New Hampshire. The region be- tween the Piscataqua and the Kennebec was confirmed to Gorges and called Maine. Massachusetts had a claim to most of the fonner, for her charter fixed her north boundary at an east and west line running three miles north of the source of the Merrimac. She did not act violently, but when Mason died (1635) and his heirs left the New Hampshire towns to shift for themselves, she absorbed them one by one, giving protection in exchange for allegiance. In 1647 Gorges died and Maine was left without a head. The towns tried for a while to maintain a general government of their own, but they were very weak, and much disorder appeared. Now Massachusetts realized that her hour was come. Assuming the aggressive, in 1652 she ran her northern boundary in keeping with her own claim, and extending the line eastward to the ocean, secured the coast towns as far north as Saco Bay. The weak settlements to the north of the line remained independent for six years, when they also submitted to Massachusetts. In all these towns the government was organized on the regular New England plan ; but not all of them were of the congregational faith. NEW ENGLAND UNION 71 The Pequot war seems to have been the first occasion of a desire for union among the Puritan colonies. Connecticut made such a suggestion in 1637, but Massachusetts raised the question of boundaries, and it was impossible to find a satisfactory ^ '^ '?"S' basis of cooperation. In a year or two alarm was felt lest federation, the Dutch seize the Connecticut settlements, and the sug- gestion was repeated, but with the same results. In 1642 Connecticut renewed the request, alleging a general Indian league to crush the whites. Then Massachusetts began to relent, and in 1643 the de- sired league was formed without reference to boundaries. To it were admitted the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven. New Hampshire and Maine were not taken in because they were unlike the leagued colonies "m their ministry and admin- istration," and Rhode Island was left out because the inhabitants were "tumultuous" and '"schismatic." The Constitution of the Confederacy provided for a finn and per- manent offensive and defensive league, the management of which was placed m the hands of two commissioners from each of the four colonies. These commissioners by a majority st^tuy°n vote of sue were to settle questions of war or peace, quotas of men and arms, contributions for the general fund, and division of the spoils gained in war. Contributions were to be paid by the in- dividual colonies in proportion to population, and the confederacy was not to interfere in the local affairs of a colony. The confederation was in operation for forty years. It did not remove all the causes of conflict between the colonies, but it lessened them. It stood the test of the terrible war with King Philip, and only fell to pieces when the early dangers it was formed to meet were passed. Although phrases in the constitution seem to indicate that the framers hoped to build up a pennanent federal state, the confederacy was, in fact, only a league for self-protection. Between the large colony of Massachusetts and her small neighbors there was too much latent jealousy for pennanent cooperation. The latter were vigilant lest they lose some of their power, and the requirement that si.\ of the eight commissioners should assent to business was an expression of this feeling. On the other hand, Massachusetts resented the checks the constitution put upon her. She declared that she was forced to as- sume a disjiroportionate part of the common burden. In 1653 the commissioners decided to raise troops for an expected war against the Dutch, and apportioned the levies of troops so that Massachusetts should furnish two-thirds of them. The Bay Colony did not relish fighting a war to protect the people of Connecticut, and persuaded itself that the war was not necessary. The requisition was accordingly ignored in words which strongly remind us of the language in which South Carolina justified nullification many years later. There were cases of friction which made it clear that it was futile to expect the one strong government to yield itself to the direction of three weak ones. 72 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND New York under the Dutch The history of New Amsterdam, as the Dutch called New York, begins with the exploration of Henry Hudson, an Englishman in Dutch employ, in 1609. In the Half Moon, a "fly-boat" manned H^ds^n ^y eighteen or twenty men, he skirted the coast from Newfoundland to Virginia, searching for a northwest passage. He entered Delaware Bay, but turned back when he ob- served shoals. Northward 125 miles he came to a broad harbor which he entered safely. The water was very salt, and he thought it might indicate the long-sought passage to other seas. Following its course he sailed onward, past beautiful hills and rich plains, untU at last he was halted by shallows at what is now Albany. From that point a small boat proceeded eight leagues, but only proved that no open sea lay beyond. This e.xploration revealed to the Dutch the value of the Hudson river. With an excellent harbor at its mouth and long water com- munication to the interior of the country, it was apparent BiMk*" '•^^'" ^^ possessed great advantages in the Indian trade. From 1 6 10 their traders began to frequent the river, among them Adriaen Block, a man of much enterprise. In 1613 his ship was burned, but he built another in which he began to explore the New England waters. He visited Long Island Sound, the Con- necticut river. Block Island, which bears his name, and the coast as far as Nahant. For his services he received for three years the mo- nopoly of the fur trade betweer parallels 40° and 45° north latitude. For trading purposes Manhattan Island was of supreme importance, and by 1620 it was the center of a fair trade. In 1621 the government of Holland established the Dutch West India Company, a trading enterprise, and authorized it to spoil the Spaniards and to settle colonies in Africa and the New N^T World. It had no special reference to the Hudson river Settled region, but that section naturally attracted attention, and in 1623 a small settlement was made on Manhattan Is- land. The enterprise was confided by the company to Peter Minuit (pronounced Minnewit), the governor, who with five councillors was the sole governing body. They were supplemented, however, by a sellout-fiscal, who arrested and prosecuted delinquents, and a secretary who represented the company's financial interests, and between these and the governor and council much friction occurred. All these officers were appointed by the company, and popular suffrage was not granted. The settlement was called New Netherland, and the town on Manhattan Island was New Amsterdam. The boundaries of the province were indefinite. Soon after his arrival Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for goods worth $24, EARLY DUTCH RULE 73 and began to erect a fort with a mill and large houses for the com- pany's business. New Amsterdam grew slowly, for its chief business was the fur trade, and agriculturalists were not attracted. In 1629 the company tried to promote the settlement of the interior by adopting a system of large landed estates. It was provided that gyste^*^""" any member of the company who in four years should carry to the colony fifty families at his own e.Ypense should have a large tract of land over which he should have extensive civil and criminal authority under the title of Patroon. He should also have on his estate the monopoly of weaving and some exclusive trading privileges. It was thus definitely proposed to establish a feudal system of land- holding like that of Holland. To encourage the patroons the com- pany agreed to furnish them with as many negroes slaves as were desired. Under this system the valuable lands around New Amster- dam and on the Hudson were cjuickly absorbed by the most influential members of the company. Peter Minuit's administration ended in 1632, and he was succeeded by Wouter van Twiller, who had married a niece of the great patroon, Kiliaen van Rensselaer. He received much opposition within the colony, and his peace was also disturbed by the Confusion encroachments of the New England men in Connecticut ^^^^ ^^°d and the threats of Virginians who resented the presence Kieft. of the Dutch in the Delaware. He was glad to retire from his unhappy position, and regarded with complacency the troubles of William Kieft, his successor, who arrived in 1638. Under him occurred a war with the Indians, who fought to save their hunt- ing ground from the advance of the whites. The easy-going Dutch were slow to fight, and only Kieft's insistence brought the council to a declaration of war. In battle the settlers were not eflicient, and at last Kieft called in Captain John LTnderhill, a soldier of fortune from New England, who took prominent part against the Pecjuots. He collected 150 soldiers, surprised and destroyed an Indian village at Strickland's Plains, and of the 500 inhabitants only eight are said to have escaped. In this war the settlers built a wall across the lower end of Manhattan Island to protect their fields and houses. Its memory is peq:)etuated in the name of Wall Street. In 1646 peace was made with the savages, but already the colony was in dire distress. The inhabitants of New Amsterdam were about 400, and among them a visitor heard eighteen languages. They were discontented, and assailed Kieft bitterly. As sole ruler with the Coun- cil he was held responsible for all the evils that came, and the truth is, he was not a man to exercise despotism benevolently. In 1647 he was succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant. The new governor began by declaring that he would rule as a father over his children. He promulgated many ordinances against intern- 74 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND perance, but they were not enforced, and it was charged that he himself received money to wink at their infraction. He required the Indian traders to have Hcenses from the governor, which SUmresfmt proved an advantage to his private purse. But hedarednot of his own power levy taxes, and out of this feeling came a step in constitutional development. He asked the people to elect eighteen men from whom he and the Council selected nine to advise with them in the government, their successors to be chosen by them- selves and the governor and council. Thus was created the Nine Men, destined to be a thorn in his side. But the desire for self-govern- ment was not satisfied, and at length a leader of the liberals appeared in Adrian van der Donck, president of the Nine. In 1649 he went to Holland with a petition, asking the government to take the colony out of the hands of the Company and give it just laws. He also carried a severe arraignment of Stuyvesant, whose irritable tem- Demandfor p^j. ^^^ covetousness gave ample grounds of complaint. Government. ^^ ^^S^ ^'^ efforts succeeded so far that municipal privi- leges were granted to New Amsterdam, but the governor was allowed to appoint the officials. His despotism was nowise lessened by the creation of this body of subordinates. The next year an attack by the English seemed imminent, and Stuyvesant per- mitted delegates from the towns and villages to meet to provide means of defense. But the assembly took up the state of the colony instead, and sent a memorial to the governor, severely arraigning the existing system. An exchange of arguments followed, in which the governor's aversion to popular government was made very plain, and the result of the agitation was nothing. The existing despotism continued until the end of Dutch control, 1664. Religious bigotry was added to the stout old governor's love of power. He hated the Lutherans, Independents, and Baptists, and issued a proclamation that no public religious meetings Religious should be held except those in accordance with the Dutch rGrsccu— tions. Reform Church. The ordinance was often evaded, and there were some notable cases in which its ^dolation was severely punished. The worst was that of Robert Hodshone, a Quaker, who, for preaching at Hemstead, Long Island, was sentenced by the governor to two years of hard labor. When he refused to work he was beaten on three successive days until he fell to his feet. Then taken before the governor he would speak when told to hold his tongue, for which he was hung up by his hands and beaten untU his back was raw. This also was repeated until the popular mind sickened of it. At last the governor's sister interceded, and Hodshone was allowed to go out of the pro\ance. Spite of such severities the dissenting churches in New Netherland grew stronger. From conflicts with the settlements around New Amsterdam the efforts of Stuyvesant were drawn to the protection of his boundaries DISSATISFACTION IN NEW NETHERLAND 75 north and east. The Delaware Bay, as well as the Connecticut river, were both within the charter limits of New Netherland, though neither was settled by an agricultural colony. To the former came in 1638 fifty Swedish settlers under Peter V^^ ^. . Minuit, formerly governor of New Amsterdam, planting settlements, near the site of Wilmington the town of Christina. At that time Sweden was a leading factor in the Thirty Years' War, and her colony was not disturbed. But the war ended in 1648, and the Dutch within a few years made plans to seize the intrud- ing settlements. In 1655 Governor Stuyvesant went against them with a largely superior force and easily compelled their submission. Sweden was in no position to retake what was lost, and the incipient colonial establishment came to an end. With the English on the Connecticut Stuyvesant had less success. The Dutch trading fort at Hartford, Fort Good Hope, was completely isolated by planting the English settlements on the river; but it remained undisturbed, flying the Dutch duded^from flag and taking what share it could of the Indian trade Connecticut. until 1654. In that year, war between Holland and England being in progress, the colonists seized Fort Good Hope, and with that Dutch possessions in New England passed out of exist- ence. Governor Stuyvesant's patriotism suffered a severe shock in this calamity. For several years the English settlements had been moving westward along the shores of Long Island Sound as far as Greenwich and throughout the eastern half of Long Island, — addi- tional evidence of the humiliation of Dutch power. Into xjjeEngUsh the New Netherland settlements themselves English- on Long men penetrated and became a large part of the element island, in opposition to Stuyvesant's despotic rule. The situation in the colony invited an attempt at conquest by the English, and the Connecticut colonies were anxious to have it made by the New England Confederacy ; but Massachusetts held back. Then appeal was made to England, and in 1654 ^'sdze ° the government was induced to undertake an expedition, jfg„ but peace with Holland was made before it could arrive. Netherland. Now followed ten years of quiet, during which New Netherland continued to oft"end against the British navigation laws. The English had never given up their claim to the whole coast and the Dutch colony was within the formal bounds of both New England and Virginia. Why should it continue to defy British power? The answer came in 1664 when the king, Charles II, granted it to his brother, the Duke of York, together with jurisdic- tion over New England itself. The Duke acted vigorously. Colonel Richard Nicolls was appointed his deputy-governor, and August 18, 1664, arrived before New Amster- dam with three vessels of war and an adequate body of soldiers. He 76 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND was joined by men from Connecticut, and word came that Massa- chusetts would also send aid. At the same time the Englishmen on Long Island were arming, and throughout the Dutch villages them- selves was apparent a determination to help the English in wiping out the rule of the Dutch West India Company. Stuyvesant was in a rage. He ordered all the citizens to work on the fortifications, and was determined to fight to the last. But the burgomasters of the town realized the impossibility of defense, and when Nicolls by letter offered the Dutch all the liberties of Englishmen, with inter- course with Holland, they asked to see the letter. Stuyvesant tore it into bits and said he would rather " be carried out dead " than yield to the men around him. He ordered the guns of the fort to open fire, but he was led away from the ramparts before they could be discharged, and August 29 the town was surrendered. A short time later the forts on the Delaware capitulated, and the English flag floated from Florida to Maine. Early Relations of the Colonies with England By an old principle of English law all land in the kingdom not otherwise granted belonged to the crown. Under it the king created fiefs at wiU and gave the grantees authority to establish "^^^ . local governments. When the American continent was deoend on added to the English domain it fell under this rule. Its the King. lands became king's lands, and were subject to his disposal. It v.'as, therefore, the crown and not parliament which created the American colonies and gave them their fonns of govern- ment. Having created the colonies, the crown, acting through the Privy Council, provided the rules under which they continued to exist, and supervised them in such ways as were compatible with the charters. Matters of trade, however, were ever near to the British heart and were jealously maintained by parliament, so that in regard to colonial trade parliament was supreme. In most other things the colonies must look to the crown. The king contributed little to the support of the colonies. Virginia was planted by a company of private indi\'iduals, actuated partly by philanthropic and partly by commercial purposes. Little Aid'^^ Maryland was the enterprise of the Cal verts, who wished to found a home for Catholics and incidentally to establish a great and permanent landed estate. New England was settled by groups of Puritans who wished to have happy and prosperous homes in which they might worship in their own faith. To each enterprise the king gave his sanction and his blessing, but nothing more. American colonization in its earliest days was not an enter- prise of the crown. When the colonies were safely estabhshed and it was seen that BRITISH COLONIAL SUPERVISION 77 another England was growing up beyond the sea, the king began to take a larger interest in them. Virginia fell into his hands when the charter was annulled in 1624, not so much because James I had a definite desire to direct the colony as Colonies to because he hated the liberal government established by under'lfoyal the company. His successor, Charles I, came to see that oversight, some kind of colonial supervision ought to be provided, and appointed a commission, with Laud at its head, to make laws for all the colonies, regulate their religion, appoint their judges, and remove their governors when advisable. In the turbulent times then existing the commission did nothing. In 1643 the Long Parliament took up the subject and appointed the Earl of Warwick governor over all the colonies. He was to be assisted inoperative by seventeen commissioners with wide governing powers. Commis- Much occupied with other things Warwick seems sions. to have done little in regard to colonial affairs, which after the restoration were placed in the hands of a Council for Foreign Planta- tions, an advisory body reporting to the Privy Council. It showed little capacity, and in 1675 was superseded by a standing committee of the council, known as the Lords of Trade, which proved far more industrious. Most of the colonies, it must be remembered, existed under charters, which might be forfeited Lf certain conditions were violated. It was the duty of Lords of Trade to inform themselves of colonial affairs and report to the , xrade ^ king a violation of a charter. Over a royal colony the Lords had a larger jurisdiction. They prepared, or saw, the instruc- tions to a royal governor, passed on the laws of an assembly in a royal province, advised the king whether or not such laws should be allowed, and had a large influence in the appointment of officials. Over the colonies generally they had a broad supervision, informing themselves about the conditions of trade, making suggestions for the better execution of the navigation acts, interfering in disputes between colonies, and, in short, seeking to evolve a system of colonial adminis- tration which should embody the best results for both the colonies and the British nation. In 1696 the Lords of Trade were reorganized into the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, a board independ- ent of the Privy Council. As the English cabinet developed, the functions of commissioners decreased. Finally in 1768 a colonial secretary of state became the head of colonial affairs. The Puritan revolution in England, by overthrowing Laud's power, probably saved the colonics from an attempt to ^^^ bring them under an active dependence on the crown. Colonies It left New England undisturbed, and dealt gently with and the Virginia, where Charles II had been proclaimed king, and ^""'*". with Maryland, whose Catholic proprietor was after a ®'° " °°' while confirmed in his rights. The parliamentary party, in fact, 78 THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND was too busy with its troubles in England to interfere with government in the colonies. But it adopted the navigation ordinances of 165 1, which had, if enforced, a decided influence on their commerce. In a struggle against a king who laid taxes arbitrarily the English merchants took a leading part, and they had a corresponding influence in the revolutionary government. It was to please them Navigation j^j^j^j parliament undertook to make the colonial trade of 1651 inure to the benefit of English traders. Sporadic laws of the same import had existed for years; but the recent wide growth of the colonies gave them a new significance, and a new law was made. It proxaded: (i) that no goods produced in Asia, Africa, or America, including the colonies, should be brought into any British port in any but English owned and manned ships; (2) that no European goods should be taken to England or the British posses- sions in any but English ships or in the ships of the country in which the goods were produced ; (3) the coasting trade in British dominions should be limited to British ships ; and (4) no salted fish, oil, or whale products should be brought into the British dominions that were not taken in English ships — nor shoidd they be ex-ported in any but English ships. The plain purport of this law was to limit the English and colonial trade to English channels for the profit of English merchants. The restriction, however, was not enforced. Foreign vessels could not be excluded from colonial ports without efficient police service, and so lax was the execution of the law that we may wonder if it was intended to apply to the colonies. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The most commendable general authorities are : Channing, History of the United States, vol. I (1905) , new and reUable ; Osgood, The A merican Colonies in the Seven- teenth Century, 2, vols. (1904-1Q07) ; Avery , History of the United States and Its People, 7 vols. (1904 — ), valuable for its maps ; Tyler, England in America (1904) ; Doyle, English Colonies in America, 5 vols. (1882-1907) ; Palfrey, History of Neiv England during the Stuart Dynasty, 3 vols. (1858-1864) ; Chalmers, Political Annals of the American Colonies (1780), an old work based on original sources, but still useful; Fiske, Beginnings of New England (1889) ; Ibid., The Dutch and Quaker Colonies, 2 vols. (1899) ; Hildreth, History of tlie United States, 6 vols. (1849-1852) ; Bancroft, History of the United States, 10 vols. (1834-1874) ; Lodge, Short History of the English Colonies (1902), a useful manual; and The Cambridge Modern History, vol. VII (1903). The important general collections of sources are the British government's Cal- endars of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1574-1701, 14 vols. (1860-1910), and Force, Tracts, 4 vols. (1836-1846). On New England, see: Records of Plymouth, 12 vols. (1855-1859); Records of Massachusetts Bay, s vols. (1853-1854) : Collections (1792 — ) and Proceedings (1791 — ) of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society (1849 — ); Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, 10 vols. (1856-1865); Colonial Records of Ne^o Haven, 1$ vols. ( 1 850-1 S90) ; Collections and Reports of the Connecticut Historical Society; Records of the Colony of New Haven, 2 vols. (1857-1S58) ; Documentary History of the State of Nrw York, 4 vols. (1849-1851) ; Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York, 14 vols., and index (1853- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 79 1861); Records of Nrdi Amsterdam, 7 v-ols. (1S07); and the Collections, ist series, 5 vols., and Publication Fiiinl Scries (37 vols.) of Ihe New York Historical Society. See also Poore, Federal and Stale Charters, 2 vols. (1877), and MacDonald, Select Charters (iSqq). Contemporary narratives are : Bradford, Plimniilh Plantation, begun in 1630, discovered in England in 1855, best edition by W. C. Ford, 2 vols. (19:2) ; Moiirt's Relation, by Bradford and Winslow, sent back to England in the "Mayflower"; VVinslow, Hypocrisy Unmasl;ed; and \Vinthro[>, History of Mew England. The history of separate colonies is given in Belknap, History of Nni< Hampshire, 3 vols. (1784-1792); Hutchinson, The Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 3 vols. (1764- 1828); Barry, History of Massachusetts, 3 vols. (1855-1857); Goodwin, The Pilgrim Republic (188S) ; Richman, Rhode Island, its Making and Meaning, 2 vols. (1902); Arnold, History of Rliode Islaiul, 2 vols. (ed. 1894); Trumbull, History of Connecticut, 2 vols, (ed. iSg8) ; Atwater, History of New Haven (ed. 1901); O'Cal- laghan. History of Nov Nctherland, 2 vols. (ed. 1855) ; and Brodhead, History of tlic State of New York, 2 vols. (1S72). For Independent Reading Fiske, Beginnings of New England (1889); Ibid., Dutch and Quaker Colonies, 2 vols. (1899); Adams, Massachusetts, its Historians and History (1893); Straus, Roger Williams, tlic Pioneer of Religious Liberty (1894) ; Goodwin, TIte Pilgrim Republic (1888); Tv/icheW, John Winthrop (1891); and Eggleston, The Beginners of a Nation (1897). CHAPTER V COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER THE LATER STUARTS, 1660-1689 Charles II and the Colonies When called to the throne Charles II was in no position to continue his father's strong policy either at home or in the colonies. He accordingly left the government of the latter in statu '^^^ quo, and was content to increase the means of making England them yield to him a revenue. To Connecticut and Undisturbed. Rhode Island he gave charters confirming their former liberal institutions, and they were .so satisfactory that they served as state constitutions until 1818 and 1842 respectively. The former was also notable in that it united Connecticut and New Haven in one government. For a time the Massachusetts charter seemed in danger of annulment because members of the .Anglican church could not vote, but negotiation led to a compromise by which the general court enacted that all persons of property and good char- acter should ha\-e the right to vote. But since a regular minister must vouch for an applicant's good character it is likely that the spirit of the law was nearly as restrictive as ever. Virginia and Maryland, loyal enough, had nothing to fear in the nature of constitutional change, but they were powerfully affected by the king's desire for money. Heavy British taxes were Virginia and \Qy[^(]^ qu tobacco, already selling at ruinously low prices. Burdened. That which was used in England paid a tax of one shilling, ten pence a pound, and that which was reexported paid ten and a half pence. At this time a large recent immigration to Virginia and Maryland had raised the supply of tobacco beyond ordinary demands, and this tended to increase the distress of the planters. To discharge his obligations to his courtiers, Charles granted the quitrents and escheats of all Virginia to Lord Arlington and Lord Culpeper for thirty-one years. These hard measures were received with dismay by people to whom Stuart loyalty had been little less than a religion. They became discontented, and violated the navigation acts as freely as the traders of New England. The influence of the merchants was enough to secure the continu- ation of the navigation policy of Cromwell. The ordinance of 1651 was reenacted, for the legality of recent parliamentary action was 80 FIRST YEARS OF THE RESTORATION 8i not granted, and to it was added the important amendment that tobacco, sugar, and other enumerated colonial products destined for a foreign port must first be landed in England, ^j^^ j^^^i_ Ireland, or some colony other than that in which gation Acts they were produced. The significance of this amendment of 1660, was that no enumerated product could be carried to for- '^^3. eign countries in foreign ships, which meant that foreign ' '^^' ships would not bring their own products to the colonies because they could not get return cargoes. It also meant that colony ships could take enumerated products to British ports alone. The fact that goods from the continent could go to the colonies in British vessels and that colony ships could take goods from the continent to the colonies, led to \dolation of the law : ships could hardly be expected to make the return voyage in ballast when opportunity of evasion was so easy. To meet the difficulty a new law in 1663 provided that European goods with a few exceptions should only go to the colonies from England in English and colonial ships. The act of 1660 meant that enumerated products should be sold in England, and that of 1663 meant that all colony importations should come from England. The evasions of these laws in the colonies led to a third act, passed in 1673. It required every ship captain loading tobacco, sugar, or other enumerated colonial products either to give bond for landing them in England or to pay stipulated duties on the spot. In this way it was intended to make colonial trade yield profit to the British importers, exporters, and ship owners, as well as to the king's re\'enues. It was a theory of the time that a colony planted by the mother country and protected by it should in return yield advantages of trade. This policy, in connection with the new system of import duties, was expected to add largely to the king's revenues. It sliould be remembered, how- ever, that tobacco was the only enumerated article produced in the mainland colonies. The navigation acts did not apply to fish, timber, fur, wheat, pork, beef, and many other exported articles. When Charles came to the throne his colonies in America were Virginia, Marjdand, Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, Con- necticut, and Rhode Island, and to these New York, as we have seen, was soon to be added. But there were colonies still vast regions on the coast in which Englishmen had not settled. Out of these unsettled parts Charles created three new colonies, Carolina, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, all proprietary colonies granted to some of the leading noblemen of the court. It was not so much to promote colonization as to advance the interests of the grantees that these colonies were chartered. The model of the proprietary colony was the county Palatine of Durham, in England, over which the Bishop of Durham ruled under the king. Whatever the king might do in England, ran the motto of the law, the bishop might do in Durham. But in the proprietary 82 COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS charters the right of the proprietor was limited by the provision that he must make laws "by and with the consent of the freemen." By this provision these colonies, as well as the others, The Pro- ^g^g j^^le to secure the right to make laws in their own CofoT^ assemblies subject to the veto of the proprietors. Be- °°"^" sides the colonies mentioned. New York, after its con- quest from the Dutch, and Maryland, from the beginning, were proprietary. This kind of colony was thought to have the ad- vantage of powerful aid from its owners in its early stages; but experience showed that the proprietors were more concerned to make money out of their colonies than to spend it on them. They were, also, not successful in keeping order, having no other military force than they could summon from among the inhabitants themselves. In Carolina this was especially true, and the end of proprietary rule there was a blessing. In 1629 the king granted Carolana, as he named it, to Sir Robert Heath, but the grant lapsed for want of efforts to people the region granted. In 166.3 Charles II regranted it to eight nobles, Una Grant Ashley, Albemarle, Clarendon, John Berkeley, William Berkeley, Carteret, Craven, and Colleton. The bounds were latitude 36° on the north and 31° on the south, and it extended to the Pacific. It was seen on examination that the southern limits of Virginia was latitude 36° 30', and a new charter issued in 1665 with that line for the northern boundary of Carolina, as it was now called. Thus the region between Virginia and Florida was opened to settle- ment. The proprietors had dreams of building a feudal state. Under the guidance of Ashley, now the Earl of Shaftesbury, the funda- mental constitutions were prepared by John Locke, mentaTcon'- ^'?''''' ™ '''''^ '^^'"'y ^^'"^^^ °^ '"^ brilliant career. They pro- stitutions, vided for a feudal hierarchy, at the bottom of which should be the freemen and at the top three ranks of high landed lords with overwhelming power in political affairs. The system was highly theoretical, and the proprietors did not expect it to be in force at once. It was sent out to their agents with instructions to put into force as much of it as possible. The agents published it and the Carolina assemblies possibly gave it formal recognition, but the system was never in actual use, and very few of the land- gravers and caciques, the higher ranks of nobility provided for, were appointed m Carolina. TheAibe Meanwhile, the ordinarv forces of frontier life were marie ' Carrying jjopulation to Carolina. As early as 1654 men Settlement, irom \'irginia had taken land on the northern shore of Albemarle Sound, first securing grants from the In- dians. In 1665 the proprietors sent them a government and author- ized an assembly for the " County of Albemarle." From that time a THE CAROLINA SETTLEMENTS 83 steady but slow stream of population arrived from Virginia, mostly poor persons who found the frontier more congenial than the aristo- cratic life on the James. The harbors were bad, and communication with Europe was chiefly through Virginia. The people were mostly dissenters or members of no church. They were intolerant of the attempts of the proprietors to rule them, and there was much commo- tion throughout the sixty-six years of proprietary rule. It was as democratic a society as was planted on the coast. About 1690 the Albemarle settlements, now expanded to the southward of the Sound, began to be called North Carolina, and at a later period Cape Romaine was fixed as the dividing point between Carolina the two Carolinas. Thus the Cape Fear river, its only good means of access to the sea, went to the northern province. It had been the scene of a futile attempt at colonization as early as 1664, and from that time remamed unsettled until 1725. It had water communication with the interior of the colony, and had the first settlements been placed here, and not in the isolated north- eastern corner, it seems certain that the early history of North Caro- lina would have been different. In 1670 Charleston was settled by an expedition under William Sayle. It grew steadily from the beginning, although it received little aid from the proprietors beyond the first cost of transportation to America. In 1680 French Huguenots p°"'!^ began to arrive, settling chiefly on the Santee river. The settled, fertile soil and mUd climate of the two Carolinas proved very advantageous to the settlers, who, following the custom in other colonies, placed themselves along the navigable streams, where the bottom lands were richest. The people enjoyed abundance, and in South Carolina men of business alaUity among the colonists made fortunes easily. Their emergence out of the mass of "adven- turers" was facilitated by the easy access to markets and the early introduction of slaves as a cheap and pennanent labor supply. About 1693 rice began to be raised with profit. It was a staple product, commanding a ready market in all parts of Europe, and it played the part in South Carolina that tobacco played in Virginia and Maryland. The Albemarle settlers did not raise either rice or tobacco in considerable cjuantities. The English conquest of New Netherland did not bring with it as much liberal government as the English living under the Dutch regime had expected. The Duke of York by his patent from the king was constituted lord proprietor with power J,^ , almost absolute. He, however, dared not lay taxes Laws." and give orders arbitrarily, lest his subjects be forced into rebellion. His representative in the colony was Colonel Richard NicoUs, the governor, an astute man whose tact did much to make the rule of the proprietor bearable. He had promised the 84 COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS people of Long Island self-government, and to redeem his promise in form published the "Duke's Laws," as they were called. They allowed the popular election of local constables and overseers, but made them accountable to the governor, and they provided for trial by jury. More important still, the judges were to be appointed by the governor, and to them, sitting in one body, or assize, was intrusted the law-making function, subject to the approval of the governor. Tliis system, which fell far short of representative government, was .soon extended to the entire colony. It did not satisfy the people, but it was better than the Dutch rule, and the tact of Governor Nicolls (lid much to lull the popular discontent. He returned to England in 1668. In 1672 England began a war with Holland, and the next year the Dutch appeared before New York with 23 ships and 1200 men. The governor was absent in New England, and his repre- New York sentative, without an adequate force to defend the place, conquered surrendered after a feeble resistance in which one English- Dutch but ^^^ ^'^^ killed. The old Dutch system of government restored to was reestablished, and the name of the town of New York England. was changed to New Orange. But when peace was made in 1674 New York was restored to England, and the king issued a new charter granting it to the Duke of York, who in turn reissued "the Duke's Laws." At this time Edmund Andros became governor, and ruled until he was succeeded in 1681 by Thomas Dongan. Both men were loyal servants of the proprietor and administered the government successfully. But the people continued to ask for an elective assembly. To their request the duke turned a deaf ear, saying that assemblies were dangerous things and often disturbing to good government. Under his direction the seat of power was the governor and councO, who made the appointments and constituted a narrow and powerful aristocracy. The advocates of liberal government gained steadily in power, and in 1681 their opjjortunity came. While Governor Andros was in England to ans\\'er charges against his official conduct, the merchants, struEEie ^"™''" «n a technicality, refused to pay the duties he for an ^'"1 V^P^s^"^ ^s the representative of the Duke. A strong Assembly, petition was sent to England praying that New York might be governed as other colonies by a governor, council, and assembly, and urging that no duties ought to be taken without the consent of the representatives of the people. The proprietor was sensibly touched by the failure of revenue, and 16S2 granted the peti- tion but with notable restrictions. The assembly was to meet and be dissoyed at the order of the governor, the reveniie raised should be NEW JERSEY SETTLED 85 them, known as the "Charter of Liberties," established the authority of the assembly, guaranteed triennial sessions, and provided for freedom of conscience and the popular assent to taxes. The whole fifteen seem to have been approved at first by the Duke of York, but before they were registered he became James II, and New York became a royal province. The laws now went before the Committee of Trade, which found that the "Charter of Liberties" asserted too definitely the right of the assembly to govern the colony. In fact, at that time there was in England a tendency to reduce the powers of colonial assemblies ; and since James II as king did not need his colonial revenue, the "charter" was disallowed. Wlien Governor Dongan in 1686 received a new commission, being now a royal governor, he was authorized to make the laws for the colony. Thus ended for the Stuart period the progress of liberal government in New York. In 1664, the year New York was granted to the Duke, that part of it which now comprises New Jersey was by the grantee transferred to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret and called New Jersey, from the Island of Jersey, which Carteret ^fj^'g"''"* had bravely defended during the Puritan wars. The jersey, governor of New York protested in the name of his superior that the grant only passed title to the land, but Berkeley and Carteret insisted that it conferred on them the rights of government as well, and they proceeded to organize the government of New Jersey, with a governor, council, assembly, and local officers. The dispute was finally settled in their favor. Some settlers were already within the colony, Dutch and English, and more came. Among them were many New England men who brought in the democratic spirit of their former homes. At length the two proprietors divided their holding. Then Berkeley sold his share, the western part, to four prominent Quakers, among them William ^g^j^"** Penn. In 16S2 East Jersey was purchased by Quakers jersey, from the Carteret heirs, and soon after a small remnant was acquired from Fenwick, who held by a previous grant from Berkeley. Thus the two Jerseys became Quaker colonies. In the eastern part the settlers were chiefly New Englanders, in the western part they were Quakers. Both sections enjoyed religious liberty and prospered under a liberal form of government. But William Penn was not satisfied with a colony depending so largely on charters badly defined, and in 1681 he secured from King Charles a patent for Pennsylvania, west of the Delaware, and made plans to build a commonwealth on Quaker c^^er principles. The name was given by the king himself, much to the chagrin of Penn, who wished to avoid a semblance of vanity. The grant was evidently to satisfy the king's debt to Penn's father, who had been a British admiral. It gave Penn, the sole proprietor, ample power to devise a government. But recent 56 COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS e\-periences had taught the king that a colony was capable of becom. ing quite an independent affair, and it was provided that the Penn- sylvania laws be submitted to the king, that the navigation acts be enforced, and that the supremacy of Parliament be recognized. Penn's terms to attract colonists were liberal. To those English- men, Swedes, and Dutchmen who were already in the region ceded he offered assurances of protection, and in 1681 he sent them a governor. In England he himself was ceaselessly active in measures to attract immigrants. His position among the Quakers was such Proposals ^^^^^ j^jg invitation must be heard. It was sent forth to Settlers. ^^.^^^ persviasive charms. Let all thrifty men, he said, who wished to establish prosperous homes in a new land and all who would live in just equably with their neighbors come to Pennsylvania. No religious discrimination should be made against any man who acknowledged the existence of God, but only Christians could take part in government. His ideas of good government were embodied in a published "Frame of Government." "Any government," he said, "is free to the people under it, whatever be the frame, where the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion." To an age keenly alive to the dangers of the doctrine of divine right of kings this must have been a voice of comfort. In 1682 Penn himself arrived in Pennsylvania, accompanied by about one hundred colonists. In 1682 he had acquired what is now Delaware from the Duke of York, in order that his colony Perin°' °^ might have sea front ; and he first visited the settlements already planted about New Castle. Having confirmed the government of the three "Lower Counties," i.e. Delaware, he went on to Philadelphia, the site of which had already been selected under his directions at the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. Its broad streets, at right angles with one another, gave the place an air of dignity which long impressed visitors. It was Penn's desire that each dwelling should be in the center of a garden in order that PhUadelphia might be "a green coimtry town, which w'ill never be burned and always be wholesome." He gave careful supervision to all that pertained to the colony, and said in seven years, "with the help of God," Pennsylvania would equal her neigh- bors in population. The boast was not too large, for hnmigrants came in large numbers, and in three years the population exceeded eight thousand. Penn's benevolence was seen in his policy toward the natives. He took no land without making treaties in which he gave articles of Penn and ^'^'"'^ ^" '■'^^ savages. One treaty, in June, 1683, probably the Indians. '^*- Shackamaxon, now Kensington, became famous, and tradition long referred to the "Treaty Elm" under which it was made. The result of this policy was uninterrupted peace EARLY PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNMENT 87 with the Indians of eastern Pennsylvania. It was supported by the sobriety of the inhabitants and by the absence of frontier land squatters who occasioned most of the Indian wars in other colonies. Penn's "Frame of Government" provided for a council of 72 mem- bers and an assembly of 200, all elected by the freeholders. Like the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, it was drawn for a large colony and without reference to actual con- Self-Gov- ditions in a new country. Penn did not attempt to put p™^sy|'.'" it into operation. His first assembly, which met in De- vania. cember, 1682, consisted of a council of eighteen members and a lower house of 54, all elected by the settlers. To this body he gave the privilege of preparing the government of the colony, with the result that a "Great Charter" was enacted by the assembly, April 8, 1683, in which all the functions of government were provided for by the representatives of the people. Penn accepted it, for he wished for nothing more than that men should govern themselves in their own way, but in a spirit of enlightened benevolence. However, his personal influence had much to do with the form of government adopted. Another measure of this first assembly was to incorporate the Lower Counties with Pennsylvania. It was action very objec- tionable to the people of the Counties themselves, and _ they soon began an agitation which resulted, early in the next century, in their separation as a distinct colony though still under the governor appointed by Penn for Pennsylvania. AleanwhUe, Penn was called to England, partly to relieve his dis- tressed brethren through his personal influence with the Duke of York and partly to arrange a boundary dispute with Lord Baltimore. In the first instance he was easily successful ; ^*°° J^*" for 1200 Quakers were released from prison through his England, intercessions. In the second he was also successful, but it was many years before the victory was secured. The controversy with Lord Baltimore goes back to the grant of 16S1, which undoubtedly included within Pennsylvania lands Charles I had granted to Mary- land. The fortieth parallel of latitude marked Maryland's northern boundary by the charter of 1632 ; but Penn's charter pro- vided that his southern line should begin with a semi- The Penn- circle with a radius of twelve miles from New Castle and 30^™^^! proceed westward on the fortieth parallel from the point Controversy, at which the semicircle cut that parallel. On investiga- tion it was found that New Castle was 20 miles south of the fortieth parallel, and if the semicircle were drawn as described, it would leave a broad strip of Maryland in the new colony. Penn argued his rights against Baltimore, but could not settle the dispute. The latter naturally held to his rights under a grant previous to 1681 ; but Penn, who was bent on having an outlet to the sea, would not relent, and the dispute 88 COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS was continued by the two men and their heirs untO 1760. In thac year llic present boundary was agreed upon, and in 1767 it was run by Mason and Dixon. Even more annoying was the controversy for the possession of Delaware. All the colony was within the bounds of the Maryland patent, but the Duke of York claimed it by the conquest Penngets gf ^j^g Dutch, and Baltimore did not dispute the claim. toDeJware When, however, the Duke transferred Delaware to Penn the Maryland proprietor asserted his rights and seemed about to prevent the confirmation of the Duke's grant when Penn re- turned to England, 1684. The influence of the Quaker proved suffi- cient for his cause, and in 1685 his right to Delaware was recognized by the Lords of Trade. His wonderful influence with James, now become king, was the despair of his enemies, who started the report, widely believed at the time, that Penn was in reality a Jesuit. He came under suspicion when James was driven out, was arrested, and for a time, 1692-1694, his colony was taken from him. He easily cleared himself of the charges and was restored to his rights. In England many misfortunes beset him. Chief among them was the news that the colonists were wrangling over the powers of His Second government. After many gentle remonstrances he himself Pennsvi- came back in 1699, and for five years modified by his pres- vania. ence the strife which is, perhaps, inherent in a democracy such as he had created. Spite of the divisions the colony grew rapidly in numbers and wealth. The Stuart Reaction The Cromwellian period in Maryland history, so full of political and military combat, was succeeded by an interval of quiet. Each side had learned something in the conflict. The proprietor, at Pea«. ^^'^° easily secured the recognition of his rights from Charles II, knew well that tunnoil interfered with industry and consequently lessened his income. The people longed for peace. The toleration act of 1649, made to meet an exigency of the time, re- mained a permanent result of the late conflict, and for a time Catho- lics and Protestants lived together amicably. Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, died in 1675. Under him the colony was founded, and his tactfulness had brought it through ide many dangers. His son and successor, Charles, governor Charles' ^^™^ 1661-1675, was a man of downright convictions, and Calvert. knew not his father's art of compromising. Like other English noblemen of the day he wished to use political power for the benefit ol his famUy and dependents. What Charles II did in England, what the Duke of York did in New York, and what Berkeley did in Virginia, Charles Calvert, as governor and as pro- STUART IDE.'VLS RESISTED 89 prietor, sought to do in Maryland. Through him the offices were filled with kinsmen, the suffrage was limited to freeholders, and only half of the members-elect were summoned to the assembly. This policy awakened the old spirit of resistance, and in 1676, while Lord Baltimore was absent, a band of si.xty, incited by Bacon's example in Virginia, gathered to overthrow the proprietary government. The governor seized and hanged the popular leaders, Davis and Pate, and the rebellion collapsed. But the spirit of discontent did not disappear. The absence of Baltimore in order to oppose Penn's efforts in England gave oppor- tunity to its growth. Eventually he fell into a dispute with the collectors of the royal revenues in Maryland and jn^^aryland. the king took the side of his own officers. Most important of all, the struggle was given a religious cast. The accession of James II, a Catholic sovereign, in 1685 accentuated this phase of the con- troversy. When the royal prince, called the "Old Pretender" by most Protestants, was born, he w'as proclaimed in Maryland by the proprietary governor with impolitic fervor. The Protestants, through the progress of immigration many times as numerous as the Catholics, were ready for revolt. Then came news that William of Orange had landed in England. No longer restrained, they formed under the lead of John Corde and others an Association for the Defense of the Protestant Religion. They seized St. Mary's, the seat of government, dispersed the Catholic bands who met to resist them, sent a loyal address to William and Mary, and held an assembly in which repre- sentation was on a popular basis. The new sovereign of England accepted the revolution in Maryland, which then became a royal province. In 171 5 a Protestant succeeded to the Baltimore title and was restored to his full rights in Maryland, which from that time untD the revolution was a proprietary colony. For sixteen years after the Restoration political authority in Vir- ginia was the will of Governor William Berkeley. As Charles II pro- longed his ov.'n supremac}^ by maintaining the "Cavalier _ . , , Parliament" for seventeen years, so Berkeley in Virginia pespo^gf^ kept alive for fourteen years the assembly chosen in 1661 in the height of enthusiasm for the Stuarts. By this means, by nominating his own councillors, and by making other appointments judiciously, he concentrated the authority in the hands of a small group of wealthy planters who depended on his own favor. Mean- while, the price of tobacco had steadily fallen, due partly to the na\'i- gation acts and partly to over-production. Virginia had no other money crop, and naturally exploited that to the limit of her capacity. Proposals to limit production had little effect, and there was much suffering. Throughout this period prices of imported merchandise grew higher, the planters fell into debt to the London merchants, and the spirit of hopelessness easily ran into defiance. Berkeley's 90 COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS system of despotism was the most visible of political evils, and they turned against it as the cause of all their distress. The occasion of the outbreak was an Indian war. Within recent years the march of settlement had reached the Potomac valley, which alarmed the Indians in that region. They foresaw the R^lTui^ n '^"'^ °^ '^'^^^'^ hunting grounds, and their murmuring created apprehension in the minds of the settlers. In 1675 the savages killed two planters on the Potomac, and the whites replied by killing the murderers and several other Indians. Reprisals were made by the red men, and soon the frontier was harrowed from end to end. Then the Susquehannocks rose in January, 1676, and killed thirty-six whites. The settlers fled from the border, and called on the governor for protection. He ordered a body of militia to the scene of danger, but recalled it before it had well started. His opponents claimed that he derived profits from the Indian trade, and on that account wished to avoid a war. The assembly met in March, 1676, and proposed to build forts in the Indian country. The people objected that this only meant higher taxes. What they wished was a vigorous campaign to Bacon as- break the power of the Indians effectively. To their Leadership, petitions of this purport Berkeley returned an angry re- proof and the people began to raise troops on their own account. They found an excellent leader in Nathaniel Bacon. His fervid speeches had ample foundation m the condition of the colony, and he was shortly at the head of three hundred men, with his face set toward the frontier. To Berkeley this was treason, and he promptly said so in a proclamation. Two hundred and forty of Bacon's men then went home, but he marched on with the rest, and in a bloody action killed one hundred and fifty Indians. Meanwhile, the movement took on the form of open resistance to the existing regime. People were gathering with amis in their hands, and demanding a new assembly chosen by the freemen. blclm^r' ^" P^"^'^ Berkeley promised all'that was asked, and even PoUticai. pardoned Bacon and restored him to the Council. In the new assembly a number of reforms were adopted which must have been as gall to the power-loving governor. The reformers did not trust the governor, and wished their leader to be commander- in-chief of the militia, probably as a guarantee that the governor would not repudiate his promises. They claimed that the com- mand had been promised, and when it was not given a violent quarrel arose. Bacon was impetuous, and ended by coUectmg five hundred amied men, with whom he overawed Berkeley and forced him to issue a commission to operate against the Indians. Then the anny marched away to the scene of war. As soon as they were gone, the governor repudiated what he had done and called on the people to aid him in suppressing the "rebels." There was BACON'S REBELLION 91 no response to his call, and he fled to Accomac County beyond Chesapeake Bay. The struggle thus became a real attempt at revolution. Bacon had begun as a reformer. If he now yielded, all his work was for naught. Being an aggressive man, he determined to accept the challenge and fight it out with the governor. His Rebellion influence over his followers was great enough to carry pfedggj many of them with him, but many others fell away and chose to follow Berkeley, who was able to return to Jamestown with six hundred men. Bacon was soon upon him, besieged the town, and forced the governor to take flight. The struggle was now a social one, the mass of poor and moderately well-to-do people supported the revolt, and the great planters generally were for the old order. While he constructed his lines before the capital, Bacon forced the wives and daughters of many of his enemies to stand before his works to avert the fire of the governor's soldiers. When Jamestown fell he burned it lest it should again offer asylum to his enemies. All this happened during the summer and early autumn of 1676. What else would have come is only to be guessed ; for Bacon died October 26 of a fever contracted through exposure, and his cause collapsed. Berkeley came back to Jamestown, harried out the rem- nant of the rebels who had taken refuge in the swamps, „**' and although the king had promised amnesty to those who submitted, hanged thirteen as awarning to those who defied his author- ity. To the captured WOliam Drummond, who, before he joined Bacon, had been governor of Albemarle, probably through Berkeley's selection, the governor said in greeting him: "Mr. Drummond, you are welcome. I am more glad to see you than any man in Virginia. Mr. Drummond, you shall be hanged in half an hour." To which the prisoner replied: "As your honor pleases," and he was led away to the scaffold. News of these commotions had ere this reached England, and the king had already dispatched a force of one thousand men under three commissioners to pacify Virginia. Berkeley's high pro- ceedings were well known in England, and the knowledge ^f*{!!^*f* was reflected in the instructions of the commissioners, jjgg^ Amnesty was offered to all rebels who would submit, and Jeffreys, one of the three, was to succeed Berkeley as governor. They found Berkeley supreme and defiant. His powerful family influence in England made it unwise to arrest him, and there was a period of angry wrangling, at the end of which the irritable old man embarked of his own motion. Arrived at London, he learned that the king would not see him. It was the last straw for a body and mind already tottering under the weight of years, and he died in a few months, July, 1677. He had in his day been a stout-hearted defender of the royal author- ity, a friend of the Established Church, and a worthy leader of the 92 COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS well-born Virginia gentry. His ideals were of great account in a day when democracy was in its cruder stages of development. His often quoted words on education in Virginia express the ideals fde*s*^'^ of his class. "I thank God," he said, "there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have any these hundred years, for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world and printing has di\-ulged [them] and libels against the best government. God keep us from both." Bacon's Rebellion shows that Virginia society had gone beyond this ideal, and the royal commissioners recognized the fact. They called for free expressions of grievances with the result that a "char- Culpeper s ^^^ ^ ^j privileges was granted by the king in which im- portant reforms in local government were included. In 1679 Lord Culpeper arrived as governor. He was in need of money, and proceeded to get it by increasing the fees, requiring "presents" in money from outgoing ship captains, and other similar measures. It was at this time that lawless bands of tobacco planters began to de- stroy the growing crops to relieve the over-production which produced low prices. In 16S4 Culpeper was succeeded as governor by Lord Howard of Effingham, who was in no sense a better n,iler than Cul- peper. Thus passed the years until the end of the Stuart dynasty, years full of commotion, in which the Virginia spirit of self-govern- ment slowly rose against the power of a governor appointed by the king but bent on nothing so much as his own advantage. It took many years of such experience to change the most royal of the colonies into an out-and-out home of revolution ; but the process went steadily on. The Colonies under the Later Stuarts, 1660-1689 Charles II did not like the Puritan colonies, but he did not wish the trouble of abolishing them. It was easier to give charters to Connecti- cut and Rhode Island, to wink at the compromise by which Enriand Massachusetts seemed to give the suffrage to members of the English Church, and to take what revenue came from the New England trade, than to risk war with the colonists as a result of suppressing the charter. Thus the years passed, for a time in safety for the New Englanders, while their fellow dissenters in England suffered from a high church reaction. When trouble at last came it was through the initiation of his over-zealous ofiScers rather than through the wDl of the good-natured king. A more serious peril was the attitude of the Indians. The steady extension of the settlements from the seashore inward showed them that their hunting grounds were in danger, PMip'sWar ^'^"^ ^^^y Came together in common defense under Philip, son of Massasoit, the Wampanoag, long the friend and stay of Plymouth colony. The war began in the summer of 1675 MASSACHUSETTS AND THE STUARTS 93 with the usual outrages on the frontier, in which retaliation and pitiless slaughter played their parts. Knowing the habits of the whites, the Indians fell on them suddenly with bloody results. The Nipmucks, in western Connecticut and Massachusetts, joined in the struggle, and the river towns were ravaged. Then the Narragansetts appeared about to join the belligerents ; and the whites, without waiting for open hostilities, fell on them in a fort in what is now Kingston, Rhode Island, and crushed effectually their military power. But the struggle went on more bitterly than ever, the whites lighting for life persistently and steadily. After some months their superior organization began to tell. Canonchet, king of the Narragansetts, was run down and slain in April, 1676. A month later one hundred and twenty warriors were killed in a battle on the Connecticut, and August 12, 1676, PhDip himself fell at the hands of Colonel Church, a noted Indian lighter. Through nearly two years' fighting the colonists lost severely in life and proj)erty. Their homes were ruined, their crops destroyed, and famine was avoided only by importing grain from Virginia. But the power of the Indians was broken, and thenceforth the settlers might plant in safety in the interior. The most permanent effect of the struggle was the damage inflicted on the beaver trade. Driving back the Indians inevitably limited the area of its operation. In this struggle all the New England colonies suffered indiscriminately, and all united in the measures of defense. The wounds of war were not healed before Massachusetts realized that serious efforts were to be made to annul the liberal charter under which she enjoyed self-government. The attack would doubtless be of a legal nature, the charge being made that Massa- the charter should be forfeited because the colony had, charter among other things, harbored some of the regicides. Threatened. evaded the king's orders in regard to a broader suffrage, denied the right of appeal to England, shown a spirit of indifference to the royal authorities in regard tothe appointmentof agents in England, and continually evaded the navigation acts. In 1676 Edward Ran- dolph visited Boston as a "messenger" with a letter from the king to the authorities. He was privately instructed to ascertain in what respect the colony laws were against those of England and to report on rehgious conditions, the execution of the navigation acts, and the numbers and strength of the colonists. He was a shrewd observer, and was prejudiced against the Puritans. His report was very un- favorable to the colony, but for a time nothing was done. In 1678, however, Randolph was appointed collector of the customs for New England and took up his residence in Boston with the design of breaking up smuggling, which was widespread. His numerous complaints sent to England all proceeded from the conclusion that the only way to enforce the acts of trade was for the king to take the charter colonies into his own hands and appoint officers who 94 COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS would support the collector. Charles II wanted little urging on this point ; for just at this time he was proceeding against the municipal charters of England. June 12, 1683, he secured from a Massa- partial court a verdict against the charter of London, and oTrter^ next day the attorney-general was ordered to take out a Annulled. writ of quo warranto against the Massachusetts Company. Randolph, then in England, was sent back to Boston to serve the writ, a task congenial to his feelings. The Massachusetts authori- ties retained counsel and determined to contest the suit. Storms intervened, and Randolph could not return the writ within the time set, so that it failed. Rather than go through the process of sending another writ to Boston the attorney-general now sued out in the court of chancery a writ of scire facias, which had the virtue of not requiring service in the colony. Under this writ the case came to a speedy hearing, and October 23, 1684, the charter was declared forfeited. Pleased with his victory, Randolph now marched against the other colonial charters. Pennsylvania alone was saved through the in- fluence of her proprietor ; but writs were issued against Ch'^rt • '■^^ charters of Connecticut, Rhode Island, the two Jerseys, Danger. "^^d Delaware. Randolph's pockets fairly bulged with quo warrantos. But the times were turbulent in England, and murmuring was heard against the king's wholesale destruction of charters. For this, and for other reasons, the writs were not pressed to an issue, and thus the other charter colonies safely outran the Stuart peril. But they came near shipwreck on a scheme for a general consoli- dation of the colonies north of Delaware Bay. This scheme was devised much earlier than 16S4, and only awaited the The Do- forfeiture of charters to be put into operation. The result New°Eng- ^^ ^^^ Massachusetts case encouraged its promoters to land. proceed. Without waiting for the results of the pro- cesses against the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, they were treated as already annulled, and a governor was ap- pointed to rule over all New England. The man selected for the position by Charles II was the stern Colonel Percy Kirke, who could hardly have failed to create rebellion had he come to rule New England without the aid of an assembly, as his instructions ran. When James II came to the throne the appointment was not completed, and he sent Kirke to deal with the rebels at Taunton and made Edmund Andros governor of New England. Andros's authority extended over Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Plymiouth. He was to rule without an assembly and with the aid of an appointed council. Rhode Island and Connecticut were frightened into releasing their independ- ence, although the latter concealed its charter and brought it forth in happier days. In 1688 a new commission constituted Andros governor of all the colonies north of Pennsylvania, and to this consolidated STUART IDEALS ESTABLISHED 95 territory was given the name of the Dominion of New England. Each constituent colony was to become a district in the larger organization and to lose its assembly, but from it were appointed members of the governor's grand council which ruled the Dominion. Over New York Francis Nicholson ruled as deputy governor, but Andros himself supervised the rest of his "dominion." This system, so soon to be overthrown, expressed James IFs ideal of colonial government. During the short time between the fall of the charter and the arrival of Andros, Joseph Dudley was governor of Massachusetts. He was born in the colony, but was now zealous for the royal prerogative. He wished to make the transition in govern- Dudley ment as easy as possible, but the task was difficult from magsachu- its very nature. The people were not prepared to resist : setts, they submitted with sullen reluctance. Now came a clergyinan of the English Church, for whom Dudley demanded the use of one of the Boston meetinghouses. The demand was steadily refused. After a while it was agreed that the clergyman, Mr. Rat- clifle, should use Mr. Willard's meetinghouse each Sunday, one minister preaching after the other finished and alternately taking the first sermon. But trouble arose because neither would stop at the proper time, and at length Andros seized a lot belonging to the town, and on it was erected King's Chapel. The new regime also gave offense by celebrating Christmas, by requiring persons taking an oath to kiss the Bible instead of holding up the hand, by ordering that school teachers should have licenses from the governor, and by re- quiring the shops to close on the anniversary of tlie death of Charles I. All these offenses, however, were surpassed by the e.xtreme zeal with which the governor ordered and celebrated public thanksgivings for the birth of a son to their Catholic majesties in 1688. Within its short duration Andros's government showed itself a despotism. He was given the right to make laws, levy taxes, and administer justice. The Council was expected to offer advice, but he so filled it with his instruments that it but *°^™^ ^ reflected his will. When he ordered the collection of the Measures, old taxes, no longer legal since the assembly did not exist, some towns refused to pay on the ground that they were assessed illegally. The leading men of Ipswich were arrested, tried before a "special commission," and fined for their resistance. To this prac- tical proof that their liberties were abridged was added the conviction that their property was in danger. By law all the ungranted land in the colonies belonged to the king, and Andros was to dispose of it in his "Dominion," subject to quitrent. He declared that most of the old land grants were worthless, and seemed about to take pos- session of farms and even village lots. But he at last showed his favor by saying that he would issue regular grants to all whose titles were in question. As he and his officers must have fees for these 96 COLONIAL PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS grants, the offer was not a disinterested one. Moreover, many choice bits of land were by influential officials declared to be subject to new grants, which showed the people that the new regime was rapacious as well as arbitrary. But the day of James II was run. November 5, 1688, William of Orange landed in England. December 22 James fled the kingdom, and in February, 1689, Parliament offered the crown to Pariia- William and Mary. It was a bloodless but complete mentary revolution, not only in dynasty but also in the fun- ta°En"i^d" damental theory of goverimient. For the Stuart ideal and the"" of divine right was now substituted the supremacy Colonies. of the people in Parliament. This system could hardly exist in England without having its echo in the colonies. Not only did they seize the opportunity to wipe out, as in New England, all traces of James's recent innovations, but from that time every colonial assembly felt more strongly than ever its right to lay taxes and make laws within its own province. This conviction, slowly developing, precipitated at the closeof three-quarters of a century a struggle between mother country and colonies, the real import of which was, Should the colonial assemblies or Parliament govern the colonies ? The news of William's success in England created a profound im- pression in Massachusetts, where the people were ripe for revolt. In the "Declaration" he issued on landing he said that Overtlirown "lagistrates unjustly turned out of office should resume their functions. He had in mind the municipalities of England, but the New Englanders took it as referring to the colonies. This "Declaration" was brought to Boston by John Winslow, whom Andros at once arrested. But the news was out, and on April 18, 1689, the people rose in arms, seized and imprisoned Andros, Ran- dolph, and other officials, and proclaimed the restitution of the old government under Bradstreet, the last governor under the charter. They sent a report of their action to their agent in England and asked that they be allowed the old charter. Andros remained a prisoner in Castle William nearly a year, and was then sent to England. In New York, where Francis Nicholson ruled as Andros's deputy, affairs were also ripe for revolt. James had placed many Catholics in office in the colony, and this seemed to support the rumor. Revolution widely circulated in Massachusetts as well, that he would York. introduce the Catholic religion in the colonies. Against Nicholson all the Protestant population was ready to act. Disappointment because the colony had not been given an effective assembly also had much to do with the popular discontent. The people found a leader in Jacob Leisler, German by birth, now a pros- perous merchant in New York. Nicholson hesitated to proclaim William and Mary, which aroused severe criticism by opponents of ENGLISH REVOLUTION AND THE COLONIES 97 the Stuarts. In May, 1689, a careless remark was twisted by rumor until it was reported that he threatened to burn the town with his own hand. Violent demonstrations followed, and the deputy governor fled to England, leaving the government to three councillors, Phillips, Cortlandt, and Bayard. Leisler now came to the front. At the head of the popular party, he disregarded the councDlors, and called a convention of delegates from the counties. This body met and appointed Leisler commander-in-chief of the province, with large powers of government. For two turbulent years he was in control of the province. In Maryland, as we have seen (page 91), the expulsion of the Stuarts from England was followed by Corde's Rebellion, thus mak- ing it the third colony in which force was used to bring about the recognition of William and Mary. In the J^^ Revo- other colonies the transition occurred peaceably. Rhode otJj°g"'° Island and Connecticut resumed their charters and were colonies, allowed the privilege on the ground that the charters had never been repealed or surrendered. Massachusetts was allowed to retain Maine, but New Hampshire, recognized as a royal colony in 1679 but made a part of the Dominion of New England in 1686, now became a royal province once more. Commotions at once appeared, and in 1699 the province was placed under the supervision of the gov- ernor of Massachusetts. It was not until 1741 that it again had a distinct governor, although a lieutenant governor generally ruled during the interval. New Jersey was allowed to return to her pro- prietors untO 1702, when she also became a royal province. In the rearrangement Plymouth became a part of Massachusetts. Thus was distributed all the territory which had been placed under the authority of Andros. Virginia and the Carolinas were not materially affected by the revolution, and Pennsylvania, including Delaware, while inwardly tranquil, was taken from the hands of the proprietor in 1692 on the charge that he was a Jacobite, but restored in 1694, when his innocence had been made apparent. In Massachusetts the renewal of the old charter was desired by a portion of the people, while others thought it a good opportunity to get a self-governing system like that of Connecticut. Each side had its representatives in England, but neither ^"^ won. The charter of 1691 was largely due to the influence ^j^ygg^g of Edward Randolph, just arrived in London out of cap- charter, tivity in Boston. By it Massachusetts became a royal province with a governor appointed by the king, an assembly elected by property-holders, and a council, not appointed by the king as else- where, but nominated by the assembly and approved by the governor. In ordinary matters the approval of laws was left to the governor, though the king reserved the right of sanction to certain special affairs. The Puritan party was dealt a severe but exjiected blow in the provision for liberty of conscience for all Protestants. 98 COLONL^ PROGRESS UNDER LATER STUARTS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Most of the general works referring to events narrated in this chapter are the same as those given for the two preceding chapters; but specific mention must be made of two others, Channing, History of the United States, vol. II (190S), the most recent treatment by a scholar; and Andrews, Colonial Self-Govcnimcnt (1Q04), very clear and authoritative. For New England, New York, Virginia, and Maryland the sources previously mentioned are also available. For the newer colonics, see the following secondary works and sources: New Jersey: Smith, The Colony of New Jersey (1765 and 1877), valuable for documents; White- head, East Jersey under Proprietary Governments (N. J. Hist. Soc. Colleelions, I, ed. 187s) ; s.Xid Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New Jersey, 27 vols. (1880-1912), one of the three great collections of published colonial records. Pennsylvania: Bowden, History of Friends in America, 2 vols. (1S51-1854); Proud, History of Pennsylvania [1681-1742], 2 vols. (1797-1798), still the best general history of the colony; Fisher, The Making of Pennsylvania (1896), popular; Shepherd, History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania {Co\\im\i\3. University Studies, 1896); Sharpless, History of Quaker Government in Pennsylvania, 2 vols. (1898-1899). Valuable documents are in Colonial Records, i5 vols. (1838-1852) ; Votes of Assembly, 1662-1776, 6 vols. (1752-1776); Hist. Soc. of Penn. Memoirs (1826-), and Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1877-). Delaware : The early history is closely connected with that of New York and Pennsylvania, q.v. The best' general history is Scharf, History of Delaware, 2 vols. (188S). On the early period see also Ferris, History of tlic Original Settle- ments on the Delaware (1846). North Carolina: Ashe, History of North Carolina, vol. I (190S-), the best treatment, but without appreciation of social and industrial development ; Hawks, History of North Carolina, 2 vols. (1857-1858) ; Bassett, Constitutional Beginnings of North Carolina (Johns Hopkins Studies, 1894), deals with political institutions until 1729; Weeks,, ChurehandState in NorlhCarolina {Ibid., iSgi), Colonial Records, of North Carolina (10 vols., 1886-iSgo), one of the three great collections of pub- lished Colonial records. South Carolina : McCrady, South Carolina under the Proprietary Government (1897), strictlv chronological; Rivers, Sketch of the History of South Carolina to lyig (1856); 'and The Shaftesbury Papers (S. C. Hist. Soc. Collections, 1897), an important early source. Many papers relating to this colony are in the North Carolina Colonial Records. A work still valuable is CarroU, Historical Collections of South Carolina, 2 vols. (i8j6). Important works especially useful for this period but relating to the older colonies are as follows : Tappan, Edward Ra}ulolph, $ voh. (Prince Society Publications), (1898-1899); Whitmore, Andros Tracts, 3 vols. (Ibid., 1868) ; Hutchinson Papers, 2 vols. (1865); Narragansett Club Publications, ist series (1866), contains Roger Williams's letters, a very valuable source of information ; Beverley, History of Virginia (1722) ; Jones, Present State of Virginia (1724) ; Burk, History of Virginia, 4 vols. (1804-1816); Henning, Statutes at Large, 161^-17^2, 13 vols. (1823); The Beginning, Progress, and Conclusion of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia by T. M., which with other matter relating to Bacon, is in Force, Tracts and in American Colonial Tracts. See also Virginia Magazine of History and Biography; Sharp, Causes of the Revolution of i6Sg in Maryland (Johns Hopkins Studies, 189-) ; Steiner, Protestant Revolution in Maryland (Am. Hist. Assn. Report, 1S97); and Mereness, Maryland as a Proprietary Province (1901). For Independent Reading Fisher, The Making of Pennsylvania (1896) ; Mrs. Earle, Home Life in Colonial Days (1898); Ibid., Colonial Days in Old New York (1896); Fisher, The True William Penn (1899) ; Fiske, Beginnings of New England (1889) ; Kulms, German and .Swiss Settlements of Pennsylvania (1901). CHAPTER VI COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1690-1763 Development of the Colonial Conflict Our colonial history proceeds in two currents, one English and one American. The beginning of each is somewhat confused because each began without plan and according to special conditions. But by 1690 each current has become more distinct. We can now see what England is doing for the colonies and how the latter, though widely differing in surroundings, begin to have common experiences and interests. The English colonial policy under the later Stuarts looked to ab- solute government, through a governor and council and without the aid of an assembly. The revolution of 1689 checked this plan and the colonial system henceforth contained Principles the following general features: i. A desire to make the ^3^ coioidal royal provinces uniform in the colonies; 2. An absence PoUcy. of parliamentary control, the colonies being under supreme authority of the king, who established the charters, appointed the high officers, and passed on colonial laws ; 3. The navigation acts, designed to benefit English merchants and ship owners, who made up a strong part of the support of government. These acts were enforced by collectors and admiralty courts created by the king and distinct from the orcMnary colonial ofiicials, with whom they were sometimes in violent quarrel. 4. The maintenance of effective imperial control through the royal ofiicials. The governor of a province was expected to guard the interests of the crown, resist encroachments of authority by the colonial assembly, and by influence over the colonial gentry to create, if possible, a party of king's friends among the inhabitants. Some of the governors performed the last of these tasks successfully, notably William Tryon, but others, like Andros, Nicholson, and Bellomont, were tactless and irascible and were continually at vari- ance with the colonists. 5. The growing interference of Parliament in colonial affairs. This began with the passage of the acts of trade, many times amended or defined, but it extended to the regulation of money, the protection of British creditors against loss in the colonies, the establishment of post offices, and other matters related to trade. From this position it was not far for Parliament to advance when it later decided to tax the colonists directly. Q9 loo COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT This system grew up under men of experience who believed it gave the best results to all concerned. To the colonies England gave pro- tection against other powers, and even against the In- wlf"^''^'' dians in extreme cases. From her they received their lands, their laws, and their very existence. Was it too much to expect they should contribute something in return to support the trade and maintain the glory of England ? And if this be granted, was it not reasonable that such a system of administration be preserved that the colonies should not forget filial duty or question parental authority ? To all of which the colonies had the plain answer that they acted in their own interests, as was the right of Englishmen. In 1690 the population of the colonies was about 220,000, most of them agriculturists. Wherever they lived they had the same interests in relation to England. Every colony had a legislature, V'^ . , New York having won that long demanded favor with Side!"*^ the triumph of VVOliam and Mary. This body became instinctively the guardian of the interests of the colony, and it was in continual opposition to the royal officials. As it be- came more inclined to assert colonial rights of self-government, the crown became more willing to resist. To each side the action of the other seemed aggressive, and it was resisted by all the arts known to able politicians. In this long struggle, from which no colony was exempt, the causes of dispute vary. Sometimes it is the payment of salaries to the governor, at other times quitrents, or land sales, or the issue of paper money ; but the struggle is always fundamentally the same, and it leads to the same end. This struggle was also an im- portant training school for colonial leaders. It not only formed par- ties, ready at the proper time for the work of revolution, but it de- veloped the men who led them. During the period now under consideration three wars between England and France had their reactions in America. They brought the Canadian Indians down on the English frontiers, theFrench^ forced the colonists to fight in defense of their homes, and and Indian ^^^" '^^ them to make ex-peditions for the conquest of Wars. parts of Canada. All this gave the people confidence in their ability to defend their country, trained men and officers to military duty, and developed the spirit of union in a com- mon cause. Hardly a colonial assembly but shows a firmer grip on the political life of its colony through having raised its contingents for the wars ; for here, as in England, before money was voted grievances must be redressed. A governor who wished to get his colonial as- sembly to raise troops for the Canadian frontier could not afford to quarrel with that assembly. But it must not be supposed that the party strife in the colonies measured the state of their happiness. It was an era of great indus- trial development. In 1689 the frontier line from Maine to the COLONIAL CONTROVERSIES loi Savannah river followed the coast generally at not more than fifty miles distance. In 1760 settlers had penetrated into all parts of New England, and all of the South from Florida to New York westward as far as the Alleghanies — which barrier, in- ^"^^^^ °^ deed, had been crossed by the most daring ones. In 1600-1760. ' New York alone the frontier had not been moved west- ward ; and here it was the presence of the Iroquois in the Mohawk valley, allies of the English and useful in operations against the French and Algonquins, that kept the whites from some of the rich- est land on the continent. Throughout the settlements plenty pre- vaUed, land was cheap, and no man who worked need fear want ; large families were the rule, and no parent was anxious lest there should be no opportunity for his children. Under such conditions population increased rapidly, by birth and through immigration. In 1690 it was about 220,000, and in 1760 it reached 1,500,000. Typical Colonial Controversies This narrative cannot deal with the political struggles of all the colonies. Interesting as the stories would be they lead to one end, the evolution of a colonial party ; and in the royal provinces the common keynote of the contests is opposition to royal Develop- prerogative. In the proprietary colonies it is resistance cojoj^ to the wOl of the proprietor, and in the liberally chartered Parties, colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island its traces are found in the common opposition to the British laws relating to trade. Everywhere the spirit of self-government is apparent. What the parli- ament was to England the assembly under the restrictions of its charter aspired to be to the colony. If we consider some of the more notable controversies, we shall see in what manner they looked forward to the ultimate assertion of independence. Governor Phips, the first royal governor of Massachusetts, opened a long quarrel with the assembly when he published his instructions from the king directing him to get the assembly to vote a permanent appropriation for the salaries of the governor c°|,°^^g^ and other officials appointed by the crown. For the gig^^ assembly to comply was to relinquish its best source of power, and the request was ignored. On the contrary, bills assertive of fundamental rights and laws establishing courts were passed, all of which were vetoed in England. This only confirmed ^^^^ the assembly in its determination to keep a firm hand on Governor's the purse-strings. Phips urged the lawmakers to vote Salary in a regular salary, but they would only give 500 pounds Massachu- for services already rendered. To Bellomont, his succes- sor by royal appointment, they gave 1000 pounds for two years' serv- ice. This way of granting money after the completion of a given 102 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT time was thought to be useful in keeping the governor friendly to the colony. In 1702 Joseph Dudley became governor, and ruled fourteen years. He tried in vain to relieve himself from the necessity of taking his remuneration at the discretion of the assembly. At the end of his term of oflSce they had voted him 6050 pounds. In asserting his right to veto acts of assembly he disallowed the election, as speaker, of Thomas Oakes, one of the most astute leaders of the opposition. He claimed that such an election was in the nature of an act of the legislature. A bitter controversy arose, and continued untO, in 1725, in a so-called explanatory charter, the king ordered that the election of speaker should be subject to the governor's approval. The assembly thought it expedient to accept the restriction. The salary controversy, continued under Shute (1716-1728), came to a climax under Burnet (1728-1729). He was instructed to insist on a regular salary of at least looo pounds, and the assembly was told that if it were not granted the charter would be in danger. The reply of the colony was to offer the governor 1700 pounds as a gift, but he was forced to decline it, even when the sum was raised to 3000 pounds. The controversy now became warm, but in the midst of it Burnet came to his death from the oversetting of his carriage in the water, and the assembly showed its favor by voting 2000 pounds to his children. Under Governor Belcher, his successor, the dispute was compromised, 1731, when the assembly came to vote the governor's salary annually, but at the beginning and not at the end of each year. New York and South Carolina in the eighteenth century began to grant the governor's salary year by year, and spite of the protests of the Board of Trade the custom was maintained. In Virginia and the Carolinas the salaries were provided for in general taxes, which did not depend on the annual votes of the assemblies. Closely connected with this controversy was the claim made by most of the assemblies that they, like the English House of Commons, had the sole right to initiate money bills. The CouncU, ^''*w^' d 'usually appointed by the king, had the right to approve Money Bills. ^^^ bills, and this made it an upper chamber of the legis- lature. It usually supported the governor and warred against the assembly. The latter body, by insisting on its control over money bills, assumed a position of superiority, and its good will was so necessary to the success of any governor's administration that it finally won the recognition of its claim. In New York the legislative controversy was also prominent, and here it was concerned with money bills in general. The failure of the legislature of 1683 was resented by the people, and Leisler recognized . the fact by calling an assembly. It authorized him to New York '^''^ *" ^^^ emergency, and the lliight of Nicholson left him in supreme power. The council resented his assumption of authority, and he drove them from his presence as persons " Popishly THE STRUGGLE IN NEW YORK 103 affected, Dogs and Rogues." For him, a man of the people, the aris- tocratic councillors had no tolerance ; and he returned their contempt with interest. But he was a popular leader and kept a semblance of order in the turbulent population of Manhattan. Having proclaimed William and Mary he expected some recognition of his services ; but his sovereigns ignored him and appointed Henry Sloughter governor. They also sent to New York a body of troops under Ingoldesby with instructions to restore order. Ingoldesby arrived before the new gov- ernor landed and demanded the surrender of the fort. He showed no written orders, and Leisler refused to yield. Then Sloughter came and demanded the delivery of the fort, also without showing his authority. After some hesitation Leisler retired. He was arrested for treason, tried by a special court over which Joseph Dudley presided, sentenced to death, and executed. Tradition has it that Sloughter signed the death warrant while drunk. Be that as it may, Sloughter died a few weeks afterwards, a victim of inebriety. Leisler had his faidts, but he did not deserve death, and leaving him a victim to hatred of his enemies is a blot on the reputation of the British government. Sloughter was instructed to summon an assembly " according to the usage " of the other colonies. He and his successors took this to mean that they might at will summon, prorogue, dissolve, and apportion the membership of the lawmaking body. Struggle for An obedient assembly was thus kept long in power, in ^n^w™'''^ one case for eleven years. But not many assemblies York, were obedient, and one of their most common protests was to demand frequent elections. Their persistence won a measure of success in 1743, when a colonial law was approved by the king, making it necessary to have a new election once in seven years. In 1692 the New York assembly began a long controversy over the right to vote money. A committee was appointed to investigate the expenditure of money in support of frontier defense. Its real business was to see if the governor, whose salary The Control the assembly would not vote in a regular way, was not ° Money making up the deficiency by diverting to his own use uew York, some of the funds appropriated to support the gar- rison. The committee could do nothing because the governor did not allow them to see the muster-rolls and accounts. The next assembly (1694) was determined to have its way, and resolved that it would do no business until it had inspected the accounts. Governor Fletcher demurred for a while, but at last sent them the books of the receiver-general. From this time forward the assembly regularly inspected the accounts and might know how the money it had appro- priated was spent. In 1702-1708 Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, was New York's gov- ernor. Without public or private morals, he left a stain on the gov- ernorship blacker than was left by any predecessor or successor. He 104 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT was cousin-gennan of Queen Anne, whom he resembled, and was said to have appeared in woman's clothes to show colonial society what the queen looked like. The assembly voted money N^w YMk"" *° fortify the harbor of New York, but at the next ses- *" ' sion it appeared that he had diverted most of it to his own use, although he had been voted a present of 2000 pounds to pay the expenses of coming to his post. The deed was possible because all money hitherto voted was to the king to be used for the province, and once it was in the hands of a royal official it might be taken for governor's salary or any other purpose authorized by the king. Pre- ceding governors had followed this practice, but not so flagrantly, and the assembly seized the opportunity to check it. A resolu- A Colonial ^^^^ passed to vote no more money except such as was paid out by a treasurer appointed by the assembly and responsible to it. The position was so reasonable that the authorities in England approved it so far as extraordinary grants went. After that the assembly assumed that most appropriations were extraordinary. Nor was the Quaker Commonwealth free from controversy. Penn's humane ideals never failed him, but they were better suited for an Political infant community than for the large province he soon had Change in on his hands. So many reports of dissension reached him Pemisyi- that in 1699 he returned to Philadelphia, hoping, he said, vania. ^^ ^j^^ j.|jg days there. He found the people divided. Quary, surveyor-general of the royal revenue, complained that the navigation laws were not enforced, the people complained that the proprietor did not develop the colony or keep his promises in granting lands, while the proprietor could reply that the people did not pay quit- rents and that the colony itself had impoverished its owner. More than all, the three counties which became Delaware were in dispute over their rights in the colonial assembly. To all the malcontents Penn made earnest pleas for moderation. The upshot was "The Charter of Privileges," passed by the assembly and council and ap- proved by Penn in 1 701 on the eve of his departure for England, whither he was called by the news that Parliament was about to abolish all the proprietary colonies. This "charter" represents the experience of Americans as it was worked out at that time in the problems of self- government in the New World. If any other colony had been allowed to revise its constitution on the basis of what it had discoverd through its own struggles the result would probably have been much lilie that in Pennsylvania, where the mild proprietor was not much of a weight on the constitution-makers. Penn's "Charter" provided for four representatives elected by • N ^^^ freemen of each county to make up an assembly, Charter. which when it met was to elect its own officers, pass on the qualification of its members, prepare bills, and have all rights of an assembly chosen by " free-born subjects of England." The PROGRESS IN PENNSYLVANIA 105 appointment of governor and councillors remained with the proprietor, all who believed in God were to have freedom of conscience, and all Christians could hold office. In 1705 a supplementary act provided that only Protestants could be members of Delewareto the assembly. The dispute with Delaware was settled by ggla^ate allowing it to have a separate assembly from Pennsylvania ; Assembly, but each colony remained under Penn's jurisdiction, and the "Charter" embodied the government of each until the revolu- tion. It was the habit, also, for the same governor to rule over each colony. Probably from an early date the Quakers were less than a majority of the population of Pennsylvania, but they were the most influential portion ; and their peculiar belief brought some annoying situations into existence. For example, they refused to ^f°f!*'°" take oaths, and sometimes even to administer them. They Quakers. passed laws to allow witnesses in court to affirm, but these were disallowed by the king, who, by the original charter, reserved to himself the approval of laws. Then the assembly renewed their enact- ment, incorporating it in the law creating courts so that its , „ .. veto, which followed, left the colony without judicial tri- bunals. This was no great inconvenience to the Quakers, for they usually settled their disputes among themselves ; but it worked hard- ship on others. In 1718 the contest ended with a compromise: the assembly adopted the severe English penal code and in the same bill allowed affirmations ; and the king approved their action. From the beginning of their history the Quakers opposed war ; from which it followed that the colony nt)t only had no militia system, but it refused to vote money to erect forts on the frontier. Its pacific relations with the Indians warranted this course f?. '° so far as internal problems were concerned ; but when service. French influence in the Ohio valley created external prob- lems, over which Quaker good will could exert no direction, the non- resistance principles of Pennsylvania became a serious danger. At this time Benjamin Franklin had become a force in the colony, and when in 1739 the assembly refused to raise a militia at the request of the king, he started an association to establish a volunteer organiza- tion. From a lottery he got funds to build fortifications. His action was approved by practical men, and weakened the opposition of the Quaker party. In 1745 the assembly appropriated 4000 pounds for "bread, beef, pork, flour, wheat or other grain" in support of the garrison in newly captured Louisburg. The governor used part of it to buy gunpowder on the ground that it was "other grain," and his action caused so little scandal that in 1 746 the assembly voted the king 5000 pounds without stipulating the purpose for which it was to be used, although it was well known that it would be used for military defense. xo6 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT From this time we may consider the religious motive in the matter a subordinate one; but it was replaced by a political motive. In 1754 the Indians and French were raicling on the western frontier A Militia ^^j.^^ j). ^j^g necessary for the militia system to be taken EstabUshed. under public control. The assembly would do nothing unless the estates of the proprietor were taxed. They referred to the large amount of his unsold land from which he had no revenue, and through his influence the law failed. Then came the defeat of Braddock, followed by frontier outrages. So strong a cry went up from the non-Quaker inliabitants that the ministry in London heard it and brought a bill into Parliament to require members of the Pennsylvania assembly to take the oath of allegiance. This would effectually exclude Quakers from that body. Alarmed at the prospect of a permanent discrimination, they now decided to >-ield temporarily. Through the intervention of friends the bill was withdrawn from Parlia- ment and the Quakers in the colony agreed not to stand for election to the next assembly. In a legislature thus purged of old ideas it was easy to pass laws for a mUitia and for fortifications. Penn's last days were full of financial troubles, to which were added mental infirmities. He died in 17 18, leaving his colony to his four sons, for whom his widow acted until her death in 1726. Two Later His- gf ^]^g sons, John and Thomas, resided in Philadelphia, Penn * ^^^ former for one and the latter for fifteen years. The Family. development of the province made the proprietors very rich, and the demand that they should pay taxes on their lands became strong. They resisted successfully, since they controlled the governorship. In 1763 John Penn, grandson of the founder, be- came governor, and continued in office until the Revolution. The later Penns returned to the Church of England, which tended to widen the breach between the family and the colonists. In 177S the state of Pennsylvania annulled the charter and allowed the proprietors 130,000 pounds in lieu of their rights. Latei;, 1786, a supplementary grant was made to them, and the king himself gave an annuity of 4000 pounds. The history of Pennsylvania shows the proprietary colony at its best : that of Carolina shows it at its worst. The eight proprietors knew nothing of their colony, which they did not visit. Mrsrofel^^ They had no other interest in it than to get money, and CaroUna. when that failed they ceased to pay attention to its needs. They had no military force with which to pre- serve order or to enforce their own rights. By 1690 the shares had passed for the most part into the hands of a group of merchants who were as much disappointed as their predecessors with the enterprise. Meanwhile the people of the colony grew in numbers and prosperity. About 1690 the northern settlements began to be called North Carolina. In that year a governor was appointed for the first time for all Carolina, NORTH CAROLINA AND THE CROWN 107 with authority to appoint a deputy governor for the northern settle- ments. In 1 7 14 Charles Eden was made governor of North Carolina without reference to the governor of South Carolina. At this time North Carolina was in serious commotion. rf,„r„« . ... Carolina. Its population was strongly dissenting, among them many Quakers. The official class were of the Church of England, and by tendering the oaths of supremacy to the Quakers elected to the assembly they could rule the colony. The result was a social revolt, the mass of poor men arrayed against the aristo- crats and conservatives. After seven years of commotion ^gbelUon the former had a leader in Thomas Cary,who,in 17 11, took up arms, but was defeated and captured with the aid of troops from Virginia. Immediately afterwards came an Indian war in which only aid sent from Charleston enabled the whites to triumph. In 171 5 South Carolina had a fierce struggle fn^ianWars of her own and received valuable aid from her northern caroUnas. sister. Thus the Carolinas passed safely through that stern Indian struggle which came to most colonies when the savages realized the significance of the white man's advance into the interior. In 1729 seven of the proprietors sold their rights to the crown. The one remaining was Carteret, later Earl of Grenville. In 1743 he re- ceived in lieu of his rights as proprietor a broad belt of land in the northern part of North Carolina, to have in fee the ungranted parts and to collect the quitrents on the granted portion. This vast estate was not to be managed without serious trouble in a community in which the rights of feudal proprietors were not tenderly regarded. But the conversion of the two colonies into royal provinces was bene- ficial to their development. Five royal governors ruled in North Carolina, and the pathway of each was strewn with thorns. The most continual quarrel was in regard to the payment of quitrents. These were a per- petual obligation imposed on land when first granted and The Quit- to be paid by whomever owned the land. They do not J^"* ^°°'. mean that the grantee did not have fee-simple title, as North has sometimes been assumed, but were in the nature of a Carolina. permanent land tax. To pay them was irksome to the settlers, who found many ways of e^•asion. One difficulty was that they were payable in tobacco or other produce, and that the expense of collecting from small farmers ate up the value of the proceeds. To obviate this the governor ordered that quitrents be paid at certain specified places. The inhabitants protested, and a law passed the as- sembly to authorize payment at the home of the landowner, where most other rents were paid. The governor vetoed the bill, and a deadlock resulted. For many years the revenue from quitrents was very slender. io8 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT Meanwhile, South Carolina grew in wealth through the cultivation of rice and indigo. Great numbers of negro slaves were imported, so that in 17 19 there were 12,000 to a white population of Progress in ^qqq -phe accumulation of wealth gave society an aris- P°"'!^ tocratic tone, and Charleston became a seat of elegance Carolina. ^^^^ luxury. One result was to lessen respect for the weak authority of the proprietors, and about 17 16 a series of reforms began. Hitherto all the elections were held in Charleston and all freemen were allowed to vote. It was claimed that persons in the interests of the proprietors thus controlled the elections, going so far as to allow In- dians and non-resident sailors to vote in order to carry their cause. In 1716 the Indian war was just over. The proprietors had contributed nothing to the defense of the colony, and their influence in the assembly was low. The moment was favorable for election reforms, and a law passed directing that future elections be held in the parishes with a small property restriction for voters, thus shifting the center of power from the Charlestonians to the planter class. The same assembly de- cided to appoint its own receiver for taxes paid by the In- Overthrow ^^^ traders. Both laws were promptly vetoed by the tory R^ide" proprietors, together with a previous law levying duties. The people were in a rebellious mood, when news circulated of an expected attack, from the Spanish in Florida. The governor called out the militia, who at once constituted themselves an army of revolt against the proprietary regime. New elections of the assembly had been held, and the members met, resoh-ed themselves into a con- vention, after the example of the convention parliament of 1689, re- pudiated the authority of the proprietors, and asked the king to rule the colony as a royal province. The quickness with which the Board of Trade acceded to this request gives some strength to the suspicion that it connived at the revolution in the first instance. The pro- prietors, however, retained their rights to the land until the two col- onies were sold to the king in 1729. In its new capacity. South Carolina had peace, and developed in wealth. Great sla\-e plantations became the nde, whereas in North Carolina small farms were prevakMit. In 1717 the popu- The Two lation of the two colonies was about 19,000 and 9000 re- Compar^ed. spectively, in 1760 it was 100,000 and 93,000. Witliin this period the slave population grew from 12,000 to 70,000 in South Carolina and from an inconsiderable number, probably 1500, to 16,000 in North Carolina. The latter colony was ever noted for its democratic conditions. It had no good harbors and no staple products out of which riches could be gathered. It was a land of simple abun- dance and the refuge of those who wished to avoid the aristocratic con- ditions of the neighboring colonies. THE WORK OF OGLETHORPE 109 Georgia Founded What Penn was to the Quaker colony General James Oglethorpe was to Georgia. As a member of parliament, philanthropist, and colony planter, few men of his day deserve more our re- _ spect. His sympathy was drawn to the inmates of the '' debtors' prisons, and he wished to plant a colony in which they might begin life anew. Many noblemen, clergymen, and others sup- ported the plan, and in 1732 the king by charter created the Georgia "Trustees," a company to plant a colony between the Savannah river and Florida. The king and his advisers were opposed to proprietary governments in general, but they rela.xed their opposition in this case because the new colony would make a "buffer " "^j*® ^"'""y between South Carolina and the Spanish possessions. But project^, as a matter of simple precaution it was provided that the charter should expire m twenty-one years, after which Georgia would become a royal province. The trustees lost no time in announcing their plans of settlement. Recent affairs in South Carolina showed that when slaves far exceeded the white population the capacity of defense was lessened, and it was determined to exclude slavery from Georgia. With an eye, also, to the character of the expected debtor immigrants it was provided that one person should own no more than 500 acres of land and that grants should be strictly entailed to male heirs, in default of which they should revert to the trustees. While these regulations may have been warranted by the conditions they were devised to meet, they could only discourage the immigration of normally competent persons. Every colony in America had an abundance of land for those who would take it, and a new colony in an exposed position could not ex- pect to have settlers unless it offered liberal terms. The prohibition of slavery was well intended by the trustees, but it displeased the actual settlers, who sent to England urgent pleas for the repeal of the regulation. They saw how men prospered in South Carolina through slave labor and resented the arbitrary power which kept them from the same fortune. In January, 1733, Oglethorpe, who was appointed governor, arrived in Charleston with the first Georgia colony, about one hundred men, women, and children. Indian treaties were made by which the Creeks, inhabiting the Georgia coast, ceded gg^|^^ the site of Savannah and took the settlers for allies. Other English settlers came slowly ; the trustees, like other proprietors of colonies, spent little money on the enterprise after the enthusiasm of launching it was gone. Only a small proportion of those who went over were debtors. In 1734 a company of Protestants from Salzburg arrived, and later on other Germans landed. Another source of popu- no COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT lation was the Scotch Highlanders, who settled along the Altamaha. In 1760 the population was only 9000, of whom 3000 were slaves. The colony was planted in defiance of Spain's claim to all the coast as far north as Charleston. Oglethorpe ignored her protests and challenged the Spaniards by erecting a fort at Frederica, Oglethorpe ^j^g southern extremity of his charter limits. He even Spaniards "^6"^ SO far as to found small posts as far as the St. John's river, within the bounds of Florida. So threatening became the situation that he went to England for assistance. He was authorized to raise a regiment, and returned to Georgia, 1738, with instructions not to fight until attacked. In 1739 began a war with Spain. Oglethorpe now marched against St. Augustine, but withdrew after a short siege. In 1742 the Spaniards retaliated by sending a strong expedition against Frederica. Oglethorpe had a force much inferior, but by utilizing favorable natural defenses drove off the invaders. The end of the war, 1748, found Georgia undisturbed by Spain, and thenceforth disappeared any doubts of the success of the new colony. Now comes into greater prominence the protests of the settlers against the paternal restrictions of the well-intentioned trustees. George Whitfield, the missionary, who had founded an orphanage RemoTed"^ in Georgia, was one of those who urged the free admission of slaves. So strong was the cry of the objectors that one by one the restrictions were removed. In 1749 the importation of slaves was allowed, with certain safeguards as to the proportions of slave and free population. In 1750 the objectionable restrictions on land owning were removed, and at the same time the importation of rum, hitherto forbidden, was allowed. These relaxations gave greater freedom to individual enterprise, and the result was favorable. The early government of Georgia was very paternal, as became a colony founded for the inmates of debtors' prisons. There was no assembly, laws were made by the trustees, resident in in°Georria" England, and the governor had extensive powers. When Oglethorpe at last went to England, 1743, a president and four assistants were left in charge. In 1751 an assembly was summoned. It was not to make laws, however, but to suggest them to the trustees. At this time Oglethorpe and his associates were discouraged with their attempts to govern men more wisely than they could govern themselves. In view of the approaching termina- tion of their charter, 1753, they thought it well to surrender their authority over the colony. Thus Georgia became a royal province and prospered under a governor, council, and assembly. COLIGNY'S FLORIDA COLONY m Growth of New France While the English gradually extended their agricultural settle- ments from the coast to the Alleghanies, France was establishing a less solid occupation in the Mississippi Basin. Her flag was carried forward by traders, who at wide intervals English and built forts occupied by small garrisons. Such occupancy jjj^^tion did not alarm the natives. In fact, it pleased them; for the game was not driven away, and an abundance of manufactured goods and a convenient market for furs were assured. To main- tain the forts was expensive, and if war should come, the defense of the vast region must be made by troops sent from Canada or France. The French power, therefore, was not so well rooted in the soil as that of England on the coast. The beginning of French colonization in America was in the six- teenth century, when Coligny, the Huguenot leader, made an unsuc- cessful attempt to establish in "Florida" a refuge for his coreligionists. In 1562 he sent out Ribaut, a bold ^"['^"^.^ mariner, to ex^plore the coast and select a place for settle- "piorida." ment. Ribaut was delighted with the country, and left thirty men at Port Royal harbor in a rude palisade, called "Charle- fort " for Charles IX. Idleness and want soon brought them to mutiny, and they escaped to Europe in a boat of their own construc- tion. Starving and reduced to cannibalism, they at last sighted the French shore, only to be made captives by an English vessel which happened to be near. Coligny was not discouraged, and in 1564 sent out a colony undei Laudonniere. It settled at the mouth of St. John's river and buii^ Fort Caroline, named, like its predecessor, in honor of the king. Hunger and discontent soon appeared, and Second the colony was on the verge of ruin when a second expedi- rl^Yne °^ tion brought supplies and restored the spirits of the 1664. people. What would have followed does not appear ; for a greater danger than any liitherto encountered was at hand. The Spaniards of Cuba had heard of the settlement, and September 19, 1565, Pedro Menendez, with a strong Spanish force, surprised the fort and slew the Frenchmen who did not escape to the forest or declare themselves Catholics. Leaving a garrison on the site, he founded St. Augustine, fifty miles southward. The Florida coast commanded the route by which Spanish treasure ships returned from the Gulf of Mexico, and it was not to be left in the hands of a foreign power. News of Menendez's atrocities caused great commotion in France, and in the spring of 1568 Dominique de Gourgues appeared at Fort Caroline. He surprised the garrison, slew those who re- sisted, and hanged the prisoners. Over the slain Hugueno*» il:' COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT Menendez had put up this notice: "I do this not as to Frenchmen but as to Lutherans." De Gourgues left over the dangling bodies of the Spaniards this inscription: "I do this not as to Spaniards, nor as to Marranos, but as to traitors, robbers, and to murderers." But for all this St. Augustine continued to exist and Florida remained a Spanish colony. In Canada, where Cartier's explorations, 1534, 153S, and 1541, had gi\'en France a claim by right of prior discovery, French coloniza- tion fared better. Fur traders continued to visit the France §(-_ Lawrence, but no other impetus toward planting toward settlements was seen until the region came under the Canada. eyes of Champlain, who arrived as the guest of a trader in 1603. From that time his interest was keenly aroused. The next year he returned with De Monts,who had a charter to plant a colony in La Cadie, or Acadia, as the French had called the region from northern Nova Scotia to Philadelphia. A settlement made at Douchet Island proved unsatisfactory, and the colonists moved _. to the neighborhood of Annapolis, where they managed to withstand the cold and perils of the forest for many years. De Monts, however, was discouraged, and withdrew from the undertaking. But Champlain's zeal was unabated. What he had seen only made him love the long stretches of shore and forest along which he sailed for many a day. In 1608 he returned to F ^''d'^rt plant a trading colony at Quebec, wliich his discerning 1608. ' ^y^ selected as the key to the St. Lawrence valley. Fur trading supported his colony, but his adventurous spirit ^ught other fields. The Indians around him, Algonquins, were at ^ud with the Iroquois, and Champlain was induced to aid them. Early in 1609 he, with two other whites, joined a war party going southward. He eventually reached the lake which now has his name, and on its shore a battle was fought. As the Iroquois advanced across a plain, Champlain in full amior showed himself, shot two Indians dead, and wounded another. A third was killed by one of the other whites, and the savages fled. From that time the French settlements in Canada had the hostility of the powerful the^lroquois. I^oquois Confederacy. Chamjjlain had naturally thought best to make friends with the Indians among whom he had settled, and for many years his action produced no bad results ; but there came a time when the French wished to extend their influence into the region now known as western New York, and were pre- vented by Iroquoian hostility. By this small occurrence in 1609 the eastern and southern shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie were kept out of French hands and made accessible at the proper time to the English-speaking people. New France, as the St. Lawrence region was now called, grew slowly. It was only a series of trading posts, and so little concerned THE JESUITS IN NEW FRANCE 113 with agriculture that in 1628, when war interrupted communi- cation with Europe, only one family in Quebec had raised enough food to support it through the winter. In i66o q °J^,j ^f there were 3000 white settlers, including the fishing posts New France, in Acadia. In 1629 Quebec was taken by the English, but Charles I restored it to France. Champlain died at Quebec in 1635. It was about this time that the Jesuits turned their attention to Canada. They proposed to convert and civilize the Indians, and thus establish French power in the Lake region while they delivered into French hands an immense fur trade, thejesuits With the Algonquins on the St. Lawrence they were easily successful : then they sent missions to the Hurons, on the shores of the lake which now bears their name, and here, after some delays, they also succeeded. With the Iroquois they could, for a long time, make no headway. It is not probable that an Indian nation under French inliuence, howe\'er civilized, could have kept the English permanently out of the region south of Lake Erie ; and it is certain that the Iroquois, through their hostility to everything French, defeated the hopes of the Jesuits and made easier the progress of the English. But the work of the priests commands our esteem. They went without hesitation into the most dangerous places, giving up their lives as readily to torture as to disease. Their "Relations," reports of their experiences, were published contemporaneously in France and stimulated popular interest in Canada, while for posterity they are a valuable source of knowledge of Indian life. On the savages themselves the missionaries exerted a good influence. The tendency to make war continually was lessened, the most barbarous forms of torturing captives disappeared, and their general antipathy toward the whites was softened. On the other hand, the power of the Jesuits was used to promote French dominion, and some of the most cruel raids against the New England frontier were instigated by priests. Let us now turn to the Iroquois, for many years the foes of the Jesuits. Five nations, the Mohawks on the east, and next in order, the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas made up the Confederacy. A sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, thelroquois of North Carolina, did not join the Confederacy until 1 7 13. In the time of Champlain the strength of the Iroquois was about 2500 warriors; but superior central organization, with the courage of the men, made it the most powerful Indian organization of the North Atlantic coast. The wars against the French and the Algonquins were usually led by the Mohawks, those against the Hurons by the Senecas. By 1650 the Hurons were broken and dispersed, and by 1750 the Iroquoian authority through a series of wars was imposed in a loose way over all the western tribes as far as Lake Michigan, the Illinois, and the Mississippi, and southward to the northern 114 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT limits of the present states of Mississippi and Alabama. Armed by the Dutch, the Mohawks and neighboring nations made life wretched for the French and Algonquins on the St. Lawrence. In 1665 Louis XIV sent a fine regiment to America to chastise this fierce enemy. In two fruitless expeditions it destroyed some villages which the inhabitants had abandoned, and only succeeded in stimulating the Mohawks' hatred of France. At this time (1664) New York passed into English hands. Its new masters early appreciated the importance of Iroquoian friendship, and in 1684, in a memorable treaty at Albany, induced them to acknowledge themselves English subjects. the'Engiish Governor Dongan, of New York, thereupon informed the governor of Canada that the province of New York included the Iroquois lands, and caused the arms of the Duke of York to be affi.xed to walls of the Iroquois towns. The reply was a French invasion wliich accomplished nothing. For the time it was believed that the French would make a determined attempt against New York, which was not able to offer serious resistance. It was partly to have a consolidated force strong enough to meet this danger that James II created the short-lived Dominion of New England. France and England were now keenly alive to the importance of their Amer- ican possessions, and their wars for the ne.xt seventy years always kindled the conflict on the American frontier. But that part of our story must be deferred while we consider the extension of French authority in the Mississippi valley. The missionaries to the Hurons were the first Frenchmen to have knowledge of the rich country beyond Lake Erie. Though driven out of it by the dispersion of the Indians, they kept alive and'^Jollet^ the knowledge of its wonders. In 1673 Father Marquette, member of the indomitable society, and Joliet, a trader, going through this country, came to the Wisconsin river, down which they took their canoes until they came to the Mississippi, which they followed to the mouth of the Arkansas. They desired to reach the salt sea, but prudently turned back lest they fall into Spanish hands and knowledge of their discovery perish with them. What they failed to do was achieved by La Salle, one of the most intrepid of the French explorers. He wished to organize the fur trade La Salle """^ ^'^^ lakes, and from the profits carry on extensive discoveries in the region beyond. A license was obtained from the king, and money was subscribed by friends, but the opposition of Quebec merchants and the Jesuits was a severe impediment. Before complete ruin overtook his scheme he set out in December, 16S1, to follow the "Great River" of Marciuette and Joliet to the sea. With him were Tonti, a faithful friend, and fifty-three others. French- men and Indians. From Lake Michigan they ascended the Chicago to its source and thence by portage to the Illinois, down which they reached the Mississippi, and April 6 they passed out one of its sluggish THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER 115 mouths to the Gulf of Mexico. The Indians were friendly and as- sured La Salle that he was the first white man to explore the river ; he took possession of its banks in the name of the king of France. News of his acliievement aroused enthusiasm in France, and in 1684 he set out with a colony and four ships, fitted out by the king, to settle at the mouth of the Mississippi. After many hardships he landed on the Texas coast, whence he started overland to find the river he had traversed and to communicate with Tonti, whom he expected to arrive from Canada. In the interior he was murdered _. ^ by his own men, 16S7, and of his followers only a few survived starvation on the great plains or escaped the hands of the Spaniards. La Salle's unfinished work was taken up in 1698 by dTberville and his brother, Bienville, both notable men in !S!'ew France. In January, 1699, they arrived by sea and planted a trading post at Biloxi, on the mainland near the mouth of the 5°"',^'?"* river. Bienv'Ule was governor, and the country was called ^^gg ' Louisiana, for Louis XIV. For many years the fate of the place seemed doubtful. The Indian trade was engrossed by the English and Spaniards, and the colonists were not inclined to become agriculturists. In 1712 the monopoly of the Louisiana trade was granted for fifteen years to Crozat, but he managed it so badly that it yielded small returns. Five years later the colony, including trade privileges and the ownership of ungranted lands, passed into the hands of Law's Mississippi Company. Its immense possibilities, which were carefully exploited by the adventurers, gave a basis of confidence to the company ; but the final collapse was certain. Before it came, however. New Orleans was founded, 17 18, and became the seat of government of Louisiana. In 1731 the company gave up its rights, and the colony was thenceforth governed by the crown. It had no popular assembly, but the authority was in the hands of a governor with local courts, from the decisions of which ajipeal lay to the king. The population grew slowly, and by the middle of the century it was not more than six thousand, one third being slaves. At this time St. Louis, Natchez, and several other interior posts had been established. The French and Indian Wars Three great Frenchmen influenced the history of New France late in the seventeenth century, — Louis XIV, Colbert, his minister, and Frontenac, twice governor of Canada, 1672 to 1682 and i68g until his death in 1698. The firstand second acted to- p°i^°' gether, creating in 1664 a consolidated company with trade monopoly for all the French colonies. To it the king offered bounties for all goods exported or imported and generous assistance in the ii6 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT early years of the enterprise. To encourage infant industries liberal grants were made, immigration was stimulated, marriage was en- couraged, and large families were rewarded in many and'coibert ^^'^.ys. Louis XIV watched eagerly the reports of Canadian population. They could have given him little comfort for all he had spent, since in 1679 the colony contained but 9400 whites, and there were only 6983 horned cattle, 719 sheep, and 145 horses. Colbert died in 1683, but his policy in Canada was continued. Frontenac was chiefly notable for his ability in dealing with the Iroquois. In 1673 he made a treaty with them and built a fort where Kingston now stands. He said that with a vessel on Ptos*"^*^^ Lake Erie and a fort on the Niagara he could now control the upper lakes. The ship, the Griffon, was built by La Salle, but was wrecked on her first voyage. Frontenac supported La Salle's trading enterprise and thus incurred the opposition of the Quebec traders, whose profits were affected. He also incurred the hostility of the Jesuits, whose power by this time was overwhelming. Combining their efforts, his enemies secured his removal in 1682. His successors renewed the war with the Iroquois, who were thus thrown back on the English for support. By this time the French were aware of the vast possibilities of the interior parts of North America. Of the three river valleys that conduct thither they held two, the St. Lawrence and the 1)™°*^^ Mississippi, and it seemed necessary to seize the other, Hudson. I^he Hudson, ere it was able to defy them. To do so would cut the English settlements in twain and go far toward expelling English authority from the continent. Moreover, the opportunity to realize these plans seemed to come when in 1689 France began war with England on account of the overthrow of James II by William of Orange. Her first care was to send Frontenac back to Canada as governor, and he immediately turned his attention to winning over the Iroquois. In order to impress them with French prowess he sent ^'"^ ^'" three expeditions against the English frontier. February 1690-1697.' 9> 1690, a force of Frenchmen and Indians surprised Schenectady, near Albany, slew 60 whites and led away 27 captives. The second force attacked and destroyed the village of Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, and the third took Fort Loyal, where Portland, Maine, now stands. Each of these Raids*"**^ ^ affairs was conducted with much cruelty, and cries for vengeance arose from all the northern colonies. A congress of delegates from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth, and New York convened in May, 1690, and planned a retaliatory ex-pedition to take Quebec. It was agreed that New York and Connec- ticut shoidd raise an army and attack Montreal by way of Lake KING WILLIAM'S WAR 117 Champlain. Massachusetts was asked to cooperate by sending a naval force against Quebec. To this request her delegates would not positively agree. At that moment a fleet of her armed merchantmen, under the command of Sir William ^ Counter- Phips, was engaged in an expedition against Port Royal, in pjamfed. Acadia, a nest from which had gone forth many privateers. Soon Phips appeared in Boston laden with booty and reporting that Port Royal had been subdued and its inhabitants forced to take oaths of loyalty to William and Mary. So great p^^ ro °^ was the enthusiasm that the colony decided to send a strong force against Quebec, believing that a bold stroke would end the French perU in that cjuarter once for all. While Massachusetts made ready her attack, the army of the other colonies had assembled and set out for Montreal. Dissension appeared, smallpox was discovered, the Iroquois allies did not keep their promises, and the expedition was abandoned at ^, Jf ^ °l Lake Champlain. After many delays Phips started for stroke. Quebec August 9, 1690. He had no pilot who knew the St. Lawrence, and as he groped his way through its course news of his movements was carried to Frontenac, who barely had time to collect his forces at Quebec, most of them having been drawn off to Montreal to meet the expected attack there. The Massachusetts men landed 1200 strong and laid siege to the town. Their commander lacked the ability of his opponent, and soon disease and discouragement reigned in the army. Cold weather now approached, and it was decided to return to Boston. Had Phips acted vigorously at first, it is prob- able that the town would have been taken. The expedition cost the colony dearly both in money and in the men who died from disease. The war now waged was called in the colonies "King William's War." It lasted untU 1697, when peace came with the Treaty of Ryswick between France and England. No large expedi- ti(m marked the further course of the struggle on either ^-fl^ , , . . . , T T <* • Kaias. side m America, but Indian forays were continuous. The New England borders, from Northampton to Pemaquid, suffered severely. In 1697 Haverhill was captured with scenes of bloodshed. One of the captives was Hannah Dustin. Led away toward Canada, she watched her opportunity, slew her captors, and escaped to her friends. Her achievement was long a source of inspiration to the frontier women of America. During this war the Irociuois suffered severely at the hands of the French. Two strong expeditions were sent against them by Frontenac, and it was reported by the French that their fighting men were reduced to half their former number. In 1694 they were willing to make peace with f^^^l/ France, but Frontenac refused unless the Indian allies of the French were included, — terms the Iroquois would not accept. In maintaining the good will of these savages the services of Peter ii8 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT Schuyler, of Albany, were most valuable to the English. The treaty of peace left affairs as they were at the beginning of the war. In 1 701 began the War of the Spanish Succession, whose American phase was called "Queen Anne's War." During the interval of peace the French had made a treaty with the Iroquois. A Queen further peaceful influence was the conversion of a large ^701-1711*^' portion of the Mohawks and their removal to the vicinity of Montreal. Thus Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, was able for several years to preserve friendship with this powerful con- federacy, and in consequence the New York border did not suffer in Queen Anne's War as formerly. It was otherwise with New England. The Abenakis, who lived on this frontier, were under the influence of the missionaries, and faithful to France. The governor used them to harass the settlements, and their captives were turned over to the missionaries for conversion to Catholicism. Every portion of this frontier suffered, but the severest blow was at Deerfield, February, 1704. Fifty Canadians and two hundred Indians fell on the place on a bitterly cold night, scaled Raided ^^'^^ palisade before they could be discovered, and killed the inhabitants from house to house. Fifty-three whites perished during the night and one hundred and eleven were carried away through the frozen forests, among them Rev. John Williams and his family. Seventeen of the prisoners were kUled on the march because they could not keep up with their captors, and others died of hunger. Mrs. Williams died in the former way, but the husband and children reached Canada safely. After futile efforts to force him to conversion he was purchased by the governor from his Indian master, and in later years he and the survivors were ransomed by their friends in New England. Many "New England Captives" refused to return when the opportunity offered. Of this class was Eunice Williams, daughter of the Deerfield minister. Converted to Ca- tholicism and married to an Indian husband, she clung to her new home and religion. England was by this time convinced of the importance of taking Canada, and made plans for a joint English and colonial expedition for that purpose. In 1710 a fleet appeared in Boston, Taken."^* where it was joined by a body of colonial troops and suc- ceeded in taking Port Royal, whose name was changed to Annapolis. From that time Acadia was a British possession. In 1711a still larger fleet appeared, commanded by Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker. On board was an army under John Hill, SkHo^ven- brother of Queen Anne's favorite, Mrs. Masham. This den Walker, force, after receiving recruits in Boston, numbered 12,000 men, and should have taken Quebec with ease. But the admiral would not trust his French pilots, and ran on the rocks near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, with a loss of ten COLONIAL RESULTS OF THE WAR iig ships and qoo men. With this he lost heart and abandoned tlie expedition. In this war Spain was aUied with France, and for that reason war be- gan between her colonies and South Carolina. The initiative was with the Spaniards of Florida, who in 1702 armed a large number of Indians for a hostile movement. Before they could 5°"'?^ attack they were severely defeated by a body of Indians a„(j Florida, raised by the South Carolinians, who then attacked St. Augustine, burned the town, but failed to capture the fort held by a Spanish garrison. Next year they raided the Florida plantations, doing much damage. In 1706 the Spaniards retaliated with a large French and Spanish fleet and a strong landing party sent out from Havana to take Charleston. It met a stout resistance from Governor Nathaniel Johnson and the colonial army. An attempt to land was beaten back and the invading fleet was attacked so vigorously by a flotilla of Carolina craft that it departed. A French man-of-war which anchored in a neighboring bay was surrounded and taken. In this spirited defense of their chief city the South Carolinians showed great courage, and it is likely that with the aid of a small English force they could have destroyed Spanish power in Florida. By this time England and France, with their allies, were tired of the war, and peace was made at Utrecht, 1713. As to America, the terms were : (i) England was to have Acadia, whose boundaries, however, were not defined ; (2) the Iroquois '^^^J^^t^J were acknowledged as English subjects, but their boun- jyj,_ ' daries also were not defined ; (3) Newfoundland was ceded to England, but the French might dry fish on a part of the coast ; and (4) the Hudson Bay region was to be English territory. This was the first important treaty in which the affairs of English America figured, and Professor Channing well says it may be regarded as the beginning of the diplomatic history of the United States. Acadia now became the royal province of Nova Scotia. Its posses- sion by the British meant much for the New England fisheries. The Hudson Bay clause, also, had special significance. Fifty years earlier Groseillier and Radisson, two Frenchmen The Hud- excluded from the fur trade by the system of monopolies company. in existence in Canada, learned that the Canadian north- west could be approached from the great bay of the north. After futile efforts to get financial support in Boston and Paris, they got help from a group of English nobles, among them Prince Rupert, cousin of the king. The result was a charter for the Hudson Bay Company, 1670. Thus was founded the great commercial organi- sation which has worked so mightily to extend British influence in the northern parts of the continent. It received its guarantee of I20 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT territorial development in the Treaty of Utrecht. Still another feature of this treaty which was important to the colonies was the clause kiiown as the "Assiento," by which EngHsh merchants "^s'e to" ^^^^ ^°'- '-^''^y yeiirs the monopoly of the slave trade in Spanish America. Out of the firm development of this trade English colonial slavery as well as colonial trade was to get an added impetus. To make good the loss of Port Royal, France now built a strong fortress on Cape Breton Island, caUing it Louisburg. This evident determination to perpetuate her influence in that region ^"'s , convinced the English authorities that further trouble George s ^^^^ ^^ ^^ expected on the frontier. The expectation 1748. was realized when the War of the Austrian Succession began in 1744. In tliis struggle England and France were again on opposite sides, and hostilities at once began in America, where the conflict is known as " King George's War." It was hardly begun before Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, and his associates were laying plans to take Louisburg. Indeed, they could hardly do otherwise ; for the place harbored so many privateers that New England fishermen and traders were reduced to direst distress. For this expedition New England raised 4000 men who sailed from Boston on March 24, 1745, under the command of William Pepperell, a rich merchant of Kittery, Maine. He found Louisburg Taken ^ insufiiciently garrisoned and supplied, and a British fleet arriving at that time in the Gulf of Newfoundland served to keep French reenforcements from the beleaguered fort. After forty days of siege Pepperell received the surrender of the stronghold. The news of this colonial achievement caused an out- break of surprise and joy in England, and for his part in it the com- mander was made a baronet. In France it caused bewilderment and dismay. Two expeditions were sent to retake Louisburg, but the first, 1746, returned on account of storms and the death of the commander, and the second, 1747, was driven back by a British fleet. In 1746 Shirley organized a strong land expedition against Canada, but it was disbanded by the English authorities, who needed elsewhere the regulars Shirley expected to use. In 1748 the war ended in the Treaty of Abc-la-Chapelle. Louisburg the War° ^^'^^ unwisely restored to France, and an attempt was made to soothe New England's disappointment by a donation of money which partly repaid her expenses in the war. WHO SHALL HAVE THE OHIO? i2i The Last Conflict between the English and the French m North America No one who knew the conditions in America believed that the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle settled the differences between England and France. In fact, every year brought the settlements of the two powers closer together, and in doing so increased French and the probability of war. A series of posts from the upper ^^^q^^' Mississippi to the lakes through the Wabash valley valley, marked a continuous line of travel ; and in 1740, the year after the treaty was signed, the governor of Canada sent Celeron de Bienville with 214 white men and a force of Indians to take posses- sion of the Ohio valley. In token of their pretensions they planted leaden plates from Lake Chautauqua down the Alleghany and the Ohio and up the Great Miami, including a portion of the undisputed territory of the Iroquois. On the journey they met several bands of English traders, whom they ordered out of the country. In the same year several Virginians, among them Lawrence and Augustine Washington, brothers of the future president of the republic, secured a royal grant for 200,000 acres of land south of the Ohio and between the Monongahela and Kanawha. About the same time a still larger tract was secured by the Loyal Land Company to be located beyond the mountains, probably in Tennessee or Kentucky. These two movements, French and English, brought the two rival nations into close proximity in a region which each regarded as the key to the control of the interior. A clash could hardly be avoided. If additional motive was necessary, it was to be found in Indian relations in the lower part of the great valley. In the southern Appalachians lived the Cherokees, a strong and progressive nation. From the se\-enteenth century the Virginia Conflicting traders visited it, but with the settlement of Carolina ^^ South. its rich trade was absorbed by the merchants of Charleston. When Georgia was settled Augusta became a strong rival of Charleston. This shifting of the Cherokee trade from place to place has nothing to do with the conflict for the Mississippi valley, but it well shows the progress of industrial distribution. In 1730 the English made a treaty with the Cherokees, taking them under British protection. South of them were the Creeks, another powerful nation, and west- ward on the Mississippi the Chickasaws and Choctaws. With these latter tribes the English had traded also, but the Spaniards disputed with them the trade of the Creeks, and after the settlement of BOoxi, New Orleans, and Mobile (1710) the French became com- petitors for it. They made treaties with the three last-mentioned nations, and what was the horror of the Englishmen to learn that active efforts were being made to win the Cherokees. If France 122 COLONL\L DEVELOPMENT could establish a firm influence over these western tribes, it was clear she would be in a strong position to exclude any rival power not only from the western trade but from pretensions at sovereignty as well. But let us return to events in the Ohio valley. Four years after Bienville's journey, i.e. in 1753, Duquesne, the governor of Canada, sent 1000 men to the same region. They constructed f th Ohfo ^ ^'■''^'^ thirteen miles long from Presque Isle, now Erie, to the Riviere aux Boeufs, tributary of the Allegheny, where they built Fort Le Bceuf, and about forty miles southward they built Fort Machault on the Allegheny. Whither this tended was easy to see, and Governor Dinmddie, of Virginia, sent a protest by the hands of George Washington, a young man of twenty-one years whose character had already won the confidence of all who knew him. The region occupied, so said the protest, was in Virginia, and the governor of Canada was told to vacate it. The commandant at Fort de Boeuf forwarded the letter to Governor Duquesne, and Wasliington returned by a most difficult journey to Virginia. On the way he met a party going into the wilderness to build a trading fort at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, a critical point which the French advance had not yet reached. They had hardly accomplished their purpose when a large French force descended the Allegheny in canoes, took the fort, and enlarged and strengthened it, changing the name to Fort Duquesne. This happened in April, 1754- At Will's Creek (Cumberland, Md.) the expelled English garrison met Washington, now lieutenant colonel, whom Governor Dinwiddie had sent forward with 300 men to strengthen the garrison Successful ^^ ^^^ forks of the Ohio. The task assigned was beyond his present strength, but Washington determined to go forward and open and hold a road by which a larger party could drive out the French. With great difficulty he cut a road across the moun- tains, and came late in May to Great Meadows, fifty miles from Will's Creek. Learnmg from friendly Indians that a French detach- ment had marched to meet him, he surprised and defeated it. May 28. The French explained afterwards that the detachment, whose leader, Jumonville, was kDled, merely came to warn the English out of the country. The affair was followed by a movement in force against the colonial army. Washington built a rude work. Fort Necessity, and met the attack as well as he could, hoping to hold out until reen- forcements arrived. His efforts were futile, and July 4 he sur- rendered the place, marching out with the honors of war. The war which was thus begun had been foreseen by the British government, who in 1753 ordered the governors of certain colonies to hold a conference with the Iroquois and devise a plan of com- mon defense. Accordingly the Albany congress met June 19, 1754, WAR INAUGURATED 123 \vith delegates present from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Washington was then facing defeat beyond the Allegha- nies, and the congress took up the large i)hases of the con^ess"^ situation. Tomeet the crisis, united action was demanded, i^^^. and the meeting adopted a plan of union furnished by Benjamin Franklin, one of the delegates, who, however, acted for a committee appointed to consider the subject. It provided for a federal council of delegates from each colony, to meet annually, and to have among other federal powers the right to lay taxes, enact laws, raise armies, appoint officials, and manage Indian affairs. In the general state of colonial jealousy then existing it was impossible that the colonies should accept a scheme which took from them so niuch of their own authority. The plan was rejected by the assemblies, to which it was referred, and it found little favor in England. Franklin justly said it had too much self-government to please the king and too much prerogative to please the assemblies. Meanwhile, an elaborate attack on Canada was prepared in England, although war with France was not yet declared. While a fleet under Boscawen lurked around the mouth of the St. Lawrence to intercept ships taking troops to Quebec, colonial The French expeditions were to seize the frontier posts. Boscawen ?? Indian allowed the prize to slip through his fingers, and of the Boscawan's other attempts only that of Braddock demands our Orders, attention. This brave but headstrong officer, with two British regiments, arrived in the Potomac in March, 17 55, and prepared to move from Will's Creek on Fort Duciuesne. He was joined by 450 Virginia militia under Washington, the entire army being thus about 2000 strong. Widening and extending Expedition. Washington's road, his advance reached Turtle Creek, eight miles from Duquesne, on July 9. As the troops marched through an opening in the forest they encountered a heavy fire from each side of the road. The Virginians leaped into the bushes and fired from behind whatever cover they found. Braddock, con:ing up, swore at them loudly, and when some of his regulars sought to fight like the Virginians, he beat them back into the ranks. In close formation in the middle of a glade they fired into the forest whence came the enemy's fire, and in doing so killed some of the militia. On the other hand, they made an excellent target for the foe, and fell rapidly. Braddock rode everywhere with the greatest coolness, but his efforts were unavailing, and when he finally received a mortal wound he had just given the order to retreat. Washington, who had been in the thickest of the fight, took command and led the men to the rear. Of the 1200 men in the advance body 877 were killed or wounded. The attacking party, led by Beaujeu, who was killed in the fight, contained no more than 254 whites and 600 Indians, 124 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT and the latter went home with their booty after the battle. At Duquesne all was confusion, and the iioo men still left in the English army might have taken the place. But Dunbar, who now took com- mand, fled to Philadelphia, burning his wagons and destroying a large quantity of powder. This disaster was followed by Indian outrages, Braddock's road making such operations easy to the savages. While Braddock played his part in western Pennsylvania, fighting also occurred in New York. WilHam Johnson marched with about 3000 men to take the position at Crown Point, com- New'york' nianding the road from Lake George to Lake Champlain. The French sent Dieskau with an equal force to oppose him. At Lake George, September 8, the French advance attacked a part of Johnson's force and was beaten off after a hot engagement. Johnson gained much credit and was made a baronet for his part in the battle, although he was wounded early in the day and the com- mand was taken by Phineas Lyinan, of Connecticut, a better soldier. But Johnson's victory was the only success of the year, and the govern- ment felt constrained to give it prominence. An expedition by which Governor Shirley attempted to take Fort Niagara failed completely, partly because Braddock's defeat prevented an expected cooperation, and partly because it was impossible to bring up supplies to support a large army on the western border of New York. In the same year occurred the removal of the Acadians. The governor of Nova Scotia was alarmed at their attitude, since they insisted on being "neutrals" in the impending war and f ft*" refused to take an unconditional oath of allegiance to Acadians. England. He called on Governor Shirley, of Massachu- setts, who sent 2000 volunteers, with whose aid Fort Beausejour was taken. Then it was decided to remove the French Acadians forcibly and distribute them among the colonies to the south- ward. The decision was carried out with great suffering. Many of the exiles escaped from their new homes, some going to Louisiana, others to Canada, and others returning to Nova Scotia. The sad tragedy has received its most popular rendering in Longfellow's "Evangeline." The attitude of the Acadians toward the British government was reprehensible, but not enough so to justify the punishment they received. In 1756 began the Seven Years' War in Europe, England joining Prussia against France and Austria. This was two years after fighting had begun in America, where the struggle is known as oAhe'seven ^^^ French and Indian War. The British ministry was Years' "War. ^^d at first b\' Newcastle, who thought only of patronage and peculation, and their conduct of the war was weak. A new ministry created in 1756 could do little more, although Pitt was in it in a secondary position. Finally there was such a popular demand for tliis firm and patriotic leader that in 1757 he was PITT'S VIGOROUS LEADERSHIP 125 given full control of the war policy, while Newcastle, one of the Pelhams, maintained the control of home affairs. Frederick the Great said, when he heard of the appointment: "England has long been in labor, and at last she has brought forth a man." Meanwhile, the years 1756 and 1757 were full of misfortunes in America, vvhere Loudon, a weak product of the Pelham regime, com- manded. In 1756 Oswego was taken, and in 1757 an e.^edition against Louisburg failed, while a French army f'^g^^^^"* under Montcalm took Fort William Henry at the jp^j^, southern end of Lake George, and perhaps only the with- drawal of his Indian allies saved from capture Fort Edward, on the upper Hudson. Out of the discouragement consequent on these events the colonies were raised by the news that Pitt was in full power, and that arms, ammunition, and pro\isions would be furnished by the king for any troops the colonies would raise. The response was ex- cellent, and soon every colony north of the Potomac was filled with busy preparations for war. Four principal campaigns came out of this activity in America. The first was against Louisburg, now greatly strengthened and de- fended by 3000 regulars with twelve warships anchored in the harbor. Before the place appeared in the summer of capture? 1758 forty-one British men-of-war and 11,000 regulars with a small force of provincials. Jeffrey Amherst was in command, and one of his brigadiers was James Wolfe. In a severe bombardment the French fleet was burned, the walls of the fort were pierced, and the garrison was forced to surrender. In 1749 Halifax had been founded as a seat of English power on the northern coast, and in view of its developm.ent Louisburg ceased to be important. Lest it again fall into enemy hands it was demolished in 1760. The second campaign was made to take Fort Duquesne and relieve Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia from Indian raids. The task was assigned to General Forbes with 1200 Highlanders and nearly woo militia from Pennsylvania, Maryland, 1°"^ Virginia, and North Carolina. The advance was slow, xaken. partly because the commander was ill and partly because he believed that the French Indians would become impatient and desert the force at Duquesne. As winter approached he heard that just this had happened. Hurrying forward with an advance guard of 2500 he found the fort deserted and its works blown up, November 25, 1758. The French had fled. Three months earlier Colonel Brad- street had destroyed Fort Frontenac, commanding Lake Ontario. The fugitives from Forbes' vengeance were thus cut off from Canada and dispersed into the wilderness. From these two blows col- lapsed all that network of posts France established in the Ohio valley, and those which were on or south of the western lakes were left mostly to their own resources. The fort at the forks of the 126 COLONIAL DEVELOPMEiNfT Ohio was now named Fort Pitt, in honor of the minister who made its capture possible. The year 1758 thus saw the Canadian frontier defenses carried at the two extremes, Louisburg and Duquesne. An attack made on its center, along the Hudson-Lake-Champlain line of Abercrom- approach, was a failure. For the command Abercromby, bysFailure. ' ',..', ^ ., 1 ^ 1 • ^ ^1 • , I a pontical favorite, was selected agamst the wishes of Pitt; but it was hoped that his inefficiency would be overbalanced by his second in command, George Howe, as capable and popular a soldier as then served the king. Abercromby gathered his forces, 15,000 strong, at Lake George, and July 4, 1758, advanced against Ticonderoga. Next day an attempted ambuscade was beaten off, but with the loss of Howe's life. From this time things went badly. July 8, the British general fought a long and hard battle under the walls of the fort, and at the end withdrew with a loss of 1944. He had been repulsed by a force one fourth as large as his own, and yet he fled rapidly to his boats. The demoralization of his army was only relieved by Bradstreet's capture of Frontenac a few weeks later. At this point let us consider affairs in Canada, where three men were to mar or make the country's fortune. In 1756 the Marquis de Montcalm, an excellent soldier and a cultured gentle- DifficuhiTs^ man, arrived in Quebec with a commission to command all the forces in Canada. His coming disappointed Vau- dreuil, the governor, who did not relish a diminution of his own author- ity. Over his head scowled the dark face of Bigot, intendant and head of finances. Convinced that neither the irresolute governor nor the brave general could save Canada from the British, he hastened the course of his peculations in the conviction that the approaching cataclj^sm would destroy the evidences of guilt. He seems to have induced the governor to share the spoils, and the consequent corruption in civO affairs was a source of embarrassment to the honest and pa- triotic Montcalm. It cut off the supplies needed for the army, increased the expenses of the war, and made it difficult to get recruits. All the while the jealous governor did not cease to try to discredit the general with the authorities at home. Montcalm, disgusted with the situation, was on the point of resigning when Forts Duquesne and Frontenac were lost and he then felt that honor demanded that he stay in Canada. His army at the time it was largest consisted of 4000 French and 2500 Canadian regulars, with 5000 colonial militia. Besides these, all able-bodied men in New France might be called into service when needed. The Indian allies rarely mustered more than 1000. . In 175Q Pitt sent out two strong expeditions. Wolfe, Piaimedfor ^^^''^ 9°°° "^^" ^^'^ "^ powerful fleet was to attack Quebec 1759- '')' ^^^ ^^- Lawrence, and Amherst, with 11,000, was to move on the same place by way of Lake Champlain. Supporting Amherst, 5000 men under Colonel Prideaux were sent QUEBEC TAKEN 127 against Fort Niagara. This post was easily taken, and Oswego was rebuilt, reestablishing complete English control of Lake Ontario. Amherst's expedition reached Lake George in June, whereupon the French abandoned Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Following their retreat northward he found them strongly placed at Isle aux Noix, com- manding the entrance of the Richelieu, and was not able to take the position on account of the approach of winter. On Wolfe, therefore, fell the burden of the attack on Quebec. For that work his anny was designed to be strong enough for complete success even if it acted inde- pendently. F'-ance, now engaged on every side in Europe, had no troops availabl ; for Canada. Montcalm, harassed by enemies at his own side, was forced to prepare for the impending conflict with no other outside assistance than 500 fresh troops and a small supply of provisions. Advised of the coming of Wolfe, he gathered at Quebec all the men available, 15,000 white men and 1000 Indians, and held himself ready for the onslaught. The British expedition was before Quebec by June 26. Before him Wolfe saw a rocky peninsula, at the end of which was the town. The crest of the bluff was well fortified, and across the neck of land above the town a strong line of intrenchments was ^J'® drawn. To assault the place from the water front or in Quebec. the rear seemed futile. In fact, it was a prevalent opin- ion that Quebec was impregnable, and to starve it into submission was difficult, because winter operations were impossible. Wolfe realized these disadvantages, but landed his many cannon on points of vantage and opened a bombardment. At the end of two months the buildings in the town had been badly damaged, but the French hold was not relaxed. The delay, however, discouraged the provincial troops, many of whom went home. The approach of winter warned the British that they must complete their work or withdraw, and Wolfe decided to attack the town from the high ground behind it. On the night of September 12, he managed to find a way to the Plains of Abraham, a mile and a half from Quebec, and by ^j Abraham the morning of the 13th 4500 troojis were drawn up ready to assault the defenses. Montcalm hurried forward with a force of about equal size. Thinking only a small portion of Wolfe's men con- fronted him, he drew up his troops in line of battle in order to drive the British into the river. Had he retired into his own lines he might have held out until the November frosts forced the British to with- draw. The l^attle that followed was hard volley against hard volley, and lasted only a few minutes. Some of the Frenchmen were recruits whose wavering threw the rest into confusion, and then the whole line broke for the cover of the fortifications, followed Ijy the English, whose energy made the pursuit a complete victory. At the moment the flight began, both Wolfe and Montcalm fell, mortally wounded. Governor Vaudreuil, in consternation, withdrew hastily to Montreal, and four ,28 COLONIAI. DEVELOPMENT days later, September 17, the garrison he left behind surrendered to the British. When winter began, Quebec was occupied by 7000 British troops under General Murray, illy prepared to face the bitter cold. Hardship and Dlnes's reduced this force by the end of April to 3000 Quebec effectives. Down on them now came Levis, the successor '^ ' of Montcalm, who had collected the fragments of French military power to the number of 1 2,000. April 28 Murray gave battle on the Plains of Abraham and was forced back into liis lines with a loss of a third of his force engaged. His position seemed desperate when the arrival of British frigates with supplies restored hope and enabled him to drive off Levis, who now gave his attention to the defense of Montreal, the last French stronghold in Canada. His utmost efforts in this respect were soon demanded, for threa expeditions were being prepared to overwhelm him. One under Amherst was to assemble at Oswego and proceed down Montreal Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, another under Havi- j^go^"' land was to advance by way of Lake Champlain, and a third was to be led by Murray up the St. Lawrence from Quebec. The three expeditions were to arrive at Montreal at the same time, and if the plans did not miscarry could be expected to put an end to French rule in New France. The story of American opera- tions against Canada is full of the faOure of cooperation where support- ing movements had been proposed, but for once we come to the ex- ception. August 24, 1760, Murray was eighteen miles below Montreal, and took such a strong position that he was safe against an attack in detail. September 6 both Haviland and Amherst arrived before the town, and with the aid of Murray's ships the investment was completed. The defenses, good enough against the Indians, were not proof against British cannon; the garrison was only 2500 men, for many of the Canadians had gone home on being promised immunity by the British ; and the provisions would suffice for only fifteen days. Under these conditions the French hastened the inevitable by surrendering the place and giving parole not to fight again during the war. Thus was lowered the French flag in Canada September 8, 1 760. It is gratifying to add that in Paris, whither they were allowed to go, Vaudreuil, Bigot, and their chief tools were arrested and tried for malfeasance in office. The governor was acciuitted for lack of proof, but the false intendant was fined 1,500,000 francs, his ill-gotten pelf confiscated, and he himself exiled for life. The struggle thus far had not affected Louisiana, but it Spain In- j^^^ remains to be seen how that too was drawn into the the War. vortex of ruin which affected all French colonies. Spain saw with alarm the progress of British power in America and on the sea, and in 1761 pledged herself in the celebrated Family Compact to treat French enemies as her own enemies. As a consequence, THE TREATY OF PARIS 129 England declared war on her January 4, 1 762, and sent a strong expedi- tion against Cuba. August 13 Havana was taken with booty worth $15,000,000; a sum which, however, did not repay the frightfid loss of lives from disease in the British army. September i of this year a British force took the Philippine Islands, but gave them up when promised a ransom. Impressed by these experiences, Spain was soon willing to make peace. France, utterly exhausted, was equally ready, and the result was the Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763. Before it was signed there was much discussion of terms. England boldly demanded Florida, much to the dismay of Spain, who wished to keep the entrance of the Gulf. Then France, out of con- sideration for Spain, whom she had persuaded to enter the p''^?'^ °^ war, offered England all of Louisiana west of the Missis- 1763.' sippi if she would forego the demand for Florida. But Eng- land was obdurate ; and France gave Louisiana to Spain to recoup her for the loss of the peninsular province. The arrangement was made secretly between the two powers concerned, and was not generally known until long after the Treaty of Paris was signed. France had been spending on Louisiana 300,000 livres a year without a sou in return, and her apparent generosity accorded well with her financial necessities. With Canada and India gone, and her fleet destroyed, Louisiana could not be of value to her. The terras of the general treaty were as follows : Canada, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and all the interior east of the Mississippi, ex- cept the so-called Isle d'Orleans near its mouth, were ceded to the British ; the West Indian islands of Tobago, tij^J^Tfeatv Dominica, Granada, and St. Vincent also were ceded to the English, but Martinique and Guadeloupe, which had been con- quered, were left to France. England received Florida and gave up Cuba ; France lost all her East Indian colonies but Pondicherry and Chandernagore ; and France was to retain the right to dry fish on the north and west coasts of Newfoundland, with two small islands off the shore as a shelter for her fishemien. Thus France made her e.xit from North America, where she had lost her day as a colonizing power. One cannot but admire the bravery with which she attempted large tasks and the generosity with which she succored infant settlements. Her failure ^f prance*^* was inherent in her own life. Without a large manufactur- ing interest she was not able to build up a colonial market for her mer- chandise ; and without a surplus popidation there was little demand for colonies to improve the condition of her farming class. As Spain tried to support colonial development on the mining industry so France wished to make it depend on the fur trade, whose very existence demanded that agriculture should not advance into the continent. Between the farmsteads of the English and the hunting ranges of the interior the clash was inevitable and the issue certain. If Pitt had K I30 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT not, by his foresight and energy, completed the French expulsion in 1760, the colonies themselves must have done it at no very distant date. It is said, but on doubtful authority, that Choiseul, the French minister who made the Treaty of Paris, remarked that England would do well to leave Canada to France in order that the danger Was the Qf ^ French and Indian attack might keep the English English colonies dependent on the mother country. It is certain Wise? that the idea was often mentioned in 1762. It was so strongly urged by the English interests in the West Indies in order to induce the government to retain all the French islands there, that Franklin wrote a pamphlet to show that it was badly founded. The colonies, he said, were so divided by mutual distrust and varying interests that they would never unite against England. Such might have been the case for many years had not a headstrong king forced them to a union in defense of rights they held dearer than any of the interests which had caused their dissensions. Two Indian wars came as an aftermath of the struggle against France. After the outbreaks of 1711-1716, the Cherokees remained at peace with the English ; but the efforts of the French had The Chero- ^j^g influence in arousing their suspicions. A party went Ho^stiuS's! rather unwillingly with Forbes against Fort Duquesne, 1759, and some of them deserted. A group of the deserters on their return killed twenty-two whites in North Carolina, and another band stole a number of horses. The whites retaliated by killing the Indians, whereupon the Indians fell on the settlements and slew whom they found. Governor Lyttleton of South Carolina now called out troops and marched to the Indian country with 1500 poorly equipped soldiers. Before he started he was joined by thirty Cherokee chiefs who said they were come to make peace. They had been promised personal immunity, but Lyttleton forced them to go with him to the frontier, and when the murderers of the whites were not delivered up by the tribes, he detained as hostages these envoys of peace, who had trusted his promise. Although hemade a newtreaty, he was hardly back in Charleston before dej^redations were resumed. The commandant of the frontier fort in which the hostages were de- tained was lured out of the gate on pretense of a parley and murdered, and the garrison, angered by this cruelty, slew the hostages. The war now became general. Lyttleton was no longer governor, but Bull, acting in his place, sent forward, 1760, Colonel Montgomery with 1650 men, three-fourths of whom were regulars who The Cam- Yiaf^ opportunely arrived at Charleston. They burned the paigns of lower Cherokee towns and killed or captured more than a 1761. hundred persons, but were fiercely engaged in an attempt to cross the mountains and fall back to the seaboard, whence the regulars returned to New York to take part in the campaign against Montreal. Their departure encouraged the Indians and sealed TWO INDIAN WARS 131 the fate of Fort London. The post had been unwisely built in an ex- posed position beyond the AUeghanies, and its garrison of 200 men could not be relie\'ed. Hunger at last overcame them and they sur- rendered on condition that they should return home in safety. But the Indians pursued them, slew twenty-si.x, and took the others pris- oners. By 1761 troops could be spared from the north, and General Amherst sent Colonel Grant with 1200 Highlanders to complete the pacification of the Indian country. Grant, joined by militia and friendly Indians until his army numbered 2600, won a costly victory over the Cherokees in June, and then proceeded to destroy their towns and the growing crops. This was a heavy blow, and the chiefs sued for peace. The treaty that followed did not remove Cherokee resent- ment, as their support of the British showed in the war of the Revolu- tion. In the war of 1760 and 1761 both North Carolina and Virginia raised troops to protect their borders ; but the work of vengeance which forced the Cherokees to make peace was done by the regulars, marching from Charleston and aided by the South Carolina militia. The second conflict with the Indians was the Pontiac War. The Indians of the Northwest recognized their doom when the British seized and held the French posts, and to save themselves fomied a confederacy under Pontiac, a capable and am- S?°''**^g _ bitious warrior of the Ottowas. Emissaries of France told j^^^' them that the French would return and subdue the British garrisons, and this gave the red men courage to strike whUe the new lords of the country were weak. The confederacy was well organized , each tribe promising to fall on and destroy the post nearest to it. The attack was made in May, 1763, and the result was that ten posts from Bedford, Pennsylvania, to Michilimackinac, at the entrance of Lake Michigan, fell to the savages, most of them being entered through treachery, and the garrisons murdered. Detroit and Fort Pitt, however, were warned and held out. The former received supplies by water and defied its foe, though Pontiac himself led jro^ pjtt" the force which invested its land approaches. The latter was saved by Colonel Bouquet. This ofificer had seen seven years' service against the Indians and knew well how to fight them. He was in Philadelphia when the trouble began, and was ordered to re- lieve Fort Pitt with 500 Highlanders. Moving rapidly, he approached the scene of Braddock's defeat on August 5. Here he was surrounded by Indians at Busby Run, and fought fiercely until nightfall. Next morning the Indians resumed the battle, when by a feigned retreat Bouquet drew them into a heedless charge on his bag- ^. ^ ^ f gage train, and turning at the proper moment drove them ^j^^ -^^^ ofi in great disorder. Four days later Fort Pitt was reached and relieved, but Bouquet must wait for reinforcements before he could march into the Indian country beyond it. In the following year, with 1500 men, he marched without opposition into 132 COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT what is now southeastern Ohio as far as the upper Muskingum and made treaties of peace with the Indians of that region, rescuing 200 captured settlers. In a great council at Fort Niagara the Indians of the lake also made a treaty of peace in whicii they ceded to the English a strip four miles wide on each side of the Niagara river. Pontiac remained hostile until convinced that there was no hope of aid from the French, and in 1766 he, with other recalcitrants, made an unwUling sulDmission at Oswego. Three years later he was slain in the forest near St. Louis by another Indian to whom an English trader had promised a barrel of rum. He was one of the ablest and most patriotic men of his race. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Bancroft, History of the United States, 10 vols. (1834-1874), and Hildreth, History of the United States, 6 vols. (1849-1852), the older standard works on the colonial period and still important; but better and fresher are the volumes in The American Nation (A. B. Hart, Editor). On the period described in this chapter the volumes are Greene, Provincial America (1905), and Thwaites, France in America (1905). Channing, History of the United States, vol. II (1908), is excel- lent, and great praise must be awarded to Avery, History of the United States and its People, 7 vols. (1904-). Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America. 8 vols. (1888-18S9), has some very good chapters and very valuable references. Chalmers, Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the American Colonies, vol. I (1782). Vol. II (1845), a British work of much ability and generally regarded as the best contemporary general history of the colonies. The author was a king's officer in America, and after his return to England had access to important papers. Lodge, Short History of the English Colonies (ed. 1902) is a useful summary. The State Paper Office, London, contains in manuscript a vast collection of letters from British Colonial officials, the most important soiu'ce of our colonial history. Some of the states have published all or parts of this material, notably New York in Documents Relative to Colonial History, 14 vols, and index (1856- 1883); New Jersey, in Documents Relating to Colonial History, 22 vols. (1880- 1902) ; North Carolina in Colonial Records, 10 vols. (1886-1890). The British government is slowly publishing calendars with the title, Calendars of State Papers, Colonial Series: America and West Indies, 14 vols. (1860-1910). See also Force, Tracts and Other Papers, 4 vols. (1836-1846). For Enghsh history and policy during this period see : Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols. (1878-1890), a judicious discussion; Cobbett, Parlia- mentary History of England, 36 vols. (1806-1820) ; Egerton, Short History of British Colonial Policy (1897) ; Beer, Commercial Policy of England towards the American Colonies (Columbia University Studies, III, 1893) ; Ibid., The Old Colonial System, 1660-17^4, 2 vols. (1912) ; Ibid., British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765 (1907) ; Kellog, The American Colonial Charter (.-Vm. Hist. Assn. Report, 1903, vol. I) ; and Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America (Johns Hopkins LTniv. Studies, Extra, 189S). For the development of institutions within the colonies the best work is Osgood, The American Colonics in the Seventeenth Century, 3 vols. (1904-1907). Good monographs are : Greene, Tlie Provincial Governor in the English Colonies of North America (Har\\ird Hist. Studies, i8q8) ; McKinley, Suffrage in the Thirteen English Colonies (ITniv. of Penn. Publications, series in History, 1905) ; and Miller, Legal Qualifications for Office (Am. Hist. Assn. Report, 1899). For the history of individual colonies the following are conxaenent and generally reliable : Palfrey, History of New England, 6 vols. (ed. 1890) ; Belknap, History of BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 133 Nriv Hampshire, 3 vols, (i 784-1 7Q2); Barry, History of Massachiiselts, 3 vols. (1858-1864); Arnold, History of Rhode Island, 2 vols. (ed. 1890); Trumbull, History of Cotinccticut, 2 vols. (ed. i8q8) ; Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies, 2 vols. (1899) ; Smith, History of New York (1757 and various later editions) ; Brodhead, History of New York, 2 vols. (1S71) ; Mereness, Maryland as a Proprietary Province (1901); Fiske, OW Virginia and Her Neighbors. 2 vols. (189S); Campbell, ///i/o/v of Virginia (i860); Ashe, History of North Carolina, vol. I (1908); McCrady, South Carolina under Proprietary Government (1897) ; Ibid., South Carolina under Royal Government (1899) ; and Jones, History of Georgia, 2 vols. (1883). On the French in Canada and their conflict with England the best American work is Parkraan's standard series, France and England in the New World, 12 vols., in many editions. The sub-titles are : Pioneers of France in the New World (1865) ; Jesuits in North America (1867); La Salle (i86g) ; The Old Rigime in Canada (1874); Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. (1877); A Half-Century of Conflict, 2 vols. (i§92); Montcalm and Wolfe, 2 vols. (18S4); and The Con- spiracy of Pontiac, 2 vols. (1851). Kingsford, History of Canada, 10 vols. (1887- 1898), is the best English authority. It lacks Parkman's readable quaUties, but is more concise. Corbett, England in the Seven Years' War, 2 vols. (1907), is excellent ; Miles, History of Canada under the French Regime (1872), is a good short work, and Winsor, From Cartier to Frontenac (1894), is valuable lor its treatment of explora- tions. The French side of the war is presented in Faillon, Ilistoire de la Colonic FranQaise en Canada, 3 vols. (1S65); Ferland, Cours d'histoire du Canada, 2 vols. (1861-1865); and Garneau, Histoire du Canada, 4 vols. (ed. 1882-1883). For the last struggle for Canada see : Wood, The Fight for Canada (1906) ; Bonnechose, Montcalm et la Canada FranQaise (1877); Martin, Montcalm et les Dernieres Annees dc la Colonic Fran^aise (ed. 1898). For early Louisiana see : Gayarre, Louisiana under French Dominion, 4 vols, (ed. 1904); Fortier, History of Louisiana, 6 vols. (1904); and VilliersduTerraget, Les Derniires Annies de la Louisiane Franqaisc (1903). For Independent Reading Fiske, Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, 2 vols. (1898) ; Madam Knight, Journal, 1704-1705 (ed. 1865), relates chiefly to Nev/ England; Byrd, Writings of Colonel William Byrd of Westover in Virginia, Esq. (Bassett ed., 1901) ; Parkman, La Salle (1869); Ibid., Montcalm and Wolfe, 2 vols. (1S84); Wright, Life of Wolfe (1864); Guenin, Montcalm (189S) ; Halsey, The Old New York Frontier, 2 vols. (1882) ; Grace King, New Orleans (1895). CHAPTER VII SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES The Conditions of Settlement The desire to own land was the impelling cause of most of the early migration to America. Land was sold cheap, but the amount one person might buy was sometimes restricted. Free dis- Distnbu- tribution to settlers was usually made. Such allotments, Land. miportation rights, were as large in some colonies as fifty acres for each adult brought in, and they were allowed to male indented servants at the expiration of term of service. In the South, where money cro]is could be raised, the tendency was to own large farms ; for though the men of a community were usually poor at first, some would be thrifty and would e\-entually buy up and con- solidate into large holdings what had originally been a series of small farms. In New England agriculture was not as profitable as in the South, the soil was stony, the crops were not abundant, and the farms were small. Where the farms were large, population was widely dispersed, and where they were small it was denser. In all the colonies the sciiiLrs first took up the richest land, gener- ally along the ri\-ers. This was advantageous because the rivers were _ . the best means of transportation. In the southern col- onies, in which strenms abounded, the land between them came slowly into settlement. This " ridge land" was the home of the poorer people, and the result was that roads came slowly into existence. When constructed, they were merely traced through the forest and became very difficult in wet weather. In the compact settlements of the North roads were early laid out, bridges were buOt, and inns were provided. But land traveling was not comfortable before the revolu- tion in any part of the colonies. In the royal colony land was granted by the governor and council in the name of the king, in a proprietary colony it was granted either directly or indirectly by the officers exercising a similar jur- En^iMid" isdiction. In New England the assembly created trustees Town. of ''■ town with authority to grant the land to settlers. The trustees then met and selected the site for the meeting- house, reserving a portion of the land for a common, and assigning the lots around it. Land not granted was held by the town for common use, as grazing, the taking of firewood, and wood for necessary build- ings. From the compact nature of New England settlements the 134 LOCAL GOVERNMENT 13S towns were relatively small, from ten to fifteen miles across, and most of the settlers were located conveniently near the meetinghouses. When the danger of Indian wars passed and the inhabitants became numerous at the "center" of the town, they began to fonn outlying \allages on the better land in other parts of the town. Sometimes they moved to the frontier and established another town with the con- sent of the assembly. The county was the unit of organization in the South. It was from four to ten times as large as the New England town. The frontier county was usually a vast area with only a fringe of settle- ment on the edge nearest the older settlements. W[\e\\ „ *^. .... , . , , n- MI boutnern this tnnge thickened a new county was set off still nearer county, to the frontier. The county was created by the assembly. As the colony grew in wealth, the oldest counties were more conserva- tive than the newer ones and were unwilling to create the latter as rapidly as the growth of population seemed to demand, lest the control of the assembly pass into the hands of "back counties." The early counties were relatively small, and they took pains to have the newer ones very large. As representation was not in proportion to popula- tion, the older counties were thus able to keep a large influence in the assemblies. This led to bitter conflicts. As the people of the newer counties were, from Pennsylvania southward, largely of Scotch-Irish stock and poor men, the contest often took the shape of a democracy against an aristocracy. In North Carolina the controversy between- the counties was peculiarly bitter, because those in the Albemarle region, the oldest in the province, had five representatives each, while the new ones had only two. The old counties thus had an overweening influence in the assembly, which the governor sought to break down. He finally called the assembly to meet on the Cape Fear, so remote from the Albemarle region that not all of the large delegation from the old counties could attend. The result was that all the Albemarle delegates refused to attend, disputed on the ground of no quorum the legality of the laws passed without them, and refused to pay taxes levied as well as to recognize the legality of a new law apportioning representation. So unpleasant a situation was created that for eight years the wheels of government were nearly at a standstill. Ulti- mately there was a compromise by which the older counties retained their disproportionate representation and a number of new counties were created. By 1760 the opposition between new and old settlements had taken on a territorial character. In Massachusetts, as well as in Virginia and the Carolinas, the wealthy men lived on the coast. ^_ As men of education and conservative business instinct, ^^^j .^j," ' they were at odds with the small farmers of the interior Aristocrats." over many c(uestions. They called the popular party "the mob" and its leaders "demagogues," while the popular party 136 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES called them "aristocrats" and oppressors of the poor. When the revolution was coming to the explosion point, the latter class held back a long time and many of them ultimately repudiated a movement in which were so many of the "demagogues." It must not be forgotten that each side gave an important impulse to our development. One was a conservative force and checked the dangers which came from inexperienced leaders : the other incited to liberty and political equality and checked the tendency of society to settle down into an aristocracy of wealth. This tendency of the newer communities towards democracy has continued throughout our history, steadily following the frontier westward. When an individual had a right to a grant of land, that is, a warrant, he sought a surveyor, a public olEcer, who ran the bounds of the grant from any ungranted lands open to settlement. The sur- Land"^ "'' ^'^^ ^^^'^ ^^^ warrant was returned to the proper officer, in most cases the secretary of the colony, who made a deed which when signed by the governor constituted a legal title. For the warrant, survey, and deed fees were paid ; and they constituted a large part of the remuneration of the officers concerned. There were many complaints, especially in the royal provinces, that the fees were ex- orbitant. In all but trading and fishing communities land specula- tion was the favorite means of making money. The surveyor, who from his travels into all parts of the forest had opportunity to find the best tracts of ungranted land, was much concerned in the opera- tion, either bupng outright and selling later when the advance of population had raised the price, or becoming the agent of some rich man who could make the investment. Many of the great fortunes of the colonies at the beginning of the revolution were derived from land speculation. This was particularly true in the southern colonies, into which immigrants moved rapidly from 1730 to 1775. The shrewd men who bought the frontier land in the early part of this period reaped handsome profits from their ventures. In 1760 the total population of the colonies was 1,596,000, of which New England had 473,000, the middle colonies 405,000, and the South, including Marj-land, 718,000. Virginia was the largest in'i76o"'° colony, with 315,000 inhabitants, and Georgia was the smallest, with 9000. At that time slavery existed every- where, but in the colonies north of Maryland it had only 10 per cent of the population, while in the others it had 41 per cent. North Carolina alone of the southern colonies had not yielded largely to this form of labor, the slaves being here only 17 per cent of the popu- lation, while in South Carolina they were 70 per cent, and in Virginia 47 per cent. Most of the immigrants to America, both before and after the revolution, were poor people seeking to improve their fortunes. In all the colonies were exceptions to this statement. There were per- THE LABORERS 137 sons who came as officials, or ministers in early New England, and in Virginia were a number of gentlemen adventurers in the Cromwellian days, and always a few superior men to whom the charm of the wilderness was strong ; but all these together were r'^f* a small part of the population. And yet this part had Poor People. an influence larger than its size would seem to warrant. It contributed the social ideals of a new community. The educated clergy and other leaders of early New England were the models for later clergymen and leading men of colonial birth. The early gentle- men adventurers of Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina were the men whom the colonials who became rich sought to imitate. Thus the aim of the South became to found estates like those of the lower English gentry and to reproduce their manners, their sports, and their intellectual life. In New England, sports, manners, and intellectual life had the serious cast of the early Puritans. In every royal colony the governor and other officers sent over from England were very in- fluential in all social matters. The history of American society re- veals the evolution of a healthy, earnest, and teachable democracy, forming its social ideals by those of Europe, and seeking to reject what was bad in the old and to improve in its own way that which it had inherited from its own past. Laboring Classes In the beginning the colonists had white laborers, persons who ar- rived with their masters under contract to work for stipulated periods. But when the settlers needed more servants it was chffi- cult to get them in the colony, where any industrious semmts freeman could easUy become a proprietor. Orders were accordingly sent to agents in England to send over servants, the employer paying the commission of the agent who secured the servant and the passage money demanded by the ship captain who brought him over. Under these conditions the supply was small, while the demand was ever greater. Colony products were bulky and many ships sailed to America in ballast, and their captains were eager to get cargoes wherever possible. The agents who collected servants were urged to furnish servants and no questions asked about those they produced. Thus grew up the practice of kidnapping, or "spirit- ing" children, or even adults. They were enticed on board a short time before the ship sailed and were soon beyond the reach of effective protest. Arrived in the colony, the captain delivered the cargo to the planters who paid most. If such a servant was a minor, he was apprenticed to the master who paid his passage under forms prescribed by law. Many instances of hardship occurred in the English ports ; for the kidnappers were of the lowest class of criminals and stood on little ceremony in selecting their vie- 138 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES tims ; but most of those whom they sent to America were the children of the laboring class, whose condition in the colony was probably better than that of their parents. After such an apprentice completed his term of service, he was a free man, and in most colonies received a grant of land. In many a community was a man of mark who had come to America in this way. The free servants who could not pay their passage had the habit of contracting to serve for a term of years the captain who took them to America, and he would transfer the contract to a planter J^°!"°|*"'5' for money. This class made up most of the indented serv- Serrants. ants. Colonial law fLxed the period for which they could be required to serve, usually from three to five years, pro- vided that the master must furnish proper food and clothing and that the servants should each receive a small tract of land when the term of service expired. In some colonies persons who had thus served out their time were called "redemptioners." A third source of labor for the colonies was con\dcts and "sturdy vagabonds," whom ''°ri v*^'^ the English authorities sent abroad to be rid of the burden bonds*^* of supporting them. Virginia passed many laws to forbid these importations, but the king vetoed them. Maryland seems to have had little objection to them. Industrial conditions in New England did not favor a large servant class. Neighbors fre- quently hired themselves to neighbors, or even bound out their chil- dren to learn trades, but doing so did not imply a loss of social esteem on the part of the servants. In the colonies in which large plantations were the rule this was otherwise. To be a servant was to belong to a lower social rank than the master, and it was difficult for time and success to remove the stigma. The liberated servant in this part of the country found liis refuge in the frontier, where he settled among persons as lowly born as himself and where his future rank was de- termined by his own exertions. The three classes named did not furnish sufficient labor for the tobacco and rice growers of the South. Here were two crops for „ which the world was willing to pay liberally and capable, as the producers thought, of extensive production. On the other hand, everywhere was an al^undance of cheap land. Noth- ing was wanting but labor. The white servants were hard to obtain and rarely served longer than the term of the indenture, so that they must continually be replaced by new ones, who in turn would be away to the frontier in four or five years. Under these conditions negro slaves, already largely used in the Spanish colonies, began to be employed. The first African slaves in America arrived in Virginia in 1619, but they were not satisfactory laborers. They were intract- able and unacquainted with the labor requirements of a civilized com- munity. To control them and get them to labor profitably was difficult, and most planters objected to it. The number in the colony SLAVERY IN THE COLONIES 139 grew so slowly that in 1700 it was only 6000. By this time it was ob- served that "new negroes," those recently imported from Africa, worked very well if distributed among colony-born negroes ; and this reconciled the planters to the use of this form of labor. The wide expansion of tobacco culture fixed the practice of slavery in Maryland and Virginia. The early South Carolinians were chiefly from Barba- dos, where slavery "had already gone through its experimental stage, and they had this kind of labor from the beginning. Slavery existed in the North as well as in the South ; for there was at this time very little public opinion against it. But it was not profitable on the small farms of the North, and in this region the slaves were chietly in the towns as domestic servants or laborers. In 1760 there were only 87,000 blacks north of Maryland to 299,000 in the other colonies. When England began to have colonies, her law had no provision for slavery. In fact, the institution had nearly died out in later Roman times, and from that period the impression prevailed in Europe that no Christian could be enslaved. Negro slavery existed in Morocco, and when the Spaniards found that Indian slaves suc- cumbed before the hard work in the American mines Slavery, the they introduced it into their colonies. The African has xme!^ accepted bondage more readily than any other race. The Spaniards found him a satisfactory slave, and their example was fol- lowed in the British and French West Indies. In this part of America, therefore, slavery was formed after the ancient model, and the absolute dominion of the master over his slave was generally recognized. In the continental colonies this was not at first the case. Here early slavery was a kind of continuous indented ^ ^^ °^ '^ service, the master being required to give his slave proper food and care. But slowly a code of laws evolved which recognized slavery and gave it a legal status. The settlement of South Carolina chiefly by men of Barbados in- troduced the West Indian type of slavery on the continent ; and the success which followed undoubtedly stimulated the spread of slavery in the tobacco colonies. In 1739, when the giaveCode number of slaves in South Carolina largely exceeded that of the whites, there was a serious slave outbreak. One result was a revision of the slave code in the colony, and this example was followed in other colonies. Out of these codes one may gather the following general features. All negroes or persons of mi.xed negro blood were slaves whose mothers were slaves. They could be punished by their masters, and if one died from chastisement where malice was not evident the slayer was not punished. But maliciously killing a slave was forbidden. For serious offenses, as murder, arson, theft, and maiming, the slave was not punished by the master, but he w^as tried by a court of two or three justices and several freeholders, who took such evidence as they saw fit, and, sitting as a jury but wi'.liout form of 140 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES law, gave the verdict. For minor offences the usual punishment was thirty-nine lashes. A negro could not testify against a white person, the assumption being that all negroes, bond or free, were hostile to the whites and unreliable witnesses, either from prejudice or from mental incapacity to observe accurately. Slaves were not allowed to go about without written permission, they might not have firearms, and restric- tions were placed on their trading and their meeting together. At this time the fear of slave insurrections was as great as later, and it was provided that conspiracy against the whites should be punished by death. If a negro showed violence to a white person, he might be whipped, or even killed if the case were aggravated. The slave codes of this epoch remained in force with slight modification until the general revision which followed the inauguration of the abolition move- ment in 1 83 1. The slave code was made to meet a peculiar condition. If men of a lower stage of civilization were brought into the colonies, they must not, it was held, be admitted to the same prixoleges as the whites. That this was the opinion of all parts of the country is shown by the regulations enforced in all parts of the North where there were many negroes. Boston, the ports in Rhode Island and Connecticut, PhOa- delphia, the town of New York and the great plantations along the Hudson held most of the slaves in the North. In all these places restrictions were imposed on the slave's right to go about at night, and his right to traffic and to have arms ; he was tried by special tri- bunals, and freely whipped by his master. Colonial Industry Agriculture was the most extensive industry. Every colony pro- duced its own food in normal times, and most of them had some for export. The sugar islands, foreign as well as British, offered Agriculture ^ good market for such supplies, for they found it most lumber. profitable to devote themselves exclusively to their one staple. To them the middle colonies sent great quantities of flour, pork, and beef, and New England sent potatoes, vegetables, and fish. From Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina went out tobacco for the world, and from South Carolina rice and indigo. The Carolinas also exported tar, pitch, and tuqientine. Lumber, either as sawed timber or as boards and staves, was exported from all the colonies. The masts which came from the New England forests were famous in western Europe. Manufacturing in the niodern sense was unknown in fac^tures ^^^ Colonies, but it must be remembered that the factory system had not yet developed in Europe. In England weavers, shoemakers, and other handworkers lived in villages and fol- lowed their trades solely. In the North most of the farmers knew some trade which they followed when they could not work on the farms. MANUFACTURES AND FISHERIES 141 Thus the coarser grades of cloth, hats, shoes, joiner's work, tools, and nails were made in the colonies. In the South each large plan- tation had its artisans, many of them slaves. Importations were usually the better grades of cloth, ironware, implements, etc., and articles which in the very nature of things the colonists could not make, as queensware, fcutlery, silks, articles of luxury, and wines. Iron ore was found and smelted from New Jersey to Virginia. In 1755 pig iron to the amount of 3425 tons was sent to England. Rum was extensively manufactured in New England. It was made out of the molasses which the sugar islands gave in exchange for fish, lumberTand food products. It is estim.ated that early in the eighteenth century 1,260,000 gallons of rum were made in Boston annually. Until the whiskey of the Scotch-Irish supplanted it late in that century, this form of spirits was the common tipple in America. It was sold everywhere, north and south, and largely ex- ported to Africa, where it was exchanged for slaves. England made many restrictions on colonial manufactures; for she was determined to keep the American market open for her own inhabitants. In 1700 the colonies learned that they might not e.xport woollen goods, or send them from one colony British Re- to another, or send them from place to place in the stnctions on same colony. In 1732 the exportation of hats and their j^i^, intercolonial sale were forbidden by an act of parliament, factures. This was done at the instance of the London hat makers, for it was known that the colonists made beaver hats cheaper than the same articles could be made in England, and were beginning to gain the market for them both in England and on the continent. The growth of the iron industry caused alann to the English iron makers, and to satisfy them it was enacted in 1750 that the colonies should export to England only pig and bar iron and that no more mills for the higher iron products should be erected in the colonies. Fishing was an important industry in New England. The fact that French and British fishermen reaped a large harvest in adjacent waters naturally led the colonists to seek to share it. . When the first settlers arrived, the cod was found as far south as the cape which now bears its name ; but being taken in large numbers, it retreated northward until finally it must be sought off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In the early stages a rowboat and some lines sufficed to outfit a fisherman. When one must go to the northern waters, a larger vessel and a crew of several men were necessary. Fishing then became a matter of capital and organization. Sometimes the boats were owned by those who sailed them, the crew serving for shares. Sometimes they were owned by capitalists, who gave the crew shares in proportion to the value of the ship. The early spring witnessed the departure of the fishing fleet. If luck was good, the craft came in early and were even known to make a second 142 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES voyage in the same season. The life was perilous and demanded the best qualities of character and physical endurance. It was an ex- cellent school of democracy. By the end of the colonial period share fishing was being replaced by capitalistic enterprise. The fish mer- chant, who bought and e.\iDorted the catch, now became a great factor in the industry. He sent out the ships, hired the crews, and reaped the larger part of the reward. Alongside of the cod fisheries de- veloped whaling. This industry was at first confined to off-shore fishing, the waters around Nantucket being especially full of these great fish. But here, too, in time it was necessary to follow the quarry into distant seas. Large ships were buOt, voyages became lengthened from weeks to months, and from months to years, and at last every ocean was the hunting ground of these hardy New Eng- landers. The whaling industry lost much of its prosperity with the discovery of mineral oils in the central West, about the middle of the nineteenth century. Trade In the northern colonies trade established itself in much the same way as in England, that is, trading towns on shore and river supported a merchant class which distributed merchandise to, and collected the products from, the people around them. Also, there arose such large importing centers as Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. The growth of these places was rapid, for each was the commercial metropolis of a large and rapidly developing back country. In 1760 Boston and Phila- delphia each had a population of 20,000. New York came next with 10,000 ; Charleston, whose merchants exported rice to many parts of Europe, had 9000, and was the home of much wealth and luxury. Boston's size was not what might be expected from the oldest city of the group, located in a large commercial colony. The explanation, however, is not far to seek. The New England trade was shared by a number of smaller towns, as Salem, Marblehead, Gloucester, Newport, Providence, Portsmouth, Falmouth, New Haven, New London, and Hartford. It was not until the era of manufactures that Boston by becoming the financial center of a large industrial area attained her modern predominance. Meanwhile, Virginia, and to a certain extent Maryland, had a com- mercial development of their own, the basis of which was the tobacco trade. No town of importance was established. In Mary- Trade in ig^j^jj lYiQ j-jge of Baltimore begins with the settlement of aiufMarr- ^^^ Susquehannah valley in the first decades of the eight- land, eenth century, and in 1760 it had less than 5000 inhabit- ants. The planters of this region dealt directly with London or Bristol commission agents. Ships came to their planta- tion wharves, took aboard the year's crop of tobacco, and returnee? REGULATIONS OF TRADE 143 next year with the proceeds in merchandise ordered by the seller. The river planters were the rich men of their commmiities. Behind them on the less fertUe high land were the poorer farmers whose small crops were not profitably consigned to English agents. The large planters, therefore, became traders, buying the tobacco of their poorer neighbors and opening plantation stores in which the small farmers bought necessary merchandise. Under these circumstances, competition in trade was difhcult, and towns could not develop. More than once the governor by instructions from the crown tried to get laws passed in the Virginia assembly to encourage them, but the planters, who controlled that body, were able to defeat his efforts. In 1760 the largest Virginia town was Norfolk, whose prosperity arose chiefly from the trade which came to it from the Albemarle section of North Carolina, where the poor harbors prevented the coming of ocean-going ships. Rice grew in the Cape Fear section which, after its settlement about 1725, had a thri-ving export trade from Wilming- ton ; for its harbor was adequate for the ships of the day. Spite of the navigation acts (see page 83) colonial trade prospered. These laws, in fact, benefited colonial shipping in some respects, since they allowed it to share the monopoly due to ex- cluding foreign ships from the British trade. Moreover, Navigation they left fish, food products for the West Indies, lumber, xraje. and many other articles, untouched. Of the "enumerated commodities" of the act of 1660 only one, tobacco, was grown in the continental colonies. The price of this article, it is true, fell steadily after 1660, and much suffering ensued in Virginia and Maryland; and this was of great significance, since tobacco aggregated about half of the total colonial exports. But with the operation of the law of 1660 went a series of duties on tobacco in England by which in Queen Anne's time a pound paid sLx and a third i, ® pence to the royal treasury, which was three times the xrade. price of the commodity in Virginia. At the same time there was a vast increase in the colonial supply. It is impossible to say to which of these three causes one should attach most importance in accounting for the distress of the planters. As time passed other articles were added to the "enumerated com- modities." Rice was placed on the list in 1706, which raised the price so much that South Carolina lost her trade to Spain and Portugal, one-tenth of her entire exportation. This, History of however, was regained in 1730, when parliament opened *® ^""" the trade to ports south of Cape Finisterre. In 1706 commodi- naval stores and molasses were also added to the list ; ties." but a bounty was placed on the former, and of the latter only that had been exported which formerly was brought into con- tinental ports in exchange for products in the West Indies. In 1722 copper, of which very little was produced, and beaver and other I.,., SOCMAl, l-ROCRKSS IN COLONIES skins wiTo placed on llu' "ciiunK'iaUHl" list. Uniloubtwlly these laws liniiU'd the development of trade, and they raised the pricc_of mer- chanilise by rec^uirinsj; that all '^oods imported into tlie Commorco colonies must come from British ports. Hut si)ile of ^)f'u"strk'"'' ''^'^'^*^' restrictions colonial commerce developed rapidly, "ions." "'^' I'ls'^i f^^'"-l products, lumber, and many less unporlanL things were not directly alTected by the na\'iga.tion laws. Moreover, one must not forget that the navigation acts were never strictly enforced. Tlieir very existence made it profitable to violate them ; for l)otl> trader's profits and freights were enhanced Eviisionof j„ ^\■^^. prohibited channels. The most alluring field of !.'"', "^''.y^ir" such operations was the French and Spanish colonies in the West Indies and in C entral and South America. Various means of violating the law were used. One was to bribe otVicials to issue ]iermits to trade with foreign sugar colonics, another was to clear for a Hrilish port and visit a foreign place under a false registry. On returning home a few casks of British sugar on the top of a, large ciuantily of French sugar would satisfy a conniving customs insiu-clor; and if a vessel was seized now and then because the game did not go smoothly, the ordinary profits were so great that the owner could stand the loss. Before coiulenming these people we should re- member that they considered the laws unjust and that many British olhcials in the colonies themselves winked at their violation. The same conditions followed the enactment of the navigation acts in Eng- land, where it was eslimateil that 40,000 persons were engaged in illegal trade. In 17^^^^ parliament passed the "Molasses Act," laying prohibitory duties on molasses, sugar, and rum made in foreign colonies and im- ported into the British colonies in America. It grew out ilissesAi" • *^' *'^'^' ^'^'"P'-''"' ^^' t'l*-' l^riiish sugar islands that the ,,"|, ' ' French and Hutch islands sold their molasses to the New England rum manufacturers, who, it was intended, should now take their raw (iroduct from the British colonies, whatever Uie l)rice. The British islands ilid not produce enough molasses for the rum makers, and the situation thus creatal was preposterous. The law became practically a liead letter soon after it was passed. Some ingenious Yankees avoided it by sailing from Jamaica with cargoes of empty casks formally cleared as molasses. Stopping at a French island these barrels would be filled, and the Jamaica clearance protected them on the return to New England. The "^lolasses Act" did mucli to turn New Englanders agdnst England imd to teach tliem to despise her laws. The slave trade wiis an important feature of the commerce of Boston, Rlioiie Island ports, New York, and Philadelphia. Laden with rum, a vessel would sail for Guinea, the Congo, or ^ladagascar, at»d exchange her cargo for slaves, palm oil, or gold dust. The slaves, RACJ-: KLICMKNTS 145 "black ivory," wcro Ijouglil. in 1676 for (lirco f)<)Uiuls each and were worth seventeen in Jamaica. J{y 1760 l^he (lemand for tliem liad raised the [)rices so that they now cost, twelve jjounds each in Africa and hrouj^ht iJiirLy-llve in Jamaica. A sliij) i^^^^"^^" tliat carried two hundred negroes under these conditions netted a handsome profit to her owner. Before i6q8 tlie slave trade was monopolized i)y the Royal African Company ; but in this year it was thrown ojicn, and the colonial shipowners took an active ])art in it. Most of the slave ships sailed from Africa to the West Indi(.'s or to the southern iMiglisli colonies. The slave trafle necessarily inihcted horrors on the im])ortcd negroes. 'J'hey were crowded into holds without ventilation. If a storm was encountered, the hatches were nailed down and left so until it abated, when the hungry and thirsty wretches were allowed on deck again, and at such a time there were usually dead Ixjdies to be brought out. The "Middle I'assage," as the voyage was called, was long a synonym of terror; and this was true in si)ite of efforts of the slave's captain to reduce the hardship. For since his slaves sold best if th(;y seemed healthy and strong, it was to his interest to feed and care for them as well as po.ssible. Race Elkmknts in Colony Pi^anting The beginning of all the colonics but New York and Delaware was English. The lOnglish life and law was the rule, or became so when the foreign planted colonies fell into lOiiglish hands. New England, dominated by ])eculiar ideals, received only a ^•*'('^^°'°,^ small stream of immigration after the restoration of the English. Stuarts, 1660. It remained the most I'^nglish of the great sections of ATTierica until the era of manufacturing began about 1808. The I'lnglish stock filled the eastern parts of Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas, and most of New Jersey, while it mingled with the Dutch of New York and JJelaware and was the controlling element in early Pennsylvania. Hut in all the middle and southern colonies were many non-l'>nglish f)ersons who came singly or in small groups. Such was the situation about 1680. At that time ojiened a new era of American immigration. Into the valleys that lie east of the Alleghanies, from southern New York t:o (ieorgia, °*^'' . , , ' , . , , 1 Sources of came a vast tide of settlers — some of them colony born, population. but most of them of foreign Protestant origin. The foreigners arc to be distinguished in the following groups: I. The Iliigiicnols. They beg.in to arrive with the revocation of the lulict of Nantes, 1685. They settled in several colonies, but the Sanlee river region of South Carolina received the largest _, , t , , . , , , Huguenots, number. Here in a comi)act settlement they i)reserved their own diurch organization, accumulated fortunes, and became) center from which a French influence was transmitted to other parts I, 146 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES of the colony. Some of the leading soldiers, politicians, merchants, and literary men of South Carolina were of this stock. Another Huguenot settlement was on the James river, near Richmond, Vir- ginia ; and another, on Pamplico river in North Carolina, began well but was nearly extinguished in the Indian war of 171 1. There were also many of this faith among the settlers in New York. Coming singly or in small numbers. Huguenots settled in many places. Of all the great European nations France has contributed the smallest por- tion of the American population. 2. The Germans. The ]Mennonites, German Quakers, were induced to come to Pennsylvania soon after it became a colony. The move- ment began in 16S3 with the settlement of Gennantown by a group under Rev. Daniel F. Pastorious. About 1710 a great wave of German immigration began, the origin of which was the devastation of the Palatinate by Louis XIV of France. Most Palatines were Protestants, and a large number fled to England for succor. Huddled together in tents, objects of charity, it seemed well to send them to the colonies. The government gave aid, and five hundred were sent to the help of de Graffenreid, who was taking a small Swiss colony to found New Berne, North Carolina. The Indian massacre in 171 1 fell hea\ily on this settlement, many of whose members fell or fled; but a small remainder continued on the spot. In the same year three thousand Palatines arrived in New York, where Governor Hunter set them to preparing pine trees for making tar. The industry proved a failure, and the Palatines moved to the Scho- harie valley, where the Mohawks sold them land. When the colonial authorities demanded that they also have English deeds from their hands, a large number refused, and moved to Pennsylvania, settling near Reading. In this migration was the father of the noted Conrad Weiser, long prominent as an intermediary between the whites and the Indians. By this time the Pennsylvanians had discovered the possi- bilities of the German peasantry as a source of indented labor. Plausi- ble agents went everywhere in the Rhine valley, proclaiming the riches of the province. They collected great numbers who articled came to Philadelphia, where they were transferred to agents who led them about the colony until they were disposed of to the farmers. The German " redemptioners " sufl'ered much hardship, as did most of the indented servants who came to the colonies ; but they had good pjwers of resistance, and, their service ended, they settled into sturdy and thrifty citizens. Not all the German immigrants were servants, howe\-er. Many came as small farmers, or artisans. The Pennsyl- vania counties of Berks and Lancaster, and the Lehigh and Lebanon valleys received most of this stock, and in 1760 they were about one- third of the population of the colony. They were divided into many sects, and clung tenaciously to their language. From the Pennsyl- vania settlements an overflow reached Virginia, in the Shenandoah THE SCOTCH-IRISH 147 valley, and North Carolina, where they made a large portion of the population of the Yadkin and Catawba valleys. Among the Germans a prominent group were the Moravians, followers of Huss, who after a discouraging attempt in Georgia settled Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, from which a colony about the middle of the century settled Salem, in North Carolina. Many Germans moved from Pennsylvania into New Jersey^ 3. The Scotch-Irish. It was also Penn's liberal policy which first turned these people toward America. They were the descendants of those Scotch Presbyterians whom James I settled in North Ireland, hoping thus to turn that country from Catholi- . .JL *^° *^ ' cism. After a century of conflict with a barren soil and un- friendly surroundings they were as poor as when they began, and the native Irish were no whit less Catholic. Seasoned by this experience they made the best frontiersmen in America, where both natural and human en\-ironment was more favorable than in Irelandj They began to come to Pennsylvania in considerable numbers early in the eight- eenth century, settling in Lancaster county and to the west of it as far as Pittsburg. From that region they turned into New Jersey, or crossed the narrow part of Maryland into Virginia, moving thence into North Carolina. By 1760 they were going into every valley in this region, and another stream, coming from Charleston, was filling the South Carolina uplands. The sons of these immigrants, still Io\ang the pioneer life with its perils and its rewards, passed over the Alleghanies and laid the foundations of Kentucky and Tennessee. Of this stock came John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, and many another important leader. 4. Minor Groups. Besides the Dutch in New York and the Swedes in Delaware one ought also to remember the Swiss. If but few of them remained in de Graff enried's settlement at New Berne, North Carolina, a still larger number settled and sources survived in Pennsylvania. Speaking the same language, most of them were confounded with the Germans. Another dis- tinctive element was the Scotch Highlanders, who came in large bands to the Cape Fear valley after the failure of their cause at Culloden, 1745. Like the Scotch-Irish, they were stout Presbyterians. Scotch traders were found in every port. The same was true, but to a less extent, of the Jews. In New York, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia these shrewd traders of both races were important factors in business. The Welsh were not a large colonizing race, but small settlements were found in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and per- haps other colonies. The Irish, as distinguished from the Scotch- Irish, furnished no distinct colony group of importance ; but they contributed largely to the laboring class from the earliest times, and were widely distributed. But the best colonizers were native-born colonists. Every settled 148 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES community produced men of adventurous disposition, to whom the forest was more attractive than the farmsteads of the TheAmeri- East. SeUing their lands, if they had any, they turned can-born westward where axe and rifle would enable them to found men. " homes and enjoy freedom in a new settlement. They were not thrifty, and they have left few memorials except the paths they made and the fields they cleared, but they did important and lasting work for posterity. Religion in the Colonies The Puritan churches in New England, and the Established Church elsewhere were the strongest religious organizations in the colonies. Along with them went a large number of smaller ^Mh^"'^'' churches, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Dutch Reform, and Churches. Baptist. This enumeration does not include the Roman Catholics, who were numerous only in Maryland. After the first days of settlement most of the immigrants came to America from purely economic motives. They took land where they wished, and for years a new community might care little for church or baptism. But as it became populous the churches concerned were apt to begin to gather up their own people into congregations, to establish meeting- places, and to send preachers. This was especially true of the settle- ment of the interior. Too much cannot be said in appreciation of these efforts as a civilizing influence. Often the preacher was the only man from the outside world who ever visited the valley in which his flock was located. He was usually the herald of schools, and the counselor of social reform. Creating two royal provinces in New England — Massachusetts and New Hampshire — weakened Puritanism there. Anglican churches appeared in the principal towns, and in them the royal J^^Q^^\ governors and their friends, to the horror of the stricter i^n New"^*^ Puritans, instituted the celebration of Christmas and England. Easter, as well as funerals and marriages according to the elaborate ceremonies of the English Church. Anglicans also protested against being taxed by the towns to pay the Puritan ministers' salaries ; and it was finally enacted in Massachusetts and Connecticut that this burden should be remitted when there was an Anglican organized congregation in the town in question. But the Puritan regime received its strongest check from internal causes. By 1690 the original settlers were dead. The new generation . was American-born and did not feel so keenly as their of Earir"^ fathers the old resentment toward the Anglican Church. Puritanism. Nor did they hold so strictly to the older dogmas. At the head of this modernist feeling was Harvard College and some of the Boston ministers. Opposed to it was a reactionary party, regretting the decay of the old faith, and striving under the SALEM AND THE WITCHES 149 lead of Increase and Cotton Mather to bring back the existing generation to the older faith. This party was strong in the rural towns. It was through its predominance that the witchcraft incident of 1688-1693 stained the page of Massachusetts history. During the Middle Ages, all Christendom believed in witchcraft and voiced in laws the Bibhcal injunction, "Thou shalt not sutler a witch to live." The Puritans, accustomed to interpret The Exist- the Bible literally, accepted this as final ; and in the ence of colonies as well as in England they thought death should Witches be the penalty for witchcraft. It is for opposing witch- Generally craft with death that history condemns the ruling party in """^^ * ' Massachusetts, but it should be content to condemn the excessive and blind zeal with which the law was executed in this particular case. New England Puritans believed thoroughly in the guidance of God. When, for example, their charter was threatened the council implored divine enlightenment and believed that God wished them to resist. For all that, the charter was lost. This but increased the despair of those who saw everywhere a relaxation of the pure faith of their fathers. The ravages of the Indians were not forgotten before this new calamity was upon them. To the stricter F^Uh^" party it seemed that the anger of God was heavy on his people, and the natural consequence was a heightening of mysticism. Circumstances turned this tendency of the time so that it hit upon witchcraft. About 16S0 a number of clergymen around Boston began to investigate the history of witchcraft in New England. A short time later Increase Mather, in a book called "Illustrious Providences," described the nature of witchcraft, and his '^^^ pedantic son, Cotton Mather, desiring to study the sub- auj'^j^h- ject experimentally, began to gather data for a book on craft. "The Wonders of the Invisible World," a discussion of the "nature, number, and operations of the devils." In 1688 two chil- dren of Boston declared themselves bewitched by an Irish laundress, who was tried and executed. He took the two girls to his own house, observed their actions, and published his conclusions in 1689. Thus the public mind was made ready for the sad afifair at Salem. In a village (now Danvers) in the town of Salem some girls who had been reading about and discussing witchcraft began to act in the strange ways bewitched persons were said to act, and they alleged that certain friendless old persons had cast spells Z^**^?"'" upon them. The pastor of the town accepted their state- saien,. ment and demanded the punishment of the witches. In- vestigation was had, but the whole community was so excited that a cool judgment was impossible, and the verdict of ministers and lay- men was that witches, emissaries of the devil, were brazenly established in the village. Many accused persons were arrested, while the village and several other communities held days of fast and prayer to avoid ISO SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES this additional infliction of divine anger. Then the governor was re- quested to appoint a special high court to try the imprisoned ones. He comphed, and in the summer of 1692 nineteen persons were con- victed and executed for witchcraft. By this time the people of the country were in terror of the witch-hunters, and many persons when accused admitted guilt and sought to escape punishment by throwing the blame on others. The court took "spectral" evidence, i.e. when a "bewitched" person declared he saw an alleged witch coming in the form of a yellow bird it was held good evidence, though no one else could say he saw a yellow bird. To declare that the prosecutions were foolish was to bring down a charge of witchcraft on oneself. At first only miserable old men and women were accused. But in time people of high social position were aimed at, one of them being the wife of the governor himself. At last public opinion underwent a revulsion, the special court was dissolved, and the prisons were emptied. After a while reason resumed sway and the conservative leaders suffered a loss of influence. The doctrines of the liberals, however, caused dismay in many quar- ters. One of the innovations was a rela.xation of the old doctrine of conversion. In 1662 it had been agreed that conversion The "Half- was not essential to church membersliip. In a regime in nant."°'^" which civil status depended on church relations this was rather a natural conclusion. But it found steady opposi- tion with those who insisted that the ancient faith should be preserved. It was scornfully referred to as "The Halfway Convenant." It was even declared by the more venturesome of the party that many min- isters had not been converted. In 1734 there began in Northampton, Massachusetts, through the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, a great revival, the foundation of which was the necessity of con- AwakeninT" '^'^■"^ion. The preacher was eloquent and fervid, and under his fiery words many persons were convcted of sin, fell into trances, or shouted joyfully in the assurance of forgiveness. The meetings attracted attention throughout western Massachusetts, and much was done to create a more fervent spiritual life. In 1 740, when the fame of the Northampton meetings was stfll fresh, George White- field, former associate of the Wesleys and a most remarkable preacher, arrived in New England. At first he was received favorably by all parties and his meetings, attended by immense crowds, resulted in pro- fessions of con-version by many thousands. His strong insistence on the necessity of conversion at last aroused the opposition of the liberal clergy. He replied in kind, and soon the colony was divided into two religious factions. The same result appeared in Connecticut. Both Harvard and Yale colleges were opposed to the revival in its later stages. Whitefield is not prominent in the movement after 1745, but he was followed by many earnest preachers who had less ability. The upshot was a separatist movement, the seceders largely joining the THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 151 Baptists. The "Great Awakening" was also strong on Long Island and in New Jersey, where many New Englanders had settled. In this connection one must not forget the significance of Rhode Island in the cause of toleration. To Roger Williams and his followers was due the steady assertion of this theory, in the face of the strict Puritan conformity in the adjacent colonies. Religious Small as his colony was, it was a safe refuge for all who Rjfo*de'ls-° demanded freedom of worship. He received the Quakers land, and refused to persecute them, although he beheved their doctrines false and dangerous. The seed he sowed bore fruit many years afterwards. Rhode Island, through this course, became a home of sects, and their clashing purposes often produced social confusion, but the religious history of America could not well do without their influence. The English Church was established by law in Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas. In the first it was recognized in the beginning of of the colony's e-\:istence. At this time the Puritans had not begun to leave the Church of England, and the result y^rh°\ was that "Low Church" forms were planted in this, the in Virginia, oldest colony, the effects of which survive to this day. But dissenters were not tolerated, and in 1643 a law, passed under the influenceof Governor Berkeley, forbade any other than an Anglican min- ister to conduct religious services in the colony. Late in the century the Baptists began to appear, and seem to have suffered little inconven- ience. The coming of the Scotch-Irish, all of them Presbyterians, in the eighteenth century made matters worse. At first they were ignored by the religious authorities, but when traveling preachers ap- peared and began to gather them and any others whom they could in- fluence into churches the Anglican pastors protested. The ministers were arrested because they had no licenses, but the juries generally acquitted them. Thus broke down the attempt to exclude all but the Anglican faith from Virginia. By 1760 the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Quakers were well planted in the colony. In the beginning, Maryland, though settled by Catholics, had no church establishment. In 1649, when Puritanism was supreme in England, the assembly passed an act for religious tolera- tion. If it was passed, as seems probable, to enable Balti- , ***'T'- more to continue m possession as proprietor, it at least caroUnas. was a good example. But it did not satisfy the Protes- tants, who were a large majority of the population ; and in 1692 and 1702 they carried laws establishing the English Church, and those were followed by severe laws against the Roman Catholics. South Carolina established Anglicanism in 1706, after a long struggle with the dissenters, the victory being won at last by a combination with the Huguenots, who were in return given the status of an establishment in the parishes in which they were the large majority of the population. XS2 SOCL\L PROGRESS IN COLONIES In North Carolina a law to establish the church was adopted about the same time by manipulation during the troublous era of the Cary Re- bellion, but there were so few adherents to the AngHcan Church in the colony that it was enforced in only three or four parishes. In 1765 there were only five Anglican clergymen in the province. In these colonies the law provided for parishes, usually identical with the counties and for a tax paid by all to support the clergymen. The parish affairs were left to vestries, self-perpetuating in Virginia and North Carolina, but chosen by the freeholders in Maryland and South Carolina. There was much complaint about the morals of the es- tablished clergy in Virginia and Maryland, "Cock-fighting parsons" being the term with which posterity dubbed them. Some of the clergymen seem to have fairly won the epithet. In New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware no laws could be passed to establish one form of religion. Here the dissenters prevailed, each racial element having its own religious c'i'*"s forms to which were added many others of non-racial origin. Pennsylvania was particularly concerned with them. "Africa is not more full of monsters," wrote a horrified Anglican clergyman, "than Pennsylvania is of sects." In New York the gov- ernor tried to give the Anglican Church the position of an establishment by limiting the right of ministers of other churches to preach. The attempt failed, but he got the assembly to give certain churches the right of support by public taxation. The British Toleration act of 1689 giving liberty of worship to dissenters in England and Wales, but in no way favoring the Cathohcs, had its reaction in America. It was reenacted in Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and in other colonies. Feeling in England and America was then strong against the Catholics, who were believed to be plotting to regain England through the res- toration of the Stuarts. Virginia required them to take the test-oath if they gave evidence or held office; New York and Massachusetts, with eyes on the missionaries to the Indians, forbade a o/the"*°' Catholic priest within their respective jurisdictions. Catholics. Maryland, although only about 3000 out of a total pop- ulation of 40,000 were Catholics, forbade the public cele- bration of the Roman services, nor could any of that faith teach school or purchase lands. The administration of the Anglican Church was under the direction of the Bishop of London, who ordained ministers for the provinces. In 1689 he adopted the policy of having a commissary of London.'' '-'^ represent him in a colony, James Blair being appointed for Virginia and Thomas Bray for Maryland. A com- missary had the right to inquire into the conduct of the clergy, but he could not dismiss an incumbent. In 1701 was organized the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a missionary organization which sent ministers to most of the colonies. The reports of these missionaries are an important source of knowledge of colonial social conditions. SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES iS,3 Education and Culture in the Colonies In another place this book treats of the origm of the New England public school system, probably the chief educational institution of the day (see page 476). Aside from that one must notice the beginning of the American college and the general schools, attitude of the people toward middle schools. The first step toward proxading higher education in any continental English colony was taken by the liberal group of which Sir Edwin Sandys was leader, when in 1620 a university was decreed for Henrico, in Virginia. A beginning was actually made, a teacher was employed, and funds were subscribed, but the Indian massacre of 1622 wiped out all traces of town and university. As the enterprise had depended on philan- thropic gentlemen in England, who now lost control of the colony, and as it had little support by the people in Virginia, it was not revived. The ne.xt step was taken by the general court of Massachusetts, which in 1636 voted 400 pounds for a "shoale or colledge" to educate the English and Indians in "knowledge and Godliness." In 1638 Rev. John Harvard died, leaving the college a ^^""'^ legacy of books and money, and from him the institution Founded, was called Harvard College. In 1650 it was formally in- 1636. corporated. The town in which it was situated was called Cambridge, from the English university town in which several of the Massachusetts ministers had studied. Two degrees were offered. Bachelor of Arts, for which the requirement was ability to read the Old and New Testaments in the originals and to translate them into Latin ; and Master of Arts, for which seven years' study was necessary, as in Cambridge and Oxford. In a new colony it was not always possible to live up to these excellent standards, but for over half a century Harvard was the only center of learning in America, and it furnished New England during this time with a body of well-taught ministers. By 1700 Har\-ard was identified with the religious liberals, spite of the fact that Increase Mather was its president. This displeased the conservatives, who were at length rejoiced to know that a new college, sound in theology, was in 1701 established Y^^nded^^^ in Connecticut. Eli Yale, who had been governor of i^oj, Madras, gave it a sum of money, and in 1 718 it was called Yale College. After tentative location at several places, it was in 1716 definitely placed at New Haven. Its governing body and faculty were required to accept the Saybrook Platform, a statement of faith formulated by a legislative commission and adopted by the assembly in 1708. Yale maintained outward conformity to this type of orthodoxy for a centur}^ but by 1750 it had advanced far on the road of liberalism. 154 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES In 1691 Commissary Blair arrived in London to try to get a royal charter and to raise funds for a college in Virginia. When he broached the matter to Attorney- General Seymour, whose aid he William and needed, he was asked why the colony desired a college. ^^^^ The answer was that it would furnish an educated ministry Founded, to save the souls of the colonists. "Souls!" exclaimed 1693. ' Seymour, "D — n your Souls! Make tobacco!" But the commissary had great Scotch persistence, his request succeeded, and in 1693 a royal charter was issued for William and Mary College. It created a college and "free school" under the aus- pices of the Anglican Church. Commissary Blair was its lirst presi- dent, and its professors were clergymen. It had a large influence in colonial Virginia. Williamsburg, where it was located, soon became the capital of the colony and an attractive colonial society grew up under the protection of the governor and the college. For some years the "free school," free only in the sense that it admitted all students who met the intellectual and financial rcc[uirements, was the chief feature. When the curriculum of the college was organized, it had less Hebrew and Syriac than Harvard, but there was more of general culture. Thus at the beginning of the eighteenth century Anglicanism and the two branches of New England Puritanism had each its college. Fifty years later other religious organizations were developed Colonial ^° strongly that they also could venture to establish seats Colleges. of learning. The first of thefe was the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, established in 1746. Its support was Presbyterian, and it drew largely for a hundred years from the Scotch-Irish population extending from New Jersey south- ward. It is proljable that the Great Awakening stimulated its crea- tion. By this time the desire for colleges as expressions of local pride had come into existence; and in 1749 the University of Pennsylvania was founded, in 1754 King's College, now Columbia, in 1764 Rhode Island College, now Brown University, and in 1769 Dartmouth Col- lege in New Hampshire. In all these institutions except Churches '"^^ University of Pennsylvania the chief impulse to found and Higher the college came from a church. Higher education at the Education, time found its support in America in the necessity for the education of the ministers. In the charters of Yale, William and Mary, Princeton, King's (Anglican), and Brown (Bap- tist) arrangements were made to perpetuate the influence of the re- spective churches which founded them. Higher education in America, now so well able to stand on its own feet, was born of religion and long nourished by it. As to subjects taught, the colleges began with the high ideal of re- producing English college curricula. Harvard is supposed to have been modeled after Emanuel College, Oxford, at which several Massa- chusetts men had studied. But the wilderness does not favor intel- LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE COLONIES 155 lectual culture. The Emanuel men eventually passed away, and a colony-born generation took their places. Neither here nor elsewhere was actual education higher than in a good modern prepar- atory school. The colleges, like other features of American ^j^^ umc- life, began low and developed slowly out of their own ex- perience. The very conditions around them made them in colonial times but large academies, but they have gradually lifted themselves out of these conditions. The southern and middle colonies had a few public schools, but private schools were widely established. Often they were taught by clergymen. In the towns, as Philadelphia and New York, mmhi schools were early established. In the South the planters g^hooig ^ cooperated in supporting schools for their own children. The subjects taught were elementary. The elements of Latin and Cireek were given to those who sought to enter a college. How much this was may be seen in John Adams's entrance examination at Harvard rn 1 75 1. He was required to write a good hand and with the aid of a Latin grammar and dictionary to translate a piece of English into Latin. Cultured men were found in the colonies from the beginning. Prob- ably they were more numerous in the early years of a colony's history, because the contact with England was then closest. In the first fifty years of her existence Virginia saw the production c^j^g of many books about her history ; in the second fifty years the output was smaller. The richest planters of Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina educated their sons in England. Colonel William Byrd, of Virginia, a man of fine mental gifts, was trained in England and Holland, though not in a university, and spent many years in London, where he had some of the leading literary men for his associates. His old age he spent in Virginia, where he relieved the tedious hours by writing some of the sprightliest English prose that colonial America produced. Philadelphia was distinguished for a group of scientists, chief of whom were Franklin and James A. Logan. Boston was the center of an indigenous literary movement. It showed little immediate English influence and was, undoubtedly, the flowering of New England culture, nourished faithfully by Harvard and the congregational ministry. Several of the royal governors were notable friends of culture. But in this field we must not assert too much. Poets and essayists we had, and a few historians ; but they rarely rise into high rank. Loc.\L Government in the Colonies Three types of loyal government appeared in the English colonies ; the county, the town, and the mixed type. The first came with the settlement of Virginia and was an adaptation of the English county iS6 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES to Virginia conditions. The county was a unit of representation in the lower house of the assembly. Over it was a sheriff and a lieutenant- colonel of the militia. It had local justices of the peace The County, ^j^q ^,gj.g appointed by the governor and coimcil, as a rule men of social and political prominence. They held the county court of quarter sessions, wliich was both an administrative and judicial body. In the former capacity it superxased the roads, apportioned taxes, cared for county property, and looked after any general business relating to the county. As a court it tried minor cases, although few justices were lawyers. Sheriff, lieutenant-colonel, and clerk of the court were generally appointed by the governor. In the southern county, as normally organized, the only elective office was member of the assembly. He was chosen by the freeholders, all meeting at one voting precinct, the ballot being viva voce. Under such conditions the governor with the council had great power. He selected the county officials from the leading famUies, and they usually controlled the election of assemblyman, who in turn became the governor's ad- viser as to the further appointment of county officials. The office- holding oligarchy of a southern county was an aristocratic influence, genuinely English in character, usually honest and efficient, and of sound American principles, as the local history of the revolutionary era shows. The New England town was a revival of the early English town, which for centuries had sursdved in the English parish, both a civil and an ecclesiastical institution. The fundamental idea was The New jj^^^ ,.j^g business of the town should be transacted in Town" town meeting by all the qualified freemen. In earliest New England these were the persons of good standing in the town church; but as the king objected to the exclusion of An- glicans from the suffrage, it was provided that any person of good character could be admitted to the suffrage on the certificate of a min- ister. Tliis rule, discretely administered, relieved pressure from the exclusion of Anghcans, but left the control of town affairs safely within the church. The town meeting levied the taxes, appointed selectmen who executed its rules, chose subordinate officers, and supervised roads, bridges, and public property. Any voter might speak in town meeting ; but it was part of the genius of the people to respect the advice of the elders. The minister had great influence in town affairs, the selectmen were the men of wealth and prominence, and between the two the direction of local affairs was in as restricted a group as in the South. Here, too, it must be said that the oligarchy ruled well. It was honest, patriotic, and economical, and it gave satisfaction to the majority. The mixed form first appears in New York. When Nicolls con- quered New Amsterdam, eastern Long Island was settled by New Englanders, who had never acknowledged the right of the Dutch over PAPER MONEY 157 them. They had bought their lands from the Indians, established town meetings without authority from any superior, and desired to go on as they had begun. As they had helped NicoUs against Stuyvesant he could not ignore their request. V^^ Maed Neither could he grant it ; for the Duke of York meant to lS Gov- rule his province by absolute right , so far as he could. The emment. result was a compromise which the Long Islanders accepted with disappointment. NicoUs prepared a code of laws on the basis of the enactments of the assemblies at Boston and New Haven ;nid pro- claimed it as law for the Long Island towns, where it was known as the "Duke Laws." It provided that the town administration be in the hands of overseers and constables elected by freeholders, but there was to be no town meeting. Local justice was to be administered, as in the South, by judges appointed by the governor. In a few years the "Duke's Laws" were extended to the rest of the province. In Nicolls's time there was no legislature. Wlien it later came into existence, the county, made up by a union of several towns, became the basis of representation. Thus we have a system of counties divided into towns, or townships, imitated in the other middle colonies, and largely reproduced in the newer states of the union. Indeed, its ad- vantages are so obvious that it has since the civil war been adopted in modified forms in the Southern states. Paper Money in the Colonies Until the end of the seventeenth century specie was the money generally used throughout the world, but shortly before that time it had been discovered that a state's promise to pay might be made to serve as currency, although no country had used "^^^ ^1"^* the invention extensively. To issue bOls which might be g^papgr'^ paid back to the government for taxes and then destroyed Money, seemed a wonderful idea, and it was destined to be tried on a large scale in the colonies, where neither gold nor silver was mined, and where there was always a demand for money to develop the abundant natural resources. The idea was seductive, but it ig- nored the fundamental law that the volume of currency should be nearly stable in proportion to population. To increase it by a new issue would undoubtedly aid the debtors temporarily, but it worked a counteracting hardship to the capitalists, and to contract it would in- jure the borrowers while it benefited the capitalists. As the majority of people were not lenders they were continually asking for more paper money, once they learned of its effects, and they generally protested loudly against attempts to reduce its volume. The capitalists, mer- chants, and town's people generally, continually opposed such cur- rency, and they had the support of the crown, which usually was tender of the interests of the trading class. Out of this opposition of 158 SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES purpose grew up in most of the colonies important political divisions which seriously affected the people's loyalty to the mother country. The first colony to have paper money was Massachusetts. In 1690 an unsuccessful expedition against Quebec left the treasury in debt and to pay it off notes were issued and made receivable Massa- fgr public dues. In the wars that followed and lasted until r'^d^'ai ^^^^ French were driven out of Canada there were many Way. similar issues, so that by 1745 a silver dollar was worth eleven dollars in currency. Other New England colonies had followed the example set them, and the whole country was over- whelmed with depreciated paper. The ruling classes, chiefly in the seacoast towns, were dismayed at the situation, and when parliament voted 175,000 pounds sterling to repay Massachusetts for her expenses in the expedition which took Louisburg, 1 745, they were able to get a vote passed for the redemption of the outstanding notes at the rate of seven and a half for one. After that the currency of the colony was specie. Massachusetts's lead in issuing paper currency was followed in most of the other colonies, Virginia being the most conspicuous opponent of the paper money system; and even she yielded in 1755. Colonies '^^^ largest issues were in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, and the Carolinas. In these colonies the de- mand for currency became a veritable fiat money craze. Bills were printed and lent to individuals on the security of lands and commodi- ties. Sometimes it was issued by the public direct and sometimes through corporations on a very slender basis of specie. Virginia's reluctance to employ this kind of money was not so much due to cor- rect ideas of finance as to her habit of using tobacco for currency. Tobacco when not sold immediately was deposited in public ware- houses, and the certificates received by the depositors were transferred to other persons in payment of debt or for trade. The protests of the merchants against the payment of debts in colonial paper soon reached the ears of the British government. Accordingly, colonial governors were instructed to allow ai^°Cr^own ^^^ passage of no more acts authorizing paper money, to Check '^""^ sometimes those already passed were vetoed in Eng- the Craze. land. But the governors were not always able to obey their instructions without arousing more resistance than they cared to encounter. During the last struggle with France, 1754 to 1763, the colonies took the plausible ground that they could not fur- nish troops in aid of the war unless they be allowed to issue more paper_ money, and when this argument was insisted upon it usually prevaOed. The irritation occasioned by the efforts of the crown to check paper money weakened the respect of the people for the British government, and was a powerful factor in preparing them for participa- tion in the revolution. It also opened the way for the flood of public notes which inundated the country as soon as independence was declared. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 159 BIBLIOGIL^PHICAL NOTE General social conditions in the colonies are described with commendable fullness in Channing, History of the United Slates, 3 vols. (1Q07-1912); Andrews, Colonial Self-Government (1904) ; Greene, Provincial America (1905) ; and Doyle, English Colonies in America, 5 vols. (1882-1907). On special sections or colonies see : Weeden, Economic and Social History 0] Xt-iv England, 2 vols. (1896) ; Bruce, Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, 2 vols. (1896); Ibid., Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, 2 vols. (1910) ; Ibid., Social History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (1907); William Byrd, Writings of (ed. 1901), the introduction, by J. S. Bassett, presents a history of the B>Td family with its various industrial, social, and political activities ; McCrady, South Carolina under Royal Government (1899). On conditions of labor see : McCormac, White Servitude in Maryland (Johns Hopkins Studies, 1904) ; Ballagh, While Sereitude in Virginia (Ibid., 1895) ; Bassett, Senitudc and Slavery in the Colony of North Carolina (Ibid., 1896) ; Geiser, Redemp- tioncrs and Indented Servants in Pcnnslyvania (Supplement to Yale Review, 1901) ; Brackett, The Xegro in Maryland (1889); Ballagh, Slavery in Virginia (1902); Weeks, Southern Quakers and Slavery (1896) ; Du Bois, Suppression of tlie African Slave Trade (1S96) ; and Channing, Narragansett Planters (Johns Hopkins Studies, 1886). Books of travel are: Kalm, Travels in North America (trans. 1770, and later eds.), by a Swede who visited the colonies in 1749-1750; Madam Knight, Journal, 1704-1705 (ed. 1S25, 1865), relates chiefly to New England; Whitcfield, Journal of a Voyage from London to Savannah [1737-1738] (1739); and Keith, Travels from Neu- Hampshire to Caratuek (1706, 1851), warmly AngUcan and bitter against dissenters. .A. most valuable contemporary source is Samuel Sewall, Diary, 1674- 1729 (Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 5th ser. V-VII). See also : Tlanton, Letters from Ndv England, 1686 (Prince Society Publications, 1867); .\lsop. Character of the Province of Maryland (1666, 1903); Hammond, Leah and Rachael, or the Two Fruitful Sisters, Virginia and Maryland (1656); Wilson, Account of the Province of Carolina (in Carroll, Hist. Collections, 2 vols. (1836); .\she, Carolina, a Description of the Present State of the Country (Ibid.), both Wilson and Ashe deal with South Carolina; Denton, Brief Description of Nerd' York (1670. 1903); JUUer, Description of the Province and City of Nnv York (1695; 1903); WoUey, Two Years' Journal (1701, 1902); Thomas, Historical and Geographical Account of West New Jersey and Pcnsilvania (1698, 1903); and Budd, Good Order Established in Pennsylvania and -Viic Jersey (1683, 1902). For race element see : Kuhns, German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Penn- sylvania (igoi), with a bibliography; Berrdieim, German Settlements in North and South Carolina (1872); Fries, The Moravians in Georgia and North Carolina (1905); Green, Scotch-Irish in America (Am. Antiqu. Soc. Proceedings, vol. X), a good essay; and Baird, Huguenot Emigration to America, 2 vols. (1885), good for genealogical purposes. On religious conditions : Cross, The Anglican Episcopate and the American Colonies (Hamard Studies, 1902) ; Anderson, The Church of England in the Colonies, 3 vols, (ed. 1856); Perry, History of the American Episcopal Church, 2 vols. (1885); W. Walker, Ten New England Leaders (1901); Dexter, Congrcgationalisjn as Seen in lis Literature (1880) ; Lauer, Church and Slate in Nrw England (Johns Hopkins Studies, 1892) ; Backus, History of New England with Particular Reference to the Baptists (ed. 1871); Checkley; Evolution of Religious Tolerance in Massachusetts Bay, 2 vols. (1897); Upham, Salem Witchcraft, 2 vols. (1876), to be read with Poole's criticism (.V. Am. Rev. C\'III) ; and Tracey, The Great Awakening (1842). Intellectual and educational development are described in : Tyler, History of American Literature, j6oj-iy6$, 2 vols. (ed. 1897); Thomas, History of Printing (Am. Antiqu. Soc. Arclueologia Americana, 1874); Trent, American Literature (1903), a short manual; Quincy, History of Harvard University, 2 vols. (ed. i860): i6o SOCIAL PROGRESS IN COLONIES Dexter, Sketch of the History of Yale University (1887); Kingsley, Yale College, 2 vols. (iSyg) ; Adams, The College of William and Mary (U. S. Bureau of Edu- cation, Circulars, 1887); and Thwing, History of Higlier Education in America (1906). On the colonial local government: Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 3 vols. (1904-1907) ; Mereness, Maryland as a Proprietary Province (iqoi); Howard, Local Constitutional History, vol. I (i88g); Channing, Town and County Government in the English Colonies (Johns Hopkins Studies, 1884); and Greene, The Provincial Governor (Harvard Studies, 1898). For Independent Reading Franklin, Autobiography (many eds.) ; Mrs. Earle, Sabbath in Puritan New England (1891); Fisher, Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial Times (1898); Wendell, Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest (1891); .Wlen, Jonathan Edwards (1889); and Eliza Lucas, Journals and Letters (1850), on South Carolina matters. CHAPTER VIU THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION The Principles at Stake When the British government was about to make peace with France in 1763, it was suggested that the French hold Canada as a restraint on the colonies. The suggestion brought forth a pamphlet from Franklin in which he said the colonies pQ^^y would not desire independence if they were treated fairly. Pitt accepted his argument but was out of office before the treaty was concluded. Bute, his successor, grasped at Canada, but forgot all about Franklin's stipulation that the colonies be treated fairly. In fact, if we interpret his policy in the way which seems most justi- fiable, he was bent on holding Canada and making British authority sufficiently energetic to deal with whatever spirit of self-assertion America might manifest. He meant that the colonies should con- tribute to the commercial support of England, that the king's prerogative should have ample scope in colonial administration, and that parliament should exercise the right to lay ta.xes on the colonists. That the colonists should consider this treatment fair was impossible ; that they should find legal arguments in opposition to it was natural. Had the British government been in the hands of wise and well- informed men, the crisis of 1763-17 76 might have been avoided, which does not, however, mean that it would not have come later. But the government acted on a basis of strict legality. It was legal for parliament to legislate in any way it saw fit ; it was legal for the crown to exercise its prerogative in the veto of laws ; it was legal for the royal governors to interfere in ^ff^ 2*^'^ many ways with the growth of colonial self-government ; ^^^^ PoUcy. and finally it was legal for England to impose the navi- gation laws on the colonies and to exploit the children's labor for maternal prosperity. These things had been done until they had all the sanction of precedent. Moreover, the Englishman thought them reasonable. Of all the moderns he is least liable to take other people into consideration. A few statesmen have proved an excep- tion to this rule, but George III, Lord Bute, and the existing cabinet were not of the number. Those who directed English colonial affairs in 1763 knew little of that better art of government by which the mind of the governed is as much respected as the interests of the governing class. u 161 i62 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION The colonies were developing rapidly in numbers and in ideals. In twenty-five years the population had doubled, and with greater strength came greater confidence in the future ; and they naturally felt disposed to demand a clearer definition of their relation to the British government. This was difiicult because of two apparently conflicting principles which had hitherto been considered binding. One was that the colonists had all the fundamental rights of English- men. Under this they believed themselves entitled to the benefits of Magna Charta, the Habeas Corpus Acts, and such fliTtin^°°" other great statements of personal liberty as the Bill of Principles. Rights of 1689. There was no disposition in England to deny this claim in its abstract form, but the applica- tion given it by the Americans was disputed. From English expe- rience the colonists also deduced the clear right of " no taxation without representation," a principle at the bottom of every great English reform of the preceding two centuries. The other principle related to the power of parliament to legislate for the colonies. From time immemorial Englishmen have held parliament absolute in regard to the scope of its authority. No colonial charter ever dealt with the matter explicitly ; but in most of them the assembly was given the right to make such laws as did not conflict with the laws of England. It had come about that the assemblies dealt with local matters and had nothing to do with affairs involving the empire, such as external commerce, the regulation of money, and the collection of debts due to British subjects. To see that this principle was not violated, the Veto in En !^'"" insisted on the right to veto colonial statutes, although land and i"n" ''.'' England his veto of an act of parliament was long the Colonies ^'"^6 abandoned. The colonists could not but look on this as a wrong. Their own view of their rights was that a colonial assembly was in a small way another parliament, guardian of popular rights and liberties, and ruling its colony as formerly the Scottish parliament ruled Scotland under British supervision. They did not ii) general dispute the authority of parliament to legislate for the colonies ; but they resented the exercise of the right in a very vital ^yay. Never did a more perplexing problem of imperial federation and home rule arise in British political history; and in 1763 England was not ready for it. Grenville's Policy The men into whose hands the problem fell were George III and George GrenviUe. The former had been three years king, and had George lU. }3l^ 8°^ ^he reins of government firmly in his hands. I he power of Newcastle and Pitt displeased him, and he drove them out of office by combining under his patronage all who had a grudge agamst either. The war was popular with the country GRENVILLE'S POLICY * 163 and enhanced Pitt's influence with the people. The king, therefore, hastened to make a peace which many Enghshmen regarded as a sacrifice of national interests. The obloquy of it fell on Bute, the tool who formulated the terms of peace, and he was forced out of office. But George III would yield nothing to the old whig party. He made Grenville prime minister, and by favor and flattery consoli- dated a parliamentary majority in his support. From that time his purpose was to rule England, He knew little of the colonies and would not have distressed them capriciously. But his love of prerogative was a ruling passion, and once it was questioned by the Americans, his stubborn nature would risk much in its support. Walpole and Newcastle had paid little attention to the colonies ; Grenville, more conscientious and more given to detail, not only gave them attention, but prepared a definite scheme involving their relation to the empire. The national debt was exorbi- tant, 140,000,000 pounds, and much of it grew out of the late war, fought in behalf of the colonies. To protect the empire a large fleet and a standing army were necessary. To Grenville, logical and prosaic statesman, it seemed the most natural of conclusions that the colonies, a part of the empire, should share this imperial burden. He did not think of the practical difficulties before him, nor did he stop to look at the matter from the colonists' standpoint. His conclusion was made, and three measures were devised to carry it into effect. The situation was well summed up in the remark of a treasury official that, "Grenville lost America because he read the American dispatches, which none of his predecessors had done." The first of these three momentous acts provided for the strict enforcement of the navigation and customs laws in America. On examination Grenville learned that the duties paid in America did not exceed 2000 pounds a year, and that it '■ "^"e*- cost nearly 8000 pounds a year to collect this sum. Smug- t,e Enforced, gling existed on a large scale, and he proposed to break it up. Ships-of-war were sent to jiatrol the American coasts, rigid instructions were given to the resident customs officials, and delin- quents in office were replaced by men who seemed more trustworthy. In 1764 the "molasses act" of 1733, which had been generally violated with the connivance of the government, was revived and enlarged by the addition of coffee, Spanish and Portuguese wines, and several other less important articles. Thus on tlie chief articles which New England received in return for her fish, lumber, staves, and food products sold in French and Spanish colonies, such duties must be paid as would practically annihilate the trade. The effects of this would be more far-reaching than Grenville could have known. Besides furs. New England and the middle colonies exported little to England, which did not take their flour, lumber, staves, and cheaper fish ; and yet they bought English merchandise heavily. As a result, i64 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION there was a large annual balance against them for which they paid from the cash proceeds of the trade to the islands. Take from them the French and Spanish parts of this trade, and not only would colonial industry suffer, but English merchants would find American orders restricted and American merchants would be hopelessly involved in debts to their British creditors. The act of 1764, therefore, with the stricter revenue regulations accompanying it, brought consterna- tion not only to the smugglers but to all the colonial merchants. The second measure concerned an army. Grenville decided to maintain 10,000 men in the American colonies and announced that the duties arising from the act just mentioned would defray 2. A British one-third of the e.-rpense. The other two-thirds he would Ai^rica. have the king pay. This measure was justified on the ground that the troops were needed to defend the colonies against foreign attack. To the Americans it seemed that the soldiers were designed to overawe them, to support the collection of customs, and to nip in the bud any plans which might be made to support the colonies in their contention for what they considered their rights. And they asked with much pertinence why, if protection were needed, it had not been sent earlier, when French and Indians were a real menace ? To this question no satisfactory answer has been given by those who see in Grenville's second measure merely a precaution against foreign dangers. The third measure was a stamp act. It was not offered in 1764, but Grenville introduced, and parliament passed, a resolution declaring that it might be proper to enact it. A protest came at Stamp Act. ^^'-^ ^''°°^ every colonial agent in London, to which Gren- ville replied by saying that the colonies must assume a part of the military burden, that a stamp ta.x was easily laid and collected, but that he would be pleased to consider any better scheme of raising the money if the colonies would suggest it. He intimated that by seizing this opportunity the colonists might make a precedent for giving money to the crown only when previously consulted by the ministry. A little reflection showed that this was impracticable unless _ the colonies should first adopt some satisfactory form of authoritative cooperation in apportioning their respective shares of a contribution and in devising the means of raising the funds. News of Grenville's measures aroused the apprehension of all the colonists, but it created consternation among the traders of New Alarm in the ^"S^and. A Boston town meeting declared: "There is Colonies. "° ""po"^ ^°^ further delay. . . . These unexpected pro- ceedings may be preparatory to new ta.xations upon, us ; for if our trade may be taxed, why not our lands? Why not the produce of our lands, and everything else we possess ? " In this way the commercial class endeavored to make the rural classes see that the cause of one was the cause of all. It was a peculiarly opportune POSITION OF THE COLONISTS 165 time for such agitation ; for New England was then in commotion over a proposition, urged by the Anglicans in E^H^ and in the colonies, for the creation of an American bishd^^^^Such a step could not but strengthen the position of that c^Hth, lead to the enlargement of its membership, and promote its wider . influence in political affairs. New England was especially Bishopric*" opposed to such a step, her ministers, the most influential class of her people, were debating the question in every town, and to the alarms they thus felt was now added the feeling that parlia- ment was asserting the right to tax Americans at will. The fact that Grenville's policy bore more hardly on New England than on other sections may explain why it was that the first steps of the revolution were taken by her people. In July, 1764, was published in Boston James Otis's "Rights of the British Colonists Asserted and Proved." The author was the most advanced of what was to become the revolutionary group, and his pamphlet may be taken as a statement of Position of the constitutional views of the most extreme Americans. Americans. In it is no advocacy of independence. Could the colonists choose, he said, they would prefer the status of British subjects to independence, unless the former condition involved absolute slavery to England. The right of parliament to make laws for the general good of the colonies was admitted, but to allow it the right to tax American trade was to say it might tax any form of American property. In England a distinction had been made between " external " and "internal" taxes: Otis rejected the distinction, saying taxes were taxes, wherever collected. For remedy he suggested that the colonies should have representation in parliament "in some proportion to their number and estates." Already the cry had been raised, "Ta.xation without representation is tyranny." Two objections may be made to these arguments. One is that they were always overstated. The patriots talked about "British tyranny," and declared that they were about to be "re- duced from the character of free subjects to the miserable je^tjong" state of tributary slaves." Such lurid phrases must have been unconvincing to the British ministry, on whose good will depended an exit from the existing confusions. Moreover, these arguments lacked that self-restrained dignity which thoughtful men admire. The cause of the patriots was a good one. The rela- tion of the colonies to England was threatened with a precedent full of possible future calamity, but it was not likely to be removed by calling names. The second objection is that the suggestion of colonial representation was impractical. If it had been adopted, the Americans would have had very little influence in parliament, and they could not have prevented taxation of the colonies. This was so apparent that the demand was soon dropped by the Americans. # i66 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION By the spring of 1765 Grenville knew the views of the colonistj on a stamp tax. Instead of suggesting any other method of contrib- uting to the burden of empire they had given unmis- The Stamp takable evidence of repudiation of all British taxes 1765'*^^*'*' Determined to have the revenue, which he thought essen- tially just, he now brought in the stamp act, and like th( revised "molasses act" of 1764, it passed parliament without seriou: challenge. It required stamps on all legal and commercial documents bonds, insurance policies, and newspapers, the proceeds to be expendec exclusively on the colonies. Offenses against the act were to be triec by admiralty courts in America or in England, and Grenville proposec to appoint only Americans as agents to distribute the stamps. H( wished to soften the execution of the law as much as possible, and h( thought the colonists would accept it calmly after a brief state o irritation. When news of these proceedings came to America there was ; storm of protests. The memorials of colonial assemblies to parlia ment were not received by it, the vote in the House o ^°Ameri'T Lords was unanimous for the tax, and in the common: it was 205 to 49. Truly it seemed that the wishes of thi children were despised by the mother. One notal^le speech had beei made against the bill in the commons by Colonel Isaac Barre, wh( fervently praised the Americans as "Sons of Liberty." The phrasi was taken up in America, and bands of "Sons of Liberty" were sooi organized to express the popular disapproval. But the outburst did not come at once. For some weeks after tb act was known to have passed there was a stupefied feeling of outrage but no one suggested a means of action. The man wh< Patrick (.qqJ. jj^g initiative in protest was Patrick Henry, a Vir Resolutions, ghiia lawyer of Scotch ancestry, who in 1763 had mad^ himself the popular hero in a Presbyterian communit; by his wonderful speech in the celebrated "Parson's cause." H was now a member of the Virginia house of burgesses, but was dis trusted for his extreme views by the old and experienced leaders the body. To the consternation of the latter, he introduced resolu tions condemnatory of the stamp act, in wliich he claimed for Virginian the exclusive right of ta.xing themselves in their own assembly. Th leaders of the aristocratic East had hitherto been masters of the house and they considered the young backwoodsman's resolutions to* extreme. After a hot debate he carried the day by a close majority It was here that he made the famous utterance : "Tarquin and Cassa each had his Brutus ; Charles the First his Cromwell ; and Georg the Third" — [from the speaker and others, "Treason ! Treason !' — "may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the mos of it." Having won the victory, Henry departed for his home, an his opponents, taking advantage of his absence, carried a motio THE STAMP ACT OPPOSED 167 to expunge the most significant words of his resolutions. But the effect was not what they intended. Henry's words had aroused Virginia, and his original resolutions were printed everywhere and no notice taken of the e.xpunging action of the conservatives. Henry became a conspicuous leader in the struggle then beginning. As governor of the state and as counsellor among the revolutionists his work was hardly more than ordinary, but in the task of arousing public sentiment by means of burning and exaggerated descriptions of colonial wrongs he was unequalled in the South. James Otis, of Boston, was his counterpart in the North. Each played his part in the drama about to open. The popular indignation was general, and associations of "Sons of Liberty" were formed in every colony. They found leaders as fervent as Henry and Otis, intimidated the stamp agents, . and forced them to resign, in many places employing po^^ng violence. In Boston the mob destroyed a building which they thought was to be the stamp office, and pillaged and wrecked the residence of Chief Justice Hutchinson. Defenders of the crown were now denounced as "tories" while friends of the colonies were called "whigs." But the "Sons of Liberty" were only a part of the whigs ; for there were in America many conservatives who opposed taxation by parliament but who did not participate in the demon- strations of the radicals. At this time no one openly advocated independence. The hope of the conservatives was in appeal to the crown, and for that purpose, at the suggestion of Massachusetts, the Stamp Act congress met at New York, October 7, 1765. Delegates came from all the colonies but New Hampshire, Virginia, ^tamp Act North Carolina, and Georgia, and from these came jg^, unofficial messages of encouragement. The result was " petitions to king and parliament and a declaration of the rights of Americans. In the latter we have the first statement of a purpose common to all the colonies. The congress repudiated the notion that the colonies should have parliamentary representation as impos- sible "from local circumstances," and it admitted the right of parlia- ment to make general and trade laws in reference to the colonies, but denied its authority to lay taxes. The right of taxation, said the delegates, was a sacred right of Englishmen, guaranteed to all the colonists in their charters, and on it they stood. After the congress adjourned committees of correspondence, formed as an afterthought through the suggestion of New York whigs, took up the question of trade reprisal. Thus were made non-impor- po^^jj^n tation and non-consumption agreements, which secured wide acceptance by the people. "Touching the pocket nerve," as this course was called, was sensibly felt by the British merchants, who signed many memorials for the repeal of the stamp act. i68 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION The state of affairs in America was well known in England when parliament met, December 17, 1765, and it was evident that the objectionable measure must be executed by force or Repeal of repealed. For the former course neither king nor people Act '^™^ ^^''^ ready. The latter was made easier by the recent retirement of the Gren\aIIe ministry for causes not connected with its colonial policy. The first sign of retraction was when inquiry was made to know if the colonies would be satisfied if the stamp act were "moderated." Franklin, agent for Penn- sylvania, was interrogated on this point at the bar of the house of commons, and declared that nothing but absolute repeal would be accepted by the colonies. Asked if there were no means by which they would erase their resolutions against parliamentary taxation, he answered, "None that I know of; they will never do it unless compelled by force of arms." Pitt, who was ill when the act passed, now took the floor for repeal. Twitted by Grenville for encouraging the Americans to defy England, he exclaimed : " I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." He urged the repeal of the stamp act, but favored a strong assertion of the authority of parliament to "bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power whatsoever, except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent." The outcome was that March iS a repeal bill was signed by the king. At the same time passed the "declaratory act," an explicit statement that parliament could rightfully make laws for "the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever." In America a few stamps had been sold in South Carolina and Georgia : in all the other colonies the law was not executed in the four and a half months it was formally in force. November Stamp Act a j^ jj^g ^j^y ^^^ fgj. {j^g beginning of its enforcement, was be^fore its " ushered in with the tolling of bells, and processions marched Repeal. through the chief towns to bury or burn the stamp act. In Connecticut the stamps themselves were seized and burned. In North Carolina the governor found his house surrounded by more than 700 Sons of Liberty, who did not go away until the stamp agent resigned and with other officers swore not to attempt to enforce the odious act. When this situation began, business came to a standstill. No one dared accept an unstamped instrument, and no ship could get stamped clearance papers. But with the triumph of the protestants courage came to tlie timid ones and business went on as before in disregard of the stamp act. From such confusions the colonies were thrown into joy by the news of repeal. The bells now rang another tune, liberty poles were erected, and the health of the king was drunk in every kind THE HAND OF TOWNSHEND 169 of tipple from the rum of the laboring man to the punch and Madeira of the wealthy merchant. Virginia ordered a statue of the king and New York ordered statues of both the king and Pitt. In Philadelphia the substantial citizens gave their Re^e^'"^"' homespun clothes to the poor and appeared in handsome suits of British cloth. In their excitement the colonists thought little of the declaratory act, the Sons of Liberty dissolved as a society, and every thought of resisting the mother country dis- appeared. Growing Irritation Popular rejoicings did not last long ; for spite of the repeal of the stamp act the colonists and the king were wide apart in principle. In New York was a large detachment of regulars who by a parliamentary billeting act of 1765 were to be fur- „ * Quarrel nished with quarters by the colony. When the matter was laid before the assembly a partial refusal was obtained and trouble began, with the result that in 1767 the assembly was suspended until it complied with the law. In Massachusetts the governor blundered into a quarrel when he demanded of the assembly compensation for the sufferers through the stamp act riots. Objection was made to the demand, as well as to a call for supplies for the garrison under the billeting act. Next the governor vetoed the election of James Otis as speaker of the assembly. There was much bickering, but a compromise was effected. Old quarrels might have been forgotten if Charles Townshend had not been at the head of the British ministry. His first prominent appearance in colonial affairs was in 1763, when he was first lord of trade in Bute's cabinet. He then formulated a plan to remodel the colonial government on a uniform scale, to enforce the acts of trade, and to use the revenue raised in America to support an army and civil establishment at the will of the crown. The scheme was more thoroughgoing than that inaugurated by Grenville, but it passed out of sight with the fall of the Bute ministry. Townshend did not forget it, and when through the fall of the Rockingham ministry in 1766 he became head of the exchequer he returned to his older policy. Without the support of liis colleagues in the cabinet he announced that he '^^^V'7^' would bring in a bill to raise in the colonies the money j^g^, to support an army in America, a bill, he said, which would have the approval of the Americans themselves. Had the cabinet been a strong one, he would probably have been forced to resign ; but Pitt, now Earl of Chatham, was ill, and Grafton, the nominal head, was weak-willed, and Townshend was allowed to pro- ceed in the course he mapped out. In May, 1767, he secured the passage of three acts relating to America. In one, duties were laid on tea, glass, red and white lead, and paper. The colonists had admitted 170 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION the legality of external taxes, and such was the kind now laid. But as the revenue from the five articles named would not be more than £40,000, this act was inadequate to the support of an army, for which ten times that much was necessary. It was designed, it seems, for a precedent, to be followed by a much wider list of taxable articles. To secure larger revenues immediately he carried through a law creating a board of commissioners to supervise the execution of the navigation acts in America ; and as this would likely lead to commo- tions, he got a third bill passed as a warning to any colony which disputed the parliamentary act to billet soldiers. It suspended the New York assembly for its recent refusal to furnish supplies at the demand of the governor. The blow fell heavily on that province, in which were many tories, and in 1769 the assembly yielded and was restored to full x-igor. The Townshend acts were carried through parliament xvithout serious difficulty. The landed interest controlled both houses and were pleased to throw off their own shoulders any part of the heavy burden of taxation. To them the colonies seemed ungrateful and rebellious children, for whom a little parental sternness would be good. The king fully approved the sentiment. Recalling now the prophecy of 1762 it seems well to say that England lost the colonies, not because Canada was no longer French, but because the mother country thought that the time was come to take them into a stricter control than had hitherto been exercised over them. Whatever might have happened later, the American revolution came, when it did come, as the result of events wliich England, and not the colonies, initiated. The colony most affected by trade restrictions was Massachusetts, and she was the first to move in protest. The assembly had a good leader in Samuel Adams, who was the author of several Protests protests of the assembly to king and parliament. He also wrote a circular letter which the assembly sent to the other colonies, suggesting that cooperation was essential in a cause that touched all the continent. Most of the colonies revived the non-importation agreement ; but the state of feeling and'j^hn"^ differed from that of 1765 in that it was less vociferous. Dickinson. There were no riots, and the conservative whigs played a larger part. This feeling was well expressed by John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, in his "Farmer's Letters." He declared that a most serious crisis was on the country and urged that it be met in the spirit of prudence, bravery, and magnanimity. He set aside all thought of independence, saying, "Let us behave like dutiful chOdren, who have received unmerited blows from a beloved parent." But he asserted that if England could tax American im- ports, she could tax in a prohibitive way the articles she did not wish the colonists to manufacture, and that done, he concluded, " the tragedy of American liberty is finished." From 1767 we hear little RESISTANCE IN MASSACHUSETTS 171 in America about the difference between ''external" and ''internal" taxes. Indeed, it was now freely asserted that England had no right to "legislate" for the colonies. Townshend died September 4, 1767, Lord North succeeded him as head of the exchequer, and Lord Hillsborough became secretary for the colonies, a new office of cabinet rank ; but the Townshend policy was not to be relaxed. When Hills- New Minis- borough saw the Massachusetts circular to the other col- q[j po^^y onies, he pronounced it seditious, and ordered the individ- ual governors to adjourn their respective assemblies, if notice was taken of it. To Governor Bernard, of Massachusetts, he sent a demand that the assembly should revoke the circular. In a secret session, by a vote of 92 to 17, the demand was refused, and an address was sent to Hillsborough in which it was said that the colony stood on the principles of the English revolution of 16S9. All the colonies were now keenly ali\'e to the situation, and Virginia, the oldest and largest, took a determined position by the side of the trading colonies of the North. When parliament knew of this it passed resolutions of censure on Massachusetts and suggested that the leaders of the whigs in America be sent to England for trial under an obsolete law of Henry VIII 's reign. This suggestion brought out a protest from every colony. From this time the con- troversy was probably beyond the possibility of compromise, although there remained in America many who still hoped England would yield. Meanwhile the spirit of mob violence reappeared, its first out- break being in Boston, where it was impossible to enforce the revenue acts. In 1768, for example, a cargo of wine was landed without paying duty and carried boldly through the ,J^°''^{^*°' streets under a guard of "stout fellows, armed with bludgeons," and the revenue officials were not rash enough to attempt a seizure. On the contrary, they asked that troops be sent to the town. The request was reasonable from the British point of view ; if the laws existed, they should be executed. So thought the govern- ment, and in September two regiments with artillery, about 1000 men in all, landed in Boston. The people refused to submit to the billeting law on the ground that there was room for the troops in the barracks at Castle William. General Gage, commander-in-chief in the colonies, protested, but the soldiers had eventually to be placed in buildings hired at dear rentals. They had come to intimidate the town, and between them and the inhabitants relations were unpleasant from the beginning. For eighteen months officers and soldiers avoided serious conflict. They were criticized in the journals, flouted in the streets, and sometimes involved in personal conflict with the more gls^l^ent violent townsmen. Nor were they always patient and considerate of the people. They raced horses on Sundays, played 172 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION unseemly music near the meetinghouses during divine worship, and planted cannon to command the state house, in which the general court sat. In 1769 Otis was attacked by a revenue commissioner for an article in a newspaper and received a sword cut, from which he sank into insanity. Though the troops had nothing to do with the outrage, it produced high popular resentment for every British agent. Early in 1770 violent affrays became numerous. It is evident that the long residence of the soldiers in the town had given the more radical leaders a text for agitation, and it may Bloodshed |jg jjjj^)- ^j^g populace had reached a point of excitement mBoston, {jgy^j^fj (-Jig control of the leaders. In February a wooden image appeared over the door of a shop whose keeper flouted non-importation, and a mob interfered when a friend tried to remove it. Thereupon the friend fired into the crowd, killing a boy. At the victim's funeral 5cx) children walked in front of the remains and 1300 persons followed them to the grave. Such an outburst of sympathy shows how well the whig side was controlled by its leaders. March 5, 1770, came a more serious affair. Two soldiers were attacked and beaten by townsmen, and an ugly spirit was aroused. The bells were rung, a large crowd gathered. The and a sentinel in front of the customhouse was attacked. "Boston ^ Captain Preston, officer of the day, with thirteen men, March 5, ' went to his support. The mob was not intimidated. 1770. ' They threw snow, shouted vile epithets, and cried: "Fire if you dare, fire and be damned ! We know you dare not!" The soldiers behaved well until one of them, struck with a stick, discharged his musket without orders. The mob rushed for- ward to take him, but fell back when several other muskets were fired. Drums were beat and all the troops in Boston seized arms to repel a general attack. At this point the governor appeared, and by his appeals induced the angry citizens to disp>erse. At the first shot, Crispus Attucks, a mulatto, was slain, and subsequently four others were killed and six were wounded. Preston and several of the soldiers were indicted for murder, John Adams and Josiah Quincy appearing as their counsel. All were acquitted but two, who, con- victed of manslaughter, pleaded benefit of clergy and escaped with blinding on the hand. The day after the shooting a town meeting was held under the leadership of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The latter was a rich merchant and many times a smuggler. Before their determined protest the governor yielded, and the soldiers were withdrawn from the town. The victims of the "Massacre," as the affair was called, were given a public funeral, and for a dozen years the anniversary of their death was observed in Boston. The incident, described in a pamphlet as the culminating act of British tyranny, had a marked influence on all the colonists. It was the kind of argument that the average citizen could understand. TAXATION ON PRINCIPLE 17,5 Meanwhile, events moved rapidly in England. The cabinet, now headed by Lord North, but delivered hand and foot to the will of the king, was surprised to find the revenues from America were only £295 more than the cost of collection j^ 1770** and to learn that extraordinary military expenses there were £170,000. For these results the government was creating the spirit of resistance in the colonies ; and although North declared in parliament that the Townshend acts ought not to be repealed " till we see America prostrate at our feet," it is certain that he and the king were an.xious to escape from the situation without complete defeat. It was with this hope in mind that he announced on the day of the " Boston Massacre," March 5, 1770, a bill to repeal all the duties imposed by the Townshend acts, save that on tea, which was kept to maintain the rights of parliament. "The properest time to assert our right of taxation is when the right is refused," said he with a tone of confidence which must have been assumed for the occasion. For to make palatable the tax of threepence a pound he allowed a draw- back of nearly twelve pence a pound on the tea sent from England to America ; thus offering cheaper tea to the colonists than to the people of England. The law passed, and its financial effect was good. Co- lonial imports from Great Britain, which aggregated £2,378,000 in 1768, and fell to £1,634,000 in 1769, rose to £4,200,000 in 1771. Non- importation was relaxed on all articles except tea, but public opinion in regard to that article was expressed in the formation of societies to refrain from tea-drinking. The issue between parliament and the colonies now appeared in a new form : the GrenvUle plan to tax America for revenue was given up, and in lieu of it was the king's plan to tax it on principle. At this stage we may take a glance at the general situation pro- duced by seven years of controversy, i. The colonial loyalty of 1763 was gone, and instead were suspicion and bitterness. 2. With it were mingled a feeling of self-confidence and view™™*^ a conviction that England could not carry out the program she had undertaken. She had been obliged to confess failure in regard to the stamp act and the larger part of the Townshend duties ; and was to see the same result in regard to the tea duties. 3. The losing controversy provoked a spirit of bitterness between the royal officials in the colonies and leaders of the people there. The former felt impelled to assert their rights, and there were numerous incidents which they took for challenges. The colonials were equall}' stout- hearted, and in fiery appeals aroused the people on the one hand while they awakened the wrath of the officials on the other. Each side accused the other of usurping authority, and mutual hatred became strong. 4. The colonial assemblies became the centers of resistance to the king. Persons who felt otherwise could not be elected to these bodies; and if any man was disposed to balance between the two 174 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION sides the prospect of defeat by his constituency was apt to make him decide against the crown, and 5. Colonial politics acquired dignity and strength from having a great common cause of protest. Hitherto the contention was about some local matter, as issuing paper money, or the favoritism of a class, and on such a subject men might divide in mere factious feeling. But now there was a cause as great as any that had ever aroused a people. It involved equally the upper and the lower class ; it apjicaled alike to the reason and to the highest emotions ; and it had in it every hope of the future. In 1770 the colonists were divided into three groups: i. The tories, out and out prerogative men, who either believed that a government was strongest when ruled by the crown or Three ^j^q found it their interest to say so. In this party were America. those who derived advantage from royal favor, many others who were conservatives by nature and believed the militant whigs were irresponsible and led by demagogues. 2. The whigs, ardently protesting against the plan of king and parlia- ment to bring America under a stronger British control. Some of them were undoubtedly now willing to carry resistance to extremities, but felt it was not wise to say so. Among the leaders were chiefly those who had hitherto dominated the assembhes. Both inclination and interest prompted them to their course ; for by establishing the principle of colonial control of taxation they enhanced the power of the assembly, which but increased their own influence. Some whig leaders were accused of demagogy. They organized bands of working men, whom they harangued most passionately against British des- potism. Others, and the majority, were more quiet. There was always some difficulty in keeping the extremists from going too fast. 3. A middle class, who considered the defenders of royalty either selfish or misled, but who looked on the whigs as agitators. For the most part, they thought more of their personal affairs than politics. This class was very numerous, especially in the agricultural sections. The desire to bring them to the support of the revolution was a wholesome check on the more impetuous whigs. At this time Massachusetts was most prominent in opposition to the British policy, and for this Samuel Adams was chiefly responsible. He was able and persistent, and he lost no opportunity Adams. ''^ appeal to the people. In 1772 he carried a vote in a Boston town meeting to create a committee of corre- spondence to exchange views and information with other towns in the colony. The other towns accepted the suggestion, and thus Adams became the head of a colonial organization in the whig cause. In the following year a group of Virginia whigs, among them Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, carried a resolution in the assembly to appoint a committee for Virginia to correspond with committees of the other colonies in reference to all matters relating to the common THE BOSTON TEA PARTY 175 good. Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and South CaroUna adopted this suggestion, and thus was created a central organization in behalf of the continental cause. When these steps were taken three years had elapsed since North had sub- stituted the tea ta.x for the Townshend duties, and although there had been various irritating occurrences ' in the several colonies, there was nothing to which the colonies could point as an act of aggression on the part of parliament. Why then should this step toward a united America have been thought necessary ? The answer must be that the whigs were gaining in power, and themselves becoming more aggressive. They had ample reason to know that the king and his officers had not relaxed their purpose to exercise the mastery, and they were preparing to meet a danger they felt inevitable. A small incident brought the blow they were expecting. In 1773 the East India Company, which imported England's tea, was in financial straits, due, it seems, to its inability to sell tea in the American colonies. It appealed to the government ^"l^^p^' for a remission of duties. Lord North and the king p^^y^ willingly gave the relief asked for, and the company was now allowed to send its tea to America without any duty paid in England. North was asked to give up, also, the duty of threepence a pound imposed by the act of 1767; but he refused, saying the king was determined to make its collection a test of authority with America. On this small point, it seems safe to say, hung the question of American revolt. The company took the favor granted it, and in 1773 sent to the colonies a number of ships laden with the tea which for months had been accumulating in its warehouses. All this was known in the colonies, and the people were determined ^^3^°*^ ° to resist. The whig leaders at once put into operation their machinery of arousing opinion. The governors and higher officials who led the tories had no means of checking the whigs, and the middle group were indifferent. At Charleston the agents of the company resigned before the popular storm, and as the duty had not been paid at the end of twenty days the tea was seized by the collector and stored in damp vaults. Three years later it was sold at auction. In Philadelphia the whig leaders called large popular 'The most important, was the destruction u[ the Gaspt'e, a sm^ill ship with eight guns which was very active in arresting smugpLrs in Rhode Island. The commander was ap- plauded by his superiors for his zeal, and became overconfident. He went so far as to send some of the seized property to Boston for adjudication, alleging, with probable truth, that justice would not be obtained in Rhode Island. He became very unpopular in this colony, and when, on June g, 1772, his ship ran aground near Providence, a group of citizens attacked it, wounded the commander, overpowered the crew, and burned the hated craft. The party were well known by common report, but when a commission appeared to in- quire into the outrage no evidence could be had. The incident promoted colonial defiance and strengthened the conviction of the British government that the supreme problem in the colonies was to teach the colonists to resoect authority 176 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION meetings which denounced the tea tax. Here, as in New Yorl agents decHned to act, and the cargoes went back in the ships ■ Drought them. In Boston excitement was high. The agents of whom were sons of Governor Hutchinson, refused to resign took refuge in the castle. When the captains of the tea ships w to go back to England with their cargoes, the governor forbade departure. He seemed determined to force the ••Boston _^ to a settlement, and Adams met it squarely. O Dec^i6^'" "^S^*- *^^ December i6, 1773, about fifty men dis^ i/yj.' ' as Indians and directed by Adams himself went a the ships at the wharf and emptied 342 chests of te; the water. No effort was made by the town officials to preven affair, nor were any of the participants prosecuted for destr property. This act of violence is to be defended only on the g that Adams and his associates considered war inevitable and I upon themselves as its heralds. Continental Organization and Attempts at Adjustme While the news of the "Boston Tea Party" was fresh in En; parliament came together, March 7, 1774. The king was deteri that Boston should be made to respect his power an The Colo- no time in calling to the attention of the lawmaker Obe^ythT' state of affairs in America.- With the majority the Laws. question was to make authority respected, and tl Chatham in one house and Burke in the other pleadec restoration of the laws to the state they were in before Grenv policy of coercion was adopted. It was stated in five acts, th( stance of which was as follows : 1. The port of Boston was closed, the customhouse was mo\ Salem, and ships were stationed in the harbor to enforce the The ban was to be removed by the king when comp gju tion was made for the tea destroyed and when h( satisfied that the duties would be paid in the future. 2. The charter of Massachusetts was remodeled so as to re several of its liberal features. Councillors, who had hitherto chosen by the assembly, were now to be appointed t chusetrs^^*' crown. All the minor executive and judicial officer; Charter. ^Iso to be appointed, and not elected, as formerly ; the town meeting was not to meet, except for elec without the consent of the governor, who must specifically aut! the kind of business that could be transacted. Lawyers were divided on the question of the authority of parliament to or amend a colonial charter; but so good an authority as Justice Mansfield supported the right. He proceeded on the t that the English parliament may do anything but a physical im RETALIATORY LAWS 177 bility. But granted this be true, what shall we say of the political wisdom of the men who thus jauntily tried to uproot a form of govern- ment which had developed through a century and a half? Could they have expected any other answer than resistance ? From being a home of democracy Massachusetts was now to be a centralized prov- ince, with no other feature of popular government than the right to choose the members of the lower >house. 3. To secure a fair trial for officials charged with capital crimes while executing their duties, the governor might, if he saw fit, send them to England for a hearing. In such a case he must „ . . send witnesses. The law seems to have been suggested England by the trial of Preston and the soldiers concerned in the Boston ''Massacre." 4. The law of 1765 to authorize quartering troops had been al- lowed to e.xpire ; but it was now revived. It was omi- nous, also, that General Gage, commander of troops in j^g Act.**^" America, was made governor of Massachusetts. 5. The domain ceded by France in 1763 was organized into a province of Quebec, governed by a legislative council appointed by the crown, with the Catholic Church established by law, and with limits including the region between the Ohio and the lakes, the The act was the result of a long investigation by English " Quebec officials and lawyers, and plausible reasons not connected *'^'- with the seaboard situation are assigned for its important features. But it came at an inopportune moment. Virginia, New York, Con- necticut, and Massachusetts claimed territory in the Northwest and resented the loss of it. To all the whigs it seemed that England wished to build up beyond the mountains a great power dependent on the St. Lawrence and lake systems of transportation, with a government highly centralized and held firmly in hand by the crown, and with an established religion which would preclude any sympathy with the Atlantic colonies. Recent investigations have shown that these as- sumptions were unwarranted. The Northwest was attached to Canada, it is said, for the better regulation of the fur trade, and the government and religion established in the province were necessarily adopted for a population mostly French Catholic and accustomed to the French regime. The seaboard colonies knew nothing of this. Had they known, the "Quebec act" must have aroused their apprehension. From early days they had dreamed of the time when they should sub- due the wilderness as far as the JMississippi. It now seemed evident that the dream was shattered, for whatever the motive of the govern- ment the Northwest was to be closed to the Atlantic colonies by being handed over to a people peculiarly dependent on the crown and largely alien in political and religious sentiment. The acts of 1774 brought consternation to the colonists, for they left no choice between resistance and submission. June i, Boston was N 178 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION blockaded, no goods might go out or come in, business stood still, and want invaded the homes of the poor. May 13 General Puni°h d Gage arrived with four regiments, and assumed the duties of military governor. It was expected that the town would soon be forced into submission and the other colonies be over- awed by the fate of Massachusetts. But there was little thought of submission. From the neighboring towns and from the remotest colonies came relief for Boston's poor. A shower of pamphlets appeared in every quarter arguing The Effect ^.j^^j. ^.j^g cause of Massachusetts was the cause of all the colonies. So threatening became the situation that Gage fortified the neck of land then joining the town to the mainland, and gave up all thoughts of offensive operations against the interior. The officials appointed under the remodeled charter dared not show them- selves outside of his lines. By this time much was being said about a congress representing the whole continent after the manner of the stamp act congress of 1765. A Conti- The suggestion was generally approved, and Virginia took nentai the initiative. In May her burgesses set aside June i , the Movement, d^y the Boston Port Bill began to operate, as a day for fasting and prayer, and for this Governor Dunmore dissolved the house. Then the members, in a meeting at the famous Raleigh tavern in Williamsburg, sent out a summons for an annual congress to con- sider "the united interest of America," and called a Virginia conven- tion to elect delegates to such a congress. The response was imme- diate and hearty. In three colonies only, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, delegates could be chosen by the assembly. Else- where the royal governor adjourned that body to keep it from acting, and the people followed Virginia's example of calling a convention on their own authority. How completely the whigs now controlled colonial politics is shown by the fact that the personnel of these con- ventions was usually the same as that of the several assemblies. When the delegates assembled in Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, all the colonies were represented but Georgia. They were the best men among the whigs, all trained by years of leader- The First gj^jp jj^ (-i^ejj. respective struggles against royal govern- Continental '^ ■ t f ^- rpi. • ^ u t Coneress '~'^^ °'' '"''^''^' factions. The sessions were secret, but we ,774. ' know that two groups appeared among the delegates. One wished to have a union of the colonies, with a president appointed by the king and a council of delegates which could make laws subject to parliamentary veto and which could also veto laws of parliament relating to the colonies. Had this plan been adopted and allowed by England the colonies would have remained English. It „ _. , was favored by the most conservative, among them Jay, Duane, Golden, Galloway, and Edward Rutledge. It had the serious defect thai, it would most certainly be rejected by the king. FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 179 The delegates from Virginia and Massachusetts led the other group. War alone, it was evident, could shake the will of George III, and if we must fight, let it be for independence. This was a bold idea and the supporters of it did not venture to announce it openly. A great many whigs clung lo\dngly to the name "Briton," and it was finally de- cided to publish the American contention to the world and await the formation of public opinion. Thus it was that the congress took up. the preparation of a series of "Declarations and Resolves." The differences among the delegates show in the utterance in regard to legislation. It distinctly claims for the colonies the "exclusive power" to legislate for their own affairs, subject only to the king's veto, but it promises acquiescence to parliamentary acts for the bona fide regula- tion of external commerce and made in the commercial interest of the empire. x\s to ordinar}' rights of person and political liberty the resolutions were clear and strong. The congress also prepared ad- dresses to the king, the British nation, and to the people of the colonies. The most important action of the congress was the adoption of the "Association," an agreement to import no English products after December i, 1774, and to export nothing to any British port, European or colonial, after September 10, 1775. Non-im- This action occasioned serious opposition from New Eng- ^°As*s''c'a- land and the middle colonies ; but every section must sacri- tion." fice something. Virginia gave up the exportation of tobacco to England, Massachusetts the West India trade, and Rhode Island the slave trade. The local committees were urged to see that the "As- sociation" was not violated. They became a very important factor in the revolutionary movement, administering oaths to those who seemed of doubtful loyalty, publishing lists of persons who violated the Association, and in many other ways making life unpleasant for tories, as all opponents of revolution soon began to be called. The "Association" was readily ratified by all the colonies but New York, where there was a strong tory element, and Georgia, which was badly divided between factions of New England and Southern origin. But in both these colonies the whigs were numerous and organized local committees to promote the colonial cause. October 26 congress dissolved, ordering a new congress to meet May 10, 1775, unless the grievances of the colonies were previously redressed. Its chief significance was that it gave cohesion to the whigs. They had come to understand one another. ^*' '"^ Their appeals discountenanced independence, but advised signified, that the people be ready for the worst. At the same time the country was full of warlike preparations. Arms were bought and military companies were formed. Provincial congresses and com- mittees of safety gave the revolutionary movement an efficient or- ganization. The royal governors reported to the home government i8o THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION all th^t happened, but they were powerless to arrest the preparations wliich led daily toward revolution. Gage, behind his Boston barrier, watched anxiously the gathering storm in Massachusetts. Reliable information convinced him that the advent of spring, 1775, would make his task a difficult d'c^"" d °"^' '^'-* a-nticipate his opponents seemed good policy, and on the evening of April 18 he sent Soo men to seize some stores at Concord, 18 miles away. The whigs were on the watch, and sent messengers to arouse the countryside. A lantern in the tower of the North church flashed infonnation of the departure to Paul Revere, on the other side of Charles river, who rode hastily to Lexing- ton. Signal guns and galloping horses soon told the regulars that their movements were known. On Lexington common at dawn they en- countered sixty minute men in military line, who refused to disperse. Suddenly there was a single shot, and then a volley, before which the militiamen fled, eight killed and ten wounded. The British lost none, and proceeded to Concord, where they destroyed such stores as the natives, warned of the movement, had not carried away. By this time the countryside swarmed with militia, and the British hastily retreated. Every rock, tree, or fence that offered cover concealed angry Americans from whose fire the regulars suffered severely. Gage, informed of the situation, sent Percy with 1500 fresh troops to escort the column to safety. By this means it came back to Boston, but with a loss of 273 killed, wounded, and missing. The militia lost 93 in all, and foUowing the retreating column in force began the siege of Boston. The news from Lexington and Concord flew rapidly southward. In five days it reached Philadelphia, six days later it reached Virginia, and May 4 it was at Edenton, North Carolina. Every- The Meek- ^^ere it brought forth patriotic resolves and preparations Resolves. f'"" ^'^''- ^^s most Outspoken reception was in Mecklen- burg county. North Carolina, the center of a large Scotch- Irish population. Here on May 31, the militia companies being met for their muster, a series of resolutions was passed, declaring the com- missions of civil and military officers null and void, and appointing a method of local government "until laws shall be provided for us by Congress." A copy of these resolutions was sent to England, where it is preserved, and they were also printed in a Charleston news- paper. The original was destroyed by fire, and being rewritten from memory survived in a form resembling the national declaration of in- dependence. Many people have taken this paper, whose date. May 20, is supposed to be accounted for by the difference between new and old chronology, for the resolutions actually passed on May 31. This "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence" is not supported by reliable contemporary evidence, and is now rejected by the best historians. BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL I8I Second Continental Congress, 1775- May lo, 1775, the second continental congress assembled in Phila- delphia. Events m Massachusetts filled every heart with dismay, and preparations were made for war. The New England volunteers, which had been called out to the number of 20,000, were taken into the pay of congress, and Washing- ton was appointed to the command. But still the con- servatives hesitated to declare for independence, and to preserve harmony the advanced wing consented to defer that step. All united in a declaration of " the Causes and Necessity for taking up Anns, " and made a last address to the king. The march ot events was bringing the colonies inevitably to separation from England, and the progressives could afford to wait. In this sense nothing could have been more propitious than the progress of the siege of Boston, where Gage, with more than 6000 men, was held in close lines. His position was insecure by reason of high ground behind Charlestown on the north and be- hind Dorchester on the south. If either place were fortified, his own position would be untenable. On the night of June 16 the Ameri- cans attempted to secure the former position, and for that purpose Colonel Prescott occupied Breed's Hill, constructing re- doubts, at which the British opened tire from fleet and batteries early on the 17th. Prescott held his position, and throughout the morning groups of colonials came to his support. Gage saw this, and sent General Sir William Howe with a strong attacking column to carry the redoubts in front. Breed's Hill, like the adjacent Bunker Hill, which gave name to the battle, is on a peninsula whose upper part, a narrow plain, was commanded by the fleet. Had Howe taken this point and fortified it, the Americans must have hastened from their position or been starved into surrender. But neither Howe nor Gage had respect for the fighting qualities of their foes, and for their rashness paid dearly. It was in the afternoon when the regulars landed and slowly formed their lines along the shore. Prescott, follomng the best tradition of the American frontiersmen, ordered his men not to fire "until you see the whites of their eyes." At close range they delivered such deadly volleys that the attacking column recoiled, and fell back with great BDNKER HIXX, AND I30ST0N L'.,...v. r. 1 82 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION loss. Rallied again, they again were driven back. A third time they approached the crest, now supported by a body of marines, and mov- ing carefully. At first the Americans fired effectively, and then, to the surprise of Howe, their fire ceased and they retired from the field. Their ammunition was exhausted, and they had no bayonets to with- stand a charge. The British took possession of the crest, having lost over looo killed and wounded. The American loss was 441, and General Nathanael Greene remarked, "I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price." This engagement was considered a brilliant victory by the Americans, and after it the revolutionary war was inevitable. Washington, commander-in-chief, arrived in Cambridge July 2. The army was in confusion, supplies were lacking, enthusiasm was cooling, and many of the men were going home at the Washington expiration of their terms of service. Had Howe, who mand™' succeeded Gage in command, attacked vigorously, the Americans must have given way. Washington's presence worked a change. He was a man to be respected ; order reappeared, recruits came in, and the army recovered spirits. Supplies came from an unexpected source. Ethan Allen, of Vermont, acting on his own authority, raised a force of "Green Mountain Boys," surprised and captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point, after which Fort ^f,''^° St. John fell. At these points the British had left large Allen. -" . . ^ , ^ . . 1 • 1 J quantities of guns and ammunition, which now proved very helpful to the Americans. Especially useful were the cannon, which were carried to Boston over the snow. Other important assistance came from an improvised fleet, one ship of which, the Lee, commanded by John Manley, took an ordnance brig with 2000 muskets with bay- onets and a large store of ball and powder. Thus provided, Washington, in the spring of 1776, determined to force the siege to an end. March 4 he seized Dorchester Heights and placed cannon there. Howe sought to drive him away. Evacuated ^^* ^ storm luckily kept the British for several days from crossing the harbor, and when it subsided the Heights were too strong to be taken. Boston and the fleet were now at the mercy of the American guns, and Howe agreed to go away and leave the city without further damage if he was not molested. March 17 the departure began, the British carrying with them to Halifax about 1000 residents of the town who were loyal to the king, and some of whom had been so prominent on that side that they did not trust themselves in a community ruled by the whigs. While Howe spent the winter inactive in Boston the Loyalists British projected an expedition against the Carolinas, Caroiinas where the loyalists were numerous. It was expected that a fleet would easily take Charleston and overawe the rich planters of the South Carolina coast, who were the leaders of the BRITISH ATTEMPT IN THE CAROLINAS 183 American cause in the colony. It would then go to the mouth of the Cape Fear, where it would be joined by a loyal army from North Carolina and the British authority would thus be reestablished in the two colonies. Along the Cape Fear were many Highlanders, who had no sympathy with the whig doctrines, and it was certain that most of them would come out to defend the crown. In this province, also, were the Regulators, members of an organization which existed from 1767 to 1771 to deal with extortionate lawyers and exorbitant country officials in what were then called the "back counties." They at last rose in impotent wrath, whipped such lawyers as they could lay hands on, and broke up the Hillsborough court. Governor Tryon suppressed them at the battle of iVlamance, 1771 ; at which most of the men now prominent in the revolution 7^ Rei"- in North Carolina fought under the governor. The Reg- ulators had good memories, they would have little to do with the whig movement, and when the news went abroad that a force was gathering at Fayetteville by command of the king to deal summary punishment to Caswell, Harnett, Ashe, and others of the old legis- lative oligarchy, they came to its assistance to the number of several hundred. Thus it was that 1600 Highlanders and former Regulators under Donald MacDonald started from Fayetteville February i8, 1776, to join the expected fleet at Wilmington. Caswell was on the alert, and they were intercepted by a whig force of ?f'*'® ?^ 1000 men at Moore's Creek Bridge on February 27. In creek! a sharp battle the loyalists were defeated, their baggage taken, and all who were not killed or captured were driven in confusion to their homes. Meanwhile the cooperating fleet was delayed, and it was the middle of April when it reached the mouth of the Cape Fear. Here it loitered si.x weeks until convinced that no successful demonstra- tion would be made in the interior, and then it proceeded p"!'^** against Charleston. Six thousand militia held the town, Charleston and a fort of green palmetto logs on Sullivan's Island commanded the channel, Colonel Modltrie in charge. The British might have surrounded this work and forced it to surrender, but with characteristic contempt for the colonials, they tried to batter it down, June 28, 1776. Their solid shot only buried themselves in the soft logs of the fort, whose well directed fire swept the decks of the fleet, and the attacking party were glad to withdraw with the loss of only one vessel. The Carolinas were saved, the South remained unshaken, and the Americans were encouraged generally. At Boston and in the South the patriots acted on the defensive and succeeded. The result was otherwise in Canada, where they assumed the offensive. It was thought that the French Canadians would gladly throw off the British yoke, and in the autumn of 1775 two columns i84 THE CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION marched against Quebec. One, led by Montgomery, 1500 strong, took Montreal by way of Lake Champlain, whOe another, under Arnold, starting with 1 100 men, marched through Maine and came. Expedition after terrible sufferings, with only 500 survivors before Quebec. Quebec. Here the two columns united, but a joint attack failed to take the place. Montgomery was killed, and Arnold remained through the winter before Quebec. The natives gave him no assistance. Reenforced, he was gradually forced back by Sir Guy Carleton, commanding in Canada, but by disputing every mile of the way he delayed his antagonist and prevented Carlton's coopera- tion in the movements which Howe, as we shall see, was about to make against the lower Hudson. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The ante-revolutionary controversy has usually had a biased treatment, whether described by Americans or Englishmen. But one may rely on the fairness of Howard, Preliminaries of the Revolution (1905); Channing, History of the United States, vol. Ill (1912) ; and Woodburn, Causes of the American Revolution (Johns Hopkins Studies, XI, 1893). Of ^^^ older histories Bancroft, History of the United States, 10 vols. (1834-1874), is full, but pro-American; and Hildreth, History of the United States, 6 vols. (1851-1S56, 1882), which is accurate and just, is patriotic and lacks perspective. An admirable piece of work, but from the American point of view, is Frothingham, Rise of tlic Republic (new ed. 1890). Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century, vol. Ill (1878-1890), treats the causes of the revolution in a spirit of fairness. Professor Woodburn has pub- lished all Lecky's treatment of the revolution under the title, The American Resolution, lydj-iySj (1898). G. O. Trevelyan, The American Revolution, 4 vols. (1899-1912), is well written and is in sympathy with America; Doyle's chapter in the Cambridge Modern History, vol. VII (1903) is a good summary. Of the older histories of England, Mahon's (1853-1854) and Adolphus's (1840-1845) are of tory sympathy, and Massey's (1855-1863) is whig in feeling. For general sources, on the American side see: Force, American Archives, 4th series, 6 vols., and sth series, 3 vols. (1837-1853) ; Niles, Principles and Acts of the Revolution (ed. 1876); Moore, Diary of the American Revolution (1863), chiefly reprinted from newspapers ; Gibbes, Documentary History of the Revolution (1889); and Durand, Nrw Material for the American Revolution (1889), from French sources. The British official sources are : Cobbett-Hansard, Parlia- mentary History, vols. XY-XVIII ; Cavendish, Debates of the House of Commons, 1768-iyyi, 3 vols. (1841-1843) ; Journal of the House of Commons, vols. XXIX- XXXVI; Journal of the House of Lords, 3 vols., ed. Rogers (1875); Calendar of Home Office Papers, 1760-1775, 3 vols. (1878-1899); and Statutes at Large, 109 vols. (1762-1866). These British sources'S.re quite unwieldy, but for the careful student of the period they are essential. MacDonald, Select Charters (1899), contains the most important documents. Of the Works and lives of the leading Americans of the time the following are important: Samuel Adams, Writings, Gushing, ed., 4 vols. (1904-1908) ; Dick- inson, Writings, ed. by P. L. Ford, vol. i (1895); Franklin, Complete Works, ed. by Bigelow, 10 vols. (18S7-1888) ; Stephen Hopkins, Works, 3 vols. (1854): Theodoric Bland, Papers, 2 vols. (1840-1843); Henry, Life of Patrick Henry, 3 vols. (1891), contains valuable correspondence; Josiah Quincy, Memoirs of Josiah Quincy, Junior (1824 and 1875) i and Rowland, Life of George Mason, 3 vols. (1892). On the British side see: Edmund Burke, Works, 12 vols. (ed. 1871); Chatham, CorrM/iomfeKce, ed. Taylor, 4 vols. (1838); Francis Thackeray, > o LfiD-ltiit*" \7eBt 7J° from Oreenwluh 71° THE NORTH DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 185 Chatham, 2 vols. (1827); Alraon, Anecdotes of William Pitt, 3 vols. (ed. 1810) ; Greiirille Papers, ed. Smith, 4 vols. (1853) ; Keppel, Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham. 2 \-ols. (1852); Donne, CorrcspondeiKe of George III with Lord North, 2 vols. (18(17) ; Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Court of George III , 4 vols, (ed. 1894); and Ibid., Letters, ed. by Cunningham, q vols. (1S37). Of great value are the letters from British officials in America, especially : Hutchinson, Diary and Letters, 2 vols. (1SS3-1886) ; Bernard, Select Letters (1774); Bradford, Speeches of the Governors and Answers of the Representatives [of Massachusetts], 1765-177$ (1818); Kimball, Correspondence of the Governors of Rhode Island, i72;j-i77S, 2 vols. (1Q02-1903); Browne, Correspondence of Governor Sharpe [of Maryland], 3 vols. (188S-1S95) ; and the Colden Papers, 2 vols., in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, (1876-1S77). Valuable documents on this period are to be foimd in all the pub- lished records of the individual colonies. See also Almon, Collection of Papers Relating to the Dispute (1777). Of local histories and other works see; Hutchinson, History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 3 vols. (1795-1828), by a royal governor, but commendably impartial and accurate; Minot, History of Massachusetts, 1748-176$, 2 vols. (1798-1803), on the .\merican side; Moidtrie, Memoirs of the Revolution, 2 vols. (1802); Drayton, Memoirs of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1821); Ramsay, History of t lie Revolution in South Carolina, 2 vols. (1785); and Jones, Nrjo York in tlie Raiolulionary War, 2 vols. (ed. of 1870). The material in the Annual Register on the period just before our revolution is believed to have been chiefly from Edmund Burke. On two important episodes see: Bdissett, The Regulators of North Carolina (Am. Hist. Assn. Report, 1894), and Hoyt, The Mecklenburg Declar- ation of Independence (1907). The state histories generally contain valuable information on the causes of the rc\'olution. On special topics see : Tyler, Literary History of the .imcrican Revolution, 2 vols. (1897) ; Beer, The Commercial Policy of England toward the Colonies (Columbia Univ. Studies, vol. HI, 1893) ; Ibid., The Old Colonial System [1660-1754], 2 vols. (1912) ; Ibid., British Colonial Policy. 1754-1765 (1907) ; Lord, Iiulustrial Experi- ments in the British Colonics (Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, extra, 1898) ; Cross, The .American Episcopate and the American Colonies (Harvard Historical Studies, 1902); Van Tyne, Loyalists in the American Revolution (Ihid.. 1902); Hunt, The Provincial Committees of Safely oftlte American Revolution (1904) ; and Coffin, Province of Quebec and the Early .American Revolution (Univ. of Wisconsin Bulletins, I, 1896). For Independent Reading Tyler, Patrick Henry (1893) ; Anne Maury, Memoirs of a Huguenot Family (1872); Burnaby, Travels through the Middle Settlements [1759-1760] (177s); G. O. Trevelyan, The American Revolution, 4 vols. (1899-1912); Hosmer, Samuel Adams (1893); Morse, Benjamin Franklin (1892); Frank Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution (1856) ; and Sargent, Loyalist Poetry of the Revolution (1857). CHAPTER IX THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION The Declaration of Independence By the close of 1775 only the exporters and merchants in England thought of yielding to America. The landholders, who controlled parliament, and Englishmen generally, believed that re- Converting bellion existed and should be suppressed. The king was servatives. ^'^^ coercion. He would not receive the petition of the second continental congress, and when he heard of Bun- ker Hill, proclaimed the Americans rebels and forbade commercial intercourse with them. Parliament closed the American ports and authorized the impressment of American sailors for service in the royal navy. As further notice of the unyielding intention of the British, Falmouth, Maine (Portland), was burned in October and Norfolk, Vir- ginia, on January i, 1776. At this time the second continental congress was sitting in a second session, holding back such impetuous members as Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry, and waiting for sentiment to form. It was now so evident that the colonies must submit or fight that most of the conservatives gave up their opposition to independ- ence. Jefferson expressed the general opinion when he wrote : "I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament proposes. " In January, 1776, appeared at Philadelphia a pamphlet called "Common Sense," by "an Englishman." It stated the case of the colonies in the plain language of the people, and was widely Sense " read. What all had been thinking was here plainly stated. "The period of debate," said the author, "is closed. Arms, as the last recourse, must decide the contest. The appeal was the choice of the king and the continent hath accepted the challenge." At first this bold utterance was attributed to Franklin, but it soon became known that it was written by Thomas Paine, an Englishman then resident about a year in America. In later years he became un- popular on account of his writings against the Christian religion ; but history cannot forget that he was an important promoter of the rev- olution. By the spring of 1776 the conservatives were driven to the last ditch. They desired some form of colonial home rule which should preserve British sovereignty and leave the colonies a large measure i86 INDEPENDENCE ASSERTED 187 of self -direction. They were strong in the middle colonies, especially in Pennsylvania and New York, where the older settlements felt much apprehension at the prospect of a democratic up- heaval which should disturb the political center of gravity. Waning in- New England, Virginia, and North Carolina were clearly ,i^J^con- with the rachcals, and South Carolina and Georgia servatives. were undecided. Colonial home rule was far from the thought of king and parliament, and as this fact became more apn parent in America the more the conservatives found themselves at sea. WhUe Congress thus hesitated in the hope of uniting the two fac- tions within its membership, North Carolina, the one democratic Southern colony, authorized her delegates at Philadelphia to support independence. It was the step uppermost in ^tate Action the minds of the radicals, and other colonies followed j^depend-" rapidly. May 15 congress advised the colonies to con- ence. tinue no longer in the parlous state in which they then were, but to erect themselves into states, with governments resting on the consent of the people. The advice had already been anticipated by Virginia, where a convention met on May 5, and on the isth de- clared Virginia independent of Great Britain. This action by the oldest and largest of the thirteen colonies had a most powerful effect on the hestitating ones. South Carolina and Georgia could not hold out longer, and Maryland and New Jersey showed signs of weakening. June 7, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia gave further evidence of the leadership his state had assumed when he introduced in congress three important resolutions. They declared: (i) that the thirteen colonies were and ought to be free and independ- J^^ P*'^" ent, (2) that foreign alliances should be made, and in"ep°end- (3) that steps should be taken to adopt a general plan of ence. confederation. The conservatives, led by Dickinson of Pennsylvania, who still clung to colonial home rule, suggested that the first resolution might well await action on the third, and the idea was adopted ; but a committee consisting of Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Shennan, and Robert R. Livingston was appointed to draught a declaration. Preparing a form of general government proved a slow affair, and July i the question of independence was again taken up. Little discussion was necessary, and July 2 congress voted in its favor and caUed on the committee for a written declaration, the New York delegates refusing to vote. Then was brought in the famous paper, chiefly the work of Jefferson, which with slight changes was formally adopted on July 4. August 2 an engrossed copy was signed by the members present, some of whom were not in attendance on July 4, and later on some signed who were absent on August 2. By this time the New York delegates had been instructed to sign, and thus the declaration had the support of all the thirteen colonies. The report of the committee to prepare a plan of confederation was made i88 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION July 12, but it met such opposition that it was not until November 17, 1777, that an agreement could be reached (see page 238). The i)eclaration of Independence is one of the great documents of history. All that Locke and his followers in England and France had asserted about the nature of government was here re- asserted and made a practical matter. Here we read that "all men are created equal," that they have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," to secure which governments are es- tablished, that the right to rule is derived "from the consent of the governed," and that when a given government ceases to guarantee these privileges, "it is the right of the piople to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such prin- ciples, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." Here was stated the theoretical basis of the American government. In justification of the revolution the Declaration further set forth a long series of acts of tyranny committed by the king and parliament against which the colonies had protested in vain. It closed with the noble assertion that "these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states," and for the support of this assertion they mu- tuaUy pledged to each other "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." The C.A.MPAIGN AROUND New York, 1776 The central position on the Atlantic coast is New York. Howe, in Boston, well knew it, and would have gone thither directly had he not been forced to leave that city with a beaten army. His Howe on ^^^^ ^^ Halifax was short. Gathering supplies and re- land, cruits he soon saOed southward, and June 25 was off Sandy Hook, welcomed warmly by Governor Tryon and the loyalists, whom the whigs had forced to leave the city. By the be- ginning of .A.ugust he had 32,000 men on Staten Island, and an ex- cellent fleet under his brother. Earl Howe, lay in the lower harbor. Washington also appreciated the importance of New York, and repaired thither with his army as soon as the evacuation of Boston gave him opportunity. He strengthened the defenses of Jene'^'i ''^^ ''^^^' ''^^'^ ^'^ ^^^ lower end of the island. The ap- Wew York, proach by water was defended by works on Governor's Island, and at Paulus Hook (Jersey City), and Red Hook, on Long Island, and by obstructions in the channel. As a second line of defense, if such should be necessary. Forts Lee and Washington were constructed on opposite sides of the Hudson at a point near what is now 183rd street. So far the work was good; but reflection showed that the easiest approach was by way of Brooklyn, and that the key to that position was a wooded ridge, Brooklyn Heights, or the Heights of Guana, two miles behind the village and extending THE BRITISH ON LONG ISLAND 189 from the Narrows to the northeast. It was passable by artillery at the shore, at Flatbush Pass, and at Jamaica Pass, the last six miles or more from the shore. To hold Brooklyn and this approach to it he detailed General Nathanael Greene with 7000 men. The rest, about 21,000, were distributed among the various fortified positions or held in readiness in the city. CAMPAIGN IROIND NEW YORK ANTIC C E A S Howe's first operations against New York, unlike his later move- ments, were energetic, and showed a disposition to utilize his advantage of superior strength. August 22, he threw a large part of his army across the Narrows and lay before Greene's force at the western end of Brooklyn Heights. This American commander was ill from fever, and Washing- ton sent General Israel Putnam to take command. Put- nam's courage and patriotism had been proved on many occasions, but he was not a commander either by training or natural endowment, and in this case he left the several parts of the army to take care of themselves. Howe's attack was made on the morning of August 27. Dividing his army into three columns, he sent the first to threaten the Americans along the shore, another was to move The Battle of Brooklyn Heights, August 27, 1776. 190 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION through Flatbush,on their center, while a third, which he led in person, was to make a wide detour around their left. The turning move- ment was made in the night of August 26, and took Putnam completely by surprise. Knowing by the cannonading that it was time to ad- vance, the first and second columns then attacked vigorously, and the Americans, taken in front and rear, were forced back into the defenses of the \TJlage of Brooklyn with a loss of 1500 men, iioo of whom were captured. Washington threw reinforcements across the East river to save the remnant of the army. He was reluctant to abandon the position; for the cliff-like "Heights" of Brooklyn, now the abode The Escape q{ (.j^g (-jt^y's n^ost prominent families, and not to be con- Brooklyn, founded with the scene of the battle of the 27th, dominated lower New York. A day's experience showed him that he had committed an error. If the British fleet forced its way into the river, he would be caught in a trap from which he could not hope to escape. That such a thing did not happen probably was due to a strong northeast wind which held for three days, and made it im- possible for the ships to beat up the river. In the evening of the 29th Washington began to transfer his army in such boats as he could find. Late in the night the wind fell, and in the following morning a dense fog settled over the scene. Under its protection the army and all the supplies except a few heavy guns were removed to safety, to the extreme disgust of Howe, who had thought the victims all but taken. New York was now abandoned, the Americans retreating toward the north end of the island. A British force followed, but was beaten off in a rear-guard action, the Battle of Harlem, over of Harlem ground on which Columbia University now stands. It was now, September 22, that Captain Nathan Hale, formerly a Connecticut schoolmaster, was shot for a spy. He had volunteered to go into New York to obtain information, and when arrested avowed his mission. His dying words, "I only Hale*" regret I have but one life to lose for my country," were soon repeated at every patriot's fireside in the land. For a short time there was an interval of inaction, after which Howe moved eastward to get around Washington's strongly intrenched position north of Harlem. At Pell's Point Colonel Glover, of White Massachusetts, with 750 men held back the British column October 22. of 4000, inflicting a loss of 800, and by his spirited resistance changing Howe's determination to make a turning move- ment. The result was the battle of White Plains, October 22, an attack on Washington's front, delivered deliberately. The Americans were driven back after infhcting a serious loss. Howe had penetrated their lines, but a rain storm intervened, and Washington withdrew to a strong position at Newcastle. GLOOM IN NEW JERSEY 191 Howe now gave up the idea of crushing his antagonist, who was clearly too wary for such a fate, and attempted to take Forts Washing- ton and Lee. His ships had passed freely between them, and Washington told Greene, who was in direct command, ^'^^ , to abandon them if it seemed advisable. He himself and^Lee took steps to construct in the Highlands other defenses of captured, the important river, which seemed to invite invasion from Canada. As the British threatened New Jersey, he moved a portion of his army across the river, thus dividing his force. Then Howe closed in on Fort Washington and forced it to surrender with 2600 men, the best in the American army. Rapidly moving across the Hudson he took Fort Lee with a large quantity of supplies, barely giving the garri- son opportunity to escape to the western wing near Hackensack. The eastern wing, 7000 strong at Newcastle, was com- manded by Lee, whom Washington vainly ordered to his xhe Contest aid in New Jersey. Lee was wUlful and selfish. Second transferred in command, he enjoyed the prospect of promotion to '° ^^^ first place if calamity befell his superior ; and by his dis- J"^^^- obedience he was willing to contribute to that end. Flushed by success, Howe now believed the war all but ended. His opponents were divided and discouraged, and many of their regiments anxiously awaited the end of the year when their terms of enlistment would expire. All this he well knew from the ^''® ^^f^^' , T, 1 X 1 . through tones, who were numerous. It seemed easy to complete ^g^ jersey, the destruction of a foe thus situated, and that honor he awarded to Lord Cornwallis, who with 5000 men moved quickly against the 6000 Washington now had at Newark. Under these circumstances, battle was impossible, and the campaign resolved itself into an Ameri- can retreat. At Brunswick most of the Maryland and New Jersey militia marched home, spite of the pleas of their commander, because their terms of service had expired. Washington, left with only 3000 men, fell back rapidly, and December 8 placed his army with the baggage on the south side of the Delaware at Trenton. As he trans- ferred his last battalions, the British vanguard arrived, but he had se- cured all the boats for seventy miles along the river and was safe for the time. To congress he appealed for help, urging that militia were inadequate, and asking that a continental army be enlisted for the war. Meanwhile, to many people, the cause of independence seemed doomed. Howe issued a proclamation, offering pardon to those who submitted, and 2700 people accepted it, among them the president of the New Jersey committee of safety. In ^l^^^^ Philadelphia, thirty miles from Trenton, there was great Americans, terror. Merchants closed their stores, congress adjourned to Baltimore, martial law was established, and the roads were thronged with fugitives. In its dismay, congress gave Washington full power to carry on the war as he saw fit. 192 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION The manner in which he justified their confidence is one of the gratifying stories of the war. At Trenton was Colonel Rail with 1400 men, mostly Hessians, who by committing numerous The Battles outrages on ■ the inhabitants had made themselves thor- andPrince- oughly hated. On Christmas night Washington under- ton. took to seize this force. Dividing his army into three columns he ordered them across the Delaware to surround the enemy's position. Two were turned back by obstacles, but the third, with which he himself marched, reached the north bank of the river, advanced eight mUes through a storm of sleet, seized the only road which offered a means of escape, and forced the Hessians to a battle in which Rail was kUled and 1000 of his men were captured and carried safely into Pennsylvania. Immediately recrossing the Dela- ware, he again faced the enemy, who concentrated a strong force at Trenton and believed they were about to crush their opponents. But Washington, leaving his camp fires burning brightly, slipped away during the night, passed the British flank, and in the early morning of January 3, 1777, defeated a strong column at Princeton. From these two \dctories came a revival of hope, which promoted the enlistment of troops, and as the remnant of Lee's army had now joined, the worst of the recent danger was passed. Washington manifested his confidence by taking position at Morristown, New Jersey, where he was not dis- turbed. Howe, on the other hand, did not dare leave his army in outposts throughout New Jersey, and that pro\'ince once more passed under American authority. Washington's military prowess has sometimes been questioned, and one cannot deny that there were long intervals when he seemed to be content to let well enough alone, but in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, as in the campaign against Yorktown, when spurred by a great necessity, he showed aggressive- ness and resourcefulness of the highest order. Frederick the Great said that Washington's success from December 25, 1776, to January 4, 1777, was "the most brilliant" in military history. The Campaigns of 1777, PmLADELPHiA and Saratoga For a time events had seemed to confirm the hope of the king that the war would be short and easy. But the end of the year 1776 changed the prospect. "All our hopes," said Germain, in America.^ the colonial secretary, in 1779, "were blasted by that unhappy affair at Trenton." In fact, when spring came in 1777, two years after the affair at Le.xington, the British held no parts of the colonies except New York and Newport, Rhode Island. Elsewhere the people went quietly about their business, saw the whig poHticians call provincial congresses and adopt state constitutions, read the laws of the continental congress, and gave a passive obedience to the new regime. But the call for soldiers was slightly heeded. POPULAR SENTIMENT 193 partly because the people were accustomed to look to the states for political authority, and had no love for the newborn congress, partly because of inherited jealousy of a standing army, and partly because there had in the past been so httle popular participation in govern- ment that the ordinary man felt little responsibility on its account. Try as it might, congress could not raise an army. Making allowance for the tories and slaves, there were in the thirteen states in 1777 about 200,000 men of the military age, yet Washington, with power to offer as liberal terms as he chose, had in the early spring no more than VAT.T.KY FORGE, T>TTTT.Ami-.T.T» Trr A , AND BRANDYWrNE. 4000 regulars. Besides these, his hope was the militia, which the ex- perience of the preceding year taught him to esteem lightly. It was a small force to oppose the operations then being planned by the British government. Three strong columns were to cooperate in seizing the Hudson in order to cut in two the area of re- sistance ; one under General Burgoyne was to mo\e from pj^g"^,--- Montreal by way of Lake Champlain ; another under St. Leger was to march from Oswego through the Mohawk valley, and a third, Howe's army, was to advance up the Hudson from New York. The three armies were expected to meet at or near Albany. By Germain's carelessness, an order to participate in this movement was not sent to Howe, who, thinking himself free to fight where he chose, decided to take Philadelphia. 194 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Leaving the militia of New England and New York to impede Bur- goyne, Washington kept a sharp eye on the force in New York. To his astonishment that force first moved to Staten Island, then BatUe of embarked on a great flotilla of 250 vessels. Tliis action Washington considered a ruse, but as the sliips stood southward the American army entered Pennsylvania. After some days of anxiety lest Howe, doubling his tracks, should get far up the Hudson before the Americans reached New Jersey, Washington at last learned that his opponents were at Elkton, at the head of Chesa- peake Bay, thirty-five miles southwest of Philadelphia. He moved southward immediately to protect the capital, and on September n the two armies faced one another on opposite sides of Brandywine Creek. The Americans, including the mihtia, were 11,000, and the British 18,000. Howe used his superior numbers, as at Brooklyn Heights. Lea\'ing 5000 men in front of Washington, he marched around the American right wing and placed his opponents between two fires. Washington was taken by surprise. While the flanking movement was being made he gave orders to fall on the British in detail. The attack was just beginning when an erroneous dispatch arrived, seeming to indicate that Howe's flanking movement was a feint. Then followed an hour's hesitation, by which the opportunity of defeating a divided foe was lost. The Americans threw themselves bravely on the two di\dsions, and by hard fighting held the field until night enabled them to withdraw in safety to Chester, each side losing about 1000 men. September 26 the British entered Philadelphia and began to fortify it. Most of the British army went into camp at Germantown, seven miles from Philadelphia, and Washington, hovering in the neighbor- hood, determined to surprise it early in the morning of Battle of October 4. He now had 9000 continentals to whom recent town^*°' campaigning had given the fiber of regulars. The attack was made in a dense fog, which made the surprise a success, but led to confusion on both sides. But the Americans carried all before them and seemed to have won a victory, when six British com- panies took refuge in the stone house of Chief Justice Chew and of- fered such resistance that the attacking fine was delayed untfl the re- treating regiments could make a new stand. By that time reenforce- ments had come up from Philadelphia, and Washington withdrew from the battle wth a loss of iioo men, while his opponents lost 500. In December he went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, where he could keep his eye on Philadelphia. Burgoyne's campaign was the sequel of the American Arnold expedition against Quebec in 1775. After Montgomery's CaJiTton death, Arnold remained in command of the invaders and contested every foot of the ground over which they fell back. Sir Guy Carleton, his opponent and governor of Canada, pressed BURGOYNE'S SLOW ADVANCE 195 him vigorously, and when Howe began his campaign against New York, August, 1776, the two forces had reached the northern end of Lake Champlain. To hold this lake each side began to construct a fleet of small boats. Arnold's squadron was weaker than that of his foe, but he directed it with great skill, and though twice defeated, delayed the British until early November, when Carleton concluded that it would be unwise to continue a progress invoh-ing the capture of Ticonderoga in the winter. He accordingly withdrew his entire force to Canada. Arnold's bold resistance had been of great service ; for had Carleton found less opposition he would have reached the Hudson in time to Join hands with Howe before Washington was able to escape out of New Jersey. A practical difficulty now arose in regard to the command. Carleton ranked Howe in the British army, but the latter had been promised a free hand in America. To avoid an unpleasant clash of authority the command of the former was, therefore, by ""■soy^m 1 r T-'j ii-'i r-i 11 1 Command. orders from England Imuted to Canada, and the conduct of the invading operations of 1777 was given to Burgoyne, a man of less ability. Carleton could only submit, but it was a bitter pill to see 8000 of his best troops march away in June, 1777. Of this force 675 went with St. Leger, the rest with I argoyne, both columns ac- companied by Indians. The main body were before Ticonderoga on July i, and St. Clair, who commanded there with 3000 men, abandoned the place rather than allow himself to be besieged. The Americans with- drew in good order, fighting a sharp rear-guard action at ^dvancr Hubbardton. They were in good spirits, and by obstruct- ing the roads made the enemy's progress tedious. Boats and supplies must be carried overland to Lake George, and from the southern end of that body of water by portage to the Hudson, at Fort Edward. It was July 29 before the latter place was reached, and another month passed before thirty days' rations were transported thither. By that time Burgoyne's commissary was so much depleted that he was im- pelled to replenish it by a raid in Vermont, then a part of New Hamp- shire. Thus was projected Baum's e.xpedition to Bennington. Burgoyne had been told that the people of Vermont were loyal, and he thought 500 men, all Brunswickers, enough for the task assigned to Baum. The event showed how much he was misin- formed. The Vermonters rose in great numbers when they Bem^neton heard that the Germans were among them. They found an excellent leader in John Stark, until recently a colonel under Wash- ington, but now without a command on account of the indiflference of congress to his worth. Placed in command of the New Hampshire militia, he raised 800 men and was beyond the mountains before Baum knew of his movement. He came upon the Germans at Bennington, cleverly surrounded them, and in a vigorous battle on August id 196 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION St. Leger Driven Back. Gates in Command against Bur- goyne. killed or captured nearly all. In the moment of victory a second body of British came up to reenforce Baum, and they too were defeated, the total British loss being 800. Burgoyne heard the news with dismay. Hard after it came the information that St. Leger's expedition through the Mohawk val- ley was driven back to Canada. That officer had reached Oswego safely. Proceeding up the Seneca river to Lake Oneida, and thence by a short / portage, he came to Fort Schuyler, or Stanwdx, on the upper Mohawk. This post had, to his surprise, been recently strengthened, and was so well held by a garrison of 750 men that St. Leger was obliged to resort to a regular siege. By this time a large number of settlers, mostly Germans, occupied the valley. They were loyal Americans, and flew to arms under General Herkimer, who led Soo ^of them to the relief of the beleaguered fort. t^'' At Oriskany they marched into a trap set for them by St. Leger. But instead of re- treating they leaped behind trees and stones and fought so well in the frontier fashion that the British were driven back to the fort, only to find that during their absence the garrison, sallying out of the walls, had entered the camp of the besiegers and car- ried off enough supplies to enable them to protract their defense many days. This success aroused enthusiasm in the American army on the Hudson, and Arnold, with 2000 soldiers, was sent to drive off St. Leger. That otficer was now in extreme danger, and withdrew hastily to Lake Ontario, August 22, his Indian allies deserting in a body. These two successes encouraged the Ameri- cans, and militia from New England and New- York gathered daily at Albany and marched up the Hudson to meet the invaders. By Septem- ber I they were 10,000, and a month later 20,000. Massachu- setts sent a large number commanded by General Lincoln. At first General Schuyler was in chief command, but he was unpopular with the New Englanders, and dissension was imminent. To secure Beuiriugton BURGOYNE DEFEATED 197 harmony, congress now sent General Gates, formerly an English officer who, like Charles Lee, had offered his services early in the war and had been made a major general. Like Lee, also, he had intrigued against Washington. He was loyal to the cause, but incompetent, and the success he now won was chiefly due to his able subordinates, Lincoln, Arnold, and Morgan. He placed his army across the British line of approach, at Bemis Heights, on the Hudson, about twenty-five miles south of Fort Edward. Before it Burgoyne appeared September 19, his force reduced to 5000 men by recent losses, by desertion, and by the necessity of First and leaving garrisons behind him. In front of this position, n*??,"** at Freeman's Farm, or Stillwater, was fought a very vig- Freeman's orous skirmish, in which the British lost nearly 500 men. Farm. Then Burgoyne, although his troops were on reduced rations, lay inactive for three weeks. October 7 he threw out his right wing to ascertain Gates's strength, and the result was another en- gagement at Freeman's Farm, the British loss being 600 men, several cannon, and much ammunition. Convinced that he could go no farther southward, Burgoyne turned about in an indecisive manner and came to Saratoga. His position was precarious, for the Americans had already appeared in strength on liis line of communica- tions ; but had he acted with energy after the 7th he might Surrender have escaped to Fort George without entire defeat. His goyne. slow movements enabled his opponents to surround him, and at Saratoga, October 17, he surrendered his army, the conditions being that the troops should march to Boston, whence they might return to England with the understanding that unless they were ex- changed they were not to serve again in North America during the war. Two weeks before the capitulation Clinton had started from New York for Albany with a naval and military force. He took Forts Montgomery and Clinton, and a part of his force reached Kingston, but at that point it turned back because the channel was too shallow for the ships. Thus ended the British campaign on the Hudson. Gates's terms at Saratoga were lenient, and were granted because of Clinton's demonstration up the Hudson. Though Burgoyne's troops could not again serve in America, they might replace European garrisons which were sent across the Atlantic, '^''*. ' and as France was now about to join the United States they pudiated. might be used against her. These reflections awakened keen disappointment in congress and out of it. Demands were made for the repudiation of the convention, but the same end was reached in a less outspoken manner. Burgoyne fell to wrangling over the quar- ters furnished his officers and declared the convention broken. This, it was said, indicated that the British themselves would not keep it, and it was decided to hold the captives until the agreement was ratified by England. When it was discovered that Burgoyne had failed to 198 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION hand over some cartouch-boxes, congress made it the ground for openly repudiating the terms. Some of the prisoners were exchanged, most of the Germans were released to become American citizens, and the rest were held until the war ended. The British bitterly charged us with broken faith. The Alliance \vith France From the beginning of the revolution the Americans looked to France for aid, but when in June, 1776, Silas Deane arrived in Paris as an American agent he was not received by Vergennes, the Early Aid foreign Secretary. He found many friends in private cir- France. '^^^^y ^'^^ when the news came that independence had been declared the attitude of the government changed, although open recognition was still carefully withheld. About this time the firm of "Hortalez et Cie" began to sell general merchandise in the capital, its largest dealings being with "Timothy Jones," of Bermuda, to whom were sold large cjuantities of ammunition and lirearms. Those behind the scenes knew that " Jones " was in reality Silas Deane, that the merchant company was Beaumarchais, better known as a dramatist, and that most of the money with which "Jones" settled his accounts was derived from secret loans from the kings of France and Spain. Each monarch thus advanced a million livres ($200,000), with which Deane purchased 30,000 stands of arms, 250 cannon, and supplies of clothing. The British ambassador complained of these proceedings, but Vergennes put him off with fair words. In the autumn, Franklin and Arthur Lee were appointed to aid Deane. Soon after his arrival Lee quarreled with Deane and withdrew from Paris in anger. Franklin, however, remained, and by his simple manners and genuine kindness charmed all Paris. But he could not at that time secure from the king the recognition of American independence. With the French people he had better success, and the Volunteers American cause became very popular in Paris. With the young French noblemen it became the fashion of the day to offer their services to the struggling American republic. Most of them were mere enthusiasts, and their offers were declined ; but one, who was accepted, proved a notable exception. The Marquis of Lafayette, having come over at his own expense, arrived at Philadel- phia with Kalb and twelve other French officers, just before the battle of Brandywine. He offered to serve in any capacity ; Congress made him a major-general, and the results justified their action. Kalb, as well as Pulaski, a Pole, whom Franklin also sent to an/olhers. America, proved eflicient officers, and both fell in the cause they espoused. We must not forget Baron von Steuben, a Prussian officer, who also came to help the Americans, and whose best service was to organize and drill the continental army. BELATED CONCESSIONS 199 In 1777 Vergennes was ready to give open aid to America if Spain would do the same. Before he could take the proper steps, news came that Howe was in Philadelphia and that Burgoyne had taken Ticonderoga, with the upper Hudson valley at his Tf,***^^^ °' mercy. Vergennes's enthusiasm suddenly cooled, and even i-^g""^*' Beaumarchais began to despair. Then came, December 7, the story of Burgoyne's defeat. Beaumarchais, beside himself with joy, is said to have dislocated his arm in his haste to inform the king. Paris rejoiced as though Saratoga had been a French victory. Vergennes sent off messengers to Madrid urging the king of Spain to recognize American independence, and set to work at once on two treaties which, signed February 6, 177S, created political and commercial bonds be- tween France and the United States. Each nation promised to make war on the enemies of the other, while the United States guaranteed the sovereignty of the French West Indies, with certain privileges in American ports. England and France were at war immediately, but Spain held back. She had a new ministry and would not en- courage revolution in America ; but in 1779 she declared war on Eng- land, not, however, as an ally of the United States. The action of France was undoubtedly due to her desire to weaken England, but it is due to Vergennes and Louis XVI to say that they treated the United States generously. If they had demanded harder terms, we must have accepted them. The battle of Saratoga had also its echo in London. Lord North, the prime minister, announced, December 10, a forthcoming scheme to end the war by conciliation. Two months later the plan was revealed, and in March, 1778, parliament ap- o-^'*"** proved. The coercive acts of parliament were to be comp^romise. repealed, full pardon was to be granted, and America was to have all she demanded e.xcept independence. Commis- sioners of pacification were sent to Philadelphia, but they found the Americans indifferent. Only British self-confidence could as- sume that in this situation the United States would desert the newly made French alliance and accept the old position of colonies. The French alliance came none too soon, for the winter of 1777-1778 was a gloomy period for America. Without funds congress could do noth- ing for the army, which suffered terribly at Valley Forge. Food was plentiful in Pennsylvania, but the farmers would ^'°°™y not sell it for the depreciated continental currency, al- Re"treat^ ^ though they gave it readily in exchange for British specie at Philadelphia. In that city there was a festive season, loyalists were numerous, and, Saratoga forgotten for the time being, men began to think the continental cause desperate. From these depths the public mind was raised by the news that France would help with money, men, and ships. 200 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION The spring saw a change in England's military plans. It was de- cided to take again the French West Indian islands, which had been handed back in 1763, and to carry out that program the hiia e p a ^^^ ^^ ^^^ American continent was suspended. At the Evacuated. . ^. ,,,..,,. tt i i 1 y^i* same time Sir William Howe was superseded by Clinton, who was ordered to concentrate his army at New York and to abandon Philadelphia if necessary. Obeying these orders, he sent oil his heavy baggage and abundant supplies by water and marched with the army northward through New Jersey. Washington followed closely, and ■^7 July 28, 1778, forced him to fight at Monmouth, where the Americans / seemed to have the advantage. Washington wished Lafayette to lead the attack, but Charles Lee, just released from a Monmouth British prison in which he had been conspiring to betray the Americans, claimed the honor, and was placed in com- mand. When the British appeared in front of his position, he gave way after very little resistance. Washington, preparing to support Lee by an attack elsewhere, learned that the advance was falling back. Placing his troops across their way he checked the British advance, and with the reformed columns of Lee held the enemy at bay until night. Next morning the British were gone and reached New York safely. While Washington checked the flight of his advance troops he met Lee, their commander. Suspecting treachery he broke forth in angry reproaches, which posterity has easily forgiven. Lee Charles Lee could do nothing less than ask for an investigation, and a from"tlfe court martial suspended him a year for disobedience and Army. "misbehavior" before the enemy. During the year he sent congress an improper letter, and for that was dis- missed. He was a vain and showy man, whose tall talking won him much respect when he threw in his fortunes with the Ameri- cans. The men who could understand him soon discovered that he wished to supplant Washington. Minor Events in the North, i 778-1 782 The battle of Monmouth was the last general engagement in the North, but it was followed by several minor incidents which history cannot ignore. One was the operations of a French fleet Newport under Count d'Estaing which arrived at Philadelphia nine days too late to intercept Lord Howe's squadron, sent to convoy General Howe's store ships back to New York. Prevented from following them by the assurances of the pilots that his largest frigates could not enter New York harbor, d'Estaing decided to attack Newport, Rhode Island, which the British had held since December 6, 1776. He had 4000 French troops on board, and 9000 Americans, mostly New England militia, were gathered at Pnnidence ARNOLD'S DEFECTION 201 10 cooperate in the attack. As the British had but 6000 men in New- port, a great success seemed certain. Misunderstandings occurred from the first between the Count and Sullivan, the American com- mander, but the French troops were landed, and the initial stages of the siege were entered. Then Howe's British fleet appeared and offered battle, and the Frenchman, embarking his soldiers, sailed out to meet him. As the ships maneuvered for position a storm broke and both fleets must look to their safety. D'Estaing went to Boston for re- pairs, and his attempt against Newport was not renewed. Meanwhile Sullivan had invested the place and carried most of its outworks. He and his officers protested against the departure of the French; and when they heard that Clinton was sending a fleet and army to raise the siege, they withdrew from Rhode Island lest they be surrounded. An irritating controversy arose over the conduct of d'Estaing, and Washington, as well as the continental congress, interfered to make peace. In November the French fleet went to the West Indies, where its operations, though not brilliant, served to draw off part of the British forces from New York and left the Americans for a time in comparative peace. In 1779 the British army at Newport was with- drawn for the campaign against the Carolinas. Reduced to inactivity, Clinton was fain to resort to the destruction of the towns he could reach by water. In May, 1779, Norfolk and Portsmouth, in Virginia, were destroyed, a hujidred vessels were taken, and 3000 hogsheads of tobacco were carried R^d"^ back to New York. In July following, Tryon, command- ing a body of tories, raided New Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk, all in Connecticut, leaving smoking ruins behind him. Such operations did not promote the conquest of the Americans, and only served to increase the horrors of war. In the same year Clinton moved up the Hudson and took Stony Point and Verplanck's Point in „ p • t the Highlands. Two months later the former was re- taken by General Anthony Wayne in a well-planned night attack, which greatly enhanced Wayne's reputation. But the Americans could not hold the place, and it was reduced to ruins. West Point, several miles higher up the river, was the chief reliance for keeping back the enemy, and its command was given to Benedict Arnold. This pathetic figure now approaches the end of a thorny path whose exit was complete calamity. No ^°'<* s. man in the army had better reason to complain of his ment treatment. After the death of Montgomery he was the life of the stout resistance in Canada, but he was passed over by con- gress when it promoted four less deserving brigadiers to the rank of major-general. At the time he was being investigated by a court martial on charges which were plainly the result of spite and of which he was completely exonerated. After that he was made a major- general, but was not given the rank to which his former rating entitled 202 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION him. In the Saratoga campaign he was the soul of the American army, and his leg was shivered as he charged recklessly in the second battle of Freeman's Farm. Gates hated him cordially, and Washing- ton, too just to ignore his merit, made him commander in Philadelphia, after the withdrawal of Howe. Arnold was tactless, and soon quarreled with congress, whose former treatment he openly resented. Charges were brought against him, but an acquittal was had on all but two, and these were so trivial that they should have been ignored. But his enemies triumphed, and it was ordered that he be reprimanded. Washington, in e.xecuting the judgment, made the reprimand a eulogy : but Arnold was not pacified. During his residence in Philadelphia he had married Margaret Shippen, a noted wit and beauty in tory circles ; and an extravagant manner of living had run him into debt. In disgust at his treatment by congress he decided to betray the cause he served. He applied to Washington for the command «f West Point, the request was granted, and a bargain was made by which the post was to be given up for 10,000 guineas and a brigadier-general's commission. Major John Andre was Clinton's adjutant. He was young, intelli- gent, and socially popular ; but he did not mind playing spider to . Arnold. While the British army was in Philadelphia AraolV" ^^ ^^* ^ friend of Margaret Shippen, and he conducted the correspondence by which Arnold was led into mischief. September 21, 1780, the two men met near Haverstraw to complete the treason. Arnold handed over plans of West Point, with a de- scription of its garrison, and gave Andre a pass to return to New York. As the latter approached "Sleepy Hollow," near Tarrytown, he was stopped and searched by three "skinners," American marauders, who found his papers and carried him to the nearest American post. A report was sent to Arnold, who fled quickly to the British. Andre was tried as a spy. He urged that he was a soldier on regular service and demanded to be treated as a prisoner of war ; but the court martial held that wearing a disguise and carrying concealed papers fixed his status as a spy, and he was executed. Washington would have e.x- changed him for Arnold, but Clinton felt obliged to protect the traitor whom he had led into his present plight. West Point was saved to the Americans, but the price promised was paid. Arnold's foolish error blasted a brilliant career. Had he retired from the army as a protest against liis wrongs, the justice of the future would soon have brought him vindication. In the British army his position was not pleasant, and it was said that just before he died he called for his old American uniform, saying, "May God forgive me for ever putting on any other." '•% ^ ! 1 ! H a. < 1 02 ^ \ 5 ! g ^ 1 1 1 a§2 § ^ / tf 1 J £• s 1 ^\j ^^ys ll^ ^ O 5 O 13 s 1 o ^^ S*^ V 0- \f * \ J^ %^ i & \ -■— — d ^'^^ ! \ "^ J3 ^^ V 1 a V N y\ V V «N^ -c^ \ V ^ -\^ ii >^ h^ Vt/^ \ V \ A if °-^ -^ *::::; •^77^'^ j^ ^s,^ y^ % \ a \ Q ,^ — os^ '« ^^^V-.^^ JUi«. rt V_'*'*\ * ^ rnff^^'^ j!;f^ \ f~ %i ^ s *" i r « I-" p \ i\P ^ , "^ ^.^^^-r^ 3 ^ , • ^""jL/ fvi ^"'^ ~^*'^^^ * o X^ i s J w s g ) 3 2/ r^.' 8 1 ^^ Q .^^ \ // X \ * J 1 '.^^H. ,1^ / * w« ^ ^ ( '-:-. { ] y 1 f i) V- / . 1 Uv. 2 2 S ! Y \ . ^^ I i\ / ' Co ^\^ O \ ' Ct SI \ S •^ \s \ y i \ \i ^1 ir/s / ! •'>^^, t \ y\/ ■'^ff^-^M S a ^^^ / ,=■ ^^. L^ M^. i (X 1. ■^,^"^2: \ |\J/^ = ^ X 4 ? ^ — <^J rS y — '^'i i "^ y^^\ r ^ T .'^ J / ^^M dr ''^'' -f 1 /I / ■^) 1 _ — GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 203 The War in the West Before the revolution began, hardy settlers had crossed the Alle- ghanies from both Virginia and North Carolina. The Indians saw their advent with alarm, and in 1774 the settlements of Kentucky were ravaged. Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, j.^°''^ , marched against Ihem and forced them to make peace -v^ar." after a sharp defeat, the Indians relinquishing their claims to Kentucky. This outbreak was known as "Lord Dunmore's War." When the colonists began to resist England, both sides sought to conciliate the savages of the West. The Indians, however, leaned toward the stronger side, and with British aid the Cherokees in 1776 began hostilities. The most exposed part of the frontier was the Watauga valley, in North Carolina. The in- JJj® habitants had warning, and retired safely into stockades, conquered. North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia sent out bodies of militia which ravaged the Indian towns, and the Cherokees made peace. For a time the Watauga settlements had relief, but Kentucky continued to suffer from the Indians north of the Ohio. The British also had influence with the Iroquois, who aided Carleton in 1776 and Burgoyne in 1777. After Saratoga, the savages were not needed for large mOitary operations on the Canadian border, but they were incited to raid the western settlements of ^.^ v^^ev New York and Pennsylvania. The most important action was a raid into the latter state by Colonel John Butler with a force of tories and Seneca Indians. They fought and defeated an x^merican force near Wilkesbarre, and then devastated the Wyoming valley at leisure. Women and children were slain, and the rich valley was left desolate. In the same year, 1779, a band similarly composed inflicted ruin nearly as complete on Cherry valley, in central New York. A retaliatory expedition under General Sullivan laid waste the Seneca country and reduced the population to a crowd vaUe^ of starving fugitives ; but their chieftain, Joseph Brant, gathered them into a fort at Niagara and continued the raids against the settlements. The employment of Indians by the British was strongly condemned by the Americans. The practice of paying them for scalps only added to the horrors of the war and did not hasten its end. HamDton, British governor of the Northwest, who paid for many scalps, was called the "Hair Buyer." After 1776 the Kentuckians were not left free from molestation, and this led to an act of retaliation which had a vast significance for the "Hair Buyer." The stroke was nothing less than the conquest of the Northwest, and George Rogers Clark was gj^edition. the author of the scheme. In January, 1778, he secured from Governor Patrick Henry, of Virginia, a commission as lieutenant- colonel with authority to raise 350 men for a secret e.xpedition against 204 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION the British posts north of the Ohio. In May he set out from Wheeling, going down the Ohio to the falls, where Louisville was soon to be founded. After waiting here a month the expedition proceeded into what is now Illinois, directing its course to the French town of Kas- kaskia. The place was taken by surprise and without resistance. The inhabitants willingly took the oath of allegiance when told that France was now an ally of the United States, and when promised religious toleration. The people of Cahokia and Vincennes also sub- mitted on the same terms. Thus all the settlements of the Illmois country passed into the hands of Clark, who had less than 200 men. Hamilton, at Detroit, knew how weak was Clark's resources, and re- took Vincennes in December. Feeling perfectly secure, he sent away all his troops but 80, and awaited the spring. He under- The " Hair estimated the determination of his opponent, who on Captared February 5 set out for Vincennes with 170 men, some of them of French blood. Before him the road, 1 70 miles long, ran through a flat region, much of it covered by water. Around Vincennes the country was a shallow lake through which the com- mand waded, sometimes up to the neck. To add to their sufferings, their provisions gave out, but luck sent them a deer, and three days later they captured an Indian canoe with some food in it. Feb- ruary 24 Clark came to Vincennes and invested the fort. Hamilton was completely surprised and next day surrendered. There was great joy in the western settlements when news came that " the Hair Buyer " was taken and sent to Virginia, where he was kept in close confinement. The western country was organized as Illinois county, Illinois Virginia. The French settlements remained under Ameri- °"° ^' can protection until the end of the war, but Detroit con- tinued in British hands, and from it went forth many Indian raids. Clark, now a brigadier-general, was anxious to take it, but was not given the requisite means. The Navy in the Revolution England's naval superiority gave the United States little opportu- nity for achievements at sea ; but small cruisers well commanded might inflict severe loss on British merchantmen, and Small privateers might operate successfully. In December, Privateers. i77S> Congress ordered thirteen small men-of-war, and before the end of the conflict forty-three others had been placed on the ocean. Their average number of guns was twenty. Many of these ships were captured before they did serious damage to the enemy. Besides the continental ships, war vessels were owned by all the states except New Jersey and Delaware, but most of the state navies were for harbor defense. The ill disguised friendship of France early enabled us to use her harbors for the sale of prizes, JOHN PAUL JONES 205 and several cruisers as well as many privateers operated from that safe base. Fitted out and furnished with a mongrel crew, such a ship would intercept British vessels off the French coast, or in the channel, or range along the British shore itself. Great Britain protested vigor- ously to France against the abuse of neutrality. Sometimes her com- plaints were heard and the American ships were warned to leave ; but the Americans invariably came back, and others followed their example. When the war had gone on a year London merchants estimated their actual losses at £1,800,000, besides having to meet a great enhancement of freights and insurance. After the French alliance was made the profits from seizing British ships must be shared with Frenchmen. New England sent out most of the privateers, and her citizens reaped vast profits from the business. Of all our naval achievements during the revolution the most not- able are associated with the name of John Paul Jones. Scotch by birth and christened John Paul, he made several voyages to Virginia, where his brother was settled. In 1773 this 1°^^ ^" brother died, and John Paul inherited his property. About this time he changed his name, taking that of his friend Willie Jones of Halifax, who was probably that Willie Jones of Halifax, North Carolina, who led the radical element in that colony in the days of revolution. In December, 1775, he was appointed a lieutenant in the infant navy and hoisted the first flag on a regularly commissioned American war vessel. A year later he was a captain, and in one ship after another displayed great activity and took many prizes. In one of them, the Ranger, in 1778 he cruised in the Irish Sea, entered by night the harbor of Whitehaven, and captured a sloop-of-war of twenty guns. This showed him what could be done by a daring man with a small squadron. By much entreaty he at last got from the French king four ships, which, added to one of his own, snuadron made a squadron to be reckoned with. The largest, the Bon Homme Richard, a converted Indiaman, carried 44 guns. Another, the Pallas carried 30, and the rest carried 36, 18, and 12 respectively. The crew was largely European, but all the ships flew the American flag. August 14, 1779, the squadron began its memorable voyage. Pass- ing along the west coast of Ireland and Scotland, destroying many prizes, it came off the east coast of Scotland, where a storm frustrated Jones's plan to destroy the shipping in Leith harbor. September 23, near Hull, he sighted forty merchantmen convoyed by the Sera pis, mounting 50 guns, and the Connlcss of Scarborough, !?*'**' °^. 28 guns. Jones gave chase and selected the Sera pis as '"^'''' ^' his antagonist. He ordered his other ships to do the same, but only the Pallas obeyed, her captain giving his attention to the Scarborough. The engagement resolved itself into a conflict between the Scrapis and the Bon Hom?ne Richard. At the first fire two of the American guns burst, and Jones, realizing his inferiority in that line determined 2o6 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION to close and board. At his first attempt the ships did not come alongside. Pearson, commanding the Serapis, called out to ask if the Richard had struck her colors, and Jones's answer rang back : "I have not yet begun to fight." A second attempt to come along- side proved successfid, and Jones lashed the two ships together with his own hands. Then followed a severe hand to hand struggle which cleared the deck of the Serapis of defenders. After this had gone on for two hours, hand grenades fired the British ship and she was forced to strike. Jones's own ship had six feet of water m the hold and was on fire. She sank two days later. The Serapis and the Scarborough were carried into port as prizes. Jones estab- lished the trachtion for heroism in the American navy. He was per- sonally eccentric, and congress was slow in recognizing his services. The participation of France in the war relieved the United States of the necessity of contending against England by sea. It also promoted the fonnation of the league of Northern powers The League f^j. "anned neutrality." England used her immense Neutrality." na^val power with little regard to the interests of other nations. She impressed seamen and seized neutral goods not contraband as freely as she found them on foreign ships. The other nations were equally interested in the policy that "free ships make free goods," except as regards contraliand articles. This principle was asserted before our revolution by individual writers and even by states, but it had not the force behind it necessary to secure its acceptance. In 1778 France, whose goods were now being seized, asked Russia to head a movement for united protest. The request was accepted, and out of it proceeded the "Armed Neu- trality" agreement, signed at first by Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, but later accepted by Prussia, the Netherlands, the Gennan Empire, Portugal, Naples, Turkey, and the United States. The acceptance of the league by the Netherlands led England to make war on that power, although another reason was given for this breach of an ancient friendship. Thus England's war against the colonies had enlarged its scope until she saw arrayed against her, besides the colonies them- selves, France, Spain, and Holland. The Campaign in the South, 1778-1781 Having failed to conquer the North, the British concluded to make their next attempt in the South. They were told that the interior parts, inhabited by small farmers who had not keenly felt British the restrictions on commerce, were largely loyal, and would ?u^"^Di < welcome the arrival of a force strong enough to afford their Plan of , . mi , 1 1 • • 1 Attack. them protection. The plan adopted was to begin with Georgia, the weakest of the Southern states, and to roll up the South from that point. Accordingly, in December, 1778, the work RESTORING AUTHORITY IN THE SOUTH 207 began with the seizure of Savannah, from which place strong columns proceeded to occupy the interior. To deal with the situation General Lincoln was sent to assume command in the South. He found the British general, Prevost, in the act of subduing South Carolina and was able to drive him away from the vicinity of Charleston. Then d'Estaing appeared off the coast, and a cooperative attack on Savannah was begun. Here, as at Newport, the French admiral was soon out of sjTnpathy with the American general, and saUed away, alleging that he could not expose his sliips to the autumn storms of a dangerous coast. As soon as he was gone Clinton came south with a strong fleet and an army of 7000 men and began to besiege Charleston. Lincoln unwisely allowed himself to be shut up in the city, and in May, 1780, was forced to surrender with 5000 Ta^^^'"" men. South Carolina was now at the mercy of the enemy, who marched at will through the interior. The governor of the state fled to Philadelphia to implore aid from congress, and no Ameri- can army worthy of the name existed in the state. A mere remnant was in the field under Colonel Buford, but Tarleton's Legion over- whelmed it at Waxhaw. Some of the Americans escaped, but 500 asked for quarter. For reply, Tarleton fell on them with sabers and pistols, leaxang 113 dead and 150 so badly wounded that they could not be moved. This harsh affair and other less notable examples of British cruelty cowed the people. But much resentment was also stimulated, and the result was the organization of several partisan bands which kept up a \dgilant warfare against such small detach- ments of the enemy as fortune sent their way. Of the partisan leaders the most famous were Sumter, Marion, Pickens, Clarke, and Davie, the last being of North Carolina. Clinton did not esteem these bands highly. He thought the province well reconquered, and early in June returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis with 5000 men to hold what had been taken and to extend the g^g^" conquest into North Carolina. The British were pleased. At the end of four years' fighting, one colony, Georgia, had been forced to receive her repudiated royal governor, and in another the revolutionary government had collapsed. To save the situation, congress sent General Gates into the South. The appointment was against the advice of Washington, who suggested Greene; but the "hero of Saratoga" was still popular. Charles Lee, who knew liim well, offered this advice: c^mden* "Take care that your Northern laurels do not change to Southern willows." Gates had jooo troops, half of them militia, and in August attacked Camden, an important position in central South Carolina held by Lord Rawdon. Had he moved promptly, he might have won the fight, for his force was the stronger ; but by delaying he allowed Cornwallis to arrive with reinforcements, and the battle, fought August 16, was a crushing defeat. The militia, from 2o8 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION Virginia and North Carolina, fled at the first attack, and the regulars were surrounded and badly cut to pieces, while Kalb, who fought bravely, was killed. The total American loss was 2000 killed, wounded, and captured; that of the British was 300. Gates rode sixty miles that summer's day, and did not cease his flight until in four days he reached Hillsborough, North Carolina, 180 miles from the scene of his defeat. He tried to call out more militia to oppose the enemy, but his day was past. December 2, he was succeeded by General Greene. Before that time, the British had met their first check in the South, at King's Mountain, October 7, 1780. After Camden, Cornwallis moved into North Carolina, gathering food and horses. Battle of jjg halted at Charlotte, — where the Mecklenburg Reso- M^untain. lutions of May 31, 1775, were adopted, — while Major Ferguson, with 1000 tories, scoured the country to the west, collecting supplies and enlisting recruits ; for that country was strongly loyal. The whigs fled before him, and alarm spread even to the transmontane settlements of Watauga and Kentucky. From this distant region, bands of moimted men, under leaders of their own choosing, marched eastward, September 26, to bag Ferguson. Having crossed the mountains, they were joined by 510 North Caro- linians and 4C» South Carolinians, a total force of 1800. Ferguson heard of their approach and moved toward Charlotte. Thirty-five miles from that place, he came to King s Mountain, the northern end of which is cut by the state line. It is a lull sixty feet high, flat at the top, a third of a mile long, and Ferguson believed it impregnable. On its top he placed his 900 men and awaited attack. The whigs were riding harH behind, and October 7, a picked band of the best mounted arrived at the hill, surrounded its base, and began a vigorous attack. On alternate sides they charged up the slopes and then fell back, using whatever cover they could find. Early in the fight, Ferguson was killed, and at the end of an hour the white flag was raised: 700 survivors surren- dered; the rest were slain. It was a small battle, reckoned by the numbers engaged ; but it was very important. It forced Cornwallis back into South Carolina, it gave courage to the whigs in the Carolinas, and it checked the advance of the British until Greene could arrive and organize his defense. It marked the change of the tide in the Soutli. Greene, now in command of the American army, had 2300 men, half of them regulars. Cornwallis outnumbered him, and all his troops were trained soldiers. Greene, therefore, did not Battle of attack, but in his camp at Cheraw awaited the purpose of his opponents. To encourage the whigs west of him, he threw out General Alorgan with 600 men to threaten the British post at Ninety-six. Tlus divided the American army, and Cornwallis, THE RE\'OLUTIONARY WAR IN THE SOUTH ACROSS NORTH CAROLINA 209 at Winnsboro, tried to get between the two wings. He sent Tarleton to drive Morgan off to the Northwest, while he himself moved north- ward. Morgan was an e.xcellent officer and was not to be caught napping. He had recently been joined by Pickens with several hundred men, and fell back rapidly. But January 17, he offered battle at Co\\T3ens. Tarleton's troopers were exhausted by a five hours' march, but they charged impetuously, thinking the Americans would flee before them. Morgan's army was drawn up in three lines, the first a body of skirmishers who were ordered to begin firing when the enemy was at fifty yards and to fall back on the second line, composed of 270 militiamen under Pickens. This line was to await the approach of the British, fire two volleys, and then fall back to the third line, which contained 290 Maryland regulars, two companies of Virginia militia, and a comp;iny of Georgians. Morgan had a total force of 940, and Tarleton had 11 50. When the first and second lines began to fall back as ordered, the British believed the victory won and advanced in disorder. To their surprise they found the third line in good formation and resisting them hotly. Thrown into disorder, they pg{g^a°J^ sought to restore a regular line under a rain of bullets, when Pickens's men came up on their left flank, while a small body of cavalry, hitherto out of sight, came up on their right. Finding themselves surrounded, 600 troopers threw down their arms after 184 had been killed or wounded. The Americans also took some important stores, and their loss was 72 killed or wounded. The battle had two important effects : it showed that the Americans could fight eS'ectively when well led, and it nettled Cornwallis and induced him to march far astray into North Carolina in an unwise effort to repay on Morgan the defeat of Tarleton. The situation was now critical for the Americans, since 125 miles separated Greene and Morgan, and Cornwallis was between them, about fifty miles from the latter. Operations resolved themselves into a race across North Carolina, the two American wings ever drawing closer together and the British commander bending every effort to crush Morgan while still detached. Greene knew the danger, and, sending the left wing northward, rode across the intervening country and joined the right wing January 30. Morgan was a soldier by instinct, and his alertness now saved the day. He beat Tarleton at Cowpens in the forenoon and began his retreat in the afternoon of January 17. Seven days later he crossed the Catawba. Cornwallis was then only twenty miles behind, but he had to halt two days to collect supplies, and when he came to the Catawba, floods had raised the water so high that he must wait five days before he could cross. Fifty miles to the northeast is the Yadkin, which Greene, now in command, crossed February 3, Cornwallis coming up in time to seize a few of his wagons ; but here again the rising of the 2IO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION river gave the Americans an advantage. At Guilford Court House their two wings united ; but Greene did not feel strong enough to risk a battle, and marched for the Dan river, which he reached safely. Meanwhile, militia from North Carolina and Virginia had been sent to him, and with his army raised to 4400 men he recrossed the Dan and offered battle at Guilford Court House. Cornwallis's force was only 2200, but it was composed of regulars. March 15, 1781, the two armies came to blows. The Americans were in three lines, with intervals of 300 yards. The first was composed of North Carolina militia, the second of Virginia mOitia, BatOe of and the third of the continentals, in numbers 4400. On C rt"^ either flank was a small body of cavalry. The first was House. ordered to fire two volleys and retire behind the third Ime ; but at sight of the British it fired only a partial volley and fled. A few of these men, however, joined other bodies of troops and fought through the battle. The second line gave way before a bayonet charge, but did not leave the field. Against the third line, Cornwallis found it necessary to put forth his best efforts. He was at first driven back, but rallied his troops for a desperate attack, before which Greene withdrew in good order, but with the loss of his artillery. The Americans lost 1307, including the 1046 militia who dispersed to their homes. The British lost 532, and, after vainly waiting several days to see if the inhabitants would come to the standard, fell back to Wilmington, where they found a fleet with supplies. Greene followed for a while, offering battle, but when Cornwallis's destination became evident, he turned against the interior posts of South Carolina. The good generalship of Greene and Morgan, the long and tiresome marches in the North Carolina forests, and the unv/illingness of the inhabitants to join the British, had shown here, as formerly in New Jersey, that the British could not expect to recover any other part of the country than that which they held by actual occupation. News that Cornwallis was sent back to his ships at Wilmington, and that Greene was coming to drive Lord Rawdon out of the interior of South Carolina, aroused the American spirit in that Greene in state. It brought grave alarm to Rawdon, commanding Carolina. '■'' South Carolina, who was at Camden with 1400 men, while small garrisons held Ninety-six and other posts. Greene proposed to strike at Camden first, and ordered a South Carolina force under Marion, Sumter, and Lee to cut the communi- cations between that place and Charleston and join him for the final stroke. Meanwhile, he took up his position at Hobkirk's Hill, two miles from Camden. Rawdon dared not let the two American divisions unite, and marched out to crush Greene, March 25. Greene awaited the attack, but was driven from his position after a sharp engagement. His army, however, was stUl intact, and Rawdon, CORNW.\LLIS IN VIRGINIA 211 after burning Camden, fell back to Monck's Corners, 30 miles from Charleston. Post after post was now retaken, until at last only Ninety-six held out in the western counties. Greene besieged it so closely that Rawdon with two new regunents, just landed at Charleston, marched to relieve it. Greene raised the g^'^j* *?!. siegeand eluded his enemy, who destroyed Ninety-six rather -^^ than undertake to defend it. The British power was now driven back toward the coast as far as Orangeburg, and against this Greene, his army recruited to 2600, marched late in August, 1781. Stewart, the commander, fell back, but was overtaken at Eutaw Springs, September 8. Greene attacked and seemed to have the victory, but Stewart rallied his troops at a brick house and drove the Americans from the field ; but he was forced to retire, with a loss of 700, to Charleston. In Georgia a similar movement had resulted in driving the British into Savannah. In General British Greene's nine months' warfare in the South, he fought four ^"^f ° ? important battles, lost them all, and yet gained, in the ton and long run, all the results of victory. This singular fact Savannah. was due to his steady self-control and his ability to bring his army out of a repulse without demoralization. While Greene's work thus progressed, the army which he declined to follow to Wilmington was approaching its doom in Virginia. Corn- wallis left the Cape Fear, April 25, and, marching leisurely through eastern North Carolina, reached Petersburg, [^"virEinia Virginia, May 20. Here he found over 3000 British troops under Arnold, who for five months had marched at will through the region adjacent to the James river. Richmond and Manchester had been burned, and Portsmouth had been fortified as a base of operations. Harrying Virginia, however, did not secure its submis- sion. When the redcoats had gone, the people resumed their former defiance. At Petersburg Cornwallis superseded Arnold, and at the head of 5000 troops turned toward Richmond, where Lafayette, commanding the American forces, lay with half as many troops. The British general must have felt that the province was nearly conquered, since it had in the field to oppose him, at the end of a five months' campaign, in its very center, no more than 2500 men. It was, in fact, long marches rather than men and muskets that put an end to the British power in America. Lafayette left Richmond as the enemy approached, and Cornwallis sent Tarleton to break up the legislature at Charlottesville. The task was accomplished brilliantly, and Governor Jefferson barely escaped from his residence at Monticello ere it was surrounded by the British troopers. Cornwallis, meanwhile, continued to chase Lafayette in the region north of Richmond. Convinced at last that the pursuit was useless, he withdrew to Portsmouth, and in August moved his base to Yorktown. which he fortified. With him were 212 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 7000 men. Lafayette, with his forces reenforced to 3500, was between Yorktown and Richmond. At this time Washington, with about 6000 men, lay watching CHnton in New York, and Rochambeau, with 5000, was at Newport. About the time that Cornwallis moved to Yorktown came a Surro"^ded ^^^^^^ ^^°^ Count de Grasse in the West Indies offering the cooperation of his fleet during the summer. Here was a brilliant opportunity, and Washington seized it. De Grasse was requested to go to the Chesapeake, blockade Cornwallis, and drive off a relieving squadron ; Rochambeau, by orders of his own govern- ment under the command of Washington, was brought to New York, where, by feigned activity, Clinton was made to believe that he was to be besieged ; and finally, with admirable celerity, a combined American and French force numbering 6000 was moved to the head of Chesa- peake Bay and thence by water to the James river, where it landed, and, joined by Lafayette, instituted the siege of Yorktown, September 2, 17S1. To his great contentment Washington found that De Grasse was already at hand and that the fleet had brought 3000 additional French troops who were at his disposal. Thus Cornwallis's 7500 men in Yorktown were surrounded by 16,000 enemies, of whom 7800 were French regulars. CHnton, alarmed for Cornwallis's fate, sent Arnold with 2000 men to raid New London, hoping thereby to draw Washington from Vir- ginia. It was the region in which Arnold was born, Arnold at j^^j- j^g jjj j^^j- gp^j-g J)- \ p^^t of New London and London. thirteen ships were burned. Fort Griswold, on the other side of the river, held off a storming column until resistance was impossible. When it was taken, Colonel Ledyard, in command, and nearly a hundred of his men were cut down in cold blood. But Arnold was unable to penetrate further into Connecticut and returned to New York, his ships laden with spoils. Clinton also sought to aid Cornwallis by sea. Admiral Graves, with five ships, sailed for the Chesapeake. Within the capes was De Grasse, who came out and gave battle so vigorously that Graves returned to New York nmch disabled. Another expedition for the relief of Yorktown was fitted out at New York, but it sailed too late to be of service to Cornwallis. Meantime, the siege went on v-igorously. The Americans and French seized the high ground around Yorktown, and their first line, along the entire British front, was completed by Yor1rto°wn September 29. Immediately a first parallel was begun, and then a second, which by October 12 brought the besiegers to within 300 yards of the British lines. Two redoubts stood in their way. Since they commanded his own lines, Cornwallis would not abandon them, and until they were taken, the American lines could not be advanced. They must, therefore, be stormed, and the task was divided between the French and the American troops. CORNWALLIS TAKEN 213 October 14, in the night, a French detachment under Colonel Deux- Ponts carried one, and an American force under Colonel Alexander Hamilton carried the other. CornwalHs's defenses were now at the mercy of his opponents, and he tried to escape across the river to Gloucester ; but a storm blew his boats down the stream after only a portion of his force had crossed. His defenses crumbling under the hot American fire, he could resist no longer, and on the 17th raised a white flag and accepted Washington's terms. October iq, the sur- render was signed, the land forces becoming prisoners to the United States and the naval forces prisoners to France. The total number surrendered, including seamen, was Sooo, and 5S0 of the British had been killed or wounded in the siege. The combined French and American loss was 274. At the moment of surrender Cornwallis pleaded illness and sent his sword by General Comwaliis O'Hara. By Washington's direction it was received r^'/Vt"^' 1 /-' 1 T • I 1 1 1 1 r 1 1 October 19, by General Lmcoln, who had been forced to surrender j^gi. Charleston, and was by him handed back to O'Hara. After Yorktown the military history of the war is of slight interest. Both sides realized that the struggle must end with victory for the Americans. After six years' fighting and at great expense, England had proved her inability to subdue the country. j^° -^^^ Each great e.xpedition into the interior became a failure when deprived of succor from the coast ; and such would be the result indefinitely. In confession of her failure, all the Southern posts were abandoned, one after the other, — Wilmington in January, Savan- 214 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION nah in July, and Charleston in December, 1782. In New York Clinton awaited the result of peace negotiations, which were already begun. The Treaty of Peace The surrender of Cornwallis broke the English resistance. Before it occurred, the English nation was tired of a war which only accumu- lated debt without winning victories. March 5, 1782, The King parliament passed a bill to enable the king to make peace. Fifteen days later Lord North resigned, and the whigs, under the leadership of Rockingham, formed a new ministry, with the understanding that American independence should be acknowledged. It was a bitter pill for the king, whose plans for a personally directed ministry was staked on the issue of the war. That he had lost was the only grain of comfort a discerning Englishman could find in the situation. In July, Rockingham died and Shelburne became prime minister, but the policy of peace was not changed. After some preliminary inquiries in reference to the terms likely to be demanded, negotiations began at Paris in the summer of 1782. To Franklin, our minister to France, were added, as Ameri- Peace om- ^^^ negotiators, John Jay, who for a long time had been fruitlessly seeking to induce Spain to become an ally of the United States ; John Adams, minister to Holland ; and Henry Laurens, a prisoner in England until the negotiations were nearly completed. Great Britain was represented by Oswald, a Scotch merchant who was in close communication with Shelburne. The American commissioners were instructed to proceed in open cooperation with France, but Jay satisfied himself that Vergennes, directing the policy of France, would sacrifice the interests Separate ^f lYi^ United States, and he began to favor a separate wUh° '^ '°°^ treaty with England. Personally, Vergennes seems to England. have been disinterested, but he was under obHgations to Spain, who feared to enhance the power of the new re- public in the West. In September came from him an informal propo- sition that the region south of the Ohio be set aside for the Indians, part of it under the protection of Spain and part under that of the United States. At the same time it was intimated that at the conclu- sion of peace, France would support England's claim to the territory north of the Ohio. This scheme, if adopted, would leave the United States merely a seacoast power. If it should come before a conference composed of all the parties to the war, it could not fail to have the support of Spain and England, and, with France's additional advocacy, must be adopted. Franklin trusted V^ergennes, but the facts of the case, ably set forth by Jay, induced him to consent to make a separate arrangement with England, which was pointedly against the instruc- tions of the American commissioners. An intermediary was sent to TERMS OF THE TREATY 215 England, where the ministrj-, glad to settle the difficulty with one power so that they might be the more free to deal with the others, fell in with the suggestion, and on that basis negotiations proceeded smoothly. Vergennes's conduct has occasioned much discussion. Some persons have supposed that he wished to keep America dependent on France, others that he acted in good faith and was unjustly sus-, pected by Jay and Adams. He undoubtedly hoped that Louisiana would some day come back to France, and this rgn^uc^^^ ^ fact has suggested that he wished to keep the United States out of the Mississippi Valley in order that it might be more easily secured by France. The theory, however, does not explain why he should have been willing to enhance the power of England in the north- ern part of the valley. Probably the most acceptable explanation is that he cared little about the disposition of the interior, and merely accepted the proposed arrangement to please Spain, to whose interest alone it was that England should have the Northwest ; Vergennes's indifference in the matter is shown by his calm acquiescence when in December he learned from Franklin that the American commis- sioners, on November 30, had concluded a separate treaty with Eng- land to be effective when peace should have been made between France and England. This treaty, after recognizing the independence of the United States dealt with four principal heads, each of which had been fully discussed. The boundary was all we could have desired. On the northeast it ran up the St. Croix river to the source, tjj"xreatv north to the highlands separating the tributaries of the St. Lawrence from the streams flowing into the Atlantic, thence with the highlands to the forty-fifth parallel, and along that to the St. Lawrence. It was then to pass along the middle of ri\-ers . and lakes to the northwest corner of the Lake of the Woods and thence due west to the Mississippi, down which it went to the thirty-first parallel and along that to the Chattahoochee, thence southward to the source of the Flint, whence it ran in a straight line to the mouth of the St. Mary's, and thence to the Atlantic. The British posts within this line were to be given up as soon as possi- ble. A secret clause provided that if in the general peace England retained West Florida, its northern boundary should be a fine from the mouth of the Yazoo east to the Appalachicola. The navigation of the Mississippi was to be open to both nations. No arrangements were made for running the boundary line, and as geographical knowl- edge was then imperfect, trouble occurred when the succeeding genera- tion came to interpret that part of the treaty which referred to the northeastern and the northwestern boundaries. The Americans were anxious that the New Englanders should continue to have their former facilities in the fisheries, and after much 2i6 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION difBculty it was agreed that the Americans might fish on the Banks of Newfoundland and wherever else they had been in the habit of fish- ing, and that they might land and cure fish in any unin- F'sheries habited parts of Nova Scotia, Labrador, and the Magdalen Islands, but not in Newfoundland. For this concession, so important to New England, Adams's pertinacity was chiefly responsible. On boundaries and fisheries, the treaty thus favored the United States. On the two other important points of discussion, the pay- ment of British delDts and compensation of the loyalists British it ought, thought the British commissioners, to favor Debts and England. But their contention was vigorously resisted. tio™t^o*t'he' Franklin thought the debts were properly canceled, be- Loyaiists. cause parfiament, by closing the American ports and inflicting the horrors of war, had destroyed the power of the debtors to pay these obligations. Adams and Jay were anxious to preserve the credit of Americans, and the demands of the British were accepted, at least negatively. It was agreed that no legal im- pediment should be placed in the way of the payment of any debts owed by American to British subjects. As to compensating the loyal- ists, the commissioners held out a long time. King and ministers were insistent ; for they believed that England was in honor bound to succor those whose fortunes had been seized because they were true to the crown. The Americans were equally unyielding, because they looked on the loyalists as wicked conspirators, authors of much blood- shed, and proper victims of the popular wrath. In one of the dis- cussions of the subject, the American commissioners said that congress could not order a state to repeal its confiscation laws, and that the limit of its authority was to recommend a repeal. The English com- missioners, anxious to close the negotiations, caught at this expression, and it was agreed that congress would make the desired recommenda- tion. The result was a double interpretation. Englishmen, under the necessity of defending the treaty, assured the public that the ad- vice of congress would be received by the states as binding. The American commissioners authorized no such impression. Wlien, as later happened, the states paid no attention to the advice of congress, the British public charged the United States with breach of faith. Wlien this preliminary treaty was announced in parliament, there was an outburst of anger which produced a change of ministry. Hart- ley was sent to Paris to replace Oswald, and he was ordered A General iq make better terms. He did his best, but the American September Commissioners would not give more than they had already 3. 1783. promised, and September 3, 1783, when a general peace was signed by all parties to the war, the treaty completed on November 30, 1782, was accepted as defining the political relations between England and her former colonies. It did not deal with com- mercial matters, a subject reserved for much irritating discussion in the future. POWER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 217 Civil Progress during the Revolution The continental congress was a revolutionary body, and derived its authority from the success of the revolution. Since the Articles of Confederation were not adopted until 17S1 the war was all but won under the sole direction of this body. It J^^ Author- was composed of delegates chosen and paid by the states, J^^ °!. ,.i and its votes were generally in accordance with instruc- Congress, tions from the states. It did not levy taxes, direct or indirect, but merely made requisitions on the states for funds needed. It was little more than a convention of ambassadors from states acting together in a league or confederacy. This loose form of union was only slightly strengthened by the Articles of Confederation (see page 238). So weak a congress inevitably encountered many difficulties. It always lacked money and was forced to borrow at home and abroad and to issue paper currency which eventually became worthless. The congress reahzed its inherent weakness and became so accus- tomed to it that it almost ceased to struggle against fate. It was badly organized, though it is difficult to see how a body with no more power to make itself obeyed could have pre- ^°*®'^'«°'^y pared a better organization. Each state had a vote, each was jealous of its own interests, and the defection of any one would have been a serious calamity to the common cause. Nearly every vote on a debatable question resulted in compromise, or in a decision to do nothing. Under these circumstances the personnel of congress deteriorated ; for the capable men preferred to serve the states rather than continue to sit in the body of do-nothings in Philadelphia. The state governments varied in character in accordance with local conditions, but in New England they were more democratic than elsewhere. Thus, in New England, the executive was chosen by the voters, in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, The Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia by one or both houses ^j'gf^l" of the legislature, in Pennsylvania by a council chosen by Government the electors, and in New York by the freeholders worth £100 or more. No state had universal manhood suffrage. Three, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, required a voter to be a taxpayer ; other states had a property qualification. The manner in which the royal governors had interfered in politics, proroguing assemblies, deferring elections, and continuing in existence houses which did their will, had created by reaction a strong love of frequent elections. Accordingly in nine states the governor was to be elected annually, in New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware triennally, and in South Carolina biennially. In six states both houses of the as- semblv were to be elected annuallv, and in two more, Connecticut 2i8 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION and Rhode Island, the lower house was to be chosen semi-annually. South Carolina elected assemblies biennially, and the other states, New York, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia elected the lower houses annually, and the upper houses for longer terms. In the beginning of the revolution little was said about sovereignty. The common danger was the great fact of the time, and men were chiefly concerned about how to secure enough union to e'cntv °'*'' "^^^'- '' effectively. But as time passed, and the central pov/er became more and more a fact, and as a group of leaders continually urged that it ought to exercise many of the powers then exercised by the states, a disposition was manifest to define more closely the powers of the states. Thus arose the contention that sovereignty rested with states. It was supported by the logic of the situation. Far larger numbers of people loved the states than loved the central power. The politicians of the day had been bred under a system of state politics, and these politicians not only controlled the states, but they made up the very membership of the continental congress. The result was seen in the committee of con- gress which prepared the Articles of Confederation. They voted down every effort of a few enlightened men to establish a central government with vital control of taxation, and devised a confederacy without the right to make its ordinary laws respected. Thus the belief in state sovereignty got a strong support in the day. We shall soon see that its inherent practical weakness proved its own undoing. The state constitutions usually contained bills of rights ; for it was to the state that the citizen was to look for guarantees of life and property. The pre-revolutionary contention was that ^f"th^°"* the colonies should not be subject to legislation by parlia- States. ment but should make laws for themselves. They were not now apt to lay aside this contention in order to create a congress which might take over the function just denied to parliament. It took years of confusion to make it evident that the small and disunited states were not able to establish a successful government in general affairs. At present no such conviction existed, except in the minds of a few intelligent ones to whom the majority paid little attention. It was natural that the government should be republican. So far as internal feelings were concerned, it had ever been republican. The monarchy had been, in the minds of the people, an affliction, ^^""inh*^*"' a sign of oppression. Washington, it is said, refused a gn, suggestion that he might become a king. Nobody wall believe that he was ever -willing to be king ; but it seems certain that if he had appeared in that capacity his popularity would have dissolved in a day. The example of a numerous people setting out on a separate course as a nation with the flag of a republic over them aroused grave apprehensions in Europe. No great nation then BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 219 flew such a flag. Switzerland was not a case in point, since it was divided by mountains into natural states and protected by its physi- cal inaccessibility from outside attacks. The revolution had many leaders from the older politicians, but its fundamental support was the mass of small farmers. As a popular movement it aroused the apprehension of the wealthy classes. It was one thing to establish a republic and Conserva- another to attempt an absolute democracy. Moreover, Radical Re- to hold that all men should participate equally in govern- pubUcans. ment was against the practice of any colony. The question was debated long in the bodies that made the state constitutions, and the division between democratic whigs and conservative whigs which then appeared was a forerunner of the party divisions which began in the first years under the national constitution. The question hinged on the suffrage and qualification for officeholders. As already said (page 217), the suffrage was everywhere restricted in some way. The conservatives were able to force a compromise which gave them a firmer control of the upper house of the legislature than of the lower house. In some cases this was by requiring that a member of this house should own a relatively large amount of property, or that only well-to-do men should vote for him. In some cases the upper house was appointed by the lower, and in Maryland it was chosen by an electoral commission selected for that purpose by the freeholders. While the war lasted it was not advisable for the whigs to wrangle over these points, but there came a day when the compromises of the revolu- tion were no longer acceptable, and one by one the old restrictions on equal participation in government were removed. This democratic movement belongs to the history of the second generation after the revolution (see page 472). BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Students of our revolutionary history are fortunate in having three new narratives in small compass. Channing, History of the United Stales, vol. Ill (1912), is in a very fair spirit and gives economic matters more than ordinary attention; Avery, History of the United States and its People, vol. VI (iqog), is chiefly a military narrative and its maps are particularly useful; Van Tyne, The American Revo- lution (igo5), is sometimes too brief in military matters, but is very full in civil affairs and gives us most important glimpses into internal politics during the revo- lution. Of the older American historians Bancroft and Hildreth still have charm, but they are unpleasantly pro-American. Fiske, The American Revolution, 2 vols. (1891), though inaccurate in some details is still the most readable book on the subject. On the English side the most reliable treatment is in Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century (1878-1890), republished as The American. Revolution, edited by Professor Woodburn (icSgS). It is generally impartial, but does not deal with the political progress of the United States during the wai. A larger work is G. O. Trevelyan, The American Revolution. 4 vols. (iSgg-icii-'), written from the standpoint of the English opponents of George III and generally in sympathy with the Americans. It is an able work and is very readable. Fisher, Struggle for American Independence, 2 vols. (1908), is readable and informing. / 220 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION The published sources are numerous, but the most important are as follows : B. F. Stevens, Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, ' 25 vols. (1889-1898) ; Force, American Archives, 4th series, 6 vols., sth series, 3 vols. (1837-1853); Journals of the Continental Congress, new edition by W. C. Ford and Gailliard Hunt, 21 vols. (1904-), issued by the library of congress; The Secret Journals of Congress, 4 vols. (1821), valuable for diplomatic history; Wharton, Tlic- Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, 6 vols. (18S9) ; and Moore, Diary of the Revolution (1S63), a reprint of newspaper clippings. On the British side see: Calendar of the Journals of the House of Lords (1810) and the Journals of tlie House of Commons, 127 vols. (1547-1872); the Parliamentary Register (1774-1779), The Annual Register for the years concerned; and Almon, Remem- brancer, 17 vols. (1775-1784). An interesting and valuable source of information is the correspondence of the leading men of the day, as : John .\dams. Works, 10 vols. (1S56) ; John and .-Vbigail Adams, Familiar Letters during the Revolution (1875) \ Dickinson, Writings, 3 vols. (189s); Jefferson, Writings, 11 vols. (1892-1900), Paine, Political Writings, 2 vols. (1870) ; and FrankUn, Complete Works, 10 vols. (1887-1889). Add to these : Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, 3 vols. (1S65) ; Henry, Life of Patrick Henry, 3 vols. (1891) ; and McRee, Life of James Iredell, 2 vols. (1857-1858). Special mention should be made of Tyler, Literary History of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1897), a study of the pamphlets of the period. See also R. H. Lee, Letters (Ed. Ballagh, 1911-). Much has been written on the military events of the revolution, and the student who desires a full bibliography is referred to Van Tyne, The American Revolution (1905), chap. XVni. The important general works on the American side are: Greene, The Revolutionary War (1911), an excellent summary; Carrington, Battles of the American Rroolution, 2 vols. (1876) ; Lossing, Field-Book of the Revo- lution (185s) ; Dawson, Battles of the United States, 2 vols. (1858) ; Lodge, Story of the Revolution, 2 vols. (1898) ; Maclay, History of the U nited States Navy, 3 vols, (new edition, 1898-1901); and Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890), chaps. 9-14. On the British side see: Fortescue, History of the British Army, 6 vols. (1899-), vol. IH deals with our revolution. See also the Public Papers of George Clinton, 6 vols. (1899-1902). On the Saratoga Campaign see : Stone, The Campaign of . . . Bnrgoyne (1877) ; Ibid., L(/c of Joseph Brant — Thayendancga, 2 vols. (1S38, 1865); Lossing, Life of General Philip Schuyler, 2 vols, (new ed. 1S84); Hadden, Journal Kept Upon Burgoyne's Campaign (1884); and Riedesel, Memoirs (trans. 1868), by the wife of a Hessian general who served under Burgoyne. The defeated British general was severely criticized in a Brief Examination of the Northern Expedition in America in 1777 , etc., which appeared in London in 1779. In the following j'ear he pubhshed his defense in A State of the Expedition from Canada. His most partial champion is Fonblanque, whose Political and Military Episodes (1876) contains many docu- ments. On the war in the South see : McCrady, South Carolina in t!ie Revolution, 2 vols. (1901-1902); Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War (1896); Garden, Anecdotes of the Revolution (1822); Gibbes, Documentary History of the Revolution (1853-1857); Tarleton, The Campaigns of 17S0-17S1 in the Southern Provinces (1787) ; Moultrie, Memoirs of the American Revolution (1802); Drayton, Memoirs of the Revolution to 1776 (1821); Schenck, North Carolina, 17S0-17S1 (1889); Connor, Life of Cornelius Harnct (1909) ; Draper, King's Mountain and Its Heroes (1881) ; Johnston, The Yorkto'wn Campaign (1881); Stevens, Campaign in Virginia, 17S1, 2 vols. (1S88), reprint of phamphlets in theClinton-Cornwallis Controversy; Rochambeau, Memoirs Relative to the War of Independence (trans. 1838) ; and Lafayette, Memoirs, 3 vols. (1837). On relations mth France the best books^ are : Doniol, Historic de la Partici- pation de la France a I'Etahlissement des Etats-Unis d'Amerique 5 vols. (1886- 1900) ; Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, 6 vols. (1889) ; Tower, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 221 Lafayette in the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1895) ; De Lomemi, Bcaitmarchais aiid His Times (trans. 1857 and 1805) ; Hale, Franklin in France, 2 vols. (1887- 1888); Jay, Life of John Jay, 2 vols. (1833); The Correspondence of John Jay, ed. by Johnston (1830); The Dcane Papers, 5 vols. (N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, iS86-i8go); The Lee Papers, 4 vols, (same series, 1871-1874);, and Letters of William Lee, ed. by W. C. Ford, 3 vols. (1892). For Independent Reading John and Abigail Adams, Familiar Letters during the Revolution (1875); Frie- derike Charlotte Riedesel, Letters and Journals Relating to the War of the American Revolution (1867), by the wife of a Hessian general who' accompanied Burgoyne and who wrote intimately of army life and of the country; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, 4 vols. (i88q-i8q6) ; Thwaites, Life of Daniel Boone (1904) ; Woodrow Wilson, Life of Washington (1897) ; Withers, Chronicles of Border Warfare (new ed. 1895) ; Fiske, Tlie American Revolution, 2 vols. (1891). CHAPTER X THE FIRST YEARS OF PEACE, 1 783-1 787 Financial Embarrassments The first years of independence were naturally full of difSculties. An immense debt, state and continental, must be provided for, trade, interrupted by the war, must be reestablished, the vast HoDes^"" tracts of western land must be developed, society must be readjusted on a purely American basis, the bitterness felt by the patriotic party for the tories must be allowed to cool, remnants of local jealousies must be dealt with, and the feeling for union, so weak that the Articles of Confederation were but "a rope of sand," must be strengthened and formed into a central government which could command respect at home and abroad. Many persons felt that these embarrassments could not be surmounted. They thought chaos would ensue, and after that would come some violent reorganiza- tion which would result in two or more states under some kind of European protection. They did not understand the practical quality of the Americans, who, through many years, had boldly solved new and formidable problems, and who, under the lead of men like Washington, Hamilton, Madison, John Adams, and James Wilson, discovered a way to bring the people to accept an efficient form of central government, under which iinancial, Industrial, and social difficulties disappeared. The years 1 781-1787 were full of these perplexities : the three years following saw them passing away through the efforts of the people. The expenses of the revolution were met by taxation, loans, and issues of paper money. Congress could not lay taxes, but made req- uisitions on the states, receiving from this uncertain The Rev- source half a million dollars a year. From foreign loans olutionary » o • 1 1 ■ 1 i Debt. •Sy. 830, 517 was received during the war, and so great was the distress that of this sum $1,663,992 was used to pay the interest on the domestic debt. The foreign loans were derived as follows: from France $5,352,500, from Holland $1,304,000, and from Spain $174,017. During the next six years over $2,000,000 was borrowed abroad, most of it to pay the interest on the foreign debt. Nevertheless, in 1790 we still owed $1,640,071 foreign interest. The domestic continental loans of the war amounted to $28,353,832, and as the interest on these was not paid after March i, 1782, there was in 1790 an arrearage of this kind of interest amounting to $13,030,168. 222 FINANCL\L DIFFICULTIES 223 The state debts in behalf of the war were very large. Some states were paying their portions as fast as they could, others were doing little or nothing in that way. No suggestion of assumption had yet been made. After the enactment of Hamilton's assumption scheme in 1790 the national government assumed these debts to the amount of $18,271,787. The condition of the debt was a blot on the country's honor and plainly indicated that the tax-laying power of congress ought to be strengthened. The first issues of continental paper money were moderate, and for a year the bills passed at par, but as larger quantities were emitted they depreciated rapidly. In two years their value as compared with specie was three to one, by September i, MoneT 1779, it was thirty-eight to one, and in March, 1780, fifty to one, nearly $200,000,000 being then in circulation. Depreciation continued until the ratio was one hundred to one. In March, 1780, congress called in the currency at forty to one, to be paid in taxes and destroyed. It also provided for a "new tenor" issue at forty to one, bearing interest at 5 per cent. About $120,000,000 was thus paid in and canceled. After 1790 the government redeemed $6,000,000 more at one hundred to one, and the rest was lost to the holders. The continental currency became an object of popular contempt, and in 1 781 a facetious fellow of Philadelphia plastered his dog mth dollar bills and led him through the streets to the amusement of the on- lookers. The states also issued paper money, about $200,000,000 in all. It depreciated alarmingly, and much of it was not redeemed. This large amount of unredeemed money, continental and state, was a forced contribution from the people who held it, and involved a great sacrifice on their part for the cause of independence. The wretched state of the finances brought congress to the verge of conflict with the army, which in the last winter of the war remained in camp at Newburg, on the Hudson, watching the British force in New York while the negotiators in Paris com- . '^^°°'^°' I 1 1 • mi !■ 1 II. I II . in tne Army. pleted their task. I he pay of the soldiers was badly in arrears, and they began to fear that if they went home without it they would lose it entirely. Some of the officers inflamed their sus- picions, and in January, 1783, an address in their behalf was presented to congress. It contained a veiled threat of misfortune if redress was not granted. Congress could do nothing more than promise a month's pay, and the discontent increased. All this did not occur without arousing keen interest elsewhere. Gouverneur Morris, assistant superintendent of finance and an ex- treme advocate of stronger government, declared that good must come out of the convulsion he thought im- Result/ minent. Hamilton, also hoping for a stronger govern- ment, but more practical as a public man, hoped that Washington would take control of the movement and through it force the country 224 THE FIRST YEARS OF PEACE, 1783-1787 to strengthen the hands of congress. He wrote cautiously to Wash- ington to that effect ; but all his calculations were lost. Washington was not supple-minded, like Hamilton. He was a man of simple loyalty, and he considered the threats of armed interference disloyal and dishonorable. It cannot be said that men like Hamilton and Morris encouraged the dissatisfaction of the army, but the holders of the continental bonds were not so guiltless. This class was strong in Pennsyl- Speculato^rs ^ania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hamp- shire, former trading states where capital was thrown out of employment during the war. Agricultural states, lacking a market for their products, were in no position to invest in bonds, but were more likely to sell what they already had. Thus by 1783 the specu- lators had bought up the certificates of debt, and the representatives from the commercial states favored a strong financial policy, while the delegates from the agricultural states were not so urgent in the matter. Then the impression got abroad in the army that the capital- ists in Philadelphia sympathized with the soldiers and would help them force the delinquent states to their duty. Early in March an agent of the speculators arrived at Newburg and was closeted with General Gates, second in command to Washington. On the tenth an address was secretly circulated, urging the men not to disband until they were paid, and warning them against any man who would counsel otherwise. At the same time a meeting of the higher officers was called for the eleventh. Washington discovered the plot a few hours before the officers were to meet and acted with characteristic decision. He published at once a general order decrying meetings secretly called and ton's Action Openly appointing a meeting for the fifteenth. Gates was checkmated, abandoned his own meeting, but hoped to control the one just called, where as senior officer he would preside. No one thought the commander-in-chief would attend, but the de- liberations had hardly begun on the fifteenth when he entered and took the floor to speak. Ordinarily of a quiet manner he was now agitated and greatly in earnest. He denounced the arguments of the secret address, assured his hearers that the best exertions in their behalf would be made, and left the room with the confidence of all but the chief plotters, many of his hearers being in tears. Resolutions were then offered full of patriotic utterances and expressing abhor- rence of the recent secret circular. Gates, in the chair, put the ques- tion and had the humiliation to announce it was carried unanimously. Thenceforth the army was loyal. June 2 it was disbanded, and the soldiers wentquietlyhome, their accounts unsettled, and, as Washington said, "without a farthing of money in their pockets." One incident only marred the dispersal. A body of raw recruits were at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, their pay also in arrears. When FAILURE OF AMENDMENTS 225 they heard the Newburg army was going home without pay they be- came mutinous, and eighty of them marched to Philadelphia, vowing they would have their rights. They were joined by some veterans, and marched through the streets, drinking, threat- puEht*^^ '° ening, but attempting no actual violence. Congress applied to the Pennsylvania executive, a Council of State, for protec- tion, but they repHed that they dare not call out the militia lest they join the mutineers. Then congress adjourned, and after three days fled to Princeton. Philadelphia declared the fhght unnecessary and thought it was instigated l.)y delegates who wished to deprive the city of the honor of being the capital of the confederation. The financial distress of the day suggested a grant of taxing power to the central government. In 1781 the states were called upon to amend the articles of confederation to allow congress to collect an import duty of five per cent. All consented but Two at- Rhode Island, whose refusal defeated the proposition, tempts to Her very smallness made her jealous of the loss of author- ^"^ °^^ ity, and her large dependence on commerce made her un- Taxing willing to surrender a part of what was her surest source of Power. revenue. Virginia, who assented at first, withdrew her approval on reflection. The prospect of mutiny in the army led congress to take up the question again in 1783. This time imposts were to be laid for twenty-five years on specified articles, the proceeds to go to paying interest on the debt ; and the plan was to be adopted if all the states consented. Now was seen how much more the states c'ung to their power with the disappearance of danger from England. Virginia and North Carolina accepted without hesitation, but other states held back. Impost and no-impost became slogans for two classes, merchants, owners of the public bonds, and those liberals who foresaw the advantages of union constituting one class, and the great body of farmers, shopkeepers, and illiberal persons who believed con- centration would lead to despotism constituting the other. Interest and theory were combined on each side. After three years' debate, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania had granted the impost, and Delaware was willing if all the other states granted it. New York, Rhode Is- land, Maryland, and Georgia held out, or granted it on such condi- tions that the benefit was slight. The failure of this second attempt to give the central government authority to collect taxes made a deep impression on the people, before whom a proposition for a revision of the articles of confederation was already submitted. Industry and Trade after the War Although the war greatly reduced exports of grain, tobacco, fish, lumber, and rum, and cut off the importation of a hundred useful Q 226 THE FIRST YEARS OF PEACE, 1783-1787 articles, it did not produce absolute distress. Food and the simpler articles of manufacture could be had in abundance ; and while men fought for liberty they would forego finery. They were Conditions generally used to hardships and could bear them lightly when they would. When independence was won it would DC time enough to think of making money. But peace brought unexpected difficulties. The British ports were closed to us now as to other foreigners, unless we paid high duties. Continental ports were open, but England was the great Trade with manufacturing country of the world : it was herimplements, cloths, and other merchandise we were accustomed to use, and how could we buy them unless we sent her our products ? Have them we would, £3,700,000 worth in 1784, and as we sent to England only £750,000 worth in that year there was a mighty draining of specie to settle the balance. At the same time England laid a high duty on whale oil, a blow at our whalers, and the trade with the British West Indies, so lucrative before the war, was now forbidden by the naviga- tion laws, in order to protect the British merchants and shipowners. Some men of the day resented the idea that we must trade with Eng- land. Was not France our friend and her ports open? But every merchant knew it was not possible to build up trade with France. We were bred on British commerce, and our taste would not change quickly. So while trade with the continent and in the Orient grad- ually reestablished itself, it did not fill the want. It was, of course, England's interest to keep our trade, but it was hard to make her realize it. She seemed to think we could not choose but trade with her. Then retaliation was thought of. Attftude^ But no one dreamed that thirteen states could act effec- tively against England. It was a task for the central authority, and in 1784 congress asked the states to grant for fifteen years the right to pass a navigation law. As England had shown no willingness to make a commercial treaty, the power was also asked to exclude from our ports certain goods, the property of citizens of a nation not in treaty with us. The New England states were earnest for the measure, the Middle States supported it without enthusiasm, but the South suspected that it would lead to an advantage for the trading class at the expense of the farmers. So many restrictions were placed by the states on the exercise of the power that their votes granting it were futile. Then diplomacy was tried. John Adams, in Paris, was appointed minister to England, mth instructions to make a commercial treaty and secure the execution of the treaty of 1783. He ar- toL^don"* ri^'ed in London in May, 1785, and was received with marks of good will by the king ; but the negotiation pro- ceeded slowly. England understood her advantage. She commanded the situation and knew it. Why should she give up her ancient NO TRADE CONCESSIONS FROM ENGLAND 227 system to please America ? Adams replied : " Because it is England's interest to cherish her trade with America, and if a hard policy is adopted America will trade elsewhere or build her own factories." The British merchants flouted the idea : America, they thought, could not establish manufactures, or trade elsewhere. After eight months of parley in which no progress was made, an answer came to Adams's propositions. America, it said, had obstructed the payment of British debts, contrary to the treaty of peace, and no concessions would be made, since we did not keep our agreements. Although Adams remained in London until 1788, he could get no further com- fort. He was deeply humiliated, and advised that we should not succeed as long as we collected 10 per cent duty at Boston and paid as high as 50 per cent at Liverpool. He seemed not to realize that high duties at home would increase the prices of im- ported merchandise, lay an extra burden on our own people, and only injure England by lessening through high prices the amount of goods we imported from her. Nor was stronger government, as we now know, a sure cure for the situation, else why did we not re- taliate after the adoption of the constitution ? The only remedy was to manufacture our own goods, and it was not until thirty years later, after an eight-year period of isolation had intervened (see page 311) that we were able to begin to depend on ourselves in this respect. The confiscation of British debts was a serious grievance. These were obligations of Americans to British merchants incurred before war began. The English commissioners for making the treaty insisted that they should be collected, and it was p"j,\^g agreed that congress should recommend the states to place no obstacle in the way of such procedure. England was also anxious that the tories should be allowed to live in peace in the states. But the people were bent on confiscating the debts. England had made it impossible for the Americans to pay them by establishing a blockade and sometimes seizing the goods for which the debts were contracted before they reached the American harbors. As for the tories, they were much hated because they sided with the enemy in the war, and because in some states they took part in civil strife which destroyed much property and life. As trade concessions were not made and as the Western posts were not given up or the fugitive slaves restored, Americans took no steps to pay the debts or lessen the hardship of the tories ; and the question remained a source of irrita- tion for many years. Meanwhile, the tories moved away to Canada, where the mother country gave them land and aid in planting them- selves, and the debtors largely evaded obligations by becoming bank- rupt and moving to the frontier, where they were lost sight of, and so escaped suit for recovery of the obligations. The need of a sound currency turned men's minds to bank notes. 228 THE FIRST YEARS OF PEACE, 1783-1787 Several states had established such institutions on moderate scales, but they did not answer the requirements of business or give the central government the facility it required in lending money in emergencies. Tliis, it was thought, could be furnished BanJcs ^° better by a great national bank, patterned after the Bank of England. Hamilton suggested such a scheme to Robert Morris, superintendent of finance from 17S1 to 17S4. Morris prob- ably had already formed such a plan in his own mind. At any rate, he got congress to charter the Bank of North America in 1781, with a capital of $400,000 paid in specie. It was enlarged to $2,000,000 in 1784. It had many difficulties, but managed to weather them all, and its notes were received at par. As doubt was cast upon its legality by repeated assertions that congress had no power to incorporate a bank, it secured a Pennsylvania charter in 17S2, which though re- pealed in 1785 was renewed in 1787. When the old congress ceased with the establishment of the new government in 1789, the bank con- tinued under the state charter. It did not receive recognition under the new regime, but its existence was uninterrupted, and in 1864 it became a national bank under the acts then recently passed by con- gress. In the dark period of 1782-1789 it did good service by lending' money to the government at times when no other resource was ap- parent. Its first president, Thomas Willing, was an old business partner and friend of Robert Morris, and gave him steady support in the many arduous efforts by which the latter, as superintendent of finance, supported the struggling congress. Forming a New SociETy The men of the revolution hated nothing more than monarchy and aristocracy. They realized that every step they took was likely to be a precedent, and were exceedingly suspicious lest some Ari"tocra"v ^^ ^^^^ dreaded forms should get recognized. Posterity now thinks their fears were unnecessary. Probably not even Washington could have made himself king of a people so fiercely attached to their self-government. As for an aristocracy, which de- pends on pennanent forms of hereditary wealth and rank, it is not possible that people who had so little of such forms could have toler- ated their introduction. Primogeniture, which existed in colonial days in New York and the Southern colonies, and the assignment of double share to the eldest son in other colonies, were now done away with. Entails were abolished, and with them went manorial privi- leges, which had survived in New York and Maryland. The rights of the proprietors in Pennsylvania and Maryland were seized by the state, pvayment to the Penn family being made in the former, but none to the Calverts in the latter. But unequal suffrage was retained in one way or another in every state. In some only taxpayers could OPPOSITION TO THE CINCINNATI 229 vote, in others only the possessors of property. Manhood suffrage came at a much later day. Jealousy of rank flared up hotly when officers of the continental army seemed about to be elevated into a superior class. These officers, whose influence did much to induce the privates to enlist, g^]f p^y were promised half pay for life with the advent of peace, for the The war was not over before a cry arose against executing Officers in the pledge. It would, said the objectors, create an aris- *''® Army, tocracy of the most dangerous kind, an aristocracy on a military basis. States passed resolutions, and so much excitement was manifested that congress commuted the obligation to a payment of five years' full pay in cash. Even this caused great indignation. Everywhere the people raged against a standing army, the greatest enemy to liberty. When it was disbanded in 1783, it was reduced to eighty men, enough to guard the arsenals at West Point and Pittsburg. Nor could con- gress be induced to create a stronger establishment. Motion after motion was rejected to raise a continental force to protect the fron- tier. The best that could be done was to recommend the states to raise 700 men for this purpose for one year. In 1788 the total strength of the army thus raised was 666 men and officers. The popular dislike of a military aristocracy came to fever pitch when it was known that the officers before disbanding had formed the Society of Cincinnati. Its threefold object was to per- petuate the friendships fonned in the war, to deliberate .-un^'"' in secret on the welfare of the country, and to create an order membership in which should be an honor to pass to the eldest son to the end of time. It adopted an eagle and a blue ribbon as its badge, established state and central organizations, and arranged for regular meetings. The second and third objects of the order aroused most opposition. The mass of the people resented the idea that a group of any men, least of all military men, should secretly direct public opinion on political matters, and they wanted no hereditary aristocracy however formed. They acknowleged the services of those who fought for liberty, but felt the merits would be greater if such men took their places with other patriots in future efforts for good govern- ment. The opposition to the order was not confined to the unthinking people. Franklin, Samuel Adams, and John Adams were among those who raised a warning voice. They but did in a dignified way what a thousand less important men did {Joq""'^'^' hysterically. Denunciatory pamphlets were written by the ton. The society became an issue in the campaigns, and candi- dates pledged themselves against it in order to get votes. Legis- latures disfranchised the members of the order, and the citizens of Cambridge, Massachusetts, petitioned that it be suppressed. Before such a tempest of invective the Cincinnati could not stand. Mem- 230 THE FIRST YEARS OF PEACE, 1783-1787 bers who had political ambition renounced their allegiance, and others lost interest in a scheme which was so great a source of commotion. For a time the meetings were suspended, but in later years they were revived, and the society now exists as a patriotic order. The men of 1785 should not be measured by modern standards. Descended from the middle and lower classes of England, they had often had occasion to reflect on the disadvantages of a heredi- Ideal °"^ tary aristocracy. It was the English landed gentry that made up the party in support of the king's prerogative. The gentry had monopolized offices in state, church, and colonies, and the aristocracy had furnished a barrier across which American farmers could never expect to pass. The mass of the colonists, even the wealthy ones, were descended from those who had felt the burdens of an aristocracy. Opposition to such a fomi of society was inherent. Twenty years of struggle, political and military, had developed their passions and confirmed their hatred of the words "king," "nobility," and "privilege." They controlled opinion among their neighbors and determined the actions of state legislatures. They were the average men who were going to build the life of the nation. Nor did their imaginations rise to the ideal of a great American nation. They were bom into a struggle between crown and colony. Their first political ideas were to defend the colony against the'sfates monarchical control. For them patriotism, political liberty, and self-government began with the defense of the colony. In 1776 they gave up with reluctance as much of state au- thority as would enable the states to act together for the continental cause. When the war was over, they did not cast off their opinions easily. The states acting together had won independence, and with the restoration of normal conditions could they not solve the simpler problems of peace ? And if it should be necessary to strengthen the general government, they felt it ought to be done with the greatest care, reserving to the states, which they loved better than any great coming nation, all power not absolutely essential to future existence. The state, they felt, was the protector of indiNadual rights, which were more important than the impression we made on the world as an American nation. Much inconvenience was endured before their hold on the popular mind was lessened and a stronger working plan of union adopted. Their attitude toward the tories was equally characteristic. They thought it was for the state to regulate the life of its inhabitants. It was for the state to decide what penalties should be im- ward'xories P^sed on persons who had aided the enemy in time of war, and who had carried the torch and sword into communities struggling for their dearest rights. If the states had lost, who could doubt what punishments would have been \'isited on the whigs? Those who took the sword should perish by it. Was it not, therefore. THE TORIES 231 a mercy to spare the miscreants their lives ? and was it not wise to insure a homogeneous society in the future by driving away those who had supported the king's tyranny and still believed a monarchy the best form of government ? The lot of the loyalists was indeed hard, especially in New York. This city was in British hands throughout the war. Its merchants were largely loyal, and to it came for refuge king's true subjects from many towns in New England and the Middle Hardships states. While the war lasted, they bore themselves xongg. haughtily toward the whigs of the city, driving them away to New Jersey or Pennsylvania to escape insults and discriminations, and seizing their property when they were gone. Now the tables were turned. The outcasts returned to the city, hot for revenge. With great difficulty conthcts were averted when the two classes met on the streets. The legislature disfranchised all who would not swear they had not aided the enemy. In 1784 it passed a trespass act, giving the patriots the right to recover damages from tories who had ocaipied the houses of fugitive whigs. Many suits at once began, and the damages claimed were usually exaggerated. One of the first cases tried was that of a widow, Mrs. Rutgers, against WaddLngton. Ale.x- ander Hamilton, twenty-seven years old, was the counsel for the defendant, and argued so brilliantly that the court decided that the trespass act was contrary to law. Then followed an outburst of in- dignation. Meetings were held, pamphlets appeared, and the press teemed with threats for the tories who dared to remain in the city. North and South Carolina had suffered during the war from bitter internal strife, and here the feeling against the tories was exceedingly strong. Every state had driven loyalists into exile by law or by irritat- ing practices which made their remaining unendurable ; and the bitterness of the time yielded slowly to milder feelings. Spite of the efforts of the British government in their behalf and the interference of many liberal-minded whigs, the lot of the tories continued very un- comfortable. They were deprived of the franchise, their property could not be recovered in the state courts, and large numbers of them, estimated at 60,000, definitely abandoned their homes and settled elsewhere in the British dominions. Those who left the Northern states went chiefly to New Brunswick and Canada ; those from the South went to Florida and the Bahamas. Great Britain felt obliged to succor them, and by lygo had given them as much as $16,000,000, besides large tracts of land. The exclusion of the tories, largely of the upper class, strengthened the democracy of the day. The Western Lands Seven of the states had claims to Western lands, founded on the terms of their colonial charters. They were Massachusetts, Connecti- 232 THE FIRST YEARS OF PEACE, 17S3-1787 cut, New York, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. The other states looked with jealousy at the prospect of being swamped by these mighty neighbors when the lands should be well settled ; and Maryland flatly refused to accept the articles of confederation unless these claims were relinr[uished. Promises to that effect were made before she finally signed, March i, 1781. By 17S6 all the claims to the Northwest were ceded to Congress mth the understanding that when the vast Western region was settled, it should be divided into states and admitted into the union. Land from colonial times was the most popular form of property, speculations in it the foundation of many fortunes, and to the people of the day the possession of these immense Western tracts added greatly to the national resources, made the payment of the debt seem more probable, and promoted the imion of the states. Jefferson, then a member of congress, was deeply interested in these lands, and was chairman of a committee appointed to prepare a scheme for settling them. The report, spoken of as the Ordinance "Northwest ^f 1784, provided for a number of states, fourteen or six- of 1784." teen, north and south of the Ohio. Nine were marked out north of the river, and names were selected for them. One was to be "Washington," another "Saratoga," while others were given names of classical origin, as "Metropotamia" ("Mother of Rivers"), for the plain where several rivers rise, and "Sylvania," for the forest region west and south of Lake Superior. The report also provided a system of laws to be enforced until the states were admitted to the union. Its most important provision was the exclusion of slavery from the Western lands after 1800. Jefferson hoped earnestly that it might be adopted, but the Carolinas and Georgia thought they would by this means be excluded from a share in the settlement of the lands they ceded, and the provision was stricken from the report, which was then adopted by congress. The scheme was too complete for the Western conditions. The backwoodsmen who were already settling in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee needed a simpler govern- ment, and tliis was embodied in a second ordinance which ignored what had been done in 1784. In 1787 a newly organized Ohio Company, composed of Massachu- setts men, asked congress to sell them one million and a half acres of land on the Muskingum river for $1,000,000, to be paid Company ^^'' ^'^ ^'^^ bonds of the government, then worth less than 50 per cent of par. The application was urged by Manas- seh Cutler, who proved himself a good lobbyist. He encountered much opposition from members of congress, who thought the price too low. Finally he joined with his scheme another purchase, in which the leading members took part, of 3,000,000 acres at the same price ; and on that basis the two schemes were enacted. It was proposed to establish the colony at once, and by spring, 17S8, an advance party of 47 began TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT 233 to build the town of Marietta, the first settlement in what was to be the state of Ohio. Just before the grant passed congress, that body hurried through the Northwest Ordinance of 17S7, establishing a government for the territory northwest of the Ohio. It provided that the region north of the river should have a governor, secretary, ^'^°^^ and three judges appointed by congress ; that when the ordinance, population reached 5000 free men of full age, they should have an assembly of governor, council, and elected house of represen- tatives. Not less than three nor more than five states might be made out of the region, and when any territory had a population of 60,000 _ it might be admitted into the union with equal status with the older states. The Ordinance of 17S7 became the model for all the other territories and states carved out of the western domain. It contained a bill of rights, one feature of which was that slavery should not be tolerated in the Northwest. The South, which opposed the exclusion of slavery from the Ordinance of 17S4, because it applied to all the West, made no objection to its elimination from the region north of the Ohio. In 17S5 congress adopted a scheme for the sale of western lands, and it was applied to the lands of the Ohio Company. It ordered that the territory should be laid out in townships six miles square, or thirty-six sections in a township. Each six- siiioSy^^ teenth section should be reserved for the support of schools, and the Ohio Company was required to set aside two townships for a university. Tliis township system has been generally followed in the West. Before this time settlements had already been planted in what later became Kentucky and Tennessee. This region was widely known for its fertility and abundant game. Hunters went thither, and, charmed by the country, built huts, established farms, geuiements and fought off' the Indians, who bitterly resented the in- vasion of their best hunting-grounds. The most famous of the ad- venturers was Daniel Boone, whose efforts opened Kentucky to the world. Leaving his home on the Yadkin, in North Carolina, he went, with a small party, to hunt in Kentucky. He loved the country from the first glimpse, and though robbed by the Indian, and warned to leave under penalty of death, and deserted by most of his companions, he roamed and hunted for a year and a half, and then spread such glowing ideas of Kentucky among the Yadkin people that in 1773 he set out with a band of settlers for the land of his dreams. Halted by Lord Dunmore's war he encamped in Tennessee, renewed his efforts with the return of peace, opened a road into the upper valleys and on to Louisville, where a trading post had long been established, and soon saw the country filled with hardy settlers who won their way against the dangers of Indian attack and the hard struggle of nature. The 234 THE FIRST YEARS OF PEACE, 1783-1787 settlers were within the bounds of Virginia, but felt its yoke lightly. They were sufficient of themselves for the tasks before them. They considered the mountains a barrier to permanent connection with the states of the East, and looked already to the mouth of the Mississippi, the natural outlet of their trade. Wise men talked of the prospect of a great valley confederacy which, when strong enough, would sweep the Spaniard out of the way and take its place as an intracontinental nation. What Boone did for Kentucky, James Robertson, with less of romance, did for Tennessee. By 1772 he had come with some hardy settlers from North Carolina across the mountains to the Founded*^ fair Watauga valley, east of the Cumberland mountains. They fled from the hard rule of Tryon, who was busy suppressing the Regulators. When they found they were not in the bounds of Virginia, as they first imagined, they set up a government of their own, with rules embodied in a written "Watauga Association." Many others came to share their lot, and by the outbreak of the revolu- tion several valleys were dotted with their peaceful homesteads; John Sevier was of their number, and led them with men from Virginia and from the upper Yadkin to the victory over Ferguson at King's Mountain. When North Carolina began the struggle against the king, they organized the District of Washington and recognized the state's authority. In 1779 a party from Watauga, led by James Robertson, began the settlement of Nashville, on the Cumberland, many miles to the westward, and held it, spite of severe attacks by the Indians. Thus when congress established the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, the first work of colonization had already been done by hardy men acting on their own initiative in the regions which were going to be the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, but were stOl under the juris- diction of Virginia and North Carolina respectively. One picturesque incident in the West remains to be mentioned. When North Carolina ceded her western lands in April, 1784, she re- served jurisdiction over them until they were accepted by congress. News of what was done brought dismay to the people on "^f^F ^k*'^ ^^'^ Watauga and Holston rivers. They wished to be pro- lin." tected from the Indians, and feared a period of nerveless government, during which congress would hold them as un- protected dependencies. To meet this, protect their land titles, and secure the continuity of orderly government, they launched a move- ment for a state government. They held meetings of regularly elected delegates, adopted a constitution, took the name of the "State of Franklin," chose John Sexier their governor, and asked congress to recognize them as a state. This happened in the latter part of 1784. Just at that time North Carolina revoked her act of cession, sent officers to execute her authority in the transmontane region, and brought civil war to the very doors of the western people. Congress PAPER MONEY 235 dared not antagonize North Carolina by intervening, and the people were unable to defy their eastern masters. At the end of two years Sevier's term of office expired, and, as no successor was elected, the "State of Franklin" fell into abeyance. He was then arrested for treason and sent across the mountains for trial, but friends interceded and he was not prosecuted. The incident shows the desire of the western people for self-government and the difficulty of ruling them as dependencies of the East. Popular Dissatisfaction The limitations which most of the states placed on popular govern- ment (seepage 217) caused dissatisfaction, and struggles soon began to remove them. There was universal fear of a strong e.xecutive, and before the federal constitution was adopted, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, become a little more democratic, decided to have gov- ernors chosen by the people, and in 1790 and in 1792 Delaware and Pennsylvania did the same. In all the states but Georgia the judges were elected by the assembly or appointed by the governors. In most of the states it was as if the constitution-makers had erased the word "king" in the old charters and written the word "assembly" in its place. Yet this was a long step toward popular government ; for the assembly represented the will of the responsible people. This predominance of the conservative classes was not received quietly in all the states. It gave too much power, it was thought, to men of property ; and parties began to divide between the rich and the poor. The latter, suffering from the j^^" p^. scarcity of money, desired to issue paper currency and manded. urged the assemblies to pass laws to that end. The for- mer thought of the effect on trade and opposed the demand. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Delaware Maryland, and Virginia re- sisted the cry. They all had conservative classes who were able to keep control of the situation. The victory was hard won in most of them, especially in New Hampshire, where a mob crying out for paper surrounded the meetinghouse at Exeter in which the legislators were assembled in 1786, threatening their lives if the demand was refused. They were dispersed by the militia, and their cause failed, probably because it was identified with mob rule. In the other states, seven in all, paper money was issued. In Rhode Island the agitation led to serious trouble. The mer- chants opposed the proposition, but the country people carried it through the legislature. Then the merchants tried to avoid the law. They closed their shops and refused to take the '^^^.." ^^°^ new currency. They were denounced as enemies of the jn^Rijode" people, and when John Weeden, a butcher, refused in 1786 island, to sell meat for scrip, he was haled into court. He was ably defended by Varnum, who urged that the state law violated the 236 THE FIRST YEARS OF PEACE, 1783-1787 constitution and was null. The judges sustained his contention and dismissed the case. This angered the legislature : they summoned the judges into their presence and delivered a reproof ; and in the ne.xt election all but one member of the court were rejected. But the decision held, and after a time quiet was restored to the community. One of the certificates issued by the paper-money party began with the words, " Know ye," and the party came to be known as the "Know ye" party. They were ignorant people with real need, but they did not deserve all the contempt visited upon them. The farmers of western and central Massachusetts were strong for paper. They were in debt, and many suits were entered against them in the courts. They hated the lawyers who prose- b Vd^n ^' c'^ted the claims and the rich men in Boston, whose influence predominated in the legislature. They found a leader in Daniel Shays, whose fervent appeals stirred them to a frenzy of rebellion. At Northampton and Worcester they broke up the courts in order to defer the trial of the cases against them, and elsewhere they held the quiet people in terror. Finally they besieged the town of Springfield, and seemed to have the whole western region on their side. Governor Bowdoin assembled an army of 4400 men under General Lincoln and sent it against them in the winter of 1786-1787. Shays fled as Lincoln approached Springfield, but was pursued and defeated at Petersham, on February 3, 1787. His men dispersed and he was captured. Resistance was at an end, but the feeling for the insurgents was so strong that he was not punished, and Governor Bowdoin was defeated at the next election by John Hancock, who as Professor McLaughlin says, "loved nothing better than sunning himself in the smiles of the crowd." Shays's Rebellion alarmed many a sober friend of government in every state. It seemed that the foun- dation of govenmient was breaking up, and that the often predicted chaos was at hand. BIBLIOGR.\PHICAL NOTE For general works see : Channing, History of the United States, 3 vols, published, IQ05-1012; McJIaster, History nf the People of the United States, 7 vols. (1883-); Bancroft, History of llie United Stales, 6 vols. (1883-1885), the sixth volume was formerly pul:ilished as Tlie History of the Constitution ; Hildreth, History of the United States, 6 vols. (1S49-1852) ; Schouler, Tlie United States under the Constitu- tion, 6 vols. (1SS0-1894) ; von Hoist, Constitutional and Political History of the United States, 8 vols, (trans. 1876-1892) ; ''McLaughlin, Confederation and the Con- stitution (1905), valuable and modern; Fiske, Critical Period of American History (188S), the most readable treatment of the subject; Curtis, Constitutional History of the United States, 2 vols. (1889-1896) ; Avery, Tlie United States aiui its People, 7 vols. (1904-). On imancial matters see: Dewey, Financial History of the United States (1903) ; Sumner, Financiers and Finances of the Revolution, 2 vols. (1891) ; Bullock, Finances of the United States, lyy^-iySg, (Univ. of Wisconsin Bulletins, 1905) ; Phillips, Paper Currency of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1865-1866) ; and Oberholtzer, Life of Robert Morris (1903). BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 237 On trade relations see: Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 6 vols. (1889); Macpherson, Annals 0/ Commrrrc, 4 \'ols. (1805) ; Pitkin, Statistical View of Com- mrne (1816) ; and Coxc, Vint: nf the United States (1794). On the West see : Hinsdale, The Old Northwest (ed. i8yq) ; Winsor, The Westward Movement (1897) ; Barrett, Evolution of the Ordinance of ly&f (Univ. of Nebraska Papers, 1S91); Roosevelt, Winning of the West, 4 vols. (,1889-1896); Adams, Maryland's Influence on Land Cessions (Johns Hopkins Studies, 1885) ; King, Ohio, First Fruits of the Ordinance of lySy (ed. 1903) ; Life, Journals, a>ul Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, 2 vols. (1888) ; Sato, History of the Land Question (Johns Hopkins Studies, 1886); Garrett and Goodpasture, History of Tennessee (1900); Pickett, History of Alabama, 2 vols. (ed. 1900) ; and Turner, Western State-Making in the Revolutionary Era {Anwr. Hist. Revie^c; VHI, 1902-1903). For Independent Reading Chastellu.x, Travels in North America, lySo-iySz, 2 vols. (ed. 1828); Stiles, Literary Diary, 3 vols. (Dexter, ed., 1901) ; IJrissot de Warville, New Travels in the United Slates, 2 vols. (1794) ; Roosevelt, Winning of the West, 4 vols. (1889-1896). CIL\PTER XI MAKING THE CONSTITUTION The Articles of Confederation June 12, 1/76, the continental congress appointed a committee to prepare a plan under which the states could act together in the future. Two schemes came before this committee. One was Articles of suggested by Franklin in 1775, and provided for a congress tion * "^' ^^^^ representation based on population. The other was Adopted. prepared by John Dickinson, of Delaware, and provided for equal representation of states. Here appeared the deep jealousy of the small states for the large ones. The latter dung tenaciously to their opinion, but yielded for expediency's sake. Every state was needed in the struggle then beginning, and the smallest was in a position to win concessions if it only stood firm. The committee reported July 12, but the matter was deferred, after a short discussion, until it could be considered by the states. It came up again in the autumn of 1777, the delegates having had ample time to learn the state of opinion at their homes. Again the large states tried to change the will of the small, and again they failed. A confederation of equal states was better than no confederation at aU. The articles passed November 17, but they were not to be binding Snmu'states ^'^'•'^ approved by all the states. They were a compromise in which the least progressive side won. As congress said in submitting them for ratification, it was a difficult and delicate task to combine "the various sentiments and interests of a continent divided into so many sovereign and independent communities." The articles of confecLeration were designed to give the central government no more power than it needed to carry on national affairs, and they reserved all others to the state. Congress was to conduct foreign affairs, to declare war, to provide for admiralty courts, to regulate the coinage, to establish standards of weight and measure, to Imve sole jurisdiction over Indian tribes, but not to infringe the righls of any state in this respect, to establish and regulate post offices and post roads, to build and equip a navy, to issue letters of marque and reprisal, to have an army made up of troops furnished by the states at the call of congress, to appoint the higher army officers, to borrow money, and to emit bills of credit. Most of these rights had formerly been exercised by the crown, and they were now 238 TERMS OF THE ARTICLES 239 readily granted to the general government. None of them could have been exercised easily by the states individually. Some powers were e.xpi'essly reserved to the states ; as raising the militia, appointing regimental officers in the army, granting letters of marque in time of war, repelling invasion without waiting for the consent of congress, and keeping an army tjj'e^States or navy in time of peace if congress consented. Other important powers were not mentioned, and by implication were reserved to the states ; as, to control commerce and navigation, to levy imposts, and to lay direct taxes. Nine states must consent to the most important acts of congress, and an amendment of the articles must be unanimous. Ordinary votes in congress would pass by having the approval of a majority of the states, but an adjournment could be ordered by congress if the majority of the delegates present con- sented. Congress could not le\'y or collect a tax on „ indixaduals, but must get its revenues by making requi- sitions on the states apportioned on the value of land in private hands ; and the state was to collect the amount required as it saw fit. Thus, the basis of power was the state and not the citizen. The revolution was a protest against the strong executive in England, and care was now taken to give the new government the weakest possible executive. Congress might appoint a president from their own members to have office for only one year jj^^ in three. He had no veto or appointing power, but received foreign ministers. Congress was to appoint high executive officers to act under its authority. Thus it appointed a secretary for foreign affairs, who reported to congress. A "committee of the states," one delegate from each of the thirteen, was to carry out the directions of congress in a recess of that body. Another weakness was the absence of a federal judiciary. No such courts were provided. Cases arising under the articles would be referred to the state courts, which would naturally „ _ . lean toward the states. Admiralty courts, however, Courts should be established by congress with jurisdiction over piracy and over offenses on the high seas, and there was a court of appeals for prize cases. A dispute between states was to be referred to congress, who should appoint seven or nine arbiters, no two from the same state, who were to pass on the dispute and report their verdict to congress ; but there was no way of enforcing the decision, if the contending states did not choose to obey it. The articles declared in the beginning that "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence," and described the government now created as "a firm league of friendship," but near the end they say, "and the Union shall be perpetual." In view of the narrow power given to the congress, we may conclude that the word "Union" here was understood to be a mere act of association. The historical 240 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION significance of the articles of confederation is not to be overlooked. They were a step in the development of the union. Weak as they were for the purposes demanded of them, they were a conscious sacrifice of some of the powers of the hitherto disunited states, and their very impotence pointed out in what respect they ought to be strengthened. Moving towaud a Stronger Union The weakness of the articles surprised nobody. Even the men who opposed a strong union were not surprised. They had resisted concentration because they feared the power of a strong Opposition central government over the states. The four years Receding. "^^ turmoil following the victory at Yorktown showed them that there was something worse than a vigorous congress. They saw in the financial chaos the obstruction of trade, and in the tendency of states to fall on one another the probability that even the small amount of union already established would be lost. If such a state of affairs continued, it was likely that each state would look out for itself. In such a condition the large states would fare best, and small states would either fall into the hands of their great neighbors or have to place themselves under the protection of foreign powers. It was, therefore, the interest of small states to give up some of their reserved powers, provided they could effect an arrangement by which they could preserve their integrity as states. Meanwhile, the strong union men did not cease to try to develop public opinion. Chief among them was Washington, who wrote letters to his friends and to legislatures. Hamilton, Actwe^*° also, e.xerted himself, and Madison, who was coming into great influence in Virginia, was another who lost no opportunity to help the cause. After the fashion of the day, many pamphlets appeared on the question, one of the most important being by Pelatiah Webster, suggesting so many features of the con- stitution later adojited that his admirers have called him the father of the constitution. Congress itself took up the work, and passed several sets of resolutions looking to a stronger government. Few of these advocates desired a unified government : most of them looked to a federal government, with power to collect its revenues and to make itself obeyed. Some men said that all that should be done was to add to the central authority the least possible vigor the situation demanded. All these efforts made ready for the work of 1787. As the discussion went on, the idea of amending the articles in a convention continually came up. It was plain that the method in the articles themselves was futile ; for one state would probably be found to oppose anything suggested. But a convention would not be bound by the e.xisting agreement, it would build the union anew. A CONVENTION SUGGESTED 241 and if an agreed number of states accei)ted its work, the union might go forward without the consent of the others. Besides, to take part in it would commit no state, and if it should be held it would be the interest of each state to be repre- 9°°^''*"' sented, lest the plan prepared should infringe her interests. y°"yon °°" As the suggestion of such a step was repeated it gained suggested, ground in the popular mind. Many of the discouraged friends of central government thought it worth trying, and the friends of the states were willing to attend and discuss the points at issue, although they were ciuite sure they would not yield one iota of their cause more than was necessary to preserve the fruits of the revolution. In all this congress took little active part. It could hardly be expected to do a thing that would destroy its own life. While opinion thus ripened, events happened which led to the convention. In 1784 Madison learned that much confusion in navi- gation and some smuggling existed on the Potomac because of different customs regulations on the opposite IJf^^")'* ?"** sides. He undertook to remedy the matter, and got the confer. two states concerned to appoint commissioners to prepare a code of rules. They met in 1785, had no trouble to agree on the matter in hand, but saw that if Maryland changed her regulations, her northern neighbors must do the same, or the same difficulty would exist on the northern border. This would necessitate changes on the northern borders of Pennsylvania and Delaware. In other words, the regulation of na\agation was a question common to all of the states, and the commissioners ended by suggesting a general convention for that purpose. Madison, one of the commissioners, was a member of the Virginia legislature, where he worked hard to strengthen the hands of congress. A strong party opposed his efforts, because of thrir devotion to the sovereignty of the states. Spite of their plans, ];e got the assembly to call on all the other states to send delegates to a convention to consider commercial regulations. The place was to be Annapolis, remote from New York, where congress then sat, and far away from any large jjort whose merchants might influence its deliberations. The time of meeting was to be September II, 1786. This convention, be it remembered, was to be a creature of the states, to report to them, and was not concerned with the continental congress. At the appointed time delegates assembled from Virginia, Penn- sylvania, Delaware, New York, and New Jersey ; and Massachu- setts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and North Carolina named delegates who did not attend. The other states, Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, and Connecticut, took no TheAnnap- notice of the call. More discouraging than these absences yention. was the fact that no real good could be accomplished unless a power existed strong enough to enforce common regula- K 242 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION tions, if they were made. The convention, therefore, gave up the task before it and issued an address to the states urging them to call a constitutional convention to meet in Philadelphia the second Monday in May. Its action was to be binding when approved by congress and confirmed by all the state legislatures. This was a bold step. Congress was only half pleased, and took no notice of a call coming from a source outside of itself. But Virginia was of another mind. Spite of her recent opposition to Delegates amendments, she now indorsed the convention without dei^urcon- debate and elected delegates, among them Washington, vention. Madison, Patrick Henry, and Governor Randolph, but Henry refused to serve. Other states followed her lead, and congress unbent enough to call a convention at the same time and place, but without allusion to the work at AnnapoUs. Rhode Island alone refused to take action, although New Hampshire hesi- tated until June, and her representatives took no part in the earlier deliberations at Philadelphia. The cjuick response of the other states was in strong contrast with their opposition to amendments. Though disgusted with congress, they were loyal to the American cause and hoped with a new trial to make a better form of government than they then had. For this purpose they put forward their best men. The American congress had not contained, since the first days of its exist- ence, such men as gathered at Philadelphia; Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, Alexander Hamilton, Rufus King, William Patterson, Oliver Ellsworth, Charles, and Charles Cotesworth, Pinckney, and Luther Martin. Though divided in their opinions, they were among the best leaders of the day, and no superior men could have been found for the task before them. Washington was chosen president of the convention, and the meetings were held in the strictest secrecy. At the close the journal was delivered to him sealed with instructions to hand Meeting of j,. ^.^g^ j.^ ^^le congress of the United States, if the consti- vention." tution now prepared was adopted. In 1818 congress ordered its publication, but it was the merest skeleton of the proceedings. A fuller record was made by Madison, the best versed member in political science, and such an earnest supporter of the practical measures of the convention that he came to be called "the father of the constitution." At the first session he took a seat from which he could hear all that was said and made as full a record of the debates as he could. His "Notes" were first •^Notes'"^ published in 1841, and constitute our best information of what was done. Other members, particularly Yates, of New York, made notes less explicit, and these also have been published. The opposition between large and small states came up with the meeting of the delegates. Four days after the convention organized LARGE AND SMALL STATES 243 Governor Randolph, of Virginia, offered a tentative plan of union. It favored the large states and provided for a congress of two branches, the lower elected by the people on the basis of population or land values and the upper elected by the lower pj^ irgmia branch. The signilicance will be seen if we remember that by the first census, 1790, Virginia had a population of 747,610, Massachusetts, including Maine, had 475,327, Pennsylvania had 434,373, North Carolina had 393,751, and New York had 340,120. The combined population of Rhode Island, Delaware, New jersey, and New Hampshire was only 453,943. The combined population of the five largest states was 2,391,181, and that of the other eight states was i,334,23cS. Georgia, with a population of 82,548, had vast undeveloped areas and usually acted with the large states, so that these six great states had 66. i per cent, of the S°%*'°° °^ entire population, and since the other states had restricted states. boundaries, the progress of settlement could be expected to increase their advantage. If land values were taken for the basis of representation, the distribution of power would be nearly the same as if population were taken. The congress thus delivered over to the large states should have authority to make all the laws the existing confederation could make, as well as to veto a state law in conflict with the consti- tution, and to coerce a state failing in its duty. There Congress was to be, also, a national executive chosen by congress, y^jg^^a ^ but its composition was not defined. There was to be a pjan. council of revision, of which the executive was to be a part, with power to veto a law of congress or a congressional veto of a state law ; but its veto might be overridden by a subsequent session of con- gress. There was to be a national judiciary selected by congress with jurisdiction over admiralty cases, issues in which foreigners or citizens of different states were parties, impeachments of national officers, and cases concerning the collection of the national revenues. It was also provided that officers of the states should be required to take oaths to support the constitution of the union, and that the con- stitution when completed should be submitted to the people of the states for approval through their legislatures or conventions chosen for the purpose. This plan, which was largely the work of Madison, was distinctly popular in its character. It was supported because a popular basis of government favored the large states, and it had the opposition of the small states for the same reason. Pinckney, of South Carolina, submitted a plan, much like Virginia's, but the convention took little notice of it. Alexander Hamilton also had a plan as strongly central as Virginia's, but he did not submit it to the convention. The debates began in the committee of the whole. The Virginia plan had the solid support of the large states, except New York, 244 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION which, under the influence of George CHnton, thought to hold out for special terms. Six of the eleven states represented, — Massa- chusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North CaroHna, South First Sue- Carolina, and Georgia, — over-riding the arguments of Large States ^^^ smah states, carried the main features of that plan through the committee. They were in no mood to com- promise. If the small states would not federate on the proposed plan, said Wilson, the most masterful of its defenders, let them know that the large states would federate on no other. And the small states, not prepared for such a spirited assault, could only repeat their assertion that they would not put their heads into the hon's mouth. Their leader was Paterson, of New Jersey, as determined a man as Wilson himself. He thought it better to remain out of the union than to accept the domination of the victors; and one need only look at the map to see that a group of states around New York harbor, from Connecticut to Delaware, could have laid the foundation for a great independent federation if they had thrown in their fortunes in a common cause. When the committee reported to the convention, Paterson, there- fore, offered the ultimatum of the small states, itself a plan of govern- ment. He was willing to strengthen the hands of congress, Pian'^°°'* to allow it to lay and collect import duties, to regulate trade, and to coerce a state which did not pay its requisi- tions. He would even grant a national judiciary with large powers, but he would not agree to distribute power according to population, and he demanded equal representation of the states in congress. Had the minds of the delegates been free from passion they would have seen that even this was a great improvement over the articles of confederation: it would have remedied most of the abuses under the old system. But the ciuestion was now beyond the mere fact of remedying abuses ; it was : Should a nation be founded on a popu- lar basis or on a state basis? and around that fundamental point began a discussion whose acrimony made every cautious and patriotic delegate tremble for the issue. After five days the vote was taken. Maryland was divided, and Connecticut, in sympathy with the small states but not willing to defeat union, voted against the ultimatum. Thus the large states again won, the vote being seven to three against Patcrson's plan, and the convention took up the report of the com- mittee of the whole. June 29, came the first division on the make-up of Fight over congress. It was voted to have proportional represen- "'^of^Con- tation in the lower house, Maryland being divided and gress. New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware voting in the negative. It was a critical moment. If the same combination carried the vote on the composition of the upper house, the small states, if they fulfilled their threats, would abandon the A COMPROMISE 245 convention. Wilson was inexorable. "If the minority of the people of America," said he, "refuse to coalesce with the majority on just and proper principles, if a separation must take place, it could never happen on better grounds." To which a Delaware delegate replied: "The large states dare not dissolve the Confederation. If they do, the small ones will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith, who will take them by the hand and do them justice." Fortunately, there were some moderate men in the convention who thought a compromise better than disruption. Several times in the debates small-state delegates had suggested that at least the upper house should be based on equal representation Ei'sworth's of states, and no notice had been taken. But at this q^^_ critical point the idea recurred to the small-state men, and promise. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, pleaded eloquently for it as a guarantee to the small states that they should not be swamped by the influence of their large neighbors. It seemed a small concession in order to preserve the union of all the states. The appeal reached one man, Baldwin, of Georgia, Connecticut born and a Yale graduate. On the vote being taken, he was for compromise, and divided his delegation, thus leaving the large states with Georgia' ° only five votes. At the same time Luther Martin's colleague was absent, and he cast Maryland's vote for the resolution. The vote in convention was, therefore, five to five, and the power of the large states was checked. The pathetic appeal of the small states at the last had reached the hearts of some of their adversaries, and a committee of one from each state was appointed to arrive at a compromise. Franklin was a member, and suggested the report that the lower house be based on representation and have the right to initiate revenue laws, and that the states have equal voice in the upper house. After eleven days of bitter debate, with many futile motions to amend, the report was carried. North Carolina voting for the compromise. Four large states held out, Pennsyl- vania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, while Massa- Adooted™'^* chusetts was di\aded. They took defeat badly, and asked for an 'adjournment to consider what they should do. Everybody left the hall in the deepest gloom. The event had come which the larger states had said would justify withdrawal : would they carry out the threat ? Early next morning they held a meeting to decide upon their course. Some were for withdrawal, but the majority were for remaining. They were not willing to give up the last hope of a united government. Thus the compromise was allowed to stand and constitution-making was resumed. The compromise had vast influence on the future. It broke at a vital point into the scheme of a national government on a popular basis. It divided the lawmaking power between two dissimilar and, in some cases, opposing sources of authority. If the large states, 246 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION four of whom were Southern, had won in 1787, slavery would not have found refuge in the senate fifty years later, and the secession move- ment might have been dealt with before it was strong ^'^ '"■ . enough to venture its cause on the field of battle. The the Future, equahty of the states in the senate nourished the seces- sion movement through three decades of its early growth. This compromise was soon followed by another. Congress was given power to lay direct taxes to be apjxirtioned according to popu- lation, and representation was to be based on population. Three-fifths Since the slaves did not vote, some Northern men thought Sla es ^^^y should not be counted in representation, it being Counted. logical to found political power on citizenship. They also thought that slaves should be included in appor- tioning direct taxes, because they were property, and taxation should rest on the ability to pay. The South opposed each proposition. WiUiamson of North Carolina suggested that three-fifths of the slaves be counted in representation. Tliere was some sharp debate, showing the deep feeling- of the North against the advantage slavery gave the South and the resentment of the South that it should be a basis of discrimination against her. At the end a compromise was adopted, three-fifths of the slaves being counted in apportioning both repre- sentation and direct taxes. Still another adjustment of confhcting interests was to be made. The four states south of the Potomac were agricultural, and all the others had strong commercial interests. Since the states Commerce ^.gj-g jq ^g equal in the senate, the South, remembering the F^reien British navigation acts, feared that the North might com- Slave Trade, bine to make discrimination against the non-commercial section. They, therefore, hesitated when it was proposed to give congress control over commerce. At the same time the regu- lation of the slave trade came up. Virginia and Maryland had as many slaves as they could profitably employ, and there was no popular demand for more. Their leading men saw the evils of the system and would have been pleased to eliminate it. They joined with the men of the North in a desire to forbid the foreign slave trade at once. This alarmed South Carolina and Georgia, where slaves were more profitable. The people of these two states looked with hope to the settlement of the Gulf region, where rich lands awaited development through slave labor. Georgia and South CaroHna, therefore, objected to an immediate checking of their slave supply and a consequent enhancement of slave prices. Here again came a warm debate in which the southernmost states resorted to the usual argument that they would not federate if their interests were overridden. They had the sympathy of North Carolina, and it was evident that a powerful state could be formed if the three, with the vast Gulf section, set up a government of their own. Finally the spirit of compromise THE CONSTITUTION BEFORE THE PEOPLE 247 prevailed. Congress was given control of navigation, which satisfied the North, and it was agreed that the foreign slave trade should not be prohibited before 1808. Other points of difference appeared in the convention, but they concerned the theory of government, and not the interests of the parts of the union. They were usually won by the advo- cates of a national government. Thus the powers of ^^^ S°°" congress, methods of election, the functions of the e.xecu- completed, five, the creation of a system of federal courts, the powers denied to the states, the methods of amending the constitution, and other similar points were passed upon after much contention. The sessions lasted until September 17. Of the fifty-five delegates who had attended, only thirty-nine were present and signed : some of the others had gone home in disgust to oppose adoption when the com- pleted instrument should appear before the states. Probably few of its supporters believed it was all it should be, but they held it was better than the old system, and they believed time would show its defects and lead to amendments. These, also, went to their homes resolved to do what they could to secure adoption. The .Adoption of tiie Constitution The country waited anxiously while the convention deliberated behind closed doors : it was in commotion as soon as the constitution was published. As the members returned to their con- stituencies full of arguments for nationality, the immediate tjie*^pJopie ^ response was enthusiastic. The people were accustomed to follow leaders, and the federalists, as the advocates of nationality, had the advantage of early organization. Newspapers teemed with articles on both sides, speeches were made, and pamphlets appeared. The most notable utterance was a series of papers by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, under the title of "The Federalist," then and to this day an excellent summary of the meaning of the constitution. On the other hand, some of the most prominent men of the day began to denounce ratification. They favored a stronger government than the old confederation, but they thought the suggested plan too national. They slowly rallied their following intoa group known as anti- federalists, and by speaking and writing urged that the liberty of indi- viduals would be destroyed if the powers of the states were reduced. In the convention the small states were the champions of state rights, but now they were most eager to ratify. They had won their fight in regard to the composition of the senate, and made haste to " come under the roof," as the phrase ran. Dela- g^yg^^. ware ratified first, December 7, 1787, New Jersey on the (jgns, iSth, and Connecticut on January 9, 1788. The first large state to act was Pennsylvania, where the antifederalists appeared in 248 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION strength. They fought so well that a compromise was adopted. The federalists agreed to ten suggested amendments which should be submitted to congress in the hope that they would be referred to the other states for approval ; and on that basis the constitution was accepted on December 12. January 2 Georgia ratified unanimously. By this means five states accepted the new government within a month and two days, and the federalists were much encouraged. In Massachusetts the antifederalists were strong in the interior towns where distrust of the merchants and capitalists of the seaports, now generally federalists, had been marked since the days Massachu- of Shays's rebellion. All eyes turned to John Hancock and Ratifies. Samuel Adams, who had much influence with the popular party. They were both known to hesitate, but the former was won over by the promise of support for either the presidency or vice-presidency in the new government. The latter could not be so easily convinced. He was devoted to his state and thought her interests were sacrificed. In the convention Hancock was induced to offer a number of proposed amendments supporting the rights of the states. Adams announced that he was satisfied, and on February 7 ratification was carried by the relatively small majority of 19. The Pennsylvania amendments had been in the nature of a bill of rights, and were considered a safeguard of personal liberty : those offered by Massachusetts went farther and sought to lessen nationality and strengthen the states. Without them it is doubtful Significance jf ^j.^^ Qjj -Q^y State would have accepted the constitution. Amend- '^'^^ antifederalists pronounced them a subterfuge and ments. asked who was so simple as to believe that attention would be paid to amendments once the nationalists got the government established to their liking? and would it not be more sensible to announce that they would not ratify until the amendments were adopted ? The federalists replied that if the constitution were now rejected, there was slight hope that the states could be got to consider it again. Their success in urging amendments as a means of overcoming the arguments of the Massachusetts antifederalists induced them to use it in all the states who later raised strong objec- tions. Of the seven states voting after this all but one ratified with amendments. The consent of Massachusetts determined New Hampshire, who at first adjourned her convention to States. ^^^ what her great neighbor would do. April 26 Mary- land ratified, and South Carolina on May 23. This made eight states, and by the constitution the new system was to go into effect when nine had ratified. Which would be the one remaining necessary accession ? The question was answered when on June 2 1 New Hampshire accepted the constitution. Before the South knew of New Hampshire's action Virginia, after a hard and doubtful battle, had decided for union. Although the VIRGINIA AND NEW YORK 249 state's delegation voted steadily for nationality in the Philadelphia convention, in no ratifying convention was there a harder tight against nationality. It was led by Patrick Henry, who ^. . . had refused to go to the convention as a delegate. He opened the attack in the Richmond convention by boldly proposing to call to account the Virginia delegates, Washington included, on the ground that they had been untrue to the state when they made a plan for a national government. He was supported by George Mason, a delegate who refused to sign the constitution, and by R. H. Lee, leader of a group of disappointed men who long opposed the policy of the great planters in eastern Virginia. They attacked the constitution at every possible point. It would make a tyrant of the president, it would enslave the states, it would destroy individual liberty : these and other arguments were marshaled by the impetuous Henry with dramatic force. Madison and John Marshall met his arguments coolly. The proposed plan, they said, left the states with all necessary powers over local affairs and gave the union only what power was needed to direct the affairs common to all the states. At the end of three weeks of excited debate amendments were brought forward, forty in all. Henry laughed at them. They were designed, he said, to lull the fears of the antifedcralists, but once adoption was secured they would not be heard from again. Madison replied with a pledge that they should be fairly considered and submitted to the states. The promise was trusted by some members of the convention who were in doubt, and ratification was carried on June 25, 17S8, by a majority of ten. Ten states had now "come under the federal roof," and the battle shifted to New York, where George Clinton led the antifedcralists. When the convention met in June a majority of the „ „ t members were with him. Hamilton, Jay, and Robert R. Livingston led the federalists with great ability. The same argu- ments used in the other states were bandied back and forth ; but when it was known that ten states had ratified, the situation changed. New York was not willing to be left out of the union in company with Rhode Island and North Carolina. Some antifedcralists now became discouraged, and when the vote was taken, July 26, the federalists won by three votes. A resolution was passed asking con- gress to call a new convention to consider a constitution. It won some votes for ratification, but it elicited no response from either congress or the other states. Everywhere men were tired of the discussions of the past year and were willing to test what had been won before they began to revise it. Two states now remained out of the new union. North Carolina and Rhode Island. In the former a convention was held, controlled by the antifedcralists. It was decided to adjourn without action. The leaders hoped that other states would do the same and be able 250 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION to force the union to amend the plan adopted. Rhode Island submitted the constitution to the people, who rejected it by a large majority. After the new government was organ- North Caro- i2ed these two states became ashamed that they were ^ode Is- without the fold, and accepted the constitution, the land. former on November 21, 1789, and the latter on May 29, 1790. Nationality and State Integrity in the Constitution There is a trace of nationality in the articles of confederation, but the constitution has a great deal more. By it the legislature may do the following things: i. Lay and collect taxes, Powers of jj^ect and indirect, " to pay the debts, and provide for the °°^ ' commondefenseandgeneral welfare of the United States," but taxes must be uniform throughout the union ; 2. Regulate foreign and interstate commerce; 3. Pass naturalization laws; 4. Pass uniform bankruptcy laws; 5. Enact copyright and patent laws; 6. Raise and support an army ; 7. Call out the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrection, or repel invasion ; 8. Have exclusive control over the district, not more than ten miles square, to be selected for the national capital ; 9. Buy with the consent of the state in which they lie sites for forts, arsenals, and other public works and buildings, and have exclusive control of the same ; 10. Make laws to carry into effect any of the powers granted to it in the constitution; 11. Suspend the writ of Habeas corpus when necessary in cases of rebellion or of invasion; 12. Determine the times and places of choosing presidential electors ; 13. Judge of the validity of the election of its own members, each house acting for itself; 14. Dispose of and govern the territory and other property of the United States; and 15. Admit new states into the union, but no state to be divided without its own consent. Of the powers granted to congress by the articles of confederation the following were reaffirmed: i. To establish and control post offices and post roads; 2. To borrow money ; 3. To coin money and fix the standards of weights and measures ; 4. To define and punish piracies and felonies on the high seas ; 5. To create and maintain a navy ; 6. To make rules for the regulation of the army; 7. To declare war ; and 8. To grant letters of marque. The composition of congress is as follows: i. A house of represent- atives, composed of not more than one representative for o°ConCTess! ^^"-^ 30,000 inhabitants and each member to be chosen I. The every two years ; but each state must have at least one House of representative. In apportioning representation and direct Representa- taxes three-fifths of the slaves and all the whites shall *'***" be counted. Each representative must be at least LEADING FEATURES OF THE CONSTITUTION 251 twenty-five years old, seven years a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the state from which he is chosen. The house of representatives elects its own officers and has sole right of impeachment. It originates all bills for raising revenue, but the senate may amend them. 2. The senate, composed of two members from each state chosen for six years by the state legislatures, each member to have one vote. One-third of the members are chosen every two years. Each senator must be at least thirty years old, nine I' ^ years a citizen of the United States, and an inhabitant of the state from which he is chosen. The vice-president presides over the senate but has no vote unless there is a tie. The senate tries impeachments, but when the president is impeached the chief justice presides, and a two-thirds vote is necessary for all convic- tions. It also confirms the appointment of officers nominated by the president and by a two-thirds vote ratifies treaties. It chooses a president pro tempore to preside when the vice-president is absent or fills the office of president. Congress shall meet in regular session at least once a year, on the first Monday in December, or on some other day selected by itself. The state legislatures shall direct the time, place, and manner of electing members of each house, but congress may, if it wills, make other regulations for choosing senators and representatives. All persons vote for representatives and presidential electors who vote for members of the most numerous branch of the state legislature. Each house is judge of its own elections, each elects its own officers, each prescribes its own rules of procedure, and each must enter the yeas and nays in its journal when one-fifth of the members present demand it. No member shall be called to account for words spoken in debate or arrested ^^ during attendance on the sessions, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. Each bill to become a law must be passed by each house and signed by the president of the United States, but if he vetoes it, congress may pass it over his veto by a two-thirds majority. If he keeps it ten days without either veto or approval, it becomes law. If he receives a law within ten days before adjournment and does not act upon it, the bill is not law. Congress may not create a title of nobility, and no federal official shall accept a foreign title or present without the consent of congress. The executive function is exercised by a president of the United States chosen for four years by electors appointed by . the states as they may see fit. Each state is to have j^^, '^^^' as many presidential electors as it has representatives and senators, and each elector has one vote. The selection of elec- tors may be regulated by congress. The president must be a natural- 252 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION born citizen of the United States, at least thirty-five years old, and for fourteen years a resident of the United States, and he shall take an oath faithfully to execute the office and to defend the constitution. His powers are defined as follows: i. He shall be commander-in- chief of the army and navy; 2. He shall make treaties with the _. p concurrence of two-thirds of the senate; 3. He shall appoint ambassadors, judges, and other officers with the consent of the senate, and, if congress gives him the power, inferior offices of his own accord ; 4. He shall call congress in extra session ; 5. He shall receive ambassadors and conduct negotiations with foreign states; 6. He shall see that the laws be executed; 7. He shall be liable to impeachment for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors"; 8. He shall have the power to pardon all offenses but cases of impeachment ; and 9. He shall send to congress information on the state of the nation. The constitution also creates a vice-president, to serve when the president is incapacitated for office and to preside over the senate. He is chosen in the same way as the president. Originally P s'dent ^^^ electors were to vote for two men, and the one having the highest vote was to be president and the next to be vice-president. The growth of parties showed weakness in this feature of the system, and the twelfth amendment, 1804, provided that the presidential electors should vote separately for president and vice-president, the majority vote electing to each office. If no candi- date for president has a majority, the election goes to the house of representatives, wliich, voting by states, shall choose from the three highest candidates. The president is given power to call on the heads of the executive departments for written opinions relative to their respective depart- ments. Tills clause is all the constitution contains Cabinet '" reference to the cabinet. Out of it have grown impor- tant functions. It is held that a president may appoint or remove the members of his cabinet ; but congress alone may create a new department, whose head thus becomes a member of the cabinet. In creating a strong executive and a congress with large powers of legislation, the constitution added greatly to the nationalism of the government. It went still further when it estabhshed a Courts*''^'^^' system of federal courts. It provides that the judicial power of the union shall reside in a supreme court and such lower courts as congress may establish. The judges are appointed as other federal officers and hold office during good behavior. Their most important jurisdiction extends to cases arising under the con- stitution, laws, and treaties of the United States, cases affecting foreign ministers and consuls, admiralty cases, cases in which the United States is a party, and controversies between two or more states, or between a state and citizens of another state, or between citizens LIMITATIONS ON THE STATES 253 of different states, or between a state or its citizens and a foreign state. The supreme court has original jurisdiction only in cases concerning foreign ministers and consuls and those in which a state is a party. In other cases it has appellate jurisdiction. Treason against the United States consists of "levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid ^ ^°j and comfort"; and con\dction of treason shall only occur on the evidence given in open court of two witnesses to the same overt act, or upon confession in open court. The old congress had as much judicial jurisdiction as the articles of confederation allowed to the central government. The makers of the constitution considered this union of legislative and judicial functions unwise, and they took pains to Their juns- make the executive, legislative, and judicial organs inde- pendent of one another, holding that each would check the evil tendencies of the other. As a result, great power was given to the federal courts. They have become interpreters of the constitution and in that capacity have declared null laws of congress, laws of the states, and even state constitutions, when there has seemed to them to be a conflict with the powers of the general government. Creat- ing the federal courts was one of the most powerful expressions of nationality adopted by the convention of 17S7. The constitution provides two methods of amendment: i. Two- thirds of each house may approve an amendment, and it becomes effective when accepted by three-fourths of the states ; 2. The legislatures of two-thirds of the states may call ■*™®°°' e ° . . , . 1 • 1 ments. for a constitutional convention, which congress must summon. The product of a constitutional convention becomes law when ratified by three-fourths of the states. In several general ways the constitution modifies the power of a state: i. It guarantees to each a republican form of government and to the citizen of one state residing in another all the rights of a citizen of that state ; 2. Fugitives from justice l-'n^tations and from labor are ordered to be surrendered on the states demand of the state from which they fled. 3. No state may emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a legal tender, or pass a bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or a law impair- ing the obligation of a contract ; 4. No state may lay imposts or duties on imports or exports without the consent of congress ; and 5. The constitution and laws in pursuance thereof are to be the su- preme law of the land. Besides these specific limitations we must consider the immense national authority and prestige, which was bound to reduce the state's pretension to complete sovereignty. But the state felt its inferi- ority less because it had not exercised many of the powers now relinquished, and because it retained most of the functions vital to 2S4 MAKING THE CONSTITUTION its own interests. It was still a self-governing community, making laws to govern personal and property relations, controlling its own plans for social improvement, regulating the police Overween- power over its own citizens, choosing its own govern- oMhe*^"^* ment, administering its own laws in its own courts, and Nation. doing other things which were not themselves connected with the hfe of the general government. In all things properly within its own sphere it was conceded to be supreme. In 1789 the bounds between its authority and that of the nation were not well defined, and if there should be confhct between the two in a matter of interpretation, it seemed probable Probable (.[^^j. ^j^g stronger would win. Three features of the national ConSct." constitution were ominous: i. Congress had power to " lay taxes to provide for the general welfare. If the phrase "general welfare" were given a broad interpretation, it was difficult to say what congress might not do. 2. The constitution and the laws of congress were made supreme law, and the federal courts were given power to declare null state constitutions and laws in conlh'ct with them. If, therefore, a controversy between a state and the nation should come before such a court, it seemed probable that the federal supreme court would support the authority of the latter. 3. Congress was given control over interstate commerce. This was not of great apparent importance at the time, but the develop- ment of means of communication would increase interstate commerce, enlarge the activity of the federal government in super\asion of it, and produce frequent situations in which a state should be unable to regulate commerce within its borders, on the ground that to do so would interfere with interstate relations. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE General references are the same as for the preceding chapter. On the consti- tution, see the following secondary works ; Meigs, Growth of the Constitution in the Federal Convention (1900) ; Taylor, Origin and Growth of the American Constitution (iQii), gives too much importance to Pclatiah Webster's pamphlet; Story. Commentaries on the Constitution, 2 vols. (eds. 1873 and 1891); Curtis, Consti- tutional History of the United States, 2 vols. (1889-1896); Jameson, Studies in tite History of the Federal Convention (Amer. Hist. Assn. Report, 1902) ; Beard, Read- ings in American Government and Politics (1909); Bryce, The American Common- wealth, 2 vols. (ed. 1911); Thayer, Cases on Constitutional Law, 2 vols. (1895); Learned, The President's Cabinet (191 2); and Hare, American Constitutional Law, 2 vols. (1889). The original material on the convention has been many times published. The best edition is Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention (1911), 3 vols. It contains the journal of the convention and the notes on debate by Madison, Yates, Patterson, McHenry, King, Peirce, and Hamilton, each presented day by day. Vol. HI contains in reprint many valuable speeches, letters, etc. The journal and most of the notes are in Elliot, Debates, 5 vols. (ed. 1836); also the debates in state ratify- ing conventions. Madison's Notes are in several editions, the best being by Hunt, vols. Ill and IV, in the Writings oi Madison. There are several editions of The BIBLIOGRAPHIC-VL NOTE 255 Federalist, but the best are by P. L. Ford, Lodge, and Dawscn. On the author- ship of The Federalist, see Bourne and Ford, P. L., in American Historical Review, II, 443-460 and 675-687. Original pamphlets are reprinted in Ford, P. L., Essays on the Constitution (1S92) and Pamphlets on tlic Constitution (1888). Another comprehensive list of original documents is in Tlie Documentary History oj the Constitution, 5 vols. (1895-1905). Much valuable information is in the writings and biographies of public men of the time. Of the former, see Ford, W. C, Washington, 14 vols. (1S89-1893) Sparks, Washington, 12 vols. {1834-1837); Hunt, Madison, 9 vols. (1900-1910) Lodge, Hamilton, 9 vols. (1S85-1886); '&\%t\o\i, Franklin, 10 vols. (1S87-1888) Adams, C. F., Jolm Adams, ro vols. (1850-1S56); Hamilton, Monroe, 7 vols, (1898-1903); andFord, P. L.,/f^er.?oH, 10 vols. ; (1S92-1899). The most important biographies are: Hunt, Madison (1902); Rives, Madison, 3 vols. (1859-1868); Jay, Wm., John Jay, 2 vols. (1833) ; Rowland, Mason, 2 vols. (1892) ; Henry, W. W., Patrick Henry, 3 vols. (1891) ; Wells, Samuel Adams, 3 vols. (1865); .Stille, Dickinson (1891) ; Austin, Gerry, 2 vols. (1828-1829) ; Lee, R. H. Lee (1825) ; and Randall, Jeferson, 3 vols. (1858). For Independent Reading Elliott, Biographical Story ,pf the Constitution (1910) ; Landon, Constitutional History and Government (1889) ; Fiske, Critical Period (1S88) ; Morse, Life of Franklin (1889); hoAge, Alexander HamiltonJ^i?i?>2); and "Mone, John Adams (1885). CHAPTER XII WASHINGTON'S PRESIDENCY — A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION The Work of Organization July 2, 1788, the president of the old congress, in session in New York, rose and announced that nine states having ratified the con- stitution, it was in order to take steps to estabhsh the new ^°^°^"'® government. His hearers agreed with him, and it was gress. " resolved that the states should choose presidential elec- tors on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, who, a month later, should select a president and vice-president ; and that a congress elected under the constitution should meet the first Wednes- day in March following. After some debate, New York was selected for the place of meeting. This was the last important legislation of the congress which for fourteen years had guided the fortunes of all the states through the dangers of war and the hardly less difficult trials of peace. Would success crown the new system, over whose adoption there had been so vast an amount of dispute ? Some wise . I., ones had serious doubts, and the most hopeful admitted penment. , . . ' ,, , t i ■ i • that It was an experiment, but urged that it be given a fair trial. For president the unanimous choice was Washington. He was a good general, though not a brilliant one. He was not a good speaker and was not versed in the principles of government. But Washington j^g ^yj^g honest, fair-minded, dignified, and faithful to the President liberty of America. He had the power of commanding obedience, and everybody, federalist and antifederalist, trusted him. With Washington at the helm, faction would be checked and the authority of the union respected. His personal character was worth a great deal to the "experiment." It gave it the confidence of .'Americans and foreigners. John Adams was elected vice-president. At the time designated very few members of congress were in New York. The weak-hearted thought this was because nobody cared for the new plan, but others showed that it was because Mee^*^^ the roads were bad. April 6, the senate had a quorum, the electoral votes were counted, and a messenger went to summon the president-elect to the seat of government. April 30, he was in the city and took the oath of office. On his journey to New York he received every mark of afTection from the people. 256 ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS 257 The problems before president and congress were numerous. All that the old confederation could not do had now to be taken up. In the first place, the government was to be organized. The officers of state, great and small, must be appointed; federal courts, high and low, must be created ; a revenue law must the Dav*^°' be devised ; the revolutionary debt must be placed on a sound basis ; commerce must be regulated ; those parts of the treaty of 1783 which were not executed must be carried into efTect ; our relations with foreign states must be defined in projjer treaties ; a site for the federal capital must be selected ; and many other minor affairs must have attention. They were tasks which demanded the wisdom of the best men in the country, and they engaged the attention of Washing- ton and congress through most of his two administrations. Men approached them with the greater caution, because they felt that all that was done would be taken for precedents in the conduct of the affairs of the future. The first thing was to raise a revenue. Madison, a member of the house of representatives — generally called "the house" — intro- duced the subject by moving an import duty of 5 per cent on all articles brought into the country. A Pennsylvania Revenue delegate objected. He wished a small tax for revenue, but asked that it be laid so as to protect articles produced in America. The Middle states were then the chief center of American manufac- tures. After much discussion, the protective principle was adopted, but it was for a long time made incidental to the purpose of getting a revenue. Then congress took up the task of creating great administrative departments. In July it created a department of state, in August, a department of war, and in September, a department of the treasury. Over each was to be a head of department, J^**'*'^' who should ever be nominated by the chief executive and partments. confirmed by the senate. Over the first the president ap- pointed Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, who had just come back from Paris, where he had been our minister since 17S5. Over the second he placed Ale.xander Hamilton, of New York, then, as later, known for one of the best-informed Americans in questions of finance, a man of fine mind, versed in principles of government, and a leading politician. Over the third he placed Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, a man of no great ability, but popular because he was a revolutionary general and had influence in New England. Congress also created the office of attorney-general, to which Edmund Randolph, of Vir- ginia, was appointed. He was merely law adviser to the administra- tion, had a small salary, and was e.xpected to have outside practice if he wished it. The first three heads of department were brought together to advise the president about problems of administration, and this was the beginning of the cabinet. It was not until 1870 that Courts Es- tablished. 258 A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION the department of justice was formally organized with the attorney- general at the head, but he attended cabinet meetings from the first. Although the laws creating the departments said nothing about the. right of removing the heads, it was generally held that it lay with the president, and on this theory later practice has proceeded. It would be unwise to force the president to keep in his cabinet a man who is uncongenial, or who does not have his confidence. Ne.xt came the judiciary. No one objected to a supreme court, but some thought that the state courts should be given jurisdiction over federal cases in the lower stages, with appeal to the higher n!^!'f'ir._ court. This did not please the majority of congress, who wished that the government should have a complete court system of its own. It was accordingly decided to create, besides the supreme court, with one chief justice and five associate justices, four circuit and thirteen district courts, whose judges should be appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. The number of these lower courts has been increased with the growth of the union. Another duty was to deal with the amendments sent up by the ratifying states. Henry and other prominent antifederalists had pronounced the plan of ratifying with suggestions of amend- The Amend- j^gj^j-g g^ subterfuge ; and for a time it seemed that they were right. Weeks passed and congress took no notice of amendments. Then the complaints at home became so loud that congress dared not delay longer. The suggested amendments were referred to a committee. All that looked toward a modification of the plan of union were ignored, and the twelve which congress sent to the states for adoption were in the nature of a bill of rights. Ten of these were accepted. The antifederalists declared that this con- firmed their pre\'ious suspicions, and criticized congress roundly. But the subject did not interest the people, and the antifederalist party soon disintegrated ; for other measures were coming up to divide the voters into two great parties. The constitution designed that congress should be entirely inde- pendent of the executive. The president could communicate infor- mation, but neither he nor his cabinet could speak on the Thelnitis- floor or vote in its proceedings. Each house was very tive in jealous of interference from that quarter, and he, there- Congress, j^^^^ j^^g ^^ initiative in legislation. This important function was referred to committees. To them were sent impor- tant bills introduced by members. The most powerful stand- ing committee in the house was the committee of ways *'°°fj^' ^^^ means, created in 1795, whose functions were con- mittees. ' nected with raising and expending revenue. At first the committees were special, but in time standing committees came into general use. In the first congress the committees of each IL^MILTON AND THE FINANCES 259 house were elected by the members, but from 1790 to 191 1 the speaker of the house, who has been a party man since 1791, ap- pointed the committees in that branch. The senate committees are still elected by the members of the senate. Financial Reorganization The first session of congress lasted until September 29, 1789. One of its last acts was to ask Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, to prepare a report on the state of the finances. He took up the task with accustomed energy, and the Hampton's result was four reports covering every phase of the ^jaj Reports, matter intrusted to him. The first was submitted January 14, 1790, and dealt with the public debt; the second, submitted December 13, 1790, recommended an excise; the third, December 13, 1790, recommended a national bank ; and the fourth, December 5, 1791, argued for the protection of manufactures. The fourth report was not considered when introduced, but the others were enacted into law. The debt was then, including arrears of interest, divided as follows: due to foreigners, $11,710,378 ; to domestic creditors, $42,414,085 ; and a floating debt of $2,000,000. Hamilton proposed to re- fund all this at par. Now, the domestic debt had been J^*/c'"||y^ seUing as low as 25 per cent of par, and the first suggestion aeatal Debt, of paying at par had led the speculators to buy the old certificates wherever found. Should the government enable them to make the handsome profits anticipated now became an urgent ques- tion in congress. Hamilton claimed that such a course was necessary to place the public credit on a sound basis ; others, mostly men from rural constituencies, urged that the idea was preposterous. They thought he wished to found a party whose center was men of wealth, through whose influence persons dependent on them for financial pros- perity should be dominated. It was the first appearance in the new government of party di\asion. Madison supported the latter view and proposed that the debt be paid at par, but that the speculators be given only the ruling price and thai the rest up to par be paid to the original holders of the debt. This plan found favor with some mem- bers, but the majority thought it impossible to determine who were the original holders, and it was decided to pay the debt as proposed by Hamilton. The secretary of the treasury wished also to assume the debt in- curred by the states in aid of the revolution. This propo- sition aroused still greater opposition. Some states had Assumption paid much of their revolutionary debt and objected to pebts. assuming a part of that of others, as they must do as a part of the union, if the measure carried. But those states which had 26o A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION not settled their debts were in favor of the plan. As leader of the former, now appeared Madison. In 1787 he had been prominent in the party of nationality, but he now argued that the constitution gave congress no power to assume state debts. After weeks of discussion the op- ponents of assumption had a small majority. But before the vote was finally cast, a compromise was effected, chiefly through the efforts of Hamilton and Jefferson. The Southerners favored locat- Ca^to?*™ ing the capital on the Potomac, but lacked a few votes for **" ' that purpose. It was agreed that enough Southern votes should be got for assumption to carry it, if enough Northern votes were secured to get a Southern location of the capital ; and on this basis both measures were carried in the spring of 1790. Hamilton and the nationalists were pleased, because they thought assumption would strengthen the national government and inxagorate the national credit by remo\'ing from the sphere of doubt a large mass of securities which the states, in the existing distress, could not hope to pay for many years. As it turned out, assumption increased the obligations of the United States by $18,271,786. Refunding, as time showed, was a slow process. In 1795 over a million dollars of the old debt was still unfunded. Including this amount, the total was $7 7, 500,000, of which the foreign debt, Debt^°'*' $11,710,000, paid interest at 4 per cent, 45 per cent, and 5 per cent. Of the domestic debt of $65,800,000, about half, 45.4 per cent, paid interest at 6 per cent, while 30.3 per cent paid at 3 per cent, and 24.3 per cent was at 6 per cent with interest pay- ments deferred until 1801. To pay the debt, Hamilton got congress to estabUsh a sinking fund which, it was supposed, would eventually absorb the entire indebted- ness. He did not fear a national debt, but said it might even become a national blessing. His adversaries charged that he wished to make it perpetual, like the debt of Great Britain. The majority of the people, like thrifty husbandmen, wished to pay it gradually. But a national debt, by causing the capitalists who held it to look to the government for payment, was a strong bond of union. Hamilton considered a great national bank, like that of England, a necessity. It would issue large quantities of its notes and thus provide a much-needed and safe currency; it would enable the First Bank government to sell its bonds quickly at home and abroad ; Ui^^ed ^^ would furnish a safe and cheap means of exchange for States. the people ; by establishing branches in the leading cities, it would enable the government to transfer its funds cheaply; and it would furnish a safe place for keeping the public funds. His opponents objected that it would give the bank a monop- oly in exchange ; that by making its notes receivable for government dues, it would have superior privileges ; that it would interfere with the operations of state banks ; and that the constitution gave congress HAMILTON'S SUCCESS 361 no power to establish a bank. They stressed the last objection most ; and when a bill to create such a bank with a charter for twenty years passed congress, efforts were made to have it vetoed. Washington hesitated, but finally called on his cabinet for advice. Hamilton argued for approval, and Kno.x supported him. Jefferson took the other side and had the support of Randolph. The president at last decided for Hamilton, on the ground that he would favor the man in whose department, the treasury, the matter lay. The bank began business in 1791 and had a capital stock of $10,000,000, of which the government owned $2,000,000 for which it was to pay in installments. The fact that the government was a large stockholder added to the public confidence in the bank. The third feature of Hamilton's scheme was an excise, a tax collected on distilled liquors. Congress passed the bill to that effect, and Wash- ington approved it. Hamilton supported it both because it would give a revenue and because, by collecting the tax .j.^ at the stills, owned chiefly by farmers, the power of the general government would be brought home to the people of every part of the country. Thus, each feature of Hamilton's scheme stood for strong national authority. In opposition to him grew up a party opposed to centralization. The federalists, who supported Hamilton, embraced the large business interests, capitalists, merchants, and manufacturers, together with men who favored a strong government generally. The opposition, led by Jefferson, KationaUsm opposed further concentration and had strong support from the farmers in the South and in the rural parts of the Middle states. Among them were many former antifederalists ; but the name was unpopular, because they no longer opposed the constitution. They preferred the name "republican," which gradually came into use. Hamilton's financial plans proved very successful. No one could doubt that a country with such immense resources as the United states could pay its obligations, if it wished ; and the enactment of the laws he recommended expressed its S-^^"!,'^ °f purpose in the matter. Accordingly, the bonds sold well, piaj,_ the bank he established proved successful, and confidence in the future was high. Bold imagination characterized every scheme he espoused, and in each case he was justified by the result. With the enactment of his suggestions vanished all fears that the nation would be embarrassed by its debts. Adjusting Foreign Rel.ations Meanwhile, our foreign relations demanded attention. England had not paid for the slaves carried away at the end of the revolution, and she still held five frontier posts extending from Lake Champlain to the north of Lake Superior, all of which was contrary to the treaty. 262 A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION She justified her failure on the ground that we still impeded the col- lection of British debts and had not relaxed our regulations against the loyalists. These Western posts were centers of a The Treaty j-j^-i^ Canadian fur trade, to which our own traders wished ecuted" ^'-' 8^^ access, and we justly attributed her action to her desire to prolong as much as possible her advantage in that respect. Another complaint was that she would not make a com- mercial treaty. American traders wished to have her modify her navigation laws so as to allow them to share in the trade with the West Indies. Washington took early notice of the situation, and in 1789 sent Gouverneur Morris to London to see if arrangements could be made. The British ministry was immovable, and Morris, like Adams several years earlier, could think of nothing better than to ad- vise that we draw near to France in commercial affairs, — a threat as impotent now as formerly ; for France did not manufacture the mer- chandise we needed. It was not until the autumn of 1791 that the first British minister to the new government arrived in Philadelphia, the seat of government from 1790 to 1800, but he brought no instruc- tions to make a treaty, and the futile negotiations still went on. By this time the Indians south of Lake Erie were in a state of fer- ment. White settlers were appearing north and west of the Ohio, in pursuance of a treaty at Fort Harmar in 1789, which the DefeaT' ^ savages claimed was obtained through fraud. Their fears were stimulated by the Canadian traders, who were alarmed at the prospect of losing a region rich in furs. Gen- eral St. Clair, governor and military commander in Ohio, asked congress for troops to reduce the Indians to order. Two thousand recruits were sent him, with which he marched from Cincinnati into the forest north of it, where, November 4, 1791, he carelessly allowed himself to be ambushed by the foe. Of the fourteen hundred men on the field, only fifty escaped uninjured, and all the baggage was lost. It was the first battle fought under the new government, and the news of the disaster caused great distress in the East. Washington himself gave St. Clair a severe rebuke and appointed Anthony Wayne, of revolutionary fame, to conduct another e.^edition against CommaS the Indians. October 7, 1793, Wayne marched with 2600 men for the enemy's country. He built Fort Green- ville there, and went into winter quarters. In June, 1794, he was joined by 1600 mounted men from Kentucky and began an advance. The war had now taken on a new phase. From the beginning the Indians received ammunition and guns from the British, ^"^^ and Canadian traders and officials gave them open en- a°^ '^*" couragement. Canada thought England would eventually retain the Western posts, and wished to preserve the Indian tribes intact, both on account of the fur trade and because they would thus have a buffer between their own territory and that of the OHIO OPENED TO SETTLEMENT 263 United States. In 1793 the hostiles showed a willingness to make peace, but continued the war through the persuasion of the British. In the following February, Dorchester, governor of Canada, made a speech to a number of chiefs, telling them they were wronged by the Americans, and that England and the United States would soon be at war, when the Indians could recover their lands. At the same time British soldiers from Detroit, one of the retained posts, were erecting a fort sixty miles south of that place in territory unquestionably American. All this was known in Philadelphia, and Washington ordered Wayne to carry the intruding fort, if it was in his way. The Indian war, therefore, seemed about to become a war against England. This eventuality was averted by the rashness of the savages, who chose to risk a battle south cf the offending fort. They met Wayne in a body of fallen timber and were repulsed in a sharp encounter. They fell back, but the fort refused to receive p^*"' '*'® them, and they dispersed into the forest. Wayne sent Timber, out detachments to destroy their fields and villages, but he did not attack the fort. After some time, he received overtures from the hostiles and appointed a council to make a permanent peace in the summer of 1795. The meeting was at Fort Greenville, where a treaty, concluded on August 4, adopted a line from the Ohio to Fort Recovery, thence eastward to the Muskingum, 't^^^ °J and thence with that river and the Cuyahoga to Lake i„j ' Erie ; and the Indians recognized this line as their eastern and southern boundary. Thus, most of Ohio was definitely open to white ownership and soon became the scene of active settlement. The war had the good effect of convincing England, and her more confident colonists in Canada, that something must be done to settle the dispute about the Western posts ; but it was in another negotiation that the affair was adjusted. At this time Spain held Louisiana and viewed with alarm the ad- vance of the new republic into the transmontane region. In order to check it she resorted to three intrigues, two with the ad- venturous settlers themselves and one with the south- i„^^es western Indians. Holding the mouth of the Mississippi, the outlet of the Western trade, she had a powerful argument for the men of Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1785 Spain sent Gardoqui, an able negotiator, to the United States to make a treaty. Three ques- tions came up, the navigation of the Mississippi, recognition of the secret clause of the treaty of peace of 1783, and commercial relations with Spain's American possessions. The men of the seaboard were concerned wth the last, those of the West thought most of the first and second. After much discussion, in which the Spaniard asserted that he would never yield on the first and second point, Jay asked permission to make a treaty in which we got concessions only in respect to the third. The Eastern and Middle states seemed complaisant, 264 A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION but those of the South, who had lands on the Mississippi, objected strenuously, and the proposed Jay-Gardoqui treaty of 1786 came to naught. But the Western settlers were deeply dissatisfied. They took Jay's proposition to mean that the East cared nothing about them. Their discontent was stimulated by agents whom the Spanish in'the'west governor at New Orleans sent among them. It was his hope that the Western communities could be induced to revolt and place themselves under Spanish protection. One of his paid agents was James Wilkinson, who distributed Spain's gold among some Kentucky leaders and organized a party who supported the in- trigue. The prospect of getting free navigation of the river served, also, as a strong lure to the men of the West. In 1788 the intrigue came to a head in Kentucky, the strongest Western community. But the forces of order were greater than those of revolt, and the Ken- tuckians rejected Wilkinson's appeals and contented themselves by asking Virginia to consent to the creation of a new state out of her transmontane lands. When the Old Dominion granted this in 17S9 much of the discontent subsided, and a still better feeling was en- gendered when Kentucky was made a state in 1792. In 1790 North Carolina transferred her Western possessions to the union. States ^^ ^^^^ '^^y were not admitted as the state of Tennessee until 1796. In 1 791 Vermont had been received as a state, and all this was a pledge that the West should have fair treat- ment as it grew in population. In this way Spain failed in her scheming to stay the growth of the power of the United States on her borders. The controversy over the northern boundary of West Florida was not so soon settled. The United States stood firmly for the secret clause of the treaty, Spain stood against it. She had the Boundary advantage of holding Natchez, within the disputed area, and an attempt to oust her by force must lead to jvar, a thing for which we were not ready. The president and cabinet thought the matter should be deferred without prejudice to our claim ; for it could be settled better when our population in that region was strong enough to threaten occupation with decisive effect. But about this time their plan seemed likely to fail by the intrusion of settle- ments in the disputed region itself. In 1789 Georgia, who claimed that the lands in the disputed region were within her Land^^ants borders, made grants to three great companies, which proposed to plant settlements. One of the companies went so far as to open negotiations with the governor of New Orleans, promising to recognize the authority of Spain if the settlements were not opposed. Such a course must bring us into conflict with Spain and Washington promptly issued a proclamation warning the peo[ile to have nothing to do with it. In consequence, the scheme failed, but THE SOUTHERN INDIANS 265 the claims of the land companies remained as a source of irritation for many years afterwards. Spain's third intrigue was destined to come to a fate equally futile, and for this Washington's diplomacy was also responsible. Between Florida and the Tennessee settlements lived the powerful Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Choctaw tribes, inhabit- tjf^'in^ans ing a rich territory and strong enough to muster 10,000 warriors. They were friendly with the Spaniards, who bought their furs and sold them merchandise, and whose trading posts were never followed by farming communities. Alexander McGillivray, a rich and capable half-breed Creek, a tory in the revolution who had suffered at the hands of the whigs and who now hated the Americans, became a Spanish agent to preserve Spain's influence with the Indians. A treaty made in 1784 contained an Indian pledge that no white man should visit the Creeks without a Spanish permit, and efforts were made to get a similar treaty with the three other tribes. About this time Indian attacks began to be made upon the growing settlements in Tennessee, and it was evident that the oificials of Florida encouraged the attacks in order to impede settlement in that region. Thus was created a situation demanding the intervention of the general government. Washington resorted to diplomacy, although the men of the frontier thought that war should have been the instrument. McGillivray was induced to appear at McGim- New York, where he received $100,000 for the damages pUcity. sustained during the revolution and was made a United States agent in matters of trade with the rank of brigadier general. In return he promised that the Creeks should be at peace with the United States. The treaty was immediately broken, and his death in 1793 did not improve matters. The Tennesseeans grew restless under their sufferings and wished to retaliate ; but the government was carry- ing on a long-drawn-out negotiation with Spain and ordered that the peace should be observed. For a while ^^the Ten- the frontiersmen complied, but at last they were goaded to nesseeans. action. In 1793 Sevier, with a band of East Tennesseeans, and in 1794 Robertson, with a party of West Tennesseeans, made raids on the bands of offending Cherokees, burning their villages and killing without mercy. From that time the settlements had peace. Happily, at this time the negotiations which had gone on haltingly at Madrid since 1791 took a favorable turn. France was at war with Spain, and Genet, just arrived at Charleston, was or- ganizing forces to move, regardless of our neutrality, spafnfiros. against Florida and New Orleans. Three expeditions were proposed, one against Florida and two against Louisiana. Spite of Washington's efforts to interfere, preparations went forward rapidly, and only Genet's recall averted, it seems, serious trouble of this kind. The response of the men of Kentucky, Georgia, and the 266 A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION Carolinas showed Spain how much unpopularity her policy was develop- ing in our back country, and her tone became more conciliatory. Washington seized the opportunity to quicken the currents of diplo- macy, and the result was a treaty arranged by Thomas Pinckney, our minister, with Godoy, a liberal Spaniard, on October 27, 1795. It confirmed the secret clause of the treaty of 1783 relative to the Florida boundary, gave the Americans the right to use the river, and allowed them to deposit in New Orleans products intended for exporta- tion. Kentucky and Tennessee thus got easy access to outside markets, Georgia acquired a better title to the southern half of her Western lands, and the national government closed an annoying dispute with Spain. The United States and the Etiropean War In 1793 France beheaded her king, and almost immediately was at war with England and Spain. The year before she had begun a war with Austria and Prussia. The South generally was en- Americans thusiastic in her behalf, as well as the farmers and ordinary townsmen of the Middle states. But the trading class everywhere, closely dependent on England, felt otherwise, and they were supported by the rural New Englanders, who, under the influence of the congregational clergy, hated a republic which had enthroned a Goddess of Reason. Washington feared that the ardent French partisans would, by some rash action, bring on war with England, and issued a proclamation of neutrality. Inasmuch as the treaties of 1778 (see page 199) were still in force, the French party took this for British partisanship. The proclamation was roundly denounced in the newspapers of the newly founded republican party and defended in those of the federalists. At this time our pohtics be- Neutrality canig divided in accordance with the division in Europe, tion. and from this situation they did not emerge until Napoleon was definitely defeated and France ceased to be at war against the powers around her. April 8, 1793, Genet, first minister from the French republic, arrived at Charleston. The merchants and great planters received him coolly, but the populace were mad with joy. Carried Arrival away by his reception, he raised troops for operations against Spain and commissioned privateers against Eng- land. Departing for Philadelphia by land, he was received enthu- siastically by the farmers of the Carolinas and Virginia and became convinced that the American people were in sympathy with France. Washington received him with reserve, and GenSt grew angry and in- formed his government that the American people did not approve the neutrality proclamation. He described the president as a weak old man, under British influence. Many of his deeds were as foolish as his words. The republicans gave him encouragement at first, and he GENET DISCREDITED 267 formed the intention of getting congress to force Washington to act in behalf of France. Finally, he talked openly about his appeal to the people. The federalists attacked him from the beginning, and they made so much of his ill-advised attitude toward the administration that even the republicans began to forsake him. No calm patriot would tolerate an open attempt by a foreigner to influence the internal policy of the country. Washington was rarely moved by popular clamor, and he intended to preserve neutrality. The treaties of 1778 provided that the French might bring their prizes into our ports and that enemies of France might not fit out privateers there. Genet inter- J^'^p*"^^"^^ preted this to mean that French prizes brought in might Treaties, also be sold, and that France might fit out privateers in American ports. His view was brought before the cabinet, where Hamilton opposed it totally and Jefferson would allow as much of it as would not bring us into war with England. Washington held the balance. He would do all the treaties required ; and it was decided that France might fit out privateers in our ports but send them away at once and not use our ports as a base of operation, or send in and sell prizes captured at sea. Genet complied unwillingly. He had already licensed fourteen privateers which had taken eighty prizes. A month later, July, 1793, it was known that he was fitting out a prize. The Little Sarah, with cannon and was about to send her to sea. When approached, he became angry and talked of appeal- ing to the people ; but when he learned that the ship was ?^'1^q! about to be seized, he agreed that she would not sail with- fense. out notice. Ten days later the promise was violated. Washington was outraged. "Is the minister of the French republic," he said, "to set the acts of this government at defiance with impunity ?" He convened the cabinet, which decided to ask France to recall Genet. It also determined to exclude French prizes and privateers in the future. The demand caused no dissatisfaction in Paris, where a fresh revolu- tion of party had left the luckless Genet in danger of his life. In fact, Fauchet, his successor, was instructed to arrest Genet and send him home for trial. He owed his safety to Washington, who generously refused to allow him to be extradited. He remained in America, mar- ried a daughter of Governor Clinton of New York, and died in that state at an old age. The WmsKY Insitrrection Hamilton's excise law, passed in January, 1791, was very unpopular in the western counties of Pennsylvania and the states southward, a. region through which the Scotch-Irish were widely settled. . They brought with them the habit of making whisky out opposed, of grain, and by 1791 their stills on every farm furnished so much of the liquor that it superseded the New England rum^ which 268 A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION in colonial times was the common tipple throughout the colonies. The tax was not large, but it was resented because it was inquisitorial. The opposition reached actual violence only in Pennsylvania, where four counties had been organized in the valley of the Monongahela, all lying to the south of Pittsburgh. The people there were near enough to the new settlements in the Ohio valley to feel much of that spirit of independence which had caused some men to fear a separation of the West from the East at no distant day. In 1791 popular meetings began to be held to urge the inhabitants to defy the excise law. The leaders were in a violent mood, and threat- ened to deal with officers collecting the tax. Albert Violence in Gallatin, later to have a distinguished career in national va^!^' politics, lived in the region, attended the meetings, and sought to check the trend to violence, yis efforts were futile ; for the angry farmers listened more willingly to the harangues of the men of action. They paid no attention to a proclamation of warning which Washington, at Hamilton's suggestion, issued in 1792, and continued to hold meetings, threaten the revenue officers, and cut up the stills of those who obeyed the objectionable law. In 1794 fifty warrants were drawn for persons concerned in these outrages and made returnable to the federal court in Philadelphia. Trouble arose when they were served. A mob surrounded the house of Neville, an inspector, to make him give up his commission, and six men were wounded and one killed by shots fired in^Ar^s''** from his house. The people flew to arms, and Neville fled for his life. The leader of discontent was now Brad- ford, a noisy demagogue, who summoned the counties to send delegates to a general meeting at Parkinson's Ferry in the following August. In the excitement of the time the mail was robbed and the discontented ones assembled in great numbers near Pittsburgh, probably to overawe the small garrison there. But the leaders lost courage and contented themselves with marching through the town as a demonstration of their power. It was high time for the forces of order to assert themselves, but Governor Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, feared to make himself unpopular with the farmers, and refused to call out the militia. Then V°^^^Ir^ » Washington decided to interfere. He sent out a proc- lamation agamst the rioters and called tor fatteen thou- sand men from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, to march by the first of September. Meanwhile, he sent commissioners to visit the back counties to see if the people could be persuaded to submit to the law. They arrived, with two commissioners appointed Insurgents , Mifflin, while the Parkinson Ferry meeting was in ses- Subnussive. .■' rr., . , r > .,.,. T. ..• .• sion. The quick response of the militia was by this time known in the West and caused the people to hesitate. GaUatin took advantage of the lull to urge moderation, and it was decided to DISORDER SUPPRESSED 269 appoint a committee to treat for jieace. Bradford raised the cry that the enemy was winning through the use of money. There was much dissension in the back counties themselves, but the onward march of the army gave powerful support to those who wished peace. It was finally decided to send men across the mountains to ask Washington for better terms. Meanwhile, two divisions of troops were converging on the dis- affected region, one by way of Carlisle and Bedford, the other byway of Cumberland and the old Braddock road. They met at Parkinson Ferry on November 8, but no force showed Collapse of itself against them. At the demand of the military rection. power the people now submitted and took oaths of loyalty ; and 2500 troops were left in the country for the winter. Hamilton, who accompanied the army in a civil capacity, secured the arrest of such leaders as did not flee westward, and eighteen of them were sent to Philadelphia for trial. Of these only two were convicted, and they were pardoned by Washington. No further opposition was made to the excise, but it was still denounced by the republicans and was re- pealed when Jefferson became president. The force called out against the four counties in insurrection was larger than the number of men of military age in their limits. It was larger than most of the revolutionary armies, and larger than any army under Washington before the French of^h^A^rmv alliance. It was only one thousand men smaller than the allied American army which captured Cornwallis with 7000 men at Yorktown. A thousand men could have suppressed the insurrection. In calling for 15,000 Washington followed the suggestion of Hamilton, who wished to demonstrate the power of the government ; and in this respect the plan succeeded. But his opponents denounced it as showing the tendency of the federalists toward militarism. Hamil- ton's general policy of a strong government, which could intimidate the unruly, suited England, which he thought the best-governed country in the world. But it was a mistake in a country in which the unruly all had the ballot, for it tended to make them the political opponents of the party in power. Political De'V'elopment under Washington Washington was elected president without regard to party. During the revolution all whigs stood together and division in the ranks was deplored. The first cabinet and the first congress were composed of men who had favored the adoption of the 31,^^3°^°° constitution ; for it was not probable that men should be selected to organize a government which they had not wished to establish. Washington's first appointments in the civil service were generally from the same class. When North Carolina and Rhode 270 A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION Island gave in their tardy submission to the constitution, he removed the antifederalist revenue officers within their borders and appointed successors who were federalists. Nobody objected, for the anti- federalist group had no occasion to continue its existence and imme- diately disappeared. Washington hoped that his supporters would remain undivided and was distressed when he saw them forming parties. This process began with the introduction of Hamilton's financial plan, which pleased the property-owning class and the advocates of a strong central government. Hamilton thought wealth ist Parf"*'' ^""^ intelligence would rule, partly because they could act promptly and with bold initiative, and partly because they would ever have great influence over less competent classes. Washington sympathized with this view and supported it when oc- casion arose throughout his administration. Thus was organized the Hamiltonian party, which took the name federalist because it sought to promote nationality. It was strongest in the trading cities, most of which were north of the Potomac, and among the large planters of the South. It was conservative and mildly aristocratic. Opposed to these views was Jefferson, who had ever rejected a privi- leged class and who believed in democracy. He had great organizing ability, but was not a good public speaker. He realized The Repub- ^j-^g^^ ^^le middle and lower classes were a vast majority of Forming. ^ ^^^ voters and might control the government if they could be organized into an effective party. The superior classes had their own organization ; he must make one. They had influence over the mass of voters ; he must break down that influence. He found many men who disliked Hamilton, never a considerate man to those who differed with him, others who held, as Jefferson, to the democratic theory, others who feared the concentration of national power, and still others who wished to make careers for themselves as leaders of a great party. Jefferson was able to select the best men of these groups, unite them in a common cause, restrain their passions, and furnish them with successful campaign issues. He founded newspapers which, in seeking to destroy the prestige of the federalists with the masses, accused them of many harsh purposes. They even attacked Washington, pronouncing him a monarchist. By these fierce onslaughts, and by taking advantage of every mistake of their adversaries, they slowly increased their power, and in 1800 ob- tained control of the government. They were known as republicans. There was some discontent in interior New England, but Republican ^^g power of the seaports overwhelmed it, and here the the* Spates, republicans had little hope. Hamilton's enemies in New York, headed by Clinton, came readily into the move- ment. In Pennsylvania the country people were opposed to the rul- ing class in Philadelphia and became republicans gladly. In Virginia WASHINGTON REELECTED 271 and North Carolina the great planters lived in the counties along the coast and the small farmers, far more numerous, lived in the uplands and generally followed Jefferson. In Georgia the same thing was true. In South Carolina the planters in the east and the Charleston mer- chants formed a powerful ruling class, but the men of the interior were republicans. In the new states of Kentucky and Tennessee the frontiersmen were fiercely democratic. Jefferson, therefore, had strong hopes of carrying all the South except Maryland and South Carolina, and had good chances in Pennsylvania and New York. In 1792 these states had a majority of the electoral votes. Hamilton considered the situation alarming. Washington intended to retire to his estate, and it was likely that the federalists would sup- port John Adams for his successor. Adams was honest and capable, but unpopular out of New England. In ReYlec°ld!" this dOemma Hamilton decided that Washington must stand for reelection. He was met at first with a refusal, but he got others to persuade Washington. Only one man, it was felt, could harmonize the contending parties. So strong was this feeling that even Jefferson joined his voice to the general demand, and in the end Washington consented to run. The republicans did not oppose him, but supported George Clinton for the vice-i)residency against Adams. Washington received the votes ji all the states, and Clinton those of New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, with one from Pennsylvania, a total of 50 to Adams's 77. The hope that Wasliington would reconcile parties proved futile. In 1793 the European war began, the republicans espoused the cause of republican France, and denounced the neutrality proc- lamation. For a time this seemed to be an advantage, ^^^ ^^ but the excesses of Genet reacted against them, and the federalists, most of whom leaned toward England, gained by declaring that their opponents would sacrifice the honor of the country for the sake of the infidel French republic. Indeed, from that time until 1800 the French ministers were in cordial relations with republican leaders and did as much as they dared to secure the defeat of the federalists. Jefferson, now definitely head of the opposition, recog- nized that he was out of place in the cabinet and withdrew at the close of the year 1793 to give all his efforts to the republican cause. His place was taken by Edmund Randolph, a mild republican, but so strong was the tendency to party government that he retired within a year and was succeeded by Timothy Pickering, an avowed federalist. The republicans early in 1794 took a bolder attitude. Ceasing to plead for France, they began to demand war J^'o^ss against England ; and they had cause enough. When the England. European conflict began, France opened to the world the trade with her West Indian possessions. Too weak at sea to succor them herself, she expected that they would sell their produce, chiefly 272 A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION sugar, to the United States and receive American merchandise in ex- change. England declared this unlawful, asserting that a trade denied in time of peace could not be opened in time of war. Her men-of-war began to seize American ships bound for the French islands and to treat the captured crews with unusual rigor. The stories of hardship that came back to our shores aroused the deepest horror, and the re- publicans took advantage of the opportunity to demand retaliation. The first move was made by Madison, in the house of representatives. If England, he urged, made restrictions on our trade, we Madison s ought to make restrictions of her trade with us. The fed- Resolutions, erahsts replied that since seven-eighths of our trade was with England and could not be shifted to another nation, we should injure ourselves more than England by passing the proposed restrictions. It was the same argument which England used against Adams's suggestion of retaliation in 1785. The argument was so good that Madison's resolutions were postponed. About this time came news that England had ordered the seizure of all neutral ships carrying French goods. In America the excite- ment was great ; for we held that neutral ships made neu- Neutral (-j.^j goods. The republicans talked earnestly of war, and Goods. congress authorized the erection of fortifications, the enlist- ment of artUlerymen, and the levying of a force of 80,000 militia, to be ready for an emergency. The extreme republicans, led by Dayton, of New Jersey, introduced a resolution in the house to sequester British debts as an offset to the loss from the seizure of i\merican ships. If this were passed, the result would probably be war. Washington was alarmed and decided to try to settle the dispute by making a treaty with England. Conservative republicans as well as federalists thought the attempt ought to be made ; and M'^ss'on ^'^ May, 1794, he sent Jay to London with powers to make a treaty which would secure the surrender of the Western posts still in the hands of England, get compensation for the ships recently seized, and effect a commercial treaty which would remove the irritation from further seizures of ships having French goods on board and which would open British West Indian ports to our trade. If these points could be arranged, thought Washington, war would be avoided. When Jay was dispatched, the war feeling cooled and the nation awaited the result. Jay was a federalist and of an easy temperament. He found the British government determined to maintain their existing navigation . ^, ~ J laws, and in his desire to make some kind of arrangement accepted terms not allowed in his instructions. The treaty he sent back early in 1795 provided for surrender of the posts by 1796, and admitted us to the trade mth the British East Indies, but only put off a settlement for the ships seized by Britain. It contained THE JAY TREATY 273 commercial regulations which admitted our ships not larger than 70 tons' burden to British West Indian ports and denied us the right to carry West Indian products, including cotton, to Europe, while British ships were to be unrestricted in our own trade. It also pro- vided that privateers should not be fitted out in our ports by England's enemies, that Americans serving against England should be treated as pirates if captured, and that British trade in America should be on the footing of the most favored nation. These latter provisions were aimed at the French treaties of 177S. The West Indian clause of Jay's treaty were to end two years after the termination of the existing war. A storm of indignation greeted its publication in America, the republicans leading the chorus. Even the federalists could support it only faintly, and Washington was much in doubt. But reflection brought soberness. If the treaty were rejected, Tieatyac- the nation would almost surely drift into war, for which it Amend*' was not prepared. This view had weight with the senate, ments. which cut out the features relating to the West India trade and passed the treaty by the necessary two-thirds majority. Washing- ton hesitated to sign it, but finally yielded. He thought that if we could endure for twenty years the inferiority it forced us to accept, we should be strong enough to defy an unjust measure of any power in the world. An interesting question now arose. The treaty provided for some modifications of the laws and for the appropriation of money to e.xe- cute it. But this required the consent of congress, and thus the whole matter was debated in both houses in the .^^^^^°^° , TT • • 1 ■ "^^ Treaty. year 1796. Here conservatism agam won, and it was ordered that the treaty be executed. The action in this case be- came a precedent in making later treaties. The long struggle over the question, culminating in the vehement debate in congress in 1796, served to harden the lines of the two parties, and their strength is seen in the votes ; in the senate the resolution to execute the treaty passed \\ithout serious opposition, but in the house the vote was 51 to 48, and a resolution declaring it highly objectionable was only defeated by the deciding vote of the speaker. When this vote was taken, the country was already thinking of a new presidential election. Washington let it be known that he would not be a candidate, and the federalists turned to Adams. . He was their strongest available man ; but he was tactless, i_Qg'°° ° though honest and experienced in public affairs. He was so independent that he would not follow the lead of Hamilton, who had formed a dislike for him, and who now sought to defeat him by an unworthy scheme. He had Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, brought forward for vice-president. Both men, he thought, would have equal votes in the choice of electors, but at the last moment he 274 A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION would have some of the electors go for a third candidate instead ot voting for Adams, who thus having the second highest vote would be vice-president, while Pinckney, whom Hamilton could probably influence, would be president. The republicans united on JeSerson, their best man. In the final vote some of the electors who were friendly to Adams refused to support Pinckney, lest Hamilton's scheme should succeed; and the result was that 71 men voted for Adams, 68 for JeSerson, 59 for Pinckney, and 78 were divided among ten other candidates. Each elector, it will be remembered, voted for two men. Adams thus beoime president and JeiJerson vice-president. As Adams had only one more vote than a majority of the electors, he was dubbed by his opponents "a president by one vote," an epithet which greatly annoyed his sensitive soul. Washington, thinking chiefly of his retirement, took little interest in the election. His last care was to prepare his celebrated " Farewell Address," in which he gave much good advice on the prob- Washing- jgj^^g ^f j-jj^ j^y ^g these problems were necessarily tirement" related to the policies over which the parties were divided and as his federalist leaning appeared in his advice, the " Address " was received with coolness by the republicans. He had be- come very unpopular with that party, and some of its leading men and newspapers rejoiced openly that he was going out of office. As the passions of the moment subsided, he recovered the popularity to which his character entitled him, and the ne.xt generation came to look on the " Farewell Address " as a priceless political lisritage. Among other things, it counseled his fellow citizens to be loyal to the union, to cultivate harmony at home, and to shun entanglement with Euro- pean policies. His administration was most important, because his great name had been able to hold in abeyance through the first eight years of the national government the inevitable wrangling of parties, thereby giving an opportunity to launch the His Best government on a safe and enlightened plan. That critical early period safely past, it was not dangerous for party leaders to battle for their views, a necessary feature of all republican government. BIBLIOGR.\PHICAL NOTE On Washington's two administrations the most available general secondary works are : Avery, The United Slates and its People, 7 vols. (1904-) ; Bassett, The Federalist System (1906); McMaster, History, 7 vols. (1883-); Schouler, History of the United States, 6 vols. (1880-1894) ; Hildreth, History, 6 vols. (1849- 1853), federalist in sympathy; Hamilton, J. C, History of the Republic of the United States, 7 vols. (4th ed., 1S79), a biased defense of Hamilton, but it contains valu- able letters; Gordy, History of Political Parties, 2 vols, (revised ed. 1904), an excellent book on early political parties; Johnston, Alexander, articles on political conditions and institutions in Lalor's Cyclopicdia of Political Science, rcpubhshed in Woodbum, American Political History, 2 vols. (1905) ; Gibbs, The Administrations of Washington and Adams, 2 vols. (1846), very partisan, but it contains \aluable BIBLIOGRAPHIC.^ NOTE 275 letters; a.ndStan\vood, Ilislory of llie Presidency (igoo), ;ui excellent summary of national party di\'isions. For original sources see : Peters, ed., Public Statutes at Large of the United States, 8 vols. (1845) — treaties, Indian and foreign, arc in vols. VII and VIII ; Annals of Congress, 42 vols. (1834-1S56), the early debates, but they are not reported verbatim; Benton, Abridgment of tlie Debates in Congress, i~Sg~iS;o, 24 vols. (1857-1803); Maclay, Journal, lySg-ijgi (igoo), valuable because the early senate debates are not given in the Annals; Legislative Journal of the Senate, 5 vols. (1820-1821); Executive Journal of t lie Senate, $ vols. (1829); Journal 0) the House of Representatives, 9 vols. (1826) ; papers relating to the departments — diplomatic, financial, military, and relating to Indians and lands — in American State Papers, 38 vols. (1S32-1861); and Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols. (1897). For the writings and biographies of Washington, Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, John .\dams. Jay, Patrick Henry, and Gerry see references on page 255. See also : Hamilton, Writings of Monroe, 7 vols. (1898-1903) ; King, Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, 6 vols. (1894-1900) ; Ames, ed., ]VorI;s of Fisher Ames, 2 vols. (1857) ; Anne C. Morris, Diary and Letters of Gouvcrneur Morris, 2 vols. (18S8) ; .^dams, Writings of Albert Gallatin, 3 vols. (1S79); and Wilkinson, Memoirs of my Own r/H!«, 3 vols. (1816), the last mentioned very untrustworthy. See the following biographies also: Brown, Life of Oliver Ellsworth (1905); Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin (1879); Pickering and Upham, Life of Timothy Pickering, 4 vols. (1867- 1S75) ; .Amory, Life of James Sullivan, 2 vols. (1859) ; and Conway, Life of Thomas Paine, 2 vols. (1892). On the whisky insurrection see : Adams, Life of Gallatin (1879) ; Findley, History of the Insurrection (ijg6), a good contemporary account ; H. M. Bracken- ridge, History of t lie Western Insurrection (1859), written from the standpoint of the participants; and Ward, The Insurrection of 1794 (Pennsylvania Hist. Soc. Memoirs, VI). On diplomatic affairs see : Trescott, Diplomatic Ilislory of the Administrations of Washington and Adams (1857), good but rare; Snow, Treaties and Topics in American Diplomacy (1894), for students ; Lyman, Diplomacy of the United States, 1780-1826, 2 vols. (2d ed. 1828) ; JMcLaughlin, Western Posts and British Debts (.\m. Hist. Assoc. Report, 1894) ; Turner, Correspondence of the French Min- isters to the United States, 17^1-1797 (Ibid., 1903, II), contains Genet's correspon- dence ; and Shepherd, Wilkinson and the Beginnings of the Spanish Conspiracy (Am. Hist. Review, IX, 490). For Independent Reading Campbell, Travels in the Interior Inhabited Parts of North America. 1701-1792 (1793); Griswold, The Republican Court (1864); Hamilton, Life of Alexandel Ilamillon (igio); and Woodrow Wilson, George Washington (1897). CHAPTER XIII ADAMS AND THE DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALISTS The Political Ch.'Ulacter of the Admnistration John Adams began his presidency with a divided party. On one side were his own friends, neither numerous nor well organized; on the other were Hamilton and his supporters, probably two- Adams" °' ^^^'■'^^ "^ ^'■"^ federalists and not inclined to submit to the leadership of the other third. Adams retained Washing- ton's cabinet, which supported Hamilton in all party matters, so that the president came at last to reahze that he was not head of his own administration. The internal confhct which thus arose weakened the federalist organization and contributed to its overthrow. Adams regretted the situation ; for he was peculiarly desirous of having a harmonious administration. When at last he found his cabinet in practical rebellion, he reorganized it, casting out the extremists and calling in moderate federalists, the chief of whom was Marshall of Virginia. But this occurred too late to avert party defeat. Adams's first action as president was an attempt to reunite the two political parties. He had been widely accused of favoring a form of monarchy ; but in his inaugural address he sought to over- Attempts to come this view by announcing his confidence in the con- pTr«es"^* stitution. The republicans openly expressed their satis- faction. He also proposed to appoint either Jefferson or Madison minister to France, but the offer was declined by both gentle- men. When the Hamilton faction heard of these negotiations, they objected flatly, and there was no more talk of reconciliation. The negotiations had, no doubt, been encouraged by the wily Jefferson, with the object of widening the breach between the federalist factions. Party rancor now became worse than ever. For Washington even his enemies had a respect which moderated the jibes of the bitterest foe. For Adams there was no such regard. He was piti- Partisan igssly painted as a monarchist, a tyrant, and a selfish manipulator of patronage. Yet no president strove harder to carry on the government in the spirit of its founders. It was the youth of political discussion in America, and editors and pam- phleteers on both sides fought relentlessly for their principles. In France opponents of republicanism had recently gone to the guillo- tine in shoals ; in England defenders of republicanism had been im- 276 FRANCE AND AMERICAN POLITICS 277 prisoned or forced to flee the country ; it was, probably, as much as could be expected that in our own newly established republic the only violence that occurred was in the exchange of epithets. It was, also, inevitable that in such a discussion should appear the sharpest division between the British and French sympathizers. Republicans, in defending France, expressed their loyalty to popular government; federalists, in favoring the Brit- p°[-^'^°T ish constitution, expressed their approval of government yolved. by the conservative upper classes of society, which implied a distrust of the rule of all the people. To the former the triumph of the Jay treaty seemed to show that British influence was alive in the country; to the latter the ill-concealed attempts of the French ministers in Philadelphia to direct American politics seemed convinc- ing evidence that the court in Paris worked in behalf of the republican party throughout the union. Unfortunately, the latter contention was true, as events connected with the dismissal of Monroe, late in Washington's second term, made clear. This ardent republican was sent to Paris in 1794 to succeed Gouverneur Morris, whose monarchism made jifj^on^ him unacceptable to the French republic. He arrived in August, when no other state, except the small republic of Geneva, had sent a minister to the new government. The Convention then ruled France, and so busy was it with its own struggle for e.xistencc that no arrangements had been made to receive foreign ministers, Monroe, not to be thwarted by this fact, made arrangements to be receiv'ed by the Convention itself. He was accordingly admitted to an open session of that body, where amid the applause of the members he exchanged embraces with the president of the Convention and pre- sented a glowing address, pledging the cooperation in behalf of liberty of the two great republics, the one in the Old, and the other in the New, World. This display of fervor, occasioned protest in England, where Jay was negotiating his treaty; and the federalist administration of Washington sent a reproof to the enthusiastic Monroe. Meanwhile, France was concerned at rumors of a treaty of amity between the United States and England, but Monroe, relying on as- surances from superiors, assured her that nothing would . . be accepted in the proposed agreement prejudicial to the jj,' peris' '° interests of our oldest friend among nations. When the treaty was made, however, it was evident that it did weaken that preferential relation which the treaties of 1778 gave to France (see page 201) ; and the government in Paris felt that it had been deceived. Monroe himself was deeply chagrined, and neglected to defend the Jay treaty in Paris, as he was instructed to do by Pickering, then secretary of state. More than six months had passed in this way when he learned that the ministry was about to send an envoy to America to make a new treaty. Believing that such an attempt would result in 278 ADAMS AND DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALISTS failure, and peaceful relations would therefore be imperiled, he in- duced the ministry to delay their project. He was suspected of hold- ing out to them the prospect of a republican victory in the coming presidential elections, then only nine months distant. As the cam- paign opened, he was known to be sending information to republicans at home, which was used to convince the voters that the federalist administration was about to plunge the nation into war with France. Washington considered this action a breach of trust, and His Recall, ordered Monroe's immediate recall. The affair caused much comment, the republicans defending and the federal- ists condemning the dismissed minister. Monroe returned anxious for vindication, and took two ways of getting even. He prepared a long defense and published it in 1797, endeavoring to show that he had been badly treated by Revenee Pickering and Hamilton, the chief authors of federalist policy. It was a piece of specious pleading, but it satis- fied the republicans and served to bring French affairs sharply to the front in the political arena. His other stroke was at Hamilton particu- larly. Some years earlier that gentleman was the subject of an in- vestigation to meet the charge of misusing public money while secre- tary of the treasury. The committee of inquiry, consisting of Monroe and two others, pronounced him innocent, but did not publish the evi- dence. In fact, Hamilton had proved his innocence only by admit- ting that the charges grew out of an illicit relation with the wife of the worthless man who preferred the charges, and this evidence the com- mittee agreed to conceal. Soon after Monroe's return it was given to the public in such a distorted form that Hamilton felt Hami ton s inipelled to confess the whole matter in a published state- ment. The two other committeemen showed that they had not disclosed the affair, and posterity has concluded that the reve- lation was made by Monroe. It left a smirch on Hamilton's reputa- tion, which is not removed by the admiration we are compelled to feel for his courageous explanation of it. The Quarrel with France When Charles C. Pinckney, who succeeded Monroe at Paris, arrived at his post of duty, he found the government in a resentful mood. He _. , sent his credentials to the Directory, now the head of the Rejected. government, only to be informed that France would not receive an American minister until her grievances were redressed. A law of the republic, passed when most strangers were held to be spies, forbade foreigners to remain in France without written permission. Pinckney asked for such permission, but received no reply. He disregarded an intimation that a further stay made him liable to arrest, because he wished the responsibility for his departure, AN OUTBURST OF INDIGNATION 279 if he must go, to rest clearly with the government. After two months of delay he received an ofEcial notice that he was liable to arrest, whereupon he asked for his passports and shook the dust of France off his feet in February, 1797. His rude reception was thrown into bolder relief by the ev-idence of good will which the Directory showered on Monroe, when he took his departure about the same time. When Pinckney's humiliating treatment was known in America, there was a violent outbreak of feeling, and many e.xpressions of hostUity were heard ; for the people are ever ready to re- sent an insult to the national dignity. Among the poli- g^^^°l^ °^ ticians the extreme federahsts wished to suspend relations with France, and if reprisals occurred, which would lead to war, they would be all the better pleased. They were led by Pickering and Wol- cott, in the cabinet, and by Harper and William Smith, in congress. The republicans could not defend the action of France, but declared that it only indicated the mismanagement of the federalist party. Between these two views was a middle ground taken by moderate men, who defended the national honor, but were willing to try other diplomatic efforts while preparations for war went on. Of this opinion was President Adams, who in all the clamor of the day did not lose his poise. Hamilton, not wiUing to sacrifice country to party, took the same ground, although in doing so he failed to act with the faction which generally supported him. The upshot was that Adams nomi- nated Charles C. Pinckney, John Marshall, and Francis Dana com- missioners to try to adjust the existing difficulty with France. The republicans supported the nominations which were con- firmed. But Dana refused to serve, and Adams, returning 9°™™'*" to a favorite idea, nominated Gerry, a Massachusetts f^ France, republican, in his stead. He thought the presence of a republican on the commission would tend to conciliate the Directory. Steps were also taken to put the nation in a state of defense. Three years earlier, congress had ordered the construction of six frig- ates, three of wliich were actually begun, but were still unfinished through lack of funds. They were now ordered P^epara- completed. They were the United States and the Constitu- sffg^ lion, of 44 guns each, and the Constellation, of 36 guns, the first ships of our navy under the constitution. They were heavily armed for their size, and foreign naval officers predicted they could not be managed safely in battle, — an expectation which later events did not justify. Other measures of defense were a law authorizing the president to call out 80,000 militia when needed and a law to strengthen the fortifications. By this time serious grounds for trouble had arisen in connection with our trade at sea. When, four years earlier, England began to seize our ships carrying French goods, France retaliated by ordering her 2 So ADAMS AND DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALISTS naval officers to seize neutral ships which recognized England's pre- tensions. If we allowed England's claim that provisions were contra- band, contraband they were ; and on that ground France would seize them when they were bound for British ports. Between French Re- jj^g pretensions of the two great powers it was impossi- stnctionson ^j^ j^^ nation which had no navy to maintain a posi- Trade. tion of Strict neutrality. It was equally difficult for it to retaliate, unless it was willing to join one of the nations in war against the other. For such action we were not ready, and the best we could do was to endure our wrongs and hope to get reparation for losses after peace returned in Europe. Neither x\merica nor Europe could foresee that the war then waged was to continue without considerable interruption until 1815. As time passed, many cases of seizure occurred, and there was now danger that American shipowners, already aroused against France, would by some act of reprisal provoke such severe individual confficts that it would be impossible longer to restrain the war feeling on the part of our people. Adams, therefore, issued an order forbidding merchant ships to go armed, and congress passed a law prohibiting privateering against a nation with which we were at peace. By such means it was hoped to preserve peace until the commissioners to France could make a settlement of the existing quarrel. Arrived in Paris, Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry began to negotiate in October, 1797. To their surprise they made not a step of progress. Talleyrand was head of foreign affairs, and the Directory ' ' ■ was corrupt to the core. They had taken an overbearing attitude toward small European states, each of which had some self- ish end to advance, and were collecting bribes from them before they would allow any arrangements to be made. What they did so freely with such states, they were now determined to do with the United States. While our commissioners waited for their business to be taken up, they were visited by agents, designated in the published reports of the commissioners as X, Y, and Z, who suggested that progress would be made if the minister were given $250,000. To this sugges- tion, several times repeated, the commissioners opposed a steadfast negative. Then they refused to see the agents, but prepared a state- ment of the American case and sent it to Talleyrand. His reply, de- layed two months, was insulting. He accused the United States of prolonging the misunderstanding for their own benefit, asked why three republican commissioners were not sent, and closed by saying that he would treat with Gerry alone. To this coarse message a dig- nified reply was made, and the commissioners prepared to Conduct withdraw. Ere they went, Gerry was invited by Talley- rand to remain and continue communication with the min- istry. He hesitated a moment and then accepted, declaring that he did so only as a private citizen and in the hope that he might be THE NAVY'S METTLE 281 able to prevent war. His action was ill advised. It produced resent- ment at home, and Adams summoned him to return instantly. April 3, 1798, the "X, Y, Z papers," as the corresijondence of the commissioners was called, was sent to congress by the jjresident, who declared: "I will never send another minister to France without assurances that he will be received, respected, A" Outburst and honored as the representative of a free, powerful, and ^0^ independent nation." The moderate federalists now joined the extremists, and many acts were passed looking to war. By one of them a navy department was created, by another three new frigates and thirty smaller vessels were ordered, by another the na\'y was authorized to take French ships interfering with our commerce, and by still another the treaties of 177S were repealed. Another law authorized an army of 10,000 men to serve for three years. All this fell short of a declaration of war, and to that extent the extreme fed- eralists were disappointed. From this time Hamilton was for war. The few ships in the navy were quickly in West Indian waters, fourteen men-of-war and eight converted merchantmen. There the ConsleUallmi fell in with U Insurgent, whose commander „ had seized many of our merchant vessels and was much hated in America. An hour's chase followed, the Frenchman trying to avoid coniiict, as he was instructed to do by his superiors. At last he was overhauled, and a spirited action of an hour and a quarter forced him to surrender. As the angry French captain came aboard the Con- stellation, he exclaimed : " Why have you tired on the national flag ? Our two nations are at peace." The reply of the American captain, Truxtun, was laconic: "You are my prisoner." The victory aroused great enthusiasm in America. A short time later Truxtun met and fought a drawn battle with the French ship La Vengeance, and many other smaller engagements followed. In two years and a half our ships had taken 84 French ships, mostly privateers. The result was a lessening of the number of seizures and added prestige for the navy. This period of retaliation has been called a war with France, but no state of war was recognized by the two governments. Meanwhile, the organization of the new army was begun. Wash- ington was appointed its commander and accepted, on condition that he should name the chief subordinates. He sent three names to Adams, — Hamilton, Charles C. Pinckney, and f^^„ Knox. Confirmed in this order, the first would rank next to Washington. Adams remembered old scores and ordered that they should rank according to their station in the old army, — Knox, Pinck- ney, and Hamilton. Now the last named was a good military man, and Washington wanted him first among the three. Since the head of the army was too old to take the field, it meant that Hamilton would conduct the field movements. A strong controversy arose between the friends of Knox and Hamilton. Adams decided at first for Knox, 282 ADAMS AND DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALISTS but when Washington made a vigorous protest, the president dared not ignore it, and Hamilton received the coveted station. He had retired from chni life, but he loved the soldier's career, and as the federalists meant to make the augmented army a permanent thing, the appoint- ment was very attractive to him. He had much influence with Washington, and used it freely to get that final intervention which forced Adams to change the order of nominations. Adams did not rehsh the way he was treated; he felt that he was hardly conmiander- in-chief of the army, as the constitution provided; but he was not willing to withstand the will of Washington. Hamilton's success did him no good. Recruiting went on so slowly that 179Q was well advanced before a fair beginning was made. By this time enthusiasm was waning, and the newly-formed Slow"' '"^ camps became scenes of discontent and disorder. The republicans denounced the whole affair as ill advised. They divined their enemy's purpose to have a permanent establish- ment, and pointed out the tendency to militarism. This new army became an important argument in the campaign of 1800. In fact, a little reflection showed that war was unnecessary. France did not wash it, or she would have resented our attacks on her men- of-war. To have asked our commissioners for a bribe was necessary discreditable to her, but we need not fight on account of it. Many people saw this, Adams among them, and he decided to secure a restoration of harmony, if it could be done with dignity. The proper occasion offered when in October, 179S, Murray, our minister at The Hague, wrote that he was assured from Talleyrand that a minister would now be received. Adams washed to send one, but his cabinet, led by the factious Pickering, opposed. As the winter passed, he realized that the e.xtremists were bent on bringing on war for their own ends, and determined to take affairs into his own hands. Without warning, he nominated Murray minister to France, Treat^ '^^'^ ^^^ senate received the news in disgust. Hamilton, disappointed, declared nothing better could be expected from Adams, and the other extremists raged inwardly. But they could not resist, and accepted the suggestion after substituting three com- missioners for the one minister proposed. The result was an accept- able treaty, made in 1800, which settled for a time the chief points of controversy between the two nations. Napoleon was now in control in France. Occupied with vast plans in Europe, he wisely gave up the policy pursued by the directory of nursing American politics in the hope that a republican triumph on this side of the water would promote French interests. REPRESSIVE LAWS -283 OVERCONFIDENCE OF THE FEDERALISTS Adams's attitude toward France has the approval of posterity. Unfortunately, his political principles were as narrow as those of other federalists. Like the rest of his party, he wished to enforce respect for public officials, and he resented the vast amount p^^™^'^ of abuse which came from the republican editors and views, writers. As many of these men were of foreign birth, some of them fugitives from their own countries, he felt that they ought to be restrained. Their activity during the year war was immi- nent with France was the basis of a charge that they were French spies ; and on that basis it was easy to conclude they should be sent out of the country. From this conviction proceeded four laws of congress passed with the support of extreme and moderate federalists. The first related to naturalization. A law of 1795 made five years of residence necessary for naturalization. To most federalists this seemed too short, and many would have withheld the right entirely. But the words of the constitution seemed to imply that uon^Act'^*" naturalization should not be denied, and it was at last agreed to recjuire fourteen years' residence, with the provision that naturalized persons must have declared their intentions five years before the right could be operative. The law was resented by the republicans, and the provisions of 1795 were restored by a law enacted by them in 1802. The second law dealt with aliens in times of peace. It gave the president the power to order out of the country any alien whom he thought dangerous to the welfare of the country. If he were not obeyed, he might order the person concerned to ^aws be imprisoned for three years, and if such a person should return after going away, imprisonment might be inflicted at the w ill of the president. This act was to continue two years. The third act concerned aliens in time of war. They might be ordered out of. the country or imprisoned as long as the pres- ident chose. The act was limited to the duration of a war. The republicans deplored loudly the fate of the " poor aliens," whose safety was thus put at the disposal of the president. In time of war or an invasion he was to have the power to issue a proc- lamation declaring what classes of aliens should be allowed to remain in the United States, and the federal courts were to sec that it was not defied. Many Frenchmen left the comitry when the law was about to pass, which is probably all it was expected to accomplish. No attempt was made to apply either alien law to those who remained. The fourth act dealt with American citizens, who denounced thr administration or upheld France. It made it a high misdemeanor 284 ADAMS AND DOWNFALL OF THE FEDER.\LISTS "unlawfully to combine" against the legal measures of the govern- ment, to impede any officer in the execution of his duty, or to at- tempt to form any conspiracy, insurrection, or unlawful The Se i- assembly against the administration. The penalty was to be imprisonment not more than five years and a fine of not more than $5000. It also made it a misdemeanor to issue a false or malicious writing against the president or congress in order to stir up hatred against them. For this offense the defendant, on conviction, was to be fined not more than $2000 and imprisoned not longer than two years. With some difficulty the republicans and moderates introduced into the law a clause allowing the accused to prove the truth of his assertion. The first of these four acts was passed June 18, the last on July 14, 1798. Many persons were indicted under the sedition act : only ten were brought to trial, and all of these were convicted. The most notable case was that of Dr. Thomas Cooper, then an editor in Prosecu- Pennsylvania. He was arrested for saying that President Sedition. Adams was incompetent and had, as president, interfered to influence the course of justice. In our day we should hardly notice such a charge, so freely is the conduct of even the highest official held up to ridicule and condemnation. He was tried before Chase, a federal judge, who displayed, as in all such cases, the greatest amount of partisanship. Cooper offered to prove the truth of the charge by summoning Adams and some members of congress as wit- nesses ; bu,t they refused to attend. In default of such evidence he was convicted, fined $400, and sent to prison for six months. Adams was willing to pardon him, but the prisoner refused to petition for pardon unless the president acknowledged wrongdoing in giving out a letter Cooper had written him. The president would make no such acknowledgement, and the sentence was not remitted. Every man convicted became a martyr to free speech, in the eyes of the republicans. The issue came up in the election of iSoo and had great weight in convincing the voters that the federalists were drunk with power. All these repressive laws were, in fact, ill-advised. They rested on the theory that the people should not be free to discuss, as they chose, the actions of their rulers. European governments, as Chase pointed out in the case of Dr. Cooper, exercised the right to punish libel ; but the European governments were not republican. Punishing a citizen for political utterances is a bad policy in a govern- ment resting on popular suffrage. The republicans believed the alien and sedition acts an invasion of the personal rights which, as they held, were properly within the sphere of action by the states They also decried the creation of an army under the control of the aggressive Hamilton. It seemed to them that by a system of loose construction the federalists would concentrate the powers of government in the hands of president, congress, and the REPLY OF THE REPUBLICANS 285 federal courts, and reduce to a much lower rank the authority of the states, to which the republicans looked as the guarantee of the rights of the individual. The federalists, as in 1787, replied that the rights of the individual would be as safe at the hands of the general govern- ment as at the hands of the states. The reply did not satisfy the re- pubhcans, who demanded a strict interpretation of the constitution. Some of them despaired of checking the plans of their opponents, and, recurring to an idea entertained by some of the representatives of the large states in the convention of 1787, proposed to Jefferson to begin agitation for the secession of Virginia and North Carolina, in order to establish a great Southern republic into which the power of the trading states of the North would not enter. Such a movement would almost surely have the support of Kentucky and Tennessee ; Georgia would probably support it with her control of the great un- settled Gulf region ; and it was hardly to be doubted that it would eventually carry with it the state of South Carolina, in which the federalist families of the seacoast held only temporary supremacy. The whole region was more than half of the national domain, giving to the North all the vast unsettled Northwest. It had, however, only 40 per cent of the entire population, and its political strength was still less proportionally through the provision that only three- fifths of its slaves counted in representation. These suggestions were rejected by Jefferson. We ought not, he said, to become discouraged because of the triumph of opponents, but endeavor to overcome it by political means. Then, he unfolded his plan. Believing that all the states had the' pifn'^"" ^ same interest in protecting their authority, he would unite them in a crusade against national concentration. He secured the cooperation of Madison, and each wrote resolutions condemning the recent enactments of the federalist congress and pointing out in what ways the rights of the states were threatened. Madison's resolutions were adopted by the Virginia assembly. Jefferson's were intended for North Carolina, but the elections of 1798 in that state showed federal- ist gains in the legislature, and he would not send them thither for adoption. They were placed in the hands of friends in Kentucky, where republicanism was strong, and passed the legislature of that state by a large majority. The purport of each set of resolutions was the same, although the Kentucky resolutions used language more explicit and emphatic. Both sought to find in the states a power to sVay the general government in its assumption that it could interpret the pact Theory, constitution. Suppose a controversy exists as to whether the union or the state should exercise a certain power, who shall de- termine it ? The federalists asserted that the supreme court had the decision. They stood by the idea that the constitution was made by the people and that the national authority rested on popular con- 286 ADAMS AND DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALISTS sent as truly as the state authority. Jefferson and Madison declared that the states founded the national government by making a compact whose terms were expressed in the constitution and that it was for the states, the creators, to determine when the compact was broken. Both sets of resolutions declared that the alien and sedition acts, and some other recent legislation of congress, violated the consti- tution, and called on the states for cooperation in preventing their execution. By what means should the state's veto be given ? Virginia was dis- creetly general on the point. If ungranted power was exercised, said she, the states could and should "interpose for arresting Co^ection ^^^ progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, and liberties ap- pertaining to them." Interposition by the states might be construed as calling a convention to amend the constitution, as provided in the constitution. But Kentucky was more explicit. The states, said her resolutions, founded the union for specific purposes and gave it expressed powers, reserving all authority to themselves which they did not grant to the union ; an e.xercise of ungranted power was illegal ; the union was not a judge of its own powers ; and each party to the compact of the union is a judge of the terms of union, as in all cases of compact where there is no common judge. In accordance with this principle they declared the alien and sedition acts and certain other laws of congress "void and of no force." In the hot debates of the convention of 1787 nothing was said directly about the compact theory. Virginia and most of the South then stood for a national government on a popular basis. Efficacy of evidently thinking their greater size would enable them Theo°y"''*' to control it. Except for equal representation in the senate and the tenth amendment reserving to the states all powers not granted to the national government, there was no specific limitation of nationality in the constitution. If the convention had held so important a view, it can hardly be doubted that it would have defined it. Neither Jefferson nor Madison, in fact, claimed that words in the constitution, except the tenth amendment, supported the compact theory. It was a deduction from e.xtra-constitutional sources. No government with a due respect for its own authority will accept in practical matters a principle so purely speculative. Both Jefl'erson and Madison were experienced pohticians. They did not expect the federal government to accept their view and re- linquish its pretended authority. But they believed that Measure^ State resolutions were powerful means of calling attention to the federalist tendency toward concentration. Although the two sets of resolutions were sent to the other states in the union, they did not expect them to be accepted by the federalist then generally dominant in the Northern legislatures. But they NULLIFICATION FORESHADOWED 287 thought the attention of the voters would be called in the most striking way to an evil they believed to exist with good effect on succeeding elections. Madison asserted in his old age that the Kentucky and Vir- ginia resolutions were planned for political effect. Wlien the republi- cans came into control of the government two years later, they made no effort to amend the constitution in accordance with the compact theory. All the states north of the Potomac, through their legislatures, made replies imfavorable to the resolutions, some of them expressed in terms hardly polite. None of the legislatures of states south of Virginia voted on them, probably because ^'^'"'^^ °' the republicans thought it wise to let well enough alone, gtajeg. When the Northern replies were received, Kentucky and Virginia passed resolutions reasserting the \iews in the first sets. In those now announced by Kentucky occurred the sentence: "A nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy." This is the only appearance of the word "nullification" in any of the resolutions, but the essential idea is in the first set passed by Kentucky. Thirty years later it came up again in the Nullification Uuiufication movement in South Carolina, whose promoters thought that stressing the similarity of their doctrines with those of 1798 would draw Virginia to their side. Overthrow 01 the Federj\lists The congressional elections of 179S came while the country still looked for war with France, and the results favored the federalists. But that party was still divided into radicals and moderates, the former led by Pickering with the support of Hamilton, Diyj^g^ ^ ^ the latter led by .Adams with the strong support of Marshall and a group of Southern federalists in the house. When the president threw over the war policy of his party in the spring of 1799 he had the support of the moderates, and the e.xtremists lost a valuable political issue. They expressed their contempt for Adams openly, which only divided his party more than ever. The split became more evident when Adams, in 1800, dismissed Pickering and forced McHenry to with- draw from the cabinet because they refused to carry out his policy with regard to making a treaty with France. He retained Wolcott, equally guilty with the men dismissed, because he did not know the e.xtent of Wolcott's treachery. In Pickering's post he placed Marshall, who was not popular in the North, and the dispossessed faction began to plot to defeat the reelection of a president who showed them so much hostility. As it was evident that the federalists would take Adams for their candidate in 1800, this dissention augured little for party success. 2 88 ADAMS AND DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALISTS Meanwhile, the republicans were united for Jefferson. The Vir- ginia and Kentucky resolutions gave them a strong principle on which to appeal to the voters, and they strengthened their position RepubUcans ^y criticizing the administration at every possible point. Preparations for war had involved hea\^ expenses, the national debt had grown during the eleven years of federalist control, and this gave ground for charging the party with extravagance. The evident desire of Hamilton to make the new army permanent induced the charge that he leaned toward militarism. In March, 1800, congress ordered the dismissal of the new army, and this was a blow at the extreme federalists. The assertion of the right to impress American sailors aroused great feeling against England, p 'n^'oies which reacted against the party which had usually stood by that country. Beneath all the arguments drawn from these and other sources was the continual assertion that the federalists stood for the rule of a selfish upper class, dominated by the capitalists, while the republicans represented the mass of the people. The asser- tion was generally true. The federalists had ignored the popular nature of American government, and Jefferson at last had organized the great mass of farmers and working people in a party which would correct recent tendencies toward class domination. It was the first of several great periodic popular upheavals by which the people have shown that they mean the go\'ernment to rest on the will of all the people. In this campaign the nominating caucus was fully developed. In 1796 republican and federalist senators and representatives, acting for their respective parties, held conferences and recom- mended presidential candidates to the people. But their action was not accepted as binding the party leaders ; for although the electors generally favored the caucus candidate for president there was much scattering in the vote for vice-president. Early in 1800 cau- cuses were again held. Adams was recommended by the federalists, and his friends insisted that the entire party was bound to support him. When Hamilton and his faction showed a contrary jnirpose they were pronounced party traitors. The republicans had their own in- ternal jealousies. Virginia expected to carry most of the South for Jefferson, but she needed the support of a strong Northern state, for which purpose New York seemed best suited. Clinton, of that state, did not like the Virginia leadership, as was shown in the convention of 1787 ; but at this time he was held in check in New York by Aaron Burr, able, but distrusted by many men. Burr was willing to make aUiance with Virginia, and in 1796 he was supported as the regular candidate for vice-president. But in that year he received only 30 votes to Jefferson's 68, and only one of the thirty was from Virginia. He felt he was badly dealt with, and in 1800 demanded assurances that he would be supported equally with Jefferson. His terms were THE ELECTION OF 1800 289 accepted by the caucus and by the party ; and for many years there- after the decision of the caucus was considered binding on the party. In the autumn of 1800 the differences between Adams and Hamilton precipitated a disastrous factional fight. Adams, frank by nature, expressed himself freely about the opposition of the ad- verse faction. As several members of the group lived Hamilton's in Essex county, Massachusetts, he dubbed them the aga"^t^ "Essex Junto." Hamilton was stung to the quick. He Adams. thought his own position in the party threatened, and wrote a pamphlet for secret circulation among the federalists, in which he declared that his friends did not constitute a British faction, as charged by Adams.. Had he stopped there the result would not have been bad ; but he went on to attack Adams, recognized party leader, and the gleeful approbation of his friends shows that they thought the best part of the affair w'ould be the destruction of the president. The pamplolet fell into the hands of the repubhcans, who republished it with exaggerations, and thus forced the author to issue an authentic copy. Then the world believed that Hamilton had violated his party allegiance. There followed a reaction more damaging to Hamilton personally than to his opponent. Each man had his followers, and they became so embittered toward one another that party success was impossible. While the country was still talking about this incident, the election was held. Adams got all the votes from New England, 39 in number, 10 from New Jersey and Delaware, 7 of Pennsylvania's 15, as w-ell as 5 of Maryland's 10, and 4 of North Carolina's J^^^-^^°l^_ 12 — in all, 65. One elector in Rhode Island, fearing j^qj jg^^^ treachery on the part of the extremists, voted for Adams and Jay, so that Pinckney, running with Adams, had only 64 votes. Jefferson had all the other votes, a total of 73. Burr, who ran with him, had the same number, and as neither had the highest number of votes cast, there was no election, and the house of representatives must select a president, the delegation of each state having one vote. The republicans had a majority of the electoral college, and the people had voted with the intention of making Jefferson president and Burr vice-president. Would the house execute the popular will, or would it act on its own judgment ? The fj^^^^^^^^ federahsts were of the latter opinion, and made a plan to ,goj_ carry their own states for Burr with a hope of bringing him into the presidency while Jefferson got the second place. In a caucus of their party they carried through their plan. Burr pro- tested against it, but in such weak tones that it was thought that he was privy to the scheme. It is hardly probable that the federalists would have supported him without some kind of promise in their behalf, though this does not mean that Burr meant to keep such a promise once he was president. When the house came to act, Jefferson u 290 ADAMS AND DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALISTS had eight of the sixteen states and Burr had six, two being divided. Then Haniilton showed that moral quality which raised him in great crises above party. He disliked Jefferson, but believed him better than Burr, whom he well knew to be faithless to promises. Through his eSorts the federalist representatives from Vermont, Delaware, and Maryland were induced to refrain from voting, and on the thirty-sixth ballot, February 17, i8oi, Jefferson received the votes of ten states and was declared president-elect. Burr never forgave Hamilton his part in the election and, although vice-president, was thenceforth an ill-disposed partner in the republican administration. This situation, which caused so much anxiety at the time, was responsible for the adoption of the twelfth amendment, 1804, by which electors voted specifically for president and vice-president. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE General secondary works for Adams's administration are the same as those for the preceding chapter. The same is true for the original sources and for the writ- ings and biographies of leading men. On special phases of the administration the following works are valuable : The Kentucky and Virginia resolutions : texts are in American History Leaflets, No. 15, and in MacDonald, 5rfcc/ Documents (1897); also in HWxot, Journal and Debates of the Federal Convention (1830), IV, App., pp. 357-388, which contains also tlie second resolutions with the replies of some of the statf s ; Anderson, Contemporary Opinion of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions {Am. Hist. Review, V, 45, 225), contains a full discussion; Warfield, The Kentucky Resolutions of lygS (18S7), a narrative history with brief mention of the Virginia resolutions; Powell, Nullification and Secession in the United States (1897), has a chapter on the resolutions of 1798 ; Loring, Nullification, Secession, etc. in tlie United States (1893), combats the theory that the constitution is a growth ; a.ndBsiSsett, Federalist System (1906), chap. XV'III. On the alien and sedition acts, see accounts in the Histories by MacMaster, Avery, Hildreth, and Schouler; Bassett, Federalist System (1906) ; Rives, Madison (1859-1868) ; Hunt, Madison {igo2); Randall, /c/er50« (1858), partisan; Tucker, Jefferson (1837), defends Jefferson; Adams, C. F., John Adams, 2 vols. (1871), the federalist side. On party poUtics: Gordy, History of Political Parties, 2 vols. (ed. 1904), deals with French situation at length; Stanwood, History of the Presidency (1898), chap. V, a good summary of the elections of 1800 and 1801 ; Morse, A. D., Party Revolution of iSoo {.\m. Hist. Assoc. Report, 1894); Ibid., The Politics of John Adams (.-Im. Hist. Revieit', IV); Farrand, The Judiciary Act of iSoi (Ibid., V); South Carolina in the Presidential Election of iSoo (Ibid., IV), contains letters from C. C. Pinckney; also lives and writings of Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison. On the naval operations of the time : Maclay, History of the United States Navy, 3 vols. (rev. ed., 1898-1901); Maclay, History of American Privateers (1899); Spears, History of Our Navy, 5 vols. (1897-1898), a popular narrative. For Independent Reading Morse, J. T., Life of John Adams (1S85) ; Maclay, History of American Priva- teers (1899) ; Weld, Travels through the States of North America and Canada, 2 vols. (1799), very popular when published; and Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, 4 vols. (1821-1822), an excellent book. CHAPTER XIV INTERNAL mSTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS UNDER JEFFERSON AND MADISON Republican Reforms From the beginning of his administration Jefferson rejected the ceremonials which his party had denounced, and wiiich the federalists defended on the ground that they created respect for the government. The carriage of state with six horses was gj^^nty"^ discarded, and he rode horseback and unattended through the streets of the capital, like any other well-mounted citizen. The formal weekly receptions became levees to which any citizens who chose might come unannounced. The annual speeches to congress, which reminded the republicans too pointedly of the king's speech to parliament, became written annual messages, reports of the executive on the state of the nation. Federalists ridiculed these changes, but the people were pleased. The inauguration was equally simple. Jefferson came to Washing- ton as a private citizen, lodged at a tavern, and just before noon on March 4 walked up Capitol Hill, accompanied by a group of friends, to take the oath of office administered by aumiration John Marshall, a strong and determined federalist, whom .^dams a few weeks earher had appointed chief justice. His inaugural address has long been considered a great state paper. Good citizens, he said in effect, must recognize the right of the majority to rule, but the majority must not oppress the minority. It was time to lay aside the bitterness of controversy and to remember that political intol- erance was as bad as religious intolerance. Differences of opinion are natural, but federalists and republicans are alike Americans and should unite to preserve the union and representative „ .,. ,. TT 1 J J • LI 1 r Conciliation. government. He pleaded m noble language for peace, cooperation in developing the resources of a great comitry, and patriotism and good will in realizing the blessings of liberty. These words were calculated to pacify the fears that the republicans would overthrow the foundations of society, so sedulously aroused by the federalists in the late campaign. It was Jefferson's dearest wish to conciliate his enemies, especially those in the North, who had been led to believe him an atheist and something of an anarchist. 2gi 292 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS He announced his principles in terms his followers never forgot. He wished to see, he said, "a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, sliall leave PrindDies them Otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of in- dustry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned." He enumerated many means of achieving these ends, among them "equal and exact justice to all men," "honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliance with none," the preservation of the rights of the states as the best guardians of domestic concerns, the support of the union "in its whole consti- tutional vigor," "the supremacy of the civil over the military author- ity," the rights of popular election as the only arbiter short of revolu- tion, the sufficiency of a well-estabhshed militia, pavment of the national debt, and economy in pubhc expenditures. So deeply did these principles sink into the minds of the people at large that no later party or candidate has dared to repudiate them. The new cabinet was wisely chosen. Madison became secretary of state, Albert Gallatin, the best financier in the party, became secretary of the treasury. General Dearborn, of Massachusetts, Cab'n t ^'^^ secretary of war, Levi Lincoln, of the same state, attorney-general, and Robert Smith, of Maryland, secre- tary of the navy. The postmaster-general, Gideon Granger, of Con- necticut, was not then in the cabinet, but the post was important because of the many subordinates. Assigning three of these places to New England shows how much it was desired to conciliate the people of that section. Dearborn and Smith were not strong men, but Jefferson did not propose to make much use of army or navy. In their day of power the federalists were very bitter toward the republicans. They called them "the rabble," filled the offices with their own partisans, appointed only their friends to the Appoint- federal judgeships, and in February, iSoi , created a number Office. of new courts, spending their last moments of power in filling them with their own followers. Their opponents were naturally exasperated, and came into office eager for spoils. Jefferson wisely withstood the demand ; for he saw that the thing for his party to do was to dispel the charge that it would overthrow the established order. He refused to remove officials unless it was shown that they were guilty of misconduct or of partisanship. He was thus able to prevent wholesale removals, which disappointed some of his hungry supporters. He refused to deliver commissions for the "midnight appointments," that is, the court officials under the act of February, iSoi, wliich Adams had signed but left undelivered in the executive offices. At his suggestion congress repealed this act in 1802. On the other hand, Jefferson appointed his own followers, saying when as many republicans were in office as federalists he would continue the parity. GALLATIN AND THE FINANCES 293 Next, he turned to the national debt, which under the federahsts had grown from $77,500,000 to $So,ooo,ooo. Jefferson was pledged to reduce it and gave Gallatin a free hand. That careful financier examined his resources and concluded that the Gallatin s debt could be paid in sixteen years. The revenue then pgijcy, yielded $10,600,000 a year, of which $4,500,000 went for interest, $5,500,000 for army and navy, and the rest for general ex- penses. Gallatin proposed to pay $7,300,000 a year for interest and to curtail the debt, and as the ordinary expenses could not well be lessened he would effect most of the saving by reducing the army and navy. At the outset he encountered a difficulty in the loss of $650,000 of the iCvenue, because the republicans were pledged to abolish internal revenue duties. Thus it happened that he had but $2,650,000 for the support of army, navy, and the civil establishment. This sum he divided wdth the greatest care. To the army he allowed $930,000, to the na\y $670,000, which left $1,050,000 for ordinary expenses. This made it necessary to reduce the army to a mere handful and to tie up in the dockyards most of the ships of the navy. Jefferson was pleased. He did not like a standing army, and con- sidered a navy a useless toy which, as he said, might well be assembled in the eastern branch of the Potomac, where g^^7h°° the ships "would require but one set of plunderers to take Navy, care of them." Many congressmen winced under Gal- latin's economy ; but he was ine.xoral^le, Jefferson supported him, and the plan was adopted. The result justified Gallatin's hopes. At the end of a year the revenue was nearly $3,000,000 more than he had expected, which gave him a comfortable surplus. In 1803 we purchased Louisi- ana, paj-ing $1 1,250,000 in bonds and s$4,ooo,ooo for claims 2^^*'^° ^ (seepage 299). Gallatin announced that he could pay the ment. latter out of the surplus and that the new bonds would postpone the payment of the debt only eighteen months. In 1804 congress ordered the construction of a frigate to replace the Phila- delphia, lost at Tripoli (see page 296), and all eyes turned to Gallatin for the money. He would not take from the funds set aside for the debt, and congress had to lay a special duty, the "Mediterranean Fund." In 1S05 the revenues rose to $14,000,000, and in 1806 to $14,500,000, yielding a surplus of $6,000,000. Many congressmen thought the time for economy was now past, but Gallatin and Jef- ferson urged patience, promising if the policy of economy were fol- lowed for two years longer there would be an ample reserve and at least $5,000,000 for such uses as congress might deem fit. 1807 was another fat 3'ear, and the surplus was now $7,600,000, and the debt, including the bonds paid for Louisiana, had been reduced from $92,000,000 to $69,500,000. In 1808 the embargo was in force, revenues fell off, and this splendid progress was halted. 294 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS Gallatin's financial policy pleased the mass of thrifty people. It was that of the careful husbandman, who, finding himself overwhelmed with debt, sets aside from his annual income a sum neces- Gallatin and ^^^y (.^ liquidate his obligations within a reasonable time Contrasted. ^'^^ rigidly reduces expenditures accordingly. It looked to the ultimate extinction of the debt, on the principle that freedom from debt is as good for a nation as for an individual. In contrast with it was the policy of Hamilton, who thought little of paying the debt and much of making the nation strong enough to weather financial storms. He would have a navy to protect commerce, which would increase the revenues, manufactures to build up the industrial efficiency of the country, and a strong capitalist class to promote the development of the nation's resources. He looked farther into the future than Gallatin, but he did not appreciate so well the desires of the average citizen. Jefferson's first term saw a remarkable and probably an miexpected development of the power of the federal courts. Asserting the right to interpret the constitution, they began to declare null TheRepub- i^ws both of congress and the state legislatures (see page the'ludl'- 357)- -^s ^^^ judges were federalists, it seemed that the ciary. opposition, ensconced in this seat of power, were defeating the wiU of the people expressed in the elections. The case seemed more difficult, because the constitution afforded no other way of removing a judge than impeachment, which must be for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." But if the senate, as a court of impeachment, chose to consider partisanship in a judge a misdemeanor, no power could gainsay them. So clear was this that the republicans determined to proceed, believing that if they estab- lished the principle that the senate could remove the judges, future partisanship in that quarter would be avoided. The first case was that of Pickering, judge of a district court in New Hampshire, a man whose inebriety had led to insanity. He was impeached and removed from office in 1803, and the people approved, although it seemed singular that insanity was pronounced a mis- demeanor by the highest court in the land. Then the repubhcans turned to Judge Samuel Chase, of the supreme court. He was a violent partisan, as his conduct in the cases under the alien and sedi- tion laws in iSoo showed. He e.xpressed his views openly, and in 1803 declared to a federal grand jury in Baltimore that the republicans threatened the country with mob rule. At this the house impeached him, and the senate sat as a tribunal. John Randolph, an able but erratic Virginian, was chief prosecutor on behalf of the house. He included so many charges besides partisanship that opinion rallied to Chase and the impeachment failed. It was believed that a contrary verdict would have been followed by the impeachment of Marshall. As it was, the republican attack on the courts was checked, and the A NAVAL WAR 295 chief justice remained in a position to exert a powerful intlueiice upon the development of constitutional law. TuE War witu Tetpou For many years Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli laid tribute on trade in the Mediterranean, and the powers of Europe acquiesced. After the revolution our ships began, also, to be seized, . and we were forced to buy treaties with handsome presents ^,"^^3° of arms and monej-. First and last we paid enough money in this way to build several excellent ships, but for all that the freebooters were not satisfied. In 1801 the pacha of TripoU cut down the flagstaff of our consulate as a declaration of war, because Tunis received richer presents than Tripoli ; and about the same time Algiers showed symptoms of ill will. Jefferson desired peace, because, like Washington in 1795, he felt we were not strong enough to make war on a great power. But this policy did not apply to Tripoli, and early in 1801 he sent Captain Dale with four ships, the President, Philadelphia, and Essex, frigates, and the Enterprise, a sloop of war, to teach the Barbary States to respect us. Dale could not attempt land operations, and when the Tripolitans collected an army and drew their navy up under the guns of their forti- fications, he could only establish a blockade and cruise along the coast. Fortune, however, threw in his way an opirations. enemy's cruiser, which was quickly taken. Because congress had not declared war, Jefferson had not authorized captures, and the conquered ship, disarmed and dismantled, was allowed to escape to Tripoli, where her crew told such stories of American ferocity that the pacha's soldiers were filled with a respectful terror. In 1802 a second squadron went to the Mediterranean, but did nothing effective. These meager results disappointed the people at home, and the com- mander. Captain Morris, was dismissed the service. In 1803 a third commander of squadron went out. Captain Preble. With the aid of some small boats borrowed from the king of .Sicily, who was also at war with the pacha, he conducted a bombardment of the city of Tripoli, but inflicted little damage. Preble remained in the Mediter- ranean during the winter, and showed a determination to isolate the enemy completely. In the spring of 1804 he received important cooperation from William Eaton, an eccentric but patriotic American in Egypt, who, without authority from his government, sought Hamet, dispossessed elder brother of the pacha, and set out from Egypt to capture the government of Tripoli by land. The pacha ^^^^^4^^ •was a usurper and yielded rather than endanger tran- ^^^^^ quillity at home, although the army of Eaton and Hamet _ was only 500 men. In 1805, when the eastern half of his kingdom had been won over, he concluded a treaty, retaining his throne, but 296 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS agreeing to remain at peace with the United States in the future with- out tribute, and to surrender all Americans held in his country. Nothing was done in behalf of Hamet, who was now forced to retire from the positions he had won, but the next year we allowed him a life pension of $200 a month. The war with Tripoli had a wholesome effect on the other Barbary States, and they were content to remain at peace without further presents. It also gave the navy exercise in a theater of thTwar? actual war, and brought it added prestige at home and abroad. It contained incidents of heroism which fired the American imagination. Two of them especially were long remem- bered. While Preble held Tripoli closely invested from the sea he sent Lieutenant Somers among the enemy's ships in the Somer°. ketch Intrepid, loaded with bombs and powder, to explode it in their midst and escape if possible. The American ships waited at a distance for the return of the brave crew. After a time they saw the ketch blow up when in contact with the Tripoli- tans, but neither Somers nor his men came back. Their fate was not known, but it was believed that he leaped into the magazine with a lighted torch, devoting himself to death to accomplish the object for which he was sent out. The other adventure was more successful. The Philadelphia, pursuing the enemy too eagerly, went aground at the mouth of the har- bor of Tripoli, and Bainbridge and his crew were taken. de/phia ' "' Shortly afterwards the ship was floated by the enemy and taken under the protection of their guns, where she frowned unpleasantly at the Americans in the offing. Stephen Deca- tur, commanding a ketch, sailed boldly into the harbor, boarded the Philadelphia, filled her with combustibles, set her on fire, and escaped in his ketch through a shower of badly aimed shots from land batteries and the ships in the harbor. He was a cool and capable officer, and was promoted for his conduct. In 1815 he returned to the Mediter- ranean with a formidable squadron and dictated favorable treaties with the Barbary States at the mouth of the cannon. The PtTRCHASE OF LOUISI.-VNA In 1800 most Americans believed that the settlement of the eastern half of the Mississippi basin would inevitably be followed by the acquisition of the western half. Acute alarm was occa- '^'rt ^'"" sioned in Washington's administration when it was Louisiana? thought England was about to get a foothold in this region ; for while no one feared Spain's control of the region in question, England's ownership was another matter. For- tunately, the danger soon passed, but apprehension was again aroused when in the spring of iSoi it began to be reported that Spain had NAPOLEON AND LOUISIANA 297 transferred Louisiana to the powerful and aggressive Napoleon, who intended to build up a vast colonial power in its borders. The rumor soon became a certainty, but as months passed and the province remained in the hands of Spain the public mind remained calm. Late in 1802 it was violently agitated when news came that the Spanish governor in New Orleans had withdrawn the right of deposit granted in the treaty of 1795. The public construed this as a change of policy in anticipation of the new regime in Louisiana, and the West was for seizing the mouth of the river before it was too late. Jefferson wisely thought the action of the governor unauthorized, and restrained the popular wrath while he negotiated, p'^ P Five months later he was informed by the Spanish minister that the right of deposit would be restored, and this removed the question from the range of possible war and left it freely in the field of diplomacy. It was the president's plan to impress France with our seriousness in the matter, and to that end he used the strongest language. Let France know, he said, that the nation which held the mouth of the Mississippi was our enemy, and if Napoleon per- i* "son s sisted in his purpose we should "marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation," so that England and the United States, cooperating for supremacy at sea, would hold at their mercy the revived French colonial establishment. He let the British minister see what he meant, and at a dinner paid him such marked attention that the French minister made it a subject of comment in his letter to Talleyrand. Generally speaking, Jefferson was pacific, not because of cowardice, as his enemies thought, but because he abhorred war and thought it was usually undertaken through unreasonable impulse. His vigorous attitude toward France shows how positive he could be ■when he considered a vital issue at stake. Meanwhile, Li\angston, our minister in Paris, was instructed to sound Napoleon in regard to the purchase of the Isle of Orleans and West Florida. It is not probable that Jefferson thought the proposition would succeed, but it offered a point of departure in the negotiation. Unknown to him, events in Paris were shaping themselves more favorably than he dared hojie ; and to understand them we must go back to the treaty of San Ildefonso, October i, 1800. By that agreement Napoleon induced Spain to transfer P*^j7j°* Louisiana to him in exchange for the Grand Duchy of fonso. Tuscany, which, elevated to the kingdom of Etruria, was to be given to the Duke of Parma, son-in-law of the king of Spain, when a general peace was made in Europe. Napoleon promised not to sell the territory thus acquired to any nation but Spain, and it was agreed that later negotiations should be entered into for the cession of West Florida. The treaty was kept secret for the time being, but its essential features were soon known. This vast acfiuisition of land 298 INTERN.\L HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS was to be the basis of a revived colonial empire, which the rising Napoleon thought would increase his popularity with the glory-loving French people. Before that scheme could be realized the island of Santo Domingo must be conquered. Here Toussaint L'Ouverture, at the head of an army of blacks, was fighting to maintain the power he had L'Ouverture founded. Every step he took in the progress of military despotism seemed but a shadow of the course of a greater despot in France. The world took notice and smiled, whereat Na- poleon, deeply irritated, felt the greater need of suppressing the man who made him ridiculous while he defied French authority. In February, 1801, Napoleon made the treaty of Luneville and was at peace with the continent. England continued the war with little heart, and brought it to an end a year later in the treaty of Amiens. This period of victory offered the triumphant First Consul the op- portunity to bring Santo Domingo back to obedience. January, 1802, arrived in Santo Domingo Leclerc, one of the best French generals, with an army of 10,000, and the war of reconquest began. Toussaint wished to use guerilla methods, but his Defeated officers overruled him. After three months of struggle they began to yield to the blandishments of Leclerc, think- ing that it booted little to sufier further in behalf of the black emperor. At last Toussaint himself ventured to surrender, being assured of personal safety. After six weeks of fancied security he was arrested, sent to France according to the orders of Napoleon, and in less than a year died in a fortress in the Jura Mountains. Then Napoleon sent an order to restore slavery, his intention from the beginning. But for that, he might have ruled the island and proceeded with his colonial plans in Louisiana. As it was, the negro laborers rose to a man. Tous- saint's officers were true to Leclerc, but all the efforts of the combined white and black forces did not check the onslaughts of the De^feated maddened laborers w'ho saw slavery restored in the neigh- boring island of Guadeloupe. Then yellow fever appeared. In three months 24,000 men, soldiers and sailors, had died, and Leclerc demanded 17,000 more, with a vast sum of money, before the work of subjugation was done. He announced that this could only be done by kUling over half the lower classes, male and female, above twelve years of age ; and he thought that peace once restored, annual revolts might be looked for in the future. Before such a stupendous under- taking even Napoleon's resolution quailed, and it was decided to abandon the island. Louisiana was now useless to Napoleon, and although Purchased ^^ ^^'^ assured Spain he would not sell it, he looked around for a buyer. April 10, 1803, he told Marbois, head of the treasury, to see if the United States would entertain an offer to buy. The shrewd Talleyrand, scenting an opportunity for LOUISIANA ACQUIRED 299 profit, anticipated Marbois, and the following day opened the matter with Livingston, our minister. The two were discussing the purchase of the Isle of Orleans when Talleyrand said, "What would you give for all Louisiana?" The suggestion was unexpected, but Livingston concealed his eagerness, and said that as he expected a special envoy from the United States in two days, he wished the matter to be deferred that long. The envoy was Alonroe, whom Jefferson had sent to try to purchase the Isle of Orleans and West Florida. On the thir- teenth Marbois and Livingston talked until midnight about the affair, the former inquiring if we would pay 60,000,000 francs in cash and also assume claims of Americans against France worth 20,000,000 francs. Livingston said this was too much, but he felt inwardly that it was a good bargain, and after some haggling the purchase was made on that basis. The treaty was signed on May 2, although it was ante- dated to April 30. It increased the national domain by 140 per cent. The transaction pleased Jefferson, but also alarmed him. A strict constructionist, he could find no authority in the constitution for purchasing foreign territory, and he began to prepare an amendment granting congress the right. He seems to Ra^gp"*^ have forgotten this when he proposed to buy the Isle of Orleans. An intimation from Paris that Napoleon might change his mind before an amendment could be adopted caused the president to abandon his plan, and the treaty was duly ratified October 21, 1803. December 20, to the gratification of every American in the Mississippi valley, the stars and stripes was hoisted over New Orleans. Now arose the question of boundaries. According to the treaty we received " the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same e.xtent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be after the ^ouisiana s treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other states." The words were from the treaty of 1800. Li\angston asked Talleyrand what they meant. "I do not know," was the re- ply, "you must take it as we received it." "But what did you mean to take?" said Livingston, to which the astute Frenchman again said, "I do not know," adding, "You have made a noble bargain for yourselves, and I suppose you will make the most of it." At that time Talleyrand had in his cabinet a copy of the instructions designed for Victor, who was to have been the first French governor of Louisi- ana, informing him that the boundary on the west was the Rio Grande, and on the east the river Iberville, i.e. the eastern border of the Isle of Orleans. This was quite definite, but it was unknown to Jefferson for some time, and meanwhile he adopted a theory worthy of Talleyrand himself. Before 1762 Louisiana extended to the Perdido, including Mobile, which as the outlet of a river system reaching from Georgia to Missis- sippi was greatly desired by the United States. Jefferson saw in the 300 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS words of the treaty, "that it had when France possessed it," an op- portunity to claim this part of what he must have known was un- doubtedly West Florida, i.e. Spanish territory, and, in Howjeffer- Talleyrand's words, he "made the most of it." He com- jj municated his opinion to congress, which accepted it, and passed, February, 1804, the Mobile act, erecting the region in question into a customs district and annexing it to Mississippi terri- tory. Lest this lead to war with Spain, Jefferson tactfully located the customs house for the new district north of the Florida line. His plan was to hold the dispute in abeyance until Spain was in a war, and then seize the desired district. The Southwest, to whom the Coosa-Alabama line of river communication was of the utmost impor- tance, approved his plan, and thought nothing of the points of national honor involved. But Jefferson did not trust entirely to the prospect of war. He would use it, if possible, as a means of forcing Spain to withdraw, and to that end he hoped to enlist the efforts of Napoleon, whose influence in Madrid was all but supreme. The French emperor understood this game and skillfully turned it against the American president by holding out West Florida when he wished the good will of Jefferson, and by withdrawing it when his temporary purpose was accomplished. Dissension in the Republican Party By the beginning of 1S04 Jefferson's popularity was well established. None of the calamities prophesied by the federalists had followed his election. On the contrary, the debt was being paid Success"* through Gallatin's wise economy, Louisiana had been acquired, party rancor was dying, business was prosperous, and the president manifested a desire to conciliate all sections and interests. It was also evident that Jefferson directed his party with a strong hand. He early recognized Burr as a disturbing element and proceeded to crush him. The character of the New Yorker would have justihed this, to say nothing of his intrigue for the presidency in I So I. Burr was attacked through the New York patronage, which was sedulously given to Clinton, his bitter enemy. The His Attitude 'vice-president was the least submissive of men, and now toward Burr, began to lean toward the federalists, and this only increased the difference between him and his party. Finally, he fell into the net of Pickering and the extreme New England federalists. They were so bitter against Jefferson that they planned to carry their section out of the union before his insidious conciliation should warp it out of their hands. It was an erratic scheme, and probably would have been rejected by the people, but the schemers decided to make the attempt if New York, the great commercial state of the North, could be induced to join them. To that end they approached Hamil- THE YAZOO CONTROVERSY 301 ton, who rejected their proposals. Then they turned to Burr, who was complaisant. They got him accepted as federalist candidate for governor in the spring of 1S04, thinking that his own friends and the federaHsts would elect him. But now h'^imed'^" Hamilton e.xerted himself, and defeated Burr at the polls by disclosing the object for which lie had been nominated. This angered the discredited man, and the result was the duel on July 11, 1S04, in which Hamilton was killed and Burr's political influence blasted. Jefferson in national affairs and Clinton in state affairs reaped the fruits of that foolish crime. A more serious party disturbance came through the opposition of John Randolph, a vehement and caustic speaker against whom few members of congress could stand in debate. As chairman of the ways and means committee in the house he was a i° "i , u , . ,. ■' r . ... . ,. TT- . ,■ Randolph. chief exponent of the administration policy. His lotty manner offended many republicans, particularly the men from the North, for whom he openly e.xpressed contempt. His ideas were not always practical, and Jefferson in a quiet way began to oppose the most impossible of them. Randolph then struck back, the oc- casion being the Yazoo claims, whose origin goes back to Washing- ton's administration. After the revolution Georgia claimed the lands to the Mississippi by a title formally as good as that by which the other states claimed their Western lands. She also held that the region involved in the secret clause of the treaty of 1 7S2 should come to her companies, because it was originally a part of her domain. The United States might well dispute the latter claim, but left it in abeyance, hoping that all the region would soon be transferred to the federal government. But Georgia wished to realize on the lands, and by several grants sold them to great land companies, known as Yazoo companies. The last of these grants, including the others, was made in 1795 at about a cent and a half an acre. The sale was made by a corrupt legislature, and the ne.xt legislature declared it null. Now resulted a pretty piece of confusion, in which the Yazoo lands were claimed by Georgia, the United States, since most of them were in the disputed region, and the grantees, who held that a state could not annul a grant for the corruption of its own agents. Georgia was defiant, and as President Adams did not wish to coerce a state, a compromise was arranged by which Georgia relincjuished the lands to the federal government, which undertook to erect them into Missis- sippi Territory, and to pay damages to Georgia and the ^ ' ^ . ■'A . . ' •' ^ • i J r tu I t* Compromise companies. Commissions were appointed for the latter proposed, purpose, and reported among other things that the United States should pay Georgia $1,250,000, and the grantees the proceeds of the sale of 5,000,000 acres of land. In 1803 a bill was before con- gress to put this compromise into effect. 302 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS It was at this point that Randolph opened his attack on the admin- istration. He dishked Madison greatly, thinldng him a trimmer. Most of the Yazoo stock was owned by speculators li\'ing in the North, and the representatives in congress, from that Randolph section, republican and federalist, were anxious to pass t"*^ ' % the bill. Jefferson favored it, probably because he wished Yazoo Com- ,.,,•',. . , IV i a,i i • i i promise. to build up his party in the North. All this aroused the suspicion of Randolph. He made no objection to reim- bursing Georgia for her claim, but he denounced the project to pay the companies. His scathing words defeated the bill at that time, but it came up again in 1S05, when the speculators employed Granger, postmaster-general, to lobby for the measure. This angered the sharp- tongued Randolph, whose bitter strictures were now thrust at the administration which harbored the lobbyist. The republicans were divided into Yazoo and Anti- Yazoo men, the latter being chiefly Southerners. They were nearly equally divided, and Randolph was able to defeat the bill at this time. Although taken up again from time to time, it was not passed. In 1810, in the case of Fletcher vs. Peck, the supreme court held that the Georgia grant of 1795 was a contract, and that the legislature of 1796 could not annul it, and this strength- ened the cause of the Yazoo men. In 1814, when Ran- End of the dolph was no longer a member of congress, it was voted troversy. ^o give the company $8,000,000 in settlement of the claims, and with this the matter came to an end. At first Jefferson kept himself clear of the dispute, and he was too strong to be openly attacked. In 1804 he was reelected president by 162 to 14 electoral votes, getting all the votes of New Remect'ed England but Connecticut's. For the support of New York, Clinton received the vice-presidency. Jefferson, at the height of his glory, announced in 1S05 that he would not be a candi- date for another term, and it was generally thought he would make Madison his successor. Randolph and his friends began to make plans to support Monroe, who had acted with them. While the breach in the party was thus widened, Jefferson brought before congress a scheme to acquire Florida, which gave Randolph another opportunity to show hostility to the president. While Jefferson deferred occupation of West Florida to a more favorable time, he renewed diplomatic efforts to get Spain to yield what we wished ; but to his overtures the king returned a Jefferson's haughty refusal. In 1805 Talleyrand entered into the ope or affair, communicating an informal suggestion that we Acqmrmg \t 1 ^ • • r 1 i Florida. trust Napoleon to conduct negotiations tor the purchase of all Florida for $7,000,000. He meant that the money sent to Madrid should find its way into the French treasury to pay subsidies which Napoleon exacted from prostrate Spain. The sug- gestion pleased Jefferson, although he hoped to get the Floridas for JOHN RANDOLPH INSURGENT 303 less than the price named, and December 5, 1805, he sent a secret message to congress asking for authority to offer $2,000,000. Ran- dolph, chairman of the ways and means committee, was the man to move a grant ; but he was obdurate. His influence with the com- mittee was great, and he induced them to report in favor of measures of defense, saying he would never vote a penny to buy territory which we justly owned. The house overrode him, voting after a long debate, 72 to 58, that the money be placed at the president's disposal. But so much time was consumed in discussion that the opportunity was lost. When the suggestion was made. Napoleon needed money. Witliin four months he won the victories of Ulm and Aus- terlitz and dictated the treaty of Pressburg, and his coffers were overflowing. He accordingly refused to bring pressure to bear on Spain. From that time, 1S06, Randolph was in open opposition. Now came an unexpected development. His followers would support him when he appeared as a mere critic of one of the administra- tion measures, but when he was an acknowledged insur- eu"*^"'^^- gent they began to fall away, fearing the power and strength, popularity of Jefferson. Of the ablest and truest were Nicholson, of Maryland, Macon, of North Carolina, the speaker, and Monroe. Jefferson sought to detach them from their leader, and succeeded with the first by appointing him a federal judge. The second remained unmoved, but the congress elected in 1806 was against Randolph, and Macon was not reelected speaker. His defeat insured a new chairman of the ways and means committee. Monroe acted with Randolph untU the election of 1808 elevated Madison, Jefferson's choice, to the president's chair. In 1809 an arrangement was made, through Jefferson's aid, to make Monroe secretary of state under Madison, an agreement consummated in 181 1. Randolph, shorn of his strength, continued to annoy Jefferson. In the house none dared encounter his withering scorn, and he had his way in debate. The president wisely ignored the attacks, although he probably winced in secret under them. The retirement of the annoyer in 1813 to make place for Jefferson's son-in-law, Eppes, only interrupted Randolph's career. He was reelected in 1814, and with a short interruption served in congress until 1829, an able but eccentric free lance and sometimes a nuisance. The Schemes of Aaron Btms When Burr saw his career ended in the East he turned to the West. Had he settled in New Orleans, or some other city in which a duehst was not unpopular, he might have risen to professional and pohtical prominence. But his ambition looked to totheWest. larger things, and he wished to found a state of his own in the West. For such an adventure he had genius in leadership, but he 304 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS lacked men and money. The first he hoped to get in the West and the latter from either England or Spain. Historians are not agreed on the nature of his plans. He was indicted for treason in that he attempted to wrench Louisiana from the union and set it up as an independent state. Most of Was Burr s y^ contemporaries believed him guilty as charged, and Loufsiana? some living historians accept the same view. According to them he was to collect looo men on the Ohio, reach Louisiana about the time the territorial legislature declared the province independent, and with the connivance of General Wilkinson, commanding the union forces there, establish his supremacy. It is known that he tried to get money for this purpose from the English minister and failed, and that he then tried to get it from Spain, where he also failed. He promised England to place his new state under English protection, thus opening a vast field for British commerce. He told Spain that his state would present a useful barrier between the United States and Mexico, then in Spanish hands. It is also known that he was in close conference with Wilkinson, who was cap- able of any treachery. The other contention is that his real purpose was to conduct, in cooperation with a band of New Orleans adventureres, a fihbustering . , expedition against Vera Cruz and Mexico City. He did, unquestionably, tell some of his followers this was his object, and he had maps and other information about Mexico which seemed to substantiate his words. He revealed this plan to some of the most influential leaders of the West, Andrew Jackson among others, and won their approval ; for Spain was much hated in this quarter. To the plainer people of the West he spoke of a colony on the Red river, where he had acquired a large land grant, but this was ad- mittedly a subterfuge. The real controversy is as to whether his conspiracy was aimed at Louisiana or Mexico. ' If it was at the former. Burr lied when he spoke of the latter ; if at the latter, he lied when he spoke of the former. Probably we shall never know in what respect he told the truth. Wilkinson testified that the conspiracy was against Louisiana; but Wilkinson's word is not ordinarily to be taken. He was a pensioner of Spain, and was concerned in most of the plans to separate the Mississippi valley from the United States. Wilkinson shared whatever guilt Burr incurred, and he was talking to clear himself ; but this was true of some of those who testified that Mexico was the objective. It must be remembered, also, that it is possible that Burr meant to do both of the things alleged. It was cjuite within the power of his audacious imagination to hope to secure Louisiana first and then operate against Vera Cruz. * For the view that Louisiana was Burr's objective the best authority is Henry .\dains, History of the United Stales, HI, chs. 10-14. For the other view see McCaleb. The Aar07i Burr Conspiracy. BURR'S ACTIMTY 305 Be this as it may, Burr gave himself earnestly to his scheme, going hither and thither in the West, collecting boats, supplies, and men at Blennerhassett Island, near Parkersburg, West Virginia. November 15, 1S06, was the date set for their departure, p^u/'^''*™* Rumor was rife all through the West that he would attack New Orleans, and in October, he was indicted for treason in Kentucky. As no positive evidence could be adduced he was acquitted, and con- tinued his preparations. But the indictment checked volunteering, and he could not set out on the appointed day. It was an untoward event ; for at New Orleans the situation favored success, if Burr had designs there. The legislature was about to meet, and Wilkinson had taken his army to the Texan frontier, leaxing the city unprotected. If the adventurer had appeared with 1000 men, as he promised, the city would have been at his mercy. But the men were wanting, and Wilkinson, able "o take care of himself in an emergency, decided to desert a failing cause. He informed Jefferson of a conspiracy to seize Louisiana, but concealed his connection with it. He hastened to the city and noisily gave orders to make the place safe against assault. The president, meanwhile, received Wilkinson's letter. He had heard rumors against Burr before that, but took no action, lest friends of the accused charge him with persecuting a political rival. But now the charges were definite, and he sent a proclamation through the West for the arrest of all conspirators. Burr's friends warned him that it was coming, and hastily gathering all his resources, sixty men and thirteen flatboats, he set off for New Orleans in the last days of the year. He still counted on Wilkinson, but when he learned at Natchez how vain was this reliance he abandoned his followers to their fate, and, disguised, sought to escape through the gy„_ forest to West Florida. At Fort Stoddert, when nearly across the boundary, he was recognized, arrested, and sent to Rich- mond, Virginia, for trial. The case aroused wide interest. Chief Justice Marshall presided at the hearing and John Randolph was foreman of the grand jury which presented Burr for trial. Both men were bitter _ t ■ , •TTA- 1 1 -iTi. -1 Burr s Trial. enemies of Jenerson, and seemed to wish Burr s acquittal. By the constitution, treason is levying war against the government, or giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and two witnesses to the same overt act are necessary for conviction. Marshall ruled that a man must be present when the overt act was committed in order to be guilty of treason within the meaning of the constitution. As Burr was in Kentucky when his followers assembled on the Ohio river, he was not guilty as charged, although it was well known that he planned the whole movement. The ruling was fatal to the prosecution, and Burr was acquitted. Luther Martin, leading lawj'er for Burr and long an enemy of Jefferson, outdid himself in making it uncomfortable for the president. One expedient was to summon Jefferson to testify X 3o6 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS and to bring certain papers with him. The summons was disregarded on the ground that the president was not to be at the command of the federal courts. Marshall was a bold judge struggling Clash be- to establish the independent power of the judiciary, and tween the jj-^ ^-j^jg notable case, in which the executive appeared as and the prosecutor, he went as far as he dared go in his attempt to Judiciary. make the president do the will of the court. In refusing this subpoena, Jefferson, as Adams in the case of Dr. Cooper, 1800, and other presidents at later times, laid out the line beyond which the court was not to go. Relations between Engl.and and the United States When Burr took up his Western schemes, England and Napoleon were joined in the final struggle to determine the destiny of Europe. Each striving to cripple the resources of the other came at America length to attempts to restrain the trade of neutrals. As Carrying Napoleon after 1806 was dominant on the continent from Trade. the Adriatic to the Baltic, the only important neutral was the United States, whose citizens for a time reaped large profits from the sale of American products and by carrying freights between European ports. American ships were rapidly built, and foreign ships were transferred to American registry, to the discomfiture of British owners, whose own profits were lessened by the high msurance they must pay in the dangerous days of French licensed privateers. The mobile sailor population of the world was also drawn into the American service, so that not only the British merchant marine but the British naval ships also suffered for lack Trade Re- Qf serxdce. Out of this situation grew regulations to im- anTim"^ pede the American neutral trade, and a greater activity in pressments. impressing sailors on American ships. The weakness of the American navy, under Jefferson's pacific policy, invited these discriminations. Impressment rested on inalienable citizenship, held at the time by all the nations of Europe. America, as a new country, held for transferable citizenship, and the naturalization laws of Grounds of jj^g United States were framed on that basis. But in Impress- .... , , , ment. actual practice neither party to the controversy confined itself strictly to the principle at stake. Sailors on British ships frequently deserted in American ports, took out naturalization papers, and shipped on American vessels without much concealment and with open approval of the American population. Such duplicity was not to be endured by the mistress of the sea. British ships-of-war retaliated by boarding American vessels, mustering the crews on deck, and taking off all whom they chose to declare British subjects. Some- times they took men who were undoubtedly American born. Some- ENGLAND AND THE NEUTRAL TRADE 307 times, also, the men they took had forged papers certifying to American birth. Between these difficulties the ways of Presidents Jefferson and Madison were hard. Impressment was practiced under the federalist presidents, and much negotiation occurred to remedy it, but no results were reached. It recurred with increased energy under Jefferson. Each instance of this wrong announced in the American papers aroused the popular wrath and prepared the way to the war of 1S12. When finally the British ships cruised off the American harbors searching all vessels that came out or went in, it was hard for the president to restrain the people from acts which must have led to hostilities. Less irritating, perhaps, but of greater real hardship, was the in- creasing number of seizures of ships charged with violating British rules of war. Of these regulations the most noted was the Rule of War of 1756, declaring that a trade not open Case of the in peace could not lawfully be opened in time of war. The dispute, as we have seen, came up in Washington's administration, but it was not settled. American skij^pers found a way around it by taking cargoes from the West Indies to their home ports, where the goods became American, and if reexported to Europe as such were not, as they held, liable to seizure. It was a nice point, but the British courts allowed it, the rule being laid down in the famous case of the Polly, 1800, that such goods became American goods and were not liable to capture if they were landed on American docks and paid American duties. For some time after the European war reopened, 1803, this rule favored the Americans. So profitable was the trade that the expense of landing and paying duties was comparatively insignificant. Then came the complaint of British shippers that the Yankees used this as a subterfuge to engross all the trade of the French and Spanish possessions in America. The British government opened certain ports in their American colonies to the goods of enemy nations, with the hope that the trade drawn thither would go thence to England in British ships ; but even this did not break up the objectionable Yankee practice. Then came the decision of the British court in the case of the Essex, 1805, in which it was held that a neutral ship pleading the right accorded in the decision of the case of the Polly must prove that in landing her cargo in a neutral port it was the intention of the owners to make the cargo neutral goods and not merely to evade the rule of 1756. As this intention must be shown to the satisfaction of the British courts, prox-ing it was difficult. Under the new rule, many ships were seized, and complaints were loud in America. In England the merchants applauded because insurance rates were now raised for their Yankee rivals, and the navy was pleased because officers shared in the prizes seized. In 1806 died William Pitt, head of the ministry under which this severe policy was conducted. The changes which followed brought 3o8 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS Charles James Fox, long a friend of America, into the foreign of- fice. He assured Monroe, our minister, that he would endeavor to have the recent restrictions modified, but warned him not ^de ^806^^''' *-" expect payment for the 500 prizes already taken. Even this concession was difficult to obtain ; for the cabinet as a whole dared not antagonize the merchants and navy by openly modifying their rules. Then Fox resorted to a subterfuge, known as "Fox's Blockade," May 16, 1806. A proclamation declared blockaded the coast of Europe from Brest to the Elbe, but the naval officers were instructed to enforce it only from the Seine to Ostend. Neutral ships, therefore, bound for posts between Brest and th^ Seine, and between Ostend and the Elbe, were allowed to go undisturbed, spite of the rules formerly enforced. It was a clumsy way of doing us a favor, but it left us the Netherlands with the Rhine valley and the northwest corner of France ; and it might have served until the end of the war had France acquiesced. But Napoleon scorned to get his foreign suppHes through the con- nivance of his enemy. Feigning to believe Fox's Blockade effective for the whole coast line involved, he repUed, November 21, TheBerlin 1806, with the Berlin Decree, declaring: i. Complete block- 1806*^' ^'^^ ^'^^ '^^' ^^^ possessions of Britain in Europe ; 2. All Brit- ish property, public or private, and any merchandise com- ing from Britain, whoever owned it, to be prize of war ; 3. No ship coming from Britain or her colonies to be admitted into a port con- trolled by France, and 4. Confiscation for vessels trying to evade this blockade by false papers. This outrageous decree, for which Fox's proclamation was no justification, ignored the doctrine of contraband, and announced, in effect, that its author was greater than international law. Moreover, he had not a respectable squadron to enforce it. Only a few minor class ships-of-war were left to France after the battle of Trafalgar, 1805, and these, darting out of the protected harbors at the unprotected merchantmen, besides her privateers, were the only means of enforcing the blockade against the mistress of the seas. The only redeeming feature of the decree was that it was not enforced against the United States for nine months after promulgation. The decree was a challenge to England, and touched her pride. The reply of the ministry was two Orders in Council, which only in- creased the distress of the American shippers. The first. First and January 7, 1S07, forbade neutrals to trade from port to Orders in P^""*- °^ France or her aUies. It was a severe blow at our CouucU. skippers, who were accustomed to dispose of cargoes in various markets as prices favored. In April a new election gave the government a parliamentary majority of two hundred, mostly country squires chosen on the ground that the church was in danger. In the tory ministry which now came into power George Canning, sometimes coarse, sometimes clever, but always patriotic and able, JEFFERSON'S PEACE POLICY 309 was foreign secretary. November i, six weeks after Napoleon began to enforce his decree against our shipping, there appeared, in Great Britain, the second Order in Council. It forbade neutral trade with the entire coast of Europe from Trieste to Copenhagen, unless the neutral vessels concerned first entered and cleared from a British port under regulations to be afterwards announced. Canning thought France could not e.xist without American food products, and he ex- pected by this means to force her to take them by permission of Britain. But Napoleon did not yield readily. December 17 he issued the Milan Decree, ordering the seizure of every neutral ship which allowecl herself to be searched by England, or "P^^ Milan which cleared from an English port. Beyond this was jg^.^^ ' nothing that could distress our commerce. Any ship bound for Europe, except for Sweden, Russia, or the Turkish pos- sessions, was liable to capture by one side or the other. By the end of 1807 our merchant marine, distressed on every side, was threatened with destruction, and loud complaints reached the administration by every ship from abroad. Jefferson's Reply to Europe Jefferson abhorred war as a means of settling disputes, and thought most questions could be settled by appeal to interest. Neither he nor the majority of his party thought the country able to . bear the burden of war. Like Washington, when he p^l'^^ °'^ accepted the Jay treaty in 1705, they thought it better to bear the insult offered them than appeal to a course which would in- crease the national debt, involve great e.xpense for a navy, and put in jeopardy the independence of the nation. Neither he nor his party lacked patriotism, but they represented the rural classes and did not feel the attacks on commerce as keenly as the merchants and shij)- owners, chiefly federalists. All these considerations prompted the adoption of pacific means of defense. The first was the non-importation act of 1S06, passed to force concessions from England. It provided that certain specified goods which could be produced in the United States or in other countries than England should not be imported from the Non-Im- ports of Great Britain after Noveml^er 25 following. The Act,^i8o6. president did not favor the bill, but accepted it when the republicans made it a party measure. Randolj^h opposed it, declaring with his peculiar vehemence that we ought either to fight or submit to England. The act was to be followed by negotiations, and Monroe, minister to England, and William Pinkney, now sent thither as his colleague, were authorized to make a treaty which would rectify our wrongs. All this was a reply to the decision in the case of the Essex. The act did not go into effect until December 14, 1807. 3IO INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS Fox died soon after Monroe and Pinkney began negotiations, and his successor was less friendly. They did the best tliey could, but got no concessions worthy of the name. The treaty they Futile signed in London, December 31, did not give up impress- Monroe°and ^''^^'^t, but insisted that West India products pay a duty of Pinkney. not less than 2 per cent before they be exported to Europe as American goods, and that European products pay not less than i per cent duty in /American ports before being exported to the islands. It was to be inoperative unless we bound ourselves not to abide by Napoleon's Berlin Decree. Thus it seemed that England dictated our own taxes and that she was bent on driving us into war with France. Jefierson realized that the treaty would not be ratified, and would not submit it to the senate. He concealed its terms to pro- tect Monroe from the criticisms he believed it would bring down on the negotiators. It showed how futile were the non-importation act and the hopes from negotiation. Then Jefferson turned to the embargo, in an especial sense his own policy. He would keep American ships from the sea untO the time of danger was past, avoid the irritating incidents which were bargo Act hkely to arouse the war spirit in his own people, and force England and France to yield in order to get our products. He would thus prove that war is unnecessary and that armies and navies are a useless burden. Congress gave its support, and Decem- ber 21, 1807, the embargo act was passed. It prohibited the depar- ture for a foreign port of any merchant vessel, except foreign vessels in ballast, and required vessels in the coasting trade to give heavy bonds to land their cargoes in the United States. The president was given discretionary power to modify the operation of the law in specific cases, but its duration was made indefinite. Peaceful coercion was an untried experiment of far-reaching effects, yet it passed the two houses in four days and was a law before the people understood its significance. Congress accepted it on the authority of Jefferson at a time when it seemed that all other measures were futile. If successful, it would be a brilliant climax of a presidential career in which were such achievements as Gallatin's financial policy, the purchase of Louisiana, and the dissipation of partisan bitterness. The first attempts at enforcement showed that peaceful coercion was impracticable. Shipowners would not give up a trade which be- came more profitable as it became more dangerous. They Difficulty of hurriedly instructed their captains to avoid American ports the^m-^ and to continue in the carrying trade between foreign bargo. ports. Those whose ships remamed at home in idle- ness complained loudly, and the law was evaded so much that two supplementary acts were soon passed to make it effective (January 8 and March 12). At first the farmers did not feel the embargo as the traders felt it; for the crops were sold when it REPE.\L OF THE EMBARGO 311 passed. But by the end of summer it came home to them in lower prices. Products which in 1807 sold unusually high, on account of the war abroad, now sold unusually low because they could not be exported. The federalists made much of this discontent, and their course stimulated it, and thus encouraged evasions of the law. In the autmnn two more enforcing acts were passed. E\'en a rowboat was now subject to the law, and collectors of the ports were given despotic powers over ever)' ship that sailed. Such was the situation when the election of 1808 occurred. Madi- son was the administration candidate, C. C. Pinckney had the sup- port of the federalists, and John Randolph was rallying his friends for Monroe. The result was 122 electoral ig^g''"" ° votes for Madison, 47 for Pinckney, and none for Monroe. George Clinton, who also had 6 votes for president, was elected vice- president, although he had shown great uneasiness under the Virginia domination. All New England but Vermont was again in the federal- ist column, and for this change the embargo was responsible. In the house the federalists also gained strength, but their adversaries still held control. These events, and the increasing defiance of New England, which seemed ready to take arms if the embargo were strictly enforced, shook the determination of the republicans, and senti- ment for repeal began to develop in the party. Jefferson J^'^^^ °^ observed the trend with great disappointment. He had bargo. not lost faith in peaceful coercion as a theory, but he was forced to see that it could not be enforced unless the majority of the people believed in it, and he was at last brought to sign a bill to super- sede the embargo by the non-intercourse law of 1809. It decreed non-intercourse with England and France, Non-Inter- leaving the president to suspend it for whichever of the ^f jg^g two nations should first abandon her restrictions. Jeffer- son signed the bill in much bitterness of spirit, and a few days later retired from office. The new law left open the trade with every nation but England and France, and to these our products went indirectly. For one year this situation continued, the b^w°°^.. government trjdng meantime to effect a settlement by jgj^^ ' " negotiations. All was in vain, and May i, 1810, a third act concerning trade, known as "Macon's Bill No. 2," was passed. It repealed all restrictions on commerce with the two nations, but author- ized the president to reinstate them for one nation when the other repealed its offensive decrees or orders. It was a bid for relaxation, and if accepted by one power was likely to be accepted by the other. The result showed it to be as futile as the preceding measures. Our commerce was caught in a bitter conflict between two great states who would hardly stop cutting one another to pieces to secure the good will of the United States. Jefferson's embargo had important sig- nificance in the economic history of the time (see page 349). 312 INTERNAL HISTORY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS BIBLIOGR.A.PHICAL NOTE General Works. Besides the Histories by McMaster, Hildreth, Schouler, and Avery (see page 274), reference is made especially to Henry Adams, History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison, 9 vols. (i8Sg-i8oi), a work unsurpassed for scholarship and clearness, rather extensive for the general reader, but a source of comfort to the student. It has the New England, though not the federalist, point of \'iew, but honesty and good judgment are always evident. \'olumes 1-4 deal with the years 1801-1809. .A short work of much merit is Channing, Tlie Jeffersonian System (1906). Hart, American History told by Conlcmporarics, 4 vols. (1897-1909), is also useful. For sources, see as above. Gallatin's reports are full, and may be found in The American State Papers, Finance, I and II. As one proceeds in the story the volumes in the same series on Public Lands and Commerce and Navigation become additionally important. For writings and biographies of the prominent men of the time, see above, page 275. Other important biographies are: Dodd, Life of Nathaniel Macon (1903) ; and Battle, ed.. Letters of Nathaniel Macon, John Steele, and William Barry Grove (Univ. of North Carolina Bulletins, No. II). On John Randolph two books are available, the first able but hostile, the second favorable but undiscriminating. They are: Adams, H., John^ Randolph (1884), and Garland, Life of John Randolph (1850). Adams, H., Life of Gallatin (1879), and Stevens, Albert Gallatin (1884), present in a convenient form the services of the secretary of the treasury in this period. For extended references on Jefferson see Channing, The Jeffersonian System, 274-276. The Louisiana Purchase. The earliest considerable account is Barbe-Marbois, Histoire dc la L.ouisiane el de la Cession (1S29, and an English translation in 1830). It was written by one of the negotiators, and defends the sale of the province. The documents on the American side are full and can be found in the American State Papers, Foreign, II and Public Lands, I. Later American accounts are : the chap- ters in Henry Adams, History of the United States, I and II ; Ogg, The Opening of the Mississippi {igo4) ; andGa.ya.ne, History of Louisiana, 4 vols, (revised edition, 1885). Burr's Scheme. The usual view that Burr wished to revolutionize Louisiana is best stated by Adams, History of the United States, III. The view that Mexico was Burr's objective is defended with ability in McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Con- spiracy (1903). The important documents are in Robertson, Report of the Trial- of Colonel Aaron Burr, 2 vols. (1808), Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr, 3 vols. (1807- 1808) ; Safford, The Blcnncrhassett Papers (1864), containing Blennerhassett's journal and correspondence with Burr ; Wilkinson, Memoirs of my Own Time, 3 vols. (1816), presents the author's side, but he is so much distrusted that even his cor- respondence is not to be accepted. Relations with England and France. On this subject Adams, History of the United Stales, IV, V, and VI, is very valuable. Many newly unearthed documents, American and foreign, are given at length, and the story is carried forward with spirit and breadth of treatment. The American State Papers, Foreign, II, contains valuable documents. Wheaton, The Life. Writings, and Speeches of William Pinkney (1826), and Pinkney, The Life of William Pinkney (1853), also contain valuable information. For a list of the important pamphlets which the contro- versy called forlli, see Channing, TIic Jeffersonian System (1906), 283-285. Stu- dents interested in tlie subject should examine the writings of Madison, Monroe, Jefferson, and Gallatin (see above, page 255). For Independent Reading Maclay, History of the United States Navy, 3 vols. (1898) ; Spears, Story of the American Mercliant Marine (1900), in which the conditions of the sea-born : com- merce is well treated. Basil Hall, Voyages and Travels (1895), co\-ering the years 1802-1812, valuable for the experiences of British naval ships on the .\me'rican station. Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison. Wife of James Madison (1886), interesting for social life in the early days in Washington. CHAPTER XV the war of 1812 Origin of the War Both England and France seized American ships under the restric- tions on commerce just described, but as England had the stronger navy her offenses were more numerous. The losses from this source fell most heavily on the merchants and shij)- ^^' "°' **"* owners, chiefly federalists and friends of England, who p^i^^g wished for peace with that country. Since Macon's bill No. 2 removed the restrictions on trade, pleasing the maritime class, and as we could not well fight France for doing what her rival did to a much larger e.xtent, the prospect for peace would have been brighter in 1810, if seizures had been the only source of irritation. But another source of resentment was impressments, practiced, it is true, by both nations, but on a much larger scale by England. Here the brunt of wrong fell on the sailor class. As ^^^^^^' story after story was told of native Americans carried away into the hard service of the British navy, the popular ire rose higher and higher. British ships took sailors from ships in American harbors without regard to the neutrality laws, and lay in wait off the chief ports of the Atlantic coast, searching the vessel that came out. .\11 the old hostility which lingered in .'\merican minds from the days of the revolution, or sprang up in connection with Jay's negotiations, now flared up again, and the nation drifted toward war. Had England been wise, much of this irritation would have been avoided. It is true she did not wish war with the United States. Engaged in a life and death struggle to stay the advance of Bonaparte in Europe, she had adopted the policy of starv- 4^?^ j ^ ing her enemy into subjection. If our merchants tried to evade her regulations, so much the worse for them, and if she seized stringently the sailors she claimed as hers to enable her to man her ships-of-war, so much the worse for the sailors. It was no time, thought Canning, for the niceties of international courtesy. But America did not desire war, and had Canning's position been asserted with more consideration, war would probably iJ^i'^ents have been avoided. As it was, there occurred several harsh incidents, which Jefferson and Madison were willing to overlook, but which goaded the popular mind until they resulted in a wa\-e 313 314 THE WAR OF 1812 of hatred which the administration could not resist, untU congress at last forced the president to begin the struggle against his best judg- ment. In this sense George Canning was the chief author of the war of 1812. The first of these incidents was the Chesapeake-Leopard affair, 1S07. At that time impressments were very frequent. An English squadron searcliing for some French ships came into Lynnhaven I. chesa- Bay, near Norfolk, Virginia, and anchored there. Several ITa Ijy. of their sailors deserted, some of them Americans pre- ard Affair, ... , . , ti • . i • a i . 1807. \iously mipressed mto the British service. At that time the naval ship, Chesapeake, was taking on her heavyguns preparatory to her departure for the Mediterranean. It was reported that she had shipped some of the deserting British sailors, and Admiral Berkley, commanding the British ships on the station at Halifa.x, ordered that she be intercepted at sea and searched. Her captain, Barron, was ordered by the president to take care that no British deserters were in his crew, and thought he had fulfilled his instructions, but one man under an assumed name escaped his notice. Just be- fore he sailed, the British ship, Leopard, came to Lynnhaven Bay with Berkley's orders. June 22 she followed the Chesapeake, as the latter stood out to sea, came alongside at close range, and signalled that she had dispatches. Barron allowed her to send a boat, and an officer coming on deck handed him Berkley's order with the announce- ment that if deserters were aboard, they must be handed over. Bar- ron replied that he had none of the kind mentioned. He should have prepared for action, but the letter from the Leopard was not explicit, and he did not realize he was about to be attacked. A few minutes after the officer left the Chesapeake the British ship came within pistol shot, having the ad\'antage of the wind, fired a shot across the Chesa- peake's bow, and followed it by a broadside. The two ships were of nearly equal strength, and the British captain did not wish to lose the advantage of beginning his work before his opponent was ready. Barron was entirely unprepared for battle, but hastened his efforts while his helpless vessel sustained for fifteen minutes the enemy's fire. All he could do was unavailing, and he hauled down his colors with three men killed and eighteen wounded. Ere they touched the deck, one of his officers, for the honor of the flag, managed to fire one gun, the only reply the Americans made to the cruel punishment they re- ceived. Then the British came aboard, found three Americans who, having been impressed on a British ship had deserted and joined the Chesapeake, and the one native British deserter who had enlisted under an assumed name; and these were taken off. The American ship made her way to Norfolk, where her arrival was received with an out- burst of rage which spread over the country until the whole nation quivered with excitement comparable to that which ninety-one years later was aroused by the destruction of the Maine. Barron was sus- IRRITATING INCIDENTS 315 pended for five years because he had not been prepared for action, and Jefferson exerted all his art to prevent immediate war. He recognized the strength of the popular indignation, and for a time showed energy. He promptly issued a proclamation ordering British public ships out of .\merican waters and forbidding Ameri- can citizens to furnish them supplies. He sent off to course°° ^ London a demand for reparation, for the punishment of Berkley, and for the relinquishment of impressments generally. When Canning received this demand he offered to investigate the in- cident and do what was just, but he refused to consider the demand that the British government give up impressments. The British press and public, long accustomed to resent the pretensions of the Yankee nation, applauded his position and demanded war, if war was neces- sary to support England's supremacy at sea. Here was a direct challenge, but Canning thought the president would not . , accept it. He recalled Berkley, who luid acted without ^^^t'ude ^ orders, but a proclamation was issued warning British seamen who had been "enticed" into foreign service to return to their allegiance, declaring that if taken on board enemy ships they would be treated as traitors, and commanding naval officers to seize them on merchant vessels and to demand them from captains of foreign naval ships. At the same time it was decided to transfer negotiations in re- gard to the recent affair to Washington, where Erskine was the British minister. When this was known in America, congress was in session, and the embargo act was soon passed. It showed Jefferson's purpose to negotiate while he employed "peaceful coercion." Four days after it passed George Rose arrived to treat for the ^,. .^® * settlement of the Chesapeake affair. He was instructed j3Qg_ ' to demand the withdrawal of Jefferson's recent proclama- tion as a condition precedent to negotiations. After some hesitation the president agreed that this should be done and asked Rose to show his instructions. The latter unwllingly complied. He would restore the impressed seamen, he said, if we would disavow Barron for en- couraging the desertion of British sailors. This was distinctly what Barron had not done ; to concede it would put us in the wrong, and the negotiations came suddenly to an end. Probably Canning had not in- tended that they should have a more successful course. Rose re- turned to England, the recent outrage was not redressed, three Ameri- can-born sailors remained in a British prison, "peaceful coercion" was demonstrating its inadccfuacy to deal with the situation, and a large portion of the people were coming to the conviction that nothing but war would force the stubborn Canning p,°kering. to a reasonable attitude. But Rose discovered one fact while in .A.merica to which he later clung tenaciously. He learned how much opposed to war was the federalist party in New England, and he 3i6 THE WAR OF 1812 made a fast friend of Senator Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts, who led him to believe that in case of war the states east of the Hudson might be withdrawn from the union and attached to England. Pick- ering cherished the idea, and his correspondence with Rose in the years immediately following gave prominent Englishmen a mischievous idea of American affairs. Rose's short course ran through the three first months of 1808. He left British interests in the hands of the regular minister, Erskine, a whig, a friend of conciliation, and a man who saw with Trelr*""^^ alarm the rising tide of hostility toward England. Ad- vising Canning that war feeling was increasing, he was in the spring of 1809 instructed to make arrangements for a treaty which would remove all the differences between the two powers. The terms proposed were very hard, but Erskine believed himself justified in modifying them, and concluded a treaty so favorable to America that Canning repudiated it at sight. Before this was known in America many ships loaded with produce set sail for Europe, assured that British restriction would be inoperative when they arrived. Their disappointment was keen, but Canning allowed them to return home without seizure since they sailed under misapprehension. Erskine was now recalled, and Jackson, a narrow and obstinate Briton, took his place, with the promise that he should re' ain the post at least a year. He began by tactlessly telling Madison ■*■ ^.^'i^' ■, that Erskine had been overreached by the American Mission. ^ government. He was asked to withdraw the expression, and when he refused received a curt notice that no further communications would be held wth him. He departed from Washing- ton in high rage, leisurely visiting Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, where the federalists received him with demonstrations of sympathy. According to promise, he was allowed to hold his position until September, 1810. It was evident that England cared little to preserve peace with us, and all the time the popular resentment in- creased. At this point the course of our story turns to France. Napoleon's attitude toward the United States was as unfair as England's, but his power to injure was smaller because of his weakness at TheBa- gga. He chiefly exercised it in seizing our ships by two yonneand notable decrees. Just after he knew of the embargo act, Rambouillet , , , . i t. i a -i o o iU Decree. he ordered, m the Bayonne decree, April 17, 1808, the seizure of all ships in French ports flying the American flags. Such vessels, he said, could not be truly American, since the embargo act forbade them to leave their home ports. A great deal of property was thus confiscated, and the American government spent much time trying to get payment for it. March 23, 1810, Napoleon issued the Rambouillet decree, confiscating every ship which had entered a port of France or her dependencies since the preceding May NAPOLEON'S PERFIDY 31V 20. Under it several hundred vessels were taken. The procedure was justified on the ground that the non-intercourse act forbade French ships to come to American ports and authorized their seizure if they vio- lated the act. It was really taken because Napoleon needed money^ which he got in large amounts from the sale of the confiscated property. Before America fully understood this deliberate perfidy, Napoleon was planning another stroke, the object being to lead us to war with England. With Macon's bill No. 2 in mind he caused Madison to be told that the Berlin and Milan decrees would goodwrnks be repealed November i, iSio, his understanding being Madison, that congress had abandoned non-intercourse and would oppose England's restrictions. We had not undertaken to resist England, but only to apply non-intercourse to her commerce. Madi- son should have remembered this, but he was anxious to open the suspended commerce, and too readily accepted the promises of France. November 2 he gave notice that France had removed her restrictions, md Alarch 2, 181 1, congress reimposed non-intercourse on England, as Mace I's bill No. 2 contemplated. It was soon evident that Napoleon had hoodwinked our president ; for by a system of licenses and a high tariff he made it as hard as ever for the American ships in French harbors. England could see this as well as anybody. She refused to repeal her Orders and complained that we favored France, her enemy. By this time American feeling was so strong against England that our people did not care how she felt. We forgot to blame Napoleon, as we well might have done, and the government had begun to take a stiffer tone toward Great Britain. It was just at this time, April i, that Monroe, according to the agreement made in 1809, succeeded Smith as secretary of state. He had suffered many indignities while minister in England, and he must have taken keen delight in the rising tide of resistance which he observed in the country and the administration. A clear manifestation of this altered spirit came soon afterwards. In May, 181 1, the British frigate Guerriere was impressing sailors off Sandy Hook, and the American frigate. President, Captain John Rodgers, forty-four guns, was ordered to repair to the ^he Prest- post and stop the practice. He sailed promptly, passing ^^.(j,^ g^,^ the scene of the affair of the Chesapeake and Leopard, four jgn. years unredressed by England, and May 16, off the Virginia coast, encountered a British ship of war headed southward. Hoisting his colors, he gave chase, thinking the Guerriere was before him. At sunset he was overhauling the fugitive, who at last came to in the twilight but refused to give her name. Suddenly a shot was fired which struck the President's mast. Immediately the American ship began to fire, and after a fifteen-minute battle the stranger ceased t. ■ fire and reported herself in distress. Rodgers lay to until morning, when, to his disappointment he learned that he had not attacked the 3i8 THE WAR OF i5i2 Giierriire, as he supposed, but the Little Belt, about half his size. Her captain alleged that the President fired first, but the e\adence to the contrary was overwhelming. A short time later a new British minister arrived in Washington, announcing that he was instructed to settle the Chesapeake-Leopard dispute; but the nation, glowing -nith enthusi- asm for Rodger's action, cared little for the overture. The minister was asked if the trade restrictions would be relaxed, and when he said "No" his work was at an end. Additional hostility to England was engendered by the outbreak, in iSii, of Indian troubles in Indiana, where the white settlers were now steadily penetrating. By a treaty of 1809 the Indians Harrison of central Indiana ceded a large tract of land on the Wa- and the bash. It was the ninth similar step since the treaty of western In- Green^dlle, 1795. The more patriotic Indians opposed dians, i8ii. this relinquishment of their ancestral lands, and declared the treaty of 1S09 illegal. They found leaders in two brothers, Tecumseh and "The Prophet," men of exceptionable ability, who lived peaceably with an agricultural tribe where Tippecanoe Creek joins the Wabash. They had gieat influence with the neighboring tribes and united them in a league to oppose further encroachments by the whites. In 181 1 Tecumseh went to the South to form a similar league among the Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. Taking advantage of his absence, William Henry Harrison, xfppecanoe governor of Indiana Territory, with 800 men, marched into the region recently ceded and came at last to the town on the Tippecanoe. Here he was surprised in the early morning by about 400 Indians, and lost 188 killed and wounded before he beat off the attack. As the foe retreated and left their village to be burned, Harri- son was haOed victor throughout the Northwest. The Indians had re- ceived arms and ammunition from Canada, and this was taken as an additional wrong from England. MeanwhUe, the popular resentment had expressed itself in the elec- tion of 1810, when seventy new members were sent to congress, most of them replacing advocates of peace. Before this the Changed leaders in congress were men whose experience went back to Sentiment (.|jg ^jj^^g ^f j.j^g revolution. They had seen so many dark Election of days that they feared to hope for bright ones. The new 1810. men were young. Their leaders were Clay and Johnson of Kentucky, Porter of New York, Grundy of Tennessee, and Lowndes, Cheves,and Calhoun of South Carolina ; and the average age of the seven was only thirty-four. They had fought for their election most vigorously, and felt bitterly toward the old Virginia Party ^^ group of leaders, who never quite forgave them their vic- tory. Both factions called themselves republicans, but the newer men rejected many of the more theoretical principles of the old school. They believed that the national honor had been insulted, f GROWING SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE 319 and demanded war, their eyes meanwhile being cast at Canada. They began their work by electing Clay speaker and securing the im- portant committees. Before congress met on November 4 Madison accepted the demands of the war party, and his annual message recounted our wrongs and sug- gested measures of defense. The old leaders opposed this, but the federalists, thmking to embarrass their an- Madison cient enemies, joined the new party in raising an army of ^^^ ■^^° 25,000 men and in putting the navy on a war footing. An Party, attempt to raise ta.xes, however, resulted in faOure, and the government was left to support war, if war came, by means of a loan. For that kind of an operation it was seriously handicappt-d by the refusal of the preceding congress to recharter the ^- S- Bank . not Rs— United States bank. The many state banks could not chartered, make the loan of Si 1,000,000 now called for. At this time the bonds could not be sold in Europe, and the federalists, who were chiefly the trading class, would not take them because they op- posed the war, and when the bids were opened only $6,000,000 had been subscribed. Lack of money was most serious throughout the war about to begin. In May, 1812, a republican caucus renominated Madison for the presidency. He had the supjjort of the war party and his small per- sonal following ; but the friends of Samuel Smith did not attend the caucus. In New York, where the two Clintons Madison dominated the republicans, much jealousy of the Virginia nated. supremacy appeared, and a movement was rapidly form- ing for a coalition between the malcontents and the federalists, in opposition to Madison. George Clinton died in April, and Virginia, turning away from the alliance with New York, took Massachusetts for her Northern yoke-fellow, offering the vice-presidency to Elbridge Gerry, who had recently been republican governor of that common- wealth. Clinton's death, however, did not end the plans of the New Yorkers. His nephew, De Witt Clinton, took up his mantle, was nominated for the presidency by the New York legislature, and ran the race with the endorsement of the federalists. When the votes were cast in the following November Madison had 128 of the 217, eight from Vermont and all those from the states south of the Delaware. Had Pennsylvania not given him her twenty-five votes he would have been defeated. England now saw plainly the drift of the United States toward war. To the American protests was added the fact that the English people were suffering for food products. Wheat sold at nearly . four dollars a bushel, and the trade with the continent RefenUng. went on under a system of forged licenses, both British and French, for which honest Englishmen could only blush. Under these conditions there arose a powerful demand that the Orders in 320 THE WAR OF 1812 Council be repealed, and the ministry were urged to relieve a disas- trous situation before an American war should be added to the other burdens. At last they were willing to yield, if the French government would state publicly that its decrees had been repealed. No such statement was e.xpected, but the offer showed that the government was weakening. May 11, 181 2, the prime minister, Spencer Percival, who had stood stoutly for the Orders, was assassinated by a fanatic. The friends of America, led by the brilliant Henry Brougham, now pressed harder than ever for repeal. Then came news r''* '^l^f'^^ that the United States had declared an embargo for two June 23. ' months as a preliminary step to war. With the nation clamoring for peace, and with Brougham eloquently plead- ing the cause of the starving people, the new ministry at last gave way, announcing on June 16 that the Orders would be withdrawn, a promise which they redeemed on the 23d. The British rela.xation came suddenly, and the Americans were un- prepared for it. The war party was in control in congress, and carried the president mth it. June i he sent a war message which T"d**' occasioned a short and sharp debate, followed on June June 18 ^^ tiy '1 declaration of war for which the vote was 19 to 13 in the senate and 79 to 49 in the house. Had there been a cable the war would probably not have occurred. As it was, there was a feeble attempt to patch up differences when news came from London , but feelings were now too much aroused for such a step, and the project failed. Fourteen of the senators and 62 of the rep- resentatives who voted for war lived south of the Delaware. Only II of those who voted against it lived in that region, and of these but two were republicans. Thirty-three federalist representa- Feeiing not jjygg jsjued an address declaring the struggle unjustifiable. Thus the war was sectional, and began with dissension in the nation. The war party thought that harmony would be restored once fighting began, but the event showed how much they were mistaken. In fact, the country was not ready for war. The president, timid, diplomatic, and unable to control the politicians around him, could not inspire with energy an administration in which the only Weakness first rate man, Gallatin, was harassed out of his peace of of the Ad- niind by enemies in his own party. The army, neglected tion Army ^^V ^^'^^ republicans, was without trained officers. The and Navy. ' West Point Academy, authorized in 1S02, had as yet yielded none of the fruits for which it later was distin- guished. Officers who had served in the revolution were now too old for effective duty, and the new political appointees were pompous and inexperienced, and lacked the respect of the privates. The navy, dis- dained by Jefferson, had only the frigates built by the federalists, and some smaller vessels constructed for use against Tripoli, less than twenty in all. But their officers were excellent, and the sailor popula- PLAN OF THE WAR PARTY 321 tion was as good as could be found in the world. The Runboats Jefler- ' -1 built for harbor defense were not able to take the sea. The treasury was without money, and the country shuddered at the thought of higher taxes. Loans were the only resource, and these were dilTicull with the moneyed class opposed to war and the money markets of Europe prostrated by the struggle then raging there. The young leaders in the house realized these difficulties, and strove to surmount them. They carried through congress a bill to raise the army, now a little more than si.x thousand strong, by 25,000 ^^"^^"^ men, and another bill to authorize the president to call out party. 50,000 militia. They also asked for an addition to the navy of twelve seventy-fours and twenty frigates, but this was re- fused. When they moved war taxes there was further denial, and they were forced to content themselves with a loan of Si 1,000,000. .A.11 this happened early in 181 2. The war party planned a vigorous campaign in Canada and the oc- cupation of Florida, if Spain, England's ally in Europe, should make war on America. They thought the Canadians would willingly throw off the British yoke in order to unite with p-i^'rida.*" the great republic to the southward, and they believed that the war would end cjuickly and victoriously. They expected the Atlantic ports to be blockaded, and trade to be driven from the sea, but so much had been endured on that score that a little more suffering would hardly make a difference. Kentucky and the Northwest were keen for the Canadian campaign, while Tennessee longed for the signal which would open to them the Coosa- Alabama line of communication, with free exit at Mobile. As it turned out, there was no war with Spain, but Mobile was occupied without resist- ^^pJan. ance. On the other hand, England's plan, more slowly formed, was to beat back the attempt on Canada, to blockade the coast, and crush our ships at sea, and in the latter part of the war to carry offensive operations into the home of the war party, Virginia and Louisiana. Into these four phases, therefore, the actual fighting of the war of 181 2 was resolved. The Struggle for Canada The Canadian defenses were along the lakes, a series of posts from Mackinac to Lake Champlain. It was proposed to break this line at the eastern end, while supporting expeditions carried it at Fort Maiden, near Detroit, at Fort Erie, on the Niagara L^°"of°" river, and at Kingston. Those places taken, all the Defense, columns would concentrate on Montreal. It was thought the campaigns would be accomplished with little or no opposition. Had the commanders been good and the cooperation perfect, such might have been the result. 322 THE WAR OF 1812 The first mcve was from Detroit, where General Hull commanded with nearly 2500 ?nen. In July he crossed the Detroit river and marched toward Maiden. General Brock commanded the Detroit British force and made heroic efforts to defend the position. Hull moved slowly, gave him time to concentrate, and then fell back because he dared not attack a force half the size of his own, nearly half of his opponents being Indian?. The army was dis- gusted, their want of confidence in their leader only increased Hull's panic, and when Brock, following the Americans to Detroit, surrounded the place and demanded its surrender, the fort, garrison, and supplies, to his surprise, were handed over without an effort to de- fend them. Hull pleaded that he was surrounded, his communications cut, and his men likely to be butchered by the hostile Indian if he resisted to the end. His position was indeed perilous, but a braver man would have made some effort to defend himself. A Surrend*" y^'^^ '^'^'^ ^ ^'^^^ later he was convicted by a court martial of cowardice and neglect of duty and sentenced to be shot, but the president pardoned him on account of honorable revolutionary services. The loss of Detroit left the frontier open to Indian raids and created disgust for the men directing the war at the time when there ought to have been enthusiasm. ON THE CANADIAN BORDER 323 Nor was there more success at other parts of the border. The column sent against Montreal got under way after much delay and in November reached the Canadian line, whereupon the militia refused to leave the country and were marched Repulse of back by their commander, Dearborn, to winter quarters ^wrd *° at Plattsburg. The other column failed also. Assembled columns, on the Niagara to the number of six thousand it essayed to carry the war into Canada under General Stephen Van Rensselaer, a New York politician and an ine.xperienced general. The regulars under General Smythe refused to cooperate, and Van Rensselaer was driven back from an attack on Queenstown with a loss of 1000. Then Smythe was placed in command. He was as bad a commander as his predecessor, and his attempted invasion in November was repulsed so easily that he was freely accused of cowardice. In these three for- ward movements the private soldiers showed ability, but their com- manders and many of the other officers were evidently unfit for their posts. By the middle of 18 13 all these commanders were removed. After Hull's defeat William H. Harrison, of Tippecanoe fame, was placed over the Western army, which he organized as fast as a poor com- missary department permitted. Late in the autumn of 1812 he was in a position to move forward, and marched to Harrison's attack the British at Maiden. He sent General Win- j^^'^f ^ Chester forward to make prejxirations at the rapids of the Northwest. Maumee, fifty miles from Maiden. While there, Win- chester was called to the help of Frenchtown, on the Raisin river, thirty miles beyond. He hurried forward with goo men, took the place, but could not fortify it. January 22, 1813, he was attacked and de- feated by Proctor commanding more than 1000 whites and Indians. Surrounded in the snow, the Americans were cut down or massacred by the Indians, until the remainder, over 500 in all, were forced to sur- render. At night the savages, crazed by lic|uor, fell on the wounded prisoners, whom Proctor left without guard, and killed them to a man. The act infuriated the men of the frontier, and "Remember the Raisin " became their battle cry for the rest of the war. Harrison was forced to give up his advance, but he did not lose the confidence of the Western people. Throughout the spring and summer of 18 13 he made ready for another attack, and in September was before Maiden with 4500 men. By this time the Americans had gained con- Reco°ei.e(j trol of Lake Erie, and the British, not daring to with- stand a siege with no help possible by water, burned Detroit and Maiden and retreated. Harrison pursued them on Canadian territory, forced a fight at the river Thames, Thames * and won a signal victory. One of the slain was Tecum- seh, who from the first had aided the British. It was the first successful battle in the long announced invasion of Canada, and it gave peace to the Northwest. 324 THE WAR OF 1812 For this valuable result the gunboats on Lake Erie deserve much credit. Hull's surrender showed that we never could retake Detroit as long as it could be supplied by water. Accordingly Pen-y s every effort was made to build and buy ships for service Lake Erie. '^^ the lake. By September, 1S13, Captain Oliver H. Perry had si.x vessels well armed and manned. On the loth he met and destroyed the British lake fleet, slightly weaker than his own. His dispatch announcing the victory ran: "We have met the enemy and they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." The victor became very popular. Holding Lake Erie and Detroit did not mean the concjuest of Canada. Montreal was still to be taken, and for that purpose General James Wilkinson was called from New Orleans to take Wilkinson's command of the large force at Sackett's Harbor, near the St^ °° Kingston. He was to march down the St. Lawrence, «up Lawrence, ported by another army led by General Wade Hamp' > , by way of Lake Champlain. The only \drture in \Vi' kinson's appointment, which was due to his friendship with Armstrc""^ now secretary of war, was that it made way for Andrew Jacksoii's command in Louisiana in 1814. Wilkinson was incompetent, and Hampton, who was a good general, cooperated with him reluctantly. Wilkinson moved slowly, as if he did not desire to succeed. Hampton reached an advanced position on the Chateaugay, held it until coii- vinced that the other army would do nothing, and then returned to winter quarters at Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain. Wilkin >, who had fought some skirmishes without success, then fell b. ,i k to Sackett's Harbor. Hampton, who resented being placed undei the incompetent Wilkinson, resigned, and his superior was at length removed from command. Thus ended in failure the second year of fighting on the New York border. The most valuable thing accom- plished was that through defeat the army was seasoned to fighting the old generals had been weeded out, and a number of capab'..^ minor officers had been given an opportunity to show their abiliticf Of the latter were Major General Jacob Brown, in command of the forces on the Niagara, and Brigadier General Winfield Scott, who served under him, an excellent drill master and a bold fighter. The year 1814 began gloomily for the Americans. They were dis- couraged by a war which brought so little success. New England seemed on the point of withdrawing from the union, Sobering volunteering had nearly ceased in the Atlantic states. Defeat. ^^'^^ ^^'^ treasury was empty. Moreover, Napoleon was checked in Europe, and England might be expected to carry on the war with more energy in America. All this sobered the people, and as the months passed men began to forget that it waf a republican war and to realize that the life of the nation was a( stake. BETTER FORTUNE 325 They were encouraged by news from Brown. All thought o[ ;i grand offensive movement into Canada had been given up, but he was not willing to remain idle. Moving about 2500 men into the enemy's territory, he attacked gallantly, ^^/f^"^^ . Scott, who was selected to lead the advance with 1300 Lane "1814.^ men, met, July 5, Riall with 1500 men and won a signal victory at Chippewa. The Americans showed great efficiency in marksmanship, and lost only 297, while their opponents lost 515. Brown now united with Scott, and they met the main body of the British three weeks later at Lundy's Lane. The action began in the afternoon and lasted five hours, until darkness intervened. Every part of the field was hotly contested, and the Americans gradually pushed the British from their positions. When the fighting ceased they had lost 853 out of 2000 engaged and the enemy had lost 879 out of 3000. So far as actual fighting went. Brown had the better of it, but he considered it advisable to fall back when his opponent received reinforcements. The movement into Canada was abandoned. It had accomplished all that could be e.xpected in showing that American soldiers could win victories when properly led and trained. While this campaign was being fought, Sir George Prevost, com- manding in Canada, led a splendid army of 11,000 men along Bur- goyne's old route, hoping to pass Lake Champlain and create consternation on the Hudson. Such a campaign, McDon- if successful, must have an important influence in New °"^^ ^ ^"^' England, where an active group of leaders wished to have L^j^g those states join Canada in order to be rid of the Virginia Champlain. predominancy. General Macomb, commanding at Platls- burg, on Lake Champlain, had only 2000 men to meet this invasion, and Prevost felt that he could easily dispose of them. On the lake were two small fleets, the American commander being Captain Thomas McDonough, a young man of thirty, who proved to have remarkable capacity. The fighting strength of the British ships was double that of the Americans. To succeed in his plans Prevost must destroy McDonough, and the two squadrons joined in deadly combat on September 11, whUe the army before Plattsburg awaited the result. The British expected the victory because their largest ship, a frigate of thirty-seven guns, outclassed our strongest vessel. They concen- trated their attack on the Saratoiia, McDonough's largest ship. After two hours' fighting it was disabled, when the commander, by a daring maneuver, turned it around so that a fresh broadside was brought to bear, with the result that the British frigate struck her colors in half an hour. By that time the whole British squadron was defeated, and Prevost's army retreated to Canada. McDonough's achievement occasioned an outburst of joy throughout the country, and, like Perry's victory on Lake Erie, it rendered safe an important part of the frontier. 326 THE WAR OF 1812 For the blundering in this important part of the theater of war the Virginia regime was chiefly responsible. Jefferson's non-resistance policy was more creditable to his heart than to his head. Why the jjjg predecessors filled army and navy with federalist Weak. officers and showered contempt upon republicans who might have been appointed. He repaid their scorn with interest, and in army appointments he ignored the federalists and collected as weak a group of incompetents as could be found in any service. Their selection can only be explained on the theory that he believed they would never have anything of importance to do. That the navy did not undergo the same deterioration was due to the fact that its officers were taken from the maritime class, mostly federalists in sympathy, and to the effect of the Tripolitan war in keeping alive the best traditions of the navy. With regard to the army Madison continued the same course as Jefferson. Eustis, secretary of war from March 7, 1S09, to December 31, 1812, was a shiftless politician who knew not how to choose the generals or to plan a cam- paign. His successor, Armstrong, more active than Eustis, muddled things by holding to his friend, the incompetent Wilkinson, and by going to the field himself, where he produced confusion by interfering with plans of better men, until at last, overwhelmed by the loss of the capital, he was forced out of office August 30, 1814. He was succeeded by Monroe, a more practical administrator though not an ideal secre- tary, who outlasted the war. Hamilton, secretary of the navy from March 7, 1S09, to January 13, 1S13, was as weak as Eustis and did little to strengthen his department. His successor in office until December i, 1814, was more active and strengthened the navy by constructing small ships of war to operate against the enemy's com- merce. Thus in these two important departments defeat and disaster taught wisdom as truly as in the command of the armies. It required much sad experience to teach the nation the necessity of training in order to conduct such an important affair as a great national struggle. Operations at Sea The war party did not despise the navy, as their project to build seventy-fours and frigates shows; but they could not overcome the prejudices of the regular republicans. In 1807, fh^'w"^ when Barron's failure to fight the Leopard caused great in 1812. disgust among those who opposed a navy on principle, it was decided to discharge the crews of the leading frigates and to raise the number of gunboats to 257. Congress indorsed the policy. Jefferson preferred gunboats because they confined the navy to harbor defense and were cheap. The federalists jeered at his idea that small craft armed with light guns could keep the enemy's ships out of our ports, and the experience of war showed they were SUCCESSFUL NAVAL ACTIONS 327 right. The TS'ar party iii 1S12 had come to realize this, and failing to get the new ships they wished they put the vessels we had in a proper state of service. Eight ships, four of them forty-fours, with an equal number of smaller vessels, was the strength of the navy. Most people thought that to send them against the mistress of the sea was but to throw them away ; but many inward-bound merchant ships were on the ocean in need of protection. Five ships, commanded by Rodgers and Decatur, were in New York harbor when the official information of the declaration of war reached that place, and in an hour they were at sea searching for a British convoy known to be on the ocean. They sailed boldly across the Atlantic to the English coast, thence to the Madeiras, and then to Boston without adventure. The day before Rodgers arrived in Boston came, also, the Constitu- tion, Captain Isaac Hull, nephew of the commander at Detroit, with thrilling news of victory. August 19 she met and defeated the British ship Guerriere, 38 guns, after a fight ^g'^^^^^^"' of half an hour. The disabled ship could not be taken Duels, into port, and was fired and abandoned. She had been very active in impressments, and her destruction occasioned joy from one end of the coast to the other. Then followed a series of naval duels in which the Americans bore themselves with distinction. In October the Wasp captured the Frolic and started with her for an American port, but both ships were later taken by a larger enemy vessel. Shortly afterwards the United States took the Macedonian and carried her safely into Newport, while in December the Constitution defeated and burned the Java, 38 guns. February 24 the Hornet sunk the Peacock after an action of fifteen minutes. In all these affairs the American ship, except the Wasp, was stronger than her opponent ; but the accurate fire and good seamanship of the Americans astonished the enemy and brought them to realize that their best efforts were demanded on this side the Atlantic. In America, also, the effect was marked. A wave of enthusiasm for the navy swept the country, and congiess voted to build sixteen new ships of war. June I, 1813, came a disaster which sadly checked the American ardor. Captain LawTence, who commanded the Hornet against the Peacock, was now in charge of the Chesapeake, fitting in Boston, with orders to cruise off the mouth of the St. Lawrence in order to intercept supplies for the British in Canada. ^ ^^'5° Blockading the harbor was the Shannon, Captain Broke, ^^ahe. with some smaller ships. He was an.xious for a combat with the Chesapeake, sent in a challenge, and ordered his companion ship away so as to induce Lawrence to come out. The latter needed little urging. He was rashly brave, and the recent victories had made him overconfident. He had been in command only ten days, his best officers were 01 and absent, and his crew were raw and sullen. 328 THE WAR OF 1812 The ships were nearly of equal size, but the Shannon was manned by a well-drilled crew who adored their commander. Lawrence had not received the Briton's challenge when he learned that only a frigate kept the blockade. He was not averse to action, and the opportunity to get to sea seemed too good to miss ; so he boldly sailed out, and at six o'clock the action began at the outer edge of Massachusetts Bay. In sixteen minutes Lawrence was mortally wounded, and his ship had surrendered after a brave battle. The Chesapeake, was carried to Halifax, where the body of her commander was given honorable burial by the victors. The remains were later reinterred in New York. Lawrence's utterance as he was carried below, "Don't give up the ship," was repeated far and wide, and the people forgot his rashness in admiration of his courage. The repeal of the Orders in Council by England led her to hope that the war might be avoided, but she would not give up impress- ments, and the hope of adjustment vanished. It thus Naval Sue- happened that it was not until the spring of 1813 that Checked. ^he gave her best strength to the task before her. At this time the blockade was made stringent, commercial ships were vigorously seized, and a strong naval force continued off the coast. Decatur, with the United States and Macedonian, trying to get to sea by way of Long Island Sound, was forced into New London harbor and bottled up for the rest of the war. In the spring of 1814 he was transferred to the President, blockaded at New York. It was not until the following January that he was able to get out in a storm, the blockaders pursuing and forcing him to an unequal fight, in which he surrendered. Similar fates awaited most of the other ships in the navy. The Adams was burned in the Penobscot, 1814, to prevent capture by the enemy; the Argus was defeated by the Pelican off the coast of Wales in 1S13 ; the Enterprise, the newly built Frolic, and the Essex were all taken before the close of the war. The Constellation and the Congress were also securely blockaded in American harbors. At the beginning of the war we had Growth of ^ i^gjj effective ships and seven smaller vessels ranked as iZiI- ' " brigs. So fast had the navy grown, spite of losses, that at the close of 1815 it contained seventeen ships, three of them new seventy-fours, nine brigs, thirteen schooners, and three sloops. War was hardly declared before American privateers were on the seas. Subscription lists posted at the merchants' coffeehouses invited all adventurous persons to share the expense and Privateers Profit sure to come through despoiling Great Britain's rich maritime trade. In Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland the response was particularly generous. Three-fourths of the 492 licensed privateers were from these three states. Good sailing and the ability to get out of tight places wei-e necessary qualities WASfflNGTON CAPTURED 329 «f a good privateer. Some of the captains displayed great boldness, attacking British privateers, and even small naval ships, with success. Half of the ships engaged in the field did not come u]) to these require- ments and took no prizes, but those best fitted for the enterprise paid their owners handsome profits, while they enriched our naval history with some of its most thrilling exploits. In the war of 1812, 1,544 prizes were thus taken from Great Britain, the last in which the United States have resorted to privateering. WASl IHSrCiTON AND VICINIXY. The British Campaign on Chesapeake Bay In the summer of 1S14, as Prevost prepared his invasion of New York by Lake Champlain, a British fleet under Admiral Cochrane and a army of 4000 men under Major General Ross appeared in the Chesapeake to create a diversion for the ?''^"^_°* benefit of the northern operations. The plan was to pedition. take the capital and to seize Baltimore, especially disliked for its part in privateering. Ross landed without opposition at Benedict, on the Patuxent, forty miles from Washington, and marched unopposed on the city. News of his movement had reached the president seven weeks earlier, and the militia were frantically called out. They came to- gether slowly, commanded by General Winder, a man of lit- tle determination. Fall- ing back before the advancing foe, he at last faced tiiem at Bladensburg, five miles from the capital. His position was good, a hill commanding a bridge across the Patuxent, and he had sufBcient artillery. Plis forces were between six and seven thousand, all raw militia ex- cept five hundred marines and sailors under Captain Barney, of the navy. They were just assembled, did not know their oflScers, and Winder had no in- fluence over them. As the British approached the bridge they received the American artillery fire, but dashed across, formed, and ad\-anced on the Americans. The miiitia delivered one or two fires, and fled pell-mell. Barney's men stood their ground, $3° THE WAR OF 1812 firing with steadiness until about to be surrounded, when they fled from a field on which they now had no support. The British w hinet '^^ ^^^ evening of the same day, August J4, entered T^eu. Washington, from which president, officials, and many residents had fled. The capitol, president's house, and the executive offices were burned by the troops. Ross justified this piece of vandalism as retaliation for the destruction of the parlia- ment building at Toronto in the preceding year. The filSdings Americans did not pretend to justify the outrages at Burned. Toronto, but asserted that it was the action of pri- vates, whereas the torch was applied in Washington at the direction of the commanding general. As an act of retaliation Ross's course went far beyond the action alleged as its justification, and it was committed with such evident relish by liim and his ofiicers that it cannot be defended as soldierly conduct. While Ross moved against Washington seven small vessels appeared before Ale.xandria, le\aed a contribution, and rejoined the main force as Ross, his work at Washington done, embarked his Attacked. force and moved on Baltimore. September 11 he landed at North Point, twelve miles from the city, against which he advanced on a narrow neck of land between the Patapsco and an arm of the bay, saying he would winter in the city even if "it rained militia." Next morning he was mortally wounded in a skirmish, but his army continued to advance. The people of the city and state had collected to the number of 14,000, and earthworks were constructed to protect the place. The harbor was impeded by sunken hulks and defended by Fort McHenry, well garrisoned by regulars and sailors. While the army approached by land the na\'y under command of Admiral Cochrane began to shell the fort. After several hours' bom- bardment the admiral reported that he could not advance; and although the infantry had carried the American first line, they did not feel like charging the works before them, and it was decided to withdraw to the ships. The expedition dropped down the bay, and a month later sailed out the capes to take part in the expedition against Louisiana. The attack on Washington showed as clearly as the of Militia operations in Canada the weakness of untrained mihtia. It is still more evident that the disaster was due chiefly to the lack of intelligent general officers. But the campaign about to be conducted around New Orleans revealed the value of militia when well trained and well led. The destruction of the cap- ^f^Ann-''"'' ^^"^^ aroused great indignation against the administration, strong. 'i'''d Armstrong, secretary of war, resigned. He was chiefly responsible for the inertness in his department, although Madison and congress, it must be admitted, had given him slender resources. Armstrong was succeeded by Monroe, who for nearly a year was head of the state and war departments. LOOKING TOWARD FLORIDA 331 Meanwhile, British troops had landed at various harbors in Massa- chusetts and Connecticut, burning such crafts as they found. A more serious demonstration was an expedition against the eastern coast of Maine. The country as far as the ^f'^'^''^ °^ Penobscot was seized after Httle resistance by the natives. Elsewhere, with the intention of holding it after peace was made, in order to establish a safe route from Montreal to Halifax. When it was given up in 1815, the inhabitants, it was said, regretted that they did not continue under British sway. The War on the Gulf Coast It will be remembered that the war party hoped for an opportunity to acquire Florida. Spain was England's ally, her South and Central American colonies were revolting one after the other, at home she was struggling for existence against Napoleon: for^FloridjT what better opportunit)- could there be, thought the expansionists, to oust her from the part of the coast which destiny evidently meant us to occupy ? Madison accepted the idea, and would have carried it out by invading Florida without other pretext tharl the Louisiana treaty, had not the senate restrained him. Spite of this, two important events happened on the Florida border, one of them resulting in increase of American territory. In i8io the inhabitants of the part of West Florida nearest the Mississippi revolted against Spain, proclaimed themselves a state, seized the post at Baton Rouge, and asked for annexation to the United States. Madison by proclamation ordered 5*'°° the governor of the territory of Lousiana to extend Acquired, authority over this district without coming into confhct with any Spanish post. He asserted our right to West Florida by the Louisiana treaty and proposed to hold the region in question subject to future agreement with Spain. Thus our authority was extended to the Pearl river, beyond which was Mobile in undisturbed Spanish possession. The revolt of the Spanish colonies in South America was suggestive, and a plan was made for a similar movement in East Florida. Wlien it was accomplished, the United States, it seems, was to step in and annex the territory, as at Baton Rouge. In jgia^^ 181 1 congress in a secret act authorized the president to take possession of Florida under certain conditions, and Madison appointed two commissioners who repaired to the Georgia frontier. Amelia Island, just within the Florida line, was the scene of much smuggling, which it was desirable to break up. Here occurred a weak attempt at a revolution, and American soldiers occupied the island, but the revolt had so little support from the inhabitants that Madison did not dare carry out the plans made for him. Amelia Island was held, however, until 1813. 332 THE WAR OF 1812 In the autumn of 1812 Madison called out 2070 west Tennessee militia under Andrew Jackson, to march to Natchez, expecting to use them against Florida. This was merely an execu- Seizure of tive act, and when congress refused to sanction the pro- Baikedb posed expedition Jackson was recalled to Nashville. Congress, The west Tennessee militia were eager for war, and had 1813. confidence in their leader. Their opportunity came late in 1813, when it was decided to send them as one of three expeditions against the Creek Indians, who were on the warpath in sympathy with the Indians of the Northwest. The Tennesseans were to march into the Creek country from the north, the Georgia militia from the east, and an expedition from New Orleans was to approach through Mobile Bay and the Alabama river. The most difficult task was Jackson's, but it alone was successful. When the winter closed in he had reached the upper Coosa, after winning two victories over his adversaries. Four days Subdued °^ marching and one good victory would have given him complete success, but he could not get supplies, and his men mutinied and were sent home. With only a handful of followers he held what he had gained until new troops were raised, and March 27 completed the subjugation of the Creeks in the victory of Horse Shoe Bend, or Tohopeka. His campaign showed that he had remarkable power of command as well as resourcefulness and energy. In conseciuence he was made a major general and assigned to the command of the seventh military district. Besides Seized Louisiana, the district included Mobile, which had been annexed without resistance in April, 1S13. Now, as in regard to Baton Rouge, Madison acted under his interpretation of the Louisiana treaty. Jackson's first act in his new capacity was to make the treaty of Fort Jackson, August 9, by which the Creeks gave up their lands in southern and western Alabama. He thus opened a f F Tr*^*^ vast region to white settlement, and made safe the Coosa- Jackson. Alabama line of communication. Next he turned to Mobile. The advance guard of the great expedition against New Orleans had arrived at Pensacola ; Jackson seized the town regardless of neutrality obligations, and the British sailed away. He was hardly back in Mobile when he learned that Occupied* New Orleans was threatened by a body of more than 10,000 troops. He hastened to the city, which was nearly undefended, calling the militia from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia as he went. Had Winder, in the preceding summer, shown half Jackson's energy, Ross would not have reached Wash- ington. December 10, the British fleet anchored in Lake Borgne, and early on th: 23d a division of the army was landed eight miles below THE EIGHTH OF JAxNUARV, 1815 ^2^ the city on a strip of land less than a mile wide, between the rivei and the swamp. Instantly Jackson was in motion, delivering ir the evening and early night a sharp battle which drove the enemy to take refuge under the levee until reenforce- Arrival of ments came up from the ships. Then Jackson fell back at^e"**^ and began to construct breastworks. Pakenham, the Orleans. British commander, was cautious, and would not move until all his forces were landed, including the artillery. He thus allowed Jackson time to construct formidable defenses, which the royal artillery could not destroy. On January 8, 181 5, he threw away his caution and attempted to carry these works. He and his whole army held American militia in contempt, and thought they would break when charged vigorously by British ^*"'® °^ regulars. In the early dawn two red-coated columns Orleans, rushed on Jackson's lines, one near the river and one near the swamp. They met a withering rifle-fire from which the bravest soldiers must have recoiled. Twice they were rallied and led forward by their best officers, and each time rejnilsed with great slaughter. Pakenham and General Gibbs were killed, and General Keene severely wounded. The loss in this part of the army was 1971 killed and wounded, and on Jackson's side 13. Meanwhile, Colonel Thornton, with 600 regulars, crossed to the west bank of the river to carry some batteries there, which bore on the ground over which the British must attack on the east side. He met an insufEcient force of Louisiana and Kentucky militia, swept it aside, took the batteries, and held the west bank at discretion. Fortunately for the Americans, this movement was delayed until after the attack on their intrenchments on the east bank was repulsed, and by that severe blow the British were so cripjjled that they relinquished the campaign and withdrew to their fleet. The victory at New Orleans was one of the great events in American history. It not only saved the mouth of the Mississippi from conquest and restored to the people confidence in their ability to win battles, but it gave the Western people, who had fj^"""" won it without much help from the seaboard, the con- victory, fidence to assert a greater influence in national afi'airs. To these people, and to many others in all ])arts of the country, Jackson became the greatest living American. He had, besides his military qualities, political courage and integrity, which sustained him in a long and important career. He was unschooled in the arts of war and statesmanship, but in each field his remarkable natural sense made him essentially eflicient. No American has left a stronger mark on our political history. Before Jackson's victory was won, peace was made between England and the United States. The Russian Czar, from 1812 an ally of England, sought to end the war, and believed it might be done since 334 THE WAR OF 1812 the Orders in Council were repealed. He offered each party "his services as mediator. Madison accepted, and in the spring of 1813, Bayard, of Delaware, and Gallatin, set out for St. Peters- Peace Ne- burg to join John Quincy Adams, our minister there, in Begun""^ a peace commission. The action was hasty ; for Eng- land had not accepted the mediation. She told the Czar that the question between her and the United States did not admit of mediation. But she did not wish to offend her powerful ally, and e.xpressed a willingness to treat directly with the American commis- sioners. Such a course would give her a freer hand in the negotiation. After some delay the British ministry repeated the offer to Madison, and congress, accepting it for what it was worth, sent Clay and Jonathan Russell as additional commissioners of peace. England appointed three men of little prominence. Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and Dr. Adams. The Americans took it as a slight that more capable men were not named, but the ministry expected to keep the negotiations well in hand. The commissioners began their labors at Ghent early in August, 1S14. The Americans asked that impressments and the right of search be relinquished. The British replied with such demands that it seemed they did not desire peace. We were asked, for Ghe^nt*^^ ^ °"^ thing, to accept an Indian buffer state on our north- west as an offset to our attack on Canada. The war against Napoleon was then believed to be ended, the English people were elated, they had not heard of the better fighting of the Americans on the northern frontier in the third year of the war, and the result was stout demands on their part. The American commissioners reported the demands to Madison, who made them public. An out- burst of indignation ensued in nearly every part of the United States. Lord Castlereagh, the prime minister, seeing that the war would go on with more energy than before, concluded to modify his terms. England was e.xhausted by the long war on the continent and needed peace more than she needed to triumph over America. Castlereagh had begun to see that the continental nations would be secretly against England in adjusting the affairs of Europe, and he did not wish at that time to be embarrassed by a transatlantic war. So it happened that as the American commissioners were about to go home the British abandoned the worst of their conditions. From day to day they gave up still more, with the result that finally a treaty was signed, December 24, in which neither side gained or lost. It provided for the cessation of arms, the restoration of conquests. Signed De ^'^^ ^ commission to settle the long-disputed Canachan 24, 1814. boundary. The matters for which we went to war were not mentioned ; but as England was to reduce her navy with the coming of peace, the question of impressment was no longer important. February 15, 1815, the treaty was unanimously approved NEW ENGLAND IGNORED 335 by the senate. For the first time since the constitution was adopted the United States faced the future without anxiety about their foreign relations. New England Discontent New England generally chafed under Southern control. Non- importation, embargo, and non-intercourse affected her business prosperity more than the South's. Moreover, it seemed likely that she, a trading community, would continue to be Isolation of outclassed by the agricultural section. Every new njg„:^' state admitted to the union added to the strength of states, the rural classes. New York itself, once fair fighting ground for the commercial class, was becoming a farmer's state through the settlement of her rich western lands. What hope was there that commercial New England should get justice from this powerful aggregation directed by the authors of the existing policies ? Probably the majoritj' of New Englanders were not concerned with this ciuestion, but it rankled in the breasts of the federalists. Their only hope of return to power was in the defeat of the republicans, which seemed impossible, or in separation from the union. In 1803- 1804 Pickering and his friends planned for separation with the support of New York, but they failed through the opposition of Hamilton (see page 300). WTien war against England threatened, they took up the plan again, this time hoping to join Plans of New England with Canada under British protection, ^reme^" thus making a great state in which the New England states Federalists, would have good opportunity for commercial and political expansion. Not all New Englanders favored this plan, but the radical federalists cherished it and hoped to utilize the popular discontent to carry it through. Their attitude was known in England. Did not Pickering keep his friend Rose, minister for the early months of iSoS, well informed? And did not Jackson revel in federalist flattery from Baltimore to Boston ? In 1809 came John Henry to 2?^°"^!:^*° Boston, an agent of the governor of Canada, seeking co"JJ^nt'into to learn just what could be expected in that quarter. Disunion. His letters were discreet, but they reveal great dissatis- faction on the jmrt of the leading federalists there. In 1S12 Foster, the English minister in Washington, was in close cooperation with the federalists, they urging that England should not yield to the admin- istration. If war came, said they, it would be short and disastrous to America, and the administration would be overthrown. And when war was declared, 34 federalists in the house, ig of them from New England, issued an address declaring the war unjustifiable and defending England's attitude. All this was well considered in London, and as a token of api)reciation the ministry in establishing the com- 336 THE WAR OF 1812 mercial blockade exempted the New England ports north of New London. When Madison called on the states for quotas of militia in 1812, Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to raise troops to serve out of the state, but took steps to equip their forces for state defense. There was much unemployed money in the New England banks ; probably half the specie in the country was in New England. Yet the war bonds of the government could hardly be sold there, less than $3,000,000 being disposed of, while the Middle states took nearly $35,000,000. With tliis opposition the president could not deal. He was forced to conduct the war without much aid from the states east of the Hudson. Early in the war the federalists in Esse.x county, Massachusetts, issued an address written by Senator Pickering for a convention to consider the situation within the state. There was Hartford much animated discussion in other parts of the state. Called ' ^^^ "^ number of conservative federalists in Boston, led by Dexter, secretary of war under Adams, checked the movement in that city, and the other towns hesitated also. The movement was revived in the autumn of 18 14, when Washington was in ashes and part of Maine, then under Massachusetts authority, was occupied by the British. Governor Strong, much opposed to the war, now called out the militia to repel the invader. He placed it under state officers and asked the secretary of war if the expenses would be paid by the national government. He was told that the secretary had no authority to pay troops not in national service. Then the extremists declared that the state was abandoned in time of need, that the taxes she paid generously were not used for her defense, and that she must look out for her own interests. The governor called a meeting of the legislature, m which the program of the ex- tremists was adopted by 250 to 76 votes in both houses. The majority chose twelve delegates to a convention at Hartford, December 15, to consider the condition of the country. Connecticut approved the movement and appointed seven delegates, while Rhode Island appointed four. The lower house in New Hampshire's legislature approved, but the council was republican and no delegates were named. Nor were any sent from Vermont. It was a rural state and had no sea-going commerce, and it was not so badly alienated. While these things occurred, came the congressional elections of 1 8 14. In New England the federalists gained nine seats, and of the whole forty-one the republicans had only two. But in the entire country the federalist representation shrank from 68 to 65. Thus while the war party gained 12 places outside of New England, it lost within that region. The explanation is that the calamities of 18 14 were uniting the people of the Middle and Southern states, and it seems that but for the efforts of the extremists the same results would have occurred in the Northeast. THE HARTFORD CONVENTION 337 Senator Pickering, in Washington, observed the meeting of the Hartford convention witli delight. He had his following in it, mostly young men, who wished immediate steps taken toward separation. But another spirit prevailed. A The Con- c .. . , .L J vention in group of more conservative men gamed the ascendancy session, and made George Cabot, a timid man, president. Two delegates appointed by popular meetings in New Hampshire and one chosen by the town of Windham, Vermont, presented themselves and were given seats, making the membership 26. The meetings were secret, and continued until January 5, when an adjournment was ordered to meet in Boston at the call of the president. An address was published in justification of its conduct, filled with ideas taken from Madison's Virginia Resolutions (see page 285), and upholding the opinion that a state should conduct her defense when invaded. Seven suggested amendments to the national constitution were also announced, which, with the report, were submitted to the states represented in the convention. From the people at large and from the legislature they met a warm approval ; and Massachusetts and Connecticut sent delegates to lay the demands of New England before the national government. Just at this stage, when disunion seemed inevatable, came news of the treaty signed at Ghent, December 24, and the whole movement collapsed. Contemporaries freely charged the Hartford convention with promoting disunion, and sometimes it was pronounced traitorous. One of the members, Harrison Gray Otis, to vindicate himself in after years, published the journal of the con- Si^ificance vention. But it was a mere skeleton of the proceeding, England and contained no speeches or other matter to show what Discontent, the delegates really intended. Theodore Dwight, secre- tary of the convention, published a history of the convention, but it was in the tone of an advocate, and has not been received as a frank statement. The amendments proposed by the convention demanded concessions which congress and the nation must have denied. They asked for a relinquishment of the compromise of the constitution by which three-fifths of the slaves were counted in representation and in the apportionment of direct taxes, for a two-thirds vote to admit a new state to the union, for a like vote to declare war, or to establish commercial non-intercourse, for the prohil>ition of officeholding to naturalized citizens, for the ineligibility of a president for two terms, and for the denial of the authority to lay an embargo longer than sixty days. The men who announced this program were experienced political leaders. They must have had some policy in reserve to be adopted if their demands were refused. They doubtless knew they had aroused a great po[)ulur impulse which could hardly be turned backward. It is difficult to believe they expected the national government to yield, and failing that, it seems very probable z 338 THE WAR OF 1812 that they meant to carry the movement they had so carefully and ably developed to its logical conclusion, some sort of disunion. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the union in 1814 was not so sacred a thing as later. Recently entered into on the ground that it was best for the states to act together, it was to most men still a thing of political expediency. The New Englanders were in a position to ask what it was worth to their section. The extreme federalists repudiated the repubhcan doctrines, rejected government by all the people, and Puritan as they were, felt an aversion to a govern- ment controlled by men openly charged with skepticism. They thought, also, about their commercial interests and about the possi- bility of being overwhelmed by new states. From their standpoint it was not unnatural to ask if the union was an advantage to New England. These thoughts were strongest in the minds of the extreme federalists. To them the collapse of their plans with the end of the war must have been a disappointment. But to the mass of New Englanders, moderate federalists as well as republicans, the passing of the crisis was probably a relief. They quickly regained their con- fidence in the union, and New England cUscontent immediately dis- appeared. The federalist party, from its apparent sympathy with the Hartford convention, received a blow from which it did not recover. One test of the efficiency of a state is its ability to meet a great crisis; for example, its ability to wage war. In this sense the war of 1 81 2 gives us an opportunity to see how far we had Tt^t^w^"" come in the road of political self-direction since we became of the War. ., , Tin i i ri. an mdependent power. Badly as the struggle was fought out, it was carried on more successfully than the revolution. Until it began we had not seriously determined whether or not we could make war. We had no army, and a weak navy. We had no corps of trained officers to marshal the citizen soldiers. We had no machinery of credit to enable the government to place its emergency loans, and the sense of nationality was not developed to enable the government to draw the support it ought to have from aU sections. The calamities of the first two years of war showed every man these weaknesses, and the lesson was weU learned. When war ended, the people were aroused, they had acquired a good military organization, they were determined to have an adequate navy, they had come to see the need of common effort, they were ready for a better financial system, and they were fighting their battles better than before. When the struggle was over, the whole system of inefficiency was a thing of the past. From that time to the present the nation has never gone back to the old state of unpreparedness, the army has been better organized, the na\'y has been respectable, and the na- tional resources have been held in hand with a reasonable sense of national needs. The war of 1812 was worth all it cost in national humiliation ; for it taught the American people to take seriously its function of national defense. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 339 BIBLIOGR-VrmCAL NOTE The general works on the period treated in this chapter are the books by Adams, McMaster, Schouler, Hildreth, and Wilson (see page 312), and Babcock, Rise of American Nationality (igo6). Adams's treatment (vols. VI-IX) is the fullest, the best presented, and most scholarly, and it contains many extracts from original documents. Most histories of this period show too much sense of humiliation at the conduct of the war. It is perhaps a federalist survival. The war was badly conducted, and the people of the time were chagrined at its failures, but the his- torian may well suppress his feelings in order to unfold the patent causes of the failure. The onl_\' considerable work in this better spirit is Mahan, Sea Power in its Relations to tlic War of 1S12, 2 vols. (1905). The sources, legislative, diplomatic, executive, administrative, and others, are the same as for the preceding chapters (seepage 312). Niles, Weekly Register, 76 vols. (1811-1849), begins to be valuable for this period. See also, Hart,.4»;(T/- can History told by Contemporaries, vol. Ill, chap. XIX (1906), and jNIacDonald, Sclcel Documents (1898). On the British side see Martineau, History of England, 4 vols. (American edition, 1864). Volume I deals with the years 1800-1815. The treatment is un- satisfactory, but an adequate history of England for this period remains to be written. Broderick and Fothcringham, The Political History of England (Hunt and Poole, editors), vol. XI (1906), treats the period in a condensed and dry manner, six pages being given to the war with the United States. Valuable docu- ments are in Castlereagh, Correspondence, vols. VIII-X (1851-1853). See also the two English series. Parliamentary Dcltates (Cobbett) and Parliamentary Papers, and The Annual Register, 1810-1815. The best Canadian works are: Kingsford, History of Canada, 10 vols. (1887-1898), not always reliable for details; and Withrow, Popular History of the Dominion of Canada (1899). Besides the biographies and writings of leading men cited on previous pages (see pages 275, 312) the following are useful: Schurz, Life of Henry Clay, 2 vols. (1887); Morse, Life of John Qidney Adams (18S2); C. F. .'\dams, editor, i/<'Woi>.s of John Quincy Adams, 12 vols. (1874-1877); Writings of John Quincy Adams (Ford, ed., 191 3-) ; and Kennedy, Memoir of the Life if William Wirt, 2 vols. (ed. i860). Military Operations. On the American side the documents will be found in abundance in the .1 merican Stale Papers, Military Affairs, vol. I, and \aval Affairs, vol. I. Adams, History of the United States, vols. VI-IX, contains the best American account. It contains valuable extracts from reports. See also : C. J. IngersoU, Second War between tlie United States and Great Britain. 4 \ols. in two series (1S45- 1849,1852), strongly republican; Losiing, Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1S12 (1868), not always accurate in details; Brackcnridge, History of the Late War be- tween the United States and Great Britain (181 7 and many later editions), a straight- forward narrative ; Johnson, History of the War of 1812-1815 (1S82), clear and read- able ; and Soley, Wars of tlie United States, in Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, vol. VII, contains good bibUography. The following special works are also use- ful : McKfee, History of the Late War in the Western Country^ (1816) ; Dawson, Civil and Military Services of Major General William Henry Harrison (1824) ; Cruik- shank. Documentary History of the Campaigns upon the Nias;ara Frontier (1896-1904) ; Latour, Historical Memoir of the War in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814-181J (English translation, 1816); Bassett, Life of Andreiv Jaclison, 2 vols. (1911); and Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, 3 vols. i860. British Operations. Ti-eated in James, Military Occurrences of the Late War, 2 vols. (1818), — worth reading, though questioned by American writers; Gleig, Campaigns Of the British .Army at Washington, Baltimore, and New Orleans (1821), a good account; Richardson, H-'ar 0/ /i';2 (1842, rev. cd. 1902), deals with the Ca- nadian campaigns; and Tupper, Life and Correspondence of Major General Sir 340 THE WAR OF 1812 Isaac Brock (rev. ed. 1847). For contemporary notice see The Annual Register^ 1812-1S15. Naval AJfairs. The leading American books are : Mahan, Sea Power in Us Relations to the War of 1S12, 2 vols. (1905), very judicious; Maclay, History of the United States Navy, 2 vols, (new ed. 1901-1902), readable and generally trust- worthy; Maclay, History of American Privateers (iSgg) ; Coggeshall, History of llie American Privateers and Letters of Marque during our War with England (1856). The British accounts are often at variance with the American accounts. See James, Naval History of Great Britain, vols. IV-VI (18S6), Ibid., The Chief Naval Occurrences of the Late War (1817) ; and Williams, The Liverpool Privateers (1S97). On the Treaty of Ghent the documents are to be found in .1 mcrican State Papers, Foreign, vol. Ill; Gallatin, Writings, and Adams's Memoirs contain valuable in- formation about the negotiations. See also J. Q. Adams, The Duplicate Letters, the Fisheries, and the Mississippi (1822), and Ibid., Writings, W. C. Ford, ed. (1913-). Hildt, Early Diplomatic Negotiations of the United States with Russia (Johns Hopkins, Studies, 1906) has an account of the Russian offer of mediation. New England Discontent. Adams is the best general authority. Other works are: Adams, Documents Relating to New England Federalism, iSoo-iSrj (1S78); Dwight, History of the Hartford Convention (1833) ; Carey, The Olive Branch, or Faults on Both Sides (1814, many times reprinted); and Goodrich, Recollections of a Life-time, 2 vols. (1851), contains incidents relating to the Convention. For Independent Reading Maclay, A History of American Privateers (1899); Hollis, The Frigate Con- stitution (1900); Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime, 2 vols. (1S51); Dwight, Travels in New England and New York (1821-1S22) ; Stone, Life and Times of Sa-go-ye-wa-ha, or Red Jacket (1841) ; Brighton, Admiral Sir P. V. Broke (1866) ; and Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison (1886). CHAPTER XVI SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Growth of the West and Southwest The vastness of the natural resources of the continent impressed the colonists from the earliest days, and the success of the revolution strengthened this confidence. Masters of their own future, the men of 1783 eagerly looked forward to an era of rapid empire-building. In imagination they saw the interior of the continent settled by many people and divided into rich and happy states. Already the tide of settlement had passed into Kentucky and Tennessee and was beginning to penetrate the region north of the Ohio and south of Lake Erie. Further south a similar movement was rolling back the forests of western Georgia. A glance at the early census returns shows how well the hopes of the men of 1783 were realized. In 1790 the West, e.xclusive of Georgia, had a population of 109,368, in 1815 the same territory contained about 1,600,000 inhabitants ; and in these were Migration not included a very numerous migration from the East to western New York. This progress was achieved at the e.xpense of the older states, which increased in the same period from 3,819,846 to about 6,800,000 inhabitants. As all Europe was then at war, emi- gration to America was inconsiderable, and the rapid gain in Western population came chiefly from the older states. The South con- tributed its share to Tennessee and Kentucky, and to the region imme- diately north of the Ohio. New England was not well adapted to agriculture, and stories of the opportunity in the West carried away a constant stream of humanity from her farms and villages. New England saw their departure with chagrin. The census reports indi- cate how disastrous it was for her. The population of Connecticut, 237,946 in 1790, was only 275,248 in 1820, and the population of Mas- sachusetts, exclusive of Maine, grew from 378,787 to 523,287 within the same period. Albany was the immediate objective of those who migrated, thence they traversed the Mohawk j^^" y™jj valley to the rich Genesee lands beyond it, and on to the lake, which was reached at Buffalo about 1800. In all western New York were fertile lands to which the incomers were diverted. They soon passed beyond the state's borders, following the shore of the lake into northern Ohio, and thence into the much greater forest still farther 341 342 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT west. While many New Englanders settled in the West by other routes, this direct road from Albany to Buffalo, a highway for canal and railroad traffic in our own day, was the route by which most of the New England life went to its new home in the West. Since the Southerners settled largely in the region just north of the Two Strata Ohio, it happened that for a long time there existed a clear of Popula- divergence of ideals between the northern and southern West. parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The advance into Georgia was almost entirely Southern, the immigrants being from Virginia and the Carolinas. They carried slaves with them, and quickly established cotton plantations which became the basis of vast wealth. The sale of the public lands was closely connected with this progress. As long as the settlers were concerned with the Western lands claimed by New York, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, regulations by congress were of no importance ; but be- The Sale of yoj^^j these were the rich tracts on the Ohio, for whose Lands. disposal a land policy had to be devised. From colonial times a usual method of selling public lands was to grant them to large companies or rich individuals who could afford to open them to settlement and to import European purchasers, if necessary. Such a course was less likely to draw off the population from the older parts of the country; and for that reason it now commended itself to the majority in congress. For this reason large tracts were sold in 1788 to the Ohio Scioto Companies, and SjTnmes, a private speculator, got another great grant in the same year. These projects were lo- cated respectively on the Muskingum, the Scioto, and the Great Miami, all more than a hundred miles beyond the point at which the Ohio crosses the boundary between Pennsylvania and Ohio. The land adjacent to that boundary was to be sold by the government to the settlers directly. This first plan adopted to sell the latter land, announced in 17S5 and slightly modified in 17S7, provided that the region between Pennsylvania and the eastern corner of the Ohio Company's The Town- i^^^^ should be surveyed in townships sk miles square, tern. ^^' ^^ch containing thirty-six sections one mile square, or 640 acres. The smallest amount to be sold to one buyer was to be a section, and sales were to be at auction at the seat of govern- ment at not less than one dollar an acre. The sixteenth section of each township was to be reserved for schools. In 1787 Ohio Settle- ^ya^s organized as a territory, with General St. Clair for N*rth f governor. When Washington became president, the Ohio the Ohio. Company had planted the settlement of Marietta, and Symmes that of Cincinnati. The Scioto Company was an inflated speculation, and was soon in a collapsed condition. Be- tween the Scioto and the Little Miami in a large tract were the mili- THE NATIONAL LAND POLICY 343 tary lands reserved by Virginia for her revolutionary soldiers. In 1790 nearly 4300 white inhabitants were in the Northwest Terri- tory, 1300 of them in and around Cincinnati, 1000 at Marietta, and 2000 in the country of the Illinois, at Kaskaskia, and on the Wabash. Si.x years later the population of the territory was placed at about 15,000. The men of the West freely declared that this slow growth was due- to the illiberal policy of land sales. The remedy, they said, was to make purchases easy to the actual settler. In 1796 they got a small concession. Lands might now be sold in sec- ^^'"^ °^ tions of 640 acres, at not less than $2 an acre, and land ig'^ offices were to be opened at Pittsburg and Cincinnati. As sales did not increase, further relaxation was made in 1800 in a law for which William Henry Harrison was chiefly responsible. Four additional land offices were opened in Ohio, tracts as small as 320 acres might be bought, and four years' credit was allowed the purchaser. The price remained $2 an acre. This law promoted immigration, as was desired. In iSoo the population of Ohio was 45,365, in 1810 it was 230,760, and in 1815 it was about 400,000. Another result was a vast amount of land speculation, by small owners as well as large, who bought on credit, hoping to sell at a profit before the last payments were due. The suffering con- nected w-ith the war of 1812 caused a collapse of tliis spec- cJJ^nees ulation, and in 1820 a new law gave up the credit system and provided that small holdings, not less than 80 acres, should be sold for cash at not less than Si. 2 5 an acre, which since that time has been the minimum price at w^hich the public land has been sold. Offering a small farm cheap for cash made it possible for any man to acquire a homestead who could pay $100, and it favored the rapid settlement of the West. Distribution was made still easier by laws of 1830 and 1841 providing that poor persons settled on land without title should have a preemptive right to their holdings. The ne.xt and last step in easy distribution was the home- stead act of 1862, for the gift of small farms to actual settlers. The provisions mentioned refer to farming lands: since 1S20 timber lands have brought not less than $2.50, mining lands $5.00, and coal lands $10.00 an acre. All these prices were minimums. Early in the cen- tury auctions were continually held. As the lands were opened in districts and the best offered first, they frequently brought more than the minimum. This was particularly true of the cotton lands in Ala- bama and Mississippi. The Northwest Ordinance, 1787, created the Northwest Territory, with governor, council, and judges appointed by congress. When it had 5000 free male adult inhabitants a territorial Northwest legislature was to be organized to make local regulations, ^.g^ ' It was later to be divided into not less than three nor more than five territories, and each, when it contained 60,000 344 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT inhabitants, might be admitted to the union as a state. Slavery, ex- cept as punishment for crime, was not to exist in its limits. The first congress under the constitution confirmed the ordinance and in 1 790 it was adopted for the territory south of the Ohio, with some modi- fications, chief of which was that slavery was not forbidden in this region. It is the basis of our territorial system. In 1800 that part of the Northwest Territory west of a line from the mouth of the Kentucky to Fort Recovery and thence north to Canada was set aside as Indiana Territory. The eastern Indiana j. j.g{aj^g(j jj^g qJ^j name, and in 180^ Ohio was admitted to the union, congress agreemg to turn over the school lands, one thirty-sixth of the total area, and to pay 3 per cent of the proceeds from land sales in the state to the construction of roads. In 1805 Michigan Territory was organized, and Illinois in T*^t es 1809. These four states and territories, larger than all the Atlantic states north of the Carolinas, had in 1820 a population of 792,719, and were receiving an enormous tide of immi- gration. Wisconsin became a territory in 1836. As the settlers ad- vanced the Indians fell back. Defeated by Wayne in 1794 and dis- couraged by the victory of Harrison at the Thames in 1813, they did not resist the encroachments on their domains. In one treaty after another they sold their possessions and retired westward. South of the Ohio the unsettled region was on the Gulf. The com- promise of 1798 (see page 301) was followed by the creation of Missis- sippi Territory, between the Chattahoochee and the ^^"■^™f"* Mississippi, bounded on the north by a hne from the mouth Region. " ^^ ^^e Yazoo to the Chattahoochee. The lands north of this territory were conceded to Georgia. In 1S02 a second and more extensive agreement was made, by which Georgia ceded to the United States her lands beyond her present boundary, recei\'ing in return the narrow strip just south of Tennessee, $1,250,000 from the proceeds of land sales, and the promise that the national government would extinguish the Indian titles in Georgia "as early as the same can be peaceably obtained on reasonable terms." All this Terttor?"" region was now made Mississippi Territory, and congress promised to admit it as a state when its population was as much as 60,000. Within it were Creek, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Indians, the first in what is now Alabama and western Georgia, the second and third along the Mississippi. Settlement in the South proceeded more slowly than in the North, probably because slavery kept back the poorer whites. In the first and second decades under the constitution Georgia absorbed most of the migration southward, and after 1804 Louisiana received another portion of it. During these decades the intervening region, occupied by Indians, was not reached by settlers. Jackson's victory over the Creeks, 1814, and the treaty which followed, cut a wide zone out of the heart of the Indian country, INDUSTRL\L DEVELOPMENT 345 approximately three-fourtlis of the later state of Alabama, and oiiencd it to settlement. The land was very fertile, and sold at auction at high prices on credit. A few years later the price of cotton fell, and there was much suffering among the incautious A'^bama speculators. But the movement brought in a large settlement, number of settlers, and in 181 6 Alabama Territory was cut off from Mississippi. The settlement of this region increased the demand for slaves, prices rose, and spite of the law of 1807 against importations a great deal of smuggling followed in the Gulf region. In 1800 Missis- sippi Territory had 8850 inhabitants, in iSio it had 40,352, and in 1820 it had 75,448. In 1S20 Alabama had a population of 127,901. The former became a state in 1817, the latter in 1819. Meanwhile, the west bank of the Mississippi was yielding to civiliza- tion. In 1805 congress created the Territories of Orleans and Loui- siana, respectively, south and north of the thirty-third de- gree, the seat of power of one being New Orleans and of ^°V'^*.°* the other St. Louis. They grew moderately. In 1810 g°yjj_ '^' Orleans had 76,556 inhabitants and in 1812 was admitted to the union as Louisiana. At the same time Louisiana Territory changed its name to Missouri. Thus by the end of the period under consideration, 1783-1815, the vast Western region had been staked out for the reception of a great number of inhabitants as far as the western limit of the rich strip bordering the Mississippi, and just beyond Lake Michigan in the extreme Northwest. It was not until near the middle of the century that more westerly limits were staked out. Industrial Development In the West, as in the older states, the chief industry was farming. Raising food for the inhabitants themselves was the first necessity of colonies and frontier settlements. Beyond this they had supplies for the outside world, sending them down rivers j'tJJ w* to the Atlantic seaboard or to the Gulf port of New Orleans j^ Europe, from the Mississippi valley. The acquisition of Louisiana gave a great stimulus to the latter region, because it opened to unques- tioned use the great river across which Spain's hand in one way or another w-as generally placed in restraint of our trade. The years under consideration saw the rapid advance of manufactures in Eng- land, which raised the price of English wheat and made it more profit- able for Americans to send their grain abroad. Then came the long period of European war, lessening the foreign food supply and drawing on the American market at favorable prices. Spite of restrictions on the carrying trade our exports of food products grew steadily. But the most advance in American agriculture was in cotton produc- tion. The interior parts of the South were not adapted to rice, sugar, or tobacco. Cotton they could raise, but the removal of the seed was slow and expensive. In 1793 Eli Whitney, a native of Massa- 346 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT chusetts, a graduate of Yale, and for a time a schoolmaster near Savannah, invented the cotton gin, next to McCormick's reaper the most important agricultural machine now in use. It The Cotton ^^^^ ^ ^^^^^ impetus to cotton raising. From North CaroHna southward was an immense region, not well suited to wheat production or grazing, and destined to slow development had not this invention opened another possibility. As it was, the road to wealth became suddenly broad and plain. Cotton was worth forty- iive cents a pound in England, and the recent development of spinning and weaving there had made it possible to supply the world with great quantities of cloth. In 1791 only 38 bales of cotton, of the modern standard size, 500 pounds each, were exported from the United States. In 1809 the whole crop was 218,723 bales, and in 1816 cotton exported was worth $24,106,000 and was by far our most valuable single export. At that time the price was twenty-eight cents a pound. The production of cotton stimulated the spread of slavery in the interior parts of the South. Vast areas of cheap land awaited cultiva- tion for a crop yielding a ready money return, and the Sla"er *"'' ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ labor. White men might have worked ^' them, but it was easier and quicker to employ slaves. Besides, the social system already established in the South looked to the creation of estates, not to a mass of small farmers; and for the maintenance of estates a permanent laboring class was necessary. In a new country, where the free laborer became a landowner with facil- ity, slave labor was the only certain form of a permanent laboring class. Thus, the introduction of cotton farming on a large scale, just when slavery seemed in a way to be extinguished (see page 350), har- dened the grasp of the institution on the far South, and checked the growth of antislavery sentiment, then very strong, in the non-cotton- raising slave states, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Before the adoption of the constitution the state of our commerce was confused, and statistics for it are unsatisfactory. In 1790 the exports were worth $19,000,000. The war which soon ommerce. ^ggj^,., jj^ Europe stimulated our commerce both by raising the price of products abroad and by making our merchants the pur- chasers of the products of the French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies, products reexported to Europe at a good profit. This colonial trade was so profitable that complaint was made that it seriously injured other industry by drawing to itself all the available capital in the country. By 1795 our total foreign exports reached $67,000,000, of which $26,000,000 were reexported products. The colonial trade was irregular, jjut it rose generally, until in 1S06 it reached a maximum at $59,640,000, while the exports of domestic origin were then less than $40,000,000. After that came restrictive measures at home and abroad which reduced the total exports to an average of about $33,000,- 000. There was much speculation connected with commerce in its COMMERCE AND FISHERIES 347 prosperous years, and the influence was probably bad. Merchants took chances in whatever field seemed to offer oiJiiortunity, and ex- pected to recoup themselves by one lucky stroke for the loss through an unlucky one. This rise in commerce was accompanied by similar progress in navi- gation. Before the revolution more American ships were engaged in the trade with the West Indies than in that with the British ports in Europe. After the revolution the West Indian 35^.^"^*" trade was lost on account of the navigation laws, which induced congress to establish restrictions of its own. In 17S9 and 1790 it enacted discriminating duties in behalf of American ships, and the consequent increase in American tonnage was so rapid that the British shipowners were in consternation. Foreign traders then employed 41.19 per cent of all the tonnage engaged in our trade. It fell slowly, until in 1795 it was only 9.7 per cent ; and from that time until the war of 1812 its highest proportion was 17.2 per cent. Meanwhile, our actual tonnage grew, until in 1807 it was eight times as great as in 1789. After that it decreased under the operation of our various restrictive acts, but it recovered after the war, and in 1816 was 77.48 per cent of all the tonnage engaged in our foreign trade. The statistics available show that far the larger part of this tonnage was American built. The fisheries also demanded governmental assistance. In colonial days they yielded great profits and were encouraged by the mother country as a breeding source of seamen. The treaty of 1783 guaranteed the American fishermen the right to fish on Fisheries the Banks, and in territorial waters as well, but did not allow them to dry fish on any but unsettled shores. Whatever advan- tage lay in this was later neutralized by restrictions passed in England forbidding the importation of the product of foreign fisheries and by English bounties to fishermen. Loud complaints now arose from the whale and cod fishers of America. Deprived of their best market, they petitioned congress for aid, and so much was it felt that our own nurs- eries of the sea should be sustained that one of the first steps taken by congress under the constitution was to allow a drawback on fish exported equal to the duty on the salt used in curing them. In 1792 the law went farther, and awarded a bounty in money to persons engaged in cod fishing. Under its operation the industry revived and became prosperous. The embargo, the subsequent restrictions, and the war which followed again checked the fisheries, to the great satisfaction of the Canadians, who resented having to share the inshore fishing with the Americans. In their behalf the British p."^® . government, in making the treaty of Ghent, sought to with- jj,t„ ^g^^ hold the right. It held that the war ended the treaty grants of 1783, and would not yield them again unless wo allowed 348 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT British subjects to navigate the Mississippi. To this Clay, one of the negotiators, objected so stoutly that the treaty as finally made was silent on each question. It was, however, agreed that later negotia- tions should settle the fisheries question. With the return of peace Americans appeared in their old haunts only to be warned off by armed vessels. They might fish, they were told, on the Banks, but they would not be allowed within territorial waters. Then came negotiations, the upshot of which was provisions in the convention of 1818 that our fishermen might take fish off the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and along the most unsettled shores of Newfoundland and Labrador, with the privilege of curing fish and getting certain necessary supplies in uninhabited parts. On this basis the fisheries continued with a restricted prosperity. The years immediately following the revolution saw a sad disorder in the currency. Exports were relatively small and much of the foreign specie which had come into the country in the The Cur- channels of trade was drained out to pay balances. Seven rGDCV states sought to remedy the deficiency by a return to paper money, or state notes, a form of currency forbidden in the constitu- tion soon to be adopted. In 179 1 a national bank was created with a capital stock of $10,000,000. Its notes were issued cautiously, and were gladly received everywhere. Its power to nresent for redemption the notes of state banks enabled it to check overissue by such banks. Thus the paper currency was sound until the charter of the bank ex- pired in iSii. The bank asked for a continuation of its e.xistence, but the republican majority was very hostile, and would not even allow an extension to wind up its atlairs. Then a swarm of state banks sprang up, each issuing its notes without restraint. The government was soon at war, and, anxious to get money of any kind, Distress in gave its bonds for these insecure overissues, and received 1812. "° them for its dues, mth the result that it lost $5,000,000 in the process. In 181 1 there were 88 state banks with a total circulation of $22,700,000: in 1S16 there were 246, with circu- lation of $68,000,000. This alarming inflation led to the incorpora- tion of the second United States bank, 1816, and by 1820 the circula- tion of the state banks had fallen to $40,641,574. In the panic which followed the capture of Washington, 18 14, all the banks south of New England suspended specie payment and did not resume until 181 7. During the war of 1812 $36,680,000 of treasury notes were issued, nearly half of which was outstanding at the end of 1815. The last quarter of the eighteenth century brought a great revolu- tion in the world's manufactures. Before that time weav- Hew Era in jj^g^ spinning, nail-making, and most everything else was faoures. done by hand in the homes of cottagers. But beginning with Hargreaves's spinning jenny, 1764, several inven- tions led to the power loom, by which the te.xtUe industry was shifted BEGINNING OF MANUFACTURES 349 from the cottages of the operatives to the factory of the great manu- facturer. The same thing happened in other lines, and the result was the factory system, with its large outlay of capital and its peculiar relation of employer and employees. This process was first established in England, and it was well developed by 1800. For a time no response to this English development was seen in American industry. There was from colonial days a good deal of man- ufacturing of the old kind, ironware, hats, shoes, nails, and farm implements being some of the notable products. 5?^^ The lack of capital, the profits of agriculture, and the abil- factures in ity of British manufacturers to undersell served to delay the America, introduction of the new system. But spite of the difficulties, some advance was made. In 1 793 , the year Wlii tney invented the cotton gin, Samuel Slater, in partnership with Moses Brown, set up at Paw- tucket, Rhode Island, the first successful cotton factory in the United States. It was supplied with machinery of the British design, and its example was imitated in many other places, although the enterprises struggled along with many drawbacks. In 1S07 began the restrictions of the importation of British mer- chandise, lasting in one form or another until the war, which, with the blockade that followed it, effectually shut out foreign goods. Thus for eight years the American manufacturers Influence of had the home market to themselves. The result was a Kot„„'^lj ... , . T r. 1 bargo and marvelous rise m manufacturing. In 1807 the cotton the War. industry employed Sooo spindles, two years later it had 80,000 ; and similar progress was made in other lines. Among all classes spread an enthusiasm for articles made in America, and poli- ticians wishing to be popular appeared on public occasions in homespun clothes. Since the failure in commerce resulted in much unemployed capital and labor in the seacoast region of New England, it was here that manufactures gained most rapidly. The proverbial Yankee skill with machinery and the hard conditions of farming added to the stimulus. At the close of the war New England supplied a large part of the country's merchandise, and the agri- ^"*^ °' cultural South was sending thither S6,ooo,ooo a year to f^^^,.i„„ga settle balances for goods purchased at higher prices than it society, formerly paid abroad. It seemed to the federalists a just retribution that they who forced the war on the country should thus be made to feel one of its burdens. The rise of manufactures created a new class of rich men, less prominent in social and business matters than the old aristocracy of commerce. Between the two classes there followed sharp dissensions, but the manufacturers had greater natural strength than their rivals, and with the aid of a protective tariff gained so rapidly in wealth that ten years after the war they dominated the policy of the government in relation to business. 3SO SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Slavery Made Sectional In 1776 slavery existed in all the states. Many of the colonists wished to arrest its spread, but the British merchants protested, and the king vetoed the restrictive colonial laws. The colonists The Slave resented his action, and seized the first opportunity to act dI" f '»°1* for themselves. In the "Association" of 1774 slave im- Revolution- . /.,.,, ,/- r • ^ ary Period, portations were forbidden, the nrst congress after mde- pendence reasserted the restriction, and for the rest of the revolution the trade was checked. After the war commerce generally was controlled by the states, all of which but those in the far South forbade the slave trade. There were vast unsettled regions in the Carolinas and Georgia, and it was thought they must have negroes to develop them. But even here the advocates of restriction won, and by 1798 each of these states had forbidden further importations. The constitution, it will be remembered, declared that congress could not prohibit the trade before 1808. Meanwhile, a movement for emancipation had swept over the entire North. In this section were few slaves, and the opponents of the institution needed only to organize the non-slavehold- Emancipa- ers, a large majority, to carry laws for emancipation, tioninthe Vermont led the way in 1777 by declaring slavery illegal under Con- ^^ ^^^ ^^^ '^'^ rights incorporated in her constitution, and stitutionai New Hampshire did the same in the constitution of 1784. Provisions; In each state the few slaveholders could only convert their slaves into servants for wages or sell them out of the reach of the state's jurisdiction. The Massachusetts constitu- tion of 17S0 declared that "all men are born free and equal," and in 1783 the court in a test case held that this annulled a master's right to the labor of his slave. Thus in three states the institution passed quietly out of existence. In others the cause of freedom encountered greater opposition, but its advocates had recourse to the legislatures. Their request for eman- . „ cipation by state statutes was met with argument that to free the slaves was to confiscate property. After struggles of varying length, they carried each Northern state but one for gradual emancipation, which meant that slave children born after the enactment of the said statutes should be free on reaching a specified age, usually twenty-five years. The first victory of this kind was in Pennsylvania, chiefly through the efforts of the Quakers ; and it came in 1780. Connecticut and Rhode Island followed in 1784, New York in 1790, and New Jersey in 1804. The men of New York were not satisfied with their achievement, and in 1817, when the power of the slaveholders was much weakened, a law was carried for complete emancipation after 1827. Delaware alone of the Northern states re- tained slavery, and here it was safe until the end of the civil war. OPPOSITION CHECKED IN THE SOUTH 351 The movement for freedom was felt south of the Mason and Dixon line and was strong in Virginia, where JefTerson, Washington, and many other leading men wished to rid the state of an unprofitable form of labor and of the presence of an The Eman- alien and undeveloped element of the population. But ^pation here was encountered a more serious obstacle than had yet fault^the appeared. The small proportion of blacks in the North South, involved no menace to the civilization there, were they slave or free. But the people of Virginia knew not what to do with a great mass of freed blacks. To leave them masters of their own actions in the white population seemed to invite trouble, and to send them to Africa, which many thought the only proper accompaniment of eman- cipation, was so expensive that it was out of the question. These objections proved fatal to the efforts of the more far-seeing ones ; and thus it happened that two plans for abolishing slavery, one announced in 1779 and the other in 1796, were found impracticable. At this time the invention of the cotton gin had begun to have its effect on slavery, making a great demand for slaves in the states to the south- ward and raising the prices of them to such a point that masters felt a growing unwillingness to part with such an important source of wealth. Thus the seaboard states settled down to a free and a slave section, a basis of opposition in interest which proved very fruitful of later conflict. West of the mountains the same principle was followed. By the Northwest Ordinance the Ohio divided slavery from freedom between the Mississippi and the Alleghanies. Then came the Missouri Compromise line for the Louisiana purchase ; but eventually the matter no longer admitted of compromise. From the beginning of the national government the South feared the North would use her position in the union to restrict slavery. There was warm debate when in the first congress petitions for restrictions of the slave trade came from abolitionists, rga^ress The result was the adoption of a set of resolutions guaran- teeing that slavery should be left to the jurisdiction of the states and that the slave trade should be undisturbed before 1S08. In 1793 a fugitive slave law was passed. It gave the master the right to recover an absconding slave by proving ownership before a magistrate without jury or ordinary forms of law. The law was hard on the slave, but it was necessary from his owners' standpoint. ^"^^' ?'"^'" To provide otherwise would enable the slave to have the ^^^ ,„.,_ trial postponed, at heavy e.xpense to the claimant, who might at last lose the suit through the sympathy of a Northern jury. On the other hand, it left the disposition of the freedom of a human being to the irresponsible decision of the lowest rank of courts, a thing not ordinarily allowed in the pettiest property suits. Later it was charged that unprincipled men, by bribing some magistrates, carried away to slavery negroes who were unquestionably free. The reliec- 352 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT tion of the historian on this matter is that slavery at its best was aa unhappy relation, invoh-ing hardship in its primary and secondary rela- tions, and supporting itself by destroying the commonest personal rights. For some years after 1793 the question was not discussed in congress. The Haytian insurrection of 1791 was accompanied by murder and outrage, and a spasm of terror shot through the South and Revived North at the thought of what might happen in our own for°sfavesin '^'-"^ '^ slaves once began to strike for freedom. By gen- the South, eral consent it was thought well to let the subject alone. But the approach of 180S, wlicn the foreign slave trade might be forbidden, reminded the South that it must act at once if it recruited its slave supply before the doors were closed to importation. In 1803, therefore, South Carolina repealed her law against the slave trade. This brought protests from the North, and futile efforts were made to get congress to lay an importation tax of ten dollars a head on slaves. In 1806 Jefferson, always an enemy of slavery, took up the cause, recommending congress to pass a law to prohibit the foreign slave trade after January i, 1808. The suggestion was acceptable to congress, but it was hard to agree upon details, the greatest difficulty being the disposal of slaves illegally brought in. To return them to Africa was impossible, the Importa- suggestion that they be liberated in the place of capture bidden. ^'^^ resented by the Southerners, who would not have free negroes among them, and the idea that they be sold by the government was rejected by Northerners, since it made the federal government party to slave selling and but increased the South 's number of slaves. After much discussion it was decided that such slaves should be turned over to the state in which they were seized, to be disposed of as it chose. The captured slave dealer should forfeit ship and cargo, be fined from one to ten thousand dollars, and be im- prisoned from five to ten years. To prevent irregularities, it was also ordered that in the future the coastwise interstate slave trade should be limited to vessels of forty or more tons and that the slaves thus carried should be registered. The act of 1807 was to go into force with the beginning of the following year. It was frequently violated. Slave prices now became higher than ever, and adventurous slavers took cargoes into the isolated bays and rivers of the unwatched coast, where the planters, ever an.xious to get slaves, were as reticent as the smugglers. Religious Development .\fter the Revolution The English Church was established by law in Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina, although it had a real hold on the people only in Virginia and South Carolina. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire the Puritan form of religion was THE RELIGION OF THE PEOPLE 353 established by law. Only Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Rliode Island had no state church. But the war brought a spirit of reli- gious liberty, and at its end every establishment e.xcept those of New England was swept away. The clergy of The Fate of the English Church in America, bound by strongest ties li^hments' to the royal prerogative, had been generally loyal to the crown. Most of them had left the country with the other tories, and the old church, discredited by its opposition to the revolution, was in a state of disintegration, a condition which afforded excellent oppor- tunity for the dissenting churches to gather up the scattered frag- ments. The first to take advantage of the situation were the Methodists, who appeared in the colonies about 1760. Their preaching was popular, and their followers, though formed into "socie- ties," were first considered members of the English Church, j^^,. .. ^ When that church was prostrate on account of the revolu- tion, the "societies" appealed to Wesley, the father of the Methodist movement, who in 17S4 advised them to imite in one body, with su- perintendents, who later were called bishops, and a system of church government, called "the discipline." The result was the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Baltimore during the Christmas holidays, 1784. The world has rarely seen a more zealous body of leaders than the itinerant preachers who now began to penetrate to the remotest settlements, kindling the imagination of the masses by fer\dd appeals to the conscience, protraying the effects of irreligion, and exalting the power of the spirit. Their most prominent leader was Francis Asbury, a man of heroic zeal, aptly compared by his followers with that other Francis, who in the thirteenth century filled Europe with the echoes of his good deeds. In New England, where Congregationalism was firmly rooted, the results were comparatively small ; but in the Middle states and the South, and particularly in the new communities of the West and Southwest, they had wonderful success and made themselves a powerful agency in the lives of the people. Meanwhile the older non-episcopal churches extended their influence. Most numerous, perhaps, were the Baptists, who were especially strong in the South Atlantic states. In colonial times they were generally Cahinists. Their government was Baptists, congressional and they were not held together in a general organization. But the renewed religious life around them, together with the common imjjulse toward union which came from the forma- tion of a national government, led to the organization of a general convention in 1814. One of the chief objects of this movement was to promote missions, a thing to which those who held to the older forms objected so strenuously that they gradually withdrew from the con- vention. The seceders called themselves Primitive Baptists, while 2A 354 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT the others, a more numerous group, were called Missionary Baptists, in contrast. It was a time of general religious activity, and resulted in renewed prosperity of the Presbyterian, Lutheran, Quaker, and other organizations, and several newer bodies, the results Ch^'^'^he °^ separating impulses, now came into existence. The Reman Catholics, at first strong in Maryland, and planted in every large seacoast town, also began to increase in numbers, chiefly through the accession of immigrants, many of whom were from Ireland. In this manner did the leaven of nationality work in the creation of a strong native American movement for the estab- lishment of the American type of religion. AH this had its effect on the English Church in America. Threat- ened with extermination through the failure of its connection with the Church of England, it began soon after the revolution to The Prot- reorganize itself on an American basis. Its first need was estant Epis- g^ national organization, something it could not have in a Church system which had for cardinal doctrine the ecclesiastical Organized, supremacy of the English king. All efforts to secure the creation of an American episcopate had failed before the revolution, but peace was hardly made before they were renewed. At last Samuel Seabury, of Connecticut, was in 1784 consecrated bishop of Connecticut by three non-juring bishops in Scotland. Then the British parliament gave way, and by act allowed the archbishops of Canterbury and York to consecrate, in 1786, two American bishops, and three years later these, with Seabury, completed in Philadelphia the organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. As the sur\'ivor of the English establishment, it had much dignity in the new nation and embraced in its membership a large pro- portion of the men of influence outside of New England, while the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches took place as the great popular religious bodies. Although Puritanism maintained formal hold on New England, it was internally at the point of disintegration. Of its three factions, these who held to strict Calvinism, and the " Hopkinsans," The Con- ^^q were followers of Jonathan Edwards, and promoted aUsts. '°"" missions and revivals, considered themselves more orthodox than the third party, who were soon to be called Uni- tarians. This third group was strong in the Boston churches and among the wealthier class on the seaboard. They opposed revivals and questioned so many of the orthodox principles that men began to ask, "Shall we have the Boston religion, or the Christian religion?" The controversy became warm in 1S15 when it was known that leaders of the party corresponded with the English Unitarians. The result was a separation in many of the older churches and the open avowal of Unitarian doctrines. The most eminent leader of the movement was William Ellery Channing, of Boston. In 1S25 the American Uni- PURITANISM WEAKENING 355 tarian Association was founded with general oversight of the move- ment. In the struggle against the Unitarians the two older factions drew closer together, merged their doctrinal differences in a system which became known as the New England Theology, and established in 1808 Andover Semmary as the nourishing center of the faith. Long before this the New England churches had been called "Con- gregational," to distinguish them from other churches. The term became of special significance in the West, where the large body of New Englanders, planting their own religion, was thrown into con- tact with other strong organizations. True to the congregational form of government, they had no general law-making authority, but their great common undertakings, as home and foreign missions, were committed to general boards, which gave cohesion to the com- mon movement. One other reform needed to be made to modernize the religious life of New England : it must accept disestablishment, already e.xisting in Rhode Island and in the Middle and Southern states. Episcopalians, Baptists, Methodists, and every other in- Disestab- dependent church, and eventually the Unitarians, de- ^^g ™e"' I," manded a change. Defenders of the "Standing Order," land, as the old system was called, pronounced the demand irreligious and asserted that the power of truth against the reign of e\-il would be destroyed if the state, by means of the public taxes, ceased to support an orthodo.x and fearless clergy. As Jefferson was the leader of disestablishment in the South, his political party, the republicans, became defenders of liberalism in New England. Similarly the Standing Order, that is, the town clergy, were stout federalists. The battle was hard, but the orthodox party was worsted. The first relaxation was a compromise, following a line which had appeared in the colonial struggle between Puritans and Episcopalians. It was provided that members of a dissenting church might be relieved from taxes to support religion if they presented certificates that they supported their own organizations. This did not benefit those who were members of no church, and it was resented by all who believed in the separation of church and state as a principle. So the struggle went on until the liberals triumphed in state after state. Vermont led the way and adopted complete separation in 1S07; Connecticut followed in 1818, New Hampshire in 1819, Maine in 1820, the year she secured statehood, and Massachusetts after a long struggle in 1834. Exploration in the Far West Although the Mississippi was our western boundary in 1783, we could not but be interested in the vast region beyond it. Owned by Spain, as it was, its Indians might be a menace in war or a source of profitable trade in peace. For many years our sole information about 356 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT them came from chance travelers and traders, and Jefferson, soon after he became president projected an expedition which should secure more reliable intelligence and establish, if possible, friendly a^D^"* relations with the Indians of the plains. Congress con- patched, senting. Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark, with 43 men, soldiers and others, began to ascend the Missouri on a voyage which was to make them famous. By this time Louisiana had been purchased, and their exploration had thus acquired added significance. They went mto winter quarters near the present town of Bismarck, North Dakota, where they met a squaw, the "Bird Woman," formerly captured from the mountain tribes, who with her husband agreed to accompany them. In the spring they proceeded to the mountains, encountering many difficulties of a physical nature. Here the savages avoided them until it was discovered that the chief of the tribe was Their Dis- brother of the "Bird Woman." Guides were now fur- Oregon, nished, with whose aid the explorers reached the tributaries of the Columbia. Building canoes in the Indian fashion they embarked, and November 7, 1805, reached the mouth of the river, the Pacific ocean before them. The neighboring tribes were hardly friendly, but the explorers built a fort for the winter, claiming the country in behalf of their government. Next spring they returned with many difficulties to the East, exploring, after they crossed the mountains, the Yellowstone river and other tributaries of the Mis- souri. They were men of intelligence, and their narrative of travel, though full of the irregular spelling of the day, has come to be con- sidered a classic among American books of exploration. Their dis- covery furnished the most important basis of our claim to Oregon. Another famous explorer of this period was Lieutenant Zebulon Pike. In 1805 he explored the headwaters of the Mississippi, seeking its source. He encountered many hardships in a winter TouTnevr° Journey and was forced to accept hospitality from agents of the British Northwest Company, who were illegally trading within our boundaries. The frozen condition of streams rendered his conclusions about the headwaters of the great river un- reliable. He was back at St. Louis in April, 1806, and in the following August set out to explore the Arkansas and the Southwest. He reached the Rocky mountains and penetrated them near the peak which bears his name. His object is not definitely known, but it is supposed that he intended to reach the Rio Grande and exani'ne the country east of it, which we claimed under the Louisiana purchase. It was a great task, and he lost his way, suffered much from hunger and cold, and at last fell into the hands of Spanish soldiers, who relieved his wants, conducted liim in a roundabout way through Texas, and finally set him at liberty on the Louisiana border. Some of his follow- ers were never heard of after they left Mm in an independent attempt POWER OF THE SUPREME COURT 357 to return home. Pike published an interesting and very popular ac- count of his travels. He was a brave man and rapidly rose to dis- tinction in the war of 181 2 until he met his death as brigadier general at the capture of York, in 1813. His explorations in the Southwest and those of Lewis and Clark in the Northwest appealed to the American imagination and stimulated powerfully the desire to own and settle the Far West. E.A.RLY C0NSTITUTI0N.\L INTERPRETATION The makers of the constitution expressed its meaning as clearly as the limitation of language and the necessity of compromise per- mitted. But however clear its meaning, it was to be ex- pected that congress, president, and the states themselves '^'•^ Func- would construe their rights under the new instrument, „°°° * 1 • 1 rr.1 1 . 1 1 supreme each to its own advantage. The arbiter between such con- court, tending interpretations was the supreme court, endowed with the power to pass on cases arising under the constitution. It could thus decide whether or not congress, state, or president im- properly read the charter of government, and its decision was final. If a question arose of its own power under the constitution, the court passed on this also. Since final power must rest somewhere, it was, perhaps, best to leave it with a small body of learned and unprejudiced men. But many people of the day did not readily accept this view. The three great spheres of government, they said, should be mutually coordinate, and apparently it was so intended by the fathers. Nothing short of a constitutional amendment coidd settle the dispute clearly, and in default of that the court asserted final jurisdiction in the matter under consideration. At first the supreme court was not inclined to assert its powers, partly because the judges were naturally cautious and partly because they wished to avoid exciting criticism in the early years of the union. But its attitude changed when, in iSoi, The In- John Marshall, of Virginia, became chief justice. This lo^n*^* ° strong-willed and aggressive man, who believed the union Marshall, ought to have the necessary power to execute its will, was the controlling personality on the supreme bench from his appoint- ment until his death in 1835. By his strong mind and character he won to his views the associate justices, even the ajjpointees of the re- publican presidents, and laid down a large body of precedent on the loose-construction theory of the constitution. "He was born," said Pinkney, of Maryland, "to be chief justice of anv country in which he lived." His first important decision of this nature was in the case of Mar- bury vs. Madison. February 13, iSoi, the federalists, about to relin- quish power, created sixteen new federal judges, with the ordinary 358 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT complement of marshals and clerks of court. The law was de- nounced as unnecessary and as an attempt to fill the courts with federalists before the republicans took control, and one Marbury vs. q£ (.j^g gj.gj. ^^^^ ^f j. j^g j^^^ administration was to get the 1803. ' 1^^^ repealed. The original bill was passed so hurriedly that Adams was not able to appoint and install the new officials ere he ga\'e up his power. Wlien the new secretary of state took office, many of the commissions were found in the office undelivered ; and Jefferson, holding that an appointment was not complete until the commission was signed, sealed, and delivered, ordered that the commis- sions should be withheld. He thought an appointment followed the procedure of a deed. Marbury asked the supreme court to issue a mandamus for the delivery of one of these commissions, and the matter was argued in the supreme court. Marshall, who gave the opinion, held that since the supreme court by the constitution did not have original jurisdiction in such a case, Marbury had no right to bring suit in that tribunal. This ordinarily would have ended the matter, but he went on to say, and it was an obiter dictum, that a commission was not anal- ogous to a deed, that Madison had no right to withhold one duly signed, and that Marbury, if he had brought suit in proper form, would be entitled to his office. The republicans denounced this decision as partisan. But it had a still wider significance. Congress had pre- viously passed a law giving the court the right to issue a mandamus, and it was under that act that the suit was brought. In declaring the contrary, therefore, the court had annulled a law of congress, and this is the chief constitutional import of the decision. In Fletcher vs. Peck the act of a state legislature was in question. The assembly of Georgia had granted certain lands, and afterwards declared the grant null on account of fraud. Peck claimed Pe^ck^'i'sio ^'^^^ under this annulled grant and brought suit in the federal courts, urging that Georgia had Ndolated the clause of the constitution which forbids a state to pass a law "impairing the obligation of a contract.'" Georgia put herself on her sovereignty and replied that a land grant, made by the state m the disposal of its domain, was not a contract. The court held, Marshall giving the decision, that a grant is a contract and that the attempt of Georgia to repeal the grant was illegal. Here the court declared unconstitutional an act of a state legislature. But now appeared a difficulty which has since then limited the power of the court. Who was to execute the decision of the court against a state ? Ordinarily it would be the presi- dent, but if he thought it advisable to decline to act, there was no power to compel him. This happened to the decision in Fletcher vs. Peck. Georgia thus defied the court, and the only way out of the diffi- culty was the compromise, made in 1814, in which congress by pay- ing money salved the feelings of the claimants under the Georgia grants. Mcculloch vs. Maryland 350 These two decisions, it will be seen, were aimed at two doctrines dear to the heart of the republicans. Li the first it was held that the popular wUl as expressed in a congressional law must be restrained by the constitution: in the second the doc- Po'i'"=ai As- trine of state sovereignty was shorn of some of its power ; Decisions* for Georgia's claim that the people of a state acting through the legislature were sovereign in state affairs was made to yield to the supremacy of the federal constitution. The supreme court, under Marshall's leadership, was intent on establishing this general \new, and after the war of 1S12 proceeded to do so in several other important cases. Two of them are especially significant, and both were decided in 1819. First came McCulloch vs. Maryland, relating to the power of con- gress under the "implied powers" clause of the constitution, article I, section 8. Much popular opposition existed to the bank of the United States, and several states passed laws to McCulloch US Jvi 3rv* tax its notes, one of them being Maryland. The bank re- j^^^ ,gj-_ sisted the taxes, and the matter came before the supreme court. Two questions arose : Has congress power to create a bank ? and have the states power to tax a bank, if created ? Mar- shall answered the first in the broadest possible manner. The govern- ment, he said, has aU the power implied in the act of its creation : "Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitu- tion, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited but consistent with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional." If congress should pass a law which by the constitution it may not pass, the court would declare that law of no effect ; but if the court pretended to annul a law of congress made in the field proper to the acti\ity of congress, the court would by that action enter the field of law-making, a thing it had no right to do. As the creation of a bank was not prohibited to congress, and as a bank was a thing usefvil in the happy and pros- perous government of the nation, the court must hold that it was within the power of the national legislature to establish it. As for the second question, the right of a state to tax the bank, that was also opposed ; for if a small tax could be laid, a large one could also be laid, and thus the bank, lawful in itself, could be taxed out of existence. "The power to tax," said Marshall in words long remembered, "in- volves the power to destroy." The second great case decided in 1819, and nearly as important as the McCulloch case, was Dartmouth College vs. Wood- ward. The New Hampshire legislature, in response to '^^'^ ?^", the political feeling of the day, wished to get control of ^°'^ ^^^^ ' the college and amended its charter with that end in jgig. view and against the protest of the college authorities. Suit was brought, and the case went before the supreme court, 'Webster. 36o SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT a Dartmouth alumnus, appearing among the lawyers for the college. Is a charter granted to a corporation inviolate by the legislature? was the question. The court held that a charter is a contract and not to be recalled by the legislature provided the grantee observes the con- ditions on which it was granted. The decision became a precedent in all cases arising under acts of incorporation, a large part of modern law. Under it banks, manufacturing, and many other kinds of cor- porate companies have insisted that they could not be disturbed in their business relations. As Marshall laid down the principle, the com panics seem to have had absolute immunity from interference, a posi- tion quite contrary to modern ideas that corporations should be under state control. This difficulty has been ob\dated by several subsequent decisions by which it is held that a legislature may modify a charter under the exercise of the police power, under its right to pass laws for good morals, and on other grounds. These later decisions have greatly modified the force of Marshall's ruling, but in ordinary cases that rule still remains the great principle for the government of corporations. It was, when made, a direct blow at the assumed right of a state to limit the action of an individual through the e.xercise of its sovereign power over him. These decisions were received with indignation by the ultra repub- licans. Victorious in the elections, masters of the executive and legislative parts of government, they writhed to see the ju- Significance diciary annul the will of the people as expressed in the elec- h^'^'^D tions, while in decision after decision it completed a system cisions. of centralized power greatly at variance with the principles of the party which ruled. But for all their contempt, Marshall did not quail. Doffing the neutrality of an ideal judge he boldly set himself the task of shaping the constitution in its most plastic period. His decisions became precedents in every court in the land. They gave strength and steadiness to a government, which by the nature of the case, was in the hands of the least competent portion of its citizens. They saved popular government from the ef- fects of radicalism while the ideals of conservatism struck root in the crude but ripening society then spreading itself over the face of a new continent. No greater deed of firm leadership has been performed in our country than this persistent assertion of the \-ital will of the federal republic. Another case, Chisholm v. Georgia, decided that a state might be sued by a citizen of another state. It displeased the states and re- sulted in the eleventh amendment, 1798. Six years later the twelfth amendment was in force, providing that electors should vote sep- arately for president and vice-president. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 361 BIBLIOGR.^PHICAL NOTE On the general social history of the period treated in this chapter the best work IS McMaster, History of the People of the U iiited States , 7 vols. (1883-1910), contain- ing many chapters of interest; Adams, History of the United States, vol. I (1889). chaps. I-IV contain valuable accounts of social and intellectual conditions; See also Bassett, Tlie Federalist System, Chaps. X-XIII (igo6) ; Hurl, American History Told by Contemporaries, III (1Q06); Simons, Social Forces in American History, chaps. VIII-XII (iqii) ; Kess, Political Theory and Parly Organization in the United States, chaps. I-V (1910); and Griswold, The Republican Court (1864). On the public lands see Donaldson, The Public Domain (Pub. Land Comssn. Report, 18S1) ; and Treat, The National Land System (iqio). Many European travelers visited America immediately after the revolution and wrote and published their impressions of the country. A list of them with critical discussions is found in Tuckerman, America and her Commentators (1864). The most important works of this nature are : Brissot de Warville, New Travels [17S8] (1791, 1792), enthusiastically biased in favor of republicanism; Due de Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels . . . i7Qj-i7(>7, 2 vols. (London ed. 1799), has many facts, but the author did not understand American life ; Weld, Travels . . . I7Q3-I7Q7, - \'o'- (1799); Campbell, Travels in the Interior . . . I7gi-i7g2 (1793), relates to New York, tlic Northwest, and Canada; Dwight, Travels in New Eng- land and Nrd' York (1796-1813], 4 vols. (1821-1822) ; Melish, Travels in the United States, 1806-1807, 1S0Q-1811, 2 vols. (181 2); and Bradbury, Travels in the In- terior . . . iSoQ, iSio, iSii (1S17). After the return of peace in Europe and America came a revival of interest in immigration, and several foreigners who came to the United States to investigate the conditions here wrote books which were published for the instruction of those who proposed to emigrate. Among them are: Fearon, Narrative of a Journey, etc. (1817); Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey in America (1818); Ibid'., Letters from Illinois (1818); and Cobbett, A Year's Residence in tlie United States (1819). Most of these travelers visited the Northwest and described conditions there in frontier days. A general work of great excellence on the settlement of that region is Matthews, The Expansion of New England (iqog). See also : Turner, The Rise of the Nc7u West (1906) ; Boggess, The Settlement of Illinois, 177S-1S30 (Chicago Hist. Soc. Collections, 1908) ; and Hinsdale, The Old Northwest, 2 vols. (18S8, 1899). Conditions in the South and Southwest are described in : Phillips, Georgia and State Rights (.\mer. Hist. .\ssn. Report, 1901, vol. II); Schaper, Sectionalism and Representation in South Carolina (Ibid., 1900, vol. I) ; and Pickett, History of Ala- kama, 2 vols. (1851, 1900). On far western e.xplorations see Thwaites, Rocky Mountain Exploration (1904) for a good summary. Lewis and Clark prepared full notes of their explorations, which wore edited by Nicholas Biddle, later president of the second bank of the United States. They appeared as History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, . . . 1S04, iSos, 1S06, Prepared for the Press by Paid Allen, 2 vols. (1814). The best modern edition is edited by Thwaites in eight volumes (1904-1905). It is a verbatim reproduction of all the journals kept by the two leaders and other members of the ex|iedition. Pike wrote an account of his travels, published under the title. Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Missis- sippi. . . . And a Tour through the Interior Parts of New Spain, 2 vols. (i8io). The history of .\merican industry has not been adequately written. Bassett, Federalist Sys'tcm (1906) has a brief chapter on conditions from 1789 to 1801. A longer and more general treatment is in Coman, Industrial History (1905, 1910); and Bogart, Economic History of the United States (ed. 1907). See also Adams, History of the United Stales, vols. \' and VIII (1S91) for the influence of manu- factures; Seybert, Statistical Annals . . . i7Sg-iSiS (1818) has raany_ valuable statistics on commerce. See also : Dewey, Financial History of the United StaJes (1903); Bishop, History of American Manufactures, 3 vols. (1864-1867); Bagnall, 362 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Textile Industries of the United States, vol. I (1S93), only one volume appeared; Ibid., Samuel Slater and the Dafi"icious British subjects that this applied to their land and promised that England would support thcni 8i'- WiilUm- Eoe.n.ioK C».. N.F.N in a demand for its restoration, but the British government repudiated the promise at sight. The whites held that they were exempt from the clause in question because the Creek war was terminated by the treaty of Fort Jackson. They disliked greatly the British subjects whose assurances had rendered the Seminolcs warlike. One of these persons was Ale.xander Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader, who wrote the letters in which the Indians delivered their protests, and the other was 370 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY Captain Ambrister, an army officer who for the love of adventure drilled an Indian company and led it to war. Hostilities began when the savages raided the white settlers on the disputed lands. In November, i8i 7, the Americans retaliated by burning Fowltown, killing four of its Indian inhabitants, and dispersing the rest, who fled into Florida. The war department, Calhoun being secretary, now authorized a campaign against the Seminoles, and Jackson, commander of the southern military division, took command. His orders Florida" ° aUowed him to follow the enemy into Spanish territory, but forbade him to attack a Spanish post. He considered this limitation unwise, and in a letter to Monroe suggested that he pri- vately be given permission to attack the forts if the Indians took refuge in them. He claimed afterwards that he received the required au- thority, but Monroe denied that assertion. On it hinged the question of Jackson's responsibility for what was about to happen. He marched straight into Florida, took the forts at St. Marks and Pensacola, sent their garrisons with the governor of West Florida to Havanna, and raised the American flag over the province. At St. Marks he captured Arbuthnot and Ambrister, tried them by court martial, and hanged them forthwith, spite of their British citizenship. Two prominent Indian chiefs, who were also captured, were hanged without the for- mality of trial. These occurrences caused consternation in Washington, where foreign complications were feared. England was at first inclined to protest against the execution of her subjects, but as they Attitude of wgj-e where they had no business to be, the event was England and n j ^ 1^ c ■ Spain. allowed to pass, io appease Spam was not so easy. She demanded the surrender of the province and the j3unishment of Jackson. The first was readily granted, but the action of the general pleased the people, and the administration dared not make him suffer. The secretary of state was, therefore, intrusted with the task of bringing Madrid to reason. In some bold and able dis- patches he justified the invasion on the evident ground that Spain had not properly preserved the neutrality of her territory. She had un- doubtedly given encouragement, if not aid, to our enemies, and she could not well complain if at last we did what she herself ought to have done. Adams drove this point home with so much energy that Spain accepted the situation, and the waters of diplomacy were at length unruffled. For a time Jackson resented what he took for a re- flection on his conduct, but some skillful touches by Monroe brought him to accept in a reasonable spirit the solution of the difficult situation. At this junction the opposition took up the matter. Resolutions were introduced in each house to investigate the violation of neutrality obligations, Clay taking a prominent part in their defense. Those MISSOURI AND STATEHOOD 371 before the house occasioned a long debate, at the end of which Jackson was acquitted of wrongdoing. The senate referred the matter to a committee which made an adverse report, but by this time popular opinion ran so strongly for the ^^^^'^ ^t- hero of the invasion that the opposition did not press ja'ckson. the report to a vote. The upshot was that Jackson, already mentioned as a presidential possibility, gained rather than lost in the public esteem. Before this phase of the Seminole affair was complete, the negotia- tions for the purchase of Florida were resumed. Recent events served to promote them by showing Spain by what a slender hold she possessed the pro\'ince, and she now came p^"^as d to a decision to cede. February 22, 1S19, the senate re- ceived a treaty to that effect and passed it with little hesitation. It pro\dded that we should pay claims against Spain amounting to not more than $5,000,000, and take all Florida. It fLxed the western boundary of Louisiana at the Sabine river. The latter point had been in dispute since the purchase of Louisiana. By that bargain our claim to the Rio Grande was good, but the president thought we might safely relinquish it in view of the advantage of having an un- broken coast line from the Atlantic to the Sabine. Congress took the same view, but when the Texas boundary question came up more than twenty years later Monroe received much criticism because he had thrown away our claim to the rich region between that river and the Sabine. The treaty of 1819 was not ratified by Spain until late in 1820. July 17, 1821, the province was formally handed over to the United States and Jackson became its first American governor. It was made a territory, and in 1845 was admitted into the union as a state. The Missouri Compromise In 181 2 Missouri became a territory, with a legislature of its own, and a population of something more than 20,000. St. Louis, at the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi, was the center of activity, its chief industry being the rich fur trade of the Develop- Missouri valley. Three-fourths of its 2500 inhabitants were Missouri French, proud of their origin and resentful of the aggres- before 1820. sive Americans who established the laws of the English and offended the common taste by paving the streets and introducing rattling, iron-wheeled vehicles. The clash between the two civiliza- tions was of short duration. The French were contented with their state, fond of amusements, in every house a fiddle and on every night a dance, and they accepted with satisfaction a paternal form of society which embraced a benevolent ruling class and a large number of care- free dependents. The Americans were ambitious, eager for wealth, forever busy and boastful of their patriotism, and bent on establisliing S72 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY self-government for the bustling white immigrants who felt their responsibilities as builders of a new commonwealth. The tide of immigration was strong after the war of 1812; for stories of fertile lands in what from its position must certainly be a great state attracted many settlers from the East. They came chiefly from the South, passing through Kentucky and Tennessee in long wagon trains ac- companied by their slaves and cattle. By 1820 the population was 66,586. It was the first, and for many years the farthest, advance of the white man's civilization into the great mid-continental plain be- yond the Mississippi. We have seen that by 1800 the states north of Maryland, i.e. north of the Mason and Dixon's line, had restricted slavery, and those to the southward continued slave states. By the ordinance of Division of j ^37 the Ohio was made the dividing line between freedom 'nR^^efct ^"^ slavery for the region beyond the mountains; and to Slavery, thus the country between the Atlantic and the Mississippi was amicably divided between the two great interests. Nothing was done about a similar division when Louisiana was ac- quired or when territories were first created within its bounds. In the absence of restrictions the slaveholders felt they had equal rights there with other Americans, and they were a large part of the popula- tion of Missouri when in March, 1818, congress was asked to make the territory a state. No action was taken at that time, al- Missouri though under the rule that a territory could expect state- Stat^ehood hood when it had 60,000 inhabitants, there should have been no objection to the request. The petition was re- newed in the next session, and in February, 1819, the house was con- sidering a state bill when Tallmadge, of New York, offered an amend- ment to exclude further introduction of slaves into Missouri and grad- ually to emancipate those already there. After a short and angry debate, the amendment was carried in the house, but lost in the senate. This discussion lasted but two weeks. It was unexpected, and pro- duced violent commotions. Whenever slavery had been discussed before that in congress, hot words had been used ; for some Significance ^f j^g opponents would denounce it as a crime and some of Deba^te ^^^ defenders would reply bitterly. The quieter men. North and South, had usually agreed to avoid occasions for excitement, and the number of free and slave states was equal. With the admission of Alabama, then imminent, there would be eleven free and eleven slave states. It was to the interest of the new repub- licans and of every man who had hope of being president in 1824 to keep in abeyance a question which would surely realign political groups and make impossible the enactment of such national measures as tariffs and bills for internal improvements. Jefferson said the debate was "like a fire-bell in the night." The leaders of the party, therefore, regarded with apprehension the hot discussion and the THE COMPROMISE CARRIED" 373 voting of warm resolutions by public meetings and legislatures North and South through the summer of 1819. The question was intimately related to that sectional jealousy which to this time had not been entirely absent from most of the deliberations of congress. The rule of Virginia was distasteful to New England, and even the New York republicans, though Sectional- partners in that rule, were restless under it. Tallmadge, i^™ "^® who introduced the resolution, was a close friend of Clinton, Northern and Rufus King, leading defender of it, was an old federalist side, of New York. To the men of the North it seemed that Southerners, by extending their peculiar institution into the great Northwest, would establish their power in the Missouri valley and eventually lay hands on all the region west of it. If such a thing was to be prevented, it must be prevented now. If this advance was allowed, there would be a union of the South and the great Northwest, slavery being the common bond which would dominate tlae future as relentlessly as the Virginia combination ruled the present. Besides this feeling, there was in the North a growing conviction that slavery was a blot on our civilization, and ought to be restricted m area. A small number of Northern people even declared that slavery was a crime and slaveholders criminals. Thus the Southern supremacy in the government was attacked by a powerful combination which threatened to take from it all its support in New York, Pennsylvania, and other Northern states. Several combined interests existed in the South. Its leaders desired to perpetuate Southern control, in order to ward off unfavorable legislation ; they also felt that the growing immigration into the free North would enable that section to people quickly the vast West and establish control in congress. Such a result achieved, it was not doubted that an attempt would be made to amend the constitu- tion with regard to the three-fifths representation of ~. „ slaves, and perhaps efforts would be made to abolish slavery grn^Side. ' itself. Besides these considerations, many Southerners were irritated when told that slaveholding was a crime. Their best people owned slaves, and everywhere were seen efforts to make the lot of the blacks as happy as the necessities of bcmdage permitted. Thus it was that sentiment North and South through the summer of 1819 hardened, and practical leaders became con-vinced that only a compromise could prevent a general disarrangement of existing party alignments. January 3, 1820, four weeks after the new congress met, the house passed a bill to admit Maine. Massachusetts, which formerly hack authority over Maine, had consented to this action pro- vided congress approved before March 4, 1S20. Earlier The Mis- , • . 1 , , • , 7 1 1 • • soun Com- m the session Alabama was admitted, so that the admission promise. of Maine would give the free states a majority. The situation suggested a compromise, and when the Maine bill reached 374 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY the senate, it was combined with a bill then before that house to admit Missouri without restriction. This step was approved by the senate by a vote of 23 to 21. Then Thomas, of Illinois, moved to amend by admitting Missouri with slavery and by prohibiting slavery north of 36° 30', north latitude, in the rest of the Louisiana purchase. Here was the compromise that conservative men wished. It was much like that by which the Northwest was reserved to freedom in 1787 while the Southwest was left to slavery. It would remove the many dangers for persons and measures, and it passed the senate by a vote of 34 to 10. The house had a safe majority for restriction, and was disposed to throw away every thought of other ends to place slavery in a way of extinction, and voted to reject the senate compromise. It seemed that a complete deadlock was reached, when a conference committee was at last appointed. Then came further relenting, until enough members yielded to carry the compromise by a majority of three. Of the 87 who made the minority 33 were from New England, 46 were from the Middle states, and 8 were the solid Northwestern delegation. No Southern or Southwestern representative voted for restriction in Missouri, and 7 New Englanders and 8 Middle states men voted against it. The Missouri Compromise was the work of moderate men, chiefly those who lived in the Middle states and in the northern tier of Southern states. Many years later the South attacked the compromise, and pointed to the fact that it was not accepted by those Southerners who, as it was then put, were true to the rights of the South in 1820. This debate aroused the Missourians, thoroughly under the control of the slaveholders ; and the constitution they framed reflected their determination to hold the state. It guaranteed the existence of slavery in the new state and forbade the immigration of free negroes. When in the succeeding autumn it came before congress The Mis- fQj. approval, it was opposed by the Northern members of stitution"' the house, who declared that it violated the federal consti- tution. There was a hot debate over the right of con- gress to shackle a sovereign state, and the result was deadlock. Clay took a prominent part in the first compromise, and he now came for- ward with another. He induced the legislature of Missouri, then in session, to agree that the objectionable clause shoidd never be con- strued to lessen in Missouri the rights of citizens of other states, and with that the constitution was approved. One other difficulty appeared. Missouri, assuming that statehood was complete, chose presidential electors in 1820 favorable to Monroe, and the returns were sent to the senate. The Southerners Clay the favored their reception on the ground that Missouri be- (Qf .. ' came a state by the first compromise act, March, 1820. If this was allowed, the restriction on her constitution was illegal, and the North accordingly insisted that the returns be rejected. THE SOUTH AMERICAN STATES 375 Here was the possibility of an angry dispute, but Clay again smoothed the difSculty, proposing that the result be announced in words like these : If the vote of Missouri be counted, Monroe had 231 votes ; if not, he had 228 votes, and in either case he was elected president. For his work in these compromises Clay was called the "Pacificator," a title which pleased his friends. It was considered a great thing to bring jarring factions together and to avert the threatened dangers of cUsunion. The Monroe Doctrine Monroe's unwillingness to recognize the independence of the South American states in 1817 was based on his conviction, shared by Secre- tary Adams, that the revolutionists had not established a settled government, and on the feeling that rash action in South this respect would miperil the plans of purchasing Florida. Recognized By 1822 these two reasons were not operative. Florida was secured, and continued successes by the South Americans had made it certain that Spain, unassisted by other European powers, would not be able to reconquer what she had lost. Meanwhile, Clay continued to agitate for recognition, and aroused such enthusiasm that congress early in 182 1 resolved that it would support the president whenever he thought fit to extend recognition. Monroe delayed a year and then yielded, notifjing congress on March 18, 1822, that he would send ministers to the new states when money was provided for the expenses. Immediate action on the question was retarded by a far more com- plicated aspect of the matter in the field of general diplomacy. England had watched the South American revolutions with great interest. Ha\'ing lost the North American colonies as an outlet of trade, she wished new markets in the new reiiublics of the south. All the efforts of the revolutionists had been made ^°^^° ^ with her assistance, sometimes covert, but often open. Her fleet gave important aid on the Pacific, and her citizens sold sup- plies to the insurrectionary armies. When the European wars were over, the nations of the Old World united in the Holy Alliance to re- store the conditions existing before the European upheaval, and began to think of helping Spain to regain her colonies. This would upset the commercial plans of England, and she gave notice that she would not cooperate in the matter. But the other powers were disposed to act of themselves, and England, not wishing to oppose them alone, thought of uniting with the United States to prevent such action. George Canning, the minister whose rude attitude did so much to bring on the war of 1S12, was now head of the British foreign office. He turned to Monroe, who was keenly alive to what was going on, and suggested, August 16, 1823, that he unite with England in declaring that Europe should not extend her possessions in the western hern- isphere. At that time France was subduing a liberal revolution in 376 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY Spain, and it was believed that the Spanish monarch, too weak to pay for the service in money, would allow France to indemnify herself by seizing the South American states. Adams only half approved Canning's suggestion. He did not like, as he said, the idea that his country should "come in as a cock-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war." If we undertook ofAd^T '-^ ^'^^'^ ^^^^ South American states, it was, he thought, more in keeping with our dignity that we act on broad principles announced on our own initiative. The knowledge that England at that time had designs on Cuba and that Russia was seeking to get recognition of a very shadowy claim to the Pacific coast south to the fifty-first degree of latitude convinced him that it was time to take a positive stand. Clay's continual appeals in behalf of a repub- lican system in America with an eye to the recognition of the South American states had prepared the country to support such a policy as the secretary had in mind. It was out of such conditions that the Monroe Doctrine had its origin. Adams's determination was reached after many months of negotia- tions. Monroe must have been cognizant of what was done, and he . , gave it his approval. His cabinet were freely consulted, ShSe°^ ^ '^^'^ ^^^ members also accepted the ideas of the strong- willed secretary of state, who was at his best in asserting the dignity of his country. And Canning himself could not object ; for it was the United States, and not England, which was most con- cerned in the step about to be taken. His boast some years later that he "called a New World into existence to redress the balance of Old" was not entirely true. His suggestion was doubtless of great importance, and the cooperation of England was essential, but the MonroeDoctrine was an American doctrine and was designed to operate as much against English as continental aggression. He had little confidence in the ability of the United States to enforce their policy to the exclusion of England, and seems to have thought that in future emergencies England would manage to plant herself firmly in South America, a hope which the strong spirit of our government was to make ineffective. The policy of the United States being formed, it only remained to place it before the wo'-ld, and the annual message of 1823 was selected as a fitting means. It reached congress December 2 and t^f ^A^' disserted in clear and simple language two interrelated nounced. purposes, one referring to the New World and the other to the Old. The language of the message is worthy of perusal by all Americans. "In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves," it runs, "we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES 377 hemisphere we are of necessity more intimately connected, and by causes which must be obvaous to all enlightened and impartial ob- servers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially differ- ent in this respect from that of America. . . . We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to e.xtend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." The Election of 1824 December 3, 1822, an observer in Washington described the politi- cal situation there in these words: "While he who now fills the halls of the White House is slowly closing his eyes upon the rich trifles of the world, like an old father he stands surrounded p^'^^'O"'" by three full-grown sons, each seeking the inheritance cabinet, on his departure. John Q., from the favors bestowed by the old man in his lifetime, has been deemed a favorite always : J. C, however, from being possessed of a sanguine temper, sets up also pre- tensions to the inheritance. William and the old gentleman, you know, it has been reported, are constantly disagreeing in opinion and are hence not quite so friendly as father and son should be ; be this as it may, it seems pretty well settled that the Virginia estate, if not already done, will be apportioned to the Latter." These words well describe the opening of the campaign of 1824, but they do not mention two other candidates. Clay and General Jackson. Of the five aspirants Adams had the support of New England and some strength outside of it in sections where the federalists had been strong. Crawford was the heir of the old organization which directed the Virginia-New York alliance, now sadly ^"p"'^ °^ shorn of its power. Every other candidate made inroads candidates, on it. Calhoun took South Carolina, and Pennsylvania seemed his through his support of internal improvements. Clay had Kentucky and was accorded the new states north of the Ohio with Missouri and Louisiana. Jackson had Tennessee, and was making hard efforts to shame North Carolina out of her old practice of following Virginia blindly. Thus, in getting the old organization, Crawford got little more than his own state, with Virginia, and the support of the 378 THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY anti-Clintonian faction of New York republicans. In so confused a state of party no one expected any candidate to have a majority of the electoral votes, and an election by the house of representatives seemed likely. Before the campaign closed, Calhoun was eliminated as a contestant for first place. He had counted on Pennsylvania because the politi- cians there were for him. But Jackson, whose candidacy Calhoun ^^s, announced late, gathered strength with the people Second °^ ''^^ State, and the politicians early in 1824 came to Place. realize that they could not carry Calhoun to vic- tory. They quickly took up Jackson, and Calhoun, anxiously waiting to hear that this great state had declared for him, was astonished to learn that it had been swept over to Jackson. It was fatal to his hopes, but he calmly acquiesced in a plan to make him vice-president, and in that field he had little opposition. His decline in position implied the improvement of Jackson's chances. Crawford was generally esteemed the leading candidate until a stroke of paralysis laid him low in September, 1823. His friends de- clared it was slight, his enemies said he was at death's Uln ss"^ ^ door. Neither assertion was correct, but he was an in- valid all through the year 1824, and was, in fact, not physi- cally strong enough to come back into active national politics. The organization which had adopted him strove hard to hold its grip on its following, and was so successful that in the election he had the third place among the candidates. As the organization candidate he would naturally have the strongest following in the republican caucus, hitherto a strong recommendation. To overcome this advantage his opponent united to break Destroying Jq^j^ j-j^g caucus. This piece of party machinery was un- tne Caucus. . , , , i • , , • ^ democratic, and tended to make the presidency subservient to a congressional ring. It had been tolerated only because it was the sole attainable means of securing concentration of purpose in a largely disorganized party group. To oppose it, nomination by state legislatures was now resorted to. Various states recommended their favorites to the people and issued severe criticisms of the caucus system. So unpopular became the institution that none but the Craw- ford men would attend, and when in February, 1S24, the last republican caucus that was to meet was called to order, only 66 of the 216 re- publicans in congress were present. Of these, all but four voted for Crawford. In the attack on the caucus, the friends of Jackson, who was hailed as the people's candidate, were most active. The campaign of 1824, like its two predecessors, was conducted on personal grounds. This does not mean that principles were then un- known, but that on the leading principles under discussion, tariff and internal improvements, the candidates were practically of the same CLAY AS PRESIDENT-MAKER 379 opinion. Clay was the peculiar champion of the tariff, but neither of the others opposed it. Calhoun was preeminently for internal im- provements, but all the others mildly favored them. Crawford's friends in the South talked about his devotion to the "principles of 1798," the doctrines of strict reconstruction ; camoaten but national measures were so popular that they dare not press the point. Some Southerners wished to raise the question of Adams's attitude on the Missouri cjuestion, but he replied that he was for conciliation. In fact, no one dared bring up this point, since it would injure a Southern candidate in the North as much as a North- ern candidate in the South. As the only Northern candidate, Adams got the vote of that large portion of the inhabitants of iiis section who resented the Virginia domination. He was not personally popular there, spite of his many excellent qualities. No one awaited the election returns more impatiently than Clay. In 1S23 he was triumphantly reelected speaker, and if the election went to the house and he were one of the three highest, his popularity in that body would give him excellent pros- ^ T ^ pects. His fate hung on the action of Louisiana and New candidate. York. In the former state he had a majority of the legislature, which chose the electors, but a vote was taken when three of his friends were absent, and the Jackson and Adams men combined and carried the day. In New York the Tiie Result legislature also had the choice, and by skillful manipula- voting, tion three of the men chosen as Clay men voted at last for his opponents. A loser at these two points, he got only 37 votes, while Crawford got 41, Adams 84, and Jackson 99. His nar- row failure to fall among the lucky three was partly atoned for by the knowledge that in the field into which the contest was now com- mitted he would be the arbiter between his rivals. The Presidential Election of 1825 Both judgment and interest showed Clay the way he should lean. Crawford, incapacitated through health, was out of the question, and the choice was between the other two. Adams was an educated man, Jackson's training was chiefly obtained from to A'dai^^ frontier conditions. Adams was experienced in pubhc affairs at home and abroad, Jackson was a good fighter and a passable head of a military district, but his temper was violent, he could not make a speech, and in his only administrative office, governorship of Florida, he had, through lack of ordinary tact, allowed affairs to get into a most unnecessary muddle. Between two such men, who could hesitate who had the interest of the country at heart? Moreover, Clay's future interests pointed to .'\dams, who was really unpopular in the North and would hardly be able to perpetuate his leadership 38o THE LAST OF THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY more than four years. In the readjustment of parties, which was inevitable, it was more likely that the older states of the North would unite mth Clay, popular in the Northwest, than with Jackson, popular in the Southwest. Clay was now the most outspoken champion of the tariff. Was it not more natural for him to expect support in the North, where the manufactures were rapidly increasing, than in the South, where they could not hope to succeed ? All these arguments were urged upon him by the friends of Adams, from the time congress met early in December. He seems to have made up his mind from that time, but he said nothing. Meanwhile the friends of Jackson besought him to favor their candidate as a Western man and as the candidate who had the highest number of votes in the recent election. To ail their appeals he gave good-humored attention, but was careful to promise nothing. The number of states was then twenty-four, and the successful candi- date must have a majority, or thirteen. Crawford had four states without dispute, Virginia, Georgia, North Carohna, and Delaware, the heart of the old Virginia group. Adams had seven, in ConCTess ^^^ England and Maryland, the old federalist strong- hold. Jackson had Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, representing the new Southwest, South Carolina, a result of his coopera- tion with Calhoun, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which he and Calhoun had wrung from the ancient combination. This group was rather incongruous, and had no other common bond than its opposition to the Virginia school, from which its component parts had formerly received little recognition. Jackson also had Indiana, for local reasons, which gave him a total of seven. Of the other six Clay was able to control four, — Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, and Louisi- ana. Illinois, with only one representative, hung for a time in the balance, and then came over to Adams, who, with Clay's four, now had twelve states, and lacked only one of a majority ; and that one was New York, whose delegation in the house was badly divided. Half of New York's delegation were for Adams, the rest for Jackson and Crawford. The leader of the Crawford men was Van Buren, then a senator. He hoped the state's vote would remain New York divided On the first ballot. Thus there would be no choice Election. '^^ '^^^'^ ballot, which would give him opportunity at a later time to cast the New York vote for Adams and secure for himself the honor of president-maker. It was a shrewd scheme, and if successful, would have lessened Clay's prestige. But at the last moment one of Crawford's New York supporters. General Van Rensselaer, changed to Adams, which gave that state to the New Englander and made him president on the first ballot. Much seems to have depended on this action ; for if Van Buren could have delivered the Crawford group to Adams, they must have supported his admin- istration for a while, possibly for a long time. As it was, thev BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 381 remained unattached for a year, and then joined the opposition. In 1S28 they were, under Van Buren's leadership, an important element of the party which followed Jackson. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The general works oq the period covered in this chapter are the Histories by McMaster, Schouler, and Wilson (see page 312) ; Babcock, Rise of American Nation- alilv (igo5); Turner, Rise of the New West (iqo6), the chapters on social develop- ment are especially good; Burgess, The Middle Period (1S97), the outline is good; Stanwood, History of the Presidency (i8g8) ; Hart, American History told by Con- temporaries, vol. Ill (1906); and the Cambridge Modern History, vol. VII (1Q03). Perkins, Historical Sketches of the United Slates, iSij-tSjo (1830), is a reliable con- temporary work, but it is scarce. Besides the biographies and writings of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and King (see page 275), and those of John Quincy Adams, Clay, and Wirt (see page 312), much assistance can be had from Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, 2 vols. (191 1); Parton, Life of Andrew Jackson, 3 vols, (i860); Meigs, Life of Benton (1904); Hunt, Life of Calhoun (1907); Works of Calhoun, 6 vols. (1853-1855); Letters of Calhoun (Jameson, ed., 1899); and Shipp, Life of W. H. Crawford (1909). The legislative and executive sources are the same as for the preceding chapter. Niles' Weekly Register (1S11-1849) and The North American Review (1815-) are the important periodicals for the period. The Bank of the United States. Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States (1903), contains a good bibliography; Clark and Hall, Legislative and Documentary History of the Bank of t/ie United Stales (1832) ; Sumner, History of Banking in alt Nations, 4 vols. (1896), volume I deals with banks in the United States; Mac- Donald, Select Documents (1907), No. ^i presents the charter of the bank. The Missouri Compromise. Woodljurn. Uislorical Significance of the Missouri Compromise (.\raerican Hist. .Association Report, 1893), is the best narrative treat- ment. The debates are in Annals of Congress for 1819, 1820, and 1821. The bill with the important amendments is in MacDonald, Select Documents (1907). The background of the incident is in Carr, Missouri (18S8), but the treatment leaves much to be desired. .\n interesting view of the life in early Missouri can be had from Flint, Condensed History and Geography of the Western States, 2 vols. (1828), and History and Geography of lite Mississippi Valley, 2 vols. (1832). The Monroe Doctrine. Reddaway, Tlie Monroe Doctrine (1898 and 1906), very good ; P'ord, John Quincy Adams, his Connection with llie Monroe Doctrine (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, 1902); Rush, Memoranda of a Residence at Ike Court of London from i8ig to 1S2} (1845). For the British side see Stapleton, Political Life of George Canning, 3 vols. (1831); Official Correspondence of George Canning, 2 vols. (1887). For the Spanish .American revolt and its relations to the United States see: Paxson, The Iiulependence of the South American Republics (1903); Latane, Diplomatic Relations of the United States and South America (1900) ; Callahan, C»6a and International Relations (1899). For ^ l^ss detailed treatment see Hart, Foun- dations of American Foreign Policy (1901) ; and Moore, Digest of Inlernalional Law, 5 vols. (1906). The Official Correspondence is in American State Papers, Foreign Afairs, vol. V. Oilman, Life of James Monroe (1883), has a bibliography by J. FrankUn Jameson. For Independent Reading Mrs. Smith, Tlu- First Forty Vrars of Washington Society (1906); Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of tlie Far West, 3 vols. (1902) ; Drake, Making oj lite Great West (1884) ; Schurz, Life of Henry Clay, 2 vols. (18S7) ; Quincy, Figures of tlic Past (1883) ; Cobbett. A Year's Residence in the United Slfiles (181S-1819). CHAPTER XVIII THE ADMINISTR,\TION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS Party Formation under John Quincy Adams Adams's first action was to make Clay secretary of state ; notice that henceforth the two men would act together. The Jackson- Calhoun group, resenting the coalition which had defeated Clay and their leader, began a violent opposition. They voted Unite. against the confirmation of Clay, and returned to their homes full of scorn at what they proclaimed a corrupt bargain to obtain the presidency. The mass of people, to whom Jack- son was a hero, believed the charge and began to look to the day of vindication. Meanwhile, it was evident that Crawford's health would not be reestablished, and there was much an.xiety about the future conduct of his followers. Van Buren was their Cra\rford- leader, and was in close relation with the Virginians and the Ofl. Georgian, who spoke for the Southern half of the group. Had they divided, he might have gone for Adams, but it was decided that both sections should act together. Fur leadership the group now looked to Van Buren, and for a year he gave no intimation of what he would do. Then came Adams's first annual message, a strongly national document. It Adams's advocated internal improvements and a generally paternal nu^ Mes- attitude of the government in many measures to promote sage. the common welfare. It was as gall to the old republicans, who, strong in the Virginia faith, had gone with Crawford. Until that time Van Buren had cocjuetted with the Adams party : if he had continued that course, he would have had no Cravrford- following outside his own state. He now shifted position, Jackson. ^'^"i before the winter of 1S25-1826 was over was aiding the Jackson men in their onslaught on the president. Van Buren's accession to the Jackson party was welcome, for dis- sension was already beginning between the Tennesseeans and the South Carolinians. Calhoun was an experienced public ^*d rY*° man, Jackson was inexperienced. It angered the followers houn. '^^ the latter to hear it said that Calhoun's wisdom would have to save the party. It seemed to them that the junior partner was seeking to assume the functions of the senior. Now Van Buren was as skiUful a leader as Calhoun, and not so self- 382 BREAKING DOWN ADAMS 383 assertive. From the time he became a Jackson man he was in close association with the peculiarly Jackson group, and thenceforth the party contained a factional conflict which only the necessity of meeting a common danger kept within bounds. Until 1829 all factions acted together in the bitterest warfare on Adams. He was an honest and able president, but he and his secre- tary must be broken down. The first occasion was the annual message, in which Adams gave forth his national S'"^'' w*'' program. Jefferson had thought the government's func- Adams, tions should be few, and much should be left to individual initiative. Adams frankly announced another policy. Government, he said, should seek to improve the condition of the citizens. Roads and canals should be built, a national university should be founded, scientific discoveries should be promoted, distant seas should be explored, and observatories, "light-houses of the skies," should be estabhshed. All this was recommended in an academic sense. There was also high praise for internal improvements and for a nationally organized militia. On these features of the message the opposition fell furiously. Did they not show, it was said, that Adams was mad for concentration ? The echoes of the attack were heard in every part of the country, the state rights men leading the van. Immediately came a specific measure on which the opposition could rally. Bolivar, leader of the South American revolutionists, had conceived a plan for a congress of delegates from the new states north and south of the Isthmus of Panama, and in T,^^ the spring of 1825 Clay was asked if the United States congress, would accept an invitation to attend. The object of the meeting was not clearly stated, but Clay saw in it an opportunity to extend American influence, and favored an acceptance. Adams was more cautious, and it was decided to ask for more definite informa- tion about the objects of the meeting. In the autumn came formal invitations to attend a C(jngress at Panama. They came from Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia, and named as objects of considera- tion resistance to the attempts of European powers to interfere in America, the recognition of Hayti, the regulation of the slave trade, and the formation of an American league to offset the continental alliance in the Old World. This announcement seems hardly candid ; for the Colombian official press declared that the object of the congress was to form a league to oppose Spain, to liberate Cuba and Porto Rico, and to execute the Monroe Doctrine. Clay's imagination was warm and his diplomacy was aggressive. He welcomed the opportunity to extend the commercial and political interests of his country, and he carried the more cautious Adams with him. Accordingly, a special message went from the president to congress, December 26, announcing the nomination of delegates and asking that approjjriations be made to pay their e.xpenses. It disclaimed an intention to incur obligations 384 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS of a belligerent kind or to enter into a league of defense with the states represented at the congress, but it left badly defined the objects proposed for consideration. Then came an excited debate. The Jackson group questioned the constitutionality of the president's action, said he made too much of Monroe's recently announced Doctrine, and pointed Attitude of q^^ ^^^^ ^jj.g (jjsaster awaited the slave states if the nation ^e jac son p^^j-j^pj^^gfj i,j ^ congress in which sat representatives of the black republic of Hayti and at which plans would be made to free Cuba and Porto Rico from Spain and from the regime of slavery. The last argument was far-fetched, but it appealed to the South. It amounted to saying that if the government gave its coun- tenance to the movement for emancipation in the Spanish American communities, it would thereby weaken the cause of slavery in the South, and that this was an interference with local institutions. Such reasoning could only have been intended to arouse the Southerners against the administration. It had little effect in congress. The senate confirmed the nominations and the house after a hot debate voted the money for expenses. At last the representatives set out for the isthmus, but the debates in congress had so delayed them that it was summer, 1826, before they departed. One of them died on the way, and the other arrived to find that the congress, after a fruitless session, had adjourned, to meet again at Tacubaya. He lingered until the appointed day, but when it arrived internal commotions reigned, and the congress did not assemble. As to political significance the Panama incident was important. It furnished a rallying point for the "friends of Jackson," and their strength is shown by the votes of 24 to 19 in the senate and ^f^h^r°'* 134 to 60 in the house. Van Buren is said to have re- cident. " marked: "If they had only taken the other side and refused the mission, we should have had them." The debate, through the use made by the Jackson men of the slavery argument, tended to bring all the old Virginia following in the South into one alliance with the Tennesseean at the head. The Ta.riff .4nd the Development of Sectionalism In 1816 the South accepted the protective tariff, but it soon had reason to regret it. The westward migration injured all the old Atlantic states, north and south ; but in New England the Effects of loss was balanced by the growth of manufactures. In the Tariff; ^^le .South was no such compensatory process, and land South' and values fell steadily. The steady fall in the price of cotton West.' through the rapid extension of its area of cultivation in the Gulf region increased the suffering. Then arose a Southern cry that it was all due to the evident inequality of the tariff, which PROGRESS OF THE TARIFF 385 built up the North at the expense of the parts in which the people had no manufactures, but paid ever higher prices for their supplies. The West was in the same position logically, but it did not feel the burden in the same way. In the first place the continued improvement in transportation tended to lower prices of supplies, while land values naturally rose with the increase of population, and thus the burden was not apparent. Besides this, the prevalent idea in the West was confidence in the future of America. Imagination was keen on the subject, and the people readily adopted the theory of the home market. Let us have manufactures to develop our own cities, which will purchase our own raw product, said Clay, in announcing his famous "American System," and the idea found ready popular response. Add to this the fact that the protectionists wove into their system protective rates for raw wool and hemp, articles produced by the Western farmers, and we shall see why the Western farmers tolerated a system which their Southern brethren thought unjust. In 1819 occurred a severe panic. A period of prosperity and feverish speculation followed the war of 181 2, credit was expanded, and the inevitable collapse came surely. Now Growing arose a cry of hard times. Banks were embarrassed, p^^e^tion- agricultural products sold at lower prices, labor was ists. unemployed, and manufacturers suffered from competition with foreign goods produced at stagnation prices. Then arose a demand for further tariff legislation, and the result was the tariff bill of 1820. It provided for an increase in most of the schedules, espe- cially in those on woollens, cotton goods, iron, and hemp. It passed the house, but failed in the senate by one vote. In the former body it received all the votes from the Northwest, and all but one from the Middle states. All but five of the votes from the older South were against it and all but four of those from the Southwest, including Kentucky. The parts of New England which represented the older commercial and farming interests were against it, while those which favored the manufacturers were for it. Thus, the agricultural South and .Southwest and the commercial and agricultural parts of the Northeast were opposed to protection, and the manufacturing and agricultural Middle states and the Northwest were for it. Defeated by so close a vote, it was inevitable that the measure should come up again. Several attempts to take up the tariff followed the bill of 1S20, but none succeeded until 1824, when an act was carried through the house by a vote of 107 to 105 and through the senate by a vote - ._ , of 25 to 21. It did not provide as high duties as those of ^j ^g the defeated bill of 1820. By raising the rates on hemp it got the entire vote of Kentucky, and it had the solid support of the Northwest, whose growth in population gave the protectionists a con- siderable advantage as compared with the former vote. It also raised 386 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS the duty on raw wool, which was largely produced in the Northwest. Here again was seen a strong opposition in the South and Southwest, and New England was again divided, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine casting in opposition 22 of their 25 votes in the house. In these states the commercial interests were in political control, and Webster, voicing their wishes, made an excellent speech against the bill. Every vote of the Northwest and of Kentucky was in the affirm- ative and every vote of the South and the Southwest, except three from Maryland, one from Virginia, and two from Tennessee, was in the negative. Save for New England, the tariff had become a sec- tional issue. The bill of 1824 was a compromise, and the protectionists were resolved to make another effort. In 1827 a woollens bill was intro- duced, raising the rates on both the manufactured article LawT'*'^ and the raw product. It passed the house, but was 1827. defeated in the senate by the casting vote of Calhoun, the vice-president. But the manufacturers did not lose heart. In the summer of the same year they held at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a great convention, at which it was agreed to frame a bill in which all interests were represented and to try to induce congress to pass it. Meanwhile, the press teemed with arguments for and against protec- tion, and feeling became high. Such was the situation when congress met in December, 1S27, the Jackson party in control in the house. Divided nearly equally _ .„ . between friends and opponents of the tariff', they must of 1828. suffer severely did not some astute politician devise a plan of escape. Keeping their leader in the background, they prepared in committee a bill which should be objectionable to New England but satisfactory to the Middle states. It lowered the rates on the medium priced woollens and raised them on molasses and articles used in ship building, all of which injured New England interests ; and if Adams approved, as he must do or lose the support of the Middle states, he would suffer in his own section. It was ex- pected that efforts would be made to amend, and all the Jackson men, Northern and Southern, agreed to reject amendments and force the bill to a vote as it came from committee. They kept their agreement, spite of the bitter jibes of the New Englanders. But at last the unexpected happened: enough New Englanders voted "aye" to pass the bill with the support of the Jackson men of the North and the high tariff men of the North and Northwest. The result left Jack- son untouched by unpopularity. His Northern friends could point to their votes to show that they favored the tariff, and his Southern friends could point to their solid vote against it to show that they had fought ably to defeat it. John Randolph pointedly said that the bill "referred to manufactures of no sort or kind, but the manufacture of a President of the United States." But it was an unfair measure, and THE TARIFF AND NULLIFICATION 38; was popularly called "the tariff of abominations." In the senate the woollen schedule was increased, and this secured better recognition from New England. Webster, now a senator from Massachusetts, voted for the bUl, announcing that manufactures had progressed so far in his section that protection was henceforth its chief interest. It was a correct assertion. The long opposition between conimerce and manufactures in New England was at an end, and the latter had triumphed. This last stronghold of antitariff sentiment in the North had surrendered. The tariff was now wholly a sectional policy. This meant that the South had lost. Every one expected that the fight would soon be renewed, and her leaders were actively engaged in formulating an opposition which would stay the victors in what was then considered a selfish and unequal policy. South In this process Virginia took an attitude of inactivity. Carolina Not herself a cotton-raising state, and lacking very able southern leaders, she allowed the more positive South Carolinians Leadership, to take the initiative. From that time the cotton states dominated the Southern policy, and Calhoun, who was soon to be at odds with Jackson, became its spokesman. The weapon with which South Carolina proposed to secure success was nullification, as the event showed, too extreme a measure to com- mand the support even of the South. Its inception goes back to the Crawford faction in the state, committed to 2",?'? °^ state rights and hostile to the national policy of Calhoun. ^^^ They became outspoken with the enactment of the tariff of 1824 and held many vehement meetings of protest. They gave their cause a constitutional bias, declaring that neither protection nor internal improvements were justified Ijy the fundamental law. Cal- houn saw the growing feeling with alarm. He must join, or fight it. He did not hesitate long. By defeating the woollens bill of 1S27 he indicated his preference for the support of his own state, while he lost that of the North. In this year appeared "The Crisis," a series of letters by Turnbull, an extreme state rights man, counselling that South Carolina should "resist oppression." He did not say how this should be done, but the inference is that he wished her to use force. In the same spirit were many of his fellow citizens, but they objected to using force. A more pacific way was suggested by Calhoun, who in 1828 wrote a paper which came to be known as "The South Carolina E.xposition." It was prepared at the request of the state rights party and was submitted to the legislature as the report of a committee on relations with the federal government. Calhoun's authorship was not revealed at the tune, but it was suspected. "The Ex-position" harked back to the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. It declared: (i) that the union was a compact of equal states; (2) that the federal government, created by the states, was their agent to carry out what it had been commissioned to do; 388 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (3) that the constitution was its body of instructions ; (4) that the action of the agent was null when it violated the instruction ; and (5) that it was for the state to determine when the in- N irfi^ struct ions were violated. Applying this doctrine, it was tion. held that the protective tariff was not authorized in the con- stitution, and that South Carolina, a sovereign state, might lawfully and without incurring any serious penalty resist its execution within her borders. This declaration was not adopted by the legis- lature, but it was widely published, and found ready acceptance by a people exasperated by the steady increase of a species of ta.xation which awarded to South Carolina none of its advantages and all of its burdens. To put it into practice was to reduce the national authority to a nullity. Calhoun well knew this, but he thought that the prin- ciple once granted, congress would never make laws which would furnish the opportunity to put the theory into force. If it was said that the states coiJd not be trusted to exercise nullification moderately, the reply was that supreme authority was with the state and that it was as reasonable to trust the state to use it moderately as the federal government, which the nationalists wished to make supreme. Having formulated this doctrine, the South Carolinians rested on their oars, for the necessity for putting it into operation was not immediately apparent. They looked to the approaching No Inter- election with much confidence ; for was not Jackson, the temp* at '" probable \dctor, a Southern man and a cotton planter? Execution, ^nd was not Calhoun, ranking second in his party, the highest defender of nullification ? And if the election were favorable, might not all come right without an open contest ? The Election of 1828 In 1825 many men thought that the candidacy of Jackson was a bit of enthusiasm which would subside with his defeat. The union of his own and Calhoun's followers with those of Crawford L d° *^ ^^"-"^ showed they were mistaken. It was a strong com- bination, and kept a united front to its enemy, spite of the slumbering internal feud. Jackson proved a good leader. He was impetuous by temperament, his career was filled with quarrels, and his foes hoped and his friends feared he would commit some deed of anger which would overwhelm him in disgrace. But Jackson in the pursuit of his own affairs and Jackson as a national figure were distinct personalities. Though he chafed inwardly at the attacks showered on him, he was outwardly calm and dignified. In their hope of arousing him, the enemy went so far as to charge that his marriage was contracted at the expense of the happiness of another home. In other times this would have brought from him the fiercest denuncia- tion, but he realized the tactics behind the charge and left the task CHARGES AGAINST AD.\MS 389 of dispelling the calumny to his friends. He had married a divorced wife, but was in no sense the cause of her separation from her husl)and. Thus he came to the end of his campaign without misadventure of the kind expected. To his supporters he was an abused man, a great and good defender of his country, an upright citizen, and the champion of the people against an aristocracy indifferent to the welfare of the people. Besides his own popularity, the voters were influenced by three kinds of arguments directed to them by the \'igorous Jackson leaders : I. The first was the bargain and corruption cry. No dispassionate man objected to whatever understanding ^j Bargain' may have been made between Adams and Clay in the winter of 1824-1825, but to the people at large it had enough support in fact to make it appear that very wicked things were going on at Washington, where, as they thought, politicians sold the offices for their owm advantage. 2. It was urged that the rights of the states were jeopardized by the centralizing policy of a New Eng- land president, an argument w-hich appealed strongly to Rigi,ts'* the old Jeff'ersonian school. To support it was Adams's first annual message, as w-ell as the demand for internal improvements and for a high tariff. Was it not time, said the objectors, to check a process which, if continued, w^ould eventually place the national government in the hands of a selfish majority to tyrannize over the minority ? 3. Another plan of attack was to accuse Adams of abusing the patronage. The charge was unfounded, for no president had been less inclined to appoint men for his own advantage. He was rigidly honest, and lost support by refusing to appoint patjgnage men because they worked for his reelection. One of them expressed his disgust by telling him to his face that he might be right but he woidd not be reelected. Yet Adams persisted, even retaining in his confidence McLean, a Calhoun supporter, who as postmaster- general used his large patronage in the interest of the opposition. In truth, the opinion of the countrj' ran strongly for political appoint- ments. Political leaders would not work in the election if they did not have assurance of reward. Edward Everett expressed the feel- ing of every shrewd observer when he said in 1828 : "For an Admin- istration then to bestow its patronage, without distinction of party, is to court its own destruction." Thus, while Adams lost the support of his own friends, he was charged with abusing the patronage, and the country came to believe that the cause of good government de- manded that a party be placed in power which, as one Jackson man expressed it, would "cleanse the Augean stables.'' Arguments like these pleased the mass of citizens. The government had long been based on the idea that the best men should be chosen to represent the people. The Jackson leaders declared that the 390 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS representatives had ceased to act as upright agents. They declared that the remedy \\as to replace the old leaders by others closely responsive to the popular will. So far as they utOized the Crawford and Calhoun organizations they had trained leaders ; but here, as in the formation of all new parties, they had many others who had little experience in politics, men of vehement prejudices and radical ideas. Such was the earliest composition of the Jacksonian democracy. On the other side were ranged the forces of conservatism. The commercial classes, the manufacturers generally in the Middle states, the city people, and the larger landowners, had little sym- p^*"^^™^ pathy with the cause of a Western military hero in whose name class was set against class. With them worked the followers of Clay, strongest in the Northwest, and the Adams men, strongest in New England, whose instincts likewise were for conserva- tive policies. Adams was their logical candidate for the presidency, and Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, ran with him for the vice-presi- dency. For the second place the Jackson men supported Calhoun. As the campaign progressed, it was evident that Jackson's prospects were good. Adams had New England, but hardly anything else. Not even Clay's influence could carry the West for him against I?* ,. such a popular hero as Tackson. The South stood together, Election. ,.','. _ -' , . i . • i r i and with it went Pennsylvania, destined for many years to be a democratic stronghold. In New York the commercial class favored Adams, but the farmers of the interior, marshaled by the skillful Van Buren, were for Jackson. They were rent in twain, how- ever, by the antimasonic movement, and not even Van Buren could promise a solid Jackson vote from the state. Of its 36 votes, as it fell out, 16 went for Adams and the rest for Jackson. Thus was revived under the leadership of Jackson that old combination of the South and the great Central states under which the Virginia regime was long in power. The total vote was 178 for Jackson and 83 for Adams. The latter got every New England vote but one in Maine, with 6 in Maryland, 8 in New Jersey, 3 in Delaware, and 16 in New York. He had none from the region south of the Potomac and west of the Alleghanies. The result was the defeat of one of the most conscien- tious of presidents because he could not withstand the tide of popular government then running strong, a movement much like that which carried his father and the federalist party to destruction in 1800. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The general works and sources continue as for chapter XVII ; and the same is true of biographies of leading men, to which add Jervey, Life of Robert Y. Hayitc (iQog). The poUtical history of Adams's administration is treated in Turner, Rise of the New West (1906) ; McMaster, History of the People of the United States, vol. V (iQco) ; and Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. 11 (iQii). On the growth of the state rights feeling see Hunt, Life of Calhoun (1907); VhiWips, Georgia and StateRights {km. Kiit. Asin. Report, igoi.vol. II) ; Ames,5tote BIBLIOGRAPHIC.\L NOTE 391 Docttmmls on Ftderal Relalions, Nos. 3-5 (1900-1905) ; Houston, NuUification in South Carolina (Har\-ard Hist. Sliidics, i S93) ; Brown, The Lower South in A merican History (1902), a most suggestive essay; Calhoun, The South Carolina Exposi- tion (Works, vol. VI, 1854); and Jervey, Life of Robert Y. Hayne (igog). On the tariff a work favorable to the protectionists is Stanvvood, American Tariff Controversies, 2 vols. (1503) ; and on the opposite side Taussig, Tariff History of the United States (1803, new ed. iqoo). The memorials from the manufactures and others are in A merican State Papers, Finance, vols. IH-V. See also Niles, Wcclily Register for the years involved. ' For Independent Reading Morse, John Qiiincy Adams (iSSj) ; McMastcr, Daniel Webster (1Q02) ; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, 2 vols. (1911); Brown, The Lower South in American History (190?) ; and Shepard, Van Buren (i8qi). CHAPTER XIX PROBLEMS OF JACKSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION The New President in Charge March 4, 1829, Washington was filled with visitors come to see the " people's champion " take the oath of office. They covered the slopes of Capitol Hill from where the peace monument now Inaugura- stands to the crest, where a picket fence inclosed the open Jackson. square which now separates the capitol from the library of congress. Within this yard another great crowd awaited the inaugural ceremony from the east portico. Just before noon the watchers on the slope saw a knot of gentlemen issue from a hotel on the avenue and move slowly up the hill. In the midst walked Jackson, bareheaded, tall and erect, his white hair conspicuous above the shoulders of his companions. A few minutes later he had entered the building, and in a short time stood before the great crowd in the inclosure and took the oath which John Marshall administered. Then came an inaugural address, safely scanned beforehand by his advisers, lest it say something which would give the carping opposi- tion an opportunity to upbraid him. All went well. The spectacle was so impressive that Francis Scott Key, who stood at a gate of the picket fence, exclaimed: "It is beautiful, it is sublime!" The oath taken, the president mounted his horse and rode to the White House, where a reception was tendered to any one who chose to come. Now followed a saturnalia. Statesmen and stable-boys, fine ladies and washerwomen, white people and blacks, all pushed into the mansion, grasped the hand of the president, if they could The ecep- ^g^^-]^ }^jj^^ ^j^^j rushed upon the waiters serving refresh- ments. From the rabble he was glad to escape by a side door, but the jostling crowd surged through the rooms, upsetting the trays in the hands of the servants, breaking the dishes, and leaping on the furniture in their eagerness to be served, until at last they were turned aside by some thoughtful person who had tubs of punch carried to the lawns, whither the mob quickly followed. Thus was inaugu- rated the rule of the democracy. The cabinet was already announced. At the head was Cabnet ^^^ Buren, secretary of state, whom most persons thought an excellent selection. The others were nearly evenly divided between his own followers and the friends of Calhoun. They had all been selected after much conference between the two factions, 392 DEMOCRACY AT THE HELM 393 and it seems that Jackson had been forced to submit to such a choice. The fact shows how far the party had cume to be a defi- nite organization, of which the president was onl}' the leader. There was much disappointment, especially among the Virginians, whose state, save for a short time in Madison's presidency, had always had a seat in the cabinet since the beginning of the govern- ment. Not another Virginian was to sit there until the ill-starred administration of Tyler, himself a Virginian. The disappointed ones made the best they could of the situation, and some of them were later consoled with high diplomatic appointments. This cabinet was not to be a body of political advisers. The members who supported Calhoun had not the president's coniidence to the same extent as Van Buren, Eaton, and Barry, the inefficient postmaster-general. These men, with W. B. J^. Lewis, F. P. Blair, J. A. Hamilton, A. J. Donelson, cabinet." and some others, established such superior influence that they were dubbed the "Kitchen Cabinet." They consti- tuted a private cabal in the interest of Van Buren. Flatterers and others who sought favors secured its influence. It was the real council of the anti-Calhoun faction until the reorganiza- tion of the cabinet in 1831 enabled the president to have a cab- inet in which no Calhounite had place. With that change he consulted his regular ad\asers more freely, and the ''Kitchen Cabinet" lost its importance. Among the inauguration visitors were a vast number of office seekers. The impression that Adams officials would be removed was general, and every Jackson man who could do so was present with petitions for reward for party service. Jack- ^^°^^ ' son was little mclined to resent the pressure brought to bear upon him. He announced frankly his belief in rotation in office, saying that one honest citizen was as capable as another of serving the public. He believed the campaign charges that the old officials were largely incompetent or touched with partisanship. It must be remembered that the old method of selecting officials was by personal recommendation, that many old men were in office who were no longer able to do the duty assigned to them, which facts gave some basis for the desire to adopt a new system. The treasury, we are told, was popularly called by residents of Washington " the octogenarian depart- ment." The removals which followed the inauguration were many more than had occurred before that time, but not so many as were made by later presidents. Most of Jackson's appointees were ine.x- perienced men, many of them were incompetent, and a few proved dishonest. The system he inaugurated had previously grown up in several states, notably in New York. It was characterized by Marcy, of New York, in the phrase, later generally adopted, " To the victors belong the spoils! " 394 JACKSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION The selection of one member of the cabinet brouglit out an unex- pected protest. Senator John H. Eaton, of Tennessee, a staunch friend of Jackson's, was made secretary of war. January i, Eaton 1S29, he was married to Mrs. Timberlalce, daughter of a Washington tavern-keeper, who was reported to have had many adventures, a woman whom the society of the city would not receive. Remonstrances were made to Jackson against bringing into his official family one who would undoubtedly be rejected socially. He believed her innocent, and refused to discriminate against her, saying he came to Washington to make a cabinet in the interest of the country and not to please the ladies of the capital. Trouble began immediately, but as official entertainments were not held until society returned to Washington after the summer season was past, an open break was deferred until the fall. Then Jackson gave a dinner, to which all the invited ones came. But their restrained looks showed their feelings toward Mrs. Eaton. When other cabinet officers gave dinners, some members refused to attend. At other places Mrs. Eaton was treated so coolly that before the end of the winter she ceased to accept invitations. Jackson was deeply offended. He took the conduct of society as an affront to himself. He thought a combina- tion was made to discredit his administration. So far, this was only a social affair, but it soon assumed a political aspect. Van Buren was a widower. He had no family to object to Mrs. Eaton, and won the regard of the president by Political conspicuous attentions to her on every possible occasion. ofX^"^"" Of those who took the opposite course, Mrs. Calhoun was Matter. the leader, and she was supported by the wives of several other cabinet members. Thus Jackson came to associate the vice-president with what he called the conspiracy, and he drew nearer to the friends of Van Buren. He called the protesting cabinet members before him and told them he expected them to induce their wives to treat more courteously the wife of his friend. The only reply they made was that they could not interfere with the social affairs of their families. There was no improvement in the situation of the unhappy woman, and the breach in the administration party grew steadily wider. Internal Improvements Checked While this affair progressed. Van Buren was able to give his rival another deadly thrust by bringing the president over to the opposi- tion to internal improvements, whose champion Calhoun Calhoun 1;,^^ lo^g been. The vice-president was the author of the Improvr-™^ bonus bill, 1S17 (see page 365), which Madison vetoed ments. on constitutional grounds. But the friends of improve- ments persisted, and in 181 9 passed resolutions calling on the secretary of war, Calhoun, to report on the roads necessary for THE MAYSVILLE VETO 395 military defense. The secretary complied, but his comprehensive scheme was not acted upon. However, so many appropriations were made for single works that Monroe, himself a strict constructionist, decided to give the country another warning like that of Madison. Accordingly he vetoed, in 1822, a bill to establish toll-gates on, and otherwise to regulate, the Cumberland road, a great national highway designed to run from the Potomac to the capital of Missouri, then the westernmost state. Jackson was at that time in private life, but he wrote to Monroe, congratulating him on the veto. In 1824 a bill was passed directing the secretary of war to have made surveys of such roads and canals as were needed for national development. Ne.xt year Calhoun reported a system of roads and canals, the chief features of which were: (i) a canal from the Potomac to the Oliio, to be extended finally to Lake Erie, (2) an inland waterway along the coast from the Potomac to Boston harbor, and (3) a national highway from New Orleans to Washington. Besides these works he pointed out others which ought to be undertaken, some in the South, and some in the West. To the opponents of improvements it seemed a bid for the support of all the parts of the country which would be affected. Nothing was done to carry out this scheme while Adams was president, but it was still in the minds of men at the accession of Jackson. The large group who favored it, strong especially in the Middle and North- western states, looked to Calhoun, second in the party and probable successor in 1832, to carry it out. If the weight of Jackson's opposi- tion could be aroused, it would weaken the scheme and at the same time deal a hard blow to the hopes of Calhoun. Van Buren was the daily companion of the president. He was not a great statesman, but he had tact and common sense, and Jackson, who knew little about practical administration, asked his advice continually. The two men talked freely about '^.^^ Mays- the dangers they believed to exist in the growing tendency jgjo_ ' to get congress to vote money for roads and canals which were purely local, and it was decided that at the first good opportu- nity a veto should be given which would again call attention to the evils in the practice. Soon„_afterwards a bill was introduced to authorize the government to take stock in a road from Maysville, Kentucky, to Lexington, in the same state. The road was purely local, and a veto of it could be easily defended. Its passage through the two houses was carefully watched from the White House, and the veto was duly sent May 27, 1830. Many of the president's best friends feared the consequences, saj-ing that it would alienate Pennsylvania and the West. He replied that it was only the contractors and land- boomers, with the politicians who feared them, that opposed the veto, and that the people at large would approve the measure. The news from the people confirmed this foresight. The Maysville veto proved one of the popular measures of Jackson's career. In delivering it he 396 JACKSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION showed one of his most characteristic traits, his ability to divine what the people wished and his willingness to appeal to them over the heads of the politicians. After rejecting the Maysville bill Jackson objected to many similar measures. He effectively checked appropriations for roads in the states, although many were built in the territories. He Later His- f]j(] ,-,,-,(- inake the same objection to appropriations for ternai im- improving rivers and harbors, destined to be for many provements. years the congressman's means of getting benefits for his district. The veto came just when railroads were coming into use, the burden of constructing them was transferred to the states, which made, in the next generation, lavish gifts to such enter- prises. The rage for railroad construction at state expense led to much extravagance in the West and was a vital cause of the panic of 1837. After 1850 the Jackson policy was reversed, when great land grants began to be made for the construction of railroads, the most important being the grants in aid of the transcontinental roads during the civil war and immediately afterwards. Division in the Jacksonian Party In 1830 Calhoun was committed to state rights, the program of his friends in South Carolina, and he could not seriously object to the checking of irternal improvements. In fact, the South ^'j*® 'V^''*^ supported the Maysville veto nearly unanimously. It and Union '^ i- . ,. ,, r . • Men. 'W'^s more concerned m nnpedmg the progress of protection ; and the doctrine of nullification, announced for that pur- pose, was in danger of becoming the general slogan of that section. Many Northern men felt that the doctrine ought to be opposed, and the great Hayne- Webster debate, which occurred at this time, gave them a feeling of relief, since it afforded the greatest champion of the union, Daniel Webster, an opportunity to place before the country the arguments for a stronger federal government. The occasion of this celebrated debate was some resolutions offered December 29, 1829, by Senator Foote, of Connecticut, looking to the restriction of land sales. The Western senators objected Resolution, immediately, thinking that Foote merely wished to check the drain of Eastern population to the West. Benton, of Missouri, a forceful but bitter debater, took up the cause of the West in one of his characteristic speeches, and much feeling was aroused in the senate. Then the advocates of states rights thought they saw an opportunity to draw the West to their side. They wished to show that it was not strictly constitutional for the federal government to pass laws which bore hardly on any section, and that an attempt to do so was but in keeping with the policy of building up one section at the expense of another, a policy which must lead to hostility of ILWNE AND WEBSTER 397 section against section witli a resulting weakening of the bond of union. It was impossible to ignore the bearing of this argument on the Southern protest against the protective tariff. It was set forth with much skillfulness by Hayne, of South Carolina, a ready and able debater, the equal, in the opinion of the Southerners, ^tf*^'*'^ of any debater in the senate. Then Webster, senator from Forth Massachusetts, came to the defense of the North. He denied that his section wished to sacrifice to its own interest any other section, and resented with special force the charge that it was hostile to the West. Hayne had hinted that there was a constitutional way by which a state could undo an unauthorized act of oppression at the hand? of the federal congress ; and Webster now boldly challenged the theory, his purpose being to force Hayne to a more .specific declaration of his meaning. By this time the debate had ceased to be concerned wth the sale of Western lands and had become a discussion of the fundamental principles of the constitution. The point at issue was : Can a State legally defy the laws of congress, however much it may think them unwarranted by the constitution ? Hayne couid not well avoid Webster's challenge, and to do him jus- tice he had no desire to do so. All the state rights group were with him and waited confidently for his reply. Many times in debate their theory had been appealed to, but never had it been set forth in all its completeness by a master of the art of presentation. Their e.xpectation was well known in the city and the chamber Ar^^/j,, and galleries were crowded when on January 21, 1830, the Southern champion rose to make his great speech. He was a man of fine appearance and spoke with much grace, although he could utter the sharpest criticisms on an adversary. He was given to making his arguments personal, and resorted to the practice in this speech. In this respect his utterances were neither dignified nor able. But he soon passed on to the constitutional phase, where he spoke with better effect. He accepted the "South Carolina Exposition" of 1828 as sound doctrine, showed that it was in line with the Virguiia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798, and afiirmed that it was the doctrine that New England espoused when in Madison's administration she found herself, like the South in 1830, suffering from laws enacted by the majority in control of the national governm.ent. And then he took up the cause of the South with great earnestness..,^s the federal gov- ernment, he asked, the judge of its own power? To assert the affirmative, whether the power be exercised by congress or by the supreme court, is to make the central government " a government with- out limitation of powers " ! It is to reduce the states to the level of mere corporations. He would speak a word for South Carolina. She was but seeking to preserve herself from measures which had pros- trated her industry and would soon impoverish the whole South ; she 398 JACKSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION sought to presenx the union of states as it was founded, and to save the states from usurpations which would leave them nothing they could call their own. Webster's reply was made on the 26th, the senate chamber being crowded to its utmost capacity. Tall, dignified, with a striking leonine face, a rich baritone voice, and a deliberate manner, Webster s j^^ ^^,^^ easily the best orator in the senate. He met the personal thrusts of Hayne with a satirical courtesy which left nothing to be desired by the friends of the speaker, watching anxiously to see if their champion would meet the demands of the occasion. In this respect neither speaker was calm nor properly self- restrained, but even here Webster showed his mental superiority. It was in his presentation of constitutional argument that we find our chief satisfaction with the Northern champion. Frankly accept- ing the consolidation theory, he proceeded to combat the His Con- doctrine that a state may declare null a law of congress Argument, without an appeal to revolution. This doctrine, he said, rested on the false assumption that the federal government was the creature of twenty-four states, each with a will of its own, wills wliich were apt to be at variance with one another, the exercise of which would reduce the central government to an absurdity. But where lies true sovereignty but in the people for whom both the fed- eral and state governments are agents? Each government derives authority from the same source, each is supreme in its own sphere, and the constitution in all that it pretends to regulate is, by the authority of the sovereign people, the supreme law of the land. So far as the constitution restrains the states, in so far is the authority of the states not supreme. The constitution is a fact. Gentlemen may wish it had been made otherwise than it was made : with that we have nothing to do. It must be obeyed until it is changed. In one state, we may say, the tarifif is declared an act of usurpation, in another it is declared con- stitutional ; how shall we reconcile the two points of view if we accept the theory that a state may pass on the matter ? If the general gov- ernment has no power to pass on the contending assertions, is it not "a rope of sand" ? It is not claimed that the federal government has unrestricted power. It has all the power given it in the constitution made by the people, all this and no more. Among the specified powers is the creation of a supreme judiciary to pass upon all questions arising under the constitution, and it is to this court and not to any state that we ought to refer the question^of the power of congress to make any law it assumes to inake^^''Suppose South Carolina should declare the tariff law nulirmust her agents not try to enforce the declaration ? But the federal government declares it legal, and must its agent not seek to enforce it? What would the result be but civil war? To oppose the execution of the law is treason. Can a state be allowed tp commit treason with impunity ? If the constitution is imperfect JACKSON AND NULLIFICATION 395 it can be amended by the people who made it, but as long as it is law it should be obeyed. From this splendid debate each side withdrew with complacent feel- ings. The Southerners were pleased that their champion iiad set forth their views of state sovereignty, the Northerners took courage Ln seeing Webster support the glory and power of r"s'^,'s the union by such masterly reasoning. But the delxite, final as it was as a statement of theory, went beyond the practical situation. The country was not yet ready to follow the controversy to the end which Webster so clearly foresaw, to civil war. Each side treasured its own argument in memory for a more strenuous day, while the practical politician took up the tasks actually before him. Of this class were Jackson and Van Buren, generally supposed to lean to state rights, but in their inner hearts willing to see Calhoun and the South Carolinians discredited by the powerful forensics of \Vebster. (R y this tirne we may freely .s pefi ^ r,f the-.SQiiiJ*-P«-y(4m-a--»hfwy as niutmcatioii^"^V ould it be generally adopted in the South ? The insistence ot its defenders that it was but the doctrine of 1798 shows their anxiety to draw the Virginians to its support. It proved a futile hope ; for Virginia, slighted in the make-up of the new admin- istration, would not adopt the leadership of South Caro- lina. More important was the attitude of Jackson, on Njillification w'hose action the nullifiers waited uneasily. They sup- checked. ported him in 1828, their leader, Calhoun,was high in party councils, and they well knew that if the president, a Southerner him- self, came over to their side, they would unite the South and be able to force the North into a relincjuishment of its high tariff policy. Constitutional arguments are but the theoretical basis of a political movement, and if practical ends could be attained, Webster's reasoning might be ignored. April 13, 1830, was Jefferson's birthday, generally celebrated by his followers with speeches and toasts. This year the South Carolinians Controlled the arrangements of the celebration in Wash- ington and planned to have the speeches express their :!*u^°°'" peculiar views of state rights. The president was invited xoast. and was expected to give a toast. He was fully conscious of all that was going on and consulted with Van Buren in regard to his toast. Now at this time Jackson was in sympathy with the Van Buren faction, as were, in fact, all of his "Kitchen Cabinet," and it was dccidecl that he should give such a toast as would show his disapproval of Calhoun's theories. He arose at the feast with this sentiment, "Our federal union, it must be preserved !" The nullifiers could only gasp. Calhoun, who was next called on, tried to retrieve the situation by giving as his toast, "The union, next to our liberty, most dear ! May we all remember that it can only be preserved by 400 JACKSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION respecting the rights of the states and distributing equally the benefits and burthen of the union ! " But the words of the president were most significant. They indicated that he would not be brought into the general Southern movement which the nullifiers planned. In another respect Jackson thwarted the plans of the South Caro- linians. In 1802 the United States, approving the cession of Georgia's claim to Alabama and Mississippi, agreed to remove the Georgia and (^reek and Cherokee Indians from the limits of Georgia kees. proper "as early as the same can be peaceably obtained on reasonable terms." By several treaties all but 9,000,000 acres of the Indian lands were purchased before 1825 and opened to settlement. But at this time the Indians decided in a council that they would sell no more land. They had their separate form of government, and their land, much of it very fertile, was desired for white settlement. Georgia naturally thought it intolerable that there should be a civil power withm her borders which defied her authority, and she called on the federal government to execute the agreement of 1802. Adams hesitated to do anything decisive. Then the state announced that if the Indians were not removed she would exercise her right as a sovereign state, by di^dding the Indian lands into counties, opening them to settlement, and establishing a white man's government over them. By the constitution, congress had authority over trade with the Indians and made treaties with them. It was alst) provided that treaties should be the supreme law of the land. As the Indians pleaded that they were protected by treaties, would not the proposed action of Georgia violate the constitution ? The state urged her own sovereignty over the territory within her limits, but the Indians took the matter to the courts. Two important decisions of the federal supreme court were the result. Iln one, the Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia, it was held that an Indian tribe, while Status of an j^^j- ,^j.^ independent nation, was, nevertheless, a state, and Tribe. under the protection of congress. In the other, Worcester vs. Georgia, it was held by the court. Chief Justice Mar- shall giving the decision, that the attempt of Georgia to extend her jurisdiction over the lands formerly held by the Indians was illegal. These matters ran past the period to which our story has come, for they extend from the beginning of Jackson's term to 1833 ; but the sharp controversy they produced was in its critical Georgia and phase in 1830. They were related to the general attempt Ca^roiinr °^ South Carolina to draw all the South to her support Con- because they involved the theory of state sovereignty, troversy. If Georgia leant so decidedly on the theory in her Indian controversy, would she not make common cause with her sister state in the fight to lower the tariff ? The nullifiers undoubtedly expected as much, but they were disappointed. In the first place the .f THE INTRIGUE AGAINST CALHOUN 401 men of Georgia were devoted to Crawford, who was bitterly opposed to Calhoun. They supported Jackson in 1828, but adhered to the Van Buren, rather than the Calhoun, faction. In the second place, Jack- son gave them continual support in the Indian matter, informing the Indians soon after his inauguration that there was nothing for them but to submit and remove beyond the Mississippi. As the contro- versy was still unsettled in 1850 Georgia dared not move against the declared opposition of Jackson, who let it be known to the Georgians that he expected their support in the defense of the cause of union. Thus it happened that South Carolina saw her hopes of uniting all the south in a common cause of nidlification fall to the ground ; and the turn of events augured no good for the Calhoun faction, whom the Van Buren faction were bent on reducing, with Jackson's help, to a position of inferiority. It was a sad blow to the ambition of the great South Carolinian. Face to face with the loss of his own state in 1S28, he had been compelled to turn a somersault from nationalism to a state rights position, and while he was in mid-air the artful Van Buren struck him a blow which made his landing precarious. In the autumn of 1S29, when Jackson was deeply touched by what he considered the combination to discredit Eaton through the exclusion of Mrs. Eaton from society, the "Kitchen Cabinet" re- vealed to him that Calhoun, formerly secretary of war, Jackson wished in 181S to discipline him for the invasion of Flor- ..J^t, •1X11 11 • 1 against Ida. Jackson knew that such a purpose was entertamed calhoun. in the cabinet at the time, but he supposed that Crawford was its author. Calhoun should have removed this suspicion, but fearing Jackson's wrath, had allowed him to go on thinking that Crawford was the author of the suggestion. When the truth at last came out, Jackson, suspicious and of violent temper, would believe nothing but that the South Carolinian had acted traitorously. He said nothing openly until the Jefferson birthday dinner brought him to the point of declared opposition ; for Calhoun had a powerful following, and a false move would cause the public to think that party harmony was jeopardized by personal intrigue. But now Calhoun was identified with disunion and might be attacked with greater safety. The day after the birthday dinner a friend of Van Buren at the side of the president wrote to Crawford for verification of the story that had been privately revealed. The reply of Crawford, who still hated Calhoun, was all that was expected. Then *° f^e^ began a bitter correspondence between president and vice- spondence. president, the highest man and next highest in the ad- ministration party, in which neither convinced the other of his ^v^ong- doing. It ended with a curt note in which Jackson told his corre- spondent that future friendship between them was impossible. Van Buren was too shrewd to take open part in the affair. He was careful 2D 402 JACKSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION not to talk with Jackson about it, but it is impossible to suppose that he was ignorant of a matter so full of weight for his future. The breach it produced was accentuated by the selection of a new party or- gan, which up to this time had been the Daily Telegraph, edited by Duff Green, a devoted Calhoun man. Frank P. Blair, destined to become one of the most influential party editors of the day, was _ brought to Washington, and in December, 1S30, he founded the Globe, whose influence was soon widespread. Blair was a firm friend of Jackson and gave all his energy to promot- ing the cause of Van Buren. Since the president did not publish this correspondence, Calhoun concluded that he feared to do so. Friends, to whom it was freely shown, held the same view and thought that its publica- *^r^no!^ ed ^^°^ would crush the crafty New Yorker. Then Calhoun Traitor. ^ook the initiative, laying his case before the public in a pamphlet which saw the light of day in February, 1831. The Globe immediately charged Calhoun with an attempt to sow dis- sension in the party, the administrative press and politicians, fearing the wrath of Jackson, took up the cry, and by the end of spring Cal- houn was fiercely denounced as a party traitor. By the spring of 1S31 the anti-Calhoun men were so strong that they were prepared to thrust their opponents out of the cabinet. But even here the proceedings were marked by consum- Cabinet mate skill. Fearing that a bald dismissal would plant irreconcilable hatred within the party, it was arranged that Van Buren and Eaton should resign voluntarily. They gave as their reason the desire to relieve Jackson from the embarrassment of their presence, but before resigning they had been promised other positions. Van Buren was to be minister to England, and it was thought that Eaton could be elected senator from Tennessee. When this faction had withdrawn, the president, with every outward appear- ance of impartiality, called for the withdrawal of the others, so that neither should have the advantage in the cabinet. He thus got rid of the Calhounites, but he did not on that account fail to fill the new cabinet with men opposed to Calhoun. He thus remade the govern- ment on a Van Buren basis. The next feature of the party program was to look out for the nomination for the presidency in 1832. Jackson had formerly de- clared that he would accept only one term. But his nomi°ted^" friends knew that if he now withdrew, it would be difficult to secure the nomination for Van Buren, openly charged with the intrigue against Calhoun. They had good reason to fear that the South Carolinian, the next most popular democrat to Jackson, would be indorsed by the party. Jackson himself under- stood the situation, and in the autumn of 183 1 let it be known that he would again be a candidate. He planned to have Van Buren remain INTRIGUE TRIUMPHANT 403 in London until the excitement of the recent quarrel subsided, and to return in time to be made candidate in 1S36. But in January, 1832, the senate rejected Van Buren's nomination as minister by the casting vote of Calhoun, the vice-president ; and such an outburst of feeling came from the Jackson following that it was decided that the only way to vindicate the rejected man was to make him Jackson's running- mate. Thus was taken the last step in the identification of the fav- ored New Yorker with the head of the party. In 1829 the party was threatened with disintegration through the fierce rivalry within it. By the most skillful management, the Calhoun faction had been re- duced to a harmless minimum, and led through its own blundering into open revolt at a time when its secession was not a serious danger. At the same time, Jackson had grown in strength with the masses and was at the head of a mighty host which looked to him as the chosen leader against forces of corruption. Jacksonian democracy was completely organized and confident of the future. The Election op 1832 Meanwhile, an opposition was forming under Clay's leadership. All who criticized Jackson's appointments, or rejected his policy of internal improvements, or opposed his attitude toward the bank, — already announced but not pressed to its con- J.^^ ^^" elusion (see page 411), — and many others whose chief publicans, impulse was dislike for a leader of the Jackson tyjje, all these now came together under the name of national republicans. In calling themselves by this title they seem to have had in mind the division of the party which prevailed in the years immediately after the war of 181 2. They also proclaimed themselves faithful tariff men, but on this issue Jackson was not openly against them. Besides these, a third party was in the field. In 1S26 William Morgan, of Batavia, New York, who had published a book purporting to expose the secrets of freemasonry, mysteriously dis- appeared, and many people believed he had been destroyed "^^^ -^l*'" by the masons. A frantic movement spread through the pajty'or- adjoining counties for the outlawry of the order, which ganized. was denounced as a secret political society. The anti- masonic party was thus organized. As Clinton was a mason, it op- posed him, and as Jackson was also a mason and had the support of Clinton, it supported Adams in 1828. The party was organized in several other states in this election, and generally opjjosed Jackson. They were able to hold the balance of power in some states and elected several members of congress. As the election of 1S32 approached, attempts were made to get them to support Clay ; but he would not declare for their principles, and they decided to act alone. In September, 1830, they held a national 404 JACKSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION convention in Pliiladelphia, in which it was decided to organize a national party. This assembly made an appeal to the people and called a convention at Baltimore, September 26, 1831, to select a candidate for the presidency, the first national nominating conven- tion in our history. It met in due time and selected William Wirt, of Virginia, as its candidate for the presidency and Amos First Na- Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, for the vice-presidency. The !l°° . . example of the antimasons was followed by the national Convention, republicans, who in December, 183 1, assembled in Baltimore and nominated Clay for president, and Sergeant, of Pennsyl- vania, "or vice-president. In the following May a convention of young men who supported Clay met in Washington, accepted the Baltimore nominations, and issued the first " platform" of a political party in America. It indorsed protection and internal improvements, and arraigned Jackson's administration for its policy in appointments to ofiice, and its attitude toward the Indians in Georgia. In May, 1832, the democrats followed the example of their opponents and met in a convention at Baltimore. They nominated Jackson unanimously, and Van Buren by a vote of 20S to 75. This convention ordered that a two-thirds vote should be necessary to a nomination, a rule followed in every succeeding convention of the party. The convention system, thus introduced, has proved a permanent feature of American political life. After the caucus was repudiated in 1824 candidates were nominated by state legislature. Convention In 1828 the candidates were so well designated by the trend Devei™- °^ events that this system was satisfactory. It would ment. probably have been satisfactory, so far as Jackson was concerned, in 1832 ; for his party had no thought of re- jecting him as a candidate. Indeed, as the election year approached, he was nominated by many legislatures and local or state conventions. But the other parties were not so fortunate. The antimasons were at sea until the convention assembled, and the national republicans, though united in Clay's favor, needed the effect of a great display of their strength to impress themselves on the minds of voters. In the democratic party a convention was necessary to secure the acceptance of Van Buren, in whose behalf Jackson exerted all his power over his followers. It was, probably, only the fear of offending Jackson which made Van Buren Lhe candidate. The adoption of nomination by convention shows how democratic parties had now become. The delegates, at first chosen in varying manners, represented the party in the localities from which Democratic ^y^ey came. Their selection was the best utterance of the Pa'rty. ^^^ party's voice then possible. The earliest method was generally to allot to each state as many votes in con- vention as it had in the electoral college. Later practice has given each state twice as many votes as it has presidential electors. THE ELECTION OF 1832 405 The campaign which followed these nominations was vehement. The democrats relied on the popular confidence in Jackson. He was, they said, the people's candidate, he would pay the national debt, he would deprive the bank of its privileges, and he -^^^^ * protected the treasury from the wiles of the people who wished to have roads and canals at the expense of the national revenues. Clay's support was of a complex character. In one section he relied on the friendship of the business classes for the bank, in others he appealed to the protectionists, and in still others he talked about the radicalism of Jackson. In July, while the canvass progressed, the president vetoed the bill to recharter the bank. Clay's friends had urged the bill, thinking that a veto would array against Jackson the state of Pennsylvania as well as the powerful financial class. The national republicans received the veto message with undisguised pleasure and pressed the battle more vigorously. They were soon undeceived. The farmers of Pennsylvania cared notliing for the bank, and they rallied to the support of its arch foe in proportion as the capitalists proclaimed their hostility to him. The result of the election was 219 electoral votes for Jackson, 49 for Clay, and 7 for Wirt, while South Carolina, piqued over the ^^^i°^ treatment of Calhoun, threw away her 11 votes on Floyd of Virginia. Van Buren carried all of the Jackson votes but the thirty from Pennsylvania, which were given to Wilkins, of that state. Wirt's vote came from Vermont, the only state the antimasons could carry. This poor showing was the death knell of that party. Jackson very naturally took his overwhelming victory as an indorsement of his policies, and prepared to put them into complete execution. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The period embraced in this chapter is treated in the general Hislories of Mc- Master, Schouler, and Wilson. The best single volume on the period is Mac- Donald's Jacksonian Democracy (:qo6). With the inauguration of Jackson, \'on Hoist, Consiiliitional Hislory oj tin- Untied Stales, 8 vols. (Mason, trans. 1876-1802), becomes valuable on the constitutional and political side, although it leans strongly toward the party of concentration. .An excellent short summary is Wilson, Divi- sion and Reunion (revised ed., igog), and nearly as useful is Burgess, The Middle Period (1897). Besides the biographies and writings of Jackson, Calhoun, Claj', Webster, J. Q. Adams, Benton, and Wirt already mentioned (see page ,^0), the following are valuable: Swmncr, Life of Jackson (td. 1807); Shepard, L/jc 0/ A/arZ/H Van Buren, (revised, ed., iSqq) ; Stickney. editor. Autobiography of Amos Kendall (1872) ; J. A. Hamilton, Reminiscences (i86g); Curtis, Life of James Buchanan, 2 vols. (i88,i); Works of James Buchanan, 12 vols. (Moore, ed., 1908-1911); Tyler, Letters and Times of the Tylers, 3 vols. (1884-1896); Bradley, Isaac Hill (1835); Story, Life and Letters of Joseph Story, 2 vols. (1851) ; Hunt, Life of Edward Livingston (1864); Hammond, Life of Silas Wright (1848); and Jervey, Robert Y. Ilayne (igog). The sources are chiefly in the public documents, the most important being ; Executive, in the series known as State Papers, 38 vols., extending to the first years 4o6 JACKSON'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION of Van Buren's administration. The most significant for the present chapter are Finance, s vols., and Indian AJfairs, 2 vols. See also Richardson, Messages and Papers oj lite Presidents, i7Sg-igo2, lo vols. (1897-1902). Legislative, the debates in the Register of Debates, 1S25-1837, 29 vols., with valuable appendices containing many reports of committees, etc., and Benton, Abridgment of Debates, 16 vols. (iiSs?- 1861). Judiciary, the reports of the decisions of the supreme court, pubHshed in series bearing the names of the reporter until 1882, and from that time they are numbered continuously. Those extending over the years 1828 to 1842 are cited as Peters, 16 vols. Bowker, State Publications, 2 vols. (1899-1902), is a useful index to published government documents. The laws are in Peters, Statutes at Large, 8 vols. (1845-1846), volumes 7 and 8 contain treaties. Treaties and Conventions (ed. of 1S89) is also very useful. Other important sources are: J. Q. .'\daras, Memoirs, 12 vols. (1874-1877) ; Ibid., Writings, W. C. Ford, ed. (1913-) '. Benton, Thirty Years' Vie-d', 2 vols. (1854-1857) ; Mayo, Political Sketches (1839) ; Wise, Seven Decades of the Union (iSSi) ; and Niles, Register, a.\veek\y newspaper in which appear many documents. The controversy over the interpretation of the constitution gave rise to many works. The most important on the national side are : Von Hoist, Constitutional History of the United States, 8 vols. (Mason trans., 1876-189 2), is the most compre- hensive narrative from the national point of view. Of the same nature is Lodge, Life of Webster (1897); and Greeley, The American Conflict, 2 vols. (1864-1867). On the state rights side see : Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Gov- ernment, 2 vols. (18S1); Wise, Seven Decades of the Union (1S81); and Tucker, History of the United States, 4 vols. (1856-1858). For references on nulhficatioQ see below, page 426. For Independent Reading Harvey, Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Daniel Webster (1S77) ; Lyman Beecher, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1863-1865); Poore, Perley's Reminiscences, 2 vols. (1S86); Wentv/orth, Congressional Reminiscences (1882); Charles A. Davis, Letters of Major Jack Downing (1833), — humorous and widely read by contemporaries, but misleading in regard to Jackson's character; and Sullivan, Familiar Letters on Public Characters (1834). CHAPTER XX JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED The End of Nullification It was natural for Jackson to think his triumphant reelection an evidence of popular approval for all his important policies. Thus reassured, ana supported by a united party, he could take up the incomplete work of his first administration with j^°^^ '° * the assurance of success. He might secure the removal of the Georgia Indians, bring to an end the negotiations with France, and break down the power of the bank of the United States, which he considered a menace to democratic institutions. But the first serious problem after the election was to deal with nullification. It was a problem he did not invite and could not avoid ; for the South Carolinians, having lost hope of placing their great leader in the \VMte House, were now determined to put their theory to the ultimate test. It will be remembered that Calhoun came to open breach with Jackson with the publication of his pamphlet in February, 1831, which he at first hoped would destroy Van Buren and not provoke the opposition of Jackson (see page 401). By NuUifiers the middle of May he realized that this expectation was gressive. futile and became the [niblic, as for three years he had been the secret, leader of the nullifiers. July 26 he issued his famous "Ad- dress to the People of South Carolina," in which were restated the arguments in the " E.Kposition " of 1S28. It was the avowed plat- form of his followers, and was widely read, North and South. All through the autumn, winter, and follov\'ing spring it was widely dis- cussed in South Carolina. The unioa party there was of respectable size, though not in a majority, and they naturally sought to lessen the weight of his doctrine. In the discussion various Calhoun's explanations were given of its meaning, for it was not pa-g^s on^* clear in all its points. At last the nullifiers themselves Nullification, called on him for a simpler statement, and August 28, 1832, he published such a summary in what became known as his "Fort Hill Letter," addressed to Governor James Hamilton, Jr. The result of this agitation was that the nullifiers carried the legislature by a large majority. 407 4o8 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED To this body soon after it met in October came a message from the governor urging that, inasmuch as the federal government was com- mitted to the tariff which was believed to be unconstitu- The South tional, it was the duty of the state to look out for the in- Convention. terests of the people. Since the constitution, it said, was authorized by the people of the state, it was for them now to call a convention to inquire if the federal compact had been ^^olated. The legislature accepted the suggestion, and by a large majority called a convention to meet November 19, 1832. No one could doubt what that body would do. By a vote of 136 to 26 it passed on the 24th the South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the tariff acts of 1S2S and 1S32 not binding on the The Ordi- people of the state, forbidding appeals to the federal courts NulU^° in cases for the enforcement of the said laws, and requiring fication. State officials to take oath to uphold the ordinance. Feb- ruary I, 1833, was fixed as the day on which nullification should go into effect, and the legislature was directed to pass such laws as should be necessary to put the ordinance into effect. November 27 the legislature reassembled. It was foreseen that if a citizen refused to pay duties on goods, the articles in question would be seized by federal officers, and to enable him to recover plevin Act them the replevin act was now passed. It provided that the owners of goods seized might recover twice their value from the official holding them. As this was a state law, and as the state officials were all nullifiers, it was likely that the replevin act would be executed with liberality toward the persons who refused to pay duties. On the other hand, it seemed certain that the federal government would not tamely give up its power to seize goods for failure to pay duties, and if war came it would come at this point in the controversy. The legislature did not overlook the fact, and it author- ized the governor to call out the militia to enforce the laws of the state. There was a great deal of excitement in the state, unionists and nulli- fiers held nightly meetings, and threats of war and secession were heard on every hand. While affairs progressed to this state President Jackson kept his eye on the situation. Knowing that the nullifiers only threatened in the hope that they could force congress to modify the tariff. Precautions. ^^ ^^^^ ^^'^^ '•^^^y would hesitate to go as far as war. But he took occasion in several ways to drop quiet hints that the laws must be obeyed. It was not until the autumn that he came to believe that nullification would actually be attempted. Then he ordered the secretary of the navy to be ready to send a force to Charles- ton, if necessary. He also directed the commanding officers of the forts in the harbor to be vigilant in detecting resistance, sent a special messenger to report on sentiment in the state, gave constant encourage- ment to the union party there, and deposited arms m convenient JACKSON'S PROCLAMATION 409 places in North Carolina to be ready for an emergency. Seven revenue cutters and the Natchez, a ship of war, appeared in Charleston harbor and cast anchor where they could rake the fashionable "Bat- tery," on which were the residences of the leading citizens. For many weeks the tension was extreme. Nullifiers and unionists, equally desirous of delaying bloodshed, strove to restrain the feelings of their followers, lest some accident should precipitate war before the last efforts for peace were exhausted. In Washington two groups of men were seeking to meet the situa- tion. One, under the lead of the president, planned to meet force with force and to assert the authority of the government. From this source came Jackson's nullification proclamation, ^^^ NuUifi- December 10, 1832. It was a firm argument against the lamation. theory of nullification, and closed by warning the people of South Carolina against the advocates of nullification. "The laws of the United States must be executed," said Jackson in words like those of Lincoln twenty-nine years later; "I have no discretionary power on the subject ; my duty is emphatically pronounced in the constitution. Those who told you that you might peaceably prevent their execution, deceived you ; they could not have been deceived themselves. They know that a forcible opposition could alone prevent the execution of the laws, and they know that such opposition must be repelled. Their object is disunion. But be not deceived by names. Disunion by armed force is treason." Many of Jackson's followers were state rights men, and they were not pleased with his open es- „ pousal of consolidation doctrines. But all the unionists of the country, of whatever party, took fresh courage when they read the proclamation. For once New England and the great cities of the northern coast, following the lead of Webster and John Quincy Adams, were in hearty support of Jackson. The second group wi.shed to solve the difficult problem before the nation by enacting a bill for a lower tariff. That done, nulli- fication as a practical measure would vanish. They were lead by the particular friends of Van Buren, who could not '^,'"' Y^''" hope to have the democratic support in 1836 if the north- xarifi Bill. ern and southern portions of the party fell into conflict over state rights. They brought in the Verplanck bill, proposing to lower duties to a basis of 20 per cent in two years, hoping that with the support of the South and as many votes as Van Buren could rally in the North the measure would pass. If the project succeeded, Van Buren would be applauded as "Pacificator." Jackson counte- nanced the plan, but gave most of his attention to his own plans for preserving the authority of the federal government. Meanwhile, the attitude of the other Southern states became very important, both to South Carolina and to the president. Georgia wavered for a while, but the fear that she would lose Jackson's sym- 410 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED pathy in regard to her Indian question held her in check. If she had gone over to the nuUifiers, it is probable that the other Gulf states would have followed her lead. Much anxiety was also Ol^^s "th''* ^^^^ ^'^^ Virginia, and the nullifiers tried hard to convince Do? her that they but stood for the Virginia resolutions of 1798. Agents were sent to Richmond to labor with the legislature there. Their best effort could not accomplish their purposes. Although there was strong sentiment in that state for state rights, the most the legislature would do was to send an agent to South Carolina to try to make peace between the state and the federal authorities. North Carolina took an even more conservative stand, declaring that she would defend the cause of union. The nullifiers were thus made to see that if war came, they must proceed alone. But many people feared that if fighting once began, it would be impossible to restrain all the South from rallying to the support of South Carolina in her struggle against the tariff. Jackson was now thoroughly aroused, and thought only of using force. Offers of troop came from many states, and Wasliington was full of war talk. January 16, 1833, he sent congress a Buf" "'^^ special message on the situation, and on the 21st one of his friends introduced the "force bill," called by the Cal- hounites the "bloody bill." It gave the president the authority to call out the army and navy to enforce the laws of congress. Jackson used all his influence to have it passed. Calhoun proclaimed it a tyrannical measure, and the states rights men generally considered it an invasion of the rights of the states. This bOl and the Verplanck tariff bill were urged contemporaneously, one by the unionists, the other by the democrats generally. As January neared an end, it became e\ddent that the tariff bill could not pass. In fact, only one man could get enough Northern votes to pass a bill lowering the tariff, and that man was '^ro^^sf""' "^'^y- ^^^ ^^^^^^^ °^ ^^^^ "American System." Many Tariff. people urged him to exert himself for peace and save the union from civU war. For a long time he hesitated, but so much was gained for compromise that on February i the leading nullifiers met and decided to suspend the execution of the ordinance of nullification until they could see what congress would do. Then Clay at last yielded. February 12 he introduced in the senate a bill to reduce the tariff gradually during the next ten years, until in 1842 it should be at 20 per cent. The nullifiers and the South supported it, and enough of Clay's friends followed him to make it a law in the last days of the short session. To secure this result Calhoun agreed not to oppose the "force bill," which also became law as the session was about to adjourn. Thus ended the controversy. South Carolina, having secured the reduction of the tariff, repealed her nullification ordinance, and peace returned to the troubled face of national affairs. Clay, and not Van Buren, was hailed "Pacificator !" THE QUESTION OF RECH.\RTER 411 Jackson's "War" against xfre Bank Jackson was pleased to have nullification off the stage, because he thought the time was come to finish his long struggle against the Bank of the United States. Early in his career he concluded . that a bank controlled by one group of capitalists was ^'^ ^^°" dangerous to the welfare of the country and of doubtful constitutionality. Most of the bank's officers, at its headqu;'.rters in Philadelphia, as well as in the branches, were anti- Jackson men, and this gave rise to the charge that the institution worked for Jackson's defeat. The new party believed the allegation, although it was not very clearly proved, and they came into office disposed to use their power against the bank. They at once preferred charges against the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, branch. Nicho- '^^^^^^' las Biddle, president of the "mother bank," as it was h., incident, called, defended the branch in some warm words which only provoked further the party in power. After a while, he became more moderate, and an investigation showed that the Portsmouth branch was not guilty of the charges made. The incident was later pronounced the origin of the attack on the bank, the argument being that all the opposition that followed was because in this affair the ad- ministration was thwarted in a plan to get political control of the bank. The statement is not true. Jackson's attitude dates back at least twelve years, and he had nothing to do with the Portsmouth incident. On the other hand, in the autumn of 1829 Biddle had allowed the Jackson men to get control of Biddie's several of the Western branches and was trying through ^"^^^^^^f^^ friends in Washington to induce the president to agree j^^J that a recharter should be granted. Several members of charter, the " Kitchen Cabinet," and the majority of the regular cabinet, favored his scheme, and he was confident of success. But Jackson's mind was made up. Rash in the outburst of his feeling, he could be as prudent as any one when poHcy demanded. He left Biddle in the dark for a month, and gave him a sad disappointment in the first annual message, December 8, ^lsa^°oints 1829. The bank's charter, he said, would expire in 1836, Biddle.°'° ^ and it was not too soon for congress and the people to begin to consider the wisdom of a recharter. He added that there were grave doubts about the constitutionality of the bank, and that it certainly had failed to establish "a uniform and sound currency." He suggested a bank founded upon the credit and revenues of the government, ha\ing in view chiefly the note-issuing and deposit func- tions. From all that came after, it is clear that he wished to take from j>rivate hands the large power and profit the bank then had. Prob- ably he did not realize how severe a shock such a change would give 412 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED to business. His party was more prudent, and it shrank from a battle with the powerful bank. On every hand his foes decried the sugges- tion in the message, and many of his friends held back. But the believers in state rights and the mass of people, whose instincts were against monopoly, were more favorable. In congress two committees reported that the bank was in a good condition, and thus the matter rested for a time. But in his second annual message, December 6, 1830, Jackson re- turned to the charge, now unfolding a detailed plan for such a bank as he thought advisable. It was to be connected with the Jackson's treasury department and managed by public ofBcials. Idea of a xhe scheme was at once attacked on the ground that it owned by would vastly increase the patronage of the administration ; the Gov- and the point was a good one ; for Jackson's appoint- erament. ments were bad and it did not seem safe to enlarge them in the way he now suggested. Nothing was done in the matter, and congress adjourned in March. The net result accom- plished was that the question had been placed fairly before the country and opinion was forming on the inevitable problem, which must be met in one way or another before 1836. When congress met again, the country was on the eve of a presidential election. Jackson's friends knew they would be embarrassed if the bank were an issue, and he yielded to them so far as Biddle merely to restate his position in his message, not asking Carnes a j^j. positive legislation. Biddle, watching the situation through keenly, took this for a sign of weakness. If the attack Congress. were made, might it not come better now, when Jackson's cause was before the people, than later, when he was tri- umphantly reelected ? The national republicans. Clay at, their head, thought the bank very popular in the country ; they wished to force a new charter through congress, belie\ ing that if it were vetoed the presi- dent would lose Pennsylvania and other strong commercial states l the East, without which he could not be reelected. This view aj; pealed strongly to many of Jackson's friends, among them the secre tary of the treasury, McLane. During the first weeks of the sessior. there was much conferring in order to prepare a bill which both Biddle and Jackson would accept; but the upshot was that the president would yield nothing, and in January, 1832, Biddle, deciding to proceed without Jackson's approval, formally asked congress for a charter. He was warned that if his bUl passed it would be vetoed. Indeed, after all Jackson had said against the bank he could hardly do otherwise. But recharter was pressed, the bank employing an able lobby in its behalf, and Biddle himself, a man of great abil- Sustained. ^^y- S^'mg to Washington to lead the fight. In July the charter passed by safe majorities and was immediately ve- toed. The veto message was a shrewd campaign document . It declared REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS 413 the bank unconstitutional, pronounced it a monopoly, and appealed to the people's hostility toward great capitalistic institutions. To the friends of the bank these reasons seemed very flimsy ; but the veto appealed to the people, and supported by Jackson's prestige it proved unassailable. His election by a vote of 219 to 49 for Clay and 7 for Wirt was received as e\adence that the country indorsed the veto. In the next session of congress nullification and the tariff played a leading part, and the bank question was not brought forward. But Jackson had his plan made, and as soon as the South Carolina crisis was safely passed he began to put it into ^^^ ^^ e.xecution. It was evident that Biddle did not accept the election as a final verdict. To close up the business of the bank in 1836 would mean calling in a great mass of loans and the withdrawal from circulation of much bank money. From both processes business must suffer. Many men foresaw this, foes as well as friends of the bank. Would the country at the last willingly undergo the calamity ? Biddle thought that when the crisis came he might be able to carry a charter over a veto ; Jackson believed the same, but he put it another way. He said that the bank would wait until To be the last and use its power of calling in loans to produce a f?^^*** ^^ panic and thus wring a charter out of congress in spite of a ^f jhe^™"^* veto. He was thoroughly angry with Biddle, and believed Deposits, him capable of any wickedness. He therefore proposed to meet the emergency by breaking the power of the bank in 1833, so that in 1836 it should not be able to produce a panic ; and his means of breaking it was to withdraw the public deposits, place them with the leading state banks, and gradually strengthen those institutions, so that in 1836 they would be able to take over the duties of the great institution and lessen the shock of the country from its destruction. The charter pro\aded that the deposits might be removed by the sec- retary of the treasury while congress was not in session, provided he gave his reasons for the removal to congress when it assembled. As congress would not meet until December, there was '^'^^Ap" ample time for the proposed action ; but Secretary McLane uuane. was unwilling to order removal, and Jackson, wishing to avoid another explosion in his cabinet, hesitated to dismiss him. After some conference it was agreed to send Livingston, secretary of state, to France as minister, to promote McLane to the vacant place, and to get a new secretary of the treasury. The man hit upon was William J. Duane, son of that former editor of the Aurora, who was long the tribune of the people in the important state of Pennsylvania. If the order for rcmoxal were given by such a man, it would go far to relieve the act from the expected criticisms of the enemy in the home state of the "mother bank." The offer flattered Duane, who was hitherto little known, and he entered upon his new duties late in May. 414 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED But now appeared many difficulties. The new secretary said he was not sure the deposits were in danger, and he was told to take time to consider. At the end of a month he thought the matter Duane a could be left until congress met. Then there were many m'ent!''°'° " conferences, at the end of which he assured the president that he would examine the question again and would resign if he did not give the desired order. At the middle of September he was again interviewed, and declared finally that he would neither re- move the deposits nor resign. Jackson was very angry, and dismissed Duane summarily. The bank men said much about the sacrifice of a faithful secretary, but posterity has little sympathy for him. He must have known for what purpose he was appointed, and he should have refused in advance or withdrawn as soon as he knew the attitude of the president. On the other hand, there is no reason to believe that the deposits in the bank were unsafe, as Jackson claimed. Roger B. Taney was now appointed secretary of the treasury, and an order issued at once designating certain great state banks at which all government funds should bedeposited from October i, 1833. RenKjval" i^^V^ 1S33, the public deposits were $6,512,000, and it would have been disastrous to withdraw so large an amount at once. Jackson, therefore, was satisfied to erase to deposit with the bank and to draw out the money very gra''caily. January i, 1836, it still had $627,000 of government funds. Nevertheless, the action of the president caused serious financial distress. The bank must call in loans, and making ready to close its business it could not increase its circulation. The winter, spring, and summer following The Effect removal brought severe business depression to the country, ness. Jackson's friends declared that the distress was artificial, and due to Biddle's malice ; and they declared that it was only a speculator's panic and did not injure the mass of merchants and producers. It is hard to say how much truth was in this opinion. Certainly Biddle was in an ugly frame of mind, and did little to soften the blow his adversary had given to business. By refusing to lend money in the darkest days of necessity he brought the country to think the charges against him were true. His own friends began to leave him, and at last he was forced to resume lending. This hap- pened in March, 1834, and by the middle of summer business was re- turning to normal conditions. Meanwhile, the matter was in the hands of the politicians. Taney sent to congress, as required by the charter, his reasons for trans- ferring the deposits. Clay made them the occasion for two Censured resolutions, one of which declared that Jackson acted il- legally in regard to the deposits, and the other that Taney's reasons for his action were not sufficient. After an angry debate Clay carried his resolutions through the senate. Jackson made a dignified protest against the resolutions censuring him, and when they passed, JACKSON'S VIGOROUS DIPLOMACY 415 his friend, Benton, of Missouri, gave notice that he would in the future move to expimge them. This he did in successive sessions, untD at last there was a majority of democrats in the senate, and January 16, 1S37, an order was passed to write across the original entry in the journal the statement that the resolutions of censure were directed to be expunged. Clay in 1834 was also able to get the senate to reject Taney's nomination as secretary of the treasury, but in 1836, through support of Jackson, Taney became chief justice, in succession to John Marshall. Thus ended in complete triumph Jackson's attack on the bank, the severest political conflict in our national history. It was the occasion of many angry and false charges. The bank was well managed and rendered valuable service to the government Sigmficance and people, and the allegations to the contrary were the .. g^^^^ outgrowth of ignorance and prejudice. On the other War." hand, it was a private monopoly, which reaped rich re- ward for the service it rendered, and it was destroyed because the people, in support of the president, felt that no corporation should have so much advantage. Jackson represented the popular will. He went into the conflict with a divided party, but he fought so wisely and boldly that he united his party and made his word its law. His success was the despair of his enemies. Foreign Affairs Jackson displayed in foreign afifairs the same energy and directness that characterized his conduct of domestic relations. Three important problems of this nature came before him, and they were all disposed of in such a manner as to satisfy the American people and to increase our prestige with other nations. Two of them were old disputes which had dragged on without prospect of fair settlement under his predecessors, and one was a new problem. The first concerned the trade with the West Indies, before the revolu- tion a source of great prosperity. This branch of our commerce was of great importance to New England and the Middle states, and many efforts to secure it on an equal footing with Eng- , ^^j^ Trade land were made while the federalists controlled the national government. The same eagerness was not manifested by the republicans under Jefferson and Madison, and the development of manufactures, absorbing much of the business energy of the country, lessened the demand for commerce. But all the time there was a feeling that the lost trade should be recovered if England could be induced to yield it. The matter was under consideration in making the treaty of Ghent, but it offered so much difficulty that it was postponed for a separate convention, which met in 1S15, but effected no results. It was taken 4i6 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED up again by Secretary Adams in 1818, and was a constant subject of negotiation during his secretaryship, but nothing was accomplished. Indeed, the net result was that each side became irritated, the United States undertook to retaliate, and England became firmer than ever in her refusal. Adams was ever an outspoken man, zealous for national interests, and apt to be assertive in his diplomacy. To force concessions from the self-sufficient and rather overbearing Briton re- quired more tact than he possessed. The real obstacle to success was the navigation laws. From their enactment it had been the policy of England to consider her colonies the proper field for the profit of her merchants TheNaviga- ^^^^ j^^^ shipowners. Our ministers might try as they Receding. Could to show her the advantage of open trade, but they were not able to convince her. Preferential duties continued to be charged in the West Indies against all comers, and the United States fared as the rest of the world. But just at this time English opinion was changing in regard to the navigation laws. The loss of the American market through the development of manufac- tures here and the raising of the tariff bars had put the British mer- chants to thinking. On the other hand, a wide demand for British goods in South America and elsewhere had produced a great wave of prosperity, which tended to make the merchants think their remnant of colonial trade of less importance than their commerce with the outside world. At the same time, a group of liberals under the leader- ship of Huskisson and Robinson were striving to bring the British public to see that the e.xisting acts did not suit the needs of a nation dependent on happy trade relations with the whole world. In 1825 they induced parliament to make a first step in concession. Foreign nations were now offered in the colonies such commercial TheConces- pj-jvileges, both as regards tariffs and tonnage duties, 1825. ^s they themselves conceded to Great Britain ; and one year was allowed during which the offer might be accepted. The concession was open to any government, but it most concerned the United States, by their position and industrial enter- prise the strongest competitor of the mother country in these colonies. Many nations accepted the offer, but our rising sentiment in favor of protection and a willingness of the opposition to impede any action suggested by the administration prevented concessions by congress within a year. At the end of that time English prosperity had been checked, parliament abandoned its liberal attitude, and although a special American envoy went to England to make a treaty, nothing could be gained in that quarter. This was the situation when Jackson became president, with the tactful Van Buren secretary of state. To win a victory where others had failed appealed to both men, and McLane, the minister to London, departed in full hope of doing something. He was allowed to THE CLAIMS AGAINST FRANCE 417 write his own instructions, and he incorporated in them the sentiment that our former position was wrong and had been repudiated by the people in a national election. For this Van Buren was severely criticized by his enemies, and it was urged The Nego- as a main reason for his rejection as minister in t'^tionr^- 1832. It was certainly not dignified for a secretary ^^der m a communication to a foreign power to take cogni- Jackson, zance of a domestic party difference. But the advance pleased Great Britain, and the negotiations then resumed soon led to success. Acting on a hint from McLane, congress gave the president power to remo\'e the discrimi- nating tonnage duties as soon as England did the same, -ess'^is"'" This condition was easQy met, and October 5, 1830, Jackson by proclamation opened the trade with the British West Indies. The arrangement did not involve a remission of custom duties, but we could hardly expect another nation to give up her tariff against us as long as we maintained our tariff against her. The best result of the agreement was to remove a source of irritation between the two nations. The democrats declared it a great victory and were disposed to think it might have been secured sooner if Adams had used more tact and patience. The second diplomatic success concerned claims we had long urged against France for property seized by Napoleon. Other nations had formerly had such claims, but they were paid after the fall of the Corsican. The United States had no Thet;iaims friend at the congress of Vienna and were left to deal prance. with the French government as they could. To their protests the Bourbon kings replied that France could not undertake to pay for all the depredations of Napoleon, the usurper. Our rejoinder that she had already paid for those committed by him against other powers met this position effectively ; but the monarchy was continually in need of money, and the claims were left unsettled. Rives, our first minister under Jackson, went out with instructions to press vigorously for settlement. He proceeded so well that in less than a year he got the French ministry to propose to pay a definite sum to cover all losses. Then France advanced a counterclaim for damages alleged under a clause of the Louisiana purchase treaty guaranteeing certain commercial prixdleges to France. This checked the negotiations until it was finally proposed to offset it by lowering the American duties on certain French wines. Rives now hoped for success, but all came to naught when in July, 1830, the king, Charles X, was driven from his throne and !^^^*lf Louis Philippe took his place. After some delay nego- ,3^, tiations were resumed, and July 4, 1831, the persistent and cautious Rives was gratified by signing a treaty by which we were to receive 25,000,000 francs for all our claims, to make the re- 2£ 4i8 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED ductions desired in wine duties, and to pay 1,500,000 francs for claims made by France. The amount promised was to be handed over in sk annual installments, the first to be paid a year after ratification, which, as it turned out, was consummated February 2, 1832. In this, as in the arrangement with England, we gave up some of our demands, taking what we could get, and removing a long-standing source of ill-feeling between the two powers. But the matter was not entirely ended ; for the French chambers must appropriate the money for actual payment, and as the country's revenues were much embarrassed, the money was not voted. The Money -phe treaty was unpopular in France, spite of the advantage Promotlv '*■ 8'^^^ ^^^ vfine growers ; and so it happened that when Paid. the first installment was due, no proxisions had been made to meet it. Jackson was himself scrupulously honest in money matters, and considered the course of the French govern- ment essentially dishonorable. He met it in a characteristic manner. He ordered the secretary of the treasury to draw a draft on the French treasury, placed it with the bank of the United States, which sent it to Paris, where it was duly protested. Then came a sharp conflict with Biddle, already at odds with the administration, who demanded protest charges at the ordinary rate, amounting to nearly $170,000. The demand from a bank having in hand many millions of the public money was indignantly refused. Biddle replied by holding back the disputed sum out of the dividends due the govern- ment on its stock in the bank. This controversy diverted attention for only a short time from the issue between the president and France. Jackson was convinced that nothing but a firm stand would bring the chambers Stem ^Q e.xecute the treaty, and in his annual message of 1833 Measures j^^ recommended that congress authorize the seizure of by Jackson, enough French property in our borders to satisfy our claims. Such a course, if carried out, would mean war. Probably it was only a threat ; but the suggestion of it created a storm of indignation in Paris. The French minister in Washington was recalled, and Livingston, now in Paris, was informed that his passports were at his disposal. A bill to vote the money was then before the French legislature. After a long and angry debate it was passed with the proviso that the money should not be paid until Jackson's offending language was explained. At this Intercourse Liyj^gston withdrew from his post, leaving the office in the hands of a charf^e d'affaires, who, when the ministry still further refused to pay, closed his office and withdrew also. This was November 8, 1835, and for a year we had no representative in Paris. For a while the American public e.xpected war, but time brought reflection. The point at issue was too trivial to justify hostilities. THE DESIRE FOR TEXAS 419 for it was now only a question of words. Clay, leading as caustic an opposition as that which embarrassed Adams in 1S25-1S29, carried unanimously through the senate resolutions opposing . war. The campaign of 1836 was approaching, and that AdfusteT also tended to moderate the attitude of the administration. A further step was taken when in the annual message of 1835 the president expressed the hope that France would pay the money and so remove the obstacle to harmony between the two powers. Then England offered her good services to bring the two states together. Her advances were acceptable to both sides, and by the next spring France had declared herself satisfied with the amicable words of the message of 1835 and four of the promised installments were paid. Jackson's course had undoubtedly been abrupt, as was his nature ; but it showed Europe that the American government could act en- ergetically, and it thus strengthened our influence in many a court. The third diplomatic problem arose in connection with Mexico. The region now embraced generally in the states of Texas, New Me.xico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California, and a part of Colorado was in 1829 in the hands of the newly J?*?j'^° ^°'' created federal repubhc of Mexico, which ruled its in- gjjj^ °^=^^=" habited parts as states and provinces. One of these Texas, states was known as Coahuila and Texas, divided into four departments, one of which was Texas. The state had a constitu- tion of its own and exercised its functions under the authority of the federal republic. The department of Texas, vast and inviting, lay between the Sabine and Nueces rivers. Under Spanish rule it contained a large number of Indians and about 4000 white men, chiefly in the region of San Antonio. Its fine lands early attracted ^*y ^f '^' the adventurous land hunters of the East, and from 1821 jexas. to 1827 there was a continuous stream of settlers from the United States. Among them Stephen F. Austin, who led the first colony, was the leading man. In 1832 arrived Samuel Houston, a friend of Jackson, a distinguished soldier in the Creek war, formerly a congressman and governor of Tennessee, who for personal reasons wished to begin life in a new country. These two men played an important role in the early history of .^nglo-American Texas. At first the Mexican authorities encouraged the immigration of nien from the East, giving them large grants of land ; but the community showed much vigor, and the authorities began to fear Mexico a movement for a separate state. It was probably this fears the apprehension that caused them to attach Te.xas to the Growth of distinctly Mexican state of Coahuila, givang it only one- si.xth of the representation in the state's legislature. But immigration was steady, and the new arrivals numbered 15,000 by 1827 and about 30,000 in 1836. Then came efforts to restrict immigration. In 420 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED 1829 the Mexican president, of his own unauthorized power, issued an order abolishing slavery in the repubhc. As this institution then existed only among the Anglo-American settlers of Texas, the manifesto was construed as a blow at that community. Austin, however, protested, and was able to secure a second order exempting Texas from the operation of the first order. In 1830 came a Mexican law forbidding further colonization from abroad and prohibiting the subsequent introduction of slaves. The Texans saw in this a deliberate attempt to check their growing power. They were not disposed to abide by its purpose, and colonists and slav'es were secretly received in defiance of the weak central authority. From that time the Texans began to dream of revolution with ultimate annexation to the United States. Meanwhile, the American government made an effort to purchase Texas. Adams authorized our minister to Mexico to open negotia- tions to that end, but the minister discovered so much Futile At- sensitiveness on the part of Mexico on the subject that he buy Texas, ^id not press the matter. The southern republic was in dire straights, one president after another overthrew his predecessor only to be driven out by a more formidable rival, and each had such an insecure hold on power that he dared not risk the dis- pleasure of his country by consenting to a division of the republic's domain. When Jackson became president, he took up the matter, but met the same difiiculties. His representative in Mexico, Colonel Anthony Butler, was a shifty adventurer, suspected by the Mexicans, and when he could accomplish nothing by direct diplomacy, he under- took to gain his ends by corrupting some of the men nearest to the Mexican president. His intrigues became known, and the only results were to discredit Butler, who was duly recalled, and to create on the part of the Mexicans a disgust for our diplomacy. ' It is fair to say that Jackson was not a party to the trickery of his agent. The story now returns to the Texans, who had come to believe that they could escape the annihilation of their political rights only through a revolution. The outbreak came in 1835, "P^^ T^ti^° *-^^ people rising to a man and driving the Mexican forces 1835-1836.' beyond the Rio Grande within the space of two and a half months. Then came a convention to form a civil government, while arrangements went on to meet the counterstroke which Mexico was sure to attempt. Never did the American stock fight better than the Texans in the next three months. For a time bravery seemed useless. The Texans were assembled in small bands which fell singly before the army of several thousand with which Santa Anna crossed the Rio Grande to crush the revolution. In the early days of March, 1836, post after post was lost and the revolu- tionists began to lose heart. But one small band of 1S3 under W. B. Travis gave an e\adence of courage and devotion which restored the THE TEXAS REVOLUTION 421 spirits of the whole community and enabled it to make the united stand which insured final success. They held the old fort of The Alamo, at San Antonio, and refused to retreat, although more than a thousand Mexicans under Santa Anna closed in around j,,g^ them. After a thirteen-day siege all the defenders but sLx fell at their posts before the place was taken by storm. The remnant of survivors was shot by Santa Anna, spite of the protest of some of his officers. This created great horror among the Texans, and after that their battle cry was "Remember the Alamo 1" News that the Texans were struggling for liberty aroused great sympathy in the United States. The Mississippi valley and the Gulf states were most outspoken, but mass meetings and contributions indicated the warm interest of the sea- ^^g*"^^ board region as far north as Boston. Many boatloads Texans. of sympathizers sailed from New Orleans for Galveston. In response^to protests from Mexico, orders were given to stop all volunteers for Texas, but the intercepted ones declared they were colonists seeking homes in Texas and were allowed to pass freely. Arrived at their destination, they at once joined the ranks of the revolutionists, whose power of resistance thus increased daily. After the first disastrous efforts to hold various disconnected positions in the South, the Texan forces were united under General Sam Houston, who, ever falling back, drew Santa Anna far northward. For a time it seemed that all was lost, f *"'y °' but Houston only waited his opportunity. April 21 cinto, 1836. he turned on Santa Anna, who was overconfident and unprepared, and crushed him in the battle of San Jacinto. The Texans charged irresistibly, breaking the enemy's lines, shooting down those who ran, and finally capturing all but fifty of the survivors of the 1600 men who faced them in the beginning of the engagement. Santa Anna himself was taken, and 630 of his followers were slain. Two months later he secured his release by signing treaties in which he and the other Mexican generals in Texas agreed to remove all their troops and to endeavor to secure the independence of the country with the bounds no farther south than the Rio Grande. This agree- ment proved the actual achievement of Texan independence; for although Mexico repudiated it and meant to reinvade the rebellious region, she was so beset by internal struggles that Texas was left undisturbed. But the 30,000 inhabitants of the wiile area between the Sabine and the Nueces could not support the burden of its defense, and appeals were made to the United States for annexation. Jackson acted cautiously. Texas had made the preserva- 1^^"* tion of slavery one of the grounds of revolution, and if Texas? annexed it would be slave territory. The question imme- diately became a sectional one. Calhoun and the South urged that 422 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED this vast region be acquired without delay. John Quincy Adams and Webster both made speeches on the other side. Jackson was bending all his efforts to carry the election of Van Buren and so perpetuate his policy against the bank ; and he was unwilling to jeopardize party harmony by introducing the Texan question into the campaign. Then it was urged that we recognize the republic as independent. He disposed of this by sending a special agent to Texas, who reported that the new republic could not TheRecog- sustain itself against its enemies. On this basis Jackson Texas. advised congress that recognition should be deferred. But in February, 1837, when it seemed that England was about to grant recognition, he changed his attitude, and resolu- tions favorable to Texas passed in each house, and the president sent a minister. Annexation, however, must wait until another day. The End of Jackson's Presidency Jackson and his party were now supreme in national politics. A man of little education and not broadly informed in statecraft, he . . nevertheless was trusted by the people, whose champion sions '"" -^^ ^^^' ^^ ^^'^'^ ^'^ average man's view of good govern- ment and extraordinary ability to organize and rule a party. The hopes of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were reduced to nullity by his success. The first and second, each a little suspicious of the other, were holding together the Northern minority, which, dropping the name national republican, now began to be known as the whig party. It embraced avowedly the conservative and property- holding class, and was in plain contrast with the democrats, who declared themselves champions of the people. Many of the older states retained a property qualification for voting and allowed the legislature to select governors and judges. Such practices were approved by the whigs, but the democrats considered them unequal privileges, and demanded a wide popular participation of the people in the government. Rotation in ofSce, strict economy in expenditures, and the least possible federal concentration were also J'^^i'nht fundamental principles of the democrats. In 1835 the Paid. ^''•st of the national debt was paid, much to the gratification of Jackson, who, however, warned the country that this ought not to be made the excuse for future extravagance. Meanwhile, the position of Calhoun was singular. Committed to state rights, and dependent upon South Carolina, he could not find a place in the party of Webster and Clay ; nor could Position^ he return to the democrats while Jackson's influence predominated. He was a democrat, but he led a small faction at war with Jackson. In 1832 he had hopes of defeating the nomination of Van Buren for vice-president, but failed signally. BANKS OF DEPOSIT 423 Then he sought to embarrass the administration in its bank and other pohcies, but he failed in this also. In some minor matters he played a similar role with varying results. But his opportunity came with the reviving importance of the slavery issue. By the most vigorous appeals to the South he stimulated sectionalism, made a Southern faction in the democratic party, and laid the train that led to seces- sion. Jackson understood this purpose and foresaw its results long before the country could see them. With characteristic warmth lie pronounced Calhoun a traitor, bent on disrupting the democratic I)arty, whose integrity, said Jackson, was the best guaranty against disunion. WTiile the democrats saw the opposing factions thus arrayed, they had to give strict attention to domestic finances. The twenty-three "pet banks," as they were dubbed, which received the public money after October i, 1833, were selected with all gank?*'"'^'* possible care, but it was impossible to keep political motives entirely in the background. They were denounced by the whigs as unsafe, and their notes, with which the government paid some of its bills, frequently were less than par. This led to a new act in 1836, imposing stricter conditions for the selection of such banks of deposits, requiring them to furnish security, and to redeem their notes in specie. The payment of the national debt, and the steady increase of the revenues, resulted in a surplus of government funds, and it was so profitable for a bank to have the deposits that pressure was brought on the treasury to include other banks in the list. Thus it happened that in 1836 the number of "pet banks" was 89, with total deposits of nearly $50,000,000. .\long with this development went a wide expansion in the volume of bank notes. Thoughtful people foresaw that in an emergency these notes could not be redeemed in specie, and a demand arose for laws which would force more gold and silver Attempt to into circulation. The demand came most loudly from force Specie Senator Benton, of Missouri, who for his part in this into Cir- movement got the nickname of "Old Bullion." The "^ulation. result of the agitation was laws to make foreign gold and silver coins legal tender and a law to change the ratio of gold and silver so as to allow free coinage of the former, which at the old ratio was more valuable than silver. Under the last law $1,500,000 in gold was coined by the mint. Democratic orators provided themselves with green silken mesh purses through which shining yellow coins, popularly called "Benton's mint drops " could be seen, and these were ostentatiously displayed in taverns and on the stump in illustra- tion of the politicians' arguments for what they called the "currency of the constitution." Attempts were made to make bills of less value than five dollars no longer legal tender, in the hope that the vacuum thus created in the currency would force the ingress of specie 424 JACKSON^S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED from abroad. At that time we mined little of either precious metal and were dependent on importations. All these well-meant attempts to establish a hard-money currency accomplished little. Loca^ banks, protected by state law, existed everywhere, and the country was full of their bills. The whigs cast derision on all that was done. They wished to prolong the existing confusion in the hope that it would make necessary the recharter of the bank of the United States, which they asserted was the only way out of the country's financial bewilderment. Another evil of the day was the accumulation of a government surplus of many millions after the payment of the debt of the nation. It could not be reduced by lowering the tariff, since the The Prob- compromise tariff of 1833 was to run through ten years, nlusRev-'^" until 1842. No better method of disposing of it was enue. suggested than to deposit it with the states. Jackson in the beginning of his presidency favored the suggestion, but soon changed his mind. He came to believe that the consti- tution did not authorize such a use of public money. On the other hand, the measure was favored by Clay, who was not embarrassed by similar constitutional views. He thought the principle might be appHed to the proceeds of the land sales, since the land belonged to all the states. In 1832 he carried through both houses a bill for such a distribution, but it was given a "pocket veto" by Jackson, who thought a better way would be to sell the lands more cheaply, a plan which pleased the West greatly. In fact, it was a perilous thing to lead the states to look to the federal government as a source of largesses. But the surplus continued to grow, and in 1S35 Clay carried another distribution bill through the senate. So strong was opinion for it that the administration became alarmed and introduced butionAc^t" ^"'•° '•^^ house a slightly different bill, which, it was said, of 1836. would be accepted by Jackson. It was carried through both houses with a rush, and was approved by the president June 23, 1S36. It did not give, but loaned, the surplus to the states and provided that all the surplus in the treasury on January i, 1S37, above $5,000,000 should be deposited with the states in four equal quarterly installments according to federal population. The money thus deposited might formally be demanded for repayment at the discretion of congress, but it was understood that no such demand would ever be made. Jackson accepted the bill with great reluctance, and he said plainly it should not be a precedent. He yielded, undoubt- edly, because the measure was very popular, and because he feared a veto would imperil the election of Van Buren, whose success he believed of supreme importance. As it turned out, $36,000,000 was on hand to be distributed, and the first and second installments were paid and half of the thirds but the panic of 1837 then inter- vened, and there was no money in the treasury to pay the rest. ELECTION OF 1836 425 The last notable incident of his administration was the specie circular, issued July 11, 1836. The West was carried away with land speculation. Here, too, were a large number of insecure banks, whose notes were being received in pay- The Specie ment for lands. It was evident that the bubble must jg^g ' soon burst ; for the lands could not go on increasing in value, speculators in them would fail, and the banks from which they had borrowed would be embarrassed and cease to pay their notes in specie. The result would be that the government in such a contingency would fini its hands full of worthless paper money and the loss would be immense. Jackson, therefore, ordered land offices to take no money but specie. For a time there was a feverish movement of gold and silver to the West, but soon that failed. Then creditors of the Western banks began to demand specie of them. Thus came the panic of 1837. The specie circular did not produce this crisis, as the whigs charged, but it hastened its coming. While these things happened, the country came to the election of 1S36. Jackson was supreme in his party and was able to dominate it, though he did so by the most wanton exercise of his personal wUl. May 20, 1835, more than a year before ^1*^'.'°^;°^ the election was to come, a convention, half of it office- Democrats holders, met in Baltimore and nominated Van Buren for president and R. M. Johnson, of Kentucky, for vice-president. Outside the convention was much party dissatisfaction with the nomination, but no one dared oppose the wUl of Jackson. Van Buren, accepting the proffered honor, said he would " tread generally in the footsteps of General Jackson," a sentiment which received much ridicule from his opponents. The whigs were not strong enough tc carry one man through triumphantly, but they hoped to take advantage of the dissatis- faction among their opponents and throw the election into the house, where they expected to defeat the demo- cratic candidate. They, therefore, held no convention, united with all the malcontents, and sought to win a total majority for three men. In the Northeast they supported Webster, whom the Massachusetts whigs nominated. In the Northwest they united on General W. H. Harrison, and in the Southwest on Senator White, of Tennessee, nominated by the legislature of his own state. Ohio had her own candidate, Judge John McLean, who was popular with the remnant of the antimasonic party. South Carolina would support none of the candidates ; and she was especially opposed to Van Buren, whose intrigue had prostrated her champion, Calhoun. The result was a suq^rise to the whigs. Van Buren received 1 70 elec- toral votes against 124 for all his opponents and was declared elected. Johnson had only 147 against a combined opposition of 147 and 426 JACKSON'S PRESIDENCY COMPLETED was, therefore, not elected. For the only time in our history the senate was to choose a vice-president, the choice being Johnson by a vote of ^^ to i6. Of the defeated candidates Re*sults° Harrison had 73 votes, White had 26, among them the votes of Tennessee, Webster had the 14 votes of Massa- chusetts, and the 1 1 votes of South Carolina were thrown away on Willie P. Mangum, of North Carolina. As the democrats maintained their control of each branch of congress, Jackson retired from office, assured that the bank would not be rechartered and the great democratic principles for which he had striven would be perpetuated. He closed his labors with a " Farewell Address," in which he summed up the chief features of his political faith. He retired to his home at the "Her- mitage," near Nashville, saying: "When I review the arduous administration through which I have passed, the formidable opposi- tion, to its very close, of the combined talents, wealth, and power of the whole aristocracy of the United States, aided as it is by the monied monopolies of the whole country with their corrupting influence, with which we had to contend, I am truly thankful to my God for this happy result." BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The general works, biographies, works of leading men, and legislative and exec- utive sources are the same as for the preceding chapter (see page 405). The special topics treated in this chapter and the leading works on them are as follows : On Nullification : Houston, Nullification in South Carolina {Harvard Historical Studies, 1896) ; Phillips, Georgia and State Rights (Am. Hist. Assn. Reports, 1901, vol. II); Ames, State Documents on Federal Relations, vol. IV (1902); Jervey, Robert Y. Hayne and His Time (1909) ; Stille, Life and Semices of Joel R. Poinsett (1888) ; Powell, Nullification and Secession (1897) ; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jack- son, vol. II (iqii); Sumner, Life of Andrew Jackson (ed. of 1897); Calhoun, Works, 6 vols. (1853-1855); Jameson, ed., Correspotidence of Calhoun (Am. Hist. Assn. Report, vol. II, 1899). On Jackson's attack on the bank of the Lfnited States : Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States (1903) ; Dewey, The Second United States Bank (National Monetary Commission Report, 1910) ; Ibid., Financial History of the United States (1903) ; Sumner, History of Banking in the United Slates (vol. I of History of Bank- ing in All the Leading Nations, 189(1) ; White, Honey and Banking (2d ed., 1902) ; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, \-o\. II (1911); Sumner, Andrew Jackson (revised ed., 1897); Clark and Hall, Legislative and Documentary History of the Bank of the United States (1832) ; Gallatin, Considerations on the Currency (1831), and other "■eferences in Catterall, Second Bank, pages 513-526. On the tariff controversy see : Taussig, Tariff History of the United States (ed. 'f 1898), opposes protection; Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, 2 vols. (1Q03), favors protection; Curtiss. Protection and Prosperity (1896), favors protec- tion and contains list of tariff measures; Bishop, History of American Manufac- tures, 3 vols. (1867) ; Michael and Pulsifer, compilers, Tariff Acts Passed by the Congress of the United States, iySg-iSo3 (1896). On foreign affairs see American State Papers, Foreign for the important docu- ments; Richardson, ilessages and Papers of the Presidents, vols. II and III (1902), contains papers on the relations with France; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. II (1911), summarizes foreign affairs; Sumner, Andrrw Jackson (isted., 1886), contains summary of relations with Great Britain; and Schuyler, American Di- plomacy (1886), good for commercial negotiations. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 427 On Texas, its early history and relations with the United States, see Garrison, Texas, a Contest of Civilizulitm; (iqo;}), the hat short history; Ibid., ed., Tcvaw Diplomatic Correspondence, 2 vols. (Am. Hist. Assn. Reports, 1907 and 1908) ; Rather, The Annexation of Texas (Te.xas Hist. Assn. Quarterly, 1910) ; and Reeves, Diplomacy under Tyler and Polk (1907). For Independent Reading Mrs. Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832) ; Dickens, American Notes (many editions) ; Fanm- Kemble [Butler], Journal, 2 vols. (1832-1833) ; and Dodd, Statesmen of the Old South (191 1), treats of Jefferson, Callioun, and Jefferson Davis. CHAPTER XXI EARLY PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY, 1S31-1850 The Antislavery Agitation Two phases of antislavery agitation occurred in the United States during the nineteenth century, one pacific and intended to persuade the South that slavery should be given up, the other The Two seeking to induce the North to use her influence in congress ments. ^'^ wipe out what was considered a blot on American civilization. Of the first movement Benjamin Lundy, a New Jersey Quaker, was the leading spirit. He was persistent and patient, and wished to secure the cooperation of slaveholders, who generally feared that antislavery agitation would suggest insur- rection to the minds of the slaves. He traveled extensively in the South, organized emancipation societies, and published a paper. The Genius of Universal Emancipation, as a means of Lundv""" promoting his ideas. He met no opposition from South- erners, but succeeded only in the sections in which there were few slaveholders, and chiefly with his fellow Quakers. His period of activity extended from about 181 5 to 1831. In 1816, while his movement was still in its hopeful stage, the American Colonization Society was founded. Its first president was Bushrod Washington, a justice of the supreme court, American g^^^j Clay and many other prominent men gave it support. Society. ^^^ object was to promote emancipation by sending the freedmen to Africa ; for it was believed that slaveholders would emancipate more readily if the emancipated ones were returned to their original homes. To aid its operations the government in 1822 established the colony of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, and branch colonization societies north and south collected money to sustain it. By 1830 the society had sent 1162 negroes to Liberia, most of whom fell victims to the pestilential fevers of the place. At that time it was evident that colonization, like emancipation by persuasion of the masters, was a faflure. The truth is that the expansion of cotton farming and the consequent rise tuT^ *Mh °^ ^^^ prices of slaves were increasing the hold of slavery South. i'^ ^^^ South. A new generation of Southerners had grown up since 1800. They had not the zeal for human rights so prevalent in revolutionary days and they were eager to develop their immense regions of fertile lands. To such men the 428 THE WORK OF GARRISON 4-'9 negro, who accepted bondage easily, seemed happier in slavery than out of it ; and so it came about that most conscientious men in the South, while recognizing the harshness of slavery, eventually came to consider it fixed in Southern life. The efforts of Northern men to remo\'e it seemed to them miscliievous interference with Southern affairs, a course likely to lead to insurrection and massacre. The second inovement originated in 1S31 when William Lloyd Garri- son began to publish the Liberator in Boston. He was young, poor, and friendless, but a passionate hatred of slavery filled his heart. He had been imprisoned in Baltimore for an ^''^'?'° article in Lundy's paper, and the remembrance of it Garrison, whetted his purpose. "I shall contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population," he said; ''I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice on this subject — I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation — I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not retreat a single inch, and / will be heard / " Drawing to himself the more earnest opponents of slavery in New England he was soon a power in the land. Local societies were founded, money was raised by contributions, fairs, and other means, and then he proceeded to unite the local societies into a common organization. In 1832 was formed the New England .\ntislavery Society, and in 1833 the American Antislavery Society. The object was to oppose slavery in every possible manner. In 1840 there were 2000 local organizations, with a total membership of nearly 200,000. Soon after its origin this phase of the antislavery movement began to be called "abolitionism." While Boston remained the center of abolitionism in the East, Oberlin, Ohio, became the center in the West. This village was founded around a coeducational school in 1833. In 1835 it received an accession of three professors and Obedmand thirty students from Lane Theological Seminary, Cincin- ernAb^oU- nati, all abolitionists who had left Lane Seminary because tionists. it frowned on their opinions. Oberlin college was incor- porated, and negro students were admitted to its courses. The village became an important point for Western abolitionists. A leading Ohio abolitionist was James G. Birncy, who had left Kentucky because he was opposed for teaching the doctrine of freedom. About this time appeared the "underground railway," conducted by abolitionists to help slaves to escape from the South. "Stations" were formed at regular distances at the homes of trusted persons, called "agents," while other persons, known as ^^^ ^^°^ "conductors," went South and escorted fugitives secretly RaUway." from "station" to "station" until safety was reached at last in a free state or in Canada. The persons connected with the "underground railway" were men of great probity in ordinary matters, but they thought it no crime to snatch a slave from bond- 430 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY age. It is estimated that 2000 slaves a year thus escaped from their masters from 1830 to i860. By such means as these the abohtionists attracted a great deal of attention, exasperated the Southerners to the point of fury, and called the attention of Northern people to the harshness of slavery. Their efforts at first were denounced by most people in the North, and sometimes their meetings were violently broken up, but opinion there gradually changed, so that the Northerners, by 1850, would do nothing to aid masters in recovering runaway slaves. Let us look at the other side of the picture. In 183 1 the South was probably already more proslavery than in 1800. It received the Garrisonian movement with violent scorn. Many S utt '° *^^ bitter things were said about those who would recklessly mcite the slaves to murder their masters. The "black terror" was ever the nightmare of the community. In 1S31 Nat Turner, a black slave in Southampton county, Virginia, began an insurrection, kDling sLxty whites before he was captured and hanged. It was beheved he had read the literature of the abolitionists. The incident sent a shock of horror throughout the South. Out of the shock came the motions in the Virginia legislature to abolish slavery, and a great debate followed in the succeeding winter. But no one could suggest a satisfactory way of disposing of the freedmen, and all the discussion came to naught. Virginia was not willing to have the negro population freed and left within the state. The upshot was to convince the South that the blacks were a fixed part Bl'^kC^d^'' °^ ^^^ population and that if they remained, they could be best controlled as slaves. From that time the negro's lot became harder. Laws were passed to forbid his instruction in reading and writing, his free use of the roads, his preaching to his own people, his right to assemble in meetmgs of any kind where no white man was present, and whatever else might enable him to com- bine for any action which might lead to freedom. This new "black code" now became common to all the Southern states, and by i860 the negro was completely cowed. As abolition gained in the North, proslavery gained in the South. In 1800 Southern statesmen and preachers generally considered slavery an evil, though they knew not how to remedy it : in i860 Southerners of both classes were found who argued that slavery was a blessing to the negro, a benefit to the South, and a beneficent institution whereby peace and happiness was estabhshed for society. This growing division between the sections soon found expression in congress. Southerners were alarmed when abolition Antislavery literature began to be sent South, some of it to ne- Mails* groes, and in 1835 a great group of indignant citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, seized and burned a mass of such papers before they were delivered. Appeals were sent to the THE "GAG RITLE" 431 postmaster-general to refuse the use of the mails for such purposes. He did not think such action legal, and a compromise was reached by which abolition papers were to be accepted by postmasters when offered for mailing, but need not be delivered at the offices to which the}' were directed. Then Calhoun offered a bill in the senate to forbid sending antislavery literature through the maDs to places in which it might not lawfully circulate ; but the proposition receiv^ed an adverse vote. The incident attracted much attention, and that helped the abolitionists in the North. IVIuch more excitement was aroused a few months later by the attitude of the house of representatix'es toward antislavery peti- tions. Many such appeals had come to the house in recent years, and they were beginning to irritate Southern pet'aons'^^ members. Yet the number of petitions did not diminish ; for the abolitionists got them signed more with the purpose of giving their efforts a definite fonn than with the expectation of success in the object asked for. Finally on May 26, 1836, the house resolved that such memorials in the future be tabled without reading or other action on them. John Quincy Adams, now a member of the house, protested against the resolution as unconstitutional, and a violation of the rights of his constituents. The abolitionists could now say the right of petition, the ancient bulwark of liberty, was denied, and more memorials than e\'er were sent to Washington. Adams took upon himself the task of presenting them. Whenever the regular hour for petitions arrived, he could be seen at his desk in the house, a huge pile of papers before him. As the order of the day was announced, he would rise with words like these : " I hold in my hands a request from citizens of the town of praying the abolition of slavery in .'" At this point the hammer of the speaker would fall, and Adams would be declared out of order. Not abashed, he would take another paper from the pile, begin with the same words, only to be cut off in the same manner, proceeding thus until the pile was exhausted. His action made him very unpopular with Southern members, but he became the honored champion of the abolitionists. At last the friends of slavery came to see that the "gag rule" in regard to petitions but strengthened the abolitionists in their J°^." appeals to the North, and in December, 1844, the offending Adams, rule was repealed. In resenting an irritating practice of the abolitionists the Southern members had put themselves in the wrong and given their adversaries a jjoint to support the general argument that slavery tinged with cruelty and despotism whatever it touched. 432 PERiUD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY Van Buren's Presidency Van Buren became president through the grace of Andrew Jackson. He had all the virtues of mediocrity without the capacity of leadership. He was honest, cool-headed, courteous to his contem- Character poraries, and loyal to his cause. He favored economy Bur^. ^^ expenditures, and although the spoils system throve dur- ing his administration, he sought to secure efficient persons fov the offices within his gift. He was an intimate friend of the New York literary men of his day, and appointed Paulding, the novelist, secretary of the na\'y. His weakness was that he had not the capacity of command, and his party, no longer restrained by the strong will of Jackson, fell into confusion and lost the confidence of the country. The first incident in his administration was the panic of 1837, symptoms of which began to appear before he was inaugurated. The cause was overspeculation, chiefly m the newer parts Panic of ^f ^j^g country. The past six years had been a period CauVe! ^ o^ great confidence everywhere. Railroads were being built, unmigrants were buying land at rapid advances, banks were lending money far in excess of their means, cotton rose to sixteen cents a pound in 1835 and fell to ten cents in 1836, "wild- cat banks" were incorporated whose chief acti-vity was to issue money to the land speculators, and the whole industrial community lived on the expectation that the morrow would carry the wave of specula- tion higher than it was to-day. Only a slight shock was needed to hurl the whole structure to the ground. Two things operating jointly served to furnish this check. The specie circular of 1836 (see page 425) forced land buyers to pay in specie, they asked the Western banks for gold and silver cfrc^ar*^'* in redemption of notes, and the institutions which had most overissued began to suspend specie payment. The distribution of the surplus (see page 424), beginning in January, 1837, drew money from the deposit banks to transfer it to other places. This necessitated the calling in of loans, which TheDisW- implied the suspension of industrial development, and Surplus. the reaction reached the remotest point of the country's business life. Then demoralization quickly arrived. European holders sent back bonds and demanded cash, owners of specie locked it in vaults, importations of goods fell oft, and the public revenues ceasing, the government expenses used up the treas- ury's surplus so that the third instaUment of the deposits was sus- pended when only half of it had been distributed. So acute was the situation that congress was called in extra session in October. Though the government was out of debt, it had no A BANK OR A SUB-TREASURY? 43,^ money for its expenses, and since the law required public dues to be paid in specie or in notes of specie-paying banks, there was not enough currency in the treasury to enable it to carry on its busi- ness. The first thing, therefore, was to issue temporarily $10,000,000 in treasury notes. Van Buren was urged to ^^^^^of repeal the specie circular, but refused steadfastly. The congress, whigs declared that all the trouble came from the destruc- tion of the bank of the United States and hoped to carry a bill for recharter, but congress and president remained firm, and this demand failed. Then Van Buren brought fonvard a plan to have the government 1 take care of the deposits, known later as the sub-treasury bill. / Let the government, he said, keep its own money, leaving it with ^ the treasurer, the mints, postmasters, collectors, and other receivers untO it was ordered paid out. At once arose Sub-treas- a cry that these keepers were not responsible, and that gested. ' the scheme, if adopted, would dangerously enlarge the patronage. The wliigs hoped the distress would make a new bank seem necessary, and voted steadOy against the sub-treasury. The democrats were dix-ided ; one part, strong in the Eastern cities, opposing the suggestion as unsafe, and the other supporting it. The second faction called itself the antimonopolists, but it was generally known as the "Locofocos," a nickname given by its enemies in New York. In the popular parlance of the day the sub-treasury bill was "the divorce bill," because it sought to " divorce the government froni- ali banks.'.' It failed in the e.xtra session, came up in a simpler form in 1838, but was again lost. It was taken up again and successfully passed and signed July 4, 1840. When finally ^g"*" ^ "" passed, it created sub-treasuries to keep and pay out the public money at Boston, New Y'ork, PhOadelphia, St. Louis, and New Orleans, which, with the treasury at Washington left the funds in SLx important centers of business. It also provided that after the end of June, 1S43, only specie should be received for public dues. The whigs fought the bill to the last, for its adoption meant the relinquishment of their hope for a bank; they repealed it in 1841, in the first days of their triumph, but the democrats restored it in 1846, omitting the specie feature. Before this law was passed, the presidential campaign of 1840 was being conducted. Van Buren's nomination by his party was easily secured in a convention at Baltimore, May 4, 1840. Several states had named candidates for the \ace-presi- jg^^o ° dency, and the convention thought it best to refrain from deciding between them. It was probably expected that the choice would at last fall to the senate. A platform strong in Jacksonian principles was adopted as the ground on which the country should continue to manifest its confidence in the existing administration. 434 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY The whigs approached the election year in high spirits. The long period of financial stringency, the inability of the democrats to unite on a positive remedy, and the many opponents of Van Biiren in his party indicated that the democrats would have strong opposition. Clay saw the situation and had high hopes. It seemed that his oppor- tunity was at last at hand. The convention was called at Harrisburg, December 4, 1S39. As the time approached, a strong anti-Clay opposition appeared \vithin the party. He was a mason, he had spoken against the abolitionists, and he was already twice defeated for the presidency. These facts, it was urged, made him an unavail- able candidate, and Harrison, leading whig candidate in 1836, was pointed out as a stronger man. The opponents of Clay were well led by Thurlow Weed, party manager in the important state of New York. Wlren the convention met, Clay had 102 vo^es on the first ballot, mostly from the slaveholding states, Harrisoh had 91, and General Winfield Scott had 57. Scott was a stalking-horse for Clay's enemies, who now began to shift their support to Harrison, with the result that the latter was finally named. Clay, deeply disappointed, burst into a rage when he learned the news. Walking rapidly to and fro, in a group of his friends, he exclaimed, "If there were two Henry Clays, one of them would make the other president !" John Tyler, of Virginia, deeply attached to the defeated leader, was nominated for vice-president. No platform was adopted, for in the groups of men supporting the action of the convention were so many of con- flicting \dews that it was perilous to attempt to devise a body of prin- ciples on which they should appeal to the people. The whigs were con- tent to rest their fate on the cry of "Down with Van Buren ! " No one doubted how New England and the bank men outside of it would vote, but it was not certain what the rest of the country would do. Fortunately for the wlrigs the campaign had an'''''^"d hardly opened when a lucky accident showed how they Tyler Too." could be reached. A disappointed friend of Clay was heard to say that Harrison, whose talents were very limited, if given a pension and a barrel of hard cider would retire to his log cabin and think no more of the presidency. The democrats seized on the remark and dubbed Harrison the "log-cabin candidate." But the blow reacted. The whigs made it a symbol of honor, saying it showed that their candidate was a man of the people, disdained by the aristocrats, whose heads were turned by their long lease of power. At every political meeting of the whigs a log cabin, a jug of cider, and a coon were chsplayed as tokens of their canchdate's love of the people. A popular song lauding him as the "hero of Tippecanoe" also did much to create enthusiasm for his cause. This wave of popular ex- citement accomplished the object for which it was raised, and in the final test Harrison and Tyler, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," were chosen by 234 to 60 electoral votes. Van Buren lost his own state TYLFJR AND CLAY 435 and carried only Virginia, South Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, Arkan- sas, Illinois, and New Hampshire. This overwhelming \ictory resulted fatally for the victor. Duly inaugurated in March, 1S41, he was at once overwhelmed by a horde of hungry whig office seekers, who dogged his steps, e.xliausted his strength, and so disturbed his peace of mind Harrison that he yielded to an attack of pneumonia one month after he took the oath of office. One of his last acts was to call congress in extra session for May 31, 1S41. When it met, Tyler was president. The Administr.\tion of Tyler Tyler now found himself at the head of a party with which he had little political sympathy. He believed in state rights, opposed a bank and a high tariff, and had only left the democratic fold because he resented the towering methods of Jackson, posjaoji His nomination had been made without the slightest expectation that he would ever be in a position to veto a bill which the whigs had carried through congress. On the other hand. Clay, the real head of the party, was in no mood to resign his leadership. Harrison, had he hved, would have had a sharp struggle with this imperious man, who was not disposed to bow before so insignificant a figure as Tyler, ^t^^y^g When, therefore, the extra session began. Clay, a member of the senate, took charge of the situation Uke a military commander. He offered a resolution specifying what work the extra session should perform, the chief features being : the repeal of the sub-treasury act, the incorporation of a bank, the enactment of a higher tariff law, and the distribution of the proceeds of land sales. Tyler was very cautious, but he was also stubborn, and Clay's dashing assumption of power aroused him. He accepted a bill to abolish the sub-treasury, but sent back \\-ith a veto a bill to incorjiorate a great bank in the District of Columbia with branches in the states, ^jfg g^^ The whigs had a safe majority in each house, but they Question, could not pass a bill over a veto. They were greatly dis- appointed ; for hearing rumors of Tyler's objections they thought they had ehminated from their bill all the features to which he was opposed. Smothering their resentment outwardly, they conferred with the president to know what kind of a bank bill he would approve. What he said became later a matter of dispute, but they hastily prepared a charter for a "Fiscal Corporation," passed it without difficulty, and sent it to the president. Tyler had expressed his op- position to the word "bank," and so the word was not used. The bill was said to have been shown to the president and to have had his approval. Great was the anger of its friends, therefore, when it came back in six days with a \-eto. Many had expected such action, 436 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY spite of his previous approval ; for tlie second bill differed from the first in little but the names it gave to bank and branches. Under it the great institution would have been able to do most of the things which Jackson had found so distasteful. Both vetoes showed that Tyler was fundamentally opposed to a bank on constitutional grounds. He had evidently tried hard to reconcile his desire for party harmony with his long-proclaimed principles, but the badly veiled discourtesy of Clay and other leading whigs in setting him aside as leader had wounded his pride and made him feel disposed to show them that he was still president. While the second veto was being prepared, con- gress passed a bill to distribute among the states the proceeds of land sales. Tyler accepted the bill, but it was repealed in the following year. The " Fiscal Corporation " was vetoed on September 9, 1S41. Two days later all the cabinet but Webster, secretary of state, resigned as a token of their disapproval. They published letters Tyler re- denouncing what they declared Tyler's false conduct, b"'lhe^** and Clay, wishing to detach as many whigs as possible Whigs. from the administration, secured a caucus of the leading members of the party wliich solemnly declared that "all political connection between them and John Tyler was at an end." Webster also gave reasons for liis conduct, sajang that he did not think it wise to leave the cabinet without giving the president time to select another secretary. Negotiations pending for the determina- tion of the Northeast boundary made it desirable that he should remain in office. He was not on good terms with Clay, and resented the manner in which that leader sought to bend the whigs to his will. Tyler saw in this a good omen. He hoped to build up a party in which the dashing Kentuckian should not be supreme, and immediately filled the cabinet with men who, like himself, had once been Jack- sonians, but who had left the democratic fold because they did not like the Jacksonian rule. As a party move, the step was a failure. Even Webster soon came to realize that Tyler was not the man to lead the whigs, and in May, 1843, when the administration was leaning strongly toward the annexation of Texas, he also withdrew from the cabinet. The only other distinctly whig measure passed through congress during Tyler's presidency was the tariff of 1842. The term through which the compromise of 1833 was to run was to expire of'iS^r**^ June 31, 1842. Before that date the treasury had a defi- cit. There was much alarm for the future, and some attempts were made to devise a plan for relief; but the president stood by the compromise of 1833, and it was allowed to run its course. Finally, on August 30, 1S42, a bill was passed fi.xing the duties on most articles at the rates in force in 1832, and the president gave it his approval. It involved the repeal of the distribution act of the pre- vious year, and on that ground received enough democratic votes to pass the senate. JSIAI.NE THREATENS WAR 437 The Maine Boundary and the Webster-Ashbxtrton Treaty When Webster decided to remain in the cabinet in 1841 he had begun important negotiations with England. The treaty of 1783 pro\ided that the Northeast boundary should begin at the mouth of the St. Croi.x river, follow its course to the tjje cfspute. .source, thence due north to the highlands separating the tributaries of the St. Lawrence from the streams that flow^ed into the Atlantic, along the said highlands to the source of the Connecticut, thence with that river to the parallel 45" north, and thence due west to the St. Lawrence. The commissioners knew^ little about the real geography of the Northeast. There were several rivers which the early inhabitants had called the St. Croix, and the British naturally claimed that the westernmost should be taken for the true starting point, while the Americans held for the easternmost. From the source of the stream claimed by the British a northward line reached the eastern end of some hills running westward, which it was claimed were the highlands which ought to be accepted as the boundary. The Americans were sure that the real St. Croix was either the river now known as the St. Johns or a smaller stream called by the Indians the Magaguada\-i, about twenty-five miles east of the present St. Croix. A line due north from the source of that stream did not touch the hills just mentioned, but passed on through level country, across the St. Johns, until it reached high ground which paralleled the St. Law- rence, about 140 miles northward, and following these hills south- westwardly this boundary gave to the United States about 12,000 square miles of territory more than that conceded by the British line. This disputed region was drained in part by the Aroostook river, which flows into the St. Johns, and whose valley by 1840 was being settled by inhabitants of Maine. Various attempts to determine the rights of each nation in the matter had been made, but none succeeded. Maine meanwhile exercised jurisdiction over the Aroo- stook lands, frequently dri\ing out persons cutting timber under Canadian authority. In 183S the intruders were more numerous than ever, and Governor Fairfield, of Maine, sent 150 men to oust them. The intruders fell back to New Brunswick, gathered reen- forcements, and only the exercise of moderation on the part of the gov- ernor of New Brunswick prevented bloodshed. Through- ,, out Maine w-as great indignation, and the president was gtookWar"" called on for help. Van Buren advised negotiations, but congress with practical unanimity gave him the authority to call out 50,000 men to defend the rights of the country, if he thought force necessary. Several irritating incidents had recently occurred on the Canadian frontier, and the country was in no frienflly mood toward Great Britain. At this time the English and American governments 438 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY agreed to desist from further operation on the Aroostook, and Maine, already prepared to enforce her claim by force, was induced to with- hold her hand until diplomacy had its opportunity. This period of disturbance was popularly called the "Aroostook war." Such was the situation when Webster became secretary of state in 1841. He immediately opened negotiations with England, which had no other wish than to dispose of the Aroostook inci- Conciude/ '^'^'^'" without injury to her rights. Lord Ashburton, a reasonable and courteous diplomatist, was sent to Wash- ington to have special charge of the British side of the case, and on August 9, 1842, the Webster-Ashburton treaty was signed, disposing of the controversy through a compromise satisfactory to all moderate persons. It adopted a line which gave 7015 square miles of the dis- puted area, including the Aroostook valley, to the United States. The treaty also pledged the two contracting powers to keep a joint squadron in African waters to suppress the slave trade. Maine and Massachusetts received from the United States money payments for land claims they had in the region awarded to England. A British map not accessible to Webster in 1842 supports the American claim and makes it evident that England gained by the treaty 5000 square miles more than the treaty of 1783 allowed her. The Annexation of Texas and the Occupation of Oregon During Van Buren's administration the annexation of Texas was held in abeyance. The South desired it, but the North was sure to object, and the question was too dangerous to party The S:tua- harmony to be taken up as long as it could be avoided. Texas. Texas herself understood the situation, and after 1S38 ceased to offer herself where there was no prospect that she would be accepted. Meanwhile, she had many difficulties. Im- migration was not very rapid, the struggle for independence over, many of her adventurers returned to the United States, and the ex- pense of keeping an army and navy to repel Mexico but added to her heavy debt. She was in need of foreign assistance, and some of her people were showing a willingness to accept it from any available source. In 1843 Washington learned that England and France had induced Mexico to make a truce with Texas with a view to a permanent treaty. Our government was surprised that these European The AUeged nations were taking such active interest in Texan affairs. Scheme. Then came reports that England was to advance money to free the slaves in Texas, the republic guarantee- ing the interest on the loan. Why was Great Britain, it was asked, concerning herself in this quarter ? The answer was in order that she might have the trade of Texas and secure a vast source for the supply A TREATY OF ANNEXATION 439 of cotton she needed for her factories. Moreover, it was exddent that if she got as strong a hold over the country as this plan involved, nothing but a war would shake her off. The report, although denied by the British government, was credited in the South and by many people in the North, and the impression grew that if we did not wish to see this valuable region slip out of our grasp, we must act at once. The North, however, laughed at the rumors and declared they were manufactured to influence the action of congress. Later investiga- tions have made it clear that they were well founded, although Eng- land's acti\ity had not gone as far by 1843 as the Southerners believed. Tyler and Upshur, his secretary of state, believed the reports and suggested to the Texans that it would be well to renew offers of an- nexation. Samuel Houston, the Texan president, assumed indifference, saying that if negotiations were now reopened Tyler sug- the newly established friendship of Texas and England e«sts An- would be weakened. This whetted the desire of Tyler, and he consulted with his friends and satisfied himself that a treaty of annexation could be carried through the senate. He took a warmer tone with Houston, who at last offered to treat for annexation if the United States would send an army to the frontier to aid the republic in case Mexico attacked while negotiations progressed. The con- dition was accepted, but later modified, so that we did not promise to aid the republic until a treaty was accepted. At this juncture Upshur was killed by the explosion of a cannon on the ship-of-war Princeton, and when the negotiations actually began, Calhoun was secretary of state. They ended in a treaty, signed April 12, 1844, in which Texas was to become an American territory and surrender its public lands, its indebtedness of $10,000,000 being assumed by the United States. All this was done as quietly as possible, but secrecy could not be maintained when the document came to the senate. Its publication was not a surprise to the country, but it met none the less a vigorous protest in the North. The South, it was said, gg^g^ed had assumed the aggressive and was seeking to acquire an immense region for the extension of the sphere of slavery. On the other hand, the Southerners replied that they only wished to enlarge the national domain and that the North selfishly sacrificed the glory of the country in order to gratify an unreasonable feeling against the South. As early as this the two sections had come to the inevitable conflict between slavery and freedom. The problem now became a very practical one for the politicians. The presidential campaign was beginning, neither party was willing to assume the responsibility of annexation, and so the treaty, which at first seemed safe, was de- feated in the senate. Calhoun and Tyler had the matter much at heart, and were sorely disappointed at the miscarriage of their plans. While Texas thus engaged the attention of the South and North, Oregon had become an important matter to the |)C()plc of the West, 440 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY For many years after the explorations of Lewis and Clark little was done to occupy that region. But by 1840 many settlers following the Missouri river had crossed the Rocky mountains to the Ouestion°° fertile valley of the Columbia, where England also had claims to territory. The controversy to which these conflicting claims gave rise was an intricate one. The British claim went back to 1778, when Captain Cook saOed along the Claims of Pacific coast as far as about 54° north latitude; Spain SoSn^and ^^^'^ ^^^ claims in the same region, but relinquished them Russia. in the Florida purchase treaty of 1S19, by which she gave up to the United States all right she may have had to the coast north of 42° north latitude. Russia, also, had once held that her Alaskan possessions extended south as far as Oregon, but in 1824 Secretary Adams induced her to agree that her authority should not extend south of 54° 40'. Thus in 1824 the region between 42° and 54° 40' was free of Spanish and Russian claims, but there was still the dispute with England. This we tried several times to arrange, but always without success. In 1S18 it was decided to leave the country, now definitely known as "Oregon," to the joint use of both powers for ten years ; and at the end of that period joint occupancj' was renewed indefinitely, either party to terminate it by Joint Oc- giving a year's notice. The Hudson Bay Company, Oregon^ ° ^^h Strong trading interests at Vancouver, was the center of the British influence, and the Americans, missionaries and traders with a few farmers, were settled chiefly on the Columbia. In 1841 they numbered 400. In 1818 England and the United States had agreed that the parallel 49° north should be the common boundary as far as the Rockies, and the United States were now will- ing to extend it directly to the Pacific, but to this proposition England objected. She wished to have the Columbia for the southern boundary of her Pacific coast possessions. On this basis nothing could be determined, and so the matter was left to drift along until the settle- ment of Oregon should make it necessary to come to a more definite understanding. The transference of American life to Texas, creating in Jackson's administration a lively interest in southwestern expansion, could not but awaken a similar feeling in regard to the Far North- p'^Utt'ai* west. About 1838, therefore, Linn, senator from Missouri, Issue, 1844. ^ state whose position gave her great interest in North- western expansion, opened a campaign for the erection of forts along the Oregon trail as far as the mouth of the Columbia. Of course, this would \'iolate the existing agreement with England and might lead to war. Another objection was that Oregon was so far away that when settled it would become a colony, a thing for which the constitution made no pro\asion. Linn's efforts met strong op- position in the East and for a while in the South. But in 1843 the TWO PERPLEXED CANDIDATES 441 Texan question came up, and Southerners concluded that it could be united with the Oregon question, since both related to expansion. This gave the Northwest more hope. The feeling in that quarter was now intense. Ignoring our former offer to accept the 49th parallel, the West demanded all of Oregon, and the slogan, "Fifty- Four Forty or Fight" was originated to express its position. It was accepted by the democrats, who in the platform of 1844 demanded the " reoccupation " of Oregon and the "reannexation" of Texas. Meanwhile, the settlers in Oregon were rapidly increasing through immigration, for agitation stimulated interest in the country. So much did the people suffer from lack of a legal govern- ment that in 1S4? they formed an irregular government of J^^efa- ., . ^ ^■^,. •' ^., "^ 1 r .^t. tion into their own to continue until congress made further pro- Oregon. \asions for them. In May, 1844, a caravan of 1000 per- sons, with 1967 oxen, horses, and cattle, started from the Kansas river on the journey across the mountains. They were mostly from Missouri. These events of necessity aroused the diplomats and led to a renewal of negotiations. Great Britain opened the question, but offered nothing better than the old terms, Renewed which were promptly rejected. Then she suggested yons. ' arbitration, but this was also refused. At this point the negotiation was suspended, probably to await the result of the elec- tion, then near at hand. The Election of 1844 Early in 1S44 Van Buren and Clay were generally considered the inevitable candidates of their respective parties in the coming cam- paign. The former had much reason to feel satisfied with the outlook, for the congressional elections of 1842 gave Van Buren the democrats a majority of 70 in the house, and the dis- ,g. . courageme'nrof the whigs through the quarrel with Tyler had added greatly to their embarrassment. Across this promising sky fell the cloud of antislavery. The year was hardly begun before each candidate was forced to reply to questions as to his position on the annexation of Texas. The democratic leader replied in a letter which showed that he was at last in the same position that his ancient enemy, Calhoun, was in when the nullifiers forced his hand in 1828. He must oppose annexation and lose the support of the South, or favor it and lose the support of his own section. He chose the former course, hoping, no doubt, that he could so soften the blow as to retain the good will of the South. He believed annexation constitutional, he said, but inexpedient because it would involve a war with Mexico, violate our neutrality obligations, and hold us up to the world as willing to extend our power through a war of conquest ; but if Mexico 442 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY carried herself toward Texas so as to threaten our interest, the people of the United States could be relied on to unite against her, and in that case he would, if president, submit the matter to the wisdom of congress. Calhoun must have remembered the days of his own humiliation when he saw this letter. He had spent the past thirteen years in , arousing the South on slavery, and the result was now Failure apparent. From every slaveholding state came protests against the man who could temporize in such a situation. Van Buren, said the Southern democrats, could not be trusted ; he was intimidated by the Northern antisla\'ery men, and he must not be nominated. From that time his selection, as even his best South- ern friends admitted, was impossible. Andrew Jackson, old but keenly watching the political field, could only e.xclaim: "I would to God I had been at Mr. V. B.'s elbow when he closed his letter, I would have brought to his view tJie proper conclusion. We are all in sack- cloth and ashes !" If Clay thought he would profit by his rival's predicament, he was mistaken. He also had written a letter, known as his "Raleigh Letter," from the place in which it was written ; and in Teis ^^ ^^ '■°°'^ almost e.xactly the same ground that Van Buren took. It did not defeat his nomination, for it pleased the North, where his greatest strength lay ; but it caused dis- may in the South, and so many requests that he soften his expressions came from the whigs there that later in the summer he wrote other letters saying that he had no personal objection to annexation "with- out dishonor, without war, with the common consent of the union, on just and fair terms." We shall see how this apparent juggUng of the question worked his ultimate undoing. The two leading parties held their conventions in Baltimore m May, 1844. The whigs made their choice harmoniously, naming Clay without a dissenting voice, and Frelinghuysen, for The Candi- vice-president, on the fourth ballot. The democrats Selected. were in sad confusion. A majority of the convention was instructed for Van Buren, but some of the pledged dele- gates were opposed to him, and the two-thirds rule was used to prevent his nomination. For a time it seemed that the party would be seriously divided. Most of the Northern delegates stood by Van Buren, while the Southerners were divided, some going for Cass, of Michigan, who had strong Western support. As the ballots were taken, Van Buren declined and Cass gained strength, until on the seventh he seemed in a fair way to succeed. He was unpopular with the Old North, and an adjournment was carried until ne.xt day in order to stop the trend toward him. During the night much was done to find some man to beat him. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, urged by his friends as a man vouched for by Jackson, was now brought forward. On the first POLK'S HARD-WON VICTORY 443 ballot taken next morning he had 44 votes, and on the second Van Buren was withdrawn and Polk nominated by a union of North and South which swept away in the enthusiasm with which it was received even the original Cass sup])ort. The nomination for vice-presidency was offered to Wright, of New York, Van Buren's ablest lieutenant, but he declined peremptorily, and it was then given to George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania. The platform declared for Texas and Oregon and reaffirmed the party's opposition to a bank and to the distribution of the funds derived from lands. Polk was not a brilliant man, but he was a steady and industrious politician, and his party put away its dissensions and entered the canvass hopefully. Two other conventions were held. One nominated Tyler for presi- dent with no other platform than his Texas record. The other was held by the Liberty party, organized 1S40, when it cast 7100 votes for James G. Birney. He was now re- gfj^g' nominated, with Morris, of Ohio, the candidate for vice- president. The campaign was full of bitterness and excitement. Clay traveled widely, making speeches to immense audiences. The Texas men of the South began to declare for annexation or a dissolution of the union with such fervor that whigs and democrats ASugges- became alarmed, and hastened to say that no one ought to Disunion, think of disunion. In Pennsylvania Polk was openly accused of being a free trader. In a letter to Kane, of that state, he said he was for a judicious tariff yielding enough revenue for the e.^ penses of government economically administered. It was a clever statement, pleasing the South, which was alarmed at the turn toward protection manifested in the tariff of 1842. ^pj^^i_ It also gave the democrats in protectionist Pennsylvania yanja. an opportunity to proclaim him a supporter of the tariff of 1842, which was enacted to get money to defray the expenses of government. They raised the cry, "Polk, Dallas, and the tariff of 1842!" and thereby held the state in its old political faith. Still more important was the attitude of the antislavery whigs, strong in New York. Their first inclination was for Clay, but his quibbling over annexation was so evident that several york Vote thousand of them voted for Birney, thus reducing his vote until it was below Polk's by 5104. If he had received New York's 36 electoral votes, he would have been elected. As it was, he got 105 votes, while Polk got 170. Polk lost North Carolina, the state of his birth, and Tennessee, the state of his resi- Elected dence. He carried all the Gulf states, where annexation was strongest, and all of the Northwest, where Oregon was an impor- tant issue, while Clay carried all New England, where annexation was opposed, and the Middle and the upper Southern states were divided. 444 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY Polk's victory indicated that Texas would be annexed, and Tyler used the last weeks of his administration in securing the prize. He was now completely identified with the democrats, having AuUiorized P^ved his friendship in the summer before the election by withdrawing from the campaign lest the South be divided. When congress met in December he again brought up the Texan question, recommending immediate annexation by a joint resolution. This method, requiring only a majority vote in each house, was preferred to annexation by treaty, which required a two-thirds majority in the senate. The Texas men took up Tyler's suggestion with alacrity. The house passed it by a vote of 120 to 98, and the senate by the close vote of 27 to 25. The democrats generally voted in the affirmative, and a few of the Southern whigs, not walling to go against the strong feeling of their section, took the same position. The resolution, as passed, provided that Texas might become a state when her constitution was accepted by congress, that four additional states might with her own consent be formed out of her territory, that boundary disputes should be settled by future negotiations between the United States and any other foreign power who made objection, that Texas should assume her own debt and surrender 'her land and water defenses, that the principle of the Missouri compromise should be extended to the Texan territory, and that the president should have authority to complete annexation by negotiating with Mexico or by an agreement with Texas, as he saw fit. The last clause was to meet the objection of a few senators who insisted that honor demanded that Mexico be conciliated. They asserted that they had assurances that Polk would follow Tyler An- ^j^jg ^^^^ jf ^^le resolutions passed, but he later denied that Polk* *^ lis g^^'s such a promise. In fact, Tyler gave him no option in the matter. Though only seven days of the term remained to him, Tyler hurriedly dispatched a messenger to Texas^ with an offer of annexation. It arrived none too soon, for Texas ■ was considering a proposition for a joint British and French guarantee of Texan integrity, with further joint mediation with Mexico on the question of boundaries. If Polk had resorted to negotiations, he must have encountered this scheme, and Texas might have been lost. As it was, Tyler's offer, and not England's, was accepted by the Texans, and December 29, 1S45, a new state was admitted to the Stete^ * union. Mexico, watching the progress of annexation, broke off diplomatic intercourse with the United States as soon as congress passed the joint resolution, and a few months later she declared that the admission of Texas into the union would be equivalent to a declaration of war. OREGON CONTROVERSY ADJUSTED 445 Polk's Administration The war with Mexico is the chief event under Polk ; but before we begin with it three other measures must be described. The first was a new taritT bill, passed and approved by the president in disregard of the campaign assurances of his friends in 'j T"** °' Pennsylvania. The tariff of 1842 was about as high as that of 1832, and it pleased the protectionists. It did not suit the democrats, who now controlled all branches of the government. They, therefore, lost no time in passing a new bill, to which has been given the name of Secretary of the Treasury Walker. It became law July 30, 1846, and provided for a reduction to a strictly revenue basis. It was in force until 1857, when there was still further reduction. It did not injure the manufacturing interests of the country, and sup- plemented by other laws yielded sufficient revenue, even in the period of war which followed its adoption. The second measure was the settlement of the Oregon boundary. Polk was especially anxious to make the Pacific coast American, and showed firmness in executing the Oregon clause of his party's platform. His first move was to offer to settle, I: '''*'* on the old basis, the extension of the parallel 49° to the Question. Pacific. The British minister in Washington refused the offer bluntly without referring it to his government. Polk then asked congress to do three things : (i) give notice to terminate the joint occupation of the disputed region ; (2) erect forts there ; and (3) ex- tend the laws of the United States over Oregon. Such a course might undoubtedly lead to war, but Polk believed that England would yield when she saw we were in earnest ; and the result showed he was right. But congress was divided. The whigs wished to avoid war, the Northwestern members were firm for all the coast to the parallel K4° 40', and began to suspect that the South, having got Texas, was willing to sacrifice Oregon, while some of the extreme ^''1^'^", Southerners did not like the idea of enlarging the area jg.g which must eventually be free territory. Congress wrangled until late in April, when it was finally decided to give notice to end joint occupancy. England had watched the proceedings closely. She did not wish war over so trivial a matter, and suggested unofficially that we renew our former offer. Polk thought this beneath the national dignity, and suggested that it was for England to reopen the negotiation. She was clearly in the wrong, and yielded as grace- fully as possible. June 6, 1846, she submitted a treaty accepting the 49th parallel, and Polk, first getting the approval of the senate, signed the treaty, which was later formally ratified. The Northwest was deeply disappointed, but the rest of the country were satisfied 446 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY with the compromise. The Mexican conflict was now beginning, and no one wished two wars at once. The third matter related to Cahfornia and New Me.xico, a vast and thinly populated possession of Mexico. The Oregon immigrants were already entering California, and Polk believed that San 3. An Offer Francisco harbor was necessary to the development of i^a and New American power on the coast. Its acquisition, therefore, Mexico. was a prime consideration in his policy from the time he became president. In September, 1S45, spite of the rupture of relations with Me.xico, he sent Slidell to Me.xico to purchase the country, to settle the Te.xan boundary, and to adjust a mass of claims of American citizens. Slidell was instructed to assume the Me.xican claims and pay $20,000,000 for that part of California from and including San Francisco northward, while he might offer $5,000^- 000 more for the part including Monterey. For New Me.xico, part of which Texas claimed, he might 'olfer $5,000,000; and he was to endeavor to get Mexico to accept the Rio Grande for her Texas boundary. The affairs of Mexico were in great confusion, she was badly in need of funds, and as she had intimated that she would be \viUing to settle her relations with the United States, it was beUeved that Slidell by skillful management could get what we wanted. The result showed that Polk did not understand the Spanish- American temperament. We were so unpopular with the Mexican people on account of the anne.xation of Texas that our offer was not even received, and Slidell was forced to return without the slightest success. Then Polk realized that if we got California and New Me.xico we must resort to war, and for that contingency he was prepared. Of the three matters of dispute the boundary question was the oc- casion of the war. Under Spanish and Me.xican control Te.xas had never extended south of the Nueces, but the agree- Boundary nient With Santa Anna, 1836, had recognized the Rio Grande as the boundary (see page 421), a concession Mexico promptly repudiated. But the Te.xans persisted in their claim, and our government now took it up. The disputed region was luiinhabited, and it is probable that time and diplomacy would have given it to us \vithout a struggle. Such a course was not to be followed, for Polk had other ends in mind. Pending the results of Slidell 's diplomacy, General Zachary Taylor, with 1500 men, took position at Corpus Christi just south of the mouth of the Nueces, where he remained until early in 1S46. '^n* ^fTh"' When it was seen that Slidell would accomphsh nothing, ^„_ Taylor was ordered to the Rio Grande, and promptly obeyed. General Ampudia, with a Mexican force, was at Matamoras, on the south bank of the Rio Grande near its mouth. He considered the last move of the American general an act of in- vasion, and demanded that he fall back to the Nueces. He sent a force TAYLOR'S OPERATIONS 447 across the river, which on April 24 surrounded a reconnoitering party of Americans, killing and capturing them all. To Polk this was an act of invasion, and he advised congress that war had been begun by Mexico and that preparations for meeting it ought to be made. The nation was deeply e.xcited, and congress, accepting the statement of the president, ordered the enlistment of 50,000 soldiers, and appro- priated $10,000,000 for war expenses. In this way began the Mexican war, May 12, 1S46. Three chief offensive movements were planned by the Americans. One was intrusted to Taylor, who was to conquer the northern Mexi- can pro\'inces and distress the enemy until they were willing to sue for peace. When in time this was seen to ^^ Three be insufficient, a second was organized to march from Vera ^^^g -^^^ Cruz against the Mexican capital. A third expedition, launched in the beginning of the war, was to invade and take New Mexico and then to proceed to the coast and occupy the weakly de- fended province of California. The purpose was to occupy the disputed region and hold it by force, to distress Mexico until she sued for peace, and to secure California, which Slidell could not get, as war indemnity. Taylor moved first. News of hostilities had aroused the whole nation, and May 6, before congress had acted, reenforcements arrived from New Orleans, with which he took the field against the enemy, who had crossed the river. In two sharp 1?^'°'^ ^ engagements, Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, he de- Battles, feated them, forced them to recross the Rio Grande, and then took Matamoras on May 18, Arista, the Mexican general, falling back to Monterey. Taylor now paused until he could make more deliberate plans. August 5 he resumed his advance, and September 20 invested Monterey, a strongly fortified town in which a large body of Mexicans were posted. After three days the enemy were so crippled that they asked for terms. They were allowed to march out with their arms, and Taylor agreed not to continue his march for eight weeks. The armistice displeased the president and was set aside, and Taylor advanced and occupied Saltillo without opposition. December 2g he occupied Victoria, the capital city of the state of Tamaulipas. He now had 10,000 men, and was holding a line 200 miles long. To his surprise and disgust he received an order to send half his force to Vera Cruz to join another army designed to march against the city of Mexico. Like a good soldier he obeyed orders, and began to drill the troops left him, chiefly raw recruits. Almost immediately he learned that he was in great danger. Santa Anna, the Mexican commander-in-chief, had concentrated 20,000 men and was marching northward to crush him. To fall back to ihe Rio Grande meant a loss of all the prestige Buena Vista, of the campaign, and Taylor decided to fight. He took position at the hacienda Buena Vista, five miles south of Saltillo, 44S PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY where he was attacked by the Mexicans on February 23. His army was posted between two mountains, and beat off the first attack with a splendid rifle and artillery lire. Santa Anna then rallied his men, turned Taylor's left, and made a bold dash at his line of retreat. Troops less cool would have been thrown into confusion, but the Americans trusted their commander and stood their ground. The flanking party was driven back to the mountain, and only a ruse of a pretended flag of truce saved them from capture. Santa Anna now made his last eft'ort. Massing his reserves, he fell on Taj'lor's center, took its batteries, and penetrated the line for a considerable distance. Then Taylor pushed for^-ard a battery commanded by Bragg which opened with grape and canister, while Jefferson Davis's Missis- sippians and a small band of Indiana troops cut them to pieces on the flank. Repulsed here, the enemy withdrew, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. The battle of Buena Vista, taking com- parative numbers into consideration, was the best fought engagement of the war. After it was won Taylor remained undisturbed on the Rio Grande. The expedition of Scott was undertaken because an army could not reach the enemy's capital from the Rio Grande. It was de- cided to land at Vera Cruz, take well-fortified defenses, and fight through the inter\'ening region until the objective was reached. Selecting a commander caused much trouble. Taylor was a whig, his victories were fast making him a popular hero, and he was already mentioned as a presidential candidate. Ought a democratic admin- istration to continue to afford him an opportunity to acliieve laurels ? General Scott, head of the army, was also a whig and open to the same objection. But the democrats had no good general of high rank, although Senator Benton, who had great confidence in himself, was willing to resign his seat and lead the second army of invasion. There was much wrangling over the point, and valuable time was lost, but at last good judgment prevailed, and Polk, putting political considera- tions aside, intrusted the command to Scott, who on March g, 1847, began to land at Vera Cruz with more than 12,000 men. Before his operations are described we must follow the fortunes of the third movement, undertaken for the conquest of California. Its conduct was intrusted to Colonel Stephen W. Kearny, who in June set out with 1800 men from Fort Leavenworth, on the upper Missouri, for Santa Fe. His greatest hardships were Kearny s those of the march through an arid country, but on August Expedition. ^^ ^^ entered Santa Fe, the Mexican army fleeing before him. Following his instructions, he set up a temporary government under the American flag, and a month later set out for California, going by way of the Gfla valley to the Colorado and thence due west to San Diego. He started on this part of his campaign with only 300 men, but meeting Elit Carson with news that California was CALIFORNIA AND MEXICO al the Bei^inninj; of the MEXICAN WAR Scale or Miles lOU 200 800 400 &0D A N WilllaiB* EiiO'iBgCo.. N.Y. 110" Loneltud* [rum li>J' UrMDwkb SCOTT'S EXPEDITION 44q already conquered, he sent two-thirds of his detachment back to New Mexico and proceeded with only loo men. The events to which Carson referred were strange, and filled with the spirit of adventure. Early in 1S46 Commodore Sloat, with a squadron, was off the coast, with instructions to seize the harbors if war be^an, and the American consul at 7^^ ^'°^' Monterey was instructed to promote the spirit of inde- seized, pendence among the inhabitants. At that time Captain John C. Fremont, prominent as an explorer, was in California, engaged in geographical research, and secretly longing for an opportunity to raise the population, a portion of whom were Americans by birth, against Mexico. The knowledge that war had begun put all these forces into activity. Sloat took the ports of San Francisco and Monterey, and Commodore Stockton, who relieved him, took Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the province rose against the Mexican garrisons and raised the .'\merican flag, Fremont giving such help as his small body of explorers afforded. Thus the whole prov- ince fell into American hands, and when Kearny arrived in Decem- ber, 1846, only the remnants of resistance were to be suppressed. His authority superseded that of Stockton and Fremont, and he was soon at odds with them over the form of government to be established. The latter wished to have a territory with Fremont for governor. But Kearny was ordered to proclaim a provisional civil government with military support, and his compliance with the order was approved by the president. When the news from California arrived in Washington Scott's army was beginning to execute the third important phase of the land operations. March 9 it landed three miles from Vera Cruz and invested the place, whUe a fleet blockaded the Vera Cmz harbor. After five days of heavy bombardment, the town, Gordo, suffering from hunger and exhaustion, was surrendered. Scott was an excellent general, as his proceedings now showed. Two hundred and fifty mUes away was the capital of Mexico, reached by a good road which at eighty miles from the coast crossed a mountain range, the pass of which was guarded by the hill of Cerro Gordo. Here Scott, who advanced rapidly, found the enemy strongly posted on April 17. In a battle which consumed most of two days the army carried the well-fortified hill, drove Santa Anna into disastrous flight, and captured 3000 prisoners and a large quantity of arms and supplies. Now followed nearly four months of inaction, while futile efforts for peace were made. Early in August the advance was resumed, and on the nineteenth the anny had passed around Lake ~. „ . , Chalco and faced the enemy at Contreras and Churu- Taken*'" * busco, two strong places a few miles south of the city. In four days' fighting both positions were taken in the most gallant 450 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVKRSY manner. The prize was now all but won, when an armistice was granted and negotiations for peace were again begun. The demands of the Mexicans were impossible, and Scott, convinced that they were only made to gain time, broke off negotiations and took. Molino del Rey on September 8. He was now four miles from the city, but before him stood the rock Chapultepec, 150 feet high, crowned with batteries and flanked with outworks, all well manned. On the thir- teenth he attacked this place, carrying it after the most desperate resistance and coming at nightfall to the very gates of the city. These he was ready to storm on the following morning when the city officials appeared with a flag of truce and handed over the keys. By this time the army of the defenders had withdrawn to Guadaloupe Hidalgo, and his own troops marched through the gates to the great plaza, where they raised their flag over "the Halls of the Montezumas." With due allowance made for the inferior fighting ability of the Mexi- cans, it was a splendidly won campaign ; and many an officer who served gallantly on one side or the other in the ci\'il war saw here his first active ser\'ice. Polk began the war, thinking that Mexico would yield at the show of force, and Trist, chief clerk of the state department, accompanied Scott with the draft of a treaty of peace. This policy r"*ii^i°^ was called "conquering a peace." It was Trist's pres- Hidalgo. ^'^"^^ '■^^'- caused Scott to halt twice in his march on the capital, a course which only made the Mexicans think the Americans timorous. This naturally angered Scott, who saw it interfered with the vigor of his campaign. His protests at last reached Washington, and just as the city of Mexico was entered there arrived orders for Trist to desist and return home-. A strong feeling was arising in administration circles to demand all of Mexico. Meanwhile, Trist remained in Me.xico, spite of his recall, and February 2, 1848, he signed the treaty of Gaudaloupe Hidalgo, in accordance with the instructions given him nearly a year earlier. It provided that the boundary should follow the Rio Grande to the New Mexican line, thence west to the first branch of the Gila, thence with the river to the Colorado, and from that point with the boundary between upper and lower California to the Pacific. The treaty was not strictly binding, as Trist's authority had expired ; but Polk sent it to the senate, where it was accepted, March 10. It gave us New Mexico and California, for which we agreed to pay $15,000,000 and to assume the claims of American citizens against Mexico. The Slavery Question in a New Form Had the spirit of 1820 now prevailed it would have been possible to divide the newly acquired territory between freedom and slavery. Moderate men generally desired such an arrangement, but the most SLAVERY .\ND THE NEW TERRITORY 451 earnest persons on each side of the controversy would not have it. The North generally considered the war an act of Southern aggres- sion and prepared a countermove. In 1846 a bill was be- fore the house to appropriate money to enable the president p wiimot to make peace, when Wiimot, a Pennsylvania democrat, ofiFered his celebrated proviso that none of the territory acquired in the war should be open to slavery. It passed the house, where the North was in control, and was barely defeated in the senate. It aroused a storm of protest in the South, which believed itself about to be excluded from its fair share in the domain for which it had bt)rne the brunt of war. Spite of the efforts of party leaders, Southern whigs dared not support the measure, and Northern democrats showed a growing unwUlingness to oppose it. Sectionalism was rampant, and the union seemed imperiled. But the North did not yield. It had definitely concluded that no more slave states should be admitted to the union. If this plan were followed, the power of the South would soon be broken, and slavery in the South itself would eventually be hampered by irritating and disastrous limitations. The proviso was again before congress in iS47,and again defeated through the opposi- tion of the senate, where the South still maintained its hold. While the country was awakening to this controversy, the election of 1848 drew near. The whigs nominated General Taylor, staking their all on a mOitary hero. He had no political e.xperience, but the good sense and kindliness which had led his soldiers to Election of call him "Old Rough and Ready" recommended him to j^^i^^ popular favor. He was a war hero neglected by the demo- Nominated. cratic administration, and the people showed their dis- position to right his wrongs. He was a Southerner and a slaveholder, which gave him strength in the South, and it was believed his war rec- ord would carry him through in the North. Foi vice-president Millard Filmore, of New York, was named. The whig convention tabled a resolution to adopt the Wiimot proviso. The democratic party was handicapped by an internal conflict in the important state of New York. One faction was called barnburners. It favored refomis and got its name from a story of a Dutch farmer who burned his barn to destroy the rats in it. Silas Barnburners Wright was at the head of the group, but he had the sup- Hunkers, port of Van Buren, William CuUen Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post, and many other liberal minded men. The other group, called hunkers, were more practical men, and were sup- ported by the Tammany society. Their leader was William L. Marcy, and they got their name because they were supposed to hunger, or "hunker," for office. The two factions hated one another so much that Polk was bound to have trouble. In the beginning of his ad- ministration he offered to take a barnburner into his cabinet, but tlie men selected declined, and he made Marcy secretary of war. The- 452 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY followed trouble over the patronage, widening the breach until in 1848 nothing could bring the two factions to act together, and the result was two sets of delegates to the national nominating convention, which as- sembled at Baltimore, May 22, 1848. Aside from the New York wrangle, the meeting was harmonious. Recognizing the Wilmot proviso as a dangerous subject, the leaders kept it in the background, and a resolution in its behalf was inaled *""' tabled by a large majority. Several persons were sug- gested as candidates, but Lewis Cass, of Michigan, led from the first ballot and secured the nomination on the fourth. He had been in Jackson's cabinet, and was a man of ability and a popu- lar leader in the West. With a candidate who pleased the West and a platform which pleased the South success seemed assured. The hope was defeated by the New York factions, each of which had been allowed to cast half of the state's vote. Each refused this settlement, but the hunkers pledged themselves to support Cass, while the other faction protested against the tabling of the Wilmot proviso and repudiated Cass. Returning from the convention, the barnburners called a state con- vention at Utica and nominated Van Buren for the presidency on a platform which demanded the adoption of the Wilmot pro- Free Soil .^rjso. Then followed a movement to consolidate all who ganized. Opposed the extension of slavery. In November, 1847, the liberty party had nominated Hale of New Hampshire, whUe a radical offshoot of that party, the liberty league, in June, 1848, nominated Gerrit Smith. Moreover, many democrats and whigs were disappointed because their respective conventions had avoided the slavery issue. To unite all these elements a convention was called at Butfalo, August 9, which founded the free soil party, two of whose demands were that the territories be devoted to freedom and that the public lands be distributed free to actual settlers. This done. Van Buren was made the free soil candidate for president and Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, the candidate for vdce-president. Hale withdrew, and the liberty party and the barnburner organization was merged into the free soil party. In the election which followed the New York situation was the deciding factor. Taylor Result^''"" carried the state with 218,000 votes against 120,000 for Van Buren and 114,000 for Cass; and this meant a whig victory. Had the barnburners supported Cass, he would probably have carried the state. He had 127 electoral votes and Taylor had 163. Although both democrats and whigs avoided in their platforms the question of slavery in the territories, the issue would not down. It was now more urgent than ever, because a government Oregon must be established in Oregon and because gold having Territory. been discovered in California the country was filling up with an adventurous ]iopulation. The issue was strongly drawn in May, 1S4S, when Polk sent congress an urgent request for a GROWING BITTERNESS 453 territorial government for Oregon. A bill was framed which ap- proved the laws already adopted by the temporary government there. Calhoun objected because, as he said, congress had no power to ex- clude slavery from any territory. The antislavery men, on the other hand, demanded specific restrictions. There was a long debate, the upshot of which was a compromise bill applying the principles of the Northwest Ordinance to Oregon and creating the territories of Cali- fornia and New Mexico without power to pass on slavery, either for or against it. The house tabled the bill, and finally, after much bitter- ness, the provisions of the bill in relation to Oregon were passed as a separate act. Thus Oregon became a territory without slavery, but California and New Mexico must wait. The next session of congress was a short one. The house passed a bill to organize the territory of California without slavery, but the senate refused to concur. Various other propositions on the same subject were made, but none were acceptable. Futile Ses- In this session, as in the former, Polk urged that the whole ^°° ^°T question be settled by extending the Missouri compromise 1843.' to the Pacific, and some favored the idea. Probably the South would have accepted it, but the North was aroused and was determined to check the spread of slavery, so that Polk's suggestion was not adopted. While this subject was being discussed. Northern members brought in a bill to forbid the slave trade in the District of Columbia. It passed the house, but was reconsidered and tabled. The Southern members were aroused, and replied by asking for a committee to prepare a more effective fugitive slave law. The request was not granted, but it served to call the attention of the country to a concrete grievance of the South. The Southern congressmen in an address described the growth of discrimination, and soon afterwards the southern legislatures passed resolutions of similar nature. North- ern legislatures replied by demanding the exclusion of slavery from the territories. On March 4, 1849, congress adjourned after three months of bitter debate, in which no progress was made toward removing the sectional differences. Threats of disunion were freely uttered by Southerners, and before adjournment they organized disunion a committee which sent forth an address on the posi- tion of the South. It reviewed the rise of opposition to slavery, arraigned the aggressive spirit of the North on the question, declared the South was denied a fair share of the territory it had done so much to conquer in the recent war, and called on all Southern people to stand as a unit in resistance of the treatment it received. The address was warmly commended in the slave states by both whigs and demo- crats. In the North there was also much excitement, and many legis- latures there passed resolutions for the prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. 454 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY The Compromise of 1S50 When the next congress met, December 3, 1S49, affairs were no nearer a settlement. California, tired of awaiting the action of con- gress, had set up an irregular state government with the The Long- ^^^^^ approval of President Taylor, and was asking for Harmony. statehood, while New Mexico suffered many inconveniences through the lack of a regular government. Something must be done, but no one could say what. Behind all was the omi- nous and growing mo\-ement for disunion. Cool-headed men, business interests, and conservatives generally recognized the necessity of com- promise ; and party managers, alarmed at the way negro slavery in- terfered with older political alignments, wished to find some road to harmony. The issue was fast destroying the whig party in the South, and it threatened to undermine the democracy in the North. Three suggestions of compromise came into the minds of the leaders. One was the extension of the Missouri line to the Pacific. We have seen that this was opposed by the antislavery North. Popular 'pj^g second was to refer the question to the territories. It was first made in 1847, when the Wilmot proviso was being discussed ; and Cass in the same year adopted it in a letter to a Tennessee supporter. It meant that congress should do nothing about slavery in a territory, allowing slaveholders and non-slave- holders to settle there as they chose, and that the people of the terri- tory should decide the question for themselves when the territory became a state. This doctrine, so consonant with the theory of state rights, would probably have been accepted by the South in 1848. Brought up later by Douglas, who named it "popular sovereignty," it played an important part in the conflict over Kansas and Nebraska. The suggestion did not please the antislavery men, who meant that slavery must be given no opportunity in the territories. The third suggestion came from Clay. For nearly eight years he had been in retirement, and was now sent back to the senate because his friends thought he could do something to save the Su ^'estion ^nion. At heart he favored the Wilmot proviso, and since ugges on. (-.^jyQj.j^jj^ ^^^ j^Tg^ Mexico evidently wished to save themselves from slavery, he thought they ought to be gratified. Look- ing over the field he prepared a plan of compromise which gave something to each side. He thought all moderate men would unite to pass it in order to remove the slavery question definitely from the field of national politics. It appealed to his imagination that "the Great Compromiser," as he was called, who had done good services in the crises of 1820 and 1S33 should finish his career with another compromise, greater in its significance than either of the other two. CLAY AND CALHOUN 4SS January 29, 1 850, he introduced a series of resolutions providing for: I. The admission of California as a free state; 2. The creation of the territories of New Mexico and Utah without restric- tion as to slavery ; 3. The assumption of the debt of Texas "'? '^^so" '"ontracted before annexation and the relinquishment of her claim to a large part of eastern New Mexico ; 4. The prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia with the refusal to pro- hibit slaver}' there without the consent of RLiryland ; 5. The more effectual return of fugitive slaves to their masters ; and 6. The asser- tion that congress could not forbid the interstate slave trade. A week later Clay made a two days' speech in defense of his reso- lutions. The nation had come to the point of di\dding, he said, and it was time for each side to make concessions. The South was defending its interests, the North was contending ^'^v'? Com- for a sentiment ; and it was easier to relax sentiment than gpeech. interest. The first and fourth resolution would favor the North, and on these the South nuist be content to give way. The others favored the South, and he pleaded that the North would be reasonable and yield on these. His speech was filled with protesta- tions of loyalty to the union of the fathers, a union which he and every other old man present had seen born and develop through the preced- ing sixty years. He spoke with wonderful effect to an audience which filled every available foot of space in the senate chamber. On March 4 Calhoun tottered into the capitol to speak to the reso- lutions. He had come from a sick-bed, and could only sit and watch the senators while his words were read by a friend. He too was born before the constitution was written, but his Calhoun's speech was no plea for concession. He had long been Speech,— rallying the South against the growing power of the North, gguth Out- and this last appeal was a message of warning. The union, distanced, he said, began with an equal distribution of power between the North and the South, but at the end of sixty years the equilibrium was destroyed. The census about to be taken would show a vast preponderance of population in the North, and this was not due to natural causes, but to three lines of policy followed by the federal government. The first was the Northwest ordinance and the Mis- souri compromise, by which the South was excluded from many of the territories ; the second was the protective tariff ; and the third was the growth of consolidation by which the power of the federal government had come into the hands of the North. For a long time there was a complete equilibrium in the senate, but of late the char- acter of Delaware was become neutral, giving the North 28 and the South 26 members of the senate. At present there were two Northern territories, Minnesota and Oregon, and no Southern territories, in a formative process. Add to this the proposition of the North for the exclusion of the South from California, New Mexico, and Utah, and the 456 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY prospect was that there would be five more states added to the power of the North. Could there be any doubt whither this situation would lead? About 1835, he continued, began the antislavery agitation, pro- claimLng as its purpose the destruction of slavery, an achievement which would overturn the social system of the South. ^f'n^™''"' At first ignored by the two great parties, it had grown union. until whigs and democrats were afraid to oppose it, and its latest demand was the exclusion of slavery from the terri- tories. Would it e\'er be weaker than now ? Was it not evident that if something were not done to check its progress the South must choose between abolition and secession ? The evidences that disunion is growing are seen in the churches. The Methodists and Baptists are already divided on the question of slavery, the bonds of the Presby- terian church have begun to yield, and only the Episcopalians, of the four great Protestant bodies, are not affected by the great dissension. The same tendency is seen in the two great parties. Cord after cord has broken, and if the agitation goes on, not a bond will remain to bind together the two great sections of the country. This is disunion. Calhoun then came to his remedy for this aggravated situation. He proposed an amendment to the constitution guaranteeing the South an equal position in the territories, a fair execution Calhoun s ^j ^.j^^ fugitive slave act, and a cessation of antislavery agitation. Would the North accept this? She would rf she loved the union as she professed. It was not a gift in the posses- sion of the South, the weaker section. "If you who represent the stronger portion," he said to the Northern senators, "cannot agree to settle them [the points mentioned] on the broad principles of justice and duty, say so ; and let the states we both represent agree to sepa- rate and part in peace. If you are unwilling we should part in peace, tell us so, and we shall know what to do, when you reduce the cjuestion to submission or resistance. If you remain silent you will compel us to infer by your acts what you intend." This speech was the last warning of the Southern Nestor, and four weeks later he was dead. There are flaws in the argument, but he stated clearly the situation of the South. It had played Significance a losing game in the race for progress, it was now face to ^ ." face with the inevitable, and it must submit to the will Speech. of the North and allow slavery to be put in a way to be extinguished, or it must separate from the North and es- tablish a government of its own. Compromise was entirely without Calhoun's ken. He realized that it was only a palliative and pleaded calmly for Northern conciliation in a saddened eloquence which would have been better expended if it had been used to reconcile his own people to the inex'itable progress of civilization. WEBSTER'S LOVE OF UNION 457 March 7 Webster rose to speak. He too had seen the unit)n pass from its birth through a period of doubt to a splendid maturity. He grew up to manhood when patriotism was a passion, the best efforts of his life had been given to establish the ideals of ^^''^'^f » union, and he was dismayed at the prospect which Calhoun jjarch '- held up so firmly. Moreover, Webster, like many other cooler Northerners, had no enthusiasm for abolition. He did not believe slavery as undesirable as disunion, and he now threw his whole soul into the task of calming the Northern mind, charging the aboli- tionists with excessive severity, and pleading that the South be not driven into the last ditch. Conservative Northerners approved the speech, but the verdict of the antislavery men was far otherwise. One compared him with Benedict Arnold, another exclaimed : "Webster is a fallen star! Lucifer descending from heaven!" and he was freely charged with bidding for the Southern whig support for the presidency. He undoubtedly had his ambitions, but he would hardly have risked his standing at home if he had not felt that duty impelled him. The avalanche of criticism under which he was buried shows how much the North was aroused against slavery. Clay's resolutions were debated, with some intermissions, for three months before bills embodying their principles were introduced. One was called "the Omnibus Bill," because it contained his recommendations in regard to California, New Mexico, '^''^ 9°™" Utah, and Texas ; another prohibited the slave trade Adopted. in the District of Columbia, and still another provided a better fugitive slave law. As the debate proceeded, the "Omnibus BUI" was broken up into three measures, each of which, with the two other propositions, was adopted through the efforts of Clay. Thus the North gained the ^admission- ot California as-a free state and the prohibition of the'sTave trade in the national capital. The South had a distinct gain in the new fugitive slave law, which gave to the federal courts the execution of the law, and Texas was relieved of her debt incurred in the struggle to win and maintain her independence. In the creation of New Mexico and Utah as territories the North lost to the extent that the Wilmot pro\-iso was not applied, but the net gain was bound to be hers as one of the territories was north of the Missouri line and the other could not hope soon to be a state. June 3, whDe the compromise was being debated, a Southern con- vention met in Nashville, nine states being represented. The dele- gates from South Carolina and Mississippi were for extreme measures, but cooler heads restrained them, and the con- '^^^^^^' vention contented itself with demanding the extension yention. of the line 36° 30' to the Pacific. For all Calhoun's de- liberate gloom the Southern people were not yet ready to secede. But the convention had an important influence on the action of congress. The extreme Northerners declared it a mere threat, and believed that 458 PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY the talk of secession was gasconade. In the light of later events we know that disunion had taken a strong hold in the South, although it had not yet been accepted by the great mass of people there. July 9 President Taylor died. Although not experienced in politics, he had made a good executive. He had a soldier's love of duty and a leaning toward the enforcement of authority which Pres'de^t reminds one of Jackson. Talk of secession aroused his opposition, and he was not favorable to compromise. Fill- more, his successor, was conserv'ative by nature and gave active sup- port to Clay's plans. The great compromise having passed, he sought to enforce it, and wished it to be, as it was intended, a final settlement of sectional dissensions. His administration was void of other important events. July 5, 1850, was ratified the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, referring to the construction of an Isthmian canal. Hopes of such a waterway had long been entertained in Central America, but the BiUwer"" interest of the United States in it sprang chiefly from their acquisition of their Pacific coast. In 1846 a treaty was made with New Granada, looking to a canal at the Isthmus of Panama. Soon after\vards a railway was begun at this point, but no canal con- struction was attempted. At the same time Great Britain was moving to get possession of the Nicaraguan route. She had acquired the east- ern, and was making efforts to get the western, terminus. Nicaragua feared that these steps would lead to the most serious results, and sought to play the United States against England. Our general opposition to an increase of British influence in Central America was sufficient to arouse interest. American capital was also negotiating for a canal charter, and in 1849 a treaty was negotiated with Nica- ragua, but not ratified, by which we got a concession for a canal and agreed to guarantee the integrity of Nicaragua. Then followed com- plications with Great Britain, the result of which, 1S50, was the treaty which bears the names of the American secretary of state and the British minister in Washington, Claj^ton and Bulwer. It pledged each nation to maintain the neutrality of any interoceanic canal which either should construct at any point in Central America, agreed to admit other nations to the benefits of the treaty, and promised that neither power should extend its possessions in that region. BIBLIOGIL\PHICAL NOTE The best general works are: McMaster, History of the People of the United States, vols. VI and VII (1906, 1910), the fullest and most reliable general treatment ; Schouler, History of the United States, vols. IV, V (iSqi) ; Von Hoist, Constitutional and Political History, 8 vols. (Eng. trans., ed. 1S99) ; Wilson, History of the Ameri- can People (1905); Garrison, Westward Extension, 1841-18^0 (1906), very satis- factory; and Stanwood, History of the Presidency (1898). The leading biographies are : Schurz, Henry Clay, 2 vols. (1887) ; Shepard, Van Burcit (1888); McLaughlin, Cass (1891) ; Morse, John Qtiincy Adams (1882); BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 459 Lodge, IVebsler (1883); Curtis, Daniel Webster, 2 vols. (1870); Meigs, Life oj Benton (igo4) ; Curtis, James Buchanan, 2 vols. (18S3) ; Hunt, Life of Calhoun (1907) ; Hart, Salmon P. Chase (iSyq) ; Bancroft, Life of Seward, 2 vols. (1900) ; and Dodd, Statesmen of the Old South (1911). For the sources see: The Congressional Globe, 108 vols. (1834-1873); Benton, Abridgment of liie Debates, i6 vols. (1857-1801), extends to 1850; House Executive Documents, Senate Executive Documents. House Reports, and Senate Reports, a Table and A nnotalcd Index was published in iqoj ; Richardson, Mcssag,es and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols. (1806-1899) ; MacDonald. Select Documents, 1776-1861 (1898) ; Haswell, Treaties and Conventions (1889) ; and Peters, Statutes at Large, 8 vols. (1845-1846), continued in United States Statutes at Large. Of the contemporary periodicals the most valuable arc : A'/.'cs' National Regis- ter (1811-1849), whig in symiiathy, but contains many documents; The National Intelligencer (Washington, 1800-1870), whig organ; rAcC^/rt/jc (Washington, 1830- 1845), democratic organ; The Enquirer (Richmond, 1804-1S77), voiced the old \'irginia influence, ably edited by Ritchie; The Evening Post (Xew York, con- tinuous from iSoi), supported the barnburners, c(hted by Wm. CuUen Bryant from 182S' to 1878; The .Neu' York Tribune (1841-), antislavery, verj- in- fluential; The Liberator (Boston, 1831-1865), extreme antislavery; and The Na- tional Era (Washington, 1847-1864), antislavery, but moderate. Many contemporaries left memoirs or narratives. Among them are : John Quincy .\dams, Memoirs, 12 vols. (1874-1877), very valuable; Benton, Thirty Years' Viccv, 2 vols. (1854-1857), to be used with caution : Tyler, Letters and Times of I lie Tylers, 3 vols. ( 1 884-1 896) ; Polk's Diary, 4 vols. (1910); Webster, Works, 6 vols. (1851), in 7 vols. (1897) ; Calhoun, Works, 6 vols. (1853-1859) ; Ibid., Corre- spondence (ed. by Jameson, Am. Hist. Assn. Reports, II, 1899); Garrison and Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 4 vols. (1885-1889); Wise, Seven Decades of the Union (i8Si) ; and Buchanan, Works of, 12 vols. (Moore, ed., 1908-1911). Financial matters are treated in Dewey, Financial History (1903); I5olles, Financial History, 3 vols. (ed. 1897); Taussig, Tariff History (ed. 1898); Slanwood, Tarif Controversies, 2 vols. (1903) ; Kinley, The Independent Treasury of the United Stales (1S93) ; Dunbar, Laws Relating to Currency,- Finance, and Banking (ed. 1897) ; Scott, Repudiation of State Debts (1893) ; and Sumner, History of Banking in tlic United Stales (in History nf Banking in .ill Nations, 4 vols. 1896). The antislavery literature is very abundant, but the following books are suffi- cient for most students : Hart, Slavery and .Abolition (1906) ; the best recent book, impartial and supplied with a good bibliography ; Garrison and Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 4 vols. (1885-1889); Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Cliarles Sum- ner, 4 vols. (1877-1893); Birney, James G. Birney and His Times (1890); and Smith, The Liberty and Free Soil Parties in Ike Northwest (Harvard Studies, 1897). Texas annexation is well treated in Justin H. Smith, Annexation of Texas (19x1) ; Garrison, Westward Extension (1906); Ihid., History of Texas (1903); Ibid., "The First Stage of the movement for the annexation of Tex.is," in .-im. Hist. Rev., X, 72 ; Reeves, Diplomacy under Tyler and Polk (1007) ; .\danis. British Interests and Activities in Texas (1910J, should be used in connection with Smith's review, .American Historical Review, X.\'\, 151; and Texas Diplomatic Correspondence, 3 parts (Am. Hist. .\ssn. Reports, 190S). On the northeastern and northwestern boundary disjiutes see : Moore, Digest of International .Arbitrations, 6 vols. (1895); Ganong, Boundaries of New Bruns- wick (Royal Soc. of Canada Transactions, 1901-1902); Mills, British Diplomacy in Canada (Royal Colonial Institute's Journal, United Empire, 191 1); Gallatin, Right of the United States to the Northeast Boundary (1840) ; Greenhow, History of Oregon and California (1844); Twiss, The Oregon Question (1846); and Bourne, Legend of .Marcus Whitman {Essays in Historical Criticism, 1900, also in Am. Hist. Rev., VI). On the war with Mexico see : Ripley, The War with Mexico, 2 vols. (1849) ; Wright, General Scott (1894) ; Howard, General Taylor (1892) ; Scott, Memoirs, 46o PERIOD OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY 2 vols. (1864), to be used with discrimination; Livermore, War with Mexico Re- mewed (1850), on the political side; Bancroft, Historv of Mexico, 6 vols. (1883- 1888); Ibid., History of California, 7 vols. (1886-1890)"; and Hittell. History of California, 4 vols. (1886-1897). On the compromise of 1850 see : Rhodes, History of the United Stales, 7 vols. (1892-1906) ; Greeley, r/;e .4/H(T/ca« Co);//^, 2 vols. (1S68-1870) ; Schurz, Henry Clay (1S87) ; Stephens, War between the States, 2 vols. (1868-1870) ; and Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 2 vols. (iSSi). On the Isthmian canal see : Keasbcy, The Nicaragua Canal and the Monroe Doctrine (1896) ; Hubcrich, The Trans-Isthmian Canal (1904) ; and Travis, History of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (Michigan Pol. Sc. Assn. Publications, 1900). For Independent Reading Davis, Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians (1891); Higginson, Cheerful Yesterdays (1898); Wise, Seven Decades of the Union (1S81); Parkman, The Oregofi Trail (1892 and other editions); Irving, Astoria (many editionsj ; Royce, History of California (1886) ; and Clarke, Antislavery Days (1884). CHAPTER XXII SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1815-1861 Growth of Population and the Results During the years 1815-1860 the westward movement of population continued the most noticeable feature of our domestic alTairs. In the former year the Atlantic states had about 5,800,000 in- habitants, in 1S60 they had 15,895,971, while the region ^fs^Jj^^ lying westward had increased from 1,500,000 in 1815 to ^^^ 15,484,350 in 1S60. Had the old feeling of opposition between the East and the West persisted, the latter section would in i860 have been nearly in the supremacy. That it did not persist was due to two causes, i. The democratic party, founded as an expres- sion of the will of the rural classes, had a strong hold in all parts of the country. It was a truly national bond. 2. The rise of the slavery question introduced a new kind of sectionalism, the Nor^h against the South. By this newer alignment the North was very powerful. In- cluding the free West, it had in i860 a population of 20,309,960, while the South had 11,133,361. In a new country the birth rate is high, and to this must be attrib- uted the greater part of the rapid growth in numbers. But another important fact was immigration, which increased swiftly after the war of 181 2. The growth of manufactures and j™^^*' the development of the West created a great demand for labor, while disturbances and suffering in Europe gave an impetus for emigration to a land where wages were high and homes aw^aited those who would have them. The records of immigration, kept from 1820, show that from that year to i860, inclusive, 5,055,938 aliens, including travelers, arrived in the United States, most of them coming from three countries. Ireland, afHicted with famine and many other ills, led with 1,880,943, Germany came ne.xt with 1,545,508, and England was third with 744,285. France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands sent considerable numbers; but the nations from which we have lately received most of our immigrants then sent few. For the entire period, only 16,776 came from Italy, Russia, and Poland. The immigrant avoided the states in which slavery was the preva- lent form of labor. He could not compete with it in wages, and it made it difficult for him to become a pro])riclor of his own enter- prises. In i860 the foreign-born population was 4,136,175, and 461 462 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT of this the fifteen slave states had 471,000, more than half of whom were in the border states of Missouri and Maryland. Immigrants jj. ^^^^g g^^j^j ^j- ^|^g (-jj^-^g ^jj^^j- ^hjtg labor could not thrive in South ^ '-^^ South. The experience of the last half century shows that the opinion was erroneous. It seems evident that but for the presence of slavery the South would have the share of im- migration to which its fertile soil and agreeable climate entitled it. The immigrant was rarely a pioneer. The hard task of exploring the wilderness and pushing the Indian westward was assumed by the natives, while the less adventurous European was content Location of ^q arrive when towns were being planted and farming lands grants ' were being taken up. Thus, in the seven territories in existence in 1S60, with a total population of 220,197, there were only 35,476 foreign-born persons, while in the five states of the old Northwest, with a total population of 6,926,884, there were 1,197,736 foreign-born persons. The rapid growth of manufactures in the East absorbed a large portion of the newcomers. In the six great manufacturing states. New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, with a total population in i860 of 9,324,818, there were 1,930,139 persons of foreign birth. Thus we see that in eleven states, constituting the older agricultural West and the manufacturing East, were concentrated 75.6 per cent of the immigrant population. Most immigrants were good laborers, and a few were able to pur- chase farms. Some were diseased, and it was known that parishes in Europe had sent their paupers. By 1830 public opinion, Opposition which was all for immigration in 1815, began to change, CTant™Vot- ^'^"^ demands were heard for discrimination among the in- ing. coming multitude. The Irish caused special alarm. They were hot-tempered and clannish, clung to the cities, and soon fell into the hands of designing politicians. As they were gener- ally Catholics, a solid Irish vote caused alarm to those who feared the American doctrine of strict separation of church and state might be weakened. As a result, much was said about denpng to the immi- grants the right both to vote and hold office, but neither of the great political parties was willing to espouse such a principle. Finally the advocates for reform effected a distinct organization, calling themselves Native Americans. They appeared chiefly in the . cities, and nominated candidates for city office. In Boston America's! ^" ^^-57 ^ ^^°^ S""*^^^ °"*^ °^ *^ excited feeling of the "Na- tives" and the Irish. In the same year the Native Amer- ican Association was created, demanding of congress the repeal of the naturalization laws. Throughout the succeeding years there was much ferment. City after city fell into the hands of the Native Ameri- cans ; and in the summer of 1844 there was prolonged rioting in Phil- adelphia, occasioned by a protest of the Cathohcs against the use of the NFW STATES 46.^ Protestant Bible in the public schools. The matter became a cam- paign issue, the democrats espousing the cause of the naturalized citizens, and denouncing the spirit of persecution. The victory of Polk did not discourage the Xative Americans, and in 1847 they held a national convention and indorsed Taylor for president. Violence, which had never been approved by the leaders, was now abandoned,, and the organization seemed losing its influence. But the impulse persisted, and in 1850 was founded the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, wliich proved the germ of the Know Nothing movement (see page 493). Voting by newly arrived immigrants, which was the chief comi^laint of nativism, has been allowed to this day most liberally by the states, who have jurisdiction of the suffrage. Vast changes in the national domain occurred between 1815 and i860. A schoolboy in the former year would learn that Florida was Spanish and that our southwestern border was Texas and New Mexico. Our claim to Oregon was so indefinite that New States find 1 Gm~ it hardly counted at that time in the popular mind. By tories. i860 our western boundary was the Pacific, and 444,055 Americans were settled on the coast. Here already were two states — California, admitted m 1850, and Oregon, a state in 1859 — and one territory, Washington, set off in 1S53. In 1815 no state but Louisi- ana existed beyond the Mississippi We have seen how Missouri was admitted in 1820, balancing the free state of Maine. The process continued steadily as the settlement of the territories proceeded. In 1836 Michigan and Arkansas were admitted, in 1845 Texas and Florida came in, followed by the two free states of Iowa in 1846 and Wisconsin in 1848, and in 1858 Minnesota was admitted. Thus by i860 a belt of states extended the whole length of the Mississippi on the west. Beyond it to the confmes of Washington, Oregon, and Cali- fornia was a great area embracing the territories oi Kansas", Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico, destined within a short time to be divided into several territories. The only part of the national domain not or- ganized into territories in i860 was the portion of the two Dakotas lying between Minnesota and the Missouri, a region in which the powerful Sioux tribes had their homes. The Influence of Great Inventions In iSi 5 the United States had already begun to use power machinery in industry. The first effects were seen in New England, every stream of which had water power. Manufactures Manu- now took the place of commerce as the chief form of in- g^j"^^g dustry, and the seat of wealth was no longer confined to the Growth of seaports. The immigrants furnished an operative class Towns, and the towns grew rapidly ; while the farmers, drawn more and more away to the West, left agriculture in a languishing state. 464 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT In the Middle states towns grew as readily as in New England, but the greater fertility of the soil sustained the prosperity of agriculture, spite of the drain of men to the Western lands. For all this rich life transportation was an essential. It was needed to carry merchandise to the interior, to bring farm products to the seaboard, and to bind the remote regions to the seacoast. an"canals Steamboats, canals, and railroads all served this purpose. The first were especially useful on the rivers of the in- terior. In these initial days of Western development, when every promoter could call up a vision of wealth, the papers were full of schemes to establish navigation companies. Many of the plans proved failures, others had short careers and gave place at last to rail- roads, and some were established successfully. In 1828 canals were much in vogue in the West and in the seaboard states. New York was reaping great advantages from the Erie canal, P . then three years completed. Pennsylvania had just inaugurated a system of roads and canals which would deliver a vast amount of the Western traffic to Philadelphia, and the Potomac people were planning to construct a canal parallel to the river, whence by easy roads they could reach the tributaries of the Ohio. If these routes were opened, Baltimore's thriving trade would be turned aside and her glory would be gone. In desperation she thought of a railroad, and July 4, 1828, the first stroke was made on the Balti- more and Ohio line. The success of the undertaking led to many other similar enterprises, North, South, and West. Sometimes the state built the railroad and operated it, but more frequently it was built by a chartered company and received aid from the state either in bonds given in exchange for stock, or in land donated. By 1840 the railroad had demonstrated its superiority over the canal and was in general use. Most of the roads were short, built to connect impor- tant towns or cities, and the era of consolidation did not appear until just before the civil war (see page 733). It was not until 1853 that Chicago had an all-rail line of travel to the seacoast. The develop- ment of railroads gave great importance to the great business corpora- tion, whose shares became a medium of investment and speculation. Now arose also the necessity of making laws defining the relation of railroads to the public. They could no longer be looked upon as mere private enterprises, since they were vitally connected with the welfare of the communities through which they ran. Out of this relation arose, chiefly after the civil war, a great conflict between capital and the public. While railroads largely superseded steamboats on the small streams, they did not soon replace them on the great rivers. On the Missis- sippi the boats were especially numerous and luxurious. They vied with one another in speed and comfort, and the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans was long remembered by the traveler who took it on LABOR-SAVING MACfflNERY 465 one of these fine craft. For many years it was said that a steam- boat could never cross the Atlantic because she could not carry the necessary fuel; but the Savannali disproved this in i8ig, going with auxiliary steam power, and the Siriiis and Grcal steamboats Western, going entirely by steam, in 1838. In 1840 the ^^j Ocean. Cunard line began to operate steam packets regularly between New York and Liverpool. Other steamships were soon crossing the ocean, but for many years the fast and graceful clip- pers of the day continued to be the favorite means of passing over the Atlantic. Many other inventions of this period contributed to the progress of the country. In 1844 Morse invented the electric telegraph, which he did by combining in a practical way several discoveries of scientists who preceded him. As a means of bringing The Tele- one part of the country into close business and social rela- sraph, the tions with another part, it was hardly less important than tj,g sewing the railroad. In 1834 McCormick invented the reaper, Machine, building, also, on many principles discovered by men who preceded him. It was vastly improved in 1845-1S47, and found a ready place in the agricultural life of the country. It revolutionized industry in the West, where the fertile lands were well adapted to wheat-raising. With the reaper to harvest the grain and the railroads to take it to the seaports, the West became in a short time a granary for many parts of Europe. In 1846 Elias Howe patented his sewing machine, after many years of struggle against poverty and illness. It was destined to revolutionize the clothing-making industry and to lighten the labor of housewives in all parts of the world. These impor- tant inventions, with many others of less importance, testified to the versatility and strength of the inventive faculty m the United States, and gave the American people a prominent place among the progres- sive industrial nations. They were accompanied by a quick-witted adaptation of the great inventions of other countries, which powerfully stimulated the development of business and general comfort. The Indians In 181 5 Indian tribes lived east of the Mississippi in the extreme Northwest, in Tennessee and the region south of it, and in Florida, which was still in the hands of Spain. The advance of the whites gradually pushed them back in the lake region, ]vi*iss°sVippi and they gave up their lands in a series of treaties which by 1830 left them only the prairies south of Lake Michigan and the lands between that lake and the Mississippi. In the southern parts lived the Sacs and Foxes, who in 1804 ceded their lands between the Illinois and the Wisconsin, retaining permission to occupy and hunt on them until they were sold to the whites. During the war of 1812 2 u 466 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT some of the Sacs crossed the Mississippi, but the remainder con- tinued in the valley of the Rock river. By 1830 the ■^ surrounding country was filling with settlers who looked longingly at the fine Indian lands. Then followed a deed which, from its frequent recurrence in similar situations, may be pro- nounced the normal way of beginning an Indian war. Late in the year, while the men were hunting, white intruders broke up their village, drove the women and children to the forest, and established themselves in the fertile corn land at the mouth of Rock river, the site of the present town of Rock Island. When the hunters returned they took up arms under the leadership of Black Hawk and retook their village. Troops were called out, but hostDities seemed avoided when Black Hawk moved his people across the Mississippi after promising never to return. In the followang year, however, he was back in the tribal lands, committing depredations against the whites. He was now pursued by a force of regulars and militia, driven into Wisconsin, and captured after a severe battle at Bad Axe. The Black Hawk war was the last Indian struggle on the northwestern frontier until the gold hunters began to invade the Rocky Mountain region more than thirty years later. This aft'air in Illinois must have been a striking object lesson to the Georgia Indians, who, as we have seen (page 400), were in the same year, 1832, at the height of their contention with the state TheSitua- authorities. In 1830, congress, following the suggestion hon o e ^£ ^^^f. president, offered to give lands beyond the Missis- Indians, sippi to such eastern Indians as would remove thither. But the Indians refused to move, and appealed to the supreme court, relying on their treaty rights. The verdict was in their favor, but through President Jackson's failure to execute it they profited nothing by it ; and Georgia proceeded to establish her civil authority in the region over which the Indian law had extended. She also began to sell their hunting lands and threatened to take their farms and homes. What she did for the Cherokees and Creeks within her borders, Mississippi was ready to do for the Chickasaws and Choc- taws within her limits. Under such conditions, the Indians could do nothing but yield. The Creeks sold their lands to the federal government in 1832, the Chickasaws and Choctaws in 1833, and the Cherokees in Removal 1835. A few members of the last-named tribe refused to piished. abide by the sale and were removed by force. For all the land these Indians sold the federal government promised liberal annuities, or agreed to sell the relinquished lands and hold the proceeds in trust for the Indians. It also paid the cost of removal and donated new lands in the West. Li 1S34 con- gress established Indian territory in the fertile valley of the Ar- kansas. More accurately spealdng, it was a series of reservations. THE FLORIDA INDIANS 467 on each of which a nation was placed with the assurance that it would never be moved and that no while man should settle within its border without a license. Each nation was to have its own council and make and execute its own laws ; and assistance was given to enable the Indians to contend with the worst difhculties of life in a new environment. There was no J* '?f 1 • • I T 1 f I 1 Temtory. regular terntoruil government, and no hope of statehood was held out. A large ])art of the Indian territory was left unassigned in order that the Northwestern tribes might be induced to settle on it. As this expectation was not realized, these unsettled lands were many years later opened to settlement by the whites and became organized as Oklahoma territory. In one other quarter occurred trouble with the Indians. In Florida lived the Seminoles. Many fugitive slaves had settled among and intermarried with them, and it was considered desirable to remove this tribe, also, to the West. In 1833 they were ^^^^ w^" induced to make a treaty for that purpose, and the next year an agent was sent to execute it. This aroused the resident fugitive slaves, who foresaw that they would be returned to bondage. They joined with the less submissive Indians and made up a party who defied the government under the lead of Osceola, an able half-breed whose father was a white man named Powell. His wife was the daughter of a negress, an escaped slave, and in 1S35 she was seized when on a friendly visit to Fort King. Osceola protested and was arrested. Feigning submission, he was released, only to make secret plans for resistance. In November, 1835, he put himself at the head - of the discontented ones, drove the friendly chiefs into the forts of the white men, retired into the swamps, and made himself a source of terror to the settlements. Troops were now hurried to Florida, but Osceola, fighting with great energy and bravery, drove them back to the forts and held at his mercy all the open country south of St. Augustine. Reenforcements were called for, but these had little better success. The years 1836 and 1837 witnessed many encounters in which the Indians, having fought as long as they dared, fled at last to the swamps, into which they could not be followed. In 1837 the Seminoles agreed to go West if allowed to take with them "their negroes, their bona fide property." Many of them assembled at Tampa, and transports were ready to take them to New Orleans, when white men apjjeared to claim the fugitive slaves. Resistance was immediately renewed, and the struggle went on again more bit- terly than ever. Later in the year Osceola was seized at a conference under a flag of truce and sent to Fort Moultrie, at Charleston, where he died in January, 1838. In the following December Colonel Zachary Taylor defeated the Indians in an important battle in Okechobee Swamp, but he was not able to follow the survivors into the recesses of the swamp, and so the war dragged on until the last remnant of re- 468 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT sistance yielded and the Seminoles finally consented to remove in 1842 Even then a few remained in the everglades of southern Florida, where their descendants are still foimd. Since the surrender of the fugitive slaves was the chief question at stake, this long and expensive struggle aroused strong criticism from the antislavery men of the North, who denounced the affair as a slaveholders' war. By this time nearly 125,000 Indians had been induced to cross the Mississippi, either to Indian territory or to the unorganized region of the Northwest. Many small bands remained near The Reser- ^]^gjj- oi(j homes, mere fragments of the older tribes and tem° ^ shorn of all power to resist the advance of the white man's civilization. For the western tribes the reservation sys- tem was now well developed. It meant that the government would keep the Indians quiet by distributing rations and blankets, establish- ing agencies for distribution, regulating the traders who came to monopolize the profitable Indian trade, and restricting as much as possible the sale of spirits to the savages. For these purposes the government spent liberally, and as the reservations were remotely located the system offered rare opportunity for fraud through the col- lusion of traders, agents, and the contractors who furnished supplies. The system, moreover, lessened the Indian's sense of self-dependence, and offered him little inducement to acquire habits of thrift and in- dustry. It tended to pauperize his spirit and to give him a contempt for the white man's ideals. At this time the lavish expenditure of money on Indian education had not begun. Social Development in the South The lands of the South are of three kinds : i. Mountainous, extend- ing as far southward as northern Georgia, fertile in itself but heavily timbered and inaccessible. The small valleys between I. The |-j^g ridges, popularly laiow as "coves," fell into the hands Region. ^^ poor men who drifted in from the lowland, and the society that resulted was provincial and unenterprising, but essentially bold and self-sufficient. Here and there was a small town, but the country was generally covered with forest broken at intervals by small clearings. Very few of the inhabitants were slaveholders, and in i860 they were mostly for the union. 2. The Piedmont region, adjacent to the mountains and not adapted to cotton cultivation. The inhabitants were generally small farmers and owned few slaves, many of them none at all. The p. V*^ lands along the infrequent rivers were fertile, and supported Region. large plantations stocked by slaves. But most of the people were poor. Some tobacco was raised, but the iso- lation of the region made it difBcult to market the crop. This was a food-producing section, and most of the large planters in it were rich be- "POOR WHITES"' 469 cause their slaves were fruitful. From 1825 to i860 there was a steady emigration of the small farmers to the new states of the Northwest. ,3; The Atlantic and Gulf coast region, together with the level plains on each side of the Mississippi, was the favored part of the South. .\11 this area produced cotton except the parts lying in Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. Throughout ^ ^^® its entire extent were settled the large planters, rich Region, through the labor of the slaves and possessed of an influ- ence which gave them control in all matters social and political. A few planters owned as many as a thousand slaves, many owned more than two hundred, but far the larger number owned less than one hun- dred. The richest planters were men of culture, had handsome es- tates, and had established an aristocracy which was intended to re- semble that of the EngUsh country gentry ; but the smaller planters were hard-working men who superintended their own farms and gave personal care to the welfare of their own slaves. In i860 there were 384,000 slaveholders in the South. As these were generally heads of families, and as there were 9,000,000 white people, or about 1,750,000 families, it seems safe to say that four-fifths of the heads of families were not slaveholders. But the other fifth were the men of influence, as men of wealth and intelligence are ever the men of influence. The non-slaveholders were mostly small farmers ; and as one of the social classes they were a large part of the population. They were hard-working men, but as the planters bought the best land whenever it was on the market, and as hired "1^^^^°°' labor was scarce, there was little opportunity for them to holders, better their condition. As the schools were very bad they could not educate their children beyond the rudiments of reading and writing. To the \isitors from other parts of the world they seemed unintelligent and miserable, but they were neither. They were as keen-witted, honest, and courageous a body of yeomanry as lived in their day; and in the civil war they made excellent soldiers. The term "poor whites" has been applied to this class in a peculiar sense. The South had no more shiftless and lazy men than other communities, and the great mass of small landowners ought not to be designated by such a term. The industry and resourcefulness with which these people restored their fortunes when the abolition of slavery had given them opportunity, shows that they were of the genuine American stock, and were sound in mind and morals. During the period from 1815 to i860 slavery concentrated itself in the South. Gradual emancipation reduced the bonds- men in New England from 376,5 in 1790 until there were D'sappe"- none in 1850. In the Middle -States there were 45,210 in gig^ery in 1790 and 1816 in i860. Of the latter number 179S were the North, in Delaware, where the numlier was gradually falling from 8887 in 1790. In the Old Northwest, where a few slaves existed 470 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT before the famous Ordinance of 1787, and where others were brought in as servants bound for life, the number decreased from 1107 in 1820 until there were none in 1850. In the South, however, there was an increase from 648,651 in 1790 to 3,951,944 in i860; and this latter number was almost evenly divided between the region reported in the census of 1790 and that not reported until after 1790. Changes in j^ the South itself the slaves tended to move to the cotton- Slave Pop- growing states. In Maryland there was decrease of 16 Illation. per cent from 1830 to 1S60, in Virginia the increase was only 4 per cent in the same period, and in North Carolina it was 35 per cent. In Georgia and the Gulf states during the same period the increase was 276 per cent. The increase in the Far South was not merely due to cotton, but to the general prosperity of the farmers in those states. There was, also, a steady development in Kentucky and Missouri in the same period, where farming was profit- able without cotton, the increase being 36 per cent in the former and 397 per cent in the latter. Much was said about the cruelty of masters towards slaves. It is hard to separate this question from the feeling engendered by the bitter discussion of the antislavery and the proslavery 'Vth'™*"' parties. Slavery is always a hard institution, and the ne- Slaves. 8™' being imenlightened and submissive by nature, in- vited severe treatment to induce him to labor hard and refrain from evil conduct. Wliipping was used freely, because the masters felt it was the punishment most effective with him. Some masters were benevolent, some were severe and careless of the interests of their slaves, but the typical master considered his slave from the standpoint of efficiency, and fed and clothed him, restrained him from the enervating vices, cared for him in sickness, and afforded him reli- gious instruction with the object of making him a sound, moral, and docile laborer. He did not promote his intellectual development or his sense of self-dependence, since such a course would make the slave wish for freedom. The iron law of slavery was that nothing should be afforded the slave which would weaken the hold of slavery as an institution. The antislavery agitation in the North, by arousing the feeling of the masters, led them to revise the slave codes, and laws now appeared on Southern statute books forbidding slaves to be taught to read and write, prohibiting their assemblage without the presence of a white man, establishing patrols to keep them from traveling the roads without written permission, and restricting them in many other ways. The first three decades of the century constitute the mildest stage of American slavery. At that time the negro had made a real ad- vance in rudimentary ci^'ilization over African barbarism, and the harsher reaction of 1S30-1860 had not begun. During this intermedi- ate period there were indications that an ameliorating process had DIVISION OF THE CHURCHES 471 begun. The best Southern opinion openly regretted slavery, manu- mission was encouraged in the press and on the platform, negroes were taught to read the Bible, and a superior class was forming within the race. In most of the Southern slates ^°" ^'°- \ve hear of negro ministers w'ho preached to congregations Grew in the of whites and blacks, and in one state at least — North south. Carolina — was a negro schoolmaster who fitted for the university the sons of the leading white people. Whatever hope w-as in this softening of slavery into a milder form of service was destroyed by the resentment of the whites against Northern interference. There had always been in the South men who believed a rigid regimen of slaves was necessary, but they were overruled b}' the more benevo- lent element. Utilizing the popular resentment against the agitation, they now became the majority, overrode the party of milder meas- ures, and so captured the minds of the rising generation that by i860 there remained hardly anything of the gentler measures but the fact that slaves were members of the white churches and lis- tened to sermons by white ministers. Nothing could better show how slavery divided the country than to observe how it divided the churches. The Methodist church was essentially a popular organization in the South, as in the North. Its polity provided for bishops who went on cir- p.*T"^ cuit to hold the church conferences in all parts of the union, churches. Its earliest efforts in the South embraced work for the slaves, and about 1800 a large part of its members were colored. Soon after this a controversy arose between the Northern and Southern wings over the ownership of slaves by ministers. In 1816 it was decided that ministers should not own slaves in any state in which slaves could be legally emancipated. For many years afterwards peace existed in the church, but the rise of the abolition movement was strongly reflected in the Northern portion of the church, which was the larger part. In 1S32 Rev. James O. Andrew, of Georgia, was elected a bishop, one of the reconnnendations being that he was a Southern man who did not own slaves. In January, 1844, he married a woman who owned slaves, and in the following May the general conference of the church resolved that he should "desist from the exercise of his office so long as the imi)ediment remains." The vote was the occasion of a long and warm debate, in which the Southern members freely predicted that it would end in the disruption of the church. It was carried almost entirely on sectional grounds. Inmie- diately the Southerners took steps to form a Southern Methodist church, and a plan looking to ainicable division was adojjted. In formal resolutions the Southerners declared that if they had sub- mitted to the censure of their bishop, the position of the church in the South would have been damaged ; and in other resolutions the North- ern members declared that if they had tolerated a bishop tainted with 472 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT slaveholding, the church would have lost strength in the North, all of which shows how deeply this large portion of the population had become divided on the question of slavery. The division of the Methodists into two bodies attracted the at- tention of the country. Clay, in deprecating it, said : " I will not say that such a separation would necessarily produce a dissolution of the political union of these states ; but the example would be fraught with imminent danger, and, in cooperation with other causes unfor- tunately existing, its tendency on the stability of the confederacy would be perilous and alarming." The effect was seen immediately in the Baptist churches, which though congregational in polity, were united in a general convention. The board of missions had ruled that slaveholders would not be appointed missionaries, and in 1845 the Southern conventions began to withdraw, setting up in the same year the Southern Baptist convention. The Presbyterian and Protestant Episcopal churches remained undivided. McCormick, the inventor of the reaper, used to say that the Presbyterian church and the demo- cratic party, to both of which he belonged, were " the two hoops which hold the vmion together." But in May, 1861, the assembly of the former body adopted a resolution offered by Dr. Gardiner Spring, of New York, its most eminent member, pledging the church to support the union, and the result was the Southern presbyteries withdrew their allegiance, and in August, 1861, met and founded the "Presby- terian Church of the Confederate States of America." The Protestant Episcopal church took nearly the same attitude. The Southern dioceses, after some preliminary steps, met in October, 1861, and or- ganized the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Confederate States of America. The Northern branch of the church did not recognize the division, and in its convention during the war continued to call the names of the absent bishops. With the downfall of the confederacy the Southern branch was abandoned and the Southern dioceses were again represented in the conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America. The separate organization of the other churches continued after the war, for the spirit of di\ision had become too deep in them to permit early reunion. The Development of Democracy in State and Nation All of the thirteen states of revolutionary days incorporated in their constitutions some of the British ideals of colonial days. For example, none of the states provided for absolute manhood ^h"*n*^*'°i suffrage. Four states. New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, States*^" Delaware, and South Carolina, were willing to allow the suffrage to all ta.xpayers; but all the others had some property requirement for voters who chose one or both branches of the assemblies. Some of the states required that the officials should be STATE REFORMS 473 property holders, others, distrusting popular elections, provided that governor, chief executive officers, and judges should be chosen by the assemblies. Much as these restrictions may seem out of place, they left the suffrage more liberal in the United States than in most other countries. Soon after the adoption of the national constitution the spirit of democracy began to make itself felt, and state after state modified some of the restrictive features of its constitution. In this the action of the new states, always more democratic Ex;<^;:ding than the old, was very influential. Vermont showed the suffrage, way by establishing manhood suffrage in her first constitu- tion, and Kentucky soon afterwards did the same. Ohio, admitted in 1803, enfranchised taxpayers, but after her each state adopted manhood suffrage and elected the go\ernor by popular vote. Along with this came demands for reforms in the old states. Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey had yielded to the reformers by the end of 1810, and other old states were deeply agitated o\er the matter. The reformers were called Jacobins, and much was declaimed about the dangers lurking in wild and demagogic theories. In Connecticut, where the charter of colonial days was now the constitution, the oli- garchy was very powerful. Seven men, the majority of the council, had in their hands the control of the state. In 1818, after a long struggle, was adopted a new constitution, far more liberal than the old, although it still lacked something of real democracy and equality. The wave of reform ne.xt reached New York, where conditions were astonishingly bad. Only freeholders and renters of tenements could vote, and by tliis means more than 50,000 leaseholders were excluded from the ballot. A council of appoint- ^''^f^'"''™ ment, consisting of five members, named more than 15,000 York, officials in all parts of the state, and had become as flagrant a political machine as ever existed in this land. There was also a coun- cil of revision, the governor and supreme judges among its members, which had vetoed so many laws that it had virtually made itself a third house of the assembly. Against this system arose such a clamor that the defenders of the old condition were overwhelmed, and a con- stitutional convention met in 1821. It quickly swept away the coun- cils of appointment and revision, and a hard fight followed to abolish the last vestige of property qualification. No opposition was made so far as the choice of governor and members of the house went ; but the conservatives rallied when it came to choice of senators. Much was said about the sacredness of property, the incompetence of the propertyless class, and the horrors of the French revolution. The best leader on this side was Chancellor Kent, who added to his lawyer's instinct for conservatism a splendid mind and a weighty reputation. Against him the chief leader was Martin \'an Buren, just elected a federal senator. His plea for no property qualification was effective, 474 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT and thus the reform program, with some finishing strokes in 1826, was completed in New York. In Massachusetts, in 1820, a constitutional convention abolished the property basis for voters but retained it for senators. In Virginia the privileged class was fortified behind property qual- ifications and an allotment of legislative seats by which the small . slaveholding counties of the East outvoted the large and Vkeiida'" populous Counties of the West. Large numbers of the men of the latter section became so discouraged through the long futile fight for equality that they moved away to the Northwest, where privilege was unknown. At last the eyes of the Easterners were opened, and a convention was called for 1829. The results of its deliberation was an extension of the suffrage, but a moderate property basis was retained. There was, also, a reallotment of seats in the as- sembly, but it was so made that the slaveholding East retained control. In 1850, however, manhood suffrage was secured. Slavery was a strong support of privilege, and where it existed the march of democracy was slow. In 1835 North Carolina made important amendments to her constitution, one of them being the popular election of the governor, but the property cjualification was not touched. In a nine years' struggle, 1S48 to 1S57, it was, however, carried through, and equal suffrage was established. The property basis was abandoned by Dela- ware in 1 83 1, by Mississippi in 1S32, by Georgia in 1833 and 1835, and by Tennessee in 1834. During this period of constitutional change many other reforms were made by the states, one of the most important being that religious tests for voting or holding office should be given up, and in many states popular election of judges was adopted. It has often been said that Jackson established democracy, but it would be more accurate to say that from 1820 there was a great popu- lar movement toward democracy, and that he became its Jackson and exponent. He did much to guide it, but it existed before cratic^Re"-" ^^^ ^^'^^ '^ presidential candidate, and his successes were form. based upon its power. He furnished a rallying point for the new movement, and his bold attacks on the older po- litical leaders broke their rule and called into national and state offices men who were in sympathy with the democratic spirit of the day. The state which held most tenaciously to the old system was Rhode Island. Her constitution was the old colonial charter, liberal in its time, but it limited the franchise to freeholders. The The rise of manufactures introduced a large operative class who Struggle in ■^yere not property holders. Then followed a contest to land— " change the old system, but the property owners of the Thomas W. cities in alliance with the landowners of the country were Dorr. too strong for the operati\'e class. Yet the demand for reform would not down. It found an active and persistent leader in Thomas W. Dorr, who annomiced that the people had an THE DORR REBELLION 47S inalienable right to participate in government. The "log-cabin" campaign of 1840, which was a popular movement, stimulated them to most vigorous agitation. Great mass-meetings and parades occurred in Providence, Ne\\'jiort, and elsewhere, and the plainest hints of vio- lence were given. The legislature finally ordered a convention, but it was to be chosen by the existing voters, and the disfranchised party would not accept it. They accordingly called a convention of their own, which prepared a constitution and submitted it to the people. It received 13,944 votes in an election held in the closing days of 1841. This instrument was called the "People's Constitution." The strong following of Dorr now alarmed the old party, who, in the convention ordered by the legislature, prepared a constitution known as the "Free- men's Constitution." When this came before the people it received 8013 affirmative, and 8689 negative, votes, and was declared lost. The most important difference between the two instruments was that the former pro\dded for white manhood suffrage and the latter required one year's residence for landowners, two years for natives who were not landowners, and three years after naturalization for foreign-born citi- zens. Since their own constitution had more votes than that of their rivals, the Dorr party now announced that their scheme was law, and ordered an election for governor and legislature. The existing legislature pronounced such a step illegal, the ^°7/*''" governor issued a proclamation against it, and he called porce. on President Tyler for aid against threatened rebellion. Tyler replied that he could do nothing until violence had begun. Thus the election was held, Dorr was selected for governor, an assem- bly was chosen, and May 3, 1842, the People's Government went through the forms of an inauguration. For two weeks Dorr essayed the part of governor, while his assembly made "laws" for the state of Rhode Island. Outside of the state the whigs generally flouted him, but the democrats gave him much support, and great meetings in sympathy with his struggle for liberal suffrage were held in Philadel- phia and New York. May 18 came a conflict between Dorr and the rival governor. The latter was about to arm the members of his party when Dorr marched on the arsenal with cannon, but was kept from actual violence because the pieces would not fire. His action fright- ened away the courage of most of his supporters, who deserted him in shoals, and he fled with a handful of companions to Woonsocket, followed by whig shouts of derision. In the following summer he re- turned to Rhode Island and fortified himself in the northwestern part of the state. The militia were sent against him, but his followers fled again. Many were arrested, but he escaped. Returning a year later he was arrested, tried for treason, and sentenced to jail for hfe. He did not serve the term. His followers had made so plain an exhi- bition of strength that the conservatives relented and called a con- 476 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT vention which adopted a Hberal constitution, and in 1845 Dorr was set at liberty. To his efforts, right or wrong, the new constitution was chiefly due. The victory of democracy in Rhode Island wiped out the last considerable vestige of landed privilege. Traces did, indeed, remain in a few states, but they were eventually removed from the constitutions, the last of them by the new constitutions established in the South in reconstruction days. The Progress of Education While liberal suffrage advanced in the old states, educational re- form, equally democratic, was also in full course of development. Schools were early established in every colony, but usually Ongin of qh a private basis, and frequently under church supervi- ti nai "'^^' ^^°'^' ^^^ ability to read the Bible was essential in gen- Movement, eral religious instruction, and the spread of intelligence was bound up with sound morals, so it was natural that the churches as promoters of moral ideals should have felt themselves responsible for the people's attitude toward education. But where government was intrusted to the competent, as was the case profes- sedly out of New England, there was little feeling that every man must be educated by the government in order that he might properly e.xercise his function of citizenship. It is hard to say whether the educational impulse in early New Eng- land was chiefly religious or political. The two functions were closely related, and we may well say they acted jointly. Massa- Schoois In chusetts took the lead, passing in 1647 ^n act which has chusetts. been called "the mother of all our school laws." It ordered each town of fifty families to support an elementary school, and each of a hundred families to support a grammar school under penalty of fine. The teachers were to be appointed and paid by the people and were to teach all children who came to them. It was not always enforced, especially as regards grammar schools, but it remained an ideal throughout the colonial period, and in 17S9 a comprehensive act was passed, the terms of which show how far public education was developed. The towns were divided into districts, with a school in each supported by the public ; towns of 200 families were to have grammar schools. Teachers were to be college graduates or to have certificates of attainments from "learned ministers," and the selectmen were to see that the schools were well taught and that the chOdren attended. This act was in force with little amendment for nearly fifty years. In 1837 Massachusetts created a state board of education, and Horace i\Iann was appointed its secretary. This was one of the remarkable educational reforms in the century. The old district school no longer served the wants of the community. Incompetent teachers EARLY PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS 477 had been appointed by officials interested in local politics, there were no trained superintendents of teachers, and the amount of money spent on education was proportionally small. Within the past half century the state had grown rich. Horace ^°'''^ °^ Mann realized that the old district system was insufficient, Mann, and assumed the task of making it modern. He was in office twelve years, and when he retired trained superintendents of schools existed in the towns, appropriations were liberal, normal schools had been established, the school term was lengthened to si.x months, and many other progressive features were added to the system. He succeeded because of his earnestness and capability. He traveled and spoke much, and wherever he went he left his impress on others. It was largely through his efforts for the schools that a revival of town libraries spread throughout the state. His achievement was truly statesmanlike. He found the school system of Massachusetts large, well meant, and rather formless : he gave it that cohesion and energy which in the political phase of society makes the state a living thing. The Middle states had many schools from the earliest colonial periods, but the impulse was religious or individual, rarely public. The Dutch made a good beginning in New Y^ork, but there was decline of interest with the conquest of the fi^'^^-^jf province by the British. It was not until after the revo- states, lution that the state seems to have realized its duty in public education ; and then we find land granted in the western coun- ties and assistance voted to educate poor children in the schools al- ready established in the eastern parts of the state. Throughout the years 1815 and 1S60 these states were gradually perfecting school systems, many laws being necessary before a satisfactory result was obtained. It was not until 1849 that the New York system was well established. The same result was achieved for Pennsylvania in a law of 1854 ; for New Jersey it did not come until 1S67, and for Delaware not until 1875. Efforts to establish public schools were made in the South early in the nineteenth century. They resulted in "free schools," poorly taught for short periods, and designed only for the poor. The children of the well-to-do went to private schools, ?"?*''; . which were numerous. Among the older Southern states f^^ south, the best "free school" system was probably in North Carolina, which was the most democratic of the Southern states. Little more interest was shown in the newer states of the Gulf region. Texas, however, made liberal land grants to her school system, and Tennessee and Florida received lands for the same purpose from the federal government. It was not untU after the ci\-il war that the fomier slave states established an efficient public school system. 478 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT While public education thus slowly won its way in the Middle and Southern states, it secured and maintained a more vigorous position in the Middle West. Three causes are to be noted : i. The e"h'"^i • generous gifts of land by the national government ; 2. The the West" ^^'^^ diffusion of New Englanders in this region; and 3. The conviction of the Westerners that schools attracted desirable immigrants. The lands given by the federal authority for education went to the states, which detemiined their use, some going to the common public schools, some to academies, and some to state universities, which dated from the early days of settlement. State aid was supplemented by funds derived from local taxes and state laws provided the administrative machinery. Preceding the rise of the public common school came a movement for academies. This type of school abounded among the English dissenters of the eighteenth century. Its curriculum A ad m Covered from three to live years, and embraced Latin, Greek, philosophy, with a smattering of Hebrew, science, and sometimes theology. It fell in readily with the condition of the non-conformists who had no standing in the universities and were not found in the great public schools. It held a place between preparatory school and university, and was pronounced superficial by those who held to the old classical schools. It is not strange that this kind of school was easily established in America, where dissenters were m the majority and where the thorough ideals of European instruction had not yet taken deep hold. The Era of Sometimes an academy grew out of the efforts of a devoted Academies ,^j^j generous family, as Phillips Academy, at Andover, United Massachusetts, founded in 1778. High-grade academies States. existed in most of the states and served excellently in pre- paring boys for college. But with the beginning of the nineteenth century came an era of rosy dreams of future developments. Most extreme in the West and South, it was nevertheless well defined in the North, and one of its results was an abundant crop of academies. This sporadic growth stood for much real interest, and spite of the failures many useful institutions survived. In 1850 there were 6085 academies in the United States, and they had 263,096 pupils. During the years 1820 to i860 as many as 174 colleges and universi- ties were founded in the United States, 80 of which were in the North Central, and 52 in the Southern, states. Many of them Many Col- -^^ere founded by churches, and many others represented the Founded. ambition of new communities with anticipations of future growth and culture. The law of the survival of the fit- test has brought to an early gra\'e a great number of these institu- tions, but others have survived and reached positions of wide useful- ness. Not all were wisely founded, but who shall decry the earnest hope that gave them their beginning ! STATE UNIVERSITIES 479 It was in this period that the state university took form. The older ideal of a college or university in America was a place at which men were fitted for the ministry, law, or another learned pro- fession. Its studies were strictly arranged in groups, a Z^f ^*°f* thing long traditional in Europe. The students were ""^"^"y- from the upper class of society, and there was generally some kind of ecclesiastical oversight. Two tendencies, one domestic and one for- eign, operated against this idea about 1800. One was the prevalence of philosophic doubt in the first generation after the revolution. At the same time the French educational system was reorganized on a rationalistic basis, and the university of Berlin was established under the guidance of Fichte. Such wonderfully important move- ments at home and in Europe could not fail to have a corresponding phase in American education. The process was first seen in the founding of state universities in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, and in the reorganization of the University of Pennsylvania on a state basis, all of which occurred between 1779 and 1815. At Jefferson this time the movement took a more definite shape at the p'Ju/efgjty hands of Jefferson, equally devoted to democracy and ^f Virginia, liberal thought. He gave much of his later life to the task of remodeling higher education in Virginia. He first wished to remake William and Mary College on the secular plan, but failing in that turned to the task of founding a new institution. In 181 8 the legislature approved, and in 1825 the University of Virginia opened its doors. Jefferson was head of the commission which prepared its plan, head of its first board of visitors, and his colleagues allowed him to have his way in all that pertained to the university. It began with an elec- tive system, and opened its doors without examinations to all who cariie, rejecting after trial those who showed themselves unprepared for its classes. All this was a part of the author's plan for a thoroughly democratic institution. The influence of the University of Virginia was strong in the newer states of the West and Southwest. It extended, however, more to the form and democratic spirit of the university than to the method of instruction. In regard to the latter, the New ^*^**™ England influence has been strong, at least in the West, universities. The complete separation of the university from church control gave rise to the charge that Jefferson's university was hostile to religion. A warm controversy sprang up in Virginia, and has ap- peared in most other states where the state university has been intro- duced. As a result, the churches founded institutions of their own for the education of their own youth. The controversy has not disap- peared in many states to this day. During the period of Western and Southwestern expansion the older institutions of the Northeast developed hardly as much as might have 48o SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT been expected. Largely devoted to preparing men for the professions, most of their students came from the leisure class in the North and South. The condition is well shown in the history of Harvard Col- lege, the oldest of them all. In 1836, its two hundredth Progress in anniversary year, there were 233 students in the college emCol-^*" proper, and in 1856 there were 382. But the law and medi- leges. cal schools were well attended, having in the latter year 231 students, with 57 in the Lawrence Scientific School, which was founded in 1848. The Divinity School had in 1856 only 22 students. It seems unquestionable that the establishment of new colleges and universities during this period operated to lessen the numbers who would otherwise have gone to the older institutions. The rapid growth of the Eastern seats of learning, with which the present generation is so familiar, came after the ci\dl war. The spread of intelligence brought about a movement to reform manners. Attention was especially directed to the misuse of spiritu- ous liquors, which early in the century were generally used The Tem- ^^ j^jj passes. Total abstinence societies began to be Movement, formed about 1824, and in five years more than a thousand had been organized. Zealous preachers of temperance went into every part of the country, with the result that many people were enlisted in the movement. In 1830 the temperance organizations began to be known as Washington societies. After years of agitation the movement began to work for the prohibition of the sale and manufacture of spirituous liquors. By 1850 sev- eral states were in active commotion over the question. Only one of them, however, carried the demand to success. Through the leadership of Neal Dow, Maine, by several laws culminating in 185 1, committed herself to prohibition. Gold in California January 24, 1848, yellow particles were observed in the sand on the exposed bottom of a mill race on the American river. Workmen washed out a portion of the earth and secured three ounces cov^ery'^' of gold dust, and in\'estigation showed gold along the . whole length of the river. The secret was kept for a few weeks and then spread throughout California. In May a Mormon walked along the San Francisco streets with a bottle of gold dust in his hand shouting: "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American river!" Previous reports of the discovery had attracted little interest, but the sight of the yellow metal was electrical on the population of the town. At the end of a month hardly an ablebodied man remained there. Ships anchoring in the harbor were left without crews, the two news- papers suspended because typesetters had fled, and the streets were lined with closed shops. CALIFORNIA'S PROBLEMS 481 Late in the autumn the news reached the East, where it spread like wildfire. Companies of adventurers were formed, ships were hastily bought, and by the end of the year every important At- lantic seaport had sent out its fleet for the "Land of Gold." J_^^ When spring came, the western frontier was filled with California'" great caravans waiting for good weather to begin a long 1849. and dangerous journey to the same destination. More than 20,000 persons set out by this route with their cattle and pro- visions, and encountered much hardship before they arrived on the Western coast as winter closed in. How many arrived this year is diffi- cult to say, but in 1850 the population of California was 92,597, which was more than that of either Delaware or Florida. San Francisco be- came a city of rude huts and tents, filled with speculators and travelers hurrying to the mines. A town meeting fixed the price of gold dust at sixteen dollars an ounce, and it became the money of the coast. Wages became exorbitant, a carpenter getting sixteen, and an unskilled laborer ten, dollars a day. Gamblers and worse men abounded, and violence was frequent. But the majority of the immigrants were average Americans, strong in the instinct of self-government, and the result showed that they were not willing to allow the unruly element to dominate the country. The only authority established by law was military, and it could not be exercised in the many camps and towns that sprang up wherever there was gold. Nor could it well exercise the ordinary functions of courts in the protection of life and property. Appeals for a settled government were sent to congress, but the slav- ery question arose there, and for a while nothing could be done (see page 453). The first move for self-go\'ernment was expressed in miners' com- mittees or mass-meetings, which dealt with disorders and settled dis- putes. This suggested a wider organization ; and in Sep- tember, 1849, at the call of General Riley, the de facto civil AGovern- governor, a convention assembled at Monterey and made a jaWished. constitution excluding slavery, establishing laws of prop- erty, fixing the bounds of California as at present, and providing a full state government. Before the year ended a governor, a legislature two representatives in congress, and two senators had been duly chosen. The state officers immediately entered on their duties and the legisla- ture took up the task of lawmaking, but the senators and representa- tives, who repaired to Washington, were kept waiting until the com- promise of 1850 was completed; and it was not until September 9 01 that year that California at last became a state. Nor did statehood bring good order at once. So deeply was the old habit of lawlessness implanted that the state officials could not easily secure control of the situation. Robberies, murders, and other out- rages abounded, and the people, turning aside from the slow process of law, openly expressed their contempt for lawyers and judges, and 482 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT frequently took into their own hands the task of repressing crime and disposing of criminals. The presence of many persons of Spanish- American birth stimulated this spirit of violence. They Lawless- were suspected, hated, and mistreated. Sometimes they Slowly. deserved nothing good, sometimes they were innocent of evildoing. Originally the miners were generally men of aver- age peacefulness, but the excitement of the day, the tendency to heavy drinking and quarreling, overcame good hnpulses, and the years follow- ing the settlement of the state were a period of chaos, out of Vig ance which the best men could see no better road to good order Committees. . . . '^ than vigilance committees, which too often e.xpressed the mere rage of the mob. But as the communities became settled, and as capital became fixed in mining, real estate, and commerce, the con- servative element triumphed. The turbulent class went on to the newer mines in the distant mountains, leaving peace behind them. By 1858 the area of order embraced most of the state. The Panic of 1857 The discovery of gold in California and elsewhere in the West to- gether with the rapid increase of the money supply promoted the spirit of speculation. Railroads were built through Prosperity Sparsely settled regions from which for a time it was impos- sible to get enough revenue to pay dividends. Manufac- tures were !;timulated, and increased their output beyond reasonable demands. To support this vast volume of business the banks lent freely, straining their own resources to the utmost. In fact, it was one of those "boom" periods with which our industrial history is filled, the inevitable end of which is reaction. It was facilitated by the loose state-banking system, under which the banks, eager for profits, assumed impossible burdens in order to lend at high rates to railroads, manufac- turers, and speculators of every kmd. In 1857 the bubble could expand no further. Speculators could not sell their lands and bonds at a profit. The Western banks from which they had borrowed began to fail, and this communicated of iSiv'^'^ ^^^ shock to the Eastern banks from which the Western banks had secured funds, and a general panic reigned. Generally speaking, the banks of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York closed their doors, and those of New England suspended specie payment. With a few exceptions, those of the West failed completely. Thousands of depositors were ruined, and legitimate business was at a standstill. Factories closed, labor was out of employment, the prices of agricultural products dropped, and fourteen railroads failed com- pletely. The West suffered most ; for at this time the Crimean war was ended, and a large area was thrown open to wheat cultivation, on account of THE MORRILL TARIFF 483 which the price of that commodity fell from $2 to 75 cents a bushel, entailing ruin to producers and all who depended on them. The South, on the other hand, felt the panic less heavily ; for its staple, cotton, was still in demand at former prices. The South- ^|^ ° erners, observing their advantage, felt more confidence than ever in their assertion, "Cotton is King." So far as the banks were concerned, the spasm was of short duration. By the spring of 1S58 most of them had resumed specie payment, and were cautiously lending money to the traders and manufac- turers who were still carrying on business. But this Recovery year and that which followed were years of "hard times," paju,., and it was not untU 1S60 that industry was again in a normal condition. This panic, like all the others in our history, was only a readjustment of temporarily inflated business. Beneath its swirling current was the firm surface of immense economic resources. Probably the most permanent result was the unexpected impulse it gave to protection. Just before the crash the tarifT had been lowered because of the unusually large sums derived from the great volume of imports. But with slackening business came a reduction of im- ports, and with that a deficit in the national treasury. Notes were is- sued and bonds sold in the hope that the want would be temporary. But through the years of "hard times" importations continued re- duced and the minds of men began to turn toward higher duties. Suffering manufacturers seized the moment to ask for greater protec- tion, and the two forces combined to secure the Morrill Tariff, which failed to pass the senate in i860, but became law early in 1861 after several Southern senators had withdrawn. It restored most of the rates of 1846 and made others higher. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Few monographic studies have been made in the social de%-eIopment of our coun- try during this period. McMaster, History of I lie People of the United States, vols. IV-VII (iSgs-igio), contains in several chapters the most valuable general ac- count. See also Schouler, History of the United States, 6 vols. (•S80-1S94). Some excellent chapters are in Turner, Rise of the Neio West (1906), and in Hart, Slavery and Abolition (1906). A thoughtful discussion is Leroy-Beaulieu, Tlw United Stales in the Twentieth Century (trans, by Bruce, 1906). On the growth and distribution of population one must consult the statistics of the census bureau, but for practical purposes they are well summed up in its bulle- tin entitled, A Century of Population Growth (1909). Immigration in general is dis- cussed by R. Mayo Smith, Emigration and Iminif,ration (1890). For the op- position to immigrants see jNIcMaster, History of the People of the United States, vol. VTI, pages 369-384; Scisco, Political Nativism in Nerw York (1901) ; and Schmeckebier, The Know-Nothing Party in Maryland (1898). On the influence of great inventions see : Doolitlle, hwenlions of the Century (in "Nineteenth Century Series," 1Q03) ; Johnson. American Railway Transpor- tation (1903); Ringwalt, American Railway System (i888); Hewes, The American Railway (i88g) ; Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways (1899) ; Wells, Our Merchant Marine (1890) ; and Bates, The American Sparine (1897). 484 SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT Our relations with the Indians have not yet been satisfactorily described. The jest th'^-g for a student is to use McMaster's volumes in connection with two official collections : Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, vol. II (Kappler's ed., iqo4) and United States Statutes at Large, vol. VII, in which the treaties are included. Very valuable is Miss Abel, Indian- Consolidation West of the Mississippi (Am. Hist. Aisn. Report, 1906). On the Black Hawk war see: Ford, History of Illinois (1854) ; Thwaites, Story of the Black Hawk War (in Wisconsin Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. XII) ; and McCall, Letters from the Frontier (1868), bears also on the Seminole war. On the war in Florida see: Fairbanks, History of Florida (new ed., 1898); Sprague, Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of I lie Florida War (1848). Much has been written about the society of the South. Probably the best treatment is the work of Frederick Law Olmstead, an intelligent Northern observer who made visits to that section in the last decade before the civil war and wrote three books showing in excellent literary form how Southern life impressed one who was used to conditions in the free North. The books are : A Journey in the Seaboard Slave Stales (1856, new ed., 1904), ^ Journey through Texas (1857), and A Journey to the Back Country (1861). Essential parts of these three books were published in The Cotton Kingdom, 2 vols. (1861). A good Southern treatment, though written with the advantages of post bellum retrospect, is Ingle, Southern Sidelig/its (i8q6). Several delightful books of reminiscences have appeared written by persons connected with the planter class. They are apt to be colored by feeling and do not, as a rule, present the point of view of the middle class and poorer whites. Among them are : Mrs. Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War (1904); Mrs. Clayton, Black and White under the Old Regime (1899); and Mrs. Smedes, Memorials of a Southern Planter (4th ed., 1900). See also: Hammond, The Cotton Industry (1897) ; Brooks, The Story of Cotton (191 1) ; and Hurd, Law of Freedom and Bondage, 2 vols. (1858-1862), contains summary of statutes concern- ing slaves and free negroes. On the development of democracy see : Dodd, Revision and Amendment of State Constitutions (1910); Borgeaud, Adoption and Amendment of Constitution (1895, trans, by Hazen) ; Lobingur, The People's Law (1909) ; Oberhaltzer, Referendum in America (ed. 191 1) ; Poore, Federal and State Constitutions, 2 vols. (1877) ; Thorpe, American Charters, Constitutions, and Original Laws, 7 vols. (1909), contains errors and should be used with caution. See also: Mowry, The Dorr War (1901) ; King, Life of Thomas W. Dorr (1859) ; and McMaster, History of the People of the United States, vol. V, 373-394- Educational progress is shown in : Boone, Education in the United States (1S89) ; De.xter, History of Education in the United Stales (1904) ; E. E. Brown, Making of Our Middle Scliools (1907); Martin, Evolulion of the Massachusetts Public School System (1894) ; Weeks, Beginnings of the Common School System in the South (U. S. Comsr. Education, Report, 1896-1897) ; H. B. .\dams, editor, 33 monographs on history of education in various states, issued as Circulars of Information by the Com- missioner of Education (1887-1902); H. B. .\dams, Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia (1888) ; and Hinsdale, Horace Mann and tite Common School Revival (1898). On the discovery of gold in California and the conditions which followed see: Hittell, History of California, 4 vols. (1886-1897) ; Bancroft, History of California, 7 vols. (1884-1890) ; Willey, Thirty Years in California (1879), good for early social conditions; Shinn, Mining Camps (1885), very suggestive; and Letts, California Illustrated (1852). For Independent Reading Bayard Taylor, Eldorado (1850) ; Mowry, The Dorr War (1901) : Mrs. Pryor, Rem- iniscences of Peace and War (1904) ; Mrs. Clayton, Black and White under the Old Regime (1899); Hubbard, Memorials of a Half Century (1887), deals with expe- riences in the Old Northwest ; Four American Universities, by Professor Norton and others (1S95), deals with Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Princeton ; and Olmstead, A Journey in tlie Seaboard Slave States (new ed., 1904). CHAPTER XXIII EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 Overthrowing the Compromise of 1850 Conservative men North and South wished the compromise of 1850 to be linal. PoUticians, business men, and conservatives generally hoped it would remo\'e the slavery question from politics and introduce an era of harmony. In April, 185^, the JIJ^^q'^"^ house of representatives adopted a resolution to that promise, effect by a vote of 103 to 74, and the democratic convention of the same year enthusiastically resolved to accept the compromise as final and to resist any attempt to renew the slavery agitation. In the whig convention a similar resolution was adopted, with 66 dissenting votes, all of which came from the North, and were from men who sup- ported Scott as party leader. The democrats had much trouble to name a candidate. For forty- eight ballots fortune leaned in turn to Cass, the defeated candidate of 1848, to Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, to Marcy, of New . York, and to Stephen A. Douglas, a brilliant senator from ^°^^ Illinois who had just completed his thirty-ninth year and for whom his admirers predicted the highest honors. On the thirty- fifth ballot Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, was brought forward by Virginia as a "dark horse," and on the forty-ninth he received the nomination, William R. King, of Alabama, being named for vice-presi- dent. The whigs also had their difficulties, but General Winfield Scott won on the fifty-third ballot, taking the honors from Webster and Fill- more, through a combination of the Southern whigs with the Northern wing of the party under Seward, who led a large group of men opposed to the fugitive slave law, a part of the great compromise. William A. Graham, of North Carolina, was nominated for the vdce-presidency. The free soil party nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and denied the finality of the compromise. The only important issue in the campaign that followed was keeping the compromise. Scott was pledged to it, but he was supported by those who would be glad to see it overthrown. Pierce, it was not doubted, was sincerely for it, while Hale repudiated Election. it altogether. The results showed how much it was de- sired by the people. The democratic candidates received 254 electoral votes, the whigs had 42, carrying Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and the free soilers had none. Hale had only half as 48s 486 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850- 1860 many votes as Van Buren got in 1848, and this was taken to show that the cause of political abolition was declining. Pierce took office amid the plaudits of the citizens. He was a handsome man and knew how to conciliate his opponents. Could he not perpetuate the spirit of compromise, if any man could ? Pierce s ygt his Cabinet appointments aroused apprehensions. Dix, of New York, who was a free soiler in 1848, was denied a position after it had been offered him, and the reason for the change of intention was his unpopularity with the South. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was made secretary of war, and Caleb Gushing, of Massachusetts, a warm friend of Davis, became attorney-general. Moreover, the inaugural address hinted pretty plainly at the acquisi- tion of Cuba, a thing much desired Ijy the slaveholders. It was not long before whisperers began to say that the administration was under Southern domination. This seemed ominous for the spirit of compromise, but a still more threatening thing was the hostility of many Northern people to the execution of the fugitive slave law. In the two and a half Opposition years since the law passed nearly everj fugitive arrested in Fu'^rive*" '^^'^^ North had been taken by a mob from the hands of the Slave Law. federal marshal and spirited away to freedom. In Syra- cuse, New York, Gerrit Smith and the Rev. Samuel J; May led a mob of respect-able men who forcibly rescued a negro, Jerry McHenry, from the hands of an assembled court and smuggled him into Canada ; and they were not punished. These affairs, which occurred before the election of 1852, aroused the moderates North and South and went far to secure the large democratic majority of that year. They were, however, not forgotten, and the extremists of both sides predicted freely that the fugitive slave law, which the South con- sidered its only gain in the great compromise, could not be enforced. But it was slavery in the territories, and not the rendition of fugitives, that kindled anew the slumbering lires of strife. The unorganized Nebraska country west of Missouri and Iowa became im- ^riei°of*e portant as soon as the Oregon question came up; and the Question. migration to California and the plans proposed for a rail- road to the Pacific gave it added interest. Attempts to have it made a territory had been defeated by the slavery men, be- cause under the Missouri compromise it would be free. The Missou- rians themselves, though much desiring that the territory be erected, would not demand it as a home of freedom. Senator Atchison, leading the slavery party in that state, declared that he would " see Nebraska sunk in hell before he would vote for it as a free soO terri- tory " ; and he helped defeat a Nebraska bill in 1853. In the summer of that year his seat in the senate was being contested, and his op- ponents boldly charged him with neglecting the interests of Missouri. To make Nebraska slave, it was said, he was sacrificing the oppor- COMPROMISE BROKEN 487 tunity to have St. Louis the terminus of the Pacific railroad and ex- cluding Missourians from the rich lands to the west. It was a hard blow, and he met it by a change of front. He would never see Ne- braska free soil, he now said, but he would vote to make it a territory on condition that the people who settled there could decide for them- selves the question of slavery or freedom. This, it was pointed out, was what had been done for Utah and New Mexico in 1850. The dis- cussion in Missouri was warm throughout the summer of 1853, and just before congress met in December, it was taken up by the demo- cratic papers of the East. The antislavery men could hardly be- lieve what they read when they saw a prediction that a bill would be introduced in congress to create Nebraska territory under the plan just described. They did not take the prophecy seriously, and pointed out that the proposed step repealed the compromise of 1820 and over- threw the harmony established in 1850. Events showed they were mistaken. In December, 1853, an Iowa senator introduced a bill to create Nebraska territory. It went to the committee on territories, S. A. Douglas, chairman. January 5 it came from committee, Atchison's slavery ^^^^3^3*^' proposition engrafted on it. The change was made with y^^j^ ,3^^^ the consent of Douglas, whose motive is a matter of dispute. He favored a new territory in the region through which the proposed Pacific road would run, and he may have adopted Atchison's idea be- cause he saw it was the only way to get the su]3port of the Southerners. On the other hand, he wished to be president, and as his opponents charged, he may have merely sought Southern support to that end. He was a self-made man, with some crudeness of manner, spite of his great forensic ability, and more than once had been made to realize that he was not popular with the Southern members. He now showed them how much he could serve them. Holding together in a solid phalanx all who wished the railroad built, those who desired the terri- tory for its own sake, those faithful friends who wished to see him ad- \-anced to the presidency, and above all the willing Southerners, he forced his bill through both houses and made it a law. Before it passed it underwent an important amendment. Two territories, in- stead of one, were now provided for, it being a return to the old parallel- ism by wliich was preserved the balance of free and slave states. Kan- sas, the more southern of the two, it was expected, would be settled by slaveholders, and Nebraska by non-slaveholders. A clause in the bill when finally passed specifically repealed the Missouri compromise. Douglas expected a hard fight from the antislavery men, but he had arguments to meet them. The bill, he said, was the only practi- cable way to get the territory created, and the North need not be alarmed, since slavery could not live in the region njgcance. concerned. If one .spoke of \-iolation of the compromise of 1850 the reply was that the bill did not violate, but only confirmed, the 488 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 compromise; for did it not apply to Kansas and Nebraska exactly the principle applied to Utah and New Mexico ? For all this, it was as plain as a barn door that the bill was a defeat for the antislavery party, that it opened to slavery territory which the compromise of 1820 dedicated to freedom, and that the proslavery party won a vic- tory which would give slavery its share in the unsettled Northwest, unless natural conditions proved too hard for it. Though Douglas carried his measure through congress, a great wave of protest was aroused out of congress, and from 1854 all thought of the finality of the compromise of 1850 was abandoned. Douglas called his doctrine "popular sovereignty," since it an- nounced the right of the people in the territory to settle the vexed question for themselves. His enemies with a tinge of "Popular contempt called it "squatter sovereignty," a term which eignty"." immediately had an extensive use. The most striking early effect of his move was that some Northern democrats would not vote for his bill, or support him afterwards. They held together, and were known as "Anti-Nebraska" democrats. It is evident that a new spirit ruled in the country in 1854. Four years earlier the old men, led by Clay and Webster, loving the union and lamenting the tendency of the young men toward New Men radicalism, united and carried a compromise over the N ^?^^'°l' heads of the radicals. In 1852 died both Clay and Web- North and ^ ,, , , ,. 1 • o rrni ■ n ^1 South. ster — Calhoun had died in 1850. Ihus m 1854 the mihtant younger men were in control on each side. The most conspicuous Northern leaders were : Seward, of New York, an able politician and a man of influence because he could carry the most important state in the union ; Chase and Wade, of Ohio, both strong debaters ; and Sumner, of Massachusetts, who was a fer\'id orator and a biting foe to the slave power. In the South Jefferson Daxds, of Mississippi, a cool-headed and logical debater, was most eminent, and by his followers was pronounced the heir of Calhoun's leadership. He was a member of Pierce's cabinet, but returned to the senate in 1857. Toombs, of Georgia, warm and audacious in manner, but conserva- tive in ideas, was an able second to Davis. Neither of these men in 1854 would advocate secession, but they were ready to accept it if necessary to save the South from an antislavery majority in the North. Another group of Southerners, the most prominent of whom were Yancey, of Alabama, and Rhett, of South Carolina, were avowed se- cessionists. Among Northern democrats the leaders were Douglas, now bitterly disliked because of the Kansas-Nebraska act, and Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, an old man trained under the Jackson regime, whose best asset was that he was minister to England in 1854, and so was not forced to vote for or against Douglas's cele- brated bill. The Kansas-Nebraska bill opened a new strife between these two IMMIGRANTS TO KANSAS 489 contending sides, which by regular steps led straight to the civil war. The chief events in this progress are the following : i. The struggle to settle Kansas ; 2. The organization of the re- Conse- publican party; 3. The Dred Scott decision; 4. The ^^^'^^^°J^. Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 ; 5. The John Brown Nebraska raid ; and 6. The election of Lincoln in i860. It is now Act. necessary to take up these events in order. The Struggle for Kans.^s At first most people expected Kansas to become the home of slavery, and Missourians began to move into its fertile valleys as soon as it was a territory. The antislavery men were not willing that this should be accomplished without opposition. Eli Northern Thayer, of Massachusetts, organized the " Emigrant Aid ^^ immi-" Society" to assist New Englanders to settle in the terri- grants, tory. When its proteges began to arrive, an angry cry arose from the settlers from Missouri. The wealthy North, it was said, was pouring in colonists to organize the country so as to exclude slavery, and appeals were made for Southerners to help settle Kansas. The response was ready in Missouri, and on election day, 1855, more than 5000 men rode from that state and cast votes in the choice of members of the first territorial legislature. Governor Reeder, of Kansas, appointed by Pierce, who was known to favor the Southern- ers, did not approve the proceedings, but he did nothing to check them. The result was that the new legislature met, de- clared some of the delegates chosen from the districts of Ledsiahiro the New Englanders illegally elected, and made a code of laws in support of slave property. This they did on the theory that popular sovereignty meant that slavery should not be discriminated against until the territory itself determined whether or not it should be established. By this time immigration from New England was large, and the free state party felt strong enough to defy their antagonists. They found a leader in Dr. Charles Robinson, who had lived in Cali- fornia long enough to know how to deal with the chaos now J' in Kansas. All the Missourians had done was pronounced Appeal, illegal, and plans were made to organize an irregular government, adopt a constitution, and ask for admission to the union. Thus assembled the Topeka convention, chosen entirely by the party of freedom. The other side pronounced it e.xtra-legal, gave it no countenance, and declared tTieir sheriff and legislature the only legal authority in the territory under the governor, who was appointed by Pierce and in sjTnpathy with the slavery men. Fortunately, the two parties had settled in different districts, and each legislature, though claiming jurisdiction over all Kansas, was content to exercise authority 4Q0 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 merely over its own district. The Missourians, in their hasty en- trance to the territory, took the rich lands along the Missouri on whose banks they planted the towns of Atchison, Leavenworth, and Kick- apoo. But the New Englanders, with a better sense of future develop- ment, settled along the Kansas river, and thus their towns, Lawrence, Topeka, Lecompton, and Ossawatomie, penetrated nearly a hundred miles into the territory. Early in 1856 the Kansas situation was before congress. Both contending governments were tainted with illegality, and if the federal government had carried out the true spirit of Douglas's ttT^EasV^ popular sovereignty theory, both would have been over- thrown, and new elections held. Unhappily, the country was deeply aroused and di\aded in sentiment, and both the president and congress were no more disposed to act calmly than the Kansas settlers. Pierce, a democrat, naturally followed his party, the larger part of which were Southerners. He issued a proclamation against lawless men in Kansas, and authorized the governor, now Shannon, to use federal troops if necessary. To preserve order in Kansas was only a temporary remedy for the chaos there. A more permanent remedy was suggested by Pierce in a recommendation that it be admitted to the union as soon Statehood as sufficiently populous; and in March, 1S56, Douglas, ^^ ^ in the senate, introduced a bill to authorize the Kansas the"con- °^ legislature to call a convention to prepare a constitution for fusion. admission to the union when the population of the territory should be 93,420. Such a convention would undoubtedly be under the influence of the Missourians, and the proposition was bitterly opposed by the opposite side, who demanded that Kansas be admitted under the Topeka constitution. Then came Warm ^^^ ^f ^^le most exciting debates in the history of congress. Debate Douglas and many Southerners spoke on one side, Seward, CoUamer, Hale, and Sumner on the other. The speech of Sumner was very bitter. He was a man of the highest purposes and the deepest feehngs; he hated slavery, and thought its supporters entitled to no consideration. He was now highly wrought up by re- cent events, and prepared a speech on "The Crime against Kansas," into which he put as much denunciation as his intense soul could utter. He himself called his speech " the most thorough philippic ever uttered in a legislative body." Into it he brought some biting personalities, attacking especially Douglas and Senator Butler, of South Carolina. The former replied ^n words equally biting, but the latter was avenged by his nephew. Brooks, who represented a South Carolina Sumner district. Two days after the speech was made Sumner was leaning over his desk writing, the senate having adjourned. Brooks approached, uttered a few words of reproach, and fell to beating Sumner over head and shoulders until bystanders interfered. The JOHN BROWN'S RETALIATION 491 attack left the senator with injuries from which he did not recover before i860. Wlien Sumner finished his extraordinary speech, Cass, the Nestor of the senate, broke the painful silence of that body by saying: "I have listened with equal regret and surprise to the speech of the honorable senator from Massachusetts. Such a jheYncident speech, the most un-American and unpatriotic that ever grated on the ears of the members of this high body, I hope never to hear again here or elsewhere." These words might have represented the judgment of posterity concerning Sumner's utterances, had not Brooks's violent retaliation taken off their edge. In the days when one gentleman caned another, he sought to overwhelm him by the in- dignity rather than by the severity of the affair ; but Brooks attacked most savagely, breaking his cane and finishing the chastisement with the butt. His achievement found many defenders in the South, and he might have finished his days, had he so wished, in belaboring abolitionists with the many canes he received from admiring Southern- ers. In the North his deed and the approval of it in the South elicited the deepest horror. It did more to arouse the average man against the South than any speech Sumner ever made. Meanwhile, all this trouble accomplished nothing for Kansas. Congress could not agree on a plan, and the territory continued to be the prey of faction. These struggles came to a head in Kansas the day before Sumner was injured. A proslavery grand jury had indicted several of the antisla\-ery leaders, and a posse under a federal marshal marched to Lawrence and made the arrests. They de- 1^'^,^°^^ stroyed, on the ground it was a nuisance, a large stone hotel built there, probably with the purpose of having it serve as a fort in case of need. The posse contained many lawless men under slight restraint, and there was much drinking and plundering. The news- paper offices were looted, stores were sacked, and the house of the governor under the Topeka constitution was destroyed. While Brooks's violence filled every mind, news of this occurrence reached the East and but added to the e.xcitement. To one free-state Kansan it seemed to call for vengeance. John Brown, of Ossawatomie, hated slavery to the verge of insanity, and he believed himself ordained by providence to redress the wrong of his party, five of whom had been slain. With ^^'^ , seven followers he entered the settlements of the slavery taliation. party on Pottawatamie Creek, took five men from three homes, and left their bodies by the roadside lifeless and mutilated. "God is my judge," exclaimed he, "the people of Kansas mil yet justify my course." Approve it they could not, but it was the signal for the outbreak of a guerrilla struggle in which nearly two hundred lives were sacrificed. This state of affairs was largely due to the lax rule of Governor Shannon, who gave ill disguised sympathy to the 492 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 slave party. Its effect on the presidential canvass then in progress in the states was so great that Pierce was forced to send another gov- ernor. Geary, who arrived on the scene September 9, won the respect of both sides and eventually restored order. He resigned March 4, 1857, feeling that he was not supported by the president. Buchanan, who became president on the same day, was anxious to have affairs settled in the territory. His party's platform had de- clared for a just api)lication of popular sovereignty in Governor Kansas, and he wished to redeem the ])ledge. After much Walker s persuasion he induced Robert J. Walker, a Mississippi Rest^r^ ° democrat and a man of abiHty and fairness, to accept the Order. governorship. During the past two years many Northern men had moved to the scene of conflict, and Walker real- ized that they were by far the majority of the population. He gave u]) hope of saving Kansas for slavery, and tried to save it for his party. Elections to a constitutional convention were announced, and he urged all free state people to vote in them, promising that the con- stitution to be prepared should be submitted to the people for approval. The appeal was futile. Of the 18,000 voters thought to be in the terri- tory only 2200 took part in the election, most of them proslavery. Had his advice been taken, much trouble would have been avoided. When the Southern politicians in Washington learned that their friends controlled the convention, which met at Lecompton in Sep- tember, 1 85 7, they actefLquickly. Agents went to Kansas, The Le- ^j-id a scheme was arranged by whicli the minority might compton control. The constitution as a whole was not to be sub- tion. mitted to the people, but only the clause in reference to slavery. The vote was to be "the constitution with slavery" or "the constitution without slavery." If the latter pre- vailed, the slaves already in Kansas, not more than 200, would not be liberated. The vote on the constitution was to be taken by officers appointed directly by the convention. These unusual details sug- gested dark designs, and Walker denounced them openly and set out for Washington to protest to the president himself. He found that Buchanan was committed to the Southerners. The country was beginning to forget Kansas, but this turn of affairs caused it to remember. Most of all, Douglas was alarmed and out- raged. He had risked much of his own popularity for Dor^s ^^ ^^^ South, and he could not but feel that he was betrayed. Telling the president plainly that he should oppose the scheme, he went into the senate to make a bold speech against the con- stitution made at Lecompton. "If Kansas wants a slave-state con- stitution," he said, "she has a right to it; if she wants a free-state constitution, she has a right to it. It is none of my business which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether it is voted up or down." He got little for his trouble ; the South turned against him, THE WRONG TO KANSAS 493 and the republicans could only see that he was seeking to secure in 1 858 his reelection to the senate. His action defeated the bill to admit Kansas with the Lecompton constitution ; for though it passed the senate the Douglas democrats in the house cast the deciding votes against it. But the English bill, a faint-hearted compromise, was finally passed. It offered Kansas a gift of land if it became a state, ordered an impartial election on the cjuestion of receiving the gift, and authorized the president to admit the state by proc- „ lamation if the vote was in the affirmatix'c. The Kansas ^-^^ "^ '^ free-state party considered the bill a proffered bribe and rejected it by a vote of 11,300 to 178S. From this time, August, 1858, the struggle in Kansas dropped into the background, the territorial government was in authority, and it was not until 1S61, after some of the Southern states had seceded, that difffculties disappeared with the acquisition of statehood. Douglas, like many other politicians, cared little for either slavery or abolition, but wished to remove from the political field an annoying question, and he thought his popular sovereignty theory . would accomplish his aim. He believed that other North- the south erners like himself, with the help of the South, could keep the cjuestion in the background, spite of the antislavery Northerners, whom he rightly believed in the minority. But the South would not play his game. It believed itself entitled to Kansas, and was angered when the North tried to fill the territory with settlers. It met tliis move, which it believed perfidious, with fraud and violence, which deepened at each step. It was too unfair a proceeding to be permitted by the nation, and was not in keeping with the former conduct of its authors. It was the last desperate hope to preserve the ecjuilibrium of states, and its failure left Southerners the choice between submission to the limitation of the slave power and withdrawal from the union. P,-\RTY AND THE ELECTION OF 1S56 The whig party suffered much by the compromise of 1850. If it repudiated the agreement, its southern wing would be wrecked ; to accept it sacrificed the good will of many earnest anti- slavery whigs. It was freely said that the party would ^/^*{Ji^'°" never win another victory. Although it had a strong party. position hi Massachusetts, New York, and other states, and managed to preserve its national organization, its fate was sealed. For a time it was thought it would yield place to the know-nothing party. This was a secret political organization with the same principles as those of the Native Americans. When 5"°,"' one of its members was asked any question about it he was party. instructed to give a formal answer, "I don't know," and from this came the name. As the Iri^h Catholics were usually 494 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1 850-1 86c democrats, the orgaiuzation naturally drew largely from the whigs, and as it had the open denunciation of Douglas and other leading democrats it felt drawn to those who opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill. By judicious combination and much work it polled in 1854 one- fourth of the entire vote of New York, two-fifths of that of Penn»yl- vania, and nearly tv/o-thirds of that of Massachusetts. In the last- named state it elected the governor and other general officers and controlled the legislature. This silent machine, without canvassers or other outward evidence of activity, but sweeping so much before it, struck terror to the old party leaders. Late in 1854 it decided to re- quire all its members to take oath to support the union, and the de- cision drew many anti-Nebraska men to its ranks, as well as a large number of union men in the South, mostly old whigs. In the spring of 185s it carried Connecticut, New Hampshire, and ts ure. ^Qj^g Island, and freely boasted it had i ,000,000 enrolled voters. It now abandoned secrecy, hitherto its greatest weakness. The light of day showed that it was chiefly the old whig party under another name, and from that moment disappeared all hope of building up out of it a great union party. In 1856 it lost its antislavery wing when it refused to demand the restoration of the Missouri compromise. In this year its candidate, Fillmore, carried only one state, Mary- land. Meanwhile, the repubUcan party had been organized on the basis of open opposition to slavery extension. While congress debated the Kansas-Nebraska bill, 1854, many mass meetings were Republican ]^g\^ ^q protest against the measure, and one of them at F^'^ded Ripon, Wisconsin, March 20, went beyond the others by recommending a new party to fight slavery extension. July 6 a convention of all who would cooperate to resist "the en- croachments of slavery" met at Jackson, Micliigan, nominated a state ticket, and called on the other free states to do the same. The sources of its strength, and the proportion of its distribution, are shown in the fact that three of the nominees were former free soil men, five old whigs, and two anti-Nebraska democrats. Wisconsin followed Michigan's example, while Vermont, Indiana, and Ohio nominated anti-Nebraska tickets. The movement prevailed in Ohio by a majority of 75,000. It was, however, forestalled in the great Eastern states by the rise of know-nothingism. But the check was temporary, and in 1855 its eastward march was resumed. Whig leaders in the East watched the rise of the republican party with keen interest, and this was especially true of Seward, leading whig and opponent of slaverv' extension in congress. His New^York °^^^^ party was disintegrating : should he follow the exodus and unite with the republicans to build up a great sectional organization ? His answer was most important ; for he controlled, with the aid of his astute friend, Thurlow Weed, the action of his EARLY HOPES OF REPUBLICANS 495 party in the most important state in the union. He hesitated for months, but by the autumn of 1855 his mind was made up. Plans were made to imite the whigs and republicans, and each party met in convention at Syracuse in September. To one of his friends who asked which convention an opponent of slavery ought to attend, Seward replied that it made little difference ; for although the delegates would go in through two doors they would come out at one. The whigs had hardly assembled before they resolved to join the republican party, and the leaders, followed by all but a small remnant, marched to the republican convention and took seats in good fellowship. In Massachusetts similar results were secured by means less spectacular. Slavery had already divided the whig party c],„sg^3 in this state, its opponents being called "Conscience Whigs," and the conservatives "Cotton Whigs," and the former now generally became republicans. By the end of 1855 the republican party was established throughout the free states. In the South a like movement toward sectionalism was in progress. Here the whole Kansas incident was considered an act of bad faith toward the South, and the whigs could not defend their Northern brethren from the charge of participating in it. £^"^.''"0 °! So rapidly did the party fall away that its leaders became in the South, utterly discouraged, and the most ambitious of them went over to the democrats, henceforth the Southern sectional party. Two republican conventions were held in 1856. One was at Pitts- burg, February' 22, to organize the party nationally. It was cheered by the news that the seceding know-nothings would join them. After adopting a platform demanding the exclusion No^nated of slavery from the territories and the admission of Kan- sas to the union it called a nominating convention in Philadelphia for June 17. Pending that date there was much discussion of candidates. At first most republicans looked to Seward, the ablest politician in the party ; but as the spring advanced they began to think that the signs of the time pointed to a victory if the right man were nominated. Then arose a feeling against Seward. He had made many enemies, particularly among the know-nothings, and it was generally said that a man who could win should be taken. The argument prevailed, and John C. Fremont, prominent because of his career in California in 1846, was nominated; Seward, who did not believe the party could win at that time, was content to wait for future honors. The democratic convention met at Cincinnati June 2. Since the Kansas policy was to be the chief issue it was to be expected that Pierce or Douglas would be nominated. But so great was Northern resentment of that policy that the delegates dared Nominated, not name a man prominently responsible for it. Thus they took Buchanan, who had been minister to England and was not 496 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 connected with anything that had been done in America during the past three years. He was acceptable to the South, which he had never opposed, and he appealed to Northern conservatives of all parties, who thought the republican position on slavery a kind of radicalism. The whigs held a convention and indorsed Fillmore, whom the regular know-nothings had previously nominated. The chief issue of the campaign was Kansas, "Bleeding Kansas," as the republicans called it. It was an unwelcome issue to the democrats in the North, who tried to supplant it by the question of of*i8s?^° union. Did any one think the South, said they, would sub- mit to be ruled by a president and congress elected entirely by the free states ? Toombs, speaking for his section, said that the election of Fremont would be the end of the union. In fact, Fre- mont and "black republicanism" were so hateful to the South that it was hardly safe for a man to espouse them. A professor in the uni- versity of North Carolina who said he would vote for this ticket if it were offered him was set upon by the press, and when he wrote a moder- ate article in reply, the trustees of the university asked him to resign his professorship. For the South there was but one ticket, and it was in the North the battle was to be fought. Conservative whigs in this section realized that the real contest was between Buchanan and Fre- mont, and many of them preferred the former. The republicans, on the other hand, had with them the majority of the ministers, college professors, and literary men of the North. The religious press worked for them. It was a moral issue, and appealed strongly to the young men. As the campaign progressed it became evident that Pennsyl- vania was the most critical state. All eyes centered on it, and the democrats gave a cry of joy when in a state election in October they carried it by less than 3000 votes. This presaged success in the na- tional election in November ; and the hope was realized when counting the returns of that day's battle gave Buchanan 174 electoral votes, Fremont 114, and Fillmore 8. It was a narrow escape for the demo- crats, for in most of their northern states the majorities were small. The republicans had done exceedingly well for a party which had never before taken part in a national campaign. The historian cannot but reliect that the Kansas Nebraska bill which Atchison forced on Doug- las in 1854 and which Douglas carried through congress by his brilliant leadership was become a most expensive experiment for the slave- holding power. In this campaign an important part was played by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, " Uncle Tom's Cabin," published in book form in 1S52, as a protest against the execution of the fugitive slave Tom's* '^^^' ^^ ^'^ immense circulation, and was translated Cabin." '"to many languages. It was a most earnest protest of a sensitive soul against slavery, and it was difficult for one to read it without feeling an impulse to do something to destroy the SIL-^LL THE COURT DECIDE? 497 system. The Southern people resented its pictures of slavery and slaveholders. In fact, the condition was not as bad as it was portrayed, but it was bad enough to cry for reform. The Dred Scott Decision From the time the Wilmot proviso was before the public suggestions of the power of the supreme court to pass upon the status of slavery in the territories were heard. When by the compromise of 1850 New Mexico and Utah were created as territories without fj'^l"^ *° restriction as to slavery, it was understood that if a question court"'"^^™^ arose in connection with slavery in their borders it was to be referred to this tribunal. In every debate over Kansas the con- stitutionality of the Missouri compromise was freely challenged by the South. The logical tendency was to bring the dispute sooner or later before the highest court in the land. This tribunal had declared against many laws : Why should it not relieve the intensity of feeling in the country and decide once for all the controversy which threat- ened the existence of the union ? Beyond this was another question : Would its decision be accepted as final by the losing side ? Dred Scott was the slave of an army surgeon residing in Missouri who took the slave into Illinois and Minnesota, and returned after more than two years' residence in free territory. Shortly ts j c „ afterwards the master died, and Dred sued for his freedom. The case first came up in Missouri courts, which had jurisdiction ; but while it was in progress he was sold to a citizen of New York, who hired him out in Missouri. He then brought suit in the federal courts. He claimed to be a citizen of Missouri, and on that ground contended that his case came within federal jurisdiction, since the federal courts may try cases between citizens of different states. He also claimed that when his master took him voluntarily into the land of freedom the shackles of slavery fell off, and that his return to a slave state could not be construed as reenslavement. He insisted that the Missouri compromise, a federal law, protected him in this contention. The two points before the courts, therefore, were: was Dred Scott a citizen of Missouri, and did the Missouri compromise protect him ? The defense denied the first contention, and asserted the compromise was unconstitutional. The case was first argued in the supreme court early in 1S56. Seven of the justices were democrats, and of these five were Southerners. One was a republican, and another, Curtis, was a whig. _. p, . At first the case attracted little attention outside of the g^.^^^^ q^^^ court, but after a while it became known that it involved the Missouri compromise, and the public, especially the Southerners, began to take notice. In view of this the court had it reargued in December, 1856, every point being taken up most carefully. Even 498 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 then the court hesitated. Should it merely settle the status of Dred Scott and his family, or should it by passing on the two fundamental points raised exert its power in the very center of the great sectional controversy ? To do the former would avoid the impleasant task of making an enemy of either Northern or Southern faction ; but it would also lay the court open to the charge of cowardice. "What," it would be asked, " was a court for but to settle disputed constitutional points?" Some pressure was brought on the court by outsiders to get them to take up a broad attitude, chiefly by the Southerners, who felt that the majority of the justices leaned their way. They succeeded, and March 6, 1S57, when the decision was announced, was an impor- tant day in the great antislavery struggle. It showed that the court was on the Southern side. Each member of the court read an opinion, all of the Southern justices and one Northerner, Gricr, a democrat, agreeing materially. The opinion of Chief Justice Taney was taken as that of the OdSod majority. It dealt with two important points : was a negro a citizen of the United States ? and was the Missouri compromise law constitutional ? In regard to the former, Taney as- serted that federal and state citizenship were not identical, that Scott's citizenship was to be determined by the law in force in the state of his residence, and that since Missouri did not recognize him as a citizen he could not be considered a citizen of the United States. As to the rights of the citizens of one state resident in another, Taney held that such rights were only maintained during temporary residence, and that the constitution did not intend to take away in this respect the right of ,1 state to decide so vital a point as what classes of persons should be admitted to state citizenship. As to the Missouri com- promise, the court felt impelled to pass on its constitutionality ; for if it were valid, Dred Scott became free by his residence in Minnesota, and if he was free there it was assuming a great deal to say that his un- disputed return to Missouri would bring reenslavement. Taney ac- cepted the Southern view on this point. The claim that congress could legislate for the territories was disposed of by holding that the words were restricted to the territory actually owned by the federal government in 17S7, and not to the Louisiana purchase. The constitu- tion, he further held, recognized the existence of property in slaves, it gave no part of the government the right to destroy such property, and an act of congress claiming to exercise such a right was unwarranted. Judge Curtis, supported by McLean, the republican justice, took the contrary view in a well written opinion. Free negroes, he said, were citizens of North Carolina and several Northern states Opinion ^" 1789, and voted there, and he held that any citizen of a state is a citizen of the United States, and was such in 1789. If this was true, Taney's first point, relating to citizenship, was de- molished, .^s to his second point, Curtis was equally successful. THE CONTROVERSY UNSETTLED 490 Congress, he pointed out, was given power "to make all needful rules and regulations concerning the territory of the United States." Taney held that this did not apply to territory acquired after the constitution was adopted, but Curtis disputed the point with a great deal of strength of argument. If congress had such power, it might forbid the entrance of slaves into a territory, and in doing so it did not violate the clause which forbade it to deprive a citizen of property without due process of law. It was the fate of these two lines of reasoning that one enunciated the view for which one side had long contended, and the other that for which the other side had been equally earnest. One was supported by the justices who fa\ored the democratic ^"^.''t^. * party, and the other by those who leaned toward the other Decision, parties. Perhaps it was impossible that honorable judges should have been uninfluenced by the storm of discussion amid which they had lived during the past decade. The democrats. North and South, exulted that they had the majority of the court with them and flouted the opinion of Curtis. The opponents of slavery in the North found Curtis entirely convincing, and denounced the majority of the court as subservient to the slave power. The upshot was that the at- tempt of the court to intervene in the great sectional conflict was a total failure. We may consider it a certainty that when the court gives an opinion adverse to the prcNaously formed view of a majority of the American people, its decision will be futile and its influence will be lessened. The status of slavery in the territories was, in fact, no longer a judicial matter. It had become a political issue, and it was not wise for the court to undertake to settle it. The administration party was not surprised by the outburst of in- dignation which met the Dred Scott decision, but they thought it would soon blow over. There followed, however, the at- tempt to admit Kansas with the Lecompton constitution democrats (see page 492), and this added to rather than lessened the strength, excitement. Meanwhile there came the midsummer panic of 1857, which occasioned great distress in the business world. The democratic secretary of the treasury, Howell Cobb, of Georgia, showed little abiUty to retrieve the treasury from its consequent embarrass- ments; and when the manufacturers of the North asked for higher tariff rates to protect their prostrate businesss, the Southern senators objected. The result was, therefore, a diminished respect of the powerful business element for the party in power. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates Early in 1858 the worst of the panic was over, the Lecompton scheme was defeated, and there was a breathing spell in which the politicians had time to think of the presidential election of i860. To the 500 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 shrewdest men it seemed that fortune favored Douglas. Much of the enthusiasm of 1856 had subsided. The Kansas-Nebraska law did not seem quite so bad now that it was evident that Douglas's popular sovereignty did not mean the establishment of Position slavery in a territory. Douglas's opposition to the 1858. Lecompton constitution had brought him the good will of many conservative republicans, who could not fail to ac- knowledge his genius, and it was even whispered in some quarters that Northern democratsand republicans might unite tomakehimpresident. Douglas could not have had expectations of this nature, but he took no pains to check them on the part of others. Two years of peace, it was believed, would go far to remove the sectional strife, and if Douglas could be supported in i860 by the South, the Northern democrats, and the conservative republicans, what might he not expect to do? True, he was unpopular in the South, where his Lecompton votes were pronounced acts of treachery, but he was a most facile man, and no one who knew him doubted that he would find means of restoring himself to Southern favor before the critical time arrived. We are now to see how his prospects were blighted by Abraham Lincoln. Douglas's term in the senate expired in 1859, and his party in state convention in 1858 nominated him to succeed himself. The repub- licans named Lincoln as his opponent, and a series of joint J**? debates was arranged between the two candidates. No Arranged. Other public discussion in our history has been more important. It not only sealed the political fate of one pres- idential candidate, and established another in the road to the presi- dency, but it educated the North to the true nature of the problem before it and convinced the South that secession was the only way to escape the ultimate extinction of slavery. In the beginning of his campaign Lincoln attacked boldly. The time had come, he thought, to announce frankly that the war on slavery was uncompromising, and he did it, in accepting T''* his party's nomination, in simple words which will never Divided^" ^'^'^^ from our history. "'A house divided against itself Speech. cannot stand,'" he said; "I believe this government can- not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be dixaded. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery wUl arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates wUl push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new — North as well as South." Hitherto republican campaigners were content to attack the slave power for its aggression in Kansas, and they feared to lay the axe to the root, THE FREEPORT DOCTRINE 501 lest conservatives, whigs and democrats, be driven off. They trembled when Lincoln assumed a bolder front, and one of them was heard to call his " house-di\'ided " announcement "a fool utterance." But Lincoln was in earnest, and he could not bring out the best in him unless he spoke in all sincerity. Douglas in the course of the debates made much of this advanced utterance, pronouncing it the froth of abolition ravings ; but his opponent stood by it manfully, explaining it in a spirit of far-sighted statesmanship which convinced more men than it repelled. It was probably the most convincing point of his argument. Lincoln saw in the joint debate an opportunity to make Douglas unacceptable to the South, and for that purpose asked him this question in the discussion at Freeport, "Can the people of a United States territory, in any lawful way, against How the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude J^^^^y^^ slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state Douglas. constitution?" The reply of Douglas became known as his Freeport doctrine. Slavery, he said, could not exist in a territory without local police regulations to protect it, and these could only be made by the local legislature, which would oppose slavery if the people who elected the legistators were opposed to it. "Hence, no matter what the decision of the supreme court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the people to make a slave territory or a free territory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska bill." This utterance saved its author in his senatorial contest. When Lincoln was urged to drive him from this position, he refused, saying he was looking for higher game than the senatorship. He foresaw better than the other republicans that it would kill Douglas in the South ; for it was the negation of all the slaveholders saw in the Dred Scott decision. The Freeport doctrine was known and discussed far and wide. It was read most attentively by the men of the South. From this time, Judge Douglas, trj- as you may, you will never again induce the Southern friends of slavery to think you their safe champion and defender ! And yet we must not too easily blame Douglas. He was in the difficult position of Calhoun in 1828 and Van Buren in 1844 ; he must give up the support of his own state or that of the section opposite to his own. He chose, as they, to preserve the DUemma^ good will of his state, realizing that here was his first element of safety. He was one of the ablest .\mericans then living, and he loved the union. He sought to preser\'e it by sa\ring the great democratic party as the last and strongest national bond then in exist- ence. He won his senatorship, but all he hoped for in behalf of union was lost. Lincoln also showed himself a great American. Was it not great to defeat the great Douglas? His powerful logic, which forced the 502 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850- 1860 issue dowTi to the narrow point of slavery or no slavery in the terri- tories, and his courage and sincerity, which cast aside the last remnant of temporizing and made it clear that the contest waged Se"^°J^ ' ^^^ nothing less than a war to put slavery in a way of ultimate extinction, — these were his weapons. No man before that day, or afterwards, wielded them more brilliantly. He had the advantage of his opponent in this, that he appealed to a more populous and homogeneous section, the rich and prosperous North, it was a North ready to be conx-inced that slavery should be reduced to a minority power, and his splendid strokes conNaiiced it. The congressional elections of 1858 showed how fast the tide ran for the republicans. Two years earlier the elections resulted in a house containing 131 democrats, 92 republicans, and 14 Republicans know-nothings. In 1858 they gave 109 republicans, 86 House.* democrats, 13 anti-Lecompton democrats, and 22 know- nothings. In the senate the democrats still held a ma- jority, ha\'ing in the congress then chosen 38 members to 25 repub- licans and 2 know-nothings. But they had lost one senator, and it was evident that the trend of events would soon array against them every free state senator. As the short session of 1858-1859 ran by with no other achievement than angry debate over a democratic proposition to buy Cuba, the Southerners came to realize how com- pletely they were defeated, and even their conservative leaders began to say in sober earnest that the election of a "black republican" president would justify secession. The John Brown Raid Before the succeeding congress assembled came the attempt of John Brown at Harper's Ferry. The farther we get away from the excitement of 1859 the more we are disposed to consider His Idea of tjjjs extraordinary man the victim of mental delusions. aEainst"'*^' He hated slavery fervently, and despised those who talked Slavery. of constitutional methods. "Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin," he said time and again to those who discussed the subject with him. In the confusion of the day no steps were taken against him for killing five men in Kansas in 1856, and early in 1S58 we find him in New York secretly planning another bloody deed. He attended an antislavery convention in Boston as a spectator, and turned away, saying : "These men are all talk; what we need is action — action!" Assembling some of the prominent leaders, he unfolded his own scheme. It was to collect a band of devoted armed followers, seize and fortify a position in the _. p. mountains of Virginia or Maryland, and from it make raids into the farming communities to liberate slaves. As he succeeded, he said, friends from the North would join him, his power JOHN BROWN'S DEATH 503 would grow, and soon he would make slavery insecure throughout Virginia. This was nothing less than to raise insurrection, but Brown and the academic leaders of abolitionism were so carried away by the wrongs done to enslaved negroes that they considered it only just retali- ation ; and money was promised to enable him to laimch his enter- prise. News of the project came to Seward and Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, and they forbade Brown to use the arms which had been collected to defend the free state men in Kansas. By this time suspicions were generally aroused, and to allay them he went to Kansas, where his name was a terror to the proslavery men. After lying idle a short time he made a raid into Missouri, rescued eleven slaves, and escaped with them through Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan to the soil of Canada. The country was aroused, and the incident served to draw attention from Brown's projected operations in Virginia. In the spring of 1859 he was back in New England, soliciting funds. Some of the most prominent abolitionists would have nothing to do with him, but others gave money, something more than $4500 first and last, and June 30 he arrived at Harper's Seizes Ferry, Virginia, thirty miles south of the Pennsylvania Femr!*^ ^ line. Leasing a farm, he spent the next ten weeks in cart- ing arms from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and in collecting the twenty-one followers with whom he proposed to put his dangerous scheme into execution. October 16, with eighteen of these men, he seized the United States arsenal in Harper's Ferry, captured thirty or more of the citizens, whom he held as prisoners, cut the telegraph wires, and for twenty-four hours held his own against the citizens and near-by mUitia companies which hurried to the scene. It was not until dawn of the i8th that he was captured by a detachment of marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee, assisted by Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart. John Brown himself, vnth four of his men were taken prisoners, seven escaped, and ten were slain, two of them being sons of the leader. The prisoners were sent to the county jail at Charlestown to await trial. A grand jury on October 25 found true bills, and after a fair trial Brown was sentenced to hang on December 2. Had John Brown been kDled in the eventful night when he was taken prisoner, the raid would have gone down to history as a foolish deed prompted by an unbalanced mind. But the firm and calm bearing he displayed at his trial and during the a^^soner month between convdction and execution touched the hearts of even his jailers. In the North he became a martyr to the antislavery party. On his trial and afterwards he declared that he came merely to rescue slaves, and the abolitionists could see no harm in such a purpose. As a matter of fact, he came with a thousand pikes to place in the hands of slaves and a large number of rifles and revolvers. It was not strictly true that he did merely what conductors 504 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 of the Underground RaOway did. But the antislavery portion of the North, in the excitement of the moment, did not stop to inquire into niceties. To them a man of firm heart had risked life to overthrow- slavery and was now facing a hangman's death without a tremor. December 2, 1859, the verdict of the court was executed, the pris- oner dying with fortitude. As the death group marched to the gallows it was surrounded by a strong body of militia, and fifteen hundred troops formed a hollow square around the scaffold. Many hints had been given that Brown's Northern friends had planned a rescue, and this display of force was precautionary. It elicited much derision at the time, but later researches have shown that some of the abolitionists were eager to attempt a rescue and were deterred only by their inability to raise the necessary funds. The influence of the incident in the North is hard to estimate. It undoubtedly aroused the antislavery party to a high pitch. John Brown ched for his con\'iction, and he did it willingly and ^'^P^'^*'"^* with dignity. But Northern conservatives did not change Brown. their views because of the rash attempt of an enthusiast who did not hesitate to take the sword to redress what he believed the wrongs of the negroes. It was to them a sufficient evi- dence of the impracticability of the scheme that it fomid no response among the slaves of Harper's Ferry and the surrounding region. The effects on the South, however, were very definite. Up to this time the ideas of the secessionists had not been taken very seriously by the southern voters. Much had been said about the intention of the abolitionists to come into the South, set the slaves against theirmasters, and forcibly overthrow the institution which was at the bottom of society ; but the union leaders there had always met it successfully by saying this was but the imagining of men unnecessarily alarmed. Here, however, was a concrete instance which the secessionists de- clared proved all they had predicted ; and the enthusiasm sho\vn in the North for John Brown seemed to the masses to confirm all that was said. Harper's Ferry gave a strong blow to union sentiment in the South. The Election of i860 We are now arrived at the culmination of the harsh struggle which followed the passage of the Kansas- Nebraska act. The disorders in Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and the John Brown s' eak°er "' ^^^'^ divided the people of the North and South beyond 1850. ' possible conciliation. The prelude of the great struggle came when the house elected in 1858 met in December, 1859, and sought to choose a speaker. John Sherman, of Ohio, had most of the republican votes, but lacked several of an election. A Missouri member introduced a resolution that no man should be speaker who had indorsed Helper's " Impending Crisis of the South." THE SOUTHERN ULTIMATUM SoS This book, by one from the small farmer class in North Carolina, was a severe indictment of salvery from the standpoint of the non-slave- holders of the South and called on them to support the republican party in order to liberate themselves from the leadership of the slaveholders. Its language was bitter, but its doctrine might well cause to tremble the men who held the upper hand in the slave ^ ," ^ r ■ 1 • 1 1 • ■ 1 1 Book. states ; for it was as plam as day that it the non-slave- holding Southerners were organized against slavery its doom was written. In 1859 the book was brought out as a campaign document with a recommendation by prominent republicans, among them Sherman and Grow, both candidates for speaker. The resolutions against " The Impending Crisis " precipitated a bitter discussion of the whole slavery situation, threats of secession were freely made, and more than once members were at the point of personal \aolence on the floor of the house. It was not until February i that the contest ended with the election of Pennington, a conservative republican of New Jersey. In these strenuous days the Southern members freely said that the election in the coming autumn of a "Black Republican" president would bring dissolution of the union, and the \'iolent state of feeling in the South indicated that the utterance was not an idle threat. Such was the spirit in which the country came to the election of i860. When this incident occurred the selection of delegates to the na- tional nominating conventions was imminent. Douglas was now at the head of the Northern democracy. His opposition to the aggressive program of the republicans won for him Douglas the hatred of the antislavery men. It pleased the demo- ^^jj,-* crats in the free states and it was thought it would win erners. the votes of many old whigs, supporters of Fillmore in 1856. But Douglas would not go as far as most Southerners wished. Their views were expressed in a series of resolutions introduced into the senate by Jefferson Davis, February 2, i860, demanding that congress guarantee slave property in the territories. As the day approached for the meeting of the convention it became clear that these resolutions were the Southern ultimatum, made as much to force the Northern democrats to show their position as to consolidate the South in support of secession, if secession should be deemed necessary. Douglas parried the thrust, and was told pointedly that he could not get the Southern vote unless he accepted the ultimatum. He dared not yield, for no Northern state would tolerate forcing slavery into a territory against the wishes of the inhabitants. The convention met at Charleston, South Carolina, April 23. The extreme Southerners, "fire-eaters" they were called by their opponents, held a caucus and indorsed the Davis ^^* ^^'^' resolutions, while the Northern delegates decided to stand Charleston. by Douglas. The platform committee reported in favor of the former. It was composed of one member from each state, and was 5o6 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 thus in Southern control. A minority report held to the Douglas position and accepted the Dred Scott decision. Yancey, the most polished orator among the Southerners, spoke for his section. Re- viewing the origin and progress of the great controversy, he came at last to describe the crisis before the country. Slavery, he said, was right : its existence was bound up with the prosperity of the South : and yet with the growth of the great Northwest the South had become a minority and was threatened with ruin through the pro- Speech ^ posed action of the republicans. The democrats of the North had not met the issue squarely. Accepting the proposition of the abolitionists that slavery was wrong, they had sought to palliate: they had asked the North to withhold their hands against the South because the wrong was not of Northern doing. This atti- tude Yancey regretted. Had the Northern democrats frankly declared that slavery was not a wrong, the abolitionists would long ago have been silenced, and harmony would now reign in the country. Yancey's speech was not a new note in the South. Many times he had said the same thing, only to have it rejected as the counsel of an extremist. But in i860 the Southern temper had The Con- changed. His bold words now received the tumultuous Disrupted, approval of his section, and the Northern democrats were made to see how grave was the situation. Pugh, of Ohio, a friend of Douglas, spoke in their behalf. He thanked God, he said, that a brave man had at last spoken and the full demands of slaveholders were made known ; but the ultimatum was an impossibility, and he declared with the utmost plainness that it would not be accepted. Next, the convention took up the platform.' By a vote of 165 to 138 the Douglas position was adopted, the first time in years that the plea of the South on this question had been ignored in a democratic convention. Then rose the chairman of the Alabama delegation with a serious and fixed countenance. According to the mstruction of the party in his state, he said, Alabama must withdraw from the convention. As he and his colleagues walked out they were followed by the delegates from seven other States, — South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Georgia. North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Ken- tucky, and Maryland were less radical than the Gulf states, and remained with the convention, although their delegates sympathized in the main with those who withdrew. After balloting three days the diminished Charleston convention could not get a two-thirds majority for any candidate, and adjourned, to meet again in Baltimore, June 18. When it reassembled Tickets ^^ nominated Douglas for president and Herschel V. John- son, of Georgia, for vice-president. The seceders at Charleston effected an organization, adopted the Southern platform, and adjourned to meet in Richmond. Virginia, on June 10. On SEWARD AND THE NOMINATION 507 that day they again adjourned, this time to Baltimore, June 28, where they finally named J. C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, for president and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for vice-president. Thus came to inglorious failure the attempt, inaugurated by Clay in 1850 and renewed and fought for by Douglas from 1854 to i860, to remove slavery from national politics. Let us now turn to the republicans. After the defeat of Fremont in 1856 Seward was generally accepted as the leader of his party, and few doubted that he would be its candidate for president in i860. Opposition existed at isolated points, but it was p^^^,,^ expected that he would be able to overcome it. The most patent danger was in New York, where Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, was at the head of a devoted band of abolitionists who considered him untrustworthy. Shrewd observers thought Greeley's chief grievance was that he was not consulted in the affairs of the party, and they were not surprised when in the spring of 1859 Seward dined with him at the Astor House, and the pajiers announced that a reconciliation had taken place. Simon Cameron, who controlled the party in Pennsylvania, was also in opposition, but Seward made a trip to Philadelphia, and the report went out that he had conciliated Cameron also. Seward himself thought he had now arranged things to his satisfaction, and seized the opportunity to make a journey to the Holy Land. While he was gone occurred the John Browm raid and the subsequent wrangle over the election of speaker ; and on every hand Seward was proclaimed as the man who had planted the seed from which came the plant of insurrection. L. Q. C. Lamar e.xpressed the Southern view in addressing the republicans of the house in these words: "I was on the floor of the senate when your great leader, William H. Seward, announced that startling program of antislavery senti- ment and action against the South, . . . and. Sir, in his e.xultation he exclaimed — for I heard him myself — that he hoped to see the day when there would not be the footprint of a single slave upon this con- tinent. And when he uttered this atrocious sentiment, his form seemed to dilate, his pale, thin face, furrowed by the lines of thought and evil passion, kindled with malignant triumph, and his eye glowed and glared upon Southern senators as though the fires of hell were burn- ing in his heart ! " In the midst of this commotion Seward returned. In 1850, in opposing Clay's compromise, he had declared that "a higher law" than the constitution demanded the extinction of slavery ; and in 1858 he had said in a speech long remembered that the North was engaged in an "irrepressible conflict " which must make the na- tion all slave or all free. These two utterances made him seem to the South the very head of all their woes, and he sought to lessen their fears and reassure moderate Northerners in a mild speech which he delivered February 29. The compromising disposition it betokened was to reappear many times in his career. So8 EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 There were several other candidates, Abraham Lincoln, whom the Illinois convention indorsed on May 9, i860, Bates, of Missouri, Cameron, of Pennsylvania, no longer in accord with Sew- Candidates. ^'^^' ^'^"^ seeking his own advantage in the prospect of making a combination with another candidate, and three Ohioans, Wade, Chase, and McLean, no one of whom was likely to be selected. Seward was believed to be stronger than any of these men, but all of them opposed him strongly and were willing to combine to defeat his nomination. Lincoln, whom events were soon to make so famous, had, before the convention met on May 16, the support of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and a few other delegates, but he was little known east of the Alleghanies. Harper's Weekly was the only New York journal which considered him a possibility, and it placed his name last in a list of eleven. Making a platform occupied the first and second days of the con- vention, and nominations were set for the third. Early indications .. pointed to Seward's success, and his opponents made prep- Nominated, orations for a rapid concentration on Lincoln, whom they found to be the most feasible candidate. Cabinet posi- tions seem to have been promised to the other candidates in order to secure this cooperation, although Lincoln, who was not present, knew nothing of the offers. On the first ballot the vote was 1235 for Sew- ard, 102 for Lincoln, 50^ for Cameron, 49 for Chase, 48 for Bates, and 43 for other men. Two hundred and thirty-three were necessary for a choice. On the second ballot Lincoln gained 79 and Seward 11. On the third, the Illinois candidate received 235^, and was nominated. Seward was defeated partly because it was thought unadvisable to nominate a man who had so many enemies, and partly because of the personal hostility of men who disliked him. Greeley, whose recon- cDiation was short-lived, was present, and worked hard against him. When Lincoln made up his cabinet in the succeeding March, four of the si.x members were men who had been candidates before the Chicago convention. Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, was nominated for the vice- presidency. May 9 all that was left of the whig and know-nothing parties as- sembled in convention and nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, for president and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for vice- Everett, president. They called themselves the constitutional union party, and appealed to those who decried party ran- cor and sectionalism to help them save the country. No one thought either Douglas, Breckinridge, or Bell could carry the coimtry. The best their followers could hope for was to throw the election into the house.' Everywhere they attacked the Elected. republicans and declared that Lincoln's election meant the disruption of the union. • This argument the repub- "icans derided. It was, said Lowell, "the old Mumbo- Jumbo" con- LINCOLN ELECTED 500 jured up to frighten old women and stock speculators. Seward, who canvassed actively in behalf of his successful rival, said: "I do not doubt but that these Southern statesmen and politicians think they are going to dissolve the union, but I think they are going to do no such Mng." This assurance, reiterated in many forms, allayed the fears of the mass of voters in the free states, so that they were nowise prepared for the events the succeeding winter witnessed. In October PcnnsA'lvania and Indiana elected republican governors, premonitions of the result in November, when Lincoln came triumphantly through with every elector from the free states except three of New Jersey's seven. He had in all 180 votes to 72 for Breckinridge, 39 for Bell, and 12 for Douglas. The popular vote was Lincoln 1,857,610, Douglas 1,291,574, Breckinridge 850,082, and Bell 646,124. Lincoln, therefore, received 930,170 votes less than his combined opponents. In each house of congress, also, the republicans were in a minority against the combined opposition. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The most satisfactory general work on the period embraced in this chapter is Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 18 jo, vols. I and II (1892). Two e-xcellent books are : Smith, Parties and Slavery (igo6), and Chadwick, Causes of the Civil War (1906), both in Hart, editor, The Ameriean yatioii. They contain good bibliographies. Von Hoist, Constitutional History of the United States, 8 vols, (trans. 1890), ..hould not be neglected. It shows much research and keen analysis, but is unsympathetic. Schouler, History of the United States, 6 vols. (18S0-1S94), is readable and accmate. Kite, The Presidential Campaign of 1S60 (191 1), is verj' complete, and Brown, The Lower South (1902), is verj' suggestive. Burgess, The Middle Period (1897), and The Civil War and Reeonstruetion, 2 vols. (1901), are valuable, but replete with detail. The biographies and works of leading men are; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, a History, 10 vols. (1890) ; Ibid., Complete Works of Lincoln, 2 vols. (1904) ; Tarbell, Life of Abraham Lincoln, 2 vols. (ed. 1900); Bancroft, Life of Seward, 2 vols, (igoo) ; Baker, editor, Works of William H. Seward, 5 vols. (1853-1884); Moore, editor. Works of James Buchanan, 12 vols. (1908-1911); Vierce, Memoir of Charles Sumner, 4 vols. (1877); Works of Charles Sumner, 15 vols. (1S70-1883) ; Edward Everett, Orations and Speeches, 4 vols. (1853-1868) ; Johnson, Stephen A. Douglas (1908); Hart, Salmon Portland Chase (1899); Villard, John Brown, a Biography (1910) ; Sanborn, Life of John Brown (1891); Dodd, Jejferson Davis (1907) ; bu Boise, Life and Times of Yancey (1892) ; Johnston and Brown, Life of A. H. Stephens (1878) ; Trent, William Gilmore Simms (1892) ; and Curtis, James Buchanan, 2 vols. (1883). For other biographies sec Smhh, Parties and Slavery, pp. 309-314, and Chadwick, Causes of the Civil War. [>p. 347-351. The original sources are to be found chiefly in public documents, of which the most important are : The Congressional Globe, House and Senate Journals, Execu- tive and Miscellaneous Documents, and Reports of Committees. The laws are to be found in The Statutes at Large of the United States, and much valuable information is in Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols. (1897-1899). On Kansas and the matter pertaining to it, see : Ray, Repeal of the Missouri Compromise (1909), gives prominence to Atchison's influence in the matter; DLxon, True History of the Missouri Compromise, 1899, accepts Douglas's argu- ments, but shows that he was not the author of the Dixon amendment ; Charles Robinson, The Kansas Conjlict (1892, 1898), by a leading actor on the free state side; Blackmar, Life of Charles Robinson (1902), sane and reliable ^^ Spring. Kansai 5IO EVENTS LEADING TO THE CIVIL WAR, 1850-1860 (1885), fair to both sides, written by a participant; Ihid.. Career of a Kansas Po!i- tician (Am. Hist. Kevirw, iSgS) ; Fleming, The Buford Expedition to Kansas (Ibid., 1900) ; Villard, John Brown, a Biography (1910). See also the "Howard Report," 34 Cong, ist ses. Rept. No. 200. The attempt 10 adopt the Lecompton Constitu- tion occasioned an investigation by a house committee. Its report (H. Ex. Docs., 36 Cong, ist ses. No. 64S, the "Covode Report") brought out much evidence of misdoing, presented in a very partisan manner. For party history see : Theodore C. Smith, The Liberty and Free Soil Parlies in the Northwest (1897) ; Curtis, The RepubU-can Party, 2 vols. (1904) ; Fite, Presi- dential Eiedion of i860 (191 1) ; Macj', Political Parlies, 1846-1860 (1900) ; Ibid., Party Organization and Party Machinery (1904). Rhodes, History of the United States, 7 vols. (1892-1906), contains much party historj- carefully prepared from original sources. See also the biographies of leading men, especially Lincoln, Douglas, Buchanan, Jefferson Davis, and Seward. On the Dred Scott decision see ; U. S. Supreme Court Reports 19 Howard, (1S57), the official decision; it was widely reprinted at the time; Hurd, Laxo of Freedom and Bondage, 2 vols. (1858-1862), reviews with much learning the legal status of slavery; Tyler, Memoir of Taney (revised ed., 1S72); Biddle, Constitu- tional Development as Influenced by Taney (in Rogers, Constitutional History as Seen in the Development of Law, 1889) ; Curtis, Constitutional History of the United States, 2 vols. (1896) ; and Corwin, The Dred Scott Decision in tlie Light of Con- temporary Legal Doctrines (Am. Hist. Review, 1911). On the John Brown Raid much has been written, but most of it is partisan. A full bibliography is in Villard, John Brown, A Biography (1910), the best of Brown's biographies. See also The Report of the Senate Committee to Investigate tlie Late Invasion (the "Mason Report"), 36 Cong, ist ses. Rept. Com. No. 27S. For Independent Reading Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, 2 vols. (1873, 18S1) ; Trent, Southern States- men of the Old Regime (1897); James Freeman Clarke, Antislavery Days (1883) ; Davis, Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians (18S9); Conwaj-, Auto- biography, 2 vols. (1904); Abbott, Henry Ward Bcccher (1903); Morse, .ibraham Lincoln, 2 vols. (1893); Tarbell, Life of Lincoln, 2 vols. (ed. 1900). CHAPTER XXIV THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR War or Peace ? Although the Gulf states furnished the ablest leaders of the South in the critical situation of i860, South Carolina, the home of Calhoun and nullification, was fully abreast with the secession movement. In this respect she was ahead of Virginia, 5°"'?. which was not a cotton state, and whose ancient Southern secedes, leadership was now little more than a name. The Carolina legislature still elected presidential electors, and was in session when the telegraph flashed the news that Lincoln was to be president. It im- mediately called a convention to consider the state's relation to the union. Thus it happened that a convention at Columbia on December 20, i860, declared in solemn manner the dissolution of "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other states, under the name of the 'United States of America.'" Now appeared in all other Southern states two parties, secessionists, mainly Breckenridge democrats, and union men. The former were the stronger in the Gulf states, where the rank prosperity of the preceding half century had produced a vehement Z^J*® *^"^ and overconfident ci\ilization. In these states the union poilow. had not the same force as in the northern tier of Southern states, and it was natural that the first victories of secession should be won here. The arguments that prevailed were the e\ident danger to sla^'ery from a republican administration and the assertion that the South could make better terms out of the union than in it. It cannot be doubted, however, that most of the secessionists hoped for a perma- nent separation, thinking this the only safe way of prcser\'ing Southern institutions. By February 4 secession was declared in six states. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, and on that day a convention at Montgomery, Alabama, established a provisional constitution for "The Confederate States of America," chose Jefferson Davis its president and J^^g^^?°°' Alexander H. Stephens its \ice-president, and invated the states of other slave states to join it. Te.xas at this time had America." submitted secession to the people, who ratified it on the 23d. With these seven states in repudiation of the union the move- ment for secession halted for a time. 511 SI2 THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR Meanwhile, all eyes turned to President Buchanan, a state rights man, a democrat, and long in declared sympathy with the South. Three members of his cabinet, Cass, Black, and Holt, urged At«tlX"^ him to send troops to hold the forts in the South. Three others, Cobb, Thompson, and Floyd, all Southerners, be- lieverl in secession as a right and exercised a strong influence o\-er the president. They told him, and it was probabh- true, that to reenforce the Southern fortswould alarm the South and drive the ether Southern states into seces.sion. For a time they had their way, with the result that Cass resigned from the cabinet. The president's annual message showed that he was at heart with the Southerners. It argued against the right of secession, declared that he would act strictly on the defensive, and made it clear that the aggression of the South would not be disturbed as long as the e?visting administration was in office. At the same time the New York Tribune, and abolitionists generally, were asserting plainly that the North could not conquer the South and that the South, if it so wished, should be allowed to "depart in peace." From this situation the secessionists took much comfort. It seemed that the stars were for them. These bright hopes dissolved at last before the problem of the dis- posal of the eight forts in the seceding states. Six of them were with- . out garrisons, and were easily occupied by the secessionists. South'" * "^^^ other two were Pickens, at Pensacola, and Sumter, at Charleston. In Sumter was Major Anderson with 84 men all told, and he showed such a spirited desire to protect the place that the sympathy of the North was aroused for the first time in many weeks of irresolution and delay. South Carolina, however, was arm- ing her citizens, and during the rest of Buchanan's administration each side lay on its arms, neither wishing to strike the blow which would precipitate war. One half-hearted attempt was made to reenforce Major Anderson. January 5, 1861, the Star of the West, a merchant vessel, sailed from New York with supplies and 204 men and officers for "^f^th^w' t Sumter. Although efforts at secrecy were made, her de- parture was known at once in Charleston, and she was recei\'ed on her arrival with a fire by the confederate batteries at the harbor entrance. Anderson could have silenced the batteries from Sumter, but he had not been informed of her departure, and hesi- tated to open fire. The result was that after coming within a mile and a half of the fort without receiving aid from that quarter she turned back to New York. This effort having failed, the policy of in- action went on until the coming of the new administration. Mean- while, Fort Pickens, with a garrison of 48 men, remained in federal hands. The anxiety to avoid an overt act of force was largely due to a desire that a compromise should be prepared by which the South would EFFORTS FOR A COMPROMISE 513 consent to abkle in the union. This hope was reflected in congress, which created a senate committee to report a i:)Ian of compromise. Fi\-e of the thirteen members were republicans, two were from the cotton states, three were from border slave ^*f°'''^ t° states, and three w-ere Northern democrats. They were peace. among the best men in public life, were desirous of peace, and showed their seriousness by agreeing in the beginning that they would accept no scheme which a majority of the republican members w-ould not support. ]\Iany resolutions were referred to them, the most notable being a set known as "the Crittenden Compromise." It suggested a constitutional amendment e.xcluding sla\'ery from all territory north of the parallel 36° 30', and establishing it with federal protection in all territory south of that line. Against this proposition the republicans were a unit. It was their principle, and they said so frankly, to agree to nothing which would admit slavery into another territory. For this reason the proposition failed. The senators from the cotton states voted against it as a matter of form, but it is known they would have accepted it if their republican colleagues had done the same. Other suggestions of compromise were made, but none came as near acceptance as Crittenden's. Here, as in the preceding political campaign, the antislavery and the proslavery forces had come to the irreconcilable stage of the "irrepressible conflict," and the committee of thirteen could only report on December 28 its inability to come to an agree- ment. We slaall see later what part Lincoln took in bringing the re^ publican committeemen to their determination to yield nothing. But Crittenden did not despair. He was the successor of Clay, as a Kentucky senator, and he worked hard for compromise. January 3, 1 861, he asked the senate to order the sense of the people to be taken on the resolutions which had been rejected in com- Cnttenden mittee, and Douglas supported him in a masterly speech. "°^ ^^ ^^^ Could the vote have been taken, many republicans would people, undoubtedly have voted for it. All the Northern demo- crats and the Bell and E\'erett men would have gone the same way, so that it would have carried the North. In all the slave states which had not seceded the result must have been the same ; and before this over- whelming approval the republicans in congress must have given way. But the proposal never came to a vote in the senate. The republican senators delayed its consideration so long that the cotton states se- ceded, and then it was not thought worth while to press the matter further. That the compromise, if adopted, would have brought har- mony temporarily seems true, but it is doubtful if it would have solved the problem permanently. Lincoln opposed it on the ground that it would have been followed by attempts on the part of the South to ac- quire territory in Cuba and Me.xico, and that the old threats of dis- union would have recurred if the North had objected to such expansion of the proslavery interest. SU THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR One other effort at compromise was to be made. February 4, at the call of Virginia, delegates from 22 states assembled in Washington to hold a peace convention. Ex-president Tyler, a Vir- Convention. S^^^^ delegate, presided, and the debates were secret. Threshing over the old straw, they at last advised a con- stitutional amendment somewhat less favorable to the South than Crittenden's. It was opposed by Virginia and other Southern slates. As no one thought it would either satisfy the slave states still in the union or conciliate those which had seceded, the recommendations came to inglorious defeat in the senate. Thus ended the period of hesitation and doubt between the election and the inauguration of Lincoln. Buchanan, indecisive by nature, brought up to believe in the theory of state rights, bound to the South by long years of political and personal association, and unwilling to shoulder the responsibilities of a situation which his enemies had created, came at last to the end of his term without an actual resort to force. His successor, whose elec- tion had precipitated the crisis, must decide what the future would bring forth. Lincoln and Secession The actuality of secession alarmed the business interests and con- servative men of the North ; and many republicans, who flouted the threat of secession in the [jrecedhig November, now felt plysmoT^ they had gone too far. Such persons turned to Seward, whom they considered the real republican leader. They thought Lincoln inexperienced, and were pleased when it was said that Seward would be secretary of state. Thus, powerful influences worked to make the senator from New York think that he alone could save the country. He was not an idealist, and he seems to have concluded that he must invent some plan by which the South would be conciliated and the seceding states brought back. But Lincoln had a firm conviction about the situation. He would not accept the Crittenden compromise or retreat from any position occupied during the campaign. To do so, he said, would Firmness. ^^ ^^ abandonment of principle, would not satisfy the slave power, and would destroy the republican party. He gave no intimation of yielding on the main question, the exclusion of slavery in the territories ; but he said clearly that he woifld not inter- fere with it in the states in which it existed. This did not satisfy the proslavery men. They believed that once the free states gained as- cendency in the senate progressive restrictions of slavery would follow. They knew, also, that at no moment could secession be so well carried in the South as at the present, when the popular terror at a republican administration was greater than it would ever be again. If a Southern confederacy was to be attempted, now was the best time to launch it. LINCOLN AND FORT SUMTER 515 All the country, North as well as South, awaited anxiously the ad- vent of March 4. Would the inaugural address announce conciliation or would it defy secession ? To those who heard it de- livered it seemed to do neither. It began with an assur- J^^ ance that slavery in the South was safe, and that fugitive Address, slaves ought to be restored to their masters, and it asserted that the union was perpetual and secession impossible. There was, also, much benevolent argument against the wisdom of secession. Lin- coln's strongest trait, perhaps, was his loving-kindness, and he seems to have meant to envelop his opponents in it so that he might win back. to the union all who were not past the reach of reason. As to the forts and customhouses he said they must be held by the government, but he promised he would not needlessly irritate the Southern people by sending strangers into their communities to fill the various federal offices. This tone of remonstrance and evident reluctance to use force was interpreted by the secessionist as a sign of weak- ness. March 5 Lincoln was shown a letter from Major Anderson, in Fort Sumter, saying that his provisions would be exhausted in a few weeks and that the confederate works around Sumter were so strong that 20,000 men would be required to maintain the g°^j post. Two of the cabinet wished to hold and strengthen the place, Blair unconditionally and Chase if it could be done without civil war. The others were for withdrawal, Seward taking the lead. He would avoid war, leave the seceding states to think over their posi- tion, and use the slave states still in the union as an influence to bring the wanderers back. Lincoln withheld his decision, but sent confiden- tial messengers to South Carolina, who reported that there was no union sentiment in the state worth speaking about. Anderson himself favored evacuation, and General Scott, head of the army, held the same view. Meanwhile, three agents of the confederate government were in Washington to negotiate for the recognition of independence, the sur- render of the forts, and an adjustment of monetary losses to the federal government through the surrender of federal Confeder- property in the South. Opinions were exchanged between ^*\raT'^ them and Seward, who saw them at least once. With his uigton. policy of conciliation in view he suggested they delay an attack on Sumter, and they agreed on condition that the existing status in Charleston be not disturbed. They were not officially received, but on being assured through a third party that Sumter would be evacu- ated, they decided to remain in Washington. Their withdrawal would have been followed by an attack on Sumter. They waited until the end of March, and when at that time they saw no evidences of evacua- tion, they began to be uneasy. Rumors reached them of an expedition to succor the forts. To their remonstrances Seward said, through an Si6 THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR intermediary, "Faith as to Sumter fully kept; wait and see." Next day, April 8, ships for the relief of Sumter began their journey from New York and the confederate commissioners broke off their negotia- tions. Seward had not intentionally deceived the confederates. All he did was in pursuance of his policy of delay. His assurances as to Sumter were given on his own responsibility. They failed be- Lincoln cause at this time Lincoln had come to a decision that the Seward. authority of the union must be asserted at all hazards. It was he who gave the order to succor the fort, overriding Seward's scheming and teaching him and the country that Lincoln was a real president. Had the secretary had his way a shifty policy would have been followed, the confederacy would have been established, prob- ably beyond the possibility of overthrow, and the union sentiment of the North would have been so dissipated that war would have become an impossibility. In this sense the civil war was Lincoln's war, and the preser\'ation of the union was Lincoln's act. When the confederate president knew that provisions were coming to Sumter he held a long and anxious cabinet meeting. To fire on Sumter would precipitate war and unite the North in defense of union. The cooler advisers felt that the hope of secession lay in avoiding war. Lincoln said he would only land supplies and not men if the fort was not attacked. The more hot-headed advisers thought that the pos- session of a federal fort in the limits of the newly established confeder- acy was not to be tolerated. This view prevailed, and the order was given to reduce the works. More than 5000 troops lay in '^n Sum^ef ^^^ Strong batteries around the place waiting for the order to fire. Anderson offered to surrender in three days if not provisioned or overruled by his government. From the confederate standpoint the offer should ha\'e been accepted, but rash counsels prevaOed, and just before dawn on April 12 a military mortar gave the signal for the attack. The bombardment which followed lasted 34 hours, at the end of which time Anderson surrendered and marched out with the honors of war. Not a man on either side was killed, but the fort was badly wrecked from a fire which destroyed the barracks and exploded some of the magazines. The confederates expressed their admiration for the heroic defenders in loud cheers ; and Anderson saluted his flag with fifty guns before he transferred his men to the relief ships which had arrived during the bombardment but were unable to reach Sumter. About this time Fort Pickens was reenforced. and it was held throughout the war. Prepar.ations for War Firing on the flag dispelled the last doubts of the North. Stephen A. Douglas issued an appeal for his friends to rally to the defense of THE BORDER STATES 517 the union. Bell and Everett wliigs were equally loyal, and within a month the whole North was holding mass meetings in which thousands of speakers aroused the men to take up arms. April 1 5 Lin- coln called for 75,000 volunteers, and three weeks later for ^'^f^ ^ 42,000 more. He also ordered the enlistment of 23,000 ad- Arms, ditional regularsand the increaseof the navyby i8,oco men. To these demands the response was more than adequate, and by July i, he had an available force of 310,000. April 19 he declared the south- ern ports blockaded. The ships of the navy were widely dispersed by direction of Buchanan's secretary of the navy, Bio^ijaje l)Ut orders were sent to hasten their return, and every effort was made to purchase and arm other ships to make the blockade effective. In this way, though with much confusion, the machinery of government was set going by the master hand in the great process of war. In the South, meanwhile, was a similar state of acti\'ity. President Jefferson Davis was a West Point graduate ; he had rendered distin- guished ser\'ice in the Mexican war, and no one doubted his energy and earnestness. He called for 100,000 volunteers, the^South and hastened the preparations for war. The attack on Sumter showed the slave states still in the union that they must fight for or against the confederacy, and four of them cjuickly joined the seven which had already seceded. They were : Arkansas, May 4 ; Virginia, May 17 ; North Carolina, May 20 ; and Tennessee, June 24. Strong Southern feeling existed in Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and for a long time they hung in the balance, st^^tes""^ ^^ while Lincoln used his utmost tact to save them for the union. If the war were fought to destroy sla\'ery, they would go with the South, but if slavery were not threatened, they would not secede. Lincoln was very tactful by nature, and succeeded in calming the appre- hensions of the border state slaveholders. Time worked in his behalf ; for as the seriousness of the struggle became apparent, secession became less popular in these states. Thus the crisis passed peaceably in Ken- tucky and Maryland. But Missouri was temporarily in convulsions. Jackson, the secessionist governor, refused to furnish troops at the call of the president and made preparations to carry the state over to the side of the South. Friends of the union, however, led ... by F. P. Blair, Jr., raised four regiments, which were ac- cepted by the federal authorities and placed under the command of General Lyon. Then followed four months of commotion, during wlijch the people flocked to Lyon's standard and enabled him to seize the city of St. Louis and call a state convention which declared against secession and deposed the governor. Thus the danger passed in the third of the border states ; but from each many volunteers joined the confederate armies. At Gettysburg an important part of the field was contested between two bodies of Maryland troops, one in blue and the other in gray. 5i8 THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR Let us consider for a moment the relative strength of the two sides in the war about to begin. In population the North was greatly superior. Her 22,000,000 inhabitants confronted 9,000,000 Relative Jq ii^q South, 3,500,000 of whom were blacks. But the w'^^.kvI.? blacks were a factor in the war, although they did not Worm and . , , , • m, • , 1 South. count man for man with the whites. They remained on the farms and produced the supplies for the army. Counting two of them as worth one while man in their contribution to the struggle, the numerical force of the North was to that of the South as twenty-two to seven. The South realized this inferiority in population, but expected to overcome it by what she considered the superior fight- ing ability of her soldiers. An arithmetic published in the South during the war stated the problems in terms like these: "If one con- federate soldier can whip seven federal soldiers, how many federal soldiers can nine confederate soldiers whij)?" In the beginning of the war the Southerners seemed to fight better than their opponents. They were used to outdoor life, they were fighting on their own soil, resisting what they considered F^hu'* an "invasion," and they were well acquainted with the Ability. Country in which they operated. Moreover, they drew the minor officers from the planter class, men accustomed to command and trained to exercise influence over their poorer neigh- bors, who now made up the privates. Thus the Southern volunteers took up the soldier's life more readily than their opponents, and the Southern army was more quickly drilled into veterans. The union troops awoke slowly to their task ; it took a long time to develop effi- cient lower officers, but at last all was achieved, and then it was not possible to discover any notable difference in the fighting ability of the two armies, the capacity of the generals and the numbers being equal. In material resources the North had a great advantage. Her people had all the facilities for manufacturing arms, ammunition, com- . fortable clothing, and the other necessary supplies. Be- Resources sides this, the markets of the world remained open to her during the struggle. The South had no manufactures and very few trained mechanics, her supplies were cut off by the blockade, and, spite of strenuous efforts to make what was needed, her troops suffered greatly through lack of clothing, medicines, and the munitions of war. In the beginning she derived much benefit from arms taken in the forts she seized, and in Harj^er's Ferry; but this, as Rhodes points out, only gave her about the part of the national supply of arms which she felt rightfully belonged to her as a part of the old government. The Bull Run Campaign July 4 Congress met in extra session. Lincoln reported what had been done to meet the emergency and asked for appro\^al. The "ON TO RICHMOND" 519 response was all he desired. He was authorized to raise the army to 500,000 men, to borrow $200,000,000, and to issue $50,000,000 in treasury notes. The tariff was raised as much as it was thought the industry of the country would stand, and other The Extra taxes were levied. Four months earlier the country- ^03^'°°°* seemed to prefer disunion to war, but through the tactful jujy ^. measures of the president all doubts were now dispelled, and a war policy was approved in the house with only five dissenting votes. By this time 30,000 men under General McDowell were assembled south of Alexandria, while 22,000 more under General Patterson were at Martinsburg,in the northern end of the Shenandoah valley. Opposing each force was a confederate army. One of *° *'*' 23,000 under Beauregard was at Manassas, and another of Richmond 9000 under Joseph E. Johnston was at Winchester, in the valley. The whole North rang with a demand for an advance on Richmond, since the secession of Virginia the confederate capital, and Lincoln ordered McDowell to make such a movement. He also ordered Patterson to keep Johnston engaged so that the troops of the latter should not join Beauregard at the critical movement. July 18 the armies of McDowell and Beauregard came into proximity with one another some miles northwest of Manassas. The confederates were drawn up behind Bull Run, their left holding the stone bridge by which the road from Alexandria crossed the stream and their right extending toward Manassas. Beauregard appealed to his govern- ment for reenforcements, and Johnston was ordered to join him. Obey- ing instantly, he moved toward Patterson to deceive him, which proved an easy task ; for that officer most unaccount- !^°^'p°° °' ably moved his whole army northward until it was 22 miles federates, from Winchester. Johnston then turned backward, and at noon, July 20, joined Beauregard with^6ooo men, leaving most of the rest of his army, 2300, to approach as fast as they could. Meanwhile, McDowell made an excellent plan of battle. All his force was in position on July 20, and the attack was fixed for the next morning. While the main army rested on Bull Run in readiness to cross. Hunter's division was ordered up the McDowell s stream to turn the enemy's left. The movement was exe- Attack, cuted very successfully. At ten o'clock, while Beauregard expected an advance across the stream. Hunter's regiments suddenly struck his right, forced it back with hard fighting until the fords and the stone bridge were uncovered, and by noon the whole union army, pouring across the stream, threw itself on the confederates, who by much exertion were brought into line to hold a small plateau just east of the bridge, known as the Henry plateau. At P^^t?*^^ °* this point the battle raged fiercely. Thomas J. Jackson, pjateau"^ commanding a confederate brigade, held it so firmly that General Bee, another confederate, exclaimed: ''Look at Jackson! S20 THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR There he stands like a stonewall!" and thus originated the name "Stonewall Jackson." But Jackson's firmness was overcome; his men were driven from the plateau by the federals, whom McDowell brought up with great rapidity. The confederates rallied and retook the place, but were themselves driven off by their opponents. At three o'clock it seemed they would not return, and McDowell believed the field was his. At this moment Kirby Smith with a large force of fresh confederate troops arrived, joined their repulsed Arrival of brethren, and reopened the battle. It was the remnant of Smith Johnston's valley army, 2300 strong, who had hastened to the field, guided by the firing of cannon. Through the tired union ranks, exhausted by five hours of fighting on a hot summer day, ran the murmur, "Johnston's army has come," and panic was created. Seasoned troops would have held the ground or retreated in order. The new levies under McDowell did neither. They quickly fell back to the stone bridge — crossed it, and at nightfall were retreating in a confused mass to Washington. No efforts of the officers , *gj Mob " '^'^'^^'^ s'-'^y them, and before morning the routed army was, as McDowell said, "a confused mob, utterly demoralized." The battle was well planned and well fought until three o'clock, but the untrained soldiers could not stand the shock of a repulse. Their terror was unfounded ; for the confederates, themselves exhausted and off their guard, did not pursue. Had they followed promptly, they might have occupied the capital with little resistance. The union loss was 1584 killed and wounded and 13 1 2 captured ; the con- federates lost 1982 killed, wounded, and missing. The defeat at Bull Run nerved the North to renewed efforts ; it gave the South greater confidence in ultimate success. Both sides realized the need of long and patient drill in order to make soldiers out of the volun- teers. Meantime important developments occurred in the western counties of Virginia. The people of this region were generally non-slaveholders. For a long time they had been at odds with the people east The West- of the mountains, claiming that the latter, led by the slave- tie" 0°""" holders, ruled the state, built railroads, and filled the offices Virginia. i" the interest of the East. The Westerners opposed seces- sion and began to denounce it in mass meetings as soon as the convention at Richmond declared for the confederacy. Soon after hostilities began, they were in arms for the union, and, joining with a ederal army under McClellan, drove out in a series of small battles the forces which the confederates sent to hold this region. Then was f'arried through a movement for a new state. The federal constitu- 'on provides that a state shall not be di\aded without its consent, and vit" ^'.his in view a convention at Wheeling, May 13, representing 26 coj';ies, declared that by secession all the Virginia officials had for- feited their offices ; and it called on the people to select a convention to THE GOVERNMENT AT ALEXANDRIA" 521 reestablish a lawful government. The result was that June 11, i86i, delegates from 40 counties met in convention, took the oath of loyalty to the union, declared themselves the convention of " re- stored Virginia," and having purged the state of treason v'rrinia" ordered an election of a governor and other officials over all Virginia. Accordingly, F. H. Peirpoint was chosen governor, and a newly elected legislature filled the places vacant by the withdrawal of the recent senators. The appointees were given seats in the senate. August 6 the convention reassembled to take up the question of a new state. It was ordered that a popular vote be taken on the sub- ject, with the result that the proposition prevailed by a vote of 18,408 to 781. Then a constitution was framed jiovemeiTt for the proposed "State of West Virginia," the 39 west- ern counties. It said nothing about slavery, but in the election the people expressed in an unofficial vote an overwhelming opinion against the institution, and thenceforth they were assured of the support of congress. The next thing was to get the consent of Virginia. To that end Peirpoint's "restored" legislature met, and went through the form of sanctioning the division of the "Old Dominion." Then the appli- cation went to congress, which duly declared that Virginia having consented to the act of division, the state of West Virginia was ad- mitted to the union. The act of admission was approved by Lincoln, December 31, 1861. The proceedings were most irregular, but it was a time when the rules of peace were not strictly considered. The people of Virginia have ever considered the rending of their common- wealth an unconstitutional and malevolent action. By cutting off from his government the western counties, Peirpoint's "restored" Virginia was limited to the counties around Ale.xandria, Fortress Monroe, and Norfolk — places all held l)y union arms. Over these he kept up the formality of an adminis- T**® A^^''*"- tration untO the end of the war, living safely within the ernmeut. union lines at Alexandria. His "state" was a farce, but Lincoln wished it kept alive in the hope that it would furnish the nucleus for reconstructing Virginia when her resistance should have been overcome (see page 601). O Relations with Gre.\t Britain- From the beginning Europe took much interest in the war. As England was most intimately related with the contestants, France and other European powers let it be known they would follow her lead. Her ruling classes, chiefly the landed f^^^^^^^^ gentry, merchants, and manufacturers, felt much friend- liness for the South, some of them because the South was supposed to be aristocratic, and others because the South, having no factories of her own, was expected to purchase freely of England. The confederates Si-' THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR understood this feeling and hoped for much from it. They, also, thought that since the English cotton factories depended on them for raw material, English ships would come to America, break the Southern blockade, and establish an outlet for the great Southern staple as well as an inlet for the supplies which were so much needed. To prevent this became the chief item of the foreign policy of Lincoln's govern- ment ; and for this purpose he discovered a most excellent agent in Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, Charles whom he sent to London as minister. Adams was persist- Adams^. ^"'^ '^^'^ fearless, and spite of the evident unfriendliness of Palmerston, the prime minister, and Earl Russell, the foreign secretary, he succeeded in preventing by his vigilant protest many acts of assistance to the South. He found his chief support in the fact that the confederacy fought to preserve slavery. John Bright, Richard Cobden, and \V. E. Forster, champions of any reform that made for social betterment, worked mightily to arouse the Sr^N" rt^*^ middle classes in favor of the union. Their influence was great, and the ministers did not dare antagonize this senti- ment in order to open a market for the merchants and manufacturers. Three incidents arose over which the two nations nearly came to a rupture of friendship. 1. The recognition of the confederacy as a belligerent. As soon as the government was organized at Montgomery, confederate agents in London began to ask for the recognition of confederate in- Status of dependence. The request was not granted, but the queen BeUigerency iggyed. May 13, 1 86 1, a proclamation of neutrality in Conieder- which each side was given the rights of belligerency within ates. British jurisdiction. Adams landed in England the day the proclamation was issued, and the action of the ministry was considered discourteously precipitate. It also violated Lincoln's theory that the confederacy had not the status of a power, but repre- sented only a group of insurgents. The confederates too were dis- appointed ; but consoled themselves with the reflection that belliger- ency gave their privateers a standing in foreign ports, and they hoped that future successes would compel the recognition of independence. 2. For a time the union papers were full of recrimination for Eng- land, and November 8, 1861 , the feeling burst forth when the American ship, San Jacinto, Captain Wilkes, seized Mason and Thej«r,t gjjjgjj ^^ j^j^g British mailship, Trent. These two con- federates were bound for Europe, one to represent his government at London and the other at Paris. They had escaped through the blockade to Havana and there taken the British steamer, Trent, for Southampton. The seizure was on the high seas, and was by force. News of it put the North into a delirium of joy, Wilkes was hero wherever he went, and congress and the secretary of the navy extended him their thanks. Lincoln and only one member of the CONFEDERATE CRUISERS 523 cabinet, Postmaster-general Blair, regretted the occurrence. They foresaw that Great Britain would demand a disclaimer, and believed that in the excited state of the public mind war might occur. They promptly informed England that Wilkes had acted without instructions, and awaited her further procedure. In all Britain was great indignation, for the flag had been \dolated at sea. A large fleet was assembled, and 8000 troops were sent to Canada, embarking, it is said, to the tune, "I wish I were in Dixie." The government prepared an offensive demand for the surrender of the confederates. The Prince Consort, then suffering from a fatal illness, saw the dispatch, and suggested softer expressions, by which it was possible for the American government to accept the demands, Mason and Slidell were released, but no apology was made. In a long reply Seward stated the American position. ^j^°,"|^r'|. Had Wilkes seized the Troit and sent her before an ad- render, miralty court he would have been within his right. As it was, he had exercised the right of search, something the American government had ever opposed. Thus ended the Trent affair at the very close of 1861. 3. The other irritating incident was fitting out cruisers for the confederacy, certainly a violation of the neutrahty England had so hurriedly announced. In March, 1862, the Florida, built at Liverpool, was allowed to depart for Nassau, in The Con- the Bahamas, where she was libeled for \iolation of neu- s*iiips, trality. But a court ordered her release, and she sailed on norida. a career of destruction as a confederate ship. MeanwhUe, a more powerful ship was being built at the same place — evidently for the same purpose. June 23 our minister, Adams, asked for an inquiry to see if she ought to be held. A superficial investigation was made by the Liverpool authori- ^,„^„„o. ties, who were in sympathy with the South and who re- ported that no evidence was found that the ship was destined for that country. Still Adams persisted, securing undoubted evidence, which was referred to Sir John Harding, Queen's Advocate. Harding was on the verge of a mental collapse, and the papers lay unopened by him for fi\-e days before they came to other hands, and were so reported that the order to detain the ship was given on July 29. But the step was too long deferred ; for on the same morning the steamer got out to sea for a trial trip and did not come back. She went to the Azores, where she took on her armor and a confederate crew and began her momentous career as the commerce destroyer, Alabama. Ten years later an arbitration court at Geneva declared that England had not used due diligence in enforcing neutrality in regard to these two ships. Early in 1863 it became known that three other powerfid ships were under construction at Liverpool, but the government prevented their departure. The Florida and the Alabama, with some smaUer ships, 534 THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR constituted the confederate navy. They were not able to meet the ships of the union, and contented themselves with destroying unarmed merchantmen, of which during the course of the war they took 285, at a total loss of about $15,000,000. These three incidents, so full of possible misfortune for those who struggled to preserve the union, thus ended favorably to the North. The South found herself disappointed in her hope of foreign The Results ^^jj^ .^,^^ ^[.,p y^.^^j. ggttled down to a long-drawn out assault North *^^ '^^^ section against the other. The point on which the decision of England and France turned was slavery. Spite of aU that the Southerners said, the real question was the per- petuity of slavery, and the world abroad was not prepared to support the side which upheld it. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The general works are : Rhodes, History of lite United States, 7 vols. (1802-1907) ; Schouler, The United Stales under the Constitution, 6 vols. (1880-1897) ; Chadwick, Causes of the Civil War (igo6) ; Hosmer, Tlie Appeal to Arms (1Q07) ; von Hoist, Constitutional History of the United Stales, 8 vols. (ed. i8gg) ; Greeley, The A merican Conflict, 2 vols. (1864), valuable for e.xtracts from documents; Draper, History of the Civil War, 3 vols. (1871); Ropes, Story of llie Civil War, 2 vols. (1899), un- finished but continued by Livermore, two vols., announced in 1913; and Reed, Brotlier's War (1905), a recent Southern book. For works and biographies of leading men sec : Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lin- coln, a History, 10 vols. (i8qo) ; Ibid., edr.. Complete Works of Lincoln, 2 vols. (1904) ; Baker, edr., Srd'ard Works, 5 vols. (1853-1884) ; Autobiography of Seward (1877); Bancroft, Life of Sneard, 2 vols. (1900); Mr. Buchanan's Administra- tion on the Eve of tlic Rebellion (1866), Buchanan's own defense; Moore, edr., Works of James Buchanan, 12 vols. (1908-1911) ; Curtis, James Buchanan, 2 vols. (1883); Coleman, Life of John J. Crittenden, 2 vols. (1S71); Welles, edr., Diary of Gideon Welles, 3 vols. (191 1); John Sherman, Recollections of Forty Years, 2 vols. (1895); Jidian, Political Recollections (1884); McClure, Z./hco/;j and Men of War Times (ed. 1894); Black, edr.. Essays and Speeches of J. S. Black, with a Bio- graphical Sketch (1885); Alfriend, Life of Jcjcrson Davis (1868); Johnston and Browne, Alexander H. Stephens (1878); Avs.Ty, edr.. Autobiography of Alexander H. Stephens (rgio) ; Pendleton, Alexander H. Stephens (1907) ; Wise, Seven Dec- ades of lite Union (18S1) ; Trescott, Negotiations between South Carolina and Presi- dent Buchanan (Am. Hist. Revic'd'. 190S) ; and Hart, Salmon Portland Chase (1899). On this brief period the important public documents are in ; Richardson, Mes- sages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols. (1896-1897) ; The Congressional Globe, for the debates ; War of the Rebellion, Official Records, very full for military affairs North and South; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies; and Poore, Descriptive Catalogue of Government Publications, lyy^-iSSi (1885). Of great value are the newspapers and periodicals of the times, especially the Tribune, Evening Post, and Times, of New York, the Boston .Advertiser, the Springfield Republican, the Albany Evening Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia North American, the Richmond Enquirer, the Charleston Mercury, and the Wash- ington Union. On the struggle in the border states see ; Harding, Missouri Party Struggles 'Am. Hist. .\ssn. Reports, 1890); Snead, Fight for Missouri {1&&6); Woodward, .Nathaniel Lyon (1862); Brown, Baltimore and April ip, 1S61 (1887); aiid Mc- Carthy, Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction (1901), for the creation of West Virginia. Many books of personal observations have appeared, among them the following BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 525 of much vi'.lue : Russell, .1/v D'uiry Xortli and South (1862), by an intelligent cor- respondent of the London Times; Jones, .-1 Rebel War Clerk's Diary, 2 vols. (1866); Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1S61, to November 12, 1S62 (1862); and Pike. First Blows of the Civil War (1879). On the fall of Fort Sumter sec: Crawford, Genesis of the Civil ]i'ar (1887); Doubleday, Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie (1876); and Roman, Military Operations of General Beauregard, 2 vols. (1884). Books in sympathy with the South are : Jefferson Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 2 vols. (18S1) ; Stephens, War between the States, 2 vols. (1S67) ; Curry, The Southern States in Relation to the United States (iSg4) ; Fowler, Sectional Controversy (1865); Du Bose, Life of W. L. Yancey (1896); and Wise, Life of Henry A. Wise (1S99). For Independent Reading Russell, My Diary North and South (1862); Reuben Davis, Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians (iqco); Wilmer, Recent Fast from a Southern Standpoint (1900) ; Clayton, White and Black under the Old Regime (1899) ; Morse, Life of Lincoln, 2 vols. (1893); Riddle, Recollections of War Times (1895); anci Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men (1873). CHAPTER XXV THE WESTERN CAMPAIGNS A Bifurcated Invasion The task of the North was to enter Southern territory, suppress re- sistance, and restore the authority of the union : that of the confeder- acy was to resist conquest. The Northern mvasion was a bifurcated movement, one part operating on the east and the other on the west of the Appalachian mountains. It was hoped that each would roll back the confederate resistance and, by uniting below the southern end of the mountain system, give the linisliing stroke to the confeder- acy somewhere in northern Georgia. As it fell out, the union ad- vance was checked by Lee's army in the East, but it was steadily suc- cessful in the West. The Mississippi river and all of Tennessee were gradually secured, and by the middle of 1864 northern Georgia was occupied by a strong and victorious army. The western division had done its allotted task, and now turned northward to help the Eastern troops complete the capture of Richmond. The present chapter will describe as a whole the Western movements and the succeeding chapter will deal with the operations in the East. Three Preliminary Operations, i86i The conquest of the West began properly in 1862, but in 1861 there were three important preliminary episodes : i . WhUe the people of western Virginia were busy creating a new state a union VirEi^a army under General McCIellan drove back the confederate forces which came from the east to maintain the Virginia authority. In several sharp engagements McClellan's fame was es- tablished, and he was called to Washington to command a greater army. In the western counties he was succeeded by Rosecrans, who had Robert E. Lee for an opponent. Lee's force was inadequate, and was forced over the mountains, and it was not until he had won his brilliant victories in the campaign around Richmond in the following year that the Southern people forgot his present ill fortune. 2. The „. . success of the unionists in preventing secession in Missouri (see page 517) was followed by a determined confederate effort to retake the state by arms. At first it seemed successful, and the federal General Lyon was killed. But he was avenged by General 526 THE ADVANCE ON NASHVILLE 527 Pope, who with a strong ff>rce drove the confederate army out of Missouri. Late in 1861 Halleck was given command on both sides of the Mississippi, with headquarters at St. Louis. He well understood the art of war, but proved slow in execution. Under him, however, served several brilliant generals, and affairs in his department pro- gressed favorably. 3. The confederates wished to make . the Ohio river their line of defense, although they had not ^^^ ohjo"^ troops enough to hold Kentucky. But in September, 1861, General Grant, then acting under Fremont, defeated this plan by seizing Paducah and Cairo. The result was that the enemy estab- lished his lines from the Mississippi at Island No. 10, New Madrid, and Columbus, thence eastward to Forts Henry on the Tennessee and Donelson on the Cumberland, and after that at Bowling Green, Ken- tucky, a place nearly due north of Nashville, with which it was con- nected by sixty miles of railroad. To the eastward a small force oc- cupied central and eastern Kentucky, where union sentiment was strong ; but a federal force drove it back in January, 1S62. By these three preliminary movements the border states of Missouri and Ken- tucky, which Lincoln's tact had kept from secession, and the new state of West Virginia, were saved from the confederate arms. From that time the fiercest field of western operations was Tennessee. Grant's Campaign on the Tennessee, 1862 Late in January Grant formed a plan to cut the confederate line at Forts Henry and Donelson, only eleven miles apart. Receiving per- mission from Halleck he moved up the Tennessee \nth _ „ 17,000 men and seven gunboats. The confederates did not captured?' allow themselves to be surrounded , and surrendered the place after most of its defenders had withdrawn to Fort Donelson (February 6), which Grant lost no time in attacking. He sent his gunboats back to the Ohio and up the Cumberland, while he marched overland to Donelson. Here the first attack of the boats was repulsed, and they retired for repairs. Then Grant threw his force around the fort on the land side and was in a position to starve or storm it. For such a fate the occupants would not wait. At dawn on February 15 they at- tacked and drove back the union right, so that for a few hours the road was open. Grant was four miles away, arid rode hurriedly to the danger point. Learning that the knapsacks of_ the ^{"^0^° captured confederates were filled with food, he divined Donelson. that an escape was intended, and ordered an assault along all his line. It was delivered wth great spirit, the confederate de- fenses were penetrated, and retreat was made impossible. During the night the generals in the fort, Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner, decided that surrender was necessary. Floyd had been Buchanan's secretary of war, and feared to be taken prisoner. He handed over the command 52S THE WESTERN CAMPAIGNS and escaped across the river in a skiff under cover of darkness. Two small steamboats arrived at dawn, and on them Pillow and some troops escaped. A body of cavalry under Forrest, who was soon to be a noted leader of light-horse troops, escaped along the river bank. The rest of the confederates, nearly 15,000, were surrendered by Buckner. In this action the union army numbered 27,000. The situation in Tennessee now shifted rapidly. Albert Sidney Johnston, in chief command of the confederates, hurriedly withdrew the force from Bowling Green to Nashville, and Buell, Faii"b°"k ^^''^° '^"^"^ been watching it, followed leisurely. If he and to Corinth. Grant united their armies, the story of Fort Donelson would be repeated at the state capital. Johnston was too wise to be caught in a trap, and continued to retreat, spite of the censure of the Southern press. He finally halted at Corinth, Mississippi, important because it commanded the railroad from Chattanooga to Memphis. While he collected supplies and reenforcements his opponents leisurely overran western Tennessee. March 17 Grant, following the Tennessee river, arrived at Savannah with 45,oco men. Buell, with 35,000, was approaching from the northeast, and the plan was that the two forces should c'^^fid^ unite and crush Johnston, who had only 40,000. Grant Approach. thought his opponents could not take the offensive, and carelessly placed i'lve divisions at Pittsburg LancHng, on the west side of the river, twenty-three miles from Corinth, holding Lew Wallace's division at Crump's Landing, five mUes north of that point. He failed to intrench, though ordered to do so by Halleck, and had his headquarters at Savannah, eight miles north of his main force and on the opposite side of the river. He was daily expecting Buell, who, in fact, reached Savannah April 5, where he was allowed to halt. Johnston was an able general, and was anxious to fight before Buell came up. Moving out of Corinth, he fell on the union force in the early morning of April 6. Grant heard the firing, and of Shiioh * hastened to the scene by boat. To his surprise, he found a heavy battle in progress, and his men fighting for their lives. He ordered Wallace and Buell to come up, and calmly watched the fray. Throughout the whole clay the fighting continued, the federals being driven back, and Shiioh Church, the key of the field, was taken by Johnston, who, fighting with great courage, was struck in the leg as he led a regiment into a hazardous charge. He had pre- viously ordered his surgeon to attend to the wounded elsewhere, and bled to death before aid could be found. His death discouraged his men, who, however, at nightfall held the ground the union force occupied in the morning and had forced their foe to take protection under the fire of the union gunboats. In the night Grant received 20,000 fresh troops from Wallace and Buell, and next morning renewed WEST TENNESSEE RECOVERED 529 the battle. After eight hours of fightmg on this day, the confederates withdrew to Corinth. The total union loss was 13,000 killed, wounded, and captured. The total confederate loss was 10,700. _. „ T 1 r 1 . . 11- , 1 X 1 • ! ■ The Result. Johnston fought to crush his opponent and to drive him from his advanced position in the heart of the confederate southwest, and since that object was not achieved, the battle of Shiloh, as it is called, was a confederate defeat. Halleck now came to Pittsburg Landing in person, and after raising the army to 100,000 men, moved cautiously on Corinth. When he was ready to besiege it, the confed- erates withdrew and allowed him to have it without endangering their safety. The campaign on the Tennessee river left exposed the confederate posts on the upper Mississippi. Columbus was abandoned, New Madrid and Island No. 10 were invested and taken by Pope in March and April with more than 7000 prisoners. ^""^^^^ °° Gunboats then passed down the river, and June 5 and 6, ^^pp^ a week after Corinth was taken. Fort Pillow and Memphis were in union hands. Meanwhile, a naval expedition under Farragut, aided by Porter, had appeared in the lower Mississippi. After futilely bombarding the forts on the river for five days, Farragut with great daring ran past them safely, and April 25 New Orleans fell into his hands, receiving a garrison of 2500 men under Benjamin F. Butler. The forts then surrendered to Porter. Confederate Counter-Movement in Tennessee and Kentucky After the capture of Corinth, Halleck remained inactive, while the confederates recruited their armies and prepared another movement. They placed Bragg, with 35,000 men, in Chattanooga, the key of southeastern Tennessee, and Buell was ordered ?5*^^t^ to operate against him. This union general collected his Louisville, force at Murfreesboro, 35 miles southeast of Nashville, protecting the latter place from Bragg. Before he could move farther Bragg left Chattanooga, August 28, and dividing his army turned Buell's left and marched into Kentucky. Lexington was seized, and Louisville and Cincinnati were in a paroxysm of terror lest they should be taken before succor arrived. Buell meantime gave up all thought of Chattanooga, and hurried back to Louisville. Bragg was ahead of him, and probably could have taken the city, but he became dis- couraged when the Kentuckians did not join him, as he expected, and allowed his opponent to reach the goal. Buell thus recruited his force to s8,ooo and turned backward to face his foe. Seven days later, October 8, the two armies fought at pjrrwiiie Perryv-ille, 65 miles southeast of Louisville. Neither side was entirely concentrated, but after fighting until dark Bragg with- drew his force and reached Chattanooga safely. At Perry^'ille he lost 530 THI': WKSTKRX C.vMPAIGNS 3400 men, and his opponent 4200. Buell was ordered to follow Bragg and hold east Tennessee, but he thought he could not support his men so far from his base and took position at Nashville. For doing so he was removed from command and Rosecrans took his place. The new general was ordered "to take and hold east Tennessee," but like Buell he refused to attempt it. He remained in Nashville for weeks, and Bragg quietly came back to Murfrees- Battle of boro, where he intrenched. Finally, on December 26, Stones 1862, Rosecrans moved on his opponent, and on the 31st Murfrees- ^ great battle was fought at Stone's river, three miles boro. from Murfreesboro, by which name the action is some- times known. Each general proposed to attack the other's right; but Bragg moved at dawn, while the union attack was ordered for 7 a.m. The confederate onset led by Hardee drove back the union right, which was only saved by the immovable center under Thomas. After a hard day's fight darkness closed the struggle. Rosecrans seemed beaten, but would not retreat. January 2, Bragg renewed the attack, but was beaten off and retired to Chattanooga. The casualties were a union loss of 13,000 out of a total force of 43,000, and a confederate loss of 10,000 out of 38,000. The southerners carried off 28 captured guns and claimed the victory ; but they had failed to drive away Rosecrans and to rescue Tennessee from union control. The net result of the war in the West for 1862 was that all of Kentucky and western and central Tennessee as well as a large part of the Mississippi river were wrenched from the confederacy. VicKSBURG Captured After losing Memphis and New Orleans the confederates fortified Vicksburg most carefully ; for it was the one strong position left them on the river. If it were taken, the trans-Mississippi region ofVicksburg ^^''^"-'^'i t)e cut oft', the importation of light supplies through Mexico would be made difficult, and a fertUe source of food for the armies would be lost. For the same reasons that the South wished to hold it the North wished to take it. In the summer of 1862 Halleck was called to Washington to aid the president in the chief command of the army, and Grant was left in command of the great army at Corinth. For weeks he remained inactive, and the confederates, taking heart, tried to retake Corinth, but were easily beaten off. For this delay he was bitterly criticized by the press. His incaution at Shiloh was recalled, and rumor ran that all his dilatoriness was due to the intemperate use of liquor. But Lincoln stood faithfully by Grant. This confidence was justified by a double expedition against Vicks- burg, which got under way late in 1862. Sherman with 30,000 men and a fleet of gunboats was sent down the river from Memphis, GRANT OUTPLAYS PEMBERTON 531 (V'liile Grant, with the same number, started forward along the rail- road for Jackson, Mississippi, whence he would approach Vicksburg from the east. The advance of the land column was soon checked when the confederates cut its communications at ^"^^ Holly Springs. Sherman's force reached Vicksburg and tak*'v^'k° attempted to land on the high ground north of the town. burg. Here the Yazoo bottoms must be crossed in the face of a destructive lire, and Sherman withdrew after satisfying himself that Vicksburg could not be taken from the north. Then Grant determined to land south of it and approach by the high ground between the river and Jackson. His first idea was to cut a canal through a bend of the river on the west bank in order to take his supply ships past the confederate 11°^^^^' batteries. After weeks of digging, a March freshet de- stroyed the canal, and Grant determined to run the batteries. It seemed a hazardous thing, but was made by the supply boats in the night and with slight loss. The army marched down the west bank and was set across the river by the boats several miles below Vicks- burg, and April 30, 1863, Grand Gulf was captured. The confederates had not supposed a federal army would begin its operations in this quarter, and the place was weakly defended. Two hundred miles south of Vicksburg was Port Gibson, above which the union gunboats could not go. Banks had been ordered to take the place and open the way for a fleet supporting Grant's army; but his advance was delayed and Grant ^'.^.^'^j learned that he could e.xpect no aid from the southward strategy at the same time that he heard that confederate troops were concentrating on Jackson, Mississippi. His position was un- comfortable. If Pemberton's 40,000 men in Vicksburg were joined by the 15,000 J. E. Johnston was leading up by way of Jackson, the 43,000 men at Grand Gulf would fare badly. In the face of this difficulty. Grant's action was admirable. Abandoning his base, he quickly seized Jackson before Johnston could reach it, thus placing all his force between the divided enemy. Pemberton was a cautious general, and remained a few days in his stronghold, although ordered out by Johnston. Then he changed his mind, and moved out with about 30,000 men. Johnston had turned northward, hoping to get into Vicksburg. Pemberton should have gone in the same direction to meet him, but with a strange fatality he turned southward to cut Grant's communications with Grand Gulf. He soon learned that the union commander had abandoned his base and was living on the coun- try. Then he tried to get back to the North, but Grant was in between. Johnston realized tliat he could not unite with Pemberton, and was forced to leave the latter to his fate. Then 3^"^*^"°" Pemberton stood still for battle, first at Champion Hill and then at the crossing of the Big Black river. In each action he S3-' THE WESTERN CAMPAIGNS Vicksburg Taken. was defeated, and May iS he retired within his intrenchments at Vicksburg. Grant followed and established his lines of siege from the high banks of the Yazoo to the Mississippi below Vicksburg. He thus came again into commu- nication with the union fleet, and supplies were now landed and reen- forcements were sent from the North, so that he soon had 75,000 men, enough to finish Pember- ton and beat ofi any army which could be sent to raise the siege. The confederates re- turned to Vicksburg much dis- couraged, but they repelled firmly two assaults on their position. Then the problem became one of starving out the defend- ers. While the siege cannon and mortars played continually, and the sappers and miners brought Grant's lines ever nearer to those of the confederates, the work of King Hunger went on. The confederate authorities needed every available man to hold back Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and reluctantly left Vicksburg to its fate. In June the rations began to fail. On the 2Sth the soldiers were on the point of widespread desertion and themselves suggested surren- der. July 3 Pemberton asked for an interview with Grant, and next morning the articles of surrender were signed. The confederates were liberated on parole, 29,491 in all. They gave up 170 cannon and 50,000 small arms. This event, coming the day after the Ji'.® . . . battle of Gettysburg, made the national holiday a day of Opened'.'"'" rejoicing. It was followed by the fall of Port Hudson, and union gunboats now held the entire course of the great river. These operations placed Grant beyond the cavil of his critics, and the nation generally recognized m him its greatest general. The Campaign for Chattanooga While Grant moved against Vicksburg, Rosecrans with an army of 70,000 remained in Nashville, his eye on Bragg, who was charged with ROSECRANS AGAINST BRAGG 533 the defense of Chattanooga. Unwilling to begin one important cam- paign while another was in progress, he remained inactive until Grant's success was assured. Meanwhile, Bragg advanced to Shelby\'ille. But late in June Rosecrans took the field, RoIecrTns and flanking cleverly forced him back hito Chattanooga without a battle. The place was very strong. It lies on the east bank of the Tennessee, a bold stream, and is surrounded by moun- tain ridges. To the south the country is ciuite rough. It is more practicable to the north, and Bragg thought his opponent would approach from that direction. The idea seemed supported by the fact that Burnside had just moved with a strong column from Ken- tucky into East Tennessee, and was at Knoxville in a position to move southward in cooperation with the expected flanking movement across the river. As Burnside did not move at once, Bragg concluded an attack was not imminent. He thus allowed himself to be surprised in another quarter. Rosecrans determined to approach by the south. It was a hazard- ous movement, but it was unexpected by Bragg, and it threatened the communications with Atlanta. The union commander did not know the country beyond the river, and was ODOMtunitv floundering about for more than a week in the discon- nected valleys, his right and left wings sometimes nearly three days march from his center. Had Bragg been alert, he must now have beaten his opponent in detail. But he dallied too long, and when on September 18 he offered battle at Chickamauga Creek, twelve miles south of Chattanooga, Rosecrans was concentrated before him. It was a period of inactivity in the Virginia campaigning, both sides resting after Gettysburg ; and Longstreet had been sent to aid Bragg, who was also reenforced by Buckner's army, which Burnside had driven southward from Kentucky. The confederates were thus in superior numbers, having about 66,000 to their opponents' 58,000. In mak- ing the detour to reach their opponents they had so moved that Rose- crans was between them and Chattanooga. Behind the union position was Rossville Gap, penetrated by the road into Chattanooga. Bragg wished to seize this pass and isolate his opponents. Witliholding his own left, he struck hard against the federal left, where Thomas commanded. 5?"lf °' This brave commander stood firm, but the rest of the line „jauga was weakened to send him reenforcements. At noon, September 20, by mistake, a division was moved from the union center. Longstreet, just opposite and waiting the word to charge, saw the movement and sent eight brigades through the breach. They crushed the union center, threw the left into confusion, and threatened Thomas on the right. Both parts of the line retreated in great disorder. Rosecrans tried in vain to rally his men, but could only follow them through Rossville Gap into Chattanooga. He thought the day lost, 534 'I'HE WESTERN CAMPAIGNS and sent orders to Thomas to protect the rear as well as he could. But Thomas was not beaten. Surrounded on three sides, he repelled charge after charge until night came, and then withdrew to the Gap, where he took a strong position and held Bragg in check until ordered to join the rest of the army in Chattanooga. This important engage- ment was fought on September 19 and 20. It resulted in the loss of 19,500 killed, wounded, and captured f)n the confederate side, and 16,000 on the union side. Thomas's heroic tight saved the union army from a complete rout and won for him the title of "The Rock of Chickamauga." After the battle of the 20th the federal forces kept within Chat- tanooga, Bragg following and fortifying himself on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, east and south of the town. As Bes'Teed^ Lookout Mountain commanded the railroad, Rosecrans could not bring his supplies by railroad farther than Bridge- port, whence they must be carried by wagons over wretched roads around the great bend of the river, a distance of sLxty miles. A month later the army faced starvation or retreat. Lincoln was alarmed and took vigorous steps. Sixteen thousand men under Hooker were sent from Virginia, and Sherman with many more was ordered up from Vicksburg. Thomas was placed in command of the army, succeeding Rosecrans, whom the situation seemed to demoralize ; and Grant was put in command of all the West but New Orleans, and ordered to Chattanooga. October 23 he arrived and Gran^ ° immediately took steps to open the railroad between Bridgeport and the army. Throwing Hooker across the river, the road from Bridgeport was seized in a safe place four miles from Chattanooga. A new road was then constructed by Brown's Ferry, which was operated without molestation, and the danger of starvation was averted. The next task was to drive Bragg away from the height above the town, and Grant decided to make the attempt as soon as Sherman arrived. The confederate line extended from the northern end of Missionary Ridge along the crest to Rossville Gap, thence across the valley of Chattanooga river to Lookout Mountain. Bragg thought it very strong, and not anticipating an early attack weakened it by withdrawing Longstreet from its center to strike Burnside at Knox- ville. He thought Longstreet would return before his services were needed at Chattanooga. He underestimated the energy of Grant, and Longstreet was far away when on November 24, Sherman having arrived, the battle began. Grant's plan was to turn the confederate right on the extremity of Missionary Ridge, and for this purpose he selected Sherman. Lookout VVhile this movement was being made he proposed to Mountain, keep the enemy in position with a strong feint by Thomas in the center and Hooker on the union right. November 24, Sherman EAST TENNESSEE RECOVERED 535 crossed the Tennessee in the early dawn, and drove the confederates some distance along the top of the ridge they defended. At the same time Thomas approached nearer to the base of the Ridge at the center, and Hooker, starting to skirt Lookout Mountain, changed his course, carried its steep slope, and finally placed the union flag on the top of the tall peak which adorns its crest. Tliis spectacular achieve- ment, though not very difficult, greatly heartened the soldiers. On the morning of the 25th the confederates were still in strong position on Missionary Ridge, and Sherman took up again the work of clearing it by hard fightng. To aid him. Grant directed Thomas to advance and take the works on the lower slopes. The order was executed, but the soldiers found themselves exposed to a hot fire from the crest of the Ridge. Without orders, and even against orders, they started for the top, 400 feet above them. Grant, watching the battle, ex- claimed, "By whose orders is this?" "By their own, I fancy," replied Thomas at his elbow. But the line went steadily forward. At the crest was a brief struggle and then victory. Thirty guns were taken, and Bragg hastily withdrew to Ringgold. The confederate loss in killed, wounded, and captured was 6500, and that of the federals, 5500. Hooker's engagement high up on Lookout was called "the Battle above the Clouds." Meanwhile, Longstreet had begun operations against Bumside at Knoxville. To his surprise he found the inhabitants loyal to the union. He made no headway, and after the battle of Chattanooga returned to Virginia. Thus all Tennessee was safely restored to the union, and a victorious army held the key to Atlanta and the Georgia uplands. The Campaign against Atlanta After Chattanooga, both armies were exhausted and went into winter quarters, the confederates at Dalton, Georgia, and the federals in the city they had taken. Bragg was removed from command. He had been severely criticized in the South, ^,"^^?*' and only Jefferson Davis's warm friendship had kept Johnston, him so long in a position he clearly was not able to fill. His successor, Joseph E. Johnston, was able and vigilant in defense, but he was curt to his superiors, and early in the war aroused the Dl- will of Davis. Grant once said he feared Johnston more than any other general he faced. The confederate general began his campaign of 1864 with 53,000 men, but was soon reenforced until he had 75,000. The hope of the southwest was in the defense of Atlanta. February 29, 1864, congress revived the rank of lieutenant general, and the position was given to Grant, who thus became com- mander under Lincoln of all the union troops in the field. He im- mediately assumed the direction of operations in Virginia. The force in Chattanooga, 99,000 strong, thus went to Sherman. Under 536 THE WESTERN CAMPAIGNS him served Thomas, commanding Rosecrans's old army, McPherson with the troops which Sherman had brought from Vicksburg, and Schofield with the forces which formerly operated at ^*'d^"° Knoxville. The material in each army was excellent, j^jny Political appointees had been weeded out, tried officers of all ranks had come into responsible position, and the soldiers, seasoned by two years of hard fighting, were veterans of the best quality. The hilly country over which they must operate abounded in good defensive positions, which Johnston knew how to utOize. J _ . The critical feature was the railroad from Chattanooga to Atlanta — serving as a means of communication for each army. As Johnston fell back he destroyed it, but Sherman had efficient engineers who repaired bridges and tracks so rapidly that the confederate rear guard usuall}' could hear the whistle of the locomotive which accompanied the federal advance. It was Sherman's habit to take the initiative, and early in May he appeared before Dalton. Finding the confederates strongly placed, he moved around their left and threatened so much the FiTSta^ ^^ railroad at Resaca that they hastily fell back to that posi- Movements. ^ion, while he gained twelve of the 120 miles between Dalton and Atlanta. Again Johnston offered battle in strong intrenchments, but Sherman was too wise to accept it. He waited a few days, and once more flanked by the left, only to be again confronted by Johnston in a strong position. This kind of campaign continued until, at the end of June, Johnston was strongly fortified at Kenesaw Mountain, 25 miles from Atlanta. At this point Sherman abandoned caution and determined to accept battle. Selecting what he thought the weakest point in Johnston's line he delivered a power- ful assault with the hope of breaking through. But the ivhnmtoi confederates held firm, and the attack was repelled with a loss of 3000 federals and only 800 confederates. Thomas, whose steadiness frequently tempered the impetuosity of Sherman, was asked if he thought the assault should be repeated. He replied that "one or two more such assaults would use up this army" ; and he added that he did not favor "butting against breastworks twelve feet thick and strongly abatised." His ad\'ice was taken, another flank movement was made, and Sherman on July 9 reached the north bank of the Chattahoochee, his opponent retiring in good order to the south bank. At this place the union troops ch f*** were within six miles of Atlanta. During this campaign hoochee. °^ ^'^^° months, although no great battle had been fought, there had been continuous skirmishing and two or three sharp affairs, with the result that the union loss was 16,800 and that of the confederates 14,500. In falling back on Atlanta, Johnston merely did as Lee was then doing before Grant from the WUdemess to Cold Harbor. If he NORTHERN GEORGIA RECOVERED 537 fought less, it was because Sherman advanced more cautiously than Grant. But Southern opinion was not equally considerate of the two leaders, and Johnston was severely criticized. July 17 he was replaced by General J. B. Hood, a man who command would fight. Sherman crossed the Chattahoochee, the same day, and rejoiced when he knew he had a new opponent. He believed there would be fighting, and thought his numerical superiority would give him the victory. Within eleven days Hood fought and lost three battles, — Peach Tree Creek, July 20; Atlanta, July 22; and Ezra Church, July 28. His total loss was 10,841 and Sherman's was 9719. But for all this, Atlanta was not taken. Then Sherman threw his columns out to the west and south, enveloping the city and threatening its com- munications with the South and East. This movement re- quired a month, during which the North began to despair of his success. It was, said the doubtful ones, but a repetition of Grant's costly campaign, and after it a siege, the result of which no one could foretell. But Hood did not allow him- self to be besieged. September 2 he Aaanta evacuated Atlanta, cf!?x"IfK., . ' September and ne.xt day it was 3, 1864. occupied by the union forces. The news occa- sioned great joy in the North, for it was the first decided success of a year of hard fight- ing and heavy sacrifice. By the very exultation of his friends, Sherman could see how necessary it was that he should retain what he had captured. But his situation was not altogether safe : he was in the midst of a hostile country, and his line of communication was a single railroad held by strong garrisons, but liable to be cut by a large and efficient column. Hood realized this situation and tried to utilize it. He first moved westward and fell on AUatoona, a raDroad station 45 miles north of Atlanta. It was firmly held, and the attack was beaten off. Had it succeeded, Sherman must have recovered AUatoona or suffered serious consequences. Then Hood made a detour still farther westward, (jy- Atlanta Hood Threatens Sherman's Base. 538 THE WESTERN CAMPAIGNS going as far as Decatur, Alabama, on file Tennessee river. The place was no miles south of Nashville, with which it was connected by rail. Here he halted, hoping that the union leader would become fright- ened and hasten back to Nashville. But Sherman was not alftrmed. Thomas was sent to Nashville with the veterans who had served under Buell and Rosecrans, and reenforcements were hurried to him from various quarters of Thomas. ^^^^^ he had nearly 60,000 men, quite enough to beat off the attack of Hood, who had only 54,000. As long as Hood was near the Chattanooga railroad, Sherman followed him ; but when the confederate commander's plan was revealed by his crossing of the Tennessee, October 20, Sherman ceased to follow and concentrated at Atlanta a well-seasoned army of 60,000 men. He had for weeks been asking his superiors for permission to strike for the seacoast, and Grant now reluctantly consented. Nothing could show better the exhaustion of the South than the possibility that its opponents could divide their western army into two BoiTpian^ columns, each of which was larger than the total force the confederacy could muster in that region. Sherman had before him no opposition worthy of the name, and he felt confident that Thomas could deal with any force Hood could gather. Let us first follow the movements of Hood. He was a good fighter, but he had lost Atlanta, and his soldiers, regretting the removal of Johnston, were not in good spirits. Delayed for three Battie of weeks in southern Tennessee to collect supplies he could November '^^'^ move until November 21, which gave his opponents 30. time to prepare for him. Across his path was Schofield with 29,000 men, instructed to retard his advance and fall back. The confederate commander should have surrounded this force, but, although he sought it most vigorously, he lost his oppor- tunity through the carelessness of a subordinate. Schofield was hard pressed when he arrived, November 30, at Franklin, on the Harpeth river, to find the bridge partly wrecked and his trains in great danger. He intrenched hastOy, and while the bridge was being repaired Hood arrived and assaulted with great ardor. Each side fought most desperately from four o'clock in the aftenaoon until dark, but the union line held firm, and by morning Schofield was across the river and proceeded unmolested to Nashville, 20 miles away. He had lost 2326 men, while his opponents, who fought recklessly and without cover of breastworks, lost 6000. Hood followed more leisurely, and took position on the hills south of the city, his army reduced l)y fight- ing and marching to 23,207. It was the last hope of the confederacy in Tennessee, and its chances seemed slender in the presence of the union force of more than 50,000. Thomas was deliberate by nature and would not fight until ready. As he remained inactive day after day the country, and even Lincoln THE LAST OF HOOD'S ArUy 539 himself, became impatient, lest Hood should escape. But Grant, w]v< once said that if Thomas came to a furrow he would stop to intrench, showed most concern. All his telegrams did not bring on a battle, and December 9 he ordered Thomas to hand over of NashviUe the command to Schofield, but on consideration the order was suspended. At last Thomas was ready, and December 15 he moved on the enemy, driving him back about four miles by hard fighting. The battle was renewed on the i6th, the confederates stand- mg at bay for a life and death struggle. All their valor was unavail- ing. Surrounded and broken, they had no chance, and at last fled southward in whatever formation they could maintain. December 27, when they crossed the Tennessee river, they numbered less than 15,000 infantrymen. Many had been killed, many others were cap- tured, and some had gone home under the impression that the war was over. Nine thousand of the survivors were later sent to North Carolina under Joseph E. Johnston to oppose Sherman. But from this time the task of the western army was accoiiiplished. Mobile and a few posts held out, but nowhere could the Northern arms be resisted between the Ohio and the Gulf. Sherman's March xHROtJGH Georgia and the Carolinas November 15 Sherman began from Atlanta his celebrated march to the sea, burning before he started the machine shops in Atlanta and destroying the railroad to Chattanooga. The tele- graph wires were cut, and for nearly a month liis govern- 4^!""^ ment only knew of his mo\'ements from the iiewspapers savannah. of the confederacy. __. His army marched along parallel roads covering a zone si.xtj miles wide. It had supplies for twenty- five days and was ordered to "forage liberally." In describing his purpose before he set out Sherman himself said he would "make Georgia howl." In his report of his movements he said : "I estimate the damage done to the state of Georgia and its military resources at $100,000,000 at least $20,000,000 of which has inured to our advan- tage and the remainder is simply waste and destruction." The misery thus inflicted on the non-combatants was as great as it was unneces- sary. December 10 he was before Savannah, ha\ang accomplished his progress of 360 miles without serious opposition. Hardee, who was holding the towTi with 15,000 men, would not allow himself to be besieged and withdrew on December 20. The military results of Sherman's bold step were very important. It encouraged the North and discouraged the South, showing both sides plainly that the war was near an end. It cut off _ . supplies from Richmond and reduced the area of the confederacy to the Carolinas and a part of Virginia. But all these results might have been secured without the wanton destruction that S40 THE WESTERN CAJVIPAIGNS was inflicted on the country. The people of Georgia and South Carolina were to remain Americans, and good policy, as well as humane warfare, demanded that they should not be so dealt with that the national flag should be remembered as a sjmibol of calamity. Sherman remained in Savannah from December 20 until February i, and then started northward, his march impeded by storms and wretched roads. No opposition could be made by Hardee, g''"" and pillaging was more severe than in Georgia. South Columbia. Carolina's initiative in secession made her especially dis- liked by the federal army, officers and privates, and there was slight effort to restrain them. "The whole army," wrote Sher- man to Halleck, "is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak ven- geance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble at her fate but feel that she deserves all that seems in store for her." He gave orders against plundering private dwellings, but they were not well enforced. Reaching Columbia, the capital, he found in the streets Burned' '•^^ Smouldering remains of cotton. The soldiers of the advance guard obtained liquor, broke from the control of their officers, and during the entire night the streets were a scene of riot. Bands carrying torches marched through the streets firing the houses. In the morning a to'mi which had sheltered 8000 inhabitants was in ruins. A heated contro\'ersy arose over the question, "Who fired Columbia?" One side claimed the fire started from the cotton fired by the retreating confederates, and it is possible some buildings might have been thus destroyed ; for a strong wind sprang up in the evening and fanned the smouldering cotton into flame. But it seems undoubted that most of the damage was the result of the action of the uncontrolled soldiery, mrny of whose officers appear to have been little inclined to restrain them. It was the culmination of that bitter feeling wliich the entire army had shown up to this point, and which a more magnanimous commander would have restrained in the be- ginning. To the people of the North the devastation of this army was very pleasing. Even Phillips Brooks exclaimed: "Hurrah for Columbia ! Isn't Sherman a gem?" The occupation of Columbia forced Hardee to evacuate Charleston. He hastened to North Carolina in order to place his army before that of the conqueror. March 11, Sherman reached Fayette- ^'^n't^ ville, where he destroyed an arsenal, but spared the town. Carolina. ^^ isLCt, he made efforts to limit the pillaging in this state, and the inhabitants, although sorely distressed by soldiers and " bummers," fared better than those of South Carolina and Georgia. By this time Joseph E. Johnston had been placed in command of the confederate troops in the Carolinas. Gathering all the soldiers he could he stood before Sherman on March 16 at Averasborough, thirty miles north of Fayetteville. Beaten back, he made another stand three days later at Bentonville, but the result was the same, although TASK OF WESTERN ARMY COMPLETED 541 for a few hours it seemed that he might throw into confusion the union left, which marched incautiously. Proceeding thence Sherman came, March 23, to Goldsboro, 160 miles south of Rich- mond, against which Grant was about to complete his Goi(jsj,oro_ operations. Two days earher Schoiield had arrived at Goldsboro with 20,000 men, coming by way of Wilmington, which had been taken in January, and Newbern, which had been in union hands since 1862. But Sherman was not needed before Richmond. .A.fter a two weeks' halt at Goldsboro he learned that Lee was retreat- ing toward the mountains and turned westward in order to intercept him. Before hhn Johnston slowly withdrew to Raleigh and then to Greensboro, where, as we shall see, he at last gave up the contest ir April. Thus ended in triumph the work of the Western army. Some of its contests were drawn battles, but none resulted in retrograde movements. From Forts Henry and Donelson to Shiloh and thence to Corinth, in withstanding Bragg at Perryville and Murfreesboro, in the operations against Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, in all these important movements there was steady and hard- won success. How well the confederates used their inferior resources is shown in the long series of losses they inflicted on the victors. They were exhausted, and collapsed utterly before the vast power that was brought against them. The War beyond the Mississippi While Grant, Sherman, and their assistants made the grand three years' movement through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia to the sea, severe campaigning occurred west of the Mississippi. Texas saw but little fighting, attempts of the confederates ^j^°"" to secure New Mexico came to naught, and western Louisi- Arkansas, ana was too much isolated by the fall of New Orleans in May, 1862, to become a scene of serious opposition to the imion cause. But in Missouri and Arkansas the case was otherwise. When the union men in the former of these two states flocked to Lyon's stand- ard and enabled him to save St. Louis to the union, the secessionists assembled under General Sterling Price, disputing all that Lyon did and precipitating a state of civil war. Both leaders showed resourcefulness, but Lyon had the initial advantage. He moved rapidly, and at Booneville, on June 17, dis- persed the confederate force. It soon reassembled in larger numbers, and at Carthage beat ofif an attack by Confeder- Sigel, one of Lyon's lieutenants. Price was now reenforced p^ugj from by troops from Arkansas, so that his army was 10,000 Missouri, strong. His opponent had only 6000, but risked battle at Wilson's Creek, August 10, 1861. The result was imion defeat, Lyon being killed. His army was forced back into northern Missouri, and S42 THE WESTERN CMIPAIGNS there came a pause while both sides recruited. Fremont, who now commanded the union forces in Missouri, soon had 40,000 men, but as he was about to attack he was removed, and Hunter, his successor, gave up the plan of offensive movements. Soon Hunter was removed, and Halleck, who succeeded him, sent forward a force under Curtis, before whom Price retired into Arkansas. Van Dorn was now placed in command on the confederate side and met Curtis in a decisive battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 7 and 8, 1862. Although the confederates brought 16,200 men against 10,500, they were beaten, and withdrew from the field. The confederates in Tennessee were now hard pressed and the force under Van Dorn was so weakened that Arkansas was at the mercy of Curtis, who gradually extended his area of authority until at the end of 1862 most of the state was in union hands. Schofield superseded him in 1863, but although he had 50,000 men he could not complete the task assigned him. The center of confederate power here was the Red River valley, which the confederates held with 25,000 men under Kirby Smith and "Dick" Taylor, his lieutenant. Along the river were ^* ^E** great stores of cotton which the federals wished to seize, pedition. ^'^ ^^('3 Banks at New Orleans was ordered to move on this region, but he refused because of the low stage of water in the river. Early next year he got under way, with a land force of 27,000 men and a fleet of gunboats under Commodore Porter. His objective was Shreveport, at which place he was to be met by 15,000 men from Arkansas. His progress was slow, the country being very difiicult. At Sabme Cross Roads, April 8, when in two days' march of Shreveport, he was repulsed by Taylor and was glad i:o escape with a loss of several of his gunboats. The net result of the expedition was to deprive Sherman of a valuable body of troops for the operations against Johnston between Chattanooga and Atlanta. Kirby Smith continued to hold the countrj' around Shreveport until the end of the war. He surrendered at Baton Rouge, May 26, 1865, his force being 17,686. One other western campaign remains to be noticed. In September, 1864, General Price marched into Missouri from Arkansas with 15,000 men. The war had reached such a stage in the West Price s ij^.^^ large movements were not to be undertaken by the Missouri Confederates, but they had enough troops to made destruc- 1864. tive raids, like those of Forrest and Morgan on the east bank of the Mississippi. Price's objective was St. Louis, which he approached rapidly. Finding its defenses too strong to carry he turned off to Jefferson City. By this time the union forces in the state were concentrating rapidly. Price must fight them at several places, and moved so swiftly and fought so vigorously that he was not surrounded. But he failed to inflict serious injury on his opponents and was glad to escape to Arkansas after four weeks of BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 543 campaigning. He carried with him most of the guerrillas, who had infested the state up to that time, and thenceforth Missouri was free from confederate troops. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The general history of the war is ably treated in Rhodes, History of llic United States, 7 vols. (1892-1907). See also : Schouler, History of the United Slates, 6 vols. (1880-1897) ; Wilson, History of the American People, 5 vols. (1902) ; Hosmer, The Appeal to Arms (1907) ; Ibid,, Outcome of the Civil War (1907) ; Burgess, The Civil War and the Constitution, 2 vols. (1901); Greeley, The American Conflict, 2 vols. {1864) ; and Draper, History of the Civil U'nr, 3 vols. (1871). Of the many military histories, see : Dodge. Bird's-Eye View of the Civil Wa, (1897), very useful in connection with a larger work ; Ropes, Story of the Civil War, 2 vols. (1894-1898), unfinished at the death of the author but continued by Liver- more, two volumes of whose work are promised for 1913 ; Count of Paris, The Civil War in America, 4 vols, (trans., 1875-1S88); The Campaigns of the Civil War, 13 vols. (i8Si-i89o),mostly by generals who participated, important but not impartial; Fletcher, The Civil War in America, 7, vols. (1865); Wood and Edmonds, The Civil War in the United States (1895) ; and Henderson, The Science of War (1905), by an excellent English authority, five chapters relate to our civil war. Fo.x, Regimental Losses (i&%g),a.nAh\xmnore, Numbers and Losses (T901), are also valu- able. The Southern side is presented in : Evans, edr., Confederate History, 12 vols. (1899), a cooperative history by states; Pollard, The Lost Cause (1867) ; and Wood, The Confederate Handbook (1900). The leading biographies and memoirs on the Northern side are : Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, a History, 10 vols. (1890), a storehouse of information but always commendatory of Lincoln ; Cox, Military Reminiscences, 2 vols. (1900), a good book ; Grant, Personal Memoirs, 2 \'ols. (1895) ; Badeau, Military History of Grant, 3 vols. (1868-1881); W. T. Sherman, Memoirs, 2 vols. (18S0); Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, 2 vols. (1902); Schofield, Forty-six Years in the Army (1897); Schurz, Reminiscences, 3 vols. (1907-1909); Woodward, Nathaniel Lyon (1862); Coppee, George H. Thomas (1893); and Lew Wallace. An Autobiography, 2 vols. (1906). All of these relate to men who served in the West. On the Southern side see : Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations (1874) ; Johnston, Life of Albert Sydney Johnston (1879) ; Hood, Advance and Retreat (1880) ; Polk, Leonidas Polk, 2 vols. (1893); Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction (1879); Wheeler, Wheeler and His Cavalry (1899) ; Lee, Memoirs of General Pendleton (1893) ; Wyeth, A'. B. Forrest (1899) ; and Roman, Pierre G. T. Beauregard, 2 vols. (1884). In this connection one must mention Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 4 vols. (1888), reminiscences of participants, interesting and valuable. The sources are embraced in several collections published by the national and state governments. Of these the greatest is The War of the Rebellion, a Compilalion of the Records of the Union andConfcderate Armies, 6g vols, in 128 books, with an atlas. It contains the reports of officers in both armies with other matter relating to military operations. .\ companion work is Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, 22 vols. (1S94-1908). .An important source of information is the Reports of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 8 vols, (passim). Most of the states, North and South, have published regimental histories and muster rolls. Moore, Rebellion Record, 13 vols. (1861-1868), is a compilation of contemporary utterances, an interesting mine of personal incidents, war poetry, speeches, etc. Applcton's Annual Cyclopedia (beginning in 1861) is also important. Sec Photographic History of the War, 10 vols. (1911), for photographs. On army experiences, see : Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid (1875) ; McClure, Lincoln and Men of War Time (1892); Hosmer, The Thinking Bayonet (1865); Browne, Four Years in Sccessia (1865), by a war correspondent; Boynton, Chat- 544 THE WESTERN CAMPAIGNS tanooga and Chickamauga (1891) ; Nichols, The March to the Sea (1865) ; McCarthy, Detailed Miiiiitife of a Soldier's Life (1882) ; Goss, Recollections of a Private (1890) ; and Wilkeson, Recollections of a Private Soldier (18S7). On the Southern side: Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, 2 vols. (1866) ; Gilmour, Four Years in the Saddle (1866) ; Smedes, .4 Southern Planter (iSgg) ; Wilson, Life in the Confederacy (1885) ; Hague, A Blockaded Family (1888) ; and Headley, Confederate Operations in Canada and New York (1906). The use of negroes as soldiers is described in Williams, History of Negro Troops (1888). For Independent Reading Chestnut, Diary from Dixie (1905) ; Gay, Life in Dixie during the War (1892) ; Hague, A.Blockaded Family (1888); Smedes, A Southern Planter (1899); Morse, Life of Lincoln, 2 vols. (1893) ; Tarbell, Life of Lincoln, 2 vols. (ed. 1900) ; Trent, Life of Lee (1899); and Dana, Life of Grant (1S68). For those who have much interest in military history the memoirs of Grant, Co.x, and Joseph G. Johnston will be interesting. Rhodes's History is probably the most interesting story of the CHAPTER XXVI THE WAR IN THE EAST, 1862-1865 McClellan's Peninsular Campaign The most striking feature of the story of the union armies in the East is the efforts to find a successful general. From the beginning of the war until March, 1864, six commanders were tried and rejected. Then the task was confided to Grant, whose ^andM-™ successes at Vicksburg and Chattanooga indicated that he was the long-sought leader. Under his direction the struggle was conducted to its close. The confederates, however, were as fortunate in this respect as the federals were unfortunate. Their first leader, Joseph E. Johnston, was an excellent commander ; and when he was incapacitated, his successor was Robert E. Lee, the equal of any Ameri- can soldier. The first of the union commanders was McDowell, who fought a well-planned battle at Bull Run and lost it because of no fault of his own. But failure damaged his prestige with the army, jyj o, j, and he was followed, July 27, 1861, by McClellan, fresh from victories in West Virginia (see page 526). McClellan was a man of good address, and soon had the devotion of his soldiers. His imusual ability as an organizer quickly improved the efficiency of the army. But he displayed some unfortunate personal qualities. He overestimated the strength of his opponents ; he was sensitive of interference by others ; he quarreled with General Winfield Scott, until October 31, 1861, the commander of the army, and McClellan's superior ; and he openly criticized the war department for political appointments. On the other hand, it must be remembered that McClellan was a good general, and his irritation at the meddlesomeness of the politicians was natural. In politics he was a democrat, and the open hostility of Stanton, the secretary' of war, was supposed to arise from an unwillingness to enhance the popularity of one who might in the future be a formidable presidential candidate. The McClellan controversy is still a matter of dispute. By the end of October, 138,000 men were under arms near Wash- ington, and public opinion demanded an advance, but McClellan was not ready. October 21, at Ball's Bluff, 2000 men, who had been incautiously thrown across the Potomac, were sur- xgrdlnees rounded and half of them lost. One of the slain was Colonel Baker, of California, an officer of much promise, whose death 2N 545 546 THE WAR IN THE EAST was deeply regretted. The blow caused profound sorrow in the North, but McClellan did nothing to retrieve it. The weather was fine through November and most of December, but still he kept his camp. Then he fell ill of typhoid fever and was prostrate until the middle of January. Finally Lincoln, who was generally patient with McClellan, issued an order for an advance by all the armies. East and West, on February 22. The order was impracticable and was ignored. But McClellan's plan was made. He proposed to take the army to Fortress Monroe, and from that point to reach Richmond up the "Peninsula," between the James and York rivers. By Plan * *° * this plan he would have support from the navy and main- tain his communications by water. To the objection that he would thus leave Washington exposed, he replied that Washing- ton was safe as long as his army kept the confederates busy near their own capital. Lincoln did not wholly approve the plan, but consented to it on condition that enough troops be left at Washington to secure it from danger. After McClellan was well on his way, he learned that McDowell with 40,000 men, on whom he had counted, was to be retained on the Potomac. He complained bitterly, but Lincoln held that the retention of McDowell was in keeping with his agreement. Early in April McClellan had 100,000 men at Fortress Monroe and began to advance cautiously. The confederates made a show of opposition at Yorktown, stretching a thin line across His the Peninsula, at that place thirteen miles wide. It the'cucka* coidd have been carried easily, but McClellan thought it hominy. required siege operations. He brought up his heavy guns, constructed intrenchments, and after a month's delay was ready to open fire when the enemy quietly left their position. At Williamsburg they fought a rear-guard action in which they lost 1570 men to their opponents' 1866. But they still retreated, and were closely followed. The fleet with the supply ships passing up the York seized White House Landing, twenty mUes from Richmond, and made it a base of supplies for the army, which was thrown out to the Chicka- hominy, ten miles from the city. This was the situation on May 16. The federal advance into the interior made Norfolk unsafe for the confederates, and they evacuated it, destroying the ram Virginia (Merrimac), which they could not remove. This left the Op'ened '^^"^ federal fleet without opposition in these waters, and it ascended the James to Drury's Bluff, six miles from Rich- mond. Here it encountered strong batteries, beyond which it did not go. A cooperating land force could have taken this position, but McClellan was on the York, vv'hich allowed him to keep his army between the confederates and Washington. MeanwhUe, the confederates clung to Richmond, and Lincoln, losing his fears for Washington's safety, ordered McDowell to Fredericksburg ^ and thence to the aid of McClellan. Six days later, May 24, the order JACKSON IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY 547 was reversed on account of unexpected developments in the Shenan- doah valley. This region furnishes a safe approach to Harper's Ferry, sixty miles from the capital and seventy-five from Balti- more. Stonewall Jackson was in its lower part with 1 7,000 Jackson's men, watched by Banks with 19,000 near Strasburg, and jn'the^'"" Fremont, with 15,000 in the mountains to the westward valley. — all within easy distance. Besides these, there were 7000 men at Harper's Ferry. Milroy, under Fremont, stood with .3500 men at McDowell, 25 miles west of Staunton, so that if Jackson advanced on Banks, Milroy might close in on his rear. The approach of McClellan to Richmond made it ad\'isable for Jackson to create a diversion, so as to draw off McDowell, and he began a brilliant campaign which well illustrates what an inferior force, when well handled, may do in conflict with a divided opjjosition. First he fell unexpectedly on MUroy and defeated him, and pursuing him northward threw Fremont into such terror that he was not a factor in the situation for several days. Then returning to the valley, he moved swiftly on Banks at Strasburg, whose force had just been weakened by sending 10,000 men under Shields to help McDowell in his movement to the aid of McClellan. Jackson was nearly on Banks before his approach was known. The latter was too weak to fight, and hastened northward, the confederates in hot pursuit. At Winchester, May 25, they overtook Banks, charged him at dawn, and sent his force beaten and demoralized toward the Potomac, which the fugitives crossed the next day, Jackson stopping at Harper's Ferry. This unexpected movement created consternation in Wash- ington, which, the authorities thought, was Jackson's objective. It was on this account that McDowell was ordered to turn away from Fredericksburg. Lincoln hoped to throw him ^'^ into the valley south of Jackson's position, to bring Fre- jackson. mont from the west into the same position, and thus sur- round and capture Jackson. Orders to this effect were given ; but Jackson knew his danger and began a retreat as rapid as his advance. He barely slipped into Strasburg before Shields and Fremont reached them from opposite directions, and, when they tried to follow him down the valley, hurled them back in two sharp battles. In a month's campaign he had captured many prisoners and vast supply trains, which he safely sent off from Port Republic, and he had drawn McDowell so far westward that he was worth nothing to McCkdlan, who must fight Johnston unaided. But McClellan was not in danger. He had nearly 120,000 men, and his pickets were in sight of Richmond, within which Johnston could muster but 63,000. The union army was in five corps, two of which under Keyes and Heintzelman were south of the Chicka- hominy, then swollen by rains, and the others under Porter, Sumner, and Franklin were north of it to protect the railroad to White 548 THE WAR IN THE EAST House Landing and to touch hands with McDowell, who was expected up to May 24. Johnston saw his opportunity and fell on the two isolated corps of Keyes and Heintzelman on May 31 at The Ba'.tle Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks. He fought hard and drove Pine^s''*" back his opponents, but they were not crushed, and late May 31. in the day Sumner crossed the river and saved the battle ere dark. Ne.xt day other troops were thrown over, and the united army drove back the confederates to their position in the beginning of the action. At sunset on the 31st, Johnston was severely wounded, and June i Robert E. Lee succeeded him. Two Command roads ran from this region into the city, and across them he began to throw up breastworks, behind which his army was placed. Rain for two weeks made the ground impossible for artillery, and Lee was thus able to finish his defenses before they could be assailed. McCleUan has been criticized for not assaulting, but he had an- other plan of battle. He was strong in artillery and proposed to plant it advantageously and force the confederate lines by ap- Siege proaching in siege fashion, — a slow but sure method for a Planned. superior force. Davis and Lee both admitted that it would be successful. Not daring to await such an attack, they planned a movement around the federal right. Jackson, still in the Shenandoah valley, was to elude McDowell, and march to the north of McClellan's lines, while Lee, coming out of his Confederate intrenchments, would join Jackson at the right moment. Attack. *-'^'- McClellan's communications, and surround and capture him, or send him in confusion back to the York river. The danger in this was that Jackson's cooperation might be ill-timed or that McClellan might penetrate Lee's lines when they were weakened and occupy Richmond. Lee knew both his lieutenant and his foe. He did not believe the former would fail him, nor that the latter had enough enterprise to strike for Richmond at the critical moment. In both conclusions his judgment proved good. Jackson cleverly got out of the valley and, marching with that rapidity which won for his men the name of "foot cavalry," was north of Richmond on June 26. Here Porter's corps. Mechanics- ^\jq^\- 25,000 strong, protected the federal right at Me- 26 ■ chanicsville, the only federal troops north of the Chicka- hominy. At this moment Lee ordered out A. P. Hill's, Longstreet's, and D. H. Hill's divisions to unite with Jackson and crush Porter. The former mo\-ed at the appointed hour and fought a vigorous battle at Mechanicsville, June 26 ; but Jackson Gaines's ^^^ jjg^j£ ^ ^^y j^^^g ^^^^^ Hill's attack was beaten back. June 27. ^^ the night the four confederate lieutenants united their forces and faced Porter with 55,000 men. The latter was badly placed, and by the orders of his superior fell back to Gaines's McCLELL.\N'S ESCAPE 549 Mill, where he received and checked the first confederate charge about noon of the 27th. All through the afternoon he fought desper- ately, but at sunset his lines were broken by a general assault and his defeated corps, numbering with reenforcements 3 1 ,000, was forced off the field and sought safety south of the river. During this day McClellan had over 60,000 men south of the river, between Lee and Richmond, in which were only 25,000 defenders. He might well have overcome this force and taken the city, but his overcautious mind thought at least 100,000 confederates McCielian's were in Richmond, and he thought this was proved by opportunity the fact that Lee did not hesitate to lea,ve the place for operations against Porter. The capture of the north bank of the Chickahominy placed Lee across the communications of the federal army. He believed the federals would either fight their way back or retreat down the peninsula to Fortress Monroe. On the morning of His Change the 28th clouds of dust to the east seemed to show they had taken the latter course, and he made arrangements to follow. It was not until ne.xt morning that he learned he was mistaken. McClellan had detennined to shift his base to the James and was rapidly executing that movement, much benefited by the twenty- four hours' start Lee unwittingly ga\'e him. He was followed with haste on the 29th, but held his own in a hard fight at Savage's Station, and again on the 30th in a stOl harder Savages encounter at Frayser's Farm, or Glendale. July i he was Station and on the bank of the James, marching southeastward to p^m^june Harrison's Landing, where the anchorage was good. 29 and 30. He took a strong position at Malvern Hill, overlooking the river, and for a moment the confederates hesitated to attack. But Lee believed he had defeated most of the federal army at Gaines's Mill, and thought his opponents so demoralized that they could not make a succes.sful resistance. He ordered the tr,i/*T^„ t ^ 1 • r • 1 • ^ ill* j -1*111 ■ July I. assault, and his forces were received with well-directed artillery and infantry fire and defeated with heavy loss. It is conceded that the battle of Malvern Hill was an error on the part of the con- federate commander, due to his underestimation of the strength and condition of the federals. The Seven Days' Battles, June 26 to July i, comprised five en- gagements in which McClellan lost 15,849 and Lee 20,135. The result was a union defeat in the sense that Richmond was „ not taken. But McClellan at Harrison's Landing was only twenty miles from Richmond, and had a safe base of operations. His army, though exhausted and dispirited, was not demoralized, and might have taken the offensive again after a short period of rest. He himself had no thought of giving up and called for reenforcements. But the confidence of the government in the general was undermined, 550 THE WAR IN THE EAST reenforcements were not sent, and after ten days of hesitation it was determined to recall him to Washington and move his army to north- ern Virginia. The controversy that arose over his treatment is his- toric. Personally he was arrogant, and his letters to Lincoln were full of bitter reproaches. The president's replies are m'ci always in the kindest terms, and it cannot be doubted Controversy. ^^^'^^ ^^ supported his unpopular general as long as the country at large would have it. But spite of his faults, McCIellan was a safe campaigner of the deliberate kind, and if he liad been given liis way, he would probably have hung on at Richmond until he stormed it into surrender. It is in his favor that the city finally fell before a nine months' siege in which Grant approached from practically the same quarter that McCIellan selected in the beginning of the war. Pope and Second Bull Run July II, ten days after Malvern Hill, Halleck was recalled from St. Louis and made commander of all the union armies with headquarters in Washington. For the success in the West his subordi- and Pone nates were chiefly responsible, but this was not as clear then as later. He became, in fact, military associate with the president and the secretary of war, who, since January, 1862, was the strong-willed Stanton. The armies of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell were consolidated, in all 43,000 men, and Pope, victor at Island No. 10, was placed in command. He was an aggressive general, but incautious. He issued a proclamation to his new army contain- ing these words, and others of similar import: "I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies ; from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary and to beat him when he was found. ... I presume that I have been called here to pursue the same system." This overconfident spirit offended the officers and privates, who were sensitive about their recent defeats. In an imlucky moment he said, by common report, that his headquarters would be in the saddle, a phrase which set his soldiers laughing at his e.xpense. Early in July he mobilized his army in front of Washington and turned its face southward along the line of railroad that ran to Manassas, arriving undisturbed at Cul- peper. He was much under the influence of Stanton and other radical politicians whose interference frecjuently created difficulties for Lin- coln and the generals. At Culpeper, Pope threatened Gordonsville, where the railroad from the north crosses another from Staunton going eastward. To protect it Lee sent forward Jackson with nearly 24,000 men, who reached Gordonsville and turned northward, while Banks, followed at an interval by Sigel with Fremont's old army, was hurrying JACKSON IN POPE'S KKAR 55: southward. August 8, Jackson struck Banks, whose force was only 8000, at Cedar Mountain. The federal troops remembered the valley campaign and fought desperately, but they were outnum- bered two to one and were forced back on Sigel late in the Jackson afternoon. Then Jackson halted for the arrival of Lee, g ^1*^ who, at last satisfied that McClellan's army was withdraw- cedar ing from Harrison's Landing, was moving rapidly on Gor- Mountain, donsville. McClellan's men were then marching overland to Yorktown and Fortress Monroe to embark for Acquia Creek, on the Potomac, whence they would undoubtedly be sent to strengthen Pope ; but as this movement would require two weeks Lee hoped by a cjuick concentration to crush Pope before reenforcements reached Cul- peper. But Pope displayed unexpected caution. From a captured dis- patch he learned Lee's plan and fell back behind the Rappahannock and was 35 miles from Acquia Creek, where troops were already land- ing. There was much confusion in high circles in Washington, but Pope was ordered to hold the Rappahannock at every hazard, and it was believed that a forward movement would follow a federal con- centration. All this came to naught through a brilliant movement, probably conceived by Stonewall Jackson. It was, in brief, to send Jackson with 25,000 men well around Pope's right to cut the rail- road by which the union supplies came up. Pope, it p^g^Jo^"^'* might be expected, would fall back and fight Jackson, Attack, who must manage to beat him off for a short time, while Lee, makmg a still wider detour to the west, would come up as Pope fought, take position by Jackson's side, and complete the work of federal demoralization. It was a hazardous measure, but Lee felt he could risk something in the presence of a general so unwary as Pope. The result showed that his confidence was well founded. In fact, the plan worked better thai: was anticipated ; for Jackson was able to elude his enemy until Lee was actually at hand. The start was made August 25, and twenty-five miles were covered that day in safety. Pope heard that a large body of troops was march- ing on his right and should have occupied the passes in that direction, but he thought the confederate anny was moving J*<=*son into the Shenandoah valley by Fort Royal, and neglected Pope'sRear. to protect his rear. Eight miles north of the Rappahan- nock a range of hills, the Bull Run mountains, runs away north- ward, broken sixteen miles west of Manassas by Thoroughfare Gap. Passing beyond these hills, which screened his movements, Jackson halted before the Gap on the night of the 26th, and next morning passed through it, moving rapidly eastward. In the late afternoon he reached Bristoe Station, cut the telegraph lines, broke the rail- road track, and sending a portion of his force to Manassas destroyed a vast depot of federal supplies after appropriating all his troops SS2 THE WAR IN THE EAST could consume or ca.Tr/ with them. In this process he spent all of the 27th, throwing out detachments north and south to save his main force from surpr'se. About 8 o'clock on the 26th, Pope learned the confederates were in his rear. He did not think they were divided, but thought they could not have gone further than Warrenton and that the Pope's demonstration at Bristoe was only a feint. He gave rogr^e * orders, therefore, to concentrate at Warrenton, where he Movement, expected to offer battle. But riding to Bristoe late in the day he discovered that Jackson was resting at Manassas and gave sharp orders for a concentration at that point. McDowell had divined the true situation and occupied the approaches to Thorough- fare Gap, by which Lee must come up. If he had held them, the force at Manassas must have been isolated and badly handled. But he obeyed orders, and on the 2Sth withdrew just as Longstreet, com- manding the other half of Lee's army, approached it from the west. He moved toward Manassas, where Pope arrived at noon of the same day. To the surprise of Pope his prey had gone in the night. No one knew just where, but it was said he went to the northeast. Pope supposed the confederates were trying to reach Alexandria and gave orders to move northward. Jackson's departure to the north- east was only a feint. He soon doubled back toward Thoroughfare Gap and took a ^trong position on the heights of Groveton, O^'e'ns" '-^^^ ™^^^^ ^'^^'' °^ ^^^ '^^'^ ^"^'' ^"" battlefield. He con- Battle, cealed his force as well as he could through the night and next forenoon, August 29, and awaited news from Long- street. On the same morning the supporting column cleared the Gap, and Jackson, hearing the good news, revealed his position and opened fire on union columns mo\'ing along the roads toward the north. Longstreet, hearing the guns, hurried his steps, and arriving at noon found his friend warmly engaged, the union brigades coming up rapidly and forming line of battle as they arrived. Longstreet placed himself on Jackson's right, before which Porter's corps had taken position. Pope was determined to fight a battle, and ordered Porter to turn Jackson's right ; but Porter, finding masses of infantry before him, refused to sacrifice his men, and reported the situation. Pope paid no attention to this information, for he still thought Longstreet beyond the Bull Run mountains. He therefore assaulted Jackson's center, and renewed his orders to Porter to turn the confederate left. Again Porter refused to attack, action for which he was cashiered and removed from command, only to be completely exonerated by con- gress after many years of discussion. At nightfall the confederates were still in position, the union assaults in the center had been beaten off, and Pope's army was dispirited. But the general, who six weeks earlier had talked so confidently of \ictory, could not make up his mind to fall back as he should have POPE DEFEATED 553 done. He remained in his tracks, and on the morning of the 30th re- sumed the battle. Moving Porter from the left he sent him against Lee's center. This gallant officer, stung by criticisms of the previous day, now showed the greatest bravery ; but l*!^"'' f his best efforts were in vain. Then Lee took the offensive, Manassas, charging the federals persistently, forcing them back to the Henry House, on the battlefield of the preceding year — where by a desperate stand the confederates were held at bay until the demorahzed federals had crossed Bull Run and blown up the famous old bridge behind them. The army marched on toward Washington, Lee sent Jackson in a pursuit which ended on September i, when the pursuers were barely defeated at Chantilly, where gallant Phil Kearny lost his life. In this campaign Pope lost 14,000 out of 80,000 men and Lee lost 9000 out of 54,000. Thus ended Pope's campaign. In the flood of unpopularity which came upon him the country forgot his good qualities. He was as hard a fighter as Hood, who impetuously wore himself out _ fighting Shemian and Thomas. But, like Hood, he was comma'nder arra}'ed against very able generals. He was decei\'ed by Jackson's remarkably rapid march and liy Lee's audacious tactics. He lost his self-control when he found himself cut off from his base and gave orders in utter distraction ; but when once the enemy's position was revealed he turned and fought bravely. It is due him, also, to say that he was much hampered by his superiors. Halleck assumed to direct his movements, kept him in ignorance of the plans of cam- paign being made in Washington, and left him ignorant of the move- ments of reenforcement which had been promised. But the disaster at second Bull Run destroyed Pope's influence over his army, and his removal became a necessity. The Campaign of Antietaji . Lee was not strong enough to besiege Washington, and foresaw that to wait at Manassas would invite a federal countermove, before which he must fall back with a loss of prestige. He concluded to proceed at once into Maryland, hoping the people there ?'^* would join lus army in numbers. His plan was to march Maryland, to Hagerstown, where he would force a battle with the union army, and beating it to threaten Harrisburg and probably Bal- tunore. As it was just at this time that Kirby Smith and Bragg were operating successfully in Kentucky (see page 529) it was hoped that such an impression might be made on European opinion that recognition of the confederacy would follow. September 4, less than a week after Pope's crushing defeat, his advance under Jackson crossed the Potomac twenty-fi\'e miles above Washington, and by the 7th the rest of his army was in Maryland. Rcenforced by the 554 THE WAR IN THE EAST troops he had left in Richmond he had hardly 60,000 men. Septem- ber 6, Jackson reached Frederick, where the now repudiated Barbara- Frietchie incident was said to have occurred. To his surprise the farmers drove off their cattle and would not sell their Harper s grain. Then Lee decided to open a line of supplies Ca^toed. through the Shenandoah valley, at the entrance of which was Harper's Ferry with a garrison of 12,500 men. To remove this obstacle he sent Jackson on the loth, with orders to com- plete his task and rejoin his conunander as quickly as possible. To divide his army thus in the presence of the enemy was ordinarily bad generalship ; but he knew his opjionents were slow and he believed no harmful results would follow. Jackson's march was swift, as usual, and on the 14th he occupied the hills which encircle the place, and the garrison, with many valuable stores, was surrendered with- out a battle. But let us return to the army of Pope, marching on September 5 hopelessly back to Washington. Near the city the vanguard was met by McClellan with orders to take command. In a McCleiian moment the spirit of the soldiers changed, and shouts of mand. J^y welcomed him as he rode past the regiments. Pope was assigned to other duties in Washington. The same day orders were given to enter Maryland and follow Lee, but it was not until the loth that McClellan had reorganized the army, and the 1 2th before he reached Frederick, through which the confederates had passed a few days earlier. Here he was handed, at 6 p.m. on the 13th, an order from Lee to D. H. Hill, recently found by a private, which revealed the plans of the confederate commander. It showed him that his opponent's army was divided, and he decided to place himself between its two parts. Twelve miles west of him were the South mountains, with two gaps in them, beyond which the roads connecting the two confederate forces were no more than eight miles away. Had he marched in the night he might ha\'e His Slow occupied these passes, but he waited until daylight, and to^Lee. when he reached them found they were held by the con- federates. By hard fighting the gaps were both carried on the 14th, but the loss was severe. By this time Lee had learned the fate of the lost order and was falling back from Hagerstown. He stopped at Sharpsburg, threw up intrenchments in a strong position with Antietam creek on his front, and waited Jackson, who on the morning of the 15th received the surrender of Harper's Ferry and immediately set out to rejoin Lee, fifteen miles away. Frojn Lee's position to the South mountains was only nine miles, and McClellan easily covered them by noon of the 15th. If he had fought in the afternoon he would ha\'e had half the confederate force at his mercy ; but he chose to wait while his army recuperated. Next morning Jackson's men were coming up rapidly, but the last divisions did not INVASION OF MARYLAND S5S arrive until the following morning, the 17th. Yet McClellan was idle on the i6th. Nothing could better show how little he was capable of seizing upon a favorable situation. There was skirmishing late on the i6th, but it was not until dawn of the 17th that the battle was opened. Three corps, Hooker's, Mansfield's, and Sumner's, had approached Lee's left oi\ the i6th, showing him where to expect attack. He Battle of drew back his lines and strengtheneil the point threatened, geptemt^er In the early mornhig Hooker c;ime up most vigorously. 17, 1862. .\s he struggled for the high ground in front of him, Mans- field came up and joined in the battle. Hut the latter officer was killed, Hooker was severely wounded, and soon afterwards their corps fell back out of the deadly fire. Then Sumner ad\'anced on the same ]iosition unsupported. He received the concentrated fire of Lee's left wing, and was so cut up that he had to withdraw with severe loss. Thus by one o'clock the fighting on Lee's left ended in a repulse. It was immediately renewed on his right, where Burnside's men pressed against lines which had been weakened to meet the charge on the left. They carried the battle before them and seemed about to seize the high ground which commanded this part of the lield when A. P. Hill's division of Jackson's corps rushed up, completing an eighteen- mile march from Harper's Ferry. Without orders from Lee they fell on the advancing union line and dro\'e it back with bloody effect to its original position. Then night came, and the battle of Antietam was over. Lee's army of 60,000 had repelled the attack with a loss of 11,000 killed and wounded. McClellan with 87,000 lost 12,400. Next morning each army was in position, but McClellan did not renew the battle. Lee's ad\'ance into Maryland was checked, and nothing was left but to recross the Potomac, which was only two miles behind his position. This he did on the ^."^"^ 19th without interference from his unaggressive adversary. Battle. September 17 was the bloodiest single day in the war. The union soldiers fought splendidly, and justified the confidence of their commander. The nation received the news with joy ; for al- though the confederacy was not destroyed, the union army's prestige was reestablished and the North was relieved from invasion. McClel- lan 's failure to impede the confederate retreat again brought his serious failing into prominence, and for this he was removed, the command going, November 5, to Burnside. The Battle of Fredericksbxjrg Burnside did not wish to lead the army, but the appointment came as an order, and he obeyed it. The whole situation demanded a move on Richmond. Indeed, it was for not moving that McClellan was dis- placed. Two railroads ran from the Potomac southward ; one from 5s6 THE WAR IN THE EAST Washington by way of Manassas, through a rolling country in which the rivers are narrow, the other from Acquia Creek through Fred- ericksburg to Richmond, crossing rivers comparatively Bumside in ,^ ^^ ^j j f^^ ^^jj^ McDowell in 1861 and Pope Command. .„,,," , tt 1 . m 1S62 had operated. If the country was more prac- ticable than that to the eastward, it gave a longer approach to Rich- mond. Bumside, weighing all advantages and disadvantages, con- cluded to move by Acquia Creek and Fredericksburg, and His Plan Lincoln, after some hesitation, accepted the plan. Lee or Aovflncc > l i. was then at Culpeper with Longstreet, and Jackson was far away in the valley. Burnside ordered pontoons, and eluding Lee moved quickly to the Rajjpahaimock opposite Fredericksburg, hoping to cross the river and hold the heights south of it before Lee could arrive. But his pontoons were not ready promptly, and when they arrived Longstreet held the southern heights and Jackson was coming up rapidly. Burnside had 113,000 and Lee, with Jackson at hand, had 78,000 men. The ground adjoining the river on the south is a plain from a mile to a mile and a half wide, covered by Burnside "s guns on the north bank. Behind it rise hills, on the crest of which Lee took Battle of position. His left was held by Longstreet and his right Fredencks- \^^ Jackson, who arrived there on the 12th and was not cember 13, '^^'^11 intrenched on the day of the battle. Burnside 1862. divided his force into three grand divisions under Hooker, Franklin, and Sumner. The first remained in reserve on the north bank, but the second and third he threw across the river on the 12th, where they remained safely on the plain. Franklin con- fronted Jackson, and Sumner, protected by the streets of Fredericks- burg, was before Longstreet. Bumside by this time showed that the problem on his mind overwhelmed him. He displayed little decision, and his lieutenants were full of misgivings. Early on the 13th Frank- lin received an order which might mean to carry the works before him or to make a reconnaissance in force. The former was Burn- side's intention, but Franklin in some doubt sent forward Meade's division, and some time later supported it with Gibbons's On the division. The former went forward with great courage. Right. found a weak point, and penetrated Jackson's line, but he was not well supported, and was driven back with heavy loss by the confederate commander. With this, fighting ceased on this wing. In the town Sumner had been held in restraint, but On the j-^Q^y came on to assault Longstreet. It was a murderous Marye's ' ^^^^ ' ''°'^ ^^''^ ^^^ confederate position was exceedingly Heights. strong. Its center was Marye's Heights, well defended at the top by artillery and at the bottom by an infantry line behind a stone wall. Across the plain by which it was reached was LEE AGAINST HOOKER 557 an old canal, which would impede a charge, and the whole plain was so well covered that a confederate engineer remarked that it would be impossible for a chicken to live on it, once the confederate guns opened fire. Sumner's brigades, however, were thrown six times across this deadly spot, each time recoiling with enormous loss. Hooker, who had come over the river, rode hastily back to Bumside, on the north bank, to urge that the assault cease, but the general would not relent until 8000 of his men lay on the fatal slopes. The total loss in that day's fighting was 12,653 federals and 5377 con- federates. December 15, under cover of night and a violent storm, the union army withdrew to the north bank. Grief and . despair reigned in army and nation. Bumside himself command was crushed, some of his highest officers were at open feud with liim, and he asked for their dismissal or the acceptance of his own resignation. January 26 he was removed, and the command went to Hooker, chief of Burnside's critics. The Battle of Chancellorsville Hooker was a good fighter, and the soldiers liked him. His ap- pointment to command them restored the broken spirits of the men, and by April they were an.vious to meet their foes. Re- cruiting had brought the numbers up to 130,000, whOe ^ °'^*'^j Lee in Fredericksburg had only 60,000. April 27, Hooker initiative, broke up his camp opposite Lee, sencHng three corps thirty miles up the river. Here they crossed and turning eastward on its right bank approached Chancellorsville, nme miles from Fredericks- burg. On the 30th another corps crossed the ri\'er and joined the other three, so that Hooker by clever marchmg was in good position beyond the ri\Tr with 40,000 men and on Lee's left tiank. While this was going on, Sedgwick with 20,000 men had crossed the Rappa- hannock south of Lee's position and threatened his rear. May i, Hooker moved a short distance toward the enemy, but when he suddenly met them coming toward hun, eager for battle, his confidence forsook him, and he fell back to Chancellorsville against the ad\ice of his generals. Here he selected a position Ab""^''"^ with his back to the river, near a ford, and awaited at- offensive. tack. Since he far outnumbered Lee, it would have been better to have made the attack. Part of his line lay in the "WOder- ness," a region covered with small trees and chaparral and difficult for marching troops. His officers and sol- Battle of diers were disgusted that he so quickly relinquished a Chancellors- promising offensive and accepted a careful defensive. May 2, 3 and 4, 2, Lee was before him ready to attack, spite of his nu- 1863. merical inferiority. Jackson is said to have suggested the plan of battle which was adopted. While the confederate line 555 THE WAR IN THE EAST made feint after feint along the union front, he made a detour of fifteen miles, until at five o'clock in the afternoon he fell unexpec- tedly on Hooker's extreme right, routing Howard's corps and badly demoralizing the corps next to it. Then darkness closed do^^^l, and it seemed that the coming of dawn would witness a renewed and suc- cessful fight by the terrible Jackson. But his end was at hand. In the twilight he rode past his own sentinels to reconnoiter in the en- emy's rear. Half an hour later a group of horsemen galloped back on the sentinels and received a volley, after which a voice Jackson '^^^ '^^ ^^^ dark called : "Boys, don't fire again : you have hit General Jackson !" They carried him through lines of his own awe-stricken men to a hospital, and May lo he died. Had he been at Gettysburg, as Lee truly said, the story of the battle would have been different. May 3 the battle was renewed, and by lo o'clock the field belonged to the confederates. Hooker, dazed by the effects of a cannon ball, which struck a column against which he leaned, drew back Comnieted^ toward the river. Sedgwick now approached behind Lee, after driving off Early with 9000 men, whom Lee left at Fredericksburg. Lee believed Hooker was past active resistance, and turned his back on him to crush Sedgwick. He found him on the river's edge, five miles from the camp of his superior commander, and pressed him so disastrously on the 4th that Sedgwick crossed to the north bank during the night. Then Lee turned again on Hooker's 80,000, who stood not to fight, although they would have done it with a better general, but withdrew to the north bank by the morn- ing of the 6th. Through three days of fighting at Chancellorsville the losses were 17,287 on the union side and 12,463 on the confederate side. It was the last great confederate victory. The Gettysburg Campaign Lee's motives in invading the North were three: i. He wished to transfer the war to enemy's territory. 2. It was becoming e\'ident that Vicksburg would fall, and he wished to counteract its Motives effect by a victory of his own equally decisive, i.e. by tak- ing Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, or even Wash- ington. 3. He knew the North was tiring of the war, that the terms of enlistment of her soldiers were expiring, and he thought a great defeat now would tend to make her accept peace on the basis of Southern independence. Calling to hun Longstreet's corps, which was ^ not in the battle of Chancellorsville, he had nearly 80,000 men, while his antagonist could hardly muster more until the new levies could be assembled. The rest of his army was in two corps: Jackson's old corps, now commanded by Eweli, and another commanded by A. P. Hill. To Ewell was gi\en the van, and he LEE IN PENNSYLVANIA 559 started June 10 for the Shenandoali valley, ^vhich he easily cleared of union troops. June 15 he began to cross the Potomac, whence he moved to Hagerstown, Maryland. A few days' march behind him went Hill, and after him Longstreet, so that by June 26 the three corps were across the Potomac. So well did Lee's cavalry screen his movements that these initial stages of his campaign were accom- plished without revealing his intentions to Hooker. But in the last days of June its leader, Jeb Stuart, made one of his daring raids, passing between Washington and the federal army V^" into Pennsylvania. He reached York after Early had left cavalry. it, went on to Carlisle, to find Ewell was not there, and only arrived at Gettysburg on July 2, his horses so exhausted that they were not fit for service. At Hanover, on his march, Stuart had a sharp battle with the federal horse, an arm which Hooker had brought to a high state of efficiency. His absence from Lee's immediate front gave the federal commander an opportunity to observe the confeder- ate mo^•ements, and the result was a more rapid union concentration than Lee had e.xpected. Meanwhile, Ewell marched rapidly toward Harrisburg. June 27, he reached Carlisle and sent Early's division eastward to York, which was forced to pay a contribution. Early tried to seize the Columbia bridge over the Susquehanna, so as to ap- *-y*" ^ AuVAOCc on proach the state capital from the east ; but a retreating Harrisburg. militia regiment had the forethought to burn the bridge, and this point marked the limit of Early's eastern advance. At the same time Ew.dl, halting at Carlisle, prepared to attack Harrisburg with his main force. His cavalry, in fact, reached the Susquehanna oppo- site the town, but on June 29, Lee, who with Longstreet and Hill had reached Chamljersburg, ordered him back with all his corps, and the Pennsylvania capital was no longer in danger. Lee's order to Ewell was due to an unexpectedly rapid concentra- tion of the union army. Hooker, who was at cross purposes with Halleck, was forced to remain in Virginia as long as Lee was there. When at last he crossed the Potomac to command Frederick, he had been so hampered by his superiors that the union columns were widely separated. In despair of getting them together, he proposed to resign. The offer was accepted, and thus it happened that on June 27 General Meade was placed in command. He was an able general, of the McClellan school, and he could get on with Halleck. He hastened northward to place himself between Lee and Baltimore, entering Pennsylvania June 30. Lee was at Chambersburg when he learned he was being 9o"<:e"trat- pursued, Hill and Longstreet with him. The former he Gettysburg, sent to Gettysburg at once, and ordered the latter to fol- low, while Ewell was directed to move from his advanced position to the same place. This convinced Meade, then at Taney town, 56o THE WAR IN THE EAST Maryland, that Lee sought a battle, and he selected the ground lit- would take at Pipe Creek, just south of the Maryland line — about 13 miles from Gettysburg. To delay Lee, he sent Reynolds forward to Gettysburg with three corps, expecting they would fall back as they were pressed. Ahead of them marched Buford's cavalry, which arrived at Gettysburg June 30, in the night. Three roads from the south and southeast converge on Gettys- burg, from Emmitsburg, Taneytown, and Baltimore. Along them on the morning of July i marched the union troops from ■a Z< c ij si.x to thirty miles away. Of the several roads on the Battlefield. -' , , r /-.i i 1 west and north, one leads from Chambersburg, and along it were marching Hill and Longstreet, whOe another approaches from Carlisle, and along it came Ewell. Just south of the town in the sharp angle between the Emmitsburg and Taneytown roads is a hill on whose top was the town cemetery. The ground rises to it gently, and from its southern edge a ridge runs away for a mDe or more, beyond which is a small hUl, Little Round Top, and a much larger one, Round Top. East of the cemetery is a slight depression, beyond which is another elevation, Gulp's Hill. Taken as a whole it offers an ideal battlefield for an army fighting on the defensive. Its gentle slope gives good play for artOlery. Stone walls and bowlders on its crest furnish cover for the infantry, its outward curve makes its in- terior lines short and easy, and the hills at either extremity protect it against flanking movements. Past this strong position rode Buford when he entered the town, Reynolds's infantry a few miles behind him. He well knew the con- federates were approaching, and early in the morning The Battle moved out on the roads by which they marched. Across July I. ' the Chambersburg pike, three-quarters of a mOe from Gettysburg, he posted his men on a wooded height known as Seminary Ridge. At nine o'clock Hill's van came in sight, halted, formed a line of battle, and opened fire. Every moment the line grew stronger, and about eleven Buford was about to be driven back when Reynolds's force arrived and the fight continued, brigades on each side being thrown into the battle line as fast as they arrived. Just before noon Reynolds was killed. His men were discouraged, but held their position until 3 o'clock, when Ewell's corps was coming up from the north. They formed on Hill's left and enveloped the union right so that it fell back, lest it be surrounded. Hill now ad- vanced and held Seminary Ridge, while Ewell pushed his line through Gettysburg to the town's southern limits, five hundred L t o* yards from the cemetery on the hill. This quiet spot was portunity. 'he scene of much confusion as the union columns reached it. Cannon were not in position for defense, and the men were too tired to make a spirited stand. If Ewell had advanced with his relatively fresh troops, he must have carried the hill and forced A THREE DAYS' BATTLE 561 the union troops to concentrate at Pipe's Creek. But Ewell let the o])portunity go, and Hancock, who had just arrived to take Reynolds's place, recognizing the strength of the position, intrenched as rapidly as possible, placed his guns in jiosition, and sent messengers urging Meade to bring up all the t roojis. By dark they were arriving rapidly, and at one o'clock in the morning Meade arrived and confirmed Han- cock's decision to fight at Gettysburg. By dawn Cemetery Ridge was well defended. By this time Lee's army was at Gettysburg, or in ea.sy distance. Hill lay on Seminary Ridge, stretching away to the southward. Ewell was on Hill's left, his own left going as far east as Gulp's Hill, and Longstreet, who at nightfall of the ist was on Attack^***'^ the Chambersburg Pike in Hill's rear, was ordered to jyiy 2, move at dawn as quietly as possible to Hill's right and seize Little Round Top, from which batteries, as Lee saw, could sweep the whole union line. Had the order been given to a Stonewall Jackson, it would probably have been executed ; but Longstieet did not favor forcing the battle and wished to flank Meade out of his strong posi- tion. He did not get his force into position until the afternoon, and when he charged against the hill it had been occupied by a federal force, and the assault was driven back. But just north of the hill Longstreet encountered Sickles's corps, thrown out beyond the ridge, and against it he delivered a se^'ere battle. Meade sent division after division to stem the tide, and liy .six o'clock the attack here was re- pelled, although Sickles, severely wounded, was driven back to the top of the ridge. During the afternoon, but later, Ewell made an attack on Meade's right. At Gulp's Hill he ^^l^^ carried all before him, and when his advance was stopped jujy 2' by darkness, his troops were within dangerous proximity to the union rear. That night Meade held a council of war. He had been pushed back on both wings, and the losses were heavy; but it was decided to stand another day and fight the battle to a finiih. To Gibbon, commanding the union center, Meade remarked: "Your turn will come to-morrow. To-day he has struck the flanks. Next, it will be the center." July 3, the attack came, most dramatically. Early in the morning there was severe fighting around Gulp's Hill, but the federal lines held. The rest of the forenoon the two lines lay quietly on their arms, a mile or more apart. At i o'clock came the sharp "^^^ Attack crack of two rifled cannon, the signal for a cannonade Center from the confederate guns : So union cannon, all that juiy 3.' would bear on the scene, opened in reply, and for an hour and a half the heavens reverberated in a mighty symphony. At 2.30 P.M. the federals ceased firing, because their ammunition was running low. Their adversaries then slackened fire, and the word was passed to the infantry to charge the union center where Hancock 562 THE WAR IN THE EAST commanded. Pickett's division, numbering 5400, stood in front of Cemetery Ridge, a mile away, with orders to penetrate the opposing line, supported by 10,000 men from Hill's corps. Stuart's cavalry was made ready to follow and cut up the federals when they should be pressed -back. Longstreet was Pickett's superior. He said that no 15,000 men could take the position, but his orders were explicit, and he directed the advance. The charging column started as steadily as on parade. For a cjuarter of a mile it was protected by a little swale; but as it reached the crest the union guns reopened with deadly effect. At 600 yards came canister, making great gaps in the advancing column, which did not waver. At closer range the guns were silent, and thick ranks of infantry, hitherto lying down behind the batteries, rose, advanced before the guns, and poured a withering fire into the fast diminishing column. But its approach was not halted until it struck the union infantry, carried them back beyond their own guns, where a new line met and checked it. For a brief space, some said twenty minutes, but no man could count the minutes in such a time, it held its advance ; but Hancock, still fighting though severely wounded, threw out regiments to take it in flank, and the assailants were either shot, captured, or driven back across the deadly plain by which they approached. Hancock said: "I have never seen a more formidable attack." Lee's army was badly shattered, and he prepared to receive the countercharge he thought R*ti would surely come. But Meade's plans were defensive, Virginia. '1''"^ ^he Confederates were allowed to remain undisturbed in their lines. All night and all the next day they remained in camp, and on July 5 they withdrew to the south, Meade making no serious effort to strike them ere they crossed the Potomac on July 13. The losses in the three days' fight, killed, wounded, and cap- tured, were 23,003 federals and 20,451 confederates. The battle of Gettysburg was a very hazardous undertaking from Lee's standpoint. With an army of 70,000 he invaded enemy's terri- tory and fought an aggressive engagement against an erTishi *"" intrenched and well-placed army of 93,500. His attack could only be justified on the ground that his opponents were much worse fighters than his own men. Ordinarily he was cautious, but he had beaten liis opponents so often that he had come to underestimate them. Pope's, Burnside's, and Hooker's campaigns failed because of bad generalship, not because of an incapable sol- diery. Lee assumed in his invasion that the leadership of Hooker would continue. In Meade a better type of commander opposed him, and at a time when the confederate general undertook a more serious task than ever before. Meade was not a brilliant general, but he showed no serious faults at Gettysburg, and he had in his great battle the confidence of his army, officers and privates, as well as the entire support of the war department, advantages not enjoyed by either Pope, Burnside, or Hooker. GRANT FIGHTING AND FLANKING 563 From the Wilderness to Petersburg After Gettysburg, the two armies remained inactive in Virginia. There was some maneuvering by which Lee managed to keep Meade in northern Virginia, but neither general risked a battle during the autumn. It was in this autumn that Bragg grants was being forced out of Chattanooga by Rosecrans and arations. Grant, an operation which demanded the best efforts of each government. In March, 1S64, Grant, as we have seen (page 535), was made lieutenant general and took command of all the union armies. Meade was left in actual conuiiand of his army, but Grant joined it and directed its movements. During the winter it lay north of the Rapidan on the railroad that ran through Manassas, Lee's army just south of the same river. Grant had 122,000 men well drilled and amply equipped ; his adversary had about half as many, and they lacked many of the necessities of war. j\Iay 3, Grant moved forward by his left, crossing the Rapidan into the dense thicket known as the Wilderness. Lee was very vigilant, and May 5 confronted the federals in this tangle of under- growth, whose roads he knew well. Grant's plan was to ^.^ go ahead by sheer hard fighting, and he threw his men on May 5 and 6. Lee's lines without hesitation. In such a place his su- periority in artillery was of little use, and the two days' fighting was a severe contest of infantry against infantry (May 5 and 6). The result was a check for each army ; for, the battle ended, each force stood in its tracks. Grant had thought Lee would fall back. Dis- appointed in this, he determined to flank still further to the enemy's right, and May 8 reached Spottsylvania Court House, twelve miles to the southeast. His movement was observed by Lee, whom he found across the road well intrenched. Should it be an attack or a flanking movement ? Grant chose the former. Time Spottsyl- after time he assaulted or skirmished, thinking to break g^gg °" the lines by sheer weight of superior numbers. At every May 8-21. point he was repulsed. May 12, the fighting and losses were heaviest ; for on this day the union loss was 8500. At last the commander gave up his attempt to break through, and flanked again by the left. From May 5 to 21, his total loss was 34,000. It was at Spottsylvania that he wrote the dispatch in which he said: "I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." May 23, Grant reached the North Anna, only to find Lee on its south bank so well fortified that even Grant did not assail. The result was another flank march to the east, Lee always anticipating the maneuver. By this means the two Cold Harbor, armies reached by May 28 the ground McClellan occupied jgg * *' in May, 1862. June 2, after heavy skirmishing, they faced one another at Cold Harbor, six miles from the fortificatif)ns of S64 THE WAR IN THE EAST Richmond. Grant wished to crush the confederate army before it entered these defenses, and gave orders for an attack all along the line. It was delivered at dawn, June 3, in a grand assault by 80,000 men. OflBcers and privates were confident it would fail, but they did not flinch. No troops could withstand the heavy fire they encountered, and in twenty-two minutes the assault failed with a loss of 7000. Hancock's corps alone lost 3000. The space between the lines was covered with the dead and wounded, but Grant would not ask for a truce to remove them, and for four days they were neglected. The confederate loss was about 600. For his indifference to human life at Cold Harbor, Grant was severely criticized. He himself later de- clared the assault an error. The result convinced him that Lee was not to be crushed in battle, and he moved for the James river in order to lay siege to Richmond. From the Rapidan to the James his total loss was 54,929. Lee lost about 19,000. The End of the War June 14, Grant crossed the James at City Point. At Bermuda Hundred, five miles to the west, Butler with a strong force lay inactive. Two months earlier he had moved up the James, with First 30,000 men, to take Petersburg, commanding Richmond agai^t'^ from the south. But so soon as he left his base at City Petersburg. Point, Beauregard, commanding the confederates, had threatened his communications, beaten off his assault on the Richmond defenses at Drury's Bluff, and "bottled him up." To him came Grant on June 14 with orders to attack Peters- burg at once. Butler did not move promptly, and ne.xt day Smith, leading Grant's advance corps, was ordered to take the city, then very weakly defended. He advanced, took the outworks, but halted. Had he gone forward that night, he might have succeeded. But next day troops were sent to oppose him, and all hope of surprising Petersburg was lost. June iS, Lee, at last convinced that his enemy was south of the ri\'er, moved his army to Peters- _ burg. Grant wasted 10,000 lives in trying to carry it by assault, and then settled down to siege operations. July 30 a great mine was sprung under the confederate works, and for a moment an open road existed into the rear of their position ; but here also was mismanagement. The troops Crater " which Ought to have poured through hesitated — probably through fault of their division commander, and the con- federates, rallying, were able to drive back with great slaughter the assaulting column. This bloody affair of "the Crater" cost Grant 4000 lives without any compensating advantage. These misfortunes created great distress throughout the North. Grant, it was whispered, was drinking again, and all his costly sacri- THE BITTER LESSONS OF WAR 565 fice of men, at this time 75,000 since he crossed the Rapidan, had not given him the confederate capital. But his work was not lost. Lee had been greatly weakened, and his exhausted government was not able to send him reenforcements. Through- Depression out the autumn and winter the union army worked stead- f^.. °^^ ily with pick and spade, and every week it became more North, and more e\ident that idtimate success was certain. July I, while the siege progressed, Lee sent Early with 17,000 men to drive the federal forces from the Shenandoah valley anil to threaten Washington. The confederates moved rapidly, driving Sigel's weak opposition before them. They crossed the Potomac and turned east- ward. At the Monocacy Lew Wallace delayed them a day with a weak force, but they put him to flight, and July 11, in the afternoon, were at the doors of the national capital. Had Early continued his advance the place might have been taken, but he delayed until morn- ing and was repulsed by troops which had arrived during the night from Grant's army. Early then fell back, and by good management escaped his pursuers to Strasburg, Virginia. Four days later he again moved north, defeating a union force at Kemstown and sending a column into Pennsylvania, where Chambersburg was burned because it did not pay a contribution. This action was not justifiable. To drive Early from the Valley, Grant now sent Sheridan with 40,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry. Lee also sent reenforcements before which Sheridan retired to the Potomac. But Lee was in dire need at Petersburg, and withdrew the succor Sheridan he had sent. Sheridan then assumed the offensive with ^^^^ Valley twice his opponents' strength. In two battles — Win- chester, September 19, and Fisher's Hill, September 22 — -he drove his opponent far southward with severe loss on both sides. Then Sheridan, with Grant's permission, adopted a policy of devastation. Barns, mills, and even residences were burned, grain, cattle, horse, and agri- cultural implements were taken or destroyed, and the rich valley was left so denuded of supplies that, as Sheridan said, "a crow flying over the country would need to carry his rations." It was the very frenzy of war, and was defended on the ground that it made it impossible for a confederate army in the future to operate by this way against Washington. In the South a sharp cry for vengeance arose, and Lee again sent reenforcements to Early, who took the offensive. Following the fed- erals, he came upon them at Cedar Creek, October ig, when their commander was absent. The attack at dawn on front 5^^^ °' and flank was a surprise, and seemed a complete success, creek. Only the sixth corps stood firm, but it fell back four miles trying to rally the fugitives as it went. Had Early concentrated his force on this splendid body, he might have had complete success. Sheridan slept the preceding night at Winchester, twenty miles from 560 THE WAR IN THE EAST his army. Riding leisurely southward in the morning he learned of the situation at front and rode rapidly to the scene. At noon he was at the head of the sixth corps, had rallied the fugitives, and was marching confidently against Early, who believed himself the victor. Though taken unawares, the confederates fought courageously, but were swept off the field by the superior numbers of the union forces. At nightfall they were in flight before Sheridan's cavalry, and they were never again a menace to Washington. The first weeks of 1865 saw the confederacy in imminent danger of collapse. Hood was crushed in Tennessee, Early was driven from th3 Valley, federal cavalry rode at will throughout all of Hampton Virginia north of the James, and Sherman marched with- Roads Q^^ opposition through the Carolinas. Lee's army in February 3,' Richmond, poorly fed and clothed, was no more than 50,000 1865. ' men, and Johnston, who sought to check Sherman, had only 37,000. Southern defeat was so clearly inevitable that it was believed the confederate government must accept peace if it was offered. Under these conditions private individuals secured a meeting of commissioners on each side at Hampton Roads, Feb- ruary 3, 1865. Lincoln attended on the part of the North. He offered to end the war if the South would accept emancipation and submit to the authority of the union. He also promised to ask congress to pay the slaveholders for the slaves, but he frankly said he could not promise that congress would accept the sug- gestion. The negotiation failed because Jefferson Davis insisted that the independence of the South should be the basis of any agreement. Had he been less blindly persistent, an armistice might have been arranged, during which Lincoln could have brought congress to some form of compromise by which much of the turmoil of reconstruction days would have been avoided. As spring approached, Grant before Petersburg threw his left out to reach the Petersburg and Lynchburg railroad, one of the two lines by which supplies were carried into Richmond. To oppose Taken"" hm\, Lee must extend his own line, which by reason of his inferior numbers became very thin. April i, Sheridan was sent against the extreme confederate right at Five Forks and won a success. It was nine at night when Grant heard the result, and he immediately ordered an assault at dawn along his entire front. This also resulted favorably, the confederate works being penetrated at two points. April 3, he proposed to press his advantage and throw his left still farther around Petersburg. Threatened thus with a complete envelopment, Lee decided to evacuate Petersburg during the night and concentrate his troops, scattered around Richmond, on the southwest of the city, so as to escape along the line of railroad to Dan\ille. To tliis end he gave Davis notice at 10.40 a.m., on the A GENEROUS CONQUEROR 567 2d, in order that the confederate officials might escape from the doomed city. April 3, his amiy was marching along four roads which converged at Amelia Court House on the Danville railroad, thirty-five miles from Richmond. He hoped in this way to join Johnston, who, then near Raleigh, North Carolina, was ordered to Greensboro, fifty miles south of Danville. Grant sent troops to hold the evacuated city, but lost not a moment in jubilation. His object was to bag the quarry before a junction with the North Carolina force could be effected. He marched by every road available, often fighting when Lee threw out q^^ ,^ a force to protect the confederate rear. In the morning of the 4th, Lee reached Amelia Court House, where he expected supplies. None were at hand, and he lost a precious day collecting them. On the 5th, Sheridan with the cavalry seized the railroad to Danville, which caused the confederates to turn towards Lynchburg. On short rations, dispirited, and sick, they were deserting in scjuads. Sheridan followed rapidly, and during the evening of April S got in front of Lee at Appomattox Court House. At the same time, a large body of infantry under Ord, by marching throughout the night, also got around and took position behind Sheridan. Next morning, the gth, Lee or- dered his weary troops to disperse the cavalry and march toward Lynchburg. As they moved out Sheridan drew off his troopers and revealed Ord's solid formation, an obstacle the confederates could not overcome. It was the end of the chase. Lee now raised a white flag and met Grant at the McLean house in Appomattox village. He wore a handsome gray uniform and a splendid sword, and was in striking contrast with the victor, who was dressed in " a rough traveling suit " with the straps V^^ of a lieutenant general. After some friendly conversa- ^^"^ ° gg, tion Lee inquired on what terms surrender would be re- ceived. Then Grant wrote out the conditions, which were accepted. Officers and men were to be paroled and not to fight again until ex- changed, in consideration of which they were not to be disturbed by the federal government so long as they observed the law. Officers were to retain their side arms, their horses, when they owned them, and their private baggage. Lee, after a moment's hesitation, said that many of his cavalrymen and artillerists owned their horses, and Grant agreed that they might keep them "for the spring plowing." By these terms Lee did not have to surrender his sword, a generous cour- tesy on Grant's part which endeared him to Southern people. A touch- ing farewell of Lee to his own soldiers, reduced by his march and deser- tion to 26,765, completed the tragic event. The broken host in gray returned to their homes, and their commander rode back to Richmond. Grant's soldiers marched back to the James river, and the northern part of the nation broke into pa;ans of joy that the bitter struggle was over. 568 THE WAR IN THE EAST Lincoln was at City Point when Richmond was evacuated. On the gth he returned to Washington, deeply concerned with the work of restoration. To one who said that Jefferson Davis must Lincoln be hanged, he replied, "Judge not, that ye be not AprU^i'"*'* ' j'-'dged." On the 14th he met liis cabinet and discussed 1865. ' a policy of reconstruction. "I hope there will be no persecution," he said, "no bloody work after the war is over. No one need e.xpect me to take any jjart in hanging or killing those men, even the worst of them. . . . We must extinguish our resentments if we e.xpect harmony and union." That evening he attended the theater with his family. While the play progressed, John Wilkes Booth, an actor who foolishly thought he was redressing the wrongs of the South, gained access to the president's box, fatally wounded him with a pistol sht>t, and escaped with a broken leg, by leaping to the stage, whence he passed to the street and rode rapidly away into Maryland. He managed to escape to Virginia, where he was tracked to his lair and shot at bay in a burning barn. One of his accomplices wounded Seward seriously in his house. Four conspir- ators were hanged, including Mrs. Surratt, who was probably innocent, and several others were imprisoned. Lincoln lived until 7.22 .\.m. on the 15th. His death was a poignant blow to the nation. In the darkest hours of the w'ar he had never wavered in hope and effort ; in a thousand trying events Greatness '^^ '^'^^ shown good sense and persistent good will ; in many a personal attack he had borne himself with patience and self-forgetful fortitude ; and in every phase of the war he had been the chief support of union. He was great in all the great phases of public leadership, but greatest of all in that overspreading con- sciousness that all the people, white men and black men. Northern men and Southern men, were within the bounds of his responsibility and protection. When Lee surrendered, Sherman was at Goldsboro, North Carolina, and Johnston was near Raleigh, fifty miles to the w'est. Hearing that Lee marched for Danville, the latter had turned toward Johnston Greensboro, where he stood when he heard the news from Appomattox. To him came Jefferson Davis, fleeing southward. The confederate president wished the general to march to the mountains and carry on the war. Johnston objected, saying the soldiers desired peace, and it was agreed that he should ask for terms of surrender. April 17 and iS he met Sherman at Durham, North Carolina, where an armistice was agreed to pending the refer- ence of certain terms of peace to the president. These terms embraced the recognition by the president of the governments of the states then in condition of resistance, the reestablishment of the federal courts in the South, and the parole of ofiicers and privates of all the confederate armies still in existence. Sherman consented to these terms because WORK OF THE BLOCKADERS 569 he thought it would be difficult to bag Johnston and because his army did not relish another campaign in the region through which it had recently fought. But he had exceeded his instructions, and his terms were disapproved by the go\'ernment in Washington because they dealt with civil affairs. Then Johnston accepted the terms offered Lee by Grant, April 26, and disbanded his army, numbering 37,047. May 4, General Taylor surrendered all the troops in Alabama and Mississippi, and May 26, Kirby Smith surrendered his department west of the Mississippi river. The total Abandoned number of confederates who thus laid down their arms, in these momentous two months, v/as 174,223. May 10, Jefferson Davis was captured in southern Georgia and sent prisoner to Fortress Monroe. Alexander Stephens and other high confederate officers were also made prisoners ; but all were eventually released. Feder.-\l Naval Operations The work of the navy during the civil war resohxd itself into three spheres of activity: (i) the blockade, (2) cooperation with the army in land operations on the coast, and on the rivers, and (3) chasing down and destroying the small number of commerce destroyers the confederacy was able to place on the sea. The blockade was proclaimed May 19, 1861, and a dozen ships were at once sent to the most important harbors in the South. By purchasing merchant ships, and even tugs, and building new ships, this number grew steadily until three hundred gio^^jja^g were on the blockading line at the end of the war. They were divided into four squadrons, the Xorth Atlantic, from Fortress Monroe to Cape Fear ; the South Atlantic, including the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Eastern Florida ; the East Gulf, including the coasts of Western Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and a part of Louisiana ; and the West Gulf, from the mouth of the Mississippi to the Rio Grande. Life on the blockaders was monotonous. There were days and nights of watching, the ships lying a few miles off the harbor during the day and closing in to anchor during the night, like sentinels on each side of the harbor's entrance. Occasionally, usually in the night, a luckless blockade runner was seized as she tried to dart through the opening. Sometimes she stole through so cau- tiously as to elude the blockaders, and sometimes she was forced on the shallows and burned by her crew in order to avoid capture. The blockaders did not dare follow her under the guns of the confederate forts which usually commanded the interior channels. Early in 1862 the South undertook to break the blockade by con- structing heavy ironclads. The first undertaken was named the Virginia, though history remembers her as the Mcrriniac, the name she bore as a merchantman before the war began. Her super- S70 THE WAR IN THE EAST structure was removed and a roof of railroad rails took its place with heavy guns beneath the roof. March 8, 1862, this dangerous craft steamed out of Norfolk harbor and destroyed three The federal frigates off Newport News. Ne.\t day she reap- andwer- peared to complete her work of ruin. She encountered a rimac. strange-looking ironclad craft, a hulk level with the water and supporting a revolving turret within which were powerful guns. It was the Monitor, designed by Ericsson and appropriately described as "a raft with a cheese-box on it." A fierce encounter followed, at the end of which the Southern ship retired in a damaged condition. She did not resume the attempt to raise the blockade. The conflict proved the efficiency of ironclad ships and opened a new era in naval construction. The American government built many monitors before the war ended. The most important movements of the navy in cooperation with the army against harbors and on the rivers were as follows: i. The attack on Roanoke Island, August 29, 1861. The navy N rth^**"^" seized Hatteras and Ocracoke inlets, in North Carolina, Carolina. giving the Nortli command of the entrance to Pamplico and Albemarle sounds. In the following January an expedition under General Burnside took Roanoke island, lying between these sounds, and afterwards Newbern and Plymouth on the mainland were occupied. The first intention was by this approach to move into the interior of North Carolina and cut off supplies for Richmond, but on consideration the project was given up as impossible. The expedition was serviceable because it effec- tually blockaded this part of the coast. 2. Operations against Charleston, November 7, 1861. Port Royal, South Carolina, was taken, giving the South Atlantic squadron an excellent base. Immediately afterwards the sea islands In South ^KeTe seized. From Port Royal in the following AprO, Waters. '^^ expedition took Fort Pulaski, commanding the mouth of the Savannah river. As the smaller harbors fell easy prey, it happened that by midsummer of 1862 all the Atlantic coast was under federal control, except Wilmington, N. C, and Charleston. Against the latter a strong fleet of newly constructed monitors was sent in April, 1863. It safled boldly into the harbor, but retired with much loss from the fire of Forts Sumter and Moultrie with the aid of other shore batteries. In July the attack was renewed, an army now landing and moving against the defenses on Morris Island, south of the harbor, while the fleet at close range attacked the works on the island. Before the line of advance was Battery Wagner — often called "Fort Wagner," a work strongly placed and well defended. Two unsuccessful assaults were made on it, in the second of which fell Colonel Robert G. Shaw at the head of his negro regiment. After a seven days' bombardment from the fleet. Fort Sumter was in ruins, although a small infantry force remained in it until the evacuation of BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 571 Charleston, February 17, 1865. By regular approaches Battery Wagner was at last taken and Morris Island was in federal hands ; a useless achievement, for the harbor was supposed to be mined and no further attempt was made against the place for a year and a half. Besides the capture of New Orleans, 1862, the most notable naval achievement in the gulf region was seizing Mobile bay in 1864. The place was an important outlet for blockade runners and was well defended by Fort Morgan and several vessels, among them the powerful ram, Tennessee. August 5, Farragut, with eighteen ships, four of them monitors, ran past the fort and batteries and engaged the fleet within the bay. The Tennessee became the target of the union fleet. Ship after ship struck her armored sides, desirous of sinking her. She withstood their blows, but having a weak engine, could not be brought effectively against her opponents. Finally her steering gear was disabled and she surrendered. The rest of the con- federate ships retired or were destroyed, and the fort capitulated when 5000 troops had been landed. The city of Mobile was not taken untO the foUowng spring. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For the Eastern campaigns the same general works and sources are available as for the Western operations (see p. 543). Of a more specific nature are the following : McClella?i's Own Story (1887), contains many letters; Swinton, Cam^a/^jij of the Army of the Potomac (1S82) ; Grant. Personal Memoirs, 2 vols. (1895) ; Sheridan, Personal Memoirs, 2 vols. (1902) ; Walker, JI'. 5. Hancock (1894) ; Poore, Ambrose E. Burnside {1882) ; Butler, Butler's Book, 2 vols. (1892); Cox, Military Reminis- cences, 2 vols. (1900); Bache, George Gordon Meade (1897); Haupt, Reminiscences (1901) ; Long, Robert Edward Lee (1886) ; Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox (1903); J. E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations (1874); Hood, Advance and Retreat (1880); McClellan, /. E. B. Stuart (1885); Henderson, Stonewall Jackson, 2 vols. (1900) ; and .\lexander, Military Memoirs, (1907). On army experiences, besides the authorities mentioned on page 543, see ; Xoyes, The Bivouac and the Battlefield (1863) ; Townsend, Campaigns of a Non-Combatant (1866); Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollection (1905); Maur>-, Recollections of a Vir- ginian (1894); McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee {186s) ; Sorrel, Recollections of a Confederate Stajf-Officer (1905) ; Stiles, Four Years under Marse Robert (1903) ; aod Taylor, Four Years with Lee (1878). On naval history- of the civil war see first of all : Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, 22 vols. {1894-1908). See also IMaclay, History of the United States Navy, 3 vols. (ed. 1898-1901) ; Scharf, History of the Confederate States Navy (1894); Porter, Naval History of tlie Civil War (1886); Semmes, Service Afioat (1887), relates to the Alabama; V^Wion, Iron-Clods in Action (1897); Bennett, The Monitor and the Navy under Steam (1900); Wilkinson, Narrative of a Blockade Runner (1877) ; and Mahan, Farragut (1892). For Independent Reading Rhodes, History of the United States, vols. III-V (1900-1906), the best general history of the war, and it is readable. Other suggested works are : Porter, Cam- paigning with Grant (1897); Walker, 11'. S. Hancock (1894); Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections (1905); Dana, Recollections of the Civil War (1898); Wise,' The End of an Era (1899) ; Schaff, The Sunset of the Confederacy (1912) ; Bradford, Lee the A mcrican (1912) ; Stiles, Four Years under Marse Robert (1903) ; and Ben- jett. The Monitor and the Navy under Steam (1900). CHAPTER XXVII CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR Enlisting Troops, North and South The first soldiers enlisted on each side were volunteers, furnished by the states in response to calls made by the respective presidents. They came freely in a period of great enthusiasm, and Armies^ were of the best quahty. But ardor eventually cools, and by the end of 1862 volunteering in the North was nearly at an end. In the South it ceased to be considerable at an earlier date. By this time the federal congress realized how serious a struggle was being waged, and used its power to enforce military service. The result was a law ordering a draft of all men liable for military duty. Enrollment districts were created, and drafts were held by officers duly appointed. A man drafted might furnish a substitute or be exempt on payment of $300. The act was attacked by the democrats as unconstitutional, and it undoubtedly contravened the principles of state rights to which they were bred. Although it was generally enforced, the Draft criticism of the democrats found much support with the New York, people who were unable to secure substitutes or purchase exemption. In New York the Eastside population broke into riots. The people were largely foreign-born, and recognized an ancient grievance in forced military serWce. On the second day of the draft, July 13, 1863, they broke up the drawings and, joined by habitual thieves, looted stores until they ruled in the city from Union Square to Central Park. Negroes were beaten and hanged to lamp posts, well-to-do citizens were robbed, and the police were powerless. The city had been stripped of soldiers to oppose Lee at Gettysburg, but at last on July 14 an armed force of more than 3000 policemen, marines, and citizens were able to check the depreda- tions. Next day troops began to arrive, and by the i6th the mob was under control, after 1000 persons had been killed or wounded and private property worth $1,500,000 had been destroyed. Investiga- tion showed that the allotments of the democratic enrollment districts were excessive, and when the error was corrected the draft proceeded quietly. News that the chief Northern city was resisting the draft S72 ENFORCING CONSCRIPTION 573 gave the confederates a passing hope that the North would not sup- port the war. After July, 1863, the people accepted the draft as a military neces- sity, but it was very unpopular. Out of 470,942 persons drawn in two drafts in 1864, July 18 and December 19, those faOing to report were 94,636. To stimulate enlistment, jm^o^^J" large bounties were offered, not only by the federal govern- ment, but by the state and county authorities. In New York City in 1864 these aggregated $677. The regular pay of a private was $16 a month. Two evils now appeared, "bounty-jumping" and the activities of substitute brokers. The latter fi.\ed the scale of payments for substitutes, and often were able to prevent the acceptance of a man as a substitute who did not have their services. They were in close association with "bounty -jumpers," men who deserted as soon as the bounty was received and enlisted elsewhere under other names. A case was discovered in which a man had "jumped "the bounty thirty-two times. Serious charges were made in many places involving the integrity of officers and physicians who conducted enlistments. The system was undoubtedly badly administered ; but there was little disposition to look closely into it as long as it furnished men for the defense of union. The early enlistments were the pick of Northern manhood, and to the last there was excellent material in the new men ; but as the months passed, the proportion of newly arrived foreigners and shirkers increased. This gave rise to the charge that the armies were recruited from European mercenaries. When the war ended there were 1,052,038 men in the army. In 1863, after the emancipation policy was adopted, negro troops began to be enlisted. Among the prisoners captured in New Orleans, May, 1862, was a colored regiment organized by the con- federates. This was an example which the antislavery j^^° element of the republican party in the North thought worthy of imitation. Lincoln, with the opinion of the border states in mind, opposed such a step ; but the confiscation act of the summer of 1862 gave him authority to use such troops for the defense of the union. In the final emancipation proclamation he announced that negro volunteers would be accepted. The first regiment of them was the 54th Massachusetts, led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, socially and intellectually eminent in Boston. Many persons had predicted that negroes would not fight, but the result proved the contrary. Though generally used for garrison duty, they exhibited marked courage in some severe emergencies. At Fort Wagner Shaw's regi- ment charged most bravely and suffered severe loss. Grant, and niany others in a position to know, declared that the negro troops fought well. .'\t the end of the war 183,000 had been enlisted. The confederate congress enacted May i, 1863, that white officers commanding negro soldiers should ^v•hen captured be treated as 574 CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR persons inciting blacks to insurrection, but there is no evidence that the threat was carried into execution. Negro soldiers when captured were sometimes killed by their captors, but Negro such cases as occurred were due to the feelings of the a Wax^ privates and not by order of the confederate authorities. Prisoners. The most notable case was at the capture of Fort Pillow by Forrest, April 12, 1864; but investigation showed this was without orders of Forrest, who offered to receive the negroes as prisoners of war when he demanded the s'jrrender of the fort. His demand was refused, and as no flag of surrender was raised, his storm- ing party slew its defenders, white and black, who fought desperately, until Forrest himself arrived on the scene and stopped the slaughter. When negro prisoners were identified as escaped slaves they were returned to their masters. The confederacy was unwilling to exchange negro prisoners, and on that ground all exchanges stopped for a while ; but from this attitude the confederates retreated early in 1864, only proposing to retain those who were known to be fugitive slaves. At this time Grant was determined to send no prisoners back to swell the ranks of the Southern armies, and no exchanges of any kind occurred until January, 1865, when the confederacy was in its last gasps. Federal Finances Pro\'iding funds for war expenses was a mammoth task. When congress met in extra session, July 4, 1861, the national debt was considered large at $76,000,000. The people, therefore, f iseT*^ were startled when they knew that the legislature had authorized a loan of $250,000,000 in bonds and interest- bearing notes. Additional taxes were laid by which it was expected that a total revenue of $75,000,000 would be raised. Two features of the plan were a tax of three per cent on incomes over $800, and a direct tax. It was believed that these taxes were as heavy as the country would stand. The execution of the financial laws fell on Chase, who proved himself an able secretary of the treasury. But expenses were enormous, and when congress met again, Decem- ber 2, there was a deficit of $143,000,000. The war had sorely dis- tressed business, bonds were selling slowly, specie had The Legal been drawn out of the country, and December 30 the orpebruar banks suspended specie payment, compellmg the govern- 25, 1862. ment to follow their example. Something must be done quickly or the war could not go on. The result was the law generally known as the Legal Tender Act of February 25, 1862, providing for: i. The issue of .?! 100, 000, 000 in treasury notes, which, as well as the $50,000,000 authorizetl in July, 1S61, were to be legal lender for all dues except the payment of import duties ; and 2. The issue of an additional loan of $500,000,000 in six [)er cent 5 20 Ijouds, NATIONAL BANKS 575 interest payable in coin. There was much opposition to the legal tender feature of the bill, and Secretary Chase hesitated long before accepting it. It was passed because it was pronounced absolutely necessary in the crisis at hand. At the same time another bill was carried through congress to raise import duties and lay other taxes. It was so comprehensive that it has been called "an act which taxed everything." A proposition to create a national banking system was deferred to another date. By the measures here adopted it was expected that the funds would be obtained to defray the war expenses for a year. The expenditures were then $2,000,000 a day. At the beginning of 1863 the treasury was again empty, and clamor arose for more legal tender. Congress yielded to the extent of author- izing $100,000,000, a measure which Lincoln regretfully approved. It also authorized a loan of $900,000,000. The February 25 it took a more important step in passing a gg^i^ national banking act, by which it was designed to charter Act, 1863. banks under national authority with the privilege of issuing money secured by national bonds. The act as passed proved inadequate, and was amended from time to time. The plan which resulted may be summarized as follows: i. The comptroller of the currency, an official now first provided for, should supervise this system. 2. Each bank before beginning business must de- posit national bonds equal to one-third of its paid-in capital, but the interest on these bonds was to go to the bank depositing them. 3. It would receive from the comptroller bank notes in amount equal to ninety per cent of the market value of the deposited bonds, and when signed by the officers of the bank these notes were to be receiv- able for all dues to the United States except imports. 4. The capital stock of a national bank was not to be less than $50,000. 5. A national bank must keep a cash reserve equal to 15 per cent of its circulation, but one-half of this might be left with certain specified central banks, whose reserves, it was ordered, must be 25 per cent of the circulation, and 6. Shareholders were made responsible for the debts of the bank above their stock held to an amount equal to the par value of their stock. In 1S65 an act was passed to tax at 10 per cent, after July i, 1866, the circulation of state banks. This law im|)elled state banks to change to national banks, with the result that 1634 of the latter existed on July I, 1866. The national banks made a market for government bonds, and drove out of circulation the currency of the state banks. Spite of the measures of 1863 the revenues proved insufficient, and in 1864 import duties, excise, and most internal taxes were raised as high as the country would stand. An additional loan of $400,000,000 was authorized, and authority was c^rAncy * given to extend the amount of legal tender to $450,- 000,000. As a matter of fact, it reached during the year the sum of $431,000,000, and went only a million higher in the following year. 576 CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR The increase of national bank notes served partly to satisfy the demand for treasury notes. The legal tender notes, popularly called "green- backs" ceased to circulate at par with specie as soon as they were issued. Gold rose until, June 30, 1864, it sold for 250, and when Early was before Washington, July 11, it reached 285, the highest price during the war. As prices of commodities were expressed in legal tender they rose proportionally with gold. Throughout the summer of 1S64 a paper dollar was worth about forty cents in gold. One result was to drive fractional specie out of circulation. "Shin- plasters," small private notes from 5 to 50 cents in value, took its place, but these were eventually forbidden, and for a time postage stamps were used. Their disadvantage was soon evident, and the government issued fractional paper currency on its own account. Early in the war the national bonds ceased to sell, although the interest was 7.3 per cent. The plan of sale was to award the bonds at a fi.xed rate to associated bankers in installments Bonds at gf about $50,000,000, the banks selling at home and Subscrip- abroad at what profit they could make. In 1863 Secre- tion, tary Chase adopted a new method. Selecting a great bank- ing firm as his agent. Jay Cooke and Company, he offered the bonds to the public in popular denominations. It was an appeal to the patriotism of the nation, and was fully justified by the results. Two confiscation acts were passed by congress, partly to get rev- enue and partly to punish the confederates. The first, August 6, 1 86 1, authorized the confiscation of property used in fiscatio'n ^^^ '^^ ^^^ confederacy, and the liberation of slaves em- Acts, ployed on fortifications or in other warHke labor. The second, July 17, 1862, was more drastic. It fixed death as the punishment for treason, but allowed the courts to substitute fine and imprisonment, and it decreed that the slaves of all who sup- ported the Southern cause should be free. It further provided for the confiscation of the property of si.x classes of persons who sup- ported the confederacy, including the higher officials, who were believed to be especially responsible for the war. Another provision was to authorize the enlistment of negroes in the union armies. This second act was urged especially by the radical opponents of slavery, and Lincoln would not sign it until congress adopted explanatory resolutions, one of which pro\'ided that it was not to be used to extend the taint of treason to the issue of confederates. So far as its con- fiscatory features were concerned, it was very sparingly used during the war, partly because Lincoln opposed severe measures, and partly because the jurisdiction of federal courts did not in reality extend to the vast majority of the Southerners, who were within the confed- erate lines. At the end of the war, when federal courts were rees- tablished in the South, a policy of conciliation prevailed, and confis- cation was not put into operation. BUTLER AND THE FUGITIVES 577 The Progress of Emancipation Early in the war the extreme republicans began to urge that measures be taken to destro}- slavery. The large majority of voters in the border states, as well as many persons in the free states, opposed this policy, and Lincoln discountenanced Remands it because he felt that the only means of success was to Radicals make the war solely for the preservation of the union. His influence prevailed, and the day after Bull Run, congress passed, with only nine dissenting votes in the two houses, resolutions declaring that the North did not mean to interfere with slavery, but only sought to perpetuate the union. From this position president and congress, under pressure of public opinion, were to recede in a little more than twelve months. When Virginia seceded. May 23, General Butler commanded at Fortress Monroe. To him came many fugitive slaves, whose owners demanded their surrender. The request was refused by Butler on the ground that having worked on confederate i,^J^^'^' fortifications they were "contraband of war." His position was not legal, but he was supported by Northern opinion, and the government did not overrule him. The first confiscation act, August 6, 1861, gave freedom to slaves working on confederate fortifications and engaged in military operations, but it did not men- tion ordinary fugitives, who came to Butler in great numbers. The secretary' of war was asked to define the status of the second class. He replied that they should be received into the service of the United States and employed as seemed best, and added that when the war was over congress would, no doubt, "pro\ade a just compensation to loyal masters." Butler was also ordered to refrain from inter- ference with the slaves of peaceful citizens and not to encourage them to leave their masters. Nor should he prevent their voluntary return unless the public good seemed to demand it. Such instruc- tions left wide discretion to the generals commanding in regions which could be reached by fugitives. Some of them were less inclined to antislavery views than Butler, and surrendered fugitives freely. Others gave little help to such masters as came to look for their run- away slaves. Of those who were most hostile to slavery was General Fremont, presidential candidate in 1856. He was popular with the extreme republicans, through whose influence he was called home from Europe to command the army in Missouri. Arriving at New York early in July, 1 86 1, he loitered three weeks in the East, conferring with political friends before he repaired to St. Louis, where he was greatly needed. His incompetence was soon evident from the manner in which he yielded himself to a group of contractors who surrounded and flat- 578 CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR tered him for their selfish ends. Soon followed military reverses, and public opinion rose high against him. To regain his popularity he issued his remarkable order of August 30, 1861, directing the confiscation of the property of all who had taken arms against the union, offering freedom to their slaves, and creating a "bureau of abo- lition" to supervise the execution of the order. His action aroused enthusiasm among the radical opponents of slavery, but alarmed the unionists of Kentucky, then trembling in the balance. Lincoln first knew of the order from the newspapers, and suggested to the author that it be modified. The advice was rejected with scant courtesy, and Lincoln coolly directed that the order be modified in conformity with the first confiscation act. After some further mani- festations of liis incompetence, Fremont was removed, and General Hunter succeeded to the command. The aftair aroused the anger of the radicals, who sharply criticized the president for his part in it. Yet Lincoln wished to abolish slavery if it could be done in a proper way, and was already moving for emancipation with compensation in the slave states still loyal. In March, 1862, he sug- Emancipa- gested such action to congress, and thought an average Compensa- °^ ^4°° might be given for each slave in Maryland, Ken- tion. tucky, Missouri, Delaware, and the District of Colum- bia, incurring a total expense of $173,000,000, which was less than the cost of the war for 87 days. The suggestion pleased neither congress nor the people of the states concerned, and no action was taken on it. But AprO 16 a bill was passed for the emancipation with compensation of the slaves in the District of Columbia. The second confiscation act, July 17, 1862, gave freedom to the slaves of persons resisting the union, forbade their surrender, and authorized their "colonization" on the abandoned lands Second Qf j}jg confederates. As the law would not be obeyed in Act and the ^^^ seceding states, little more was expected from it Slaves. than that it might serve to free fugitives who reached the union lines. Lincoln, and many others, considered it of doubtful constitutionality, and he gave it a mild interpretation. For this, also, he received the censure of the radicals. May 9, 1862, General Hunter, commanding the recovered terri- tory around Beaufort, South Carolina, issued an order declaring , free all the slaves in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Order' ^ ^^ acted on his own authority, but had the approval of Chase and the other radicals. Lincoln reversed the order at once. But he sought to break the blow by calling on the loyal slave states to accept gradual emancipation with compen- r°™Ah"^" sation. In reply, the congressmen from the border states doned. signed an address suggesting that congress should act first in the matter. July 14 the president laid the matter before congress, which did nothing. By this he was convinced THE CRITICLSMS OF LINCOLN 579 that nothing was to be hoped from emancipation through compensa- tion, and he turned to other means. July 22 he read to his cabinet a tentative emancipation proclama- tion to apply to the seceding states, justifying his proposed action on the ground of military necessity. Blair alone of the cabinet objected, as he thought the proclamation would The euflanger the autumn elections. Seward suggested that Tentative the announcement ought to wait until the army won a tionProc* victory, otherwise the [jroclamataon would be construed lamation. as "the government stretching forth its hands to Ethio- pia," a confession of weakness. This view prevailed, and the matter was laid aside for a favorable opportunity. The action of the cabinet was secret, and the radical opponents of slavery, ignorant of what was going on, continued their strictures on the president. August 20, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, summed up this view in an editorial /fpja ," entitled, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions." He reproached the president for being influenced by "certain fossil poli- ticians" from the border states, for repudiating Fremont's and Hunter's orders and enforcing an order of Halleck to exclude fugi- tive slaves from the union camps, and for failing to e.xecute the pro- visions of the second confiscation act touching slavery. Although this "Prayer" was addressed to Lincoln, he saw it first in the news- papers. He wrote and published in the .same medium a reply which could not fail to crush his critics in the minds of the impartial people of the country. "As to the policy," he said, "I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant to leave r °piy ° ^ anyone in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be ' the Union as it was.' If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slaven,-, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union ; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new \news so fast as they shall appear to be true views." This letter was widely read and had a great influence on public opinion. s8o CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR September 17 Lee's invasion of Maryland was checked at Antie- tam, and Lincoln on the 23d issued the celebrated preliminary eman- cipation proclamation. It announced that the slaves ^ ^'^°'*" would be declared free in all states resisting the union on Umation.""^ January i, 1S63. It also spoke of compensation for the slaves of loyal states. It was a warning to the South, but it only elicited jeers from that section, and January i a final procla- mation appeared declaring slavery abolished by military authority in all the South except Tennessee and the parts of Louisiana and Virginia then held by union arms. The proclamation satisfied for a time the radicals of the North and strengthened the cause of the union in Europe, by showing that the war was fought to put an end to slavery. Even the border states could not complain, for they were not aflected, and it was evident that ample time had been given the secessionists to escape emancipation by submitting to the union. The proclamation had no basis in the law of civil affairs, as Lincoln well knew, but he believed it was within his authority as commander- in-chief of the army and navy. In the annual message, December i, 1863, Lincoln returned to the subject of compensated emancipation for the border states, and Comnen- ^ ^^"^ °^ '^^^'- nature to apply to Missouri passed the house sated Eman- and had a conditional approval in the senate. But it cipation was opposed by the democrats, mostly border state men, again ^y|^o thought the South would not be conquered, and, as ugges e . gQjj-|g republicans gave it a very lukewarm support, the measure finally failed in the short session. When congress met again, the cause of the North was more promising on the battle- field, and congress was less inclined to concede anything to slaveholders. They were now concerned with an amendment abolishing slavery outright. Reflection showed that Lincoln's proclamation was of doubtful constitutionality. Moreover, it aboHshed slavery at best in only about half of the territory in which the institution existed, Amendment '^^^^ ^^ '^''^ ^'^^ prevent the future reestablishment of bond- age by a state. To meet these difficulties, a thirteenth amendment was introduced in congress, March 28, 1864. It passed the senate, but failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority in the house. January 31, 1865, it came up again in the house and passed by the necessary majority. With its ratification by three-fourths 01 the states, it became a part of the organic law of the land, December 18, 1865. Before it was ratified, slavery had been abolished by state amendment in Arkansas, January, 1864; Louisiana, September, 1864; Maryland, October, 1864; Tennessee, February, 1865; and Missouri, June, 1865. February 5, 1865, after the thirteenth amendment had passed, Lincoln submitted to his cabinet the draft of a message pro- posing to pay to the slave states $400,000,000 in bonds on considera- CLASSES OF VOTERS 581 tion that the war cease by April i. The cabinet thought such a measure could not pass congress, and the matter was dropped. Thus did Lincoln, whose sympathy for the South never failed, make his last effort to save for the slaveholders some portion of their property which the progress of the age was going to take away. Political Parties during the Civil War During the war the Northern voters became divided into four classes, i. The regular republicans. They followed Lincoln in a mild opposition to slavery, and put the preservation of the union above all else. 2. The radical republicans, ^°^^ , ^ .■.,.., , ' .' Groups. also strong unionists, but in favor of an e.xtreme anti- slavery policy, and disposed to deal harshly with the South after the war ended. 3. The war democrats, protesting their faith in demo- cratic principles, but opposed to secession, and loyal to the union at the polls and on the battlefield. They were not well organized as a group, but in some cases were of great importance because they coop- erated with the Lincoln republicans in important local elections. 4. The regular democrats, outwardly professing devotion to the union, but criticizing the conduct of the war and undermining as much as they could the national support of it. Many of the leaders of this group were party men who wished to keep their organization intact, and who.se most evident means of reaching their end was to criticize the party in power in whatever way offered. The first, second, and third groups usually acted together on the all-important issue of the war ; the fourth, always a minority in congress, made vigorous attacks on their opponents, but were unable to modify the course of events. To many people their efforts seemed little less than treason to the union. The first notable political contest after i860 was in 1862. It was a year of military reverses. McClellan did not take Richmond, and Pope was beaten in Virginia. Grant's campaign from Fort Henr}' to Corinth was a steady success, and Lee was p*".^ ^^^ forced back from Maryland after Antietam, but after each criticized, campaign came a period of inactivity. The war was begun to crush the confederacy, and the people were discouraged because this object seemed indefinitely distant. And so the democrats — calling themselves conservatives — pronounced the war a costly failure. The emancipation proclamation they also criticized. It was anaigned as a violation of the constitution and as evidence that the war was not waged to preserve the union but to destroy slavery. Out of these two lines of argument was evolved the battle cry : The constitution as it is and the union as it was ! Otlier arguments were found which did good service. Military 582 CIVn. AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR arrests began to be made as soon as the war began : they became more numerous when campaign speakers fell to discussing the war in candid terms. Stanton, who generally ordered the arrests, was charged with doing so in order to suppress political dis- ofTsfa"^ cussion. In Ohio several men highly esteemed were thus thrown into prison, and the political effect was great. The vast expenditures for military supplies led to jobbery and corruption on a large scale, as investigation committees in Washington clearly showed, and out of this the democrats made capital. Moreover, there was a natural reaction from the buoyant war feeling of 1861. The result was seen in the elections of 1862. New York, Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin chose anti- administration state officials, and the house of representatives, which in 1861 had 42 democrats against 106 republicans and 28 union men, had, two years later, 75 democrats against 102 republicans and Q "border state men." Since the democrats were opposed to the existing method of conducting the war, this meant that their policy had gained materially in the house of representatives. Within Lincoln's own party there was abundant trouble. The radicals though him unequal to the presidency. Men of dignity themselves, they could not tolerate his lack of informal- L'ncoln°° ^^^'' carelessness in dress, and lack of method in business. They thought him under the influence of Seward, who was avowedly a conservative. Finally a caucus of republican sen- ators in December, 1862, resolved that the president ought to dismiss those members of the cabinet who interfered with the successful conduct of the war. The blow was aimed at Seward, who offered his resignation forthwith. In a joint meeting of the rest of the cabinet and a committee of the senators, Lincoln cleverly forced Chase, who was probably at the bottom of the discontent, to resign also. That done, he refused to accept either resignation, and was able to continue with a two-sided administration. Chase and the radicals were forced to abate their opposition, but events showed that it was not extin- guished. Meanwhile, " Copperheads " appeared. The epithet was applied by their enemies to all democrats ; but it should properly he given only to those extreme opponents of the war who went so far as heads'^' ^^ seem by their agitation to give aid to the South. The name came from the habit of wearing as a badge a button cut out of a copper cent, on which was the head of the Goddess of Liberty. The movement began late in 1862. It was accompanied with violent speech-making, and one of its most active leaders was Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, bold of speech and sharp of tongue. Arguments were not wanting t© reach men bred in the school of state rights. Congress had passed laws giving the president control THE COPPERHEADS 583 .')ver the sword and purse of the nation ; slavery was annulled by a mere word ; and hundreds of persons were in prison without civD trial through miHtary arrest, charged with no other offense than words spoken against the government. •*f8J"°6°'s The war was a republican war ; it would not have begun heads'!''*^' but for the election of Lincoln, and it was now carried on, said the agitators, to preserve the political power of the republicans. In the winter of 1862-63, Napoleon III offered to mediate between the North and the South. Lincoln's refusal to accept the offer was declared evidence that the war was fought to subjugate a portion of the American people. After his defeat at Fredericksburg, Burnside became commander of the department of the Ohio, where copperheads were most outspoken. With a soldier's impatience of defiance, he issued an order, April 13, 1863, in which he said, ''the habit of declaring ^f®*?.^ sympathy for the enemy will not be allowed. . . ." gham. Vallandigham was then a candidate for the nomination for governor of Ohio, and was making caustic speeches against the republicans. He considered Burnside's order a challenge, andaccepted it. May i he made one of his customary speeches, although he knew he was watched. Four days later he was arrested and sent before a military commission which acted without forms of law. He was pronounced guilty of "declaring disloyal sentiments" in order to weaken the power of the government against its enemies, and the sentence was confinement until the end of the war. Approved by Burnside, it went at length to Lincoln, who commuted the penalty to banishment to the confederacy. The prisoner was sent through the union lines in Virginia, and reached Richmond. He was received coldly by Jeft'erson Davis, and escaping through the blockade, arrived safely in Canada, from which secure retreat he directed his campaign in Ohio. Now a martyr in the eyes of his friends, he was nominated for governor, and the immense public meetings which the democrats held seemed to indicate certain triumph at the polls. The union party was alarmed, and nominated Brough, a war democrat, to oppose him. The election came in October, with the result that Brough was chosen governor with a majority of 101,099. Probably the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, by showing that the war was not a failure, were the chief cause of the unionist success. At the same time, other states were carried by the friends of Lincoln with large majorities, among them New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Indiana. These favorable results encouraged the republicans, and the support of the war did not weaken. This difficulty was hardly passed before the radicals began to show that they wished to defeat the nomination of Lincoln for president in 1864. They united on Chase who, spite of the fact that he was in the cabinet, showed that he desired the proffered honor. They 584 CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR formed a committee with Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, for chairman, and early in 1864 it sent out a circular in behalf of Chase. February 25, however, Chase's hopes The fell when Ohio, his own state, declared for Lincoln. C^uJm^ He withdrew his countenance of the movement, but the 1864. ' radicals continued their opposition, their candidate now being Fremont. The convention of the national union, or the republican party, met June 7. Four days earlier. Grant's bloody campaign against Lee came to a halt in the costly sacrifice of life at Cold Harbor, nlmfnatfd ^""^ Richmond was still in confederate hands. At the same time, Sherman, after many days of skirmishing and one fierce battle at Kenesaw Mountain, was still outside of Atlanta. To the North, it was the same old story of slaughter, expense, and defeat; and the democratic press denounced bitterly a president whose policy resulted only in such losses. But the convention was true to Lincoln and nominated him unanimously. For vice-presi- dent, it named Andrew Johnson, military governor of Tennessee. Lincoln is said to have been responsible for the choice. There was a strong feeling that a Southern man should be on the ticket, in order to give it a non-sectional character. Lincoln, in his characteristic way, said his own nomination came because the convention thought "it was not best to swap horses while crossing the river." Now followed weeks of utter gloom in the North. Unless the confederacy could be crushed before the election, said Greeley, the union party would be defeated. Prominent men declared that Lincoln ought to withdraw, or be set aside for a stronger candidate. The president himself thought his reelection doubtful, and wrote a memorandum for his own use to the effect that if defeated be would cooperate with his successor-elect to "save the union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such grounds that he cannot possibly save it afterwards." The successor he had in mind was General McClellan, whom the democrats nominated at Chicago in August. He was the strongest candidate they could have selected, and he would surely ^fTsa"" ^^ popular with the soldiers and the masses of the people. The platform demanded the cessation of bloodshed and the calling of a convention to restore peace "on the basis of the fed- eral union of the states." The stoutest hearted unionists feared the result of a political campaign on this issue. Their apprehensions were relieved when, on September 3, Sherman entered Atlanta, and thus proved that, in one of its most important movements, the war was not a failure. It was an argument the democrats could not answer ; and cheered by it the union men took up the campaign with such spirit that Lincoln, in November, was successful by 212 electoral votes to McClellan's 21. BROAJ) PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY 585 It is a noteworthy thing that in the remarkable days of the civil war the man elected president in 1864 by a vote so sweeping was, at the same time, at variance with a majority of each . house of congress on the most important civil question c^'^^ggs" then before the public, i.e. the reconstruction of the Southern states. Throughout this last winter of war the two fac- tions subordinated their quarrel to the task of conquering the South ; but no one doubted that, this accomplished, a great struggle would occur between the president and the radicals to determine who should dominate in reconstruction. From this conflict Lincoln was saved by Booth's wicked deed. The War Powders of the President The constitution provides that congress shall have power to declare war and suppress insurrections. The war of 181 2 began with a decla- ration by congress. The Me.xican war began with a declaration by Polk that Mexico had begun war by ?^*'p^'fjj' sending troops into the territory of the United States. Tff^ To many people it seemed at the time a dangerous thing to allow the president to determine, when another nation had begun war, since to do so was tantamount to gi^^ng him the power to declare war. In 1861 the situation was even more urgent. That congress, called to meet in July, would recognize the existence of in- surrection, was not doubted. To meet the active war measures of the confecleracy, prompt action on the part of the union was neces- sary. Should Lincoln wait for the authority of acts of congress? He was too jjractical a man for such a course, and boldly decided to assume that he had necessary powers, and trust that congress would by its approval legalize what he had done. He accordingly called for troops, organized armies, and proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports. In doing so he established a precedent for simDar situations, if such should arise in the future. A more doubtful matter was connected with the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. On this subject the constitution only says, "The writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety Sus^nding may require it.'' But the constitution did not say whether habeas the president or congress should suspend the writ. Here corpus. again the necessity for immediate action was apparent. Maryland was fidl of Southern sentiment, the legislature was called to meet to consider the situation, and it was believed that a majority of its members would favor secession. If the state joined the con- federacy, Washington would be isolated and the cause of union would be severely injured. Lincoln again assumed responsibility. He ordered the military authorities to arrest the members of the legis- S86 CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR lature who seemed to be plotting treason, and to hold them pris- oners without benefit of habeas corpus. From their prisons they appealed to Taney, chief justice, who readily decided that they had committed no crime against the civil law. But they were not released, and there was no power in the courts to force the executiv'e to adopt Taney's construction of the constitution. This action also became a precedent under which, we may believe, it will be held that in a future emergency the president may suspend the writ if he thinks the public safety demands it. In this, as in all other cases, he is subject to impeachment for exercising his power without a due sense of responsibility. As Professor Dunning well says, it made the presi- dent a temporary dictator. Military arrests, however, were not confined to Maryland. In all parts of the North men were imprisoned on the charge of aiding the South. September 24, 1862, Lincoln issued a procla- ?J"?y mation for the arrest of persons discouraging enlistment Arres"^ or resisting the draft. They were to be tried by mOitary courts, and to prevent the interference of civU officers they were to be denied the privileges of habeas corpus. This step was defended on the ground of military necessity. It placed for the time being the life and liberty of citizens in the hands of the president to an extent that was never contemplated in the much decried alien and sedition laws of 1798. Under it, numerous arrests were made, and the victims were frequently kept in duress without trial. So great was the popular disapproval that congress, March 3, 1863, attempted to regulate the matter. It gave the president the authority to sus- pend the writ, ordered that persons then in prison should be discharged unless they were indicted by a grand jury, and that in Habeas ^-^e future no arrested one should be held longer than of 1863. twenty days unless so indicted. The natural consequence was to take such cases out of the hands of the military courts and leave them with the federal courts. Spite of this act military arrests of cixdlians continued to the end of the war, though not in as large numbers as formerly. The civil courts were not able to assert their authority against commanders of the army and were forced to submit. It was not untD 1866 that they found an oppor- tunity to declare themselves in the decision of the case c.x parte Milli- gan (see page 612). Although the supreme court here asserted the supremacy of the civil arm in districts not immediately subject to mili- tary authority, it is difficult to see how its contention could be enforced if the country should again have to encounter a situation like that of the civil war. The Southern Problem and Southern Efforts It is regrettable that this work is not large enough to embrace a de- scription of the civil war from the southern side. Nothing in American THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT 587 history is finer than the ability and devotion with which the confed- eracy, once it was organized, met its difficulties and utilized its scant resources to beat off the armies that were thrown uj)on it. Here it is only possible to mention the most prominent facts and to show how they affected the struggle. The confederate constitution was the old constitution modified to remedy what the South thought were bad interpretations of the old instrument. Internal improvements and protective tariffs were forbidden, slavery was guaranteed in territories, a S° t*!*^^'^ I- , . rr ■ 1 ■ ,1 • 1 • ■ ■ , Conshtution. confederate ofhcial serving solely withm a state might be impeached by a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature within that state, and a two-thirds vote of each house was made necessarj' for admitting a new state into the confederacy, the vote in the senate being by states. In these particulars, each of which suggests old points of dispute, it was attempted to guard the rights of the state against the central authority. Several other features are noteworthy. In order to make it easy to modify the constitution in keeping with the changing needs of the country, a new convention must be called when demanded by three states. Another feature took from the state the right to enfranchise foreigners who had not been naturalized, and still another made the president's term of office six years with ineligibil- ity for reelection. Cabinet members were to appear and speak in congress on matters pertaining to their departments, but they could not vote ; and no money was to be appropriated without a two-thirds vote except the sums specified in annual estimates by the departments. Several of these latter features had no reference to the sectional con- troversy, but were considered improvements warranted by e.xperience. The Montgomery government was pro\'isional and was to e.xist for one year only. By autunm the permanent constitution was adopted, and elections were held for presidential electors and members of con- gress. In the former Jefferson Davis was elected president for six years, and February 22, 1862, he was inaugurated in a downpour of rain which caused the superstitious to tremble for the fate of the new government. In fact, trouble soon appeared. Davis was a man of strong will and little tact. He was a West Point graduate, and took effective control of the war policy. He dominated a cabinet and con- gress hardly equal to the great work thrown upon them. His plan to withhold cotton from Europe in the first year of the war, when the blockade was not very efficient, was condemned by many planters. His military appointments were supposed to be due to favoritism ; it was said that he showed too strong a preference for Virginians, and some of the states claimed that he overrode states' rights in executing the conscription laws and the laws to impress horses and supplies for the army. Before the end of the war the discontented class was large, and one heard in many quarters that it was "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." But in most respects Davis had his way ; and it is S88 CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR doubtful if any other Southerner then in public life could have filled his difficult position so well. The chief objection to him as president is that he was too stout-hearted, and that he allowed the war to continue too long after it was an evident failure. In the light of later events it would have been better if in the autumn of 1864 he had rela.xed his stubborn purpose to resist until death, sacrificing his own ideas for what he should have known was the interest of his people. As the hope of success retreated, a peace party began to appear, most of its members being those who had clung longest to the union in 1 86 1. Davis and the whole confederate government The Peace opposed it Strongly, the writ of habeas cor puswas suspended, and every effort was made to keep alive the loyalty of all the people. In North Carolina and Georgia the peace movement was strongest, and even Stephens, the vice-president, was known to look upon it with favor. The elections of 1S64 were awaited as a test of the matter, but they resulted in victory for the friends of resistance, and the two states held on to the cause, though it was evidently desperate. Turning from internal alTairs in the South, let us consider foreign relations. Although selling bonds and buying supplies and ships con- cerned confederate agents in Europe, they gave most atten- Confederate jj^j^ ^^ efforts to secure the recognition of their govern- Afi^T ment. The decision of England in May, 1861, to give the South only the status of belligerency was disappointing, but hopes ran strong that confederate mihtary success would be followed by recognition. Time showed that this was a vain expectation. The campaigns of Bull Run, the Peninsula, and second Manassas were confederate victories, and though Antietam was a practical reverse, Fredericksburg was a decisive victory, and spite of them no signs of recognition appeared. In fact, England steadily refused to recognize the confederate representative. Mason, and he reported that regard for the dignity of his go\'ernment demand that he be re- called. He was, however, instructed to remain at his post in the hope that he might inlhience public opinion. He spent money freely for news- paper articles, and a newspaper was established in London presenting to the British public facts and arguments favorable to the South. By this time England was trying hard to produce cotton in her colonies and succeeding, although the quality of the cotton thus secured was below that produced in the South. The British people were strongly opposed to slavery, and Adams, the American minister, lost no oppor- tunity to show them to what extent the cause of the South was con- nected with the prolongation of the institution. It is not too much to say that slavery alone stood in the way of European recognition of the confederacy. After the battle of Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg, recognition became impossible, and Mason withdrew from London to Paris, remaining in Europe until the end of the war, with little to do. GOOD WILL OF NAPOLEON III 589 Meanwhile, it seemed for a time that better success would come from negotiations with France. Napoleon III wished to revive the French colonial empire, and Mexico seemed to offer a favor- able field of action. In order to collect some debts which m^" *° this improvident country had failed to pay, a joint French, British, and Spanish expedition occupied it in 1861-1862. Mexico now came to terms in regard to the debts, and England and Spain with- drew. But the French troops remained, and Napoleon, by taking sides with one of the two political factions then in the country, soon made himself lord of the country. Setting aside all pretext, he boldly began to inaugurate his colonial scheme. He expected no embarrass- ment on account of our Monroe doctrine ; for the United States gov- ernment had its hands full at home. On the contrary, he was disposed to make a friend of the confederacy. He caused the confederates to believe that early recognition was inevitable, and said he only awaited England's initiative. Early in 1862 he said he was ready to open the blockade of New Orleans, but the place was taken by Farragut, and the plan became impossible. Late in the same year he sug- gested joint intervention by himself, England, and Spain, J!"*^* """^ with an armistice of six months to arrange for a permanent federacy. peace. The proposition was rejected by England and brought forth a firm protest from the LTuited States, with the result that it accomplished nothing for the confederacy. But France did not cease to countenance the confederacy- Napoleon even sanctioned the building of heavy corvettes of the Alabama typepro\-ided they could go to sea without their destinations becoming known. Work on the ships was begun, but the American minister learned of it and protested to the emperor, who forthwith revoked the permission he had given. The ships, six in all, were comi)leted, but Gettysburg had then been fought, and it was impossible to get permission for their departure un- less they were sold to a neutral power of recognized standing. One of them was sold fictitiously to Denmark, got to sea, where her name was changed to the Slonrwall, but it was not done untO January, 1865, and although the vessel reached Havana, it was too late to be of service to the confederacy. The action of France in refusing permis- sion for the ships to depart came just at the time the British authorities took similar action in regard to the confederate rams built in English waters (see page 523), and the fate of the much desired confederate navy was thus sealed. Cut off from acti\'ity on the sea, the confed- eracy could not raise the blockade, and the war was left to be fought out on land. Of the ships which the South managed to get armed and on the sea, the most notable were the Alabama, Florida, Sumter, Shenan- doah, Tallahassee, and Georgia. The Southern army was first raised by volunteering, as in the North ; but although enthusiasm was abundant in 1861, it soon was in- adequate for the demands of the hour, and in April, 1862, a conscription 590 CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR act was passed, making all males between the ages of i8 and 35 liable to military duty. Five months later the limits were made 18 and 45, and before the end of the war boys as young as 16 years The were made liable to service. The confederate historians Armies. place the aggregate number of troops in their armies at 600,000 to 700,000. The northern authorities contend that this is too small, and think about 1,000,000 the right number. Un- fortunately, the confederate records were lost, and the dispute cannot be decided. The white population of the confederacy was only 5,500,000, which, by the accepted method of estimating the available inilitary class as one-fifth of the population, would give 1,100,000 of mOitary age. It is hardly to be expected that nearly all of these were drawTi into the army. In the North the men of military age were about 4,400,000, of which about 2,500,000 went into the army. The conscription laws of the South produced the same evils as in the North. Substitutes were allowed, and substitute brokers appeared. The men thus furnished were considered inefficient soldiers, and de- serted freely. Men of this class, as well as those who evaded service, frequently fled to the woods and became the scourge of peaceful com- munities. In the last months of the war there was much complaint on this score. As the Southern armies were reduced in Conscriot'on numbers, surgeons went everywhere, examining the men not in the armies, and taking all who could be of any use as soldiers. In this way the confederate go\'ernment brought out a very large proportion of the men capable of fighting in its behalf. By Christmas, 1864, it was estimated by the authorities that there were 100,000 deserters in the South. The financial resources of the confederacy were also severely taxed. The strictness of the blockade reduced import duties to an inconsider- able basis, and the chief source of funds was loans and in- Firmnce"" ^ ternal ta.xes. The former consisted of bonds and treasury notes, issued both by states and the confederacy. Specie was chiefly sent abroad to pay for public supplies, and the rapidly depreciating paper money sank in value until it was only received at enormous reduction. Even towns, counties, insurance companies, and mining companies issued their promises to pay. Before the end of the war the notes of the confederacy alone were more than $1,000,000,000. Produce loans were resorted to, i.e. bonds were given in e.xchange for cotton, tobacco, and turpentine, which might be sent abroad on blockade runners, or which, stored against the day of victory, might serve as security for loans floated in Europe. Finally, a tithe of agricultural products was required for the support of the armies. The slaves, although not used as soldiers, furnished by their labor the food which supported the armies. When the confederacy collapsed the South contained enough food supplies to support the struggle for a much longer period. "KIXG COTTON'S" WEAKNESS 50. Before Ihe war the South had very few manufactures, and though strenuous efforts were now made to repair the deficiency, the lacli of machinery and trained operatives presented insurmount- able difficulties. Shoes, clotliing, paper, hats, and a thou- ™^°"" sand other articles were very hard to obtain. The blockade kept out foreign supplies, and the small amount that got through on the swift blockade runners sold at exorbitant prices. Coffee and tea became almost unknown, and many substitutes were invented. For sugar, sorghum was used. Medicines were also obtained w-ith difficulty, especially quinine, wliich was much needed on account of the prevalent malaria. Spite of such privations the spirits of the people were good ; for there was always confidence that victory would soon come and that the rigorous blockade would be raised. Railroads could not be repaired, and were not able to carry supplies from the rich fields of the Gulf states to the army in Virginia. Man- ufactured articles such as there were could not be dis- „ .. . tributed to the people on the famis. Machine shops, which might have worked for the repair of railroads, ran to their full capacity on material of war. In despair the government offered aid to the railroads, but there were not in the South the necessary iron mills to produce the means of keeping up or e.xtending railroad service. There were rich beds of iron ore in the South, but in the devotion of the people to agriculture they had been unworked, and it was impossible to develop them under pressure of war. Before 1861 a favorite secession argument was "Cotton is King !" and it did much for the cause of secession. In substance it was that Europe and the manufacturing North were so dependent on Southern cotton that war was very improbable, and if it p!*® f^ did come, so much suffering would occur in England that cotton. she would interfere to end the struggle. It is true that the business interests of the North deprecated war, but they were swept away by the rising of patriotic fervor which followed the at- tack on Sumter, and from that time this part of the cotton kingdom paid no attention to the " King." In England there was much suffer- ing, the small supply of cotton that went out through the blockade counting for nothing in the situation. But the people of England dis- liked slaver>' too much to take its part, and endured financial loss until slavery could be wiped out of its last important stronghold. Under these conditions, cotton, which early in 1861 brought 14 cents a pound in Liverpool, sold at the end of the war for 50 cents in the same place. Great quantities of it accumulated in the South, spite of the efforts of the confederate congress to induce the planters to raise food products only. In 1861 appeals were made to the planters by the government to burn their cotton lest it be sent abroad and relieve the scarcity, and 1,000,000 bales are said to have been thus destroyed. When New Orleans fell, the federal authorities offered to allow cotton from the 592 CIVIL AFFAIRS DURING THE WAR interior to pass out, but very little appeared for that inirpose. By the end of 1862 the confederate authorities changed their opinion and sought to send cotton out through the blockade in order to get sup- plies. But at tliis time the blockade was too rigid to allow a consider- able exportation. Trade between the lines was ordinarily forbidden, but when west Tennessee was occupied a demoralizing trade sprang up which the strictest orders did not prevent. Cotton was given in exchange for salt, clothing, and even military supplies, and there were many complaints that officers of the posts shared the profits. General Butler, who commanded at New Orleans from May to Decem- ber, 1862, and at Norfolk in 1864, was generally believed to have reaped handsome reward by conniving at a trade in which cotton ex- changed for salt and other supplies at 15 cents a pound sold in the North for 60 cents. One of the most exciting phases of the war in the South was block- ade running. The low price of cotton within the confederacy, and the high price without, made it a practice as profitable as Running adventurous. A ship which could make two or three trips successfully netted a handsome return to her owners if she were captured afterwards. For the service, vessels of great speed were used. They were low, rakish-looking craft, painted as nearly the color of the water as possible, and were usually manned by foreigiiers, who, if captured, were not prisoners of war. Coming back, they managed to reach the bar of the home port at high tide on a dark night and tried to steal unobserved between the sentinel ships that guarded the entrance. If discovered, they tried to dart between the blockaders, and sometimes succeeded by reason of their speed. Block- ade runners were usually required to carry a portion of their incoming cargoes for the account of the confederate government. Nassau and Havana were the favorite ports to which they ran, and Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston the best ports from which to escape. The former is protected by shoals stretching far out to sea, which made the work of the blockaders difficult. It remained open until Fort Fisher, which guarded the entrance, was taken, January 16, 1865. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For civil affairs during the war, the same general works are suggested as for mihtarj- affairs (see page 543). But the same cannot be said in regard to sources. In this respect one must rely on : The Congressional Globe, for debates in congress ; The Slatulcs at Large, for laws passed ; and the Executive Documents for reports of committees or of high officials. Especially important are the reports of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the VVar, in 8 vols. The United States government has published the journals of the confederate congress, and Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, 2 vols. ( igos ), contains some of the documents to which the title directs attention. The Confederate Statutes at Large, published contem- poraneously at Richmond, contains all the confederate laws but those of the last days of the government. See also : Moore, Rebellion Records, 12 vols. (i86i-i868), much information culled from newspapers, pamphlets, and public speeches; and BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 593 AppUinv's Annual Cyclopedia. Of the newspapers of the times the following are im- porUiiil : The Tribune, Herald, Times, and Evening Fosl, of New York ; the Journal and Advertiser of Boston; the Times and Tribune, of Chicago; the Republican, of Springfield, Mass. ; the Democrat, of La Crosse, Wisconsin ; the Examiner, Whig, and Dispatch, of Richmond ; the Mercury, of Charleston ; and the Picayune, of New Orleans. The memoirs and lives of the prominent politicians of the period yield much im- portant information. The most important are; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, a History, to vols. (1890), verj- important; Bancroft, Life of William H. Seward, 2 vols. (1900), a scholarly work ; John Sherman, Recollections of Forty Years (1895) ; Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1900) ; Pierce, Charles Sumner, 4 vols. (1S77-1893); Greehy, Recollections of a Busy Life (186S); ]uhan, Recollections of War Times (1S84); Gorham, Edwin M. Stanton, 2 vols. (1899); McCall, Thad- deus Stevens (1899) ; Blaine, Twenty Years in Congress, 2 vols. (18S4) ; Hart, Salmon P. Chase (1899); Coleman, John J. Crittenden (1871); McClure, Lincoln and Men of War Tinifs (1S92) ; McCulloch, Men and Measures (1900) ; Fessenden, Life of W. P. Fessenden, 2 vols. (1907) ; Mrs. Davis, Jefferson Davis (1S90) ; Dodd, Life of Jefferson Davis (1907) ; Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens (1866) ; Stovall, Robert Toombs (1892) ; Du Bose, Life of William L. Yancey (1892) ; Capers, Life and Times of C. G. Memminger (1893); and Woodbum, Thaddeus Stevens (1913). On the meaning nf the constitution as regards the issues brought up by the war see : Parker, Constitutional Law with Reference to the Present Condition of the United States (1862), refers especially to military arrests; Ale.xander Johnston, American Political History, i/6j-iSy6, 2 vols. (1905), collected from Labor's Cyclopedia by Professor Woodbum; Dunning, Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction (ed. 1904) ; Whiting, War Powers of titc Government (1864) ; Von Hoist, Constitutional History nf the United States, 8 vols, trans. (1876-1892) ; Wihon, Political Measures of the United States Congress (1866); and Birmey, Privileges of a Writ of Habeas Corpus (1865). On the southern side, see Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, 2 vols. (1881) ; Stephens, Constitutional View of the War between the States, 2 vols, (i 868-1 870) ; and Curry, Civil History of the Confederate Government (1901). On the support of the war see : Dewey, Financial History of the United States (1903); Knox, American Notes (1899); Sti]16, How a Frej:. People Conduct a Long lt'<7r (1S63) ; Stanwood,.-lw('r/ra« Tariff Controversies, 2 vols. (1903) ; Sumner, ,4 mer/- can Currency (1874) ; Oberholtzer, Jay Cool!C, 2 vols. (1907) ; Schwab, Confederate States of America, Financial and Industrial (1901) ; and Fleming, Reconstruction in Alabama (1905). On numbers and losses: Livermore, Numbers and Losses of the Civil War (1901) ; Fox, Regimental Losses in the Civil War (1S89) ; and Wood, The Confederate Handbook (igoo). On diplomatic relations : Moore, Digest of International Law, 8 vols. (1906) ; Wliarton, Digest of International Law of the United States (1886) ; Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1900); Bancroft, William H. Si-icard, 2 vols. (1900); Bigelow, France and the Confederate Xavy (18S8) ; Bulloch, Secret Service of the Confederate States, 2 vols. (1884); Callahan, Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy (1901) ; and Bonham, British Consuls in the Confederacy (Columbia Studies, 191 1). For Independent Reading Tarbcll, Life of Lincoln, 2 vols. (ed. 1900); McClure, Lincoln and Men of War Times (1892) ; Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1900) ; Hart, Salmon P. Chase (1899) ; Riddle, Recollections of War Times (1895); Dodd, Life of Jefferson Davis (1907); Russell, My Diary North and South (1862); and R. E. Lee, Jr., Recollections and Letters of R. E. Lee (1904). 2Q CHAPTER XXVIII RECONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE Two Possible Methods of Reconstruction The constitution did not provide a way to restore government in a conquered state, and the men of 1865 must use ingenuity and find one. Congress thought restoration a part of the law- Presidental niaking function and wished to act the part of restorer. and Con- 'pj^g president felt that it was within his authority as Reconstruc- commander-in-chief of the amay and navy. He could tion. establish military law, and he could say on what con- ditions he woidd withdraw it. But he did not presume to create reconstruction. His theory was that it was an outgrowth of a latent power in the state which sprang into active life when he with- drew the military force which held it back. In the nature of the case, the president could act first. He thus began actual reconstruction, but in 1867 congress took it out of his hands, overthrew all he had done, and established a reconstruction of its own. Thus we have presiden- tial and congressional reconstruction. The point of difference lay in the amount of confidence which could be reposed in the South to accept emancipation and allow the freedmen complete ci\il rights. The president would trust the 'T^* Southerners. Let the union take some fundamental between*^* guarantees, exclude for a time the leading secessionists Them. from a share in government, and leave the future to the calm sense and honor of the South. Congress thought this was not enough. It feared that when the oversight of freedmen was remanded to the states, local laws would be passed undoing much of the good accomplished by the war. It demanded laws and constitu- tional amendments limiting state action and protecting the rights of the freedmen. Its program developed as it gained control of the situation, and it finally announced a definite demand for enfranchise- ment as the only sure means by which the ex-slave could defend him- self against the Southern white men. Several important laws and two constitutional amendments expressed this program. Their enact- ment marked the triumph of congress over the president. In the long debates by which congress came to its decision were 594 THEORIES OF STATUS 595 aniiDunced five theories of the slalits of the Southern states, i. The Southerners themselves believed that the states existed with un- impaired vitality, and that they only needed to accept the national authority and elect senators and representa- Status of the tives in order to resume their former places in the union, states. This was consistent with the ancient theory of state rights. 2. The presidential theory held that the states were still existent, but were incapable of normal action because their officers were insur- gents. It announced that when the president pardoned these officials the old status returned, and the people could form a government, act for the state, and resume representation in congress. In each of these theories was the idea that a state is indestructible. 3. Sumner believed that a state resisting the union committed treason, forfeited its constitutional rights, and destroyed itself as effectively as if it committed suicide. If the state no longer existed, the people living in what had been its borders were entirely under the national authority, and congress might dictate the terms on which the state could be restored. Sumner was supported by many able men, and his theory was in line with the doctrine of strong nationality to which the war gave a decided impulse. 4. Thaddeus Stevens, able leader of the house of representatives, and more severe toward the South than Senator Sumner, believed also that the states as such had ceased to exist ; but he considered them conquered provinces, as truly as if the war had been against a foreign power. They were, therefore, entirely in the hands of the conqueror, and congress might do what it would with the people and the territory concerned. Stevens thought the South, having rejected the constitution, had no right to claim its protection. He was known to favor drastic measures before completing the work of reconstruction. 5. As men considered these views, they found ob- jections in each. To allow easy restoration of the states, as was im- plied in the first and second, would imperil the fruits of the war. On the other hand, to recognize the state-suicide or the conquered-prov- inces theory implied a relinquishment of the powers of states, and a strengthening of the national power to which a large part of congress would not consent. In this dilemma the men of the day found another course of action which was believed to avoid each disadvantage. The compromise, not entirely consistent, was expressed in the forfeited- rights theory. It held that secession did not destroy the states or even take them out of the union, but that it deprived them of some of their normal rights. They were in a state of suspended animation, and congress was to determine the terms of restoration. The theory differed chiefly from Sumner's by insisting that the states still existed, but with power and rights suspended, and from the presidential theory, by leaving the task of reconstruction entirely to congress. It took many months of debating to bring this theory to its pre- ;lominance. 590 RECONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction By the end of 1862 parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana were recovered from the confederacy and taken at once under the direction of the generals who conquered them. Order Govemxnent. ^^"^^ preserved by the commanders of mUitary posts and by local officers appointed by the commanding generals. But this was not the proper function of an ofhcer commanding in the field, and Lincoln created military governors with powers derived from himself as commander-m-chief. They appointed local officers, es- tablished courts, and supervised the police function in their respective jurisdictions. They coidd be removed by the president, and were considered but a temporary makeshift. Lincoln disliked military go\'ernment as much as the people, and desired to make it yield as quickly as possible to a government which rested on the consent of the governed. Peirpoint's rump government at Alexandria served for the parts of Virginia held by the union, and relieved Lincoln of the neces- sity of establishing military government in that state. December 8, 1S63, Lincoln announced his plan in a "Procla- mation of Amnesty and Reconstruction." He ofTered pardon to all but certain excepted citizens of the South, if they The would swear loyalty to the union and accept the recent Amnesty j^^^^.g ^^^ proclamations respecting slavery. The persons Hon of excluded from pardon were former confederate civil and 1863. diplomatic officers, men who resigned federal judgeships, positions in the army or navy of the union, or seats in congress in order to serve the confederacy, officers above the rank of colonel in the army and lieutenant in the navy of the confederacy, and persons who refused to treat as prisoners of war captured colored troops and their wliite officers. He hoj^ed that the mass of whites in the recovered areas would take the oath, and he thought it wise to neutralize, for the time being, the influence of their former leaders by excluding them from participation in the work of reorganization. The proclamation also annoimced that when a number of citizens of a state equal to one-tenth of the vote of that state in i860 had taken the pre- scribed oath, they might establish a civil government, and presidential support would be given to its measures to regulate the life of the f reed- men, proxdded emancipation was recognized. Finally, it was specifi- cally stated that the president had no authority over the readmission of senators and representatives to the national congress. In this proclamation Lincoln spoke in general terms and with liis usual caution ; but his intention is seen specifically in the plan he im- mediately put into operation in Louisiana, where thirteen parishes, including New Orleans, were in union hands. In August, 1862, he appointed General Shepley military governor of the state, and in THE LOUISIANA PLAN 597 December, before the proclamation appeared, two districts elected congressmen who were allowed seats in the house, although the radicals there opposed the step because they thought it should wait until a general plan of reconstruction was Reconstruc- adopted by congress. Lincoln ignored the radicals, and Louisiana — after the proclamation was issued, encouraged General 1863-1864. Banks, commanding in Louisiana, to order an election for state officials on February 22, 1S64. This done, a state convention was called to adapt the Louisiana constitution to new conditions. Three parties now appeared : one was conservatively Southern and declared that slavery continued spite of the emanciijation proclamation of 1S63 ; another was Northern in feeling and thought that slavery still existed, l)ut should be abolished by state action ; a third, including the practical men generally, thought slavery no longer existent. In the February elec- tions, the third party cast more votes than the other two combined. It chose Michael Hahn governor, with other civil officers, but the second party protested the election as under military influence, and won the support of the radicals in congress, so that the senators, and representatives chosen with Hahn were not seated when they appeared in Washington. But the third party proceeded with its program. The convention met in April and revised the constitution by abolishing sku'ery, providing for public education without distinction of race, and granting equal civil stains to all male citizens. This constitution was submitted to the people and adopted by a vote of 6S36 to 1556. Lincoln supported Hahn ; but radicals, in close touch with the Northern group in Louisiana, opposed all that was done, declaring especially for negro suffrage. Lincoln did not favor so extreme a step. "I barely suggest, for your private consideration," he wrote to Governor Hahn, ''whether some of the colored people may not be let in — as, for in- stance, the very intelligent, and .especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of free- dom." When negro suffrage became a most serious question, the war president was dead, but there is no reason to believe that he ever changed the opinion he expressed on it in 1S64. g^^^^^ In the same year, Arkansas established a reconstructed government like that of Louisiana, and Tennessee did the same in the winter of 1864-1865 ; but congress refused to seat the members chosen from either state. In 1862 a mUitary governor was appointed over the small strip recovered in the east of North Carolina, but the process of reconquest was stayed, and no attempt was made to es- tablish civil government in that state until the war ended. Lincoln's plan aroused enthusiasm in the North, where there was little popular desire to punish the South. Then the radical leaders became alarmed and bethought themselves to check the tide of opin- ion which set for him. They thought him too mild toward the South ; 598 RFXOXSTRUCnON — THE NATIONAL SIDE some of them favored negro suffrage, and they were shrewd enough to utilize the jealousy congress felt for its privilege as the part of the government which ought to decide upon reconstruction. Davis Biif" ^^^ house of representatives was under their control, and in December, 1863, appointed a committee, Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, chairman, to report a plan of reconstruction. The bill he introduced was carried through the house. It was amended in the senate and passed there chiefly through the efforts of Wade, of Ohio. For this reason it was called the Wade-Daxds bill, after its two most notable authors. It provided that provisional governors ad- minister the affairs of the recovered Southern states until the war ended, and that civil government should then be reestablished, when half of the male white citizens took an oath of loyalty to the union. The work of restoration should be done by a state convention, for which no man should vote and in which no man should have a seat who had held state or central office under the confederacy, or voluntarily fought against the union. This state convention must amend the constitu- tion so as to provide: (i) that confederate officials, except in ofSces merely administrative and in military rank below colonel, should not vote for, or be, governors or members of legislatures; (2) that slavery be forever prohibited; and (3) that all debts incurred in behalf of the confederacy should be repudiated. When this constitution had been ratified by the people, the state was to be allowed representation in congress. The Wade-Davis bill passed July 2, 1864, two days before congress adjourned. Although the bill was milder than the plan later carried out by con- gress, it was too severe for Lincoln, and it received a "pocket veto." He said, referring to repeated declarations made early in Veto °^ * '•^^ war: "I do not see how any of us can now deny or contradict what we have always said, that congress has no constitutional power over slavery in the states." He issued a proc- lamation in which he said he would not bind himself to only one form of reconstruction, but that if any state presented itself for restoration under the plan in the Wade-Davis bill, it would have his support. This angered the radicals, who published an ill-tempered manifesto charging the president. with a design to "hold the electoral votes of the rebel states at the dictation of his personal ambition." The war was then drawing to an end, and the problems of reconstructions were by common consent deferred until they could be taken up with an assur- ance of final settlement. The president and congress were now clearly at odds, " Twenty- ^nd the latter showed their distrust by passing a resolution Joint" ^^^^ ^^^ electoral votes of the states restored under Lin- Rule." coin's plan should not be counted. They also passed the "Twenty-second Joint Rule," by which the consent of each house was necessary to count the disputed electoral vote of a state. JOHNSON'S CHARACTER 599 It gave the radicals a strong grip on the presidential elections, and remained in force until 1S76, when it was dropped because the demo- crats controlled the house. Lincoln was too wise to' oppose these res- olutions openly. He realized that a contest awaited him in which he would need all powers of tact and persuasion. Ere the encounter began he was dead. One of his last victories was the approval of the thirteenth amend- ment by congress, February i, 1S65. It was accepted by three-fourths of the states and formally proclaimed December 18, 1865. It read: "i. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ^{j® except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall Amendment have been duly con\dcted, shall e.xist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." The debate on the amendment in congress shows that "involuntary servi- tude" was meant to include any partially free condition, as serfdom or peonage. The term "any place subject to their jurisdiction" was adopted in preference to the term "United States," lest the latter be held to mean only the states within the union. The second clause caused much anxiety. As adopted, it was supposed to give congress ample power to overrule any obstruction of the states. Johnson's Pl.\n of Reconstruction The man who took up the task which tried Lincoln was also humbly born and self-educated. A tailor by trade, he lacked the advantage most of our self-made leaders have had, of a long training in some conservative and intellectual profession. His j^^lV"„ • r rr. Jonnson. power was won m the mountam counties of 1 ennessee, where he appealed to passions rather than judgment. He voiced boldly and ably the non-slaveholder's sense of inequality at the hands of the planter and his hope in the union as the salvation of the South from aristocratic domination. Lincoln admired his courage, and made him in 1862 military governor of Tennessee, a position in which a man of decision and inflexible will was needed. Lincoln also urged him for vice-presidential candidate in 1864, because he wanted a Southern man on the ticket. He was a democrat before the war, and still believed in state sovereignty. He became a republican be- cause he loved the union, and was now, the union no longer in danger, inclined to revert to his old position. He was frcquijntly intoxicated, and in that condition was liable to make maudlin speeches in which were mingled abuse of his opponents and glorification of himself. These lapses occurred most frequently in the first year of his presi- dency. Later, in the stress of conflict, he manifested more self-control, and waged his battle cautiously and with clearness of mind. But his opponents were shrewd and unrelenting. His indiscretions were de- 6oo RECONSTRUCTION— THE NATIONAL SIDE scribed in the press and on the stump, and in the excitement of the moment he was presented to the world as a vulgar man gone mad. Johnson took the oath of office on April 15. He retained Lincoln's cabinet, in which were two factions, one headed by Stanton, secretary of war, and in sympathy with the radicals, and the other Johnson, jjj f^yor of Lincoln's milder policy. In this second group Seward.' Seward, secretary of state, was now greatest, but, wounded when Lincoln was shot, it was not until May 19 that he was able to attend cabinet meetings. At first the president acted with Stanton, who stimulated his natural resentment against the ruling class in the South. He talked much about making treason odious, and he offered large rewards for the arrest of Jefferson Davis and other confederates on the ground that they took part in the con- spiracy to kill Lincoln. The radicals even urged the capture and punishment of Lee and other paroled generals, on the ground that paroles were ineffective at the end of the state of war. At this. General Grant, who granted Lee's parole, intervened with so strong a negative that the project was relinquished. Its violence reacted against Stanton, and the opportune reappearance of Seward caused pacific ideas to pre- vail. By June i, Johnson's policy was essentially that of Lincoln. Johnson's plan appeared in his amnesty proclamation. May 29, 1S65. All former confederates, except those specifically e.xcluded, , were to be pardoned upon taking an oath of loyalty. The Amnestv^ e.xceptions included confederate, civil, and diplomatic officers, military officers above colonels, naval officers above lieutenants, confederate governors, persons who had resigned high federal office to serve the confederacy, and persons who owned taxable property worth $20,000, or more. But the persons excepted could be pardoned by the president. It was in e.xcluding the last class that Johnson's amnesty differed essentially from Lincoln's. In another proclamation of the same date, W. W. Holden was appointed provisional governor of North Carolina and directed to order an election of delegates for a constitutional convention. Johnson's decision on the suffrage was an important point, and Stanton had tried hard to get it extended to all freemen, meaning whites and blacks. But Seward prevailed, and the proclamation offered the franchise to those who could have voted before secession and who had C^'oUnaRe ''^'^^i'^'^d amnesty. Negro suffrage at that time had not constructed, ^'^^n demanded in any vote of congress, not even in the Wade-Davis bill ; and it was denied in every Northern state except New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island. The North Carolina proclamations be- came a precedent, and in six weeks similar documents were issued for South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. The Southerners had waited anxiously while their fate was debated in Washington. Rumors of confiscation, of negro enfranchisement, RECONSTRUCTION INAUGURATED ooi and other hardships had filled them with dread. They now recovered their spirits and even assumed that the North dared not trample under foot the rights of a sovereign state. They accepted Johnson's terms, and, when congress met in December, the seven states were in active process of reconstruction. Johnson did not disturb Lincoln's plans in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, and it seemed, there- fore, that restoration would soon be accomplished in the entire South. Lincoln and Johnson doubtless thought the exclusion of prominent Southerners would be temporary. It would neutralize the influence of former secessionists and fill the conventions and assemWies with men over whom the administration could Exclusion have some influence ; and when the first steps in recon- struction were taken, the leaders might be gradually readmitted to civil rights. But the excluded persons did not lose influence. They were the South's natural leaders, now more loved because they seemed martyrs, and, hampered as they were, they continued to devise the policies of the people. Their sense of injustice gave a tone of de- fiance to their counsel, and this when it was most important that they be enlisted for the cause of reconciliation. By the end of October, 1865, six of the states under Johnson's plan had held their conventions, and the other, Texas, acted in the spring of 1866. They all annulled secession and declared slavery abolished forever ; and all but South CaroHna repudiated Progress the state debts contracted in aid of the confederacy. °^ states These steps were taken by the advice of the president, who Johnson's declared that they were necessary to satisfy the North, pian. Soon after the conventions adjourned, the state legislatures met. To them came the thirteenth amendment for ratification. John- son again interposed, and at his solicitation it was approved by every Southern state but Mississippi. Affairs in the South The South did not relish what it did, but it acted in good faith. It believed restoration complete and took up the regulation of the lives of the freedmen with the feeling that there would be, and could be, no further interference. The control of the J^^t^""* blacks had ever given them anxiety ; and the black code preedmen. of slavery times was designed to restrict the actions of these people. It was, however, adjusted to slavery, and it seemed to the Southern legislators of 1865 that it must be revised to suit the re- gime of emancipation. The negroes were as illiterate and as little civilized as before the war, and they were now under less control. Undoubtedly the legislators exaggerated the negro's liability to make trouble. He has never shown a violent disposition. But the South had lived under the black terror for generations, and felt tlie power of 6o2 RECONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE it still in the untried problem of 1865. Thus it was that the legis- latures felt it necessary to prepare new black codes. The conviction did not grow out of a feeling of hostility to the blacks, but out of a deep-rooted view of social life. Before the war the law provided in most states that no slave should travel without written permission, or have firearms, or trade in the night-time, or give evidence against a white man, or hold Black Code pi'opcrty of Certain kinds, or reply in kind to a white man's abuse. He was not tried in the same court with a white man, nor did his life and liberty have the same safeguards. In short, the anle-beUum Southerner was satisfied that the negro should have a lower status than the white man. The first state legislature to meet under Johnson's plan was that of Mississippi. It assembled in November, 1865, and quickly made a new black code. In this state feeling was rather extreme, Bla^k Code "^^^ ^^^ legislators, ignorant of the effect in the North, made such regulations as comported with their ideas of the status of the freedmen. The blacks were to have the right to own personal property, to sue and be sued, to contract legal marriage with their own race, but not to intermarry with whites, and to be witnesses when one party in a case was colored. All these things were impos- sible under the old code, and they seemed to most Southerners notable concessions. They were balanced by restrictions which showed how greatly freedom was to be limited ; for it was also pro\ided that a freedman might not own land, nor could he lease it outside of towns, that he must have a license naming his home and employment, that his labor contracts for a term more than a month should be in writing, that if he violated a labor contract he lost unpaid wages, and that he should not have firearms unless licensed or in the federal military serv- ice. It was also provided that if he was adjudged to have no lawful employment, he was a vagrant and subject to fine. The same punish- ment was given him for other offenses, as trespass, rioting, seditious speeches, insulting gestures, preaching without license from a church, and selling intoxicating liquors. If he could not pay a fine thus im- posed, he should be handed over to labor for the white man, who would pay the amount and take him to work for the shortest time. Minor orphans and children whose parents did not support them were ordered to be bound out to a white man until of age, and the officer who ordered the bond should fix the age of the child, if it was doubtful. These laws did not conflict with the thirteenth amendment, which prohibited involuntary serxatude only when not inflicted for crime. They created a large scope for crime. The provisions for a^B^New^ vagrancy and apprenticeship were much like the older laws Black Code, o^ Mississippi on the same subjects ; and the Southerners thought them absolutely necessary in bringing into orderly relations a mass of crude and disorganized people. Other Southern WORK OF FREEDMEN'S BUREAU 603 legislatures followed the example of Mississippi, though none of them went quite so far in repression. They were either not so severe in their ideas, or were disposed to be cautious because of the criticism the Mississippi laws aroused in the North. But the new code, taken all together, created the impression outside the South that the states, once the problem was entirely in their hands, would impose a con- dition of part freedom on the former slaves. The radicals, in congress and out, made much capital of it, and insisted that it showed that presidential reconstruction did not safeguard the fruits of military victory. Meanwhile, the Southerners thought they had ocular demonstra- tion of the unwise meddling of the North in Southern social conditions, ^larch 3, 1865, congress created in the war department "a bureau of refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands," I ^ commonly called the freedmen's bureau. It was to Bureau. assume a relation of guardianship over the freedman, hitherto dependent on his master, to direct his first steps in self-sup- port, to furnish supplies, to supervise his education and his contracts to labor, to incite him to good habits, and to protect him against over- reaching white men, if such should be encountered. The bureau had a commissioner at the head, an assistant commissioner for each state, and a large number of local agents, most of them Northern men. It had large powers in the settlement of disputes between blacks and whites, and the latter, accustomed to manage their own affairs, con- sidered it an intrusive organization, and a symbol of their humiliation. Most of the bureau officials were practical men, although some were enthusiastic friends of the negro race and had too much confidence in the effect of freedom on it. But they were at the best in a trying situation, and became much disliked in the South. The blacks themselves had little concept of the duties and obliga- tions of their new condition. By most evidence they worked well dur- ing the spring and summer of 1865. By autumn they seemed to be more restless. The freedmen's bureau bill ' ^°^^ provided that the abandoned and confiscated lands of a^^yig" Southerners should be distributed among them at not more than forty acres to each adult male. As it was doubtful if the confis- cation act of 1862 would pass the courts, very little land had been ac- c|uired by the government, although much was occupied in some dis- tricts. The distribution was thus delayed, but the negroes knew it was contemplated, came to look upon it as an act of justice, and in some une.iqilained way believed that the donation would be made at the end of 1865, as a great Christmas gift from the national government. .\t this time the South was full of enthusiastic men and women who as missionaries and teachers sought to uplift the dull minds and souls which slavery had enthralled. The situation was comi)le\, Init it was an epoch of violent readjustment, and it was not to be expected 6o4 RECONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE that it should have passed smoothly. The negro himself leaned hard on the friends from the North, caught at the prospect of "forty acres and a mule," and, as Christmas approached, refused to contract for farm labor during the coming year. The white employers were resentful. They believed that the Northern men in the South were disorganizing conditions there, and the events which followed — the hot debates in Congress and the violent language of the radicals — were not likely to remove the Southerner's suspicions. Thus it hap- pened that the blacks and whites, who even in the darkest days of war lived harmoniously side by side, came to be antagonistic and united in opposition to one another. Johnson's Hopes During most of 1865 Johnson's reconstruction was popular. The North was not vindictive, and the people wanted peace. Business men desired the prosperity of the South, an important Popularity purchaser of all the products of the North. In the summer and autumn many conventions indorsed the work of the president. His first annual message was praised both for its good sense and its literary excellence. We now know that George Ban- croft, the historian, was responsible for the latter ; but Johnson him- self, with Seward and other advisers, was the author of the former. It declared for peace. Let the two races in the South be left to them- selves, let not the process of reform be unduly hastened, and "it may pro\'e that they [the negroes] will recei\'e the kindest usage from some of those on whom they have hitherto most closely depended." Johnson and his advisers thought of a new republican party, and under e.xisting conditions it was not an impossibility. In ten years the republicans had outlived two great issues, resistance A Moderate ^.q slavery and disunion, and must now find another. Party. Johnson believed the moderate men predominated in the nation. Most of the Northerners who in i860 supported Douglas, Breckenridge, and Bell, and probably a third of those who supported Lincoln believed in the indestructibility of the states, that is to say, about 65 per cent of the total vote of the non-seceding states. If these could be brought into one moderate movement, they could carry the country ; and if the South were restored, it would only in- crease the strength of the moderates. It was a well-conceived plan, and under a different leader might have been realized. Those who carefully read the message of 1865 and saw the popularity it aroused in the country were of a mind that Johnson might succeed. All this alarmed the radicals. December 4, Thaddeus Stevens, by getting a two-thirds vote in the house excluded the representatives from the newly reconstructed states, thus gi\'ing notice that presi- Iciitial reconstruction was opposed by the house. He next moved a ATTITUDE OF THE RADICALS 605 joint committee on reconstruction, nine members from the house and SLX from the senate, and the motion passed by a vote of 133 to 36 in the lower, and 33 to 11 in the upper, body. These reso- lutions were so written that what was done, rested on the "P^^ ^"^^ unquestioned right of the houses to pass upon the election ^j °^^^ of their own members. But the committee proceeded to Radicals, consider a plan of reconstruction which it would report before it took up the specific question for which it was named, the seating of the Southerners. Stevens, now master of the house, was chairman of the house portion of the committee. He was bitter, able, and vindictive. He became the most influential of the radicals. Fessenden, chairman of the senate portion, was somewhat milder in feeling, but he too was opposed to presidential reconstruction. But the first move came in the senate. January 5, 1S66, the judiciary committee, through its chairman, Lyman Trumbull, of Illi- nois, reported the freedmen's bureau bill of 1S66. Trum- bull was an old friend of Lincoln, and in most of the con- C'^^^'^'^^if troversy that followed was on the conservative side. His „f jgg^ bill enlarged the powers of the bureau, and continued it until congress ordered otherwise. It also provided that when a state by its laws discriminated against the blacks the president should ex- tend military law over such a state and the bureau officials should execute it. This was a reply to the enactment of the new black codes. It was not to apply to states which had not seceded, and it was to be inoperative after a Southern state had been reconstructed. To those who held the older theory of the state i^ seemed violent invasion of a state's constitutional rights. The law passed the senate by a vote of 37 to 10, and the house by 136 to 33. Johnson vetoed it at once. His reasons pleased his friends, who thought the bill a dangerous attack on the state. Some of the senators were apparently con\'inced by his arguments, and when the bill came up again in the senate it failed, by a vote of 30 to 18, to pass over the veto. Johnson probably thought the country would rally to him, but he was disappointed. He was attacked bitterly in congress and out. He was pronounced a democrat, and a Southern sympathizer, and it was pointed out that his friends in congress were ^^^. '^"^^ only democrats and half-hearted republicans. He was johnson. unmercifully condemned for a speech on February 22, in which, carried away by the shouts of noisy admirers, he forgot the dignity of his office, and charged Stevens, Sumner, and Wendell Phillips with trying to destroy the principles of the government. His language and bearing were coarse, and the disgust they occasioned obscured the constitutional argument he made with ability. In the light of after events, it seems that if he had accepted the freedman's bureau bill, he would have drawn to his side the more conservative of his opponents and reduced the power of the radicals into safe bounds. 6o6 RECONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE When the senate judiciary committee reported the freedmen's bureau bill it also reported a civil rights bill, declaring citizens all persons born in the United States, except Indians not taxed R' hts Bill '^'^^ foreign subjects. It guaranteed equal rights to such citizens, and reserved cases under this law to the federal courts. This bill did undoubtedly contravene the older idea that citizenship belonged to the state, but it was believed by its friends to be justified under the clause in the thirteenth amendment giving con- gress the power to enforce the abolition of slavery. Some of Johnson's wisest friends, foreseeing the impending struggle with congress, urged him to save himself by accepting the bill ; but when it came to him in March he vetoed it on the ground that it was a stride toward con- centration and would "resuscitate the spirit of rebellion." Congress passed the bill over the veto. From that time Johnson was beaten. Both of these bills came from the senate and were milder than the known policy of the house radicals. In each branch of the legislature were moderate republicans who at first opposed the radical policies. They were the decisiv'e factor in the situation. If they went for the president he would triumph. They would probably have stood by him if he had accepted the bills. But his vetoes showed him uncom- promisingly for the states, and the moderates would not trust him ; for although they opposed concentration, they believed that to sur- render the situation to state control would defeat justice in the South and establish the new black code. The debate on these two bills was bitter, and contained much about Southern outrages, or violence visited by the Southern whites on negroes and loyal w-hite men. There was, in fact, much r.°'L_*"' disorder in the South. The whites there believed that Outrages. , i , . , . . r • i mi i they had rights as citizens of indestructible states ; and they resented the purpose of the radicals as revealed in congress. They were irritated by the proposition to try cases dealing with negroes before officials of the freedmen's bureau and to commit a hundred offenses concerning the rights of the freedmen to federal courts. Their impatience expressed itself in open conflict with those, whites and blacks, who defended the new regime. Negroes had been whipped freely before the war for insubordination ; it was not un- natural that those blacks who now seemed too aggressive or committed violence should receive the same treatment. Besides, there were daring spirits who took pleasure in punishing men whom they be- lieved inimical to Southern society. Moreover, there were many posts of union troops in the South to preserve order, and their method of doing it sometimes excited retaliation by young Southerners. Particularly, if the post was held by negro troops the result was likely to be conflict. Possibly the acts of violence resulting from all these causes were no more numerous than were to be expected in such chaotic conditions ; but each instance was exploited in the North for political AN AMENDMENT NECESSARY 007 effect. Repeated in the papers, they showed to the satisfaction of most men that the South was still rebellious and should not control the rights and liberty of the former slaves. The outrages were ex- aggerated in the Northern press : in most parts of the South and at most times life was quiet and there was safety for the people. The Fourteenth Amendment No one in Washington in the spring of 1866 thought that the enact- ment of the freedmen's bureau and the civil rights bills would satisfy all parties. The house, in the hands of the radicals, with Stevens at the head, would spend all its strength to carry The Senti- out a policy of severe reconstruction. But the senate congress, was less united. In fact, it contained four factions. One, a rather large one, was as radical as Stevens ; another was radical, but temperately so ; another was composed of moderate republicans who had followed Lincoln, and another of democrats who were openly for the South. The fourth group was the only one that Johnson could count on. The third was friendly in the beginning of the year, and probably woidd have continued so if he had accepted the two bills just mentioned. It was currently said that he promised to approve the ci\il rights bill, and his subsequent veto of it was considered an act of bad faith which further alienated the men of the third group. With all the senate republicans united it was possible to carry a bill over the president's veto. The radicals were conscious of their power and jubilant over the prospect of success. Their first move was an amendment giving con- stitutional vigor to the main features of the civil rights bill. But in its first form the fourteenth amendment dealt with Fourteenth negro suffrage alone. It did not seem fair that the South, the ^p^s"^" old three-fifths apportionment being now obsolete, should Form. have full benefit of its colored population while it excluded them from the polls. So it was proposed to exclude negroes from the basis of representation in those states in which they might not vote. As this would be a loss of representation in such states, it was hoped that it would impel them to concede the franchise to the freedmen. In this form the amendment passed the house by a vote of 120 to 32, but it failed in the senate. Five extreme radicals, Sumner among them, voted against it because it did not authorize negro suffrage outright. This was before the veto of the civil rights bill. Nearly two months later the amendment came before congress in a new form. The provision regarding suffrage was retained, and three features of the vetoed bill were added: i. "All persons ^g^^^ bom or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the states wherein they reside." 2. No state should abridge the rights 6o8 RECONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE of such citizens. 3. No state should "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law" or deny equal pro- tection of the laws. It also excluded from federal or state office until pardoned by congress persons who, having held high federal or state office, later supported the confederacy. It guaranteed the payment of the national war debt, and ordered that no state should pay the con- federate debt or pay for the loss of the slaves through emancipation. It was so sweeping a program of reconstruction that the extreme radicals would not oppose it. Sumner and three of his five colleagues in the senate who voted against the first form now gave it their votes, and it passed both houses by the necessary two-thirds vote. It only remained to be approved by three-fourths of the states. No one could doubt that the Northern states would ratify ; but the Southern states were more than a fourth of the 27 states then in the union and could defeat the amendment. Would Rejected ^j^^y accept or reject? Most republicans were ready to South. forget all if those states, chastened by adversity, approved the amendment. In view of what came later, they would have done well to bow the head to the yoke and submit to necessity. But the fires of controversy had filled them with defiance, and one by one in the autumn of 1866 and in the winter following they repudiated the amendment. Their legislatures under the Johnson plan were full of ex-confederates, who took it as an indignity to disfranchise their former comrades, repudiate the confederate debt, and accept a lower rank in congress. They were in despair, and felt that if they must be humiliated, it might better come through the force of the conqueror than by their own consent. Posterity has some admiration for their spirit, l3ut the Northern people were only inclined to think them stiff- necked and unreasonable. The situation pleased the extreme radicals, who felt that the North must now come to a policy of severity. The autumn elections seemed to support them, since the senate was now republican by Radical n ^^ ^^ ^^ votes and the house by 143 to 49. Stevens and Control. Sumner, who thought that the negro could only be pro- tected by having the ballot, were ready to demand negro suffrage, and believed the country would indorse such a demand. Garfield, in the house, summed up their feeling in a remarkalale speech. Congress, he said, had been generous : it might, had it so desired, have hanged "every rebel traitor in the South for their bloody conspiracy," or confiscated their property ; but through generosit)' it had withheld its hand. Its offer to receive the Southern states into the union with no other restriction than the fourteenth amendment hatl been flung back into its face, and "it is now our turn to act. They would not cooperate with us in rebuilding what they destroyed. We must re- move the rubbish and rebuild from the bottom." By the rubbish, he meant the existing governments under Johnson's plan. The TliJ-: RADICALS UNIL\MPERED Oog Southerners believed that by holding out courageoush' they could block the amendment forever, since it could not be adopted without their consent. By rebuilding the government in their states from the bottom, Garfield meant that the negroes themselves must be allowed to vote, that they would thus gain control of the Southern states, and that the amendment could then be ratified. This favorite program of the e.xtreme radicals was now to be carried into effect. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 The first concern of the radicals was to abolish the go\-ernments Johnson had set up in the Southern states, and to substitute others which conformed to the radical theory. Ste\'ens had e\er advocated such a course and introduced a bill to that g^^^^'^f effect in the first session of the existing congress. Mod- bjh erate \'iews, however, had prevailed and his bill was not pressed. He now, January 3, 1867, called it up, and spite of the op- position of the liberals, it was referred to the joint committee on re- construction, which reported it a month later with some modifications. It abolished existing southern governments and created military rule in the South to continue during the pleasure of congress. The house passed it, but the senate moderates opposed it so strongly that com- promise was necessary. The bill as it passed the house provided that the military governors be appointed by the general of the army — General Grant. The moderate senators did not like to ignore the president's constitutional power as commander-in-chief, they thought he ought to appoint the military governors, and they wished the bill to specify the time at which the scheme should cease to ojierate. They had their way, and the measure in its final form passed both houses, was vetoed by Johnson, and passed over his veto, March 2, 1867. Sumner, always the champion of negro suffrage, desired that the bill specify that the state constitutions to be adopted under the proposed scheme should enfranchise the frcedmen, and his demand was granted. The act of March 2 was the first of three which together embodied the congressional plan of reconstruction. Its chief features were: i. The South was to be divided into five military districts as follows: (a) Virginia, (6) the Carolinas, (c) Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, (d) Mississippi and Louisiana, and (e) Texas and Arkansas. Tennessee was not juT* t'^j ° in this arrangement, for in 1866 it accepted the fourteenth jg^.^, amendment and was recognized as in full fellowship. 2. Over each military district there was to be a military governor appointed by the president with the consent of the senate. 3. This governor must preserve order in his district, and he might continue local civil officers there or supplant them by military tribunals as he 2R 6io RECONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE saw fit. 4. A constitutional convention should be called in each state, the delegates being chosen by all citizens, regardless of race or color, except those disfranchised for rebellion or for felony at common law. 5. VVhen the revi.sed constitution, which must accept the franchise provided in this act, was appro\'ed by those who voted for the mem- bers of the convention and was accepted by congress, and when the legislature under it had adopted the fourteenth amendment and the said amendment had become a part of the federal constitution, such a state should be readmitted into the union and military government should cease. The day after this act was passed congress adjourned. Its last care was to call an e.xtra session of the succeeding congress, the fortieth, to meet on March 4. It had taken the situation into its iwarch 21 '^^^''^ hands so effectually that even this function was taken from the president. The new congress was more opposed to Johnson than its predecessor, and carried on the task of reconstruc- tion with eagerness. The act of March 2 merely enacted a plan ; a new law, that of March 23, provided machinery for putting the plan into effect. It provided for a registration of voters and for hold- ing the elections of delegates to the conventions. It also provided that a constitution to be accepted must have the approval of a major- ity of the registered voters. This was done to meet an objection of the other side that the proposed proceedings in the South would be only minority legislation. Johnson vetoed this act and congress overrode the veto. Johnson's opposition now ceased. He considered it his duty to enforce the law and appointed the five military governors pro- vided for, all generals of prominence ; anrl they ordered registrations of voters and called for elections as the laws directed. The radicals thought their work well done, but the Southerners, with the aid of Stanbery, the attorney-general, found a weak point in it. The law allowed all to register who did not volun- The Act of tarily serve the confederacy. Did the registration officers igg^ ' have authority to determine that an applicant had fought voluntarily or involuntarily ? The question was referred to Washington, and Stanbery decided that the officers had no dis- cretion and must register all who offered. Under this interpreta- tion of the law the Southerners would register in large numbers and probably defeat the objects of congressional reconstruction. The radicals were alarmed. Secretary of War Stanton, their chief reliance in the cabinet, was in entire opposition to the president, and wrote a new law which congress passed over Johnson's veto July 19, 1867. It was the third reconstruction act of the radicals. It gave the regis- tration officials the specific authority Stanbery had not found in the first acts, and in other ways made it impossible to evade the will of the congressional majority. In these three laws congressional reconstruction received its legal basis and became inevitable. BRIDLING THE PRESIDENT 6ii Although Johnson kept within the letter of the law and obeyed it when it was clear, he was not trusted and was much disliked. Con- gress expressed its feeling by fixing the times of its own reassembling, and in allowing many contemptuous utter- ^^*'''"s ances on the floors of the two houses. lie gave great Johnston olTense in the summer of iS6() in several speeches in what was known as his "swinging-around-lhc-circle" tour in tlie West. He was said to have been intoxicated when he spoke at Cleveland, where the jibes from the crowd irritated him until he broke into a .series of angry and rude retorts. It was probably the most undignified exhibition a president of the United States ever made of himself. It gave an argument to liis enemies, who redoubled their abuse and aroused such contempt for him in the country that they felt able to treat him in the most chsdainful manner without fear of popular re- proof. They pronounced him a traitor, and talked openly of impeach- ing him. They desired to take out of his hands the e.xecution of their program. They had wished to take from him the appointment of the military governors, but the moderates in the senate blocked them in that. Then they passed over his veto the tenure-of-office act, March 2, 1867. Secretary Stanton, they thought, was offic"jAct necessary to their plans. He was bold, resourceful, and defiant of J(jhnson. If he should be dismissed from the war depart- ment, W'here he had a wide supervision o\'er the new military dis- tricts, and a man of Johnson's way of thinking should take his place, much might be lost in the e.xecution of the reconstruction laws. By the act now passed, federal employees confirmed by the senate should hold office until their successors were duly appointed, but cabinet members should remain in office during the term of the president who named them and for one month thereafter. It also directed that if the president removed a cabinet officer during the recess of congress, he should report the case to the senate within twenty days after it convened, and the senate might order the reinstatement of the officer in question. Such a removal could, therefore, only be a sus- pension. The constitution is not specific on this point, but in 1867 it had been held for a long time that it gave the president the power to dismiss a cabinet officer, and Jackson and others had exercised the right. Johnson and his advisers, therefore, chsputed the constitu- tionality of the tenure-of-office act and were prepared to test it in the courts when the opportunity came. An Appe.\l to the Supreme Court Not only Johnson but many others opposed to the plans of the radicals turned their eyes to the supreme court, finding in it the last hope of checking the course of the innovators. They saw in all that 6i2 RECONSTRUCTION - THE NATIONAL SIDE was done an exaltation of military authority and a dangerous menace to liberty. If the court did not save them, they thought, who would ? The first appeal was in the case known as ex parte Milligan, decided in 1866, and here the verdict was for the conservatives. It gave them much satisfaction, although the case did not bear fjjf,°"''° directly on the reconstruction controversy. In 1864 '^^°' Milligan and two others were convicted by a mihtary com- mission of giving aid to the enemy, and the sentence was death. Lin- coln would not confirm the sentence, and when peace came, the men were in prison. They contended that military law ceased to operate with the end of hostilities, secured a writ of habeas corpus, and were released. The supreme court held that neither the president nor con- gress could declare martial law or try civilians by military tribunals in places where the civil courts were open. The decision would seem to check the tendency of the radicals to do what they would under the guise of military law. Two other decisions encouraged the conserva- tives. In Missouri, a state law forbade licenses in various professions to be issued to former confederates. In Cummings v. Missouri the supreme court held that the statute was ex post facto. In Arkansas it was attempted to deprive confederates of license to practice law in the federal courts, but the supreme court held in ex parte Garland that this also was ex post facto. These three decisions came in December, 1866, and January, 1867, when the radicals were beginning to urge their plan on congress. Some of the more timid ones faltered, but Stevens treated the decisions with contempt. It seemed that he would attack the court as readily as he opposed the president : his attitude gave courage to his followers, and the acts of March 2 and 23, establishing military government were passed and carried into effect. The country soon had opportunity to see what the courts would do about them. The state of Mississippi in April, 1867, applied for an injunction to restrain the president from e.xecuting the recent laws. If it thought that because he was opposed to their passage he would ^'johnson contest their execution they were mistaken. He con- sidered the acts good law and executed them as he thought they were to be understood. Stanbery, the attorney-general, resisted the injunction as counsel for his superior, arguing that the president could be tried only by a court of impeachment, and urging that the matter was really political and that the courts ought not to interfere. The decision supported his contention and the injunction was denied. So clear had been the attitude of the court in the preceding winter and so open the defiance of the radicals that the South Georgia us. ^^^j^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^.-^^-^ ^j^j^ decision. They brought another Stanton. ... , . ,. ■ i • 1 *. r case, this tmie takuig care to elimmate the president irom it. Georgia now took the initiative, applying for a similar injunction, but against Secretary Stanton. This also was denied, the court hold- SEEKING EVIDENCE AGAINST JOHNSON 613 iiig that a writ which might not issue against tiie president might not issue against his agent, a member of his cabinet. These two decisions showed how unwilling the court was to take part in the fierce controversy then waging. A third made their at- titude still clearer. McCardle, a Mississippi editor, gave offense to the new military government and was arrested, ^^c^^g^ The cixil rights act of 1S66 provided that the supreme court might issue writs of habeas corpus; and McCardle took advan- tage of it to get his liberty. It seemed plain that by the decision in ex parte Milligan, which declared that military law should not exist in time of peace, he must be released. His opponents alleged no juris- diction, but the plea was overruled. The radicals were alarmed, and hastily carried a law through congress to withdraw from the court the right to issue a writ of habeas corpus. The court was relieved from what was evidently a painful situation. It declared that it now had no jurisdiction, and in a high-sounding declaration that it declined ungranted jurisdiction it gave notice that it was not inclined to inter- fere with the program of the lawmakers. Thus passed the hope that radical reconstruction might be stayed by the supreme court. Stevens was supreme, military government in the South was doing the work expected of it, and he proceeded to the last phase of his plan, the im- peachment of the president — a thing he seemed to desire as much for vengeance as to terrify the country and overawe the last vestige of opposition. The Impeachment of President Johnson In January, 1S67, the house ordered its judiciary committee to see if evidence could be found to support impeachment. The committee made an investigation and reported no such evidence had been secured, but advised that further efforts be made. ^"^^^ , - , , ' • i • 1 Efforts to March 7 a new congress was m extra session and gave jj^peach similar instructions to its own committee. Four months Johnson. later there was another report, also against impeachment. But the committee was instructed to continue its labors, and in the autumn it reported for impeachment by a vote of five to four. Three thousand pages of evidence relating to all kinds of acts of the president were submitted to the house, which, on consideration, seemed insuifi- cient, and by a vote of 180 to 57 the house declined to arraign the presi- dent, who, according to the constitution, is impeachable for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." No one alleged treason or bribery in Johnson's case, but the extreme radicals thought he had committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" in opposing congress. Moderate republicans were inclined to hold that the term did not apply to actions in their nature political, but to those which were felonies or which broke specific laws; of such actions Johnson 6i4 RECONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE was innocent. In an impeachment trial the senators, who sit as judges, are not bound by the ordinary rules of evidence. They hear testi- mony and argument and decide as they think best. Under such con- ditions and in view of the strong political feelings of the day, it was not to be expected that the trial, if ordered, would be free from bias. But conviction required a two-thirds vote, the democrats would op- pose it, and a few moderate republicans would do the same unless the case was clearly made out. The state of public opinion must also be considered. The nation was not willing' to degrade a president, not even Johnson, for actions he thought politically wise. They would demand some overt act, and impeachment in default of it might fail in the senate and react against the republican party in the elections now approaching. The desired incident came in the winter of 1867-1868. In August, 1867, Johnson suspended Stanton from the secretaryship of war and put General Grant in his place. December 1 2 he reported the matter to the senate as the tenure-of-office act re- Suspended qiiired. The senate after much discussion disapproved the suspension. Grant retired, and Stanton resumed his duties. Johnson thought the act unconstitutional which shackled him, but, while he obeyed it, he was careful to say nothing admitting its legality. Stanton was in constant communication with the con- gressional radicals, and Johnson regarded his presence at cabinet meetings as intolerable. The president wished Grant to refuse to retire, which would force an appeal to the courts and get a ruling on the tenure-of-o£fice act. Grant hesitated : he was friendly to John- son, but wished to avoid a conflict with the strong war secretary. Finally, the president asked him at least to resign office a few days before the senate should come to its decision, so that a man might be appointed who would oppose Stanton. The president and five cabinet members asserted that the general gave the promise, but he as con- fidently denied it, and the nature of the misunderstanding was not ex- plained. An angry quarrel began which would have been avoided if Jiihnson had been tactful; for he could not afford at this juncture to lose the good will of so powerful a man as the victor over Lee. The president thought the dignity of his office as well as his own self- respect demanded that he should not yield ; and he resolved to proceed directly. He afterwards claimed that his sole object was Removed '-'^ ^^^^ ^^^ objectionable law in the courts. February 21, five weeks after resuming his duties, Stanton was dis- missed by an executive order, and Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas was directed to take charge of the war department. Thomas promptly called on Stanton to vacate the office and allowed the latter a day to close up his affairs in it. But next morning, before he could proceed farther, he was arrested for violating the tenure-of-office act. He employed counsel, who prepared to take the affair before the courts, IMPEACHMENT CARRIED 615 and the president was overjoyed to see the case assume the form he had long desired. But he was to be disappointed ; for ahnost at once Thomas was released from custody, and with such haste that it was evident his opponents repented arresting him. lie was not a man to oppose the strong-willed Stanton, no one wanted an armed struggle with the war department, and here this phase of the contro- versy rested, Stanton still exercising his functions. Meanwhile, the case went to another tribunal. As soon as he was dismissed, Stanton informed his friends in the house. They saw in it the long-sought o\'ert act on which to base impeachment. After a continuous two-days' session they resolved by a impeached party vote that "Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors in office." Feeling ran high, and in the house radicals and moderate republicans joined to press the charges to the utmost. There was hardly a man among them who doubted that their enemy was at last delivered into their hands. March 4, 186S, seven managers chosen by the house appeared before the senate with eleven specific charges on which they demanded that the president be tried. Ne.xt day the senate sat as a court of impeachment, Chief Justice Chase in the chair. Ten days were allowed the defendant to prepare his case, while the house ap- pointed a committee of .seven to conduct the prosecution. Its most conspicuous members were Benjamin F. Butler, George S. Boutwell, and Thaddeus Stevens, all better known as politiciiiiis than as con- stitutional lawj'ers. Johnsoia had the advantage of drawing his attorneys from the best men in the country. His array of counsel was most distinguished and embraced such men as Stanbery, the attorney- general, who was familiar with the controversy in all its stages. Justice Curtis, formerly of the supreme court, and William M. Evarts, head of the New York bar. The indictment held in substance that Johnson committed "high crimes and misdemeanors," (i) in dismissing Stanton contrary to the tenure-of-office act, (2) in declaring that certain laws were unconstitutional, (3) in maliciously criticizing congress in charges, the "swinging-around-the-circle" .speeches of 1866, and (4) in opposing congressional reconstruction generally. Only the first of these, which was the substance of the first eight actually presented, related to late action by the president. The third was suggested by Butler, who thought it might appeal to the feelings of some senators who had scruples in regard to the first. The fourth, known as the "omnibus article," was suggested by Stevens in some- what the same spirit. There were fifty-four senators, and it was, therefore, necessary to get thirty-si.x votes to secure con- ^^^ viction. The twelve democrats could be counted for acquittal, an equal number of republicans were as certain to be for conviction, and the rest were disposed to hear the evidence and argu- (nG RFXONSTRUCTION — THE NATIONAL SIDE ments before making up their minds. If seven of these were for John- son he was secure. This interesting question soon came up : Shall the senate act as a judicial or a political body? If the former, it was necessary to submit evidence which would have weight in a court of justice ; if the latter, it was only necessary to convince the senators that John- son should be removed. The prosecutors took the latter view, and Butler and Stevens defended it with much shrewdness. They con- tinually addressed Chase as "Mr. President," while the opposing counsel addressed him as "Mr. Chief Justice." He, with the instincts of a jurist, leaned to the view that the senate was a court, and passed on evidence as though he were sitting on the bench. But he submitted his opinions to the senate, which, by a mere majority vote, usually overruled them. Johnson's strongest points were that he removed Stanton to test the tenure-of-office act, that he thought the act unconstitutional, and that holding this view it was his privilege and duty Defense ^ '° proceed so that the point at issue should be decided in court. He offered to show that the whole cabinet, Stanton included, thought the act unconstitutional when enacted. Chase would admit this evddence, but the senate overruled him. The de- fense also urged that the removal of the secretary did not violate that act, which provaded that a cabinet member should hold office during the term of the president who appointed him and for one month thereafter. Stanton was appointed by Lincoln and was not protected by the act. These points were brought out so ably by Curtis that it was soon evident that if Johnson were convicted it would be on political grounds. Cautious republicans now became alarmed lest conviction on po- litical grounds react on the party. Additional strength was given to the point by the reflection that Wade, president of the Public senate, was ne.xt in line for the succession. He was a Turning. bitter partisan whom reasonable men did not wish to see in power. As the trial proceeded passions cooled, both in and out of Washington. Johnson observed the tendency, and in the nick of time, April 2^,, nominated General Schofield secretary of war. The nominee had the confidence of the nation, and the selection of such a man broke the force of the argument of the radicals that a creature of the president was about to be placed over the important interests within the department of war. The effect was good, and as the argument proceeded — from April 22 to May 11 — the nation came to understand the president better. The press modified its tone, and the opinion gained ground that Johnson should be allowed to fill out the rest of his term. May 16 the senate was ready to vote. The prosecution was alarmed for the result and decided to take the first vote on the eleventh, JOHNSON ACQUITTED 617 or last, specification. It contained most of the vigor of the others, and they thought it offered the best chance of success. The roll was called in breathless expectancy. A few senators had con- cealed their intentions so well that the response of each ^ ^. . was awaited most anxiously. Four republicans, Trumbull, Fessenden, Grimes, and Henderson, were known to be for acquittal, and three others with the twelve democrats would prevent convic- tion. One of these was secured when Fowler, of Tennessee, voted for acquittal. Another was found when Ross, of Kansas, gave the same response. Van Winkle, of West Virginia, made the third. The hearts of the radicals sank when he deserted them, and they realized they were defeated. Johnson had 19 votes and his opponents 35, and he retained his oflice by one vote. The radicals adjourned the senate for ten days, while they ransacked heaven and earth to show that improper influences had been used on the senators who were for acquittal. They sought particularly to shake the determination of Ross, but without avail. When the senate convened again and took up the first and second articles, he remained firm, and the entire prose- cution was defeated. Stanton yielded to the inevitable, and Schofield took possession of the war department without opposition. The will of the radicals was at last checked. They had overthrown presidential reconstruction, shackled the president in regard to the appointing power, and made negro suffrage an actuality. But they had become too confident of their power. Their S'gmficance last act smacked too much of personal animosity to have verdict, the support of the nation. When they talked of saving in the South the fruits of war, they found a ready response, but when their demands seemed to mean the establishment of a congressional oligarchy in control of the national executive, they failed. The ver- dict of the senate marked a return to normal conditions As Professor Dunning remarks, it also showed that the presidential element in our system will maintain its equal rank with the legislative power. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For general works see : Rhodes, llislory of iJie Vnilcd Slalrs, 7 vols. (1892-1006) ; DunninK, Reconstruction, Political and Economic (1907); Ibid., Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction (ed. 1904) ; Burgess, Reconstruction and llie Constitution (1902); Wilson, History of tlic American People, 5 vols. (1902); .\ndre\vs, The United States in our O'wn Time (1903); Woodburn, American Political History, 2 vols. (1905), valuable articles on political and economic topics (chiefly by .■\lexander Johnston, and reprinted from Lador, Cyclopedia of Polilical Science, 3 vol. (1883). Two popular works of indifferent reliability are : Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, 2 vols. (1884-1886), and Cox, Three Decades of Federal Legislation (18S5), a large part of the latter prepared by Daniel C. Goodloe. For published sources see : The Congressional Globe, which changes its name to Record in 1873, contains the debates in congress; Reports of Committees and Mis- cellaneous Documents, in each of which are many reports of investigations of affairs in the South ; the United States Statutes at Large, passim ; The Revised Statutes of the 6i8 RECONSTRUCTION^ THE NATIONAL SIDE United Stales, 2 vols. (1878) ; Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols. (1898); McPherson, Political History during Reconstruction (ed. 1875), a combined and revised form of the author's Political Manual for the years 1866- 1870; Ibid., Handbook of Politics, 1872, 1874, 1876, and 1878, contains party votes in congress and many documents; Fleming, Documentary History of Reconstruction, 2 vols. (1906-1907) ; MacDonald, Select Statutes, iS6i-iSgS (1903) ; and Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia. Biographies and works of leading men are : Sumner, Works, 15 vois. (1S70-1883) ; Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Sumner, 4 vols. (ed. 1894); Welles, sAt., Diary of Gideon Welles, 3 vols. (1911) ; Jones, Life of Andrew Johnson (igoi), unsatisfactory, a biography by Professor Fleming is announced. Carl Schurz, Reminiscences, 3 vols. (.I907~i9°8), with a biographical sketch by Bancroft and Dunning; Garfield, Works, 2 vols. (1883); The Sherman Letters (1894), the correspondence between General W. T., and his brother. Senator John Sherman; John Sherman, Recol- lections of Forty Years, 2 vols. (1895); Badeau, Grant in Peace (1887); Garland, Ulysses S. Grant (1898); Bancroft, William H. Seward, 2 vols. (1900); Gorham, Life of Stanton, 2 vols. (1890) ; Hart, Salmon Portland Chase (1899) ; Gail Hamilton [Dodge], Biography of Blaine (1895); Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1900); Merriam, Life of Samuel Bowles, 2 vols. (1885) ; Foulke, Oliver P. Morton, 2 vols. (1899) ; Woodburn, Thaddeus Stevens (1913) ; Mayes, Lucius Q. C. Lamar (iSg6) ; Salter, J. W. Grimes (1876) ; and Fesscnden, Life of W. P. Fessendcn, 2 vols. (1907). On special phases of the political history of the times see : DeWitt, The Impeach- ment and Trial of Andrrw Johnson (1903); Barnes, History of the Thirty-Ninth CoHgrcii (186S), lacks insight; Chadsey, r/ze Struggle between President Johnson and Congress over Reconstruction (Columbia Studies, 1896) ; and Dilla, The Politics of Michigan, 1S6S-1S7S (Ibid., 1912). For references on the Southern side of reconstruction see page 638. For Independent Reading Dunning, Reconstruction, Political and Economic (1907); Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, 2 vols. (1884-1886); Hoar, Autobiography of Seventy Years, 2 vols. (1903); Voore, Perley's Reminiscences, 2 \o\s. (1886); M.cC\\xre, Recollections of Half a Century (1902) ; Hayncs, Life of Charles Sumner (1909) ; and Ogden, Life and Letters of E. L. Gedkin, 2 vols. (1907). CHAPTER XXIX RECONSTRUCTIOX — THE SOUTHERN SIDE Social Conditions in the South The Southern people accepted military defeat as. well as could be expected. If at that point there had been nothing to do but forget the surrender and resume the habits of peace, restoration would have been simple, as after other civil wars in his- V^^ tory. But the people found themselves subjected to Attitude, social and jjolitical changes which they could not approve, and were thrust into a controversy more bitter than the first. They believed sincerely in the inferiority of the negro and thought it quite enough to admit him to the elementary phases of citizenship. They could not understand clearly the demand that he have equal status with the whites, and it took them a long time to realize that the North would really make the demand. They also believed in state rights ; they thought it impossible that a state's constitution should be modified by any force outside of itself ; and they considered as wicked and unconstitutional the proposition that congress could dictate what a state constitution should contain. Early in the dawn of peace they had little bitterness for their conquerors, and the first steps of reconstruction under Johnson increased their good feeling. But the rising influence of the radicals in iS66 and 1867 brought rage and finally despair. The results of this \'iolent social and political readjust- ment were strife, a loss of national feeling, and delay in the process of reunion. Whether or not, in view of these results, the North or the negro, whom it sought to help, gained or lost is a problem still open for discussion. The North was surprised at the resistance of the Southerner. They thought he would yield to the fourteenth amendment, and were surprised as each act of force a little harder than the pre- ceding act found him still unyielding. He had, in fact, r^"^'"^'' suffered so much already that he did not feel keenly the loss of other rights or comforts. The v\'ar itself reduced his living to a dependence on the simple products of his farm, and he was accustomed to do without the comforts of prosperity. It exhausted the railroads, factories, and fields, and its failure swept away banks, insurance com- panies, and every other institution which lent money to the com- 6 TO 620 RECONSTRUCTION — THE SOUTHERN SIDE munity. With production and credit paralyzed, and labor dis- organized through emancipation, what worse calamity need be feared in industrial activities ? The same question might be asked in regard to social conditions. Elsewhere slavery has usually been abolished with compensation, or allowed to shift into some half-free form out of which |°*^'°J al comes ultimate freedom. In the South it was abolished suddenly, without compensation, and at a time when in- dustry, from other causes, was prostrate. The English stock has usually adopted reforms gradually and by compromise. The change in the South from 1S65 to 1870 through the changed condition of the negro was the most violent refomi that has occurred in a similar period in any part of the world under British institutions. It was supposed that the imposition of military rule would break the spirit of the Southerner, but he took it almost nonchalantly. In 1865 most men in the South had been confederate soldiers Southern ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ j.^ j^-jjiitary law, and after the war the country was full of garrisons. They were, therefore, neither shocked nor frightened when military governors took charge in 1867. In fact, the recurrence of local outbreaks in retaliation on unpopular officers shows that the Southerners were willing to use force themselves. It is, from all these considerations, evident that by 1867 the white men in the South were becoming desperate. They felt that their opponents had done the worst — that nothing remained to be done but to take their lives, which not even the North would dare do. Out of this desperation grew the comdction that violence, fraud, and any other expedient was justifiable to overcome the plot of the radicals. Out of it grew, also, a white "Solid South" and fierce contempt for every political ideal which was called " Republican." In 1865 the average negro in the South valued freedom because it gave him the simplest privUeges of freemen. He did not desire to vote, and he did not understand the hopes of the many The Negro missionaries and teachers from the North who with much cltfzen heroism tried to elevate him. At first he was submissive to the whites with that docUe self-effacement which has generally characterized the African. When his new friends tried to kindle his ambition his self-assertion became obtrusive. The southern whites thought he was spoiled by Northerners. The points of view of the two sections in regard to his development were irreconcilable ; but as the months passed he became continually less willing to trust his fon-ner masters and more inclined to follow new friends. When allowed to vote in 1867 he was as clay in the hands of the latter. In the seceding states, exclusive of South Carolina, Breckenridge, the secessionist, had 436,771 votes in 1S60, Douglas, anti-secessionist democrat, had 72,084, and Bell, representing the old whig party, had 345,919. Loyalty to the South induced most of these men to SOUTHERN REPUBLICANS 621 support the confederacy, but, the war ended, it was not to be ex- pected that they would all act together. The Douglas and Bell men were for the union in 1S60, and they were nearly half of the Southern voters. They might be conceived still ^he to be mostly for union under the old conditions. It was .°Qg^V" not unreasonable to suppose that at least a small portion servatives." of the Breckenridge men would be of the same opinion. If, therefore, party lines in the South were to be drawn for and against a policy of resistance to the North, it seemed that here was the basis of a successful movement to unite the reasonable men in that section in a party which would accept the issues of the war and attempt to reconstruct Southern life on the lines pointed out in the emancipa- tion proclamation and the president's reconstruction policy. Such was Johnson's dream, but it was futile. As the purpose of the radical congress to impose negro suffrage on the South iDccame apparent, the Southerners of all groups united in solid opposition. Whigs, Douglas democrats, and former secessionists forgot their ancient grudges and fought side by side under the new name of "Conservatives." ]VIeanwhile, a southern republican party began to form out of three groups. One was Northern men recently arrived in the South. Some of these were former soldiers, whose campaign ex- periences had first opened their eyes to the opportunities "^*^P^*;, of a rich country ; others came outright, believing that anl^^g^cal- industry would feel a new impulse under a regime of free- awags." dom ; while still others were earnest men who wished to help the freedmen. Most of them were poor, bringing all their pos- sessions in their hands, and the South in derision called them " Carpet- baggers." Some of them were men of fine character, and would have been an acquisition to the social life of any community in normal conditions. Others were mere adventurers. The conservative South- ern whites made no distinction between the good and the bad, but poured equal scorn on all. A second element of the Southern repub- lican party was native Southerners. A few men of prominence, mostly those who loved the old flag throughout the war, now went into the party which stood for union ; but most of this group were persons who felt aggrieved at the rule of the old planter class. They were generally small farmers, men of little social or intellectual eminence, and they were apt to be viewed with disdain by the more capable portion of the whites. They accepted the program of the radicals in congress, and from them received much consideration as "truly loyal" persons who endured wrongs in behalf of the union. Among them appeared a number of leaders of their own class, men of sharp tongues and shrewd political capacity, who stimulated the hopes of their followers by criticizing the old ruling classes, and who endured placidly the odium of those classes, even though it extended to social ostracism. Such leaders were regarded as traitors to the 522 RECONSTRUCTION— THE SOUTHERN SIDE South, and received from their opponents the name "Scalawags." It was a term of doubtful origin, but it implied the essence of bitter contempt and opposition. Still a third element which went into the Southern republican party was the negroes. Johnson wished, as Lincoln before him, that the intelligent and property-holding blacks should be allowed The Negro ^^ vote, but he could accomplish nothing in that line publican. "'^'^^ the State governments restored under his plan. When, however, the blacks were allowed to vote under the laws of March 2 and 23 and July 19, 1867, they went almost solidly for the republicans. They were the largest portion of the party, and their enfranchisement brought forth at once a nmnber of negro leaders who must be given office or they would not cooperate. They were usuaUy satisfied with minor places, but not always. Sometimes they were on the state tickets, and they were even sent to congress as rep- resentatives and senators. Most of the negro politicians were mu- lattoes, but sometimes they were of unmixed African stock. The best of them had little education, but a fair amount of common sense and integrity, while the majority did not comprehend the duties of their offices and took their elevation to power as an opportunity to secure small personal glory and emolument. They quickly fell into the hands of abler white schemers, and in legislatures and elsewhere facilitated the excesses of bad government without realizing that they brought dishonor to their party and their communities. As these three groups became welded in the republican party in the South the influence of the more upright "caqaet-baggers," Southern whites, and negro politicians was minimized, and the will of the worst leaders became predominant. To the Southern whites it seemed that the acme of bad government had come. The excesses committed were beyond anything the people of the United States have seen elsewhere in their borders, and went far to justify the illegal methods by which the conservative whites at last were able to redeem themselves from a reign of fraud, ignorance, and incompetence. Congressional Reconstruction in Operation It was in March, 1867, that Johnson appointed the military gov- ernors created in the act of March 2. General Schofield was in charge of the first district (Virginia), General Sickles was over T^.^ the second (North and South Carolina), General Pope Governors, ruled the third (Georgia, Alabama, and Florida), General Ord commanded the fourth (Mississippi and Arkansas), and General Sheridan had the fifth (Louisiana and Te.xas). In his district each had supreme power under the president and the consti- tution and laws of Congress. They desired to continue in power the existing state officials, but promptly removed such as obstructed the DISORDER IX THE SOUTH 623 registration of the negroes. When it was proposed to remove all the local officials, Schofield checked the plan by saying the South did not contain enough "loyal" whites to fill the vacancies which would thus be created. In 1868, as the process of reconstruction neared completion, removals were more freciuent. A notable case was that of Governor Jenkins, of Georgia, who was z}^ dismissed for refusing to allow payment of the expenses continued, of the constitutional convention. Governor Humphreys, of Mississippi, was removed also for opposing reconstruction. Likewise, the body of existing laws were continued, unless they conflicted with the reconstruction acts. But military tribunals were freely created for various kinds of crimes. They were supported by soldiers who supplanted sheriffs and con- ?'n(j'^J^^(j stables in making arrests and executing military decisions. ;„ p^rt. Son^e of the military governors admitted negroes to the jury, a radical innovation in civil government. Much depended on the personality of the military governor. He was strict or lenient as he leaned toward or away from the ideals of the radicals. Sickles, Ord, and Sheridan were of the former tendency. The course of General Sheridan brought protests from Southerners and moderate men in the North. He was severe in arresting persons charged with violence and was tactless as an administrator. The fifth district under his charge seemed turning to despair, and in November, 1867, he was succeeded by General Hancock, who changed his policy. The radicals in congress arraigned Johnson for removing Sheridan, asserting that he gave the district over to lawlessness. The men who lived in the district denied the allegation. Everywhere in the South there was more indi^•idual violence than in normal times. ?'^^^** It was the time when negro suffrage was being put into Lawless? operation in the face of the dissent of most of the white people. It is not surprising if they ex-pressed their opposition by strenuous words or deeds; and it was to be expected that persons wanted for such actions had free aid of their neighbors in escaping. But there was no serious violence. There were, at the period, only 19,320 federal troops in the South, and they were enough to preserve order. They were distributed in 134 posts in the ten states. Leav- ing out of consideration the large, unsettled jjart of Texas, this was one post for 4500 square miles. A well-manned constabulary for such a region would be as large. Within the realm of politics the Southerners were keen to get any possible advantage from the system devised by their opponents. Their first maneuver came at the registration, where each . applicant must swear he had not voluntarily served the tration*^^" confederacy. They had their own interpretation of the word "voluntarily," and a Southern jury must sit in a trial for per- jury. Spite of the law of July 19 making registration officers judges 624 RECONSTRUCTION— THE SOUTHERN SIDE of applications to register, a large portion of the whites got their names on the lists. The blacks were also freely registered. By October i, 1867, the registration was complete. In Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Te.xas the registered whites were more numer- ous, although in Georgia the excess was small. Now appeared the object of the large registration. The law said that a constitution to be ratified inust have a majority of the registered vote. The plan of the whites was to swell the list as much as possible and to defeat ratification at last by refus'ng to go to the polls. This plan surprised the radicals in Washington but it did not benefit the South, for when one state, Alabama, showed that the trick could be done, con- gress amended the e.xistiiig laws so as to allow a constitution to be ratified by a majority of the votes cast. The personnel of the constitutional conventions was respectable, although most of them had negro members, that of South Carolina having 63 out of a total of 97. There were usually corn- Conventions pejent white men. Southern and Northern born, to direct stitutions. '^he proceedings, and the influence of the military governors was exerted for good. The shrewd instigators of fraud who dominated later events had not yet come into power. The re- sulting constitutions accepted negro suffrage, as the reconstruction laws required. Six of them placed temporary restrictions on the suffrage of former confederates. Most of them provided for public schools and adopted new features in the machinery of goveniment which experience has proved valuable. By spring, 1S68, most of the states had held their conventions, and were preparing to take the sense of the people. At this time the republicans in congress were alarmed lest, as recent elec- Ratification ^[qyis seemed to show, the country was turning to the stitutions. democrats. They felt that the Southern states with the negroes enfranchised would be republican in 1S68 and might be necessary in the presidential election. But the plan of the Southern whites to defeat the constitutions stared them in the face. The radicals in the house hurriedly passed the bill to allow ratifica- tion by the majority of the votes cast, thus depriving congressional reconstruction of the last pretext that it was the free action of the people of the states. It was a bitter pill for the moderate republican senators, who had systematically contended that a state's will should be respected. They delayed the bill until the news came from Ala- bama. Here the registration was about 170,000, and the vote was 70,812 for, and 1005 against, ratification. The senate hesitated no longer : the bill passed and congressional reconstruction was saved. The election which had been held in Alabama was now pronounced sufficient, and that state, with North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, and Louisiana, all of which had ratified their constitutions, were received into the union. Three states remained THE UNION COMPLETED 62J unreconstructed, Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia. The constitu- tions framed in the two last disfranchised former confederates, and for this reason Virginia delayed ratification, while Mississippi rejected it outright. The situation appealed to the sympathies of Grant, who became president March 4, 1869, and in AprD he suggested that the two states vote on their constitutions with separate votes on dis- franchisement. Congress agreed, and the constitutions without dis- franchisement were promptly ratified. In 1870 the three states were received into full fellowship and the union was again complete. As a state was restored, its military governor was replaced by a governor chosen under the new constitution, and he, with a legislature similarly selected, took control of the state's affairs. The federal troops, how- ever, were not withdrawn for some time. With negro suffrage in force, most of the states became radical, but in Georgia the conservatives got control of the legislature, al- though the governor was a radical. They showed a poor sense of caution by acting at once against their enemies. Military They expelled the 27 negro members of their body on the Reggta"^^"* ground that while negro suffrage was legal the constitu- listed ui tion did not grant blacks the right to hold office, and Georgia. they gave the seats to the white opponents of the evicted ones. Such a step could not fail to bring down on Georgia all the wrath of the Northern radicals. Congress promptly declined to admit the two Georgia senators just chosen, and after some months of hesitation restored military rule with General Terry for governor. He acted vigorously, expelling 24 democrats from the legislature on the ground that they were disfranchised by the fourteenth amend- ment. He filled their places with republicans, and the excluded negro members were restored. Georgia, thus disciplined, was admitted again into the union, July 15, 1870. The rash action of the conservatives had no other result than to convince the North that the South would evade reconstruction whenever they could. August II, 1868, when his plans were commg into full realization, died Thaddeus Stevens in his 77th year. Bitter hater and hard fighter as he was, he received equal hatred and hostility from his foes. Neither liis public nor private conduct was gjg^gng exempt from attack. But all agree that he was a great parliamentary leader, and that he controlled history-making events in one of the great crises of our history. He had, also, his ideals, although they sometimes seemed obscured by the smoke of battle ; and one of them was confidence in the capacity of the negro race. By his own direction he was buried in an humble cemetery at Lan- caster, Pennsylvania, with an inscription above him which read : "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural pref- erence for solitude, but, finding other cemeteries limited as to race by charter rules, I have chosen this, that I might illustrate in my 626 RECONSTRUCTION— THE SOUTHERN SIDE death the principles which I advocated through a long life, Equality of Man before his Creator." This spirit filled his reconstruction policy. Negro suffrage was now adopted in the South, but the methods of adoption were such as to throw some doubt on its constitutionality. But, that aside, it was evident that once the present KH th crisis was past and the whites again in control in the Amendment. South, negro suftVage would be stricken from the state constitutions. To prevent this, congress resorted to a fifteenth amendment, and such a step was, in fact, necessary to save what had been done. As passed by congress February 27, 1869, it read: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged i^y the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was accepted by the states, and promulgated March 30, 1870. In the debate on the amendment some members of congress desired to insert education and property holding after the term "previous condition of servitude," but they were not heeded. Senator Morton, speakmg for the dis- appointed ones, predicted that the day would come when the South would disfranchise the negro by imposing educational and property qualifications. The radicals had now done all they could to carry out their plan. They had throttled the mass of Southern whites, established negro suffrage through military force, and adopted two consti- 'P'^. tutional amendments to make fast what Irad been gained. Pian"(Mi There was nothing left but to turn over the Southern Trial. states to the incompetents they chose to call "truly loyal " and see if they could build up peace and prosperity in the land of desolation. The task seems now unreasonable enough, but the men of 1S69 contemplated it without apparent concern. The failure of the plan was due to: i. the growing weariness of Northern people of the eternal "Southern problem." Their enthu- . siasm had its limits, and they began to feel sympathy for Failed ^^^ xictims of congressional theorizers. They also lost someof their interest in the elevation of the negro ; 2. The prevalence of fraud and incompetency of the new governments in the South ; 3. The increasing confidence of the South that it could manage the situation in its own way ; 4. The deterioration of the Southern republican party itself by which the more respectable carpet-baggers and Southern whites were forced to give way to corrupt men ; and 5. The rise of the Ku Klu.x Klan, a secret and \iolent organization which struck at the acti\-ity of the negroes and their white leaders and paralyzed their worst efforts, while it gave courage to the whites and showed them how to neutralize negro suffrage. UNION LEAGUE AND KU KLUX KLAN 627 The Ku Xlux Klan The Southerners contended that the Klan was organized to counter- act the Union League, a secret organization which ga\-e the negro solitlarity and, it was claimed, encouraged him to commit acts of xdolence. The league originated in the North in ^^® ^^°^ 1862 to support the cause of union when democrats were ^le South, attacking the war pohcy of the republicans. It was secret, and its members swore to vote for none but union men for office. It did good service until the end of the war, when it was mostly aban- doned, but sur^-ived in some places chiefly as local social organiza- tions. Late in the war it was extended to the South among union men there, who were generally whites. With the coming of peace negro members began to be admitted. At first they were but few, but they increased in numbers as negro suffrage became more prob- able. The conservative white members now withdrew, and the* organization became a mass of blacks controlled by white men. Its influence was probably never great, but the whites, always alarmed at anything which might lead to an insurrection of the blacks, looked upon it with horror. There were many evidences of self-assertion by the negroes. Houses and bams were burned, men were waylaid, and o*her evidences showed a new spirit in a people long noted for their submissiveness. Friends of the blacks asserted that the whites prac- ticed numerous outrages upon the freedmen. It is hard to place the responsibility where it belongs, but it is well to remember that violence begets violence, and that social chaos was great in 1867. Whether justified or not, the whites regarded the organization of blacks into the Union League as inimical to good order and security. Several organizations are known under the general term Ku Klu.x Klan ; the " Knights of the Wliite CameUa," chiefly in the Gulf states, ''Constitutional Union Guards," "Pale Faces," the " WTiite Brotherhood," the "Council of Safety," and the °^^^"°^ "Association of '76," as well as the Klan proper. They KluxKian. were alike in purpose, organization, and methods, and the last only will be described. It originated in Pulaski, Tennessee, where some young men had a mirth-making circle which held its ludicrous initiations in an abandoned house. The name " Ku Kiux " came from the Greek Kuklos, circle, and "Klan" was added for alliteration. The Pulaski negroes were frightened by lights and the sounds of laughter in a house they thought haunted, and the mem- bers, observing the fact, sought to heighten the effect by circulating the story that the house was visited by the ghosts of dead confederates who were concerned at the turbulence of their former slaves. Then they had a mounted parade, each horse with muftled hoofs so that he walked noiselessly over the ground and horse and rider fantastically rlisguised. The houses of aggressive negroes were \'isited, but the 628 RECONSTRUCTION — THE SOUTHERN SIDE object at this time was only to frighten the occupants. It was well accomplished for a while, and many other communities organized Klans. The mirth-making purpose now disappeared, and serious men took the direction. The negroes soon knew the v-isitors were not ghosts, although the disguises were so excellent that none but the ini- tiated knew who wore them. Absolute secrecy, obedience, and loyalty were required of members. The Pulaski movement spread rapidly and far. It was, it seems, the precursor of the other organizations named. As ghostly fear no longer had weight with the persons visited, whipping, tar and feathers, and even maiming was resorted to. It was the aim of the Klan to punish no one without deliberation and a formal decision by the Klan under the direction of a sober leader; but there were many turbulent members, and violence and cruelty were not always restrained. Negroes were whipped freely before emancipation, and the community felt that unmanageable blacks 'might still be whipped in moderation. White men who had in- fluence with the blacks were visited, sometimes tarred and feathered, and sometimes ordered to leave the neighborhood. The Ku Klux claimed these were visited because they incited the blacks to out- rages ; but as the visited ones were generally republicans and active in politics it was plausibly alleged that they were dealt with for political reasons. The Pulaski movement began in 1866. It had reached remote regions when the reconstruction acts of 1867 were passed. The . Southerners saw in the movement a means of opposing 10*1867°'^* the iron hand laid on them. Their most prominent leaders took it up, and a secret meeting in Nashville, in April, 1867, brought it under a strongly concentrated system, held together by implicit military obedience. Thus was established the "Invisible Empire," presided over by the Grand Wizard and his ten Genii. Each state became a "Realm" under a Grand Dragon and his eight _ _ Hydras, each congressional district a " Dominion" under a Grand Titan and his six Furies, and each local group was a "Den" under a Grand Cyclops and his two Nighthawks. It was the Den that did the actual work for which the "Invisible Empire" existed. It assembled ordinarily in the woods and at night — its members swore to march when summoned "at any time of the moon." It decided whom it would punish, but was enjoined to visit no man M th d without first giving him warning to change his conduct. The notices affected an illiterate style for the sake of dis- guise. They were usually posted in the night, and were of a nature to strike terror to the recipient. One never knew the members, and dared not criticize the things done lest he be speaking to a member and himself incur vengeance. One never knew how many members of a jury to try a Ku Klux case belonged to the Klan. Its visitations became more severe in time, and death was sometimes executed against a person THE KLAN DISSOLVED 629 especially obnoxious to the Klan. Its silent, swift, and thorough methods brought a subdued calm to the negroes and their white leaders, and relieved the apprehension of the rest of the people. Spite of its formal centralization, the real power of the Klan was with the Den, the local unit ; and the Dens easily fell into excesses. They were composed of venturesome persons, generally „ J r 11 I • i-u -^ Weakness young men, drawn from all classes in the community, ^j ^j^^ ^^^ If the Cyclops bad strong character and was judicious he might restrain harsh conduct. If he himself was rash or weak-willed, the violent members were apt to prevail. If such members got con- trol in a Den, the moderate men would withdraw. Symptoms like these did not appear at first, and throughout 1S67 and 186S the organization met the purpose of its founders. But by the beginning of 1S69 rashness was evidently increasing, and the men at the head of the organization ordered the dissolution of the "Invisible Em- pire." Their order was not effective. Everywhere members with- drew, glad to escape without being considered traitors, but the Dens did not dissolve. They remained more than ever in the hands of the rasher element. The more thoughtful Southerners now began to fear lest the deeds of the Klan bring a federal army down on them. The elections of 1S70 naturally occasioned much e.xcitement, and probably increased the activity of the Ku Klux. Stories of outrages were widely published in the North, and April 20, 1S71, congress passed the Ku Klux act. It authorized the interferes president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in order to deal with secret conspiracies, and it enlarged the power of the federal courts. At the same time a committee of congress was appointed to investigate "affairs in the late insurrectionary states." Sub- committees visited the South, took a mass of evidence, and published it in twelve volumes. The full ventilation of the situation worked good results North and South. It brought home to the Ku Klux members the danger of interference from the North, and supported so powerfully those who wished to dissolve the Klan that the organiza- tion was now generally abandoned. Besides its immediate effect in restraining the blacks and lending courage to the whites, the Ku Klux Klan showed how the whites could control the future. Its weakness was that by cm- ploying violence it might bring in federal troops. It was A<=i"«^e- .1 . • I ° rr.1 • ment of the soon seen that violence was unnecessary. The negro is gj^^ docile by nature and easily frightened ; and for all his childish love of political campaigning he was not devoted to the exer- cise of the franchise. Open demonstrations, threats delivered per- sonally, and many other forms of intimidation which fell short of violence would serve well enough to keep him from the polls, and involve no conflict with federal authority. This lesson, so evident in the experience of the Ku Klux, was well learned and boldly followed 6.30 RECONSTRUCTION — THE SOUTHERN SIDE after 1S70. Its exact methods were left to the ingenuity of individual n^anagers, with the one condition that whate\er was done must stop short of bodily harm. Bands of mounted men with rifles attended ])olitical speakings, both democratic and republican, observed the utterances of speakers, si)read consternation among the negroes, and boasted openly that the South was a "white man's country." They frequently had the sympatliy of the federal garrisons, whose duty was to repress disorder. They usually convinced the negroes that it was wise to eschew political activity. The republican leaders complained that these demonstrations broke the ability of those leaders to bring out the colored vote. They well knew the object of their opponents, but could meet the •nf*'^** emergency in no other way than to call on the president Politics. fci'' troops. When union soldiers surrounded the polls the negroes would \'ote, and not otherwise. Soldiers could not be sent to every \-oting precinct. Whenever they were sent, the demo- crats charged that they were the means of enforcing fraud, and they challenged the g()\-ernment to show what violence had been com- mitted to warrant their use. They denounced the Ku Klu.x act of 1S71 and federal election laws which congress enacted to enable the troops to be called out, as cumulati^'e e\idence of the tendency of the republicans to destroy self-government and to perpetuate mili- tary rule. In the e.xecution of its Southern policy the government felt also that it was necessary to control the election machinery through boards to register the voters, count the votes, and canvass the returns. All tliis machinery fell naturally into the hands of the dominant party, usually the republicans. Whoever exercised it, their opponents pronounced the returns fraudulent. In the cataclysm of political institutions the spirit of legality had forsaken the people, and it is probable that each party committed fraud a.s' opportunity offered. In former times the South had been proud of its freedom from political corruj^tion, but its respectable people now considered anything justifiable in order to meet a condition they found tyran- nical and intolerable. Triumph of the Southern Democrats The Southern tactics were suflicient against anything but a vast army of occupation, and the South believed the North would not take up that task lightly. The democrats were the men of Weakness property, Courage, and intelligence. The republicans had Southern organized a party of which none of these qualities could Republicans, be expected. They were in power, not of their own ca- pacity, but through extraneous force. Moreover, it was notorious that they used power to enrich themselves and levied burdensome taxes which must fall on the whites in order to support NORTH CAROLINA DISORDERS 631 schemes of plunder. They were incompetent as a party, the\' threw aside in the haste for gain tlae respect of the community, and they could not hope to maintain their power when the North grew tired of sending troops to support them. During the years 1S71 to 1S77 they lost state after state, and passed out of authority completely dis- credited. Their most notable early defeat was in Georgia. Governor Bul- lock, a republican, was, on investigation, pronounced honest by a democratic jury, but the republican legislature committed many extravagances. In 1S70 the democrats carried the ^' legislature, and there was talk of impeachment. The governor dared not trust himself in the hands of his enemies, and resigned and left the state. During the two years of his administration the state's debt rose from si.x to eighteen millions and credit fell so low that bonds were no longer salable. In January, 1S72, the democrats chose a successor to Bullock and the republican regime was definitely over. The triumph of the democracy was largely due to the efforts of B. H. Hill, formerly a whig, but now forced into the solid white man's party by the changed issues of the day. In the North Carolina legislature corruption had, probably, its strongest footing. A ring was organized under the direction of carpet-baggers and scalawags which is said to have col- lected ten per cent commission on all money appropriated. c'^oJi^a Railroads were incorporated or extended through the liberal issue of state bonds until the public debt was increased by $27,000,000, and the taxes became four times as heavy as in i860. The state house, formerly the scene of intelligent discussion, was filled by a crowd of white and black nonentities. Men formerly slaves now had eight dollars a day as legislators, and did the will of the ringsters who raised them to the seventh heaven of delight by means of cham- pagne dinners and many small pilferings. Every conceivable oppor- tunit)" was made to yield money, and even the appointment of West Point cadets was for sale. The situation aroused the united effort of the whites in 1870, and a democratic assembly was the result. The governor was W. W. Holden, whom Johnson made provisional governor in 1865 and who was chosen under radical rule in 1868. He was not concerned in the frauds practiced in the legis- lature, but he gave mortal offense in another way. There Hoidens was some disorder, and in 1870 a prominent republican M^^tfg/" politician was brutally murdered, probably by the Ku Law. Klux. As it was impossible to punish the murderers in the courts, Holden, who under a recent state law had suspended the writ of habeas corpus, proclaimed martial law in two counties, called in federal troops, and arrested nearly a hundred prominent citizens, most of whom could not have been present at the murder. They were taken on the charge of plotting against the peace of the state. 632 RECONSTRUCTION — THE SOUTHERN SIDE They were held in defiance of the state courts, but released by a federal judge who granted a writ of habeas corpus under the four- teenth amendment. Holden submitted to the federal courts. The incident added to his unpopularity, and the assembly chosen in the same year was democratic by nearly two-thirds majority. It met full of resentment, impeached the governor, and in March, 1871, removed him from office. He was not convicted for fraud, but for the military arrest of citizens. The reconstruction bonds were repu- diated by the legislature and still remain unpaid. Virginia escaped the fate of her neighbors through her delay in ratifying her constitution and through the large majority of the white population. The people were aroused by the corruption Virginia, south of them, and in the first election under the restora- and'rexas' '•^°'^' ^^^9' chose a conservative governor, Gilbert C. 1870. ' Walker. One other state, Tennessee, was carried by the conservatives in 1870. It fell under republican con- trol after the enfranchisement of the negroes, but a short experience with incompetency brought it back to the democracy. Texas accom- plished its redemption in 1872. In the five states mentioned were more whites than blacks, and the triumph of the former was comparatively easy. It was otherwise in the Black Belt. Alabama did not reach its depth of Alabama, corruption until 1874. In that year the public debt had *^rt*wr*^' risen from seven to nearly thirty-three millions, and the sissippi, whites were aroused to action. They used the ordinary ie74-i875. means of neutralizing the negro vote, but were careful to stop short of actual violence. Grant sent a small body of troops, but the people worked cautiously and vigor- ously. They were encouraged by the knowledge that Arkansas and Mississippi were also moving. The result was that all three accomplished their ends, although the last-named succeeded only in 1S75. The struggle in Mississippi was fierce, and many negroes were killed. Grant, when appealed to, refused to send troops, saying, " The whole public are tired out with these annual autumnal outbreaks in the South." The elections of 1874 had gone strongly democratic throughout the North, and Grant was not the only man in his party who saw in it disapproval of the party's Southern policy. Left to themselves, the Mississippians took courage. Never before in this Southern struggle was intimidation so well organized or "The Mis- carried SO far. Bands of armed men marched everywhere, pfan/^' saying openly that they would kill the negroes if that was necessary, in order to show that Mississippi was a "white man's country." Their work was well done, for though the republi- cans had a normal majority of 20,000 the democrats in 1875 carried the election by 30,000, had a large majority in the legislature, and controlled most of the counties. The election itself, however, was THREE CLASSES OF REPUBLICANS 633 held without the least violence. "The Mississippi Plan" was a term used after this to denote the general Southern method of dealing with the negro vote. When the presidential election of 1876 came, only three Southern states, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida remained in republican control. In this year each struggled sternly for liberation, and in each the re- f,°"^^. suit was disputed. The democrats had the whole white Louisiana population with them, and would take the government, and Florida, they claimed, if federal troops did not oppose them. Hayes, for reasons discussed later in this book (see page 694) , withdrew the troops, and thus in 1877 republican rule disappeared in the South. N.\TioNAL Reconstruction under Gr.^nt When Stevens died in 1868, his leadership on Southern matters fell to Benjamin F. Butler, who lacked the singleness of purpose of his predecessor. He was wholly for the party organiza- tion, and won personal influence over Grant. He valued Sentiment the South for the republican votes it would cast in congress, jngton and wished to perpetuate the party control there. He had many followers in Washington, but other republicans, among them the more liberal minded men, like senators Schurz and Trumbull, realized the incompetence of the negro and were no longer willing to force bad government on the South in order to maintain negro suffrage. StOl a third class believed the negro was voting badly, but they thought using the ballot educative and wished the process continued. The second group soon split with Butler, but he usually had the support of the third, and the republican majority until 1875 was so great that he had his way in the house. In the senate, his views were voiced by O. P. Morton, of Indiana, abler than Butler, but altogether a partisan. Sumner should be placed in the third group. He was sincere but theoretical, and until his death in 1874, lost no opportunity to urge measures in behalf of the freedmen. Grant was usually mild toward the South, but he loved order, and Butler won him with the tales of Southern outrages. He could never see .5,^°'/ .... , . , rni 1 r 11 1 • Attitude. a politician s tricks. The result of all this was that the president and the majority in congress combined to pass several coercive acts to execute the radical plan of reconstruction. The first of these, the enforcement act of i8jo, was passed to enforce the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. It forbade a state to abridge suffrage on the ground of race, color, or ser\a- tude and it asserted the power of the federal government E'^°''"- to correct such abridgment if it occurred. It added gf jg-^ to the radical interest in the bill that the machinery of enforcement was like that of the fugitive slave act of 1850. In 1875 the supreme court declared the essential features of the act 634 RECONSTRUCTION -THE SOUTHERx'^ SIDE unconstitutional on the ground that the fourteenth amendment merely restricted the states in ]iassing certain laws, and that it did not take from the state the function of protecting the rights of indi- viduals. The second was the A";( Klux ad of iSji, giving the presi- dent power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and to enter a state to suppress disorder. In 1882 the supreme court rendered null the essential parts of this act also. A third was the civil rights act of 1875, to secure to negroes equal privileges in hotels, theaters, railway carriages, and other public utilities. Sumner, who died a year before it passed, had it much at heart and wished to include churches, schools, and cemeteries ; but congress would not go that far, although the passage of the act at this time was undoubtedly secured as a kind of tribute to his faithfulness. This law was also declared unconstitutional, 1883, the ground being that it dealt with social and not civil rights. A fourth bill failed of enactment, 1874. It was a. force bill, and proposed to give the president for two years the power to suspend habeas corpus in Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, in order to enforce the war amendments. It passed the house, but failed in the senate. In these four acts the radical majority under Butler and Morton sought to give their theories of reconstruction a vigorous application at the expense of the authority of the state. They were checked because the court believed the state's authority was guaranteed by the federal constitution. They fared better in their desire to control the elections. In 1S71 a second enforcement act was passed. It placed elections of repre- sentatives under federal control, gave federal judges power Conteoi of j.^ appoint supervisors under certain conditions, and authorized the United States marshals to appoint enough deputies to insure order at the polls. It %vas to be enforced in any state when demanded by a specified number of citizens. It was designed for the South, but was resorted to in large Northern cities where the democrats were strong by reason of immigrant voters. The democrats succeeded in repealing the vital part of the law during Hayes's administration ; and most of the rest was rescinded in 1894, with parts of the first enforcement act (1870). The severity of these acts aroused protests in the North. The liberal republican movement of 1S71 threatened to disrupt the party, and one of their grievances was the Southern policy V^^ adopted. Grant and Butler felt the trend of public ^mnes y opinion and sought to neutralize it by an act of grace to former confederates who by the fourteenth amendment were excluded from office until pardoned by a two-thirds vote of each house. It is true that since 1868 congress had removed the dis- abilities of 4600 persons individually, but about 160,000 were still excluded. The annual message of 187 1 recommended general amnesty to all except the most prominent confederates. A bill was introduced THE COURT CHECKS CONCENTRATION 635 to that end, but it was opposed by Sumner unless his ci\il rights bill was incor])orated as an amendment. The senate hesitated, but in May, 1872, voted down the amendment, and the bill passed both houses and became law. It was estimated that the persons in the classes still excluded were not more than 500. Many of these were later restored by special act, and in 1808 a general amnesty law in- cluded all who were still unpardoned. The act of 1872 undoubtedly benefited the Southern democrats, but it softened animosity on both sides. Two years later a chivalrous act from the other side gave additional impulse to good feeling. March 11, 1874, Charles Sumner died. He was long the champion ^^"^ of negro sulTage and an extreme radical ; yet he was honest sumner?" and fair-minded with Southern men personally. A month after his death Lamar, of Mississippi, delivered in the house a eulogy which gave full justice to Sumner as a man, and expressed the loftiest desire for a united country. He was a good orator, imaginative and emotional, and he was in earnest. He carried the house with him ; and both the North and South felt drawn together when his speech was published. The amnesty act and Lamar's burning elocjuence were the dawn of the day of reconciliation. Interpreting the W.ar Amendments We have seen that during Johnson's administration the supreme court hesitated to decide whether congress or the state had the right to supervise reconstruction, in the cases of Mississippi v. Johnson, Georgia v. Stanton, and ex parte McCardle citizenship (page 611). Its reticence was undoubtedly due to an unwillingness to interfere in the quarrel between the legislature and the executive. After the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend- ments were adopted, the court could no longer hesitate to give its views. There was little controversy over the thirteenth amendment, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, oroverthe fifteenth, which conferred the suffrage, or over the second, third, fourth, and fifth sections of the fourteenth, which dealt respectively with apportion- ment, disfranchisement of former confederates, the validity of the confederate debt, and the power to enforce the amendment. But the first section demanded much interpretation. It ran: " All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the juris- diction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall aliridHc the privileger or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any .Slate deprive any person of life, liljerty, or property, without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The reconstruction era was a j)eri()(l of ccntrali/atiun, and it seems certain that many who approved this amendment thought it 636 RECONSTRUCTION — THE SOUTHERN SIDE took under national authority most of the negro's "rights and im- munities." In that view it was a long stride toward nationalism. Such persons were, therefore, hardly prepared for several decisions wliich gave it restricted application and saved large areas of state autonomy. The first decision interpreting the amendments, was given in the slaughter-house cases, 1873. A chartered Louisiana company had the e.xclusive right to kill and dress live stock in New house Cases Orleans, and other butchers in the city must use its plant, paying fees not greater than a specified ma.ximum. An attempt to annul the charter was lost in the state courts and appeal was taken to the federal supreme court, where it was urged that the slaughter-house company was unlawful because it infringed the long- established rights of the independents to their labor and their property. The reply of the court to this was avowedly explicit. It pointed out (i) the amendment recognized two kinds of citizenship, state and federal, and the privileges under each were distinct. Decision ^^^ *'^^ State was prohibited from infringing the privileges of federal, but not those of its own, citizenship, (3) the pri\ileges under state citizenship were wide before the passage of the amendment, they remained with the state e.xcept so far as by this amendment they were transferred to the nation, and it was not intended to "constitute this court a perpetual censor upon all legis- lation of the states, on the civil rights of their own citizens," and (4) the regulation of slaughter-houses was a state privilege and subject to state control. The court would not now define privileges under federal citizenship, but among them were such as grew out of the very nature of the federal government, such as were specifically granted in the constitution, and the right of exemption from slavery. The amendment, said the court in this and many other decisions, must be interpreted by the occasion out of which it arose. It was passed to protect the freedmen from well-known state laws denying equal privileges to them as a class : it was corrective of this wrong rather than creative of rights anew. This was essentially true of that clause forbidding a state to deny equality: "We doubt very much," ran the decision, "whether any action of a state not directed by way of discrimination against the negroes as a class, or on account of their race, will ever he held to come within the purview of this provision. It is so clearly a provision for that race and that emergency, that a strong case would be necessary for its application to any other." Opponents of the prevalent tendencies to concentration found much satisfaction in this clear limitation of the most far- Centraliza- reaching phase of the reconstruction lawmaking. Under Checked. Other conditions it might have been gi\'en a meaning much more hostile to state autonomy. Theories of nation- alism grew out of the earnest struggle against the state's right to control the status of the freedmen. The occasion for their ust: CIVIL RIGHTS DEFINED 637 being past, many people who had tolerated them now hoped they would be forgotten. To tbem there was something of the charm (jf other days when the court plainly approved the wisdom of preserving the states "with powers for domestic and local government, including the regulation of c'vil rights, the rights of person and property." And when the ;ourt expressed its purpose to hold "with a steady and an even hand the balance between stcts and federal power," it seemed that the long course of federal aggression on the power of the states had at last come to a turning point. In this sense the decision in the slaughter-house cases deserves to rank in importance with the constitutional decisions of John Marshall. It had another bearing too significant in the future to be ignored here. It was argued that the New Orleans slaughter-house company was a moiwpoly and against the spirit of the English law. The doctrine was rejected. "Whenever a Legislature," said the court, "has the right to accomphsh a certain result, and that result is best attained by means of a corporation, it has the right to create such a corporation and to endow it with the powers necessary to effect the desired and lawful purpose." Seven years later the supreme court gave another important inter- pretation of the first clause of the fourteenth amendment in three decisions on the negro's right to serve en juries. This was a political right, necessary to insuie to a negro de- ^ll^hJ^^o™ * fendant a trial by his peers. It depended on the clause jy^y, etc. forbidding a state to deny equality before the law. In three cases it was held by the court that if a state in its law ex- cluded negroes from the jury, it violated the amendment, if a state law admitted negroes to jury duty, but the officers who made up the list refused after application to place the names of colored people on the lists, then also the amendment was violated, for the officer was constructively the state which he represented. But if the state law admitted negroes to the jury and a negro prisoner were convicted by a white jury, no protest being made before the jury lists were made out, the con\'icted negro was not the object of discrimination by a state, and the amendment was not violated. Exclusion from juries was one of the objectionable features of the new black code of 1S65-1866, to remedy which the fourteenth amendment was enacted ; and the court now gave its formal notice that this remedy must be enforced. The civil rights cases (1883) were more conspicuous than these others, because they overset a law long debated in congress before enactment ; but they were simpler from a legal standpoint. The act of 1875 in two important sections guaranteed to cases. '^ negroes the right to entertainment in inns, admission to theaters, and equal privileges in public conveyances. Several cases came before the court at once, and the decision was made to 638 RECONSTRUCTION— THE SOUTHERN SIDE apply to all. The petitioners — they were all colored people — urged that the statute of 1875 was \'iolated. The decision recalled the words of the fourteenth amendment that "no stat? ' shall abridge the privileges of a citizen of the United States. Now no state action was alleged in the rases before the court or contemplated in the act of 1875. Moreover, it was clear that before the war amendments were made, congress had no authority over the rights of private individuals in inns, etc. ; and since such a right was not conferred in these amendments, it was not conferred at all. The civil rights act was, therefore, void in the clauses concerned. But the court would not say that these sections of the act were inoperative in the District of Columbia and in the territories ; and it intimated that by its control over commerce congress might have the right to regulate the accommodations of negroes in interstate travel. Section 4 of the act, which guaranteed negroes the right to ser\'e on juries, was about the only feature which sur\-i\-ed this decision. BIBLIOGRAPHIC.\L NOTE Many of the references for the preceding chapter are useful for the subjects treated in this, especially the general works and some of the biographies. In addition, the following relate to Southern reconstruction generally; Herbert, edr.. Why the Solid South? (i8go), full of feeling and politically biased, but containing important facts; Brown, The Lo-d'cr South (1902); Taylor, Dcstniclion mid Reconstruction (1879); Bancroft, The Negro in Politics (Columbia University, 1885); articles on various reconstruction phases in the Atlantic Monthly, 1891 ; Lester and Wilson. The Ku Klux Klan, its Origin, etc., Fleming, edr. (1Q05) ; Peirce, The Freedmen's Bureau (University of Iowa Studies, 1904) ; and Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, 2 vols. (1883). Several \-aluable monographs bearing on reconstruction in the several states have been prepared under the direction of Professor Dunning. They are : Fleming, Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (1905) ; Garner, Reconstruction in Missis- sippi (igoi) ■,\\'oolley. Reconstruction in Georgia (Columbia 5//h//«, rgoi) ; Hamil- ton, Reconstruction in North Carolina (Ibid., 1906); and Ramsdell, Reconslruction in Texas (Ibid., 1910). See also: Hollis, Early Reconstruction Period in South Carolina (Johns Hopkins Studies, 1905), inadequate; Eckenrode, Virginia during Reconslruction (Ibid., 1904), useful but not sufficiently full ; FerUg, Secession and Reconstruction of Tennessee (University of Chicago, i8g6) ; Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina (1905), has Southern bias; .-Mien, Governor Chamberlain's Ad- ministration (1S88) ; and Harrell, The Brooks and Baxter War (1893). Conditions in the South attracted universal attention just after the war, and many newspapers published letters from correspondents there. Numerous books were also published, among tliem the following : .-Vndrews, The South Since the War (1866); Trowbridge, r/;t' 5o!(/// (1S66); ¥ike, The Prostrate Stale {1874), a vivid picture of misrule in South Carolina; King, The Great South (1S75); Ried, After the War (1866) ; Nordhoff, The Cotton States in 1873 (1S76) ; Somers, The Southern States since the War (1871). See also Schurz Report (Sen. E.\. Docs., 39 con. r sess., No. 2) and the Truman Report (Ibid., No. 43), both valuable : to the former is appended the short report of General Grant. Interesting pictures are found in : Tourgee, .4 Fool's Errand, by One of the Fools (ed. 1880), a novel by an observant carpet-bagger : Page, Red Rock (1898), a good companion story from the Southern standpoint ; and IVIorgan, Yazoo, or the Picket Line of Freedom (1884). Biographies of Southern men are : Smedes, Memorials of a Southern Planter BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 639 (1900) ; Hamilton, edr., Correspoiidente of Jonathan Worth, 2 %ols. (Xo. Car. Hist. Commission, Publications, igog), most valuable for political condition in Xorth Carolina; Boyd, edr.. Memoirs of W. II'. Holden (Trinity College, 1911) ; Mayes, Lucius Q. C. Lamar (1896) ; Fielder, Life of Joseph E. Brown (1883) : Hill, Life of Benjamin H. Hill (1893) ! Pendleton, Alexander H. Stephens (1907) ; Johnston and Brown, Life of AlexatuierH. Stephens (1878) ; Dodd, Jejferson Davis (1907J ; Trent, William Gilmore Simms (1892) ; and Perrj', Reminiscences, 2 vols. (1883-1889). For Independent Reading Mrs. Prj-or, Reminiscences of Peace and War (1904) ; Mrs. Clay, A Belle of the Fifties (1904) ; Trent, William Gilmore Simms (1892) ; Mrs. Avarv, Dixie after the War (1906) ; Tourgee, A Fool's Errand (ed. 1880J ; and Page, Red Rock (1898). CHAPTER XXX PARTY HISTORY, 1865-1877 Political Conditions apter the War Having outlived the platform on which it was founded, the repub- lican party in 1865 must get new issues. Radical reconstruction furnished one and it proved very powerful, although publicans ^^ '^^^ nature it was temporary. More permanent was an alliance the party made with the business interests. The war debt was a republican heritage. It was an instrument of victory binding on the victors, and any suggestion of impairment had their opposition. The democracy, the party of conservatism in the fifties, now found itself supplanted by its opponents who, as tariff and currency assumed more importance, became the party of large capital, the friend of the commercial class, and the reliance of protected manufacturers. Much of this was due to the peculiar weakness of the democrats. They were discredited through opposi- tion to the conduct of the war, and their defense of state Democrats, eights mipelled them to resist radical reconstruction. They were a broken remnant of a former army, without capable leaders, and embittered by years of the most caustic criticism. They fought as they could against the Southern jiolicy of the repub- licans ; but they recognized the handicap it gave them, and willingly adopted other issues. Thus it happened that they espoused in the West financial doctrines the men of Jackson's time would have scorned, and in every section resolved themselves into a party of expediency. The loss of the South was a heavy blow. To build up a great party out of such conditions as confronted the democrats Avas difiicult, and required time. The confusion incident to party reorganization is shown in the four conventions which met in 1866. The first (Philadelphia, August 14) supported Johnson and was controlled by Seward and of 1866 others of the presidential group. Its supporters called themselves national republicans, and delegates came from the moderate men North and South, to show that both sections would unite in a policy of reconciliation. The impression was good at first, but soon after it adjourned came Johnson's "swinging- around-the-circle " speeches, which with his growing unpopularity made success impossible. The second convention was called by Johnson's opponents to offset the first. It met in Philadelphia, 640 THE DEMOCRATS EMBARRASSED 641 September 3, and was composed of Southern loyalists and a few Northern men. Its address urged the country to remember the loyal men in the South who suffered through the policy of Johnson. The third (Cleveland, September 17) was called by Johnson's friends. It was composed chiefly of former soldiers and sailors, and sought to rally these classes to the administration. The fourth (Pittsburgh, September 25) was a great radical gathering, and indorsed the work of congress. All of these conventions were planned as demonstra- tions to influence the congressional elections. The result showed how little Johnson was supported in the country. Throughout the North the radicals controlled the party organization and secured a stronger hold than ever in the house. ^jj^^gg^K Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky were carried by the democrats, but the two other border states. West Virginia and Missouri, were republican. The senate now had 42 republicans and 11 demo- crats, and the house 143 republicans and 49 democrats. Thus vanished Johnson's hope of a national conservative party committed to his plan of reconstruction. One incident tempered somewhat the violence of sectionalism. In May, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the confederacy, was captured and imprisoned in Fortress Monroe. He was put into irons by order of the officer in charge. General J«*f«''so° N. A. Miles. This needless severity aroused great indigna- prison, tion in the South, and the secretary of war ordered the manacles removed four days after they were placed on the prisoner. But Davis remained in prison for two years. He was much disliked in the North, but by May, 1867, sentiment relented, and he was taken before a federal judge on a writ of habeas corpus. He had been detained for treason, but the judge declared this bailable, and he was released on a bond of $100,000, Horace Greeley and other prominent Northern men becoming sureties. His release gave pleasure to the South. The confederate president was not popular with his own people during the war, but his imprisonment, which he bore with dignity and fortitude, brought him their affectionate esteem. In 1869 the case against him was discontinued, and he returned to Missis- sippi, where he lived in retirement until his death in 1S89. The Election of 186S The local elections in 1867 brought anxiety to the republicans. The democrats carried New York and Pennsylvania, and in Ohio they reduced a large adverse majority to only 3000 while they defeated a negro suffrage amendment by 50,000. j^o^nated. This result, seven months after the adoption of congres- sional reconstruction, argued badly for the party in 1868. Fortu- nately, safety was at hand in the person of a presidential candidate. 2T 642 PARTY HISTORY, 1865-1877 May 20, a national ix'i)ublican convention nominated General Grant for president and Schuyler Colfax for vice-president. Grant was not a politician, and his early sympathy was democratic ; but his ciuarrel with Johnson in 1S67 threw him into the arms of the radicals. His speech of acceptance struck a popular note in the expression, "Let us have peace." In the democratic convention, New York, July 4, were two promi- nent candidates, both from Ohio. One was George H. Pendleton, representative from the Cincinnati district, cultured and Democrats ^"^'^'^ connected, and nicknamed "Gentleman George." The other was Chief Justice Chase, who had a following among those who opposed Pendleton's financial views. These views, known as the "Ohio Idea," may be summed up as follows: The national bonds were payable in "dollars," although the interest was to be paid in gold. About $1,600,000,000 was in five-twenty bonds, and might, therefore, soon begin to be redeemed. Pendleton desired to pay them in "greenbacks," or legal tender, then much depreciated. This would mean large issues of notes, but they woidd pay no interest, thus effecting a saving to the government, and the resulting inflation would please the debtor class, then large in Ohio and the states west of it. The year 1867 brought a panic, and at such a time inflation was apt to be popular. To pay the debt in gold, or to refund it in gold bonds, said Pendleton, was to favor the Eastern capitalists at the expense of the taxpayers, and he won many of the latter by his battle-cry: "The same currency for the bondholder and the plow- holder ! " The response was so strong in the West that the republicans there dared not oppose it openly. The Pendleton men wrote the platform of 1868, demanding (i) the payment m currency of bonds not specifically payable in specie, (2) taxation of national bonds, and (3) opposition to andBiak radical reconstruction. The platform required a mere majority vote, but to nominate a candidate a two-thirds vote was necessary. The New York delegates led the Eastern sentiment for conservative finance, and for two days no nominations were made. Pendleton led on the first ballot and had 1565 out of 317 votes on the second. Two-thirds he could not get. Finally, on the twenty-second ballot there was a stampede to Horatio Seymour, of New York, chairman of the convention. He protested he would not run, but the vote was unanimous, and he accepted. For vice- president, Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, was selected. Nine days earlier he had said in a letter immediately made public that the caqDet-bag regime in the South should be dispersed by the president with armed force. His nomination under the circumstances was indiscreet, and the republicans pointed to it to support their argu- ment that the democrats contemplated violence. However wisely the party may have acted, it had no chance against Grant. He had NAPOLEON III AND MEXICO 643 214 to Seymour's 80 electoral voles and a plurality in the popular vote of over 300,000. Foreign Affairs under Johnson If Johnson's domestic policy was full of disaster, his foreign policy was on the whole successful. Although negotiations with England were muddled through the incapacity of Reverdy Johnson (page 670), aflfairs in Mexico were arranged with brilliant results for our prestige, and in the purchase of Alaska we acquired at a fair price a most valuable territory. In these matters the chief credit belongs to Seward, although it should be remembered that the secretary had the constant support of his superior. In 1861, Napoleon III, under pretext of protecting European creditors, sent an army to Mexico and found means to get a com- plaisant Assembly of Notables to establish an empire with Maximilian, iDrother of the Austrian rider for emperor. ^^ Mexico. The act violated the spirit of the Monroe doctrine, but the United States, pressed to the limit by the civil war, could only protest. The American people felt the affront very deeply and demanded, with the coming of peace, the expulsion of the French amiy from Mexico. Grant was of the same opinion, and sent Sheridan with 52,000 troops to the Rio Grande. Napoleon was not inclined to be forced, and war seemed possible. It was Seward's task to get what we wanted without fighting for it. He restrained American indignation on one hand, and by careful negotiations led up to a firm demand upon the French emperor on the other. He succeeded so well that April 5, 1866, Napoleon ordered his generals in Mexico to make ready for withdrawal within a year and a half, because the troops were needed in Europe. Maximilian was in dismay. He had been promised five years' support : if he were now abandoned, he would be crushed by the natives who held him for a usurper. His touching appeals to Paris worked nothing. France did not care for the Me.xican scheme, and the emperor dared not incur the expense of a war for it. It was by bringing this situation home to the French government that Seward had his way. Left to his own resources, the young Maximilian disdained to flee, and awaited his fate at the hands of the infuriated Mexicans. They proclaimed a republic, reoccupied the country, took him a prisoner, tried him by court- martial, and shot him on June ig, 1867. Seward's success in this incident was clouded somewhat by sympathy for the unhappy Maximilian. In the purchase of Alaska there was ,no such untoward feature. Russian America, with an area of 577,390 square miles, had 10,000 white inhabitants pu/(.j,ased and many Indians in 1867. Its fur trade was valuable, and fisheries on the southern coast were capable of rich develop- 644 PARTY HISTORY, 1865-1877 ment. Russia found it too remote to govern well, and fearing it might be seized by England, her minister was authorized to suggest to Seward that she would sell it. The suggestion was quickly accepted, and in one evening's interview the details were settled. The price was to be $7,000,000, with $200,000 to quiet the claims of the Russian American Company. The Russian minister suggested that the treaty be prepared next day, but Seward exclaimed, "Why wait till to-morrow, Mr. Stoeckl ? Let us make the treaty to-night !" Then clerks were summoned, Sumner, chairman of the senate committee on foreign affairs, was called in, and at four o'clock in the morning the treaty was signed. It went at once to the senate, where it created much surprise ; but Sumner carried its adoption. In the house there was more delay. The members needed time to realize why $7,000,000 should be paid for a frozen wilderness in the remote northwest. The treaty was ratified, and on October 11, 1867, Alaska was handed over. The purchase was not popular when made, but time showed its benefits. Grant's Political Mistakes Grant's inauguration occasioned general joy, both because of his popularity and because the turmoil of the Johnson period was over. But thoughtful men wondered if a military training Cabine^t fitted him for politics, and his first acts intensified their doubts. He chose his cabinet of his own judgment, as a military man might be expected to do, and two of them, E. R. Hoar, attorney-general, and J. D. Cox, secretary of the interior, were excellent selections. The others had not generally been consid- ered eligible. Washburne, a man of respectable capacity, became secretary of state, but resigned immediately to go to Paris as minister. He was succeeded by Hamilton Fish, of New York, who was also well chosen. For secretary of the treasury, an officer of the greatest importance at that time. Grant nominated A. T. Stewart, a rich merchant of New York. The nomination caused consternation, but a law was discovered which forbade a merchant to hold the office. Grant wished the law repealed, but congress refused, and he appointed George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, a safe but not a brilliant, financier. John A. Rawlins became secretary of war, A. E. Borie secretary of the navy, and A. J. Creswell postmaster-general. Fish hesitated to enter such a cabinet, but yielded to the requests of his friends. He had influence with Grant, whose intentions were good, and hoped to save him from manipulation by the politicians. He, Hoar, and Cox made the best wing of the cabinet, but spite of their efforts, Butler and his friends acquired predominant influence. Grant was strong-willed and not easily moved. He smoked incessantly, was fond of horses, and gave to the White House some of the free atmosphere of the headquarters' tent. He was surrounded by men GRANT'S POLITICAL MISTAKES 645 who had his weaknesses without his virtues, and through their machina- tions the responsibilities of government were forgotten, and corruption invaded many places. He was most criticized for his Southern policy. His attitude toward the South was originally lenient, but he yielded to Butler, who made him believe in the reality of Southern outrages. Grant was ultimately responsible for the armed support of the ^'^^. , !• , • ■ ^1 r- ii i i. TT 1. J Southern republican regime in the Southern states. He had no poUcy. keen comprehension of the problems of good government, and in his Southern policy, as in other civil matters, he had a soldier's desire to be obeyed. His support of the party's program in the South alienated the feeling of many republicans. It was largely responsible for the liberal republican movement of 1872 and for the decisive democratic victory in 1874. He was not a year in office before he was in a needless quarrel with Sumner. He undertook without the knowledge of the cabinet to secure the annexation of Santo Domingo (page 671). The senate would not accept a treaty to that effect, and ^'^ Sumner, chainnan of its foreign committee, was out- ^^^^ spoken in opposition. In the senate he was safe from Sumner. retaliation, but Grant struck at him elsewhere. Motley, minister to England and close personal friend of Sumner, had violated instructions from the state department. The case would ordinarily end with a reprimand, but the day after the Dominican treaty was rejected. Grant recalled Motley peremptorily. Sumner recognized the thrust at himself, and became very angry. Each contestant was outspoken and unyielding, and the newspapers were soon full of the bitter things they said. Sumner carried the attack into the senate when the administration senators replied in behalf of the president. Fish was drawn into the affair, and soon was not on speaking terms with the indignant senator from Massachusetts. The pertinacity of the latter clearly put him in the wrong, but men could not forget that the beginning of the quarrel was unnecessary. The loss in the following year of two of the three first-rate men in the cabinet shows how much Grant was yielding to the spoilsmen. Attor- ney-General Hoar had much opposition from them, and offered to resign, but the offer was refused. He was Dit^ssgj surprised, therefore, to receive on June 15, 1870, without warning, the curtest possible request for his resignation. It then transpired that Grant, seeking votes for the Dominican treaty, had appealed to the Southern republican senators. They liked Sumner, who opposed the treaty, and would not vote for it unless they were given representation in the cabinet ; and Hoar of^coi*''°° was removed in order to make a vacancy. Cox's elimina- tion was not quite so summary. He offended the Butler machine by opposing the schemes ol a ;>> werful clique who wished to acquire 646 PARTY HISTORY, 1865-1877 mining lands in California and by introducing civil service reform into the department of the interior. Senators Cameron, of Pennsyl- vania, and Chandler, of Michigan, friends of jobbery in many forms, were particularly anxious for his removal. Co.x also gave offense by attempting to reform the Indian service, which was in a wretched state through the corruption of the Indian agents. As the clamor against him became insistent, he thought to test his position by an offer to withdraw, October 3, 1870. Grant's acceptance was so prompt as to leave no doubt that he supported the spoilsmen. Fish alone in the cabinet was now in sympathy with the liberals, and his immu- nity was due to his great success in settling the Alabama claims. It was not long after these events that Grant aroused the opposition of the civil service reformers. He favored their plans at first and sought to execute fairly the bill of 187 1 empowering him Opposition to make rules for the selection of civil servants, and he Service made George William Curtis chairman of the commission Reformers, which acted as an advisory body. Soon the reformers were in conflict with the machine politicians, and Grant, who was not an idealist, grew tired of the controversy which followed. Reformers criticized him for not aiding them, and Curtis resigned his chairmanship in disgust. They thought the president entirely with the spoilsmen, and most of them supported the liberal republican movement of 1872 and 1874. Their attitude confirmed his dislike for their leaders, and he said in 1879, "There is a good deal of cant about civil servdce reform." More conspicuous was his connection with the " Black Friday " specu- lations of Jay Gould and James Fiske, Jr. These two men r'^^M V It owned controlling interests in the Erie railroad, which they Speculation. ^"^^ ^^ '■^^ interest of their operations in its stock. The first was a shrewd manipulator and the second a gaudy adventurer. In 1869 Gould worked out the following scheme. He thought if gold, then at 132, could be put up to 145, Europe, buying grain for gold, would take much American wheat. This increased demand would mean a rise in wheat in the West, where the farmers would sell rapidly. Wheat would move to the coast, and the Erie, a grain-carrying road, would have larger freight receipts. The scheme seemed only to demand putting up the price of gold. There was but $20,000,000 of the metal accessible in New York, and the schemers felt able to corner it and raise the price, since many men must have it continually to settle their business contracts. The one obstacle was the possibility that the secretary of the treasury, Boutwell, would sell gold for bonds when the price rose. He was doing this all the time and was accustomed to give a month's warning of the amount he would thus place in the market. Gould was audacious enough to undertake to induce the president to restrain the secretary from purchasing bonds for a time. GRANT AND JAV GOULD 647 Grant had a br(Hher-in-Iaw, Corbin, in New York, who speculated in stocks, and through him Gould dined with Grant and got himself and Fisk seen at a theater in company with the president in order to impress the financial public. He also seized the ■prapped. opportunity to urge on Grant his view of the relation of gold to the price of grain. The latter received it with interest, for he had close at heart the welfare of the farmers. He at length was convinced, and advised Boutwell to stop selling gold. This was early in September, and Gould began at once to buy gold. In two days the price was 137. He bought large quantities for Corbin, and for others connected with the president, lending them the money to carry the transaction. When gold was at 137, Grant went for several days to a place in western Pennsylvania inaccessible to railroads or telegraph. The moment seemed propitious, and Gould redoubled his efforts. Fisk, who was a bold buyer, now became p^day " active in the scheme and gold rose to 140. There was much suffering among those who needed gold; some of them by frantic efforts reached Grant and urged him to sell gold. Gould learned of it and realized that short retiection would induce Grant to comply. He determined, therefore, to sell his supply, bought in the campaign of the preceding days at a high figure. He ordered his agents to sell gold as they could, but not to sell to the brokers of Fisk, who now appeared as buying on his own account. While he thus sold, Fisk continued to put up the price, giNing Gould's brokers opportunity to sell to persons who, in great fright, began to buy before the price became e.xhorbitant. Gould began to sell on Thursday, September 23. At the close of the day the price was 144 and he still had much on hand. Friday morning Fisk began to bid it up madly. From 145 it rose to 150, then upward until at noon it was at 162. The exchange was in an uproar and Fisk was walking the floor, swearing he would carry the price to 200. Men began to fear he had the power to do so, and buying began again at 162. It had not gone far when news came that the government was selling gold. Instantly the price fell and the market closed at 135. Before the collapse came, Gould had sold all his holding at a good price, most of it to reliable men. Fisk, meantime, had bought heavily, but without paj-ing cash. He went into bankruptcy and forfeited his contracts. But he con- tinued Gould's partner and seemed still to prosper, which caused much wagging of heads. A few people thought Grant a beneficiary of the plot, but the charge was not believed by those who knew all the facts. His only error in the affair was his credulous goodness which made him an easy mark for Gould. 648 PARTY HISTORY, 1865-1877 The Presidential Campaign of 1872 AH these failings of Grant resulted in serious political opposition. Its first appearance was in Missouri, when Carl Schurz, senator from that state, headed a group of republicans who desired a L'b* fli R niore liberal Southern policy. They nominated B. Gratz publicans. ' Brown for governor and elected him with the aid of demo- crats. The movement grew stronger as the administra- tion at Washington showed no improvement, and its leaders thought that a similar combination in 1872 might win the presidency. In a state meeting they called a national convention of liberal republicans. May I, 1872. The call elicited a hearty response and had the approval of many prominent men and newspapers. The convention met as called. Its platform arraigned the administration on every disputed point, and on this all were agreed. But there was great difficulty over the tariff. The movement generally had favored a lowering of duties ; but Greeley, of the New York Trihune, who was friendly in most things, declared his paper would oppose tariff reduction. It was thought to be worth a compromise to wrench so influential a journal from the old party, and so the platform, when adopted, declared that the tariff question could safely be left to the wisdom of congress. Among the candidates before the convention were B. Gratz Brown, Charles Francis Adams, and Greeley himself. The strength of Greeley was large in New York, one of whose senators, Fenton, was Nominated opposed to Conkling, the other senator, on account of a squabble over the patronage. Fenton hoped to have a president with whom he had influence. Greeley, however, made poor headway, until Brown, angry at some alleged unfairness of the Adams men, withdrew in favor of the New Yorker and started a stampede in that direction. Schurz and other cool-headed men tried in vain to stem the tide, and Greeley was nominated on the sixth ballot. It was an unfortunate choice. Greeley had genius, honesty, and a large following; but he was eccentric, vain, and impractical. The candidate for vice-president was B. Gratz Brown. The regular republicans on June 5 unanimously renominated Grant nominated ^^^^^ Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, for vice-president. The platform supported reconstruction and the protec- tive tariff. July 9 the democrats in their convention accepted Greeley for their candidate. He had been their bitterest foe Democrats ™ days past, and to indorse him seemed to discard both dignity and principle. The campaign was relentlessly personal. Grant's military services endeared him to the people. They knew his good qualities and thought little of his errors. His managers turned their attention to making Greeley look ridiculous. A protectionist leading the tariff LOW POLITICAL IDEALS 649 reformers, an opponent of civil service reform leading the ci\'il service reformers, a man renowned for his sharp attacks on the democracy leading the democrats, the spectacle was unusual. His personal appearance aided this kind of warfare. Thomas Nast, brilliant and partisan, caricatured him relentlessly, and the people applauded. Greeley's vanity was only a childish weakness, and it might have been overlooked by his persecutors. He conducted his own campaign fairly, but the jibes at him cut him to the heart. To be depicted as a scarecrow, a despot, and an imbecile by turns was more than he could stand. He closed the campaign in sorrow. October 30, Mrs. Greeley died ; November 5, he lost the election ; and November 2g, he himself was dead. This cjuick accumulation of misfortune softened most hearts, but the election results were still overwhelming. Grant had 272 electoral votes and Greeley 66. Only six states, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Te.xas voted for the unhappy editor. Louisiana and Arkansas were in dispute, and all the others were for Grant. In the house the republican majority was raised from 35 to 105. Grant and the group whose errors were responsible for the liberal republican protest had a right to think they were endorsed by the people. Political Decay under Grant In the scandals disclosed in Grant's second term he had no conscious profit. His own fault was that he knew not what transpired around him and trusted men whom a better judge of public men would have suspected. The misdoings themselves were rooted ^''^* °?' in the past. They were due to loose habits which crept into political affairs in war times and throve in the turbulent days of reconstruction. Everywhere office-holding had its opportunity for profit, and a powerful lobby worked on the cupidity of the public servants. The glaring frauds in the Southern states were but the worst eruptions of a disease widely prevalent. During the campaign of 1872 rumors circulated that prominent republican congressmen were concerned in a railroad scandal. Denials came, and the incident was dismissed as campaign lie. After the election the rumors were revived, and Blaine, I^t^-'^^'''' one of the accused, asked for an investigation. Two Frauds, committees of investigation were, in fact, created, one by the house, known as the "Poland Committee," from its chairman, and one by the senate, known as the "Wilson Committee." From the facts they discovered we may gather the following story : The Union Pacific railroad, completed in 1S69, had received little cash from subscribing stockholders and paid for its construction in four kinds of securities. The first was its own bonds to the amount of $27,000,000, secured by a first mortgage on the road. The second 6so PARTY HISTORY, 1865-1877 was the United States bonds to a similar amount lent by congress with a second mortgage for the government's security. The third was land bonds issued by the road and secured by the large Oriein tracts of land congress had donated to the Union Pacific. The fourth was certificates of stock in the enterprise. To build the road a construction company known as the Credit Mobilier was formed out of the chief stockholders. It paid out for construction less than $50,000,000 and received securities worth in the market $70,000,000, a profit, according to the report of the com- mittee, of $23,000,000. In 1868 it began to divide its earnings among its shareholders. Within that year each owner of a hundred-dollar share in the Credit Mobilier received $60 in cash, first mortgage bonds worth $230 face value, and railroad stock worth $515 face value. Later distributions added largely to these excessive profits. It meant that a group of men controlling the Union Pacific had found a way of transferring to themselves in the capacity of a construction company a large part of the road's securities and among them large issues of stock. The latter feature violated the charter, which required all the stock to be issued for cash. In 1867 an intimation of what was going on got abroad and a resolution was introduced in the house of representatives to investigate the affairs of the Union Pacific. Oakes Ames, a wealthy Massachusetts representative, was promi- nently concerned in the Credit MobOier and undertook to block the investigation. He got the construction company to place 243 of its shares at his disposal and sold them at par to leading congressmen, although they were worth double that amount in the market ; and if the purchaser could not pay for the stock, Ames lent him the money. His scheme succeeded so well that he wrote his associates that they need not fear the proposed investigation. Most of his victims, however, repented their action and surrendered their stock when they saw what the deal meant. The charges could not be disproved, and the house, at the recommendation of the committee, censured Ames and ■ Brooks, of New York. Schuyler Colfa.x, vice-president until March 4, 1873, was shown to be concerned in the affair. He could not well be impeached, as he was about to go out of office, but the disclosure wrecked his career. The senate committee recommended the expul- sion of Patterson, of New Hampshire ; but his term was about to expire, and the senators allowed him to go in peace. Among the acquitted ones were some of the most prominent men in congress. The situation revealed by the investigation made a deep impression on the nation. The people were so excited that they were ready to see fraud in many things they had not formerly objected to. In such a light was viewed the "Salary Grab" act of March 3, 1873. As congress closed its labors, it increased the salaries of the president, vice- president, supreme court justices, speaker, senators, and rcpresenta- A DEMOCRATIC HOUSE 051 tives. Members of congress had been getting $5000 a year and were to have $7500; and the law, following bad precedent, was to apply to the congress just ending. This retroactive fea- ture produced a vehement popular protest. It was dubbed J,^^ the "back pay steal"; and many members did not dare Grab." take the additional pay. The succeeding congress re- pealed the obnoxious law so far as it related to senators and repre- sentatives ; but spite of the repeal, the act was responsible for many election disasters in the congressional contest of 1874. In May, 1874, the ways and means committee of the house uncovered the Sanborn contracts. By a rather doubtful construction of law, John D. Sanborn, one of Butler's tools, was given a contract to collect some overdue internal revenue V'". claims at a commission of 50 per cent. He recovered $427 ,000 contracts, and got the stipulated reward of $213,500. He swore he paid $156,000 of this to his assistants, which meant, probably, that this amount served to hold together the Butler machine in Massa- chusetts. The contracts could not be repudiated, and Sanborn was not touched ; but congress by a law made a repetition of the offense impossible. Richardson, secretary of the treasury, who had allowed the contracts, only escaped a vote of censure by resigning. The campaign of 1874 came close on the heels of the Sanborn dis- closure. No one thought the republicans would escape a rebuke, but few foresaw how overwhelming it would be. In the house then in existence were 195 republicans, 88 demo- of^i*^^""^ crats, and 4 liberals. In the new house were 108 republi- cans, 168 democrats, and 14 liberals and independents. For the first time since i860 the democratic party had the confidence of the country. In this year, also, Samuel J. Tilden, a lawyer of ability and a steady foe of political corruption, was elected democratic gov- ernor of New York. Among his supporters were many republicans who took this means of showing their disapproval of the conditions in their own party. Their defeat sobered the republicans, but fraud was deep-rooted and two more scandals were yet to come to light. In 1874 Bristow succeeded the spoilsman, Richardson, as secretary of the treasury. He was a reformer and began to investigate I?*, the department. In 1875 he uncovered a bad situation Ring in St. Louis. A group of distillers in that city, with the aid of McDonald, super\asor of internal revenue, had been able to defraud the government annually of a million dollars in whisky taxes. Bristow prosecuted the conspirators, and McDonald was sent to the penitentiary. He later published a book in which he said Grant shared the ring's profits. Only the president's reputation for integrity saved him now in the minds of the people. It was notorious that he had accepted expensive gifts and entertainment from Mc- 6S2 PARTY HISTORY, 1865- 1877 Donald, and it was proved that Babcock, his private secretary, was very intimate with the St. Louis criminals. When Babcock was put on trial, Grant voluntarily testified for him, and although the private secretary was acquitted, few people doubted his guilt. Grant retained him private secretary until the criticisms were so loud that he could keep him no longer. Dogged faithfubiess to a friend was one of the president's good qualities; but in this case it led him astray. This series of scandals ended with an investigation in 1876 which showed that secretary of war Belknap had connived at a bargain for the appointment of an Indian agent at Fort Sill. The g*"^ incumbent, as it was proved, fearing removal, had agreed Scand^. '•'^ P'^Y ^^^ rival $12,000 a year to withdraw. One-half this sum was sent annually to Mrs. Belknap, and after her death it was paid to her husband, the secretary of war. The evidence was plain and abundant, and a resolution to impeach Belknap passed the house unanimously. A few hours before it was voted on, the secretary tendered his resignation, which Grant immediately accepted. It cannot be doubted that he wished to save the erring official from punishment. The Election of 1876 As another presidential election approached, the regular republicans thought of candidates. Those closest to Grant began to talk of a third term, counting on his immense popularity. He himself c ""d d t*" ^^® sounded and said he would not be a candidate again unless it should seem to be his "imperative duty," which was generally interpreted as assent to the plan. The scheme received its death blow, however, when the house, in December, 18-5, by a vote of 234 to 18, resolved that a departure from the custom long followed "would be unwise, unpatriotic, and fraught with perils to our free institutions " ; 70 of the 88 republicans and all the democrats in the house voted for this resolution. Grant's particular supporters now divided between Conkling, of New York, and Morton, of Indiana, the latter securing most of the Southern delegates, from that time an unwholesome but important element in a republican national convention. Bristow's work for reform drew to him a following from the best portion of the party, and Blaine, whose abilities and personal popularity surpassed those of any other candidate, had a large follow- ing in the rank and file of the party. He was suspected of improper relations in regard to a railroad in Arkansas and his method of dis- posing of the "Mulligan letters" did not entirely remove the suspicion. As he was the strongest candidate, there was a disposition for the others to combine against him. Conkling, his personal enemy, was happy to promote such a move. There were several "favorite sons," among THE PARTY NOMINEES 653 them Governor R. B. Hayes, for whom the 44 votes of Ohio were instructed. The convention met in Cincinnati, June 14. On the first ballot Blaine had 285 votes, Morton 125, Bristow 113, Colliding 99, Hayes 61, and other candidates 72. On each ballot until the fifth Blaine held his own and Hayes gained slowly, while Morton ^^^.^^' and Conkling lost. On the fifth Hayes held his own and conve^on. the Blaine vote went to 308, only 70 less than was necessary for a choice. The danger of a stampede to him seems now to have impressed his opponents, and they quickly concentrated on Hayes, who on the sLxth ballot had 384, and was nominated. It was well timed; for on this ballot Blaine had 351 votes and his friends were enthusiastic. William A. Wheeler, of New York, was nominated for vice-president. Blaine was defeated through the union for that purpose of the worst and best factions of the party, the extreme 5po0smen and the e.xtreme reformers. Hayes pleased the latter because he was a man of excellent character, friendly to civil service reform and opposed to severe measures in the South ; the spoilsmen accepted him to beat Blaine, whom they feared, and because they thought Hayes could be managed. The democrats turned to Samuel J. Tilden, who seemed a strong candidate when reform was the issue. He first became prominent through the energy with which he prosecuted the Tweed ring in 1871. In doing so he won the antagonism of TUden Tammany ; but that organization was so much discredited byThe*'* by Tweed that it could not do great harm in the campaign. Democrats. In the states north of the Ohio the democrats had some strength. Here Allen, of Ohio, trained in the late Jacksonian school, and Hendricks, of Indiana, both prominent in the revival of 1874, were mentioned. General Hancock, of Pennsylvania, was also urged as a man popular with the soldiers. On the first ballot Tilden had 417 votes, only 79 less than two-thirds of the convention. Of his apponents Hendricks had 140, Hancock 75, and Allen 56. Tilden was evidently the man most likely to win, and on the second ballot be got 535 votes and was declared nominated. The democrats in »eneral did not care for reforms. They were a party of opposition, trained through a long series of hardships to a policy of expediency, rhey did not relish the New York leadership, but submitted to secure party success. Thomas A. Hendricks was nominated for vice- president. The two platforms contained many generalities, but the important issue was the record of the republicans. It was a damaging affair, and Blaine sought by a skillful ruse to shift it to the South- ern issue. The house was debating a bill to grant amnesty to the remaining confederates under disabilities when he moved to exempt from its action the president of the confederacy. He 6s4 PARTY HISTORY, 1865-187 7 made in support of the motion a fiery speecli charging Davis with responsibility for the suffering of union soldiers at Andersonville. It was a shrewd play ; for it brought, as Blaine expected, a heated reply from the Southern members. Thus opened a sectional debate in which was obliterated much of the recently developed good will for the South. Thus the sectional controversy was made an issue in the campaign at a time when it had seemed to be receding. Blaine's maneuver displeased the liberals in his party and made them work hard to defeat his nomination, but it was reflected in the platform which indorsed the Southern policy of Grant. Another plank pledged the party to pay the national debt without discounting it. The democrats took a similar position on finance, but they arraigned the administration most severely for frauds and scandals, and pressed the argument home on a thousand stumps. Hayes, who was little known when nominated, came out well in his letter of acceptance. Reformers felt reassured when he said that he was against the spoils system and in favor of such a policy as would wipe out the distinction between North and South. His attitude and the hard work of his supporters kept the Northwest firm, but the democrats were strongly entrenched in New York, and held it spite of the lukewarm attitude of Tammany. In the South the democrats carried the states in which the republican regime had been over- thrown, but there were hard battles in the three states still in repub- lican hands. South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. Each of these was fighting for redemption from republican rule, using methods by this time well known in the South. In each there were dis- puted returns, and the result of the national contest was dependent on the way they were received. By midnight of election day most of the crowds who listened to the returns throughout the country went home assured that Tilden was elected. All the New York papers but the Herald Returns'* and the Times said as much ne.xt morning, for he had New York, Indiana, and other doubtful states, and he was believed to have the "Solid South." The Herald and Times announced that the result was in doubt. It appeared later that Tilden had 184 undisputed votes and Hayes 165. South Carolina's, Louisiana's, and Florida's votes and one elector from Oregon were disputed. If Tilden got one of the twenty, he would be elected : if Hayes got all, he would be elected. Claiming these contested votes for Hayes, it is said, was the suggestion of a shrewd manager in the early morning of the day after election. It was seized eagerly by his associates, who urged the managers in the states concerned to relax no efforts in support of their contention. Great e.xcitement prevailed. The democrats thought the republicans were trying to steal the presidency. The republicans replied that they only sought to have a fair count. THE CONTESTED RETURNS 65; It, is difficult to decide between the two sides. In Soutli Carolina was much intimidation by the whites and much fraud by both parties. There was an election board which passed on disputed returns, and by rejecting votes which the democrats The thought should be counted it gave certificates of election Returning i>. -1 -ii 1, ifii Boards in to republican presidential electors and to most ot the south republican candidates for state and county offices. In Carolina; due time these electors met and voted for Hayes. The democrats ignored these proceedings and insisted that the board had acted unfairly. These electors, as well as Wade Hampton, their candidate for governor, had a majority of the votes certified by the election officers, and they claimed that these returns were not subject to revisit)n. Their electors accordingly met, cast their vote for Tilden, and took steps to report the vote to the United States senate. The same situation existed in Florida, where . there had been much confusion in voting. The returning board undertook to correct the returns from the counties and the result was a republican majority. The electors thus returned cast the vote of the state for Hayes, and the democratic electors met and voted for Tilden. The proceedings in these two states suggested partisanship ; in Louisiana they went somewhat further. Here, also, was a returning board with power to canvass the returns. Legally it , _ . . In LouiSlAllfl should have had five members, one a democrat, but the democratic member had resigned, and the others, all republicans, two white and two black, refused to choose a successor. The personnel of the board was bad. The president, in the words of General Sheridan, was "a political trickster and a dishonest man." These four men, all republicans, had in their hands the making of a president, and the eyes of the nation were on them. Twenty-five of the leading men of each party came to New Orleans to watch the count, and the board asked five from each group of ''visiting statesmen" to be present at the hearing of evidence bearing on the disputed elections. The evidence taken, the four members of the board deliberated in secret. Decision after decision was for the republicans, and at the end of the delibera- tions what had been on the face of the returns a democratic majority of 6300 was a republican majority of 4600. By the work of these returning boards Hayes got formal recognition for nineteen of the twenty votes necessary to elect him. The other vote was from Oregon. The state was republican by a majority of 1000 ; but one elector, a deputy postmaster, was ineligible because by the constitution a federal officer may not be chosen an elector. The governor, a democrat, gave the certificate to the democratic candidate with the largest vote, and it resulted that two returns came from Oregon. The constitution provides that the president of the United States 656 PARTY HISTORY, 1805-1877 senate shall open the votes from the states and count them in the presence of the two houses, and it says nothing about How should pagsjjig Qn disputed returns. No precedent, since the Counted? government began, had settled the point. The only case in point was in 1821, when there was doubt in regard to the vote of Missouri (page 374). But here the president of the senate only avoided the issue by announcing that if the vote of Missouri were counted, Monroe would have 231 votes, if not counted, 229, and in either case he was elected. In 1865, 1S69, and 1873, the votes of the states not in the union were not counted, but this was on the ground that they were unreconstructed. In 1S77 all the states were in the union. The experience of reconstruction days, however, seemed to establish the principle that congress, or the senate, had authority to pass on disputed returns. The "twenty-second joint rule," passed in 1865, might have had a bearing on the question. It provided that one house could prevent the counting of a disputed electoral vote or votes. Early J}^^ in 1876 the republican senate withdrew its consent to the Second ^' ''^'^' ^'^'^ ^^ ^'^^ ^^^'^ ^^^'^'- "^ Joi^^ rule was repealed when one Joint Rule." house withdrew its consent. Had this joint rule been in force in 1877 the democrats could have refused to recognize the Louisiana vote : that would have meant no election, and the de- cision, thrown into the democratic house, would have been for Tilden. The republicans congratulated themselves on the repeal of the rule, and the democrats had no way of rehabilitating it. When congress met, the situation was threatening. Republicans and democrats took sides with such earnestness that people feared that a civil war might occur if some way was not found to Z^" . settle the dispute. Each house appointed a committee to Commission, devise a plan. The democrats seemed to wish to have the election referred to the house, and the republicans seemed to be without a definite plan. But each side watched intently every move of the other. There was much discussion, and at last an electoral commission was suggested. Each house was to appoint five men from its own membership to whom would be added five justices of the supreme court approved by each side, in all, fifteen members of a commission which should pass on the disputed returns. Of the house representation on the commission three were democrats and two re- publicans, of the senate representation three were republicans and two democrats, and two of the justices, Clifford and Field, had democratic, and two others. Miller and Strong, had republican, leanings. So far, therefore, the commission had seven democrats and seven republicans, and everything would depend on the fifth justice. For this position it was thought, when the plan was devised, that Judge Davis would be named. He did not vote in the election of 1876, and he was called an independent. On the day the plan was submitted to congress EIGHT TO SEVEN 657 Da\ds by democratic votes was elected United States senator from Illinois, and was out of the question for the commission. At this late hour the democrats could hardly withdraw approval from their agree- ment, and another justice must be taken. The choice fell on Justice Bradley, of known republican leaning. Thus a commission was selected which, if it were influenced by partisan sympathy, would have eight republicans and seven democrats. It began its hearings on February i . The first returns taken up were from Florida. Evidence was taken, then came secret deliberations, then more evidence, and more delibera- tion, while the public awaited the result in the greatest suspense and anxiety. It was believed that the decision Decision in regard to Florida would indicate the tone of those in the other cases. At last the verdict was given, Bradley casting the de- ciding vote. It announced that congress could not go behind the de- cision of a state, that the certificate must be accepted if the proper Florida authorities signed it. On this principle the commission gave Florida to Hayes. The same proceedings were taken in the Louisiana case, the commission refusing to hear evidence to show that the cer- tificate approved by the republican governor was not founded in fact. By the same vote, eight to seven, Hayes got this state. In the Oregon and South Carolina cases the commission unanimously rejected the Tilden electors, thus ginng the republicans all the disputed votes. The commission held, therefore, that if wrong had been done it was by the state authorities, and that the constitution and laws did not give congress power to correct it. The decision supported the theory of state rights, but the democrats thought it strange that their opponents, after invading at will, in their reconstruction policy, the function of states, should have appeared so solicitous to preserve the authority of the states in the matter then under consideration. The decision caused disappointment to the supporters of Tilden, but the country at large was relieved that there would be no civil war. The South found special comfort in the prospect of re- gaining complete control of its own affairs. Before the The With- verdict was given, friends of Hayes, probably without his £,'■»*»' "^ direct assurance, made it certain that if elected he would f^gn, the withdraw the federal troops, without which the last vestige South, of carpet-bag government would fail. In view of the rec- ognition of the state by the commission, he could hardly do otherwise. The result in South Carolina and Louisiana was soon evident. In the spring, not long after the inauguration, Hayes had a confer- ence in Washington with Chamberlain and Hampton, the o°" i:„„ , ,. , °, . , . , , '■ , . Carolina. republican and democratic claimants for the governorship of the fonner of the two states, and made it plain what his policy would be ; and not long afterwards he recalled the federal troops in the South- ern states. Chamberlain had no support from the mass of whites, they would not pay taxes to republican officers, and the police would 6s8 PARTY HISTORY, 1865-1877 not support his assertion of power. Hampton was their governor, the democratic legislature took possession of the statehouse, and Chamberlain withdrew from the field. The people haOed his departure as a token of the redemption of South Carolina from alien rule. The same thing occurred in Louisiana, where Packard, the republican, gave way to NichoUs, the democrat, and a democratic legislature was rec- ognized by the people. In Florida an order of the state supreme court gave the democrats the governorship, and the republican claimant, without the support of federal troops, was forced to yield. The losers by this process uttered imprecations on a president who, as they said, profited by their work to get into office, and deserted those who had the same right to power that he had to the elec- p*** toral votes which made him president. But their charge Hayes. ^'^^ hardly fair. If the national government, acting through the executive, could pass on a state election in reference to the governorship, it could pass on it in reference to the choice of presidential electors ; and if it could not pass on it in refer- ence to electors — which was the verdict of the electoral commission — it could not pass on it in reference to the choice of governor. The key to the situation was our dual form of government, which now worked one way for the national side of the controversy and another way for the state's side. The republicans profited by its operation on one side and the democrats by its operation on the other, and the democrats lost in Washington while they gained in the South. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Most of the general works and original sources for this chapter are the same as for chapters XXVIII and XXIX. In addition one should consult the periodicals of the time, among which the most important are : The Nation, edited by E. L. Godkin and generally adverse to the republican party; Harper's lOfWy, edited by G. W. Curtis, generally independent ; The Independent, edited by Tilton ; The Christian Union, edited by H. W. Beecher, — the last two presenting political news and comment from the standpoint of the religious press. The most important news- papers are : The Tribune (N. Y.), The Times (N. Y.), The Sun (N. Y.), and The Republican (Springfield, Mass.), — all ably edited and influential. Monographs on political subjects, besides those hitherto mentioned, are : Ha- worth. The Hayes-Tilden Disputed Election (1906); Ewing, The Hayes-Tilden Contest before the Electoral Commission (igio); Gibson, .4 Political Crime (1885), strongly in favor of Tilden ; McDonald, Secrets of the Great Whisky Ring (1880); Stanwood, History of the Presidency (i8q8); and Bancroft and Dunning, Car/ Schurz's Political Career, in Schurz, Retniniscences, vol. Ill (iqog). Biographies that bear particularly on party affairs are : Foulke, Oliver P. Morton, 2 vols. (iSgg) ; Riddle, Benjamin F. Wade (1S88) ; Conkling, Life of Roseoe Conk- ling (i88g) ; Hollister, Schuyler Colfax (1887) ; the Detroit Post and Tribune, Life of Zachariah Chandler {1880); Pearson, John A. Andrew, 2 vols. (igo2); Salter, /. W. Grimes (1876); Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1900); Boutwell, Reminis- cences, 2 vols. (igo2) ; Bigelnw, Samuel J. Tilden, 2 vols. (1895) ; Merriam, Life of Samuel Howies, 2 vols. (1885) ; Cary, George William Curtis (1900) ; Linn, Horace Greeley (igoj) ; Paine, Thomas Nasi (1904) ; Oherhohzer, Jay Cooke, 2 vols. (1907) ; Hoar, Autobiography, 2 vols, (igo^^); Barnes, Memoir of Thurloiv Weed (1884); BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 659 Stanwood, James G. Blaine (igo8) ; Storey and Emerson, E. Rockwood Hoar (1911) ; Bigelovv, edr., Writings and Speeches of Samuel J. Tilden, 2 vols. (1885); and Ibid., Lellers of Tilden, 2 vols. (igo8). For Independent Reading Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1900) ; Garland, Ulysses S. Grant (1898) ; Hoar, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1903) ; Young, Around the Worldwith Grant, 2 vols. (1879) > and Cary, G. IF. Curtis (1900). CHAPTER XXXI ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1856-1877 Financial Reorganization The end of the civil war saw confusion in national finances. The debt was nearly $3,000,000,000, the interest on it was 6 per cent, taxes were high, and the currency was inflated by large issues of State of the [gg^-jj tender notes. The situation was abnormal, and was Finances. endured in war times because it was thought that ante- bellum conditions would be restored with the advent of peace. The experience of a few months showed how difficult this was. No one objected to paying the debt or to refunding it at lower interest, but since a large part of the taxes were high import duties, the protected interests were against their reduction, and since many people had adjusted their business to the high prices which resulted from inflation, a large class, particularly the debtors, resisted the policy of contraction, although it was evident that the difference in value between gold and the legal tender notes was an embarrassment to the large commercial and financial dealers. Thus the tariff and the cur- rency became important political problems for the post-bellum states- men. At the head of the treasury department was Hugh McCuUoch, a man of great ability. He was originally a successful banker in Indiana, who became comptroller of the currency in 1863, and was ^d^w'u'^'' made secretary in 1865. He had a banker's instinct for the safe and careful management of obligations, and was specially interested in refunding the debt and restoring specie payment, which meant wiping out the cUfference between gold and legal tender. He had an able assistant in David A. Wells, special commissioner of the revenue. Wells was a trained economist, and devoted himself es- pecially to adjusting the tariff to new conditions. He wished to make it yield a revenue adequate to the needs of government, but with the schedules so arranged that the consumer should pay the smallest tax consistent with the demands of the situation, and that the manufac- turers of various protected articles should share fairly in the mild but progressive reductions of duties which he thought necessary. The two men worked together in the general plan of reform ; but it was soon seen that they would have powerful opposition from the beneficiaries of the existing system. The debtor class, strong in the 660 WAR TAXES CONTINUED 66 1 West, where there was much borrowing to develop un worked re- sources, opposed a contraction of the stock of legal tender ; and the protected manufacturers fought by every means in their power against lowering the high war duties under which they had great advantages in their business. McCulloch's first concern was the debt. The government owed $500,000,000 in unfunded obligations. He discharged it in 7-30 notes, which the creditors of the government took without hesi- , tation. Then he took up the task of refunding the entire debt. In three years he got the holders of much of it, including the 7-30 notes of 1865, to exchange their holdings for new 5-20 bonds with interest at 6 per cent. The revenues continued to be large, and he used them to reduce the debt as rapidly as possible. By 1868 he had paid $519,000,000 of it, although the issue of §49,000,000 of bonds to pay for Alaska and to aid the Pacific railroads made the net decrease smaller than that amount. During the war, confidence in the nation's financial ability was severely strained, and some men prophesied the debt would never be paid. This sharp reduction in three years bene- fited the public credit and made easier later funding operations. McCulloch's excellent financial showing was made in the face of an annual reduction of the high war taxes equal to $140,000,000 in three years. He felt that the people had a right to relief, but he encountered such strong opposition that he dared not try Non-Pro- to lower the tariff. He made his reforms in the other ^^'J^* taxes, that is, in the internal revenue and the tax on in- Lowered, conies over $1000. The protectionists were confident of their power and disposed to be aggressive. In 1S66 they carried through the house a bill for still higher rates, but the senate did not pass it. At that time protection was not a party issue, and the republican senate looked on the demands of the protection- manufacturers as unwise and selfish. It met them by gj^g passing a bill on principles suggested by Wells, in which he sought to replace in a logical way the haphazard war-time rates with- out lowering them in general. The protectionists were suspicious of reforms coming from Wells and defeated the bill in the house. In 1867 a strong combination of wool growers and ^°°},"'"* manufacturers secured the passage in both houses of a wool ^^j ^f jgg_ and woollens act, with higher duties on those commodities. They claimed it was needed to save their industry from declin- ing prices; but spite of the act prices still fell. Thus the only tariff legislation in Johnson's administration was this act raising rates. Defeated here, McCulloch had better success with his currency re- forms, although in that quarter he could not do all he wished. In 1865 the legal tender outstanding amounted to $433,000,000, and $145 of it exchanged for $100 in gold. He desired to secure parity 662 ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1856-1877 of the two by the resumption of specie payment ; but he dared not attempt it until the amount of legal tender was greatly lessened. This currency, issued during the war, was at first considered tem- porary. It was thought the notes of the national banks Retiring would be the permanent paper currency and that they Tender would e.xpand as the needs of business demanded. Mc- Notes. Culloch well knew that the people were generally unwUl- ing to lessen the volume of money, but the commercial and financial interests were an.xious for resumption, the country was pros- perous, and in 1866 he got congress to authorize the retirement of $10,000,000 of the legal tenders, or "greenbacks," within six months, and after that $4,000,000 a month. A year later came the panic of 1867, prices of farm products fell, money became hard to borrow, and the im- pression gained ground that contracting the amount of legal tenders was partly responsible for the situation. There was undoubtedly much suffering, but McCuUoch and the best financiers wished to go on with contraction at the moderate rate ordered by congress. The opposition was strong in the West, where the panic was severely felt. Observing that his plans benefited the capitalists of the East, they questioned his integrity, and sectional bitterness showed itself. Western republicans and democrats from all quarters supported them, and l^!^ ' John Sherman, of Ohio, a good student of finance and a oberman s "^ . ,..,', , r i , Position. ^^'ise politician, thought tit to support those opposed to further contraction. He believed that rather than endure the inconvenience which always accompanies contraction, it was better to wait until the expansion of business and population should go so far that the channels of trade would actively employ all the greenbacks then existing, with the result that the government could then support specie payment with a relatively small gold reserve. This would defer resumption several years, but the West was aroused, and the rapid growth of the supporters of Pendleton's "Ohio Idea" showed what measures an aroused people might demand, and Sherman's views were accepted by his party. February 4, 1S68, congress by law ordered contraction to cease. McCulloch bowed to the inevitable. His efforts had brought the amount of outstanding legal tender down to $356,000,000. He retired from office with the inauguration of Grant, disappointed in his chief purpose, to reestablish specie payment, but leaving the finances otherwise in good condition. Boutwell, secretary of the treasury in 1869-1873, desired resump- tion, but felt that the country would not support it, and worked for other reforms. He gave most thought to paying the ^eNa- ^ national debt. The tariff yielded ample revenues, there tional Debt. ^'^'^^ a surplus above expenses, and he used it to buy bonds for retirement. In his period of office the debt was re- duced by $368,000,000. His success strengthened the nation's credit and enabled him to reduce the interest, then 6 per cent on the 5-20's. FINANCIAL READJUSTMENT 663 In 1870 he induced congress to authorize the refunding of $200,000,000 at 5 per cent, $300,000,000 at 4-2 per cent, and $1,000,000,000 at 4 per cent, all the bonds to run at the pleasure of the government for ten, twenty, or thirty years. It was also provided that both principal and interest of these bonds should be paid in gold. The plan succeeded. The financiers took all the bonds offered, and the 5-20's were retired at the advantage of a large saving in the interest charge. Boutwell, an Eastern man, was in sympathy with the protectionists. The majority of his party were of the same opinion, but the Western republicans in congress, whose constituencies had little interest in manufacturing, favored a reduction of the e.xist- ^^^ ^j ^g ing high duties. The democrats were also strong in the West, and they desired lower duties. But there were democratic districts in the East, particularly in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, which contained manufactures, and this made a group of democratic representatives who supportetl high duties. The tariff was still not strictly a party measure, although the tendency to make it so was becoming strong. The question came up in the first congress under Grant, since the existing revenue was in excess, of the public necessity. A bill was, therefore, passed in 1870 which gave some relief to the ta.xpayers. The protectionists were on the defensive, and suc- ceeded in throwing the burden of reduction on the non-protected ob- jects of taxation. There was a slight reduction of duties on imports, and a considerable increase of the free list, and the rates were lowered on sugar, tea, and coffee. The internal taxes were low^ered until the amount from that source was only $54,000,000, and further decrease came by raising the exemption in the income tax from $1000 to $2000, with the additional pro\ision that this tax be given up entirely at the end of 1871. The income tax was ever unpopular because of its in- quisitorial character. The bill of 1870 showed that protection had a strong hold in congress. The Legal Tender Decisions The secretary did not disturb the currency compromise of 1868, but in 1870 the legal status of the greenbacks became a matter of great in- terest through the decision of the supreme court in the case of Hepburn v. Griswold. The constitutionality of G^s„"^d"' the legal tender law of 1862 had been questioned from the time of its enactment and was involved in this case. The decision was written by Chase, secretary of the treasury in 1862, and now chief justice. It announced that the law impaired the obligation of con- tracts made before it was passed, and was confiscatory to the extent of the difference between the value of the dollars in which a debt was contracted and that of the dollars in which it was paid. Chase frankly admitted that he was inerror in 1862, but said he thought at the former 664 ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1856-1877 date that the law was necessary to carry on the war. Four other justices supported his view in 1870, and three dissented. Justice Miller for the latter held that it is only the state, and not P*. . congress, that is forbidden to impair the obligation of a con- tract. He held that the letter of the constitution was not violated by the law, and as the military situation in 1862 was desperate without the law, the court ought if possible to uphold it, lest the nation should seem to repudiate an instrument so useful in perpetuating the existence of the union. Chase and the majority of the court, however, thought only of the logical interpretation of the constitution. That instrument, they said, certainly sought to forbid impairment oi contracts, although only the states were mentioned. The court must think of the spirit of the constitution, and from that point of view neither congress nor the state should do the forVjidden thing. It was a nice distinction, and seemed to reflect the known political sympathy of the justices. The country took it as a partisan decision. The regular republicans pronounced it a repudiation of Lincoln's war policy. The court came to its decision in November, 1869, but did not hand it down, or announce it, until February 7, 1870. In the interval Grier, one of the majority, resigned. As there was a pre- The Appoint- yious vacancy in the bench the president now had two ^^'^}, °^ A appointments to make, and he sent the nominations to the Bradley and ^^ , , , , • • i tt Strong. senate on the very day the decision was announced. He named Bradley and Strong, both earnest party men, who had no sympathy for the position taken by Chase. A cry rose at once that Grant had "packed" the supreme court. He denied that he knew what the decision would be ; and as the opinions of the court were usually guarded most strictly, it is difficult to suppose that any inkling of this decision had reached him when he made the nominations. He must, in fact, have taken repubhcans, and in the state of public feeling he would hardly have found two men who did not sympathize with the criticism most of the party hurled at the court. Whatever was Grant's responsibility, the legal tender act was soon again before the court, in two cases, Knox v. Lee and Parker v. Davis, both of which were already on the calendar when the first J^f . decision was made. The majority of the court, including Reversed. ^^^ '^° '^^^^' members, ordered them taken up and argued. May I, 1871, the former decision was reversed by a vote of five to four, Bradley and Strong and the former minority now making the majority. The decision was announced at once, but the opinions were not read until January 15, 1872. Industrial Progress The civil war was followed by a period of business activity. Manu- factures prospered under the high war duties, there was much rail- GENERAL PROSPERITY 665 road building in the West, agricultural products still felt the effects of war prices, and capital found profitable employment in many forms of new development. In 1867 there was a sharp business reaction due to the London panic of 1866, but the de- o/'peacr*^ pression was transitory. Ingeneral, the years 1865 to 1873 were replete with hope and development throughout the East, North, and West. It was only the South, blackened by ruin in its entire life, that did not feel the rebound of energy which accompanied the advent of peace. These eight years of prosperity showed most clearly in four fields of effort: i. Railroad Construction. It was the period during which the first transcontinental railroad lines reached the Pacific coast; but the iSoo miles of such roads were Foj^ Fields but a trifle compared with the 30,000 miles of shorter ment.^ lines built in every part of the country. This process prevailed, particularly in the upper Mississippi valley, whose develop- ment was stimulated by the high price of grain. 2. Agricultural Expansion. In 1867 the grain-growing area in the tfnited States was 64,418,518 acres : in 1875, although the panic of 1873 had intervened, it was 86,287,648 acres, and the impetus acquired was so great that, spite of the prevailing hard times, it was over 100,000,000 acres in 1878. The yield of grain crops rose proportionately from 1,320,236,- 000 bushels in 1866 to 2,290,008,000 bushels in 1S78. This increase in grain production was more than twice as great as the growth in population in the same period. 3. The Increase in Capital. This came from both domestic and foreign sources. The wide establish- ment of national banks, the issues of war bonds, and the e.xpansion of the currency through the issue of the legal tenders furnished a vastly stronger basis of domestic credit, even if we make full allowance for the element of inflation in most American securities. The sale of public bonds and railroad securities in Europe, whither a large portion of these securities went as investments, was a notable feature of the financial life of the day. The industrial growth of the country is indicated by the increase in manufacturing capital which totaled $1,009,000,000 in i860, $2,1 18,000,000 ha 1870, and §2,790,000,- 000 in 1880. 4. Growth of Immigration. The growth of mdustry is seen in the influx of laborers. In 1861 the immigrants arriving in the country were 112,702. During the war the incoming tide did not greatly increase, but after 1865 it grew rapidly. In 1868 the numbers were 326,000, in 1873 they were 460,000, and in 1879, a year of great prosperity, they were 789,000. The culmination of this wave of prosperity was in the years 187 1 and 1872. The people seemed to think the good times would never end. Land and bonds sold at high speculative prices, and many enterjjrises were immoderately expanded in the hope of still further gain. Con- 666 ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1856-1877 fidence in the possibilities of American enterprise has ever been great, but it frequently leads the community too far ; and this happened in these wonderful years. The result was a collapse in 1873, and it began with the failure of a great banking house, whose name was synony- mous with business reliability. Jay Cooke and Co. had earned a good reputation during the war by marketing bonds for the government. The securities they sold proved a good investment *ith the rise in bonds after the war, and Operahons ^j^^y y^^^ ^ large clientelle among sober and thrifty inves- and Co. tors. After the war they began to deal in railroad bonds The Northern Pacific was then being built through a wide undeveloped area, and this firm undertook to finance it. They took its bonds in exchange for cash, e.xpecting to sell them and take other bonds as construction proceeded. For some time the plan worked well, but always some bonds were left on their hands, and all their resources, with much of their credit, was embarked in Northern Pacific securities which were not sold. The road was well planned, but could not make money for some years. What Jay Cooke and Co. was doing for tlus enterprise other bankers were doing for others. Thus it happened that the capitalists by 1873 were stocked with vast quan- tities of bonds which the public could not buy. In May, 1873, there was a sharp local panic in Vienna. Europe, also, recovering from the Franco-Prussian war, had been speculating largely, and took the Austrian recession as a sign of danger. Her financiers became cau- tious and ceased to buy yVjnerican bonds. The situation might seem to demand curtailment of railroad construction, but that was difficult, since material was ordered, and contracts and labor en- gaged for a long time ahead. Jay Cooke and Co. used their utmost effort to keep the Northern Pacific in funds, hoping all the time that a better market might enable them to dispose of their growing stock of securities. On September 18, 1873, they had exhausted their last effort and announced that they were bankrupt. The news produced conster- . nation. The firm's failure seemed to import the crumbling 1873 °^ *-^^ ^'^"^y foundations of credit. Leading stocks fell from twenty to thirty points in a day, and September 19 saw the failure of nineteen of the most reputable New York firms. The stock exchange rang with offers to sell stocks at ruinous prices, with no one to buy. On the twentieth the committee in charge stopped the demoralization by closing the exchange, and it remained closed for eight days. Money was so scarce that the clearing house issued clearing-house certificates to banks for 75 per cent of the amount of good securities, and received them in the settlement of balances. People who had money withdrew it from the banks to hoard until confidence was restored. This produced runs on the banks, and three failed on the twentieth. So strong was the tendency to hoard that PROLONGED HARD TIMES 667 the banks ceased to pay large checks but indorsed them "Good through the clearing house." By such efforts the terror was stayed, but it was not until the end of September that the public felt that the worst had passed. In the early stage the panic reached only the speculators in stocks and bonds, but it soon spread to all branches of industry. The financiers could no longer furnish money, and railroad building was curtailed. Manufacturers of material found p^„^^" their orders countermanded, laborers in factories and on railroads were thrown out of employment, the general purchasing power of the community was lessened, manufactures of general mer- chandise must cut do\\Ti production, and in the face of the resulting depression land and other speculation in ten thousand localities collapsed. The ''hard times" were general and severe. They were destined to last several years. The crisis happened just as the agriculture of the world entered a new stage of its progress. In 1S66 Prussia and Austria were at war, and in 1870-1871 Germany conquered France. The intervening period and i?."** these years also were a period of unrest in industry in Eu- longed. rope, and production there was limited. As a consequence, we exported large quantities of grain at the high prices wbJch sur- vived the war. Wheat often brought $2.50 a bushel during the war, in 1867 it reached $2.85 in Chicago, and $2.00 a bushel was for a long time a reasonable price. These high prices were the cause of a strong movement to the Western lands, a movement which once formed no hard times could quickly check. The return of peace in Europe threw vast energy into agriculture there. At the same time e.xtension of railroads into the wheat-growing plains of Russia opened a large new area of production. In three years, 1875 to 1878, the world's wheat increased 262,000,000 bushels. The fall in price was startling. In 1872 it was $ 1.38 a bushel in gold, in 1878 it reached 98 cents. As the land-hungry people of our West cut up county after county into homesteads in the face of this increasing general distress, the West- ern farmer settled down to financial misery. He was in debt for his land, or his improvements, and, each succeeding crop faihng to lift the growing burden, his gloom but increased. In the middle years of the eighth decade, late in the ninth and early in the tenth he was in a stage approaching desperation, and the effects were seen in more than one plan for relief through governmental action. So long did wheat sell at about ninety cents a bushel, that e.xperienced operators in the grain market said openly that the world would never again see " dollar wheat." They were unduly discouraged. The world's wheat supply had only run ahead of the demand, and in the United States the excess was marked. But in time the world's demand would increase rcla- liveiy with the supply : then, and not sooner, would [)rosi)erity return permanently to the .\meric:in wheat farmer. 668 ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1856-1877 Resumption of Specie Payment After the panic of 1873 many people came to see that the too rapid progress which preceded it was partly due to the inflated con- dition of the currency ; and this strengthened the desire Resumption gf business people to see legal tender redeemed in specie. i'*'^°^ffi- ^^ ^^'^^ noted, also, that at the intimation of hoarding the cult. public preferred greenbacks to national banknotes, and this seemed to show that if resumption were attempted the legal tender notes would not be offered in large quantities for redemption. It was further evident that the increasing volume of business was ab- sorbing the amount of these notes in the channels of trade, as was shown by the steady fall in the premium on gold, until January i, 1874, it was no. The conclusion of thoughtful men was that re- sumption was easier in 1874 than in McCulloch's day. But the ruling hard times were a serious impediment. They gave rise to a widespread belief that the volume of money was inadequate and ought to be increased by congress. This sentiment _,. was so strong that in the panic of 1873 the secretary was Popular impelled to e.xchange for bonds $26,000,000 of legal Demand for tender which McCuUoch withdrew but did not destroy, more Legal jj^yg raising the amount outstanding to $382,000,000. Tender. rpj^^ secretary would go no further of his own authority, and then congress took up the matter, passing, February 4, 1874, a bill to increase the outstanding amount by $18,000,000. The house passed the bill by a large majority, so strong was inflation with its members ; but the senate, more conservative, gave the bill a majority of only five. It was evident that the country was swinging back toward paper money. Under these circumstances Grant's veto of the bill was an act of heroism. It was denounced in the West as truckling to the Eastern capitalists, and it was an important cause of the republican defeat in the elections of the following autumn. Tliis stunning blow put the republican leaders to thinking. Hitherto l)cnt chiefly on carrying their Southern policy, they had been in- clined to pay respectful attention to the West; for it New was easier to "wave the bloody shirt" there than in the Financial East. But that issue was receding, finances and currency the'Re- were becoming prominent, and they must decide whether publicans. they Would depend on the inflationists or on the sound financial ideas prevalent among all classes in the East. They wisely chose the latter, losing strength in the West, no doubt, but hoping to make up the loss in the East. The party was to do essen- tially the same thing twenty years later with reference to another financial issue, the free coinage of silver. The result of the choice of 1874 was the resumption act of January, 1875, passed in the last A "DEATH-BED REPENTANCE" 669 days of republican power. The East received it gladly, and pro- nounced it " the death-bed repentance of the republican party." The West denounced it ; but the conditions were such that they could not repeal it in the succeeding congress. In fact, the West was yielding (n the march of capitalistic industry in the transalleghany region. As the states there ceased to be doininated by the agricultural classes they gave up the cause of inflation. This was shown when in 1875 Hayes was chosen governor of Ohio on a sound financial platform. The resumption law of 1875 was championed by John Sherman, whose political insight showed Mm the shifting nature of the situation before him. It pro\-ided that the legal tender notes be retired as new national bank notes were issued until the ^ " greenbacks outstanding were $300,000,000. This, it was Act of 1875. thought, would reduce the issue of the latter to an amount which could be safely managed by the treasury. January i, 1879, so the law ran, the secretary of the treasury should begin actually to redeem in specie. To get gold for that purpose and to maintain resumption he was to sell bonds for coin until he had $100,000,000 of specie on hand. This specie was not to be a special reserve fund, but the law contemplated that it be left in the general fund in the treasury ; and it was, therefore, liable to be drawn upon to defray the expenses of government. When in Cle\'eland's second term the revenues failed through the inadequacy of the JNIcKinley tariff law to meet the large appropriations of 1890, this fund was seriously impaired to save the treasury from bankruptcy. It was then maintained that the law of 1875 authorized future and indefinite bond sales to maintain an adequate reserve to redeem the paper currency. Much controversy arose over that situation, but it did not trouble the men of 1875. The law they passed was a long step toward the restoration of sound financial conditions, and secured in 1879 the object for which it was enacted. It is generally conceded that had McCulloch's advice been taken, the same result might have been reached several years earlier. Diplomatic Affairs under Grant The union emerged from the civil war with increased force at home and abroad. We were ourselves conscious of ability to play a larger part than formerly in international affairs. Our eyes were particularly directed to the states south of us, and The Civil there was observable an enthusiastic hope that our power Y^'^ ^ ""' would be increased in that quarter. Two questions re- ourDipio- mained to be settled at the end of the war ; the removal macy. of the French from Mexico and the adjustment of our claims on England for failure to enforce her neutrality obligations. Both problems were taken up in Johnson's administration, and the first was settled by excellent handling under Seward's direction. 670 FXONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1856-1S77 The other went over to Grant's first term, and the glory of solving it fell to Fish, his secretary of state. But Seward faUed in the English negotiations, not so much on account of his own deficiencies as those of other men. Charles Francis Adams, minister throughout the war, remained Our Claims jj^ London after the return of peace ; but he had been so England. persistent a fighter for American rights during the struggle that he was not the man to conduct the delicate negotia- tion the present problem demanded. His demands accomplished nothing, and in 1868 he was succeeded by Reverdy Johnson, of Mary- land. His wann manners, so much in contrast with the correct and cool air of his predecessor, pleased the English, and he was received with a friendliness that con\dnced him he should succeed in his chief business. England on her part had been given opportunity to reflect on her position. Her covert aid to the confederates was chiefly from sentiment, and time brought reason into play. As the greatest trad- ing power on the sea she was peculiarly interested in establishing rules to protect neutral commerce in time of war. If she herself should be engaged with an enemy, the United States, by following the course she had followed with regard to the confederacy, could let loose such a fleet of commerce-destroyers as her merchants would never forget. She was willing, therefore, to settle the claims, but she did not dream of paying what we asked. Most Englishmen of the day thought Americans shrewd, grasping, and given to swaggering, and they did not take seriously the amount of our demand. Seward and Johnson both wished to settle the claims for the credit it would give the administration, and for this reason the radicals would willingly have the negotiations fail. Reverdy John- Reverdy ^^^ shared the anxiety of his superiors, and in trying to England. accomplish the task, his eagerness led him to bungle it sadly. He caught at the signs of complaisance in Eng- land, forgot all the rebuffs offered his predecessor, and revelled in acts of good will. He made many speeches to English audiences in the warmest tone of friendship, and went out of his way to show partiality for public men who had most espoused the confederate cause. This made a favorable impression on the British, but to Americans it seemed that he discredited Adams and threw away the national dig- nity. The radicals, desiring to weaken the administration at every possible point, made much of his failings. Johnson had his faults, no doubt, but it is also certain that the country was not disposed to be fair toward him. The agreement this American minister made was known as the Johnson-Clarendon convention. It provided for a commission to select an arbiter to whom should be referred for settlement all the disputed claims on each side, the decision of the arbiter to be final. Two commissioners were to be named by each side, and if they could "OUTRAGEOUS" DEMANDS 671 not agree on the arbiter, he was to be chosen by lot. Probably a settlement like this would have been acceptable in the United States within a year after the end of the war ; but what with the feeling aroused against Johnson and the national self- "^^^ assurance from the success in the Mexican affair, the i?. °^°f" ,, , .._,, - -ii Clarendon nation would not tolerate it in 1869. It was especially Convention, bad to submit our rights in the matter to the choice of an arbiter by lot. The convention was completed January 14, 1869, and went to the senate soon afterwards. It came up there April 13, when Andrew Johnson was no longer president, and was defeated by a vote of 54 to I. Sumner alone spoke against it. As chairman of the senate's foreign committee he felt it his duty to sum up the case for the United States, and his speech was printed for the information of the people. Through his bold handling, our case against England became far- reaching. He demanded satisfaction, first for all the losses of Ameri- cans through England's recognition of belligerency for the confederacy, secondly for losses due to the activity of the l^"*"^ ^ Alabama and other ships which England's negligence of Our Case. suffered to take the sea, and thirdly for the e.xpenses of prolonging the war through the hope of the South that England would assist her. From the first class, he said, the losses amounted to Sioo,ooo,ooo, from the second to $15,000,000, and from the third the inference was — although he would name no figure — a loss of $2,000,000,000. Mr. Rhodes pronounces Sumner's claim "out- rageous." It is evident that Sumner himself did not e.xpect England to pay the amounts specified, but stated them in this way so that England and the world might realize the vast wrong done us. But it was an unwise utterance. It raised too high the expectation of the American people, and if it were insisted upon by the government, it made impossible further negotiation by England. John Bright, one of our best friends in England, said that either Sumner was a fool or thought the English people were fools. No immediate action, how- ever, followed the speech, and after a time the passions it raised were cooled by sober thought. It was for the skillful hand of Hamilton Fish, Grant's secretary of state, to reopen the question in a more reasonable spirit and carry it to successful solution. Before this could be done. Grant precipitated his ill-advised project to annex Santo Domingo. This negro republic, occupying the eastern part of the Island of Haiti, was threatened with revolution. Its ruler thought he would have a safe e.xit from difficulties he could hardly Grant's hope to surmount, if he sold his country' to the United r>*^°„„ o i_i*if rii • Domingo States, he himself to get most of the purchase price. Treaty. Grant was approached, and saw in the scheme an excel- lent opportunity to acquire a valuable territory. The minions of 672 ECONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1856-1877 jobbery who surrounded him approved the scheme, and he sent one of them, Babcock, to Santo Domingo to investigate the proposition. Babcock was only an unofficial agent of the president, but he did not hesitate to act as if he were a commissioner with full powers. He returned with glowing accounts of the riches of tlie country, and with boxes of muierals and other products to substantiate his words. He brought, also, an informal treaty of annexation. At a succeeding cabinet meeting Grant submitted the treaty and displayed Babcock's collection of specimens. It was the first time the secretary of state or any of his colleagues were informed of the affair. The communi- cation was received in silence and astonishment. Cox found his tongue long enough to ask if we wanted to annex Santo Domingo. There was then an embarrassing pause, which the president ended by taking up other business. It was not like Grant to give up a thing to which he had once com- mitted himself. He sent Babcock back to Santo Domingo with the necessary power, and in due time the treaty came to Washington in regular form and was sent to the senate for ratification. Grant exerted lumself in its behalf. He saw Sumner, and evidently under- stood the chairman of the committee on foreign affairs to promise to favor it ; but when it came from the committee it was reported adversely, and the chairman was one of its opponents. Grant was dis- appointed, and as the outspoken Sumner supported his opposition with a speech, a bitter quarrel resulted. The two-thirds majority necessary to ratification could not be obtained, and the project was defeated. In 1870 Grant sent it to congress again and asked for a joint resolution for annexation ; but public opinion had now been aroused against it, and all he could get was a committee to visit Santo Domingo to investigate the situation there. The report favored an- nexation, but the senate did not act on the report. Grant was chagrinsd at his failure. His quarrel wth Sumner progressed with increased vehemence, and the anger of the senator brought estrange- ment between him and Fish. At last in 1871 the president insisted that the senate's committee on foreign affairs should have a new head, and his influence was sufficient to secure his desire. Sumner was deeply disappointed. He had served long and faith- fully in this important position, and his displacement in connection with his part in this particular incident brought him much sym- pathy. Fish did not approve of the Santo Domingo treaty, but supported it through loyalty to his superior. In return he was allowed a free hand in negotiations with Great Britain, a far more im- ofWashfiT portant matter. He pressed that affair wisely and steadily, ton, 1871. ^'^d England yielded so far that January 9, 1S71, Sir John Rose arrived in Washington with authority to make a treaty to settle all matters of dispute between the two powers. These THE GENEVA ARBITRATION 673 were the Alabama claims, the rights in fishing on the banks of New- fomidland, and the exact boundary between the United States and British Columbia in the region of Puget Sound. An agreement known as the Treaty of Wasiiington was now made in which it was pro^•ided that the first and third questions be determined by tribunals of arbitration, and the second by a joint commission. The treaty opened the way to a fair settlement of the Alabama claims by ex- pressing formally England's regret for the escape of the "Alabama and other vessels," and for the losses they inflicted. It also adopted rules defining more strictly than formerly the obligations of a neutral in avoidance of succor to a belligerent ; and it was e\ddent that if the proposed tribunal of arbitration followed them, our own cause would be much strengthened. In accordance with this treaty the German emperor was selected to arbitrate the northwestern boundary, and soon rendered a satisfactory decision. The fisheries commission began deliberation, but encountered many difficulties, and the matter was not finally adjusted until 1877. The Alabama claims required more careful consideration. The tribunal to arbitrate them embraced five members, to be chosen, one by England, one by the United States, and one each by the rulers of Italy, Brazil, and Switzerland. The men designated were Chief Justice Cockburn, of England, Charles Francis J^^ Adams, Count Sclopis, Vicomte dTtajuba, and Jacques Tribunal. Staempfli. The two first were well known in their re- spective countries, and the three last were men of recognized learning and character. England's position on the sea made her fear to in- trust her cause to representatives of rival commercial nations ; and she felt that she was more likely to be treated fairly by citizens of such states as Italy, Brazil, and Switzerland. She was, in fact, in a difficult position ; for if national feeling was to influence the tribunal, not even these small nations could be expected to tolerate principles which smacked of her assertion of superiority at sea. The tribunal met for the first time December 15, 187 1, at Geneva, but did not open the case until the following summer, at the same place. The American case was presented by J. C. Ban- croft Davis, who was appointed for the purpose. His tionsbeeun instructions were to demand damages for actual losses, at Geneva, but of his own authority he added demands for losses through the exclusion of American commerce from the seas and for the expenses of conducting the war after July 4, 1863. He argued that the confederacy would ha\'e collapsed at that date but for the countenance it had from England. He thus resurrected Sumner's sweeping claims of 1869 and took a position Fish had discreetly abandoned in negotiations prexaous to the treaty of Washington. His contention aroused the greatest indignation in England, and the peop'*; there with one voice demanded the dissolution of the tribunal. 674 FXONOMIC AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1856-1877 Fish was alarmed, and interfered over the head of Davis, intimating that we would not insist on indirect damages. England was appeased, and the deliberations proceeded quietly when the tribunal excluded indirect claims from consideration. The Americans professed satis- faction at this decision, saying they only brought forward the excluded claims to have them passed upon definitively. The question before the tribunal was now a concrete one : Did England e.xercise due diligence in regard to the escape of the Alabama, Florida, and other confederate cruisers ? Argument and evidence was submitted, Adams and Cockburn each presenting the contention of his own country in an able manner. The decision thus rested with the arbiters representing the neutral powers. It came late in August, the neutral members unanimously accepting England's responsibility in the contention submitted and adjudging her to pay damages to the amount of $15,500,000. The award occasioned great satisfaction in America : in England it was received with incredulity. The people there had not been informed as to the merits of the case : they only knew they had lost, and the amount of damages conceded seemed preposterous. It took some reflection to make the judgment accept- able, but it was at length approved by the ministry, and the money was paid. At that time Canada was full of unrest, and a revolt against Britain seemed a possibility. If such an event should come, it was evident that the United States, if they lost their Alabama case, would fit out many Alabamas fdr the benefit of the revolutionists. With the exception of the Virginius affair (see page 783) the rest of our diplomacy under Grant was uneventful. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For general works, original sources, biographies, and writings of leading men see Bibliographical Notes on chapters XXVIII, XXIX, and XXX. For references on economic subjects see : Dewey, Financial History of the United States (1903) ; Bogart, Economic History of the United States (1907) ; Bolles, Finan- cial History of the United Stales, iS6i-:SS^ (ed. 18S4) ; Noyes, Thirty Years of Finance (1898), reissued in revised form as Forty Years of Finance (1909), an excel- lent book; Knox, The United Stales Notes (ed. 1888) ; Ibid., History of Banking in the United Stales (1900) ; White, Money and Banking (ed. 1902) ; Burton, Financial Crises (1902); Stanwood, American Tarijf Controversies, 2 vols. (1903); Taussig, Tarif History of the United States (ed. 1899) ; Curtiss, The Industrial Development of Nations, 3 vols. (191 2), an important work, the third volume of which treats Ameri- can industry. On diplomatic matters see : Moore, Digest of International Law, 8 vols. (1906) ; Bancroft, Life of Seward, 2 vols. (1900) ; Foster, .4 Century of American Diplomacy (1900) ; Ibid., American Diplomacy in the Orient (1903) ; C. F. Adams, 2d, Lee at Appomattox and other Papers (1902), has a paper on the treaty of Washington; Chamberlain, Charles Sumner and the Treaty of Washington (1902) ; Chadwick, Relations of the United States and Spain, Diplomacy, 2 vols. (1909); Latane, Diplomatic Relations of the United Stales and Latin America (1900). For references on immigration see : Smith, Emigration and Immigration (1892) ; Hall, Immigration and Its Efects upon the United States (1907) ; Austin, Immigra- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 675 lion iiilo the United Stales, iSzo-igoj (Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Dept., For Independent Reading Ri'rton, John Sherman (1Q06) ; McCuIIoch, Men and Measures (1888) ; Williams, Ansi'-i Biirlinghame, and the First Chinese Mission (1912); Foster, A Century oj imcrican Diplomacy (1900); and The Harriman Alaska Expedition, Alaska, 2 /0I3. (igoi). CHAPTER XXXII the development of the far west The Rocky Mountain Region In i860 civilization had marked out for its own all the domain ot the United States from the Atlantic to a line running with the western borders of Minnesota and Iowa, across the center of Physical Nebraska and Kansas, along the western limits of Arkansas istics. ^^''■^ across Texas at nearly its middle points. It had also established itself on the Pacific coast, holding in a thin line most of California and a great deal of the Columbia valley in Oregon and Washington ; and there were a few settlements of Spanish origin in New Mexico. All the rest of the Far West, plain, mountain, and desert, was uninhabited by white men, save for the Mormon settlement in northern Utah and for some hardy fur traders who had founded stations among the Indians — chiefly in the upper Missouri valley. It was a vast region, a thousand miles from east to west, and nearly as much from north to south. Its rivers were not numerous, its rainfall was less than that of the central Mississippi valley, and it did not attract the agriculturalist as much as the region to the east. It was inhabited by powerful Indian tribes, suspicious of the encroach- ments of the whites, and capable, in case of necessity, of making a deterniined stand against invasion from either east or west. They had been driven before the advancing frontier for many decades, and as they saw a new rim of settlements planted on the Pacific border they realized that they were caught between two movements which threatened to close on them in final destruction. The years between i860 and 1880 were destined to realize all their fears. Their game, their homes, their very tribal organization were to go step, by step, until at last their hunting grounds were theirs no more and they themselves were fain to accept American citizenship. It was the last struggle of barbarism and hard nature on the one hand against civili- zation and the will of the white man on the other; for this vast region, with its ramparts of stone, its stretches of alkali plain, and its area of stunted grass interlaced by river valleys, had riches w-hich the world demanded, and which nature must at last give up. The first notable invasion of the white man was made by the 676 GOLD AND SILVER MINING 677 hunters of gold and silver. The discovery of the former metal in California created the supposition that more could be found in the Rockies, and an army of prospectors explored The Advent the country. Though many left their bones in forgotten Miners. valleyS; others found precious hordes, opened fields of industry, settled towns, and established regular roads of approach. They made the region a white man's country, rolled back the veil of mystery which hung o\'er the Far West, and cleared the way for herdsmen and farmers who discovered the favored spots in which could be planted farm and hamlet. The first notable mining success in this region was in "the Washoe Country," then a portion of Utah. In 1859 a rich silver deposit was discovered high up on the side of Mount Da\'idson, 6000 feet above the sea. A throng of miners flocked ?« "?" thither at once, shafts were sunk, and much ore was extracted. The veins were rich, but "dipijed" downward and made deep shafts necessary, and into these came water faster then the pump could draw it off. Then a wonderful engineering feat was per- formed. Sutro, an inventive genius, constructed a great tunnel to which his contemporaries gave his name. It came in from the side of the mountain 2000 feet before the opening of the mines, and by a network of branches carried the water in the flooded shafts into the plain at the foot of the mountain. The destruction of the mines was averted, the region continued to prosper, and out of the mining camps grew a definite community which took the name, Virginia City. It was a long way from Sacramento, the seat of authority, and the settlers desired a more regular government than California could give. In 1 86 1 the people asked for a territorial form of government, and the request was granted. Three years later came other honors : congress admitted it into the union as the state of Nevada, chiefly because two more free-state members were desired in the senate. At that time the state was thought to have a bright future. But most 0'' its area was hopelessly arid, and later growth was extremely slow. It is or'v in the most recent years that the growth of population has been enough to warrant the gift of statehood in 1864. Gold as well as silver was mined in the region of Virginia City, called sometimes the Comstock region, from the name of its chief lode, and the two metals taken out of the earth in the first twenty-five years were worth $300,000,000. Other mining ventures resulted in the founding of Colorado. In 1858 gold was discovered at Idaho Springs, 750 miles east of Virginia City and in the eastern spurs of the Rocky Mountains, q^^^^^^^ A stream of adventurers soon turned thither, and the sur- rounding country was explored. Other finds resulted in the settle- ments at Boulder, Denver, and Leadville. At the last-named place the lead deposits in connection with sih'er yielded much the greater 678 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAR WEST profit. In 1 86 1 congress created the territory of Colorado, to em- brace these several communities, and in 1876 the territory became a state. Six hundred miles to the northwest, on the eastern slope of the Rockies, in 1861, there was another rich discovery of gold. An im- mense number of miners went into the country, and many profitable mines were worked. From one, the Alder Gulch, they took in three years $25,000,000 in gold. In the midst of this rich region grew up the town of Helena, at a place first called "Last Chance Gvdch." The surrounding country yielded fast to the miners, and in 1864 it was organized into the territory of Montana. But it was far away in the northwest, and agriculture and grazing developed slowly. It was not untU 1889 that it became a state. The first gold mined was washed out of the earth in basins, or "cradles," and this was called placer mining. It was slow and wasteful, and was only possible when the dust was found Mining ^ gravel. But much of the deposit was in quartz veins, and Laws. "^"^ ^^ ^''^^ necessary to crush the stone and remove the metal by chemical process. Placer mining was practiced by Individuals working singly or in small partnerships, and it required little capital. Quartz mining, however, required large enterprises. Companies were formed, machinery was installed, and the industry went into the stage of capitalistic production. The policy of the government toward the miners was very liberal. Mines were given to those who discovered or first claimed them on the same principle that homesteads were given free to farmers. A prospector might stake off any unclaimed surface and begin to dig. There were many such claims on every stream which seemed likely to yield gold, and the large majority were abandoned and lapsed. The country was wild, the miners were reckless, and the ownership of many claims was disputed. Most of the paymg claims were eventually purchased by the mining companies. No part of the wealth taken from the earth was reserved by the government. No other nation has given away its rich gold and silver mines so recklessly. Hundreds of the adventurers In this broad country failed to find the precious metals, and becoming discouraged settled down as farmers, herdsmen, or hunters where the locality pleased them. Wyoming Sometimes, also, members of the caravans that toiled westward to California lost heart and turned settlers. As the mining country developed, such agricultural communities found a market for food and cattle. Thus came into e.-dstence New Mexico jjjg communities organized as Idaho Territory in 1863 Arizona. ^^^ Wyoming Territory in x868. The region of th^ old Spanish settlements was also explored by the searchers for gold. Thus New Mexico received a share of the immigration, although its stores of gold and silver were not so great as those in the LoBfflud* SETTLEMENT OF UTAH 679 regions to the northward ; and under this impulse Arizona Territory was erected in 1863. Agriculture, however, promised little both here and in New Mexico. In 1874 General Custer was in the Black Hills seeking the hostile Sioux. Among his followers were some who had been miners and who recognized traces of gold. Investigation showed a considerable quantity of the metal in the southwest corner ^^ if of what is now South Dakota. The discovery attracted attention, and miners came to begin operations, but the region was so remote from railroads that little progress was made for ten years. It was the earternmost phase of the gold-seeking movement which did so much for the developmen', of the Rocky mountain region. Meanwhile the eastern part of Dakota had been reached by the wave of agricultural settlers. The territory had been erected in 1 86 1. Soon after the war, settlements were made along the upper Missouri valley. The land was the home of the fierce Sioux, who resented the approach of white men. But between the miners of the Black Hills and the farmers around Yankton they could have no chance of ultimate success. Their appeal to arms was unsuccessful (see page 683), and a series of treaties were forced from them by which from 1S76 on they ceded their lands, which the government threw open to settlement. In 1887 the people were so numerous that they applied for statehood, agreeing to divide their country into two states. North and South Dakota. Their request was granted in 1889. Utah alone of the Far West remains to be mentioned The region from the Wasatch Mountains to California was spoken of in 1845 ^s the "Great American Desert." Much of it was entirely arid, and the rest partly so. In the northern part, west of the mountains, was the Great Salt Lake and west of that the Salt Lake Desert. To this region, shunned alike by travelers and trappers, came Brigham Young and some Mormons in 1847. Some of the party wished to settle in the fertile California valleys, but the leader ordered otherwise. He desired to escape the intrusion of his opponents, and he knew it could not be done in California. "If the Gentiles," he said, "will let us alone for ten years, I'll ask no odds of them." His band was only the advanced guard of his whole church, who followed soon afterwards, settling wherever an oasis promised fertile soil. They quickly learned that the earth was very rich when watered by irrigation. In less than ten yearr their grain fields and herds provided them with abundance. They learned how to conciliate the neighboring Indians, the fierce Utes, and from the name of that tribe came Utah, the name of the new settlement. In 1849 came the wagon trains bound to Cab ifornia, breaking into the Mormons' coveted isolation ; but the caravans [jurchased supplies for the journey at good prices. Less than twent\- \'ears later came the Union Pacific railroad, and Ulah was opened to the outside world. Now the " Gentiles," ;^'s from the South our history entered a new phase. The conflict against slavery came to a definite end and political and economic matters became paramount. Theoretical discussion became less important p'*. in congress and more time was given to propositions to conditions. reform government and to promote industry. Political leaders were now less conspicuous than formerly, parties became more machine-like, and captains of politics directed them in much the same spirit that captains of trade managed industry. The wide growth of corporations brought concentrated capital into intimate relation with lawmaking, it seemed to bring a lowering of morality of the law- makers, and this brought an increased watchfulness by the people to see that their rights were not sacrificed through the designs of heedless industrial agents. The great refonn movements since 1877 have been connected with the civil service, the protection of industry, the regula- tion of railways, and the restraints of trusts : they have all been phases of a greater conflict in which the American democracy has been seeking to establish its control over every force within its domain. Rutherford B. Hayes, whose administration ushered in this era of striving, was esteemed by his friends a good man who would do no harm. He was quiet in deportment, reliable, religious, truthful, serious, and straightforward. He was one of 1/™^*° those public men who are put forward to save the party when probity must undo the mischief that recklessness has worked. It was on this account he became governor of Ohio, and on this ac- count he was called upon to redeem the folly of the politicians who surrounded Grant. In office he found himself confronted by the same graceless group. It was a surprise to them and to the country that he refused to be a nonentity and tried to improve the situation before him. Hayes was a party man, but back of him were the independents. They grew out of the liberal republican organization of 1872. De- feated in that year, and without hope of setting the stand- ards for democratic conduct, they remained a balance be- --^(jgnig tween the two other parties. William Cullen Bryant, Carl Schurz, and George William Curtis made excellent leaders, and the 693 694 POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL READJUSTMENT large number of literary men in the group who aided them gave the faction an influence beyond its voting strength. It had much sym- pathy for Tilden because of his opposition to Tammany and the New York canal ring, but looked at him askance in the presidential contest because he would not openly declare for civil service reform. Hayes supported that measure and had their approval in his long fight against the spoilsmen in his own party. They opposed the attempt to nominate Grant for a third term in 1880, and voted for Garfield, who defeated Grant in the nominating convention. Four years later they found a favored leader in Grover Cleveland, and were the deciding factor in his election. He did not always please them, but he retained their admiration until his retirement from public service. The success of civil service reform took away their best bond of life, but they reappeared in igoo as a weakened force in oppo- sition to the policy of expansion. The passing of the older leaders has obscured the activity of the movement, but it survives in a growing habit of independent voting. In the make-up of the cabinet President Hayes paid due regard to the conditions before him. He avoided the factional quarrel be- tween Conkling and Blaine and pleased New York by making Evarts, of that state, secretary of state. Over the treasury he placed John Sherman, of Ohio, who since 1859 had served either on the house committee of ways and means or the senate finance committee and was acquainted with the intimate history of the finances from the beginning of the civil war. Sherman opposed McCulloch's plans for redeeming the legal tenders but favored the resumption law of 1875 and supported Hayes's sound money can- vass in Ohio. This did not quite take away the nervousness of the East at the appointment. It feared lest he should favor the payment of bonds in greenbacks. On the other hand, it was an advantage to have a secretary who understood the wishes of the West and had its confidence. The other members of the cabinet were George W. McCrary, of Iowa, secretary of war ; Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, secretary of the navy ; Charles Devens, of Massachusetts, attorney-general ; David M. Key, of Tennessee, postmaster-general ; and Carl Schurz, of Missouri, secretary of the interior. Schurz was a liberal republican in 1872, and Key was an e.\-confederate soldier: their choice indi- cated Hayes's spirit of conciliation. It also indicated the president's purpose to act for himself. Much to the disappointment of the party leaders he quickly took the Southern question into his own hands. He conferred in Washing- the^South '■'^'^ ^^^'•^ Chamberlain and Hampton, the rival claimants for the South Carolina governorship, and announced that he would withdraw the troops from the Columbia statehouse. He would not longer use them to protect one side in a state quarrel. THE REPUBLICANS DIMDKI) 605 Chamberlain must rely on his own resources. As the whiles were all for Hampton and his opponent dared not arm the iicgrocs, the with- drawal of the troops left the democrats in power. He dealt with Louisiana in the same way. A commission he sent thither to investi- gate reported that the republican claimant was kept in office only by the use of troops: these were withdrawn, and Nicholls, the demo- crat, took the power of governor supported by a democratic legisla- ture. Chamberlain was soon among the discontented ones, but in 1901 he said : "If the canvass of 1876 had resulted in the success of the republican party [in South Carolina] that party could not, for want of materials, even when aided by the democratic minority, have given a pure or competent administration." John Sherman expressed Hayes's Naew in saying: "The president is not made the judge of who is elected governor of a state, and an attempt to exercise such a power would be a plain act of usurpation." Hayes's action was supported by his cabinet and by liberal-minded repubUcans ; but it disappointed the group of politicians who domi- nated the party under Grant. Men like Morton, Simon Cameron, and Zach Chandler, the political heirs of Thad "^^^"„ Stevens and Benjamin Butler, were chagrinefl at the 3^"**° abandonment of the Southern poHcy for which so much ■stalwarts." had been done. They expressed open contcmjjt for the president and the independents and dubbed them " half-breeds." They themselves were called " stalwarts." The two names were freely used for the next three j'ears, and the ri\'alry between the factions became bitter. The real bone of contention was power. "The men who saved the union should govern it," said Blaine. He had raised the Southern issue in 1876 and was disappointed at the quiet manner in which the president now ignored it. But as time passed, and public opinion came to Hayes, Blaine left the " stalwarts." He was probably much influenced by the support which they received from Conkling, his steady enemy. Course of the Democrats The democrats benefited by Hayes's Southern policy but loved him none the more on account of it. To them he was a usurper and a republican, and withdrawing the troops M^asu"^ was an act of necessity, not of grace. They attempted two means of strengthening themselves before the country in antici- pation of 1880. The first was to investigate the election of 1876. The democratic house appointed a committee for this purpose, the majority reporting for Tilden and the minority for Hayes. The house could not unmake a president, but it hoped to uncover facts which would con\ince the country that Tilden was the victim of bad practices, and through 6^6 POLITICAL AND FLMANCIAL REAUJUSTMKNT this means to secure his election next time as a vindication. Their hopes were defeated b)' the republican senate, whose committee on privUeges and elections investigated one of the many I. Invest!- charges that were made in reference to the election. Li Se'ctfon of '■^^^ '^'^^^ ^^ ^'^^ ^''■^ democrats offered $8000 for an elec- 1876. toral vote in Oregon. By a subpoena the committee got possession of 30,000 cipher telegrams sent by both parties in the contest. Before they were returned to the telegraph company the important republican dispatches were destroyed and copies were made of certain democratic dispatches, which were soon afterwards pub- lished in the New York Tribune. They contained corrupt propositions to Tilden. He showed satisfactorily that he countenanced none of them, that they were made unsought by him, and that they were not communicated to him. The calmer portion of the people were satisfied, but party prejudice was high, and the incident at least took the edge off the plan for Tilden's vindication. A more successful matter was the attempt to repeal the federal election laws. By several enactments federal authority was e.xtended over elections, supervisors were appointed, federal judges El ti"* '^^^ marshals took jurisdiction over cases concerning the Laws. right to vote, and troops might be used to execute their judgment. The sj-stem bore hard on the democrats in the South and in New York, where a supervisor named Davenport had arrested many persons, mostly democrats, because their naturali- zation papers were said to be irregular. The courts decided against Davenport, but he was not punished. The democrats coukl not re- move him, since he was appointed by the president. They struck at the system mstead, aiming first at the use of troops. If this were forbidden, the system would be crippled, since the federal court had no constabulary to give quick effect to its decrees. They did not control the senate and must do what they did in the house. In 1877, in the last short session of Grant's administration, they amended the army appropriation bill by forbidding the use of troops at elections. The senate refused to concur, the house Filibuster. stood for its point, and the appropriation bill failed. In the succeeding June the army was without pay, and Hayes had to call an e.xtra session in October to vote supplies. The democrats waived their power for the time and allowed money to be granted, but in the regular session, which came in December, they returned to their position. The army, they said, could be used con- stitutionally only "to execute the laws of the Union, to suppress insurrection, and repel invasion"; and its use at elections was un- constitutional and dangerous to liberty. They were unquestionably in accord with the early spirit of the government. They had popular support, and rather than again imperil the army appropriation bill the senate gave way. June 18, 1S78, it was enacted that troops be DEMAND FOR INFLATION 697 no longer used in elections. This success was in keeping with the president's liberal treatment of the South. It left that section still freer to manage its own affairs. It was, also, a step in check of cen- tralization. In 1S7S the democrats elected all but four of the 106 Southern representatives, and the senate contained thirty men formerly con- nected with the confederacy. In this respect they profited . by the recent removal of disability imposed on ex-con- gf^g-g" federates. The party controlled the senate by eight votes and had 148 in the house to 130 republicans and 15 greenbackers. They felt able to demand the repeal of the last features of the federal election laws. They again resorted to "riders," placing them on the appropriation bills to forbid the use of funds paying election super- visors or marshals who were concerned in elections. Hayes vetoed the bills, and the houses could not pass them over his veto. They then passed a bill repealing the election laws outright. It was vetoed, and congress could not carry it over the veto. The democrats hoped the people would approve their position in 1880, but other forces were in play which were to take the election of that year out of their hands. The Bland-Allison Silver Coin.\ge Law While the republicans quarreled with Hayes over his Southern policy and received the democratic onslaught on the federal election laws, the country experienced the first of several waves of agitation for the free coinage of silver. The movement c*g(ij°org''' was connected with the hard times of the years after the panic of 1873, during which the prices of both grain and cotton fell to points lower than were known since the war. The West had bor- rowed money to develop its farming resources and the South to repair the waste of war. Both sections were against lenders in the East and opposed the redemption of the legal tenders. Accustomed to the chaotic Western and Southwestern ante-bellum bank notes and the depreciated war currency they now found a perfectly .satisfactory money in the greenbacks, only slightly below par. They thought business would improve if there were more, and not less, of them. This feeling was strong in both parties in the West and South. Moderate inflationists remained in the old parties, but extreme men in 1875 began to secede, denouncing both organizations as being bound to the bondholders. They openly advocated fiat money; and in a national convention at Indianapolis in (jf*gjj|,a(.|j 1876 they nominated Peter Cooper of New York for presi- party, 1876. dent, declared for the re[)eal of the resumption act of 1875, demanded the issue of legal tender notes bearing interest at 3.65 per cent in which the maturing bonds should be paid, and pronounced the sale of gold bonds to foreigners an enslavement of the people to GgS POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL READJUSTMENT alien taskmasters. They also protested against selling bonds for silver for fractional currency as an action beneficial to the owaiers of silver mines but burdensome to the people. This allusion to the mine owners derives peculiar interest from the subsequent con- nection of that class with the free silver movement. The green- back party cast 81,737 votes in 1876, and of these 53,503 came from Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Kansas. In this elec- tion they chose no member of congress. The theories of the grecnbackers were too extreme, and although they had a popular vote of 308,578 in 1880, the movement was never formidable. Its greatest impression was made in the con- DecUne gressional elections of 1S78 when it cast a million votes and elected 15 members of the house. In 1884 it gave 173,370 votes for Benjamin F. Butler, their candidate for president. The moderate inflationists were far more numerous. They rejected fiat money and sought to increase the volume of the currency through free coinage of silver. The silver movement has had three periods of agitation, one in the Bland-Allison bill of 1878, another in the Sherman silver law of 1890, and still another hi the Bryan campaign of 1896. The ^PI^" first arose in the following manner : Coinage. ^ 1^^^' °f ^^37 provided for the free and unlimited coin- age of silver dollars containing 4125- grains of standard silver. For many years thereafter very little silver was mined in the country, and from 1789 to 1873 barely $8,000,000 was coined. At the latter date the bullion in a dollar was worth 102 cents, and none was offered for coinage. Probably for this reason in revising the coinage laws in an act of 1873 congress said nothing about coming standard silver dollars, although a trade dollar of hea\'ier weight was ordered for use in the Orient. This aroused no interest at the time, and many congressmen asserted afterwards that it was done without their knowledge. But it was known to others, and there was no justifica- tion for those who later called it "the crime of 1S73." In the same year Germany adopted the gold standard and began to sell her sih'er coins as bullion. In the same year, also, very rich silver mines were opened in Nevada. The price of silver began to fall. In 1874 the bullion in a dollar was for the first time in thirty years worth less than a hundred cents. The mine owners were disappointed when they learned of the recent legislation, pronounced it dark and sinister, and asked for remonetization. Their demand fitted in with the general Western desire for more money. From then until the collapse of the free silver movement they were important but designedly in- conspicuous partners in the agitation. Free coinage was popular in both parties in the South and West. It manifested itself in several bills in congress early in 1S76. None of them passed, but the popularity of the cans, impressed itself on GOLD AT T'AR 6go the representatives in the elections of that year, and it had a strong hold on the new congress. It found, in the house, also, a persistent and capable leader in Richard P. Bland, a democrat from • Thp Rill Missouri. His earnest fight for silver won him the nick- p^gg^j name of "Silver Dollar Dick." In the extra session of October, 1877, he introduced the "Bland Bill," proposing the free and unlimited coinage of silver dollars weighing 4125 grains, at the ratio with gold of 15.62 to i, silver bullion then selling at 90. Under the rule of the previous question the bill was forced through the house without debate by a vote of 164 to 34. The democrats supported it as a party measure, and Western republicans dared not oppose it. The republican senate feared to reject it outright, and offered a com- promise which the house accepted thinking that it was the best they could do for silver. It was proposed by Allison, of Iowa, and omitted free and unlimited coinage, but ordered the secretary of the treasury to buy each month for coinage into silver dollars, exxlusive of coinage already issued, from two to four million dollars of silver, provided the amount invested in silver at one time be not more than $5,000,000. Bland yielded reluctantly, and gave notice he would continue the battle for free silver. If he could not get it, he said, he would favor issuing "paper money enough to stuff down the bond- holders until they are sick." The act passed in 1878. Before Bland could renew the fight, revived prosperity withered his hopes, and his plan was laid away until a more favorable time. Resumption of Specie P.-wment The act of 1875 to authorize resumption was passed by a group of repudiated representatives who had nothing to hope and nothing to fear from their constituents. It has been called a " death- bed repentance of the republican party." It was, in fact, Resumption better than existing political conditions warranted. The piighed. democrats denounced the law and carried a bill through the hou.se to repeal it. But the senate blocked the attempt, and Sec- retary Sherman proceeded with his plans for resumption. Through- out a part of 1877 and all of 1878 he gradually sold bonds for gold until he had on hand $114,000,000 of the precious stuff, $95,500,000 of which came from bond sales. Meantime, the price of gold fell, and December 17, 1878, it was at par for the first time since 1861. The large banks aided the operation by abandoning "gold deposits." By getting the sub-treasury admitted to the New York clearing house Secretary Sherman was able to settle balances without the use of large quantities of gold. All this strengthened public confidence, and resumption was actually accomplished on New Year's day with- out the slightest difficulty. 700 POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL READJUSTMENT To the general public the affair was eminently successful, but experienced observers saw that grave danger was still ahead. Could . resumption be maintained? The year opened with busi- M^aintaiued? '^^^^ exceedingly bad. Immense foreign wheat crops had put the price so low that the large American crop of 1878 was marketed at ruinous prices. The market for cotton, iron, and nearly every other product was depressed. The low price of wheat in Europe made it seem certain that we should send little abroad throughout the winter and spring. Low prices abroad gave a check to business, and it was to be expected that some of the many American bonds recently bought there would be resold on this side. With light exports ruling we should likely have to send gold abroad to pa}' the balance of trade, and with this extra demand the stock of the precious coin in the channels of trade would be so depleted that in- roads must surely be made on the government's hoard. To get this gold was easy enough : the country was full of legal tenders which must now be cashed as presented. Of course, no one would send these notes abroad in settlement of accounts. The secretary of the treasury knew this situation thoroughly, and week after week watched it with great anxiety. The spring passed safely, but in the second week in June, $1,250,000, taken directly from the treasury vaults, was sent abroad. Was it the beginning of the long-expected disaster ? Three months must pass before exports would again be large, and if during this period the same amount went out weekly, further bond sales alone could preserve resumption. From this threatening situation we were sa\'ed bj' the luckiest possible event. A backward spring reduced the British p'^"'' crop prospects, wheat rose in price, and foreigners began in Europe. ^^ ^-i^' f^"" ^he large surplus we had carried over from the preceding harvest. The balance of trade turned in our favor, exchange fell, and our gold remained with us. But this was not the whole story. Cold rains continued in the British Isles during the summer, blight appeared, and crops yielded less than half the usual quantity. On the continent A Wonder similar but less distressful conditions lowered production to Prosperity, eighty-five per cent of that of normal years. While famine conditions thus threatened in Europe, America had un- usually fine weather, an acreage in wheat 500,000 acres larger than in 1878, and a total harvest exceeding that of any preceding year. As Americans saw this vast supply coming to maturity they gave them- selves up to the gloomiest thoughts. The first intimations of con- ditions abroad did not reassure them, for they felt their own surplus would more than overcome Europe's shortage. But the realization of the foreign calamity drove away their dismay. Prices rose forty cents a bushel in six weeks, and in September three and a half times as much wheat went to Europe as in the same month, 1878. This year GOOD TIMES AND POLITICS 701 foreign production generally was bad, and Indian corn and American meat were also called for to a larger extent than before. As though Providence would give equal benefits to all parts of the country, there was this year a failure in the cotton crop of India, and American cotton rose in consequence. The completion of a pipe line from the Pennsylvania oil wells to the coast in the same year brought an increase of 2,000,000 barrels in petroleum exports. Far less of stimulus than that which came from these several fields of activity would have placed business generally in excellent condition. As it was, 1879 was a wonder year in our industrial history. With hard times went political discontent. Inflation was no longer popular in the West and South, and specie payment was secure. Secretary Sherman saw his gold reserve grow from $120,000,000 at the end of June to $157,000,000 at the pros'perity end of October. There was so much gold in the hands of our business men that they began to take it to the treasury to ex- change it for legal tender notes, which were more convenient in hand- ling. Moreover, the years 18S0 and 1881 brought a continuation of prosperity. Europe still suffered from poor crops, while we had quantities of food to spare. It was not until 1S83 that our fat years again gave place to lean ones. The Election of 1880 The return of prosperity made republican success in 1880 a prob- ability, and each faction undertook to control the nomination. The stalwarts were determined to avoid a man like Hayes, the reformer. They had among themselves no one half P*^*^!. ^ so likeh' to be chosen as Grant, whom some of the leaders xerm. began to urge for a third term more than a year before the convention met. Under him the good old days would undoubtedly return, and a politician might call his soul his own. Grant was then leisurely traveling around the world, received with distinction in three continents, and the Americans saw in this a reflection of national honor which heightened their esteem for the hero. The movement to nominate him was skillfully managed by Conkling, General Logan, and J. Don. Cameron. Grant himself was pleased at the prospect of another term, and timed his arrival in America with reference to the plans of his friends. He landed at San Francisco, September 20, 1870, when most active preparations were being made for the coming nominations. After the splendid reception which a grateful people tendered him, he made a trip to Mexico and the countries south of '•*. ])rocedure both dignified and prudent. His opjionents were not able to unite on one man. The reformc- looked to Edmunds, of Vermont. John Sherman had strong support "'n the West and Blaine had :' following among those Eastern 702 POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL READJUSTMENT men who did not favor Grant, while other candidates had small followings. Blaine was the ablest of them all, but he was objec- tionable to the reformers because he was suspected of par- o'*°ii^nts ticipation in the scandals under Grant, and his breach with Conkling was an additional embarrassment. However, they all opposed Grant bitterly, and were prepared to give up much to keep out of power the men who sought his election. The first test of their strength in the convention (Chicago, June 2, 1880) came when Conkling moved to apply the unit riile to state delegations. To adopt it would give the large states to Grant and, as it came out, that would have meant his nomination. The motion was lost ; and on the first ballot Conkling's man got only 304 votes and after that no more than 313 of the 379 necessary to a nomina- tion. Ballot after ballot showed little change, untO on the thirty- sixth James A. Garfield, of Ohio, was nominated by a union of the Sherman and Blaine forces. In the interest of harmony Conkling was allowed to name the candidate for vice-president. He declared for Chester A. Arthur, whom Hayes removed from the New York customhouse when he decided to reform it. One who knew him well exclaimed, when he heard later of Arthur's elevation: "'Chet' Arthur President of the United States ! Good God!" The nomina- tion was bad in itself, but the third term movement was defeated, and that was the main point. Garfield was respected as an able and high-minded man, and the people were disposed to forgive the unfit vice-president on the ground that it was necessary to conciliate the stalwarts. The democrats were at sea. Tilden was not available because of a certain suspicion that he did not quite clear his name from sus- picion in connection with the former election, because clZdafes. he had the avowed opposition of Kelly, the leader of Tammany, and because he had recently experienced a physical collapse which rendered it improbable that he could fulfill the duties of president if elected. Several smaller men were spoken of, but none seemed so promising as General W. S. Hancock, a brave and handsome soldier, but as inexperienced in politics as Grant before 1868. He was nominated with W. H. English, of Indiana, for vice- president. The greenbackers nominated James B. Weaver, of Iowa, and the prohibitionists Neal Dow, of Maine. The campaign was full of personalities. Garfield was charged with participation in the Credit Mobilier scandal but showed that the charge was unjust. Other moral obliquities were Elected alleged against one candidate or the other. The demo- crats were arraigned for their policy of intimidation in the South. Probably the prosperity of the country was the most im- portant argument on either side. It made for the republicans, who had 214 electoral votes to 155 for their opponents. A plurality of HAYES'S POSITION 703 less than 10,000 in the popular vote showed that the election was really very close. The republicans also carried the house of repre- sentatives, where they had 150 members to 131 democrats and 12 greenbackers. In the senate they had 37, the democrats a like num- ber, and the balance was held by two mdependents, Davis, of Illi- nois, and Mahone, of Virginia. In the election of 1880 Hayes took no part. He was out of step with his party, and awaited retirement with a quiet dignity which brought him much sympathy. His successor would have a better party following, but it was pleasant to reflect that p'^f'.'"^ he would not abandon the reforms for which Hayes steadily currents. contended. The administration just closing was, in fact, an important period in which politics shifted from an old to a new basis. It marked the end of reconstruction and the beginning of an era in which the people showed a determination to control their own rulers, to eliminate abuse, and to make democracy a greater reality. Had he been a more practical statesman the break with the past could not have been so sharp, and the keynote of the future would not have been so clearly sounded. President Hayes gained much from the admirable bearing of his wife, who illustrated the highest qualities of .\merican womanhood. Grant's free and easy ways introduced into the White House something of the atmosphere of the camp. Mrs. "' "^*^' Hayes's sense of purity and simple comfort made it as clean as a New England manse. She considered it her home rather than an official residence. The politicians in Washington were aghast when she decided not to serve wine at the president's table. Secretary Evarts refused to attend, and the usual diplomatic dinners were suspended. The Temperance Women of America showed their admiration by placing her portrait in the e.xecutive mansion, and fair public opinion admired the manner in which she asserted her position in her own family. Garfield's Short Presidency The announcement of a cabinet brought trouble, chiefly of Conk- ling's making. Blaine, of Maine, was secretary of state, William Windom, of Minnesota, secretary of the treasury, Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, secretary of war, William H. Hunt, of Louisiana, secretary of the navy, Wayne MacVeagh, of Pennsyl- vania, attorney-general, Thomas L. James, of New York, postmaster- general, and Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, secretary of the interior. Conkling resented Blaine's prominence in the group, fearing his influence with Garfield was paramount, and considering the low rank of New York in the cabinet a token that his own influence was neu- tralized by his rival. He was slightly appeased when his supporter, 704 POLITICAL AND FINAXCIAL READJUSTMENT Levi P. ^Morton, was made minister to France, but this was overcome by the news that Robertson, an anti-Conlding man, was to be head of the New York customhouse. He now became an avowed ^f*C^^''°° opponent of the administration and published a letter ° ° ' ^' showing that Garfield, whose inaugural address ga^•e sup- port to civil service reform, had in the preceding campaign coun- tenanced campaign contributions from officeholders. He then took his quarrel to the senate, where the democrats and the republicans had equal numbers, with two independents who refused to vote on party matters. Two months passed in vain attempts to organize the body, when a truce was made to allow the confirmation of the presi- dent's nominations. Conkling was thought to have planned to have the senate adjourn as soon as his own friends were confirmed ; and Garfield tried to block this by sending in first the nomination of Robertson. Its approval was the occasion of a great battle, in which the New York senator was defeated. Seeing failure before him, Conkling and his colleague, T. C. Piatt, resigned their seats, hoping for an immediate reelection by the New York legislature. They lost their calculation. The legislature, tired of the strife, sent other men to Washington. Piatt was a young man and eventually recovered his feet. Three years later he was at peace with Blaine ; Conkling retired to private life. He had great mental and practical ability, but he was arrogant, intolerant, and uncompromising. Had he remained in the senate he would have made life uncomfortable for the president and the secretary of state. Garfield yielded enough to the demand for reform to appoint as postmaster-general, James, who had applied the merit system in the New York post ofSce. James soon began to investigate V^^ the contracts to carry the mail over the "star routes," as Frauds"" * certain routes in parts of the West were called in the department. It appeared that Brady, second assistant postmaster-general under Hayes, and Senator Dorsey, of Arkansas, had conspired with mail contractors of this class to defraud the gov- ernment through extravagant prices or the multiplication of useless services. Indictments were secured, and the trials became one of the great events of the year. The defendants were actively aided by many of the leading "machine" politicians of the republican party. Brady at last threatened to produce evidence against Garfield if the prosecution was not dropped. No relief coming, he pul^lished a letter from Garfield to "My dear Hubbell," chairman of the repub- lican congressional campaign committee in 1880, condoning the habit of levying contributions for campaign purposes on the salaries of government employees. As this was one of the worst abuses of the spoils system, it discredited Garfield's open protestations of friend- ship for reform. The proof of fraud in the star-route cases seems over- whelming, but the important defendants managed to wriggle through PRESIDENT ARTllLR 7^5 uie clutches of the law. Public disgust was great, and the opinion was strengthened that the country needed a reformer. Before this feeling went far the president, on July 2, 1881, was shot down in a Washington railway station. The assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed ofBce seeker, cried out that he was a ''stalwart" and that Arthur would now be president. ^*^- ,? He was executed for the crime, but his mind was probably unbalanced by the bitterness of party strife in which he steeped it. The victim of his madness lingered through the summer jjetween life and death, and died September 19. His fortitude and gentleness in suffering won all hearts, and in the shadow of the national sorrow political asperities softened. So sober a paper as the Nation showed the change in sentiment. In May it pronounced the letter to Hubbell "a painful surprise" ; in September it said of the deceased, "He will always remain one of the saints of American story, without a spot on the whiteness of his garments." When Arthur became president the Conkling quarrel was still in an active condition. He showed his interest in it by going to Albany in May to secure his patron's reelection to the United States senate. It was considered an unworthy thing for y^j^^ur'"* a vice-president to stoop to such work, and the prospect of Arthur's elevation alarmed many people. But the shock of the tragedy deeply impressed the vice-president. He dropped the role of the politician and revealed unsuspected dignity and good sense. Through the same sobering agency the people were prepared to accord him a fair trial in the high office he now assumed. At the end of three years he retired with the respect of the nation and the esteem of his party. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For general works see: Sparks, National Development (1907); Andrews, The United States in our Ckfu Time (1903) ; Wilson, Hiitory of the Amerieaii People, 5 vols, (igo;?) ; The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII (1903); Stanuood, History of the Presideney (iSgS) ; and Woodburn, American Political History, 1776- iSy6 (iqob), republishes articles by .'Vlexander Johnston in Lalor, Cyclopedia of Political Science, still useful since some of the phases of previous history are carried over into Hayes's administration. The important sources are: Congressional Record, for debates in congress; McPherson, Hand-Book of Politics (1878, 18S0, and 1882), contains votes in con- gress; Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols. (1896-1899); MacDonald, Select Statutes (1903); Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia, new series; and the various almanacs, as the World's Almanac, and the American Almanac. The legislative reports for the period are abundant, for which see Poore, Descriptive Catalogue of Government Publications to iSSi and the Annotated Index to the Public Documents (1902). For biographies and works of leading men see : Keeler, Rutherford B. Hayes (1910) ; Gilmore, Life of Garfield (1880), the best of the campaign lives ; Bigelow, Life of Tilden, 2 vols. (1896) ; Ibid., ed.. Letters of Tildcn, 2 vols. (190S) ; Boutwell, Reminiscences of Sixty Years (1902); Yloar, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1903); Andrew 1). White, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1905); Hamilton jDodgeJ, Life of James G. 2Z 7o6 POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL READJUSTMENT Blaine (1895) ; Stanwood, James G. Blaine (1906) ; Sherman, Recollections of Forty Years, 2 vols. (1897); The Sherman Letters (ed. 1894); Burton, John Sherman (1906) ; Mayes, Lucius Q. C. Lamar (1896) ; Hinsdale, Works of James A. Garfield (i88i); Ibid., President Garfield and Iiducation (18S2); Balch, Life of Garfield (1881), uncritical; Conkling, Life and Letters of Roscoc Conkling (1889); Ogden, Life and Letters of E. L. Godkin, 2 vols. (1907) ; Wilson, Life of C. A. Dana (1907) ; Autobiography of T. C. Piatt (1910); Coolidge, Orville H. Piatt (1910); Cary, George W. Curtis (1900) ; and Bancroft and Dunning, Carl Schurz's Public Career, (in Schurz, Reminiscences, vol. Ill, 1909). For Independent Reading Sparks, National Development (1907) ; Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, 2 vols. (1884-1886); Hoar, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1903); Andrew D. White, Autobi- ography, 2 vols. (1905); and Burton, John Sherman (1906). CHAPTER XXXIV POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM, 1881-1893 Civil Service Reform The most glaring political abuse of the day was the spoils system. Scandals occasionally appeared in the higher offices, but in the vast army of clerks and postmasters office was a reward for electioneering, and officeholders paid campaign contribu- 9°°^'.''°° °' tions for fear of losing their appointments. As a result service. the service was filled with inefficient clerks, and the appeal to the voters was on the lowest level. The tyj^e of jwlitician whom this sj'stem developed was apt to be defiant of public opinion. It was felt that the beginning of reform was the adoption of some sort of merit system in appointments. American sentiment was influenced by the progress of a similar movement in England, where in 1853 Charles E. Trevelyan and Sir Stafford H. Northcote reported a plan for reform- ing the ci\'il service. They recommended a system of competitive examinations, but for some years various things united to prevent its adoption. One of the Americans most in touch with British affairs was Charles Sumner. He was interested in the work of Trevelyan and Northcote, and in 1864 introduced a bill in the senate to apply com- petitive principles to appointments in America. The bill in"ronCTess attracted much attention, but reconstruction soon en- gaged Sumner's attention, and he did not press the matter. It was taken up by Thomas Jenckes, a representative from Rhode Island. His first bill was lost, 1865 ; but he got a committee created to investi- gate the situation, and himself became the chairman. Its report, May 25, 1868, described the systems in force in England, France, Prussia, and China and contained a bill creating a competitive system. Congress paid no heed and Jenckes turned to the people, where he found supporters, prominent among them being Carl Schurz, William Cullen Bryant, and George William Curtis. Grant himself, a candi- date for the presidency, declared for the reform. He redeemed his promise in his second annual message, and se\ eral bills were intro- duced, none of which could pass. The spoils system was too inti- mately grafted on the political life of the day to be abandoned by congress until a vast amount of public opinion was created on the subject. 707 7oS POLITIC\L AND ECONOMIC REFORM The reformers were persistent, and late in the session, 1871, were able to attach a "rider" to the appropriation bill in which congress established what is known as the first ci\-il service corn- First Com- mission. It authorized the president to prescribe rules 1871. ' ^°'' admission to the civU service and to appoint a com- mission to inquire into the fitness of applicants ; and it gave $25,000 for the expenses of the same. The commission was named at once, with Curtis for chairman. It formulated rules for appointments, which Grant adopted and promulgated, April, 1872, for use in the departments in Washington and the federal ofiices in New York. Trouble now began. IndiN^dual congressmen urged the president to appoint their friends. In some cases he made bad selec- tions, which disgusted the reformers, and finally Curtis resigned in despair. Grant had little patience with the situation ; he gradually yielded to the arguments of practical advisers who declared reform an impossible dream, and when congress in iS73. refused to renew the appropriation he ceased to enforce the rules of 1872. The com- mission continued a formal existence with Dorman B. Eaton as chairman. Hayes would have revived the energy of the commission if Cangress had given the necessary money, for the law of 187 1 was unrepealed. As it was, he tried to reform the New York custonihouse. Haves ° '^ Committee appointed by him reported that one-fifth of the clerks there should be dismissed as unnecessary. Hayes followed the suggestion, remoNong the collector, Chester A. Arthur, a favorite of Conkling, because Arthur would not indorse the reforms. He also applied the merit system to the New York post office, placing at the head of it Thomas L. James, a reformer. Senator Conkling resented this policy. He thought the reform mo\'ement contained a great deal of cant, and once expressed his contempt in the following words uttered with a withering drawl, " When Doctor-r-r Ja-a-awson said that patr-r-riotism was the 1-a-w-s-t r-r-refuge of a scoundr-r-rel, he ignor-r-red the enor-r-rmous possi- bilities of the word r-refa-awr-r-rm I"' The house of representatives in something of the same spirit made Benjamin F. Butler chairman of its committee on civil ser\dce reform. Hayes realized the utter opposition of congress and dared not attempt to reform the depart- ments, as he might have done under the law of 187 1. Meanwhile, the mo\-ement progressed outside of congress. Associa- tions to promote it were formed in many cities, and in 18S1 a national civil ser\'ice league was organized. A mass of literature ^^uSh^ ' apP^arfid i" support of the movement, and among its Attitudes. defenders were leading men of thought. Garfield when candidate for the presidency gave open allegiance, and his election gave hope to the reformers. The accession of Arthur, Conkling's friend, and victim of Hayes's New York reforms, filled THE REFORMS WIN 709 them with dread. They breathed easily when in his first annual message he discussed competitive examinations mildly, pointed out some defects, but said that he would execute such a plan fairly if congress adopted it. No law followed at that session, but when the elections of 1882 went against the republicans, they were willing to pass one. The fact that Garficid's assassin was a dis- appointed office seeker was an added motive for adopting the merit system. The "Pendleton Act," 1883, took its name from George H. Pen- dleton, cliairman of the senate committee on civil service reform, but it was written by Dorman B. Eaton. It created 3- „ ., classified service, to lie organized by the president and to ^^° 1883" apply to clerks in the departments and in post offices and custom houses having over fifty employees. E.xaminations in keeping with the requirement should be given, and they were to de- termine appointments, and applicants should bring no other recom- mendation than as to residence and moral character. They were to be taken as nearly as possible from the states in proportion to popula- tion. The president might b\' his order include within the classified service employees not originally included, and strict measures were taken to abolish campaign contributions by employees. The presi- dent was to appoint a commission of three members to supervise the examinations, keep records, recommend clerks on the approved lists, investigate alleged violations of the law, and report annually to the president and congress. Arthur, true to his promise, executed the law faithfully and placed Eaton at the head of the commission. In 1884 both parties indorsed it ; and although its enforcement has sometimes been evaded, its expediency has generally been granted. Sue- Execution cessive presidents have extended its scope. Cleveland's ^"^hur and party came into power with an office-hunger created in a Cleveland, long period of exclusion, and he had much trouble to keep them from overturning the system. But he respected the clas- sified service, and satisfied his supporters out of the unclassified offices. The reformers complained that he did not keep the spirit of the reform. Some of his appointments were undoubtedly bad, which brought other complaints. But Cleveland personally favored the law, and just before he went out of office brought the railway mail clerks under the civil ser\'ice rules. The republicans, returning to power in 1889, were greatly incensed at the railway mail order. It was, they said, a trick to give immunity to recently appointed democrats. Harrison suspended the operations of the order, made many removals, and jj"rrison when it was at last operative, few railway clerks were democrats. Cleveland resisted the party pressure for removals as much as he could. In his entire term 20,000 occurred : under Harrison 7IO POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM there were 35,850 dismissals within a little more than a year after his inauguration. Clarkson, controlling appointments in the post- oflfice department, was so active that he was called "the headman." But Harrison enforced the rules within the classified service and brought wthin the rules a part of the Indian service, hitherto liable to peculiarly bad appointments. He did the same for the fish commis- sion and the clerks of free-delivery post offices ; but none of these steps were taken until the offices affected were generally filled l)y republicans. Harrison appomted Theodore Roosevelt, of Xew York, to the civil service commission, and afterwards made him its chairman. This vigorous young reformer wished at first to be assist- Roosevelt g^j^j secretary of state, but Secretary Blaine desired a missioner. milder spirited man for an assistant. Until then the com- mission had sought to obtain its objects without antago- nizing congressmen. Membership on it was so inconspicuous that Roose\'elt's friends advised him not to accept. He disregarded the advice and gave the civil ser\ice commission a new kind of force. There was no more hesitation in its actions : whoe\'er criticized it was met by a rejoinder which took away his argument. Foolish assertions that the examinations were fantastical, that appointments went by favoritism, and that the commission was nerveless, were dispelled. Once when the press said that it was well known that only republicans could get office, Roosevelt took a striking means of refuting the charge. He called before him the Washington corres- pondents of the Southern newspapers, told them the South had not its full share of clerks, and asked them to induce more Southerners to take the examinations. He told them to say in their papers that politics would play no part in the appointments. The result was a large increase in appointments from the section indicated, and most of them went to democrats. The discomfited politicians ceased to call the civil service commission a nonentity. Roosevelt's activity piqued congress, and in the committee-of- the-whole, where the yeas and nays were not taken, it cut down the appropriation for the commission. When the bill came ^■'th'c*'''*"^ up for final action, where the voters must go on record, gressmen. the discontented ones would refuse to \'ote, and the appro- priation would be restored. This happened several times. Once the opposition cut down the appropriation for examinations. Roosevelt omitted to hold them in the districts of the members who thought them unnecessary, much to the dissatisfaction of the constituencies concerned. He thus appealed to the people over the head of the representatives. As a result, he was little loved but much feared by the spoilsmen, but the people trusted him and admired his fearlessness. Cleveland was not popular with his party in his second term, and RECENT EXTENSIONS 711 could ignore the democratic spoilsmen. Some of his appointments were made without due investigation, and he made others to force the repeal of the Sherman silver law; but he Cleveland's widely extended the classified service, adding 29,399 places Term. by one order. His successor. President McKinley, had trouble to keep congress from revoking all such orders. Delay and reflection was secured by creating a senate committee appointed to investigate the subject. After a while it reported that the classified service should be reduced. It looked gloomy for the advocates of reform, but at just this moment war with ^_JJ . !-■•• Ill 1 • r ^ McKinley. Spam mtervened and drew away the attention 01 the spoilsmen. The war created many new places, and this served partly to divert the attack on the classified service. The subject was taken up again in 1899, when the president removed 3693 places from the classified service and transferred 6414 from the oversight of the commission to that of the secretary of war. It was a questionable step, though defended on the ground that the places involved had to do with e.xpert service or with confidential clerkships, and that in such cases competitive examinations ought not to apply. The reformers replied that even if this was true in principle, the number of positions involved in this instance was far too large. Since 1899 the classified service has been several times extended, last of all by President Taft, but the traces of the spoils system have not been removed from our public life. The agitation for national reform stimulated action in some states, notably New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana, and Connecticut, where the reform system was wholly or partially adopted. Ballot Reform Closely connected with civil service reform was the fight for better laws, which depended on state rather than federal action. The old ballot system was weak in that it was not secret, that the ballots were privately printed and capable of various conHitions forms of juggling for j)arty interests, and that they were printed on various small slips confusing to the voter, and by this means profitable to the party tricksters. Abuses under this condi- tion had e.xisted from early times, but it was only the new reform spirit that resented and sought to remedy theni. This was made easier by the rapid growth of the evil practices in the early eighties. The increasing prominence of the tariff in elections is supposed to have brought forth large campaign funds which might be used cor- ruptly. It also went with an open manifestation of the manufacturer's desire to control the \'ote of his operatives. .Xgents of employers were known to hand ballots to employees and see them safely deposited in the boxes. Black-lists were sometimes kept by which refractory 712 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM voters were dropped from the factory pay rolls. In the agitation of the day the amount of such an evil would naturally be exaggerated, but it cannot be doubted that it existed extensively. Bribery also flourished. Both parties used it, and conservative people could see no way of abolishing it outright, while less sensitive people only smiled at it. There existed a purchasable vote which was as willing to sell itself as the purchaser was willing to buy. This abuse was most glaring in the election of 1888, and soon afterwards arose the movement for reform. It demanded the "Australian Ballot," the chief features of which were that the ballot be secret and officially printed in "blanket " form. The system originated in Australia, but it had been adopted in England. The movement in the United States had rapid success. The first step forward was when the New York legislature, 1888, passed a law of the desired kind, but the veto of Governor Hill robbed the state of the honor of leading in the reform. This distinction went to Massachusetts instead, which in the same year passed such a law and put it into operation in her election of 1S89. The ice was now broken, and nine states followed in 1889, seven in 1890, and eighteen in 1 89 1. Five of these laws were pronounced "poor" or "bad" by the reformers. They were later amended, and in 1909 thirty-nine of the forty-six states had blanket ballots, and of the others only- four — Connecticut, North and South Carolina, and Georgia — used unofiicial ballots. In the last three the voting is entirely public. Tariff Reform Most of the political reformers were also tariff reformers. The inequalities they saw in protection appealed to them in nearly the same way as the political evils. On the other hand, K^^d^^'f ^'^^ '^'^ tariff reformers were political reformers. The large Reformers, majority who favored a lower tariff acted from economic reasons, or because party loyalty demanded it. Among tariff reformers were at least two classes, those who would readjust the schedules slightly and conformably with the revenue needs of gov- ernment, and those who were theoretical free-traders. Many of the political reformers belonged to this second class of tariff reformers. Numerous new industries sprang up during the war, and under protection some made large, and others small, profits. The first class did not want the tariff reduction, and the second Vth^"^** could not afford it. The mass of consumers, when they Tariff. gave the matter serious thought, felt they were paying to support a system artificial in itself and badly adapted to revenue purposes. But it yielded large sums to the treasury, and these were needed to pay the war debt and aid in reestablishing the public credit after the war. CONTINUING THE WAR TARIFF 713 Existing taxes were of four kinds ; internal revenue taxes, an income tax, duties on articles not produced in considerable quantities in the United States, and duties on articles largely produced here. Taken together, they were a burden, and it was inevitable that they should be lowered. The plan of reduction favored by the protectionists was to give relief from high ta.xes by lowering the internal revenue and the income tax. This went on so rapidly that by 1S70 the former taxes were taken off nearly everything but liquor and tobacco, and public opinion insisted that tliese be taxed in the interest of good morals. At the same time it was arranged that the tax on incomes should disappear with the year 1S71. Forced to give up something else, the protectionists now agreed that the duties should be lowered on the second class, as coffee, tea, and sugar ; and in this they were usually successful. The reformers pointed out that by throwing the burden of the revenue on the protected schedules congress was fixing protection in our system, but the people were pleased to have any visible relaxation, and accepted free coffee and tea thankfully. This process was gradual, and was embodied in four tariff bills, as follows: I. In 1867 the house of representatives passed a bill to raise duties. The senate was for reform, and substituted a bill by David A. Wells, special commissioner of the revenue and a trained econo- mist. It lowered rates on most manufactured articles g^J * and to a larger extent on raw materials. It sought to make a wise readjustment and gradual reduction by which protected interests should suffer in the least possible degree. It was unaccept- able to the house, and was not passed. But one feature of it, a higher rate on wool, was passed by a special bill in the same year. 2. In 1870 congress again took up the tariff in response to a popular demand for reform. The duties on several unprotected articles were lowered, but the only protected article reduced was iron ore, the rate on which was cut from nine to seven dollars a ton. On many other articles, as steel rails, marble, and nickel, the duty was raised. 3. In 1872 there was a surplus revenue of $100,000,000. It was useful for paying the debt, but it called attention to the excessive taxes, and again congress was forced to take action. In anticipation of legis- lation the lobby became active. It was a fair opportunity for manipu- lation, and congress, apparently to avoid the liability of being over- reached in the adjustment of individual rates, adopted the principle of horizontal reduction. Ten per cent was taken from existing rates on the important protected articles, that is, woollens, cottons, most metals, paper, glass, and leather, while tea and coffee were made free and considerable cuts were made on salt, coal, and some other articles not manufactured in the ordinary sense. The bill passed against the opposition of the manufacturers. 4. The panic of 1873 brought about a reduction of imports and lessened the revenues. The pro- 714 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM tectionists supported the need of high rates, and in 1S75 the ten per cent taken off in 1872 was restored. There was no disposition to meddle with the tariff during the four lean years that followed 1875, but with the advent of prosperity came abundant revenues, and in the eleven years from Surplus ^^^ beginning of 1880 to the end of 1S90 the average surplus was $103,900,000 a year. It went to pay the debt, $1,105,000,000 worth being extinguished in this interval at a saving in interest of $69,000,000 a year. It was a wonderful record, and no other nation has done as much, but the results brought serious com- plaints. The financiers said the surplus disarranged the course of trade, the national banks complained that they must pay ruinous prices for bonds to secure their bank notes, and the public complained, because for the government to buy bonds at high premium was extravagance. Surplus financiering, it was also pointed out, causes extravagant spending. In this, however, the danger was lessened by the fact that the democrats, ever inclined to economy, were gen- erally in control of one or both houses of congress during the years of the surplus. In 1882 the surplus was $145,600,000, and four per cent bonds rose from 112 to 121. It was the year for congressional elections, and the tariff was an issue. There was a group of Eastern Popular democrats, chiefly from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in 1882. ^^'h° dared not favor reduction, but most of the party were for reform. Most of the Eastern republicans were against it, but a small group of Western republicans felt compelled to vote for it because of the feeling in their districts. In later years the alignment was more distinct, but in 1882 it was clear enough to show which was a high and which a low tariff organization. The democrats stood openly for lower duties, and when in the election they converted their minority of 19 in the house into a majority of 77, it was believed that the country indorsed them. Their opponents understood the warning, and in December, after the election, Arthur, supported by Folger, his secretary of the treasury, recommended a reform of the tariff. Weary of "tinkering," desirous of avoiding the assaults of the lobby, and convinced of the iniquities of a horizontal reduction, congress, still republican, appointed a tariff commission. nd*^? n°T" T^a,t a group of experts shall readjust the duties so as 1882. ^'^ ^OP off 'I given number of millions in order to reduce the revenue, and do it in such a way as to distress industry least is an attractive idea. But it is too much to expect that congress should surrender the tax-le\ying power to such a group. The tariff commission of 1882 was given the power to recommend reduction. This pleased the protectionists, for it tended to quiet the people, it postponed action, and it left the question finally in THE DEMOCRATIC SUCCESSES 71S congress, where they would have an opportunity to oppose it. The commission was ordered to suggest "a revision of the existing tariff upon a scale of justice to all interests." At the head of it the presi- dent, after receiving several declinations, placed John L. Hayes, secretary of the American Wool Manufacturers Association, an assur- ance that the tariff would be reformed by its friends. Yet the com- mission's report favored a reduction of about 20 per cent. The republi- can house, unwilling to concede this much, prepared a bill with smaller reductions, and slowly debated it, thinking it would not become law in the existing short session. The senate, with 37 democrats, 37 republicans, and 2 low tariff independents, prepared a bill, with still lower rates, attaching it as an amendment to an internal revenue bill then before it. Conferences between the two houses ensued, and the result was the tariff of 18S3. The zeal that now possessed the republicans was due to the recent democratic 5g' ° success. If the coming congress made a tariff bill, it would be more extreme than one made by the existing session, whereas a bill passed now might so satisfy public sentiment that the republican president and senate would be safe in blocking the way to a bill in 1884. Under this impulse the tariff of 1883 was enacted. By some shrewd manipulation in conference several rates were made higher than was proposed originally in either house. Three men destined to be influential in future tariff legislation, Senator Aldrich and Representatives Thomas B. Reed and William McKinley, Jr., were prominent in connection with the bill ; but the last-named refused to vote for it because the schedules were too low. He represented the Cleveland, Ohio, district, in which iron interests were very strong. Nineteen democrats, led by Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania, most of them Eastern men, voted against the law. Their action indicated a party division which was to bring to naught many other democratic hopes of tariff reform. In the next congress, 1SS4, the democrats undertook to redeem their promise by introducing the Morrison bill. It placed salt, lumber, and coal on the free list, and reduced other articles 20 per cent. It was thought a horizontal reduction would gj^"^"^"" avoid juggling and preserve the existing ratio of advantage between various interests. Forty democrats joined Randall in help- ing the republicans to defeat the bill in the house, while only 4 re- publicans, three from Minnesota and one from New York, voted for it. The bill of 1883 made little change in the surplus: that of 1884 would have lowered it $30,000,000. In the latter year a temporary check of prosperity reduced the imports, and Surplus the surplus for the year 1885 fell to $63,500,000. This Hard Times, tended to quiet the sentiment for tariff reform, but the feeling revived in 1887, when the surplus again reached $100,- CK>O,0OO. /i6 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM The Election of 1884 The election year of 1S84 found the republicans divided. Arthur's success as president gave him a claim, and persons who disliked some of the party tendencies favored him as a safe and respect- Republi- j^|3]g ^-^.^^ without special defects. A larger portion of nate ^°™' the party supported Blaine. He was always a strong Blaine. leader, and the retirement of Conkling gave him an opportunity to unite the New York republicans in his support. He did it through the aid of Piatt, who remarked with unexpected coyness that it was now Blaine's turn. There was, also, a group of reformers who supported Edmunds, of Vermont. Besides these, Logan, Sherman, and Hawley were ''favorite sons" respec- tively of Illinois, Ohio, and Connecticut, each with a small following. The convention assembled at Chicago, June 3, 1S84; and the air was tense with feeling m behalf of Blaine. It was evident that other candidates would have to fight hard for victory. On the first ballot he led with 334^ votes to 278 for Arthur, 93 for Edmunds, and ii2| scattering. On the second, Blaine gained, chiefly at the expense of the reformers ; on the third he continued the progress, and on the fourth he was nominated. John A. Logan was made the candidate for the vice-presidency. The result was received harmoniously by all the factions, except the reformers, who, however, were not strong enough to make serious trouble at Chicago. Their sup- porters were less pacific, and took steps to oppose the nominee at the polls. The eyes of the democrats were drawn, in the meantime, to a figure which had recently appeared above their horizon. Grover Cleveland, elected mayor of Buffalo in 1S81, and governor of New York by a plurality of 192,000 in 1S82, seemed their most promising man. On the other hand, he was not popular with his party. Nomiimted ^^ ^'''^ '^^^"^ '^*^ ^^^ service, downright in his honesty, impartial, opposed to ordinary methods of party organiza- tions, and too blimt to be liked by the politicians. Tammany, the most important organization within the party in New York, had strong intuitions against him. With some difiiculty its leader, John Keily, was brought to favor his nomination, but he lived to regret it. Cleveland's best card was th^ probability that he could carry New York. The democratic tide showed recession in some elections in 18S3, but it was likely that it would persist to a degree sufficient to decide the result nationally in 1884. It was also in Cleveland's favor that the independent republicans would largely favor him against Blaine. He was nominated on the second ballot, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, was named for vice- president. BLAL'^JE'S RECORD ASSAILED 717 The campaign soon brought Blaine's record to the front. His name was associated with some of the irregular transactions of Grant's time, but he was not shown to be guilty. He was less lucky in regard to the "Mulligan Letters." In i86g J}^ he sold to friends in Maine some bonds of the Little Rock Letters^^ and Fort Smith Railroad Company. It was a mushroom concern, and purchasers ordinarily got with their bonds ecjual amounts of preferred stock, common stock, and land bonds, four dollars in securities for each dollar of cash paid. In this case Blaine retained the land bonds himself. After a time the company fell into difficulties, the Maine purchasers began to repent their bargain, and Blaine feared lest the retention of the land bonds should become known and damage him politically. He exerted himself to the utmost and raised money enough to refund the purchase money, taking all the securities on his own hands. If these should fail, he would lose nearly all the property he had ; and the market for them was bad. But he sold a large part of them to the Union Pacific and other railroad companies at prices considerably above the market. When this was known people asked why should the Union. Pacific, a company continually afifected by legislation, pay Speaker Blaine more than Fort Smith stock was worth. So much was said that Blaine in April, 1876, when he was a candidate for the presidential nomination, demanded an investigation. The house appointed a committee which sat late in May. Before it came James Mulligan, a former clerk of the Boston business firm from whom Blaine got the stock, a firm with whom he had much correspondence. Mulligan told the committee he had some letters from Blaine to the Boston house, and was directed to produce them next day. This filled Blaine with dismay. He sought Mulligan at his hotel and saw the letters in the presence of a third party, finally getting permission to have them over night on the promise he would return them next day. In the morning he refused to give them up, claiming Mulligan had them wrongfully ; nor would he submit them to the committee. News of this got abroad, and his opponents, democrats and republicans, presented it in as bad light as possible. Blaine could not stand the pressure, and resolved to meet the charge in a most dramatic manner. He appeared in the house as an injured man whose private affairs were pried into by democratic opponents, some of whom were Southerners. He denounced the trick they played on him, declared he had a right to withhold the letters, but announced he would read them of his own will to show how little wrongdoing was in them. Interlarded with his own comment, and with a wonderful personal mastery of the audience, the letters were made to appear harmless. He finished the scene with a master stroke of acting. He knew a cablegram in his favor had been received by the democratic chairman of the investi- gating committee. It had not been announced ; and Blaine finished 7i8 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM his speech by boldly walking down the aisle to the seat of the chairman and charging him with suppressing important evidence in behalf of the defendant. The chairman had no defense, quailed visibly, and the audience broke into an uproar of applause. The enthusiasm of congress was transmitted to the press by the reporters, who were carried off their feet by the speech of Blaine, and the republicans throughout the country were satisfied. Effect^ ^^^ ^^"^^^ brought reflection, and in the cold type of the Congressional Record the letters seemed to have something which was not explained. They probably prevented Blaine's nomina- tion in 1876 and in 1880. The campaign of 1S84 was hardly opened before these letters were brought out, and September 15 the papers contained other letters from Blaine to the same correspondent, not hitherto made public. Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly, declared that they corroborated the first installment. As a whole, the Mulligan letters placed a blot on the name of a great man, which the defense uttered has not removed. The campaign was noted for personalities. The republicans, writhing under the charges against their candidate, attacked the private reputation of Cleveland, charging him with grave sexual Attacked irregularities. The charge had some apparent foundation in his early life, but it was widely exaggerated and the offense was long since atoned for. An investigation showed how unfairly it was presented, and before this and before the frank attitude of Cleveland himself the matter was overlooked. The reformers in the republican party were bitterly opposed to Blaine. At Chicago they supported Edmunds, giving him 93 votes on the first ballot and 41 on the last. Among them were Senator Hoar, W. W. Phelps, Andrew D. White, and two young Ref rmers men, Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge. As politicians they would not jeopardize their careers by repudiating the nomination, but there were other reformers un- embarrassed with political expectations. Soon after the convention adjourned an address was issued by a committee of which George William Curtis was chairman, calling on independents to vote for Cleveland. It received vigorous response in many parts of the union. The public was impressed when it saw such men as Henry Ward Beecher, Carl Schurz, James Freeman Clarke, George William Curtis, and William Everett turning to the democratic party. The editor of the New York Sun, who had a keen dislike for reformers, dubbed them "Mugwumps," a word hitherto of doubtful meaning, probably of Indian origin. They had the support of several important news- papers and literary men. As the canvass proceeded it was evident that New York would decide the battle. The state was filled with speakers, processions of various kinds addressed the candidates, and feeling was exceedingly CLEVELAND PRESIDENT 719 warm. A small incident at the end of the campaign probably had much influence on the result. One of the addresses to Blaine was made by Rev. S. D. Burchard, a New York minister and a warm Blaine supporter. He assured the candidate ^^^^^^' that he and his friends would not vote for the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." Blaine in reply did not notice the thrust at the Catholics, and the democratic press loudly charged him with insulting that important portion of the voters. He tried to explain, but it was too late. The vote proved so close that this might have been the turning point. When the count was made it was seen that Cleveland had 219 electoral votes. They came from the Solid South, Delaware, Indiana, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. Blaine had the rest, 182 electoral votes. In the popular vote the E,ec*ed° democratic plurality was only 23,000. In New York Cleveland had the lead by only 1149 votes. With such a narrow margin the issue in the state might have been determined by Dr. Burchard's remark, the opposition of the mugwumps, the hostility of the prohibitionists, or some slumbering Conkling defection. The Nation said: "The real force which defeated Blaine was Blaine himself. He had created during his twenty years of public life a public distrust too deep to be overcome by even the most formidable com- bination of political wiles, money, and treachery ever organized in this country." Cleveland and his Party Outwardly the election of Cleveland was a break in party history ; inwardly it was only an incident. A new party control was, indeed, established, but it did not have power in congress, and the a t) ji 1. deadlock of Hayes's administration continued. Cleveland had definite purposes in regard to tariff reform, but a republican senate blocked the way, and only routine affairs could be transacted in congress. In party history the first administration of Cleveland rescued the democracy from the condition of an opposition group and made it a definite and aggressive force. Mere Cleveland opportunism ruled it in 1868, 1872, and 1880. In 1876 party. Tilden gave it a positive character, but this was adopted for temporary expediency, to take advantage of a situation which the folly of its opponents created. The nomination of Cleveland was much for the same reason, but once in power he imposed on his supporters a positive program, the first since 1856. His principles became demo- cratic principles, and the American people fought for or against them for several years. Cleveland used his own judgment in selecting his cabinet. T. F. Bayard, of Delaware, was secretary of stale, Daniel Manning, of New York, known hitherto for shrewd political management, became 720 POLITIC.\L AND ECONOMIC REFORM secretary of the treasury, W. C. Endicott, of Massachusetts, secre- tary of war, W. C. Whitney, of New York, secretary of the navy, A. H. Garland, of Arkansas, attorney-general, W. F. Vilas, of Wisconsin, postmaster-general, and L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi, secretary of the interior. Bayard, Garland, and Lamar were experienced in national affairs, but they were Southerners, and by that fact were slightly handicapped. Not one of the four others had seen experience in Washington. Endicott's highest office hitherto was a judgeship, in which he acquitted himself well, and Vilas had served in his state's legislature and presided over the recent national nominating convention. At this time the democratic party had met its opponents in congress on equal terms for ten years. It is indicative of the unformed state of its Northern branch that not an experienced man of that wing was called to a cabinet position. The president was pledged to support civil service reform. He was at once beset by a horde of office seekers, and his supporters in congress marshaled them. The recently established men ^° ^' classified service was mostly kept intact, but removals for partisanship occurred freely in the unclassified service. Vilas created dismay among the reformers by announcing such a policy for fourth-class postmasters. The Baltimore post office was under civil ser\dce rules, but the postmaster there made removals and filled the places with democrats, saying in reply to his critics, "I am sure my course in this respect has met the approval not only of democrats, but also of fair-minded republicans, and I shall not concern myself as to the views of Mugwumps." Henry Watterson defined offensive partisanship thus: "Officially every man is offensive who is not in sympathy with the party in power." In view of this feeling Cleveland did well to remove no more than two-thirds of the officials not under the civil service rules. He wished to avoid a split with his party and announced a policy of equalization which he observed in general. Many of the reformers believed he did the best he could, but others were displeased and forsook him. As a reformer Cleveland, had no sympathy from two groups of democrats, a "machine" element somewhat like the "stalwarts" among the republicans, and the high tariff democrats of cf^''\ d ^^^ East. Of the fonner. Senator Gorman was a promi- Democrats. ^^^^ leader. He rose to power in Maryland by the ordi- nary methods of machine politics, and maintained himself through unusual ability. He was a silent, bland, clear-headed man an astute leader, and an unyielding opponent. He and the men whom he represented had no taste for reform. Tammany Hall, controlling the party in New York City, was equally opposed to reform. Gov- ernor Hill, of New York, was in sympathy with Tammany and openly declared his objections to the administration. His election to the United States senate, in 1891, gave an able leader to the malcontents CLEVEL.\ND AS TARIFF REFORMER 721 and a worthy assistant to Senator Gorman. Cleveland was also viewed unfavorably by the high tariff democrats. They were led by Randall of Pennsylvania and were strong in that state, New York, and New Jersey. Randall showed his antipathy to reform in 1886 by introducing into the house a bill to repeal the Pendleton act. The democrats dared not pass it, but it strengthened the mover with a certain section of the party. Tariff Reform under Cleveland The democratic platform of 1884 reflected the divided opinion in the party. It merely promised tariff revision in the spirit of fairness and without injury to American industry. Cleveland, „, however, went further, and in his first annual message, December, 1885, suggested the adoption of a tariff for revenue only. A bill to that effect was introduced into the house, but thirty-five Randall democrats united with the republicans to prevent its consider- ation. In the autumn after congress adjourned, 1886, the democratic majority in the house was reduced from 40 to 12, and Morrison, leader of tariff reform, was among the rejected ones. Symptoms of panic appeared in the party, but they did not reach the president. In the message of 18S6 he renewed his arguments for reduction. Congress paid no heed, and the short session passed without a tariff bill. The situation within the party was now little less than war. Cleve- land felt that he must win his fight by appealing to the country over the heads of the congressmen. His annual message of 1887 was entirelv devoted to the tariff. He demanded a Tf"*' , * xuCSSflcrc oi tariff for revenue and pointed out most forcibly the dangers jgg,^^ of surplus financiering. He disclaimed the advocacy of free trade, which his opponents imputed to him, and said, in a phrase that was often repeated, "It is a condition that confronts us, not a theory." The message was followed by the Mills bill, 1888, in which the duties were to be reduced from an average of 47 per cent to an average of 40 per cent. It rejected horizontal reduction, embodied in the Morrison bill, and gradual reduction through the enlarge- ^-^ jggg^ ment of the free list, embodied in the ill-fated bill of 1886, and took up the task of general revision, schedule by schedule. The president watched the bill closely as it went through the house by a majority of 13, and was believed to have secured its passage by threatening to veto bills for public buildings. It was not considered in the senate, where the republicans ruled and were preparing a bill expressive of their own ideas. Each bill was really a manifesto for use in the election then at hand. 3A 72 2 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM The Election of 1888 In 1887 Cleveland's chances for nomination were considered doubt- ful, and Hill, the leading anti-Cleveland man and favorite of the New York democracy, was much talked of. But Cleve- Clevelaad * land's course in the following winter and spring removed nated. ^.ll this doubt. He gave his party its issue and was so evidently the logical candidate that even Hill said he should be nominated. He was chosen without opposition by the party convention at St. Louis, June 5, and Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, was named for his running-mate. The platform was all Cle\'e- land wished. This situation pleased the republicans, who believed that so many tariff democrats would join them that they must surely win. Their most likely candidate was Blaine, who had lost little Nominated °^ ^^^ popularity through the defeat of 1884. He was traveling in Europe in the first half of the year and would not say whether or not he desired the nomination. Either his health, or the fear of defeat, or an aversion to another campaign of personal abuse finally decided him, and he definitely declined at the very time the party convention met in Chicago, June 19. Several other candi- dates were before the convention. Blaine, in withdrawing, suggested Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana, and after three days of balloting he was selected, with Levi P. Morton, of New York, candidate for the vice-presidency. The platform was long, but its most important plank gave open allegiance to "the American system of protection" and — with a squint at the surplus — demanded liberal appro- priations for the navy and pensions. The campaign was noted for a freer use of money by both sides than hitherto. The democrats, spite of the Pendleton act, are believed to have received large contributions from the The Cam- officeholders, as well as from other sources. The repub- 1888. licans could not appeal to this class, but they had a greater resource in the manufacturers. The solicitation of funds from such persons was popularly called "fat-frying." It was believed that votes were freely purchased. Probably both sides were guilty, but the greatest blame was laid at the door of the republicans. Dudley, treasurer of the republican fund, is known to have written to a lieutenant in Indiana, "Divide the floaters into blocks of five and put a trusted man with the necessary funds in charge of these five, and make liim responsible that none get away, and that all vote our ticket." New York was again the deciding state, and se\'eral causes united to make it favorable to Harrison. In the first place he had not the bitter enemies who opposed Blaine in 1884. Also, Tilden's friends in the state were discontented because they thought their leader had CLASSES OF POLITICIANS 723 received scant courtesy from the democratic administration. Some of the civil service reformers were disappointed in Cleveland's ap- pointments. More important than all else was Tam- many's open defection. It was charged that its devotees Eie^ed" "traded" Cleveland votes to elect their champion, David B. Hill, governor of the state. The fact that he ran ahead of Cleveland at the polls by 14,491 votes and was elected seems to prove the charge. All these things, irrespective of the tariff question, would have accounted for the change from a democratic plurality of 1149 in 1S84 to the Harrison plurality of 13,002 in 1888. The electoral vote was Harrison 233, and Cleveland 16S, but in the popular vote the democrats had a plurality of 100,000. The Republican Party in a New Stage If the democrats showed a renewal of life the republicans showed even more plainly that they were entering on new conditions. The party was a more perfect machine and less under presi- dential authority than ever before. Moreover, the per- J'^'^ sonnel was shifting. In it Sumner had no modern counter- part, Schurz and the liberals were in revolt and acting with the enemy, Garfield had no successor, and even Conkling, powerful through his intellect, could not be matched in an organization which surrendered itself to men like Senators Quay of Pennsylvania and Piatt of New York. Bishop Potter characterized them as holding "the conception of the national government as a huge machine existing mainly for the purpose of rewarding partisan service." A group of new men of a better ty^^e existed in congress, McKinley and Thomas B. Reed being the most conspicuous examples, but they did not shake them- selves loose from the control of the machine. Of the older group only Blaine and John Sherman remained ; both were weakened in health, and were borne along by forces they could not control. Blaine became secretary of state in the new cabinet and lent it the prestige of his name. Windom, of Minnesota, a politician rather than a fin- ancier, became secretary of the treasury, Redfield Proctor, of Ver- mont, secretary of war, Benjamin F. Tracy, of New York, secretary of the navy, W. H. H. Miller, of Indiana, attorney-general, John Wanamaker, of Pennsylvania, postmaster-general, John W. Noble, of Missouri, secretary of the interior, and Jeremiah M. Rusk, of Wis- consin, secretary of agriculture. They proved themselves good heads of department, for all they were unknown to the country. Wana- maker's appointment occasioned much comment because it was known he had made a large contribution to the If. . campaign funds, and public opinion persisted in thinking the office was Quay's reward for it. He had risen to prominence as a successful proprietor of a department store in Philadelphia. 724 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM The republicans now controlled both branches of congress for the first time in eight years, and were determined to enact their party program. In the house obstruction had become a power- Ob^teu'ti* ful weapon, and this must be broken down. A common method of defeating legislation was to consume time in dilatory motions. Another was for the minority to fail to answer a roll call when a few of the majority were absent and to raise the point of no quorum, which by the constitution must be a majority of the house. The republicans employed both methods freely when in the minority, but were now determined to abolish them. Thomas B. Reed, the new speaker, a blunt man who could not be confused, was just the man to carry out their wishes. The session opened with much filibustering in the house. Finally on January 21, 1890, Reed refused to appoint tellers on a democratic motion to adjourn. The omission would have been a "Czar" serious breach of duty had the motion been made in good faith, but it was plainly dOatory, and the house sustained him. He also announced he would entertain no such motions in the future. The democrats were angry, but they became still more en- raged eight days later when he counted a quorum. When a motion was put there were 161 yeas, 2 nays, and 165 not voting, the last being democrats. The usual point of "No quorum voting" was made, when to the surprise of the minority Reed began calling the names of democrats before him and ordered the clerk to record them as present. A storm of protests arose in which mingled cries of "revolutionary," "unconstitutional," and "usurpation." Bland shouted in the face of the speaker, "You are not a tyrant to rule over this house or the members of this house in any such way, and I de- nounce you as the worst tyrant that ever presided over a deliberative body." Reed paid no heed to the storm, but continued calling the names of the democrats, remarking several times, "The chair must proceed in an orderly manner." The wrangle lasted a fortnight, and ended only when a rule was adopted to allow the speaker to count as present members he saw before him. This rule and another against dilatory motions were adopted by counting a quorum. Reed's pro- ceedings caused much comment out of doors. Democrats generally pronounced him a " Czar," but as the atmosphere cleared, his position was indorsed by fair-minded people, and the democrats at the next session in organizing the house felt constrained to accept it, although they gave the rules committee and not the speaker the deciding function. The McKinley Tariff and the Surplus The obstructionists muzzled, the majority turned to the double task outlined in the platform of 1888. There should be a new tariff con- REPUBLICANS IN ENTIRE CONTROL 725 sonant with the aggressi\'e school of protection, and tlie surplus should be reduced. Harrison exjiressed both ideas in his inaugural and in his first annual message, and con- * °°"°'* gress willingly carried out his suggestion. While the house was closing its long debate on the Mills bill in the early autumn of 1888, the republican senate prepared a tariflf bill of its own, a kind of manifesto of protection for effect in the election. In the following short session it passed the ^® . bill as a substitute for the Mills bill, and here the matter x^jg. *^ rested when the session ended in March. The bill sup- plied a working program for the next congress which, soon after convening, sent it to the ways and means committee, William Mc- Kinley, Jr., chairman. In a short time it came back with a few changes and was known as the McKinley bill. It easily passed the house and finally got through the senate after the "Silver Senators" were conciliated by the passage of the Sherman silver law. But the debates were long and the bill did not became law until October i, five weeks before the congressional elections of 1890. The chief features were as follows : I. The duties on agricultural products were slightly raised to please the rural West ; but raw sugar, yielding a total revenue of $55,000,000, was put on the free list, and a bounty of two cents a pound for four years was offered to domestic sugar producers. As the latter raised a small part of the amount consumed, there was in this schedule a net loss of revenue of a little less than $50,000,000. A duty was placed on refined sugar to protect the American refiners. 2. The rates on bulky iron articles were little changed ; in some cases they were actually lowered. This was because the seat of such manu- facturing was now in the Pittsburg-Cleveland region, and freights from seaboard to that district gave a large amount of protection. 3. Less bulky articles, as woollens, cottons, and shoes, produced near the coast line, were given higher rates, often disguised by a compli- cated combination of specific and ad valorem duties. Some schedules were so high as to raise the suspicion that they were designed to exclude imports. 4. Through Blaine's efforts a system of reciprocity was adopted, intended to secure trade from South American states. While the bill was being considered, a Pan-American congress was . . in session in Washington under the special patronage of ' the secretary of state. He desired mutual concessions by which South American products would come to us freely in exchange for our flour and manufactured articles. Congress ignored him, for all his protest- ing and scolding, until when the bill was near its adoption the senate grafted on it a reciprocity clause. In its final form it provided that hides, molasses, tea, and coffee, as well as sugar, be free ; but if the president thought a state producing these articles charged unfair 726 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM duties against us, he might impose duties on them at specified rates. In this form reciprocity was a club with wliich it was proposed to force our neighbors into concessions. Through it in 1892 we got reduction of duties in Cuba, Porto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, British Guiana, Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Gautemala, and Brazil, and some slight reductions in Germany and France. Only Colombia, Venezuela, and Haiti were disciplined for refusing to make concessions. In his first annual message Harrison suggested liberal appropriations for pensions, naval construction, and coast defenses, and the hint was not lost on congress. The economies of the demo- A Policy of Qj.|j^^g were thrown aside, and much was heard about ex- penditures in kee):)ing with the dignity of the nation. When the congress of 1891-1893 ended it had won the title of "the billion dollar congress." Reed expressed the feeling of his political friends in the retort, "This is a billion dollar country." The most notable increase was for pensions. Both parties feared to antagonize the soldier vote, and certain politicians had learned the art of utilizing it by asking for grants in behalf of the sol- Pensions ^[q^s, which no one dared refuse. Most of these grants were good. No one desired to be parsimonious with the men who saved the union ; but there was danger that the process should run into extravagance. It might even become a means of debasing the elections. At first, relief was given to disabled soldiers and their dependent relatives. Under this plan there were 234,821 pensioners in 1875 receiving $29,270,407 annually. Garfield declared this was probably the highest point to which pensions would rise ; but in 1879 arrears were granted increasing the cost by $25,000,000 a year; and by 1885 the cost of pensions was $65,171,937. Besides this, each session of congress saw the enactment of many private pension bills, granting relief where the laws would not apply. Many such bills were worthy ones ; but they were rarely inspected closely, and had come to be granted as favors to members through a "courtesy" analagous to "senatorial courtesy." The presidents formerly signed these bills as a matter of course, but Cleveland in- vestigated them, and vetoed many which he thought involved fraud. At this time the republicans carried through congress a bill giving twelve dollars a month to each old soldier dependent on his own or another person's labor, and Cleveland vetoed this also. He was widely criticized as a foe to the veterans, and the republican platform of 18S8 demanded "in the presence of an overflowing treasury" leg- islation to keep old soldiers from dependence on public or private charity. Thus committed, the party did not hesitate to take up a more liberal pension policy. "Corporal" Tanner, accepted representative of the soldier vote, became commissioner of pensions, and was said to have THE SURPLUS BECOMES A DEFICIT 727 exclaimed, " God help the surplus revenue ! " He passed claims freely, and even looked up persons, some of them rich men, whom he thought ought to be pensioned. He was so active that Harrison . removed him within a year. The pension act which gf^^°g Cleveland vetoed now became law. As a result, the ap- propriation for this purpose rose from $89,000,000 in 1889 to $159,000,000 in 1893. It remained at nearly the latter amount until 1912, when by the Sherwood act, which neither party was willing to oppose, additional gifts were made, bringing up the annual expen- diture to $180,000,000. The act of 1S90, like its successor of 191 2, was of twofold purpose ; it was intended to reduce the surplus and thus save protection, and to have influence on the elections. To carry it into operation the government has paid since its enactment over a billion and a quarter of dollars. The large sums voted for the navy occasioned more satisfaction. By 1S80 wooden ships were discarded in European navies, but they continued the rule in the United States. Secretary of the Navy Hunt, a Southerner whom Garfield appointed, took jj^yy" up the task of improvement, and in 1883 two steel cruisers were ordered. Secretary Whitney, under Cleveland, continued to urge enlargement, and in 188S he secured $17,000,000 for that purpose. These plans were unrealized when Cleveland went out of office, but the liberal gifts under his successor increased the strength of the navy, so that in 1893 it contained 22 steel ships and had risen from twelfth to fifth place among the navies of the world. The Tariff Legislation of 1892-1897 When congress met in 1889 the surplus was $105,000,000. By aban- doning the sugar duties and levying prohibitive duties in other sched- ules the revenue shrank nearly $100,000,000. At the same time the republicans spent so largely that had some of ^* the items not required a long time for completion there ^^.^ ^^^^^ must have been an annual deficit. Seven months after Finances, the McKinley bill was passed the treasury ceased to buy bonds except to fulfill the requirements of the sinking fund. The next year even this went by default, and in 1892 came the first quar- ter's deficit in many years. It was a new experience to most of the people, and impressed them deeply. Harrison was alarmed, and made efforts to check the spirit of extravagance he had let loose. Tanner was sent off and granting pensions was curbed, but the swollen lists could not be reduced. Pressure on congressional committees tem- pered the appropriations of 1891, and a phenomenal wheat crop, 1891, resulted in large importations of merchandise which increased the revenues and saved the administration from serious embarrassment. 728 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM Outside of congress the tariff aroused opposition. Merchants raised their prices and attributed it to the McKinley bUl. Abroad we were charged with raising a Chinese wall around our trade. ^f Ts*""* Importations decreased, to the great loss of the merchants. A month after the bill passed, when its unpopularity was highest, came the congressional elections. The result in the house was 235 democrats, 88 republicans, and 9 Farmers' Alliance can- didates, a republican loss of 88 seats. The popular dissatisfaction lasted for two years, and m 1892 Cleve- land was elected president on the tariff issue (see page 753). He proposed a moderate reduction and readjustment to meet Bm ^''^°" the large revenue needs which the permanent expenditures of the republicans fi.xed on the government. He had his way in the house, where William L. Wilson, of West Virginia, was chairman of the ways and means committee. He was a scholarly man, once a college professor, and always a studentof finance. The bill he reported December 19, 1893, was the result of much labor, and its chief features were: i. Free raw material, as lumber, wool, coal, and iron ore. This would to some extent recoup the manufactures for reduction of duties on manufactured products. 2. It reduced appreciably the duties on most factory-made articles, as si.ks, woollens, cottons, glass, and crockery. 3. To repair the deficiency in revenues which would thus ensue, it raised the internal revenue tax on liquors and laid a tax on incomes more than $4000. The last fea- ture was afterwards declared unconstitutional. The house bill also provided for free sugar, raw and refined. This brought a protest from the American Sugar Refining Company, popularly called the sugar trust. Since freight was cheaper s h d f" ^^ refined sugar and the cost of refining was greater in the United States, the proposition gave advantage to the for- eign refiner ; but the sugar trust was very unpopular, and the house was disposed to let it stand on its own legs. It found a friendlier spirit in the senate. In the first place, the Louisiana senators opposed free sugar unless the bounty of 1890 was continued. As the vote was close they were an important factor. The senate, therefore, placed 40 per cent duty ad valorem on raw sugar and added one-eighth of one cent a pound on refined. This was done after a long and doubtful debate in which the chances for the refiners' clause rose and fell day by day. Its adoption meant a yearly profit of probably $20,000,000 for the sugar trust, whose stock rose and fell with chances for adoption. Finally, by the votes of a few senators under the leadership of Gorman and Brice, the duty was accepted. The press charged that senators speculated in this stock, whose value was so much affected by their votes. An investigation was ordered, but as the stockbrokers re- fused to testify it was impossible to obtain satisfactory light. Quay admitted having bought stock, but denied that this influenced his vote. DEFECTS OF DEMOCRATIC BILL 729 The affair left an indelible blot on the fame of the upper house. The senate thought the bill inadequate to the needs of the revenue, and raised many other schedules, robbing it of its distinctively low tariff features. The house accepted it unwillingly, Gorman Act' and it went to the president with the duties at about the level of the bill of 1S83. Cleveland felt the situation keenly: the bill undid the McKinley advances and did no more. It was a sur- render of all he fought for in 1888, and involved, as he said plainly, party dishonor. He would not sign it, nor would he veto it, but left it to become law in ten days without presidential approval. As a revenue measure the bOl proved a failure. It did not escape from a system the protectionists had long ago saddled on the revenue system, of reducing duties on non-protected articles in order to maintain them on articles of domestic manufac- ^'"an":'^ ture. The free list was witness of this. If the democrats j^e Act. had possessed the courage to lay fair duties on such articles and to rely on a reduction of the other schedules to give relief to the consumer, they would have made a bill more in keeping with true tariff reform. Probably that was the only way to meet the deficit which the McKinley law created. The Wilson-Gorman bill was passed at an inopportune time. 1893 and 1894 were years of industrial depression. The deficit which the McKinley bill produced was not repaired by the new law. To meet expenses the secretary of the treasury must use jjggj^j "* part of the gold reserve, and bonds were sold to support specie payment by the government. In the long struggle against business depression the democratic party lost public confidence. In 1894 its total majority of S3 was supplanted by a total republican ma- jority of 136, and it ceased to be responsible for the national finances. In 1896 it dared not fight the conflict on the tariff issue. What other plans the old leaders might have had were not developed, for the silver men in the West and South set them aside, reorganized the party on a silver basis, took William J. Bryan for their chieftain, and moved to the battle in utter disregard of the wishes of the East. The republicans nominated McKinley, protection's champion, and defeated their opponents in a campaign in which sih'er and protection were both prominent issues. The failure of the existing law to pro- vide ample revenue gave them opportunity to revise the tariff, and the result was the Dingley bill, of 1897. Its provisions were as follows: On woollens, cottons, silk, linens, glass, and crockery the rates varied little from the tariff of 1890, and the duty on raw wool was restored. On iron and steel products the lower rates of 1894 were retained. Wonderful developments in these xa^Ac^t*'' lines had transferred the seat of manufacture to the Pitts- burg-Cleveland region, and the high freights on such products from the seaboard to this region gave it as much protection as was needed. 730 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM The same was true of copper, which was left on the free list as in 1894. The duty on raw sugar was doubled and the differential of protection for the refiner was maintained. The Dingley bill pro\'ided sufficient revenue, and through a period of twelve years after its passage tariff reform was quiescent. The attack of the Cleveland democracy showed that protec- ^"5.^"!^°'^^ tion was very strongly fortified in our economic system. Agitation. Capital and labor both felt themselves interested in perpet- uating it. The progress of urban life, so largely dependent on factory labor and internal commerce, widened the basis of the movement. In the eighties the tariff reform sentiment of the West centered in the old Northwest. In the nineties this region was mostly for protection. After ten years of the Dingley bill a new area of reform was influential in the agricultural states beyond the Mississippi. Through cooperation with the South, always for tariff reform in the main, it began the agitation resulting in the Payne- Aldrich tariff of 1909 (see page 837). BIBLOGR.\PHIC.\L NOTE For general works see : Sparks, Natioiml Developmoil (igoy) ; Dewey, National Problems (igoy) ; Wilson, History of the American People, 5 vols. (1902) ; Stanwood, History of the Presidency (i8g8); Peck, Twenty Years of t/te Republic (1905); .An- drews, The United States in Our Own Times (1903); Curtis, The Republican Party, 2 vols. (iQ04); and Johnston, American Politics (ed. 1S94). The sources are the same as for the preceding chapter. For biographies see : Parker, Graver Cleveland (igog) ; Whittle, Grover Cleveland (1896); Gilder, Groi'cr C/«W(;«i/ (iqio) ; Parker, Writings and Speeches of Cleveland (i8q2), none of these books adequately describe the work of Cleveland; Burton, John Sherman (igo6); Shermdin, Recollections of Forty Years, 2 vols. (1895) ; White, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1905); Hoar, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1903); McClure, Recollections (1902); Stanwood, James G. Blaine (1905) ;■ Hamilton [Dodge], Bi- ography of Blaine (1895); Dingley, iz/e and Times of Nelson Dingley, Jr. (1902); Byars, Life and Times of R. P. Bland (1900); and Hedges, Benjamin Harrison: Speeches (1892). On tariff history see: Taussig, Tariff History of the United States (ed. 1905), opposed to protection; Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, 2 vols. (1903), favors protection; and Curtiss, Industrial Development of Nations, 3 vols. (1912); Howe, Taxation under the Internal Revenue System, lygi-iSg; (1896); and Dewey, Financial History of the United States (1903). On civil service reform see : Fish, Civil Service and the Patronage (Harvard Studies, 1905) ; Tyler, Parties and Patronage (18S8) ; Curtis, Orations and Addreiscs, 3 vols. (1893) ; Eaton, Government of Municipalities (iSgg) ; and the reports of the national civil service commission (1884). The periodical literature of the time is indispensable to the student. The follow- ing are most \'aluable and accessible : The Forum (New York) ; The Nation (New York) ; The Independent (New York) ; The North American Review (New York); Harper's Weekly (New York) ; and The Atlantic Monthly (Boston.) For Independent Reading Gilder, Grover Cleveland (1910) ; McClure, Recollections (1902) ; Austen, Moses Cnit Tyler (igii) ; and Storey and Kmerson, Ebenezer Rockivood Hoar (ion). CHAPTER XXXV GREAT INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS Combinations as Historical Factors In the Middle Ages a multitude of competing fiefs were gradually united in strong hands in obedience to the law of the survival of the fittest. Much suffering accompanied the prcjcess, and the immediate result was despotism, but gradually the en- Tlie Pnn- larged units of government transformed despotism into "o^blna- a rule of nationality out of which eventually came self- tion. governing states. The last phase could not have been attained if, in the beginning, the jangling fiefs had not been absorbed. The 'analogy between the early stages of this process and the recent development of industrial combinations has often been remarked. It is impossible to predict what the future will bring forth, but it would be singular if the process stops where it is and if out of the e.\isting concentration of industrial forces there should not come a greater degree of popular control than has hitherto obtained. Combination in industry appeared in America in the earliest stages of settlement. The forests were hardly cleared before the small farms began to be bought up by the successful settlers; and the New England cod fisheries were no more than ^^'''^ *'". fairly established before the small fishermen began to be America, replaced by large fishermen. In agriculture and in cod fishing the limit of profitable combination was soon reached. But in the era of great capitalistic enterprise, made possible by improved communications, larger markets, and al^undant capital, the limits were wide. The world was amazed when great enterprises began to eat up small ones and establish monopcjlies. For railroads the unify- ing process began before the civil war, but for other kinds of industry it was a post-bellum affair. Before the coming of consolidation the competitive regime e.xisted. Acting on the laissez-faire theory men felt that industry would thrive best if unregulated, and that the abuse of one man would be restrained by his opponent, each underbidding the ^^^9°"^' other to the advantage of the patrons. When competitors system, had free access to the same large markets, competition became severe. There were price wars between merchants and manu- facturers and rate wars between railroads, each cutting the throat of 731 732 GREAT INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS the other if he could and saving his own in the best way possible. The competitive system was immoral and wasteful, and the public had to pay for it eventually. Against this were placed the advantages of combination. Relief from underselling was most notable, and after it came better and less expensive direction, readier command of capital, Advantages ability to get cheaper raw material, and the advantage of a Co^mbfna-'"^ market monopoly. WhUe these things benefited the com- tion. bining interests, they were liable to be disadvantageous to the patrons, and out of this grew many efforts at re- striction. The fields in which combination has gone furthest are railroads, great manufacturing enterprises or trusts, and banking consolidation. A parallel tendency, as many persons think, is labor organizations, whose purpose is to control labor as a commodity, to protect it against the employers, and to fix the wages which the em- ployers must pay. The problems arising out of these four forms of combinations — railroads, trusts, banking systems, and labor unions — are fundamental in our recent history. Railroad Combinations Railroads came into existence in Great Britain about the time they were first used in the United States, but as the country was smaller , „ , . than ours and more densely settled, the English develop- In England. • i -tm f ..t, ment was more rapid, llie processes of growth were, however, the same. First, there were many small lines, built to an- swer local demands and frequently to give competition between the same places. Most of them were constructed before 1S50. Immedi- ately began a process of absorption which lasted untO 1S70. Bank- rupt roads were bought by richer lines, sometimes there was a merger by common consent, and sometimes a rival was purchased as the best means of ending its opposition. The people of England had relied on competition to protect them from unfair rates. They were alarmed at the advance of the process of amalgamation, and the statute books filled with laws and the court dockets with lawsuits to restrain it. Nothing availed, and they began to think they must revise from the foundation the theory of railroad management. Some persons be- lieved state ownership the solution, but this was against the English spirit and made little headway. Finally the coimtry came in 1873 to a solution which since then has been in practice with moderate satis- faction. It was decided to retain the great systems, consolidated under the operation of natural laws, and to establish a railroad com- mission with power to regulate rates, forbid evil practices, and enforce its decisions. It was expected that the commission would have much trouble to bring the railroads to obey its mandates. The result was otherwise. The removal of competition destroyed many of the ORIGIN OF THE GREAT SYSTEMS 733 causes of the trouble, and the roads were as willing to operate their lines to the best advantage of the public as broad justice demanded. Thus the work of the commission was simplified. In the United States railroad development ran through the same three stages of progress, small roads, consolidated lines, and ?? 'J" great systems under the super\ision of a railroad com- states, mission. It has taken longer for the process to come to completion, but it is not too much to say that American railroads under the existing railroad commission have come to a state nearly like that of the roads in Great Britain. Consolidation began in the United States about 1850. Eleven companies once owned the line from Albany to Buffalo, but by this time they were reduced to seven. By 1S57 these were under one management, and a year later valuable tribu- ^i"™ tary lines had been acquired. Thus was built up the Mountains, main section of the New York Central system under the domination of Cornelius Vanderbilt. The completion of the Erie from New York to the lake in 1851 gave a rival system, one not made up of short lines, but built outright with much difficulty in financing. Another system was the Pennsylvania, which reached Pittsburg in 1852. It grew up under the direction of Thomas A. Scott, long its president, as tlaring and able in railroad management as the president of the Central. Still another great road from tidewater to the trans- montane region was the Baltimore and Ohio, which reached the Ohio river in 1851. Meantime, there was much railroad building in the West. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern connected Buffalo and Chicago, and the Rock Island, extending westward from Chicago, reached the Mississippi in 1854. Other lines joined Pittsburg and Chicago, and from the latter city and St. Louis radiated many roads which kept pace with the march of population into the waste places. Already there was great rivalry between St. Louis and Chicago for the distributing trade of the West. The former lost in importance, and the advantages of river transportation diminished with the in- creased reliance on railroads. Chicago competed keenly for the new lines of communication, and her position at the southern point of the lake system and between the mountams and the Mississippi gave her an advantage over other points. The line of communication was destined to be along parallels of latitude. The panic of 1857 arrested railroad development, and the civil war prolonged the rela.xation of the process. It was not until the late sixties that it revived, and then the tide ran strong until the panic of 1873. Accompanying this revival was a desire f'^'^S'-j "J^^'. for a further consolidation. It manifested itself in the tu,ent. unification with the Central, of the Hudson River road, from New York to Albany, and in the lease by the same line of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. Thus the \'anderbilt sj-stem was 734 GREAT INDUSTRL\L COMBINATIONS able to ship in bulk from Chicago to the seaboard. The Pennsylvania was not a whit behind its rival. In 1869 it leased the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago, and got its own access to the gateway of Western trade. The same result was secured by the Baltimore and Ohio in 1874 by building an extension from the Oliio to Chicago ; and the Grand Trunk in the same year was able to touch the Western traffic at Milwaukee. In 1SS2 two other lines were constructed to Chicago, the West Shore and the Nickel Plate. The Erie was not willing to lose the trade that might come to it, and achieved the same goal by building a connecting link. These, with the Pacific roads (see page 680), were the most important railroad developments of the time, but there were many others in various parts of the country. It was an era of rapid construction, especially in the newer parts of the country. The rate wars which followed between these lines delighted the people of Chicago and other competing points. But the roads eventually found them expensive and sought to avoid them Attempts at jjy cooperation. Such efforts first took shape in simple Cooperation. j t- * . \-t agreements to charge uniform rates. Ihe most notable was arranged by Cornelius Vanderbilt between the five lines then running from Lake Michigan to the seaboard, but after his death in 1877 it was abandoned because it was difficult to get the roads to keep the agreement. The next expedient was pools, by which the roads undertook to pay their profits into the hands of a treasurer of the pool who would distribute them again in accordance with a previ- ously accepted ratio. The pool, it was thought, removed all incenti\'e to underselling. But the roads would not keep the terms of the con- tract, and pools were eventually abandoned. A general practice was secret rebates to special shippers. They were given on the theory that a large shipper should have a special rate. An un- scrupulous bargainer might exjiect to get very low rates by playing one road against another. Still another practice was special rates for long hauls where there were competing lines. For example, a car- load of freight could be sent from Pittsburg to Cincinnati and thence to Philadelphia through Pittsburg more cheaply than from Pittsburg to Philadelphia direct. Cincinnati had several lines to Philadelphia, and Pittsburg had only one. In the panic of 1S73 two-fifths of the railroads of tlie country were in bankruptcy, and 450 went under the hammer, a process favorable to consolidation. Railroad cooperation and discrimination between shippers and shipping points aroused popular opposition, particularly in the grain- growing Northwest, where the people were peculiarly L *^ s*f.^*'^ dependent on the roads. Then arose a demand for state regulations to prevent discrimination and to check con- solidation. It was like the English demand, and resulted in railroad commissions in many states. It was supported by a farmers' society, the Patrons of Husbandry, or "Granges," and the resulting legisla- CONTROL OF RAILROADS 735 tion is frequently called the "Granger laws." Illinois, Iowa, Min- nesota, and Wisconsin were the scenes of their best success. The courts upheld the laws creating the railroad commissions, but said the rates must not be confiscatory. The first decisions seemed to imply that in the absence of federal law to regulate interstate traffic a slate law on the subject would be binding. In 1886 this feature was changed by a federal decision in the Wabasli case, reser\'ing from state juris- diction all cases concerning commerce between the states, whether a federal law on the matter e.\isted or not. Before this there existed a movement for a national railroad com- mission, and it was accelerated by the Wabash decision. The result was the interstate commerce act of 1887, which made some general regulations, and a|)pointed a commission l"t«''state to supervise their e.xecution. The rate-making jtower ^^j ,gg_ was not granted, but rebates, pools, discriminations, and the objectionable long hauls feature were forbidden. The commission might investigate violations of the law, but it had of itself no [jower to enforce its decisions, which might be appealed to the courts. When this feature of the law was passed on by the sujireme court the powers of the commissioners were so limited that they retained little more than a right to make investigations preliminary to court hearings. Judge Thomas M. Cooley, of Michigan, was made head of the com- mission. It did much under his direction to gather statistics and in- vestigate evils in management, but it had not the power to remedy the conditions it thought bad. Rebates and discriminations went on as before, with only a little more secrecy. In 1898 the rejjort of the commissioners declared with hopeless frankness: "A large part of the business at the present time is transacted upon illegal rates. Indeed, so general has this rule become that in certain quarters the e.xaction of the published rate is the exception." Meanwhile, there was an accumulation of popular wrath against the railroads. By supporting expensive lobbies in the national and state capitals, by using all the advantages of great wealth in defending cases in court, and by discriminating between shippers, they lost the confidence of many farmers and small business men. Manipulation by railroad directors in the interest of their own stock speculations, and even the wrecking of a road in order to buy it in again, were freely charged, and the charges served to heighten popular distrust. The contest became bitter, and such epithets as "soulless corporations" and "demagogery" were freely exchanged. Undoubtedly the charges on each side contained exaggerations. But the opponents of the roads were strong in state legislatures, and although some of their efforts to deal with the problem contained crude ideas of social jus- tice, they carried forward the cause of eflBcient popular control of great economic factors. 736 GREAT INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS Trusts To consolidate manufactures was more difficult than to consolidat railroads, partly because of the large number of the former as compare- with the latter, partly because railroads are generall; Combina- natural monopolies, and partly because of the relativ Manu- *^^^^ °^ enlisting capital in behalf of railroad enterprises factures. The advantages of combination were realized by manu facturers as early as 1S70, when railroad consolidation wa well on the way. But the impediments discouraged the boldest me from attempting it. Yet each year it became an easier matter, an this was from several causes: i. In the three decades after the civ: war there was a notable tendency for the particular branches of mami facturing to produce a larger output in a smaller number of plant; 2. This was made possible by abundant free capital. The civil wa saw a great increase in bonds and currency and in profits derive from government contracts of one kind or another. Some of this vas amount went into agriculture, some into city real estate, some int trade, and some into railroads, but a large part of it remained read for exploitation by the captains of industry. 3. Another cause wa the extension of means of communication. Merchandise was nc only delivered over larger areas, but traveling salesmen went everj where. Consequently, the most efiicient factories were able to secui the trade which otherwise would have gone to less favorably situate enterprises. 4. As this process advanced, the imagination of busines men was stimulated, and they were e\'entually in a state of mind to b satisfied with nothing less than the entire market in their specifi lines in a great nation. It was for the Standard Oil Company, the second trust organizec to demonstrate that manufactures could be organized in monopoUsti production. The task was made easier because it had t Trust '°°**'^ do with a product found in a narrow region and in wid demand throughout the world. In this respect it ap proached the condition of natural monopol)-. The success of th attempt, however, depended most on the ability of John D. Rocke feller, its head, who had the rarest foresight, patience, will power, an sagacity in the selection of his assistants. He began to refine oil i Cleveland in 1S65 at a time when the business with ordinary car yielded a profit of thirty per cent. In his hands it yielded more, an by 1870 his company was the largest in Cleveland, and he was revoh ing plans to make it the largest in the oil region. His first move to that end came in 1872, when he united with twelv of the largest refiners in Pittsburg and the oil fields in forming th South Improvement Company. Its business was to ship oil, that i to say, to get special railroad rates for the oil it could market. I could deliver to any road it chose a large part of the oil biisiness, an ROCKKFHLLER'S IDEAL 7,57 neither the Pennsylvania, Erie, nor New Yori< Central could hold out against it. The bargain it made shows the audacity of the men behind the company. It provided for a rebate on company oil, added the amount of the rebate to oil shipped by indepen- ^°"*'' '"" dents, and pledged the roa^JTo pay over that amount to compaif" the company. Thus the combination was able to know just how much business its competitors did. The company promised the roads that e\'ery refiner outside of the company should have op- portunity to share in the bargain. How they meant to carry it out is seen in what follows. Rockefeller first got authority to enkirge his own capital stock. He then offered to buy out his rivals for cash or stock in the Standard Oil Company, of Cleveland. He told them plainly that to refuse would mean their destruction. Most of them r.°™''?1^ r 1 n 1 '111-. Dissolved. refused to sell, then saw the railroad authorities and learned of the advantages given the combination, and finally agreed to Rockefeller's terms. Thus by three months' negotiation the Standard gained control of the Cleveland field and raised its daily capacity from 1500 to 10,000 barrels. It now produced over a fifth of the refined oil in the country. .\ furious "oil war" started as soon as the independents learned that freights would be raised at the dic- tation of the South Improvement Company. So fierce was the feeling throughout the oil region in western Pennsylvania and in Pittsburg that the roads made a show of annulling the contract, and the legis- lature took away the charter of the comj^any. Ne.xt was organizeil the National Refiners' Association, controlling four-fifths of the country's output. It was really a pool formed to limit production, and fi.x the price of crude petroleum and the market for refined oil. It operated a year, and was dissolved in 187,3 because it was believed that some members did not live up to their agreements. It ended the second attempt of Rockefeller to monopolize the oil business. He was not discouraged, but he abandoned the hopes of succeeding through cooperation. His success in the Cleveland field pointed out a better way, i.e. the establishment of ownership or direct control by the Standard. Then followed nine years of ^1^^^^"^ patient work for that end. It rested fundamentally on gj^^ the surpassing success of the Standard as a manufacturer. Waste was eliminated, by-products were utilized as never before, barrels were made in its own cooperage plants, and its own cars and docks at the seaboard showed how much it was disposed to cheapen its transportation bills. Meanwhile, rebates were always secured. But year after year the Standard got its hands on an increasing number of its coiTii)etitors. Some it bought outright, some it induced to join forces, others it leased, and in every case it was careful that the ac- quisition should be kept secret. In 1882 this process was complete. The ideal of fifteen years was accomplished and the oil interests of the 3B 738 GREAT INDUSTRIAL COMBLNATIONS country were united, and Rockefeller was at their head. It but re- mained to organize into a corporation the various properties so painfully brought into one circle. It was then that the trust was for- mally created. The nine years of consolidation were nine years of warfare. All the tricks of the competitive regime were here produced, and on a vastly larger scale. Underselling was now resorted to with the * ° ^' surety of crushing the object aimed at, whereas in the regime of smaller traders it was always doubtful how it would result. The power of wealth was massed to crush him who dared oppose the combination. Promises were violated as freely as in the days when thirty salesmen stalked one buyer. And when the combination was successful it raised prices to the level of great profits, which, however, were not so high as in the days of many producers. The people ba\e not yet decided whether or not the combination was economically successful, but they are agreed that it was relentlessly organized and that it is a natural monopoly. In 1882 Rockefeller had secretly brought into his system thirty- nine important refiners, producing three-fourths of the oil of the coun- try, and he proceeded to bring them into a unified control. Trust First were organized four Standard Oil companies, one rgamze . ^^^^ .^^ Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and they took over the property of the combination in the respective states. This feature of the plan was public, and existed by state charter. To get further union, a central organization was established. Nine directors of the Standard Oil Trust were appointed, Rockefeller at their head, and to them the holders of stock in the four companies surrendered their certificates, recei\ing in return certificates for similar amounts of stock in the trust. The trust directors could not sell the stock they took, but held it in trust for the owners, who, however, could not demand it back. The trust directors received into their hands all the profits of the constituent companies and paid them out to the holders of trust certificates. Other companies besides the four men- tioned were taken into the trust on the same terms. Each constituent company retained ostensibly the management of its own business, but in fact it yielded to the suggestion of the central directors, who were chosen from the men prominent in the companies. The Standard Oil Trust was probably the most powerful business organization in the country, yet it existed \\ithout a charter, by private agreement, and was so secret that its existence was not known outside of Standard Oil circles until 1888. Then followed an Ohio suit to annul the charter of the constituent company in that state : for Ohio law forbade a state Dissolved corporation to surrender control to parties outside of the state. The suit was won, but the oil men got leniency by promising to dissolve the trust. They dallied about this forsome years,. THE TRUSTS AND STOCK SPECULATION 739 but at last took refuge in a New Jersey charter. The capital stock of the constituent company for New Jersey was enlarged from $10,000,000 to $1 10,000,000, and the trust was dissolved, the whole property going to the great New Jersey corporation. Long before Rockefeller proved that the manufacture of an article could be successfully monopolized, other men were establishing combinations on the trust plan. The movement be- came strong late in the eighties. Some enterprises 5*" were established on insecure bases, and in the panic of 1893 many were seriously crippled. Revived prosperity in 1898-1902 brought another wave of trust formation. One ambitious scheme was the International Marine Company. It took over at extravagant cash prices some of the leading transatlantic lines. Another was the United States Shipbuilding Company, which sold stocks and bonds on the false assertion that iniluential foreigners had bought them. The "million- aire's panic," as the stringency of 1903 was called, sent several of these ventures into bankruptcy. Those that survived profited by a period of legal restriction and by the experience of the years. The organization of trusts presented an excellent opportunity for stock speculation. In most cases theplants of the combining companies represented only a part of the stock in the new concerns. The rest represented the increased earning capacity of the ^"^'J^e'^*^? new enteq)rise, popularly known as "water." The owners speculation of assimilated plants were paid in bonds, preferred and common stock of the trust, and in some cases in cash. To launch a trust required a certain amount of cash, and it was usually got from a banker in exchange for more than an equal amount of securities in the trust. Thus when such an enteq:)rise began there were in the hands of the bankers and the former owners of the component companies a large amount of securities which it was desired to sell to the public. The occasion fa\'ored stock manipulation, and the public got the im- pression that the opportunity was accepted by man)' men inside the trust directorates. \\Tien in 1903 the press began to speak of the "un- digested securities" of the newly organized enterprises, a certain prominent financier made the apt remark that they were "indigestible securities." The organization of trusts elicited a great deal of opposition, not only from the small competitors who were forced out of business, but from a public which sympathized instinctively with the losers. This accumulating dislike was manifest in politics ^''x^sts" and occasioned the investigations of 1888. The facts then revealed were short of the truth ; for it was sometimes impossible to inspect the books of the trusts, and some of the officials of these great companies refused to testify lest they incriminate themselves. But enough was discovered to show how relentless was the war on small competitors. The issue became so im])ortant in the election of 740 GREAT INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS 1888 that both political parties were impelled to take action. Decem- ber 4, 1889, Senator Sherman introduced the measure now known as the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, which passed July 2, 1890, by a large non-partisan vote. It declared illegal all contracts to create mo- nopolies in restraint of competition and made it a misdemeanor punish- able by a $5000 fine or a year's imprisonment to enter into such a contract. The law^ was of wide scope. It included logically any com- bination which tended to monopolize the output of the branch of in- dustry to which it apj:>lied. It made no attempt to distinguish be- tween good and bad combinations. It was felt that it was passed to satisfy a shallow popular demand, and for several years little disposi- tion was shown to execute it. It was to be the basis of later efforts, but that is a part of another movement. Bank Consolidation The progress of trusts suggested the consolidation of banking in- terests, and in this Rockefeller took the lead. About 1890 he and other Standard Oil men acquired control of the National Rocke- Qi^_y ]3^j;ii^ in New York and increased its capital stock s'yslem. ^^i^til at last it was $25,000,000, only $10,000,000 less than that of the bank which Jackson destroyed in 1836. Then began a series of extensions. Sometimes another bank was bought outright, sometimes it merged with the National City Bank, and some- times it was merely controlled by ha\'ing the majority of its stock come into the hands of persons prominent in the affairs of that institution. About fifty powerful banks in \'arious cities are said to have been drawn into this circle. The dozen of these in New York are organized in two groups, or "chains," containing, besides banks, trust companies and insurance companies. The two "chains" had in 1903 a combined capital of §108,000,000, and combined deposits of s'stem $474,000,000. Side by side with it grew up another great system headed by J. P. Morgan and Company, including three "chains" with capital in 1903 of vSgy.ooOjOoo and deposits of $472,000,000. The two great systems controlled $205,000,000 of the $451,000,000 of banking capital in the city. So vast is their power that it is doubtful if any great business enterprise could be started successfully without their help. Wlien the tendency to bank con- solidation became apparent much was said about "the money trust," with power over every other trust. It was alleged that Trusf ""^^ l:)y contracting or expanding the bank reser\'es it could put up or down the prices of stocks as suited the interests of its speculating owners. Such a trust was pronounced the climax of all the movements toward combination. The passage of time has not brought the predicted evils, and it is certain that the concentration of banking capital has facilitated the support of the money market in PROGRESS OF LABOR UNIONS 74 1 times of panic. In 1912 the Pujo committee, by order of congress, investigated the "money trust." After taking much testimony it was not able to say that such an organization exists ; but it made evident a number of evils which have grown up in connection with the strong cooperation that e.xists among the great banking interests. Combinations of Laborers When agriculture was the chief American mdustry, most of the laborers were engaged in it. But the development of manufactures, mining, mechanical operations, trade, and transportation has been rapid ajid has tended to correct the preponder- Emoiovees ance of agricultural laborers. In 1870 our agriculturalists were 47.5 per cent of the persons engaged in gainful occupations, in 1880 they were 44.1 per cent, in 1890 they were 38.1 per cent, and in 1900 they were 35.3 per cent ; while the non-agriculturalist classes just mentioned were 31. i per cent in 1870, 32.4 per cent in 1880, 38.5 per cent in 1890, and 40.6 per cent in 1900. As this second group constitutes the laborers usually organized into unions, it will be seen how the significance of the labor problem grows with the relative in- crease of the non-agricultural laboring class. Local labor unions existed in the LTnited States from the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1850 the printers founded the first national union, and by i860 twenty- five other trades were similarly organized. The civil war did not interrupt the jj"ons* ""^ process, and in 1866 a national labor union was estab- lished, chiefly to agitate for an eight-hour law for federal employees. It got its desire in 1869, but the act was long unenforced. In 1872 the national organization essayed more active political partisanship and fell into confusion. Laborers were not willing to give up political associations at the behest of the labor leaders. In 1869 Uriah S. Stephens, a Philadelphia garment cutter, estab- lished the Knights of Labor, a secret organization. It received mem- bers irrespective of trades and aimed to have a grand army The If n 1 trln t c of laborers, strong enough to force the world to respect , Labor their rights. The founder insisted on secrecy, but some of the members opposed him in this respect and won their battle in 1881. A leader in the new faction was Terence V. Powderly, twice elected mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and destined to be for several years grand master of the Knights. He had real ability, and became in Cleveland's second administration head of the national immigration bureau. After 1881 the organization gained in member- ship. The ideal of a strong militant movement for labor pleased the workingmen, and local chapters were established in all parts of the country. These developments attracted much attention, particularly among the politicians, and great fears were entertained lest it should 742 GREAT INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS become a ruling force in politics. Under this impression its member- ship was greatly exaggerated. In 1886 rumor put it at 5,000,000, which was seven times the right number. The leaders of the Knights were themselves carried away at the prospect of great power, they coun- tenanced the alarm of the outside world and worked zealously for the extension of membership. In 1S86 they had thus taken Eiemen? ^'^ many men of radical ideas, some of them anarchists recently arrived in the countr}-. The conservative element were able to stop the influx of such men by suspending the enlistment of members, but those already admitted urged a violent policy, stimulated the resentment of the rank and file of the order against capitalists, and carried into operation several ill-advised strikes. They led a move- ment for a general eight-hour day, and May i, 1886, was set for the time at which labor would put it into force. When the employers generally refused to yield, a great many small and some large strikes followed. Much confusion existed, but the object of the strikers was not attained. In April a great strike occurred on the railroads of the Gould system centering in St. Louis. It began when the Texas and Pacific, one of the roads in the system, discharged a foreman for cause at Louifstrike ^^^^ Worth. The officials of the Knights ordered a strike of 1886. because he was not reinstated on demand. It soon e.x- tended to the whole system, and the situation became critical in St. Louis. Here the Knights of Labor were under the in- fluence of Martin Irons, a violent man who kept his supporters keyed up to a high pitch of excitement. The strikers resorted to violence and set at defiance the small detachment of federal troops sent to the city. Special constables sworn in for the occasion were not very effective, the mob spirit grew, railroad property was burned, factories were closed, and innocent persons were killed and wounded by the officers. After several weeks of disorder the strike failed, through the exhaustion of the strikers. The other great strike was in Chicago, where freight handlers de- manded an eight-hour day, and it finally involved 60,000 persons. In the city were many desperate people, victims of wrong g^/''""^" in e\-ery part of the world, and some of them were Knights 1886. of Labor. Two, professed anarchists, edited newspapers, the Alarm, by Parsons, and the Arbeiter Zcitung, by Spies. Both papers incited the strikers to violence. Parsons going so far as to urge the use of dynamite to dispose of "rich loafers who live by the sweat of other people's brows." The authorities became alarmed, probably unnecessarily so, and on May 4 undertook to disperse an anarchists' meeting in Haymarket Square. A bomb from the crowd fell among the police, killing seven and wounding sixty. Many anarchists were arrested and tried for their lives. Seven were con- victed, of whom four were hanged, one committed suicide in prison, A NEW LABOR ORGANIZATION 743 and two had sentence commuted to life imprisonment. The country generally was shocked at the appearance of anarchy in America and approved of the convictions, although the evidence was circumstantial. Friends of the prisoners claimed that guilt was not proved. Eight years later Governor Altgcld, in sympathy with the cause of labor, pardoned the two life prisoners. He believed their guilt was not established and that they were victims of popular excitement. His action was widely condemned. The conservative Knights realized the discredit their order re- ceived from the violent element, and tried to remedy it. They did not succeed, and the result was large secessions from the or- ganization. A rival movement was about to supplant it. A™e"<=a" In 1881 w^as formed a Federation of Trades and Labor of^Lab*or?° Unions, the idea of which was that members of the same trades should organize in their respective interests. They were lost sight of in the rapid development of the Knights of Labor, but with the decline of that body after 1886 they came into greater prominence. They then reorganized as the American Federation of Labor, whose subsequent growth has been remarkable. In igio it reported a membership of 2,000,000, while the Knights of Labor hi 1903 had dwindled to 40,000. The future of combined labor in the United States seems to lie with the federative rather than the integrated plan. The revival of prosperity after 1886 brought relief from strikes, but the depression which followed the panic of 1893 saw their recurrence. There were many unemployed men, and much suffering e.xisted in the winter of 1S93-1894. In the following spring ^^^ ^"^" a small strike in the Pullman Car works at Chicago was jg.. the beginning of a great conflict. The company felt the influence of the hard times and undertook to reduce the wages of 4000 employees, members of the American Railway Union, a powerful and well managed organization. The union supported its members and demanded arbitration. The company declared that the question was one of fact, and that there was nothing to arbitrate. A strike followed, and the union ordered that no train should run which carried a Pullman car. The roads entering Chicago decided on joint opposi- tion, and the union tied up successfully all the lines running from the city to the West. Crowds of strikers impeded the ojieration of trains, and groups of \'iolent people, with whom the strikers alleged they had nothing to do, pillaged freight cars. Governor ."Mtgeld, in sympathy with the strikers, refused to call out the mUitia on the ground that it was not needed. When property owners were in terror lest the law- less element get the upper hand, President Cleveland intervened, sending federal troops to guard the mail trains and secure the safety of interstate commerce. Altgeld protested, saying that the railroads could not run trains because they could not get men. The facts were otherwise. They had the necessar\- men, but the strikers prevented 744 GREAT INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS their employment. Cleveland's action was undoubtedly an unusual extension of the power of the central government, but it was such a one as may occur again if the state authorities show an unwillingness to protect property. In this as in other strikes the public showed a growing impatience at ha\'ing to pay the cost of strikes, and were dis- posed to demand that labor and capital should not go wantonly into so expensive a means of settling difficulties. During the Pullman strike the railroads resorted to "blanket in- junctions," issued against officers of the union and any other persons whatever. They forbade interference with railroad prop- '■ Blanket g^^y^ j^j^j ^^.j^j^ ^Yie use of it, and they were attached to tiM^"^'" ^^^^> buildings, and anything else likely to be the object of interference. Eugene V. Debs, president of the Ameri- can Railway Union, was sent to prison for six months for contempt of court because he ignored such an injunction. In the beginning the "■oads had much sympathy from the public, but the resort to injunctions alarmed many serious person. In issuing them, it was held, the courts usurped executive functions and lost sight of the original purpose of injunctions, which were merely remedial and not intended to afford a method of criminal procedure. In recent labor controversies, in- junctions have not been so freely used. Labor unions were once opposed Ijy employers as strenuously as the general public formerly opposed trusts ; but with the passage of time the opposition to each has become less bitter. This is possibly partly due to a conxdction that each is inevitable. It seems also true that there is a more general recognition that each form of concentration has come to be recognized as useful in some ways. It is to be said, further, that of late both labor unions and trusts have come to realize to some extent their responsibility to the public. The opening of the twentieth century witnessed the beginning of a mighty political struggle for the pubhc control of combinations of all kinds, a contest whose history must be reserved for another chapter. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE An abundance of material e.xists on the economic side of combinations, but little has been prepared from the standpoint of the political bearing of the subject. The student of history will have to find his way through such material as is before liim, and in doing so the following will be helpful : On the general subject : Sparks, National Development (1907); Dnwey, National Problems (iQ07),has a good bibli- ography; Wilson, History of the American People, 5 vols. (1903) ; and Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic, iSSs-1903 (1906). On railroad development see: Johnston, American Railway Transportation (1903); C. F. Adams, Railroads, tJtcir Origin and Progress (1S88) ; Ripley, edr., Railway Problems (1907); Meyer, Railway Let^islation {iqoi); Udmes. Restrictive Railway Legishtion (1905); Adams and Adams, CItaptcrs of Eri:- ( 1.171 ); and Dixon, State Railroad Control (1S96). Important document.^ arc: Report of the senate committee on interstate commerce (Senate Reports, 40 c(lil.L^. 1 ses., Xo. 46, BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 745 ill two parts) ; Report o! tlic industrial commission, vols. I\', IX, and XIX (igoo) ; and AniuiiiJ Reports of llie interstate railway commission (1.S87-). On trusts see the following gcncr.nl works: von Halle, Trusts or Industrial Coin- hinations in the United Slates (iSgj) ; Jenks, The Trust Problem (ed. 1905) ; Ripley, edr.. Trusts, Pools, ond Corporations (igo5J, has a good bibliography. See also: Tarbcll, Tlu: History oj the Standard Oil Company, 2 vols. (1904), an e.icellent piece of investigatjon spite of some personalities; Montague, Rise and Progress oj the Standard Oil Company (iqoj) ; and Jenks, Daielopment of the Whisky Trust {Politi- cal Science Quarterly, l\'). See also: Report of the industrial commission, vols. I, II. and XIX (lyoo), and Bills and Debates in Congress relating to Trusts {Sen. Does., 57 cong. 2ses.,No. 147), referring to the years 1888-190,5. On consolidation of banks see tw'o articles by C. J. Bullock in The Atlantic Monthly, August, 1903, and May, igo6. On labor unions see : Ely, Labor Movement in Am^;rica {ed. 1902); Spahr, .1 w good for the Knights of Labor; Mitchell, Organized Labor (1903) ; and Buchanan Story of a Labor Agitator (1903). On the important strikes see : Lloyd, .4 Strike of Millionaires against Miners (1890); .\shley, Tlie Railroad .Strike of lSg4 (1895), contains statements of both the Pullman Company and the operatives ; U. S. Strike Commission, Report on the Chicago Strike, iS()4 (1895) ; Carwardine, The Pullman Strike (1894) ; and the Missouri Bureau of Statistics, Official History of the Great Strike of 1886 (1887). For Independent Reading Lloyd, Wealth against Commonuealth (1894); Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil Company, 2 vols. (1904) ; Buchanan, The Story of an Agitator (1903) ; Ely, The Labor Movement in America (ed. 1902); and Lloyd, Strike of Millionaires against Miners (1890). CHAPTER XXXVI LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT The Bland Law in Operation The $2,000,000 in silver coined each month under the Bland law circulated readily in the West and South, where much of the business was done on credit and a small volume of money was Notes. "^ sufficient for cash demands. In other parts of the country larger quantities of cash were needed, and the people de- manded it in a less bulky form than silver dollars. Silver was, there- fore, left in the banks, which sent it to the sub-treasuries, until in 1885 the accumulation in government vaults was $100,000,000. To force this out the secretary resorted to strategy. He noticed that green- backs of small denominations remained in the hands of the public longer than larger ones, and he resolved to try to keep in circulation small silver notes secured by the accumulated silver dollars. He first withheld small greenbacks until they were scarce in the channels of trade : then he asked congress to authorize the proposed small silver notes, and in 1886 the permission was reluctantly given. Two years later he had issued $34,000,000 of these certificates and was with- holding a like sum of greenbacks. Coin for these new notes was being stored in the treasury, but the real owners of it were the holders of the notes. The success of this e.xperiment was helped by the shrinkage of the volume of bank notes through the rise in price of bonds. At existing prices banks preferred to sell the bond securing their Forced Out. circulation, and it happened that from 1886 to 1890 the currency was diminished by $126,000,000 in bank notes, most of it in $5 and $10 denominations. At the same time, 1S89-1893, came a wave of prosperity. Business demanded more money and was willing to take even the bulky silver. It resulted that whereas in the years 1878-18S6 only $150,000,000 in silver and silver certificates was put into circulation, in the ne.xt four years $200,000,000 was put out successfully, and the silver in the vaults was reduced to $20,000,000. Most men concluded that the readiness with which silver circulated showed it a satisfactory kind of money. Meanwhile, the free silver movement was not dead. It revived with the reappearance of hard times in 1885 and a free coinage bill was brought into the house and lacked only 37 votes of passing. 746 A NEW SILVER LAW 747 The argument supporting it was simple : If times were hard, there should be more money ; and since silver was considered good money by its friends, there ought to be more silver. It mattered nothing that sDver bullion had fallen in value steadily since the passage of the Bland-Allison act and was now selling at 95 gy"'®s cents an ounce, the intrinsic value of a sUver dollar being ment. 80 cents. It must be remembered that although at this time silver sentiment was strongest in the democratic party, it also had a strong hold on the republicans, and neither party dared pronounce against it. Its supporters were a compact group, conscious of their strength and determined to lose no opportunity to win their battle. The introduction of the McKinley tariff bill in 1889 gave them the desired opportunity. It was e\ident it could not pass the senate without the consent of the Far West. It gave ample protection to the manufacturer, wool grower, and sugar ^^/.f^J" producers, but the silver senators found little in it for their Tariff Men. constituents, and they let it be known that they would not \'ote for it unless something were done for silver. Secretary Win- dom, of Minnesota, had not the Eastern fear of silver and he was a good politician. In his annual report, 1889, he suggested that the government take all the silver bullion offered and make payment in silver notes. He thought not more than $37,000,000 a year would be received. Others thought the amount would be much greater. It was evident that the silver men had the power to carry through a radical measure, and the conservatives prepared to make concessions. In the house the latter brought in a bill to coin $4,500,000 a month, and so Httle were the gold advocates prepared to dispute it that it passed the day after it came up for consideration. It went to the senate along with the tariff bill. The silver l|!*""?° senators now controlled the situation ; they substituted j8.q_ ' a free coinage bill, laid the tariff bill on the table, and awaited results. The situation was tense, for it was beheved Harrison woxild veto a free silver bill, in which case the silver senators would defeat the tariff bill. The silver bill went to conference, where, by much address and largely through the efforts of Senator Sherman, a compromise was arranged. It provided that 4,500,000 ounces of silver be bought monthly and paid for in notes redeemable in gold or sUver at the option of the government. The law contained the follow- ing clause: "It being the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may be provided by law." These words were ambiguous. If they meant the government would keep gold and silver on a parity and pay gold for silver notes they implied a gold standard : if they meant the government would see that the two metals circulated on a parity in the nation, they implied bimetallism. Secre- tary Carlisle, three years later, gave the law the former interpretation, 748 LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT much to the disappointment of the friends of silver, who insisted that he should pay out both metals in order to maintain parity. The silver purchase law of 1S90 passed by a party vote. The democrats felt no obligation to support a law which fell short of free coinage, and the republicans, the Eastern men included, must obey the will of the silver senators. The victory of the silver men was facilitated by the recent admission of four new states, North and South Dakota, Washington, and Mon- tana. They had been hurriedly granted statehood in States^'^ 1889 in the belief that they would add to the republican 1889-1890. majority. The elections \'erified these expectations in all the states but Montana, which the democrats carried ; but all their senators and representatives were silver men regardless of party. In 1890 the republicans, with the aid of some silver democrats in congress, admitted two more states, Idaho and Wyoming. They thought the currency issue would soon pass, while their gain in the senate would be permanent. Utah, whose population of 207,905 well qualified her for statehood, also applied and was rejected on account of polygamy. A conflict had long existed between its Mormon and non-Mormon in- , . habitants, the nation sympathizing with the latter. In Admission. ^882 congress passed a law against polygamy, which was not enforced. In 1887 a sterner law authorized the con- fiscation of the property of the Mormon church if it resisted the laws of congress. The ecclesiastics now became alarmed. In 1890 Presi- dent Woodruff, their highest official, renounced polygamy, and later in the year the church did the same. Non-Mormons doubted the sincerity of this action, and it was not until 1895 that congress w^ould relent and adniit Utah to the benefits and privileges of a state. It took its place among the free sih'er states, but at this time the conflict had ceased to be important in congress and was chiefly waged in presi- dential campaigns. The Last Years of H.arrison The congressional session of 1889 -1890 lasted until October, and ended in an ominous storm of protest which found its e.xpression in the elections. The result was a republican defeat. The Harrison s ^^^,q yg^^s following were unfavorable for business, and the larity. popular dissatisfaction survived until it overwhelmed Harrison in the election of 1892. Much of this was due to distrust of the republican organization, definitely in the hands of Quay and Piatt. Against this condition Harrison, an upright man and a capable lawyer, was not able to contend. He had little power of mastering men, and the impression so widely current that he began his administration under the tutelage of the party organization was ELECTION OF 1892 749 not far wrong. His appointment of John Wananiaker to a cabinet |)ositi<)n smacked of Quay. Probably his most unwise action was the appointment of Clarkson first assistant postmaster-general, who wrote in glee, February, 1890: "I have changed 31,000 out of the 55,000 fourth-class postmasters and I expect to change 10,000 more before I finally quit. I expect before the end of the month to see five-sixths of the presidential postmasters changed. Then I can ])araphrasc old Simeon, and sa\-, 'Let thy servant depart in peace.'" Harrison in- curred further criticism because he appointed sex'cral of his family connections to office. He made few friends, and knew not how to seek popularity. His relation to "Old Tip," his grandfather, which was expected to be an advantage, proved to be an embarrassment. It seemed to suggest aristocracy, and was unmercifully lampooned by the cartoonists, who always depicted him as a small gentleman with a prominent forehead over which hung an immense "grand- father's hat." Spite of this, it was evident as 1892 approached that Harrison was the logical republican candidate. He was responsibly associated with every measure for which the party had incurred criticism. If he were now thrown overboard, it would amount to a an^^Bkine repudiation of the work of the party in congress. This \iew was accepted by most of the party, but Quay and Piatt were of another mind. In the last two years of the administration Harrison showed signs of repudiating them. He dismissed "Corporal'' Tan- ner and listened less kindly to the suggestions of the organization men. These leaders, therefore, looking for an opposition candidate, turned to Blaine, who, although a member of Harrison's cabinet, was not on cordial terms with him. He was physically weak and mentally ex- hausted. He had no relish for another campaign of abuse, and his family were as un\\'illing for him to be a candidate as he himself. Yet the scent of battle aroused the old war feeling, and it was with reluc- tance that he turned aside the advances of Quay. The public, speculat- ing on his intentions, concluded he would not stand against Harrison as long as he was in the cabinet. Quay watched the situation with little comfort. The nominating convention met at Minneapolis, June 7, 1892. Three days earlier Blaine resigned his secretaryship in the shortest possible note, leaving the public to guess whether he had tardily decided to seek the nomination or merely wished Nominated to discredit Harrison at a critical moment. If he meant the former he had waited too long. His action had no other effect than to throw the opponents of the president into confusion as they were about to go into battle. They did not recover command of the situation before their opponents carried Harrison to victory on the first ballot, with UTiitelaw Reid, editor of the New York Tribune, candidate for the vice-presidency. 750 LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT Meantime, the democrats were about to assemble in convention at Chicago, and a resistless drift of opinion was again making Cleveland . their leader. His defeat in 1888 was received by the Gor- Cle^veUnd. ^^^ ^^^ -^^' faction with ill concealed satisfaction. He seemed utterly repudiated, and his opponents looked for- ward to an era of unopposed control. They ignored him as a party leader and spoke with affected sympathy of his unhappy indiscretion. He, however, paid little attention to their attitude, devoted himself to his profession, made some money, and contented himself with perform- ing the duties of a citizen. As early as the end of 1890 the reactions against the McKinley tariff showed that the next campaign would be fought on the tariff issue, and at once Cleveland began to be con- sidered the logical democratic leader. Gorman and Hill were appalled at the prospect, but almost im- mediately relief seemed to come. The silver issue was not removed from the arena by the Sherman purchase law. The free His Letter silver West was more active than ever, and the East in Coinage. alarm was tr>ing to develop antisilver sentiment. In accordance with that design the New York Reform Club held a meeting of business men in February, 1891, inviting Cleveland to be present. He did not attend, but sent a letter in which he said : "If we have developed an unexpected capacity for the assimilation of a largely increased volume of the currency, and even if we have dem- onstrated the usefulness of such an increase, these conditions fall far short of insuring us against disaster if, in the present situation, we enter upon the dangerous and reckless experiment of free, unlimited, and independent silver coinage." This lumbering sentence left no doubt of his position, and was quoted far and wide. It won applause from friends of gold and denunciation from silver men. The latter were strong in the democratic party, and it seemed that their opposi- tion must prove the end of Cleveland's chances for the nomination. Again his opponents pronounced him dead, but the end of the year brought a change of view. Each party was hopelessly divided on silver, and neither could throw aside the tariff issue for any other fighting ground. The autumn elections in Ohio and in some other states showed democratic gains on that issue and the party dared not drop it. If Cleveland's plan of battle was used, he was the logical battle leader. His opponents concentrated their strength on HDl, and Gorman, leader of the party caucus in Washington, gave full support. To carry this plan through it was necessary that the New York didacy ^" nominating convention should indorse it. The New Year's festivities were hardly over when Hill called a meeting of the state convention for February 22, 1892, thinking by this early meeting to control the election of the delegates. The Cleveland men refused to take part in the "Snap Convention." After THE YOUNG DEMOCRATS 751 a solid Hill delegation was chosen on February 22 the "Anti-Snappers" called a convention of their own and sent a protesting delegation to Chicago. It was evident that if Hill were the nominee, he would be defeated in his own state by the strong independent movement which his ill-advised action had aroused. The democratic party in the West and South was in a transition stage. Discredited by its position in the civil war, it had difficulty in reestablishing its influence after the return of peace. Its first success in 1874 was won through the mistakes of its opponents, and this was true of most of its victories during the next "^^^ West- decade and a half. In this period its leadership was timid, |™ ^g^n and its policies were devised with an idea of taking ad- Democrats. vantage of the mistakes of its opponents. Cleveland, as we have seen, stood for positive ideas ; but they were the ideas of the East. Throughout the West and South the leaders were still men of expediency in national matters. By iSgo there had developed in these sections a party of young democrats, a second group who de- sired positive policies and disliked the leadership of Cleveland. Both groups favored free silver, but the older men were not willing to risk losing the support of the East, while the younger ones were tired of deferring to New York and its neighbors. In 1892 the young men were not quite willing to throw over the counsel of older leaders, and so when the older men decided that the old alliance should be maintained they submitted, but it was with misgivings. They eventu- ally regretted their action, but in the campaign then upon them they subordinated their views to party welfare, recognized the tariff as the supreme issue, and united in support of Cleveland as party leader. The Eastern leaders did not appreciate how deep and earnest this movement was and how much it was likely to mar their plans in the future. The democratic convention assembled at Chicago, June 21. Hill's friends worked hard for their candidate, and Bourke Cochran put him forward in an eloquent speech whose burden was that he could carry New York. On the tariff and on silver Hill Cleveland 1 • 1 1 . f 111 . itr Hominated. was niconclusive, and his oft-quoted declaration, I am a democrat," meant that he was a party man who would give the poli- ticians their way. Against the well-recognized honesty of Cleveland he could make no headway, and on the first ballot the former president got the nomination by the two-thirds majority which the party habit- ually demands in such a case. For vice-president the convention in- dorsed Adlai E. Stevenson, of Illinois, who was in sympathy with the old-school democrats of the West. While the aggressive element of the West and South was thus held in check in the democratic party, radicalism in these sections burst party bounds and launched a third party. For several years there had been much dissatisfaction among the farmers. Low prices of 752 LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT cotton and grain had much to do with their conduct, and .j this was added a belief that both the old parties were insincere in professing friendship for silver and for poor people generally. The p , movement began in organizations for the general social de- Party, velopment of country people, but it soon became political. It was chiefly expressed in the Farmers' Alliance, which had two great branches, one in the South and one in the Northwest. Its leaders were sometimes men who had failed to maintain themselves in one of the old parties, but they were mostly young men of ability and devotion. They first went into active politics in 1890 when they carried the legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska and elected nine Farmers' Alliance members of congress and forced thirty-four others, democrats and republicans, to pledge themselves to carry out the ideas of the farmers' movement. In 1892 they called a great conven- tion at Cincinnati, and with (he cooperation of the labor unions or- ganized the people's party. This meeting called a party convention in Omaha in the following July, at which General J. B. Weaver, green- back candidate in iSSo, was nominated on a platform including free silver, public ownership of monopolies, postal savings banks, and an income tax. It did not hope to carry the presidency, but by uniting locally with democrats or republicans as the opportunity offered it made a strong impression on the campaign. It carried several state legislatures and sent five senators to Washington. It injured the republicans more than the democrats, for although it cut into the democratic vote in the South the large majorities there were safe against such losses, while the narrower margins of the republicans in the West were sometimes wiped out by populist defection. On the main issue of the campaign, the contest between Cleveland and Harrison, it had little effect. Between these two men the campaign was a quiet one. It was marked by an unusual rising of edqcated men for Cleveland, now more than ever the hero of the reformers. College pro- The Cam- fessors and theoretical free traders favored him and freely 1892. declared themselves for his election. They gave his side the appearance of radicalism, which his managers eventu- ally found it necessary to deny, and they created hopes which, after his election, could not be realized. During the summer there was a labor disturbance at Homestead, near Pittsburg, where the employees of the Carnegie Steel Company went on strike because wages were re- duced and the union was not recognized. Rioting began, and the employees fought to hold their places against strike breakers. Fear- ing 'he labor vote the governor would not call out the militia until conditions became alarming. It then took the entire citizen soldiery, 8000 strong, to restore order. The affair was widely discussed in the country ; the Carnegie Company was a dominating factor in the steel industry, one of the best protected manufactures, and the feeling A PRECARIOUS FINANCIAL SITUATION 753 aroused against it on behalf of labor operated against the high tariff party. Cleveland's rugged personality also played a strong part in the election. He was in such strikin ; contrast with Harrison, the man of quiet and even honesty, that he seemed to many people the only hero of the struggle. His success was generally conceded long before the election. He got 277 electoral votes, Harrison 145, and Weaver 22. The popular vote was Cleveland 5,556,543, Harrison 5,175,582, and Weaver 1,040,886. The democrats also carried both houses of con- gress. They were surprised at the magnitude of their own ^•ictory, and they might well have trembled, for it placed heavy obligations upon them. Cleveland and the Panic of 1893 Cleveland could hardly be expected to call members of the Hill faction or Western silver men into this cabinet. He turned, therefore, as in 1885, to the South, the independents, and t' e less widely known of the Northern democrats. The composi- cabinet tion of the cabinet was as follows: W. Q. Gresham, of Illinois, secretary of state, John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky, secretary of the treasury, Daniel S. Lamont, of New York, secretary of war, HDary A. Herbert, of Alabama, secretary of the navy, Richard Olney, of Massachusetts, attorney-general, W. S. Bissell, of New York, post- mastef-general, Hoke Smith, of Georgia, secretary of the interior, and J. S. Morton, who led the antisilver democrats of Nebraska, secretary cf agriculture. Gresham had been a republican until 1891, and was appointed in recognition of the support of the independents. Taking him widened the breach between Cleveland and the Gorman-Hill fac- tion. Lamont had been his private secretary in the first term and Bissell was an old law partner. Cleveland had not a broad range of ideas, nor was he widely acquainted with party leaders, and in each of his administrations he had as many personal friends in the cabinet as he dared. Financial difficulties met the administration at its very beginning. In January, 1893, the gold reserve was only .$108,000,000 and the steady demand to meet the European balance of trade . was sure to send it lower before March 4. Moreover, it ^j ^got^'^ would be seven months before another cotton and grain crop went abroad, and meantime Europe, on account of the business depression, was selling American securities. There was likelihood that a long period of gold exportation would follow. The public was so accustomed to think that $100,000,000 was the safety point for the resers^e that it was felt that alarm would surely ensue if it went below, and there was danger that fears once aroused gold would be hoarded. Harrison realized all this I)ut felt the problem was not his. He would be satisfied if the crisis did not come before Alarcli 4. To tliat end Foster, his secretary of the Ireasurv, induced the New 3C 754 LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT York banks, at the close of January, to exchange $6,000,000 gold for legal tenders and when he surrendered ofiBce txm months later the re- serve was $100,982,410. The new secretary, Carlisle, could think of no better plan than Foster's, and throughout the spring cajoled the banks into a surrender of coin. Meantime, money became very tight and there came a sudden check of the wave of speculation which for four years had followed the creation of trusts and the marketing of many highly inflated securities. The most notable collapse was the National Cordage Company, which paid a stock dividend of 100 per cent five months before suspension. Throughout the summer panic conditions prevaOed, interior banks could not extend their loans, and there were over 400 bank failures, the large majority being in the West. In our financial history 1893 has as black a name as 1873. The government feared that the public would lose confidence and hoard gold in the expectation that specie payment must be suspended ; and this fear was promoted by the Sherman silver purchase law. Under it the treasury issued nearly twice as much currency Operation ^ month as under the Bland-Allison law, and it was not Sherman absorbed by the business of the country as formerly, first Law because of its increased volume, second because of less prosperous business conditions, and third because after the enactment of the McKinley tariff the surplus disappeared, bonds ceased to be purchased, and bank notes ceased to be retired. In- creasing the currency beyond the necessities of business enlarged the volume of partially employed notes which might be used to draw gold out of the treasury. The silver men thought the reserve might be protected by re- deeming the silver certificates in silver, but this would undoubtedly . . depreciate such notes, then one-third of the currency, PMity.^*""^^ and give an impetus to gold hoarding. In April a rumor got abroad that the treasury would make such redemption : it caused serious disturbance in the money market, and both Cleveland and Carlisle hastened to declare publicly that they would give gold for the sUver notes. They held that this was necessary to maintain the parity of the notes. Their opponents said it indicated how much the administration was under the heel of Wall Street speculators. April 17 the reserve passed below the Sioo,ooo,ooo figure and dwndled steadily as the exportation of gold continued. Meantime, the notes issued in exchange for stored silver bullion were nearly $4,000,000 a month. It was more and more evident that the law of 1890 ought to be repealed. The mere hint of such a thing enraged those who fervently hoped for more money. Cleveland gave little heed to their violence. He was by temperament immovable before popular clamor, and he now waited until it was e\'ident that conservative people realized the source of their danger ; and June 30 he called an extra session of congress for August 7, 1893, to consider the currency. A DECAPITATED HYDRA 755 Business distress was now acute. In June the New York clearing house issued certificates in lieu of money. In the same month the Erie railroad faDed, and news came that India had demone- tized sUver. Bullion fell in one v.-eek from 7s to 61 cents J^^p?*' °^ T » i , ^ ■ the Sher- an ounce. In August currency was at 3 per cent premium ^,3^ £a^_ and banks would cash depositors' checks only for small amounts. Wliile these conditions were severest, the extra session be- gan. Cleveland spoke plainly in his message, and the house by a majority of 130, chiefly from the East and Middle West, passed a repealing bill in three weeks. In the senate the friends of silver were in the minority, but they filibustered in the hope of a compromise. The senate eschewed closure, and the debate dragged along through September and October. Continuous sessions were tried, but the lusty champions of silver displayed more endurance than their adver- saries expected, Allen, of Nebraska, speaking fourteen hours without exhaustion. Finally on October 30 a vote was taken, and repeal was carried by a majority of 43 to 32. The Eastern papers were jubilant, and declared silver had "met its Waterloo." They were too confident. Bland announced in the house that the struggle would go on until free and un- limited coinage was established, and in the senate the silver ?'"^^ ^h^^' senators, headed by Teller, of Colorado, passed into open ^^st. opposition to their republican associates. The West and the South, distressed by the panic, were exceedingly bitter. The Sherman law had been to them in some sense a token of a compro- mising spirit in their relations with the rest of the country, and they considered its repeal an act of bad faith. Violent opponents charged that Cleveland secured it in the interest of the speculators and shared in the profits. There was not the slightest justification for the asser- tion. Selling Bonds to protect the Surplus The repeal of the Sherman law only stopped the accumulation of danger. Business stagnation continued, revenues were still inade- quate, and it was necessary to throw the silver notes back into circulation to meet the needs of government. The Rese^rv'"^ premium on currency in August brought a quantity of the metal to the country and the reserve went up to $103,683,000 ; but under the drain of the time, it rapidly sank again, and October 19 it was only $81,551,385, the lowest point since 1878. At the same time the monthly deficit of the revenue was $7,000,000, and two months later the reser%'e was S68,ooo,ooo. Up to this time there was little evidence of hoarding, and the mischief chiefly came from failure of revenue in connection with the redundant silver currency. But the public was showing si?ns of uneasiness, and Carlisle asked congress to allow him to borrow enough to tide over the deficiency of revenue. 756 LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT To the democratic congressmen this was but a cry from Wall Street, and they paid no heed. The secretary then fell back on the resumption act of 1875, which specified that he should sell bonds to maintain specie payment. The day for which it was made was long past, but he held that Ce'nt Bonds. ^^ ^^^ ^^ force until repealed, and January 17, 1894, he offered $50,000,000 in 5 per cent bonds for gold. Loud protests from the silver faction greeted the announcement, but he ig- nored it. He was more concerned with the financial world, which sent in Lids for only one-fifth of the amount offered. He went to New York, and with difficulty persuaded the banks to take the rest at 1175, which was low for 5 per cents. Of the $58,660,000 in gold received in the transaction $24,000,000 had Ijeen taken from the treasury within a few days in exchange for notes. The net gain, $34,660,000, restored the reserve to $107,000,000 on March 6, 1894, when it began at once to fall again. To the ordinary spring exportations of gold were now added other sources of distress. The corn crop of 1894 failed, and Europe's wheat crop was enormous, so that our exports were smaller than Gold*WUh visual. At the same time the Wilson-Gorman bill disap- drawals. pointed its creators and gave a deficit, for which the failure of the income tax was not altogether responsible. More than this, in the summer of 1894 Europe sold our securities briskly and demanded gold in payment. Thus it happened that when the reserve was depleted from that cause, and when it failed to get the usual reenforcement from the sale of the autumn crops abroad, it was, on account of the deficit, necessary to use some of the precious store in settlement of ordinary expenses of the government. By this means the reserve was $52,000,000 on August 7 and in November another bond issue of $50,000,000 was placed with a syndicate of bank- ers. Half of the gold received was at once drawn back in exchange for notes to take the place of that amount used in buying the bonds. Depletion continued, and by February, 1895, the reserve was $41,000,000, and the head of the New York sub-treasury reported that he could maintain redemption hardly more than a day. The situation seemed desperate, with another period of spring gold exporta- tion ahead. Li every large city financiers were making ready for a de- preciated currency, and funds were being retained for use in the emer- gency, when the news came that Cleveland had saved the situation. Relief came through a contract with J. P. Morgan and Co. and the Belmont firm, who represented the Rothschilds, of Paris, by The Mor- wliich they took $62,000,000 thirty year four per cents mont Aeiee- ^' ^°'^^^ ' '^^ '^* P'^'^ ^^ three per cent if they were made payable ment. in gold. The latter alternative needed the sanction of congress , but in that quarter it met a stern refusal. In the countrj' at large the affair aroused much criticisni. Four per THE "ENDLESS CHAIN" 757 cents were selling about 11 1 and to place them now at 1045 seemed absurd. Eventually the transaction netted the bankers a profit of about thirteen points, more than seven millions. But Cleveland justified it because of two conditions in the contract. By one the bankers agreed to import half of the gold used in the purchase, and by the other to use their best endeavors to prevent the withdrawal of gold from the treasury during the pendency of the contract, a period of six months. By sharing the loan and the profits involved with the other New York banks they showed their ability to control the demands on the treasury and the foreign gold delivered was not immediately drawn out in what had come to be known as the " end- less chain " process. The effect of the contracts was to restore confidence. Commodity prices rose and stock speculation revived so rapidly that it overdid itself. In the end there was a sharp contraction which turned the balance of trade against us and led to renewed Restored' e.xportations of gold spite of the February agreement with the bankers. Cleveland now offered $100,000,000 at four per cent to the highest bidder. Partly because of returning confidence and partly because of the great profit the bankers were believed to have made on the prececfing transaction, there was a wide popular response. More than five times the amount offered was subscribed, and it was all placed at from 1105 to 120. After that time no more doubt was felt about the reserve. The responsibility for the bond sales of 1895 must be shared by several agents. The law creating the reserve did not give it a special footing, but left it in the general fund so that it was liable to be drawn on for expenses when the ordi- the"crisis nary revenue was inadequate. The McKinley tariff created just such an emergency, and the treasury i)aid back for ex- penses the notes received for gold, only to come Ijack again in the "endless chain." The democratic congress was partly responsible because it failed to supply adequate revenue and because it cham- pioned silver so loudly that the feeling of apprehension was increased among the people. Finally, Cleveland and Carlisle were partly responsible because in the first place they showed hesita- tion, asking congress to declare specifically that bonds might be sold to maintain the reserve instead of assuming, as they did at last, that the power existed under the act of 1875. The whole incident is a painful episode in our history, but it came through a juxtaposition of confusing factors which will probably not come again for many years. 7s8 LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT The Bryan Campaign for Free Silver, 1896 The events of 1895 destroyed the last shred of Cleveland's leader- ship. Silver men in the West and South and machine politicians in the East repudiated him, and the party was hopelessly Cleveland's divided. So fiercely was he denounced by democrats larity. tJiat the republicans no longer found it necessary to find fault with him. The profits of the Morgan-Belmont contract were supposed to be about $7,000,000, and his enraged enemies would not belie\'e he did not share them. No serious man who knew the situation entertained the suspicion. The fall of Cleveland brought to supremacy the young democracy, silver through and through. They saw with satisfaction the republi- can tendency to espouse the gold standard and thought it Silver would result in accessions from the silver republicans. Organize. They began their campaign with remarkable energy and devotion. March 4, 1895, they issued an address summon- ing all friends of silver to united action m the coming election. The call made a profound impression in the South and West, and the advo- cates of sound money, as the other side called themselves, sought to counteract it by caUing a convention at Memphis, Tennessee. In Jime a silver convention in the same city declared enthusiastically for free and unlimited coinage of silver. To careful observers it was evident that the sound money convention represented the business men of the Southern and Western towns, while the silver convention represented the much more numerous farming and laboring classes. By the end of 1895 the silver movement was well organized and domi- nated the democratic party everywhere but in the East. The people of the East did not reaUze how powerful it had become. At the nominatmg convention, Chicago, July 7, the silver men had entire control and took precaution lest the suspected Eastern leaders have the slightest opportunity to manipulate the con- s ver en yention. The national committee suggested Hill, of in Control. ^,. ,^ , . , . °°, '. New York, for temporary chainnan. I he convention set him aside for Daniels, of Virgmia, a trusted silver man. Plat- form committee, permanent chairman, credential committee, and every other test of strength went to them. The platform itself was all they wished, declaring for free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. It was adopted by a vote of 62S to 301, and a motion to indorse Cleveland's administration was lost by a vote of 564 to 357. More important was the selection of a candidate. The sUver forces wanted a man who would not compromise with the in- a'^der °^ terests of the East, and suspected all men mentioned for the nomination, Blackburn, of Kentucky, McLean, of Ohio, and Boies, of Iowa, all old-school democrats with groups of supporters. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 7Sg They could not object on this score to Bland, of Missouri, who was also urged ; but he was not a magnetic man, and for that reason they ' tated to support him. Another man who had frtends was William Jennings Bryan, of Nebraska. In 1891 he appeared in congress, where he attracted attention as a prominent young democrat. He spoke well on the tariff and became identified with the free silver party. In the preliminarj- work of the campaign of 1S96 he was a favorite with the West. In the struggle for the election of delegates from Ne- braska to the convention he was defeated by J. Sterling Morton, Cleveland's secretary of agriculture, but he came to Chicago at the head of a contesting delegation which the convention promptly seated. To most of the delegates Bryan was unknown when on July 9 he made a speech which sent the convention into raptures. The plat- form committee had just reported and the speakers were discussing it. First came Senator Tillman, of South convention Carolina, in full possession of his faculties and speaking speech, for the silver men. He shouted, gesticulated, and filled the stifling air with abuse rather than argument. His friends were not in an exacting mood, but they could feel nothing but disap- pointment. Then rose Hill to speak for the East. He uttered short, logical sentences in an icy and hopeless manner. He was no orator, and the hostile audience barely tolerated him. Ne.xt came Governor Russell, of Massachusetts, and Vilas, of Wisconsin. Both spoke well for sound money, but the audience was in no mood to be pleased. Then rose Bryan. His words came slowly, distinctly, and with cutting force. Instantly the mass forgot its confusion, and the speech pro- ceeded in profound stillness except for the outbursts of applause. Russell had used the term "business men " in the narrow sense common in the East. Bryan said : " You have made the definition of a business man too limited in its application. The man who is employed for wages is as much a business man as his employer. The attorney in a country town is as much a business man as the corporation counsel m a great metropolis. The merchant at the cross-roads store is as much a business man as the merchant of New York. The farmer who goes forth in the morning and toUs all day — who begins in the spring and toDs all summer — and who, by the application of brain and muscle to the natural resources of the country creates wealth, is as much a business man as the man who goes upon the board of trade and bets upon the price of grain. The miners who go down a thousand feet into the earth, or climb two thousand feet upon the cliffs, and bring forth from their hiding place the precious metals, to be poured into the channels of trade, are as much business men as the few financial magnates who, in a back room, comer the money of the world. We come to speak for this broader class of business men.'' 7tio LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT These senlimonts were the key of the Bryan movement. There had been much talk about protecting the manufacturers and safe- guarding the fhiancial interests. Nobody talked about Nwniiated. *^'^^ small business man, who had got the conviction that he was ignored. Bryan pleaded his cause in words small business men could understand. He knew little about finance, but much about human nature. His Chicago s[)eech delighted every sil- ver man in the convention. It brought forth a mad wave of ap- proval, and on the first ballot he received 119 votes for the nomina- tion against 235 for Bland, the most prominent of the silver men. He gained steadily on the second, third, and fourth ballots, and was nomi- nated on the fifth by the necessary two-thirds majority. He was thirty-si.x years old, a young leader of the young democracy. Arthur Sewall, of Maine, a rich shipbuilder, was nominated for the vice-presi- dency. Three weeks earlier, June 16, the republican convention met at St. Louis. The failure of the Wilson-Gorman law suggested the tarift' for chief issue and McKinley for candidate. He was a Hanna and straightforward, serious man, a good campaigner, a tact- McKinley. f^l and popular politician, and a friend of protection. He had a devoted supporter in Marcus A., or " Mark," Hanna, a rich Cleveland iron-master and politician. Early in the cam- paign Hanna determined that McKinley should be nominated, and set out to accomplish his purpose with businesslike thoroughness. He visited many parts of the country, and McKinley and protection was a persuasive argument when urged by the millionaire politician from the best protected city in the iron industry. The protected class generally acquiesced, and many mere politicians followed them. His quest for delegates was so successful that Hanna arrived at St. Louis with his pocket full of votes. He was accustomed to control whatever he touched, and his room now became the center of political activity. Men who had long been chief party counsellors came to it to know what was to be done. One of the questions to be considered was the money plank iji the platform. The drift of the democrats to silver produced among the republicans a similar movement toward gold. Hanna was Plank. personally for gold : the men to whom he appealed were for gold, but he dared not avow it too early lest it turn Western delegates from McKinley. Before the convention assembled he ac- cepted a gold plank suggested by a group of Western business men, but he carefully concealed it. The Eastern men arrived keen for a M K" declaration for the gold standard. When Hanna finally Nomtoated. '^'^ ^^ ^""^ known he was for gold, it seemed to the country that he accepted it reluctantly and to please the East ; and this paved the way to a reconciliation of many Western republicans to the candidate. Thus Hanna steered his friend past the only serious THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DIVIDED 761 lifficulty in his way and got him nominated on the first ballot with Sarret A. Hobart, of New Jersey, for vice-president. At McKinley's •equest Hanna was appointed chairman of the campaign committee. Adopting the gold plank caused the secession of the extreme silver republicans. As the vote was about to be taken Senator Teller, jf Colorado, rose and delivered a touching appeal. He lad been a republican from 1S56 and had e.xerted much Withdrawal nfluence in the party. His motion for free coinage at ° i-U- """ ixtcen to one was lost by a vote of SiS to 105. Then a cms. Iiush fell on the vast assemblage, as with ;^;ii others he left the liall in repudiation of the party. Among them were Senators Dubois, oi Idaho, Cannon, of Utah, and Pettigrew, of South Dakota. From these three states and from Montana and Nevada came all the other seceders. Teller and his friends met in St. Louis, July 22, and organized the ''National Silver Party," indorsing Bryan and Sewall. The people's party at the same place and time indorsed Bryan, but in- listing on their owti candidate for vice-president, selected inatjong Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia. The prohibitionists found themselves di\T[ded. One wing wanted to indorse silver and several other aggressive policies. It took the name "National" and nominated C. E. Bentley, of Nebraska, and J. H. Southgate, of North Carolina. The other, using the old name, nominated Joshua Levering, of Maryland, and Hale Johnson, of Illinois. The gold democrats also formed a separate party, designed to please those whowouldnot breakold party ties. It held aconventionin Indianapolis and nominated General John ]\I. Palmer, a union veteran, and General Simon B. Buckner, a confederate veteran. Spite of the many candi- dates it was well recognized that the real fight was between McKinley and Bryan. The republicans liked a dignified campaign. It was Hanna's idea for the candidate to remain at home and have delegation after delegation come to him in token of respect and confidence. McKinley's replies would be printed far and wide, and camp^sn would thus have great influence on the public. Bryan, on the other hand, went to the people, to as man}' as he could reach, in continuous railroad journeys during which he sjioke many times a day to throngs at railroad stations or in public halls. The vast crowds that came to hear attested the popular interest. At first his opponents scoffed, thinking it unbecoming for a presidential candidate to "drum up" votes like a huckster seeking custom. But the earnestness and efiectiveness of his speeches gave to his canvass the fervor of a crusade, and the scoffers were overwhelmed. The Bryan method of campaign- ing became thenceforth a regular feature of party activity. P>ach side sjjoke violently, the cultivated East \'ying with the plain-sjioken West in attributing the worst motives to its opponents. Even .so 762 LAST PHASES OF THE SILVER MOVEMENT cultured a journal as the Nation could see in the silver men nothing but "a knot of silly, half-taught adventurers and anarchists." The republicans began the campaign on the protection issue, which favored the collection of large campaign contributions. Hanna was _. . supposed to have developed great skill in getting them from manufacturers, money lenders, and the great insurance companies. Pains were taken to convince the workmen also. Protection, they were told, meant "a full dinner pail." This argument also was very effective. While they talked about the tariff the republicans would have been pleased to leave silver in the background, had not Bryan's aggression made that im- possible. As the campaign advanced they had to give the currency question more and more attention. When nominated, McKinley's record showed no hostility toivard silver. He voted for the Sherman purchase law as the best thing that could be done for silver at the time. As the election approached, however, he gained courage to speak for gold, and at the end of the campaign he was emphatic in defending the money plank in his party's platform. Many of his party asso- ciates were going through the same transformation. Bryan expected to lose New England, Pennsylvania, and perhaps New York and New Jersey, but he hoped that the workingmen and . farmers of the Middle West would carry that section, which Elected*^ with the South and most of the distant West, would make a majority. He was really helping to array one section against another, and the result would depend on whether the line of division was placed at the Appalachian mountain system or at the Mississippi. Counting the ballots showed it was the latter. He lost every state north of the Potomac and east of the Mississippi. He also lost Iowa, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Wherever manufacturing or commercial interests were strong, his support was weak. Two hundred and seventy-one elec- toral votes were republican and 176 were democratic. In his Chicago speech Senator Tillman said: "We of the South have burned our bridges as far as the Northeastern democracy is concerned, as now organized. We have turned our Crushed"' ^^^^^ ^° ^^^ West, asking our brethren of those states to unite with us in restoring the government, the liberty of our fathers, which our fathers left us." As describing existing tendencies his words were true, spite ot the jeers which greeted them in some parts of the union. The young democracy was in rebellion agai:ist New York leadership, which had become an offense to them through Cleveland's tactless honesty and their own unmanageableness. They were much in earnest, and the defeat of 1S96 did not discourage them. Their brilliant leader was unhorsed, but his sword was not broken and their organization was intact. It was many years before the Bryan movement was to rela.x its hold on the democratic party, BIBLIOGRAPHICAI. NO'l'I': 763 and this was because it was a real movement, and not merely the work of one man. Before Bryan appeared the army he was to direct was formed. He gave it leadership, and he could not have disbanded it in 1896 if he had so desired. BIBLIOGR.APHICAL NOTE The general works, printed sources, and biographies for this chapter are the same as for chapter XXXIV. General works on tJie currency are: I)ewey, Fiittincial History of the United States (1903) ; Xoyes, Forty Years of American Finance (1909) ; White, Money and Banking (ed. 1902) ; and Lawson, AwericQn Finance (1906), an English work. On the free sil\'er controversy see : Hepburn, History of Coinage and Currency in the United Stat. '':903), has a bibliography; Taussig, Silver Silnalion in the United States (1893); i^aughlin, B//Hrtci///jm in the United Slates (ed. 1S97) ; and Watson, History of American International Bimetallism (1S96). Of the many reports of conferences of the day see the following: Russell, International Monetary Confer- ence (1898); The Monetary Commission of the Indianapolis Conference, Report (1898) ; The First National Silver Convention, Proceedings (1889) ; and Report and Hearings of Committee on Senate Silver Bill (Sen. Report, 51 cong., 2 ses., No. 3067). See also the report of the International IN.'onetarj' Conference (Sen. Ex. Docs. 52 cong. 2 ses.. No. 28). .V pamphlet of great interest is Harvey, Coin's Financial School (1894). On the political campaign of 1896 see : Dewey, National Problems (1907) ; Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic (1907); Bryan, The First Battle (1S97); Byars, Life and Times of R. P. Bland (1900); Hoar, Autobiography of .Sreenty Years, 2 vols. (1903); White, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1905); Dingley, Life and Times of Nelson Dingley, Jr. (r902) ; and ^IcClure, Recollections of Half a Century (1902). See also: Stanwood, History of the Presidency (1898); Reynolds, National Plat- forms and Political History (1898); Woodburn, Political Parties and Party Prob- lems (1903) ; and Curtis, The Republican Party, 2 vols. (1904). The periodical literature of the day is verv- valuable. .Vmong the best monthlies and weeklies are: The .{merican Review of Reviews; The Forum; The .Atlantic Monthly; The Nation; The Independent ; Public Opinion, a. vahvdhle dit;ef,t; and Sound Ciirreney, pamphlets issued serially by the New York Reform Club. See also The Political Science Quarterly and The Annals of the American Academy. For Independent Reading M;Clure, Recollections of Half a Century (1902) ; Wliittle, President Cleveland ,1896) Harvey, Coin's Financial School (1894); Bryan, The First Battle (1897); White, Aloney and Banking (1902); and Hoar, Autobiography of Srocnty Years, 2 vols. (1903). CHAPTER XXXVII a new phase of american diplomacy Importance of the Pacific The Pacific shores and islands, for centuriesgiven up to barbarism or to the quiet oriental culture, have recently become the scene of very in- teresting events. Barbarism has retreated, and the oriental * ^^" ^'* is becoming a \'igorous competitor of occidental peoples. Pacific. The United States became concerned with this process of development soon after they acquired California. England, France, Germany, and Russia have also been interested in the same quarter ; and so it has happened that in recent years the Pacific has been the theater of weighty diplomatic affairs. Commerce and territorial expansion have been the rulmg moti\'es of the diplomats. Our early policy of non-interference applied to the Old World, and was adopted through necessity. We could not hope to have weight in settling Europe's problems, nor was it expedient to become entangled in its politics. But in the Pacific it was otherwise. We had both territorial and commercial interests there, and it was wise to take in that ocean the position of a strong power so that other nations, civilized and uncivilized, should respect us. To maintain this posi- tion in the Pacific and to keep somewhat the same influence among the states south of us have been the chief objects of our post-bellum diplomacy. The change came about slowly. Men of the old school clung through sentiment to the ideal of non-intervention, they were appalled by the expense of a navy great enough to maintain a leading A New position among the other American states and on the American Pacific, they feared that a strong foreign policy would Diplomacy, promote mililarism, and it was pointed out that the con- stitution made no provision for the rule of dependencies. But the march of events was against them. The aggressive attitude of Blaine, secretary of state in iSSi, and in 1S89-1892, brought the new school into prominence, Cleveland's extension of the Monroe doctrine in the Venezuelan boundary incident of 1895 gave it a wide popular support, and Dewey's victory at Manila crowned it with the sanctity of national glory. Thus the old school lost control, and Americans came to feel at the close of the century that they must of necessity take up a new burden in the Western hemisphere and in the Orient. 764 THE CONTROL OF SAMOA 765 The Samoan Incident, 1887-1889 The beginning of the change was in the negotiations relative to the Samoan islands, whose combined area is a little larger than that of Rhode Island. They are situated on the direct route from San Francisco to Sidney, Australia, 4700 miles from gg^oa" the former, 2000 from the latter, and 2600 south of Hono- lulu. German traders established themselves there as early as 1S54, and Americans and Englishinen did the same later. The natives were frequently at war among themselves, and in 1S77 offered the is- lands to the United States. Conservatism was still domuiant in our foreign policy, and the offer was refused. But we made a treaty (1878) by which we got a coaling station, Pago-Pago, and promised to protect Samoa, if we could, from the aggression of other . nations. Ne.xt year Samoa made a smiilar treaty with conlSversy* England and a stUl more generous one with Germany. This triple guaranty of integrity did not give peace to the islands ; for Germany's more fa\'orable terms, together with her recognized policy of aggression, led the two other nations to join issues against her. The quarrel reached a critical stage when a native claimant to the throne appeared with German support and began a war against the ruling house. Finally, April, 1S86, three German warships arrived on the scene, saluted the German claimant, and seemed bent on es- tablishing his power. The American consul, mindful of the treaty of 1878, proclaimed an American protectorate, and the British inter- ests supported him. The situation now demanded the intervention of diplomacy, and three commissioners, American, British, and Gtrman, respectively, went to the islands to investigate. They reported unani- . . mously that the natives were incapable of ruling the islands by S^cre^ and that a joint control of the three powers should be es- Bayard. tablished. Then Bayard, American secretary of state, and the British and German mmisters in Washington, met (June, 1887) to dispose of the matter. It was smgular that our first step in the stronger policy in the Pacific should have been taken by Bayard, ordinarily an exponent of the old school and a democrat. Samoa had little but geographical value to us and it had not that unless we proposed to extend our influence throughout the Pacific ocean. In the conference at Washington Germany proposed that foreign in- terests in Samoa be placed under a regent representing the nation having the strongest interest there. Had Bayard been for the old policy he would have accepted. But he held out for a joint regency in which we should have as much influence as either Britain or Ger- many, and the conference adjourned, the question remaining for the time in statu quo. 766 A NEW PHASE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY Before the diplomats reassembled, confusion was precipitated in Samoa by the German consul there. Throwing aside restraints he deposed the native king, set up his own favorite, and Pretensions ^^jj-jj ^}^g a^jj gf fQ^,■ warships had his way for nearly a year. Germans in '^'^^ followers of the old lung at last began a counter- Samoa, revolution with the sympathy of the Americans and British. In the war which followed the Germans took open part. One incident especially showed how much they felt them- selves masters of the countrj'. They sent the ship Adlcr to shell a village which supported the old ruler. As it leisurely took position to do its mission, the commander was astonished to see the American cruiser Adams anchor in the line of fire with guns and crew ready to reply. Leary, the commander of the Adams, an adventurous Irish- man, was willing to bring on war to oppose the Germans ; and the Adlcr' s commander, not prepared to go that far, sailed back to Apia, where the German consul proclaimed martial law to apply to foreigners and natives. The year 1889 opened with every prospect of war. All that hap- pened in the Southern Pacific aroused warm interest in the United States, and the nation no longer thought of the value of at^Ap^"* the Samoan islands, but of the honor of the flag. Early in March, as Harrison assumed the presidency, the United States ship Trenton entered Apia harbor, where were anchored two other American, three German, and one British, men-of-war, all ready for action and likely to begin it at the slightest provocation. The threatened engagement was averted by a stupendous accident of nature. March 16 a great hurricane swept over the scene, tossing on the beach the shipping in the exposed roadway, and cooling the passions of the hour. Of the bristling warships only one survived, the British Calliope, which with the greatest difficulty managed to steam out to sea when the storm was highest. Negotiations were now resumed, and April 29 a joint commission of the three powers met in Berlin under the presidency of Bismarck to . . consider the matter. Germany gave up her plans of th"lsknds absotption, and it was determined to continue the in- tegrity of the islands with a joint protectorate under the three nations. But experience showed that such an arrangement was unsatisfactory, and in 1900, when our sphere of influence in the Pacific was more clearly outlined, a further decision was reached. It was now agreed that Great Britain should withdraw from the islands, that the United States should have the island of Tutuila, with the excellent harbor of Pago-Pago, and that the remainder of the group of islands should go to Germany. On this basis the Samoan question was at last settled. A DIPLOMATIC DEFEAT 767 The Fur Seal Controversy While the Samoan incident drew public attention to the South 'acific another controversy had its seat in the north of the same ocean. 5y a construction of our right to Alaska, derived through lussian sources, we believed that the Bering sea was ,.„*ri?^" 1 1 11 T 1 • 1 ^^^ Claim. 'lare clausum and that we could control sealing there. )ther nations protested our claim, especially England, whose Canadian ealers were numerous. After due notice of their rights the United itates began to seize intruders in the sea, and March 2, 1S80, congress irohibited the promiscuous killing of seals there. As most of the aptured English ships were taken over three miles from land England iemanded reparation for damages. The two nations seemed thus liametrically opposed on an important point ; the press of each )reathed defiance ; and some imprudent despatches of Secretarj^ Blaine .dded to the seriousness of the situation. But no one wished war over o small a matter, and after a period of reflection the matter was sub- nitted to arbitration in 1892. The next year a tribunal net in Paris and decided : ia) that the Bering sea was Arbitration &t Peltis lot tnare clausum and that we had no property rights jgg^. ' n seals outside of the three-mile limits ; (6) that we should )ay damages arising from the seizure of ships contrary to this rule ; md (c) that a series of regulations now made should govern seal fish- !ries in the futiue. Thus we lost on the first and second points, the ;ssence of the controversy. It was due to the aggressive position aken by Blaine, who was apt to make wide claims in behalf of his )wn side. Neither he nor his associates were as well informed in the )rinciples of international law as they should have been ; or they would lardly have claimed that the position of the Aleutian islands, Ameri- :an property as they were, gave to the United States the great sea )etween those islands and the mainland of Alaska. The failure in his respect humiliated American pride, and taught us that we must be veil informed and moderate in our assertions if we play the part of a ;reat power in the world's diplomacy. The Matia Incident This affair was, strictly speaking, a part of local history, and deserves 10 more mention in a general history than any other of many lawless )utbreaks which have occurred in various parts of our :ountr}'. But some of its victims were aliens, and it led, ^rime m hrough that fact, to serious international consequences. Orleans. Bad in its origin, it was conducted in its diplomatic stage vith skill and tactfulness. In 1891 New Orleans had been the scene )f many black-hand outrages, believed to have been due to the Mafia 768 A NEW PHASE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY society, a well-known Italian organization. At length the chief of police, Hennessy, very active in hunting down the perpetrators, was murdered in a peculiarly brutal and defiant manner, and circum- stances fixed the guilt on Italians. Nine of them were brought to trial, and the evidence against them was strong. But after a long and exciting trial six of the accused were acquitted and the jury disagreed as to the others. All the acquitted men were detained in prison on other charges. Public opinion was shocked. It was beIie^^ed that bribery had been at work, and the prominent men of the city felt that a band of foreign cut-throats held the lives and property Violenceof of respectable citizens at their disposal. March 15, 1891, the Mob. , ., ' . , 1 • 1 i i- 11 1 while excitement was highest, a mass-meeting was called to protest. A vast crowd assembled, inflammatory speeches were made, and a determined mob, armed and without disguise, marched to the prison. They forced an entrance, hunted out the Italian prisoners, shot down eleven without mercy, and went to their homes without molestation. They made no demonstration against the jury and attorneys, who, if bribery had been practiced, must have been equally guilty with the prisoners. The whole city approved the lynching, and the participants, though well known, were not arrested. The Italian people were highly outraged, and the government demanded that the lynchers be pimished and indemnity be paid. The duality of our form of government, from which proceeds bad, as well as good, results, now came into prominence. The federal govern- ment alone could deal with Italy in the matter, but it could not deal with the New Orleans mob, wiiich had not violated federal law. Secretary Blaine explained the situation to Baron Fava, Italian minis- ter in Washington, while he urged the governor of Louisiana to bring the mob leaders to trial. He well knew the governor was not likely to comply. To Italy it seemed that we trifled with her offended dig- nity ; Baron Fava made a warm protest, Blaine sent him a sharp reply, and the upshot was that Italy withdrew her representative from a government in which the lives of Italian subjects seemed to be held of slight value. But reflection brought moderation. Investigation showed that all but three of the victims at New Orleans were natu- ralized Americans, and congress voted $25,000 to be divided among the families of the three. Italy considered this satisfactory reparation, and cordial relations were resumed a year after they were suspended. Relations with Chile To understand the Chilean incident of 1891 we must go back to 1886, when Balmeceda began a five-year term as president of the republic. He was a grasping man who wished to increase his private fortune at the expense of the public. He was supposed to have his eyes on BALMFXEDA'S DICTATORSHIP 769 tl\c gOA'ernmenL's nitrate beds and to expect to gain his object throvigh a cabinet composed of his own creatures. Congress passed a vote of censure. Then the cabinet should have resigned, but he maintained them in office, and a fierce wrangle ensued T^f ^^,^°' between the executive and the legislature. He sought to Q^^g collect taxes without authority, and in January, 1891, boldly proclaimed himself dictator. He had the army on liis side, beat down o[)position, dissolved congress, and elected another to his liking. For a moment he seemed entirely successful, but the Northern pro\-inces broke from his grasp and began a war in which they slowly and steadily decreased his power. They won most of the navy, and blockaded and finally took all the long seacoast. August 7, 1891, they defeated the Balmecedists, entered Santiago, the capital, and reigned supreme in the country. They were so much embittered that many of the defeated leaders killed themselves rather than be taken prisoners. This happened while Blaine was secretary of state. He was un- popular in Chile, because in 1881, when he was in Garfield's cabinet, he forbade that nation to make a treaty with Peru until certain American claims were settled. Chileans are very sensitive of their national honor, and they have good memories. When the war of iSgi began the United States supported the existing government. Their minister, Patrick Eagan, an exiled Irish agitator and a political subordinate of Blaine, was notably warm for Balmeceda. The congressionalists believed that he was corrupted and that Blaine shared the guilt. In America the cause of the revolutionists was popular, and Blaine and Eagan were sharply criticized. Blaine was especially denounced because he would not accord belligerent rights to the revolutionists even when the navy was in their hands. At this stage came the affair of the Itata. In May the insurgents sent this ship to San Diego, California, for military supplies. This was not against the law of neutrality, but the ship was ^^^^^ detained by a United States marshal, to the great disap- pointment of her own party and their American friends. Her com- mander would not brook the delay, and rashly sailed away after cutting his cables and overpowering the American officers in charge of the vessel. It was an act of defiance, and the whole American nation, irrespective of previous opinions, denounced it; and the cruiser Charleslon was sent out to recapture the Itata, by force if necessary. The Chilean revolutionists were also aroused and sent the Esmeralda, equally strong as the Charleston, to protect the fugitive. For several days the Esmeralda and the Charleston, both ready for action, lay in the Mexican harbor of Acapulco, awaiting the Itata, whose ap- pearance must have precipitated war. Fortunately her commander sailed straight for Chile. When she arrived the anger of the revolu- tionists had cooled and she was handed back to the American authori- 3D 770 A NEW PHASE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY ties The matter then went to an American court wliich ordered the Ilala released on the ground that her detention was unwarranted. The affair left a bad impression of American feeling in the minds of the revolutionists. It was heightened early in August by another apparent violation of neutrality. The insurgents were now prepared for their final blow. They sailed out of their northern provinces with a fleet 'f'h'™^*'"" "'^ transjiorts and landed an army at a point above Val- surgent " paraiso, hoiking to surprise Santiago by a quick overland Movements, march. Their movements were observed by the officer commanding the American squadron in Chilean waters, who repaired at once to Valparaiso and communicated the intelligence to Washington in cipher. He cautioned the subordinate who went ashore with the dispatch to say nothing of the movement of the insur- gents ; but the information got into circulation immediately, and the Valparaiso papers in repeating it said it was acquired from the Americans. No amount of denial could convince the revolutionists, now successful in their attack on their enemies, that the United States officer had not been in this respect the active friend of Balmeceda. Thus the new Chilean administration was embittered toward our government. The leaders of the defeated' party, not daring to surrender to the victors, took refuge in the foreign legations in Santiago, eighty in that of the United States, about the same number in that Asylum of Spain, and sixteen distributed among those of Brazil, Baime-* '° Giermany, France, and Great Britain. In six weeks all cedists. but twenty-one had been allowed to escape, fifteen of whom were under American protection ; and these, per- sons of great prominence in the recent struggle, were much desired for punishment. The right of asylum in countries subject to frequent revolutions has long been recognized by civilized nations, but the United States had looked on it with disfavor, and their agents were instructed to extend it only temporarily to save life, and they were not to "harbor offenders against the laws from the pursuit of the legitimate agents of justice." Eagan seems to have gone beyond these instructions. The new government dared not violate the lega- tions, but policed the surrounding areas most carefully, even to the very thresholds of the buildings. The situation was irritating, and lasted until in January, 1892, seven fugitives, all who had not escaped, were escorted to the seashore by the foreign ministers, and sent into safe exile aboard foreign warships. By this series of events Chilean feeling against the United States became most vehement. The result was the attack on the sailors of the Baltimore by a Valparaiso mob, October 16, 1892. Captain Schley, in command, unwisely allowed 117 of his crew shore leave. Some of them went to the worst part of the city, visited saloons and A BLUNDERING MINISTER 771 dance halls, and fell to quarreling with the natives. Thus began a street battle of an hour's duration, in which two Americans were killed and nineteen wounded. The police passed through the crowd, ostensibly to disperse it, but the Americans present "^^^ **'v"i testified that they joined in the attack on the sailors, p^^s,,. This the Chileans denied, and the point was not clearly determined in the investigations which followed, one at Mare Island and the other by Chile at Valparaiso. The outbreak caused indignation in America. The Chilean foreign minister, filled with the bitterness of recent events, seems to have regarded it complacently. At the end of ten days he had expressed no regret, and when his attention was cour- Diplomatic teously called to the fact he gave such an ill-natured reply ^y, chiie. that IVIinister Eagan was ordered to suspend intercourse. Two months later a new foreign minister was in office, and Chile appeared more reasonable. Her first step was to ask for the recall of Eagan as persona non grata. Blaine replied that when Chile apologized and made reparation for the riot of October 16, and withdrew the offensive note of the preceding foreign secretary, he would entertain the request for Eagan's recall. The reply to this note conceded all that was demanded, and deferred the recall of Eagan. Six months later Chile handed over $75,000 for the victims of the riot. As the advent of Cleveland's administration had now disposed of Eagan, no other cause of irritation existed between the two powers. The ChUean incident arose through the conduct of an incompetent minis- ter, but its permanent effect was to increase the prestige of the United States in South America, and to impress on our own citizens the significance of a broader foreign policy. H.'iWAiiAN Annexation The Hawaiian islands, discovered probably at the close of the fifteenth century, did not arouse the interests of men until they were rediscovered late in the eighteenth. In 1788 two Boston ships visited them, then went to the northwest to buy g^tory furs from the natives, returned in the winter to dry and cure their furs, visited the Northwest for other skins the following season, and finally sold the entire cargo in Canton and returned to Boston with oriental stuffs, making a profit of 1000 per cent on the operations of the two years. Their adventure found many imitators, and by 1800 Honolulu was a base for the operation of many traders in the northern ocean. It had a group of white resident merchants and adventurers, American and European. In 1820 American missionaries arrived. The docile natives proved easy converts, and schools, knowledge of letters, and a simple native literature soon followed. The missionaries became advisers of the 772 A NEW PHASE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY kings, and used their influence for progress and good order. For- eigners were welcomed, and large sugar plantations were estab- lished successfully in this rich agricultural region. In Arrival of jg^^ England and France recognized the independence of 3^gg_ Hawaii, and the United States did the same actually, but not formally, because of her old policy of avoiding en- tangling alliances. By this means the islands preserved their inde- pendence. After California was settled, Hawaii became more im- portant through our growing interest in the Pacific and of 1876*^*^ because it furnished food products to the new community. In 1876 we made a treaty with the islands by which custom duties were mutually relinquished, and it was agreed that Hawaii should not pass into the power of any other foreign nation. It was followed by a wide extension of American industry there, and all this seemed to make annexation more probable. For many years the native kings, advised by the missionaries, ruled well. They gave the people written constitutions, each more liberal than its predecessor (1839, 1864, and 1887). The last TheHawai- came in the reign of Kalakaua (1873-1891), whose private tion, 1893. morals were bad and who late in life yielded to designing white favorites until the chief business interests, largely American, combined to force him to grant reforms. They succeeded in overriding his weak will, and the result was the constitution of 1887, giving the suffrage to the whites and recognizing cabinet respon- sibility. Kalakaua resented it but was powerless, for the natives were worthless as soldiers. In i89r he was succeeded by Liliuokalani, his sister. She hated the constitution of 1887, and, with more spirit than her brother, determined to overthrow it. To be independent of the legislature she established a lottery and an opium monopoly, and announced in 1893 that she would promulgate a new constitu- tion. The news alarmed the whites, who believed she would deprive them of a voice in government and take the taxing power into her own hands. The wealthy natives had the same interest as the rich white men, and supported the armed protest which now appeared against the proposed change. It was evident that a fierce struggle was im- minent, and the American minister landed marines to protect the legation. The natives took this to mean that the United States sup- ported the protesting party, and when the queen called on her troops to defend her prerogative, they refused to fight. Her advisers, wliite adventurers for the most part, now urged her to abdicate. More spirited than they, she refused for a time, but finally complied when she realized that she stood entirely alone. This affair occurred January 16, 1893. The revolutionists organized a provisional government having republican forms, with S. B. Dole president. It was recognized by the United States, England, Ger- many, and France, and it immediately appointed commissioners to OPPOSITION TO EXPANSION 77^, secure .\nierican annexation. For a time all went welJ in Hawaii. But annexation pleased only the Americans there. The other whites, and many natives, headed by the British contin- gent, began to prepare a counter-revolution. Dole knew ^*'s>?s *••« their plans, and got Stevens, the American minister, to raise p]ag_ the American flag ; and on February i, 1S93, marines from the Boston landed in Honolulu and patroled the streets. Stevens acted on his own responsibility. He thought the moment critical, and did not dream that his countrymen would hesitate to accept the fine group of islands which fortune offered them. President Harrison received the Hawaiian commissioners three weeks before the end of his administration, and a treaty was prepared and sent at once to the senate. It provided for annexa- tion, with an annual pension of $20,000 for the queen and p2^^^% a gift of $150,000 for her daughter, the heir apparent to the throne, if they w-ould accept the revolution. By this time public opinion was greatly aroused. Many people did not like the part the marines took in the revolution and many did not want distant terri- tory at any price. To the latter the treaty was the beginning of a policy of expansion leading nc one knew where, necessitating a great navy at an enormous e.xpense, and elevating military ideals to the center of American policies. The opposition was strong enough to postpone ratification until the beginning of the new presi- dency. They were supported by the fact that President Cleveland was known to favor delay. One of his first steps alter his inaug- uration was to withdraw the treaty from the senate and to send James H. Blount, special commissioner, to investigate the situation in Hawaii. In Honolulu, Blount began by ordering the American flag hauled down. Then he heard evidence from each side, and in July, 1893, reported that the revolution of the preceding "January was accomplished chiefly through the conni\'ahce of the Ameri- q"?*^",^ j°" can minister and the overawing presence of- the American jg-^^ marines. On this basis the president decided that it was our dut}' to abandon our pretension to supremacy and to express to the queen regret for the conduct of Minister Stevens. This he pro- ceeded to carry out, inducing the queen, but with much difficulty, to promise amnesty to the revolutionists when she regained her power. Cleveland also wished to restore her to the throne by force, but congress would not go that far. May 31, 1894, it passed the Turpie resolution, refusing to interfere further in Hawaii. Liliuokalani was not able to effect her restoration in face of the revolutionists, and the Hawaiian republic continued to have authority in the islands until 1898. In 189s there was a futile plot in her behalf, and she was arrested and forced to swear allegiance to the republic. The advent of the republicans to power with the election of McKin- 774 A NEW PHASE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY ley in 1896, brought up Hawaiian annexation again. A new treaty was prepared for the purpose and sent to the senate in Anneiation 1897, but the opposition of the democrats prevented its piished acceptance by the necessary two-thirds majority. Its 1898. ' advocates then resorted to a Joint resolution, as in the case of Texas. Before this measure came to a vote the Spanish war began, and Dewey's victory at Manila made Hawaii of vast importance. The resolution now passed the house by a vote of 209 to 91 and the senate by 42 to 21. It made Hawaii "a part of the territory of the United States," but forbade its Chinese inhabitants to come to continental United States, and left the islands outside of the customs limits. In 1900 another act created the territory of Hawaii, with the usual territorial government. The creation of a Hawaiian territory is justified on the ground that it is destined to become a white man's countrj'. From its first ex- ploitation by Europeans the natives proved themselves unsatisfactory laborers, and contact with civilization has involved a decrease in their numbers. They were 130,313 in 1832, 44,088 in 187S, only 34,436 in 1890, and 29,834, in 1900. It seems probable that they will finally disappear. Their places have been taken by Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Spaniards from Malaga. Annexation ter- minated the importation of Chinese laborers. Then began the immi- gration of Japanese, but in 1906 Japan, desiring to turn her emigrants to Korea, made such restrictions that her own people ceased to go to Hawaii. The Chinese there show a disposition to intermarry with the natives, and are generally considered a desirable addition to the population. In 1908 they were estimated at 10.6 per cent of the entire population, while the Japanese were 40.2 per cent. At the same time the Teutonic element, including the native whites, were 12,000, or 7 per cent. By this it is seen that the whites constitute a rich and rela- tively small ruling class over a large body of dependents. Chinese Immigration Chinese laborers began to come to California soon after 1849,' and they were welcomed there at a time when laborers were exceedingly few. The Burlingame treaty, 1868, facilitated this by Amval of granting Chinese residents in America all the pri\-ileges of Laborers. citizens of the most favored nation. White laborers, arriving in numbers after the completion of the trans- continental railroads, complained of the orientals, who worked long hours and at low wages. Many acts of violence ensued, and in 187 1 San Francisco had a riot, in which 21 Chinamen were killed. The matter wasbrought into politics, and each party locally declared against unrestricted Chinese immigration. In 1877 a committee appointed by the United States senate investigated the situation and reported that EARLY SYMPATHY FOR JAPAN 775 the Burlingame treaty should be modified. Nothing was done, how- ever, and in the same year began a series of outrages incited by Dennis Kearney, an agitator, the burden of whose song was that the Chinese must go. He found support among the lower classes, and for many months was a source of annoyance to the city authorities. The state legislature passed several restrictions for the orientals, limiting their rights of labor and residence, but the federal courts declared most of them unconstitutional. The matter then went Exclusion to congress, which passed a bill restricting immigration, piished". but Hayes vetoed it liecause it infringed the treaty and ex- posed to retaliation Aniericans resident in China. At the same time negotiations were opened by which China agreed that the influx of laborers might be mutually forbidden, but not that of students, travelers, teachers, or merchants. This made possible the act of 1882, by which laborers were denied admission to the country for ten years. The e.xecution of the law was difhcult. Laborers were smuggled in under pretense that they were of the e.xcepted classes, and other legislation was necessary to make the exclusion law effective. In 1892 a new act, the Geary law, extended all these restrictions for ten years more. Li 1902 it was ordered that they should be extended indefinitely. The undeveloped condition of China has led that nation to accept discriminations which a more powerful state would probably find insupportable. Am£ric.'\ and Japan The feeling against Chinese labor did not extend to the Japanese, partly because immigration from that quarter was not numerous, and liartly from the part Perry took (1853) in opening the island kingdom to the world. Japan was a strong power, ggJayo„s and progressed so rapidly in new ideas that in 1872 it sent a commission to Europe and America to get the powers to relincjuish rights of extra-territoriality in Japan. The powers would not con- sent, and the commissioners went home to urge further progress in occidentalism. In the United States they encountered Joseph Hardy Neesima, who as a boy escaped out of Japan on a Boston ship and had been educated in Amherst College. He was jjg°Jsi^g a man of great capacity, and the commissioners called him back to his country to supervise the sj'stem of education. Many Japanese students now came to America for instruction, and Ameri- can missionaries went in large numbers to Japan. In 1894-1895, Japan fought a successful war with China, demonstrating her pre- dominance among the orientals. It was not possible to deny her all the rights of a first-class state. The concession she was denied in 1872 was granted in 1899, when extra-territorial courts were abolished within her borders, and her alliance was sought liy the nations ha\'ing strongest interests in the East. 776 A NEW PHASE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY Japan's rapid rise in fortune brought some embarrassment to the other nations concerned in the orient. The partition of China had long been a fixed idea in the world of diplomacy, but who Feeling could now believe this great new state would passively Japan. allow such a thing under her very nose? De\eloping Eastern trade had also been a favored hope of America and Europe, but Japan's industrial energy was as great as her mili- tary energy, and her geographical position as well as her cheap labor gave her an immense advantage in a competition in that field. De- cidedly, the arrival of the nation at the state of a great power seriously disarranged the plans of other great states, and it created a feeling of fear and uncertainty among them. The United States felt the same apprehension, not because they cared about the division of China, but because they thought of the exposed position of the Philippines and feared to lose their expanding oriental trade. It must be confessed that Japan aided the growth of distrust partly by a natural but rather offensive national self-confidence, and partly because she had shown a willingness to use expedients not ordinarily considered fair dealing in international relations. Through these means disappeared the early American enthusiasm for Japan. A counterfeeling of mild distrust was created, also, in Japanese minds by Roosevelt's alleged favor to Russia in the treaty of Portsmouth. The anti- Japanese feeling has been strongest on the Pacific coast, where the question, going beyond the general feeling just described, is part of the local opposition to orientals. In 1900 there fe^tricts'* were in this region 18,269 Japanese, which was only .007 Japanese. P^^ Cent of the entire population, whUe there were three times as many Chinamen. But after that year immigra- tion increased. In 1903 the arrivals were 6000, and the coast became alarmed. It thought that the "yellow peril" had appeared in a new form. Much was said to excite popular feeling, and in 1906 the San Francisco school board ordered that Japanese be taught in an "ori- ental school," and not, as before, in the regular schools. It was alleged in support of the order that the Japanese "school children" were really adults and should not be in schools with young white children. The incident excited the people of Japan, who resented the dis- crimination. The opposition there denounced the Japanese govern- ment for tolerating what it pronounced an insult to the ^et^f"^^' national honor, and there was danger that popular feel- 1907. ing would make war inevitable. The government at Tokio wished to avoid war, and urged President Roosevelt to execute the treaty by which Japanese citizens in the United States were guaranteed the rights of the most favored nation. The presi- dent wished to comply, but the dual nature of political authority in our system of government made it difficult to do so. He sent the VENEZUELA AND BRITISH GUIANA 777 secretary of the interior to investigate the California situation, who reported that there were only 93 Japanese in the San Francisco schools, very few of whom were o\'er twenty years old. Suits were now ordered to enforce the rights of the Japanese pupils under the treaty, and the president's annual message announced a firm purpose to carry the affair through. In California opinion was defiant. A mob even in- sulted a group of Japanese scientists observing the effects of the San Francisco earthquake, although Japan's contribution of $246,000 to relieve the suffering from that calamity was $33,000 more than the amount received from all other foreign nations. The California state authorities were less rash, and an adjustment was made in 1907. Japan agreed to execute more strictly a law already enacted forbidding the emigration of laborers, and San Francisco agreed to admit to the schools Japanese children not over sixteen years of age. Since then an excitable press has found several occasions to raise a Japanese war scare, but calmer minds have been at the seats of authority in Tokio and Washington. The Venezuela Boundary Dispute Venezuela revolted from Spain in 18 10 and established jurisdiction over the valley of the Orinoco. In 1814 England acquired British Guiana from Holland by a treaty which left the western limits undefined. Venezuela asked several times for joint ?"^J^ °^ i ,,,,,, •' the Dispute, action to settle the boundary, but the requests were not granted. In 1841, however, England sent Schomburgk, a surveyor, to run the line with such data as she had from Holland. He carried it far westward, and included 50,000 square miles that Venezuela claimed, practically extending British Guiana to the Orinoco. To Venezuela's protest Britain replied with an oft"er to leave the former a narrow strip on the east bank of the Orinoco, so that the mouth of that river should be entirely Venezuelan. The offer was not accepted, and for thirty-two years the controversy slept. Meanwhile many British subjects settled in the disputed area, some of them coming to prospect for gold which was discovered there. Venezuela, there- fore, in 1876, again asked England to take steps to settle the bound- ary. No reply was vouchsafed until 1880, when England announced that she claimed through some Dutch treaties with the aborigines a large area west of the Schomburgk line. In this stage the contro- versy could not be compromised by the parties, and Venezuela asked England to submit to arbitration. The response was a negative, and though the request was several times repeated in the next sLx years no other reply was given. Finally, in 18S6, England announced once for all that she would not recognize Venezuelan pretensions east of the Schomburgk line. Rupture of intercourse followed, and war might have begun had the parties been ecjually strong. In 1890 and 778 A NEW PHASE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY in 1893 Venezuela sought to reopen negotiations, but met with un- yielding opposition. Her attitude, aside from a consideration of her right, was not such as she would h&ve taken in dealing with a great power. A revolted Spanish province was apt to have indefinite limits, due to the large areas of unsettled territory, and it is by no means sure that Venezuela originally had title to the region in dispute. But to people who knew nothing of the merits of the case it seemed that tlie government at London used its strength to bully a weaker power and refused to arbitrate because its cause was weak. In 1876 Venezuela asked the United States to aid her, alleging that she was otherwise powerless to prevent the apparent British aggres- sions. But President Grant would do no more than hint Venezuela ^q England that we considered ourseh'es interested in the Ui^^'u^ted situation. Nothing resulted, and in 1887 (Cleveland now States. being president) the United States went further and offered its services to secure arbitration if agreeable to both parties. Venezuela had then just broken off intercourse, and England replied that the attitude of the South American state was such that arbitration was impossible, and the same answer was made when Harrison in 1890 made a simUar request. All our pro- tests to England had been made at the suggestion of Venezuela, who continually urged her defenceless position against a mighty nation and declared she would never have justice until the United States took action. These appeals might well arouse American sympathy, but inter- ference in the quarrel ought to be based on important interests at stake, and these, it was thought, were of two kinds: Our I . Our prestige with the Spanish American states demanded in^rTr^^""^ that we give Venezuela the protection she needea. 2. The ence. Monroe doctrine had some bearing on the case. Poth reasons had weight with the American president, bu* e latter was placed most in prominence. As stated in 1823, the M )e doctrine announced that a European state was not to plant r .les in South America or to oppress or control any of the stat. ady established there. It was issued in our own interests, for we feared that if a great power were fixed in the continent south of us our own institutions would be imperiled. In this sense the doctrine was a dead letter in 1895. Practical men so regarded it, and the British ministry had no idea that it could be applied to the Venezuelan situation. But Cleveland thought otherwise. In some things he was a passionate idealist, and his sympathy, courage, and patriotism were now aroused. He construed the Monroe doctrine to mean that we were to protect a South or Central American state from wrongful actions by Euro- pean powers. He did not say that Venezuela was injured by Eng- land, but he thought we were justified in demanding an investigation by arbitration in order to see if encroachments had been made. This THE MONROE DOCTRINE REVIEWED 779 position was clearly stated in a despatch which Secretary Olney sent to London in July, 1895. The secretary was newly in office, and on that ground we may, perhaps, pardon him the use of language need- lessly sharp. Olney'sdemand rudely shocked the British foreign office. Lord SaUs- bury's delay in replying shows his opinion of what he undoubtedly thought a bit of American bluster, and it was not until November 26 that he sent his answer. It dealt chiefly J;^'^,^"^^" with the Monroe doctrine, showing conclusively that it position, was created for a special occasion which was not like the situation then existing on the Orinoco. He argued at length that the United States had no rights of protection over Western states which other nations had not. In his eyes the Monroe doctrine in 1895 was only an historical fact, and if Cleveland had dropped the case at that stage it must have been taken as acquiescence in Salisbury's view. His persistence involved the assertion of a new doctrine, like that of 1823 in the fundamental fact that it aimed to save Venezuela from foreign aggression, but going further and assuming the e.xclusive right of protection which Lord Salisbury denied. It was a most important step, for without it the United States could not play the overweening role in the Western Hemisphere to which many recent actions seem to commit them. All this occurred within the field of diplomac\-, and the public was ignorant of it. But December 17, two weeks after the annua! message, the correspondence of Olney and Salisbury was sent to congress, with a message in which Cleveland stated Cleveland's his interpretation of the Monroe doctrine as it applied to Venezuela the present case in words which left no doubt of his mean- -^^^ j^ ' ing. "The dispute," he said, "has reached such a stage 1895. as to make it now incumbent upon the LTnited States to take measures to determine with sufficient certainty for its justifica- tion what is the true di\'isional line between the Republic of Vene- zuela and British Guiana," and he suggested an American boundary commission whose judgment we should enforce at any cost. In clos- ing he sent a spirited appeal to the American people in these memorable words: "There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-re.spect and honor." When this message was read in congress it was heard in awed silence, followed by an outburst of applause from democrats and re- publicans. Hitt, republican leader of the house, intro- duced a bill to create the proposed boundary commission, ^^'^^p^'°" and in three days it was a law by a unanimous vote in Message each house. But outside of congress there was a short period of hesitation. Nobody in England or America had thought of a war between the two nations, and the people did not at once 78o A NEW PHASE OF AMERICAN DIPLOMACY grasp its import. Some Londoners, taking the message jocosely, cabled, in allusion to experiences at the recent yacht races for the America's cup, "When our warships enter New York harbor, we hope that your excursion boats will not interfere with them." To which the recipients replied, "For your sake it is to be hoped that your warsliips are better than your yachts." A little reflection showed how serious was the situation, and a sharp fall in the prices of stocks indicated that the people of the two countries were alarmed. Up to this point the British people knew nothing of the real nature of the controversy. They were ever friendly to arbitration and were disappointed because their prime minister had overridden England the appeals for it. Three hundred and fifty-four members bitration. of ^^e house of commons, in order to rebuke his high action, sent a petition to President Cleveland that future disputes might be settled by friendly arbitration. Opinion out of parliament, at first aroused at what the people thought a national insult, slowly came around to the same position, and the ministry found itself repudiated on the point in question. This change of sentiment was reflected in the courtesy of the British reply when our Venezuelan commission asked for British charts to enable it to per- form its functions. Finally, February 27, 1896, the United States ventured to suggest that the incident be discussed in Washington for settlement. The reply was favorable, and the case took a still more agreeable turn when a short time later England decided to ap- point a commission to arbitrate all matters of dispute between herself and Venezuela, thus doing under the influence of an aroused British sentiment what the ministry had for years refused to consider. Cleveland's Venezuelan commission took up its task in 1896. It sent Professors J. Franklin Jameson and George L. Burr to Europe to examine archives. Before its work was accomplished the British and American governments had appointed the arbitration board the former had agreed to accept, and the American commission sus- pended its work. The report of the board, in 1899, gave England most of the disputed ; rea ; but the region east of the mouth of the Orinoco, all the extensions west of the Schomburgk line, and some narrow strips east of it were awarded to Venezuela. The Venezuelan incident calls attention particularly to the character of Cleveland. It seemed strange to some that a president, ordinarily a man of peace, who in March ordered the flag lowered in Honolulu should in the following December precipitate the Venezuelan war scare. Probably a strong sense of wrong done to a weak power by a great one was the underlying impulse in each case. In the one a queen was deprived of her throne ; in the other a vast empire seemed to bully a helpless nation. Spite of the popular enthusiasm the mes- sage evoked, there were expressions of discontent. The speculative portion of the business world, just recovering from the depression of CLEVEL.\ND'S RESPONSIBILITY 78 1 1895, were disgusted when the prices of stocks tumbled, and pronounced the president a rash blunderer. Other persons said he wished to restore his waning political prestige; still others criticized his inter- pretation of the Monroe doctrine. He undoubtedly gave the doc- trine a new interpretation, but it was, as we have seen, probably a necessary one. The announcement, also, of his position was brusque. But it was his habit to be outspoken, and tact was never his charac- teristic. The people loved him for his directness as they loved and trusted Jackson sixty years earlier for the same quality ; and they approved his assertion of energy in diplomacy. It cannot be doubted that his action brought other powers to respect more than ever before our claims and responsibilities in the Western world, and prepared our own nation for the new international part it was to play in the succeeding administration. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For general history see : Dewey, National Problems (igo;) ; Sparks, National Development (1907) ; Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic (igoy), interesting in its presentation of foreign afiEairs; and Wilson, History of the American People, 5 vols. (1902). For general diplomatic histon,' see: Henderson, American Diplomatic Questions (1901); Woolsey, American Foreign Policy (1898); Moore, American Diplomacy (1905); Latan^, Diplomatic Relations of the United States and Spanish America (1900) ; Snow, Treaties and Topics in American Diplomacy (1S94) ; Foster, Century of American Diplomacy (1902); \h\d., American Diplomacy in the Orient (1903); Callahan, American Relations in the Pacific and Far East (igoi) ; Hart, Foundations of American Foreign Policy (1901), not an extensive treatment, but there is a good bibliography; Reinsch, World Politics and the Oriental Situation (igoo); and Colquhoun, Mastery of the Pacific (igo2). For material more or less documentary see: Brj'an, Compilation of Treaties in Force, iS6i-i8gg (iSgg); JMoore, Digest of International La\i', 8 vols. (i8go-i8g6), an invaluable work; Ibid., Index of Published Volumes of Foreign Relations, 1861- iSgg (1902) ; and Uliarton, Digest of International Law, 3 vols. (1886). Most of the works here mentioned deal in detail with the specific topics of di- plomacj- in the Pacific. Others are: Chambers, Cows////((/oHa/ History of Hawaii Qohns Hopkins Studies, 1896) ; Carpenter, America in Ha'waii ^1899) ; Blackman, Making of Hawaii (1899) ; Proceedings of the Tribunal of Arbitration at Paris, iSc/2, 15 vols.; Conant, The United States in the Orient (1900), primaril}- economic, but is valuable for the general point of view; Calderon, Latin America (trans. 191 3) ; Seward, Chinese Immigration (1881); Whitney, Chinese and the Chinese Question (1888); 'DdiVfion, South American Republics, 2 voh. (igo^) ; and Cleveland, Vene- zuela Boundary Controversy {Century Magazine, vol. LXII). For Independent Reading Stevenson, A Footnote to History (i8gi), on Samoan incident; Mahan, The Prob- lem of Asia and its Effect on International Policies (1900) ; .\rrastrong. Round the World with King Kalakaua (1904); Evans, A Sailor's Log (1901); Schley, Forty- five Years under the Flag (1904) ; Morton, The Siege of Peking (1900) ; and Krout, Hawaii, a Revolution (1898). CHAPTER XXXVIII THE WAR WITH SPAIN Spain and Cuba Throughout the last half of the nineteenth century, Cuba and Porto Rico remained Spain's only American colonies. Both islands were rich in agricultural resources, and their export and in"cuba' '^^ import duties yielded large sums for her treasury. So much were they e.xploited that a party in Cuba was formed to strive for a greater degree of self-government. It had for leaders some of the men of wealth and influence in the island, but most of its membership were of the middle and lower classes, many of them men of negro blood. The majority of the wealthy and intelligent islanders had no sympathy for the liberal movement and no confidence in the ability of the liberals to govern the island, if independence should be gained. Thus in all the striving which filled this long period there were two parties, an aristocratic one in favor of Spain and a popular one in favor of independence. In i86S the latter began a war for freedom. Tlicir most important leader was vjueseda, a man of great devotion and much ability. He realized that his followers could not cope with the great War *"^ arm}- sent against them, and resorted to guerilla warfare. He divided his forces into small mounted bands, badly armed but strong in the predatory instinct, and sent them against whatever exposed position the enemy ofTered. They burned property, ravaged the crops, and took life relentlessly, making themselves terrors to all who did not support their cause. The Spanish army was strong in infantry and weak in cavalry, and it could only extend its garrisons in the infected districts and wait for time to wear out the revolutionists. By 187S this was accomplished, and resistance ceased when concessions were promised. But the ten years' war left the country a waste. It also led to unpleasant relations between the United States and Spain. An insurgent junta in New Orleans and in New York sent powerful aid to the revolt in the form of arms and sup- Aid from plies, and many Cubans escaping to our shores took oaths States. "^'f American citizenship and returned to the island to serve under the revolutionists. This naturally enraged (he Spanish governor of Cuba, but the orders he issued in opposition to it went beyond the bounds of international comity. Vessels taking 782 THE VIRGIN I US 7S3 recruits and supplies to the insurgents, he declared, should be con- sidered piratical, "and all persons captured in such vessels," he added, "without regard to their number, will be immediately executed." The United States protested against the decree, and it was withdrawn some time after it was promulgated. By international law a ship of the kind indicated might be seized for carrymg contraband, or for smuggling, but it was not piratical, and foreigners engaged on it were not liable to death. The local Spanish officials resented the repeal of the order just mentioned, and they met the desperate methods of the insurgents with the most cruel decrees. The military commander in the island ordered the natives to remain on their premises on penalty of death, and threatened to burn unoccupied dwellings. In 1869 two native Americans, one a passenger and the other a sailor, were executed because they were on a captured vessel carrying re- cruits to the revolutionists. Although Spain took steps to prevent a recurrence of such an affair, it caused much resentment in America, where feeling favored the insurgents. In 1873 the Virginiiis, a well-known filibustering ship, was taken on the high seas and carried into Santiago harbor. The crew of 52 and the 103 passengers, among whom were 8 American, several British, and one French subjects, were sent before a sum- J*'®^.*^®"^ mary court martial, and within five days 53 of them, in- ,„5_ cludmg the captain, an American citizen, were shot as pirates, spite of the protests of the American, British, and French consuls. The Spanish officer in command declared that he obeyed the orders of his superiors. The proceedings were not known in Madrid until it was too late to stop them. The ministry there, as soon as it knew of the capture, sent orders that no sentences be carried out without permission from that quarter. The despatch reached Havana in time to save some of the victims, but it was delayed be- tween that point and Santiago. It seemed to the people of the United States that bloodthirsty subordinates in Cuba hurried on the processes of their courts and nullified a clemency they despised. The affair brought the two nations to the verge of war. General Sickles, our minister in Madrid, seems to have desired to precipitate hostilities, and conducted the negotiations intrusted to him in such a way that a rupture was imminent. But Threatened Secretary Fish, his superior, at last realized that the matter should be withdrawn from the hands of Sickles and shifted the nego- tiations to Washington (see page 674). Spain declared that the Vir- ginius was not an American ship and promised reparation in a month, Lf investigation showed the contrary. Meantime, she handed over the Virginius with the surviving persons taken on it. The vessel started for American ports, but foundered and sank in a storm off Hatteras. The investigation showed she had no right to carry the United States flag, and that her American registry was fraudulent. 7S4 THE WAR WITH SPAIN Spain, therefore, did not salute our flag, as she had agreed to do if the finding had been otherwise ; but in 1875 she contributed $80,000 to be distributed among the relatives of the Americans shot at San- tiago. This disposition of the incident did not satisfy The Inci- jj^g majority of the American people. They recognized Remem-^ the animus in the proceedings at Santiago and repaid bered. it with dislike. They were especially outraged when Brigadier General Burriel, who gave the bloody orders at Santiago, was in 1875, after a short period of suspension, made a major general and given a high command in Spain. While the war went on, the government at Washington several times urged Spain to make concessions to the revolting party in order to have peace. The reply was invariably the same : Cuban Re- Spain was ready to give Cuba reforms, and would do so Urged. ^^ S'^on as authority was respected, but honor forbade concessions to a rebellious pro\ince. Our protests were based on commercial interests and humanity, and they embraced all the arguments which were marshaled into service in the negotiations preceding the war in i8g8. We even talked of intervention, and took pains in 1875 to let our position be known to the leading European powers. Their attitude was hardly friendly to our proposition, and Fish hesitated to proceed further. What we might have done does not appear, for in 1877 the insurgent president was captured, and Campos, commanding the army, took the submission of the island after promising it a liberal government like that of Porto Rico. The offer embraced representation in the cortes at Madrid, self-government in local affairs, admission of Cubans to office, liberal suffrage, and the relinquishment of exploitation for the benefit of Spain. Since our own government had so persistently urged reforms like those now promised, we felt a peculiar interest in their realization. Then followed a series of maneuvers which disgusted the men recently in arms. The Spanish party in Cuba was bitterly hostile to liberalism. They declared the former insurgents unfit to Promised share in the government, and painted black pictures of Withheld. disorder if Campos's promises were fully carried out. Liberalism at that time had few friends at court, and the result was that the promises of 1878 were reduced, in the execution, to the lowest possible terms. The suffrage was so limited that the mass of Cubans could not vote, authority in the island fell into the hands of the Spanish party who controlled the revenues for their own benefit and that of the mother country, and who were, in fact, spite of their superior intelligence and wealth, a rapacious mercan- tile and landlord oligarchy. Against their activity few persons cared to protest openly. The middle class submitted, but the former followers of Queseda maintained their organization as a lib- eral party, and awaited an opportunity to strike. They felt that EFFORTS TO ENFORCE NEUTRALITY 785 a Spanish promise could no longer be trusted and that future fight- ing must be for independence. In 1895 Cuban conditions were intolerable. The annual revenue was $26,000,000, half of which went to pay the Spanish debt and a fourth to support the army and navy. Of the other fourth, much went to maintain the offices created in the jg®J° ° island for the benefit of Spaniards, and only $1,000,000 was given to education and public improvements. Spain had saddled on the revenues the entire debt incurred through the ten years' war, as well as that incurred in wars with Peru and Santo Domingo. Mili- tary trials and a strict censorship of the press which kept down pro- tests against existing conditions gave the situation the air of the choicest medievalism. Finally, in February, 1895, the cortes in Madrid gave Cuba for its self-government a councU, half the members to be appointed by the crown and half elected under the suffrage law existent in the island. It came as the tardy fulfillment of the promise of self-government made in 1878. The liberals realized that the last hope of satisfactory reform was gone, and took up arms under the leadership of Maximo Gomez. Now reappeared guerrilla warfare in its worst form. Gomez ordered the people to furnish no supplies to the foes of the revolution and for- bade the planters to grind cane under pain of death as traitors. Again buildings were burned, industry para- «,! Cubans lyzed, and laborers thrown out of employment and forced to join the insurgents whose foraging was their chief means of support. Spain threw a large army into Cuba, established numerous garrisons, and issued threatening proclamations ; but the Cubans avoided open battle, content to cut up exposed detachments as opportunity offered, to reduce the country to a desert, and to dissolve their bands before encountering the columns sent to capture them. Again Cuban juntos operated on American soU, supplies were for- warded, and adventurous Americans stole away to join the insurgents. American public opinion applauded the revolutionists, spite of President Cleveland's efforts to enforce neutrality. Cleveland How well he succeeded is shown by the fact that _^;^ ex- trality. peditions were stopped before they sailed, while of the 32 which evaded the authorities and landed in Cuba, only five were taken by the army of nearly 200,000 men which occupied the country. Many American citizens were captured among the Cubans. Some were native-born citizens, but many more were Cubans who had sought protection by taking out papers of American citizenship. Spain did not want war with our government, and was content for a time to send such captives out of the island, while Cleveland, recognizing the abuse of our naturalization laws, which he could not check, did not protest strongly against what was done. Gomez well knew the best chance of Cuban success was to bring the United States into the war. 786 THE WAR WITH SPAIN During 1895 the commander-in-chief in Cuba was Campos, under whose pacilic pohcy the revolt only grew stronger. The Spanish fac- tion protested against his conduct of the war and he was Campos. removed early in 1896. He left Cuba, declaring that the concession of real autonomy was the only means of restor- ing order. Again he was met by the feeling that Spanish honor could not permit concessions until the insurgents laid down their arms. General Weyler, who succeeded him, announced a policy of re- pression. In parts of the island the revolutionists kept the rural population terrorized and levied contributions of supplies Weyler" "^^ them. For these districts Weyler issued his order of reconcentration, compelling the inhabitants to remove to garrison towns and forbidding them to travel in the abandoned districts without written permission. It also enlarged the niDitary law, increased the power of military tribunals, and gave notice that conviction for crimes subject to the death penalty would be followed by summary execution. Spain justified this edict as nec- essary to meet the devastation of the guerrillas, but it fell sorely on the innocent persons who had taken no part in the struggle and who suf- fered severely in the reconcentration camps to which they were confined with no means of earning a livelihood. Moreover, all the restrictions failed to accomplish the desired results, and the war went on with in- creasing horrors during the years 1896 and 1897. American Intervention The cause of Cuba was popular in the United States, and Cleveland's rigid neutrality disappointed a large portion of the people. Weyler's reconcentration edict brought this feeling to a head, and in ConCTess° April, 1896, congress passed resolutions recognizing the belligerency of the Cubans and offering the services of the government to secure the recognition of independence by Spain. The president is not bound by a resolution of congress on a matter of belligerency, and although this had only six negative votes in the senate and twenty-seven in the house, Cleveland clung to his policy of neutrality to the end of his administration. Meanwhile he urged Spain to concede reform, and was met with the usual declaration that no concessions would be made until the Cubans laid down their arms. In a message to congress, December 7, 1896, he discussed intervention in all its relations, and said in conclusion that when it was evident that Spanish authority could no longer be enforced in Cuba it Restrained by would be our duty to intervene in behalf of humanity. Cleveland. This was ominous, and England, France, and Germany united in urging Spain to bring the Cuban struggle to a close by adopting reforms, but again the reply was a negative. Spite of all these things, Cleveland held to his course and was able to restrain OUR DEMANDS ON SPAIN 7S7 the resentment of the people, which every day grew stronger. The business of the country was slowly recovering from the previous years of panic, and shuddered at the suggestion of war ; and he was anxious to protect it. His successor, President McKinley, also supported the business interests and maijitained neutrality during the spring, summer, and autumn of 1897 ; but he was not a man to defy congress, and the meeting of that body was awaited with interest by all who desired the success of the revolutionists. There was a liberal party in Spain, and it continually demanded re- forms in Cuba as a means of ending the war. The mass of Spaniards favored repression, but the logic of events was against them, and when the leading conservative in the ministry was K*''"'™^ assassinated on August 8 his colleagues were forced to re- sagasta. sign, and there was a liberal ministry under Sagasta. His task was to establish autonomy in Cuba without arousing the appre- hension of a sensitive nation. He assumed office October 14 and ad- dressed himself at once to a scheme of Cuban autonomy. Weyler was recalled, General Blanco was placed in command in Cuba, recon- centration was abandoned, an elective assembly was announced, and other features of autonomy were adopted. President McKinley in his first annual message suggested that no action be taken by congress until it could be seen what effects would follow these concessions. A year earlier the American people would have allowed the new policy a fair trial ; now they were so much aroused that they would hear of no further waiting. If they had no faith in promises from Madrid, if they thought loopholes would be disco\-ered to evade real autonomy, Spain herself was to blame through her broken faith in the past. The Cubans also rejected autonomy. They could hardly be expected to accept it as long as the American people decried it. They talked loudly of resisting to the last extremity, but it cannot be doubted that they must have submitted had the United States been satisfied with the reforms which Sagasta with much honesty desired to effect. Autonomy thus was proved a failure, and only increased the embar- rassment of Sagasta in Spain. Events drifted toward war throughout the winter of 1897-1898, and various incidents served to accelerate their progress. The attitude of the United States was resented in Cuba, where the Spanish party became so bitter toward Americans that General Fitz- hugh Lee, the consul, advised that a ship-of-war be sent to Havana. In accordance with the suggestion the battle- '^^^ "'"'"^ ship Maine arrived fri the harbor January 25, 1898. She Havana, saluted the forts, and anchored at the place assigned her by the authorities. Her presence increased rather than allayed the anti-American feeling in the city. A fortnight later a New York paper published a private letter from Sefior de Lome, Spanish minister in Washington, describing autonomy 7S8 THE WAR WITH SPAIN as a failure and McKinley as a "cheap politician" (policastro). It had been purloined and was published in the interest of the Cubans, and this was designed to embarrass the diplomatic relations Letted™* * ^^ '•^^ ''^° countries, then already greatly strained. The letter was genuine, and its author could only plead that it was not intended for publication and no notice should be taken of it. McKinley thought otherwise, and asked for de Lome's recall. The minister was allowed to resign, and Senor Polo y Bernabe took his place. The incident raised feeling still higher in the United States. Six days later, February 15, the Maine at her assigned anchorage was blown up with a loss of 2 oflficers and 258 men. The ship burst into flames, and in twenty minutes settled in thirty feet of Destroyed ' ^^'^ter. Two explosions were heard at an appreciable interval. It was agreed that the second was caused by the ignition of the ship's magazines, but one theory held that the first was the report of a mine exploding and another that it was the explosion of the fixed ammunition in the ship due to lax management. The Spanish authorities expressed warmest sympathy for the loss and did what they could to save life in the accident. Captain Sigsbee, commander of the Maine, in his dispatch announcing the catastrophe, said ; "Pub- lic opinion should be suspended until further proof." The people generally were stunned : they were prepared to believe anything of Spanish treachery, but they could not believe that Spain would do an act which could not fail to bring on a war which she was doing her best to avoid. Two investigations were made, one by the United States, the other by Spa n. The former, after a careful examination of the wreck by divers, concluded that the ship was destroyed by a mine Investiga- which set off One of her magazines ; but the investigators Accident. would not try to account for the firing of the mine. The outer shell of the hulk, with the steel ribs and keel, were bent upward in a gigantic dent, which seemed to indicate an external explosion. The other investigation, after a superficial examination of the hulk, reported that the accident was due to an internal explosion. Most Americans disregarded the Spanish report. They believed the Maine was destroyed by a mine set off either by some Spaniard on his own responsibility, or by a Cuban to bring on war, or by accident. When the wreck was uncovered in 1911 its condition corresponded with the reports of the American divers, and a new investigation sup- ported the conclusion of 1898. President McKinley showed great forbearance while the investigation was proceeding, and sent the find- ings to the government at Madrid without demands. Neither he nor the calmer portion of the people felt that Spain ought to make repara- tion, but the disaster had raised American feeling to such a state of tension that nothing short of the widest concessions to Cuba could have averted war. PEACE OR WAR? 789 The president now returned to the negotiations with a surer grasp on the situation. He suggested an armistice to allow negotiations for peace through the friendly offices of the United States, protesting that the United States did not wish to acquire McKinJey Cuba. Sagasta seems to have been willing to meet these Armistice. suggestions, but he considered the vast wave of anti- American feeling in his country and wished to avoid the semblance of yielding to the Cubans. He replied that an armistice would be granted if the Cubans would ask for it, but that nothing definite should be done until the newly authorized Cuban parliament met on May 4. This was the situation on April i, 1898. McKinley, realizing that his sug- gestions were refused, prepared a message to congress which he pro- posed to send on the sixth. That body was keen for war and only waited the word from the executive to make it a reality. April 5 the queen of Spain, at the request of the pope, offered a suspension of hostilities if the Cubans would accept it. The offer made no impres- sion on the president, but he withheld his message to congress because the consul at Havana cabled that time was necessary to get Americans out of the city. April 10 the Spanish minister in Washington informed the president that the order for an armistice had been issued. Thus at the last moment, when our hand was raised to strike, our ultimatum was accepted. What should our president do? Behind him were the people whom nothing short of Cuban in- dependence would now satisfy. Concessions at the last ^^ ^'* moment, they reasoned, would be evaded, as in the past, jjcKinley. unless we took on ourselves the heavy task of supervising their execution. Moreover, we were quite sure, as a people, that we wanted the removal of the last vestige of Spanish power in the Western world, and we were not willing to forgo the opportunity to secure it. McKinley could have withstood this sentiment. By accepting the surrender of Spain he could have guided the situation until the colony of Cuba would have remained at last in a situation somewhat like that of Canada. By refusing to accept it he could secure Cuban independ- ence. He chose the latter alternative. April 1 1 he sent a message to congress summarizing recent negotiations, barely communicating the Spanish note of the tenth, and asking authority to intervene, by force, if necessary, in order to establish peace and order in Cuba. Congress acted promptly. April ig, the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, four resolutions were passed, the first three demandfng the independence of Cuba and authorizing the use of force to execute the demand, and the fourth pledging the govern- q "i^ed ment to withdraw all authority from Cuba when independ- ence was accomplished and a fima government established. The last resolution was received with derision in many parts of the world, but it was faithfully fulfilled in 1902. The day after the resolutions passed the Spanish minister in Washington asked for his passports ; 790 THE WAR WITH SPAIN the next day, April 21, our own minister in Madrid, General Woodford, made the same request and left Spain; and on the 25th congress de- clared that war had existed since the 2ist. These developments were closely obsen^ed in Europe. France, Austria, and Italy naturally sympathized with Spain ; and Germany, mmdfuJ, perhaps, of the Samoan affair, was also out of European sympathy with the United States. The continental press the"war.° teemed with grotesque criticisms of Americans. We were considered a nation of money getters, the cartoonists depicted us as swine, and our pretension to intervene in Cuba was pro- nounced a species of piracy. Our army was pronounced an armed mob, and our navy was made a subject of ridicule. German news- papers took the lead in this chorus. In Great Britain sentiment favored the United States. Every prominent London paper, except the Saturday Remeiv, was cordial in its support. Persons connected with the British government later said that just before war was de- clared the German minister and other continental diplomats were about to give the United States notice of a purpose of joint intervention to save Spanish sovereignty and that their plan was defeated by Sir Julian Pauncefote, British ambassador. Germany denied this asser- tion and said that the plan for joint intervention came from Sir Julian and was disapproved by the German emperor. It is impossible to reconcile the two statements, but it is true that while both governments were formally friendly we had every reason to believe that Germany wished Spain's triumph and England desired ours. The Work uf the Navy As war became imminent Spain assembled her strongest ships of war at Cape Verde islands, and April 29 they left that place for America. They consisted of four armored cruisers and three torpedo- The Expedi- \jq.^i destroyers, commanded by Admiral Cervera. Our Cervera. whole Atlantic seaboard was at once in a paroxysm of terror, but it breathed easier when it reflected that Cer- vera must touch at some Spanish port in Cuba or Porto Rico before he could ravage our coast. To reach such a point would require ten or more days, and it became the object of the American navy to strike him while still in West Indian waters. All our best ships, which for two weeks had been held in reserve to suppport the blockade we had established along the northern shore of Cuba, were now made ready to intercept the Spaniards. Before they could undertake the task assigned them the world was startled by an important event in another quarter. When the war began our Pacific squadron was at Hong Kong under command of Commodore George Dewey. Through the efforts of Theodore Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the navy, the squadron was MANILA BAY 791 in excellent condition for ofiFense, and April 24 it was ordered to the Philippine islands to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet there as- sembled. Three days later Dewey set out with the Olym- pia, his flagship, the Baltimore, Raleigh, and Boston, pro- 5®7*^rt ♦ tected cruisers of from 5800 to 3000 tons, the gunboats Manila. Concord and Petrel, the revenue cutter, MeCulloch, and a collier and a supply ship, all in war coats of dull gray. At sea the crews were shown a bombastic Spanish proclamation describing the Americans as "all the social excrescences'' of the earth. To this Dewey added the simple order: "The squadron is bound for Manila. Our orders are to capture or destroy the Spanish fleet." The announce- ment was received with cheers from the crews of all the ships. During the night of the 30th Dewey reached the entrance of Manila Bay, in the middle of which stands the fortified rock, Corregidor. Without a moment's hesitation he started through, the Olympla in the lead. He was not expected, and the flagship MaiiUa°Bay was a mOe beyond the rock, when the fleet was discovered. Fire was opened without damage to the ships, and p,t dawn they were before Cavite, a strongly fortified place, five miles from the city. The Spanish fleet was observed drawn up under the guns of the arsenal, ready for action. The American commander was eager for battle. Forming his squadron in a crescent at 5500 yards range he turned to the commander of the Olympia and said quite calmly : "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." Instantly the guns on both sides began their work, Dewey mo\'ing in closer as he observed that his range was too great. After an hour the Spaniards were suffering greatly and already crippled. Then Commodore Dewey, thinking of the comfort of his own men, withdrew to give the crew time for breakfast, after which he moved in and completed the work he had begun. At half past twelve the enemy ran up the white flag and surrendered their fleet and the arsenal at Cavite. A desultory fire continued from the city, but it ceased m the afternoon when the American commander gave notice that he would shell the city if another shot was fired at him. The Spaniards lost ten warships, a transport, and a water batter)''. They had 381 men killed and many more wounded. Of their ships only two were protected cruisers. They were inferior to the Americans in fighting ability, but the protection of their shore batteries was sup- posed to have overcome this disadvantage. They fought l^ravely, but their gunnery was bad, whUe that of their adversaries was extremely good. No American ship was seriously injured, and only one Ameri- can was killed and seven wounded. Dewey was made Rear Admiral for his splendid victory, and March 2, 1899, congress made him an admiral. It was natural that he should hold the bay he had taken ; and when he cabled his government that he could take the city if he had the troops to occupy it, it was natural that troops should be sent. But 792 THE WAR WITH SPAIN it was not until May 2 1 that they could be embarked at San Francisco, and June 30 that they reached Manila. Meanwhile, Dewey's posi- tion was critical. Soon after his victory foreign warships ManS^ay ^^^8^" ^^ arrive, among them three British vessels com- manded by Captain Chichester and five German ships commanded by Admiral von Diedrich. The latter officer seems to have known little of naval etiquette, and showed little respect for the blockade of the city which the American commodore had established. He of all the commanders present adopted an irritating course, sending his launches close in at night beyond the lines of patrol and dogging the American ships at whatever points they saw fit to inspect. Re- monstrances did not restrain him, and he finally committed a clear breach of neutrality by landing supplies for the Spaniards. To this Dewey sent a pointed protest, closing with the words, "And say to Admiral von Diedrich that if he wants a fight he can have it now." The German was in a rage, and asked Captain Chichester Attitude of wh^t he would do if a conflict occurred between the Ameri- jjjl,_ can arid German squadrons. The Briton replied ; "There are only two persons here who know what my instructions are. One of those persons is myself, and the other is — Admiral Dewey." Von Diedrich then realized that he was alone, and his attitude became more regular. He represented a new navy, without traditions of " sea manners," and was acting without in- structions. But he showed the hostility his compatriots at that time generally felt toward the United States, and he nearly pre- cipitated a war. The first relieving expedition arrived at Manila on June 30 and contained 2500 men, a second arrived July 17 with 3500, a third on July 30 with 4600, and August 4 came the great monitor, Reiie for Monterey, a floating fortress bristling with guns. As these forces were landed they occupied the captured forts, and August 13, under command of General Wesley Merritt, they were in position to occupy Manila, a work which they accomplished in a few hours, notwithstanding the spirited resistance of the garrison. Dewey's persistence at Manila committed us to our Philippine policy. Had he left the islands to Spain they would probably have gone to some other European power, or to Japan, and that, it seems, would have obviated the strong check we were able to interpose, a few years later, to the partition of China. Those who think that we should not have become involved in oriental diplomacy are inclined to blame Dewey for not leaving Manila after he had crushed the Spanish fleet, which was all his instructions ordered. But the responsibility was not his. He was in communication by cable with his government, and President McKinley and his cabinet not only failed to order him away, but devised the policy of occupation which followed his achievement. (The different Scales used sho : noted with particular care.) AWAITING CERVERA 793 When the Cape V'erde expedition sailed westward the American fleet on the Atlantic was in three sciuadrons. One under Commodore Howell patrolled our northern coasts, another, called the "Flying Squadron," remained at Hampton Roads under p*"?'* Commodore W. S. Schley, and a third, the main squadron, Santiago under Rear Admiral W. T. Sampson, was at Key West con- ducting the blockade. The announcement of Cervera's coming put the first and second of these divisions into motion. Schley was sent around the western end of Cuba to the southern coast, and Sampson operated along the northern coast as far as Porto Rico and in the channels east and west of Haiti, with scout-ships thrown far out. The Spaniard reached Martinic}ue safely on May 11, and, learning that Sampson was looking for him, turned southward to the Dutch island of Curasao, where he arri\^ed on the 14th. He had supplies for the army and wished to reach Cienfuegos, in railroad communication with Havana. May 15 he started for that place with a small supply of coal, but changed his mind, and May 19 entered Santiago harbor, at the eastern end of Cuba. At that time the Flying Squadron had not passed the western end of the island, and Cervera, had he known it, might have reached the desired point without molestation. His engines were in need of repairs, and he intended after recoaling to get to sea and threaten the American cities to the northward. In the port coaling was slow, General Blanco, commanding in Cuba, wished him to help defend the island, and he thus remained until his last hope of escape vanished. May 21 Schley arrived ofl Cienfuegos. The inner harbor was so concealed that he could not see what was in it, but hearing guns firing, and seeing columns of smoke rising, he concluded that Cervera was inside. As soon as the Spaniards reached f*^**!^^ Santiago the fact was reported to Washington. The news cervera. ° was not entirely credited, but it was sent to Sampson, then at Key West. He thought they must go to Cinefuegos, where they would be intercepted, and on the 20th ordered Schley to "hold your squadron off Cienfuegos." Ne.xt day he changed his mind and urged the latter to go to Santiago. Schley was right to exercise reasonable discretion, and as he thought the enemy before him he dis- regarded the instructions, saying, " I think I have them here almost to a certainty." But May 24 he established communications with the Cubans on shore, learned he was mistaken, and immediately proceeded to Santiago, where he arrived May 26. Here he saw no evidence of the hostile fleet, concluded it was not in the harbor, the inner part of which was hidden behind headlands, and started back to Key West to coal his ships, thinking the water too rough to coal from the collier accompanying him. In turning westward he disregarded positive orders from Sampson to blockade the harbor. He had gone only 40 miles when he received directions from the secretary of the na\'y to blockade Santiago, and turned back to that task. 794 THE WAR WITH SPAIN The subsequent criticisms of Schley's conduct embraced three charges. He was said to have delayed too long at Cienfuegos ; but in that respect he replied that he acted within the dis- Schleys cretion a high officer on detached serN-ice has a right to bility. ' exercise, and he has a right to this defense. He was also blamed for the retrograde movement at Santiago. It seems certain that he did not try hard enough to learn whether or not the enemy were in the inner harbor and that he showed little resource- fulness in trying to coal at sea. The third criticism was that when he established the blockade he lay so far out to sea that the Spaniards might have escaped had they been enterprising. There is little doubt that this was true. At the approach of hostiUties he outranked Samp- son, who was a favorite with the naval authorities. Both men were brave officers, and bore honorable parts in the campaign which followed. June I Sampson arrived and took command of the blockading fleet. He brought with him the powerful battlesliip Oregon, which had just completed, since March 19, the fourteen-thousand-mile ••egon. j^^.p jj.Qy^^ gg^j.^ Francisco around Cape Horn. Much fear had been felt for her safety when she reached the Caribbean Sea just as Cervera approached Cuba. May 9 she left Bahia, in Brazil ; May 18 she was at Barbados; and six days later she was off the coast of Florida, joining Sampson at Key West as he was starting for Santiago. When asked if she could make thirteen knots, the captain signalled " Fourteen, if necessary." With the arrival of Sampson, the American fleet before Santiago included four first-class and one second-class battleships and two fast cruisers, besides two fast converted yachts able to meet torpedo-boat destroyers and several colliers and despatch boats. From the date of his coming the ships took station close in- shore, with powerful searchlights at night bearing on the harbor mouth and always ready to fly at anything that attempted to escape. The channel leading into the harbor is only 350 feet wide at one point, and Sampson directed that a collier be sunk so as to block e.xit, but the order was not executed when he arrived, and his first care was to make the attempt. Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson was selected to carry in the Merrimac, warp her athwart the channel, and sink her by exploding torpedoes and opening her sea valves. The point selected was directly under the guns of Morro Castle, but hundreds of men were ready to volunteer for the task. Only seven were taken, and just before dawn of June 3 the vessel glided noiselessly toward the harbor, Hobson and his devoted crew clad only in woollen underwear and going, as all men thought, to certain death. Behind the collier trailed a catamaran raft and a lifeboat in which they hoped to escape if opportunity oSered. At five hundred yards from the castle they received a shower of shot, but coolly kept on, cast anchors at the desig- nated spot, and sank the ship undisturbed by the hot fire concentrated A CALL FOR THE ARMY 795 upon them. But before the anchors caught the vessel was swung around by the current so that she did not settle across the channel, as was expected. In the operation the lifeboat was carried away, and Hobson and his crew, not hit by the Spanish shots, swam to the cata- maran and concealed themselves under it imtil daylight, when they surrendered and were sent to Morro. They were well treated, and Admiral Cervera personally expressed admiration for their courage and informed Sampson of their safety. The incident resulted in failure, but the blockade continued with unrelenting vigor. Throughout June the giant sentinels stood guard, five miles out during the day, from one to three miles off during the night. On the sLxth Sampson bombarded the forts, but the reply was weak. The Spanish guns were small and the ammunition was care- ^™f,',*^t°^ fully husbanded. June 7 to 17, by means of hard fighting ^^^ by the marines, the Americans seized Guantanamo Bay and held it for a naval base. From this point Lieutenant Victor Blue, of the navy, with Cuban guides made two trips to the hills behind Santiago, located the hostile fleet, and made valuable topographical observations. His achievement, like Hobson's, was much acclaimed by the people at home. These feats, important as accessories to other movements, but indecisive in a large sense, marked the limit of the power of the na\'}', unless Cervera should elect to take the sea. Samp- son recognized the fact, and turned to the army, saying ; " If 10,000 men were here, city and fleet would be ours within 48 hours. Every con- sideration demands immediate army movement. If delayed, city will be defended more strongly by guns taken from the fleet." He reported the enemy in and around the city at 12,500. Land Operations against Santiago When the war began the regular army was enlarged to 62,000 men and a call was issued for 125,000 volunteers. A few days later con- gress called for 75,000 additional volunteers and authorized three regiments of cavalr>' and ten regiments from the g^za,io"n. Gulf states, composed of men immune to yellow fever. The response was enthusiastic ; and throughout May and June regi- ments were assembling at Chickamauga Park, in the salubrious south- ern highlands. In August 58,688 regulars and 216,029 volunteers were in service. One regiment of volunteer cavalry drew special attention. It was commanded by Colonel Leonard Wood, formerly an army surgeon, and Theodore Roosevelt, who resigned an assistant secretaryship of the navy to be its lieutenant colonel. Most of the men were from the Far West, cowboys, ranchmen, and Indians, but it also contained prominent athletes from the Eastern universities. It was popularly known as "The Rough Riders." 796 THE WAR WITH SPAIN The regulars were assembled at Tampa, Florida, with an idea of attacking Havana ; but the summons of Sampson took them to Santi- ago. June 14 two infantry divisions under Brigadier ShafT'"f* Generals Kent and Lawton, one cavalry division under Santiago. ^lajor General Joseph Wheeler, formerly of the confed- erate army, and four light and two hea\^' batteries of artUlery, in all 16,887 men, set sail for the front, convoyed by a detach- ment of the navy. The "Rough Riders " ser\-ed under Wheeler. The cavalry could not take their horses for want of transports, and the en- tire expedition lacked many necessary things. By some oversight only three ambulances were taken. The command was given to Major General Shafter, and on June 20 he arrived off Santiago, and two days later the disembarkment began. Admiral Sampson overestimated the number of Spanish troops in Santiago. Their real number was 6500, distributed in the forts around the city with a large detachment thrown out to Santiae"" protect the water supply. General Linares, in command, was a competent officer, and the defenses were well placed, with strong protection from barbed-wire entanglements. His men were armed with magazine rifles using smokeless powder, while Shafter's men had black powder. The country around Santiago contained many troops placed as garrisons to hold back the insurgents, but through a strange kind of neglect they were not concentrated against the Ameri- cans. Shafter began to land his troops at Daiquirion themorningof June 22. Here the shore runs east and west, and a road, parallel to it for the most part, reaches Siboney, six miles to the west, Las Guasimas m'ent™ " ' ^^^ree miles farther on, and San Juan Hill, seven miles still farther, and enters the city a little over a mile beyond that elevation. Along this road the Americans must advance. By night- fall of the 2 2d, 6000 men had landed through the surf at Daiquiri, the garrison there retreating before them. Nine hundred and sixty-four of the disembarked were dismounted ca\'alry under Wheeler, iive hundred of whom were "Rough Riders." It was intended that Brigadier General Lawton should lead the advance and the cavalry bring up the rear; but Major General Wheeler outranked Lawton, and as Shafter remained on the transports Wheeler assumed command on shore. He lost no time in idleness, but moved his men to Siboney, and on the morn- ing of the 23d attacked the retreating Spanish detachment at Las Guasimas. It was posted on a hill overlooking a wooded valley through which the Americans approached by two roads. LasGuasi- -pj^gy ^^gj-g ^jj^g divided, as they came up, but deployed and formed line of battle. After an hour's fighting the Spaniards withdrew toward the city. They lost nine killed and twenty-seven wounded, while their opponents lost sixteen killed and fifty-two wounded. The skirmish was hardly over before Lawton's THE DEFENSES OF SANTIAGO 797 men rushed up from Siboney in order to get into the fight. From the crest of the captured hill Santiago could be seen, and the men were eager to go forward ; but they were without supplies ; and it was pru- dent to wait until the rest of the army and the stores could be landed. It was not until July i that the advance was resumed. Linares prepared for the onset at San Juan Hill, just east of which runs San Juan river, a small stream. On the hill itself he placed his first line, with a body of men thrown out to Kettle Hill, a smaller elevation at its foot, both hills commanding tlie J-^a^^s's • ' o Lines or river. A second line was half a mile in the rear of the first. Defense and a third was 400 yards behind that and nearly a mile from the city. The first line was manned by 521 men, the second by 411, and the third by 140. There were many men in other parts of the field, but only a few of them were brought up in time to take part in the defense of these lines. THE \ J ===^ ^' SANTIAGO ( 7 ^^ ^.'-" -^^ CAMPAIGN \ (^ f ^■^y^J^l Caney \ Sautiago L <^4i ^^ I'l \ de CulM- T \ '■' ~'^ ~^-^^^tr~*''>^/''''^ V ■^''i xK/| /' ^.^ Finneza 1 ^~^vj /.r-r/ f^STPMO ^N S^— SocapaV^ C *» V ^^La8 Gu.isVnii« ^^ f\ rJJ \\ r\H^-- Da'iliulrl g#^ ^%j;^5=:^ z*^*^^^**^ ^ c A n I JS B E A JV' S E A Three miles east of San Juan Hill the road crosses a small hill called El Poso, then falls into a thickly wooded valley which stretches away to San Juan river. Through this wood and parallel mth the road runs a small tributary of the river, the road pj"^'*! ^ and river clearly discernible from San Juan Heights. Battle. Three miles north of El Poso, on the road from Santiago to Guantanamo, is El Caney, then a fortified village manned by 520 men. Shafter's plan was to send Lawton with 6500 men to seize this place and march at once down the road toward the city. When El Caney was taken the rest of the army under Wheeler and Brigadier General Kent was to move from their position behind El Poso, carry San Juan Hill, and the lines behind it, then unite with Lawton's advancing column, sweep away all further opposition, and enter Santiago. His army thought little of the fighting capacity of the Spaniards, and did 798 THE WAR WITH SP.\IN not understand the advantage they had from smokeless powder and improved rifles. Lawton was confident he could carry El Caney,and promised to do it in two hours. He moved at dawn, July i, but was delayed by wire entanglements and the difficulty of bringing up his guns, AttTk"^ and it was not until 2 p.m. that he had enveloped the El Caney. ^'illage on three sides and was ready to carry it. His charge was received bravely, the Spaniards defending each position to the last, stubbornly falling back from one blockhouse to another, and finally fighting from the houses in the village until they were, at five o'clock, forced to withdraw t? the northwest. This long battle in the hot sun under distressing conditions cost the Span- iards 270 killed and wounded and 150 captured. Lawton lost 81 killed and 360 wounded, and the time spent in the movement precluded his cooperation with the main column on the Santiago road. The other wing had not waited for him. At nine o'clock it crowded into the road and took its route to the ford beyond which it would form to carry the hill. There was much confusion, the San'^hian Progress was slow, and all was in \aew of the enemy on San Hill. " ° Juan Hill who had the range of the road and the ford and delivered an annoying fire. By one o'clock this perilous march was ended, and the two brigades, 7573 in all, lay imder what cover they could find 600 yards in front of the hill they were to charge. The men suffered continually, and were impatient to advance. For a short time no one seemed willing to order the charge. Finally the first cavalry brigade got permission to move ; it was followed by the second, in which were the "Rough Riders" and the tenth regiment, colored, and the advance became general. The men rushed up the slope in little groups, paying slight attention to their officers, and firing as they went. At 1 : 30 p.m. they reached the crest, the defenders falling back into the second line of defense which commanded the position just relinquished. The men on the hill were now in extreme danger. They were with- out food, exhausted, demoralized by the exertions of the day, and on Holding San ^^^ point of falling back, when General Wheeler, who was juanHUl. ^'^ '^^''^y i" the day, arrived and took command. He found some intrenching tools left by the Spaniards and in- duced General Shafter tc send up others, and the hill was soon safe from the fire of the enemy's second line. July 2 brought heavy rams, from which the men had no protection. The road to the coast was a sluice of mud along which only the most meager supplies could be brought. Gloom settled down on the army, and it was doubtful if it could be induced to penetrate the city in front of it. All through the day It exchanged shots with the enemy, and the continuous firing, with other suffering, discouraged the troops, most of whom were new recruits and had never before seen a battle. CERVERA AND BLANCO 799 During the night of July 2 Shafter laid the situation before his divi- sion commanders. The nature of the discussion was not made public, but next day he sent a despatch to Washington saying that Santiago could not be taken with the force then on shore, and that it might be necessary to fall back to higher ground until rcenforced. Meanwhile, he tried the effect of a stern demand on the Sjianish commander, the suggestion, as it was currently reported, of General Wheeler. At noon on the 3d he sent a summons for surrender, threatening to bombard the city with his heavy guns in case of refusal. These pieces were not in position, but the enemy did not know it. General Toral, in command since the ist, when Linares was wounded, began to parley. The de- mand was not granted, but the departure and destruction of Cervera's fleet on this day restored the spirit of the Americans. They extended their lines and had the city completely invested within a week. On the loth they began a bombardment which had the effect of renewing the negotiations. The city was now in genuine distress ; the Syj.^g„jj,f„, fleet was destroyed, the water supply was cut off, and s"ntta°go"° supplies were low. On the 17th Toral accepted tenns and handed over most of eastern Cuba, the victors agreeing to transport to Spain the Spanish soldiers surrendered in it, 22,700 in number. The capitidation gave great relief to the American army, men and officers. There was much malarial fever and dysentery in the ranks and a few cases of yellow fever of a mild type. .Another week of fight- ing might have thrown the entire force into panic. The Destructio.v of the Sp.vnish Squ.adron Admiral Cervera saw himself bottled up in the harbor with great dismay. He opposed from the first the expe.htion to the We-I Indies and would have got away at the earliest moment, ^^^.^^^ ^, but coaling was slow and General Blanco feared that his Cervera. armv already near the point of mutiny, would take it for iandonn'aent by thJfr country and break ;>"[ •"/'-Jj-;, '; subdue which must occasion the spilling of much bOod. Ihus ^^a allowed lo pass the first days of the blockade, when a successfi 1 Ji^tlwas^rn'ost possible. The army in Cuba thou Jt a second e would be sent to drive ofl Sainpson s ^'^P^" , ' h hi"h" r off, e Cervera to sweep all opposition from tlie sea but he h'-h^^^;^';^'- ; naval and military, knew how ^^^^^J^^^^^'^ the gu'Io the Shafter added to their ^I'^couragement a some o the g squadron were landed to strengthen Je ;^^ ^-^J^ f ^^,^iJ , , .jetach- also sent to the trenches, and fapta'n « Ija ' ^ ment of 500, lost his life on Ju y ^^^^ '^iLl of Blanco 24 Cervera, by cable, had be P ^,;' ^^^^^^^ ,;,,. ,„iil surrender :^mSt3tS :^XJ.;-o^::^;rin the best^nanner possible. Soo THE WAR WITH SPAIN Tliis contingency was believed to have arrived on the evening of July i, but the admiral hesitated on account of what he believed the useless loss of life. At dawn on the 2d he unwDlingly directed his fires to be lighted and called his sailors on board. A few minutes later all his doubts were resolved by peremptory instructions from Havana to make the sortie. Blanco felt it would be a blot on Spanish honor to allow the ships to fall into the hands of the enemy without a blow. All day Saturday, July 2, the steam rose in the gauges. Sunday morning it was at the highest point, and all the preparations were complete. Cervera gave the order of proceeding. Like Cervera's ^ brave officer he took the lead in the Maria Teresa, Ulone tor the Sortie, w'ith the Vizcaya, Colon, and Oquoido following in order at intervals of 800 yards, all armored cruisers of the modern type. Behind them at 1000 yards came the torpedo-boat destroyers, the Furor and Pinion, the third destroyer which set out from the Cape Verde islands having fallen behind through disablement. He pro- posed to turn westward when outside, try to ram the Brooklyn on the west end of Sampson's line, draw the other American ships to him, and thus give the ships that came later an opportunity to break through and escape. Such tactics would mean the loss of the Teresa, but they might save the rest of the squadron. The start was made from the inner harbor at 9 : 15 a.m. That morning the American ships were in a crescent, the ends three miles apart and two and a half miles respectively from the shore. Farthest west was the Brooklyn, Commodore Schley's ^"e^Ameri- ^''^g^hip, a fast and powerful cruiser. Ne.xt to her was can Ships. ^^^ Texas, a second-class battleship, then the Iowa and Oregon, first-class battleships, and on the eastern end of the crescent was the Indiana, also a first-class battleship. The Gloucester, a converted yacht, was midway between the Indiana and the shore, while the Vixen, another small ship, was a mile and a half west of the Brooklyn. The heaxy battleship, Massachusetts, was coaling at Guantanamo, and the cruiser, Nric York, Admiral Sampson on board, was eight miles away, near Siboney, for a conference between the admiral and General Shafter. Cervera had thus by accident selected a moment favorable to his project ; for two of the best ships in the blockade were off their stations, which, in view of Sampson's excellent tactics, was all the good luck of that nature the Spaniard could expect. At 9 : 30 o'clock the Teresa was sighted going at full speed. Schley, in actual command, signalled, "Clear ship for action," and "Close up." Sampson soon saw what was happening, signalled the attack, and made all speed for the fray. Only the Oregon had full steam up, and for a few minutes the other ships were outstripped by the enemy. The Teresa made straight for the Brooklyn, which at 1400 yards turned eastward, made a great loop, and came back to the west in a course THE SPANISH FLEET DESTROY i:i) Sot parallel to the flying Teresa. By this time the other Spanish ships were outside. Instead of scattering, they followed their admiral along the shore, each engaged with the American ship which, sailing in a parallel course farther out at sea, happened to be nearest to her. Thus the action resolved itself into a series of magnificent duels between powerful ironclads, metal ringing on metal, while the cannon roared, the great engines throbbed, and the air was filled by the clouds of smoke which rushed from the overcharged boilers. The Sixiniards' aim was bad, or their powder poor, for their shots went wild or fell short, while the American gunnery was e.xcellent. It was more than the enemy could stand, and the explosion of shell after shell in his vessels showed that he was losing the fight. The Teresa, in the thickest of the battle, first showed signs of weakening. At 10:15 she ran for the beach si.x and a half miles from the harbor, a complete wreck. Five minutes later the Oqnendo, in even worse condition, repeated the maneuver and settled in the sand half a mile west of the Teresa. The Furor and Pluton, last out of the harbor, were raked by the small guns of the American ships and engaged by the Gloucester at short range with great courage. They quickly succumbed and sank before they could reach the beach. The other Spanish ships, the Vizcaya and Colon, passed the first danger zone with a fairt hope of escape. They were pursued by the Brooklyn, Oregon, Te.xas, and Iowa, whose rising fires ever increased their speed. At 11 o'clock the ]'izcaya, shot-ridden and sinking, turned to the shore and ended her course twenty miles froni Santiago. The loica and Te.vas halted to receive her surrender and rescue her drowning crew, while the Brooklyn, Oregon, and N^rw York, which was now coming up, held on after the Colon, six miles in the lead. The pursuers held their fire and crowded on all possible steam. At 12:23 the Brooklyn a.nd Oregon were in range and opened fire. At 1:15 the Colon ga\'e up the struggle and ran toward the shore. She was nearly uninjured, but her crew opened her sea vah'es, and she sank before the victors could prevent it. Thus four hours after Cervera began his dash the last of his ships was destroyed, ^2t, of his crew were killed, 151 were wounded, and 1782 were prisoners, he himself being among the last-named and on board of the Iowa. Sampson lost one man killed and one wounded, and his ships were uninjured. He himself, because of his unlucky position at the beginning, was not in the fight, but pursued it as fast as his swift cruiser, the Neio York, could move, and came up in time to be present at the surrender of the Colon. Santiago was hardly taken before rumors of peace negotiation were heard. One effect was to hasten the departure of an expedition against Porto Rico. The government desired to occupy the island in order to hcjld it as war indemnity, and all Expedition men agreed that if Spain gave up Cuba she should be portoRico. "orced to relinquish the last of her American colonies. 8o2 THE WAR WITH SPAIN Accordingly, General Miles set out on July 21, landed on the southern shore of the island, and occupied town after town, en- countering the most perfunctory resistance. In two weeks the southern and western parts were taken, with an American loss of 3 killed and 40 wounded. The march of \ictory, to the disgust of the soldiers, was interrupted by the tidings that an armistice had been made on August 12. Reflections on the War in Cuba In June, 1898, Spain had 196,000 troops in Cuba, of whom 36,000 were in Santiago province. General Blanco had distributed these to restrain the revolutionists, and did not concentrate them Error of against the greater danger of the American invasion. General Linares had 6500 at his disposal in and around Santiago, but on July i he put only about 1 200 into the fights of El Caney and San Juan Hill. In the evening of that day he began con- centration, and next morning had nearly 3000 men on his lines. Late on the 3d, Colonel Escario with 4000 fresh troops arrived from the region west of the city. In view of the hardly won victory on the ist, it seems that the result might have been otherwise if this con- centration had occurred earlier. The destruction of Spain's naval power isolated her army in Cuba and made surrender ine\dtable. The American soldiers then began to feel sympathy for men who were so suddenly overtaken Humanit '""y misfortune, and fraternized with them in Santiago as soon as the capitulation was signed. Other acts of courtesy to the vanquished won the good will of the Spanish soldiers. Captain Evans, of the Iowa, refused to take the proffered sword of Captain Eulate, of the Vizcaya, and Captain Phillips, of the Texas, would not let his men cheer over the defeat of a brave foe. A Spanish private soldier in a public letter which was published as the army embarked said to the Americans : " You fought us as men, face to face, with great courage, a cjuality we have not met with during the three years we have carried on this war against a people without a religion, without morals, without conscience, and of doubtful origin, who could not confront the enemy, but shot their noble victims from ambush and then immediately fled. . . . The descendants of the Congos and Guineas, mingled with the blood of unscrupulous Spaniards, and of traitors and adventurers — these people are not able to exercise or enjoy their Uberty ; for they will find it a burden to comply with the laws which govern civilized humanity." Most American soldiers shared this opinion of the Cuban army, who did not aid in the battles fought in their behalf, but overran our commissaries, consumed supplies, and pilfered whatever arms or other valuables were left unguarded. To the American they were a rabble beneath his contempt. He did not take into consideration the TROPICAL DISEASE 803 effects of the long struggle on the Cubans. The guerriUa warfare to which necessity reduced them bred the rudest habits and puhtical ideas, and the opportunity for pillage attracted persons for whom a life of regular labor had little charm. But no soidier ^"° one can deny to them endurance and patriotism. If their hatred of Spain approached the frenzy of barbarism, it was the natural product of a tyranny which had stamped out the better feelings of the heart. The campaign brought home to Americans the problems of modern warfare. It was evident that the magazine rifle and smokless powder opened a new era in lighting battles. It took 6500 Ameri- cans three hours to carry El Caney, defended by less than ^3^°°^ °* 600 men with the modern arms; and at San Juan Hill the same result was evident. The lesson of this is that war is in- creasingly difficult and bloody and ought to be the less lightly under- taken. This unpleasant fact is somewhat balanced by the larger percentages of recoveries among the wounded. The new bullet makes a smoother wound than the old leaden ball. Thus healing is easier, and the improvement in surgery and hospital efficiency greatly increases the success of treatment on the battlefield. Of the 1000 Americans wounded at Santiago, less than one per cent died. Shatter's army suffered greatly through lack of foresight in assem- bling the necessary equipment, and the commissary was not adequate for the demands so suddenly made upon it. Complaint was made of the beef, and serious charges were preferred ' ,A? ^"^^ against those whose duty it was to purchase it. The cents." wagon trains were not sufficient at first to transport the supplies from the landing point to the lines, and the medicines were inadequate. The men's spirits fell with the impression that they were the victims of incompetency. They were not acclimated to service in the tropics, the fatigues and hardships in the trenches overwhelmed them, and by the end of July seventy per cent of the army were suffering from malarial fever. In the language of the commander it was "an army of convalescents." August 3 the general officers assembled with his consent, prepared a statement of the conditions, and suggested that the troo]:)s be removed to Montauk Point, Long Island. Shafter concurred with this recommendation in a separate report on the same day. Ne.xt day the officers' statement was given to the press before it reached Washington. This "round robin," as it was popularly called, caused needless alarm throughout the country and sent a shock of terror to many a fireside. Giving it to the public so soon was a breach of discipline, the responsibility for which was not fixed on the perpetrator. August 4 the order for re- moval was given by the secretary of war, and by the end of the month all the troops were out of the island, their places being taken by the newly raised immune regiments. Montauk Point proved too 8o4 THE WAR WITH SPAIN cool and bracing for the enfeebled men, and the process of recovery was slow. It was felt that it would have been better to transfer the regiments to the more moderate climate of the coasts of North Carolina or Virginia. In the discouragement of the moment General Shafter was much criticized. He was physically a large man, over fifty years old, afflicted with the gout, and not active enough for the task assigned Sh^Vr ^^^- ^^^ ^^^ "'^^ ^ good soldier, resolute, sensible, and brave, and his plan of campaign was admirable. He did not deserve all the blame he got : part of it should be laid to men who threw newly recruited regiments into a most difficult operation ; for adequate preparations could not be made in the time allowed. He was assigned to the e.xpedition by General Miles, head of the army, under the impression that the campaign would be of minor im- portance. It was believed that the chief operations would be against Havana, and these Miles expected to lead himself. A controversy arose between the friends of Admiral Sampson and those of Commodore Schley in reference to the conduct of the latter at Santiago. When Sampson steamed up as the Colon ^^^ f "h?''" ^^'^^ sinking, Schley signaled congratulation and received CoDtrovers^y. ^^e curt reply, "Report your Casualties." To the public this seemed ungenerous. Sampson's promotion was not generally approved in the first instance, and his conduct after the battle seemed to support the opinion that he was not only a pet of the bureaucracy but a heartless seeker of his own glory. Such a view did Sampson injustice. He was a good officer and had con- ducted the campaign well, but the public was in no mood to recognize it. When President McKinley, in distributing the rewards for the commanders of ships at Santiago, recommended that Sampson be advanced eight numbers and Schley six, the controversy became acute. The senate reflected the feeling in the country and deferred con- sideration. By this time feeling ran high on l^oth sides, and so many charges were made against Schley that in iqoi he demanded an in- vestigation. Admiral Dewey presided o\'er the C(nirt of inquiry, whose verdict acquitted Schley of cowardice, which had been freely charged by his critics, but it found that he was vacillating and unenterprising before June i, 1898. Dewey, in a separate opinion, declared that Schley was in command at the battle off Santiago and deserved the credit for the victory. President Roosevelt, reviewing the verdict, supported the finding of the majority of the court and declared that Sampson was technically in command in the battle, but that it was "a captain's fight." This disposal of the dispute did not satisfy the public, although McKinley 's recommendations were finally accepted by the senate, and the controversy died slowly. OWNERSPIIP OF THE PHILIPPINES 805 Peace Negotiations The rapid course of events in Cuba and the Philippines awakened Spain from her habitual indecision, and July 18, the day after the sur- render of Santiago, she asked France to open negotiations in her behalf. Accordingly, the French minister ap- Pfo'*":"' proached President McKiiiley and recei\'cd a tentative Au^st'12. statement of our terms. Several notes were exchanged, and August 12 a protocol was signed, Sjjain agreeing to evacuate Cuba immediately and to cefle Porto Rico and one of the Ladrone islands as indemnity. Tlu- Philippines were to be left in statu quo, their dis- position to be determined when a formal treaty was made by com- missioners appointed to meet in Paris, October i. The day after this protocol was signed, and before the news was carried to the Philippines, Manila was taken by the Americans. Opinions on holding the archipelago now developed rapidly. Many persons saw in the situation an opportunity and a duty to acquire the islands in order to convert the people and instiU in them western ideals. Some thought acquisition would ^^^J!^*^ imply vast commercial possibilities. Still others, and Philippines. these were probably the most numerous, thought chiefly of the national glory which, they belie\'ed, grew with the size of the domains over which the flag floated. Conservative men pointed out the perils expansion would introduce ; the difficulties of governing remote territory and widely dissimilar races, the expensive enlarge- ment of the navy which was sure to follow, the stimulus to militarism, and the danger from departing from our traditional policy of non- interferenae — all these were urged as reasons why we should not acquire the Philippines. They were entirely futile. So strong was opinion for acquisition that the president dared not resist. When the peace commissioners departed for Paris they were uninstructed on this important question ; for he was awaiting the development of opinion. At the end of a month his mind was made up. We needed a foothold in the islands in order to protect our interests in the East ; if we took one island for this purpose, complications would ensue with the owner of the others ; and, therefore, we should have all or none. In this dilemma, the president decided to demand all as a purchase. Spain hesitated, but was not able to renew the war and was forced to yield. The price agreed on was $20,000,000. Much of Spain's large debt was secured by pledging Cuban revenues. Unless the holders of the debt agreed otherwise, the debt would go with the island. There was, therefore, some subtlety in the offer to transfer Cuba to the United States ; for it could ^^^^ ^°^^^^ not be doubted that the bondholders would never release Debt, us willingly from the suretyship, if we once permitted it. Neither would they take the Cubans for security. Wlien we refused So6 THE WAR WITH SPAIN to accept a transfer of the island to ourselves, Spain could do nothing but acquiesce and shoulder of her own strength the immense debt she had contracted in two wars to subdue the revolutionists. It was agreed that Spain should relincjuish sovereignty in Cuba, that we should occupy it until we saw fit to hand it over to the Cubans, and that we should defray the expense of the occupation. The other subjects of discussion were easily settled. Guam, in the Ladrone group, and Porto Rico were given up as indemnity, and each nation assumed the claims of its own citizens against F ta f ^^'^ other. It was also stipulated that congress should the Treaty, regulate the civil and political status of the ceded territory, a provision of importance in later proceedings concerning our government of dei^endencies. This treaty found serious opposi- tion in the senate on account of its Philippine clause. It committed us to expansion, and reversed the policy of a century. February 4, 1899, while it still hung in the balance, came the insurrection of the Filipinos. Some dissenting senators, feeling that we could not now withdraw from the islands, abandoned their objections, and the treaty was approved February 6. SuBSEQtTENT RELATIONS WITH CuBA It was January i, 1S99, when under the protocol the Spanish flag in Havana gave place to the stars and stripes, and an American military government took up the task of restoring a dev- Restonng astated land to the ways of peace. Its first care was Order in . . „ , -11 1 r 1 1 i Cuba. sanitation. Cuban towns, m the best days of the old regime, were badly drained and full of disease-breeding conditions : at the end of the war, they were mere than ever wretched. American engineers gave themselves to the work of improvement, and in two years Cuba was clean and public works were established by which it might remain so. An American army surgeon, INIajor Walter Reed, proved that yellow fever is only transmitted by a mos- quito, the deadly slygomyia. Further investigation has shown that other dreaded fevers peculiar to the troj>ics are transmitted by in- sects ; and by taking proper precaution it has thus been possible to make life as safe in those regions as in other parts of the world. Another service of the Americans was to establish a niodern system of public education. Its need is shown by the fact that before that time two-thirds of the population could not read and write. But their greatest task was to organize government harmoniously. The old Spanish party had no confidence in the party of liberation, and without American supervision the two factions would probably have been at each other's throats. The situation was met by conferring the suffrage cautiously. All were allowed to vote who could read and write, or owned $250 worth of property, or had served in the army of RIGHT OF INTERVENTION PERMANENT 807 liberation. In June, 1900, municiiial flections were held under this arrangement. They passed off quietly, and in September a general election was held for members of a constitutional convention, which met November 5. It adopted a republican form of government, em- bracing a congress of two houses, a president, and a supreme court. The convention omitted from the constitution any reference to future relations with the United States, desiring to leave Cuban sovereignty unimpaired. But our government did not mean that Cuban affairs should fall into chaos and invite V'^ ''''*" the intervention of foreign powers through lack of super- ment. vision. Congress, therefore, in 1901 delivered its ulti- matum in the Piatt amentlment to the army appropriation bill. It directed the president to withdraw the army when the Cuban constitu- tion provided: (i) that no foreign power should ever effect a lodgment in the island or establish control over it, (2) that Cuba should contract no debt for which the revenues were inadequate, (3) that the United States might intervene to preserve independence, order, and republican government, and to see that Cuba discharged her obligations to other nations, (4) that Cuba ap])rove the acts of the military government in the island and continue the sanitary reforms there, and (5) that the United States retain the Isle of Pines and naval stations subject to future settlement. This condition was accepted by the Cuban constitutional convention. Later in the year, a general election was held, and May 20, 1902, a Cuban president, Thomas Estrada Palma, took the place of the American military governor. In the two years and a half of control the Cuban revenues were $57,000,000, of which more than $55,000,000 went for restoration, and the rest remained in the treasury. Lawlessness was deeply planted in the minds of the Cuban masses during the long resistance to Spain, and it disappeared slowly in the days of independence. The attempts of President Palma to enforce the law produced dissatisfaction, and his op- j:*"';^"?^!^ ... , . . , ^ tion m 1900. ponents, disputmg his reelection in 1906, took up arms. President Roosevelt felt justified in intervening to restore order. He assigned the task of Secretary of War Taft, who assumed the office of military governor, displacing Palma, who yielded without protest. The arrival of a body of United States troops disposed of the insurrec- tion and sobered the imagination of the people. Governor Taft returned to Washington after a few months, but his successor, Gov- ernor Magoon, ruled in the island until the end of the period of occu- pation in 1909. With his departure, a Cuban president was again installed, and peace has reigned to this day. It seems certain that the consciousness that disorders will be followed by intervention facilitates the development of self-government and ,';ond order. 8o8 THE WAR WITH SPAIN BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For general works see : Latane, A men'ca as a World Power (1907) ; Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic (1907) ; Long, The New American Navy, 2 vols. (1903) ; Lodge, The War with Spain (1899) ; Mahan, Lessons of the War with Spain (1899) ; and Wilcox, Short History of the War with Spain (1898). Many books have been written on the Cuban campaign, most of them ephemeral ; but the following may be selected as of real value : Chadwick, Relations of the United States and Spain, Diplomacy, i vol. (1909) ; The Spanish American War, 2 vols. (1911); Sargent, Cu)H/>a/j;H of Santiago de Cuba, i\o\s. (1907); Miley, /h C;(6a with Shaftcr (1899) ; and Kennan, Campaigning in Cuba (1899). The United States office of naval intelligence has published in translation the following from Spanish sources: Cervera y Topete, Spanish-American War (1899), containing Cervera's correspondence; Muller y Tejeiro, Battles and Capitulation of Santiago (1898), the second edition is more inclusive than the first; Concas y Palan, Squadron of Admiral Cervera (1898); and Nuiiez, Spanish-American War Blockade and Coast Defense (1898). In the same connection appeared Pliiddermann, Comments on the Main Features of the War with Spain. On the war in the Philippines see : Millett, The Expedition to the Philippines (1899) ; Oscar K. Davis, Our Conquest in the Pacific (1S99) ; Mahan, Lessons of the War with Spain (1899); Dinwiddle, Puerto Rico, Its Conditions and Possibilities (1899) ; and Foreman, Philippine Islands (ed. 1906). An exceedingly valuable work is Blair and Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 55 vols. (1903-1909), a com- prehensi\'e collection of sources from the earliest time with a good bibliography. The following biographies and reminiscences are also valuable : Dewey, Life and Times of Admiral Dewey (1S99) ; Barrett, Admiral George Dewey (1899) ; Funston, Memoir of Two Wars (191 1) ; Schle>', Forty-five Years under the Flag (1904) ; Miles Serving the Republic (1911); Evans, .1 Sailor's Log (1901); Roosevelt, Rough Riders (1890) ; and Hobson, Sinking of the Merrimac (1899). Of the many government publications relating to the war with Spain the following are important : Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols. (1896- 1899) ; The Congressional Record, for debates ; Foreign Relations of the United States for 1898 (published in 1901); Messages and Documents, iSgS-iSgg, Abridgment, 4 vols. (1899), contains the most important reports; and Compilations of the Reports of the Committee on Foreign Relations, U. S. Senate, vol. VII (1901), on affairs in Cuba before the war. For Independent Reading Long, New American Navy, 2 vols. (1903) ; Da\'is, Cuba and Porto Rico Campaigns (1898) ; Bigelow, Reminiscences of the Santiago Campaign (1S99) ; Millet, Expedition to the Philippines (1S99) ; Evans, .1 Sailor's Log (1901) ; Funston, Memoir of Two Wars (igii); and Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic (1907). CHAPTER XXXIX EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS The Philippines as an American Colony Several years before the United States became interested in the Philippines, rebellion began in the islands, and Spanish authority was reduced nearly to a nullity. Vast tracts of the best lands were in the hands of religious organizations, the members The Fili- of which by the support of the crown monopolized munici- f*^""^ "° pal office. Their rule was heavy, and the natives formed Spaniards. an organization to obtain a larger degree of self-government. They presented their grievances in i8q6 and took up arms when the demands were refused. The rural districts quickly fell into their hands, the friars were killed, imprisoned, or driven to the protection of the garrison towns, and the whole archipelago e.xcept Manila and a few other large towns defied Spanish authority. The authorities could not subdue the revolutionists and resorted to cunning and bribery. When they made large promises of reform and offered to distribute $1,000,000 among the leaders of the revolt, resistance was abandoned. The promised reforms were then forgotten by both parties to the bar- gain, and only part of the bribe was paid. When Dewey sailed for Manila, the disappointed leaders were in Singapore, and their chieftain, Aguinaldo, a man of much ability, opened negotiations with the Americans. Dewey received his overtures and brought him to Manila, where he was soon at the head of a strong ^gi^naldo force which overran the district around the city. He established a government, rei)ublican in form, and had the obe- dience of the natives generally. He was recognized by both General Anderson, conmianding the first forces that came to the support of Dewey, and by the admiral himself. But by midsummer the American government was thinking of permanent occupation, and General Mer- ritt was ordered to establish a provisional government without regard to that of Aguinaldo. The situation was delicate, but the natives de- sired to avoid a conflict. They were induced to allow the Americans to take unopjjosed possession of Manila when it surrendered on August 13, but they entered the place with their army and for a time occupied certain ]iortions of it. The Filipinos saw with concern the ripening purpose of the United 809 Sio EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS States to acquire the Philippines. They withdrew from the city to avoid conflicts between the soldiery of the two armies, ttie^FUi-' but they kept sharp eyes on the negotiations at Paris, pinos. They also watched keenly the debate in the senate at Washington on ratifying the treaty with Spain, and Feb- ruary 4, two days before ratification, attacked Manila in a fierce night battle. Instantly the islands were in a flame. February 5, 6, and lo the whole American force in the city was busy in beating ofl the assault, and succeeded in extending its lines beyond the suburbs. Aguinaldo could not withstand the attack. The Americans took town after town, but must hold with garrisons all they won. The rainy season, from May to the end of September, interrupted the conquest, but October saw it renewed with a stronger force. In two months the treasurer, secre- tary of the interior, and president of the Filipino congress were cap- tured, but x\guinaldo eluded his pursuers, went into hiding, and directed resistance in isolated parts. After a year's fighting, 400 American posts held the population down, but there was no real submission by the natives. Thus passed a year, no one knowing when the in\asible leader would kindle another general outbreak. Finally, February i, 1901, it was learned that he was at Palanan, in the inac- Captured" cessible mountains of Isabella province. General Funston with four American officers and some friendly natives volunteered to capture him. Landing on a wild coast, they set out for his headquarters, nominally as a party of native soldiers who were taking five white prisoners to the leader. They gained access to his presence, overpowered his guard, and carried him a captive to the coast before resistance could be offered. He was held in prison for a time in ManOa and finally sent into exile. The war did not cease for a year longer, but its central will was broken. The leaders who held out acted for themselves, and one after another were forced to surrender. The last resistance was overcome in April, 1902. The first government under American control was military, but it was temporary. In 1899 a step toward a permanent system was taken, when a Philippine Commission was sent out with ^^ne^C^-' Pj'esident Schurman of Cornell University at the head, mission. ''^n^ Admiral Dewey, General Otis, Charles Denby, and Professor Dean C. Worcester as the other members. It was given wide authority to study conditions in the islands and to adopt a policy which would lead to self-government as the natives showed political ability. To apply the fifteenth amendment to the situa- tion was evidently absurd. A great many of the people were illiterate, and most of them were without rudimentary knowledge of civil life. They were in many 'tribes, spoke a variety of languages, and were PROGRESS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT Sir used to the authority of a strong superior. The report of the Schur- man Commission brought out these facts and suggested that the Fili- pinos should not have self-government at once. It was decided to follow the suggestion, and the commission was reorganized with William H. Taft, of Ohio, at the head. Here began an administrative career which for tact and skill in the management of delicate problems has rarely been equaled .p^j '"^ in American history. Local governments were established as seemed ad\dsable, suffrage was granted to the most capable, and it was announced that a central civil government would be created as soon as a working local government was established. After a year and a half of this fundamental organization the promise was redeemed, and Taft became the first civil governor of ^"'^ ^°^' the Philippines, retaining, however, his position as presi- stituted. dent of the commission. The other commissioners be- came a part of an e.xecutive council to which three natives were added, and four executive departments — the interior, commerce and police, finance and justice, and education — were created. The governor and council had supreme executive functions under the government at Washington. Thirty-five provinces were created, with adminis- tratiye heads appointed by the governor. An appointive system was thus established as best suited to the needs of the people. At the same time, the beginning of suffrage appeared in municipalities. All were allowed to vote who could read and write English or Spanish, or who had held municipal oiiice in the past, or owned real property worth $250, or paid taxes to the amount of $30 a year. All this was done by the president of the United States through power conferred by congress. The system worked well, and July i, 1Q02, congress enlarged the plan and made it permanent. A law now made the inhabitants "citizens of the Philip- i^'f^^/T"^ pine Islands," with the rights of life, property, and liberty, i_'^ipo2." ^ except that of trial by jury. It directed a census to be taken, and decreed the organization, two years thereafter, of a Phil- ippine legislative assembly of two houses, the lower to be elective, the upper to be the Philippine Commission. The total population was 7,600,000, and the system provided was to extend to those districts only whose inhabitants were Christians, about 7,000,000. The re- mainder were classed as wild tribes and continued under military rule. But the next year a special district was created for these people, in- cluding the Moros and Sulu islanders, with a distinct governor and council, and with no thought of a legislature. For the regular Phil- ippine government the suffrage law already introduced was con- tinued. The census contemplated in the act of July i, 1902, was completed in 1905, and elections for an assembly were held in 1907, eight years after the .\merican regime liegan. Of the 7,000,000 natives concerned 8i2 EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS only 104,966 registered under the qualified suffrage law ; and of these only 100,439 voted. They were divided into two parties. One, known as nationalists, complained that the existing govern- The Philip- ^nent was too expensive and gave too many offices to sembly. Americans. They aimed at independence in the near future and appealed to the most fervidly patriotic class. The other party was called progressives and supported development under American authority. It laid itself open to the charge of selfishness in seeking offices, of betraying national interests, and of lack of courage ; but it reflected the best interests of the islands. The nationalists . carried the elections and organized the lower house of the Paiges assembly, but showed an unexpected amount of self-con- trol in the exercise of power. As a party measure they carried a resolution favoring independence, but wisely cooperated in many measures to develop agricultural, educational, and administra- tive conditions. Later assemblies have repeated the same story, and it seems that the political life of the islands has fallen into step with the steady evolution to be expected under such circumstances. As in Cuba, American occupation has brought many improvements in sanitation, education, and public utilities, most of them paid for out of the island revenues. In 1906 the system of ecluca- Phiiippine (^j^j^ embraced 3435 primary, 162 grammar, 36 high, and ments. ^2 technical, schools, employing in all 5400 native, and about 800 American, teachers, at a total cost of $2,421,222. The persistence of the American tariff against the islands restrained business progress. But Governor Taft's urgent requests for relief could not break the opposition of the tariff party in the American con- gress. It was not until he became president that he was able to do _, ._ something. The Payne-Aldrich bill (1909) allowed the free annual importation of 300,000 pounds of Philippine sugar, 150,000,000 cigars, 300,000 pounds of wrapper tobacco, 1,000,000 pounds of filler tobacco, and an unlimited amount of hemp. From the Spanish regime came a controversy difficult to settle and likely to enter into politics in continental America. The friars for- p, . . . merly owned 400,000 acres of the best land in the country, letting it to tenants on long-term leases. Since the revolt of 1896 it had been out of their possession, and the occupants had come to look upon it as their own. The friars desired the new government to reinstate them in possession and appealed to the president of the United States. After some hesitation, no better way was seen to end the affair than to buy the claims of the friars and then to come to terms with the persons in possession. The purchase was accomplished in 1902, the pope acting as mediator in the negotiations and Governor Taft representing the American government. The lands were ac- quired for $7,000,000. POWER OF CONGRESS ADE(^L)ATE 8i,^ An American Colonial Policy Creating civil government in the Philippines was really a new and radical stej) in our political experience, and it occasioned a serious debate over the right of congress under the constitution to defme the status of dependencies. There was much i^^^J" that was plausible in the view that the constitution made no provision for such action. In 1787 no such a contingency seems to have occurred to the men who made that instrument, and the situa- tion of 1899 was a new one. The men of the day must devise a means of meeting it. We had acquired dependencies and we could not choose but govern them. As soon as the question came up for consideration it was asked, " Does the constitution follow the flag ? " This meant: Did the newly acquired subjects become citizens of the United States, with the rights of the inhabitants of the territories? and "Does the in a particular sense, were they within the customs limits ? FoUo^*^e°° President McKinley took a negative view. He relied on Flag?" the powers granted to congress in the constitution to admit new states and to "make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other projjerty belonging to the United States" (Art. IV, sect. 3). Jefferson exercised this power in the purchase of Louisiana, and in establishing civil government in it. In 182S Chief Justice Mar- shall held that congress had the right to acquire territory, and it would be absurd to say that territory could be acquired but not governed. The purchase of Florida and Alaska was in exercise of this right. Con- gress in each of these cases established the government it thought best for these purchased territories ; it might do the same thing in 1899, and it was not essential that the same form of government suited the new possessions that was conferred on the continental territory. The fact that the Philippines and Porto Rico were islands and in- habited by people whose political training was unlike ours seemed to justify a distinct kind of government. This line of reasoning found favor with the dominant party in congress and in the country, and it was the basis of the colonial system now devised. It was not fol- lowed in Hawaii, for in 1900 congress erected it into a territory, act- ing apparently on the theory that it was likely to become a white man's country and be admitted to the union. Congress arrived at this decision slowly, and meanwhile the question of customs limits must be settled. By the Dingley act, then in force, the duties were to be levied on articles ^f^^^^^"" coming from "foreign countries." Were the Philippines Limits, and Porto Rico "foreign countries"? The protectionists answered in the affirmative, the president took the same view, and duties continued to be collected. Then the matter went to the courts. 8i4 EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS In the case of De Lima v. Bidwell, in which suit was brought to re- cover duties collected on sugar imported from Porto Rico, the court held that the island was not a "foreign country " within the meaning of the tariff law, but it intimated that congress could determine the tariff relations of dependencies. In the " Fourteen-Diamond-Ring " case the same prhiciple was followed for goods imported from the Phil- ippines. These two cases fell under the Dingley act, but before they were decided congress took its position on the point at issue. The Foraker act, AprU, igoo, established civil govern- The Foraker ^^^^^^ .^^ p^^^^^ j^j^^^ j^^^, ^j^^ feature of it which attracted most attention was the tariff relations of the island. Presi- dent McKinley and a large part of the people wished the island prod- ucts admitted free, but the beet and cane sugar growers rallied a strong opposition on the ground that yielding at this point was the beginning of defeat for the whole cause of protection. They were able to force a comjiromise by which Porto Rican goods paid a duty of 15 per cent until March i, 1902. Another customs case, Downes v. Bidwell, now came before the court, and it was held that the Foraker act was constitutional. In the first cases congress had not spoken, and the dependencies were not considered foreign in the meaning of existing law : in the last case congress had declared its will and the court recognized its right to decide the question. We are, therefore, to conclude that the constitution does not follow the flag, but that con- gress determines how far it applies to dependencies. But little opposition was made in congress to the civil government which the Foraker act established for Porto Rico. There was to be a governor and an executive council appointed by the Civil Gov- president with the consent of the senate, at least five of the Porto Rico, councillors to be natives. Six councillors were to be heads of administrative departments, with power to appoint sub- ordinates. There was to be an assembly of two houses, the upper to be the executive council and the lower to be elected by the people. A L^nited States district court and a system of island courts were pro- vided. This plan, it will be seen, resembles in its essential features the Philippine act of July i, 1902, and it may be taken to indicate the spirit of our colonial system. An Isthmi.'\n Canal The United States became interested in an isthmian canal in 1S46, the year they settled the Oregon boundary dispute. A treaty with New Granada (Colombia) in that year, ratified in 1848, OiTiUon granted a right of way across Panama on the same terms as New Granada reserved to herself, the United States guaranteeing neutrality of the route and the sovereignty of New Granada in the isthmus. An American company was organized to EARLY CANAL PROJECTS 815 Duild a railroad at once, and began work, but the road was not completed for several years. At the same time unavailing efforts were made to get Mexico to concede transit privileges across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. We also showed our interest in such an en- terprise by getting concessions for a canal through Nicaragua, but England, holding the Mosquito Coast, blocked the way at the eastern terminus. Some threatening negotiations over the subject resulted in the Clayton-Bulwer treaty (1850), by which we agreed that the two powers should jointly guarantee the neutrality of any canal they constructed across the isthmus, and that other nations should have a right to subscribe to the treaty if they chose. Later England claimed the Mosquito Coast as a dependency of British Honduras. Nicaragua objected and appealed to our government, and a controversy began whicli led to a long period of misunderstand- ing and much hard feeling between the two nations. The readiness with which we agreed to the Clayton-Bulwer treaty shows how little we cared in 1850 for an American-owned canal. In 1S69 the French completed the Suez canal, and its projector, de Lesseps, began to think of another such work in America. He favored the Panama route, and in 1878 Wyse, a French engineer, got a concession for a Panama canal, to be neutral canta""^ in case of war, and the United States to share in the en- terprise if they wished. A French company was formed with de Lesseps in control which took over Wyse's grant and opened a popular subscription for stock. $120,000,000 was believed enough for the enterprise, and through the prestige of de Lesseps the amount was over-subscribed many times. Much of the sum paid in was wasted, and in 1SS2 bonds were issued for $25,000,000 which sold at 875, and 860,000,000 more in 1883, which sold at 57. In the latter year digging began. Extravagance continued, and new loans were made at large discounts. In 1887 the tidewater canal, as originally planned, was abandoned for the lock type, thought to be less expensive. But this gave no relief; in 1889 the company could not meet its bills, and was dissolved by the courts. Those who undertook to rescue the en- terprise and complete it found that $180,000,000 more were needed, and as this sum could not be raised the project was considered hope- less. On casting up accounts it was seen that bonds and stock had been issued to the nominal value of $475,000,000, but at such discounts that they yielded only $278,000,000. The total expendi- ture for construction proper was $118,000,000 and for g*^""^ the purchase of the Panama railroad an additional gan^e. $19,000,000. The rest, $141,000,000, went for interest on bonds, extravagant salaries, sums i)aid financiers and newspapers for their support, and expenditures to pro\i(le luxurious offices. An indignant public secured an investigation which showed widespread 8i6 EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS corruption, in which the company's funds were used to bribe high public officials to grant favors in support of the company's credit and to induce newspapers to advocate such concessions. Se\'erai persons were convicted of fraud, among them a son of de Lesseps, but the chief manipulators escaped by flight. The capitalists most largely interested in the company secured a reor- ganization with the hope of retrieving a part of what they had lost, but their appeals for stock subscriptions fell on deaf ears. They were in danger of losing their charter, but Colombia extended it until igoo to give them full opportunity to get money. As that year approached the outlook was gloomy, for a French canal was clearly an impossibil- ity. Then came the war of the United States against Spain, with the prospect of an American canal. At once the reorganized French company began to e.vert themselves to sell their charter and plant to the government at Washington. Meanwhile, let us turn back to our own country, where alarm was felt lest de Lesseps's enterprise should give the French some national advantage in Central America. Opinion in the United De Lesseps States had now shifted to an American-owned canal. To United meet this situation de Lesseps came to the United States States. in 1 880, inter\'iewing financiers and appearing before an investigating committee of congress. He asserted that his company would be controlled by the stockholders irrespective of national interest, and invited Americans to subscribe. He allayed sus- picions for a time, but in uncovering the affairs of the company at a later day it was found that he resorted to a skillful distribution of shares of stock among financiers, editors, and even congressmen. For all this he sold only a moderate amount of stock, and the demand for an American canal was not lessened. It fovuid expression in plans for such a waterway through Nicara- gua. It is true the Clayton-Bulwer treaty stood in the way, but by its terms it could be annulled by either side on six months' „ "' ,*°Tj . notice, and many Tiersons insisted that such a step be taken, Hayes s Idea. . .. '. , ■' \ , t' i i. • 11 justitymg themselves by England s questionaljle occupa- tion of the Mosquito Coast. President Hayes did not go that far, but in a message to congress, 18S0, advocating an American canal, he said that such a work would change our geographical conditions and be- come "virtually a part of our coast line." He continued, "No other great power would, under similar circumstances, fail to assert a right- ful control over a work so closely and vitall)' affecting its interests and welfare." Congress, however, did nothing. Blaine, secretary of state under Garfield, took a position equally vigorous. In a circular note to European powers he said A.!^."*j^ that our interest in the French canal was superior to that of Attitude. , 1 /-. , 1 • 11. . any other power but Colombia, and that m a war agamst ourselves or Colombia, whose sovereignty we guaranteed, we should THE PROJECTED NICARAGUAN CANAL 817 no more allow the passage of a hostile ship than the transit of an army over one of our railroads to the Pacific. This strong utterance was re- ceived with polite silence abroad and with baffled wonderment at home. He also proposed to England a modification of the treaty of 1850, but met with a refusal that was barely courteous. Whatever plans he had were defeated by his retirement after the death of Garfield. Frelinghuysen, his successor, carried on negotiations with Great Brit- ain with less aggression but without results, and Cleveland, more conciliatory still, allowed the matter to sleep. At the same time the growing embarrassments of the French company eased the alarms of Americans from that source. But the Nicaraguan project was not forgotten. In 1884 a treaty permitting a canal with American capital was made with Nicaragua in return for a guarantee of the integrity of that state ; but Cleveland withdrew it from the senate before it was '^•^^ Man- ratified. Then a private "Maritime Canal Company of p^y _°™" Nicaragua" was organized, and congress was asked for Nicaragua. a charter. The administration hesitated, fearing inter- national complications, but congress granted the request. Subscrip- tions came in slowly — the French company was then in its direst straits — and the RIaritime company could do little more than im- prove the harbor at its eastern terminus. Next it appealed to congress to guarantee Sioo,ooo,ooo of its bonds. There was much discussion of the proposition in and out of legislative halls, and finally in 1895 it passed the senate, to be lost in the house. In 1898 the charter lapsed, but it was not doubted that Nicaragua whould renew it, if the American government undertook to bring the enterprise to comple- tion. This was the situation when the war against Spain ran its short and decisive course. It so much enhanced our interest in the Pacific that it could no longer be doubted that an isthmian canal was a ne- cessity. It was also clear to a vast majority of Americans that the canal when built must be American, and that the Clayton-Bulwer treaty should no longer stand in the way. Negotiations were opened to that end, and in 1901, after one treaty had Clayton- been rejected, the Hay-Pauncefote treaty was ratified in Treaty' An- which the arrangement of 1850 was annulled. It said nulled. nothing about fortifications on the canal, and although neutrality was promised by the United States, no other power became a party to the pledge. A unilateral agreement leaves everything to the good faith of the nation making it. The Can.ai. at Panama It was believed that the French concession at Panama could be pur- chased by the United States, and a warm controversy now arose be- 30 8i8 EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS tween those who favored that route and those who supported the Nicaragua route, the Maritime and the French companies each push- ing its own interest vigorously, both in the press and by Selected * means of an able lobby. The transcontinental railroads also joined in the fight, trying to impede any action at all. Their position was so obviously selfish that they accomplished little. A commission of engineers, headed by Admiral Walker, was ap- pointed to consider the two routes. It reported, November i6, 1901, that the Nicaraguan canal could be constructed for $189,864,062 and the Panama canal for $114,233,358, to which latter sum must be added the cost of the French plant, offered at $109,142,500, but valued by the commission at a maximum of $40,000,000. Its report ended by recommending the northern route. This final suggestion seems to have been made to bring the French company to terms, for when it offered to sell for $40,000,000, the report was modified to favor the southern route. The matter then went to congress, which authorized the president by a vote practically unanimous to purchase the French rights if a legal title could be obtained. The bill also authorized the president to secure from Colombia, in which the state of Panama lay, a right of way at least six miles wide, and it provided for a commission to construct the canal. Interest now centered at Bogota. Secretary Hay negotiated a treaty with the Colombian charge d'affaires, Herran, granting a ninety-nine years' lease, with right of renewal by the United States, Colombia c 1 ■ -i • 1 ■ ^ r i_- i. Objects '^ C'l^'il zone SLX miles wide, in return for which we were to pay $iO;Ooo,ooo cash and $250,000 annually. This agreement aroused dissatisfaction among Colombians. "Panama," as Professor Latane says, " was their greatest asset," and they had for many years built high hopes on its development. Besides, their con- stitution prohibited the alienation of territory by congress and the proposed lease was held to amount to alienation. The agreement, therefore, was rejected unanimously by the congress. President Roosevelt and many Americans believed the rejection was due to cor- rupt motives, and concluded that the Colombians desired to await the expiration of the French charter in 1904, when they could demand an exorbitant price. Colombia has ever denied that her motive was chiefly mercenary, but her point seems well taken that the amount offered was not in fair proportion to that paid later to the French company. The turn events took caused much disquiet at Panama, whose in- habitants were dismayed at the prospect of having the canal go to Nicaragua. The state had long cherished oi)position to Panama* ^'^'-' fwleral authority at Bogotd, charging that the latter cxjiloited the state to get revenues for the federal govern- ment, until Panama was called "the milch cow of the confederation." Moreover, in 1885, Dr. Nuiiez, by as high-handed methods as one could THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA SiO imagine, had made himself dictator in Colombia and ruled the compo- nent states through a military oligarchy whose daring use of power in elections and elsewhere reduced republican forms of government to a farce. At the time, therefore, when Panama saw passing away her opportunity of realizing the dream of centuries, the construction of the canal which would make her the center of the trade routes of the New World, she was filled with resentment for ancient wrongs which struck at the root of her rights as a state. The new grievance did not create the spirit of revolt : it only ripened it. Early in 1903 a revolutionary junto was organized in the town of Panama on the western side of the isthmus, at its head Senor .A.rango and Dr. Amador. Although they could count on the friendship of most of the Panamans, they were so weak that pia^^n^j they could not succeed without the aid 01 the United States ; but they believed that would be given, at least covertly, through our desire to get the canal route. They also needed money to raise troops and buy anns and ammunition. They hoped to get this from the Panama railroad, an American enterprise, which also had reason to desire that the canal be built in Panama. Dr. Amador went to New York to try to get funds at railroad headcjuarters ; but his departure was known in Bogota, and a hint that aid to the conspirators would lead to confiscation of the railroad charter destroyed that hope. One other powerful interest desired the canal dug at the isthmus, the French company. It so hapjiened that as Dr. Amador was turned away from the railroad ofiices there arrived in New York the agent of the French company, Bunau-Varilla. He grasped the situation at once and agreed to furnish the desired funds if he was made the minister from the new state to Washington. Dr. Amador was overjoyed and readily promised what was asked. He then visited Washington, inter\'iewed Secretary Hay, from whom he got no open encouragement, but left convinced that if a revolution were accomplished, President Rooso-e!l would recognize the de facto government. From Washing- ton he returned to Panama, where it soon began to be v^J^y^'jo whispered about that a revolution would occur on Novem- ^jj^ Rescue, ber 4, 1903. This rumor was reported to the United States by the American consul, and on November 2 the gunboat Nashville arrived at Colon. It came to protect American property, in view of the prospects of disturbances; but its presence gave courage to the timid ones, who saw in it a promise of the support of the United States. When, as was believed, the blow was about to fall, that is to say, on November 3, there landed at Colon 450 Colombian soldiers com- manded by four generals. The leaders proceeded at once ^^^ ^^^^ to Panama, where the plot had its center, giving orders gtfudt.'"' for the soldiers to follow. Three Colombian gunboats were off Panama to coojierate with the army, but the revolutionists 820 EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS expected them to support the revolt. Arrived at their destination, the generals with their staffs were made prisoners by the junto's army, now numbering about loo men. Two of the gunboats declared for the same side, and the other steamed away after firing three shots, one of which killed a Chinamen, tlie only blood spilt in the revolution. .Meanwhile, the force at Colon jireparcd to go to the defense of their leaders, but the railroad demanded money for transportation. The soldiers had no funds, but the officer in command threatened to seize the trains and go without delay. The company's officers sjiupathizec' with the revolt. By the treaty between the United States and Colom^ bia, the former nation was bound to protect the free operation of the road, and the commander of the Nasliville landed 50 marines to pre- vent the seizure of the railroad by the Colombians. He also an- nounced that he would not allow the transportation of troops by either side, since that would precipitate a conflict and interfere with the free transit of the isthmus. Had the Colombian commander been enter- prising and earnest, he would have found a means of getting to Panama, only 49 miles away. After two days in Colon, he embarked his troops on a mail ship and departed. It was reported that he received a bribe J g of $8000 from the revolutionists, and that when his men discovered the fact, they despoiled him of the money and set him ashore at Kingston without funds. The captured generals were sent out of the country a few days later. By this time several Ameri- can men-of-war were in the harbors of Colon and Panama. They came to protect property and keep transit open. But when they gave notice that, in compliance with orders from Washington, they would not allow troops to land within 50 miles of Panama, their presence took other significance. Colombia could not subdue the revolt without fighting the United States, and submitted to the inevitable with bitter feelings. November 4, the junto held meetings, organized a republic of Panama, deposed the officers representing the Colombian authority, and in- . „ stalled a government of their own. Their proceedings A PsriflTTifl L r the British contention, but the third was Lord Alverstone, chief justice of Eng- land, in whose unbiased judgment the Americans had confidence. The tribunal met in London, .September 3, 1903. The point at issue was the interpretation of the treaty made by K^ussia and England, in 1825, fixing the boundary between Alaska and the British possessions. It was therein provided that the line should begin at the south of Prince of Wales island, ascend northward with the Portland channel to the 50th parallel, then follow the summit of the mountains that were supposed to skirt the coast to longitude 141° west, and thence with this parallel to the Arctic ocean. But if the summits of the mountains were not ascer- tainable, the line was not to run more than ten marine leagues from the coast. Livestigation showed that no mountains were where they had been thought to be and the coast was cut by deep indentations. Then arose this question : should the line pass across the indentations, leaving their heads to the east of it, or should it curve ten leagues eastward so as to leave the heads of the indentations to the westward. If the former view prevailed,. Dyea, Juneau, and other ports from which started the roads to the Yukon' would be left in British hands. There was no contention over the part of the line which followed longitude 141° to the Arctic ocean. The Americans believed they had a strong case and supported it before the tribunal with a mass of maps and other evidence to show that in the treaty of 1825 it was Russia's intention to ex- Ameri- clude England from the western shore above 54° 40', and ^^^ yf^ that the design was at last accepted by England. Lord Alverstone was satisfied with these arguments, and in all important votes sided with the Americans, leaving his two associates in a mi- nority. They were both unconvinced and went home in disappoint- ment. They and their countrymen felt that the interests of Canada had been sacrificed to promote the newly awakened hannony be- tween the United States and Great Britain. The line run in accord- ance with the treaty was not so far eastward as we claimed, but it left Canada no point of access to the sea within the disputed region 9,26 EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS and gave us control of the routes to the Yukon. As to the goldfields, the richest of them are on the Canadian side of the line, on its northern stretch. The New Monroe Doctrinl; Since the Venezuelan incident, 1895, events have tended still further to strengthen the new Monroe doctrine. Getting a foothold on the Isthmus of Panama brings the American influence A New jj^fy close relation with the states near that important point. The doctrine, which originally meant opposition to European control and was extended by Cleveland to the assump- tion of a degree of protection, has of late been extended into a species of moral guardianship by which we undertake to compel a Spanish- American state to fulfill its obligations and give Europeans no ground for interference. In this last stage the doctrine has become so vast a force in our external relations that it may well demand our most careful consideration lest we exercise it selfishly and \\'ithout a due sense of the obligations it imposes on us to be just and generous. In 1899 the United States were represented at the first Hague confer- ence, called to consider the peaceful settlement of international dis- putes. Their delegates joined in all that was done to promote the aims of the meeting, but in accepting the deliberation stated distinctly that their country did not give up the Monroe doctrine, for three- quarters of a century a cardinal feature of its foreign policy. This was notice of the most formal kind to all the world, and as no nation represented at the conference protested, it was assumed that all acquiesced in our claim. Two years later the world saw it recognized in a specific manner by one of the most aggressive of the great nations. Germany had a grievance against Venezuela on account of unpaid public Germany debts to German citizens. She prepared to use force, Venezuela. ^^^ before doing so informed the United States that she did not intend to acquire Venezuelan territory. No objection was made, and she established, in conjunction with Great Britain, who also had claims, a blockade of Venezuelan ports and seized Venezuelan gunboats. After this situation had lasted a year, the United States used their influence and induced Venezuela to settle with her adversaries. The claims were recognized in prin- ciple and referred to a commission for examination, the similar claims of other nations being included at the request of President Castro. The total amount thus demanded was 190,676,670 bolivars ($38,000,000), and of these the commission pronounced as genuine claims amounting to 38,429,376 bolivars. It was a source of humilia- tion to us that of the 81,410,952 bolivars demanded by our own citizens only 2,313,711 were allowed. In connection with this affair President Roosevelt asserted that coercing an American state did not SANTO DOMINGAN REVENUES 827 violate the Monroe doctrine unless the acquisition of territory was contemplated. In 1904 Santo Domingo was bankrupt and European creditor na- tions were thinking of interfering. Roosevelt could not object in view of his own former opinion, but he feared that the re- currence of interference would lead to difficulties. He President met the situation by declaring that the United States anj^|*^|' were bound, in order to preserve the intent of the Monroe Domingo, doctrine, to sec that the small American states did not give cause for interference. He proposed, therefore, to take charge of the Dominican revenues and manage them until the financial em- barrassments were discharged. The creditors desired such action, Santo Domingo requested it, and he sent to the senate a treaty em- bodying his purpose. It guaranteed the integrity of Santo Domingo, appointed a receiver of her revenues, and agreed to settle her obli- gations, domestic as well as foreign. This was a long step toward control ; and the senate on that ground rejected the treaty. Then the Dominican republic signed a modus vivendi by which it placed its revenues in the hands of a receiver unofficially recommended by President Roosevelt. The senate was not able to prevent this, and as the arrangement was liable to bring complications, they decided to accept the modus vivendi. A revised treaty was signed, omitting the guarantee of territory, but providing for a receiver under American protection and stipulating that Santo Domingo should not increase her debt without American consent. This was in 1907, by which time a great improvement had already occurred in Dominican finances. The debt was now only $17,000,000, and under economical manage- ment it has been steadily reduced. The incident passed without creating the dreaded precedent for territorial expansion ; but it strengthened and gave sharper outlines to the policy of wise restraint of our southern neighbors, to which the Monroe doctrine seems to be tending. The election of 1900 was a test of opinion on the war and expan- sion. The republicans renominated McKinley without opposition. Theodore Roosevelt, by the artifice of T. C. Piatt, was ^ . , made the candidate for the vice-presidency in order to McKinley. remove him from New York politics. The democrats renominated Bryan, who relaxed his free silver demands on the ground that the discovery of gold in Alaska had produced an abundant supply of money. The campaign turned on expansion. McKinley was chosen by 292 to 155 electoral votes. It was evident that the people were satisfied at the prospect of playing a new role in world affairs. In such a progress the victor at the i)olls was to have no part. September 14, 1901, he died from the efifect of a shot by a crazed anarchist whom he encountered at the Buffalo exposition. EXPANSION AND ITS PROBLEMS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Besides the references in chapter XXXV'III to the conquest of the Philippines, the following books, mostly on the government of dependencies, are very useful : Latane, America as a World Po'd'cr (1907); Schurman, Philippine AJfairs (1902); Foreman, Philippine Islands (190&); Barrows, History of the Philippines (1908); Willis, Our Philippine Problem (1905); and B\ount, American Occupation of the Philippines (1912), opposed to American occupation. On the government of dependencies see : Willoughbj", Territories and Dependen- cies (1905) ; Randolph, Lazv and Policy of Annexation (1901) ; Willis, Our Philip- pine Problem (1905) ; Rowe, Establishment of Civil Government in the Philippines (1902); and Younghusband, The Philippines and Round About (iSgg). See also : Annual Reports of the Secretary of War, iSg^iQOS, contains a \aluable collection of facts relating to the lirst five years of American control in the Philippines, Porto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, and Guam. The reports of the Bureau of Insular Affairs also contain much valuable information. On affairs in the Far East see : Rockhill, Report on Affairs in China (in Foreign Relations, Appendix, 1901); and House Documents, 56 Cong, i ses. No. 547, for facts relating to Secretary Hay's negotiations in China. The follouing are of service : Reinsch, World Politics at the End of the Nineteenth Century (igoo) ; Mahan, The Problem of Asia (1900); Callahan, American Relations in the Pacific (1900); Foster, .4 Hicmu)( Diplomacy in the Orient (1903); 'WeaXe, Reshaping the Far East (1905) ; and Millard, America and the Far Eastern Question (1909). On Panama and the isthmian canal see the following general works : Sparks, National Development (1907) ; Dewey, National Problems (1907) ; Latane, America as a World Power (igoj) ; and Peck, Twenty Years of the Republic (1907). The bibliographies in these volumes contain many references to valuable works on the subject. On the Nicaraguan canal project see : Keasbj-, The Nicaragua Canal and the Monroe Doctrine (1896); and Latane, Diplomatic Relations of the United States and Spanish America (iqoo). On Panama see: Johnson, Four Centuries of the Panama Canal (1906) ; and the report of the Commission d' etude institui par le liquidateur de la Compagnie Universelle (1890). See also Travis, The Claylon- Bulwer Treaty (1899). For Independent Reading Morton, The Siege of Peking (1900) ; Kausse, Story of the Chinese Crisis (1900) ; Little, The Far FmsI (1905) ; .\sakawa. The Russo-Japanese Conflict (1904) ; Young- husband, The Philippines and Round About (1809); Weale, The Truce in the East and its Aftermath (1907) ; and Foster, Diplomatic Memoirs (1909). CHAPTER XL THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT Roosevelt's Corporation Policy President JNIcKinley died September 14, 1901. His successor re- gained the existing cabinet and announced that he would follow the policy of his predecessor. To observing men the promise seemed difficult of fulfillment. The two men were essen- Roosevelt tially unlike in personality and ideals. One was a man of McKiniey. gentle habits, a tactful politician who had achieved power because he had the faculty of binding up opposing interests. The other was aggressive by nature, a reformer who had forced his accept- ance by party leaders because of his blunt way of winning the con- fidence of the people. McKiniey, the protectionist and friend of Mark Hanna, had the confidence of the capitalists and the support of the party organization. Roosevelt, the reformer, although an avowed protectionist, had made a reputation as an opponent of party machines. There was, however, evidence that McKiniey in his last days had come to a new position in regard to the tariiT. In his last public speech, at Buffalo, September 5, he said: "The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and ^^^'^^^'^ commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial wars are poUcy. unprofitable. A policy of good-will and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals. Reci[)rocity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times ; measures of retaliation are not. If, per- chance, some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to en- courage and protect some of our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad ? " This utterance was taken at the time to indicate the advent of a new era in the tariff. In what practical manner it would have been applied, the world never knew. Roose\'elt was not a tariff reformer. In his messages to congress he made it plain that he upheld protection, al- though he gave a pale indorsement to reciprocity. He said it was a mistake to say the tariff was responsible for the trusts. His first message showed that he considered the relation of the government to trusts the great question of the hour. He declared that corporations e.xisted by permission of law, state or national, and demanded that they value their jiroperty honestly and deal fairly 82Q §30 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT by the public in marketing their stock. He thought they should be taken under federal control, and recommended the creation of a de- partment of commerce and industry under which they should exercise their functions. In this position he seemed to manifest po- and Trusts li^'cal insight. Bryan, leading the democrats, had continu- ally asked that trusts be destroyed : Roosevelt asked that they be legalized under restraint analogous to the supervision of rail- roads by the interstate commerce commission. If the corporations would accept this policy, the conservative opponents of trusts, it seemed, would be drawn into the republican party, and the democrats would be robbed of their most popular argument. The president's appeal to congress was futile. The proposed department was not created, and a bill which he urged for reciprocity with Cuba died a natural death in the senate after passing the house. Nor were the democrats keenly alive to their opportunity. They wasted time forc- ing an investigation of the conduct of the war in the Philippines, thinking it would furnish them good campaign material by showing that expansion had brought with it a train of military horrors. The autumn congressional elections left the republicans still in power, although their majority in the house was reduced from forty-five to thirty. Expansion was a dead issue and was thenceforth so recognized. To the indifference of congress the president made a characteristic reply. He appealed to the people, thinking they would make it evi- dent to congress what they desired done. Late in the An Appeal summer of 1902 he made a speech-making tour through People. N^^ England. Although it was announced as a non- political affair, much was said about the broad questions of citizenship, and it was evident from the earnest way in which his views on corporations were received that he had raised a popular issue. His frank and aggressive manner commended him to the people, who looked on him as their champion. An admirer once said of him in connection with this early stage of his contest : " Under the old regime the people got the impression that it was useless to fight against the influence of corporations and machine politics, but Roosevelt gave them back their hope, and made them think a fight was indeed worth while." His position in regard to the anthracite coal strike of 1902 added to his popularity. From May until October the miners refused to work, demanding higher wages. The people of the East were SWk^°*' terrified at the prospect of a coal famine, and prices rose steadily. At last the president called together the mine- owners, the representatives of the miners, and the officials of the rail- roads carrying the coal to market, urging them to settle their difficul- ties. The owners resented his interference and charged him with failure to send troops to protect the mines from violence. Of this charge he was not guilty, since the governor of Pennsylvania had re- DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR 831 fused to call for federal troops. The state officials smarted under the imputation of neglect of duty, and the whole Pennsylvania guard was called out for service in the mining district. The situation now seemed desperate, and more radical people be- gan to talk of seizing the mines and working them under government super\'ision. Then Roosevelt took a more positive tone. He called to Washington representatives of the New York ggtued"''^ banks which financed the mines and railroads concerned, and induced them to use their influence to make the owners agree to arbitration. What he would have done had they still held out does not appear. The upshot was that the "coal trust," as the owners were called, yielded and a committee of arbitration was named by the president. The miners returned to work at the old wages and in the following spring were awarded ten per cent increase of wages, half of their original demands. The incident made Roosevelt popular and served to call attention to the fact that the country's supply of anthracite had fallen hito the hands of a small number of men. The annual message of 1902 was strong for federal control of cor- porations. It attacked the system by which the corporations could take advantage of state charters, saying: "This country cannot afford to sit supuie on the plea that under our ^o^^^o' °^ peculiar system of government we are helpless in the tions""^*" presence of new conditions." The president was willing to strengthen the constitution if it was not strong enough to deal with the problem. His opponents replied that he was a radical and would overthrow the constitution. His own idea was that new con- ditions had arisen and that the peojile are always wise enough to make a government which provides for their wants. Congress gave little heed to his suggestions, but February 13, 1903, it passed the law to create a department of commerce and labor, which began at once collecting facts to show whether or not the trusts had sought to stifle competition in defiance of the Sherman anti-trust law. The years 1901-1903 were a period of great prosperity. Business men had been so indifferent to the law of 1890 that they seemed to think it a dead letter. Many trusts were organized and large quantities of "watered" stock were issued. The ^^^'^ " most notable example was the United States Steel Cor- poration with $1,018,000,000 capital and $301,000,000 bonds. The rage for gigantic corporations was so great that the public could not buy the bonds, and in 1903 the speculative market collapsed so com- pletely that steel common sold for less than 9 per cent of par. A shrewd observer remarked that the country was suffering from "in- digestible securities." This collapse cooled for a time the country's aversion to trusts ; for it was said that experience showed they could not e.xist profitably. But the return of confidence was early, the stocks rose in the market, and by adopting a more cautious i)olicy they 832 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT began to show the great earning power in concentration. The real point at issue was: Should this advantage accrue to the men who effected the combination or to the people ? The year 1904 was a presidential election year, and Roosevelt was very strong %nth the country. The opposition in his own party cor centrated on Mark A. Hanna ; but he was a millionaire, Roosevelt ^^jjj jjq ^j^g believed he could be elected. When he died, Nominated, „ , 11 1. r • ,1 1904. rebruary 15, 1904, all hope of nammg any other conserv- ative was abandoned, and Roosevelt was selected with- out opposition. Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, was nominated for vice-president. The platform declared for a reasonable restriction of trusts and declared that the tariff should be reformed by its friends. The prospects of the democrats were gloomy. E.vpansion, as an issue, had to be abandoned, there seemed to be little interest in the tariff, and Roosevelt had so emasculated their opposition Parker jq trusts that there was little left on which they could make bv'^'e * ^ ^ stand. The men of the East were full of bitter recrimi- Democrats. nations for Bryan, who had twice been defeated. All the party's calamities, they thought, came from trusting the "Western will-o'-the-wisp," and they demanded a return to "safe- and-sane" policies. Bryan himself realized his inability to succeed. He was still strong in the West and South, but his friends were willing to give an Eastern man an opportunity. Thus it happened that Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York, a man little known to the public, was nominated for president and Henry G. Davis, of West Virginia, for vice- president. The platform denounced trusts, demanded the enforce- ment of the Sherman law, arraigned the protective tariff, and indorsed several other minor reforms. Then followed a whirlwind of speech-making by the republican candidate. Wherever he went, he was received with an enthusiasm which Parker, a man of solid worth and steady tempera- Ele^tion. nient, was not able to arouse. The latter made it very clear that he repudiated the free coinage of silver, an action which the Western democrats considered a direct insult to Bryan, and many of them are supposed to have shown their resentment at the polls. The election result was that Roosevelt carried every Northern and Western state and broke the traditional "solid South" by securing the vote of Missouri. The " safe-and-sane " man of the East had been defeated more decisively than Bryan in either of the previous canvasses. Roosevelt's Second Term His overwhelming election naturally gave Roosevelt confidence in his position, and he was not the man to use the advantage moderately. The house, strongly republican, felt the effects of his popularity and was inclined to support him in most of his measures. But the senate RAILROAD RATES 833 contained many enemies, members of his own party, who wished to check what they considered his overreaching ambition. They had their opportunity when, late in 1904, he sent them treaties pro\ading that future disputes between the United States ^^oosevelt and certain other powers might by agreements made senate, with the powerfe concerned be referred to the Hague tri- bunal for settlement. Such agreements would be negotiated by the president, and to adopt the suggestion would greatly increase his power. The senators were in no mood to diminish their treaty-making power, and amended the project by inserting the word "treaties" instead of "agreements." The president dropped the projected reform. He was deeply offendedi and wrote a stinging letter to the chairman of the senate foreign commit tee. The breach between him and his opponents was materially widened. The immediate reform on which the president had now set his heart was to enlarge the powers of the interstate commerce commis- sion so that it might fLx ma.ximum rates, and deliver effective judgments on matters within its jurisdiction. ggt'e-Bm Congress did not accept the suggestion. During the summer he made many speeches throughout the country, and in all of them spoke for railroad regulation. Much interest was manifested, and in his ne.xt annual message the subject was brought up with emphasis. The result was the Hepburn rate-bill, which after a long and bitter struggle became a law June 29, 1906. It forbade rebates, conferred rate-making power on the interstate commerce commission, and gave the commission power to specify the manner in which rail- roads should keep their accounts. The bill originally made final the decisions of the commission, but the senate insisted that there should be appeal to the courts. At this point affairs hung for a long time, but it was finally agreed that there should be a limited review by the courts. Roosevelt declared himself satisfied with the com- promise. Two other laws which passed at this session through the president's efforts show how much the reforming temper influenced congress. One grew out of the report of a special committee to in- vestigate the meat-packing houses. Alarming conditions ^^^ ^°^ were found to e.xist, and it was now provided that no meat products, should be shipped out of the state in which it was packed without rigorous government inspection. Another law prohibited adulteration, and required that all food sold in interstate commerce should have correct labels. The last law has been severely resisted by the manufacturers, but Presidents Roosevelt and Taft have uni- formly supported its execution. A law was also passed to prohibit corporations from contributing to campaign funds. It was partly the result of the tremendous upheaval of sentiment in 1905, when it was discovered that New York life in- 3H 834 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT surance companies had been making large campaign contributions Chauncey M. Depew, senator from New York, admitted that he re- ceived a salary of $20,000 as director of one of the Political companies, for which he rendered no considerable service, tions" "' '^^^ other New York senator was largely interested in an express company, and used his influence to prevent the enactment of a parcels post law. Depew himself was prominently connected, and was identified with the business control of the New York Central Railroad. Both men were bitter opponents of Roosevelt. Other hostile senators were less prominently identified with monied interests. Some of them were men of excellent character and ability, and they undoubtedly felt that they were fighting a radical Popular movement wliich had in it much that was e\dl. If they the' Sena°e Could have sloughed off from their own cause certain men acting from self-interest, and if divesting themselves of their closest relations with capitalists they could have stood before the country as the representatives of conservative ideas, pure and simple, they would have had a strong support among the people. As it was, conservatism and the defense of corporations were identified in the popular mind. It seemed to many that the senate had ceased to be representative of theinterestsofallthe people. Before the Roose- velt movement began there was a cynical feeling abroad that wealth would control the government, whatever the feeling of the masses. Roosevelt's fight against corporations was thus also a fight to break down the influence of a powerful party organization. It was a war against the bosses, both local and national. A few Western senators supported it outright, and the democrats helped for party reasons. One of the results was a demand for a constitutional amendment for the election of senators by the people, a measure which several times passed the house only to be lost in the senate itself. Meanwhile, the president continued his campaign against the trusts. He was an excellent fighter, and he attacked with fervor. He was met with a storm of denunciation, which did not stop short of ^°°^p^Kr attacking his veracity. He was said to be drunk with the Opimo"n. "^ ^^^^ ^'^^ power and to be afflicted with an inordinate opin- ion of his own importance. -\s usually happens with a popular leader, he was cordially hated by those he opposed, and blindly trusted by those who belie\-ed that he was, spite of his personal short- comings, the only hope of the cause they felt so important. In this state of affairs, it was not possible to get important reforms through congress, but the popular opinion steadily grew in favor of reform. Gradually the leaders of the senate opposition began to be retired in favor of less hostile men, although those who were left showed no signs of yielding to the coming storm. The approach of the year 1908, a presidential election year, was FXECTION OF 1908 &s5 watched anxiously by both factions. Roosevelt had announced that he would not accept reelection, and his opponents hoped to put into the presidency a man of less extreme views, dominated He himself was concerned that his successor should be one who would not relax the combat he had carried forward. The man he favored was William H. Taft, formerly governor of the Philip- pines, and in 190S secretary of war. He was known as an honest administrator, a man of excellent mental ability and fine personal character. He was a Roosevelt man, and had the entire confidence of the reformers. The opposing faction had no man who could command united support, and they resorted to the "favorite-son" expedient. Their total strength was not considerable, and with the president's support Taft was easily nominated for first place when the republican convention assembled at Chicago, June 16, 1908. James S. Sherman, of New York, in sympathy with the conservatives, was named for vice- president. On the trust question the platform was all that Roose\'elt desired. It demanded that the law of 1890 should be amended to give the federal government greater control over corporations engaged in interstate trade. It also declared for a revision of the tarii? in a special session of congress immediately after the inauguration of the next president. Possibly this measure was supported in some quarters by those who thought that bringing forward the tariff question would lessen the intensity of the struggle against trusts ; but it was evident that there was a growing popular feeling that the tariff should be lowered. Let us now turn to the democrats. The overwhelming defeat of Parker in 1904 disposed, for a time, of the idea that the old Cleveland alignment could be restored, and pointed to the recovery by Bryan of liis former position in the party. The East uo^^nated. still viewed him with disfa\'or, but the West and the South were loyal. His two defeats were undoubtedly a handicap, but if Bryanism was to control, who was a stronger leader than Bryan him- self ? His power was seen in the selection of Denver for the conven- tion city, and when the convention was organized, July 7, his friends were in control. His opponents were so weak that he was nominated on the first ballot, with SS8| of the 994 votes cast. John W. Kern, of Indiana, was nominated for vice-president. The platform was long, but it announced the traditional Bryan policies. As formerly, there were several minor parties, each of which nomi- nated candidates. The most significant was the socialist party, which named for its leaders Eugene V. Debs, of Indiana, and Benjamin Hanford, of New York. Here also came to its dij/tes.*"' culmination the Hearst movement, which for several years had attracted much attention. It was originated by William R. Hearst, a wealthy owner of many newspapers. He first appeared as a democrat, and organized an "independence league" as his peculiar 836 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT weapon of attack on the party organization. He made himself feared; and in 1905 was nearly elected mayor of New York on an anti-Tam- many ticket. In 1906 he was an independent candidate for governor of New York, but was defeated by Governor Hughes after an exciting campaign. In 1908 he cast off all semblance of democracy, organized the independence party, with Thomas L. Hisgen as the candidate. The attitude of Roosevelt was sharp and bitter. January 31, 1908, he sent congress a special message which was nothing less than a manifesto intended, as it seems, to rally his sup- n°fi^^'h-' porters in view of the coming struggle. The Standard Oil Foes^^ ^ Company had been indicted as a result of the investiga- tions of the newly established department of commerce and labor. It was shown that it had received rebates from a railroad in Illinois, and the jury rendered an adverse verdict. Judge Landis imposed fines for the several specific violations alleged, amounting to more than $29,000,000. It was believed to be an extreme punish- ment, and was set aside by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, on the ground that it was e.xcessive. But it showed that a great corporation could be brought to justice. In the message of January, 1908, the president referred to the matter in severe terms. The company, he said, had given out an ingenious and untruthful defense of its action. For his enemies he had, also, vehement words. He spoke bitterly of the representative of "wealth accumulated on a giant scale by all forms of iniquity, ranging from the oppression of wage workers to the unfair and unwholesome methods of crushing out competition, and to defrauding the public by stock-jobbing and the manipulating of securities." "Certain wealthy men of this stamp," he continued, "have banded together for a work of reaction. Their work is to overthrow and discredit all who honestly administer the law, to prevent any additional legislation which would check and restrain them." At this same time he professed to discriminate carefully between the rich men who obeyed and those who defied the law. Dur- ing the campaign of 190S Taft gave no evidence that he did not ap- prove of this strong onslaught on the foes of the existing administration. By this time Roosevelt had many opponents in the newspaper world The great city dailies are ordinarily million-dollar enterprises, and are necessarily in close connection with the capitalists. It was, therefore, natural that they were among his opponents. On the other hand, the country press was largely sympathetic. The arguments of both sides were exaggerated. To many quiet persons it seemed that Roosevelt sought to arouse the poor against the rich, and they considered this beneath the dignity of a president of the United States. Many others looked upon him as the only hope of restoring the government to the people, and they tolerated his vigorous methods as the natural ex- pressions of a strong-willed man. In the beginning of the campaign both Taft and Bryan proposed to REPUBLICAN PARTY DIVISIONS 837 refrain from public speaking, but the people were so insistent that they gave up their design. During the last two months of the campaign both candidates spoke frequently and to ^^ iqo ""°" large audiences. Bryan's reception was enthusiastic, but the spirit of Roosevelt was behind Taft, and he was elected trium- phantly. The democrats carried all the Southern states except Missouri, together with Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oklahoma, a total of 162 votes. Taft carried the rest, 321 votes. Of the minor candidates, Debs, the socialist, had the largest popular vote, 420,890. TaFT's ADmNISTR.^TION The last session of congress under Roosevelt was marked by a series of messages recommending measures in keeping with his advanced ideas, to all of which congress showed ill-disguised con- tempt. The country greeted his successor heartily, Al/richLaw Although he was a Roosevelt man, he was of a mild dis- position and it was thought he would be less irritating than his pred- ecessor. March 15 congress met in extra session to consider the tariff, according to the recent republican platform. The country ex- pected reform, and the house, under the leadership of Congressman Payne, quickly passed a bill making notable reductions. In the senate it encountered opposition from a group popularly called "stand- patters," led by Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, who were able to raise the rates of the Pa^-ne bill. A long wrangle followed when the bill went to a committee of conference. The result was uncertainty, and the business world ere long demanded that the politicians settle their contentions. Meanwhile there was much speculation about the action of the president. He was in constant consultation with Aldrich and other members of congress and sought to have the rates lowered. His efforts were unavailing, and the bill as it passed was an Aldrich victory. Many Western republican senators wished a more decided revision, and urged Taft to apply the veto. When he finally sent his approval they were disappointed, and charged him with going o\'er to the standpatters. He was undoubtedly very unwilling to prolong the party breach Roosevelt had precipitated, and when he had once acted felt it his duty to stand by his decision. In September, a month after the bill became a law, he made a speech at Winona, Minnesota, in praise of the recent tariff bill, and this further irritated the Western men. The Payne-Aldrich law did, in fact, divide rather than unite the republican party. Taft said it was the best tariff law ever made by his party, but its reductions were very slight, and it made a large portion of the people think little could be hoped from the policy of revising the tariff by its friends. To have vetoed it, however, would have arrayed the majority of the party against the president and would not 838 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT have removed the uncertainty which the business community con- sidered the worst phase of the situation. In signing it Taft thought he had taken the less of two evils, but he soon found that the insurgents, as the Western men now began to be called, were capable of severe hostility. They were not numerous, but by combining with the democrats they could make much trouble for the adminstration. A significant feature of the bill was a tax of one per cent on the in- come of corporations whose net earnings exceeded S5000. It was to yield a considerable revenue, but its greatest importance Corporation ^^^^ ^^^^^ jj. recognized the principle that congress could tax the great corporations. Taft wished, also, to tax the incomes of indi\dduals, but was restrained because the supreme court had decided that the income tax of 1894 was unconstitutional. He contented himself with suggesting that congress submit to the states an amendment permitting such a tax. Congress acquiesced, and in 1913 the desired amendment was accepted by the necessary number of states. In August, 1909, Giftord Pinchot, head of the forestry bureau, depart- ment of the interior, attacked his superior. Secretary Ballinger, for re- opening for sale certain lands which had been withdrawal andPindiot ^^ Roosevelt. Ballinger was also charged with unduly favoring the rich Cunningham syndicate in regard to the patents of valuable coal lands in Alaska. After an investigation, Taft supported Ballinger. Pinchot was in sympathy with the insurgents, and was an old Roosevelt supporter. His friends took up the quarrel, which became so bitter that at Taft's suggestion an investigating committee was appointed. Before it reported, Pinchot wrote an out- spoken letter, in which he condemned the secretary and was at once dismissed, January 7, 1910. The committee exonerated Ballinger by a partisan vote. Later investigations, however, resulted in canceling the Cunningham claims. The Balhnger-Pinchot controversy added to the discontent of the insurgents, and promoted the belief that Presi- dent Taft was not a good judge of men. In the spring of 1910 insurgency won its first notable victory, and at the same tune broke the o\'erweening power of the speaker. The authority of this officer rested on his right to appoint the f f h house committees and on his membership on the rules Speaker. committee, which by reporting new rules as exigency de- manded controlled legislation. Reed, who filled the office from 1S89 to 1891, and 1895-1899, had held these powers, but he was a broad-minded man and used them for the general good. Cannon, speaker from 1903-1911, was a clever and relentless exponent of the standpat doctrines, and was bent on perpetuating his control over legislation. Under him the speaker was chosen by a small number of kindred spirits who were rewarded by important committee assign- ments. To many protests against the system he replied that he was AN INSURGENT VICTORY 839 the servant of the house, which could remove him whenever it saw fit. In truth, he was responsible to a majority of the party caucus, and could only be removed when the caucus so decided or when a group of the majority party united with the minority party, in ordinary times an unlikely occurrence. But 1910 was not an ordinary time. The insurgents, goaded by the speaker's attempts to punish them for their resistance, were willing to unite with the democrats to break the tyranny from which they suffered. March 19 they iiitroduced a resolution to Auction, enlarge the rules committee from five to fifteen members and to leave their appointment to the house. Oljjection was made that the resolution was out of order. Cannon knew the insurgents e.xpected the support of the democrats, and refused to pass on the point of order until he was sure of a majority. The session was prolonged through the night in fruitless wrangling, and then the house adjourned for a day. But the insurgents resisted all overtures, and when Cannon agam faced the house he was defeated. He ruled that the insurgent motion was out of order, and was promptly reversed by his allied foes. A new rule was promptly adopted, eliminating the speaker from the rules committee, enlarging it to ten members, and providing that it be chosen by the house. In the moment of defeat the speaker announced that he would entertain a motion to vacate the chair. A democrat moved his dismissal, but enough insurgents voted in the negative to defeat the motion. Cannon was thus retained in the chair, but was shorn of his great power. The rule of the house "oligarchy" was broken, and hi the future a mere majority, by amending the rules when it sees fit, can carry through the measures it desires. The next house was democratic. It maintained the advance gained in March, 1910, and further reduced the speaker's authority by leaving the selection of committees to the house itself, each party nominating a portion in caucus. Meanwhile, the president urged several important measures on congress, some of which became laws. A commerce court was created with authority to pass upon cases investigated Ijy the inter- state commerce commission, postal saving banks were Measures, established, a law was passed requiring the publication of the campaign expenses of candidates for congress, and the powers of the interstate commerce commission were enlarged in a new railroad bill. The insurgents supported all these bills but the last, which they thought too lax. A measure recommended by Taft for the_ federal incorporation of interstate corporations was allowed to die in its early stages, the opposition being, apparently, on the part of the regulars. During the same year public interest was stimulated by a common out- cry against Wgh prices. There was an attempted boycott of the so- called "meat trust" and a futile prosecution of the National Meat Packing Company. The "interests," it was said, were intrenched 840 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT behind the political machines, and in many sections nominating pri- maries were demanded. Governor Hughes, of New York, a leader of the liberals, took up the fight against the machine in a campaign to secure an efficient primary law. Defeated by the regulars in the state legislature, he called the assembly back for an extra session, but even this e.xpedient was unsuccessful. In this condition of popular unrest the autumn elections were held, and the result was republican defeat. The democrats carried the house by a majority of sixty-seven, and elected governors cratic'nouse ^^ ^^^ usually republican states of New York, Ohio, New ' Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. It was a rebuke to the party of Cannon and Aldrich, and President Taft, who could not well repudiate his political friends, was involved m their disaster. Let us now return to Roosevelt. March 23, 1909, he set out on an expedition to hunt big game in Africa. His actions were kept before the country by a vigilant newspaper press, even while he Roosevelt s ^.^^ j^^ ^.j^^ most inaccessible jungles of the Dark Continent. March 21, 1910, he emerged from the jungles and reached Khartum, returning to the United States by way of Europe, where he was entertained by princes and statesmen. He arrived at New York in June and received a tremendous demonstration of welcome. His old friends were now prominent insurgents and urged him to enter politics in their behalf. Outwardly he expressed friendship for Taft, but he threw himself with energy into the campaign in New York. He was able to control the republican convention of the state, deliver- ing a stinging defeat to the party organization under Barnes. His candidate for governor was Henry L. Stimson, who had risen into prom- inence by conducting an able prosecution of the Sugar Trust. But the defeated machine proved indifferent to Stimson, who was defeated by Dix, the democratic candidate. Roosevelt's enemies, among them the leading New York dailies, joyfully declared that he was eliminated as a pohtical leader. The elections in the West had not injured the standing of the insur- gents, and they came to the capital when congress assembled in Decem- ber as pleased as the democrats. Taft, though he felt the rebuke he had received, bore himself with dignity. His message suggested a suspension of plans to regulate corporations until the operation of laws already in force could be observed. He seems to have had in mind suits recently brought against several trusts, among them the Stand- ard Oil and the American Tobacco companies. This suggestion was well received by business men, but the insurgents looked at it with suspicion. January 26, 191 1, the president sent congress the outline of a Cana- dian reciprocity treaty. It provided for lower duties or none at all on many food products and some manufactured articles, and in return it was expected that Canada would make similar concessions on Ameri- DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP 841 can agricultural implements as well as on other commodities. The large portion of the public who favored lower rates hailed the treaty with pleasure. Some saw in it cheaper food products and others an entering wedge for general tariff reform. The ^^°?<*'*° insurgents opposed it on the ground that it sacrificed the ^^^°" grain-growing Northwest in behalf of the East. They could not prevent its passage in the house, but defeated it by dihgent obstruction in the senate. Taft, however, called an extra session of the new congress, in which the democrats controlled the house and nearly controlled the senate. The situation was now unusual. A republican president was ask- ing for a reduction of tariff rates under the guise of reciprocity and his only hope of success was the acquiescence of his opponents. But the situation was equally delicate for the democrats, democrats On the wave of a popular upheaval all their hopes for 191 2 depended on handling wisely the measures then in hand. If they angered the insurgents and drove them back to the regular republicans, their affairs would be confused in the upper house. In this dilenmia they found an able leader in Oscar W. Underwood, of Alabama, chair- man of the ways and means committee. His plan was to accept Cana- dian reciprocity, which his own majority could carry through the house and which would be passed through the senate by the democrats and the Taft republicans. To offset the displeasure of the insurgents he would pass other bills lowering rates on articles manufactured in the East, which the democrats and insurgents acting together could carry through the senate. It is true the latter bills might be vetoed by Taft, but that would only put the onus of blame on the regular republicans and give the democrats a fair ground of combat in the struggle of 1912. The scheme was well conceived, and was carried through success- fully. Canadian reciprocity was enacted, and close after it came a "farmers' free list bill," then a woollens bill, and a cotton schedule bill. All but the first were vetoed on the ground L"'^,?"'^ 11 • •/- II 1 A • " ^^ I9II. that they were not scientincally drawn. A tantt com- mission was a feature of the Payne-Aldrich act, and Taft announced that he awaited its report. The democrats replied that laying ta.xes was a high function of government confided by the constitution to con- gress with careful restrictions, and that it ought not to be left to the determination of a small number of men, however expert they were in finance. Wlien the e.xtra session adjourned August 22, 191 1, Taft seemed to be in a good position politically. His reciprocity measure was the greatest tariff conces.sion a president had wrung from the . party of protection. His friends felt that time would Rejected.'^ justify its wisdom, and wipe out the unpopularity that arose from the Payne-.\ldrich law. September 21 all these hopes fell with the announcement that Canada had defeated reciprocity. The action 842 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT was partly due to the growing influence of manufactures in Canada, and partly to the feeling that reciprocity would make the country depend- ent economically on the United States. The latter idea was unduly emphasized by the Canadian protectionists, who found support in careless utterances by the American speaker, Champ Clark, and even by President Taft himself. The regulars received in 191 1 another hard blow in the investiga- tion of the charges that in 1910 Senator Lorimer, of Illinois, secured his seat through bribery. An investigation was conducted by the senate, wliich decided that, although money had been spent, about $100,000, the beneficiary had not spent it, and should keep his seat. The verdict did not satisfy the people, who believed that an election secured by bribery should be vacated, even though the man elected had not furnished the money. The party organization in Illinois, with which Lorimer was closely identified, supported Taft, and this caused the president's opponents to say that he associated with the Illinois bribers. The charges against the senator were renewed and in IQ12 his election was declared invalid. In the spring of 191 1 the suits brought in 1909 against the Standard Oil and American Tobacco companies were decided against the com- panies by the supreme court, and these two trusts were ordered to dis- solve under a plan to be approved by the court. The parts out of which the companies were originally made up had lost their identity, and it was decided to divide each mammoth whole into certain com- panies, distributing the shares of stock as well as the property. This arrangement, it was thought, would secure a return of competition. Keen observers, however, realized that the resultant companies would be owned by persons who formerly owned the trusts and who had learned the advantages of cooperation. They prophesied that the plan would not secure effective competition. Their view seemed supported by the announcement that several other trusts in danger of prosecution were about to ask the courts to be allowed to dissolve under the same plan. Undoubtedly the trusts were suffering from the uncertainty of the situation before them and woidd gladly accept the proposed escape from it. Further confirmation of this view was seen when the stocks of Uie resultant oil and tobacco companies rose steadily in the market. Taft, who at first was inclined to accept the prescribed dissolution as a remedy for the existing trust problem, oon 'ound that it added little to his standing as a pulslic leader. The most important work of congress in 191 2 was the passage by democrats and progressives of several tariff bills which the president L ■ 1 f vetoed. They related to the sugar, steel, wool, chemical, 1/1912.'°° ^'"'•^ cotton schedules, and to the excise. A bill to continue the tariff board was defeated. Other bills passed and ap- proved are mentioned below (see page 851). A bill to require news- papers to disclose their ownership in order that the public may know LEADERSHIP OF THE INSURGENTS 843 what interests have relations to their poHcies was introduced and was [oassed when it was incorporatetl in the post-office appropriation bill. A bill to repeal the commerce court was passed, but met a presidential veto. The court has become unpopular because by it the interstate commerce commission is denied full jurisdiction over matters which come before it. Provision to kill the court was introduced into the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill, but this was vetoed on the ground that a rider should not be attached to such a bill. This approjiriation bill was finally passed without the objectionable rider, and the commerce court was continued until after March 3, 1913 ; but no further funds were voted for the court. During the year an investigation was begun of the official conduct of District Judge Hanford, of Washington, but the judge resigned before it came to a hearing. Impeachment proceedings were instituted against Judge Archbald, of the commerce court, and he was convicted, the charge being that he accepted money from parties having cases before his court. In the short session, I9i2-i9i3,an immigration bill passed congress but was vetoed because it provided a literacy test for naturali- zation. The Presidential Election of 191 2 Three republicans played important parts in the campaign of 191 2, Taft, Roosevelt, and Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin. The last mentioned, called by admirers "Battling Bob," came into -p \\ u prominence as an antagonist of the regular Wisconsin repubUcans led by Senator Spooner. By earnest appeals to the people he drove Spooner into retirement and established direct primaries and public control of railroads in his state. Securing a seat in the senate in 1906, he showed himself a tireless opponent of the Taft regulars, and in 191 1 was considered a likely Western candidate for the presidential nomination. His views were too advanced for the East, and it was conceded that he would not take the prize away from Taft ; but it vas thought that if the latter were defeated at the polls, La Follette would be a man to be reckoned with in the future. The Eastern insurgents accejjtcd his leadership with some hesitation, for they thought Roosevelt a stronger man. In 191 1, they organized at Chicago a Progressive Republican League, outwardly in support of La Follette. Similar local organizations were also widely formed. All these were republican. Roosevelt was known to be in sympathy with the movement, and it was whispered that he might become the candidate of the league, displacing the Wisconsin leader. February 2, 191 2, La Follette made a violent and rambling sjicech at a Philadelphia banquet. It was evident that a too strenuous canvass had overcome his physical strength, and his friends hurried him to a sanitarium. His collapse proved temporary, but the haste with which the Roosevelt 844 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT progressives accepted it as final suggested that they gladly took it as an opportunity to bring forth their favorite. They so utilized the interval of La Follette's eclipse that he could not recapture his lost position. February lo seven progressive governors with seventy other prom- inent progressives, representing twenty-four states, met to urge Roosevelt to, become a candidate for the republican nom- c°°d^d*t'* ination. February 14 he replied that the selection of a candidate should be left to republicans in primaries and that he would abide such a decision. Under existing conditions this answer made him a candidate. Three days earlier, at Columbus, Ohio, he had made a speech which, widely published under the title "A Charter of Democracy," was his personal platform. It declared for the recall of judicial decisions, asserted that the courts should not make law, and indorsed the initiative and referendum, a short ballot, presidential primaries, and popular election of senators. His frank appearance in the arena brought down on him the attacks of Taft men and democrats. Immediately after his election in 1904 he had issued a statement that he should consider his coming administration a second term and would not accept another nommation. That state- ment was a source of much embarrassment before the campaign of 191 2 ended. The national republican convention was to meet at Chicago, June 18, and the two factions began a vigorous canvass to secure the dele- gates. As Taft had the support of the organization men the Bosses generally, Roosevelt demanded primaries, and when the demand was opposed declared that his opponent was the champion of the bosses. In fact, the old Piatt machine of New York, now led by Barnes, the old Quay machine of Pennsylvania, now led by Penrose, the Lorimer machine of Illinois, and other less prominent groups of party managers were for Taft ; but, nevertheless, Roosevelt's accusation was unjust. Taft had ever stood for clean government, and could not rid of bosses the party which had made him its leader with the aid of Roosevelt himself. Thirteen states employed primaries in one form or another, and Roosevelt carried nine, Taft two, and La FoUette two. In Illinois and Ohio, Roosevelt had the popular indorsement, but fheDe^- '"'^^ P'"'^'^ ™ ^^^ ^'^^^ '•^^ selection of delegates to conven- gates. tions chosen in the old way, and the conventions named men not in sympathy with Roosevelt. Most of the states having no primaries selected Taft delegates. WTierever they felt themselves victims of wrongs the progressives named contesting dele- gations, some of them on very weak grounds. The Southern dele- gates, peculiarly under the influence of the officeholders, were gener- ally for Taft. The contests first went before the national committee, controlled by the regulars, who made up the temporary roll of the con- BRYAN AT BALTIMORE 845 vention. Out of 254 disputed seats 235 were awarded to Taft men. The regulars claimed the contests were insignificant, but the progres- sives asserted that Roosevelt was the victim of fraud. The states holding primaries had chosen 36 delegates for La Follette, 48 for Taft, and 278 for Roosevelt. This, it was said, indicated that the republican voters wanted Roosevelt and the machines wanted Taft. The tem- porary roll gave the latter a majority of about 20. July 15 the progressive leader arrived in Chicago. Asked how he felt he replied, "Like a bull moose," from which phrase came the nickname, "bull-moose party." When the convention assembled Senator Root was selected for temporary chair- Nominated man and made the keynote speech. A credentials com- mittee was appointed which approved the decisions of the national committee in reference to contests. When the progressives questioned its report, they were defeated on a roll call. Roosevelt now advised his friends in the convention to refrain from further particij^ation. On the first ballot for the nominee the result was Taft 561, Roosevelt 107, La Follette 41, scattering 19, and not voting 344. Taft was de- clared the nominee and James S. Sherman was made the candidate for the vice-presidency. Re]niblican dissensions had much interest for the democrats, who had their own conservatives and progressives. If Roosevelt had been the republican nominee, it would have been their interest to nominate a conservative, since many republicans would ca^Wates not vote for a progressive. Under such circumstances the conservative democrats might regain control of the ]:>arty. At first this wmg seemed inclined to unite on Go\'ernor Harmon, of Ohio, who satisfied the business men. He was not approved by the Western men, and when this was observed sentiment shifted to Underwood, who offered the prospect of uniting the South and East. He also was opposed by the Western men, of whom Bryan, though not now a can- didate, was the most influential leader. Two other prominent as- pirants appeared. Governor Wilson, of New Jersey, and Speaker Clark, of ^lissouri. Wilson was Southern born, a man of fine education, a reformer who had fought hard against the New Jersey machine, an eloquent speaker, and the champion of progressive ideas who, never- theless, was likely to be more acceptable to the conservative East than an extreme reformer like Roosevelt. Clark was also a pro- gressive, but he had risen to prominence as an organization man, and while he was popular as a campaign speaker, some persons feared that his close association with the regular politicians would take off the edge of his reforming zeal, once he was in ofEce. Clark's friends, however, resented the idea that he was less a pro- gressive than Wilson. Brj'an did not at first commit himself as to the third and fourth candidate, but he was clear in his opposition to the first and second. 846 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT When the convention met, Baltimore, June 25, each of these can- didates had strong support without a majority. The conservatives were well organized, and August Belmont, a great New Democrahc York banker, sat in his state's delegation, while Thomas '' F. Ryan, a successful Wall Street operator, sat in the Vir- ginia delegation. It was soon evident that the conservatives feared Wilson most, and by agreeing with some of the Clark men the}' chose Alton B. Parker temporary chairman, against the protest of Bryan, to whom their action seemed the undoing of the work of years. They then offered him the permanent chairmanship, but he would not bind his hands by accepting, and the position went to Ollie James, one of his supporters, but without a reciprocal pledge by Bryan. The East- ern press had many times announced the elimination of Bryan from politics, and it again assured the public that he was cleverly outplayed in the game. But they burst into applause when, on June 29, he made a countermove whose boldness and sagacity have rarely been equaled in a party convention. Speaking as an individual delegate, he offered a resolution pledging the convention to nominate no man who was "the representative of or under obligation to" the great financial interests and demanding the withdrawal of Belmont and Ryan from the convention. Violent protests followed, but Bryan was not per- turbed. He withdrew the latter part of his resolution when assured that the gentlemen named would withdraw of their own accord, and the first part was adopted by an overwhelming majority. The convention proceeded to nominate candidates. On the first ballot Clark had 440I votes, Wilson 324, Harmon 148, Underwood iiyl, and other candidates 56. Balloting continued with tive^Pians ^^^ probability, as it seemed, that when at last the con- servatives were convinced that neither the Clark nor the Wilson men would come to either Harmon or Underwood, they would throw the strength of these two men to Clark, which would give him such a lead that he would secure the two-thirds vote demanded for a nomination in a democratic convention. The New York delegation, voting under the unit rule and dominated by Murphy, the Tammany leader, was supposed to be directing this move, and Sullivan, leader of the Illinois organization, and Taggart, who occupied a similar relation to the Indiana delegation, were said to be cooperating with Murphy. If this plan succeeded, the effect of Bryan's resolution against capital- istic domination would be lost. The Nebraskan watched these proceedings carefully. He was vot- ing steadily for Clark, for whom his state's delegation was instructed, but his personal influence was thrown for Wilson. On the Acht^ve- twelfth ballot the New York delegation changed from Har- ment. mon to Clark. While the fourteenth was being taken, Bryan read a statement saying that Nebraska indorsed Clark, thinking he was progressive and opposed to the policy for which PROGRESSIVE PARTY FOUNDED 847 New York stood. He closed by declaring he would no longer support New York's candidate, nor would he help nominate a man under ob- ligations to "Morgan, Ryan, Belmont, or any other member of the privilege-seeking, favor-hunting class.'' This announcement angered the Clark men, but it found response among the Western and Southern delegates, who for sixteen years had battled against the class that Bryan arraigned. It checked the trend to Clark and was followed by a rise in Wilson's vote. The time was then near midnight, Saturday, June 29, and the convention adjourned to Monday. Clark, naturally much exasperated, issued a denial of the charges implied in Bryan's statement, and Bryan publicly announced that he did not doubt Clark's good intentions but distrusted the forces combining to secure his nomination. Many futile ballots were taken on Monday, July i. It began to be feared that a deadlock was inevitable, and rumor said that Bryan would propose an adjournment with a referendum. Such a course would undoubtedly defeat the conscrvati\-es, and they re- laxed their efforts. On the 46th ballot enough of them came to Wilson to secure his nomination. Thomas R. Marshall, of Indiana, was named for vice-president. The platform pledged the candidate, if elected, to one term only. The day after the republican convention adjourned the Roosevelt forces in Chicago met in a mass-meeting, resolved to organize a new party, and appointed a committee to carry out their pur- poses. The result was a national convention at Chicago, p^^J" August 5, 1912. Eighteen of its delegates were women, indicating the party's indorsement of woman's suffrage. There was much enthusiasm, and a touch of crusading zeal showed forth when the ten thousand delegates and their friends sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Onward, Christian Soldiers." Roosevelt announced the principles of the party in a speech which won the ad- miration of friends and foes. He demanded that government be de- pendent on the will of the people, that machine politics be destroyed, that women be allowed to vote, that labor be given better wages and shorter hours of work, and that social justice be secured in all the re- lations of government. August 7 the ticket was selected, Roosevelt for president and Hiram W. Johnson, governor of California, for vice- president. The organization was called the "progressive party," and active efforts were made, before and after the convention, to perfect its state and local organizations. Rarely has a campaign been fought so bitterly with such a slight difference of men and iirincii)les. In comparison with okl-time leaders Taft, Wilson, and Roosevelt were all liberals, although they differed in degrees of liberalism. On the tariff re- foj^g * " publicans and progressives stood practically together, demanding lower rates on a protective basis with a view of maintain- ing the higher wages of AJnerican workmen. The democrats re- 84S ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFl pudiated protection and declared for a tariff for revenue only. Re- publicans and progressives would regulate the trusts, although the former wished to make the officials of the trusts criminally liable, while the latter asked that patents be robbed of their worst monopolis- tic features. The democrats opposed trusts generally, desired to regulate more effectively interstate public utilities, and to strengthen federal control of interstate commerce without weakening state con- trol. The republicans ignored the initiative and referendum and declared against judicial recall, although they asked for an easier method than impeachment of removing bad judges. The progressives indorsed each of these thr^e measures, and demanded a referendum for judicial decisions annulling state laws. All the parties supported conservation of natural resources, a parcels post, currency reform, and laws to prevent abuses in campaign contributions. The democrats and progressives indorsed the popular election of United States senators, a federal income tax, and the nomination of candidates in primaries. The progressi\'es demanded woman's suffrage, an easier method of amending the constitution, registration of lobb^dsts, exclusion of federal officials from political activity, a department of labor, pro- motion of labor unions, and protection of the people from deceptive investment schemes. The campaign abounded in bitter attacks on Roosevelt by demo- crats and republicans. La Follette, who felt keenly his own repudia- tion, declared he was the victim of treachery. He is • " sujjposed to have given aid to the democrats. Wilson himself denounced the progressive candidate as a tool of the steel trust and as a self-seeker. Roosevelt replied with emphasis, and made many speeches in the North, West, and South. In Mil- waukee, October 14, he was shot by an insane man who imagined that Roosevelt was responsible for the murder of McKinley. A serious flesh wound was the result, but an excellent constitution well pre- served by temperate habits enabled him to recover rapidly. Taft con- ducted a quiet campaign and made few speeches. There was little hope of his election, and many republicans probably voted for Wilson to make sure of Roosevelt's defeat. The election occurred November 5, and of the 531 electoral votes Wilson received 435, Roosevelt S8, and Taft 8. For the last-named but two states voted, Utah and Vermont. Five declared Ele^ction ^'^^ Roosevelt — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Washington. In California the contest was close and 1 1 progressive and 2 democratic electors were chosen. The popular vote was 6,290,818 for Wilson, 4,123,206 for Roosevelt, 3,484,529 for Taft, 898,296 for Debs (socialist), 207,965 for Chafin (prohibitionist), and 29,071 for Reimer (socialist-labor). The demo- crats carried the house of representatives by a majority of 147 over republicans and progressive republicans. CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES 840 Legislative Progress under Taft The struggle for party supremacy under Taft ought not to divert our attention from the many reform measures which he helped to carry through congress. Never has the attention of the people been more vigorous!}- directed to matters connected with the de\-elopment of good government on a democratic basis. The most important resulting phases are connected with conservation, currency reform, and political investigations. For a century the national government gave or sold its abundant natural resources on generous terms. This jiolicy led to rapid develop- ment of the Western regions, but it afforded opportunities for overweening fortunes. Although timber and mineral Conserva- claims were legally hniited in size, speculators obtained "°"' large tracts collusively, and by the close of the century Rgg"/"' the country began to realize that a mistake had been made. The growing price of lumber, the waste of water power, and the danger that threatened tluough deforesting the watersheds caused alarm in the country'. Roosevelt, generally willing to extend the federal power where the existing system of state relations seemed un- able to deal with the situation, had his interest aroused and appointed a commission on conservation to report on the danger. It was evident to him that the national government should take natural resources under a more active control and see that they were used for the l)enefit of all the people. This policy did not please the people of the West, who naturally wished to see their waste places settled as rapidly as possible. Among them were influential interests who saw in the president's ideas a check on their plans for amassing wealth. By July I, 1909, the president had issued orders withholding from settle- ment 194,000,000 acres, a great deal of it in the western mountains. In 1912 congress appropriatedSi,ooo,ooo, and 82,000,000 a year there- after, to purchase lands for forest reserves in the Appalachian and White mountains. Conservation al.so dealt with irrigation. Before 1900 private enter- prises secured and developed the most obvious irrigation sites, leasing or selling water rights to the farmers concerned. Disputes irrigation frequently occurred between the water companies and their patrons, and it was evident that here was another outcronping of the problem of monopolies. Also the protection of rivers and lakes yielding irrigation waters was an important question. Finally, great irrigation plans were made which only the government can carry out. Out of this complex situation came the national irrigation policy. The control of the com[)anies has not yet been settled, but the government has reserved from settlement many areas which supply water, and in 1902 congress advanced 820,000,000 for this purpo.se, to be satisfied out of the proceeds of the sales of improved lands. 31 850 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT Our chief known deiJusits of gold, silver, and copper have long since passed into private control, but the coal lands in the Far West have been recently reserved. The most notable instance of this Lands nature refers to the Alaskan deposits, which are very valuable. In 1909 it became known that 33 adjacent claims for such lands of 160 acres each, made out in the names of distinct individuals, were likely to pass into the hands of a group of Colorado capitalists known as the Cunningham group. The claim- ants had paid the price fixed by law, $10 an acre, but it was said that the lands were worth .'$4,000,000. Secretary Ballinger was supposed to favor the claimants, and Pinchot's protest against them was one of the causes of the controversy with which the names of the two men were associated. As a result of the exposure the claims were event- ually disallowed. One thousand other claims were pending, and after investigation by Secretary Fisher, Ballinger's successor, 750 of them were disallowed. The rest seem to have been filed in good faith, but they were held up, pending the adoption by congress of a fixed plan for the control of natural monopolies. The secretary favored govern- ment ownership with leases to corporations, and his plan had the sup- port of ex-President Roosevelt, but at the close of 191 2 no decision had been reached. This delay was received with dissatisfaction by the people of Alaska. Recent years have made increasingly apparent the need of a more elastic currency. The Aldrich-Vreeland act, 1908, undertook to supply the need by allowing banks to issue additional notes on Reform ^ depositing approved state, county, or municipal bonds and by forming associations with joint responsibility to issue notes secured by commercial paper. The plan was not received favor- ably by the banks, although in 1910 a number of the proposed associa- tions were formed under pressure of the secretary of the treasury. In the Aldrich-Vreeland act was a provision for a monetary commis- sion. Senator Aldrich becoming chairman. It was to investigate actual conditions and to suggest a sound plan of reform. The first result was a series of reports on banking abroad and at home. An abundance of individual discussion seemed to show that the financial interests were opposed to a great central bank, although it was equally clear that there should be central control of note issues and reserves. In January, 191 1, Senator Aldrich, chairman of the monetary com- mission, reported the scheme known as the Aldrich currency plan. It proposed the federal incorporation of a "Reserve Associa- drich Plan tion" with a capital of $300,000,000 to be subscribed for by the national banks organized in fifteen districts, each district to be subdivided into local associations. The Reserve Associa- tion was to discount commercial paper for banks and to receive and disburse the national funds. It was not to lend money to individuals. When it was established the issue of money by national banks was to CONGRESSlOxNAL IXVESTIGATIONS 851 cease and the Reserve Association was to issue its own notes instead, subject to national taxation. The plan met a •,'real deal of criticism,' and in October, 191 1, it was moditied in some important particulars. The scheme found favor with the banks of the country, but was not received favorably by the peojile. It was e\'idcnt that it was a pri- vately owned central bank under a less unpopular name, and it was pointed out that by uniting all the banks and trust companies of the country in one organization it would deliver the banking function into the hands of a vast and powerful combination. If the public should at some future time wish to break the hold of this combination, the task would require an upheaval in the busine.ss world far more serious than that which accompanied the destruction of the second Bank of tlie United States. The restless and suspicious attitude of the public toward corpora- tions and their political influence resulted in several congressional investigations. Among them were authorized in 1910 investigations of the issue of railroad stocks and bonds, Congres- and employers' liability and workmen's comi)ensation, and ve°s'tigati'Jns. in 191 2 an investigation of the so-called "money trust" and "shipping trust," and the increased cost of anthracite coal. These investigations caused much distress to business, especially the inves- tigation aimed at the concentration of banking capital. In 1910 New Mexico and Arizona were given permission to frame constitutions and apply for statehood. A year later they presented themselves at the door of congress, but the latter had adopted the recall of judges and was refused admission. By a filibuster New Mexico's case was made to fall with that of Arizona. It was not until 191 2 that both were ad- mitted, the objectionable clause in the Arizona constitution being omitted. Of other important acts passed in Taft's administration the follow- ing may be mentioned : a law to create a commerce court (1910) ; a law to establish postal saving banks (1910); a "white ^ slave" act (1910) ; an act to require publicity for cam- paign contributions in federal elections (1910, amended and extended in 191 1, and the amount of contributions limited) ; a canal act, pro- viding for administration of the canal and the canal zone and remitting the tolls to American vessels engaged in coastwise trade (1912); a pension law adding $25,000,000 annually to the appropriations (191 2) ; a law to create a children's bureau in the department of commerce and labor (1912) ; an act to establish civil government in the territory of Alaska (191 2) ; and a law creating a dejwrtment of labor (1913). In 191 2 a constitutional amendment for the popular election of senators was submitted to the states and ratified by them early in 1913. Such a reform had long been demanded by the states, but it was defeated by the senate itself. The passage of the amendment was due to the hard fight which under Roosevelt and Taft was directed against the obstructive power of the uiii)er house of congress. 8s 2 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ROOSEVELT AND TAFT The defeat of the republicans in 191 2 and the return of the demo- crats to power seems to be a turning point in American party history. Out of eleven years of struggle with its inevitable uncertainty has come an advance in popular government and a checking of the influence of wealth and political machines. Whether or not popular control is safer and wiser than the old conservatism is a question over which the citizens of to-day are still divided. It is a question as old as our government, and its latter-day reappearance in a form adjusted to present conditions makes the existing political situation as interesting and important as the Jeffersonian crisis of iSoo. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The best original source of national history for this period is The Congressional Record. The acts of congress are to be found in The Unilcd Stales Staliites at Large, and the messages of the presidents are in the Record for the day they are com- municated, and generally in both the Senate and House Documents. In tliese two series are found most of the reports of the investigation committees. The annual message of the President and the reports of the heads of department are in Abridg- ment, Messages and Documents. Valuable contemporary works are: The Atnerican Year Book (1910-); The International Year Book (igoy-); The Annual Register (1902-). The periodicals of the period are very useful, especially The Outlook, The American Review of Rc- vie2i'S, The Independent, The World's ]Vork, and Public Opinion. Of biographies see: Croley, Marcus Alonzo Hanna (1912); Hovey, Life Story of J. Pierpont Morgan (1911) ; Cullom, Fifty Years of Public Service (1912) ; Coo- lidge, Orville II. Piatt (1910) ; Autobiography of Thomas C. Piatt (1910-); Riis, Theodore Roosevelt (1904, 1912) ; Leupp, The Man Roosevelt (1904) ; Hale, Woodrow Wilson, the Story of his Life (191.') ; Hitchcock, E. A., Fifty Years in Camp and Field (1910), a diary of a prominent democrat; Autobiography of Robert M. La Follette (1Q13) ; and Great Leaders and National Issues of igi2. Of general works the following are useful : Stanwood, A History of the Presidency, iSgy-igog (1912) ; Walker, History of the Sherman La-w (1910) ; Noyes, Forty Years of American Finance, iS6j-iQoy (1909) ; Oberholtzer, The Refercndnm in America (1912, revised ed.) ; Haines, The Senate from igoy to igi2 (1912); Jordan, Five National Platforms Dissected, Classified, Indexed (1912); White, The Old Order Changelh (191 2); Sedgwick, The Democratic Mistalie {igi2) ; Beard, Documents on the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall (191 2); Butler, Why Should Wc Change our Form oj Government f (1912) ; and McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea (1912). For Independent Reading Hovey, The Life Storv of J. Pierpont Morgan (191 1) ; Leupp, The Man Roosevelt (1904) ; Coolidge, Orville H. Piatt (1910) ; White, The Old Order Changelh (1912) ; Butler, Why Should We Change our Form of Government? (191 2) ; McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea (191 2) ; and Autobiography of Robert M. La Follette (1913). CHAPTER XLI POLITICAL MEASURES OF THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION A New Administil^tion March 4, 1913, ushered in a new president, a new party, and new principles. The democrats had been in opposition for sixteen years: they now found themselves in control of each house of New Party congress as well as the executive. In the house of repre- Control sentatives they had 291 votes, the republicans, 124, the progressive republicans, 6, and the progressives, 13. In the senate they had 51 members to 44 repubhcans and i progressive. In assuming the honors they also took the responsibilities of government. Would a party so long in opposition be able to formulate and carry through a safe constructive policy? That it could do this was mainly due to the strong position of its leader. From the moment he entered office he became the head of his party. He transformed the democracy into a party of positive measures without producing noticeable disap- pointments within the organization. One of the striking facts that now appeared was the prominence of Southern men in the new government, especially in congress. Through long service they were at the head of many im- influence of portant committees. It was Mr. Champ Clark, of Southerners. Missouri, that the democrats elected speaker of the house of repre- sentatives, and of the ten most important committees of that body the chairmanships were held by Underwood, of Alabama, Ways and Means ; Glass, of Virginia, Banking and Currency ; Flood, of Virginia, Foreign Affairs; Adamson, of Georgia, Interstate and Foreign Com- merce; Clayton, of Georgia, Judiciary; Lewis, of Maryland, Labor; Hay, of Virginia, Military Affairs; Padgett, of Tennessee, Naval Afifairs; Moon, of Tennessee, Post Offices; and Fitzgerald, of New York, Appropriations — nine chairmanships out of ten. Of the whole number of house committees, 58 in all, Southern men held 40. In the senate the heads of the five leading committees were as follows : Foreign Relations, Bacon, of Georgia; Finance, Simmons, of North Carolina; Interstate Commerce, Newlands, of Nevada; Judiciary, Culberson, of Texas ; and Banking and Currency, Owen, of Oklahoma. Southern men were chairmen of 30 of the 73 senate committees. The South had been left out of political influence so long that it had come to feel that it was not an equal part of the Union. Forced now to act 8Si 854 THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION for the whole nation its leaders were impelled to take the national point of view, and in doing so the whole section gained in national sentiment. In the crisis of 1917-1918 it was no less national than any other part of the union. President Wilson took the lead and gave a consistent policy to a group of men who were inexperienced and divided into two factions. Wilson's Measure after measure was carried through congress with- Reforms of out visible dissension. Never was a larger and more im- 1913-1914 portant program of legislation enacted in the same time as in the years 1913-1914. Much of the president's success, however, was achieved because the way had been prepared for him by others. Beginning ten 3'ears earlier President Roosevelt opened a long war against standpat policies, taking many hard blows from those whom he opposed. He accomphshed little of what he tried to do ; but he aroused public opinion. In 191 2 he and his followers stood for radical reform, typified in the demand for the initiative, referendum, and recall. Taft, on the other hand, was supported by the extreme con- servatives. Wilson and his party occupied a middle position. They set out to reduce the influence of the great industrial combinations without destroying them utterly. The radicals could not defeat such a program, and many of the conservatives accepted it because it was not as bad as they had feared. Thus President Wilson swept along with him a large portion of his opponents. It was significant than most of his important measures passed with a small opposing vote. The members of the new cabinet were as follows : WilHam J. Bryan, Secretary of State; WilHam G. McAdoo, of New York, Secretary of the Treasury; Lindley M. Garrison, of New Jersey, Secretary of War ; James C. McReynolds, of New York, Attorney-General ; Albert S. Burleson, of Texas, Postmaster-General ; Josephus Daniels, of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; Frank- lin K. Lane, of Cahfornia, Secretary of the Interior ; Da\'id F. Houston, of Missouri, Secretary of Agriculture; W'illiam C. Redfield, of New York, Secretary of Commerce; and William B. Wilson, of Pennsyl- vania, Secretary of Labor. Of all these men only three had experience which seemed to fit them for the work they were called to direct. McReynolds had been prominently connected with the prosecutions of trusts ; Lane had been a civil ser\'ice commissioner ; and Wilson had been a high ofhcial of the United Mine Workers. The secretary of the navy was a country editor, the secretary of agriculture, a uni- versity president, and the secretary of commerce, a manufacturer of machinery who had served one term in congress inconspicuously. Only two had acquired considerable political experience : Mr. Burleson had long been a member of congress and had the confidence of many of the democratic leaders, and Mr. Bryan was the head of a powerful faction in the party. The secretary of state was very weak in inter- NEW PARTY CONTROL 855 national law and never showed that he grasped the foreign situation ; but he brought the president a powerful political support at a time when it was needed. It was his misfortune that he presided over the foreign office when it was beset with the most diflScult foreign problems that had arisen in a hundred years. Mr. McAdoo, who later proved himself a successful head of finances, was then an untried man, whose chief success was in constructing a railroad tunnel under the Hudson River. In financing this enterprise he had shown ability in resisting the schemes of rival financiers. He was believed to be able to deal with the so-called "money trust," a valuable faculty at a time when financial matters w'ould be uppermost. WTien the election of 191 2 occurred Wilson had served nearly two years as governor of New Jersey. Chosen as a reformer, he was trj-ing tochangethelawsby which that state had become the refuge Wilson's of the trusts. It was not until after the elections of 191 2 New jersey that he had a majorit}' in each house of the legislature. As Reforms, soon as that body met he got his friends to introduce seven bills, popularly known as "the Seven Sisters," as his program of reform. They were brought forward on January 20, 1913, and pressed so vigorously that they received the governor's signature on February* 19. Six days later Mr. Wilson sent in his resignation as governor, to take effect on March i. Three days after he retired from office in Trenton he stood before an immense assemblage in Washington to take the oath of office as president. The weather was fine, the people were sympa- The In- thetic, and his excellent inaugural address was received auguration with satisfaction. Announcing the conviction that the prosperity of recent times had led the country away from the original principles of government, he declared that it was necessary to turn back to effect a restoration. This should be done without sentimentalizing but in a reasonable spirit of justice for all. "We have made up our minds," he said in interpreting the recent election, "to square every process of our national life again with the standards we so proudly set up in the beginning and have always carried at our hearts. Our work is a work of restoration." The proposed subjects of reform were: the tariff, banking and currency, the power of trusts over industry ; and the promotion of social justice. He also declared that the govern- ment should use its power more \ngorously to promote agriculture, obtain a better use of natural resources, and conserve better the life and happiness of the people who serve in the industrial system. To carry out such ideals he pledged himself and his party. In a spirit w-hich won great approval he exclaimed : "Who shall five up to this great trust? Who dares fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all for^vard-looking men, to my side! God help me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me." 856 THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION The Underwood Tariff The attitude of the democrats on the tariff had been foreshadowed in the tariff bills of the preceding congress, prepared by the democratic Two im- house of representatives. Some of them had passed the portant senate with the aid of the progressives, but they were Problems. vetoed by President Taft. On banking and currency the republicans had embodied their \aews in the report of the Aldrich Commission, views which the democrats rejected because they thought too much influence was given to what was called "the money trust." To take up these questions and such others as might arise President Wilson called congress in extra session for April 7, 1913. On the second day of the extra session he appeared in person before the congress to make an address on the tariff. For more than a Address to century presidents had communicated their views to con- Congress, gress in written messages. Wilson's return to the cus- tom followed by Washington and John Adams met general approval. He was an excellent speaker, and his brief and concise explanations of his policies were better understood than the long and often dull messages of his predecessors. Oscar B. Underwood was chairman of the ways and means com- mittee in 1912 and was to hold the same position in 1913. He and President his Committee spent much time before congress met on as Prime April 7 preparing a new tariff bill. They worked in con- Mimster. stant consultation with the president. As party leader and as the only officer, except the vice-president, who is chosen by all the people, it is natural, under our system, that he should take a position somewhat like that of a European prime minister. The Underwood tariff bill was defended as a tariff for revenue only. The rates were so arranged that the burdens would chiefly fall on Underwood luxuries with light taxes on the necessities of Ufe. Many Tariff. things made by trusts were placed on the free Hst. It was claimed that the rates in general were laid in such a way as to enable the manufacturer to overcome the advantage foreign competitors held through cheaper labor. The authors of the bill were unwilling to give higher protection. In 1912, the dutiable imports into the United States were valued at $759,209,915, on which the duties amounted to $304,597,035, or 40.12% of the value of the imports. It was estimated that under the new bill the dutiable imports would be worth $798,596,000, and the duties would amount to $266,701,000, or 29.6% of the whole. By this means of calculation the Underwood bill would lower the tariff by a decrease of 11.06 in the rates. To overcome a deficit of $96,000,000 in the expected return from the import duties and other taxes an income tax was levied on indi\iduals and a tax on the incomes of corporations. The Underwood bill passed the house without notable amendment. Two republicans and four THE UNDERWOOD TARIFF 857 progressives joined 274 democrats in voting for it. Against it were 120 republicans, 14 progressives, and 5 democrats from Louisiana. The bill did not protect sugar as much as the Louisianians thought fair. In the senate the democrats did not have a majority large enough to carry the bill unchanged ; but the alterations made did not seriously modify the bill in principle. One of the most important was a surta.x on incomes above $20,000 a year. As income jaj amended the bill passed the senate by a vote of 44 to 37, the two Louisiana senators in the negative and two progressives in the affirmative. It was signed by the president on October 3, 1913. Actual e.xperience revealed that the Underwood tariff needed re- adjustment in some of the rates. This led to the creation of a new tariff commission. Such a commission had been estab- Tariff Com- lished in Taft's administration, but it was composed of mission persons who were ''friends of the tariff," and the democrats refused to sanction the appropriation for its continuation. But in 1916 they created a bi-partisan Tariff Board to study the operation of the law and recommend such changes as were necessary to make it work with scientific efficiency. The Underwood Tariff was received with alarm by the manufacturers, especially by the sugar and woolen interests. Opportunity was not given to observe its full effects on business; for the world war began before it had been in operation more than a few months, and American manufacturers were not thrown into competition with foreign rivals under its operation. While the LTnderwood bill was before the senate, reports circulated that a powerful lobby was trying to influence the action of that house. To defeat its object, President Wilson on May 26, 1913, Tariff issued his celebrated manifest on the lobby. "Wasli- Lobby, ington has seldom seen," said he, "so numerous, so industrious, or so insidious a lobby. The newspapers are being filled with paid advertisements calculated to mislead not only the judgment of pulilic men but also the public opinion of the country itself. There is every e\idence that money without limit is being spent to sustain this lobby. . . . The government in all its branches ought to be relieved from this intolerable burden and this constant interruption to calm progress of debate." The country was not surprised to learn that a lobby existed, since all our tariff making has been accompanied by such efforts. But never before had a president taken open notice of them. The The In- investigation that the senate ordered was watched with vestigation. interest. After it had progressed some time without decisive results the house also ordered an investigation, basing its action on state- ments reflecting on the conduct of the National Association of Manu- facturers. The report of the committee of the house was exhaustive and led to the resignation of a member from Illinois. It was difficult to fix responsibility, but evidence submitted showed that tariff legis- 858 THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION lation for the preceding thirty years had been accompanied with many discreditable practices. The investigation served to check the lobby- ists for a time, and the consideration of the tariff bill proceeded in a manner nearly like that of other bills. The Federal Reserve Banking Act The second great financial measure of 1913 was the act to give the country an elastic currency. To understand it we must look back Old Bank- at our early banking laws. In the beginning congress ing System, established a central bank, with branches in many cities, which furnished a large cjuantity of banknotes that were redeemable in coin and accepted readily at par. But this bank was unpopular because it was owned by a relatively small number of wealthy men and thus constituted a monopoly. Congress would not renew its charter and it ceased to exist in iSii. It was sadly missed during the War of 1812 and was rechartered in 1816 for twenty years. Again it became unpopular, and for the same reason, and again congress refused to renew the charter. From 1837 to 1862 the country got along with state banks, some of which were good and some bad. The state banks broke down during the Civil War, and congress adopted the national bank system, by which local banks took na- tional charters, issued notes secured by national bonds, and carried on their business under federal superNision. Under this system the country was conducting its affairs in 1913. The national bank system was established to give the people a sound currency, and in that respect it was a success. Nobody could " Elastic- lose money by accepting national-bank notes, and this ity " was more than could be said of the old state-bank notes. In time it become evident tliat the national bank system lacked "elasticity." It is accepted as a principle of good banking that the banks should be able to issue notes freely when they are seriously needed, but at high rates of interest so that the borrowers will pay them back when the unusual demand is past, when they will be with- drawn from circulation. The nations of Europe obtain this result through central banks under some form of public control. A cur- rency that thus expands and contracts as the demand changes is said to be "elastic." Under the national bank system the amount of currency was nearly stationary, and when there was a sud- den demand for money, the lenders held out for high rates of interest, or refused to lend at all, so that debtors had to sell securities Currency at a sacrifice. The men who bought these securities and Specu- cheaply had only to hold them until prices rose to reap lation. large profits. It was said that a group of bankers had become very rich by following this practice ; and it was charged that they used their control of the money supply to cut off loans and thus THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT 859 create the panic which in turn enabled them to buy securities at low prices. This group of speculators was generally called the "money trust." Persons who understood the science of finance saw that the way to break their hold on the business of the country was to make the currency elastic, so the banks could issue new notes when needed. But it was also necessary that provision should be taken for the reasonable contraction of the currency when the crisis that called for expansion was past. To do this the currency must be under the control of men who acted for the interest of all the people, and not for the interest of a special class. In 1908, while Roosevelt was President, congress created the National Monetar)^ Commission, with Senator Aldrich as chairman. It made many investigations and finallj' submitted a re- Aldrich port in 191 1, recommending the creation of a central re- Report, serve bank by national charter, with fifteen branches in as many districts. The stock of the bank was to be owned by the banks themselves, and the direction was left in the hands of the directors chosen by the corporation. The plan was not acceptable to the people at large. At that time a small number of bankers had built up so-called chains of banks in the principal cities, and it was believed that under the .\ldrich plan this group of bankers would not only control the central organization but the fifteen district banks as well. It was believed, therefore, that the plan would only increase the in- fluence of the "money trust." Senator Aldrich 's suggestions pleased the banks, for they trusted the bankers and did not trust the govern- ment to select supervisors who had integrity and banking experience. The Monetary Commission amended its plan in 1912, but its main features remained the same. It was rejected by public opinion be- cause it was believed to be as monopolistic as the old central bank. But the work of the commission was important ; for it showed the people what the problem was that confronted them. In the presidential campaign of 191 2 the republicans and the democrats promised to reform the currency, and the new adminis- tration took oflSce with definite ideas on the subject. In The Glass the preceding democratic house of representatives, in Bill, fact, the committee on banking and currency had made much prog- ress in formulating a plan. As soon as the Underwood tariff bill was out of the way the house turned to this subject. June 23 President Wilson addressed the two houses of congress on currency reform and declared that there must be an adequate and elastic currency under government control. He had previously had many confer- ences with Senator Owen and Representative Glass, chairmen re- spectively of the senate and house committees on banking and cur- rency, and a bill had been prepared which was introduced in each house on June 26. The currency debate proved longer than the contest over the tariff, 86o THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION but in the end the administration obtained most of what it asked for. It was in the senate that strongest objection was made. When the „.,, p . debate is analyzed it is seen that two groups of opinion appeared. One represented those who distrusted large capitalists and wished to limit the power of the banks to control the proposed reserve bank. The other was composed of men who felt that the banks alone knew what kind of banking facilities the country should have, and this group wished to hmit the power of the govern- ment in the matter. The position of President Wilson was between these two extremes. The bill was carried through the house without material change, but it was not passed in the senate until it was made a subject of action by the democratic caucus, thus becoming a strictly party matter. It was finally signed by the president on December 23, after the congress had passed into the regular session. On the final vote it received the support of 34 republicans and 11 progressives in the house and 3 republicans and i progressive in the senate, thus showing that it had lost something of its partisan character. The Federal Reser\'e Bank is a bank of banks, individuals not being allowed to own stock. The country is divided into twelve Features of districts and the national banks in each district are re- the Act. quired to form a district reserve bank with a capital of not less than $4,000,000; and state banks and trust companies may join if they wish. In this district, or regional, bank they deposit reserve funds and from it they can borrow reserve bank funds on approved collateral. Above the regional banks is a Federal Reserve Board of seven members, of whom the secretary of the treasury and the comptroller of the currency are ex officio members, and the others are appointed by the president with the approval of the senate. It is the duty of the central board to supervise the conduct of the regional banks and to restrain them in general policies. When a business man finds the outlook serious and the local bank is unable to lend more money, he may arrange with his bank to deposit valid securities which the bank in turn may deposit witli the regional bank and receive in exchange newly issued reserve notes, which are lent to the borrower. Thus the amount of currency expands when necessary, which gives it the required elasticity. When it has expanded as far as is safe, the central board has the power to raise the rate of interest, or other- wise to interfere, in order to put a check on borrowing. The Federal Reserve Bank was opened on November 16, 1914, when the business of the country was greatly disturbed by the war in Europe. It proved equal to the extraordinary demands made upon it. Laws Relating to Great Corporations When President Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act on De- cember 23, 1913, he said: "We have slowly been coming to this THE "FIVP: BROTHERS" 86i time which has now, happily, arrived when there is a common recogni- tion of the Yhings that it is undesirable should be' done in business, and the things that it is desirable shoukl be done," and he Wilson and added that the time had come to cease struggling over Trusts, the limitations under which business was conducted and adopt meas- ures that would be just in themselves and estabhsh what he called "the constitution of peace" in industry. The reform of the cur- rency he considered a first step in that process, and the second was a series of measures designed to regulate llie actions of trusts. This was a fundamental idea with the president, and he defended it at length in an address to congress on January 20, 1914. In bringing it into effect five measures were introduced into con- gress as follows: (i) to create a commission to supervise the action of all persons or corporations engaged in interstate trade, The " Five except common carriers and banks, and to cooperate when Brothers." necessary with the attorney-general in prosecutions before the courts ; (2) to prohibit interlocking directorates between certain great cor- porations, as railroads, banks, coal operators, and trust companies; (3) to amend the Sherman .^nti-trust Act of 1S90 by specifying a number of actions which should be unlawful ; and (4) to further amend the same act by prohibiting rebates, price discrimination, and other acts of unfair competition. These four bills were prepared by the house judiciary committee, H. D. Clayton chairman, and were known as the four Clayton bills. A fifth was prepared by the house committee on interstate and foreign commerce, W. C. Adamson chair- man, and gave the interstate commerce commission power to regulate the issue of railroad bonds and stock and the expenditure of funds aris- ing from such issues. As the seven Ijills carried through the New Jersey legislature by Governor Wilson were called the " Seven Sisters," these five bills were called the " Five Brothers." WTien they were laid before congress the president let it be known that he wished them discussed thoroughly. They involved such important matters that no other course was wise. For more than twenty years the country had been looking for a solution of the problems connected with'the trusts, and there was a general desire to get the matter settled. I'robably no other cjuestion since the civil war has been taken up and disposed of with a more thorough and reasonable effort for a solution that would do justice to all parties. In this discussion the five bills underwent marked changes. The second, third, and fourth, all dealing with trusts, were combined into one anti-trust bill, and by this means the program resolved itself into three bills, two of which were finally enacted into law. The first, creating the Federal Trade Commission to regulate corporations, went back to Mr. Adamson's committee, which referred it to a subcommittee with Mr. Covington, of Maryland, as chairman. When it came back to the house it was, therefore, called the " Covmg- 862 THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION ton Bill." It passed this body without a division. In the senate it was amended and passed with a vote of 53 to 16, repubhcan members Federal casting 12 of the majority votes. It then went to a Trade Com- committee of conference, which adjusted the differences mission. between the two houses, after which the bill passed without a division in the house and with only 5 adverse votes in the senate. The Federal Trade Commission thus created consists of three commissioners, not more than two of whom can belong to the same party, and all of whom are appointed by the president with the consent of the senate. The commission is given large powers of investigation over all corporations engaged in interstate trade, except common carriers and banks. But its powers are not mandatory over such corporations. When it concludes that wrong has been committed it can only present the facts to the officials of the depart- ment of justice and aid them in prosecuting in the courts. To give it full opportunity in the field assigned to it, tlie corporation com- mission in the department of commerce was abolished. The second of the three final measures was passed into law as the Clayton Anti-trust Act, itself a result of merging the three original Clayton bills that looked to the stricter enforcement of the anti- Anti-Trust trust act of 1890. The bill was largely in the hands of the *"='■ extreme reformers. Wliile the Federal Trade Commission is described as an effort to prevent the exercise of undue power by the trusts, the Clayton Anti-trust Act may be pronounced an effort to prescribe punishment for such an exercise of undue powers. It extended the act of 1890 by prohibiting many specific kinds of dis- crimination that tend to lessen competition, making it unlawful for one corporation to acquire control of another by purchasing its stock, and forbidding, except under certain specified conditions, the creation of interlocking directorates. It gave the Interstate Com- merce Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Federal Trade Commission the power to execute the law under the supervision of the courts. It also provided that labor organizations should not "be held or construed to be illegal combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade." The house passed the law finally by a vote of 244 to 54 and the senate by a vote of 35 to 24. The large number of members in each house who did not vote shows how great a number were personally opposed to the measure but feared to vote against what they thought the people wanted. The president signed the bill on October 15, 1914. In a decision announced January 3, 1921, the federal supreme court held that this act does not legalize the secondary boycott, thus restricting the immunity of labor under the act in an important sense. The other bill in the program of the majority related to the issue of the stocks and bonds of railroads and other common carriers. This project was embodied in the Rayburn Bill to allow the OLTR CARIBBEAN POLICY 863 Interstate Commerce Commission to pass upon all such securities before they were issued. The corporations concerned were required to make full statements of the reasons for making the Railroad issues and the purposes for which the funds to be derived Securities, from them were to be used, and such statements were to be made public. The object was to guard against watering stocks and to enable the investing public to know the value of the securities they were invited to jjurchase. The Rayburn Bill met little opposition in the house, where it first appeared, although certain formal changes were made in it. It passed that house on June 5 by a vote of 325 to 12, the Rayburn minority being composed of 8 rei)ublicans and 4 demo- Bill crats. It then went to the senate, where it received the Suspended, approval of the committee on interstate and foreign commerce and seemed certain to pass by a decisive majority. But by this time the world war had begun and the condition of the investment market was so uncertain that it was thought to be unwise to ask the railroads to adopt at that time a new method of financing their loans. For this reason the president agreed to suspend further efforts to pass the bill until the war came to an end. Thus came to an interruption President Wilson's plans for remodel- ing the laws concerning what was popularly known as "big business." Besides the tariff bill of 1913 and the federal reserve act, Wilson's each of which was a measure of first rank, he had carried Achieve- through two bills to regulate the great corporations and ments. had only failed to carry through the third because of events over which he had no control. It was also significant that he gained in popular support as he progressed. In the later discussions he drew largely from the votes of his political opponents. It seemed that he had found the means of disarming opposition and had introduced in reality that condition of industrial peace which he had set out to establish. Our Caribbean Policy When Wilson became president his predecessors had set up a well- defined policy in relation to (he states bordering on the Caribbean Sea. This policy grew out of Cleveland's and Roosevelt's ^^^ poUcy. interpretations of the Monroe Doctrine (pages 778, 826). It meant that the United States would protect the weaker states to the southward from aggression by European powers, and that they would also try to keep the Caribbean states from committing such wrongful acts as would warrant intervention by European states. Thus, while we held back the great foreign states, we sought to hold the small slates up to their international duties. The peoi)le of Latin .'\nierica are excitable and can easily be stimu- lated to political revolution. On slight grounds a flashy adventurer 864 THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION proclaims a new government, fights some skirmishes, and gets the government away from his rival, who probably took it in the same " No Business uncertain way only a short time before. In a few months of Ours " he faces his own enemies in arms, makes a fight to hold power, and goes the way of his fellow rulers. In this process of poHtical turmoil the prize in view was generally the pubhc revenues, which the winner collected as long as he could maintain his hold on government. This process went on continuously during the nine- teenth century. Foreign states accepted it as an inevitable product of the Latin-American temperament. When trouble occurred, they landed armed men to protect the property and hves of their own citizens and later on recognized the leader who managed to get himself obeyed as head of the government. These foreign states assumed — and the United States accepted the idea — that they had nothing to do with the kind of misgovernment the Latin-Americans chose to have. They washed their hands of all the troubles of their turbulent neighbors. This policy began to be changed with the outbreak of our Spanish war. In freeing Cuba we asserted that we had a right to prevent The Cuban misgovernment in a neighboring state. The war won, Example we felt justified in creating the Piatt Amendment (see page 807), enabling us to force Cuba to maintain good government in her own borders. We made good our claim in 1906, by taking over the government of Cuba for two years ; and by threatening to interfere in iqii, 1912, and 1Q16 we accomplished our purpose with- out actual intervention. Under this supervision Cuba has had a quiet and orderly government of her own choice for 18 years, and in that period has gained much in orderly spirit and habits. By a transference so easy that it was hardly noticed at the time, the spirit of our Cuban poUcy has begun to be applied to our relations A Step with other states bordering on the Caribbean Sea. In Further. such cases, however, the process was more difficult than in Cuba ; for here no Piatt Amendment gave us a right to interfere. All that was done had to be done through persuasion. When first taken up by President Roosevelt it encountered the opposition of most of our people, who thought it sheer sentiment to try to make better a people who evidently did not wish to be better. But tact prevailed and good leadership on the part of Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson did a great deal. The financial confusion of some of the Caribbean states was great, and the aid of the United States was the only thing that would avert ruin. The first Caribbean state for which the United States acted in this benevolent capacity was Santo Domingo, situated in the eastern Santo part of the island which Columbus called " Hispaniola," Domingo now known as Haiti. Its proximity to Porto Rico gives us a peculiar interest in maintaining order within its boundaries. SANTO DO^IINGO AND HAITI 865 Also, it would be very inconvenient to us if a strong foreign power occupied it on the ground that it did not fulfill its obligations. It was in 1905 that President Roosevelt, at the request of President Morales, made a treaty by which the United States agreed to take over the financial control of Santo Domingo. When the senate rejected this treaty Roosevelt carried out its essential terms under a modus vivcndi. In 1907 the senate became convinced that the president was right and made a formal treaty in which was incorporated all he had demanded. From that time we have exercised a financial protec- torate over this perturbed neighbor. United States agents have administered Dominican finances, which have increased in fruitful- ness, and the Dominican debt has been placed in a way of extinction. The Dominicans have generally accepted our position in their bound- aries, but sometimes there has been resistance, notably in 1916, when it became necessary to land troops to restore order in certain interior districts. In the western part of the island exists the negro republic of Haiti, with conditions even more chaotic than Santo Domingo's. In 1914 it was hopelessly bankrupt and Germany and France „ . demanded that they be permitted to collect the revenues for the benefit of the foreign creditors. Shortly afterwards the World War began and the threat of European intervention was for- gotten. But Haitian conditions daily became worse, one revolution followed another, and' United States troops were landed to protect property. Negotiations now began to establish American control over Haitian finances. One of the factions among the people pro- tested and the protest became associated with the internal struggle, which burst forth again in 1915. Its bitterness and cruelty are illus- trated in the murder by an agent of President Guillaume of 160 of his political enemies. This was excessive, even for Haiti ; and the people rose in a rage, dragged their president from sanctuary in the French legation, and shot him without uniting on any particular successor. So bad was the situation that the Umted States landed marines at several places and assumed direction of internal affairs. Elections were held in which a president was chosen who favored the acceptance of United States influence. The announcement of the results of the election brought a new outbreak by those who opposed the submergence of complete nationality. However, the last re- sistance ended on October i, 1915, and President Dartiguenave, supported by our marines, was obeyed throughout Haiti. Before this time the conservative party had begun to negotiate for United States control of the finances. The result was a treaty, signed in Haiti on September 16 and in Washington on Haitian February 28, 1916, establishing a protectorate over that Treaty country and pro\-iding for American control over Haitian revenues. It created a native constabulary under United States oflScers, slipu- 3 K 866 THE WILSON ADMINISTR./VTION lated that Haiti should never alienate territory to any foreign power, and promised that the United States would "lend an efficient aid" to preserve Haitian independence and peace and order. This treaty was more rigorous than the arrangement with Santo Domingo ; and it shows that experience in that island had taught the government that control must be strong enough to be effective. Establishing the influence of the United States along the northern rim of the Caribbean was completed by the purchase of the Danish Virgin West Indies. These islands, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Islands. St. John, lie east of Porto Rico, and although industrially poor they contain the excellent harbor of Charlotte Amahe, of vast importance to a great naval power. Denmark had long wished to sell them to the United States, and negotiation to that end made in 1867 had failed because our senate opposed a policy of e.xpansion. The same proposition was made late in 1892 and again in 1896, but it was rejected by President Cleveland. It was renewed with better prospects in 1902 but failed of approval in the Danish parliament, probably through the opposition of Germany. Taken up again in 1916, when Germany was too busy in Europe to block the transaction, the sale was effected in a treaty which was ratified January 17, 1917. The United States gave up their claims to territory their citizens had discovered in Greenland and paid Denmark .'525,000,000 in cash. The total area of the Virgin Islands, as the purchase is now called, is 197 square miles, and in 1917 the population was 26,051, most of whom speak English. Meanwhile a similar extension of influence went on in the countries west of the Caribbean, where He the six states of Guatemala, Hon- West of the duras, Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, Caribbean, with a total area of 202,000 square miles and a popula- tion of about 5,500,000. By President Roosevelt's treaty with the newly established republic of Panama, 1903-1904, the United States guaranteed the independence of Panama and effectively took that state under protection. The other states were frequently at war with one another, and through our interest in the Panama Canal we wished their mutual relations to be more peaceful. To obtain this object President Roosevelt with President Diaz, of Mexico, assembled a conference in Washington at which Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, on December 20, 1907, signed treaties and conventions pledging themselves to Uve in peace with one another for ten years. To dispose of disputes among themselves they created a high court composed of one judge from each constituent state to sit in Cartago, Costa Rica, in a "temple of peace" erected with funds donated by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Unfortunately the unstable temperament of the people soon overthrew this agreement ; and the earthquake of 191 7 destroyed the "temple of peace" at Cartago. NICARAGUA AND MEXICO 867 Meanwhile by slow steps a protectorate was created over one of these states. Nicaragua was suffering from a long period of mis- government by its president, Zelaya, a typical Latin- AProtecto- American tyrant. In 1909 his subjects could stand him rate over no longer and drove him from power. They then called Nicaragua, on the United States to establish order in their chaotic aflairs. Presi- dent Taft accepted the invitation and made an agreement, May 6, 1911, hke President Roosevelt's agreement with Santo Domingo, taking over the Nicaraguan custom houses, while bankers in the United States supplied money for restoring Nicaraguan finances. The senate, still holding to their old policy, refused to approve this treaty; but the president, turning to the e.xample set him by his predecessor in office, established a modus vivendi and put his repre- sentative in charge of the Nicaraguan revenues. Late in his adminis- tration he renewed the treaty, but it was not considered by the senate. President Wilson followed the same course, in 1913, but again the senate vetoed the treaty. He renewed it in 1914 and after long delay it was accepted in 1916. By its terms the United States obtained a protectorate over Nicaragua in terms like those of the Piatt Amend- ment for Cuba. The treaty also gave them a naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca, on the Pacific coast, the right to build an interoceanic canal in Nicaragua, and the possession of the Corn Islands, near the eastern end of such a canal route. The net result of our Caribbean policy is to give us virtual pro- tectorates over Cuba, Santo Domingo, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Panama. Over Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands we gained abso- Caribbean lute ownership. The intelligent cooperation planned for Policy Re- the isthmian states proved too ideal for the Latin-Amer- viewed, ican temperament, but it was an attempt worthy of the benevolence that projected it. When the Caribbean pohcy of the United States took shape, certain foreign powers thought it but a piously coated program of aggrandizement. Experience has shown that it was designed in the interest of the Caribbean states themselves. It has been maintained without preferential business relations to the United States. Dealings with Mexico Under the rule of Porfirio Diaz foreign capital was drawn into Mexico so that the larger part of the rich mineral resources fell into the hands of foreigners. By this means railroads were Foreigners built, mines were opened, and large oil fields were brought '" Mexico, into production. Meanwhile the natives, with the exception of a favored minority, remainefl very poor. They saw with great con- cern the richest opportunities going to aliens. They believed they were going to be enslaved to the newcomers. Their fears and an- tipathy were especially aroused against the blunt and aggressive 868 THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION Yankees, who came in increasing numbers. They believed that the influence of the north was about to overwhelm them, and they came to think that it was necessary to save Mexico from becoming an in- dustrial dependency of the United States. To these people our Caribbean policy seemed to threaten the freedom of Mexico. In 1910 Diaz was old and weaker than he had been. When he announced himself a candidate for an eighth term of the presidency Revolution Francisco Madero came out against him. Diaz, follow- of Madero. jng a custom he was better able to carry through in his younger days, attempted to brush him out of the way ; but Madero took arms, promising to make constitutional reforms and distribute land to the peons. He won so much support that in May, 1911, Diaz gave up the fight and fled to Europe. Five months later Madero was elected president and immediately after his inauguration he was recognized as ruler by the United States and other foreign powers. Several bandit groups held out against him, his promised reforms were not forthcoming, no land was distributed among the peons, and he soon found himself surrounded by armed opponents. Early in 1913 General Huerta, an able and unscrupulous plotter, united these opponents, seized the capital, imprisoned Madero, and Huerta's took the reins of government. Five days later, Febru- Bloody ary 23, Madero and his vice-president were shot in the Triumph. night while in the hands of Huerta's officers. There is Uttle doubt that he was killed to promote the cause of Huerta, who eight days later took the oath of office as president of Mexico. Before this time the nations had recognized any actual government that existed in Mexico, asking no question about the origin of its Bloody authority. President Wilson was not wilhng to follow Hands that practice in the e.xisting case. Believing that Huerta's Rejected. hands were red with the blood of his displaced rival he would not take them in his, and he refused to recognize the new regime. He perhaps thought that by so doing he would arouse the Mexican people to a reahzation of the violent crime that had been done and thus induce them to rid themselves of a usurper whose methods rivaled those of the degenerate Roman emperors. The result showed that he miscalculated. The Mexicans were not shocked by Huerta's crime, but they raised a united cry against the president of a foreign state who would dare to say what kind of a man was fit to be president of Mexico. Then began a contest of endurance. Without recognition by the United States Huerta had great difficulty in borrowing money. The Maderistas found a leader in Venustiano Carranza and took up arms avowing the intention of reestablishing constitutional rule. With him acted Francisco Villa, formerly a bandit leader, but now a professed adherent to the party of Carranza. So strong were these forces that Huerta lost control of the northern states of Me.xico. "WATCHFUL WAITING" IN MEXICO 869 While President Wilson watched the progress of these affairs, doing what he could within the laws of neutrality to impede the success of Huerta, he came to reahze that he was not supported by Lind in the ambassador to Mexico, a hold-over appointee of the Mexico. Taft regime. The offending ambassador was recalled, and as a suc- cessor could not be appointed without recognizing Huerta, the posi- tion was left vacant at a time when it should have been fdled by a strong man. To supply the deficiency the president sent a personal representative to the country, selecting for the purpose ex-Governor John Lind, of Minnesota, a man of good sense but unacquainted with the Mexican temperament. To Huerta were thus presented President Wilson's demands. They embraced a cessation of fighting in Mexico, general amnesty, an election free from presidential restraint, and a promise that Huerta would not be a candidate in the election. The demands were rejected with disdain and Wilson issued a warning for citizens of the United States to leave Mexico. In his address to congress, December 2, 1913, he described his pohcy as "watchful waiting." April 10, 1914, some United States bluejackets landed at Tampico to purchase gasoHne, touching at a spot at which it was forbidden to land. Arrested and held two hours they were released by The Tam- a superior officer, who apologized for the action of a sub- pico Drdinate who was ignorant of the treatment that should Incident, be accorded to foreign sailors. Admiral Mayo, commanding our forces in the harbor, had suffered much annoyance from the natives, and he considered the occasion proper to give them a lesson. Re- fusing to dispose of the incident with the apology of the Mexican official, the admiral demanded that the commanding oflicer in Tampico should dehver a formal apology, punish the officer who had made the arrest, and hoist and salute the stars and stripes, to which salute a reply would be made by the admiral's flagship. The salute was to be given by six p.m. of .^pril 10. President Wilson was not previously consulted, but he supported the action of Admiral Mayo, although he extended the period of the ultimatum. Now followed ten days of tense feeling. Huerta at first refused to salute the American flag. Then the North Atlantic fleet was ordered to the coast of Mexico and warning was given that we A Matter should seize Vera Cruz, Tampico, and other ports if our of a Salute, demands were refused. Thus threatened, Huerta offered to deli\'er the salute if it was returned simultaneously with the delivery in such a way as to e.xpress the equal standing of the two nations. The offer was refused. April 20 President Wilson asked congress for authority to use the armed forces in such a way as to make Huerta respect the rights and dignity of the United States. The request was granted with httle opposition. While war seemed most imminent news came that a German ship 870 THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION loaded with 10,000 rifles, several machine guns, and 15,000,000 rounds of ammunition was approaching Vera Cruz. Under international Vera Cruz law it was not possible to intercept the vessel. But Vera Occupied. Cruz was seized on April 21, 1914, by a force of marines. The Mexicans offered sharp resistance for two days, losing 126 killed and 195 wounded to 8 marines killed and 25 wounded. For a few days it seemed as if war had begun, but as time passed it became evident that the president would be content with holding Vera Cruz and the situation became less alarming. April 27 the marines were withdrawn and troops took their place under the command of General Funston. At this point Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, the "A. B. C. Powers," tendered their good offices to effect a settlement of the dispute. The " A. B. C. offer was accepted and conferences were opened at Niagara Powers." Falls. After much negotiation it was agreed that a pro- visional government should be created in Mexico, under which a fair election was to be held, and the United States troops were to be with- drawn as soon as order was restored. Huerta resigned on July 15, 1914, and left Mexico. August 20 Carranza entered the capital of that country as conqueror. September 15 President Wilson ordered the withdrawal of the troops. He had not been able to make Huerta salute the stars and stripes, and he had failed in forcing the people of Mexico to accept that moral leadership that had been established over other Caribbean lands; but he had made Huerta, the usurper, give up the power he had bloodily seized. By calling the "A. B. C. Powers" into cooperation he had set a precedent for joint American responsibihty in settling purely American disputes. It was even hinted that the Monroe Doctrine might be so modified that the pro- tection hitherto claimed by the United States over American nations might in the future be exercised under the joint action of the lead- ing states of North and South America. All these points were clear gains in dealing with affairs in Latin-America. With the problem of Huerta solved there still remained the problem of Mexico. That country was torn with faction. Carranza was no Villa's sooner seated in power than he quarreled with Villa, who Raids. raised the flag of insurrection. For more than a year the worst forms of strife were enacted. Finally Villa gave up his efforts to expel his rival and on December 20, 191 5, retired into the mountains of the northwest, where he continued the life of a bandit leader. His resentment against the United States was keen. March 9, 1916, he made a raid on Columbus, New Mexico, kilUng 9 civihans and 9 soldiers and seizing much property. March 15 General Pershing marched into Mexico at the head of 12,000 men to pursue and arrest the bandit and his followers. But the wily Villa had a fair start and was too well acquainted with tlie country to be trapped. In fact, while Pershing was at an advanced position in WITHDRAWAL FROM MEXICO 871 Mexico one of Villa's bands crossed into Texas, fell on the town of Gleu Springs on May 6, killed five men, and escaped to safety before they could be intercepted. June 22 one of Pershing's columns ap- proached the IMexican town of Carrizal, intending to pass through it. They were fired on by Mexican troops drawn up before the place, and an engagement occurred in which we lost several officers and 20 men killed, with 17 taken prisoners. Again it seemed that war was at hand, but Carranza yielded, released the prisoners, and pro- posed that the whole affair be left to a joint commission. The offer was accepted and the commission was created and met at Atlantic City. It was charged with arranging the whole Mexican situation. After much discussion it reported a settlement by which Pershing was to be withdrawn and each country patrol its own side of the border, the United States adding a provision that they should have a right to cross the border when Mexico failed to keep order there. To the decision Carranza would not agree, and the joint commission was dissolved on January 15, 1917. By this time the relations of the United Slates and Germany were such that it was not wise to be in a quarrel with Mexico. In fact there was reason to think that Germany had been trying Pershing to draw us into a war with Mexico, so that we should need Withdrawn, for our own purposes the munitions now being sold by our manu- facturers to the entente allies. President Wilson's patience with Mexico was to some extent due to the conviction that we could not afford to begin a war on this side of the Atlantic until we were assured we should not be drawn into the war then being waged on the other side of it. January 28, 1917, three days before Germany announced that she would embark on ruthless submarine warfare, the president gave notice that he would withdraw the troops from Me.xico, and on February 5 the last of them had recrossed the Rio Grande. It remains to be seen to what extent the protest Wilson made against the Mexican idea of setting up government by assassination is going to improve the Mexican idea of good government. That it did not effect a speedy reformation in this respect does not argue that it was entirely futile. It did, in fact, create such a commotion in the minds of the Mexicans, and of the people in the rest of the world, that it may be assumed that it would not be so easy for another usurper to come into power as Huerta came in 1913. Wilson's methods of holding out were not satisfactory to many people in the United States. They were pronounced nerveless and timid. But with a toughness of purpose that was one of his notable characteristics he never lost sight of his main object. He wished to make the Mex- icans realize that their methods of government should be improved, which was an ideal in keeping with the essence of the new Alonroe Doctrine of Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson. 872 THE WILSON ADMINISTRATION BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For general narratives see: Ogg, National Progress (1918); Lingley, Siii-ce tin Ch'il War (iq2o) ; and Haworth, The United States in Our Own Times (1920). Much valuable information is to be found in the annual volumes of The American Year Book (19:0-) and The New International Year Booh (1907-). A great mass of periodical literature exists on this subject, of varj'ing value; but the bound volumes of the Ne^o York Times, with the index to them, are of especial value to the student of histon,'. On President Wilson the best information is to be found in his New Freedom (1913) and in his addresses, several collections of which have been published. Probably the best is that which has the title Foreign Policy of Woodrow Wilson, compiled by Robinson and West and published in 191 7. See also: Hosford, Woodrow Wilson and New Jersey Made Over (191 2) ; Ford, H. J., Woodrow Wilson, the Man and His Work (igi6) ; Dodd, Woodrow Wilson and His Work (1920) — a comprehensive study by a leading authority; Harris, President Wilson from an English Point of Vird' (1917); and Creel, Wilson and the Issues (1916). Of his critics the ablest and in many respects the severest was Theodore Roosevelt, whose two books, America and the World War (1915) and Fear God and Take Your Own Part (1915), although written in opposition to Germany, were strong attacks on the peace policy of the President. In the same connection the student should read Bishop, Theodore Roosevelt and His Times, 2 vols. (1920). Other references on Wilson will be found in the "Bibliographical Note" at the end of the next chapter. The domestic history of the first year of the administration has been over- shadowed by the tragic events that followed. The measures considered in con- gress, the tariff, the federal reser\'e bank, and the proposals for regulating trusts were widely discussed in the periodicals of the day. Articles of special value are to be found in The American Economic Revirw, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The Political Science Quarterly, The Journal of Political Scioice, and The Political 5f/>«' is in Champ Clark, My Quarter Century of American Politics, 2 vols. (1920). On the Caribbean Policy of the United States see : C. L. Jones, The Caribbean Interests of the United States (1916) ; Latane, The United Stales and Latin America, (1920); Bonsai, The American Mediterranean (1912); Slade, The Federation of Central America ("Journal of Race Development," July and October, 1917); Kirkpatrick, South America and the War (191S) — contains the general point of view of the people; Bunau-Varilla, Panama, tlic Creation, Destruction, and Resur- rection (1914) — by one of the principal agents in the Panama revolution ; Treaties and Acts of Congress relating to the Panama Canal (1914) — a government com- pilation. On Mexico see: Barron, The Mexican Policy (191 7); SicHugh, Modern Mexico (1914); and Hannay, Porjirio Diaz (1917). For Independent Reading Dodd, Woodrow Wilson and his Work (1920) ; Beer, The English Speaking Peoples (1917); Martin, P. F., Mexico in the Twentieth Century, 2 vols. (1907); Bonsai, The American Mediterranean (191.2); and Batchelder, Watching and Wait- ing on the Border (191 7). CHAPTER XLII THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR Trying to Preserve Neutr,\lity, 1914-1917 In modern times the nations of the world have much in common, and it was inevitable that a great event like the world war, involving the greatest powers of Europe, should have had pro- Difficulties found effects upon the nations that took no direct part of in the war. Of all the neutrals the United States was NeutraUty. the largest, richest in raw materials and manufacturing capacity, and most able to supply to the belligerents the things needed in carrying on war. Although the president duly proclaimed a state of neutrality on August 4, four days after war began, it was impossible to keep a people composed of so many race elements neutral in their opinions. August 18 he issued another address in behalf of neutrality, in which he called upon ministers, teachers, and editors to use their influence in restraining partisan bitterness. These two appeals softened the public feeling for a time ; but there were issues in the background that no ameliorating efforts could reach, and they worked steadily to draw us into the world's stream of tragic events. One of the first of these issues was the well-planned efforts of the German government to create pro-German opinion in the United States. The war had hardly been begun before many German trained Germans appeared in our country to urge the Propaganda, cause of Germany. At the head was Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, for- merly a member of the imperial German cabinet, who gathered around him a group of Americans and German-Americans and organized an active propaganda. The large majority of our citizens looked on Germany and Austria as the aggressors in an unjustifiable war and resented the attempts to set up propaganda in our midst, subsidizing newspapers, and flooding the country with pamphlets. Dr. Dern- burg's efforts benefited Germany little, and he left the country June 12, 1915, shortly after the Lusllanla was destroyed by a German submarine. The storm of indignation created by that act was enough to convince the most zealous German that Teutonic propaganda was useless in the United States. Some other acts of interference were less gentle. Early in iqis it became known that officials of the Hamburg-American Steamship 873 874 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR Company were preparing to send out from our ports vessels loaded with coal and other supplies for German warships still at sea, thus Violations of making these ports bases for operations against Germany's Neutrality, enemies. It was also discovered that German diplomatic officials in the United States were issuing forged American passports to German reservists to enable them to return to Germany. A third kind of interference was disclosed when it was discovered that some of the incendiary fires in munition plants and on ships carrying sup- plies to the Entente allies were set by German agents. It was believed that only a small portion of the trouble actually done in this way was traced to the real creators of it. Investigation revealed that several German officials resident in the United States were connected with these affairs, and two of the most important were sent out of the coun- try. It was a sorry page in German history and only succeeded in increasing the feeling against Germany. When the war began Germany had vast quantities of munitions, prepared for just such an emergency as existed. Great Britain and Sale of France had not made such elaborate preparations, rely- Munitions. ing on their right under international law to purchase military supplies in neutral countries. After a few months of actual fighting it became evident that the war would be long, and the ques- tion of munitions then became most important. By this time the vast reserves prepared by the kaiser were expended, and he became alarmed at the increasing supply his enemies received across the At- lantic. The German people were enraged because we sold munitions to their enemies and openly demanded that the United States should forbid the exportation of articles used in war. For us to acquiesce would be to act in behalf of Germany and in violation of international law ; for to have forbidden our citizens to sell munitions at this time would have been to take from the Entente allies a privilege they had a right to expect under international law. Thus, if we had done what Germany demanded we should have committed an unneutral act. Another difficulty lay in the rules enforced by Great Britain and France to control neutral trade with Germany and Austria. By Restriction the Declaration of London, 1909, certain rules were laid on Ocean down on this subject, in general of a liberal tendency. Trade. ^s they lessened the great power her naval superiority gave her Great Britain did not accept the Declaration. Nor did Germany accept it until August 3, 1914, two days after the war began. Both sides, therefore, were not acting under the Declaration, but under the less definite system that existed before it was made in 1909, and the result was a series of controversies, with claims for damages to our citizens, that grew in number daily and seemed certain to de- mand much negotiation after the war ended. The most important points involved related to the definition of contraband, the rules of blockade, and the interpretation of the right of continuous voyage. POINTS IN INTERNATION.\L LAW 875 By the old rules contraband was limited to articles destined for use in the army, or in its operations. Articles clearly destined for the non-combatant population were declared not contra- Contraband band. Other articles were declared conditional contra- and band, that is, contraband only when they were shown to Blockades, be for use in the armies. But in the war now being waged Great Britain practically wiped out the distinction between contraband and conditional contral)and. She held — and France and Italy supported her — that, since all the people of Germany were engaged in the prosecution of the war or in working to support it, all supplies going into the country were liable to seizure. As to blockade, she gave up the old practice of keeping ships of war before ports that were declared blockaded, and took refuge in a " cordon blockade " which consisted in stationing ships and laying mines in the North Sea so as to command the approaches to Germany. She was able to mark out lanes through which neutral ships might pass to the north- ern neutral nations in Europe and to force all ships going to those nations to submit to inspection by British naval ships. The right of continuous voyage came under discussion when it was observed soon after war began that the northern neutrals were importing much more heavily than before the war. As Continuous the weeks passed the practice increased. It was evident Voyage, that vast quantities of goods needed in Germany to carry on the war were going into that country by way of Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. If this practice was not checked the whole attempt to intercept trade with Germany would fail. Great Britain's action was drastic. She made strict estimates of the amount of imports the neutrals concerned needed to serve their own wants and limited the trade accordingly. In the negotiations that occurred over these three points the United States assumed to speak for the neutrals of the world. They were not able to get the Entente allies to budge from the position taken, and a great mass of claims was accumulated against the return of peace, when it was expected that they would hav-e to be adjusted. Germany observed these things with scorn on her lips. She said we were not truly neutral, since we did not make Great Britain keep to the old rules of international law. Her scorn would The Use of have been better justified if she herself had not broken Submarines, the same law more glaringly than her opponents. She had developed submarines further than any other nation and began to use them against her enemies soon after the war opened. At once rose the question of how far the submarine should conform to the ordinary rules of international law governing naval warfare, by which it was firmly established that a prize taken by a belligerent warship was to be sent into port if possible. If not possible she might be sunk, pro- vided crew and passengers were placed in safely. The first part of 876 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR this rule could not be observed by a submarine ; for it did not carry enough men to man a prize. Over the second part arose a violent controversy. The Germans began to sink ships at sight without thought of the safety of the persons on board ; and they paid no at- tention to the protests of their opponents. This practice aroused the apprehensions of neutral nations, whose citizens were legally traveling on the non-combatant merchantmen of belligerents. The Germans claimed that the submarine was a new instrument of warfare and was not bound by old rules. The Entente allies contended that the rules were supreme, and that a new instrument of warfare should not be used at all if it could not be used in conformity with them. The neutral nations took sides with the Entente. February 10, 1915, the United States warned Germany that she would be held in "strict accountability" if in carrjdng out her submarine policy American lives were lost or American ships were sunk. The Germans treated the warning with contempt. March 23 they sank a British ship, the Falaba, in St. George's Channel, and among The the slain was Leon Thrasher, a citizen of the United Lusitania. States. Protest was made promptly, whereupon the German government began to argue the case. May 7 came the startling news that the Lusitania, one of the largest, finest, and swiftest of the ocean liners, had been sunk by a submarine off the Irish coast with the loss of 1153 persons, men, women, and children, of whom 114 were citizens of the United States. Up to this time few persons in the United States had favored taking part in the war. But the destruction of the Lusitania brought many to demand that a stern ultimatum be sent to Germany, calling for reparation and apology in default of which we should declare war. President Wilson took a less defiant course. He called on Germany for explanations. They were not given in a frank manner, and he sent a second note, only to receive another dilatory reply. Convinced that Germany was flouting him. President he then sent a sharp note in which he said that the repeti- Wiison's tion of such acts would be regarded "as deliberately Course. unfriendly." On the same day he directed the secre- tary of the navy to prepare a comprehensive plan for developing the navy and similar steps were taken to enlarge the army. November 4, in an address before the Manhattan Club, New York, he said the time had come to strengthen the national defense and adopt a wider system of military training. The country had long felt itself safe from the danger of war with a great power ; but the Lusitania incident showed it that it would be necessary to take a stronger stand than had been taken if we commanded the respect of foreign powers. The response of the people to this new issue was so clear that it could not be mistaken by the German ambassador in Washington. Through his efforts the submarine commanders took a milder at- titude. For a month they gave warning before firing and allowed GERMANY YIELDS FOR THE TIME 877 time for persons on the victim ships to take to the boats. While the pubhc were beginning to beheve that the worst was past came news that the Arabic was destroyed August 18, two Americans Arabic and being killed. Now Germany showed real concern. Her Sussex. ambassador asked the president to suspend judgment and a few days later gave assurances that no liners would be sunk in the future with- out placing the non-combatants in safety, provided the vessels did not resist or try to escape. To this assurance he was able to get his government to add an apology for the attack on the Arabic and an offer of indemnity for the American lives lost. For nearly si.x months the Germans kept these promises. Then, March 24, 1916, the 5; .© sg c^ 3 B "^r CO I— 1 o •a .-; rH j: £ -i" C^ m t^ a CQ i-l S TJ W C^ w w -5 u TJ 1-1 C o z <; u THE MEUSE-ARGONNE CAMPAIGN 893 Before these operations were begun plans liac! been made for a drive by the United States troops against German lines from the Meuse westward through the Argonnc Forest, to be under- Meuse- taken in cooperation with the Fourth French Army under Argonne General Gouraud west of the Argonne. Military authori- P'ans. ties considered this part of the line very "sensitive." Thirty miles behind it lay the main railroad for taking supplies to the southern side of the angle made by the great German battle line. It ran from Metz to Sedan, thence to Mezieres, and on through Hirson to Le- Cateau. It was the aim of Pershing to reach this road at Sedan while the French would move on it at Mezieres. If these points were taken the enemy would have to withdraw a large portion of his line from France, perhaps leave the country altogether. Sedan was, therefore, a prize worth striving for. In carrying out this design the American sector was extended westward through the Argonne and had a total length of about ninety miles. The Meuse-Argonne line was twenty-three miles long, eight miles of it extending through the forest. The Germans held it in force, although they had concentrated on the east side of the The First Meuse, because they e.xpected the St. Mihiel attack to be Blow, continued toward Metz and Briey. Back of their first line of defense was another, known as the Kriemhilde Stellung, a very strong posi- tion in itself. Against the first Pershing placed nine divisions in his front line, besides reserves, putting them into position secretly on the night of September 25. He had 2700 guns, 189 small tanks, of which 142 were manned by Americans, and 821 airplanes, 604 manned by Americans. In all respects his forces were superior to his opponents. Striking out at dawn on the 26th they carried for- ward the whole line that was in open country. In three days' fighting it was advanced from four to seven miles, and then it stopped until roads could be laid down through the newly conquered area. In the forest, however, the progress was slower. The Germans had long con- sidered the Argonne impregnable, and they had used it as a place for refreshing worn-out divisions. It was tilled with machine-gun nests and the ranges of all of its many roads and paths were accurately plotted. The United States troops working forward against its strong defenses suffered severely, but they kept advancing. By the night of October 3 the engineers had finished passalile roads across what had been No Man's Land, the artillery had been carried forward, and next morning the advance was re- second sumed with heavy- fighting. Again it was hard work Phase, inside and outside the forest, but everj^vhere there was Oct. 4-10. .some advance. At the same lime General Gouraud, west of the Argonne, resumed his advance, making a materia! gain. Thus as the lines went forward more rapidly on each side of the forest than in it, there was a tendency to fiank the defenders of that strong position, 894 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR and they fell back cautiously, inflicting heavy losses as they went. This advance brought the troops against the Kriemhilde Stellung, or Line, on which the Germans had worked steadily since they real- ized that the sector was threatened. While they made preparations to break through, the divisions in the Argonne were fighting with redoubled efforts. On the loth they completely cleared the forest on the north and joined hands with Gouraud's men, who had worked their way up the western edge of the Argonne until both armies stood at its northern edge before the town of Grand Pre. The ne.xt thing to do was to carry the Kriemhilde Line, now a formi- dable position more than two miles deep and well supplied with every Third feature of engineering skill that the war had developed. Phase, After a brief breathing spell the attacks were resumed Oct. 14- on October 14. Now followed several days of bitter con- Nov. 1. (.ggj. October 24 the Kriemhilde Line was pierced on a three-mile front at Landres-et-St. -Georges. November i came a general attack along the whole line, the object being to break through and seize Buzancy, the railhead through which the German lines were supphed. The barrage that preceded the attack was the acme of dense and furious destruction. When the infantry went forward light artillery went with them. The result was a complete sweeping away of the German defenses and an advance of four miles on the road to Sedan, the enemy falling back in great haste. At this time the pre- liminary negotiations that led to the armistice were well advanced and it was reported that the enemy was not fighting with accustomed spirit. While the Americans won these advantages in their own sec- tor. General Gouraud advanced steadily toward Mezieres. The objects of the campaign were now within reach of the soldiers from the United States. November 6 the First and the Forty-Second Fourth Divisions were within eight miles of Sedan and learned Phase, that no hostile troops stood between them and that place. Nov. 6-11. Each division set out at once to occupy the position. At the same time a French division set out on the same mission, but a little behind the other two divisions. They all arrived on the opposite bank of the river from Sedan, but the French division was allowed to occupy the town, so closely associated with the war of 1871, for which the events of 1918 were the retribution. Six days later the armistice was signed and the war was over. Other United States soldiers than those already mentioned served in the campaigns in France. Among them was the Second Corps, The Tunnel under Major-General Read, consisting of the Twenty- Sector. Seventh and Thirtieth Divisions, and serving with the British near St. Quentin. September 29 the two divisions were thrown against the Hindenburg Line at a point where it was constructed above the tunneled Scheldt Canal. B}^ filling the canal with barges and cutting e.xits it was possible to keep a division of reserves below ground. jSorrtmauthe ijO/tgu/« Se/A/^ ffanminUe" /mecoi/r/ lennps imensrrce Cesnes rientle ° o Srermonr MoitrrAUcoh oOu/st/ Tepic '/py'- p GjnserJvoye ^^ aOiefifif 'Tmguma Esnes o Bat/le/simni/lety JCHARNY VERDUN] /rjmt. ff/n/f, /ft lit'prodiK-f.i l»y i>erniission of The Now York Times Magazine © I'rom Bassett's "Our War with Germany" (Knopf) MAP OF THE MELISE-ARGONNE REGION The line indicated on the map is the old poi^ition, popularly caUed the Minden- burp Line. North of it wa5^ tlie Freya Line, running through BrieiJles. Romagne Exermont, to the Argonne ForeM. The Kriemhilde Line was still farther north, with Grand Pre for the western and Dun-sur-Meuse for the eastern pivot. It passed through .St. George and Landres and was broken by the Americans at a pomt be- tween them. THE TUNNEL SECTOR AT ST. QUENTIN 895 As the Americans charged across the Hnes they were surprised to see Germans swarm up behind them. The Twenty-Seventh spent the day and the ne.xt mopping up the captured lines and were then withdrawn to a rest area, having suffered severely. The Thirtieth managed to hold the position and moved on and took Bellicourt and Nauroy. October i they were withdrawn, but they were back in the line in time to take part in the operations of October 8-q. They fought in the right-center of the British line and took Brancourt and Fremont, for which they received special mention in General Haig's report. After a brief period of rest the advance was resumed at the Selle River on the 12th. The Thirtieth had been withdrawn to re- cuperate, but it was called back to take part in the advance, and by its side now stood the Twenty-Seventh, both divisions fighting brilliantly. They carried the line across the Selle in the face of stout resistance and then the advance paused. Before it was resumed the Second Corps was taken out of the line to rest and receive replace- ments ; and the armistice was signed ere it could return. The Twenty- Seventh Division was from New York, the Thirtieth was from North Carolina, South Carohna,and Tennessee, and was known as the "Old Hickory Division." Outside of France United States troops served in Italy, whither the 332d regiment of infantry wa,s sent. It arrived in July, 1918, and took part in the action at the crossing of the Piave in Italy, River. Another body went to Russia, where it made a Russia, and part of a force that helped the Russians against the Bol- Siberia, shevists. It was too small to accomplish important results and was withdrawn in September, 1919. A third special force, composed of 9000 men, served with Japanese, British, and French troops in a joint expedition to protect the Siberian railroads from the Bolshevists. They landed at Vladivostok August 4, 1918, and conducted a cam- paign that reached more than 400 miles into the interior. The un- settled state of Siberia made it necessary to maintain this force in the country after the armistice was signed in France ; but orders were given that it should be used only to guard the railroads and the large quantity of supplies that had been landed at Vladivostok for the old Russian government. The force was withdrawn April i, 1920. The part taken by the United States in the world war was highly important and creditable to our national spirit. Despite the many difficulties in converting the most pacific nation in the Our Part in world into an efficient fighting state, the work of prepara- the Victory, tion was performed with great ability. In the business of actual fighting the soldiers of the United States took a vigorous part. They did not win the war alone. They came into it when the other powers engaged were nearly exhausted by long and valiant battling. With their fresh spirits and their earnestness they made a profound impres- sion on the situation. Their hard and repeated blows were decisive 896 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR factors in the encounters that occurred from July 18, 1918, to the end in November. It was our good fortune that we were in a position to render this deciding service to liberal government. We have a right to look upon our efforts as the last blows that put the suffering and far-spent German autocracy out of the contest. The United States Navy in the War During the war the ships of the navy were divided into five fleets : The Atlantic Fleet, a home fleet then composed of some of the older _. _. type battleships and cruisers, to take the place of the newest ships, which had been ordered to service in Euro- pean waters. It was under the command of Admiral H. T. Mayo and was expected to meet any emergency that might arise in home waters. The Coast Patrol, under Captain H. B. Wilson, consisting of small vessels, was assigned to duty along the Atlantic coast from Brazil to Newfoundland. The Pacific Fleet, under Admiral W. B. Caperton, and the Asiatic Fleet, under Admiral A. M. Knight, both of which had been deprived of some of their best ships for service else- where. The European Fleet, under Admiral W. S. Sims, consisting of the battleships that served with the Allied fJrand Fleet in the North Sea, as well as of the destroyers and other ships that guarded the ocean lanes against submarines and protected the ports to which the American transports and supply ships were sent. Of these fleets the last took the most prominent part in the war. The first work of the navy in European waters was undertaken in response to a call for destroyers immediately after we entered the Destroyers' war. A small squadron of these vessels was dispatched off Queens- and reported for duty at Queenstown, Ireland, on May 4. town. They were assigned to service on the lanes of traffic to pro- tect shipping against submarines. In 1916 a three years' program of construction had been authorized for the navy. It embraced the construction of battleships, heavy cruisers, and various other kinds of vessels. As soon as we entered the war the work on the heavier ships was suspended and all possible energy was given to the construc- tion of destroyers, and other small boats that could be used against submarines. By the end of 1917 new destroyers were being finished, and as fast as ready for the sea they were added to the squadron serv- ing in Europe. It is impossible to determine the precise effect of our cooperation in this phase of the struggle ; but it is known that the destruction of allied shipping was at the most dangerous rate early in May, 1917, and that it fell steadily from that time. By the end of the year it began to be under control and the authorities re- covered their confidence in the situation. Had it continued at the April rate the British Isles would have been starved into surrender. Convoying troops and supplies was another work in which the THE SERVICES OF THE NAVY 897 navy took most efficient pari. When the United States troops began to be sent across the ocean no one was boki enough to say that the crossing could be made without great loss of life from the Convoying submarines. To the surprise of all no transport was sunk Transports, going over to France, and of the three that were destroyed all were returning to the United States when they went down. It was through the advice of Admiral Sims that the British finally consented to or- ganize their merchantmen into fleets sailing at specified times and escorted by warships, a precaution that reduced the losses materially. The cruising service of the United States navy in American waters released ships of the British and French navies for service against the submarines nearer home. It also made it possible to utilize in the Grand Fleet in the North Sea British destroyers that had been in the convoy service. The navy of the United States has the reputation of being ready for service whenever called upon. In the World War it fully met the expectation of the public. In December, 191 7, a squadron of the newest battleships of the navy went to Europe under Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman, to serve as the sixth battle squadron of the Grand Fleet of the allies. Rodman's It was assigned to one of the two " fast wings " of the Fleet, Battle- so that in action it would either lead the van or protect ^^^P^- the rear. The strategy of Admiral Beatty, commanding the Grand Fleet, was to get the German fleet out of its harbor and fight it to a finish. But he was not able to carry out such a design. The Germans were too cautious to risk their one naval hope on the issue of a battle. One of the lessons of the war that is not discussed as frequently as its importance warrants is the efficiency displayed by the subma- rine mines as instruments of protection in waters adjacent Submarine to land. By this means the Germans held their opponents Mines, at safe distances from the Kiel Canal and Heligoland, and thus demon- strated the value of mines for coast defense. Mines were also strewn in channels and other waters frequented by shipping with disastrous results. The most striking use of mines was in planting a mine bar- rage across the North Sea, between Scotland and Norway, a distance of 230 miles. The project was suggested by an American officer, and it was carried out with British and American cooperation. It in- volved the development of a special type of mine. The United States shipped 85,000 mines abroad during the period of their par- ticipation in the war, of which more than 50,000 were laid. It is believed that at least ten submarines were destroyed at the North Sea mine-barrage. The Treaty of Versailles December 15, 1917, the Bolshevist government at Brest-Litovsk signed an armistice with Germany. Seeking to justify Russia for 898 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR deserting her former allies it called on them to state the terms on which they would make peace. Lloyd George, fearing the action of the Peace Bolshevists would affect the loyalty of British labor, Terms, Dec. announced on January 5, 1918, some of the terms for 15, 1917- which Great Britain would stand, as the evacuation and restoration of Belgium, the surrender of Alsace-Lorraine, and the dis- position of the German colonies in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants. Continuing in the same spirit President Wilson, in addressing congress January 8, 1918, set forth his celebrated fourteen points, on The which he said that peace could be made with the central "Fourteen aUies. They included open diplomacy, freedom of the Points " seas, removal of economic barriers, disarmament, equitable disposition of the colonies, the restoration of Belgium, the restoration of devastated France, the surrender of Alsace-Lorraine, the readjust- ment of Italian boundaries along the lines of nationality, an independ- ent Poland, and the organization of "a general association of nations" to afford "mutual guarantees of political independence and terri- torial integrity to great and small States alike." In later speeches the president amplified his Fourteen Points to some extent, but that series of demands remained the most comprehensive expression of war demands made by any of the beUigerents opposed to Germany. In September, 1918, the Germans were meeting daily reverses in France, and Turkey was rapidly losing her hold on Syria. Septem- Breaidng ber 15 the allied troops broke the Saloniki front and the Eastern began a rapid advance which had the effect of forcing Bui- Front, garia to sign an armistice on the 29th. With Constanti- nople exposed on the north it was to be expected that Turkey would surrender as soon as her opponents had time to attack her. She did, in fact, sign a humiliating armistice on October 31. Austria-Hun- gary read her fate in these occurrences. Her Czecho-Slovakian sub- jects broke into rebellion late in October, and her Poles were on the point of joining the revived Poland that Germany had set up against Russia. At this juncture the Italian and British forces in Italy Austria delivered a hard attack on the Austrian lines there and Surrenders, swept them back with immense losses. Under the cir- cumstances the government at Vienna signed an armistice on November 3 by which it gave up its last vestige of military power. Meanwhile Germany was moving steadily toward a catastrophe. Seeing their allies falling into sheer distress the German people at Political last lost Confidence in their ruling class. They would have Changes felt Otherwise if the war had ended favorably; but with in Germany, defeat staring them in the face they could but reflect that faith in the group had cost them dearly. Finally, on September 30 they forced their chancellor, von Hertling, to resign while Prince Maximilian of Baden, a known liberal, took his place, with respon- THE ARMISTICE 899 sibility to the Reichstag. The daj- he look office, October 4, he caused the Swiss government to propose to President Wilson and the Entente aUies an armistice to be followed by a conference to consider the terms of peace. At this moment Germany seemed to face complete defeat. An armistice would give her time to extricate her armies from the threat- ened disaster. Many people thought Prince Maximilian's Armistice note was but a ruse to gain time for such an end. But Requested. President Wilson did not mean to reject an opportunity to have peace at the earliest moment, if assured that the offer was genuine. He inquired if Germany accepted the "Fourteen Points," and did the chancellor speak for the constituted authorities of the empire? Sena- tor Lodge, speaking in the senate, expressed his keen disappointment "that the President should at this stage enter into a discussion" with Germany. He would have had him demand unconditional sur- render. In his reply Prince MaximiHan accepted the "Fourteen Points" and asserted that he held office by virtue of the wish of the Reichstag and thus spoke for the German people. Other notes con- Armistice firmed these declarations, and President Wilson submitted Signed, the correspondence to the governments of the allied Nov. 11, powers, who, in turn, announced their willingness to enter ■'^'^• into peace negotiation on the basis of the "Fourteen Points," with certain conditions. Thus was called the meeting of military officers at Senlis, November 8, at which the Germans accepted the severe terms of the armistice dictated by the visitors. It was agreed that firing should cease at eleven o'clock on the morning of November 11. It is probable that the mass of the German people did not then know to what extent they were beaten. They made a brave attempt to welcome their soldiers home as victors, but the termsof the Terms of armistice placed Germany at the feet of her enemies. She Armistice, gave up vast quantities of munitions, including 5000 guns, 25,000 machine-guns, and 1700 airplanes of the best classes. She evacuated the country west of the Rhine and allowed her opponents to hold temporarily the cities of Cologne, Mayence, and Coblenz, the last mentioned being occupied by United States troops. In addition she gave up all her submarines, 6 battle cruisers, 10 battleships, 5 modern light cruisers, and 50 modern destroyers. Measures like these com- pletely destroyed her power of resistance, and left her at the mercy of her opponents in the future course of the peace negotiations. This humiliation broke the spell through which the privileged classes had ruled the people. Stripped of successes they were men- aced with repudiation, and November 9 the kaiser abdi- Hohen- cated and fled to Holland, followed by the Crown Prince zolierns and other members of the HohenzoIIern family. The Overthrown, king of Wtirtemberg also abdicated, and the kings of Bavaria and goo THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR Saxony were deposed. Within a week most of the princes, grand dukes, and dukes who had ruled in Germany yielded up their power. The kaiser held on to his kingship of Prussia until November 28, when he gave that up also in a letter of abdication. The result was that Germany became "an imperial republic." The Peace Conference met at Versailles January 18, 1919. The representatives of the United States were President Wilson, Secretary Peace of State Lansing, Colonel E. M. House, Henry White, and Conference General Tasker H. Bliss. The president believed it his Delegates, duty to go to the Conference in order to obtain the adop- tion of a League of Nations. Leading the delegation it was natural for him to dominate it. He arrived at Brest, the point of debarka- tion for most of the American soldiers who had gone to France, on December 13, 1918. Arriving in Paris ne.xt day he was received with the most enthusiastic demonstrations. In visits he made to England and Italy he was received with the same delirious joy, as the bringer of a new era of "peace on earth and good will to men." In the rela.xa- tion from the horrors of war the people hailed with delight one who stood for permanent peace. How they were to get permanent peace they did not stop to ask. In the United States public opinion was shifting. Early in his first administration President Wilson gave much time to the man- Wilson's agement of his party. When the World War began he Leadership, concentrated his energies on problems of neutrality and began to let party leadership slip out of his hands. When we got into the war he gave intense attention to its direction and to his plan for a League of Nations. Most of the democrats followed him loyally ; but a few, notably some democratic senators, resented his preoccupied manner and began to find fault with the conduct of the war. They had energetic support from the opposition party. Enough was said and done to create the opinion that the administration was most inefficient. To most of the malcontent democrats the League of Na- tions was a sacrifice of national interests. This undercurrent of dissatisfaction found expression in the elec- tions of 19 18. It was aided by the fact that the republicans had now TheElec- completely healed the breach of 1912. As the elections tionsofiQiS. approached the democrats came to realize the peri! in which they stood, and some of them appealed to the president to issue a statement in their behalf. Yielding to their requests he called on the country to elect a senate and house that would support him in carrying through his policy in the peace negotiations. His oppo- nents pronounced this an unwarranted interference in the elections. The counting of ballots showed that they had carried both houses of congress. Thus it happened that when President Wilson went into the Peace Conference determined to wring some kind of League of Nations from the European diplomats he was hampered by the fact THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 901 that if he obtained what he wanted he would have to go through another contest to get an adverse senate to ratify it. The woric of the Peace Conference was assigned to committees, as the Committee on the League of Nations, on which President Wilson and Colonel House were the American representa- The Big tives. But there was a central Council of Ten, composed Four, of two members of each of the five large nations, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States. This committee soon became the important part of the Conference, and eventuallj- its work was taken over by what came to be called the Big Four, the chief representa- tives of the leading states, Lloyd George for Great Britain, Clemenceau for France, Orlando for Italy, and Wilson for the United States. Februar}' 14 the Committee on the League of Nations reported a draft of a Covenant of a League, announcing that it had the approval of all the allied belligerents. The report was published. Covenant of and the next day President Wilson sailed for the United the League. States, where his presence was demanded in connection with the clos- ing business of congress. While in this country he made speeches in behalf of the Covenant and received suggestions of amendments from men like ex-President Taft, Elihu Root, and Charles E. Hughes. Returning to Paris immediately after the adjournment of congress he was able to incorporate most of these suggestions in the amended Covenant, which was finally adopted by the Peace Con- ference on April 28. The Covenant outlined a league of sovereign states for the specific purpose of reducing or eliminating the likelihood of war. In Article X it pledged the constituent states to respect and pre- its Pro- serve as against external aggression the territorial integ- visions, rity and political independence of the signatory states. If a war threatened, provision was made for taking the dispute to a court of arbitration before the parties were to go to war. A third important point was that plans should be made by the council of the League for the reduction of armaments. To carry out the purposes of the League there were to be a Permanent Court of Justice, a Council, and an Assembly. In the last were to sit representatives of each signatory state, in the Council were to sit representatives of the five large states, with four members to be selected from the other states by the Assem- bly. The plan for the court was to be formulated by the council and approved by the assembly. There was to be, also, a permanent secretary, whose chief duties were clerical. A mandatory system was created to take over and administer the conquered German colo- nies for the benefit of the colonists themselves and for the equal privi- leges of all the signatory states. In order to satisfy the United States special guarantees were given that the League should not interfere with the Monroe Doctrine. A special pledge was given that fair conditions of labor should be guaranteed by the states in the League. 902 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR In the general work of the Conference the delegates of the United States took active part. They sat on the committee on reparation and discussed boundaries and economic conditions. When the Big Four, late in the sessions, became the center of action for the Conference, President Wilson showed himself a vigorous and persist- ent leader. As the author of the "Fourteen Points," which had been accepted as a basis of negotiation, he was concerned with all that was done. He was not able to get all of these "Points" into the treaty, but he got in all he thought possible. The final document was handed to the Germans on May 7, 1919, the fourth anniversary of the destruction of the Lusitania. It was a hard treaty, but the conduct of Germans in the war made it a just one. There was some protest, slight alterations were made, and on June 28 the treaty was signed in the Hall of Mirrors in the palace of Versailles. July 10 President Wilson presented it to the senate in Washington. The debate that followed was influenced to a considerable extent by party feeling. Many people had hoped that the debate would The Treaty be on a non-partisan plane, and some of the senators before the had at first shown that they would throw aside party Senate. lines. But as the debate progressed they veered around to the position of the party leaders. President Wilson then appealed to the people. Starting out on a long tour that took him to the Pacific Coast he discussed the League to large audiences and with good effect. When he had gone as far on his return as Wichita his health gave way, and he came back to Washington an invalid, part of the time in serious fear for his life. In this situation he could not influence the League contest, which drifted for weeks and months. It was not decided finally until March 19, 1920, when by a vote of 34 republi- cans and 23 democrats against 15 republicans and 24 democrats the treaty, as amended by the repubhcan majority, failed to have the necessary two-thirds of the senate and was not ratified. The minority included those who would have no league at all and those who sup- ported the covenant without change. The majority included a num- ber of democrats who favored the Covenant as written but were will- ing to take the Covenant with reservations of the republicans as the best that could be done in the existing situation. In the debates two points encountered more opposition than any others. The Covenant allowed the British Empire one vote and one Six British each to Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and Votes. South Africa. This arrangement was pronounced unfair on the ground that it gave the British six votes in the Assembly of the League. In the reservations of the republicans, popularly called the Lodge Reservations, this arrangement was repudiated absolutely : it was declared that no state should have more votes than the United States. In the democratic, or Hitchcock, Reservations, which had the approval of President Wilson, it was provided that a British col- OBJECTIONS TO THE LEAGUE 903 ony should not vote when a purely British question was under con- sideration. A second point related to Article X of the Covenant, which read : "The members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the "^'^ ^' League. In case of any such aggression, or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advi.se upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled. " Opponents of the Covenant in general objected that this clause was likely to draw us into foreign wars. The republican reservations gave notice that in signing the League the United States assumed no obligation to defend the terri- torial integrity or political independence of any state unless the con- gress of the United States specifically authorized the said action. The democratic resolutions provided that when the Council "advised" on the means of fulfilling the obligations of the states, as provided in Article X, it was understood that they "advised" subject to the well-recognized principle of the Constitution that the congress alone could declare war. President Wilson, in the light of later events, was blamed by many people for not accepting the Lodge Reservations. His position was that these reservations did, in fact, amend the Covenant Wilson's in such a way that it took out the heart of it. He opposed Opposition, especially the proposition to make the consent of congress necessary for each specific act by which we guaranteed political integrity. He thought that to try to lessen the representation of the self-governing British dominions would produce utter confusion. Two consequences followed from the long debate, whether intended or not : The atten- tion of the congress and the country was taken up with the treaty and turned away from the consideration of matters connected with the restoration of domestic affairs to peace-time conditions ; and the League of Nations controversy was thrown forward so that it became an issue in the elections of 1920. The republican convention met in Chicago on June 8. It adopted its platform after a severe fight had taken place between those who favored accepting the League with moderate reservations Presidential and those who wished to reject it entirely. In the end the Candidates. League plank was supposed to favor the latter. The candidates nomi- nated were Senator Warren G. Harding, of Ohio, for president, and Governor Calvin Coolidge, of Massachusetts, for vice-president. The democratic convention met in San Francisco on June 28. Its platform indorsed President Wilson's administration. The candi- dates selected were Governor James M. Co.x, of Ohio, for president, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, of New York, for vice-president. In the beginning of the campaign it was thought that the execu- tion of the eighteenth amendment of the Constitution, prohibiting the 904 THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, in effect in 1919, would have much to do with the results. At the same time another amend- The i8th ment was hanging in the balance, lacking the ratification of and 19th only one state. It at last received that when ratified by Amend- Tennessee in July, 1920, and thus the nineteenth amend- ments, ment was placed in the Constitution, providing that suf- frage shall not be denied on the ground of sex. It was believed that the woman's vote would play a significant part in support of the League of Nations. Persons who knew the progress of previous campaigns were aston- ished at the general apathy which characterized the first weeks of the campaign of 1920. Later on much interest seemed to exist in the League of Nations. But everywhere was seen dissatisfaction with the democratic party's conduct of the government. The war was vastly expensive, the cost-plus system, which had been adopted to avoid the evils of the contract system, produced some glaring abuses, and there was a general popular demand that the government should be placed in other hands. When the votes were counted in November it was seen that Harding and Coolidge had received 404 of the 531 electoral votes and were elected. They had immense majorities in most of the states they carried, broke the "Solid South," and in the country at large their popular vote was more than seven millions larger than their opponents'. Making due allowance for the woman's vote, which would tend to make majorities larger than formerly, the successful candidates had the largest popular majority in our history. BIBLIOGIt\PHICAL NOTE The same general works, year books, and periodicals may be used for this as for the preceding chapter. Add to them The Ncd- York Times Current History 0} llie War (igi4_, with the title clianged to Current History in 1919). On the causes of the war several collections of documents were published by the Entente allies in igi4. Germany and ."Xustria contented themselves with giving out general state- ments of predigested information. After the collapse of these two countries their secret diplomatic correspondence in the days of crisis in the summer of 1914 was published in Germany in the so-called Kantsky Documents, 4 vols, (igig) and in Austria in the Red Book, 3 vols. -(igig). These two collections, with other new information, have been well analyzed and interpreted by Sidney B. Fay in New Light on the Origin of the World War in The American Historical Review, July and August, IQ20, and January, iqoi. Of the summaries of the evidence at hand in the beginning of the war the best British book was probably Muir, Britain's Case against Germany (1914), and the best French book Guyot, Causes aiul Conse- quences of the War (rgi6), trans. Two books by Germans in the United States that made an impression at the time were Munsterberg, The War and America (igi4), and von Mach, What Germany Wants (1914). On the war as a whole the best accounts are Siraonds, History of the World War, 3 vols. (1914-igig), and Buchan, Nelson's History of the War, 24 vols. (1015-igio). For a brief account filled with information see the article on "War, European," in The Et><:yclopedia Americana, vol. 28, pp. 259-669, and Hayes, A Brief History of the Great War BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 905 (1020). On the German side the Ix-sl books thai have yet appeared are Luden- dorff, My Il'ar Memories, 2 vols, (iqig), and von Tirpitz. ,1/v Memories (1910). On the relation of the United Slates to the World War see McMastcr, The United Stales and the World War, 2 vols. (1Q18-1920); Bassett, Our War with Germany (1919); McCormick, Tlic Army of igiS (1920) — by a high military officer; Palmer, America in France (1918); Palmer, Our Greatest Battle (1919); Powell. The Army behiml the Army (1019) — relates to work done to put the E.xpeditionary Forces into the field; Chambrun and Marenches, The American Army in the European Conflict (tgiq) — by two well-equipped French officers; Maurice, Hou' the War was Won (1919) — by a well-known English military critic; and Admiral Sims, The American Navy in the War (1920). General Pershing's final Report is published in Current History, January and February, 1920. On President Wilson's part in the peace making see: Wilson, International Ideals (1919) — addresses made in Europe outside of the Conference; Baker, R. S., What Wilson Did at Paris (1919) ; Archer, The Peace President (1919) — an English view; Halevy, President Wilson, trans. (1919) ; and Low, A. M., Woodrow Wilson, an Interpretation (1918) — by a London correspondent long resident in the United States. On the Peace Conference several books have appeared, none of which is entirely satisfactory. In Creel, The World, the War, and Wilson (1920), the president finds a strong defender. Thompson, C. T., The Peace Conference Day by Day (1920), and Temperley, History of the Peace Conference (1920), contain valuable informa- tion. Dillon, Inside Story of the Peace Conference (1920), is by a newspaper corre- spondent who was never "inside" and reflects his personal opposition to the meas- ures adopted. On economic phases of the negotiations two important books are : Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (rqjo), a sharp criticism by a minor representative of the British treasury, and Baruch, The Reparation and Economic Sections of the Treaty (1920), a more balanced book. Another important book on a special phase is Haskins and Lord, So>ne Problems of the Peace Conference (1920) — dealing with the Saar valley, Polish boundaries, and similar questions. On the early stages of the idea of a League of Nations see : Bassett, The Lost Fruits of Waterloo (1918, revsd. ed., 1919); Scott, J. B., The Hague Peace Con- ferences of i8gg and igoy, 2 vols. (1909) ; Hull, The Two Hague Conferences (1908) ; Taft, W. H., The United Stales and Peace (1914), and Veblen, An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace (1917). The Covenant of the League of Nations has been pub- lished in many places. One of the most convenient forms in which it has appeared is in the series known as International Contiliation, published by the American Association for International Conciliation, a series in which have appeared many valuable documents relating to the controversy over the League of Nations and kindred suljjects. On some other phases of the \\'orld War sec : Davison, The American Red Cross in the Great War (1920) ; Bakewell, The Story of the American Red Cross in Italy (1920); Lechattier, Intrigues et Diplomatics a Washington (1919) — by a French correspondent in Washington; Frost, German Submarine Warfare (1918) — by a former United States consul at Queenstown; and Spargo, Russia as an American Problem (1920). For Independent Reading Simonds, History of the World War, 3 vols. ([914-1919) ; Bassett, Our War with Germany (1919) ; Strother, Fighting Germany's Spies (1918) ; Palmer, America in France (1918) ; and Palmer, Our Greatest Battle (1919). 7 <5C--iS, r <~ I 7 ■( INDEX Abercrombie, expedition against Canada, Aix-Ia-Chapelle, treaty of, 120. 126. Abolition. See antislaverj-. Academies, for educational use, 47S. Acadia, settled, 112. Acadians, removal of, 124. Adams, the, 32S. Adams, Charles Francis, nominated for vice- president, 452 ; minister to England, 522 ; and the Geneva arbitration, 673. Adams, John, and the declaration of inde- pendence, 187; peace commissioner, 214; first minister to England, 226 ; opposed to Cincinnati, 229; vice-president, 256; reelected vice-president, 271 ; Hamilton's opposition to, 273 ; elected president, 273 ; presidency of, 276-290; relation to his party, 276 ; desires to conciliate repub- licans, 276; and French quarrel, 278. 282 ; political views, 2S3 ; and Dr. Cooper, 284 ; reorganizes cabinet, 287 ; opposed by Hamilton, 273, 276, 2S2, 2S7, 288, 289; defeated, 288-290. Adams, John Quincy, commissioner at Ghent, 334 ; opposed to Hartford Conven- tion, 336 ; secretary of state, 367 ; share in the Monroe Doctrine, 375 ; candidate for presidency, 376, 377, 378, 379 ; elected, 379-380 ; bargain charged, 379, 3S0 ; parties forming under, 382-384 ; message, 382 ; war on, 383 ; Panama congress, 3S3 ; and the patronage, 3S9 ; his support in 1828, 390; supports Jackson in nulhfica- tion, 409; on West India trade, 416; opposes annexation of Texas, 422; and antislavery petition, 431. Adams, Samuel, colonial leader, 1 70 ; and "Boston Massacre," 172 ; defends soldiers, 172 ; and committees of correspondence. 174: opposed to Cincinnati, 229; on rati- fication, 248. Africa, western coast explored, 25. Agriculture, in early Virginia, 50 ; in the early Carolinas, 83 ; in colonial period, 140; state of, 1800-1815, 345 ; progress after civil war, 665. Aguinaldo, leads revolts against Spain, 809 ; Dewey aids, 809 ; captured, 810. Alabama, territory created, 345 ; population, 1820, 345 ; a state, 373 ; ratification of her constitution, 624 ; readmitted, 624 ; repub- licans overthrown, 632. Alabama, the confederate ship, 523. Alabama Claims, the, under A. Johnson, 670; Sumner's statement of, 671 ; arbitra- tion of, 672-674. Alabama-Mobile river system, 3. Alaska, purchase of, 643 ; boundary con- troversy, 825 ; and Cunningham syndicate, 838; civil government in, 851. Albany, Congress at, 1690, 116; 1754, 122. Albemarle, settlements in, 82. Aldrich, N. W., and tariff of 1883, 715 ; and Payne-Aldrich bill, 837 ; report on cur- rency, 850. Algiers, at war, 295. 296. .Mgonkins, the, 18 ; and the French, 113. Alien Laws, passed, 283 ; JeSerson's way of meeting, 285. Allen, Ethan, exploits of, 1S2. Altgcld, Governor, pardons convicted anar- chists, 743 ; and Pullman strike, 743. Alverstone, Lord, 825. .^madas, Philip, discovers Roanoke Island, 42. Amador, Dr., 819. Ambrister, Captain, executed by Jackson, 369. ■\melia Island, occupied, 331. Amendments, suggested by the ratifying states, 248 ; method of making, 253 ; ten amendments, 25S ; eleventh and twelfth, 360; suggested by Hartford convention, 337 ; thirteenth, 580, S99 ; fourteenth, 607-609; rejected by South, 608, 619; accepted under congressional reconstruc- tion, 610; war, interpreted, 635-638; for income tax, 838; for popular election of senators, 851. America, named, 33. American Colonization Society, 428. American Tobacco Company, dissolution suit, 840, 842. .Ames, Oakes, 650. 907 9o8 INDEX Amherst, Jeffrey, at capture of Louisburg, 125 : at capture of Montreal, 128. Amnesty, proclamation of 1S63, sq6; Johnson's, 600 ; act of 1872, 634 ; act for general, 634. Anarchists, Chicago, 742. Anderson, Major, in Fort Simiter, 512, 515 ; surrenders, 516. Andover Seminary, founded, 355. Andre, John, concerned with .\rnold, 202. Andrew, Rev. J. O., and slavery issue, 471. Andros, Edmund, governor of New England, 04 ; strong measures, gs ; o\erthro\vn, 96 ; and slaver\^ controversy, 902. Anglican church, in New England, 14S; in Virginia, 151 ; in Mar>'land and the Caro- linas, 151 ; in other colonies, 152 ; the Bishop of London, 152 ; proposed American bishop, 164; as an estabhshment, 352; reorganized, 354. Annapolis Convention, 24T. Antietam, battle of, 555. Antifederalists oppose ratification, 247-249 ; on the first amendments, 25S; disappear- ance of, 269. Antimasonic party, organized, 403 ; opposed Clinton, 403. Antislavery, early period of movement, 428- 431- Apaches, 685. Appalachian Moimtains, influence of, i, 2. Appointments to office, 292, 393. Arapahoes at war, 684, 686. Arbitration treaties, rejected by Senate, S33. Arbuthnot, hanged by Jackson, 369. Archbald, Judge, 843. Area of United States, i, Argus, the, 32S. Aristocracy, suspected, 218, 228, 229, 230. Arizona, mining in, 678; a territory, 679, 680; a state, 6S0, 85 1. Arkansas, a state, 463 ; war in, 541 ; recon- structed under Lincoln, 597 ; readmitted, 624 ; repubhcans overthrown, 632. "Armed Neutrality," league of, 206. Armstrong, John, Secretary of War, 326, 330. Army, a British, in the colonies, 164; pay in arrears, 223; plot of officers, 224; seize Philadelphia. 224; half -pay to offi- cers, 229; Cincinnati, 229; in whisky insurrection, 268, 269 ; to serve against France, 279, 281; condition of in 1S12, 320,326; value of militia. 330; afterwarof 1812, 363; in civil war, 517, 572-574; organization in i8g8, 795 ; and the cap- tured Spaniards, 802 ; disease at Santiago, S03 ; wounded recover, 803. Army, confederate, raising, 572, 590; boun- ties, 573, 590 ; negro troops, 573 ; mmibers, 5QO- Army, union, organizing, 572; "bounty jumping," 573 ; negro troops in, 373 ; numbers. 590. .\mold, Benedict, in Canada, 1S4, 194 ; against St. Leger. ig6 ; his treason, 201; in Virginia. 211 ; in Connecticut, 212. ".\roostook War," the, 437. Arthur, Chester A., nominated for vice- presidency, 702 ; removed from collector- ship. 702, 70S ; becomes president, 705 ; and civil service reform, 709 ; and nomina- tion in 1SS4, 716. Articles of Confederation, committee to prepare, 187; adopted, 1781, 217, 238; an.ilysis of, 238-240; weakness of, 222; attempts to amend, 225, 240. .\sbury, Francis, 353. .\shburton. Lord, in Washington, 438. Assembly, the colonial development of, 100 ; in New York, 103. "Assiento." 120. "Association," the, 179. .\sylum, the Right of, in Chile, 770. Atchison, and the Kansas-Nebraska act, 4S6. Atlanta, captured, 537. Bacon, Nathaniel, opposes Governor Berke- ley, 90; his death, 91. Bacon's RebeUion, 90. Bad Axe, battle of. 466. Baker, Colonel, at Ball's BluS, 545. Balboa, discovers the Pacific, 37. Baldwin, decisive vote in Constitutional Convention, 245. Balh'nger-Pinchot controversy, 838. Ballot Reform, 7ri~7i2. Ball's Bluff, battle of, 545. Balmeceda, 768. 769. Baltimore, attacked by British, 330. Baltimore, the, sailors of, attacked, 771 ; at Manila. 701. Baltimore. Lord. See Calvert. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, early history, 464 ; development of, 733, 734. Bank of North America, 228. Bank of the United States, first, created, 260. and the currency. 348 ; McCuIloch v. Maryland, 359 ; second, chartered, 363 ; service of, 364; Jackson's "war" on, 411-415; charter vetoed, 412; deposits removed, 413; protest charges, 418; lin- gering hope of recharter, 432 ; attempted recharter under Tyler, 435. Banks, combinations of, 740. INDEX 909 Banks, Deposit, 423. Banks, General, attacked by Jackson, 547; at Cedar Mountain. 551. Banks, National, created, 575. Baptists, in the Colonies, 148, 151; early history, 353; Primitive and Missionary, 353; divided by slavery, 456, 472. Barbary States. Sec Tripoli. Barlowe, Arthur, discovers Roanoke Island, 42. Barnburners, 451; at convention of 1848. 452; secede, 452. Barre, Col. Isaac, lOb. Barron, Captain, 314. Baton Rouge, acquired, 331. Baum, defeated at Bennington. 195. Bayard, J. A., commissioner at Ghent, 334- Bayard, T. F., secretary of state, 719; and Samoa, 765. Bayonne Decree, 316. Beaumarchais, igS. Beauregard, General, at Bull Run, 519; against Butler, 504. Behaim, Martin, 26. Belknap, Secretary, and Indian frauds, 652. Bell, John, nominated by whigs, 508; vote of, 509. Belligerency, recognition of, 522. Bellomont, Governor, and salary contro- versy, lOI. Bennington, battle of, 195. Benton, Thomas H., and censure resolutions, 415; specie currency favored, 423. Berkeley, .\dmiral, 314. Berkeley, Sir W'iUiam, governor of V'irginia, 51; his policy in Virginia, 89; opposed by Bacon, go; return to England, 91; and the Anglican Church, 151. Berlin Decree, 308. Bernard, Governor, of Massachusetts, 171. Biddle, Nicholas, asks for new charter. 411; Jackson and, 411; carries charter in con- gress, 412; continues to hope, 413; and the panic, 414. Bienville, 115. Bifurcated Invasion of the South, 526. Big Black river, battle of, 531. Big Horn, Little, battle of, 688. Bigot, hampers Montcalm, 127; punished, 127. "Bird Woman," guides Lewis and Clark, 356. Bimey, J. G., in Ohio, 429; candidate for presidency, 1844, 443. Black Code, revised, 430; ante belliim, 602; post belhtm, 602 ; effects of, 602. "Black Friday," 647. Black Hawk, war of, 466. Black Hills, gold found in, 679; Indiana driven out, 6S7. Bladensburg, battle of, 329. Blaine, J. G., raises Southern issue, 653 ; secretary of state, 703, 723; nominated 18S4, 716; the "Mulligan Letters," 717; and reciprocity, 725; and nomination of 1892, 749; and fur seal controversy, 767; and Mafia incident, 768; and Isthmian Canal, SiS. Blair, F. P., in "Kitchen Cabinet," 393; founds the Globe, 402. Blair, F. P., Jr., in Missouri, 517; nominated for \'ice presidency, 642. Blair, Rev. James, commissary, 152; founder of William and Mary College, 154. Blanco. General, command in Cuba, 787; and Cervera. 799. Bland, R. P., champion of Silver, 699; can- didate for nomination, 1896, 760. Bland-.\lhson law. 699. "Blanket Injunctions," 744. Block, Adrian, explorations of, 72. Blockade, established, 517; keeping the, 569; running the, 592. "Blocks of five," 722. Blount. J. H.. in Hawaii, 773. Blue, Victor, back of Santiago, 795. Bccuf. Fort de, 122. Bonds, in civil war. 574, 576. Bott Homme Riehard, 205. Bonus Bill, for internal improvements, 365. Boone, Daniel, 233. Border States, saved for the union, 517. Boscawen, failure on the St. Lawrence, I2r. Boston, settled. 64; population, 142; cul- ture of, iss; troops sent to, 171; "Boston Massacre," 172; "Tea Party," 176; port closed, 176; blockaded, 177; siege of, 180-182; evacuated, 182. Boundaries, 1783, 215. Boutwell, G. S., secretar>' of the treasury, 644; financial polic-y, 662. Bowdoin, Governor, and Shays's Rebellion, 236. Boxer Revolt, 823. Braddock, effect of his defeat, 106; expedi- tion of, 123. Bradford, William, elected governor, 61. Bradley, J. P., his appointment as judge, 664. Bragg. General, in Kentucky, 529; at Perry- ville, 329; at Stone's river, 530; at Chicka- mauga, 533: at Chattanooga, 535; re- moved from command, 535. gio INDEX Brandywine, battle of, 194. Brant, Joseph, 20J, Bray, Rev. Thomas, 152. Brazil, coast discovered, 32; skirted by Cabral, 34. Breckenridge, J. C, nominated for presi- dency, 506; his vote, 5og. Brewster, William, at Scrooby, sg; goes to America, 60. Brock, General, against Hull, 322. Broke, Captain, 327. Brooklyn, battle of. 189. Brooklyn, the. 800, 801. Brown, B. Gratz. governor of Missouri, 648; nominated for vice-presidency, 648. Brown, General Jacob, 324; at Chippewa, 325; at Lundy's Lane, 325. Brown, John, retaliates on his opponents. 491: his raid, 502-504; his object, 502; his death, 503 ; significance of, 503. Brown, Moses, and Cotton Mills. 349. Brown University, founded, 154. Brough, governor of Ohio, 583. Brougham, Henry, 320. Bryan, W. J., speech in Chicago convention, 75q; nominated, 760; his campaign. 761; defeated. 762; not crushed. 762; candidate in 1900. 827; and the convention of 1904. 832; nominated in 1908. S35; influence in democratic nomination. S45. S46-847. Bryant, William CuUen, and the Barn- burners, 451; an independent, 694 ; civil service reformer, 707. Buchanan, James, and nomination of 1852, 485; nominated in 1S56, 495; elected, 496; attitude in crisis, 512. Buckner. General, at Fort Donelson, 527. Buell, General, cooperates with Grant, 52S; against Bragg. 529; removed from com- mand, 530. Buena Vista, battle of, 447. Buffalo, city of, 341. Buford. Colonel, at Waxhaw. 207. Buford's cavalr>', at Gettysburg. 560. Bull, papal, dividing the new world. 29. "Bull Moose" party 845; organized. S47. Bull Run. campaign o(. 518-520; second battle of. 550-553 ; Lee's plan of attack. 551; its execution. 551-553. Bunau-Varilla. 818. Bunker Hill, battle of. 181. Burchard. Rev. S. D., incautious utterance, 719- Burgoyne. General, expedition against New York. 193-198; and Carleton. 195. Burke Act. concerning Indians, 6go. Burlingame Treaty, the, 774. Bumside, General, in East Tennessee, 533; in command in Virginia, 555; the Fred- ericksburg campaign, 555-557; in North Carohna, 570; mihtary arrests, 583. Burr, Aaron, elected vice-president, 288; 289, 290 ; plots with Pickering, 300 ; kills Hamilton, 301; scheme of, 303-306; trial of, 305. Burr, G. L., and Venezuelan boundary, 780. Bute, Lord, colonial poUcy of, 161. Butler, B. F., on the James. 564; "Contra- bands," 577; charged with cotton sales, 592; prosecutes Johnson, 615; succeeds Stevens, 633; relations with Grant, 633; 645; and the Sanborn contracts, 651; Greenback candidate, 69S; and civil service reform, 708. Butler. Colonel John. 203. Byrd, Col. William, culture of, 155. Cabinet, constitutional basis of, 252. Cabot, George, at Hartford convention, 337- Cabot, John, explorations of, 35. Cabot, Sebastian, fame of, 35. Cabral, voyage to Brazil, 34. Calaveras skull, the, 11. Calhoun, J. C, elected to congress. 318; and the second bank, 364 ; on the tariff, 364; on internal improvements, 365; secretary of war, 367 ; 369 ; candidate for presidency, 377, 378; elected vice-presi- dent, 377 ; position in Jackson party, 382 ; opposition of Van Buren, 382 ; supports nullification, 387 ; reelected vice-president, 390; influence in the cabinet, 392; af- fected Eaton affair, 394 ; struck through internal improvements, 394 ; report on public improvements, 395 ; and state rights, 396 ; and Jackson's " union " toast, 399; breach with Jackson. 401-402 ; three papers on nullification. 407 ; becomes Southern champion. 422 ; secretary of state. 439 ; Texas annexation. 439. 444 ; and Van Buren's letter. 442 ; on slavery in Oregon. 453 ; compromise speech. 1850, 455 ; death of, 4S8. California, purchase desired by Polk, 446 ; occupied by American forces, 44S ; not made a territory, 452, 453 ; admitted to Union, 45s, 457; gold discovered, 4S0 ; settlement of, 481 ; government of, 481 ; and Chinese, 774 ; and Japanese, 776. Calvert, Cecilius, his policy, 53, 57 ; checks the Jesuits, 55 ; his proprietary rights, 57. Calvert, George, Maryland granted to, 52, INDEX 911 Calvert, Leonard, governor of Maryland, S3. 54-56- Cambridge Agreement, 63. Camden, battle of, 207 ; burned, 211. Campos, in Cuba, 784, 786. Canada, ceded to England, I2g ; the cession criticized, 130, 161, 170; and Quebec Act, 177; invaded by Americans, 183, 1Q4 ; capture expected, 321 ; struggle for, 321- 326 ; line of defense, 321 ; reciprocity with, 841, 842. 5ft' New France. Canals, where located, 3 ; the Eric, 4 ; use of, 464. See Internal improvements. Canning, George, and the Orders in Council, 308 ; his irritating attitude, 313 ; on Chesapeake-Leopard affair, 315; and the Monroe Doctrine, 375. Cannon, Speaker, power reduced, 838. Capital, the national, located on the Po- tomac, 260. Capital, financial, growth after civil war, 665. Carleton, General, and the Indians, 685. Carleton, Sir Guy, against Arnold, 184, ig4. IQS ; retained in Canada, 1Q5. Carlisle, J. G., secretary of the treasurv', 753 ; maintaining parity, 754 ; bonds for gold, 754. Carohna, created, 81, 82 ; early history, 82- 83 ; fundamental constitutions, 82 ; two divisions, 82 ; misrule of proprietors, 106; sale to crown, 107. Caroline, Fort. iii. Carpet-baggers, 621. Carthage, battle of, 541. Cartier, Jacques, explorations of, 36. 112. Carver, John, governor of Plymouth, 61. Cass, Lewis, nominated for presidency, 452; defeated, 452; in 1852, 485; leaves cabinet, 512. Catherine of Aragon, and Columbus, 28, 31. Caucus, nominating, origin, 288; destroyed, 378. Cedar Creek, battle of, 565. Cedar Mountain, battle of, 551. Cerro Gordo, battle of, 44g. Cervera, departs from Cape Verde Islands, 7QO ; reaches Santiago, 7g3 ; search for, 7g3 ; in Santiago, 7gg ; destruction of his fleet, 800-801. Chamberlain, D. H., in South Carolina politics, 65s, 657, 694. Chambersburg, burned by Early, 565. Champion Hill, battle of, 531. Champlain, founds Quebec, 112 ; attacks the Iroquois, 112. Champlain, Lake, battle of, 325. Chancellorsville, battle of, 557-559- Chanm'ng, Rev. William E., founds Amer- ican Unitarianism, 355. Chantilly, battle of, 553. Chapultepec, taken, 450. "Charletort," iii. Charles I, and the colonies, 77. Charles II, and the colonies, 80. Charleston, settled, 83; and tea duty, 175; attacked by the British, 183 ; taken by the British, 207 ; British driven into, 211 ; evacuated, 214; democratic convention at, 505 ; evacuated by Hardee, 540 ; naval operations against, 570. Chase, Samuel, at trial of Dr. Cooper, 284 ; impeachment of, 294. Chase, S. P., and opponents of Lincoln, 582, 584 ; presides o\er impeachment, 615-617 ; and democratic nomination, 642 ; and legal tender cases, 664. Chattahoochee, Sherman crosses, 537. Chattanooga, campaign for, 532-535 ; battle of, 535- Cherokees, 18; relations with the English, 121; war against the Americans, 130; at war, 1776, 203; and Spain, 265; pun- ished by Tennesseeans, 265 ; removal of, 400, 46(1; in the West, 466. Cherry Valley, raided, 203. Chesapeake, the, defeated by the Shannon, 327- Chesapeake Bay, campaign in. 320-330. Chesapeake-Leopard incident, 314; settled by the President, iiS. Cheves, Langdon, elected to Congress, 318. Chew house, the, 194. Chcyennes. war with southern. 684. 686, war with northern. 685. 687, 688. Chicago, desires transcontinental railroad, 681 ; a railroad center, 733, 734 ; strike of 1886, 742. Chickamauga, battle of, 533 ; Park, 795. Chickasaws. removal of. 400, 466. Chile, revolution against Balmeceda, 768 ; Lagan's sympathy, 760 ; the Ilala, 76g ; right of asylum, 770 ; the Baltimore, sailors of, attacked, 770. China, American relations with, 822; Boxer revolt, S23 ; legations surrounded, 823 ; army of relief. 823. Chinese Immigration, 774. Chippewa, battle of, 325. Chivington's Massacre. 684. Choctaws. removal of, 400, 466. Chdiseul. criticism of England's policy, 130. Churubusco, 449. Cibola, 30. Cienfuegos, Schley at, 703, 7g4. 912 INDEX Cincinnati, society of, 220 ; city founded, 342- Citizenship, National, defined by the courts, 635-638- Civil Rights Bill, of 1866, 606 ; of 1S75, 634 ; interpreted by courts, 637. Civil Service Reform, Grant and, 646 ; origin of reform, 707 ; Sumner and, 707 ; Jcnckes and, 707 ; first commission, 70S ; Pendleton act, 7og ; execution of, 7og- 711 ; under Cleveland, 709, 720. Claiborne, William, claims Kent Island, 55, Clark, Champ, candidate for nomination, 845- Clark, George Rogers, 203. Clark, William, explorations of, 356. Clay, Henrj', elected to Congress, 318; commissioner at Ghent, 334 ; on tariff, 364 ; on internal improvements, 365 ; heads opposition, 367 ; on South America, 367 ; attacks Jackson, 370 ; on the Mis- souri compromise. 374 ; candidate for presi- dency, 1824, 377, 378, 379; makes Adams president, 379; bargain charged, 382 ; united with Adams, 382 ; and Panama congress, 383 ; and the tariff, 3S5 ; nominated, 1832, 404; defeated, 405; his compromise tariff, 410; for the bank, 412, 414, 415; censure of Jackson, 414; on surplus, 424 ; loses nomination, 434 ; opposed to Tyler, 435 ; on Texan annexa- tion, 442 ; and compromise of 1850, 454- 457 ; death of. 48S. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, made, 458; and a canal, 815; annulled, 817. Cleveland, Grovcr, and the civil service, 70Q, 711, 720; governor of New York, 716; nominated for presidency, 716; elected, 719; as president, 719; cabinet, 719; and opponents, 720; and tariff reform, 721 ; renominated, 722 ; on pensions, 726 ; reelected, 728; on Wilson-Gorman bill, 729; on silver, 1892, 750; opposition of West and South, 751 ; nominated, 1892, 751 ; elected, 732 ; second cabinet, 7S3 ; and the Sherman silver law, 755 ; pro- tecting the reserve, 755-757 ; repudiated by his party, 758 ; Hawaiian policy, 773 ; and Venezuelan dispute, 778-781 ; and Cuba, 7S5. 786. "Cliff Dwellers," the, 12. CUmate, variations of, i. Clinton, De Witt, and election of 1812, 319; and Erie canal, 366. Clinton, General, demonstration against Albany, 197; relieves Howe, 200; in the South, 207; aids CornwaUis, 212. Clinton, George, on ratification, 249 ; a republican, 270 ; and vice-presidency, 271 ; in the election of 1800, 288; Jefferson favors, 300, 301 ; elected vice-president, 302 ; death of, 319. Coal, deposits of, 8-10; anthracite, 9; dis- tribution, g. Coal lands, conservation of, 850. Coal strike, anthracite, 830. Cobb, Howell, 499. Cochrane, Admiral, 330. Cod fisheries, 5. Colbert and New France, 115. Cold Harbor, battle of, 563. Colfax. Schuyler, vice-president, 642 ; and the Credit Mobilier, 650. Coligny. plants colony in Florida, in. Colleges, progress of, 478-479 ; relation to churches, 478, 479. Colombia, and an isthmian canal, 814 ; treaty with, 8 14 ; Hay-Herran convention, 818 ; and Panama revolution, 819. Colon, the, Soo, 801. Colonial government, struggle for assembly in New York, 103 ; colonial treasurer, 104; the New England town, 134, 156; the Southern County, 135, 155 ; local, 155-isS; mbied form of, 156. Colonial policy, 813-814. Colonial system, characteristics of, 99-ior. Colonies, British supervision, depends on king, 76; Laud's commission. 77; War- wick's commission, 77 ; Lords of trade, 77; effects of Puritan Revolution, 77; Navigation Laws, 78. Colorado, explorations of, 39. Colorado, settled, 677 ; state and territory, 67S, 680. Columbia, S. C, burned, 540. Columbia University, founded, 154. Columbus, Christopher, early life, 27 ; and Toscanelli, 27; seeking aid. 28; sets sail, 28; land discovered, 29; discoveries, 29, 30, 31 ; honored in Spain, 29, 31 ; death of, 31- Comanches, 685. Combinations, industrial, 731-744; prin- ciples of, 731 ; early, 731 ; advantages claimed for, 732 ; in railroads, 732-735 ; in manufactures, 736-740; in banking, 740-741 ; in labor, 740-744. Commerce. See trade. Commerce Court, 839, 843. Committees of Congress, 258. Committees of correspondence appointed, 174. "Common Sense," Paine's, 186. INDEX 913 Compact theory, in 1708, 2S5. Competition, conditions of, 731. Compromise of 1S50, desire for harmony. 454 ; Clay's proposals, 455 ; debated, 455- 457 ; adopted. 457 ; finality of, 485. Concord, battle of, 180. Confederacy, the, arming for war, 517 ; problems, s86 ; constitution, 587 ; its president, 587; peace movement in, 588; foreign affairs, 58S ; and France, 589 ; navy of, 589 ; finances of, 590 ; manufac- tures in, 591 ; railroads in, sO' ; cotton, SQi. "Confederate States of America," organized, S"- Confiscation acts, first, 576; second, 576, 578. Congregationalists, 354. Congress, flees from Philadelphia, 225 ; composition of, 250. Congress, the. 328. Congress, authority of, 359 ; approves Lincoln, 510; supports war, 519. See Continental Congress. Conkling, Roscoe, and renomination of Grant, 632, 702 ; quarrel with Blaine, 694, 703 ; and Garfield, 703 ; resigns senatorship, 704 ; on civil service reform, 708. Connecticut, river towns founded, 60 ; Lord Saye and Sele, 69 ; Saybrook settled. 69 ; New Haven settled, 6q ; New Haven and Connecticut merged, 69 ; government of New Haven, 69; Pequot War, 70; and New England Confederation, 71; New charter, 80 ; and the Dominion of New England, 94 ; resists stamp act, 168 ; ratifies the constitution, 247 ; population, 341 : constitutional revision in, 473. ConserN'ation, 849. Consolidation, national, checked by courts, 636. Conskllalion, the, 279, 328; defeats /7ni«r- gente, 2S1. Constitution, federal, prepared, 242-247; adopted, 247-250; analysis of, 250-254; interpretation of. 285-287 ; interpreted by Marshall, 357; and dependencies, S13. Constitution, the, constructed, 279: takes the Guerriere, 327; takes the Java, 327. Constitutions, state, reform of, 472-476. Continental Congress, called, 178; two sides in, 178; significance of, 179; second con- gress, 181 ; authority of, 217; inefficiency, 217 ; end of, 256. "Contrabands," 577. Contreras, taken by Scott, 449. Contributions, political, from corporations, 834; law on, 839, 851. Convention, constitutional, advantage of. 241 ; suggested, 241 ; elected. 242 ; meets, 242 ; proceedings. 242-247. Convention, nominating, origin of. 404. Cooley. T. M., on execution of the interstate commerce act, 735. Cooper. Peter, nominated by Greenback party, 697. Cooper. Dr. Thomas, trial of, 284. Copperheads, 5S2. Corinth, Johnston at, 528 ; taken by Halleck, 529- Corn. Indian, significance of, 8 ; a staple, 8. Cornbun,% Lord, governor of New York. 103. Cornwallis. Lord, in New Jersey, 191 ; in command in the South, 207 ; at Camden, 207 ; at Charlotte. 208 ; pursues Greene, 209; in North Carolina, 209; at battle of Guilford Courthouse, 210 ; in Wilmington, 210; enters Virginia, 211; surrenders, 313. Corporation tax, 838. Corte-Real, Caspar, 34. Cortez, Hernando, in Mexico, 37. Cosa. Juan de la, 38. Cotton, a staple crop, 8 ; gin invented, 34s ; and slavery, 346 ; area of, 346; production and price, 346. Cotton, Rev. John, against Roger Williams, 66 ; against Mrs. Hutchinson, 67 ; against Quakers. 67. County, the, planted, 135 ; government, 155 ; in New York, 156. Courts, federal, the system, 252 ; established, 257 ; jurisdiction defined, 357-360. Cowpens, battle of, 208. Cox, J. D.. secretary of interior, 644; resig- nation of, 645. "Crater, the," at Petersburg, 564. Crawford, W. H., and the presidency, 1816, 367 ; in the cabinet, 367 ; candidate in 1824. 377,378,379.380; support goes to Jackson, 382. Crazy Horse, in Sioux War, 6S7, 688. Credit Mobilier. the, 640. Creeks, the. iS; and the English, 121; relations with the Cnited States, 265 ; Creeks subdued by Jackson, 332 ; at treaty of Fort Jackson. 332 ; relation with Semi- nolcs, 368 ; removal of, 400. 407. 466. "Crime against Kansas, The," Sumner's speech, 490. "Crisis. The." Turnbull's. 387. Crittenden, Senator, efforts to avoid war, 513- Crittenden Compromise, 512. 914 INDEX Cromwell, Oliver, and the colonies, 77, 80. Crook. General, against the Sioux, 687-6S9 ; and Dull Knife's band, 689. Crops, staple, 8. Crown Point, taken by the British, 127; taken by Ethan Allen, 182. Crozat, has monopoly in Louisiana, 115. Cuba, discovered, 29; settled, 31; two parties in, 782 ; ten years' war, 782 ; reforms promised, 784-785 ; revolt of 1895, 785 ; methods of the Cubans, 785 ; Ameri- can intervention, 786-790 ; reforms offered by Sagasta, 787 ; and Spanish war debt. 80s : condition since the war, 806-807 J Piatt amendment, 807 ; reoccupation, 807. Culpeper, Pope at, 550. Culpeper, Lord, governor of Virginia, 92. Cumberland road bill, vetoed by Monroe, 395- Currency, early, 348; in the civil war, 575. See Finance. Curtis, B. R., opinion in Dred Scott case, 498; defends Johnson, 615. Curtis, G. W., and civil service reform, 646, 707, 708; as an independent, 693, 718. Custer, General, and the Indians, 686 ; death of, 688. Cutler, Manasseh, and Ohio Company, 232. Daiquiri, landing at, 796. Dakota, early history, 679 ; a territory, 679 ; a state, 6S0; 748; gold in, 679, 687 ; Sioux at war, 685, 687-689. Dale, Captain, in Tripolitan war, 295. Dale. Sir Thomas, in Virginia, 49. Dallas, George M., vice-president, 441. Dartmouth College, founded, 154. Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 359. Davenport, Rev. John, 69. Davie, William R., partisan leader, 207. Davis, J. C. Bancroft, 673. Davis, Jefferson, at Bucna Vista, 448; secretary of war. 486; Southern leader, 488 ; resolutions in the senate, 505 ; pres- ident of the confederacy, 511: friendship for Bragg, 535 ; leaves Richmond, 567 ; proposes to continue resistance, 568 ; as confederate president, 587 ; imprisoned, 641 ; death, 641. Dawes Act, concerning Indians, 690. Deane, Silas, in Paris, 198. Dearborn, in Jefferson's Cabinet, 292 ; in war of 1S12, 323. Debt, Revolutionary. See Finances. Debts, British, in treaty of 17S3, 216; not paid, 227, 261. Decatur, 327 ; burns the Philadelphia, 296; in the Mediterranean, 296. Declaratory Act, 168. Deerfield, attacked, 118. Delaware, settled by Sweden, 75 ; conquered by Stuyvesant, 75 ; acquired by Penn., 86; boundary controversy, 87. 88; govern- ment, 87 ; relation to Pennsylvania, 104 ; ratifies constitution, 247. De Lesseps, Ferdinand, in the United States, 816. De Lima v. Bidwell. 814. De Lome, letter published, 787. Democracy, development of, 1815-1861, 472-476. Democratic party, in the civil war, 581 ; in elections of 1S62, 582 ; copperheads, 582, 5S3 ; in the South after the war, 621 ; condition of, after the war, 640; in 1868, 642; in 1872, 648; in 1876, 652-657; gain house of representatives, 65 1 ; investi- gating election of 1876, 695 ; efforts to repeal election laws, 696, 697 ; in elections of 187S, 697; its progress before 1884, 719; split in, 653, 702, 716, 720; Western and Southern wings, in 1892, 751; convention of 1896, 758-760; carries house in 1910, 840. De Monts. plants colony, 112. Departments of state created, 257; of the navy, created, 281. Dependencies, government of, 813, 814. Depew. C. M., 834. Detroit, held against Pontiac, 131; in the revolution, 204; position of, 321; Hull at, 322 : recovered. 323. Deux-Ponts, Colonel, 213. Dewey, George, ordered to Manila, 791 ; Battle of Manila Bay, 791 ; a rear admiral, 791 ; on Schley-Sampson controversy, 804. Dexter, and Hartford Convention, 336. Diaz, Bartholomew. 26. d'Iberville. settle Louisiana. 115. Dickinson. John, "Farmer's Letters," 170; and the articles of confederation. 238. Diedrich. Admiral von, at Manila, 792. Dingley Tariff Act. 729. Diplomacy, a new school of, 762. Diplomatic History of the United States, beginning of, 119 ; treaty of Paris, 129. Discourse on Western Planting, 44. Discovery of America, by the Norse, 23 ; by Zeno brothers, 23 ; bearing of oriental trade on, 24 ; relation to spread of knowl- edge, 25, 26. District of Columbia, located, 260; slave- trade abolished, 455, 457. INDEX 015 Donelson, Fort, captured. 527. Dongan, Governor, and the Iroquois, 114. Dorchester, speech to Indians, 263. Dorr, Thomas W., struggle for constitu- tional reform, 474; takes up arms, 475. Douglas, Stephen A., at nominating conven- tion of 1852, 4S5 ; and the Kansas-Ne- braska Act, 4S7 ; opposes Lecompton Constitution, 402, 493 ; in debate with Lincoln, 4Qg-50j ; destroyed by Lincoln, 501: Freeport doctrine, 501 ; opposition of South to, 505 ; at Charleston convention, 505 ; nominated for presidency, 506 ; supports the war, 516. Dow, Neal, 480. Downes v. Bidvvell, 814. Draft, in use, 572 ; riots, 572. Drainage systems, 2. Drake, Sir Francis, 41 ; at Roanoke Island, 42. Dred Scott Decision, 497-499 ; its futiUty, 499; in Charleston convention, 505. Drift man, 12. Drummond, William, execution of, 91. Drury's Bluff, battle of, 564. Duane, W. J., secretary of the treasury, 41}- Dudley, and vote purchasing, 722. Dudley, Joseph, governor of Massachusetts, 95, 102 ; sentences Leisler, 103. *' Duke's Laws," the, in New York, 83, 157, Dull Knife's Band, fate of, 689. "Dunmore's War," 203. Duquesne, Fort, taken by Forbes, 125; called Fort Pitt, 126. Dutch, stock in middle colonies, 145. Duxbury, 62. Dwight, Theodore, in Hartford convention, 337- Dyer, Mrs., execution of, 68. Eagan, in Chile, 769, 771. Early, General, in Pennsylvania, 559; at Gettysburg, 559: his raid toward Wash- ington, 565 ; at Cedar Creek, 56.5. East India Company, and tea, 175. Eastward Ho, 44. Eaton, Dorman B., and civil service reform, 708, 709. Eaton, John H., in Jackson's cabinet. 392; affairs of his wife, 394 ; resigns from the cabinet, 402. Eaton, Mrs., Jackson and, 394, .401. Eaton, Theophilus, 6g. Eaton, William, 29,1;. Edmunds, Senator, reform candidate in 1880, 702; and in 18S4, 716, 718. Education, in the colonies, 133-155 ; colleges, 153-154; the churches and, 154; the college curriculum, 155; middle schools, 155; colonial culture, 15s; progress of, until 1801, 476-480; public school system, developed, 476-478; the academy, 478; colleges, 47S-480. Edwards. Rev. Jonathan, 150, 354. El Caney, attacked, 797, 79S. Elections, when held and how, 251. Elections, presidential, 17S9, 256; 1792, 271; 1796, 273; 1800, 288-290; 1804, .302; 1808, 311; 1812, 319; 1816, 366; 1820, 368; 1824, 379-380; 1828, 390; 1832, 403-405; 1836, 425; 1840, 433-435; 1844, 441-443; 184S, 451-452; 1852, 485; 1856,496; 1860,506-509; 1S64, 5S4 ; 1868, 641-643; 1S72, 649; 1876, 652-657; 1880, 702; 1884, 719; 1888, 723; 1892, 752; 1896, 762; 1900, 827; 1904, 832; 1908, S36; iqi2, 848. Electoral Commission of 1877, 656. Ellsworth, Oliver, in constitutional conven- tion, 245. Elkton, 194. Emancipation, during civil war, 577-581 ; "contrabands," 577; with compensa- tion. 578. 5S0; in confiscation acts, 57S; proclamation of, 579, 580; thirteenth amentlment, 5S0. Embargo Act, passed, 310; enforcement of, 310; repealed, 311 ; effects of, 311. Employees, non-agricultural, 741. Enclicott, John, settles Salem, 63. Enforcement bill, of 1S70, 633; of 1871, 634; of 1S74, 634. England, explorations of. 35 ; refuses com- mercial treaty, 262 ; at war with France, 266 ; neutrality proclamation, 266 ; influ- ence in American politics, 271, 276; attitude toward neutral trade, 272, 279; restricts American trade, 3o6-.^09 ; im- pressment, .306; relenting, 319; war plan, 321; and New England discontent. 335 ; and the fishcTies, 347 ; execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, 360; relations with, during the civil war, 521-524 ; favors the .South, 521; grants confederate bel- ligerency, 522; and the Trent affair, 522; confederate cruisers, 523; and Alabama claims, 670, 674 ; in Samoa, 765 ; our Samoan relations with. 765-766 ; and fur seal controversy, 767 ; and the Amer- ican war with Spain. 790; and Hay- Pauncefote treaty, 817. English bill, the, 493. English stock, distributed, 145. 9i6 INDEX Enterprise, the, 295, 328. Eric the Red, 23. Erie, Fort, 321. Erie, Lake, battle of, 323, 324. Erie Railroad, development of, 733. Erskine, treaty of, 316. Established Church. Sec Anglican Church. Estaing, Count d', at Newport, 200; at Savannah, 207. Essex, the, 295, 328; the case of, 307. Essex county, 336. "Esses Junto," 288. Eustis, secretary of war, 326. Eutaw Springs, battle of, 211. Evans, R. D., at Santiago, 800, 801, 802. Evarts, William M., defends Johnson, 615, 616, secretary of state, 694; refuses to attend White House dinners, 703. Everett, Edward, on the patronage, 389. Ewell, General, in Pennsylvania, SS8, 559. 560, 561. Explorations, on the coast, 31-38. Explorations of the interior, 37-39. Ezra Church, battle of, 537- Fairbanks, C. W., elected vice-president, 832. Fairfield, Governor, 437. Fallen Timber, battle of the, 263. Falmouth burned, 186. Farragut, Admiral, at New Orleans, 529; takes Mobile Bay, 571. Far West, exploration of, 355-357- Fava, Baron, withdrawn, 768. "FederaUst," the, authorship of, 247. Federalists, favor ratification, 247-249; after ratification, 269; strong policy of, 283-285; overthrow of, 287-290; divided, 287; defeated, 288; against war of 181 2, 320; and the war of 181 2, 335-337. Ferguson, Major, in North Carolina, 208; at King's Mountain, 208. Filipinos, army in the field, 809 ; revolt of, 810; revolt subdued, 810; native politi- cal party, 812. Fillmore, Millard, vice-president, 451,452; president, 458. Finances, revolutionary debt, 222; conti- nental money, 223; attempts to confer taxing power on congress, 225; first revenue bill of federal congress. 257; reorganization under Hamilton. 259-261 ; refunding the revolutionary debt, 259; assumption of state debts, 259; Bank established, 260; excise tax, 261; policy of Gallatin, 293; and war of 1812, 319.' 330, 321, 336, 348; currency, 1783-1815, 348; in the war of 1812, 348; national debt paid, 422 ; deposit banks, 423 ; specie currency favored, 423 ; surplus revenue, 424 ; specie circular, 425 ; sub- treasury, 433; in civil war, 519, 574-576; bonds issued, 574, 576; legal tender act, 574; national banks, 575 ; currency issued, 575; confiscation acts, 576; confederate, 590 ; Pendleton's ideas, 642 ; at the end of the civil war, 660; refunding, 661; war taxes reduced, 661, 663; legal tender reduced, 661 ; resumption of specie pay- ment, 668 ; inflation demanded in the West, 697 ; Greenback party, 697 ; free coinage, 69S; Bland-Alhson law, 699; resumption achieved, 699-700; tariff reform, 712-715; war taxes. 713; the surplus, 714. 724; McKinley Act, 724- 726, 727; Bland law in operation, 746; Silver notes, 746 ; shrinkage of bank notes, 746 ; sentiment for silver, 747 ; Sherman silver law, 747 ; Windom sec- retary of treasury, 747 ; attack on the reserve, 753, 755 ; repeal of Sherman silver law, 754-755 : reserve diminished, 755; "endless chain," the, 755-757; Morgan-Belmont agreement, 756 ; con- fidence restored, 757; a corporation tax, .838; currency reform, 850; Aldrich- Vreeland act, 850 ; Aldrich currency report, 850 ; Federal Reserve Bank, 858-S60. "Fiscal Corporation," 435. Fish, Hamilton, secretary of state, 644 ; and Santo Domingo annexation, 671; the treaty of Washington, 672 ; the Alabama arbitration, 673 ; and the Vir- ginius, 783. Fisheries, 4-6; colonial, 141; whaling, 142; and treaty of 1783, 215; condition of, 1783-1815, 347. Fisher's Hill, battle of, 565. Fisk, James, scheme to corner gold, 646. Fletcher, Governor, in New York, 103. Fletcher v. Peck, 302, 35S. Florida, the French in, in; attacked by South Carolina. 119; West, claimed by Jefferson, 300; Jefferson's plan to acquire, 302; conquest expected in 1812, 321, 331; plans to seize, 332; negotiation to purchase, 368-370; acquired, 370; a state, 463 : Seminoles under Osceola, 467 ; readmitted, 624 ; republicans overthrown, 632; disputed returns in 1876. 655, 657; surrendered to democrats, 657. Florida, the confederate ship. 523. Floyd. General, at Fort Donelson, 527. Food products, 7. INDEX 017 Foote's Resolutions, 396. Foraker Act, 814. Forbes, General, expedition against Fort Duquesne, 125. "Force Bill," 410. Forest, General, and negro prisoners, 574. Forests, 6. Forts, Southern, status of, 512 ; negotiations attempted, 515; Sumter attacked, 516. Forts, Western, not surrendered, 262 ; in the Jay treaty, 272. Foster, British minister, 335. "Fourteen-Diamond-Ring" Case, the, S14. Fowltown. attacked, 369. Fox, Charles James, 30S. Fox's Blockade, 308. France, explorations of, 35 ; colony of, in Florida, iii; as a colonizing nation, in, 115, 129; immigrants from, 14s; treaties of alliance and commerce, 177S, 198-200: volunteers, 198; sends d'Estaing, 200; army at Yorktown, 212; relations with. 1793. 266; neutrality proclamation, 2()(>: Gen^t in .\merica, 266 ; interpreting the treaties, 267; in American politics, 271, 276; attitude toward neutral trade, 271, 279; and Monroe's mission, 277; refuses to receive Pinckney, 27S; seizes American ships, 279; feeling against, 279; warships attacked, 281 ; three commissioners sent, 279; X, Y, Z papers, 280: treaty of tSoo, 282; settles claims, 417-419; seizing American ships, 313, 316; in Mexico, 589, 643 ; and confederate arms, 589 ; Seward and Mexico, 643. See Napoleon. Franklin, battle of, 538. Franklin, Benjamin, and renns\'lvania militia, 105; at .Mbany congress, 1754, 123: supports acquisition of Canada, 130, 161: and Philadelphia culture, 155; on stamp act, 168; and "common sense," 186; and declaration of independence, 187; in Paris, 198; peace commissioner, 214; opposed to Cincinnati, 229; in Con- stitutional Convention, 242, 24,";. Franklin, General, at Fredericksburg, 556. " Franklin, State of," 234. Frayscr's Farm, battle of, 549. Frederick the Great, on Washington, 192. Fredericksburg, battle of, .^.ss-SS?- Free coinage. See Silver. Freedmen, attitude in 1865, 601, 603 ; "forty acres and a mule," 603; receive the franchise. 607, 609-61 1 ; as citizens, 620; republicans, 622; on the juries, 637. Freedmen's Bureau, created, 603 ; bill of 1866, 605. Freeman's Farm, battles of, 197. Free Soil Party, organized, 452 ; in 1852, _ 485. Frtoont, J. C, in California, 449 ; nominated for presidency, 495 ; in Missouri, 542, S77 ; emancipation order, 578. French, activity in Ohio valley, 121 ; in the English colonies, 145. French and Indian wars, 115-130; influence of, 100. Frcnchtown, 323. Friar lands, 812. Frolic, the, 327, 328. Frontenac, services to New France, lis, 116; control of the lakes, 116; and the Iroquois, 117. Frontenac, Fort, destroyed, 125, 126. Frontier, advance in colonial times, 2, 100. Frontiersmen, American-born, 148. Fugitive Slave Law, 351; a new, 455, 457; not enforced, 486. Fur seal controversy, 767. Fur trade, 4. Gage, General, commander-in-chief, 171 ; in Boston, 178, iSo; attempts to seize supplies, 180; Bunker Hill, 181. Gaines's Mill, battle of, 548. Gallatin, Albert, and whisky insurrection, 268 ; secretary of treasury, 292 ; financial policy, 293 ; compared with Hamilton, 294; and war finance, 319, 320, 321; commissioner at Ghent, 334. Gama, Vasco da, reaches India, 34. Game, destroyed in the West, 683. (iarfielfl, James A., announces radical pro- gram, 608 : nominated for presidency, 702 ; elected, 702 ; cabinet, 703 ; relation to civil service reform, 704, 708; death of, 70S- Garrison, W. L., work of, 429. Gasp^e, destroyed, 17s. note. Gates, General, against Burgoyne, 197 ; command in the .South, 207; superseded, 208 ; and army plot, 224. Guam, acquisit'on of, 806. Genesee lands, 341. GenSt, in the United States, 266 ; on Wash- ington, 266 ; and the republicans, 266, 271. Geneva, arbitration tribunal at, 673. Georgia, established, 109: government of, no; relations with Spaniards, no; White- field, Rev. George, 1 10 ; and stamp act, 168; overrun by British. 206; recovered by Americans, 211; ratifies the constitu- tion, 248 ; and Western lands. 263, 264 ; and parties, 271; and Yazoo claims, 301, 9i8 INDEX 302 : cedes lands, 344 : Indians to be removed, 344 ; immigration to, 344 ; land grants in Fletcher v. Peck, 35S; and the Cherokees, 400, 407, 466 ; rejects nullifica- tion, 400 ; Indians removed, 466 ; Governor Jenkins removed, 623 ; military govern- ment restored, 625; readmitted, 625; republicans overthrown, 631. Georgia v. Stanton, case of, 612. Germain, Lord, 192, 193. Germans, settled in the colonies, 146. Germ'',ntown, battle of, 194. Germany, in Samoa, 765, our Samoan rela- tions with, 765-766 ; feeling in regard to war with Spain, 790; her fleet in Manila Bay, 792 ; and Venezuelan debts, 826. Gerry, Elbridge, commissioner to France, 279, 280; vice-president, 319. Gettysburg, battle of, 559-562. Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, and colonization, 42- Glacial period, influence of, 6. Gloucester, the, 800, 801. Glover, Colonel, 190. Goethals, G. W., at Panama, 822. Gold, deposits of, 10. Gold, in Hayti, 30 ; in California, 480 ; mining of, 677-680. Gold plank, adopted by republicans, 760. Goldsboro, N. C .Sherman halts at, 541. Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 62, 70. Gorman, A. P., opposed to Cleveland, 721. Gosnold, Bartholomew, aids colonization, 45 ; a Virginia councillor, 47. Gould, Jay, scheme to corner gold, 646. Gourgues, Dominique dc, in. Government, colonial, Virginia, 45, 49; Maryland, 53; Plymouth, 61, 62; Massa- chusetts, 64 ; New Haven, 69 ; New Eng- land confederation, 71 ; in New Nether- land, 74 ; in Carolinas, 82, 83 ; in New York, 83 ; the New York assembly, 84 ; influence of revolution of 168S, 100; voting money, 101-102. Governor, salary of, 101-102. Graham, William A., nominated for vice- presidency, 485. "Granger Laws," 734. Grant, Colonel, against the Cherokees, 131. Grant, U. S., campaign in the Tennessee, 527-529 ; at Forts Henry and Donelson, 527 ; confident position on the Tennessee, 328; at battle of Shiloh, 528; operations against Vicksburg, 530-532; at Chatta- nooga, 34 ; lieutenant-general, 535 ; trans- ferred to Virginia, 535 ; from the Wilder- ness to Petersburg, 563-564; pursues Lee, 567 ; at Appomattox, 567 ; secretary of war, 614; quarrel with Johnson, 614; attitude toward reconstruction, /P33, 645; nominated for presidency, (in; elected, 643 ; his political errors, 16. ; cabinet, 644 ; and civil service refoi n, 646 ; the Gould-Fish scheme, 646 ; reno.Ti- inated, 648 ; reelected, 649 ; as president, 649; relation with whisky ring, 651; and Belknap scandal, 652 ; candidate for third term in 1876, 652; in 1880, 702; Santo Domingo treaty, 671; trip around the world, 702 ; and civil service reform, 707. Grasse, Count de, in the Chesapeake, 212. Graves, Admiral, to aid of Comwallis, 212. "Great Awakening," the, 150. Great Meadows, 122. Greeks and sphericity of the earth, 26. Greeley, Horace, on emancipation, 579; on Jefferson Davis's bond, 641 ; nomi- nated by liberal republicans, 648; indorsed by the democrats, 648 ; death of, 649. Green, Duff, 402. Greenback Party, 697, 698, 702. Greene, Nathaniel, at Bunker Hill, 1S2 ; at Brooklyn, 189; at Forts Washington and Lee, 191 ; in command in the South, 208; retreat in North CaroHna, 209; at Guilford Courthouse, 210; returns to South Carolina, 210; success in the South, 211. Greenville, Fort, treaty of, 263. Grenville, George, colonial policy of, 162- 164 Grenville, Sir Richard, at Roanoke Island, 42. Groveton, Jackson at, 552. Guadaloupe Hidalgo, treaty of, 450. Guadeloupe, not ceded in 1763, 129. Guantanamo, seized, 795. Gnerriere, the, and impressments, 317; taken by the Constitution, 327. Guilford Courthouse, battle of, 210. Habeas Corpus, suspension of, 585, 5S6; act concerning, 613. Hahn, Governor, in Louisiana, 597. " Hair Buyer," the, 203, 204. Hakluyt, Richard, and Virginia colonization, 44- Hale, John P., 452 ; nominated in 1852, 485. Hale, Nathan, 190. "Half-Breeds," 695. "Halfway Covenant," the, 150. Halleck, General, commands in the West, INDEX 919 527; takes Corinth, s^o; called to Wash- ington, 530; and Pope, 550. Hamct, 295. Haoi'lton, the "Hair Buyer," 203, 204. IIlAiLon, Alexander, at Yorktown. 213; . fjasires strong government, 223 ; defends a tor,', 231; plan in constitutional conven- tion, 243; and the "Federalist," 247; on ratification, 24Q : secretary' of the treasury, 257 ; financial system, 259-261 ; and the bank, 261 ; his nationalism, 261 ; and the whisky insurrection, 267-269 ; and feder- alist party, 270; and Washington, 271; opposed to Adams, 273, 276, 2S2, 2S7, 289; private character attacked, 278: and command of army, 281 ; defeats Burr, 289; compared with Gallatin, 294; defeats Burr's plots, 301 ; killed by Burr, 301. Hampton, Wade, 324; and South Carolina governorship, 655, 657, 694. Hampton Roads, reached by the Virginia colonists, 46. Hampton Roads conference, 566. Hancock, John, colonial leader, 172; and Shays's Rebellion, 236; and ratification, 248. Hancock, W. S., military governor. 623 ; nominated for presidency. 702. Hanna, M. A., and McKinley, 1896, 760; suggested for nomination in 1904. 832. Harding, Sir John, and the Alabama, 523. Harlem, battle of, 190. Harmar, Fort, treaty of, 262. Harmon, Judson, candidate for nomination, 84s. 846. Harper's Ferry, John Brown at, 502-504; captured by Jackson, 554. Harrisburg, threatcd by Ewell, 559. Harrison, Benjamin, and the civil service, 709 : nominated. 722; elected, 723 : cabinet, 723; not popular, 748; and Blaine. 749; split with Quay. 749; renominated. 749; defeated, 750: maintaining the reserve, 752; and Hawaii, 773. Harrison, W. H., at Tippecanoe, 318; on the Canadian frontier, 52^ ; recovers Detroit, 323; at battle of the Thames, 323; and the land sales. 343 ; supported for presi- dency, 1836, 425; elected president, 434; death of, 435. Harrison's Landing, 549, Hartford, settled by Dutch. 69; arrival of • English. 69 ; exjjulsion of Dutch, 75. Hartford Convention, 336. Harvard College founded, 153; curriculum, IS3. Harvard University, development of, 480. Havana, taken by the British, 129. Haverhill, taken by French and Indians, 117. Hawaii, early history, 771 ; work of mis- sionaries, 772; treaty with, 772; revolu- tion of 1S93, 772 ; annexation refused, 772, 773 ; annexation accomplished, 773 ; present status, 774. Hawkins, Captain John, and the slave trade. 41. Hay. John, treaty with England. S17 ; con- vention with Herran, 818; treaty with Panama, S20: and China. 822-824. Hayes. R. B.. nominated, 653 ; disputed returns, 654 ; declared elected, 657 ; attitude toward South, 658, 693, 694- 695 ; cabinet, 694 ; a divided party, 695 ; as president, 703 ; and civil service reform, 708; and an isthmian canal, 816. Hayes, Mrs., in the White House, 703. Haymarket anarchists, 742. Hayne, R. Y., in debate with Webster. 396-398. Hayne-Webster debate, 396-398. Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 817. Hayti. discovered, 29; settled, 30, 31. Hearst, W. R., 835. Heath, Sir Robert, 52. Helper. H. R.. his "Impending Crisis," 504. Hendricks, Thomas A., nominated for vice- presidency, 653, 716. Henry, Fort, captured, 527. Henry. John, 335. Henr>'. Patrick, resolutions on stamp act, 166; committee of correspondence, 174; and George Rogers Clark, 203 ; opposes ratification. 249; on amendments, 257, Hepburn rate-bill, 833. Hepburn v. Griswold, 663. Herkimer. General, 196. HiKlilanders, settled in the colonies, 147. Hill, A. P., at Mechanicsville, 548; in Gettys- burg campaign, 558, 559, 560. Hill, D. B.. opposed to Cleveland, 720; governor of New York, 720; waives oppo- sition to Cleveland, 722; and the Cleve- land vote, 723; candidate for nomination, 750 ; speech at Chicago convention, 759. Hill, D. H., at Mechanicsville, 548; lost dispatch to, 554. Hillsborough, Lord, secretary of the colonies, 171. Hoar, E. R., attorney-general, 644; dis- missed, 645. Hobson. R. P., at Santiago, 794. Hojeda, 31, 32, 36. Holden. W. W., Governor, 600; appeals to martial law, 631 ; impeached, 632. 3K 920 INDEX Holland. See Dutch. Hood, General, succeeds Johnston, 537 ; fights around Atlanta, 537 ; threatens Sherman's base, 537 ; movement against Nashville, 538; beaten, 539- Hooker, General, in Tennessee, 534 ; at Lookout Mountain, 534 ; at Fredericks- burg, 557 ; in command, 557 ; Chancellors- ville, 537-558. Hooker, Rev. Thomas, 69. Hornet, the, sinks the Peacock, 327. Horse Shoe Bend, battle of, 332. "Hortalez et Cie," 198. Houston, Sam, in Texas, 421. Howard, General, at Chancellorsville, 558. Howe, Elias, 465. Howe, General George, death of, 126. Howe, General Wilham, at Bunker Hill, 181; succeeds Gage, 182; operations at New York, 188-IQI ; Philadelphia cam- paign, 194-195; superseded, 200; battle of Monmouth, 200 ; not in cooperation with Burgoyne, 193, 195 ; expedition against Philadelphia, 193-194. Howe, Lord, off New York, 188; meets d'Estaing, 201. "Hubbell, My dear," 704. Hudson, Henry, explorations of, 72. Hudson Bay Company, founded, 119. Hudson river, desired by France, 116. Huguenots, in South Carolina, 83 ; settled in colonies, 145. Hull, Captain Isaac, 327. Hull, General, at Detroit, 322. Humphreys, Governor, removed from office, 623. Hunkers, 451 ; at convention of 1848, 452- Hurons, and the French, 113. Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, her heresy, 66; trial, 67 ; banished, 67 ; death, 67. Hutchinson, Chief Justice, 167. Hyde, Edward. See Lord Combury. Idaho, territory and state, 678, 680, 748. Illinois, territory created, 344 ; county of, 204 ; Black Hawk war, 466. Immigration, 1815-1861, 461-462; distribu- tion of, 462 ; and politics, 462 ; growth after civil war, 665; Chinese, 774; Japan- ese, 776. Impeachment of Johnson, collecting evi- dence, 613; the trial, 615-617. Impressment of seamen, 306 ; a cause of war, 313; and Chesapeake-Leopard affair, 314; negotiations concerning, 315; not settled at Ghent, 334. Income tax, amendment suggested, 838; adopted, 838. Independence, two groups of opinion, 186, 187; states recommend, 187; declara- tion of, 187. Independents, the, as a political force, 693 ; relation to civil service reform, 707-708 ; in campaign of 1884, 718. Indians, hold back the frontier, 2 ; and early man, 12; classification of, 13-15; Algonquian family, 13 ; Iroquoian family, 14; Muskhogean family, 14; Siouan family, 14; Caddoan family, 14; Sho- shonean family, 14; Shahaptian family, 14; SaUshan family, 14; Athapascan family, 14; Eskimauan family, 14; Pa- cific coast tribes, 15; culture of, 15-21; government, 15-17; the clan, 15; the sachem, 16; the chief, 16; the council, 16; the brotherhood, 17; names, 17; wars, 17; leading tribes, i8; wars against whites, iS; character, 19; mind, 19; rehgion, 19; mythology, 20; houses, 20; pueblos, 20; and civilization, 21; present state, 21; called such by Columbus, 29; enslaved, 30; harsh treatment by Span- iards, 30; of Virginia, 47, 48; wars in Virginia, 51 ; relations with Plymouth colony, 61 ; Pequot war, 70; war against New Netherland, 73 ; King Pliilip's war, 92; raids on New England, 116, 117, iiS; relations with English, 121 ; Southern friendship sought by France and England, 121 ; trade with Southern, 121 ; Cherokees at war, 1759, 130; treaty at Fort Niagara, 132 ; war in Ohio, 262 ; treaty of Green- ville, 263 ; depredations in the South, 265 ; punished by Tennesseeans, 265 ; plans of Tecumseh, 318; the Southern, 318; Creeks subdued, 332; Northwestern pressed back, 344; Seminole war, 368; in Georgia, 400; status of a tribe, 400; process of removal, 465-468 ; Black Hawk war, 466; reservation system, 468; of the Far West, 683-689; arrival of white men, 6S3 ; game destroyed, 6S3 ; far western tribes, 683 ; wars of, 684-689; commission of 1 867-1 868, 685; Sioux commission, 688 ; treaties not to be made with, 6go; Dawes act, 690; Burke act, 690; late poUcy, 690, 691. Indiana, territory created, 344. Indiana, the, Soo, 801. Indian territory, conditions of, 467. Indigo, a staple crop, 8. Industrial combinations. See Combina- tions. INDEX 921 Industry, after the revolution, 22s; after civil war, 664-666. Inhabitants, early, 11-13. Injunctions, use against strikers, 744. "Insular Cases," 814. Insurance, life, investigating the companies, 833- Insurgents, the, origin of, 837 ; victory over Cannon, 838; in campaign of igi2, 843; found the progressive party, 847. Internal improvements, policy of, 365 ; bonus bill vetoed, 365 ; by the states, 366; checked by Jackson, 3g4-3g6; Cumberland road bill, 395 ; Calhoun's report on, 395 ; later history of, 396. Interstate commerce act, 73s ; powers of commission increased, 833, 839. Iowa, a state, 463. lou'a, the, 800, 801. Iron, deposits, 8, 10; early manufacture of, 10. Iroquois, 18; attitude toward French, 112; power of, 113; relations with the English, 114; Frontenac and, 117, 118; recognized as British subjects, 119; and the Albany congress, 122. Irrigation, 849. Island No. 10, 529. Isthmian canal, and Clayton-Bulwer treatv, 458- Isthmian canal project, early history' of, 814-817; French canal, 815-816; Hayes's idea, 816; Nicaraguan, 817; Panama, 817-818, 821-S22. Italy, and Mafia incident, 767. Itata, the, 769. Jackson, Andrew, and Burr, 304: to serve against Florida, 332 ; conquers the Creeks, 332; at Pensacola, 3i2; New Orleans campaign, 332-334; enters Florida, 369; attacked by Clay, 370; candidate for presidency, 1824, 377, 378, 379-380; his party in 1825-1829, 382; attack on Adams, 384 ; as party leader, 388 ; party demands, 3S9 ; elected. 390 ; inaugurated, 392 ; his cabinet, 392 ; checks internal improvements, 394-396; "Union" toast, 399; attitude toward Georgia, 400; open breach with Calhoun, 401 ; cabinet reor- ganized, 402 ; renominated, 402, 404 ; elected, 405 ; denounces nullification, 408; and the "force bill," 410; "war" against the bank. 411-415; idea of a bank, 412; resolutions of censure, 415; and West India Trade, 415-417; the French claims, 417-419: and the surplus, 424; on Van Burcn's Texas letter, 442; Georgia Indians removed, 466 ; relation to democratic reform, 474. Jackson, F. J., minister from England, 316, 335- Jackson, Fort, treaty of, 332. Jackson, Stonewall, at Bull Run, 519; diversion in the valley, 547 ; at Cedar Mountain, 551 ; takes Harper's Ferry, 554; at Antietam, 555 ; at Fredericksburg, 556; at Chancellorsville, 557; death of, 558. Jackson. Mississippi, captured by Grant, 531- James I, and the colonies, 76. Jameson, J. Franklin, and Venezuelan boundar>% 780. James river, opened by the federals, 546; McClellan reaches, 549. Jamestown, settled, 47 ; early history, 47- 50 ; natural beauty, 47 ; disease at, 47 ; starvation, 48 ; land distributed, 49. Japan, relations with, 775-777; war with Russia, 824; at treaty of Portsmouth, 824. Jay, John, peace commissioner, 214; and the "Federalist," 247; on ratification, 249; negotiates treaty, 272. Jay Cooke and Co., failure of, 666. Jefferson, Thomas, 174; and the declaration of independence, 1S7 ; and Northwest, 232 ; secretar\' of state, 257 ; and assumption, 260; against the hank. 261 ; forms republi- can party, 270 ; leaves cabinet, 271 ; elected vice-president, 274; and election of 1796, 274; declines French ministry, 276; reply to alien and sedition laws, 285 ; elected president. 288-290; views of, 291-292; inaugurated. 291-292; cabinet, 292 ; appointments, 292 ; and the federal courts, 294 ; and Louisiana purchase, 296-299; popularity of, 300; and Burr, 300; and Randolph, 301; reelected, 302; and trade restrictions, 307-311; and Monroe treaty, 310; and embargo act, 310-311 ; on the Chcsapeakf-Leopdrd affair, 315; failure of his gunboats, 326. Jefferson and the state university, 479. Jenckes, Thomas, and civil service reform. 707. Jenkins. Governor, removed, 623. Jesuits, in Canada, 113. Jews, in the colonies, 147. Johnson, .Vndrew, nominated for vice-presi- dency, 584, 590; as president, 599; his plan of reconstruction, 599-601 ; relations with his cabinet, 600; amnesty of, 600; g22 INDEX popularity in 1865, 604; projected party, 604 ; vetoes freedmen's bureau bill, 605 ; popularity wanes, 605 ; vetoes civil rights bill, 606 ; enforces congressional recon- struction, 611; " swinging-around-the-cir- cle," 611; impeacliment of, 613-617; acquittal, 616-617; and negro suffrage, 622. Johnson, Hiram, nominated for vice-pres- idency, 847. Johnson, Reverdy, 670. Johnson, R. M.. 318; elected vice-president, 425- Johnson, Sir William, 124. Johnson-Clarendon convention, 670. Johnston, A. S., defense of Nashville, 528; falls back to Corinth, 528; attacks at Shiloh, 528; kiUed, 52S. Johnston, Joseph E., at Bull Run, 519; against Grant at Vicksburg, 531 ; succeeds Bragg, 535 ; operations against Sherman, S3 5-53 7 ; removed, 537 ; restored to com- mand, 539; before Sherman in North Carolina, 540, 541 ; defending Richmond, S45 ; wounded at Seven Pines, 548 ; surrenders to Sherman, 568. Joliet, reaches the Mississippi, 114. Jones, John Paul, 205. Jones, Willie, and John Paul Jones, 205. Jury, the negro on, 637. Kalakaua, king of Hawaii, 772. Kalb, arrival in America, 198 ; killed at Camden, 208. Kansas, struggle for, 4S9-493 ; two streams of settlers, 483 ; two governments, 483- 490 ; statehood suggested, 490 ; Kansas debate, 490; violence in, 491; failure of Governor Walker, 492 ; Lecompton constitution, 492 ; the EngUsh bill, 493 ; admitted to the union, 493. Kansas-Nebraska act, origin of, 486; passed, 487 ; significance, 487 ; conse- quences, 489. Kaskaskia, 343 ; taken by Clark, 204. Kearny, General, expedition to California, 44S. Kearney, Phil, killed in battle, 553. Kennebec, colony on, 46. Kennesaw Mountain, battle of, 536. Kent, General, at Santiago, 796, 797, 798. Kent's Island, 55. Kentucky, Indians attack, 203 ; aid given against Ferguson, 20S; settled, 232, 233; a state, 264; threatened rebellion of, 264; and parties, 271; struggle for union in, 517; defense of, 527; Bragg in, 529. Kentucky resolutions, 285-287. Key West, American fleet at, 793. Kidnapping, 137. Kieft, William, governor of New Amster- dam, 73. King, W. R., elected vice-president, 485. King George's War, 120. King's Mountain, battle of, 208. King WiUiam's War, 116. "Kitchen Cabinet," 393. Knights of Labor, early history, 741 ; violent element, 742 ; and St. Louis strike, 742 ; and Chicago strike, 742 ; decline of, 743. "Know Ye" resolutions, 236. Know-Nothing party, origin, 493 ; failure of, 494- Knox, Henry, secretary of war, 257 ; supports Hamilton, 261 ; and new army, 281. Ku Klux act, of 1871, 629, 634. Ku Klux Klan, history of, 627-630 ; methods, 62S ; organization, 628 ; congress interferes, 629 ; achievement of, 629 ; connected with politics, 630; in North Carolina, 631. Labor, white servants, 137; redemptioners, 146; department of, 851. Ladrone Islands, 805, 806. Lafayette, Marquis, volunteers, 198 ; at Monmouth, 200: in Virginia, 211. La Foiette, Senator, presidential candidate, 843- Lake George, battle of, 124. Lamar, L. Q. C, on Seward, 507 ; in Cleve- land's cabinet, 720. Land, bottom, 2, 7 ; distributed in Plymouth, 61 ; distribution of, in Virginia, 49 ; return from, in early Virginia, 50 ; patroons in New Netherland, 73 : distribution of, 134; taking it up, 136; Western, 231-234; surrendered by states, 231; sale of, 232, 342, 343 ; military grants, 342 ; great companies, 342; Southwestern, 345. Lane. Ralph, and Roanoke Island, 42. Lansing skulls, 12. La Salle, explores the Mississippi, 114. Las Guasimas, 796. Laudonniere, leads colony to Florida, iii. Laurens, Henry, peace commissioner, 114. Lawrence, Captain, 327. Lawrence, Kansas, attacked, 491. Lawton, General, at Santiago, 796, 797. 798; carries El Caney, 798. Lecompton constitution, the, 492 ; Douglas opposes, 492 ; defeated, 493. Lee, Arthur, in Paris, 198. Lee, Fort, iSS, 191. Lee, General Charles, in New York cam- INDEX 923 paign, 191 ; his character, 197 ; at Mon- mouth, 200; dismissed, 200; on Gates, 207. Lee, R. E., repulsed in West Virginia, 526; as commander, 54s ; takes command, S48 ; defeats McCIellan, 548-549 ; moves against Pope, 551-553; the .\ntietam campaign, SS3-S55; at Fredericksburg, 555-557; at Chancellorsville, 557-558; invasion of Pennsylvania, 558: in Gettysburg cam- paign, 558-562 ; his generalship, 562 ; at the Wilderness, 563 ; at Spottsylvania, 563 : at Cold Harbor, 563 ; evacuates Richmond, 566 ; surrenders, 567 ; captures John Brown, 503. Lee, R. H., resolutions in continental con- gress, 187 ; on ratification, 249. Lee, the, 182. Legal tender, retiring the notes, 662 ; decisions on, 663-664; redemption of, 668; more demanded, 66S; resumption act, 669. Legal tender act, 574. Leif Ericsson, 23. Leisler, Jacob, initiates revolution, 96; defeat of, 102. Leopard, attacked by Chesapeake, 314. Lepe. Diego de, 32. Levis, attacks Quebec, 128. Lewis, Meriwether, explorations, 356. Lewis, W. B., in "Kitchen Cabinet," 393- Lewis and Clark, explorations, 355. Lexington, battle of, 180. Liberal republicans, origin of, 648 ; nominate Greeley, 648. Liliuokalani, Queen, 772, 773. Linares, General, defender of Santiago, 796, 797 ; errors of, 802. Lincoln, Abraham, in' debate with Douglas, 499-503; "House divided" speech, 500; destroying Douglas, 501 ; nominated for presidency, 508 ; elected, 509 ; attitude toward secession, 514; first inaugural, 515; calls for volunteers, 517; and Mc- CIellan, 545, 546, 549 ; and emancipation, 577-581 ; at Hampton Roads, 566 ; assassinated, 568; his greatness, 568; war policy criticized, 581, 582 ; his renom- ination opposed, 583 ; renominated, 5S4 ; reelected, 584; militar>' law, 585, 5S6; plan of reconstruction. 596-500; amnesty proclamation, 596; and the Wade-Davis bill, 597; and negro suffrage, 597, 622. Lincoln-Douglas debates, 499-502 ; effect of, 502. Lincoln, General, at Charleston, 207 ; receives Cornwallis's sword, 213; and Shays's Rebellion, 236. Little Big Horn, battle of, 688. LitUe Sarah, the, 267. Livingston, Edward, minister to Paris, 418. Livingston, Robert R., 1S7 ; on ratification, 249 : and Louisiana purchase, 297-299. "Locofocos," 433. Lodge, H. C, in campaign of 1884, 716. Logan, General J. A., nominated for vice- presidency, 716. Logan, James A., culture of, 155. London Company, created, 45, 46 ; reformed, 50; services to Virginia, 51 ; and Mary- land settlement, 52 ; and Pilgrims, 52, 59- Longstreet, General, at Chickamauga, 533 ; at Knoxville, 534 ; at second Bull Run, 552 ; at Fredericksburg, 556 ; in Gettysburg campaign, 559, 560, 561. Lookout Mountain, capture of, 534. Lords of Trade, 77. Lorimer, Senator, investigation, 842. Loudon, Fort, captured, 130. Louisburg, taken by colonials, 120, futile expedition against, 125; taken, 125, 126. Louisiana, early history, 115; purchase of, 296-299 ; boundaries of, 299 ; and Burr's scheme, 304 ; territory of, 345 ; territory of Orleans, 345 ; admitted to union, 345 ; population of, 1810, 345 ; reconstructed under Lincoln, 596 ; readmitted, 624 ; republicans overthrown, 633 ; disputed returns in 1876, 65s, 657 ; surrendered to democrats, 657. Louis XIV. and New France, 115. Lowndes, William, ejected to congress, 318; on the tariff, 364. Limiber industry, 6. Lundy, Benjamin, work of, 428. Lundy's Lane, battle of, 325. Lutheran Church, 354. Lyon, General, and Missouri secessionists, 517, 526; death of, 526; defense of Mis- souri. 541. Lyttlelon, Governor, and Cherokee war, 130. McCardle, ex parte, case of, 613. McCIellan, General, in West Virginia, 520, 526 ; in command in Virginia, 545 ; tardi- ness, 545 ; in the Peninsular campaign, 546-550; controversy over, 550; in the Aiitietam campaign, 554; nominated for presidency, 584. 924 INDEX McCormick reaper, invented, 465. McCuUoch, Hugh, as financier^ 660; his refunding plans, 661. McCulloch V. Maryland, case of, 359. MacDonald, Donald, 183. MacDonough, Captain, victory on Lake Champlain, 325. McDowell, General, in Bull Run campaign, 519; and McClellan, 546, 547; at second Bull Run, 554. Macedonian, the, 327, 32S. McGilUvray, Alexander, 265. McHenry, Fort, defended against British, 330. McHenry, James, dismissed from the cabinet, 287. McKinley, William, Jr., and the civil service, 711; and the tariff, 715; as leader, 723; his tariff bill, 724-726; effect of, 727; nominated, 1896, 760; campaign of, 761; elected, 762 ; attitude toward Spain, 787, 789; and the Maine. 788; demands armistice in Cuba, 789; suggests war, 789 ; responsible for Manila, 792 ; and Schley-Sampson controversy, 804; and acquisition of the Philippines, 805 ; reelected, 827 ; death of, 827; later policy of, 829. McKinley tariff and Sherman silver law, 747- McLanc. Lewis, and the bank, 412, 413 ; and West Indian trade, 417. McLean, J. J., for president, 423; in Dred Scott case, 498. Macomb, General, 325. Macon, Nathaniel, speaker, 303; "Macon's Bill No. 2," 311, 313. "Macon's Bill No. 2," 311, 313, 317. Madison, on Potomac smugglers, 241 ; "Notes" on constitutional debates, 242; author of Virginia plan, 243 ; and the "FederaUst," 247; supports ratification, 249; and first revenue bill, 257; position on refunding, 259; retaUatory resolu- tions, 272; declines French ministry, 276; and Virginia Resolutions, 285-287 : sec- retary of state, 292 ; disliked by Randolph, 302; elected president, 311; hoodwinked by Napoleon, 317; favors war party, 319; renominated, 319; reelected, 319. Mafia Incident, 767. Magellan, voyage of, a. Mails, use for antislavery literature, 430. Maine, early settlements in, 62, 70 ; hold of British in, 331; a state, 373; boundary dispute, 437-438 ; prohibition in, 4S0. Maine, the, destroyed at Havana, 787, 788. Maiden, Fort, 321 ; Hull before, 322 ; evac- uated, 323. Malvern Hill, battle of, 549. Manassas, battle of, 552. Mangum, W. P., 426. Manhattan Island. See New York. Manila, battle of, 791 ; holding the bay, 792 ; Aguinaldo at, 809 ; capture of, 792, 809. Manley, John, 182. Manufactures, colonial, 140; British restric- tions on, 141; new era of, 348; early, 349 ; effect of embargo, 349 ; effect on society, 349 ; demand a tariff, 364, 384- 386; growth of, 463; combination in, 736-740. Maps of America, early, 36. Marbois, and Louisiana purchase, 299. Marbury t). Madison, case of, 357. Marco Polo, 26. Marcy. W. L., a Hunker, 451. Maria Teresa, the, 800, 801. Marietta, settled, 342. Marion, partisan leader, 207 ; under Greene, 210. Marquette, Father, reaches the Mississippi, 114. Marshall, John, on ratification, 249; com- missioner to France, 279 ; secretary of state, 276, 287 ; Chief Justice, 291 ; at Burr's trial, 305 ; influence on the constitu- tion, 357-360. Marshall, Thomas R., nominated for vice- president, 847. Martin, Luther, 242, 245. Martinique, not ceded in 1763, 129. Marye's Heights, 556. Marj'land, early history, 52-57; government of, 53, 54 ; reUgious toleration, 53 ; first colony, 53, 54; the assembly, 54; manors in, 55 ; Jesuits in, 55 ; struggle for Kent's Island, 55; and Virginia politics, 56; civil war in, 57; toleration act of 1649, 37; battle of Providence, 57; and the restoration, 80; reactionary govenmient under Charles Calvert, 88; revolution, 89, 97; trade, 142; religion in, 151; and western lands, 232 ; confers with Virginia on trade, 241 ; struggle for union in, 517 ; Lee invades, 553-555; military arrests in, 585- Mason, Captain John, 62, 70. Mason, George, on ratification, 249. Mason and Slidell, seized on the Trent, 522. Massachusetts, early settlements in, 62, 63. Massachusetts, and New England confeder- ation, 7 1 ; during the restoration period, INDEX 925 80 ; charter annulled, 93 ; and the Dom- inion of New England, 04 : rule of Andros, 93~95 : overthrow of Andros, 96 ; new char- ter, 97 ; salarj- controversy, loi ; and paper money, 158 ; resists stamp act, 167 ; resists quartering troops, 169; in the revolutionary quarrel, 170; parliament censures, 171; troops sent, 171; com- mittees appointed, 174; charter changed by parliament, 176; general sympathy for, 177; Shays's Rebellion, 236; ratifies the constitution, 248; public schools in, 476; work of Horace Mann, 477 ; cedes Maine, 373- Massackiisctls, the, Soo, 801. Massachusetts Bay, colony of, charter, 63; population, 64 ; early government, 64 ; the franchise, 65 ; suspected by the king, 66. See Massachusetts. Massasoit, 61. Matamoras, taken by Taylor. 447. Mather. Rev. Cotton, and witchcraft, 149. Mather. Rev. Increase, and witches, 149. Mayflower, voyage of, 60. *'Mayflower Compact," the, 61. Maysville veto, 393. Meade. General, in command, 559 ; in Gettysburg Ciimpaign, 559-562. "Meat Trust," 839. Mechanics\iUe, battle of, 548. Mecklenburg county, resolves of, 180. "Mediterranean Fund," 293. Menendez, Pedro, 1 1 1 . Merritnac, the, 569 ; sunk at Santiago, 794. Merritt, Wesley, at Manila, 792, Sio. Methodist Church, founded in America, jSS ; divided by slavery. 456. 471. Mexico, conquest of, 37 ; and Burr's scheme, 304; early relations with Te.\as, 419; refuses to sell Texas, 420; refuses to sell California, 446 : war with, 446-450 ; city of, taken, 450; treaty with, 450; French in, 589, 643. Michigan, territory created, 344; a state, 463. MilBin, Governor, and whisky insurrection, 268. Milan Decree, 309. Miles, N. A., and Jellerson Davis, 64 ; takes Porto Rico, 801. MiUtary government established in the South, 609-611, 622-625; supreme cour on, 612, 613; reestablished in the South 622-625. Military law, in ci\'il war, 581, 585, 586. Milligan, ex parte, case of, 612. "Millionaires panic," 739. Mineral oils, lO. Minerals, 8-1 1. Mining, in the Far West, 677-680; condi- tions, 678 ; laws, 678. Minnesota, a state, 463. Miimit, Peter, governor of New Amsterdam, 72 ; in Delaware, 75. Missionar>- Ridge, battle of. 535. Mississippi, territorj' created, 344; popula- tion, 1820, 345; new Black Code in, 602; Governor Humphreys removed , 623 ; readmitted. 625 ; republicans overthrown, 632; the "Mississippi plan," 632. Mississippi river, as a means of transporta- tion, 2; explored by French, 114; opened north and south, 529; opened at Vicks- burg, 532. Mississippi v. Johnson, case of, 612. Missouri, territory created, 345 ; develop- ment of. 371 ; asks for statehood, 371 ; compromise, 373 ; constitution of, 374 ; interest in Nebraska, 486 ; attempt to settle Kansas, 489; struggle for union in, 517, 526, 541-542. Missouri Compromise, adopted, 371-374. Mobile, desire to annex, 321; occupied, 332. Mobile Act, 300, Mobile Bay, defenses taken, 571. Mohawk river and transportation system, 3. Mohawks, 113. " Molasses Act," 144; renewed, 163. Mohno del Rey, battle at, 450. Monck's Corners, 211. Money, continental, 223; paper, after the revolution, 236. See Paper money. Monhegan, 6r. Monitor, contest with the Virginia, 546, 570. Monmouth, battle of, 200. Monocacy, battle of, 565. Monroe. James, mission to France, 1794, 277; his blow at Hamilton, '278; and the purchase of Louisiana, 299 ; and Randolph, 302, 303: makes treaty, 310; secretary of state, 317, 330; elected president, 366; cabinet, 367 ; and Spanish-.\merican states, 367 ; and parties, 36S ; reelected, 368; and internal improvements, 395. Monroe Doctrine, origin of, 374; England's relation to, 375 ; Adams's part, 375 ; Rus- sia's relation to. 375; announced, 377; a Venezuelan incident, he Venezuelan incident, , S26 ; Roosevelt on, 827. ■78 ; a territory and state, . .u 1 cs de, takes Fort William 926 INDEX Henry, 125; impeded in Canada, 126; defense of Quebec, 127 ; death, 127, Monterey, taken by Taylor, 447. Monterey, the, at Manila, 7g2. Montgomery, Colonel, against the Cherokees, 130- Montgomery, Richard, in Canada, 184. Montgomery, Ala., confederacy organized at, 511. Montreal, site discovered, 36; attempt to take, 116; taken by British, 128; position of, 321 ; expedition against, 322. Moravians, settlements of, 147. Morgan, General, at Cowpens, 208; pur- sued by Tarleton, 2og ; retreat of, 2oy. Morgan, J. P., system of banks, 740: and bond sales under Cleveland, 756-757. Morgan, William, against masonry, 403. Morgan, Fort, taken, 571. Morris, Gouvemeur, and union, 223 ; min- ister to England, 262 ; minister to France, 277- Morris, Robert, superintendent of finances, 228. Morris, Captain, in Tripolitan war, 295. Morse, invents telegraph, 465. Morton, L. P., vice-president, 722. Morton, O. P., influence at Washington, 633; and renomination of (Irant, 653. Motley, J. L., recall of, 645. Moultrie, Col., defends Charleston, 183. "Mound Builders," the, 12. Mounds, 12. "Mulligan Letters," 717. Murfreesboro, Buel, at, 529; battle of, 530. Murray, suggests treaty with France, 2S2. Napoleon, and Louisiana, 207; and Florida, 302 ; restrictions on .Xmerican trade, 307- 309; hoodwinks Madison, 310. Narvaez, explorations of, 38. Nashville Convention, 457. Nashville, battle of, 539. Nast, Thomas, in campaign of 1872, 649. National republicans, 403. National silver party, 761. Native American movement, 462. Naturalization, law of 1795, 283; law of 1798, 283 ; law of 1802, 283. Natural resources, 4-1 1; preservation of, 849-850. Nature, influence of, i. Navigation Acts, ordinance of 1651, 78; later acts, 81 ; in practice, 143 ; evaded, 144; to be enforced, 163; and the rcvolu- lioa, 163; and Massachusetts, 170; bear- ing on post-revolutionary trade, 226; receding, 416. Navy, in the revolution, 204-206; against France, 279, 281 ; seize French ships, 281 ; department of, created, 281 ; Jefferson, and, 293 ; in war with Tripoli, 295 ; war party favors, 319; condition of in 1812, 320, 326; naval warfare, 326-329; new ships, 327, 328; after war of 1812, 363; federal, in the civil war, 569-571 ; at New Orleans, 529; liberal appropriations under Harrison, 727. Nebraska, demand for a territory of, 486. Necessity, Fort, 122. Neesima, J. H., work in Japan, 775. Negroes. See Freedmen, 601. Negro troops. 573 ; as prisoners, 573-574- Neutrality proclamation, 266. Nevada, settled, 677; state and territory, 677, 680. New Amsterdam. See New York. Newburg address, the, 223. New England, council of, 61, 62; and New Hampshire, 70; the town, 134; Hfein, 137; trade in, 142; 163; religion in, 148, 150; education, 153; local government in, 156; privateers, 205 ; British sympathy in, 331. 335-33S; ignored by agricultural states, 335 ; hopes from Canada, as ; migration westward, 341 ; rise of manu- factures, 349 ; disestablishment in, 355 ; and the tariff, 385, 386-387. New England confederation, origin of, 71 ; constitution of, 71 ; decay of, 71. New France, condition of , 1628, 1 1 2 ; explored, iii; settled, 112; Jesuits in, 113; and Indian trade, 121 ; in the Ohio valley, 121. New Haven, settled, 69; government of, 69; united with New Haven, 80. New Hampshire, early history, 62, 70; falls to Massachusetts, 70 ; and the Dominion of New England, 94; and the revolution, 97 ; ratifies the constitution, 248. New Jersey, created, 81, 85; East and West Jersey, 85 ; granted to Duke of York, 85 ; Quaker control, 85 ; and the Dominion of New England, 94 ; and the revolution, 97 ; campaign in, igi ; tories in, 191 ; recov- ered, 192; ratifies the constitution, 247. New London, taken by Arnold, 212. New Mexico, attempt of Polk to purchase, 446 ; occupied by Kearney, 448 ; not made a territory, 453; made a territory, 455, 457 ; mining in, 678 ; territory and state, 680; statehood granted, 851. New Netherland. See New York. INDEX 927 >few Orleans, campaign of, 332-334; capture of, 52g; Mafia riots at, 767. Newport, Captain Christopher, in Virginia, 46, 48. Newport, held by British, 192 ; siege of, 200. Newspaper ownership, 842. New York, explored and settled by Dutch, 72 ; patroon system, 73 ; disorders in, 73 ; Indian wars, 73; government, 74; Eng- lish settlers on Long Island, 75 ; acquired by the English, 75 ; government, S3 ; conquered by Dutch, 84 ; struggle for an assembly, 84; and the Dominion of New England, 94 ; Leisler revolution, 96, 10? • governor's salary, 102 ; contest for assembly, 103 ; money votes in. 103, 104 ; religion in, 152 ; mixed form of local government, 156; "Duke's Law," 157; stamp act congress, 167; resents quar- tering troops, 169: assembly suspended, 170 ; operations around. 188-191 ; attitude in constitutional convention, 244 ; ratifies the constitution, 249; and parties, 270; settlement of western, 341 ; constitutional reform in, 473 ; public schools in, 477. Nev! York, the, 800, 801. New York Central system, development of, 733. 734- Niagara, Fort, expedition against, 124; captured, 126; Indian treaty at, 132. Nicaragua, canal through, 813. 816, 817. Nicholson, Sir Francis, governor of New York, 95, 96. NicoUs, Col. Richard, governor of New York, 75; takes New .Amsterdam. 76; approves, the "Duke's Laws," 83. Ninety-six, 210, 211. Nomination, presidential, by convention, 404 : significance of, 404. Sef Caucus. Non-importation, 17O5, 167; revived. 170; employed in 1774, 179; act of 1806, 309. Non-slaveholders, 469. Norfolk, burned. 186. Norsemen, discoveries by, 234. North and South, relative strength of. 518. North, Lord, colonial policy of, 171 ; duty on tea. 173 ; offers compromise, 1778, 199 ; resigns, 214. North Carolina, discovered by Spaniards, 31 ; colony at Roanoke Island, 42 ; settle- ment of, 82 ; name, 82, 83 ; evolution of, 106 1 Cary rebellion, 107 ; Indian wars, 107; sale to crown, 107; quitrents, 107; controversy over county representation, 13s; trade, 143; race elements in, 146, 147; religion in, 151; resists stamp act, 168; Mecklenburg resolves, 180; loyalists in, 182; regulators, 183; battle of Moore's Creek, 1S3; authorizes independence, 186; against nullification, 410; Cornwallis in, 208-210; American retreat in, 209; ratifies the constitution, 249 ; and parties, 271; constitutional reform in, 474; "free schools" in, 477; federal operations in. 570; reconstructed by Johnson, 600; readmitted, 624; Ilolden and martial law. O31; republicans overthrown, 632. North Dakota, a state, 748. Northeast boundary a', 472. Presbyterians, in the colonies, 148; in Vir- ginia, 151. President, constitutional status, 251, 258; war powers of, 585-586. President, the, 295, 328 ; and Liltle Belt, 317. "Prester John," 25. 93° INDEX Prevost in the South, 207. Price, Sterling, in Missouri, 541, 542; in Arliansas, 541, 542. Prices and panic of 1S73, 667. Prince Henry the Navigator, 25. Princeton, battle of, ig2. Princeton College, founded, 154. Privateers, in the revolution, 204 ; in the war of 1812, 328- Progressive party, founded, 847. Prophet, the, 318. Proprietary colony, the, described, 8t. Protestant Episcopal Church, organized, 354; of the confederacy, 472. Pueblo Indians, 13. Pujo Committee, 741, 851. Pulaski, arrival in America, 198. Pullman strike, 743. Pure food law, 833. Puritanism, origin and belief, 63 ; apology for, 65 ; attitude toward Roger Williams, 6s ; weakening, 148. Puritan Revolution and the colonies, 77. Putnam, Israel, at battle of Brooklyn, 1S9. Quakers, 353 ; in Massachusetts, 67, 68 ; attitude toward oaths, 105 ; toward mili- tary service, 105 ; in North Carolina, 107; in Virginia, 151. Quay, M. S., as a leader, 723. Quebec, site discovered, 36; founded, 112; attempt to take, 1690, n6; Sir Hovenden Walker's failure against, iiS; taken by Wolfe, 127; held by Murray, 128; be- sieged by Montgomery and Arnold, 183. "Quebec Act," 177. Queen Anne's war, 11S-119. Queenstown, attacked, 323. Queseda, Cuban leader, 782, 784. Race, elements in colonies, 145-148. Radicals, principles of, 597 : Wade-Davis bill, sgS; Stanton and, 600; efforts against Johnson, 605 ; and civil rights bill, 606 ; and fourteenth amendment, 607 ; in con- trol of congress, 608; and tenure-of-office act, 611. Railroads, early development, 464 ; construc- tion after the war, 66s ; transcontinental, 680; Union Pacific, 680; Central Pacific, 680; Northern Pacific, 681; Atlantic and Pacific, 681 ; Santa Fe, 682 ; Southern Pacific, 682 ; Great Northern, 682 ; Con- structing the Pacific roads, 6S2 ; land grants abused, 682 ; combinations of, 732-735; in England, 732; combining lioes, 733; attempts at cooperation, 734; "Granger laws," 734; railroads and inter- state commerce act, 735 ; as a political issue, 735 ; the Wabash case, 735 ; Hep- burn rate bill, 833. Rainfall, 2. Raisin, the, the massacre at, 323. "Raleigh, Citie of," 43. Raleigh, Sir Walter, and colonization, 42-44. Rail, Colonel, 192. Rambouillet Decree, 316. Randall, S. J., and the tariff, 714, 715, 721. Randolph, Edmund, in constitutional con- vention, 243; attorney-general, 257; sup- ports Jefferson, 261 ; secretary of state, 271. Randolph, Edward, and navigation acts, 93 ; hostile to the charters, 93, 94 ; influence on the new charter, 97. Randolph, John, at impeachment of Chase, 294 ; opposed to Jefferson, 301 ; opposed to Yazoo men, 301, 302 ; shorn of his strength. 302, 303 : supports Monroe, 302. Rawdon, Lord, at Camden, 207 ; at Hob- kirk's Hill, 210: in Charleston, 211. Reciprocity. Blaine secures, 725; McKinley on, S29; Canadian, 841, 842. Reconstruction, question comes up in con- gress, 585 ; two kinds, 594 ; theories ol stains, 595; Lincoln's plan, 596-599; Wade-Davis bill, 597-598; attitude of South, 1865, 601, 602, 619; committee on, 605 ; freedmen's bureau bill, 605 ; civil rights bill, 606; the radical program, 609-611; acts of 1867, 609-611; acts enforced in the South, 622-625. Redemptioners, 146. Red river expedition, 542. Reed, Thomas B., on the tariff of 1883, 715 ; as leader, 723 ; speaker, 724; breaks down obstruction, 724. Registration, Southern, 623. Regulators, in North Carolina, 183. Reid, Whitelaw, nominated for vice-presi- dency, 749. Religion, in Virginia, 46; in Maryland, 53; Maryland Toleration Act, 57 ; and the franchise in Massachusetts, 65 ; perse- cutions in Massachusetts, 65-68; perse- cution in New Netherland, 74 ; in the colonies, 148-152; work of the churches, 148; in New England, 14S; Witchcraft, 149; "Halfway Covenant," 150; the "Great Awakening," 150; freedom in Rhode Island, 151; Anglican Church, in New England, 14S; in the South, 151; British Toleration Act, 152 ; treatment of Catholics, 152; "Saybrook Platform," INDEX 931 153; churches and education. 154; estab- lished churches, 352; Methodists, 353; Baptists, 353 ; other churches, 354 ; Prot- estant Episcopal Church, 354 ; Congrega- tionalists, 354; Unitarian movement, 355 ; disestablishment in New England, 355- Republicanism, inherent, 218, 228. Republican party, relations with Genet, 266; formation of, 270; in election of 1800, 288-2go; princiDles, 288, 291-292; dissensions in. 300-3C,'. Republican party, the second, origin, 494 ; ■Seward joins, 494 ; in Massachusetts, 495 ; Fremont nominated, 495 ; gain in 185S, 502 ; successful in i860, 50S ; in the civil war, 581 ; in 1862, 582 ; moder- ate party of Johnson, 604 ; organized in the South, 621-622 ; loses the South, 630-633; in Georgia, 631; in North Carolina, 631 ; in Virginia, Tennessee, and Texas, 632 ; in Alabama, Arkan- sas, and Mississippi, 632 ; loses the South, in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, 633 ; repressive policy under Grant, 633-634; situation of, after the war, 640; in the elections of 1866, 640. Resaca de la Palma, battle of, 447. Resumption of specie payment, act for, 669 ; achievement of, 699. Revere, Paul, 180. Revolution, colonial assemblies and parties, 100, loi ; causes of, 161 ; principles under- lying, 161; Bute's policy, 161; King's veto and, 162; navigation acts and, 163; GrenviUe's policy, 162-164; growing irritation, 169-170; Townshend Acts, 169-170: causes summarized. 173: atti- tude of three groups, 174 ; first continental congress, 178; declaration of independence, 186-188; indifference of people. 192; army of the patriots, 193 ; French alliance, 198 ; compromise offered, 199 ; war ended, 213 ; treaty of peace, 214-216. Reynolds, General, at Gettysburg, 560; death of, 560. Rhode Island, founded, 66, 68; charter. 68; settled, 68 ; and New England confedera- tion, 71; new charter, 80; and the Do- minion of New England, 94 ; and the revo- lution of 1688, 97 ; religious freedom in, 151; and paper money, 158; paper-money commotions, 236; "Know Ye" men, 236; ratifies the constitution, 249; constitu- tional reform in, 474-476, Riall, General, death of, 325. Ribaut, explores Florida, iii. Rice, a staple crop, 8; trade in, 142, 143. Richmond, capitol of confederacy, 519; advance on, 519 ; captured, 566. Right of deposit, at New Orleans, 297. Rivers, as means of transportation, 3. See Transportation. Roads, colonial, 134. Set' Internal Improve- ments. Roanoke Island, settlement on, 42 ; signifi- cance of, 43 ; taken by Burnside, 570. Robertson, James, settles in Tennessee, 234. Robinson. Dr. Charles, in Kansas, 489. Robinson. Rev. John, at Scrooby, 59; at Leyden, 59, 60. Rochambeau. against Cornwallis, 212. Rockefeller. John D.. and the organization of the oil trust. 736-739; group of banks, 740. Rockingham, ministry of, 169, 214. Rocky Mountains, influence of, i. Rodgers, Captain John, 317, 327. Roman Catholics, early settlers in Mary- land, 54 ; Jesuits in Maryland, 55 ; treat- ment of, 152, 354. Roosevelt, Theodore, as civil service com- missioner, 710: in campaign of 1S84, 718; and Rough Riders, 79s ; and the Panama revolution, 819; elected vice-president, 827; and McKinley, 829; first message, 829; his policy on trusts, 830; appeals to the people, 830; and the coal strike, S30; control of corporations, 831; elected president, 832 ; relations with the senate, ^ii ; public opinion for, 834 ; return from .\frica, S40; in New York politics, 840: becomes candidate in 191 2, 843-844; at Chicago convention, 845 ; nominated by the progressive party, 847 ; shot by fanatic, 848 ; defeated, 848. Rose, George, mission to America, 315, 335- Rosecrans, General, at battle of Stone's river, 530; campaign around Chatta- nooga, 532-534 ; at battle of Chickamauga, 533; removed from command, 534. Ross, General, attacks Washington, 329; attacks Baltimore, 330. Rough Riders, 795; at Santiago, 796, 798. "Round Kobin," at .Santiago, 803. Rule of war of 1756, ,507. Rum, manufacture of, 141. "Rum. Romanism, and Rebellion." 719. Rush, Richard, supported for vice-president, 3<)0- Russell, Jonathan, commissioner at Ghent, 334- Russia, efforts of Czar to make peace, 33:^- 932 INDEX 334; and the Monroe Doctrine, 375; sells Alaska, 643. Ryswick, treaty of, 117. Sabine Cross Roads, 542. Sacs and Foxes, driven westward, 465. Sagasta, offers reform in Cuba, 787 ; yields on armistice, 7Sg. St. Augustine, founded, in. St. Clair, defeat of, 262 ; governor of Ohio, 342. St. Lawrence river, as a menas of trans- portation, 2 ; explorj"' 'by Cartier, 36. St. Leger, General, igj , 'defeated, 196. St. Louis, founded, 115; desires transcon- tinental railroad, 681. St. Louis strike, 1886, 742. St. Marks, attacked by Jackson, 369. St. Mary's, Maryland, settled, 54. Salary Grab act, 650. Salem, settled, 63; witchcraft trials, 149. Salisbury, Lord, on Venezuela, 779. Samoa, value of, 765 ; conflicting interests in, 765 ; storm in, 766 ; divided, 766. Sampson, W. T., off north shore of Cuba, 793 ; at battle of Santiago, 801 ; and con- troversy with Schley, S04. Sanborn Contracts, the, 651. Sandys, Sir Edwin, and Virginia, 50, 51. San Jacinto, battle of, 421. San Juan ilill, 796, 797 ; carried, 79S. Santa Anna, opposed to Texas, 421. Santiago, Cervera at, 703 : blockaded, 794, 795 ; army at, 796-799 ; defenses of, 796 ; battle of, 797 ; surrender of, 799. Santo Domingo, Napoleon's attempt to conquer, 298 ; annexation of, 645 ; treaty for annexation, 67 1 ; and foreign debts, 827. Saratoga, surrender at, 197; convention at, repudiated, 197. Savage's Station, battle of, 549. Savannah, taken by British, 207 ; taken from the British, 2n; entered by Sherman, 539- Saybrook, settled, 69. Saybrook platform, 153. Scalawags, 621. Schenectady, taken by French, 116. Schley, W. S., on south shore of Cuba, 793, 794 ; at battle of Santiago, 801 ; contro- versy, 804. Schofield. General, at battle of Franklin. 538; reenforces Sherman at Goldsboro, 541 : secretary of war, 616. Schomburgk line. 777. Schools, public, growth of, 476-478 ; in New England, 476 ; work of Horace Mann 477; in Middle States, 477; in the South, 477 ; in the West, 478. Schurman, President, in the Philippines, 810. Schurz, Carl, liberal attitude toward South, 633 ; an independent, 693 ; and civil service reform, 707 ; in campaign of 1884, 718; as leader, 723. Schuyler, Fort, siege of, 196. Schuyler, General, against Burgoyne, 196. Scioto Company, 342. Scituate, 62. Scotch-Irish, settled in the colonies, 147. Scott, Thomas .\ , as a railroad builder, 733. Scott, Winfield, at Chippewa, 325; at Lundy's Lane, 325; Mexican campaign, 448-450; nominated for presidency, 485. Scrooby, 59. Seabury, Rev. Samuel, made bishop, 353. Secession, suggested in 1798, 285; and Hart- ford Convention, 336; threaten in 1849, 453 ; Nashvi''e Convention, 457 ; Davis resolutions, i860, 505; Yancey's Charles- ton speech, 506; South CaroUna Acts, Sn ; other states, 511, 517. Sedgwick, General, at Chancellorsville, 557, 558. Sedition Law, passed, 284; execution of, 284; Jefferson's way of meeting, 285. Seminars' Ridge, 560. Seminole war, 368-369 ; under Jackson, 467-468. Senate, opposed to Roosevelt, 833 ; popular disapproval of, 834. Senators, popular election of, 851. Sera pis, 205. Servants, indented, demand for, 137; kid- napping, 137: voluntary servants, 138: convicts, 138; vagabonds, 138; condition of, 13S. Seven Pines, battle of, 548. Seven years' war, 124-130. Sevier, John, 234. Seward, W. H., Northern leader, 488; joins the republicans, 494; and republi- can nomination, 495, 507 ; Lamar on, 507 ; not nominated, 508; and peace with the South, 514; and the confederate agents, 515; Lincoln overrules, 516; wounded, 568, 600 ; and reconstruction, 600 ; forces French out of Mexico, 643 ; and purchase of Alaska, 643. Sewing machine, invented, 465. Seymour, Horatio, nominated, 186S, 642. Shaffer, General, at Santiago, 796; his plan of battle, 797 ; as a commander, 804. INDEX 933 Shannon, the, 327. Shaw, Robert G., killed, 570, 573. Shays's rebellion, 2.56. Shelburne, ministry of, 214. Shenandoah valley, Jackson in, 547 ; Early in, 565; Sheridan in, 565. Sheridan, General, in the valley campaign, 565-566 ; as military governor, 623 ; and the Indians, 686, 6S7. Sherman, J. S., nominated for vice-president, 835. Sherman, John, as financier, 662; secretary- of the treasury, 694 ; on Hayes's Southern policy, 695 : achieves resumption, 699 ; candidate for nomination, 1SS4, 716; as leader, 723. Sherman, Roger, 187. Sherman, W. T., first move against Vicks- burg, 530; at Chattanooga, 534, 535; advance toward Atlanta, 535-539; takes Atlanta, 537 ; march to the sea, 538, 539 ; march on Savannah, 539 ; devastation unnecessary, 539-540; in the Carolinas, 540; halt at Goldsboro, 541 ; comes to aid of Grant, 548 ; receives Johnston's sur- render, 568. Sherman anti-trust law, 740. Sherman silver law, passed, 747 ; in opera- tion, 754 ; repealed, 755 ; the West aroused, 753- Shiloh, battle of, 528. Shipping, conchtion of, 1783-1815, 347. Shirley, Governor, and Louisburg, 1 20 ; expedition against Fort Niagara, 124 ; and removal of Acadians, 124. Siboney, landing at, 796. Sigsbee, Captain, on Maine disaster, 78S. Silver, deposits of, 11 ; free, origin of move- ment, 698; the Bland-,\llison bill, 699: use of small silver notes. 746 ; silver forced out, 746 ; silver sentiment, 747 ; Sherman silver law, 747, 754; Cleveland on, 750; maintain- ing parity, 754, 755-757; Sherman law re- pealed, 755; "endless chain," the, 755-756; organize in West and South, 758; control democratic convention, 758; issue in 1896, 762. Silver mining, 677-678. .Sinking fund, established, 260. Sioux w,ars, 1866-1868, 685, 687-689; com- mission to Sioux, 688. Sitting Bull, in the Sioux war, 687-689. Slater, Samuel, and cotton mills, 349. Slaughter-house cases, 636. Slavery', Indian, 30; in first Northwestern ordinance, 232; in second ordinance. 233; excluded from the Northwest, 344 ; relation to cotton, 346 ; abolished in the North, 350 ; emancipation in the South, 351 ; method of aboUshing, 350; early congressional position, 351; first fugitive slave law, 351 ; restricted in the West, 351 ; revived importations, 352; law of 1807, 352; smuggling, 352; and the West, 371; fixed in South, 428 ; effect of agitation on South, 430; revised black code, 430; new fugitive slave law, 455, 457; as a Southern institution, 468-470; disappear- ance in the North, 469; numbers of slaves, 470; treatment of slaves, 470: growth of pro-slavery, 471 , aividcs the churches, 471-472; fugitive slaves not returned, 486; the Kansas-Nebraska act. 4S6-488; new leaders, 488; attitude of pro-slavery men, 493, 505, 506. See Emancipation. Slaves, in the Carolinas, loS ; excluded from Georgia, no; condition in colonies, 13S- 140; introduced, 138; Spanish type of slavery, 130: colonial slave code, 139; trade in, 144; carried away by British, 216; three fifths in apportionment, 246; importation before 1808, 246; fugitives, as "contrabands," 577. See Slavery. Slave-trade, 144 ; beginning of, 41. "Sleepy Hollow," 202. Slidell, Mexican mission, 446; seized on the Trent. 522. Sloal, Commodore, in California, 449. Sloughter, Henry, governor of New York, 103. Smith, Captain John, sails for Virginia, 46 ; services, 48 ; relations with the Indians, 48, 5-'- Smith, Kirby. at Bull Run, 520; in Arkansas, 542 ; surrenders, 569. Smith, Robert, secretary of nav>', 292. Smugghng. 144. Smythc. General, 323. "Snap Convention," in New York, 750. Social classes, 135, 136-137. Social conditions, in Virginia, 49. Soils, character of, 6; in New England, 6; in the South, 7 ; in the West. 7. Somers, Lieutenant, at Tripoli, 296. Sons of l.iljerly. formed, 166; decline, 169. Soto, Hernando de, 38. South, the, county in, 13s; l'f« m, 137; trade in, 142; religion, 151; her interests in the constitutional convention, 246; retains slavery, 350-351 ; social classes in, 468; slaveholders in 1S60, 469; non- slaveholders, 469 ; growth of pro-slavery, 471; see Slavery*; public schools in, 477; position on Kansas, 1856, 493; 934 INDEX effect of John Brown on, 504 ; attitude on reconstruction, 1865, 601, 619; accepts emancipation, 601, 619; economic ruin, 619; social reversal, 620; in despair, 620; parties forming, 620-621; "Con- servative" party, 621 ; a republican party forms, 621, 622; congressional reconstruction in operation, 622-625; was it lawless? 623 ; registration of voters, 623 ; military governors, 623 ; registration under reconstruction acts, 623 ; constitu- tional conventions, 624; constitutions ratified, 624 ; why radical reconstruction failed, 626; Ku KJux Klan, 627-630. South American states, recogrution of, 367, 374- Southampton, Earl of, and Virginia, 51. South Carolina, misrule in, 106 : Indian war, 107 ; overthrow of proprietors, 108 ; beats off attack by Spain, 119; trade, 142, 143; religion in, 151 ; and stamp act, 168; attack of British at Charleston, 183; overrun by British, 207 ; aid given at King's Mountain, 20S ; ratifies the con- stitution, 248; and nullification, 3S7, 396, 399 ; not supported by Georgia, 400 ; federal operations in, 570; readmitted, 624 ; republicans overthrown, 633 ; dis- puted returns in 1876, 655, 657; surrend- ered to democrats, 657. South Dakota, a state, 748. Southern rams, 569. South Improvement Co., 736. Southwest, the, growth of, 341, 344. Spain, explorations of, in the interior, 37-39 ; as a colonizing nation, 39 ; in the seven years' war, 128; aids the American revolu- tion, 198, 199; refuses aid to America, 214; and treaty of 1783, 214; intrigues in Southwest, 263 ; secret boundary clause, 215. 264; and Southern Indians, 265; treaty of 1795, 265; and the purchase of Louisiana, 299, 300; and Burr, 304; and war of 1812, 321, 331; negotiations for Florida, 368; protests against Jackson, 369 ; and American neutrality, in Cuba, 7S2, 785 ; the Virginitis, 783 ; and neg- lected Cuban reforms, 784; Cleveland's attitude, 785, 786 ; Sagasta's reforms. 787 ; the Maine, 787, 788; Cuban armistice demanded, 789; war declared on, 789; peace with, 805-806 ; and Cuban debt, 805. Spanish war, 78 2-807. Speaker, power under Reed, 724; power reduced, 838 ; election of 1859, 504. Specie circular, issued, 425 ; and panic of 1837, 432' Sphericity of the earth, belief in, 26. Spoils system, 393. Spottsylvania, battle of, 563. Spring, Dr. Gardiner, 412. Springfield, settled, 69. Squanto, 61. Squatter sovereignty. See Popular Sover- eignty. "Stalwarts," 695. Stamp act, proposed, 164; passed, 166; effects in America, 166; Patrick Henry's resolutions, 166; congress at New York, 167; repealed, 168; effect of repeal, 168. Stanbery, Henry, opinion of, on Johnson'3 powers, 612; defends Johnson, 615. Standard Oil Company, history of, 736-739 ; fined by courts, 836 ; suit to dissolve, 840, 842. Standish, Miles, 61. Stanton, in Johnson's cabinet. 601 ; favors the radicals, 601 ; and tenure-of-ofiice act, 611; suspended, 614; removed, 614; resigns, 617. Stanwix, Fort. See Fort Schuyler. Star of the West, 512. Star route frauds, 704. Stark, John, battle of Bennington, 195. State governments; formed by advice of congress, 187, 235; varying features, 217; suffrage, 217; sovereignty in, 218; two schools of citizens, 219; powers under the articles, 239; reform of, 472-476. State rights, and nullification, 3S7-388; in 1828, 389; party formed, 396. States, sovereignty of, 21S; loyalty to, 230; large and small, controversy between, 243-345 ; limited by constitution, 253 ; authority limited by Marshall, 358-360; Southern, status of in reconstruction, 595 ; reconstructed under Johnson, 600, 601. State universities, development of, 479. Steamboats on the interior rivers, 464; cross the Atlantic, 464. Stephens, A. H., confederate vice-president, 511- Stephens, U. S., found"' Knights of Labor, 741. Steuben, Baron von, his services, 198. Stevens, Thaddeus, leader of radicals, 604 ; power in congress, 604, 607, 608 ; prose- cutes Johnson, 615 ; death of, 625. Stewart, A. T., nominated secretary of the treasury, 644. Stillwater. See Freeman's Farm. Stimson, H. L., candidate for governorshift 840. INDEX 935 Stone's river, battle of, 530. Stonewall, the confederate ram, 589. Stony Point, 201. Strasburg, Va., Jackson at, 547. Strong, Caleb, at Hartford convention, 336. Strong, William, appointment as judge, 664. Stuart, J. E. B., at capture of John Brown. 503 ; as cavalry leader, 559. Stuyvesant, Peter, as governor, 74 ; religious persecutions, 74 ; takes Swedish settle- ments, 75 ; loses New Amsterdam, 75. Suffrage, in early state governments, 217, 228 ; grows liberal, 472-474 ; negro, in four- teenth amendment, 607 ; in the reconstruc- tion acts, 609-611; Lincoln on, 597, 622; Johnson, 622 ; in Southern constitutions, 624. Sugar, and Wilson-Gorman bill, 728. Sullivan, General, at Newport, 201. Sumner, Charles, speech on Kansas, 490; attacked by Brooks, 490 ; a radical, 605 ; and fourteenth amendment, 607, 608 ; and civil rights act, 1875, 634: death of, 1S74, 63s ; Lamar on, 635 ; Grant's quarrel with, 64s ; states case against England, 671 ; and civil ser\'ice reform, 707. Sumner, General, at Fredericksburg, s%6. Sumter, Fort, relief of, 512, 515; attacked, 516. Sumter, partisan leader, 207 ; under Greene, 210. Supreme Court, the, functions of, 232, 357- 360; in reconstruction days, 611; inter- prets war amendments, 635-638. Surplus, the, 714; lowered by hard times, 715; revived, 715; removed through expenditure. 725. Surplus revenue, distribution, 424; effects of distribution, 432. Sutro tunnel, 677. Sweden, settlements in America, 75. Swiss, settlers, 146, 147. Symmes, land grant of, 342. Syracuse, convention at 1855, 495. Taft, W. H., in the Philippines, 811, 812; restoring order in Cuba, 807 ; nominated for presidency, 835 ; elected, 836 ; admin- istration of, 837-843; and Payne-Aldrich tariff, 837; Ballinger, 838; and Canadian reciprocity, 841 ; candidate for renom- ination, 843-844 ; republican nominee. 84s ; elected, 848 ; legislation under, 849- 850. Talleyrand, and American claims, 280; accepts treaty, 282; and Louisiana, 297- 299; and Florida, 302. Tammany, and Tilden, 653, 702 ; and Cleve- land, 716, 720. Taney, R. B., secretary of the treasury, 414; removes deposits, 414; Chief Justice, 415; decision in Dred Scott case, 498. Tanner, "Corporal," and pensions, 726, 749. Tariff, bill of 1816, 364; growing demand for, 384-386; bill of 1820. 3S5 ; bill of 1824, 385 : bill of 1828, 3S6 ; a sectional question, 384-3S5 : South Carolina and, 387-3S8 ; Verplanck bill, 409; compromise bill, 1833, 410; of 1842, 436; campaign issue, 1844. 443 ; of 1846, 445 : Morrill act, 483 ; in McCulloch's time, 661 ; Wool and Woolens act, 661, 713 ; tariff of 1870, 663, 713 ; two methods of reform, 712 ; tariff of 1872, 713; tariff of 1875. 713; commission of 1882, 714: tariff of 1883, 715; Morri- son bill. 715 ; reform under Cleveland, 721 ; Mills bill, 721; issue in 1S88, 721-722; McKinley bill, 724-726; Wilson bill, 72S; Wilson-Gorman bill, 729; Dingley bill, 729; the McKinley and Sherman silver law, 747; an issue in 1896, 762; with Philippines, 812; and the depend- encies, 813, 814; McKinley's later policy on, 829; Payne-Aldrich, 837; Canadian reciprocity, 841 ; democratic bills of 19H, 841 ; democratic bills of 1912, 842. Tarleton, in the South, 207 ; at Cowpens, 20S; in Virginia, 211. Taxation, power of congress over, 359. Taxes, external and internal, 165, 170. Taylor, "Dick," commandsin Arkansas, 543; surrenders, 569. Taylor, Zachary, campaign on the Rio Grande, 446-448 ; nominated for presi- dency, 451; elected, 452; death of, 438; against the Seminoles, 467. Tea. duty on, 173; sent to America, 175; action of colonies, 17s; "Tea party," 176. Tecumseh. his ambition, 318; slain at battle of the Thames, 323. Telegraph invented, 465^ Teller, Senator, and silver, 755 ; leaves repubUcan party, 761. Temperance movement, 480. Tennessee, settled, 232, 234; a state, 264; reconstructed under Lincoln, 597 ; read- mitted, 609; republicans overthrown, 632. Tennessee, the, 571. Tenure-of-office act, passed, 611; tested by Johnson, 614. Territories, government of, 233. Terry. General, against the Sioux, 687. Texas, explored by Pike, 356; early history. 936 INDEX 419; not to be purchased, 420; revolution in, 420; annexation, 421, 438, 440, 444: opposition of Adams, 421; recognition extended, 422; England's alleged scheme, 438 ; a state in the union, 444 ; disputed boundary, 446 ; boundaries fixed, 450 ; debt assumed, 455. 457; readmitted, 625; republicans overthrown, 632. Texas, the, 800, 801, 802. Thames, battle of, 323. Thanksgiving Day, 62. Thomas, General, succeeds Rosecrans, 534 ; in battle of Missionary Ridge, 535 ; defense of Nashville, 338. Thomas, Lorenzo, secretary of war, 614. Thornton, Colonel, at New Orleans, m. Thoroughfare Gap, 551, 552. Ticonderoga, attacked unsuccessfully, 126; taken, 127; taken by Ethan Allen, 182; not taken by Carleton, 195 ; taken by Burgoyne, 195. Tilden. S. J., governor of New York, 651; nominated for presidency, 653 ; disputed returns, 654 ; loses the election, 657 ; and the independents, 694 ; in the investi- gation of the election, 696 ; not nominated in 1880, 702. Tillman, B. R., speech in Chicago convention, 1896, 759; and the South and West, 759, 762. Tobacco, a staple crop, 8; in Virginia, 50; at the restoration, So, Si ; decline of price, 89. Tohopeka, battle of, ai. Tompkins, D. D., vice-president, 367. Tonti, 114. Topeka constitution, 489, 490. Tories, as a class, 174, 193; in North Caro- lina, 182, 208; in Pliiladelphia, 199; at King's Mountain, 20S ; compensation to, 216, 227: why disliked, 230; hardsliips of, 231 ; in New York, 231 ; compensa- tion not made, 262. Toscanelli, letter of, 28. Toussaint Louverture, 298. Towns, planted, 134; government, 156; in New York, 156; development of, 463. Townshend, colonial policy of. 169 ; his acts, 169, 173; death, 171; repeal of Townshend acts, 173. Townships, estabUshed, 233, 342. Trade, colonial, 142-145; state of, 1783- 17S9, 226 ; England refuses to open, 226 ; congress to have control, 246 : England refuses concessions, 262 ; restrictions on neutral, 272 ; and the Jay treaty, 272 ; the carrying, under Jefferson, 306 ; British restrictions on, 306-309 ; condition of, 17S3-1815, 346; West India, 415-417. See Navigation Acts. Transportation, rivers and lakes, 2. Treason, defined, 253. Treasurer, in New York, 104. Treaty, with France, 198; with England, 214-216: with Spain. 1795, 265; Jay's, 272-273; with France, 1800, 282; San Ildefonso, 297 ; Louisiana purchase, 298 ; of Monroe and Pinckney, 310; Erskine's, 316; of Fort Jackson, ^i?, 368; of Ghent, 334, 368; with France, 417; Webster- Ashburton, 437 ; Guadaloupe Hidalgo, 450; Clayton-Bulwer, 458; of Washing- ton, 672; of Fort Laramie, 684; with Hawaii, 772, 774; Burlingame. 774; with Japan, 776; of Paris, 1898, 805; Hay-Pauncefote, 817: Hay-Herran (con- vention), 818; Hay-Bunau-Var:lla, 820; of Portsmouth, 824. Treaty of 17S3, execution delayed, 261, 272, 273. Trent, the, affair of, 522 ; negotiations about, 5^3- Trenton, battle of, 192. TripoU. war with, 295. Trist, N. P., and treaty with Mexico, 450. "Truly Loyal," the, 621. Trumbull, Lyman, leader of moderates, 605; vote on Johnson impeachment, 617; attitude toward South, 633. Trusts, causes producing, 736 ; the Standard Oil Co., 736-739 ; and stock speculation, 739 ; opposition to, 739 ; anti-trust law, 740; a " money trust," 740. Truxtun, Captain, 2S1. Tryon, at New York, 188; raid in Coimecti- cut, 201. Tunis, at war, 295, 296. Turnbull. author of "The Crisis," 3S7. Turner, Nat, 430. Twenty-Second joint rule, 598; rescinded, 656. Twiller, Wouter van, governor of New Amsterdam, 73. Tyler, John, nominated, 434 ; presidency of, 435-436; repudiated by whigs, 436; and Texas annexation, 438-440, 444; favors Polk, 443 ; presides over peace congress, 514- "Uncle Tom's Cabin," influence of, 496. Underground railway, 429. Underbill, Captain John, fights for the Dutch in New Netherland, 73. Underwood, Oscar, party leader in the INDEX 937 house, S41 ; candidate for nomination, 845, S46. Union, suggested at Albany Congress, 123; party in favor of, 222 ; Morris and Hamil- ton, 223: Washington on, 224, 240; growing sentiment for, 240 ; Madison for, 240; cause of, in Hayne-Webster debate, 3q6 ; Jackson for, 3go- I'nion League, in the South, 627. Union Pacific Railroad, and Cr6dit Mobilicr, 649. Union party, 581, 584. Unions, in the Uiiited States, 741-744 ; Knights of Labor, 741 ; American Federa- tion of Labor, 743. United States, the, constructed, 279; takes the Maeedonian, 327, 328. Lenity, influence of territorial, i. Upshur, and Texas, 439. Utah, made a territory, 435, 457 ; settlement of, 679; a territory, 680; a state, 680, 748; and polygamy, 74S. Utrecht, treaty of, 119. Vaca, Cabega de, 38, 39. Vallandigham, C. L., violent speeches of, 5S2 ; arrest and trial of, 5S3. Valley Forge, army at, 199. \'an Buren, Martin, and the election of 1824, 380; turns to Jackson, 382; opposi- tion to Calhoun, 382 ; secretary of state. 392 ; influence in cabinet, 393 ; influence on Jackson, 394 ; and internal improve- ments, 394 ; benefits by Jackson-Calhoun spUt, 401, 402 : minister tc England, 402 ; nominated vice-president, 403 ; elected, 405; on West India trade, 416; elected president, 42s ; character of, 432 ; his presidency, 432-435 ; and the Texan question, 441 : a Barnburner, 451 ; nomi- nated by free soil party, 432. Vandcrbilt, Cornelius, as a railroad builder, 733 : and cooperation, 734. Vandreuil, governor of New France, 118; governor of Canada, 126. Vane, Sir Harry, in Boston, 66. \'un Rensselaer, General Stephen, 323 ; votes for Adams, 380. \'enezuela, boundao' dispute, 777-781 ; origin of dispute, 777; Cleveland's demands on England, 779; commission appointed, 780 ; adjusted, 7S0 ; effects, 780 ; debts to other powers, 526 ; Germany and, S26. \'era Cruz, taken by Scott, 449. Vergcnnes. friendly to America, 198; and the treaty of peace, 214-215. Vermont, a state, 264. Verrazano, Giovanni da, explorations of, 35. Vespucci, with Hojeda, 31; his pretended discoveries, 32. Vicksburg, significance of, 530, 532 ; first attempt to take, 531; second attempt, 531-532. Vincennes, taken by Clark, 204. Vinland, 23. Virginia, named, 42 ; English opinion of, 44 ; government of, 45 ; reforms of 1609, 49; intrigues, 49; self-government, 50; charter annulled. 50; royal governors of, 51 ; divided, 52 ; and the restoration, 80; Berkeley's despotism, Sg ; economic condi- tion, 89 ; Bacon's Rebellion, 90 ; during the last years of the Stuarts, 92; trade, 142; religion in, 151 ; the university at Henrico, 153; William and Mary College, 154; and paper money, 158; Patrick Henry's resolutions. 166; revolutionary commit- tees in, 174; declares independence, 187; and conquest of the Northwest. 203; Cornwallis enters, 211 ; confers with Mary- land on trade, 241 ; plan in constitutional convention, 243 ; ratifies the constitu- tion, 248 ; parties in, 270 ; political leader- ship, 270; supports Crawford, 377, 378, 379; waning influence, 378, 393; attitude toward nullification, 410; slavery debates, 1S31, 430: constitutional reform in, 474: the university of, 479: readmitted, 625; republicans overthrown, 632. "Virginia, Restored," 521. Virginia, the, 569. Virginia City, founded, 677. Virginia Dare, 43. Virginia resolutions, 285-287. Virginias, the, 783. Vixen, the, 800. Viscaya, the, 800, 801. Wade-Davis bill, 597. Wagner, Battery, attacked, 570, 573. Waldseemiillcr, Martin, a, 36. Walker, Robert J., his tariff bill, 445 ; as governor of Kansas, 492. Walker, Sir Hovenden, 118. Wanamaker, John, postmaster-general, 723. War, right to declare, 585. War of 1S12, rise of spirit of resist- ance, 318; Madison favors, 319; prep- arations for. 319; war declared, 320; opposed in New England, 335 ; finances of, 33(> ; effects of defeat, 324, 336 ; lessons of, 338. Warfare, lessons of, in battle of Santiago, 803. 938 INDEX Washington, a territory, 463 ; a state. 748. Washington, Fort, 188, 191. Washington, George, journey to the Ohio, 122; expedition to forl;s of the Ohio, 122; defeated, 122; with Braddock, 123; commander-in-chief, 182; operations around New York. 188-igi ; New Jersey campaign, 191 ; Piii'adelphia campaign, 194; at Monmouth, 200; deceives Chnton, 212; in Yorktown campaign, 212: and kingship, 218; on stronger government, 224; opposes army plot, 224; presides over constitutional convention, 242 ; elected president, 256; on the bank, 261; and Genet, 266 ; and whisky insurrection, 268 ; attitude toward parties, 269 ; reelected, 271; Farewell Address, 274: command of new army, 281. Washington, Lawrence, gets Ohio lands, 121. Washington, taken by British, 329. " Washita, battle of the," 686. Wasp, the, takes the Frolic, 327, VVatauga, Indians attack, 203 ; sends aid to King's Mountain, 208; settled, 234. Watercourses. See Transportation. Water-power, distribution of, 11. Watertown, and taxation, 64. Waxhaw, battle of, 207. Wayne, Anthony, at Stony Point, 201 ; subdues the Ohio Indians, 262. Weaver, J. B., nominated for presidency, 702, 752 ; and people's party, 752 ; vote of, 753. Webster, Daniel, supports the tariff. 387 ; debate with Hayne, 396-398 ; supports Jackson on nullification. 409; opposes annexation of Texas, 422 ; supported by whigs, 425 ; remains in Tyler's cabinet, 436; and the treaty with England. 437; on Missouri compromise, 457 ; death of, 48S. Webster, Peletiah, on a stronger govern- ment, 240. Weed, Thurlow, defeat of Clay, 434 ; joins the republicans, 494. Wells, David A., as financier, 660. Welsh, settled in the colonies. 147. West, Far, physical characteristics, 676 ; arrival of miners, 677. West, settlement of, 232-235; discontent in, 264: and Burr, 304: and war of 1812, 321 ; at the battle of New Orleans, 333 ; growth of, 341-344; New England and Southern streams of migration, 342 ; drawn to support the North, 461 ; public schools in, 478 ; state universities in, 479 ; and the panic of 1857, 4S3. West India Company, Dutch, possession of New Netherland, 72. West Indies, trade with secured, 413. West Point, Arnold at, 201 ; military acad- emy, 320; after war of 1812. 363. West Virginia, formed, 520; defense of, 520, 526. Wethersfield. settled by Dutch, 69 ; arrival of the English, 69. Weyler. in Cuba, 7S6, 787. Weymouth, George, aids colonization, 4s. Whale fisheries, 5, 142. Wheat, a staple crop, 8 ; area of. increased, 665 ; prices, 667 ; crop of 1879, 700. Wheeler, Joseph, at Santiago, 796, 797, 798. 799- Wheeler, W. A., vice-president, 653. Whig party, destroyed, 493, 495; "Con- science" and "Cotton" whigs, 495. Whisky, manufacture of, 267. Whisky insurrection, 267-269. Whisky ring, the, 651. White, Hugh L., for president, 1836, 425. Whitefield, Rev. George, and the " Great Awakening." 150. White Plains, battle of, 190. "White slave" act, 851. Whitney, Eli, 345. Wilderness, battle of, 563. Wilkes, Captain, seizes Mason and Slidell, 522. Wilkinson. James, in Spanish employ, 264; corruption of, 264, 304 ; relations with Burr, 304, 305 ; expedition on the St. Lawrence, 324, William Henry, Fort, taken by Montcalm, 125- Williams, Rev. John, captured by French and Indians, ir8. Williams, Roger, driven from Massachusetts, 65 ; gets charter for Rhode Island, 68. Willing, Thomas, 228. Wilmington, Cornwallis in, 211 ; evacuated, 213- Wilmot Proviso, proposed, 451 ; in nominat- ing conventions, ,151, 452 ; Clay's atti- tude, 454. Wilson. Henry, vice-president, 649. Wilson. James, in constitutional convention. 242. 244, 24s. Wilson, Woodrow, candidate for nomina- tion, 845. 846, 847 ; elected president, 848. Wilson committee, the, 649. Wilson-Gorman tariff, 728, 729; effect of, 729, 756. Wilson's Creek, battle 01, S4i- INDEX 939 Winchester, General, 323. Winchester, taken by Jackson, 547 ; Early defeated at, 565. Winder, General, at Bladensburg, 329. Windom, William, secretary of the treasury, 723 ; ideas of free silver. 747. Windsor, Connecticut, settled, 69. Wingfield, Edward Maria, and the Vir- ginia colony, 46, 47, 48. Winthrop, John, relation to Puritan migra- tion, 63 ; elected governor, 64 ; deals with Watertown, 64 ; presides over trial of Mrs. Hutchinson, 67 ; death of, 67. Winthrop, John, Jr., settles Saybrook, 69. Wirt, William, attorney-general, 367 ; nom- inated by anti-masons, 404 ; vote of, 405- Wisconsin, a territory, 344 ; a state, 463 ; Black Hawk war, 466. Witches, punished, 149. Wolcott, OUver, 279, 287. Wolfe, General, at capture of Louisburg, 125; against Quebec, 127; death, 127. Wood, Leonard, commands Rough Riders, 795- •' Worcester, Dean C, in the Philippines, 810. Wounded, recovery of the, at Santiago, 803. Wright. Silas, a Barnburner, 451. Wyoming, territory, 678 ; state, 6S0, 748. Wyoming valley, raided, 203. X Y Z papers, 280. Yates, notes, 243. , Yazoo claims. 301, 302 Zeno brothers, 23. INDEX TO CHAPTERS XLI AND XLII "A. B. C. Powers," 870. Adamson, W. C, and the control of trusts, 861. Airplanes, production of, 883, 884. Aldrich Commission, report of, 856, 859. Amendments, the eighteenth and nineteenth, 904; ■ American Expeditionary Forces, crossing the Atlantic, 886-888; two phases of their campaign in France, 888; actual fighting in France, 888-895; placed at Foch's disposal, 889; corps organized, 891; St. Mihiel Campaign, 892 ; Meuse-Argoime, 893 ; in Italy, 895 ; in Russia, S95 ; in Siberia, 89s. Arabic, destruction of the, 877. Argentina, and "A. B. C." Commission, 870. Argonne Forest, 893. Armistice, with Germany, 899. Army, state of, 1914, 878; the Hay Bill, 878, 882 ; supplies for, 883 ; aviation, 883, 884 ; emergency officers, 883 ; rifles for, 883 ; and machine guns, 884 ; trans- ported to France, 886-888; Pershing in command, 887 ; training in France, 887 ; size of a division, 888 ; in actual combat in France, 888-895 ; forces organized into corps and army, 891, 892. Austria, surrender of, 898. Autocracy in Germany overthrown, 899. Banks, National System, insufficiency of, 858. See Federal Reserve Bank. BernstoriT, Ambassador, 877 ; receives pass- ports, 8S1. Big Four, the, gor. Bliss, General Tasker H., delegate to Peace Conference, goo. Blockade in world war, 875. Brazil, and "A. B. C " Commission, 870. Br>'an, William J., secretary of state, 854. Bulgaria, forced to yield, 8y8. Burleson, Albert S., postmaster-general, 854- Cabinet, Wilson's, 854. Cambrai, German drive at, 888. Cantigny, battle of, 889. Caperton, Admiral W. B., 8g6. Caribbean Policy, 863-867. Carranza, Vcnustiano, opposes Huerta, 868; becomes president of Mexico, 870. Carrizal, fight at, 871. Central American peace league, 866. Chateau-Thierr>', fighting around, SSo, 890, 891. Chile, and " A. B. C." Commission, 870. Clayton, H. D., and the control of trusts, 861. Clayton Anti-Trust Act, 862. Columbus, N. M., raided by Villa, 870. Congress, majorities in 1913, 853; com- mittees, 853. Continuous voyage, right of, in world war, 875- Contraband in world wSr, 875. Convoy service, 897. 940 INDEX Coolidge, Cahnn, nominated for vice- presidency, 903 ; elected, 904. Costa Rica and Central American peace league, 866. Council of National Defense, work of, 885. Council of Ten, 901. Covenant of the League of Nations, 901- 903. "Covington Bill," 861. Cox, James M., nominated for presidency, Q03- Cuba, our relations with, 864. Currency, "elasticity" of, 857. Daniels, Josephus, secretary of the navy, 854. Danish West Indies. See Virgin Islands. Dartiguenave, President, of Haiti, 865. Declaration of London of 1909 in world war, 874- Defense, national, state of, 878 ; Council of National, 883. Democracy thought to be at stake in world war, 878. Denmark, sells Virgin Islands, 866. Demburg, Bemhard, 783. Destroyers, the United States, at Queens- town, 896. Diaz, Portirio, his treatment of foreigners in Mexico, 867; overthrow of, 868. DiWsion, size of a, 888 ; naming the, 888. Eighty-Ninth Division, at St. Mihiel, 892. Eighty-Second Division, at St. Mihiel, 892. Elections, 1916, 879; 1920, 903. Emergency Fleet Corporation, 885. England, rule of, on blockades and con- traband in world war, 874; and block- ade, 87s ; and continuous voyage, 875 ; and submarine warfare, 875 ; loans to, by the United States, 886; sustains German drives in 1918, 888. European War. Sec World War. Falaha, the, sunk by Germany. 876, 877. Federal Reserve Bank, 858-860; the Aldrich report, 859; the Glass Bill, 859; act for, passed, 860; its provisions, 860. Federal Trade Commission, created by con- gress, S61. Fifth Division, at St. Mihiel, 892. First Division, arrival in France, 886; goes into line of defenses, 888; battle of Can- tigny, 889; in the operations of July 18, 1918, 891; at St. Mihiel, 892; before Sedan, 894. "Five Brothers," the, 861. Foch, Marshal, in supreme command, 889. Food, government control of, 885. Forty-Second Division, goes into line of defenses, 888 ; in Mame salient, 891 ; at St. Mihiel, 892 ; before Sedan, 893. "Fourteen Points," President Wilson's, 898; accepted by Germany and the Enlenle allies, Sq9. Fourth Division, in Mame salient, 891 ; at St. Mihiel, 892. Fuel, government control of, 885. Garfield, Harry A., fuel administrator, 885. Garrison, Lindley M., secretary of war, 854 ; resigns, 879. Gerard, James W., 881. Germany, propaganda of, 873; violates neutrality, 873 ; on the sale of munitions, 874; and Declaration of London of 1909, 874 ; and contraband and blockade, 875 ; and continuous voyage, 875 ; and use of submarines, 875-877 ; yields at last on submarines, 877; peace bid of, 1916, 8S0; adopts ruthless warfare, 8S0; intercourse with, broken, 881 ; war with, authorized, 8S2 ; progress of the war with, S82-897 ; her drives in 1918, 8S8-S90; political revolution in, 898 ; requests an armistice, S99 ; imperial monarchy overthrown, 899 ; signs treaty of Versailles, 902. Glass, Carter, and the Federal Reserve Act, 859- Glen Springs, Texas, raided by Villa, 871. Great Britain See England. Guatemala and Central American peace league, 866. Haiti, protectorate over, 865. Hamburg-American Steamship Co., and violations of neutraUty, 873. Harding, Warren G., nominated for presi- dency, 903 ; elected, 904. Hay Bill, the, 878. HohenzoUerns overthrown, 899. Honduras and Central American peace league, 866. Hoover, Herbert, food administrator, 885. House, Col. E. M., delegate to the Peace Conference, 900. Houston, David F., secretary of agriculture, 854. Huerta, General, usurps power in Mexico, 868; and the death of Madero, 868; ex- cluded from office, 870. Hughes, Charles E., candidate for the presi- dency, 879; investigates airplane con- struction, 884; suggests amendments to the League covenant, 901. INDEX 941 Income Tax, 1913. 857- Intercourse with Germany broken, 881. Italy, United States troops in, 895. Knight, Admu-al A. M.. 896. Kriemhilde Stellung, 893, 894. La Follette, Senator, his filibuster against arming of merchantmen, S81. Lane, Franklin K., secretary of the interior, 854- Latin Americans, political ideals of, 863. League of Nations, adopted by Peace Con- ference, 901 ; the covenant of, 901 ; de- bated by the senate, 901 ; Article X, 903 ; in the campaign of 1920, 903- Lind, John, in Mexico, 869. Lobby, President Wilson's charges against it, 857. Lusilania, the loss of, 873, 876. McAdoo, William G., secretary of the treas- ury, 8s4, 855 ; director-general of trans- portation, 885. Machine guns, supplies of, 884 ; value of, in covering a retreat, 891. McReynolds, James C, attorney-general, 8S4- Madero, Francisco, becomes president of Mexico, 868 ; overthrown by Huerta, 868. Marines, United States, arrival in France, 886; near Chateau-Thierry, 889, 890. Marne salient. United States troops in, 889-891. Maximilian of Baden, Prince, German Chancellor, 898, 899. Mayo, Admiral, at Tampico, 869; in world war, 896. Merchantmen, arming of, 881. Meuse-Argonne Campaign, 893. Mexico, relations with, under Wilson, 867- 871 ; treatment of foreigners under Diaz, 867; Madero and Huerta, 868; Tampico incident, 869; Vera Cruz seized, 86g; negotiations of "A. B. C. Powers," 870; Pershing in, 870; results of Wilson's policy in, 871. Mines, submarine, 897. Monroe Doctrine, and our Caribbean policy, 863. Munitions, sale of, to belligerents, 874. Navy, state of, 1915,879; in world war, 896; the destroyers at Qucenstown, 896; con- voying service, 897 ; squadron in the AlUed Grand Fleet, 897; submarine mine barrage in North Sea, 897. Neutrality, efforts to preserve, 873-877; the president's proclamations, 873; vio- lated by Germany, 873. Nicaragua, and Central American peace league, 866; United States protectorate over, 867. Ninetieth Division at St. Mihiel, 892. Officers in the army, 883. "Old Hickory Division." See Thirtieth Division. Peace Conference. See Versailles, the Treaty of. Peace suggestions, December 15. 1917, 897 ; Wilson's "Fourteen Points," 988. Pershing. General John J. 887; operations in Mexico. 870 ; places his army at disposal of Foch, S89; organizes an army, 891. Piatt .'Xmendment, spirit of it appUcd to Caribbean states, 864; to Nicaragua, 867. Presidency and a prime minister, 856. Railroads, Raybum Bill to regulate securities of, 862 ; under government operation, 885. "Rainbow Division." See Forty-Second Di%ision. Raybum Bill, 862. Redfield, William C, secretary of commerce, 854- Rhcims, German attempt to surround in 1918, 891. Rifles, supply of, for army, 883. Rodman, Admiral Hugh, 897- Roosevelt, Franklin D., nominated for vice- presidency, 903. Roosevelt, Theodore, his relation to Wilson's policies, 854 ; his expansion of the Monroe Doctrine, 863 ; and Santo Domingo, 865 ; and Panama, 866; efforts to establish peace in Central America, 866; proposed division to be raised by, 886. Root, Elihu, suggests amendments to League covenant, 901. Russian Revolution, effect on our relation to the war, 882. Russia, United States troops in, 895. National Guard. 878, 883; naming the divisions of, 888. National Monetary Commission. Sec Aldrich Commission. St. Mihiel, capture of, 892. St. Thomas, Island of, 866. Salvador and Central American league, S66. peace fSCL-Vl*^ 7 942 INDEX Santo Domingo, financial protectorate over, 864. Second Division, arrives in France, 886 ; goes into line of defenses, 888; at Chateau- Thierry, 889-891 ; in operations of July 18, 1918, 891; at St. Mihiel, 892. "Seven Sisters," the, 855. Shipping, history of, during world war, 885. Siberia, United States troops in, 895. Sims, Admiral W. S., 896. South, influence in congress, 1913, 853. Submarines, the use of, in war, 875 ; ruthless warfare of, adopted by Germany, 88 1. Supplies for the army, 883; services of supply, 887. Sussex, destruction of the, 877. Taft, William H., suggests amendments to the League covenant, 901. Tampico, landing party arrested at, 869. Tariflf, the Undera-ood, 856-858; the lobby investigated, S57. Tariff Commission of 1913, 857. Third Division, arrives near Chateau- Thierry, 889. Thirtieth Division, 892 ; carries the St. Quentin tuimel, 894; at Brancourt, 895; at the Selle River, 895. Thirty-Second Division, in Mame salient, 891. Thrasher, Leon, S76. Trusts, laws relating to, in Wilson's adminis- tration, 860-S63; Clayton Anti-Trust Act. 862. Twenty-Seventh Division, 892; at the St. Quentin tunnel, S94 ; at the Selle River, 895- Twenty-Sixth Division, goes into line of defenses, 883; in operations of July 18, 1918, 891 ; at St. Mihiel, 892. Underwood, Oscar B., and tariff of 1913, 856. Vera Cruz seized by United States, 869. Versailles, the Treaty of, 897-904 ; delegates of the United States, 900; in process of making, 901 , 902 ; before the United States senate, 902. Villa, Francisco, bandit leader, 868; raids Columbus, New Mexico, 870; raids Glen Springs, Texas, 871. ^ Virgin Islands, purchase of, 866. ' White, Henry, delegate to Peace Conference, 900. Wilhelm n, Kaiser, abdicates, 899. Wilson, Captain H. B., 896. Wilson, William B., secretary of labor, 854. Wilson, Woodrow, leadership of his party, 854; his cabinet, 854; his New Jersey reforms, 855 ; inaugurated president, 855 ; addresses congress in person, 856 ; arraigns the tariff lobby, 857 ; his trust policy, 860- 863 ; his domestic reform measures, 863 ; his Caribbean policy, 863-867 ; his deal- ings with Mexico, 867-87 1 ; refuses to recognize Huerta, 868; sends Lind to Mexico, 869 ; and Tampico incident, 869 ; and the "A. B. C. Powers," 870; orders Pershing to pursue Villa into Mexico, 870; his purpose with regard to Huerta, 871; proclamation of neutrality, 873; on sub- marine warfare, 876; notes on the Lusi- tania, 876; efforts to strengthen national defenses, 878; reelected, 879; peace appeal of, 1916, 880; breaks intercourse with Germany, 881 ; demands war with Germany, 882 ; appoints Hughes to in- vestigate airplane production, 884; ap- points Hoover and Garfield, 885 ; halts project of a Roosevelt division, 886 ; selects Pershing for commander, 887; his "Four- teen Points," 898; gets Germany to accept the armistice, S99; delegate to Peace Conference, 900; his leadership, 900; his appeal to voters in 1918, 900; in the "Big Four," goi ; striving for a League of Nations, 901 ; opposition to, 903; physical collapse, 902. World war. the United States and, 873- 904 ; the United States enters it, 882 ; form of assistance to be given, 882 ; the part taken by the United States in, 895. ' Yankee Division.' sion. See Twenty-Sixth Divi- Printed in the United States of Amehcx. !.%Fe78 I