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HISTORY
OF THfE
UNITED STATES.
FROM 1492 TO 1872.
BY
SAMUEL ELIOT.
BOSTON:
BREWER AND TILE STON.
FRANKLIN STREET,
i876.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1874,
BY BREWER AND TILESTON,
ln the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington,
Ilectrotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry,
i9 Spring Lane.




PREFACE.
As I remarked in the preface to the original edition of
this book, I have endeavored to observe the proper proportions. The same space is not given to every period or
to every transaction. On the contrary, events are narrated
at greater or less length, according to their importance -
a few days occupying as many pages in some parts of the
volume as a long series of years in others. By thus making
inferior matters subordinate, I trust that I have done more
justice than might be anticipated, from the appearance of
the book, to the great passages in our history. It is
nowhere, however, a book of details. I have confined
myself intentionally to outlines — endeavoring to sketch
these in such a way as to suggest comprehensive conceptions of the whole, rather than complete views of' any
single part.
In bringing down the history to the present time, I have
made a few corrections and omissions in Parts I., II., and
III., and almost wholly re-written Part IV.
(iii)








CONTENTS.
PART I.
OCCUPATION.
1492-1638.
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERY.
Traditional- Historical, 3. Fulness of the rime, 4.
CHAPTER II.
SPANISH SETTLEMENTS.
Spanish adventures- Ponce de Leon in Florida -Various expeditions, 5. Luis de Cancello-Menendez, 6. De Espejio and VizcainoMotives, 7. Institutions- Circumstances -Extent of Spanish claims, 8.
CHAPTER III.
FRENCH SETTLEMENTS.
New France - Carolina: Fate of its Huguenots, 9. Expedition to
avenge them - Acadie and Maine: De Monts and De Saussaye, 10.
Canada: Champlain — Collisions with the English, 11. Priests and
missionaries - Other settlers - Institutions - Circumstances, 12. Extent of French claims, 13.
CHAPTER IV.
ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.
Section 1. - Early movements - England and Columbus - Voyages
of the Cabots, 14. Interval: Gilbert and Drake, 15. Raleigh- Fail1 *                         (v)




vi                       CONTENTS.
ures of his colonies, 16. Gosnold and others -Ill success of the English, 17.
Section 2.- Companies - Organized efforts, 18. Patent of Virginia,
18. London Company: Members and colonists - Jamestown - New
charters, 19. Fortunes of the colony - Institutions, 20. An infant
colony - Fall of the company, 21. Virginia a royal province - Growth
of the colony, 22.  Plymouth Company: Members - Colonization
attempted, 23.  Various proprietors and companies - Settlement of
Plymouth, 24. Its distinction in history, 25. Political Forms -Spirit,
26. Grants - Attempt at general government - Chaos, 27. New
Hampshire and New Somersetshire - Cape Ann and Salem, 28. Company of Massachusetts Bay -Boston, 29. Increase and independence
- Charter government, 30. Puritan principles - External relations -
Internal relations, 31.  Connecticut, 32.  Providence and Rhode
Island -Dissolution of the council, 33. End of companies- Position
of New England - Thomas Morton, 34.
Section 3. - Proprietors - Grant of Maryland, 35.  A proprietary
government - Religious liberty - Troubles, 36. Other proprietors -
Conclusion - English motives, 37.  Institutions - Circumstances -
English names, 38.
CHAPTER V.
DUTCH SETTLEMENTS.
Group of traders - Spirit in Holland - Dwindled in America - Hudson's voyage, 39. Company of New Netherland, 40. Proposals of the
Plymouth Puritans —West India Company- Walloon colony, 41.
New Amsterdam - Patroons, 42. English claims, 43. Trade of the
colony, 44.
CHAPTER VI.
SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS.
Idea of Gustavus Adolphus —Oxenstiern calls in Germany-Results, 46. Opposing claims, 47.
CHAPTER VII.
INDIAN RACES.
*European races - Indian races - Names and numbers, 48. Algonquins - Iroquois, 49. Mobilians - Customs and institutions, 50. Influence upon the European -Counter influence upon the Indian, 51.
African race - The country, 52.




CONTENTS.                          Vii
PART II.
ENGLISH DOMINION.
1638-1763.
CHAPTER I.
THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.
Old and new colonies- Plymouth annexed-Maine annexed, 55.
New Hampshire - Massachusetts, 56. Connecticut - Rhode Island -
Four Colonies in New England, 57. Virginia, Maryland, 58. Carolina, North and South, 59. New York, 60. New Jersey, 61. Pennsylvania, 62. Delaware —Georgia, 63. Aspect of the thirteen, 64.
CHAPTER II.
COLONIAL RELATIONS.
Races - Classes, 66. Of the old world, 67. Institutions belong to
the freemen - English law, 68. Colonial governments, 69. Towns, 70.
Assemblies, 71. Churches - Persecution in Massachusetts: Child, 72.
Baptists, 73. Saltonstall's remonstrance - Dunster of Harvard College,
74. Quakers, 75. Witches, 76. Persecution elsewhere, 77. Save in
Rhode Island, 78. Inter-colonial difficulties - Shawomet and Massachusetts, 79. United Colonies of New England, 80.  Treatment of
Rhode Island - Disagreements, 81. Dissensions elsewhere - Penn and
Baltimore, 82.  Relations to the mother country- The crown —
Charles II. and Massachusetts, 83.  Loss of the Massachusetts and
other charters - Parliament, 85. Navigation acts-Duties, 86. Royal
governors - Berkeley in Virginia - Bacon's rebellion, 87. Andros in
New England, 88. Revolution -But not liberty, 89. Fletcher in New
York, 90. General strictness, 91. Perils of the frontier, 92.
CHAPTER III.
INDIAN WARS.
Spirit of the Indians - Spirit of the Europeans, 93. Missionary
labors - The Mayhews and Eliot, 94. Supports- Results, 95. Wars
in Virginia and Maryland, 96. Pequot war- Narragansets, 97. King
Philip, 98. War throughout New England - Destruction of the Narragansets, 99. Of Philip — Peace, 100.  Abenakis in arms - Peace in




Viii                      CONTENTS.
the centre and south -'War in North Carolina, 101. In South Carolina
— With Cherokees -With western tribes, 102. Pontiac's war -Indians
in Pennsylvania, 103. Other wars, but the issue decided —Later missions, 104.
CHAPTER IV.
DUTCH WARS.
Wars with Indians, 106.  Effect upon New Netherland - Internal
restrictions, 107. Religious persecution - Subjection of New Sweden,
108. New Amstel - English aggressions, 109. War: Loss of the
province - Recovery and final loss, 111.
CHAPTER V.
SPANISH WARS.
Spanish race - Its colony - Collisions with the English, 112. Effect
on the colony -War: Attacks on St. Augustine and Charleston, 113.
Treaty of Utrecht - Second war: Descents on Florida - Third war:
Georgia and Florida, 114. Fourth war: Cession of Florida, 115. Spain
in Louisiana and California - Character of the Spanish wars, 116.
CHAPTER VI.
FRENCH POSSESSIONS.
French race-New France- System of government, 117. Relations
with Indians and English, 118. Acadie, including Maine- Canada,
including New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, 119.  The Mississippi:
Illinois - Louisiana, 120. French dominion - Colony in Texas, 121.
Colony in Mississippi - Colony in Alabama - Grant to Crozat, 122.
Western settlements: Indiana - Loss of Acadie - Forts: Pennsylvania
and Ohio, 123. Mississippi Company: New Orleans - Missouri: the
thirteen of France- Vastness and weakness, 124.
CHAPTER VII.
FRENCH WARS.
Wars with Indians in the north - In the south - Strife between the
French and the English, 125. Indecisive wars -King William's war,.126. Its character and course, 127. Religious differences -Queen
Anne's war, 128. Collision in the west, 129. And in the east - King
George's war, 130. Blood shed in Nova Scotia, 131. The Ohio Company - Blood shed in Pennsylvania: George Washington - The final
struggle, 132. Extent, 133. Losses of the English- Their subsequent
victories, 134. Conclusion of the war —The French retire, 135. French
and English compared, 136.




CONTENTS.                          ix
CHAPTER VIII.
COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT.
Development of territory - Of occupation, 137. Of habits of lifeOf education, 138. Colleges - Of the press, 139. Official interference,
140. Editions of the Bible -Intellectual development: In action, 141.
In literature -In science, 142. In art, 143. Influences from abroad -
Liberality in religion, 144. Church of England, 145. Project of bishops,
146. Classes: The slaves, 147. Colonies: Union, 148. Contributions
to Boston, 149.
CHAPTER IX.
THE MOTHER COUNTRY.
Views of the mother country -Board of trade, 150. African Company, 151. Colonial governors, 152. Cornbury in New York- Burnet
and Belcher in Massachusetts, 153. Clinton's appeal, 154. Parliamentary interference - Commercial rule, 155. Military rule - Impressment
at Boston - A commander-in-chief of the colonies, 156. Judicial tenure-Writs of assistance, 157. English dominion, 158. Effects on the
colonies - Upon the mother country, 159. Temporary unity, 160.
PART III.
INDEPENDENCE.
1763-1797.
CHAPTER I.
PROVOCATIONS.
Old troubles extended -Parties in the mother country, 163. Views
of the colonies - Parties in the colonies, 164. The two sides - Ministries of the period - Point of taxation, 165. Discussion - Sugar act,
166.~ -Stamp act - Resistance, 167. Congress - Declaration of rights
and liberties, 168. Effect, 170. Riots - Non-importation and non-consumption, 171. Repeal of Stamp act, 172. American rejoicings -New
acts —Resistance again, 173.  Massachusetts convention, 184.  Act
concerning trials in England, 175. Colonial divisions -Boston massacre, 176. Other disturbances, 177. Additional act concerning trials




X                        CONTENTS.
-Tea destroyed in Boston, 178. And elsewhere- Slave trade, 179.
Chastisement of Massachusetts and Boston, 180. Quebec act - Conventions and Provincial Congress in Massachusetts, 181. National
spirit - Continental Congress, 182. Its work - American Association,
183. Petition and addresses - Peace or war, 184. Preparation, 185.
CHAPTER II.
WAR.
Arming of Massachusetts -Not unprovoked or unanticipated, 186.
Arming of other colonies - Course of Parliament, 187. First collision,
188. Its significance - Lexington and Concord, 189. Effect: Mecklenburg declaration, 190. War in Massachusetts -Ticonderoga and
Crown Point —Proceedings in Congress, 191.  Washington appointed
commander-in-chief, 192. Bunker Hill —VWashington at the head of
the army, 193. Difficulties- Siege of Boston, 194. General govern.
ment, 195. The thirteen complete -Military operations, 196. Loyalists
- Great Britain determined, 197. Washington before Boston - Recovery of the town - The victory, 198. Increasing perils, 199.
CHAPTER III.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
Transformation of colonies to states —Idea of independence, 200.
North Carolina' and Virginia - Congress - Hesitation, 201. Lee's resolution -Debate, 202. Committee on declaration - Resolution adopted,
203. And the declaration —The United States, 204. Plan of confederation - Unity in Congress - State constitutions, 205.  Divisions'
amongst the people, 206.
CHAPTER IV.
WAR, CONTINUED. SECOND PERIOD.
Three periods - Characteristics of the second period - Reception of
the declaration, 207. Defence of Charleston - Loss of New York, 208.
Loss of Lake Champlain and the lower Hudson- Loss of Newport, 209.
Defence of New Jersey, 210. Organization of army, 211. Dictatorship
-Paper money, 212. Arrival of Lafayette, 213. Defeat of Burgoyne,
214. Loss of the Hudson Highlands —Loss of Philadelphia, 215.
Washington's embarrassments - Loss of the Delaware, 216. Wickes's
cruise - Cabal against Washington, 217. Army quarrels, 218. Army
sufferings —Aspect of Congress, 219. Treaty with France - British
conciliation, 220. Recovery of Philadelphia, 221. Possession of Illinois - End of the period, 222.




CONTENTS.                           xi
CHAPTER V.
WAR, CONTINUED. THIRD PERIOD.
Characteristics -Failure to recover Newport, 223. British and Indian
ravages, 224. Decline of American affairs, 225.  Loss of GeorgiaDefence of Charleston, 226. Failure to recover Savannah —Invasion
of Virginia- Operations in the north, 227. Jones's cruise, 228. Spain
in the war, 229. Loss of South Carolina - Failure to recover it, 230.
Abandonment of the south - Its dcfcnce - Darkness in the north, 231.
Light in the south, 233. Holland in the war -Final adoption of the
Confederation, 234. Its inefficiency, 235. Defence of the Carolinas,
236. The central states in danger, 237. Crisis - American preparations, 238. Defeat of Cornwallis, 239. Effect -Prospects, 240. Evacuation of the south —The European combatants, 241. Cessation of
hostilities - Release of prisoners, 242. Treaties of peace, 243. Evacuation of the north- Troubles in the American army, 244. Disbanding
- Government of the nation, 245. Washington's counsels, 246. And
prayers, 247.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CONSTITUTION.
Foreign sympathy- Lafayette's visit, 248. Wants of America —
Organization, 249. The states: Internal troubles, 250. Dismemberments-Case of Vermont, 251. Disputes between state and state —
General government, 253. Organization of the north-west territory,
254. Difficulties with Spain, 255. And Great Britain, 256. Dark times
- Old foundations - Recent superstructures, 257. Religious privileges,
258. Ecclesiastical organizations - Suggestions of a national Constitution, 259. Conventions at Alexandria and Annapolis -Action of
Virginia, 260. Of other states and of Congress, 261. Opening of the
Convention - Aspect, 262. Plans of a constitution, 263. Question of
powers, 264. A national system adopted —Parties: Small states and
large states - Views of state government, 265. Votes of states, 266.
Agitation, 267. Parties: North and south- Apportionment of representation-The slave trade, 268. Details and discussions, 269. Adoption of the Constitution -Opposition in the nation, 270. Constitutional
Writings, 271. Adoption by the states, 272. Character of the trans-.action, 273. Sympathy for mankind - Literature of the revolution and
the Constitution, 274. The music of Billings, 275.




xii                       CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.
Washington president, 276. Organization of government —Solemnity
of the work, 277. Washington to his fellow-Christians —The nation,
278. Work of Congress: The departments and the judiciary —Amendments to the Constitution, 279. Revenue - Credit, 280. Manner of
decision, 281.  National bank —Parties, 282. Especially north and
south —Points concerning slavery, 283.  As to the territories, 284.
Starting point of future strife, 285. Presidential tours -Work of the
states - New states - Dependence upon Washington, 286. Animosity
of parties — Insurrection in Pennsylvania, 288. Indian wars, 289. Indian interests, 290. Heckewelder, the missionary - Tribute to Algiers,
291. Foreign relations —Commercial treaties, 292. Treaty with Spain
— Relations with Great Britain and France, 293. Parties thereupon,
294. Washington proclaims neutrality - Point proposed —Mission of
Genet, 295. Great Britain and France invade American neutrality —
Threatened war with Great Britain, 297. Mission of Jay, 298. His
treaty, 299. Opposition - Ratification - Continued opposition, 300. The
point gained, 301. Continued embarrassments: From abroad, 302. And
at home, 303. Abuse of Washington, 304. His retirement — Lafayette,
305.
PART IV.
U N I O N.
1797-1872.
CHAPTER I.
PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS.
Parties in power - Missions to France, 309. Arming of the United
States-War, 310. Strain upon the nation, 311. Nullification, 312.
Another mission to France, 313. Mississippi Territory: Slavery under
debate - Territory of Indiana: Slavery again, 314. Death of Washington-Fall of the federalists, 315. Acquisition of Louisiana, 316. Organization of Louisiana territories, 317.  Other territorial and state
organizations - Burr's projects, 318. Difficulties with Great Britain -
Affair of the Chesapeake, 319. The administration against war, 320.
Opposition - Indian hostilities, 322. Louisiana and Florida —Warlike
preparations against Great Britain, 323.




CONTENTS.                         xiii
CHAPTER II.
WAR WITH  GREAT BRITAIN.
Declaration - Cause of the United States, 325. War at home, 326.
Means for the war, 327. Position of Great Britain - The war - Losses
on north-western frontier, 328. Perry's victory on Lake Erie - Operations on New York frontier, 329. On Niagara frontier, 331. Defence
of Lake Champlain - British superiority, 332. Successes at sea - Subsequent reverses, 333. Losses upon the coast - Capture of WVashington
and Alexandria, 334.  Defence of Baltimore, 335.  Indian foes -
National straits, 336. Party controversies, 337. Hartford Convention
— Charges of disunion, 338. Proceedings of the Convention, 339. Results - Nullification in Connecticut and Massachusetts, 340. Defence
of Louisiana, 341. Martial law at New Orleans, 342. Reappearance
of the navy —Peace preliminaries, 343. Treaty of Ghent, 344. Protection of foreigners - Indian treaty - Algerine treaty, 346. Exhaustion - Independence, 347.
CHAPTER III.
MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
Recovery - Administrations - Seminole war, 349. Acquisition of
Florida, 350. New states - Proposal of Missouri, 351. Intense agitation - Question of slavery, 352. The compromise, 353. Different interpretations - Admission of Missouri, 354. Slave trade, 355.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
Independence of Central and South America - The Monroe doctrine,
356. Authorship - Purpose - Aid to Greece, 358. Lafayette's visit,
359. Congress of Panama, 360.
CHAPTER V.
TARIFF COMPROMISE.
Nullification —In Georgia, 361. Tariffs, 362.  Exposition and protest-of South Carolina- Jackson's first acts, 363. Webster's defence
of the nation -Bad temper, 364. South Carolina nullifies, 365. And
threatens to secede - Resolution of government, 366. Resolution of
states, 367. Tariff compromise - The president's regret, 368.
2




xiv                       CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
ANTI-SLAVERY.
Calhoun's basis —Two periods in the anti-slavery movement, 369.
Southampton massacre - Lundy and Garrison, 370. American AntiSlavery Society, 371. Reaction among the people - In the government,
372. Murder of Lovejoy, 373. Violence of abolitionists - Massachusetts missions, 374. Necessity of anti-slavery, 375.
CHAPTER VII.
ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.
United States Bank - Finances, 376. State insolvency — Civil war
in Rhode Island, 377. New states and territories - Indian wars - Foreign relations: France, 378. Great Britain, 379. Treaty of Washington,
380. Republic of Texas, 381. Project of annexation - Revived, 382.
Effected, 383.
CHAPTER VIII.
WAR WITH MEXICO.
Causes - Hostilities, 385.  Oregon controversy, 386. Conquest of
north-east of Mexico, 387. Conquest of Chihuahua — New Mexico —
California, 388. Operations in Gulf of Mexico - March upon city of
Mexico, 390. Battles on the way - In valley of Mexico, 391. Wilmot
proviso, 392. Mexican proviso —Treaty, 393.
CHAPTER IX.
COMPROMISE OF 1850.
Old domain - New domain, 394. Freesoil party - Root's resolution
- Convention of southern members of Congress, 395. California constitution- Clay's resolutions, 396. Compromise - Its adoption, 397.
Fugitive slave act -Last of the compromises, 398.
CHAPTER X.
KANSAS.
Ten years' struggle - Temporary success of compromise, 400. Repeal
of the Missouri compromise -Ostend manifesto, 401. Immigration to
Kansas -Elections, 402. Civil war, 403. Assault upon Senator Sumner - Election of 1856, 404. Dred Scott case - Personal liberty laws,
405. Commercial crisis - Mormons - Montgomery Convention, 406.
Lincoln's and Seward's predictions - John Brown's raids, 407. New
states, 408.




CONTENTS.                           XV
CHAPTER XI.
SECESSION.
Lincoln elected president- South Carolina prepares to secede -
Warning in Georgia, 409. President's message, 410. Crittenden compromise- Secession of South Carolina, 411. Anderson at Fort Sumter,
412. Star of the West, 413. Secession of other states - Peace conventions, 414. Confederate government, 415. Lincoln on the way to
Washington, 416. Inauguration - Contrast, 417. Attempt at negotiation - Relief of Fort Sumter, 418.
CHAPTER XII.
CIVIL WAR.
FIRST PERIOD: April, 1861, to January, 1863. - Fall of Fort Sumter,
420.  Uprising, 421.  More secession - Rebellion or war, 423. Two
periods of the war -Lyon's defence of Missouri, 424. West Virginia
for the Union, 425. East Tennessee - Extreme measures, 426. Congress and the president's message, 427. Bull Run, 428. Carolina and
Georgia coast —The Trent, 430. Military preparations, 432. Campaigns in the west -Recovery of New Orleans, 433. Fort Pulaski -
Roanoke, Newbern, and Fort Macon- Merrimac and Monitor, 434.
Peninsular campaign, 436. Northern Virginia -Defence of Maryland,
437. Defence of Cincinnati, 438. Reverses - Emancipation, 439. Effect
of the proclamation, 442.
CHAPTER XIII.
CIVIL WAR, CONTINUED.
SECOND PERIOD: January, 1863, to April, 1865. - Finances, 444.
Vicksburg, 445. Port Hudson - Chancellorsville, 447. Gettysburg,
448. Attempt on Indiana and Ohio- Draft, 450. Fort Sumter, 451.
Colored troops, 452.  Great Britain and confederate cruisers, 453.
Chattanooga, 454. Grant lieutenant-general, 455. Red River- France
and Mexico, 456. Virginia, 457. Georgia, 459. Kearsarge and Alabama-Mobile Bay, 461. Re-election of Lincoln - Thirteenth Amendment, 462.  Slaves enlisted by the confederates —Fort Fisher, 463.
Sherman in the Carolinas, 464. Grant's victory over Lee, 465. Assassination of the president - Close of the war, 466.  Prisoners, 467.
Sanitary and Christian commissions, 468. Cost of the war, 469.




XV1                       CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
REUNION.
Difficulties - Disarming, 470. Freedmen, 471. Reconstruction of
states, 472. Impeachment of President Johnson - Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, 475.  Enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment —
Amnesty, 476. Financial administration- Civil service, 477. Indians,
478. Mexico and France- Alaska and Russia - Alabama claims, 479.
Settlement, 481.
CHAPTER XV.
NATIONAL DEVELOP3MENT.
Three quarters of a century, 482. Causes at work, 483. Public
schools, 484. Higher education —Public libraries —Art museums —
Letters, 485.  Science -Art, 487.  Inventions - Expeditions, 488.
Charities, 489. Drawbacks, 490.




PART I.
OCCUPATION.
1492-1638.
1                    (1)








CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERY.
Tradi-    THE first man to discover the shores of the
tional. United States, according to Icelandic writings, was
the Icelander Leif. A countryman of his, sailing from
Greenland, had reached Newfoundland or Labrador, and
Leif sailed in search of the same land, a few years afterwards. He is described as having found more than he
sought, by keeping on to the southward and westward,
until he arrived at a point which he called Vinland, from
the wild grapes growing there, and which has been supposed to be our own Rhode Island. This was in the year
1000, and from that time, for upwards of three hundred
years, voyages to these coasts continued to be made at
intervals by Icelanders or Northmen. Other traditions
bring over Madoc and his Welshmen in the twelfth
century, and the Venetian brothers Zeni at the close of
the fourteenth; but when they came, and if they came at
all, cannot now be told.
Histori-   Whatever may be thought of these traditional
Cal.   discoveries, this much, at least, is historical about
them: that they quickened the discoveries of a later period.
The idea that land could be gained by sailing westward
over the Atlantic was a very old one, but it needed to be
revived. At last it triumphed, and Christopher Columbus,
a Genoese in the Spanish service, discovered Guanahani,
or San Salvador, one of the Bahama Islands, at dawn on
(3)




4                 PART I. 1492-1638.
Friday, October 12, 1492. He thought he had succeeded
in finding a western route to the Indies, and therefore
called his discovery the West Indies. On his third voyage
westward, in 1498, he reached the American continent off
the Island of Trinidad; but if he knew it to be a continent,
he supposed it to be Asiatic, and so he continued to suppose it till his death in 1506. The next year a German
geographer, drawing from the descriptions given by
Amerigo Vespucci`%a Florentine who had crossed the
ocean under the Spanish and Portuguese flags, coined the
name of America. Several years still elapsed before
Columbus was known to have discovered a New World.
Fulness   No event in history appears to have been more
of the happily timed. The middle ages were closing, the
time.  modern were opening; the great nations of Europe
were putting fbrth their energies, material and immaterial,
when the discovery of America came just in season to
help and be helped by the movements of these stirring
years. Had it taken place before, or long before, it would
have suffered from the want of those who could turn it to
account; had it been delayed, or long delayed, generations would have languished without the golden opportunities which it gave them. The old world needed the
new; the new needed the old.




CHAPTER II.
SPANISH  SETTLEMENTS.
Spanish FROM almost every point first gained in America,
adven-  as well as from the shores of Spain, adventures,
tures.
some great, some small, some national, some individual, were urged by the Spaniards in all directions.
The West Indies, at first the whole, soon became the mere
centre of the Spanish possessions.
Poncede   The first to reach the territory of the present
Leon in United States was Ponce de Leon, a companion of
Florida. Columbus. Long visited by dreams of riches, and
latterly, in his advancing age, excited by rumors of a fountain in which youth might be renewed, Ponce set sail from
Porto Rico in search of the treasures in the north. On
Easter Sunday, - in the Spanish calendar Pascua Florida,
- he descried a land to which, in his mingled visions of
resurrection and of abundance, he gave the name of Florida
or Flower-land, (1512.)  Nine years later, with a commission from the Spanish crown, as governor of Florida,
Ponce returned to conquer and to colonize his discovery.
But driven off by the natives of the coast, the old adventurer left Florida to return no more, (1521.)
varlios    A series of expeditions had already begun to
expedi-  scour the Atlantic coast.  The Portuguese Cortions. tereal had led the way, twenty years before, in a
cruise towards the north, (1501.)  A line of Spanish adventurers, intent upon treasure and conquest, succeeded.
1 *                             (5)




6                 PART I. 1492-1638.
Vasquez de Ayllon twice made descents upon Chicora, the
later Carolina, (1520-24.)  Gomez sailed farther to the
north in quest of a western passage to richer lands, (1525.)
Pamphilo de Narvaez tried his fortune in Florida, (1528,)
whither also De Soto directed his greater expedition, and
pursued his wanderings northward and westward (1539-43)
with no greater reward than the discovery of the Mississippi,
(1541.) At the same time, Vasquez Coronado was penetrating from Mexico high up into the interior, (1540-42,)
while De Cabrillo (1542) was coasting the Pacific shore,
and, though dying on the voyage, leaving his pilot, Ferrelo,
to ascend as far as Oregon, (1543.) Of these western explorations there were few if any results to satisfy the
explorers. Nor were the adventurers in the east better
contented; the only ones to gain any thing being those who
laded their ships with slaves. The natives had been pressed
into bondage almost from the moment when they were first
seen in the West Indies.
Luis de    A figure of more Christian aspect appears in
Cancello. Luis de Cancello, a Dominican friar.  Obtaining
an order from Spain that all the slaves from the northern
shore of the Gulf of Mexico should be returned, he set
sail with such as he could collect. Instead of proposing to
conquer the natives, he went with the hope of converting
them to a religion of peace. But in his first interview with
them on the coast, he and two priests accompanying him
were slain, (1549.)
AIenen-    Nearly twenty years elapsed, and our soil was
dez.   still unoccupied by the Spaniards.  At length a
veteran commander, Menendez de Aviles, engaged to complete the conquest and to commence the colonization of
Florida, with a train of soldiers, priests, and negro slaves.
He was of a stern temper, without a vision of romance or a
touch of sensibility to turn him from the severe enterprise




SPANISH SETTLEMENTS.                7
which he had assumed. He began with the foundation of St.
Augustine, (September 8, 1565,) the oldest town in the
United States. Then he routed and slew some French
settlers who had lately encamped upon the ground claimed
by Spain, and whose destruction had been one of the great
incentives to his expedition. Where they fell most thickly,
the conqueror marked out the site of a Christian church.
The colony thus resolutely founded brought none of the rich
returns that had been looked for; but it was not abandoned.
De Espe-   Fifteen years afterwards, the expeditions from
jio and Mexico were renewed by Ruiz (1580) and De
vizcaino. Espejio, (1581,) the latter of whom, followed by
soldiers and Indians, marched northward, until he named
the country New Mexico, and founded the settlement of
Santa Fe, the second town of the United States in point
of age. Twenty years later, (1602,) a squadron under Sebastiano Vizcaino explored the Californian shore, bestowing upon its headlands and its bays many of the names
which they still bear. It was Vizcaino's hope to colonize
the coast, but he died in the midst of his schemes, (1608.)
The motives of the Spanish settler, as we perMotives.
ceive, were partly of a high and partly of a low
nature. Devoted to great aims and to generous deeds, he
encountered, as Luis de Cancello did in Florida, the perils
of an unknown shore, in order to impart to others the faith
in which he lived and for which he was willing to die. But
in another aspect the Spanish character grows dark and
threatening. Men, like the greater part of those who have
been mentioned, sought our land for gold or for dominion;
sometimes, indeed, with a national object, but more generally for merely selfish ends. Motives of this sort led to
scenes of cruelty and of carnage, on which it is, fortunately,
unnecessary to dwell




18                PART I. 1492-1638.
The institutions of Spain were those of an absontintu  lute monarchy. They lent but little aid to the development of the better elements in the national character. Indeed, they rather encouraged the opposite elements,
both before and after the colonies of the nation were
founded. A military rule was the only political institution
of Florida. It was in the hands of a few officials, whose
authority was kept up at the sacrifice of the general progress of the settlements. A rigid system of trade, upholding a monopoly in favor of the government, or of the
capitalists dependent on the government at home, increased
the obstacles with which the colony had to contend.
Coming with these motives and under these insticircum- tutions, the Spaniards found themselves in circumstances
stances of similar tendency. Choosing the south
for their first, and, as it proved, their only settlements, from
its promising the richest harvest, they met the influences
springing from the air above them and from the earth
beneath them. The habits of indulgence and of repose
which ensued were any thing but favorable to character or
to prosperity.
xtent of  Few and far between were the Spanish settleSpanish ments. But the Spanish claims were universal.
claims. I the first place, there was a papal bull of 1493,
conveying a right to all America. In the next place, there
were the successive discoverers from Ponce de Leon to
Vizcaino, whose labors had won the continent anew. The
name of Florida was stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to
the Gulf of St. Lawrence; that of New Mexico was made
equally extensive in the interior and on the west.  Could
names, and deeds, and papal bulls have sufficed to support
the Spanish claim, it would have prevailed throughout the
United States.




CHAPTER III.
FRENCH SETTLEMENTS.
New     THE approaches of France to our country were
1rance, made, first by fishermen, (1504,) and then by navigators.  A  Florentine, Verrazzano, in the French service, sailing along the coast firom Florida to Newfoundland, was not deterred by any previous discoveries from
giving to the continent the name of New France, (1524.)
Ten years after, the Frenchman Cartier renewed the name
in voyages in and about the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
(1534-42.)
Nothing, however, was done in a persevering
Carolina.
Fate of its way to fix the name upon the territory, until AdmiHugue- ral De Coligny conceived the idea of a colony to
nots.
which his brother Protestants, the Huguenots, might
repair for refuge against persecution in France. After
failing to make a settlement in South America, De Coligny
despatched a party to the northern coast, where a fort,
named Charlesfort in honor of the French king, was
erected near Port REoyal in the present South Carolina,
(1562.) This settlement likewise falling through, another
was made upon the St. John's in Florida, where a fort
called Caroline was reared, (1564.) The mutinous dispositions of the colonists and their Indian wars had much
reduced the settlement, when it was annihilated by the
Spanish force under Menendez de Aviles, (1565.)  Such
of the French as did not escape or fall in battle were put
(9)




10                 PART I. 1492-1638.
to death by the Spaniard and the Catholic, "not as Frenchmen," he is said to have declared, "but as Lutherans."
Such was the unhappy fate of the first fugitives from the
old world to the new. Objects at once of religious and of'
national animosity, they were pursued by enemies enlisted
against them  as on a crusade. The passions of Europe
obtained fresh space in America; the feeble fell, the strong
triumphed as they had done in older lands.
But there was something inspiring, after all, in
Expedition to  the associations of the western shore.  If the fugiiavenge  tives thither were murdered by their foes, they were
them.
not forgotten by their friends. Three years after
their victory, the Spaniards were surprised on the same
ground by a French expedition under De Gourgues, a soldier of Gascony, who had sold his estate in order to avenge
his fallen countrymen. He took the Spanish forts, and
hung his prisoners, with the inscription above them, " Not
as Spaniards or Moriscoes, but as Traitors, Robbers, and
Assassins." Thus was our soil a second time darkened
with the slaughter of strangers. Without waiting an attack
from the Spaniards at St. Augustine, De Gourgues sailed
home, the last of the French to attempt the possession of
Florida or of Carolina, (15 68.)
A long period elapsed before the French reapAcadie
and    peared, except as fishermen or as traders, in any
Mainte.  part of America.  At length, a grant of all the
and De territory from Pennsylvania to New Brunswick,
Saussaye. under the name of Acadie, was made by Henry
IV. of France to the  Sieur de Monts, (1603,) and
he, after a hard winter, made the first permanent settiement of Frenchmen in America at Port Royal, (1604,)
since Annapolis. A later attempt to make a settlement upon Cape Cod met with immediate failure on
account of the hostility of the natives, (1606.) Some




FRENCH SETTLEMENTS.                 11
years afterwards, one or two Jesuit missionaries crossed
over from  that part of Acadie which was occupied, to a
part as yet unoccupied, within the limits of the present
Maine, (1612.) They were followed the next year, by De
Saussaye, the agent of Madame de Guercheville to whom
the earlier grant to De:Mlonts was now reconveyed; the
limits being extended so far as to reach from Floricla to the
St. Lawrence. De Saussaye, accompanied by a few Jesuits, began the colony of St. Sauveur upon l\Iount Desert
Island, off the coast of MIaine, (1613.) It was hardly begun, however, before it was broken up by an attack from
an English armed vessel belonging to the then rising colony
of Virginia.
Canada.   Meantime the banners of France had been carChainm-  ried up the St. Lawrence. Champlain, the greatest
plain.  leader whom the French had as yet followed to the
west, laid the foundations of Quebec in the heart of the
province of Canada, (1608.) The next year, forming an
alliance with the Algonquins, then at war with the Iroquois
or Five Nations of New York, he marched southward to
the lake which bears his name, (1609.) Six years later,
he took the lead in another foray which penetrated the
forests on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, (1615.)
A new way appeared to be open to French settlements in
the United States.
Collisions   But nothing followed. The English arms, after
with the an interval of several years, were carried against
English.
the northern settlements of the French. Acadie,
already made the subject of an English grant, and Canada
were conquered, but restored, (1 628-32.) Then the French
came down in their turn, and drove the English from the
trading posts established by the Plymouth colony on the
Maine coast, (1631-35.)  The attempts to repel them
were in vain; on the contrary, they forbade the English to




12                 PART I. 1492-1638.
pass Pemaquid, a point midway between the Kennebec and
the Penobscot.  The interior was at the same time in the
occupation of the French priests, if of any Europeans.
Priests    The priests and the missionaries of France were
and mis- the most prominent amongst her settlers..They
sionaries. came full of adventure as of faith, hesitating at no
danger, shrinking from no sacrifice. That there should be
some less worthy amongst the number was a matter of
course. It was equally natural that, among the most worthy, there should be many to magnify their work, to count
their converts too freely, and to oppose their antagonists too
fiercely.  But taken tll in all, the French missionaries
have a higher place than most early comers deserve in our
history.  What they were and what they did will appear
more clearly at a later period.
Other     With the priest came the soldier, the explorer,
settlers. and the trader, all animated by the love of enterprise, to say nothing of its rewards in fame or in riches.
They form a less sinister group than the Spanish settlers,
more supple, more gay, though by no means more gallant
or more adventurous.
Institu-    Much of the difference may be ascribed to the
tions. influence of the French institutions. These, at the
time in question, were the institutions of a comparatively
limited monarchy.  If there were arbitrary influences in
the government, sufficient, as we shall hereafter observe, to
oppress its subjects and its colonies, there was also something of a more generous nature, by which the devotedness
of the missionary, the bravery of the soldier, and the zeal
of the adventurer were sustained.
Circum-   The circumstances in which the French settlers
stances. were placed tended to confirm all their enterprise
and all their fortitude. Abandoning the southern Carolina
and drawing in the limits of Acadie on the south, they were




FRENCH SETTLEMENTS.                13
for a long time concentrated upon northern shores and in
northern valleys. In these lands, adventure was not to be
pursued, nor was sustenance to be obtained, without energy
and hardihood.
In following the French into Acadie and Canada,
Extent of        In
French we have gone far beyond the limits of the United
States. But their Acadie embraced our iMaine, or
a large portion of it; their Canada comprehended our Vermont and our New York, or large portions of them; not to
speak of the western regions afterwards included in the
same province. We shall return to the French at the
epoch of their later acquisitions. For the present, we
leave the name of New France, bestowed by Verrazzano
and Cartier in their voyages, and adopted by De MIonts,
Champlain, and De Saussaye, in their settlements, extending in immense proportions along the seaboard and in the
interior. It was a title to be set against the Florida and
the New Mexico of Spain.
2




CHAPTER IV.
ENGLISH  SETTLEMENTS.
SECTION I. - Early Movements. 1492 to 1606.
England   THE English were first connected with America
and Co- through Columbus. When his plans of' discovery
lumbus. were declined by the Portuguese court, he sent his
brother Bartholomew to make the same offers to the king
of England, (1484.)  Bartholomew, long upon his way
and upon his return, was bringing back some favorable
proposals from H-lenry VII., just as Christopher was returning from his first voyage, (1493.)  It was too late for
England to obtain the services of Columbus.
But it was just in time for England to profit by
Voyages                               Z
of the  his discoveries. Both the king and his subjects, at
Cabots. least those of his subjects who were interested in
navigation, seem to have caught the impulse naturally
springing from such an enterprise as had been achieved.
Within three years from the first return of Columbus, Henry
authorized a Venetian then belonging to Bristol, John
Cabot, with his three sons, to start an expedition at their
own expense, in order to do whatever they could for themselves, and at the same time to set up the banners of the
English monarch, as his vassals and deputies, upon the
lands supposed to exist northward of' those discovered by
Columbus, (1496.) The Cabots, setting sail in the following year, (1497,) reached a slhore called by them Prima
(14)




ENGLISH SETTLEAMENTS.                15
Vista, the First View, since known by the name of
Labrador. It was more than a year before the continent
was gained by Columbus. Another voyage, made a year
later (1498) by Sebastian Cabot, the second son of John,
and a native of England, was directed along the coast of
the new continent from the latitude of Labrador to that of
the Chesapeake.
So successful a beginning augured great ends.
Interval.
Gilbert  But there ensued a long interval, in which none but
and    isolated and remote adventures towards the west
Drake.
were undertaken in England. The fisheries of the
north were for many years the only objects of attraction in
the direction of America. Then the opening of hostilities,
at first rather of a private or piratical than of a national
character, against Spain,* drew the English towards the
southern regions.  But the central territories, those of
the present United States, were long unvisited except for
some passing purpose. MINore than three quarters of a century had elapsed since the coasting voyage of Sebastian
Cabot, and both the Spaniards and the French had several
times seized upon the shores discovered by the English
navigators, when a new permission to possess and settle the
western lands was given by Queen Elizabeth to one of her
noblest subjects, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, (1578.)  At the
same period, while Sir Francis Drake, the half hero, half
freebooter of the English navy, was on his voyage of adventure and plunder round the world, he gave the name of
New Albion to the coasts of California and Oregon. Thus
gaining a foothold on the western as well as on the eastern
side- of the continent, England was recalled, at a moment
of general activity throughout the nation, to her interests in
America.
* Beginning about 1570, though there was no formal war until 1585.




16                PART 1. 1492-1638.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert perished in the course of
Raleigh.
a second attempt to reach his American possessions,
(1583.) But his claims were immediately transferred to
his half brother, WValter Raleigh, the courtier and the
cavalier of the ace in England, (1584.)  A voyage of
exploration was immediately made under his directions to
the coast of our North Carolina, of which so flattering an
account was returned to him and to his sovereign, that the
name of Virginia, from the virgin Queen Elizabeth, was
not thought too great for the new land.
Failures In the following year, (1585,) Sir Richard Grenof his  ville, one of the chief commanders of the time, left
colonies. a colony of one hundred and eighty persons at
Roanoke Island'; but such were the hardships which they
encountered, that they were only too well satisfied to be
taken home by Sir Francis Drake a year afterwards.
They had scarcely gone when Grenville returned with
supplies for them, and he, unwilling to have the colony
abandoned, left fifteen of his mariners to keep possession
until they could be reinforced, (1586.) The little band
was gone, murdered, it was believed, by the natives, when,
in the next year, (1587,) a fresh party of one hundred
and seventeen arrived. Soon after they came, the first
English child to see the light in America was born. She
was the daughter of Ananias Dare, and the granddaughter
of John White, the leader of the expedition, who gave her
the name of Virginia. But the presence of the infant
brought no better fate to the colony than had befallen its
predecessors. The one hundred and eighteen disappeared,'
and though sought for at various times, were never heard
xof more. Raleigh lost heart as well as means. He made
over his patent to a number of persons, (1589,) who, with
less enterprise than he, met with still less success. North




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.                 17
Carolina was but a waste as far as English settlements
were concerned, and Virginia but a name.
Gosnold  iMany years passed before any further attempts
and    were made to occupy the American coast. The
others.
cessation of hostilities with Spain* at length reopened the way to commercial and colonial enterprise.
Bartholomew Gosnold, after landing on Cape Cod, sailed
thence to Buzzard's Bay, where, on Elizabeth's Island,
named after his queen, he commenced, but soon abandoned,
a settlement, (1602.)  The adjoining coasts were revisited
the next year (1603) by Martin Pring, and again, the next
year but one, (1605,) by George Weymouth, both, like
Gosnold, commanders of distinction.  The preparation for
settlements was decidedly resumed.
It was high time. The Spaniards had their St.
cess of Augustine and their Santa Fe, the French their
the Eng- Port Royal, though this was beyond the limits of
lish.
our United States. But the English, the first to
discover the coast, were still without a single foothold upon
it. Wherever they had gained one, it had slipped from
beneath them.
SECTION II. - Companies. 1606 to 1635.
Organ-    Hitherto the efforts of the English in exploring
ized    and in settling the American shore had been those
efforts. of individuals. No one, indeed, unless it were
those who went on voyages for fishery or for trade, attempted his enterprise without the formal countenance of
the sovereign.  But there had been no organized efforts
such as were now prepared.
* 1604. But it was some time since the war had been generally caxried on.
2*




18                  PART I. 1492-1638.
Patent of   A year or two after James I. succeeded to the
Virginia. English throne, he issued the patent of Virginia,
This was a  twofold  grant of the American  territory
from what is now North Carolina to what is now 2Maine.
Of this vast tract, the southerly half* was appropriated to
the First Colony, and the northerly t to the Second Colony,
each colony to be founded and governed by a separate
council, to which the grant was made.  The council or company, as it is generally styled, of the First Colony went by
the name of London, from the residence of its prominent
members. For a similar reason, the name of Plymouth
was given to the council or company of the Second Colony.
The great point, however, is this, that the parties to the
patent were not colonists, but capitalists, not adventurers,
but speculators, who, in their respective corporations in
England, not in America, were declared possessors of' the
best portion of the American territory.  At the same time,
the companies were invested with ample powers to settle
" colonists and servants," to impose duties, and to coin
money. Their obligations, in return, were to pay over to
the crown a share of their profits4S and to support the laws
and the church of England.  To exercise some sort of
supervision over so great corporations as these, a council
bor Virginia was instituted by the king, who, to complete
his work, put forth a code of laws and regulations for the
direction of the various bodies which he had created.
* From lat. 340 to lat. 380, with a right, if first in the field, to make
settlements as far north as 410~.
t From lat. 410 to lat. 450, with a right, if first in the field, to make
settlelpents as far south as 380.
+ OD? fifth of the gold and silver, and one fifteenth of the copper, that
migkt be found.




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.               19
THE LONDON COMPANY.
Members  The moving spirit of the' London Company ap,
and    pears to have been Richard Hakluyt, prebendary
colonists. of Bristol, afterwards of Westminster, who had been
interested in American colonization fiom the time of Ra,
leigh's expeditions.  Around him  were gathered many
eminent and energetic men, among them Sir George Calvert, the future founder of Maryland, but none of greater
promise, in relation to the work before them, than Bartholomew Gosnold, the settler of Elizabeth's Island, and John
Smith, a hero in the east long before he turned his face
westward. Gosnold and Smith were both amongst the first
colonists.
James-   It was in midwinter, (December 19, 1606,) that
town.  an expedition, one hundred strong, set out from
England. A feeble band as regarded their individual resources, they were strong in the company by which they
were sent to stranger shores. The voyage was long, by
the common route of the West Indies, but Virginia was
reached at last.  The spring (May 13, 1607) saw the
beginning of the first English town in America. Its royal
name of Jamestown is now a name alone.
New      The company had hardly begun its work when
charters. it sought new  powers.  Three years after the
patent, a second charter was framed, giving additional
authority to the English company, and extending the
American limits to the latitude of Philadelphia, (1609.)
Three years later, (1612,) a third charter vested the powers
of, the company in a General Court of the members, and
added the Bermuda Islands to their domains. If charters
were all that the company needed in order to flourish, it
bade fair to be great and enduring.
The fortunes of the colony were less promising. Some



20                 PART I. 1492-1638.
Fortunes times at peace, sometimes-at war* with the natives,
of the sometimes contented, sometimes despairing amongst
colony. themselves, the colonists went through great vicissitudes. One cause of feebleness is plain enough; it is the
entire dependence of the colony upon the company and the
company's representatives. Another cause of equal moment was the variety of rank and of character in the
colony.  The gentleman and the felon, the ardent seeker
after adventure and the patient toiler for subsistence, the
freeman, the apprentice, and the slave,t made up a community too mixed to possess any steadiness of growth.
The three first years, (1607-9,) the colonists hung upon
John Smith, who had become their president in the year
following the settlement of Jamestown.  It is curious to
see how lie led, rebuked, supported them; he, as the strong
man, guiding them, as feeble children. One year, (1610,)
the colony is all but abandoned; another, (1613,) it is
strong enough to make the attack already mentioned upon
the French settlements in the north. But the tendency to
increase, though interrupted, continues,'End not without
support from the company in England.
Institu-   The first step to raise the colonists from a state
tions. of mere vassalage was the grant of an estate to
each settler, (1615.) The progress from the landholder
to the freeman followed. The colony had been bound,
as has been stated, to maintain the church of England.
Its civil authorities consisted, first of the English crown
and Parliament, then of the English council, then of
the English company, by which, according to the various
charters, the local officers were appointed. These were, in
the beginning, a council, with a president; but in a year or
two from the beginning, a governor and suite, at first with* The Indian wars are related in Part II. Chapter IV.
t A Dutch man of war brought the first negro slaves, in 1619.




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.                21.
out and afterwards with a council. At length, under the
government of' Sir George Yeardley, the freemen of the
colony, representing eleven corporations or plantations,
were called, as burgesses, to a General Assembly, to take
the matter of taxes, besides other affairs of importance,
into their own hands, (1619.)  This was the system of
the colonial constitution granted by the company two years
afterwards, (1621.)  In other words, the executive authority was in the hands of a governor, the judicial in those of
a governor and a council, with an appeal to an Assembly,
and the legislative in that of a governor, a council, and an
Assembly, all subject to the company, which, of course,
was subject to the laws and the authorities of England.
We are apt to exaggerate the importance of the
An in-                            h      o
fant   English settlements, in comparison with those of
colony. the French or the Spanish, or any other nation in
our country. The truth is, that Virginia, like most of the
settlements which we shall find in the north, was but an
infant colony, unable to regulate its trade or its education,
its habits of life or of thought, except in submission to
external authorities. One or two examples, occurring under
the company's jurisdiction, illustrate the dependence of the
colony during the entire period of which we are now treating. A design of a college for native as well as English
youth, started in England with large subscriptions, found
no fulfilment in Virginia, (1619-21.)  Even the want of
wives was met, not by individual devotion, but by a company speculation; a large number of young women of good
character being transported to be sold for a hundred and
twenty, or even a hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco (at
three shillings a pound) to the lonely settlers, (1620-21.)
Fallof    Nothing, however, marks the utter dependence
the com- of the colony so plainly as its inactivity during the
pany.  troubles in which the company became involved.




22                PART I. 1492-1638.
Dissensions amongst the members, and jealousies amongst
those who were not members, led to the royal interference;
the result being the fall of the company, with all its expenditures* heavy on its head, (1624.)  The colony at this
time numbered about two thousand, the relics of' nine thousand who had been sent out. Yet for all the two thousand
did to prove their existence or their independence, the
colony might have been supposed to be the company's
shadow, too unsubstantial to support or to oppose the
power to which it owed its being.
Virginia   Virginia became a royal province. The governor
a royal and the council received their appointment from the
province- king, the freemen continuing to elect their Assembly. It was a national government, instead of a corporation system, and as such it seemed to relieve the Virginians.
At any rate, they grew so much in spirit as to make a stand
against the royal grant of what they considered their territory to the proprietor of Maryland.  Their governor, John
Harvey, not taking part with them as they wished, they
deposed him, and sent him virtually a prisoner to England,
(1635.) The king, of course, restored the governor, but
without reducing the colony to silence or to retribution,
(1636-37.) The spirit of dependence, however, lingered.
Growth    But the principles of growth and of independence
of the  were at work. Among the earliest settlers were
colony. men of culture and of earnestness, men who, like
Alexander Whitaker, " a scholar, a graduate, and a preacher," devoted themselves to the elevation of the colony.
Among the earliest governors were Lord De la Ware,
(1611,) and Sir George Yeardley, (1619-21,) both of
strong character and of strong influence. Around such
individuals as these there would naturally gather an in* From ~t100,000 to ~150,000.




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.               23
creasing number and a higher stamp of colonists. The
interest of the mother country in the colony would naturally be extended when the dissolution of the company
opened the way to general emigration and general enterprise. The'leveiopment of Virginia seemed sure.
THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY.
Mem-     Among the members of the Plymouth Company
bers. were many personages of distinction. The lord
chief justice of England, Sir John Popham, the governor
of Plymouth, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and two Gilberts,
kinsmen and successors of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir
Walter Raleigh, all engaged in the enterprise.  The
higher the rank, however, of individual members in any
association, the more likely, in most cases, are clashing
pretensions and menacing divisions. The Plymouth Company never held together in such a way as to carry out
any effective operations.
Coloniz-   A few members made the first move by sending
tion at- out a colony of forty-five persons, who encamped
tempted. for one brief year upon an island at the mouth of
the Kennebec, (1607-8.)  Some time elapsed before any
new expedition was undertaken. Nor would any, it is
probable, have been undertaken then, but for the active
agency of John Smith, who, four or five years after his
return from Virginia, entered the service of the Plymouth
Company. A careful voyage from the Penobscot to Cape
Cod impressed him so favorably, that he gave the country
the name of New England, obtaining for himself the title
of its admiral, (1614.)  But his persevering exertions to
discharge his office and to colonize his chosen land were
in vain; nor was any thing more attempted by the company until it was transformed by a new charter into the




24                PART I. 1492-1638.
Council of Plymouth for New England, with the right
to all the territory from the latitude of Philadelphia to
that of Chaleur Bay, (1620.)
Various   Even then, the Council for New England set on
proprie- foot no colonization of its own. "Its energies
tors and
compa- seemed to be spent in making grants to individuals,
nies.   _ some of them its members, - or to associations,
by whom  the settlement of New England was to be
accomplished. Singular enough, considering that it was
New England, a large proportion of these subordinate
agencies was directed to the establishment of what may
be called a number of lordly domains upon the soil. In
following this succession of proprietors and of companies,
we lose sight of the Council for New England.
One settlement, originally made without a grant
Settlemen t of from the council, was by much the most important
Plym-  for many years. It was on no large scale. One
outh.
hundred and two passengers in the Mayflower
landed at a place already called New Plymouth, (December 11, 1620.)  They were a band of Puritans, whose
extreme principles had led to their exile, first from England to Holland, (1608,) and then from  Holland to
America. Obtaining a grant from the London Company,
they set sail for Virginia, but landed to the north of that
province, in the limits of New England. The year following, they procured a patent from the Council for New
England, (1621.) But not in their own name; the grant
being made to one of a company of London merchants,
with whom they had formed a partnership before sailing
~to the west. The Londoners, holding their title under the
council, thus constituted a sort of company within a company. Nor was it until after six years, marked by many
troubles and by many injuries, that the colonists extricated
themselves from this twofold dependence by the payment




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.                25
of a large sum to the London merchants, (1626.)  The
difficulties with the merchants had been the least of the
trials of the Plymouth settlers.  Half of the one hundred
and two of the Mayflower died within a year from the
landing. " In the time of most distress," says the historian of the settlement, Governor Bradford, " there were
but six or seven sound persons."  After disease came
want; " all their victuals were spent, and they were only
to rest on God's providence; at night not many times
knowing where to have a bit of any thing the next day."
When a ship load of fresh immigrants arrived nearly two
years after, " the best dish they," the earlier comers, " could
present their friends with, was a lobster or a piece of fish,
without bread or any thing else but a cup of fair spring
water."  Nevertheless the Pilgrims, as they were called,
sustained and extended their settlements. A second patent
from the council was obtained for the country near the
mouth of the Kennebec, where a trading post was presently
established, (1628.)  The whole extent of settlements,
both at Plymouth and on the Kennebec, was included in
a third patent, two years afterwards, (1630.)
One who reads the history of these times withIts distinction out personal or national prepossessions will not
in his-  find any thing of a very extraordinary character
in the settlement of Plymouth. They who came
thither, braving the perils of the unknown sea and the
unknown shore, were but doing what had been done by
their countrymen in Virginia, and by others in other settlements in America.  Solemnity is certainly imparted to
their enterprise by the reflection that they came to maintain the doctrines and laws which their consciences approved, but which the authorities of England proscribed.
Yet the Huguenots of Carolina had done the same thing
more than half' a century before. The true distinction
3




26                PART I. 1492-1638.
of the Puritans of Plymouth is this, that they relied
upon themselves, that they adopted their owln institutions
and developed their own resources, of course in a feeble,
but not the less in a manly manner. Before they landed,
they "covenant and combine themselves together into a
civil body politic, to enact such just and equal laws as shall
be thought most convenient for the general good of the
colony." The state thus founded was continued in entire
independence of external authority, except in so far as its
territory was held by grants from  the Council for New
England.
Political The political forms of Plymouth were singuforms. larly simple.  Every settler admitted to the privileges of' the colony, and not an apprentice or a servant,
was a freeman, a member of the body by which all
affairs were administered or directed. An assembly of
a representative character was not held for nearly
twenty years, (1639.)  Out of the freemen a smaller
body was taken to exercise the every-day functions of
government. It was composed merely of the governor
and his assistants, or council, of which he was simply
the presiding officer with a double vote.  The first governor was John Carver; the second was William  Bradford, who retained the post, with a few interruptions, for
thirty-six years. It marks the simplicity, not to say the
distastefulness, of these offices, that there should have
been a law subjecting a man not having served the preceding year, and yet refusing to be governor, to a fine
of twenty pounds, equivalent to a much larger amount
in our day. A military body was headed by Miles Standish, the hero of the settlement.
But the spirit beneath these forms is of more
importance than the forms themselves.  The earnest faith of the Puritans was at once the source from which




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.                27
the colony sprang, and the strength by which it grew. But
it was also the principle of harsh and arbitrary measures.
It transformed the exiles into persecutors, many of whose
companions found themselves again exiles, escaping from
the mother country only to be thrust out from the sandy
coasts and chilly hovels of the colony.
Meantime New England was portioned out unGrants.
Attempt der various names. The secretary of the council,
at gen- John Mason, called his grant Mariana, stretching
eral government. from  Salem  River to the head of the Merrimac,
Chaos. (1621.) The lands between the MIerrimac and the
Kennebec were conveyed under the name of Maine, in a
grant to Mason in company with Sir Ferdinando Gorges,
(1622.)  The first settlement, however, in that neighborhood was made by sone fishermen on the shore near
Monhegan Island, beyond the Kennebec, and therefore
independently of Mason and Gorges, (1622.)  The next
year the sites of the later Portsmouth and Dover were
occupied, each under a separate association, to which the
two proprietors had partially transferred their claims,
(1623.) 1Meanwhile the Council for New England had
been attempting great things, commissioning Captain Francis West as "Admiral of New England," Captain Robert
Gorges as "Governor General," and the Rev. William
MIorrell as "Overseer of Churches."  The last named was
a clergyman of the English church. "He had," says
Governor Bradford, "I know not what power and authority of superintendency over other churches granted him,
and sundry instructions for that end, but he never showed
it or -made' any use of it."  "It should seem," says the
stout Puritan, "he saw it was in vain; he only spoke of
it to some here at his going away."  The governor general
and the admiral cut no better figure. The council, as if
disgusted by the fate of their general officers, surrendered




28                PART I. 1492-1638.
their domains to chaos. New grants, within as well as
without the limits of those already made, were issued by
the council, or by members of the council; the whole
coast from Plymouth to the Penobscot being cut up with
dividing and intersecting lines.
NeFw     Order began to be evolved. The partnership
Hamp-  between Mason and Ferdinando Gorges being disshiNew solved, (1629,) each obtained a new grant for himSomer-  self. Mason gave the name of New Hampshire to
sire. the tract between the Merrimac (afterwards between the Salem) and the Piscataqua Rivers. The district between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec was called
New Somersetshire by Gorges, who donned the title of
Governor General of New England. " There was a consultation had," writes an Englishman at the time, " to send
him thither with a thousand soldiers."  The scheme of a
general government was not yet abandoned, (1634.)
Cape    A company of Puritans in England had some
Ann and time before acquired a fishing station of the PlymSalem.  outh colony at Cape Ann, (1624.)  Thither a few
settlers were sent; Roger Conant being soon after invited
to be the governor, (1625.)  He was a man of great
spirit, who had found it prudent to leave Plymouth in
consequence of his too liberal Puritanism, and who now
sustained the puny colony on the cape by his courage and
his judgment. Perceiving a much better position at Naumkeag, he removed thither, (1626,) and there held the
ground with a few dispirited adherents until, in accordance with his recommendation, nearly a hundred settlers
arrived from England under the conduct of John Endicott,
(1628.)  Endicott took the direction of the colony as the
agent of a new company, by which a grant of the tract
between the Charles and the Mlerrimac Rivers had been
procured from the Council for kNew England. The name




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.                29
of Naumkeag was changed to Salem in the ensuing year,
(1629.)
New associates having joined the enterprise, —
Company                       n
of MIassa- John Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, and others of note
chusetts from  Boston, -a royal charter was procured for
"Bay  The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England."  A governor, deputy governor, and eighteen assistants or councillors, were appointed
to hold monthly courts and to conduct the affairs of administration. The members at large were to be convened
from time to time in general courts, by which officers were
to be chosen and laws enacted, subject only to the condition
of conforming to the laws of England. No mention of
religion or of religious liberty was made, it being out of
the question for the Puritans to obtain the formal recognition of their own faith. Thus going behind the grant
of the Council for New England, the Massachusetts association obtained an independent position, in the same character that belonged to the council itself, as an English
corporation. But four months after the date of the charter, it was decided, on the proposal of the governor,
Matthew  Cradock, " to transfer the government of the
plantation to those that shall inhabit there," (July 28,
1629.)  This at once changed the corporation from  an
English to a colonial one.
Boston.  nRenforcements had been sent out to the colony
at Salem, (1629.)  But the accessions to the list
were now so great as to suggest the increase of settlements.
The appointment of John Winthrop as governor, under the
transfer of the charter to the colony, was followed by " the
great emigration," so called, of about one thousand, who,
after tarrying at Salem and the neighboring Charlestown,
voted " that Trimountain shall be called Boston," (September 7, 1630,) and there took up their position at the centre
3*




30                PART I. 1492-1638.
of Massachusetts Bay. The first General Court was held
soon after, (October 19,) and from that time Boston took
the lead of Massachusetts and of New England.  It was
entitled to do so in Massachusetts by the rank, the education, and the devotion of its settlers. It was entitled to do
so in New England as the chief place in Massachusetts,
then, and for many years after, the most important of all
the English settlements.
Increase   The new colony grew apace. All around Bosand inde- ton there sprang up towns, some on spots previouspendence. ly occupied by individuals or by parties, but many
in districts hitherto unvisited.  Each new settlement contributed to the increase and the independence of the colony.
So independent in some respects did its position become,
that the Council for New England, sometimes as a body
and sometimes through its individual members, began to
dread and to resist the rising power.  There was full
enough in the attitude of the Massachusetts colonists to
warrant the suspicion of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, " that
they would in short time wholly shake off the royal jurisdiction of the sovereign magistrate."
Charter   No colony certainly had ever been endowed with
govern- similar powers.  Charter government had hitherto
been confined to companies in England. It was
first inspired with all its vitality in Massachusetts.  As the
government, not merely of a corporation, but of a state, it
invested its holders with an authority independent of' all
besides a mere allegiance to the crown and the law of the
mother land. The officers elsewhere, as in the royal province of Virginia, appointed in England, were here elected
on the spot, and by those over whom they were to preside.
Governor, council, and assembly, all belonged to and proceeded from the freemen.  With them resided every form
of authority, save only the distant and the indefinite shapes
of royal and parliamentary supremacy.




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.                31
Puritan   It by no means followed that the government
princi- was a liberal one. Whatever it might appear to
ples.
be in the abstract, its operation was rigidly controlled by Puritan principles. These narrowed its sphere
and stiffened its action. An early vote declared no one a
freeman under the charter who was not a church member,
(1631.) As but a small proportion of the inhabitants were
church members, there were less freemen than non-free.
men. The privileges of the charter being thus restricted
to the pale of the church, the church and the state became
virtually one. The elders of the church, clerical and lay,
were as much magistrates as the magistrates themselves.
External   Such a system favored the independence of the
relations. colony in its relations with the mother country;
indeed, in all external relations.  It made the colony
strong in itself, relying upon its own resources, providing
for its own wants. The villages of Massachusetts were
hardly begun, its fields were hardly turned up by the
plough, when the General Court "agree to give four hundred pounds towards a school or college," (1636.) This
was subsequently located at Cambridge, and named after
its first private benefactor, John Harvard, a clergyman of
Charlestown, (1638.) The same year of the grant from
the court, when such a sacrifice for the future must have
strained the entire colony, the offer of certain noblemen to
join the settlers, on condition of preserving their hereditary
honors, was rejected, (1636.) All the while the colony
was contending against the machinations of its adversaries
in and out of the Council for New England.  The charter,
threatened again and again, was at length demanded back;
but the men of Massachusetts stood firm, and it was spared,
(1634-38.)
Internal   The internal relations of the colonists were by
relations. no means equally secure. The system that cut




32                 PART I. 1492-1638.
down the charter itself was not likely to respect the development of the individual.  The very members of the
ruling class were under the most rigid restraint. John
Eliot, afterwards the missionary to the Indians, was obliged
to retract the censures which he passed upon the magistrates for making an Indian treaty without consulting the
freemen, (1634.) Israel Stoughton, a deputy, who ventured to write against the pretensions of the magistrates to
a negative upon the General Court, was forced to ask that
his manuscript "be burned as weak and offensive," and
was then excluded from  office for three years, (1635.)
Roger Williams, denying the power of the magistrates
to compel attendance upon their form of service, or to
bind the conscience by human laws, was driven into exile,
(1635.) It marks the spirit of the place, that even Roger
Williams, the professed advocate of religious liberty, should
have transgressed the very principle which he advocated,
by forbidding his wife to pray with him because she would
not join his scission from the church at Salem. These
were all individual instances. There presently arose a
party in opposition to the dominant system. It was led by
a woman, Anne Hutchinson; but many of the principal
men united with her in setting up what they termed a
"covenant of grace" against the "covenant of works"
upheld by the Puritan rulers. The leaders of the party
were all banished, (1638.)  One cannot wonder that William Blackstone, an early settler, who first invited the
Ml[assachusetts emigrants to settle at Boston, should retire
before them, exclaiming, "I left England because I liked
not the lord bishops, and now I like not the lord brethren."
Connec-   The Massachusetts people were already emigrattiCut. ing. A neighboring territory, conveyed by the Council for New England to the Earl of Warwick, passed into
the hands of Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and others,




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.               33
(1632.)   Upon their domain, a party from  Plymouth
established a trading post, (1633,) while another and
a larger company from  Massachusetts founded actual
settlements at Windsor and Hartford, together called the
Connecticut colony, (1635.)  John Winthrop, son of the
Massachusetts governor, and afterwards governor of Connecticut, led the first expedition on the part of the proprietors, and began a settlement at Saybrook, (1635.) A third
colony was begun, a year or two later, by emigrants from
England under the lead of John Davenport and Theophilus
Eaton, who, intending to settle in Massachusetts, were
driven by the dissensions of that colony to New Haven,
(1638.)
Provi-    Connecticut was not the only colony to profit by
dence  the strifes in Massachusetts.  Roger Williams, the
and
Rhode  exile, began the plantation of Providence, (1636.)
Island. As the founder of a colony, with the consent of the
natives, to whom, as well as to his persecuting countrymen,
he was a faithful friend, Williams deserves a far higher
fame than he would ever have won as an agitator. He
was followed by some of the Hutchinson exiles, who began
a second colony on the northern shore of the island since
called Rhode Island, (1638.) They, like Williams, obtained their lands from the natives.
The Council for New England, with or without
Dissolution of whose patents so many settlements had been made,
the coun- was now no more. Opposed by the advocates of a
cil.   free fishery and a free trade, it had lately met with
fresh assaults from those who regarded the churches of
Plymouth and of Massachusetts as the offspring of schism
and of sin. The council was weary of itself. Its efforts
after a general government of the colonies had miscarried.
Its grants had ceased to be in demand; indeed, in an
honest point of view, there were no more to be made. Its




34                PART I. 1492-1638.
members, however, thought differently, and having once
more parcelled out the territory of New England amongst
themselves, they surrendered their patent to the crown,
(1635o.)
End of   Thus ended the companies created by the patent
compa- of Virginia. One, lasting but eighteen years, benies.
gan the single colony of Virginia. The other, continuing eleven years more, did not found a solitary settlement. It saw, however, quite a number of settlements
made by others under its grants or upon its lands. The
only office that either company had fulfilled, was to clear
the way for individual enterprise. This done, both fell,
and without a regret from any side.
Position   When the Virginia Company came to an end, its
of New colony was declared a royal province. No such
England. change ensued upon the dissolution of the Council
for New England. Massachusetts, the chief settlement in
the territory, was already provided with a royal charter.
The other settlements were too insignificant to attract legislation, even if they attracted attention from England. Many
of them, like Plymouth, were able to govern themselves.
The rest would be provided for in time.
Thomas   It was plain, however, that the New England
Morton. colonies needed some other system than they had
to establish their relations amongst themselves. An instance in point occurs in the case of Thomas Morton " of
Clifford's Inn, gentleman," as he called himself. Taking
the lead of a few settlers encamped at Mount Wollaston,
near Boston, he gave the hill the name of Mare-Mount,
of which he styled himself "Mine Host," (1626.)  The
use of the church liturgy and the confidence of the Indians,
whom he employed as his huntsmen, gave great umbrage
to the neighboring colonists, the more so that he led a free
and easy, perhaps a sensual, life upon his mount, and thus




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.                35
attracted numbers from the surrounding settlements. A
sort of crusade was started by " the chief of the straggling
plantations," as Governor Bradford of Plymouth describes
them; Plymouth, at their request, assuming the lead, and
sending a party under lMiles Standish to take iM!orton
prisoner.  He was sent to England, (1628.)  As he had
the audacity to return, he was apprehended by the authorities of the infant colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose charter covered his territory. The court ordered him to " be
set in the bilboes, and after sent prisoner to England," his
goods being seized and his house burned for wrongs, it was
alleged, that had been done to the Indians, (1630.)  After
appealing to the privy council by petition, and to the English nation in a work called "New English Canaan," MIorton returned again to encounter fine and imprisonment,
(1643,) and to die in poverty, (1646.)  Whatever were
his faults, whether " the lord of misrule," as his adversaries
represented him, or not, Thomas M1orton was certainly
handled by his fellow-colonists in a way the most opposed
to justice and to peace.
SECTION III. - P'rop)rietorls. 1630 to 1638.
Grant of   A new form  of grant appears. Hitherto, the
iMary-  individual obtaining possession of territory proland.   cured it, like Mason or like Gorges, from a company to whose authority the acquisition was subject. It
was by a patent from the crown that Sir George Calvert,
Lord Baltimore, was made "lord and proprietor" of a
tract. between the Potomac River and the latitude of Philadelphia, (1632.)  To this he gave the name of Maryland,
and thither, to a settlement named St. Mary's, his son, after
the father's death, led a band of two hundred, (1634.)
Thus was constituted a proprietary government. The




36                PART I. 1492-1638.
A proprl- proprietor held an authority that was supreme, save
etarygov- in its subordination to the sovereign from whom it
ernment. emanated. He directed the administration and the
legislation of the colony, appointing the executive officers,
the governor, especially, as his representative, and controlling the proceedings of the colonists in their assemblies.
To him likewise belonged the quitrents, or taxes upon
occupied lands, in addition to the general taxes for the
support of the government. The colonists, on their part,
- that is, " the freemen of the province," - were to have
their assembly, in which their " advice, consent, and approbation" might be given or withheld in relation to the
course of the proprietor.
Religious  As with other settlements, so with Maryland,
liberty. there are exaggoerations in some of the histories.
A vast deal of fine writing has been devoted to the magnanimity with which the Maryland charter provided for
religious liberty. The instxument makes no mention of
the subject, or of the establishment of rieligion, except to
leave the matter to the proprietor, subject on this point, as
on others, to the laws of England. The Calvert family,
being Roman Catholic, could not make their own faith
paramount, nor would they, perhaps, have done so, even if
they could. They wanted settlers of all creeds, whose
numbers and whose energies alone could give real value
to their domains. It was simply a matter of policy, therefore, with the proprietary family, to let the question of
religion rest exactly where it was left by the charter. We
may hope that they were not merely politic enough, but
generous enough, even in an age which knew little of
generosity, to throw open their province to Christians, without any limitation in favor of one branch or of another.
Trou-    The colony, young as it was, fell into troubles.
bles.   Its assembly began to make laws without waiting




ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.                37
For the proprietor's legal initiative.  At the same time,
both proprietor and assembly were involved in disturbalces
excited by a member of the Virginia council, William
Clayborne. Virginia herself took it ill that her territory
should be invaded even by royal grants. Clayborne conceived his rights to be assailed, inasmuch as he, individually, had established trading posts within the Maryland limits.
Taking up arms against the colony, he was overpowered,
and sent back to Virginia, (1635.)
Other    Other proprietors, besides those of Maryland,
proprie- were in the field.  Sir Robert Heath, attorney
tors.   general to Charles I., obtained the patent of a
vast region on the south of Virginia, and as far as the Gulf
of Mexico. This he called Carolana, (1630.)  Another
tract, called New Albion, and including the present New
Jersey, was conveyed in an irregular instrument from the
viceroy of Ireland to Sir Edward Plowden, as an earl
palatine, (1636.) These were but grants, not settlements,
yet significant of- the growing pretensions of England to
the soil of America.
No other nation of Europe, it need hardly be
Conclusion.   suggested, had made any settlements, individual,
English associated, or national, at all comparable to those
motives.
of the English. Nor had there been any such
definite purposes of settlement, separate from mere adventure, on the part of any other race. The English settler
was emphatically a settler, rather than a treasure seeker ox
a conqueror, a missionary or a trader. Not that he shrank
from other enterprises, but that his main motive was to
gain a home, and an abiding one, in the western world.
Acting in harmony with this were the desire to escape from
oppression or from want, the yearning after a new faith or
a new life, the various impulses that have appeared, it is
4




38                PART I. 1492-1638.
hoped, in the preceding pages.  That there were baser
instincts tending to the same end has also appeared.
Institu-   The institutions of the English were favorable to
tions.  their purposes as settlers. The subjects of a limited monarchy, they brought with them the habits and the
laws of comparative freemen. That they might have been
freer in their political principles, needs not to be suggested
anew. But in their varying charters, in their varying
magistrates and tribunals, even in the least liberal, the
English colonists possessed privileges to which neither the
Frenchman nor the Spaniard in their neighborhood had
ever actually aspired.
Circum-   Of an equally encouraging description were the
stances. circumstances of the English. The seaboard was
theirs, all at least that they could immediately occupy.
The portion which they possessed was partly in the north
and partly in the south, provided, therefore, with the resources of both regions, at the same time that it was not
exposed either to the indulgence of the extreme south or
to the privation of the extreme north. Within opened an
interior region rich in its streams, its fields, its forests, its
mountains; without lay the broad sea, accessible at a hundred harbors.  Whatever mere position could effect was
promised to the English settlers.
English    As yet they had but begun the work before
names. them. Their humble towns on the coast, their
humbler villages and hamlets in the country, gave small
token of their destinies. But the names of their territories
were full of strength and of grandeur. There was New
Albion on the Pacific, New Albion on the Atlantic. There
was the land of Queen Elizabeth — Virginia; there was
the land of the nation - New England.




CHAPTER V.
DUTCH SETTLEMENTS.
Group of A LATER group of settlers comes forward. It is
traders. composed not so much of settlers, however, as of
traders, who, to carry out their commercial operations, lay
the foundations of a state, and give it the name of their
nation.
Spirit in   The spirit of the preceding half century in HolHolland. land had been that of a people rescuing themselves
from a foreign dominion and building up a power of their
own. Europe has nothing so brilliant upon its records at
the time as the war of independence which the Netherlands waged, and waged successfully, against Spain. It
might have been argued that such a nation would have
surpassed all others in America.
Dwindled But it was not so. The Dutch came late upon
in Ameri- the scene. They came, moreover, not with the
Ca.    spirit or the law of their nation so much as with
those of the commercial companies by which they were
sent out or controlled. The story of their settlements is
therefore an anomaly in the history of American colonization. The fire of the mother-land languishes in the
colony. It is because the colony is not a national, but a
corporate settlement, from its beginning to its end.
Hudson's  The very year in which Holland became indevoyage. pendent, (1609,) Henry Hudson, an Englishman
in Dutch employ, sailed in search of a northern passage to
(s9)




40                 PART I. 1492-1638.
the Pacific. Shut out by the ice from his projected course,
he steered westward, and reaching the coast of Maine,
cruised southward as far as Virginia, giving to Cape Cod,
on the way, the name of New Holland.  As he returned
towards the north, he discovered Delaware Bay, and entered
the River of the Miiountains, as he called the stream  since
known by his own name. These waters, first visited, perhaps, by Cabot in the English, (1498,) then by Verrazzano
in the French, (1524,) and then by G-onez in the Spanish
(1525) service, were now more thoroughly explored by
Hudson. As their discoverer, he returned to IIolland, and
as their possessors, the Dutch sent out various vessels to
trade with the natives and to claim the shores, (1610-13.)
The earliest of the Dutch posts was on the Island
Company
of New  of Manhattan, (1613.)  There the first craft of EuNethder- ropean construction was built and launched by
Adrian Block, whose ship had been destroyed by
fire. In his Manhattan vessel, appropriately called the Restless, Block went through Long Island Sound as far as Cdpe
Cod, then, leaving his name for Block Island, he returned
home, (1614.)  The prospects of the new country looking
well, the association of Amsterdam and Hoorn merchants,
by whom Block and other explorers had been employed,
gave it the name of New Netherland, and applied to the
States General for protection in their enterprise. This
was obtained, in the shape of an exclusive right for three
years " to visit and penetrate the said lands lying in America between New France and Virginia, whereof the coasts
extend from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degrees of latitude;" that is, from Delaware to Passamaquoddy Bay.
The association, taking the name of the United New Netherland Company, set themselves to work, (1614.) A fort
was built at Manhattan; a fortified trading post was established up the river, near the present Albany, (1615.)




DUTCHI SETTLEMENTS.              41
Meanwhile the little Restless, commanded by Cornelius
Hendricksen, was exploring the coast to the southward,
and ascending the Delaware, then called the South River,
to distinguish it from the North, or Prince Maurice's River,
as the Hudson was variously styled.
The monopoly of the New  Netherland ComProposals
of the panty expiring without their being able to obPlymouth tain its renewal, other parties entered into the
Puritans.
trading operations of which the colony was the
centre. But the old company, or rather a portion of its
members, retained a sort of vantage ground. To them, accordingly, the Puritan exiles in Holland — the same who
settled Plymouth - addressed their proposals of emigrating
to New Netherland. The party to whom the application
was made petitioned the States General that the Puritans
might be taken under the national protection, in which
case the petition asserts " upwards of four hundred families "
"from this country and from England" would settle in the
Dutch colony, (February, 1620.) The prayer of the petitioners was refused.
West In-  The New Netherland Company had ceased to
dia com- be a body in which the nation confided. An old
pany.  project of a West India Company was revived, and
a corporation of that name established, with power, not
only over New Netherland, but the entire American coast,
(1621.) It was some time before the company began its
operations; but when it did begin, it was evidently in
earnest, (1623.)
Walloon   Ten yearls had elapsed since the trading post on
colony. Manhattan had been occupied, and there were still
none but trading posts in all New Netherland. Not a
colony worthy of the name as yet existed. The only plan
that had ever been formed of establishing one came from
the Plymouth Puritans. It is a singular coincidence that
4*




42                PART I. 1492-1638.
the first colony to be actually established was one of refugees, like the Puritans, from persecution. These were a
band of Protestant Walloons, from the Spanish Netherlands, who, after applying unsuccessfully to the London
Company of England, enlisted as colonists under the West
India Company of Holland. Sent out in the first expedition of the company, they settled at Waal-bogt, or Walloons' Bay, on the western shore of Long Island, (162324.) Their settlement stands out amidst the surrounding
trading posts as the one spot of home life in New Netherland. But it was a feeble settlement, and feeble it continued, although recruited by fresh fugitives from beyond
the sea..ew Am-  The company was by no means absorbed in its
Iterdam. Walloons. On the contrary, it was erecting forts,
one on the North River, another on the South, and presently, the chief of all on Manhattan Island, (1626.) Purchasing the entire island from the natives for no less than
twenty-four of our dollars, Peter MIinuit, the company's
director, commenced the erection of a fort, with some surrounding dwellings, to which the name of New Amsterdam was subsequently applied. This settlement was to
New Netherland the same principal place that it has since
become as New York to the United States. Other forts
were gradually raised; that of Good Hope upon the Connecticut, and that of Beversrede uponr the  Schuylkill,
(1633.) The dominion of the company was in force upon
the soil not only of New York, but of Connecticut, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and all within ten
years of its first operations.
But upon this vast surface the company's settlePatroons.
ments were as dots. Several of them, indeed, had
been obliterated, and of those that remained, hardly one
besides New:Amsterdam was anything more than a sta



DUTCH SETTLEMENTS.                43
tion for trade. New Amsterdam itself was only a commercial settlement. Other posts of the same character had
been begun, but the colony, as a whole, was in a languishing condition; the company, of course, being disappointed
in their expectations of rich returns. To advance their
interests, they offered a slice of territory and the title of
patroon to any one who, within a given period, would
settle a given number of colonists upon lands bought of the
natives, (1629.) This regard for the Indians was not the
only proof of liberality in the patroon system, as it may be
styled. The support of a clergyman and a schoolmaster,
with that of a " comforter for the sick," was especially enjoined as one of the conditions to be fulrilled by the patroons. But mixed up with the more generous provisions
were others of a very opposite nature. The fur trade,
the great attraction of New Netherland, was reserved exclusively to the company. Pain of banishment was to deter the colonists from  "making woollen, linen, or cotton
cloths." "As many negroes as can be conveniently provided " were promised to the Dutch settlers. All the while,
the patroons were constituted a class of feudal lords, as
threatening to their superiors in the company as to their
inferiors in the colony. Large purchases were made by
individuals, (1629-31.) and some settlements were attempted, the chief being those of Rensselaerswyck, near Albany,
Pavonia, opposite Manhattan Island, and Swaanendael, on
the Delaware. Some of these reverted to the company;
some disappeared.
English   Spain and France, as we have read, had their
claims. pretensions to the soil of New Netherland. But
the only power to dispute the Dutch possession was England. Tradition asserts that the same Captain Argal who
destroyed the French settlement in MIaine visited the huts
on Manhattan Island, as he was returning to Virginia, and




44                PART I. 1492-1638.
compelled the few Dutchmen whom he found there to acknowledge the English supremacy, (1613.) This is uncertain; but it is certain that when the New Netherland
Company appealed to the States General in behalf of
the Plymouth Puritans, they represented the danger of
the colony's being surprised by an expedition sent to support the claims of England, (1620.) The Council for New
England was soon engaged in appealing to the Privy
Council against what they deemed to be an invasion of
their territory. The appeal was received, and an order
of inquiry into the circumstances went to the British
ambassador in Holland. He replied that there was as yet
no Dutch colony upon the soil, (1621.) But as time
passed, and colonies were founded, the suspicions of the
English, both in England and in America, were revived.
A correspondence, opened by Peter Minuit, director of
New Amsterdam, with William Bradford, governor of New
Plymouth, stirred the Englishman to ask that the Dutch
should trade no more in his neighborhood; and further,
that they should clear their title to trade or to settle in any
part of the country at all. No wonder that MIinuit applied
to the company in Holland for forty soldiers, (1627.) On
his voyage home, a few years later, Minuit and his ship
were detained on touching at Plymouth in England, and
to the remonstrance of the Dutch embassy, the British
ministry formally opposed the title of Great Britain to
New Netherland, (1632.)  It was soon after that the
English settlements in Connecticut began to crowd upon
the fort of the Dutch, (1633-38,) while a direct invasion
of Delaware was made from Virginia, (1635.) This was
repelled; but the soil of Connecticut could not be retained.
Trade of   The colony was still a colony of traders. No
thecolo- generous views, no manly energies, were as yet
excited amongst its inhabitants or its rulers. From




DUTCH SETTLEMENTS.                45
the slave to the colonist, from the colonist to the patroon,
from the patroon to the director, and even from the director to the company, there was little besides struggling for
pecuniary advantages. It was esteemed a great era in the
colony when, after various dissensions, its trade was nominally thrown open. But the percentages to the company
were such as to prevent any really free trade, (1638.)




CHAPTER VI.
SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS.
LAST of all to claim a share as a nation in our
Idea of
Gusta- territory were the Swedes. Their far-sighted and
phs Adol- large-hearted king, Gustavus Adolphus, the champion of the Protestant cause in Europe, caught up the
idea of supporting the same cause in America. "It is
the jewel of my kingdom," he wrote just before he died,
concerning the settlement that was yet to be, (1632.)
The jewel of Gustavus received its setting from
tiern  the regent of his infant daughter Christina, the
calls in  Chancellor Oxenstiern. With the same loftiness of
Germany.
view, - preparing a state that was to be of benefit to
" all Christendom," - Oxenstiern invited and obtained the
cooperation of Protestant Germany, (1634.) The Swedish
West India Company was to be the instrument by which
the north of Europe, as well as Sweden, was to be linked
to America. It was a design of greater ends and of broader motives than had as yet been formed for the new
world.
Results.   But the results bore no proportion to the plans.
It was not to be expected that such colonists as
could be found in Sweden would embrace the same wide
objects as their regent or their king. They would enlist
only in an enterprise that promised personal as well as
national returns. Some years passed before any settlement
was attempted, and then a colony of only twenty-four, and
(46)




SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS.               47
these chiefly transported convicts, was established at Fort
Christina, near the present Wilmington in Delaware,
(1638.)  The territory, which was purchased of the Indians, extended on either side of the fort, along the western
shore of Delaware Bay, and up the Delaware River as far
as Trenton, under the name of New Sweden.
Opposing To this the Swedes had been guided by Peter
claims. Minuit, lately of New Netherland. His recommendation of lands previously purchased and occupied,
though just at this time unoccupied, by his countrymen,
involved the Swedish colony in immediate difficulties. A
remonstrance from the governor of New Netherland against
the invasion of his province was supported in Holland by
the seizure of a Swedish vessel touching at a Dutch port
on its way home. The English had their pretensions likewise to the lands appropriated by the new colony. On
each side were conflicting claims. With feeble numbers
and with scanty supplies, the Swedes would find it difficult
to keep their New Sweden.




CHAPTER VII.
INDIAN RACES.
European THE roll of European races establishing themraces. selves independently upon our soil was filled up
by Spain, France, England, Holland, Sweden, and, with
Sweden, Germany. After the Swedish colony of 1638,
no national settlement was made by any nation not already
upon the scene.
Indian    It is time, therefore, to take an account of the
races. races that occupied the country before any of those
from Europe entered upon their possessions. The share
of the Indians in our history endures, though their share
in our territory wastes away.
Names    The idea of Columbus that he had merely redisandnum- covered India gave the name of Indians to the
bers.   existing inhabitants of the continent. Within the
limits of our country they were divided into four grand
divisions, as the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Mobilians,
and the Dahcotas.  The last name includes the tribes
west of the Mississippi, of which, in the early period, the
number could not have been at all considerable. Neither
were the three divisions lying east of the Mississippi by
any means numerous. The entire number is estimated to
have been under three hundred thousand, and perhaps not
above two hundred thousand, at the time of the first European settlements. Take from the whole the large part
which had little or no connection with any of the European
(48)




INDIAN RACES.                  49
races, and the Indian population dwindles to small proportions. It seems strange that so few, and these few savages,
should have exercised so great an influence upon so many,
and these many civilized. But it will be accounted for
by a rapid survey of the Indian divisions and the Indian
resources.
Algon-    First of the Algonquins. The central tribe of
quins. this vast race was the Lenni-Lenape, which, occupying the shores of the Delaware, went by the name of
Delawares amongst the English.  The name of LenniLenape, meaning Aborigines, is supposed to mark them as
the parent stock of the Algonquins. The shoots of the
race were enormously spread. Starting far up in the north,
they stretch through New England, as the Abenakis, the
Pawtuckets, the Massachusetts, the Pokanokets, the Narragansets, the Pequots, and the Mohegans. Thence they
may be traced as the Manhattans of New York, the Susquehannas and the Nanticokes of Pennsylvania and Maryland, the Powhatans of Virginia, and the Pamlicos of South
Carolina. Towards the west they appear as the Ottawas
of Michigan, the Miamis of Ohio and Indiana, the Illinois
of Illinois, and the Shawanoes of Kentucky. Long as this
list is, it embraces but a portion of the names to be found
in any full record of the Algonquins.
I Next of the Iroquois. The centre of this divisIroquois.
ion was among the lakes of Western New York,
where the Five Nations of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the
Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas established their
confederacy. To the west and north-west of the Five Nations lay their conquests of after years, the lands of the
Eries, of the Hurons, and of other tribes. The prowess
or the intrigue of the Iroquois had already subdued the
great tribe of the Algonquins, the Lenni-Lenape. Far to
the south, partly in Virginia and partly in Carolina, were
6




-0                PART I. 1492-1638.
the Tuscaroras, who, at a later period, migrated to unite
with their brethren in the north, making six nations of
the five.
Mobilians. Lastly, of the MIobilian division. It was broken
up amongst the Yamassees of Georgia; the Mluskhogees or Creeks of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida; the
Seminoles of Florida, with the inland tribes of Catawbas
in South Carolina, Cherokees in Georgia and Alabama,
Choctaws, Natchez, and Chickasaws in Alabama and Mississippi.
There was but one line of wide distinction
Customs
andinsti- amongst these various tribes. It. separated those
tutions. who lived by the chase alone from those who lived
not only by the chase, but by agriculture. The former
class, of course, was the ruder of the two; yet the customs
and the institutions of both were much the same. The
Indian was every where a hunter, every where a warrior.
If he was any thing else, if he attempted agriculture or
trade, he seemed to be out of his element. The habits of
civilized life were a burden, sometimes a destruction to him.
This is true of all the tribes upon our soil; the only customs to which they took, and by which they held, were
those of the wilderness, or, at the best, of the field. Their
institutions were comparatively advanced. Gathered with
his kinsmen in a totem or clan, then with other clans in a
tribe, then perhaps with other tribes in a confederacy, the
Indian was as much a member of a nation as the European.
Above him were his chiefs, the hereditary sachems of peace,
and the chosen leaders of war. Their sway and his rights
rested together on laws, unwritten, but not undetermined.
The devotion shown to these relations and to these institutions was that of true patriots, as well as true savages. It
sustained the Indians through trials under which more
civilized nations have much sooner succumbed. Had it




INDIAN RACES.                  51
been united with a civilization, or rather a religion, by
which the different tribes could have been blended in one,
beneath better statutes and holier influences, the Indian
race would have left no space for the European.
We can now appreciate the influence of the Inuponethe dian upon the European. Though far from being
]uro-  disciplined, though still farther from being concenpean. trated, the natives of our soil would not encounter
an invader without leaving an abiding mark upon him and
upon his destiny. If not numerous in proportion to the
vast regions over which they were spread, they were multitudinous in proportion to the scanty settlements of the
stranger. He, moreover, was in an untried land, they in
one which they had occupied from infancy.
Had there been nothing else to make the Indians
Counter
influence formidable, the treatment which they received would
upon the have been sufficient. The white men came, if not
Indian.
to drag the red man into captivity, or to ransack
his stores, at any rate to occupy his lands. This was done,
sometimes with and sometimes without the show of justice.
If any nation deserves credit above another, it is not the
English, not their Puritan or their Quaker branches, as
frequently boasted, but the Dutch of New Netherland.
Nowhere, however, do we find more than the pretence of
even dealing with the natives. The intercourse thus opened
was continued in much the same fashion. The Spaniards
and the French had greater numbers, proportionally, of
missionaries amongst the Indians; the French, whether
missionaries or not, were on comparatively good terms with
many of the tribes about them. But there are no exceptions to the general course of the Indian from the time that
he encountered the European. Scorn, treachery, degradation, were his portion; fury and savage warfare were his
revenge. Of the Indian wars we shall take notice hereafter.




52                 PART I. 1492-1638.
African    As the Indian drooped beneath the blight of the
race.   stranger, and became a dependant where his fathers
had been free and powerful, he came in contact with
another race also in dependence upon the European. This
was the African, introduced into Virginia in the thirteenth
year of' the colony, and into all the other colonies in after
years. Of little or no account in the eyes of the early settlers, the slaves of later generations became the most exciting element in the population.
The coun- And here, as we have completed the enumeration
try.    of the races in the country, it behooves us to give a
glance at the country itself, varied and wide enough, as it
must have seemed, for many colonies, or many nations.
Although as yet the seaboard alone was occupied, the vast
reaches of the interior, the stretching plains, the penetrating rivers, were descried. Most of the early dreams
concerning wealth and splendor had vanished; but the
reality was still full of promise. Fertile and beautiful, a
land of plenty and of grandeur, it drew increasing numbers
to its shores, and they who came generally remained
through life. As far as the future could be secured
through physical attractions or material resources, it appeared to be secure.




PART II.
THE ENGLISH DOMINION.
1638-1763.
(53)








CHAPTER I.
THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.
Old and    WE left various colonies from England scattered
new colo- over the Atlantic coast. Of these, the three princinies.   pal, Virginia, Massachusetts, and MlIaryland, were
portrayed with comparative detail. Besides these three,
several were mentioned as existing in New England, while
others were projected in New Jersey and Carolina. It is
the purpose of this chapter to show how the older colonies
were concentrated, while new colonies were founded and
extended.
Plymouth  The oldest colony in New  England -that of
annexed. Plymouth -maintained its independence for seventy
years. It was then annexed to Massachusetts, (1691.)
Maine an-  The name of New Somersetshire was changed to
nexed.-  Maine at the same time that Sir Ferdinando Gorges
was constituted lord palatine of the province, (1639.) His
deputy presently appeared to hold a general court at Saco,
(1640.) The grant to Gorges covered the district from the
Piscataqua to the Kennebec; but within a very few years
one of the numerous patents, previously mentioned as conveying the same soil to different parties, was revived, and
the land befween the Kennebec and the Saco became a distinct territory, as Ligonia, (1643.) Some time later the two
divisions were both annexed to Massachusetts, (1652-58,)
then separated, (1665,) then reannexed, (1668,) and at
length bought of the Gorges heirs by the colony of Massa(55)




56                PART II. 1638-1763.
chusetts Bay, (1677.) East of the Kennebec, as far as
Pemaquid Point, there lay a tract belonging to the province of New York, (1664,) but afterwards united with Massachusetts, to which the territory beyond Pemaquid, previously occupied by one or two French posts, was also
attached, (1691.)  This eastern region was afterwards detached by French conquest, (1696,) but was ultimately
reunited to Massachusetts by treaty with France, (1713.)
hNew     Not quite so various were the fortunes of the New
Hamp-  Hampshire settlements.  Those at Dover, Portsshire.
mouth, and Exeter,* surrendering themselves to
Massachusetts, (1641-42,) left nothing but unsettled lands to
bear the name of New Hampshire.  But on the revival of
the Mason claims to the territory east of the Merrimac,
New Hampshire was declared in England to be a royal
province, (1677-79.) The new government had been in
operation but a short and a troubled period, when the people again united themselves to Massachusetts, (1690-92;)
and, though again disunited, they were once more rejoined
to that colony, at least so far as to be under one and the
same governor for nearly half a century, (1698-1741.)
Annexation did not prevent disturbance. New Hampshire
was still the object of suits and controversies on both sides
of the ocean, while the course of affairs amongst the inhabitants themselves was far from being peaceful. It finally
became a separate province, (1741.)
Massachu-  Massachusetts Bay was the thriving sister, as we
setts. see, amongst the New England family. Her large
immigrations and her increasing resources gave her the stability and the unity which her neighbors lacked. She did
not go without her trials. At the very time that Plymouth
and Maine were added to her domains, her independence of
* Founded by Wheelwright, one of the Hutchinson exiles, in 1638.




THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.                57
government was reduced by a change in her charter, (1691,)
of which we shall take notice hereafter. The colony continued, however, to thrive.
Connecti-  Of the three settlements in Connecticut, two,
cut.   namely, Saybrook and  Connecticut, were early
united under the latter name, (1644.)  For this colony a
royal charter was afterwards procured by John Winthrop,
the early governor, (1662.) The charter included the colony of New Haven; but to this community the provisions of
the instrument were so unacceptable that the union was not
consummated for two years, nor would it have been so soon
but for external circumstances, (1665.)  While the Connecticut territory was thus rounded off, it was cut into by the
grant of Long Island to the province of New York, for
which, likewise, the main land was claimed as far as the
Connecticut River.  But this claim was repelled.
lRhode   The settlements of Providence and Rhode Island
Island. were united under a single charter procured by
their founder, Roger WVilliams, from  the crown, (1644.)
He went a second time to England to obtain its confirmation during the commonwealth, (1651-52,) being elected
president of the colony on his return, (1654.)  Suspended
at a later time, the charter was renewed by the royal government, (1663.) A portion of the territory supposed to
be covered by the charter, and lying to the west of the
Narraganset waters, was for a long period separated from
the colony, under the name of the King's Province,
(1665-1727.)
Thus were the various colonies of New England
Foure  reduced to four -New Hampshire, 3Iassachusetts,
In New Rhode Island, and Connecticut. A fifth colony, the
England. later State of Vermont, was prepared by the Mlassachusetts Fort Dummer, on the site of Brattleboro', (1724,)
and by the New Hampshire grants of townships, Benning



58                 PART II. 1638-1763.
ton being the earliest, (17 49.)  But the four elder colonies
were all that enter into the list of the thirteen.
Virginia, the oldest of the colonies, was still the
-  most extensive in its limits.  On the north, a bound
seemed to be set by the grant of Maryland.  But on the
west and the south, Virginia stretched indefinitely, the grant
of Carolana existing only upon paper. The government of
the colony was frequently altered.  Under the English
commonwealth, the governors were chosen by the colonial
assembly, (1652-60.)  An earlier grant of the lands between
the Potomac and the Rappahannoc to Lord Culpepper and
his associates, (1649,) was afterwards revived, and extended
to a lease of the entire colony for thirty-one years, (1673.)
In vain did the Virginia assembly protest against the proceeding; in vain did it demand a charter to protect it
against similar aggressions.   Culpepper, buying out his
associates and obtaining the appointment of governor for
life, (1675,) sported his authority in England for several
years before he made his appearance in Virginia, (1680.)
His own disappointment being quite as great as the discontentment of his subjects, his authority over them was surrendered, and the provincial government was restored,
(1684.) But, twenty years later, (1704,) a somewhat similar system was established by the appointment of one English nobleman after another to be governor; he, in his turn,
sending out his lieutenant governor to administer the colony
in his name. All the while the colony was increasing. On
the south, indeed, its territories were restricted by the creation of new colonies; but on the west its settlers were crossing the mountains and clearing the farther valleys.
The adjoining colony of Maryland underwent few
Maryland.
territorial changes.  Its vicissitudes, like those of
Virginia, consisted in its passing and repassing into new
hands. As Virginia changed from a province to a proprio



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.                 59
tary colony, so Maryland changed from a proprietary colony
to a province.  After various di.4turbances, in none of
which, however, had the proprietor's power been actually
cast off, a convention of the Protestant settlers deposed the
proprietary officers, (1689,) and transferred the capital of
the colony from the Catholic St. Mary's to the Protestant
Annapolis, (1694.)  As the Protestant fervor in England
was just then at its height, the proceedings of the colony
were confirmed by the crown. But the bead of the proprietary family in the next generation, Benedict Leonard,
Lord Baltimore, becoming an English churchman, recovered the possession of Maryland, (1715.)
The first of the new colonies amongst the thirteen
Carolina.
was Carolina.  This was the territory included first
in the limits of Virginia, and then in those of Carolana by
royal patent.  The patentee of Carolana had made no settlement or grant; but Virginia had granted at least a portion of the territory by act of assembly, (1643.) Another
portion was occupied by a Massachusetts party settled near
the mouth of Cape Fear River, on land purchased from the
Indians, (1660.)  Without regard to any of these claims,
eight persons of the highest rank, amongst them the Earl
of Clarendon, then prime minister, obtained a royal patent
for all the territory between Albemarle Sound and the St.
John's River, (1663.)  A  second charter extended the
northern boundary to Chowan River, and the southern to
below the Spanish St. Augustine, (1665,) while a third
charter annexed the Balhama Islands to the swollen province, (1667.)
North and  It was swollen only on the map.  In reality, it
South.  lad but one or two shrivelled settlements.  The
nucleus of North Carolina was a Virginian settlement, not
included in Carolina until the second charter, (1665.) The
Massachusetts colony formed the nucleus of South CG'o



60                 PART II. 1638-1763.
lina.  Meeting with trials and desertions, this colony was
absorbed in, rather than strengthened by, a band from Barbadoes.  Other parties came from  England, from  New
England, and from  New York; with Presbyteriann; fiom
Scotland  and  Ireland, and  Huguenots  fiom  France,
(1671-8G.) Of the various settlements that arose, Clharleston took the lead, (1680.)  Both North and South Carolina
were organized as proprietary governments.  Such, however, were the troubles ensuing beneath these forms. that
the Assembly of South Carolina, many years later, declared
the proprietors to have forfeited their dominion. Following up a successful insurrection against the proprietary
officials by an appeal to England, the South Carolinians
obtained a provisional royal government, (1719-21.) Some
time after, the crown, by act of Parliament, bought out
seven of the eight proprietors, the eighth retaining his property, but not his sovereignty, (172'9.)  A  governor was
then appointed by the crown for North Carolina, both divisions being organized as royal provinces.  Thenceforward,
the two pursued their destinies separately.
New      The next year after the grant of' Carolina, a new
York.  grant was made in peculiar circumstancees.  New
Netherland, though still occupied by the Dutch, was, as
the province of a nation at war with Eng'land, conveyed
by Charles II. to his brother James, Duke of' York and
Albany, as proprietor; the limits of the province being extended friom the Connecticut to, and presently beyond, the
Delaware, (1664.)  In addition, the grant covered the
eastern part of Maine and the islands to the south and rwest
of' Cape Cod, which the duke had obtained by transfer to
him of early grants from the Council for New  England.*
These portions, however, of his domain fell at a later time
* To Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, in 1621-35,




THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.               61
beneath the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, as has been observed; while much of the main province went to Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The seizure
of the province from the Dutch will be told in another
chapter. It continued under a proprietary form of government until the accession of the proprietor to the throne of
England. It then became a royal province; though, while
James II. ruled, it was more immediately dependent upon
the royal authority than was customary with the provinces
in general, (1685-88).
New Jer-  Hardly had the Duke of York obtained the grant
sey.   of his province, when he conveyed that portion of it
between the Hudsou and Delaware Rivers to Sir George
Carteret and Lord Berkeley, both amongst the proprietors
of Carolina, (1664.) A few hamlets of Dutch and English,
who had crossed from Long Island, were already sprinkled
upon the territory, when the first town under the new proprietors was foundel, and called Elizabethtown, (1665.)
The province was named New Jersey. As in Maryland
and Carolina, so in New Jersey, there soon arose dissensions
between the colonists and the proprietors. The proprietors
were changed.  Berkeley sold out his half to certain Quakers, who made a settlement at Salem, (1675.) In the following year, a formal separation of the province took place,
the settlement at Salem being situate in West, and that at
Elizabethtown in East New Jersey; the latter division remaining with Carteret. A treaty with the Indians, under
the auspices of the Quakers, confirmed the rights of the
proprietors, (1678.)  Soon after, a company, of which some,
but not all, the members were Quakers, made the purchase
of East New Jersey, (1682.)  A large Presbyterian emigration from Scotland then took place, (1685.) But the
growth of the province, as well as that of its western sister,
was greatly impeded, partly by domestic disputes between
6




62                PART IT. 1638-1763.
the proprietors and the settlers, and partly by contentions
with the officials of New York, who pretended to continued
jurisdiction over the lands which had been separated 1iom
that province. The Jerseys were finally surrendered by
their proprietors to the crown, (1702.) They were then
reunited as a royal province, for many years, (until 1738,)
under the same governor as New York.
Pennsyl-   A Quaker, interested in both the Jerseys during
vania. the Quaker possession, obtained the grant of the
adjoining territory on the west. A royal charter constituted:*~Villiam Penn proprietor of a district whose extent, though
uncertain, might have been described in general as lying
between New York, New Jersey, and Maryland.  To this
the name of Pennsylvania was given by the crown, (1681.)
A grant from the Duke of York conveyed the territories on
the lower shore of the Delaware to the same proprietor,
(1682.) Of this wide domain, a variety of settlers, Dutch,
Swedes, and English, were partially in occupation. To
take them beneath his rule, the proprietor sent out an agent
with conciliatory assurances, while, to introduce fresh bodies
of inhabitants, especially of his own persuasion, he formed
an association in England. The first fruits were two colonies, one led by three commissioners, in the year of the
charter, (1681,) the other conducted by Penn himself in
the fbllowing year, (1682.) A convention of the different
settlers, new and old, presently accepted the proprietor's
organization of the province, including the territories of
both the royal and the ducal grants, with their previous
inhabitants. Next followed a treaty with the natives, a
peaceful and a feeble tribe of Indians, whose acquiescence
in his p!anl  mifght have been disregarded by Penn without
any danger, had he not preferred to be just.  The town of
Philadelphia was then begun, and there the first Assembly
of Pennsylvania was soon convened, (1683.)  With all




THIE THIRTEEN COLONIES.             63
Penn's care, and all his frames of government, of which
there was a goodly number, the course of his proprietorship did not rui. smooth. Troubles within the colony were
accompanied by troubles without; the province being at
one time taken from. him by the English authorities, (1692
-94.) Even after his restoration, he found matters so difficult to manage, that he at length proposed to cede his sovereignty to the crown, (1710.) He retained it, however,
and transmitted it to his sons, to be much the same source
of struggle to them that it had been to him.
The territories, so styled,' of Delaware, originally
Delaware.
a Swedish, afterwards a Dutch, possession, then an
appendage of New York, and then again annexed to Pennsylvania, became so far separate from the latter province
as to obtain a distinct assembly, though continuing to have
the same governor, (1702.)
Last of the thirteen was the colony of Georgia,
in founding which there were mingled purposes of
resistance to the Spaniards and the French in the south,
as well as of relief to the suffering in England. A member of the House of Commons, James Edward Oglethorpe,
had been active in proposing and carrying out an inquiry
into the state of the prisons in Great Britain. The idea
of rescuing some of the prisoners from a state of degradation even greater than they could have fallen into by themselves, and of settling them in a colony, occurred to Oglethorpe, as a philanthropist, while, as an officer in the royal
army, he was also sensitive on the point of defending the
colonial boundaries against the encroachments of other
powers in. America. The purchase of the Carolinas by
the crown (1729) opened the way to the foundation of a
colony to the south of the settlements already made; and
for this a grant was obtained of the territory between the
Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, under the royal name of




64                PART II. 1638-1763.
Georgia, (1732.)  The charter conveyed the land and the
dominion over it, not to colonists, nor yet to proprietors, but
to twenty-one trustees. who, though subject to the royal oversight, and to the obligations of the English law, were otherwise clothed with full power for twenty-one years. A common council of thirty-four members, fifteen of whom were
named in the charter, and the rest appointed by the trustees,
were to act as a board of administration merely. The colonial lands, it was further provided, were to be held by feudal
tenure; that is, only by male heirs. A universal interest
was excited by this novel scheme of colonization. General
subscriptions poured in to aid the trustees in their half'benevolent, half-patriotic plans, while Parliament made a
national grant of ten thousand pounds.  First to enlist
personally, was a party of more than one hundred, whom
Oglethorpe himself led to the settlement, which he named
Savannah, (1733.) Every thing seemed to bid fair; the
Indians were conciliated, the colonists were satisfied, the
nation was all alive with sympathy. Immigrants came
from afar; MIoravians from Germany; Presbyterians from
the northern mountains of Scotland; the earnest and the
careless, the peasant and the prisoner, united in one people,
(1734-36.)  To the generous project of saving the convicts
of Britain was added the devoted hope of the Mloravians
that the natives of America might be converted. But
there was a dark side to the scene from the first. The
character of the colonists, that is, of the main body from
England, was helpless enough, not to say corrupted enough,
to cause great difficulties both to themselves and to their
trustees. It will be seen hereafter that the military service expected from the colony was pretty much a failure.
The colony soon became a royal province, (1754-55.)
Such were the thirteen colonies of Enigland. Spread
out with indefinite borders and indefinite resources, they lay




THE THIRTEEN COLONIES.                 65
Aspect  like misty points along the Atlantic shore.  The
of the  eye that saw them, separate and indistinct, as they
thirteen.
rose at the beginning, could catch no vision of the
broad fields and the fruitful vales that were to expand and
blend together in the future.  As we look back ourselves,
we see few promises of development or of unity in the early
days of the thirteen colonies.
6*




CHAPTER II.
COLONIAL RELATIONS.
THE thirteen colonies were the colonies of England. But they were far from being settled exclu.
sively by Englishmen.  The west, the centre, and the
south of Europe all sent forth emigrants in greater or less
numbers to people the American shore. Nor did these
come to the settlements of other nations, to those of the
Spaniards, the French, the Dutch, or the Swedes, alone, but
rather to the English colonies, whose praise it is to have
thus attracted and provided for the stranger.
As there were different races, so there were difClasses.
ferent classes. First came the gentleman, peculiarly so styled, of various look and of various spirit, according
to the respective colonies, but every where classified as of
" the better sort."  This order was perpetuated by the law
of primogeniture, the eldest son receiving at least a double,
if not more than a double, share of his father's estate. Next
were the people of'" the poorer sort "- the lower orders, as
their name denotes.  But by no means the lowest; as
there were others beneath them in the scale. The indented servants, or apprentices, constituted a class of temporary
bondmen. Sometimes exactly what their name suggests,
too young or too shiftless to be their own masters, the indented were often men of a higher grade, the adherents,
in many instances, of a defeated party or of a persecuted
creed, who, falling into the hands of their opponents, were
(66)




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                        67
sold for transportation to a market where they could be resold at a profit.  Such were the English royalists, taken
captive by the parliamentary forces; such the Roman
Catholics, conquered while fighting for their faith in Ireland.
Such, too, were many of the exiles from the continent.  So
great were  the  numbers  imported as to  amount —and
in  time  of peace — to  fifteen  hundred  a  year in  the
single province of Virginia. The little consideration that
there was for the class appears in the colonial codes.*
Lower still, however, were the slaves.  The first of this
class were Indians, captured in wars or taken in snares,
sometimes bought of their parents, even of themselves.
Then came the negroes from Africa. These poor creatures
found little mercy in the colonial statutes. The English
law recognizing slavery declared the children of a free
father to be free.   But the Virginian  code declared  a
child to follow the lot of the mother, (1662.) The law of
England pronounced it felony to kill a slave. The law of
Virginia decided it to be none, (1667.)t
Of the old   These classes were confined to no colony, and to
world.  no division of colonies.  They existed amongst the
rigid settlers of the north as well as amongst the freer
* Mlaimed by a master, the servant is to be set free, (Mass. 1641; N. Y.
1665;) but any resistance on the servant's part entails an additional year
of servitude, (Va. 1705.) Such as escape from their bonds are to be given
up to their masters, or else their value is to be made up by those who
harbor them, (Va. 1661.) Poorly as the class was rated, there was that
about them, in their anger, which prompted the Virginians to make a
"perpetual holiday " of the day on which a conspiracy, detected amongst
their servants, was to have been executed, (1663.)
t The Virginia laws make it allowable to kill a fugitive, (1672,) forbid
the slave at any time to carry arms, (1682,) cut him off from trial by jury,
(1692,) and prohibit his manumission, except he is transported out of the
province, (1692,) or except the governor and council deem him worthy of
his liberty, (1724.) Other codes take much the same tone, without always
entering into the same details. The most rigid laws were those of South
Carolina, (1712-50.)




68                 PART II. 1638-1763.
and easier planters of the south. But they were not of
colonial creation. They came from the old world, transplanted from its ancient lands to the virgin soil of America.
If they did not die, it was inevitable that they would take
root and grow up with renewed luxuriance.
Institu-    The sketch that goes before shows us that the
tions be- colonial institutions were not the institutions of all.
long to
the free- They belonged to the freemen, so styled, " the betmen.   ter sort," with but a portion of "the poorer sort"
thrown in. Indented servants and slaves, of course, had
no part in the political or the social privileges of their superiors.  But besides the bondmen proper, there was a large
number not bondmen, and yet not freemen by the laws
of the colonies.  "The people," says an early writer on the
Massachusetts system, "begin to complain they are ruled
like slaves."  Actual restlessness was showing itself. " It
is feared," says the same writer, "that elections cannot be
safe there long, either in church or commonwealth, so that
some melancholy men think it a great deal safer to be in
the midst of troubles in a settled commonwealth, or in
hope easily to be settled,* than in mutinies there, so far off
from succors," (1641.)
English    The institutions of the freemen sprang from the
law.    English law.  How far this extended over the colonies was a vexed question.  One class of jurists or of
statesmen in England maintained that America was a conquered country, a country wrested from the native or the
European races whom the English found in possession of it.
The deduction from this view was, that the institutions of
the country were at the pleasure of the crown or of the
Parliament of England. But another class held opposite
ground, asserting that the colonists were entitled, without
* Referring to the disturbances in England.




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                   69
any consent or dissent on the part of England, to all the
rights of' Englishmen, inasmuch as the country was a discovered, not a conquered one.  Some persons held an intermediate opinion, denying the notion of conquest, and yet
denying the inherent claim  of the colonists to English
privileges, making their rights depend on actual grants from
the sovereign power. So when the habeas corpus act, providing for the issue of a writ to produce the body of a prisoner,
was passed, (1679,) it was said not to extend to the colonies,
because they were not specially mentioned in the bill. A
similar act, adopted by the MIassachusetts General Court,
was annulled by the crown, (1692.) But the privilege
was afterwards tacitly, if not explicitly, allowed.  The
liberal system of interpretation slowly prevailing, the English law was almost universally recognized to be the birthright of the colonies as truly as of the mother-land.
Colonial   The governments of the colonies were variously
govern- organized.  Those under charters were altogether
ments.  in the hands of the colonists.  The charter of Massachusetts, indeed, was so far altered in 1691 as to transfer
the appointment of the governor, lieutenant governor, and
secretary to the crown, and even to prescribe the conditions
on which the inhabitants should be admitted as freemen.
The charters of Connecticut (1662) and Rhode Island
(1644-63) left the entire administration to the colonists.
The seven colonies originally under proprietary government- Maryland, the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Delaware - were of course subject to
the authority of their proprietors, but with many restrictions upon it in favor of the colonists. The Carolinas,
under the model of John Locke,* and New York, under
* John Locke, the great philosopher, was employed by the Carolinian
proprietors to embody their ideas - one cannot but think - rather than
his own, in what was called " the grand model," or " the fundamental con



70                   PART II. 1638-1763.
the arbitrary rule of its ducal proprietor, who allowed no
Assembly till 1683, were not so fhavorably situated.  Pennsylvania was subjected to claims asserted nowhere else, as
well as deprived of rights denied nowhere  else, by two
peculiarities in the charter to William  Penn; one, the assertion of the power of Parliament to tax the colony, the
other, the omission of the title of the colonists to the rights
of Englishmnen.  The record that four of the proprietary
governments were changed to  royal governments, — the
Carolinas, 5New York, and New Jersey, - and all at the
desire of the colonists, bears witness against the institutions
of which proprietors were the chiefs. The royal provinces,
however, were organized on the same terms as the proprietary colonies, except that, the king being at the head of
affairs, the institutions of the provinces were more uniform.
The number of provinces was seven: the four just mentioned, with the older Virginia and New Hampshire and
the younger Georgia.
Towns.    In some of the colonies, especially those in the
north, the towns were at the centre of their organization. These were the primary bodies in which the colonists
stitutions." Of the system thus concocted, the primary element was
property, the scale of colonial dignities being graduated according to the
possessions of the colonist. Seigniories for the proprietors, baronies for
landgraves and caciques, colonies for lords of manors, or freeholders,
were the divisions of the soil. Authority was parcelled out amongst palatine and other courts for the proprietors, a grand council for them and
their nobility, and a Parliament for the proprietors, the nobility, and the
lords of manors. As for those not wealthy enough for either of these classes,
they were hereditary tenants, or else slaves. The church of the colony
was to be the church of En-land, with a certain amount of toleration for
other creeds. This extraordinary mass of titles and of powers held together for just twenty-three years, (1669-1693,) but without ever getting
into actual operation. It was relinquished by the proprietors at the universal desire of the colonists, who naturally preferred the simpler and the'reer institutions originally reared under the charter.




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                 71
were grouped and trained as fieemen.  Their workings,
where they existed, are written on every page of the colonial and the national annals. Where they did not exist, their
places were but poorly supplied by plantations or vestries.
An instinct, as it may be called, after the establishment of
towns, led the early legislators of Virginia into curious
expedients. At one time, the resources of the colony were
to be brought to bear on making Jamestown a city worthy
of the name, (1662;) at another, each county was directed
to lay out a town of its own, (1680.)  At length a new
capital was founded at Williamsburg, (1698.)
Assem-    Next to the town or its substitute, under every
blies. form of government as ultimately established, there
was one and the same body. This was the assembly, the
same cherished institution to the colony that Parliament
was to the mother land. At first, in some places, composed of all the freemen, then placed upon a representative
basis, and then divided into two houses, one of councillors
or assistants, the other of representatives or burgesses, the
assembly exercised all the functions of a legislature, subject, of course, to the law and the sovereign of England.
The House of Representatives, or of Burgesses, as the case
might be in the different colonies, constituted the popular
branch, so entirely in sohme instances as to go by the
name of the assembly, leaving the councillors or assistants
to appear, what they generally were, the officers of the
crown. But the assembly was by no means popular, according to modern notions. A large amount of property,
real or personal, was usually essential as a qualification of
membership, the very voters being under some conditions
of the same nature. The sessions were often few and far
between; in some colonies, and at some periods, not more
frequent than once in three years, or even more than three.
An assembly, moreover, would sometimes hold over beyond




72                 PART II. 1638-1763.
its lawful term, becoming as much of a burden to the colony
as it was intended to be an assistance.  But when once
convened, at the proper season and in the proper spirit, the
assembly was a tower of strength to its people.
That which was most variable, not to say most
Churches.
ineffective, in the colonies, was the very thing that
should have been most stable and most powerful.  The
church of Christ was rent with factions.  The blessings
that might have issued from a common church, had it been
pure and true, have no place in our history.  The church
of England was established in Virginia, M{aryland, the
Carolinas, and Georgia.  The Quakers and the Presbyterians prevailed in the central colonies; in the northern,
the Puritans carried all before them. Such divisions would
not merely prevent unity; they would break up liberty.
Persecu-   Amongst the harshest provisions of the Massation ill  chusetts system was that excluding all but church
Massachusetts. members from the rights of' fieemen.  Against this,
Child.  chiefly, was directed the petition of Dr. Robert
Child, and six others, some of them of the highest station,
church membership excepted, in the colony, (1646.)
Child was a young man, recently arrived in the country
with the purpose of making some scientific inquiry into its
mineral resources. At the time of his petition, he was on
the point of returning to England, but with the idea, apparently, of coming back to  Iassachusetts, could he be
received on equal terms with the freemen of the colony.
Be this as it may, he and his fellow-petitioners asked for
admission to the privileges of iMassachusetts, instead of
which they found themselves charged with " contemptuous
and seditious expressions," for which they were arraigned
and heavily fined. Thus treated, they set about preparing a
memorial, which Child was to convey to Parliament, and in
support of which, another document, praying " for liberty




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                73
of conscience, and for a general governor" from England,
was hastily got up amongst several of the non-freemen of
Boston and its neighborhood. Only a few signatures to
this paper were obtained, probably on account of the risk
which the signers ran; one of the most active of their
number being put in irons, on the discovery of the affair
by the magistrates.  Child himself, and some of his fellowmemorialists, were also seized; their papers were examined,
and their persons detained in custody until after the ship
in which they intended to take passage for England had
departed. A copy of their memorial reached London, but
was never acted upon.
", I have done too much of that work already,"
John Winthrop, the governor for many years, is
reported to have said in his last hours, when urged to sign
an order of banishment against a believer in a different
church than his own, (1649.)  But he left others to carry
out the austerities from which the approach of death might
well recall a human spirit. Within two years, John Clarke,
a minister amongst the Baptist exiles of Rhode Island,
was arrested while preaching in a house at Lynn, (1651.)
"They more uncivilly disturbed us," said he, " than the
pursuivants of the old English bishops were wont to do."
Imprisoned with some of his fellow-Baptists in Boston,
Clarke did not give way, but demanded the opportunity of
proving, prisoner as he was, "that. no servant of Jesus
Christ hath any authority $o restrain any fellow-servant in
his worship, where no injury is offered to others." The
answer of the magistrates was, " Fined twenty pounds, or to
be well whlipped."  One of his comrades escaped with a
smaller fine, but another was whipped, while two persons
who showed compassion upon him were themselves arrested
and fined. Clarke, after paying his fine, would have sailed
to England. But not allowed even to do this, he made his
7




7.4                PART II. 1638-1763.
way to New Amsterdam, where he met with humaner treatment, and found the means of crossing the sea. Arrived
in England, he published his "Ill News from New Enghlnd," "wherein is declared, that while old England is
becoming new,* New England is becoming old."  "The
authority there established," he says, " cannot permit men,
though of never so civil, sober, and peaceable a spirit and
life, freely to enjoy their understandings and consciences,
nor yet to live or come among them, unless they can do as
they do, and say as they say, or else say nothing; and so
may a man live at Rome also," (1652.)
Clarke's case appears to have excited attention,
Saltonstall's  notwithstanding the late indifference in relation to
renion-  Child and his fellow-petitioners.  Such as were
strance.
opposed to the Puritans did not stand alone in condemning their intolerance. One of their own number, an
early and a distinguished member of the Massachusetts
Company, wrote to the elders, Wilson and Cotton, in terms
of sorrowful remonstrance.  "It doth not a little grieve
my spirit to hear what sad things are reported daily of
your tyranny and persecution in New England, as that you
fine, whip, and imprison men for their consciences.
These rigid ways have laid you low in the hearts of the
saints." Thus wrote Sir Richard Saltonstall, a Puritan,
but not a persecutor, a lover of other men's liberty, as
well as of his own.
His letter was unheeded.  Within a very brief
Dunster
of liar- period, the first president of Harvard  College,
vard Col- Henry Dunster, a clergyman, a scholar, and a
lege.                         zny,ee.   true  man, was tried, convicted, and obliged to
resign his office, on the charge of being a Baptist, (1654.)
"The whole transaction of this business," wrote he. "ia
* In the time of the commonwealth.




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                75
such, which in process of time, when all things come to
mature consideration, may very probably create grief on
all sides; yours subsequent, as mine antecedent. I amn
not the man you take me to be." In the following year,
(1655,) the corporation of the college appealed to the
General Court to pay the amount still due to the deposed
president, as well as to allow him something additional, " in
consideration of his extraordinary pains."  But so intemperate was the disposition of the authorities, as to refuse
not only the additional grant, but even the actual balance
of the president's account. The spirit of wisdom had not
yet descended either upon Harvard College or upon the
community by which it had been founded.
A new class of victims appeared. A few unhapQuakers.
py Quakers- the more unhappy, if guilty of the
fanatical excesses with which they were charged - came to
Boston, some of them to brave, all of them to encounter, persecution, (1 656.)  Brought immediately before the magistrates, they were first confined, and then sent away beyond
the limits of the colony. Laws were at once passed, inflicting a fine of one hundred pounds upon any master of a
vessel who brought a Quaker with him, and ordering imprisonment and scourging for any Quaker tlhat might
appear. This not being deemed enough, a new batch of
statutes was prepared within the next two years, (1657-58,)
fining the spectator or the worshipper at a Quaker meeting,
the host of a Quaker, and threatening the Quaker himself
with loss of ears, mutilation of tongue, and, finally, if he
returned after being banished, with death. In these horrible enactments, almost all New England, except Rhode
Islaid, coincided. They did not remain dead letters. One
of the oldest freemen of the colony, Nicholas Upsall, accused merely of kindness to the persecuted, was banished
for three years, and, on his return, was thrown into a two




76                PART II. 1638-1763.
years' imprisonment, (1656-59.) Nor was this the only
case of the kind. As for the persecuted themselves, they
were fined, imprisoned, scourged, and at length hanged:
(1659-60.) Had it not been for the royal commands that
these outrages should cease, (1660,) there is no saying how
far they might have been carried. As it was, the persecution continued at intervals, until a fresh order came from
the king, requiring liberty of faith for all Protestants,
(1679.)
The saddest deeds of oppression in Massachusetts
Witches.
are yet to be told. It is explicable that the Puritan authorities should be bitter upon those who opposed
their institutions or their creeds. But that they should
raise a hue and cry against those who had no thought of
opposing them, those against whom no charge could be
substantiated but that of feebleness, of age, or of deformity, seems inexplicable.  An English law of older date than
any existing English colony, (1603,) by which witchcraft
was declared a capital crime, found a place amongst the
so-called liberties of Massachusetts, (1641.)  Some years
elapsed before it was enforced, (1656;) nor did it then
seem to set so well upon the consciences of the rulers as
to make them desirous of keeping it in operation. A later
attempt at the same sort of thing in Pennsylvania resulted
in the acquittal of the unfortunate object of ill will, (1684.)
When all was quiet, and the troubles of witchcraft appeared
to have subsided forever, there was a sudden swell.  A
witch, so styled and so condemned, was executed at Boston,
(1688.) One victim not being enough, others were soon demanded, and found at Salem village, now Danvers. The
magistrates of the colony had thrown a hundred persons
into prison, when the governor, Sir William Phips, arrived
from England to head the persecution. The lieutenant governor, William Stoughton, presided at the judicial tribunals.




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                 77
Behind these official personages, several of the elders or
ministers, led by Increase and Cotton MIather, father and
son, urged on the ferocious pursuit. It lasted eight long
months, devouring twenty victims, torturing many others,
and threatening a still larger number, when the work of
blood was arrested, partly by interference from England,
and partly by accusations directed against some of the persecutors themselves, (1693.) "The Lord be merciful to
the country," exclaimed Chief Justice Stoughton, on finding that he could sentence no more as guilty of witchcraft.
Years later, the letters of Robert Calef, a merchant of
Boston, who wrote against the fierce delusion of his neighbors, were burned in the yard of Harvard College by order
of the president, Increase Mather, (1700.)
Persecu-   WVe have lingered long in Massachusetts.  It is
tion else- there that we find the most striking traces of that
where. persecuting spirit of which almost every colony had
its share. New England, with one exception, occupied the
same ground as its principal colony. New York ordered
every Roman Catholic priest voluntarily entarily entering the province to be hanged, (1700.) Protestants were likewise visited
with penalties or with restrictions, unless they submitted to
the church of England, (1704.)  Maryland began by an
act which proclaimed death to all who denied the Trinity,
and fine, scourging, imprisonment, and banishment, to all
who denied " the blessed Virgin MAary or the holy apostles
or evangelists," (1649.)  Long after, the Roman Catholics
becoming, as has been mentioned, the objects of persecution, their public services were forbidden, and their offices
as teacheits, both private and public, were suspended,
(1704.)  Of all the colonies, however, none kept nearer to
Massachusetts in the race of persecution than Virginia, the
colony of the English, as Massachusetts was that of the
Puritan church. A few Puritans, who had found a corner
7*




78                PART II. 1638-1763.
in Virginia, invited some ministers from Massachusetts and
New Haven. Three came, but were almost immediately
warned by the government " to depart the colony with all
conveniency," (1642-43.)  Another Puritan clergyman,
with many of his persuasion, was banished a few years
later, (1648-49.)  The Puritans being disposed of, the
Quakers came in for attention. A law inflicted a hundred
pounds' fine upon the shipmaster who introduced, and
upon the colonist who entertained, a Quaker, the Quaker
himself being imprisoned until he gave security that he
would leave the colony never to return, (1660-63.) Baptists were provided for in another law, subjecting them to
a fine, (1662.) Thus the prey upon which the Puritan
magistrates pounced in the north was assailed by the
church of England authorities in the south. The same
spirit, suspicious and oppressive, was at work throughout
the land.
Save in one nook, where liberality and confidence
Save in
Rhode  prevailed.  In Rhode Island, the colony whose
Island.
people were twofold exiles, - exiles from England,
and exiles from New England, -persecution found no place.
The assembly, gathered under the charter of 1644, established freedom of faith by legislative enactment, (1647.)
In petitioning for the charter of 1663, the Rhode Islanders
urged their " lively experiment that a most flourishing civil
state may stand and best be maintained with a full liberty
of religious concernments." Time and maturing wisdom
had taught Roger Williams to practise what he preached
in favor of liberty of conscience.  Even the Quakers,
whose doctrines he much disliked and opposed, found
refuge amongst his people, and so securely, that Rhode
Island refused to insist upon the oath of allegiance to the
crown, on account of the Quaker scruples to taking oaths
of any kind. "The first liberty," wrote Williams, "is of




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                79
our spirits, which neither Old nor New England knows the
like, nor no part of the world a greater."  He died, (1683;)
but so directly did his better spirit descend to those coming
after him, that with one exception bearing upon Roman
Catholics, then excluded from the privileges of all the colonies, the laws o' Rhode Island continued to bear and to forbear for generation after generation.
The relations between one class and another
Inter-colonial diffi- within the colony being such as have been described,
culties. it may be inferred how uncertain were the relations
between colony and colony. Differences of origin and of
situation, enhanced by differences of creed, of policy, and of
interest, brought about divisions and hostilities. Nor were
these confined to colonies that were far remote from one
another in position or in character. On the contrary, the
instances to be mentioned are those of quarrels among
neighbors; nay, even among allies.
Shawomet  Samuel Gorton, a clothier from  London, wnho
and Mas- found no welcome in Boston, Plymouth, or even in
sachusetts. the Rhode Island settlements, purchased, in the lastnamed vicinity, some land from the Indians, and began the
little colony of Shawomet. He seems to have been a
sort of spiritualist, much given to rhapsody, if not blasphemy, but harmless, disposed to force his views upon
none, and ready to fly rather than to fight amidst the warring parties of New England. But when pursued by his
old opponents of Massachusetts, on the ground that the land
which his colony occupied was theirs by virtue of subsequent negotiations with the Indians, Gorton resolved to
make a stand, (1643.) It was in vain. The dozen men
whom he had with him  could make no effectual defence
against the forty who came, with commissioners at their
head, from Massachusetts. A few of the Shawomet party
escaped; but Gorton, with nine others, was transported as a




80                PART II. 1638-1763.
captive to Boston. There he was put upon trial, partly for
rejecting the dominion, and partly for rejecting the creed
of his conquerors.  Convicted, of course, he was set to work
in irons, most of his companions meeting the same fate.
But as they proved troublesome, especially by instilling
their doctrines into those around them, they were set fiee,
"no more to come into the colony, upon pain of death,"
(1644.) Gorton at once repaired to England, where, from
the Earl of Warwick, then "governor-in-chief and lord
high admiral of all those islands and plantations within
the bounds and upon the coasts of America," he obtained a
patent for his colony as a part of the Providence Plantations, the name of Shawomet being changed to that of its
protector - Warwick, (1647.)  Not long after, Massachusetts attempted to get up another onslaught upon the Warwick settlement, but was prevented, (1651.)
U Massachusetts was at the head of a confederacy,
coloniesof the story of which will be found to throw much
New Eng- light upon the relations of colony to colony. It
had been proposed, at an early date, (1637,) to
form a league amongst the New England settlements; but
the project fell through, on account of the resistance of Connecticut to the demands of MIassachusetts.  Circumstances
induced Connecticut to give way, some time afterwards,
when a confederacy was formed, under the name of "The
United Colonies of New England," (1643.)  Each colony
was to appoint two commissioners, who must be church
members, to conduct all matters of administration, to decide
upon questions of peace or war, to regulate the demand and
surrender of fugitive servants, slaves, or criminals; but all
acts of the commissioners required ratification by the people. In case of war, a certain number of troops was to be
furnished by the different members of the league. Massachusetts, furnishing a double proportion, obtained the honor




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                81
of having the commissioners' annual session held twice as
often at Boston as at any other place of' meeting. Indeed,
Massachusetts was the head and front of the whole confederacy.
The spirit of the league soon came out. MassaTreatment of chllsetts (then including New Hampshire), Plymlsthd. outh, and the two Connecticut colonies being united,
there remained Maine and Rhiode Island. Maine
was too scantily settled, as well as too remotely situated,
to be taken into account; but Rhode Island, begirt by the
confederates, had some claims to consideration. At all
events, it asked admission to the union. The demand was
refused, except on condition that the colony would submit
itself as a dependent to Plymouth.  One cannot but wonder that, with such a temper, the league refrained from
blotting its independent neighbor out of existence.
Disagree- Things went by no means smoothly amongst the
ments. confederates themselves. At one time, Connecticut
imposed a tax on river navigation, which acted adversely
to the interests of the town of Springfield, (1647.) Massachusetts, at first remonstrating, soon broke out with an impost upon goods imported from the other three colonies of
the leagu-e, (1649.)  Nor was this repealed until after a
grave protest from the commissioners, (1650.) A year or
two later, Connecticut desired war to be declared against
the Dutch and Indians. Perhaps it was a hasty project; but
it found support from Plymouth. Massachusetts, however,
refused to enter into it, and by so doing, nearly broke up
the confederacy, (1653.) When the confederates agreed, it
was often-about such measures as those of persecution, to
which reference has been made, or those of warfare, to
which we shall arrive ere long,. In fact, the United Colonies
were united chiefly in deeds of violence. In works of justice or of generosity, they generally broke asunder. When




82                PART II. 1638-1763.
their union came to an end, after a feeble existence of half
a century, it was reregtted by none.
The New England colonies were not alone in
Dissen-               Z
sionselse-these disturbed relations. New York was long at
where.  variance with Connecticut on one side, and with
New  Jersey on the other.  Pennsylvania had her complaints against Virginia; Delaware hers against Pennsylvania.  Wherever there was a view from one colony to
another, it seemed to open as frequently upon scenes of
controversy as upon those of peace.
Penn and  Leaving the colonies themselves, and turning to
Balti-  their proprietors, where they had any, we discover
more  the same disposition to strife.  When William Penn
obtained the grant of his domain of Pennsylvania, he knew
that it encroached upon the claims of the Baltimore family
of Maryland.  Their title to the territory, as far north as
the fortieth degree of latitude, had been infringed upon, but
by foreigners — by the Dutch and by the Swedes. It was
reserved for a fellow-countryman to appropriate it to himself. Soon after the arrival of Penn in America, he met
Lord Baltimore at Newcastle, but without being able to
come to any agreement. This did not prevent the Quaker
from founding his City of Brotherly Love upon the land
claimed by the rival proprietor, (1682.) At another meetingl, in the following year, Penn consented to recognize the
Baltimore claim, but only on condition that a price should
be fixed for a portion bordering upon the Delaware, of
which he naturally wished to retain the sovereignty.  But
as this offer was refused, while another mode of settlement,
proposed by Baltimore, was refused in turn by Penn, the
two proprietors again separated in anger. When Baltimore renewed his demands, a few months after, Penn threw
himself upon the Dutch title, to which lie claimed succession through the Duke of York, (1683.) After such a plea




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                  83
as this, there was no hope of justice from  Penn.  Appeal
was made to England, where sentence was rendered against
Baltimore, without being actually executed, (1685.)  It
was three quarters of a century before the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland was definitely determined.
The relations of the colonies to the mother countoRelations try, that is, to England, so far as they depended
mother  upon general principles, were brought forward in an
country.
earlier part of the chapter.  It is time to take them
up with reference to the actual course of events.
The      Allegiance to the crown was one of the inborn
crown. principles of the English colonist. It extended friom
him to those who had come from other lands than England.
The King of England was the head of the church and the
head of the state - the supreme civil and military power, to
whom all the magistrates, all the tribunals, all the laws, all
the proceedings of the colonies, were subject. Even in the
charter governments, the most independent of all, the royal
supremacy was universally recognized.  At the same time,
the exact limits between the sovereignty of the king and
the independence of the colony were nowhere defined.  In
the royal provinces, where the dependence upon the crown
was the greatest, the rights of the popular bodies were often
most pertinaciously asserted.
As striking an exhibition as any other of the relaChlend tions of the colonies with royalty is to be found in
Massa-  the twenty-five years' controversy between Charles
chusetts.
Ichuset I. and Massachusetts.  When the restoration of
that monarch occurred, nearly a year was allowed to elapse,
after the certain intelligence of the event, without any proclamation of the royal authority in Massachusetts.  There
was a good deal, in fact, for the colony to do, in order to
make the proclamation satisfactory to all concerned.  In the




84                 PART II. 1638-1763.
first place, she had to renounce all such theories as John
Eliot had propounded in his Christian Commonwealth, concerning the superiority of the Mosaic over the English institutions. In the next place, she had "to reject, as an infringement of right, any parliamentary or royal imposition
prejudicial to the country." So that, between her own
republicans on the one side, and the monarchists of England
on the other,   e was some difficulty in steering a course.
At length, the king being proclaimed, John Norton and
Simon Bradstreet were sent as agents, with letters and
instructions half servile and half defiant, to seek the royal
presence and obtain a confirmation of the colonial institutions, (1662.) The king confirmed the charter, but added
requisitions that were likely to set the whole colony in an
uproar.  All laws, he said, against the royal authority, must
be repealed; the oath of allegiance to the crown must be
exacted; the Book of Common Prayer must be tolerated,
and the sacraments administered to "all of honest lives;"
nay, the freeholders of the colony, if of suitable estate and
character, must be admitted as its freemen.  Such was the
spite of Massachusetts men, in relation to the royal demands,
even against their own helpless agents, that the minister
Norton sank, it is said, under the general displeasure,
(1663.) The arrival of four royal commissioners, in the following year, was followed by a celebration of the church service, and by a law from the assembly, declaring freeholders,
on certain conditions, to be freemen, (1664.)  The next
proceedings of the commissioners resulted in the temporary
toleration of churchmen and Quakers, (1665.) It must
have seemed as if the very foundations of Massachusetts
had been thrown down.
Long years of controversy between the colony and the
king ensued. The departure of the commissioners was followed by the almost immediate arrest of the changes




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                85
which they had introduced. A summons from the
Loss of
the Mas- king, calling upon the colony to send representsa
etatsand tives to answer the charges against it, was disoother  beyed, (1666.)  Yet five years were allowed to
elapse before the contumacy of' the Massachusetts
people was noticed, and then they were virtually passed
over as " almost on the brink of renouncing any dependence on the crown," (1671.)  Quite a considerable
interval succeeded, in which agents after agents upheld the
colony against its adversaries in England.  Even briges
were resorted to, the Province of' Maine and two thousand
guineas being offered to the king himself. But it was too
late. The royal will was roused; the warrant went ibrth
that the colony must submit, if it would have any charter
at all. The magistrates were for yielding; the representatives - that is, the mass of the colonists- were for resisting; and while they clung to their charter, it was declared
to be forfeited, (1684.) The king immediately appointed a
governor for Massachusetts, Plymouth, Maine, and New
Hampshire; but Charles dying, another official was sent
out by James II., bearing the title of president of the same
colonies, with the addition of the King's Province in Rhode
Island, (1685.)  The same year, the Rhode Islald and
Connecticut charters were put in abeyance.
Parlia-    Next to the crown was the Parliament of the
mert.  mother country. But this was by no means so
fully acknowledged in the colonies. "WVe have not admitted appeals to your authority," says the Massachusetts
General Court to Parliament, "being assured they cannot
stand with, the liberty and power granted us by our charter," (1646,) -a declaration which was followed up by
Edward Winslow, then the agent for Massachusetts in
England.  "If the Parliament of England," he says,
" should impose laws upon us, having no burgesses in their
8




86                PART II. 1638-1763.
House of Commons nor capable of a summons by reason
of the vast distance, we should lose the liberty and freedom of English indeed." It was on these very grounds
that the sway claimed for Parliament was again and again
resisted.  It was, however, again and again obeyed.
Naviga-   Parliament asserted its powers at an early day.
tion acts. During the commonwealth, when it ruled supreme
over England, it stretched forth its sceptre over America
by an act requiring all colonial exports to England to be
shipped only in American or English vessels, (1651.)
This was extended by Parliament and the crown together,
after the restoration of royalty, in a second act, ordering
that most of the exports from the colonies should be shipped
only to England, or to an English colony, and in American
or English vessels, as before, (1660.) Two or three years
afterwards, it was enacted that almost all imports into the
colonies should be shipped only from England or from an
English colony, and in American or English vessels, as by
the preceding statutes, (1663.) -These were the famous
navigation acts, the first assertions of parliamentary authority over the commerce of the colonies.  How grievous
to these such restrictions were needs not to be dwelt upon.
Duties.    They were followed up, at no long interval, by
duties upon the export and import of certain " enumerated articles " fiom one colony to another, (1672.)  This
was interfering, not only with the trade, but with the very
constitution of the colonies. It required a new body of officials in the shape of revenue officers, appointed, of course,
by the crown.  Royal custom houses were also needed. -It.was soon proposed to demand an oath from the governors
of New England - where trade was busiest, and discontent
rifest - that they would enforce the commercial restrictions.
But John Leverett, governor of Massachusetts, refused,
and the General Court of the same colony soon passed a




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                  87
resolution " that the acts of navigation are an invasion of
the rights and privileges of the subjects of his majesty in
this colony, they not being represented in the Parliament,"
(1676-79.) A notice of the appointment of a collector
of the royal customs for New England was torn down in
Boston by order of the colonial magistrates, (1680.) But
it was in vain, as we shall soon find.  Parliament had
adopted the principle of regulating the colonial trade, and
was not likely to yield to the ebullitions of Boston, or of
any other place in the colonies.
Royal    The authority of the mother country, whether
govern- royal or parliamentary, was represented by a conors.   stantly increasing number of officials in the colonies.
Of these none were so prominent as the royal governors,
to whom we now arrive in pursuing the account of the
colonial relations.
Belkeley   Nowhere did things go worse than in Virginia,
in vir-  of which Sir William  Berkeley, a loyal cavalier,
ginia.  had been governor for more than twenty years.*
Under his influence, the very assembly of the province became
a burden, protracting its sessions and extending its prerogatives, providing a perpetual (so termed) instead of an annual
revenue for the royal officials, and appointing county courts
to levy certain imposts which.were within its own province
alone. To these diff~ulties were added others arising from
the hostile bearing of the Indians, with whom the governor
was disposed to temporize far more than suited the ardent
Virginians, (1676.)
Bacon's    All at once, the province rose.  One of the counrebellion. cii, Nathaniel Bacon, being refused a commission
against the Indians, declared that he would take out a commission of his own; at which the governor unseated him
9 From 1641 to 1652, and again from 1660.




88                PART II. 1638-1763.
and declared him a rebel. But lie was not the only one to
be put down. William Drummond, the first governor of
North Carolina, and Richard Lawrence, both men of energy and of culture, came out at Jamestown on Bacon's side.
At their demand, supported by other colonists of influence,
the assembly by which the governor had been blindly supported was dissolved. Bacon, elected to a new assembly,
carried various measures of reform, besides obtaining a
commission of commanding officer against the Indians.
Again declared a rebel, he called a convention, who promised to stand by him while he proceeded against the foe
upon the frontier. But on the governor's taking the field
with armed servants and Indians, supported by some English men-of-war, Bacon and his party returned to meet
him.  Berkeley retreated, Bacon fired Jamestown, and
soon after died. The cause which he had staked his all to
support soon fell to pieces, and his chief adherents, Drummond amongst them, were hanged. Lawrence disappeared.
"That old fool," said the good natured Charles II., on hearing of his governor's revenge, "has hanged more men in
that naked colony than I did here for the murder of my
father."  Berkeley died of shame, it is said, in England
He left Virginia crushed and desolate.
Andios    New England, consolidated into one province1
in New was given over to Sir Edmund Andros, formerly
England. governor of New York, (168..)  He made his appearance with troops, overthrowing the colonial assemblies,
if there were any left to overthrow, declaring the town
organizations at an end, prohibiting the printing press, and
threatening even the property of the colonists by requiring
them to take out new deeds of their estates from him. It
was a part of his commission to procure toleration, especially for the church of England. To do this in Boston, he
saw fit to seize upon one of the Puritan churches to celebrate




COLONIAL RELATIONS.                89
the church service.  Resistance was not attempted, and Andros and his council ruled supreme; nor only over New
England, but likewise overVimNew York and New Jersey,
both of which were attached to his government, (1688.)
In fact, he was on the high road to dominion over all the
colonies. The charters of the Carolinas and of  Maryland
— that is, of every other colony which had a charter,
save  Pennsylvania alone —were menaced, (1686-88.)
A  waste of despotism  seemed to be opening wherever
freedom had found a foothold.
Revolu-   Just then came the news of the revolution in
tioli. England, (1689.) It was welcomed by a revolution in America. Boston rose against Andros, deposing
him, and declaring  Simon Bradstreet governor.  The
reaction was by no means gentle. The churchmen, whom
Andros had favored, and who supported him, sent an
address to King William, bewailing the peril to them from
the returning " anarchy and confusion of government under
which this country hath so long groaned.'?  Rhode Island
and Connecticut went farther than  Massachusetts, and
resumed their treasured charters. New  York took up
arms under Jacob Leisler and a committee of safety.
The other colonies, less sorely oppressed than those of
New England and New York, received the news in comparative tranquillity. A party in Maryland rose, but not
against oppression so much as for the sake of sedition.
The proprietary government fell, as has been told.
But not   It soon appeared, however, that the English
liberty. revolution was not intended to be interpreted as
setting the colonies free. The charter of 1691 proved it
in Massachusetts.  The execution of Jacob Leisler and
his son-in-law, Milbourne, in New York, by orders, however, of the new governor, Colonel Sloughter, rather than
by those of the king, was equally conclusive, (1691.)
8*




90                 PART II. 1638-1763.
The appointment of Andros -the same Sir Edmund who
had trampled upon both Massachusetts and New York —
to the government of Virginim' was a still more stunning
demonstration, (1692.)
Fletchler   A  new  attempt at colonial consolidation soon
ill Ne'   occurred.  Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, a man of
York.                        D
far less character than Andros, was made governor of New  York and Pennsylvania, including Delaware; the proprietary government in the latter colonies
being then suspended, (1692.)   He was also declared
commander-in-chief of' the Connecticut and the New Jersey militia.  Soon after taking possession of New York
and Pennsylvania, Fletcher proceeded to Connecticut to
take command of the militia.  They assembled at his
orders; but instead of listening to his commission, the
senior officer, Captain  Wadsworth, cried, " Beat the
drums!"  On Fletcher's attempting to persevere, Wadsworth exclaimed, "If I am interrupted again, I'll make
the sun shine through you in a moment," (1693.)  Thus
baffled in his military functions, the governor returned to
his civil powers in New York and Pennsylvania.  The
latter province, after resisting his demands for a grant of
money, yielded only on condition that it should be disbursed by the provincial treasurer- a condition which
Fletcher would not, and, if obedient to his instructions,
could not allow, (1694.)  New York itself was restive
under his control. A tax for the support of ministers
and the erection of churches had led to a debate between
the council and the assembly; the council proposing that the.governor should nominate the new clergy, but the assembly
opposing.  "You take it upon you," declared Fletcher to
the assembly, " as if you were dictators;" but the assem* He proved, however, to be a comparatively good governor there




COLONIAL RELATIONS                  91
bly stood fast, and soon carried their point, "c that the
vestry and the churchwardens have a power to call their
own minister," a dissenter, if so they pleased, although
the governor was strong for the church  of England,
(1695.) It had been proposed by a clergyman of this
church to combine New York, New Jersey, Connecticut,
and Rhode Island in a single province, with a bishop,
residing at New York, for its civil as well as ecclesiastical
head.  But this, more naturally even than  Governor
Fletcher's designs, came to nought.  Fletcher himself,
falling into disgrace at home, was recalled, leaving his
attempts at consolidation an utter failure, (1698.)
The troubles implied in the various colonial relaGeneral
strict-  tions account for much that has been ascribed to
ness.   other causes. It has been so common to consider
the Puritan severity as a thing apart, that one does not
immediately seize upon the fact of the almost universal
strictness that prevailed. Virginia, for instance, gave no
harbor to Puritanism. Yet the Virginia code thunders
against "mercenary attorneys," (1643,) burgesses "disguised with over much drink," (1659,) tippling houses,
(1676,) and Sunday travelling, (1692.)  Maryland declares with as much solemnity as Massachusetts against
profanity, (1642.)  Nor were precautions of a different
nature neglected.  Both Maryland (1642-1715) and New
York (1665) make it necessary to procure a passport before traversing or leaving the colonial precincts. It was
from a similar impulse that the " handicraftsmen " of Boston petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts to be
protected against " strangers from  all parts" who were
interfering with their trade, not to say their influence in
the community, (1677.)  All over the colonies, there
reigned a spirit of watchfulness, perhaps more grim, but
certainly not more resolute, in one place than in another.




92                 PART II. 1638-1763.
It might be increased or diminished by the social or the
religious temper of the colonists; the New Englander was
likely to be more upon his guard than the Virginian. But
the spirit was the common growth of the new country,
whose depths were still hid in the wilderness, whose borders
were still bristling with the arrow or the steel.
Perils of The perils of the frontier are yet to be described.
the fron- All around the colonists, there extended a line, or
tier.   rather a series of lines, one after another, of suspected neighbors or of open foes. The Indian lay in
ambush on this side; on that, the European, Swede, Dutchman, Spaniard, or Frenchman, stood in threatening attitude.
Nor was the land alone overspread with enemies; the waters
swarmed with pirates and with buccaneers; nay, the very
air seemed to be filled with ghostly shapes and with appalling sounds. The world of spirits, as the colonists believed,
was agitated by the wars amongst the races of America.




CHAPTER III.
INDIAN WARS.
Spirit    TROUBLE between the European and the Indian
of the was inevitable. It did not generally originate with
Indians. the Indian, for he was disposed to welcome the.
stranger, and to help him in his trials. One of the very
earliest visitors of the Plymouth settlers, as their first
winter of suffering drew to an end, was Squanto, who had
been kidnapped by an English vessel, seven years before,
sold to slavery in Spain, released by Spaniards, and
restored to his native country.  Instead of revenging himself upon the English, he caught fish for them, and showed
them how to plant and dress their corn.  Indeed, there are
few passages in history more honorable to human nature
than those which recall the trustful and generous spirit of
the red men towards the white men on these shores.
Spirit of It was far from being always, or even habitually,
the Eu- requited. From the other side of the ocean, men
ropeans. looked upon the American natives with a magnanimous kindliness, which on this side was too often transformed into distrust and hostility. A European thought
himself bound by no obligations to an Indian.  His treaties were to his own advantage, his bargains to his own
profit, his efforts to his own supremacy. The noblest of the
English missionaries to the Indians, John Eliot, called
them " the dregs of mankind." Only from a distance that
lent enchantment to the view could a gentler estimate be
(93)




94                PART II. 1638-1763.
formed.  " Concerning the killing of those poor Indians,"
wrote John Robinson, the Puritan minister, from Holland
to his brethren at Plymouth, in relation to the slaughter of
several natives suspected of conspiring against that settlement, "0, how  happy a thing had it been if you had
converted some before you had killed any! Besides, where
blood is once begun to be shed, it is seldom stanched of a
long time after.... It is also a thing more glorious
in men's eyes than pleasing in God's, or convenient for
Christians, to be a terror to poor barbarous people," (1623.)
Mission- It was the idea of King James of England, in
ary la-  issuing the patent of Virginia, to civilize and conbors.   vert the natives of the country which he was giving
to his companies. The London Company, accordingly, in
conjunction with individuals both in England and in America, made some exertion to carry out the royal design. A
school for natives was planned, as has been mentioned,
but without being established. The colony of Plymouth,
listening to Robinson's appeal, recognized the possibility of
brotherhood with the Indians.  Laws were formally enacted to provide for the conversion of the natives to the Christian faith, (1636.)  Massachusetts framed what may be
called a code of " necessary and wholesome laws to reduce
them to civility of life," (November 4, 1646.)
The MIay-  Obtaining an English grant of Martha's Vinehewsand yard, and then confirming his title by purchase
Eliot.  from the natives, Thomas Mayhew began almost
immediately to teach those who remained with him upon
the island, (1643.) A more active missionary, however,
was his son Thomas, who, after ten years' exertions,
perished on a voyage to England, whither he was going for
aid to his mission, (1657.)  His father, and afterwards his
son, continued the work to which he had sacrificed himself.
Meanwhile John Eliot had begun his labors on the Massa



INDIAN WARS.                    95
chusetts mainland. Preparing himself by the study of the
Indian tongue, of which he afterwrards composed a grammar, he met a party of Indians, for the first time as their
preacher, at Nonantum.  " Upon October 28, 164-3," lie
writes with touching simplicity, " four of' us (having sought
God) went unto the Indians inhabiting our bounds, with
desire to make known the things of their peace to them."
Thenceforward Eliot went on founding and rearing Indian
churches, now travelling from the Merrimac to Cape Cod,
and now laboring at the translation of the Catechism, and
even of the Bible, into the language of his converts,
(1661-63.)
Both Eliot and the Mayhews, as well as other
Supports.
missionaries to the Indians, received their chief
encouragement from a Society "for Promoting and Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England," incorporated by act of Parliament, (1649.)  Large collections
aided the labors and provided for the expenses of those
who engaged in the holy enterprise. " Right honorable
nursing fathers," is the address which Eliot uses in giving
the society an account of his labors. He writes to Robert
Boyle, apparently the life and soul of the society, as his
"right honorable, right charitable, and indefatigable nursing father."  New England itself did comparatively little.
Massachusetts granted lands to the converted Indians, but
without much sympathy with them or with their teachers.
The work, as a colonial one, languished.
The results were therefore inconsiderable. -What
Results.
the Indians, or many of them, thought of the missions may'be gathered from the answer of a Narraganset
sachem to the missionary MIayhew applying for permission
to preach among the tribe.  " Go make the English good
first."  What many of the English thought of the missions
may be gathered from the declaration of Daniel Gookin,




96                PART II. 1638-1763.
superintendent of the converts, —"a pillar," says Eliot,
"in our Indian work," — that he was "afraid to be seen
in the streets," at the time of much ill will against the
natives. Thirty years after the missionary enterprise began, there were nominally upwards of three thousand
converts, (1673.) But the first church which Eliot founded - that at Natick - was, a few years subsequent to his
death, but "a small church of seven men and three
women; their pastor, Daniel Tohkohwampait," (1698.)
Even before Eliot departed, he had seen his work declining. Endeavoring to get out a new edition of his version
of the Scriptures, he wrote, "I am deep in years, and
sundry say, if I do not procure it printed while I live, it
is not within the prospect of human reason, whether ever,
or when, or how it may be accomplished." Things must
have been low indeed, when the mere reprint of the Bible
was so (,ifficult.  But "his charity," to use Eliot's deathbed words, " held out still," and all that he could do was
done when he died, (1690.)
Wars in   The wars with the Indians were more effective.
Virginia Earliest of these was the war of Opechancanough
and
Mary-  Powhatan's successor, against the colony of Virland.   ginia. Provoked by the murder of one of their
warriors, the Indians suddenly fell upon the English settlements, which, it seems, they would have utterly annihilated,
but for the warning given by a converted countryman of
theirs to a Jamestown settler, (1622.)  Hostilities, continued at intervals for many years, were revived by a
second surprise of the colony by the Indians, (1642.).Opechancanough being taken prisoner and slain, his confederates made peace, giving up all the land between the
York and James Rivers, (1646.) In this latter war, Maryland had been involved. Thirty years later, the two colonies were again united in repelling the Susquehannas, with
some other tribes, (1675-77.)




INDIAN WARS.                    97
requot   ~Meanwhile, more dangerous conflicts had arisen
war-  in New England.  The first actual war with the
Indians there occurred in consequence of some murders by
the Pequots and the Narragansets; the latter tribe extending along the western shore of Narraganset Bay, the former stretching from the Thamrnes to the Connecticut Rivers.
The Narraganset chief, Canonicus, making amends for his
followers, the expedition which Massachusetts equipped to
avenge the murdered was directed chiefly against the
Pequots, with the result, however, of exciting rather than
punishing them, (1636.) They were on the point of persuading the iNarragansets to make common cause with
them, when Roger Williams, at the peril of his life, sought
the wigwam of Canonicus, in order to avert an alliance
which would have threatened Massachusetts, not to say
New England, with desolation.  It was the return which
the exile made for the persecution from which he had but
just escaped. Instead of joining the Pequots, the Narragansets sent their young sachem  iMiantonimoh to make
friends with the people at Boston. At about the same
time, the alliance of the Mohegans, a tribe of Northern
Connecticut, under Uncas, was secured by the Connecticut
colonists. As the spring opened, the colonial forces,
amounting in all to little more than one hundred, with
two or three hundred Indian allies, took the field, and in
four months swept the unhappy Pequots from the face of
the earth. Nearly a thousand of them were slain; the
rest, whether men or women, old or young, being reduced
to captivity and slavery.  Their territory was divided
between Massachusetts and Connecticut, (1637.)
Narra-    Notwithstanding the alliance with Miantonimoh
gansets. and the Narragansets, they were soon treated as
foes. Defeated by the Mohegans, with whom they went to
war, the Narragansets saw their chieftain a prisoner.  He
9o




98                PART II. 1638-1763.
was saved by the interposition of his friend Gorton, the
founder of Warwick, only to be given up again by the
commissioners of the United Colonies to the Mohegan
Uncas, by whose brother he was despatched. To shield
Uncas from the revenge of the Narragansets, the colonies furnished him  with a body guard, and even took
up arms, when Pessacus, the brother and successor of
MIiantonimoh, began war against his Molhegan enemies.
Nor did Pessacus avert the storm thus conjured up, but
by submitting to make amends to both the AMohlegans and
the United Colonies, (1645.)  The tribute which he then
consented to pay was afterwards wrenched from him by
violence, (1650.)
Kili,    A quarter of a century later, and the ill-treated
Philip.  tribe of Miantonimoh and P'essacus were drawn
into the great war that goes by the name of King Philip's.
Hle was MIetacomet, the son and successor of Massasoit,
with whom  the Plymouth colonists had made an early
treaty, the chief of the Pokanokets or Wampanoags, a
tribe on the eastern shore of' Narraganset Bay.  Suspected
an d assailed by the people of Plymouth, whose authorities
claimed jurisdiction over him, Philip (to call him by his
familiar name) was at length accused of hatching a general conspiracy amongst the Indians.  The accuser, a native
of bad character, although professedly converted, was slain
by some of Philip's men, three of whom were presently
hanged, without any actual proof of their being the murderers, by orders of the court at Plymouth.  Plilip wept, it
is said, at the idea of warfare with. the English. But he
could not keep peace with them; and so began a war, by
far the most deadly of all between the English and the
Indians, (1675.)
Driven almost immediately from his domains about
Mount Hope, and soon afterwards from  his retreats in




INDIAN WARS                       99
the Rhode Island swamps, Philip led his few —warWar
through- riors into the heart of Massachusetts, where the Inout New dians had already risen in arms.  Thence the circle
England.
E    of hostilities spread on all sides, to the tribes of the
Connecticut valley in the west, to those of the MIerrimac
valley in the east, and farther still, to the Abenakis of
Maine —the latter, however, being engaged in warfare of
tjheir own, unconnected with Philip and his allies.  Against
these was arrayed the whole of New England.  Rhode
Island, it is true, rather suffered than fought; nor were
Maine and New Hampshire, then the dependencies of Massachusetts, able to take any active part.  But the United
Colonies were all in arms.  A  few hundred combatants
were the most that could be mustered in any single battle;
yet the strife was more than proportioned to the numbers or
the resources on either side.  MIonth after month witnessed
scenes of ambush, assault, devastation, and butchery.  The
work of blood was as savagely done by the English as by
the Indians.
As winter drew nigh, the suspicions of the coloDestrue- nies were excited by Uncas, the Mohegan, against
tion of the nies
Narragan-his old foes, the Narragansets.  They had given
Sets,   pledges of peace at the beginning of the wrar; nor
were there now any signs of hostility on their part, except
the shelter which they were charged with giving to the
broken Pokanokets.  But the commissioners of the United
Colonies, the successors of those who had given up Miantonimoll and humbled Pessacus, declared war against the
Narragansets and their chief, Canonchet.  It took but a
few days to overrun the Narraganset territory, and to defeat tlle tribe in a fearful fight which cost the colonial forces
dear.  Driven from  their forests and their fastnesses, the
Narragansets spread over the adjoining lands, and even as
far as within eighteen miles of Boston.  "We will die to




100               PART II. 1638-1763.
the last man," exclaimed Canonchet, when taken in the
spring, "but not be slaves to the Englishman." He was
slain, and his nation laid low forever.
The fall of the Narragansets was accompanied by
f hiithat of the tribes within the limits of Massachusetts.
Most of the survivors turned their backs upon their ancient
hunting grounds in search of freedom in the north and west.
Philip, who had mourned over the beginning of the war,
was too strong in heart to outlive its close. He sought the
home of his fathers, and there, after losing his wife, his
child, and most of his few remaining warriors, he was shot
by a renegade Pokanoket. His boy, the last of his line,
was sold into slavery in Bermuda. His race was given
over to the executioner and the slave dealer; his territory
went to Plymouth, and, half a century afterwards, to Rhode
Island.  But it was no bloodless victory that the colonies
had won. " The towns are so drained of men," wrote Leverett, governor of Massachusetts, in the thick of the contest,
"' we are not able to send out any more." Six hundred of
the best colonists had perished; ten times that number, and
more, had suffered from the losses and the agonies which
befall even the survivors of a war. Six hundred dwellings
were burned; many a town was partially, many a one totally
destroyed. The mere expenses of the war amounted to something enormous in comparison with the actual means of the
colonies. It is pleasant to meet with the record of a contribution of five hundred pounds, collected by an elder brother
of Increase Mather, a Puritan minister in Dublin. The
-war had lasted a little more than a year, (1676.)
There still remained a few Indian war parties to
Peace.
deal with in the Connecticut valley, as well as the
Abenaki tribes in Maine. The former were soon driven
off; but the latter kept to their arms until peace was literally bought if them by Sir Edmund Andros, the governor




INDIAN WARS.                   101
of New York, to which province, it may be remembered,
the eastern part of Maine then belonged, (1678.)
Abenakis  The Abenakis were soon in arms again. Flllisted
in arms. on the side of the French in the wars to be related
by and by, the eastern tribes repeatedly laid waste the
English settlements. A quarter of a century (1689-1713)
did not still the passions thus excited. At a time of peace
between England and France, the colonists of the fobrmer
nation attacked the allies, nay, the very missionaries of the
latter. Sebastian Rasles, the patriarch of a Norridgewock
village on the Kennebec, where he dwelt alone amidst his
savage converts, became the object of especial jealousy to
the government of Massachusetts. An armed expedition
failed in making him captive, (1722.) But a renewed
assault was more successful, the venerable priest being
slain, his chapel sacked, his village destroyed, (1724.) All
the tribes of the east entered into the war. The only ally
of Massachusetts was Connecticut; the efforts to obtain
support from the Mohawks being answered by the advice
that Massachusetts should do justice to her foes, (1722.)
Peace was made, after a five years' conflict. It was broken
more than once in the later French wars, (1744, 1754.)
But the Abenakis submitted at last, (1760.)
The central and southern colonies were for many
Phecean years undisturbed by Indian wars. Treaties with
treand the Five Nations  the more easily made and kept
south.
as these tribes were continually at enmity with the
French of Canada - protected the frontiers of the colonies
of the centre. Those of the south, for some time unassailed,
were at length overrun.
War in    North Carolina, after frequent aggressions on the
North  part of her settlers, was swept by the Tuscaroras,
Carolina. (1711.) The aid of South -Carolina, with that of
her Indian allies, was called in, before peace could be re9*




102               PART II. 1638-1763.
stored, even for a brief period.  Soon breaking out again, in
consequence of the'continued injuries inflicted upon the
Indians, the war grew so threatening as to require the interposition of Virginia as well as of South Carolina. The
three colonies together forced the Tuscaroras to fly to their
kindred, the Five Nations of New York, by whom, as was
formerly mentioned, they were received as a sixth tribe of
the confederacy, (1713.)
In South South Carolina, some time before involved in strife
Carolina. with the Indian allies of the Spaniards in Florida,
was presently threatened with a more serious war. The
tribes of the south, especially the Yamassees, aggrieved by
the treatment which they received from the colonists, dashed
upon their plantations, and, with revenge and slaughter,
pressed northward towards Charleston.  So great was the
peril, that the governor armed the slaves of the province.
besides obtaining a law from the assembly authorizing the
conscription of freemen. These means, backed by the resources of North Carolina and Virginia, averted the ruin
that appeared to be approaching. The Yamassees, driven
back with their confederates, were forced to seek refuge in
Florida, (1715.)
WV i th  Nearly half a century elapsed before the Indians
Chero-  took up the hatchet in the south. The Cherokees,
kees.  invaded first by the forces of the Carolinas and Virginia, and then by the royal troops, at that time carrying on
the last French war, retorted with sword and fire, (1759-60.)
But the English and the colonial soldiery together proved
too much for the Cherokees, who were soon reduced to
humiliating terms of peace, (1761.)
ith Meantime, the western settlements had begun to
western bear the brunt of Indian warfare. Pennsylvania
tribes. was attacked, just as the final contest with the
French began, (1755,) by the Delawares and Shawanoes,




INDIAN WARS.                   103
the former of whom had been infamously driven from their
land by the Pennsylvanians, or their proprietors, many
years before.  Other tribes, joining with these, spread
havoc along all the western borders of the colonies, until
peace was conquered, (1758.)
Pontiac's The French war over, (1763,) the same tribes,
var.   with others of varied name and race, united under
the great Ottawa chieftain, Pontiac, in one simultaneous
attempt to clear the western country of the English invaders. Such an onslaught, occurring at an earlier period,
might have driven the English, not only from the west but
from the east. But made against them when they had just
prevailed against the hosts of France, the attacks of the
Indians, though at first successful, were met and decisively
subdued, (1764.) *
Indians    Some sad and strange events, in connection with
in Penn- the war thus closed, must be mentioned, for the sake
Sylvania. of the illustration which they offer of the passions so
long dividing the English and the Indians. A number of
Pennsylvanians, opposed to their own authorities, and excited with suspicion and hatred against all of Indian blood,
made such demonstrations against the Indian converts of
the Moravian missionaries, for some time at work in Pennsylvania, that the assembly ordered the Indians to be
removed to Philadelphia. Hardly was this done, when the
settlers of Paxton, a frontier town, put to death a handful of
Indians lingering at Conestoga, pursuing and slaying some
who, for safety's sake, had been lodged in the Lancaster
jail. A force of from five to fifteen hundred borderers then
set out on a march against Philadelphia, where they intended
to seize the Indians transported thither, if not to make
themselves masters of the city and the province altogether
* The extreme western tribes remained in arms till 176.5.




104               PART II. 1638-1763.
They were not without their sympathizers in Philadelphia;
but those who were prepared to resist them took so determined a course as to avert the dangers of the insurrection.
The show of force in the city persuaded the borderers to
retire, (1763-64.)
The tomahawk was not yet buried in the west or
Other
wars, but in the south. Year after year some party or some
the issue tribe of Indians broke loose upon the frontiers. But
decided.
the question had long been decided as to the hands
into which victory was to fall. The scattered tribes, ill
provided with arms or stores, with discipline or skill, had
fallen away, from the first, before the concentrated numbers
and accumulated resources of the colonists. Whatever individual bravery could do, whatever the undying independence of any single tribe could achieve, was all in vain,
before the resistless advance of the English. Nay, not of
the English alone, but of the Indians themselves, allied with
the conquerors of their countrymen. But for such as joined
the stranger, the conquest would have been slower, although
none the less sure.
Later    The Indian wars form by no means a bright chapmissions. ter in our history.  But, as we found something to
light up the early, so we find something to light up the later
relations of the Indians and the English. The missions,
begun by the -Mayhews and by Eliot, had never been abandoned in Massachusetts. As time passed, and the native
race grew thinner upon its former soil, new stations were
taken, to reach the remoter tribes. A mission at Stockbridge, at first in the charge of John Sergeant, afterwards
obtained no less a superintendent than Jonathan Edwards,
(1737-50.)  A more radiant name is that of David Brainerd, of Connecticut, who, after laboring between Stockbridge
and Albany, turned southwards to Pennsylvania and New
Jersey, (1744.) The exertions of a few years so enfeebled




INDIAN WARS.                  105
him that he returned to the Connecticut valley only to die,
(1747.)  His place was taken in Pennsylvania by IMoravian missionaries, (1748,) whose labors, protracted to a
much later period, came to such sad results as have just been
described. The missionary would convert the Indians; the
colonist would hunt them to death. Alas, that so little was
wrought by the friend and the teacher, in comparison with
the vast achievements of the foe and the destroyer!




CHAPTER IV.
DUTCH WARS.
Wars     RETURNING to trace the fortunes of the Dutch
with In- settlement of New Netherland, we immediately
dians.  find it, like its English neighbors, at war with the
Indians, whom  we may call Manhattans of the Algonquin race. Vexed by the traders, oppressed by the officials
of the colony, the Manhattans had provocation enough
to take up arms at an early period. But the vicinity of
their dreaded foes, the Mohawks of the Five Nations, who
were disposed to be friends with the Dutch, kept them at
peace until peace was impossible. The incursions of the
Indians into the Dutch settlements, and the horrid massacres inflicted by the Dutch in return, were of the same
nature as the hostilities already described, (1640-43.) A
temporary truce was instantly broken by a general war,
spreading from the main land to the islands, and devastating almost the whole of the colony. But for a company
of English settlers, just fresh from encounters with the
Indians, it would have gone hard with New Netherland.
As it was, the exhaustion of the colony was as great as
that of its foes, when a treaty terminated the war, (1643-45.)
Thrice, however, within the next twenty years, the Indians
rose against the still oppressive Dutchmen, (1655, 1658,
1663.)
The increase of New  Netherland was arrrested'by
(106)




DUTCH WARS.                     107
Effect  these repeated wars.  A contemporary d)cument 
upon   (1644) dwells upon the flvorable prospects of
Netr-  the colony after tile fur trade was thrownNI open,
land-.  (1638,) as previously mentioned.  "At which time,"
we are told, " the inhabitants there resident not only spreac
themselves far and wide, but new colonists came thither
fiom fatherland, and the neighboring English, as well from
Virginia as from  New England, removed under us."  The
hopes thus inspired are expressly stated to have been
blasted by the Indian wars.
Internal   Had the wars never occurred, the colony would
restric-  have had no rapid progress.  In itself it was divided
tions.  by what may be called castes.  The patroons, for
instance, were an order by themselves, not necessarily hostile to the authorities or unfiiendly to the colonists, yet often
proving to be one or both.  Then the colony lay at the
mercy of the company and its director, wllhose supremacy
was shared by none but a few officials and councillors.
The attempts at representation on the part of the more
substantial colonists, were of no avail.  Boards of twelve,
eight, and nine men were successively established, with the
director's consent, but without any power to restrain him or
to elevate themselves.  It was at length resolved by the
nine men to draw up a statement of their grievances to be
laid before the government of the mother country. But
the member charged with preparing the document, Adrian
Van der Donck, was robbed of his papers, thrown into
prison, and expelled from the board of the nine men as well
as from the director's council, in which he had a seat, (1649.)
Liberated from his imprisonment, Van der Donck set sail
for Holland,  with other representatives of the cause for
which he had suffered.  His exertions there brought about
* In O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, Appendix E.




108                PART II. 1638-1763.
a provincial order from the States General, by which the
TWest India Company was directed to make some concessions to the colony, (1650.)  Two years elapse, and we
find Van del Donck still appealing to the States General for
justice, (1 652.)  Thle most that he procured was a municipal
government for the city (as it was styled) of New Amsterdam, the first city of the United States.  It was organized
in the following year, (1653,) with sheriff, burgomasters,
and judges, but all appointed by the director, Peter Stuyvesant, who had carried on for several years a downright war
in defence of his prerogatives. In resentment against him
personally much of the vigor belonging to the liberal party
had been expended.  He carried the day, it must be confessed, notwithstanding the city charter, notwithstanding
also the remonstrances of a convention of eight towns held
the same year.
neligious   The measure of arbitrary government was not
persecu- yet full.  At the instance of two clergymen of the
tion.   Dutch church, a proclamation fiom the director appeared, threatening fines upon all preachers and hearers of
unlicensed congregations, (1656.) The first to suffer were
Lutherans, who were not merely fined, but imprisoned; then
some Baptists, who were not merely fined, but banished.
Soon after, a few Quakers fell into the hands of the persecutors, one of them being subjected to tortures as horrid
as any inflicted in the English colonies, (1657.)  A few
years afterwards, the remonstrance of a Quaker, John
Bowne, who had been transported to Holland as a criminal,
brought upon Director Stuyvesant the censure of the com-.pany for his oppression, (1662-63.)
subjec-    Despite all these drawbacks upon its strength,
tion of  New Netherland was strong enough, with help from
New Swe- the company, to subdue its neighbor of New Swelden.                            rn
den. That colony, though reinforced at times, con



DUTCH WARS.                    109
tinued in a precarious state, with few settlers and uncertain
resources. Protested against by the Dutch as interloping
within their territory, it had nevertheless invited Dutch
emigrants amongst its own settlers, (1640.) lBut the New
Netherland authorities were on the alert.  Partly in opposition to a Connecticut settlement attempted on the Delaware, but chiefly in resistance to the advances of the Swedes,
Stuyvesant built his Fort Casimir at the present Newcastle, (1651.) A new governor, Rysingh, coming to the
Swedish colony, got possession of the fort without difficulty,
(1654.)  It cost him dear; for Stuyvesant, with a force of
several hundred, principally sent from Holland for the purpose, not only recovered Fort Casimir, but conquered Fort
Christina and the whole of New Sweden, (1655.)  A few
Swedes swore allegiance to the Dutch; the rest went home
or emigrated to the English colonies. The Swedish government protested against the conquest of its colony; but
it had too much upon its hands in Europe to recover its possessions in America.  So New Sweden came to an end;
and the dream of the generous Gustavus Adolphus that he
was to found a place of refige from persecution and from
corruption vanished forever.
New Am-  The victorious West India Company hardly knew
stel.   what to do with its conquest. It found a purchaser,
however, in the city of Amsterdam, which became the mistress of what had been New Sweden, - portions of our Delaware and Pennsylvania, - under the name of New Amstel,
(1656.) This was enlarged byr a subsequent purchase so
as to embrace the Dutch possessions on both banks of the
Delaware; in other words, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Delaware, (1663.)
But the dominions of the Dutch, whether West
English
aggres-  India Company or Amsterdam  city, were passing
sions.  into other hands. The claims of England to the
10




110               PART II. 1638-1763.
territory had been asserted, as mentioned in a former chapter, from a very early period. They lost nothing, it may be
believed, of their force, as colonies multiplied and lands
were in continually increasing demand. An old grant fiom
the Council for NNew England * was made to cover Long
Island.  Connecticut and MIassachusetts pushed on towards
the Hudson.  On the south, parties from Connecticut and
from Maryland threatened the domains upon the Delaware,
(1639-63.)  Year after year, during a quarter of a century,
brought some fresh invasion of the English, exciting some
fresh remonstrance from the Dutch.  "Those of Hartford,"
runs one of the Dutch records, " have not only usurped and
taken in the lands of Connecticut, but have also beaten
the servants of their high mightinesses the honored company with sticks and plough staves, lamina them," (1640.)
It is the tone of all the records, querulous and feeble,
the wail of a colony never numbering more than ten
thousand against its far more numerous neighbors.  Nor
were its neighbors its only foes. Amongst its own people
was a large number of Englishmen, emigrants from hostile
colonies, who naturally became hostile settlers. At one
time, some English villages of Long Island proclaimed " the
commonwealth of England and his highness the lord protector," (1655.)  At another, the towns at the west end of
the island proclaimed the English king, (1663.)  Finally:
the danger was so great that Peter Stuyvesant, the foe of
all liberal institutions, called a convention of his province.
It appears how far the English had pushed their aggressions
on scanning the meagre list of the towns or settlements
that were represented.  New Amsterdam and Rensselaerslwyck head the roll of twelve. The convention favored peace
with the Indians; as for the English, why, the English in
New Netherland alone were' six to one," (1664.)
* To the Earl of Stirling, (1635.)




DUTCH WARS.                   111
w~ar;    Lone as the dissensions between the English and
loss of the the Dutch had lasted, neither the colonies nor the
province. mother countries had gone to war about them. A
war of two years (1652-54) between the Dutch and the
English under Cromwell did not involve their American
settlements.  When England came under Charles II.,
another war with Holland was resolved upon, partly from
commercial and partly from political motives, the chief
of the latter being the intimate connection at that time
between the Dutch and the French. Before war was formally declared, New Netherland was surprised by an English fleet. It did not come as a national, but as an individual expedition. Charles II. had made a grant, as has been
narrated, of New Netherland to the Duke of York and
Albany. It had been the work of a few months only for the
duke to buy up other English claims, and collect commissioners and troops to take possession of his new realms.
Accompanied by John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut, who, though amiable and disinterested in most respects,
was full of determination against the Dutch, the commissioners, headed by Colonel Nichols, obtained possession of
the province without battle. The terms of the surrender
promised to the conquered their religion, their law of inheritance, and their trade and intercourse with Holland, (1664.)
The transaction, at first professedly discountenanced by
England, was afterwards sustained by her, and finally submitted to by Holland in the treaty of Breda, (1667.)
On the outbreak of fresh hostilities between the
Recovery
and final same countries, a few years later, (1672,) New York,
loss.   as New Amsterdam was now called, received the
summons to capitulate to a Dutch squadron, (1673.)  It did
so, and was held by the Dutch for upwards of a year, when
it was once more, and for the last time, surrendered by them,
(1674.) Thus were the Dutch, and with them the Swedes,
brought beneath the English dominion.




CHAPTER V.
SPANISH WARS.
Spanish   THERE were other races, rivals of the English,
race.  less easily to be reduced than the Dutch or the
Swedes. One upon the southern border bore the flag of
Spain, rent and dim indeed, but still the flag of a great
nation.
Its col-    Yet the colony of the Spaniards was far from
ODy.   being a great one. St. Augustine, eldest of the
permanent settlements upon United States soil, was amongst
the least active of them all. Half garrison, half mission
in its character, it formed a post where a few troops and a
few priests kept up the Spanish claim upon Florida. A
century after its foundation, it was nearly annihilated by
one of the buccaneering expeditions that were wont to
ravage the American coast. It rallied, however, especially
when a treaty between Spain and England put a stop to
the English commissions with which the buccaneers of the
time were generally provided, (1670.)
collisions  But there was no good will to speak of between
with the Spain and England, or amongst their colonies. A
English. force from Florida was soon marching against the
newly-organized Carolina, a more flagrant incursion, in
Spanish eyes, upon the territory still claimed by Spain,
than any of the northern colonies had made. The expedition was met and turned back by the resolute Carolinians,
(1672.) Some years after, another invasion of the Span(112)




SPANISH WARS.                  113
iards effected the destruction of a Scotch settlement Just
made near the Spanish border, (1686.) These were not
wars so mnuch as the chastisements inflicted or attempted
by Florida against its English trespassers.
Effect    If there was any effect, it was not to dislodge the
on the  intruders, but rather to stimulate the intruded upon.
colony. Florida took a fresh start. St. Augustine awoke
from its slumber, brushed up its means of offence and
defence, and assumed a new attitude. The surrounding
country, still in the hands of the Indians, was dotted over
with forts and chapels, with soldiers and missionaries. On
the other side of the peninsula, upon the Gulf of Mexico,
Pensacola was reared with fortress and dwellings, (1696.)
It seemed as if Spain was at last to occupy our soil with a
colony worthy of bearing her great name.
war.     Presently war broke out between England with
Atton st various allies on one side, and on the other
Augus-  Spain and France, (1702.)  It was but just heard
hanrles- of in South Carolina, when Governor Moore obton.   tained the consent of the assembly to an attack upon
St. Augustine. With twelve hundred men, half of them
Indians, Moore was able to take the town, but not the fort,
from which he precipitately retreated on the arrival of
some Spanish men-of-war from Havana, (1702.) Poorly
as his expedition turned out, Moore, no longer governor,
headed a second, composed almost entirely of Indians, with
wqhom he made a foray amongst the missionary villages of
Northern Florida without any effective results, (1705.)
The next year, a naval attack by both French and Spaniards upon Charleston was beaten off with great loss, three
hundred out of eight hundred assailants being killed or
captured, (1706.) This was the last event of the war, so
far as the colonies were concerned, although peace was not
made until seven years later by the treaty of Utrecht,
(1713.)           10 




114               PART II. 1638-1763.
Treaty of This treaty is of moment in United States hisUtrecht. tory. The war, of which it was the conclusion,
arose from the attempt of Louis XIV. to seat a prince of
his own house upon the Spanish throne; in other words, to
combine Spain and France in one vast kingdom.  So
menacing was the attempt to Europe, that not England
alone, but Holland, Germany, both the Empire and Prussia, Portugal and Savoy armed themselves against it.
The treaty of Utrecht decided that France and Spain must
remain separate. Had they been joined, the English colonies upon our shores would have found it difficult to withstand their united foes.
Second    Five years after, France was on the side of Engwar.  land in a war with Spain, (1718.)  It was caused
Descents
on Flor- principally by the refusal of Spain to fulfil'the
ida.    Utrecht treaty so far as related to the empire of
Germany, with which power France and England, and
then Holland, all allied themselves. Afterwards, Spain
and the Empire made peace together, while France, England, and Holland formed a league against them, (1725.)
Little was done either in Europe or in America. Pensacola was taken and retaken by the French, then in their
Louisiana settlements, (1719.)  It was soon restored,
(1721.) A force of three hundred, fIartly Indians, made
a sally from Carolina upon the Spanish and Indian villages
of Florida, (1725.) But the war was without interest or
effect, and peace returned with the treaty of Seville,
(1729.)
Third    Then followed the settlement of Georgia, already
war. described as intended to be an outpost against the
Georgia
and Flor- Spaniards, (1733.) Whatever they thought of this
ida.   fresh aggression upon their realm, they seem to
have said or done nothing for some time; then General
Oglethorpe, the head of the Georgian colony, was sum



SPANISH WARS.                  115
mioned to evacuate the territory, (1736.)   War being
declared by England against Spain, chiefly in consequence
of Spanish depredations upon Englishl commerce, Olethorpe received orders to invade Florida, (1739.)  He
did so, with a force of twelve hundred men fiom both
the Carolinas and Virginia, as well as from his own province, besides an equal number of Indians.  With these,
and with trains and ships, he laid siege to St. Augustine;
but being deserted by most of his Indians, and by many
of his volunteers, he was obliged to abandon the enterprise,
(1740.)  A  large expedition from  England, reenfbrced,
first and last, by upwards of four thousand colonial troops,
was equally unsuccessful against the Spanish strongholds
in the West Indies, (1740-41.)  But the Spaniards themselves did no better in their invasion of Georgia, from
which they were repelled, partly by battle and partly by
fraud, Oglethorpe being still there, (1741.) After this,
the Spanish war subsided, nor did the French share in the
hostilities begin for three years to come, (1744.)  Four
years later, the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored things
to their state before the war, (1748.)
Fourth    Just as the last colonial war with France was
war.   ending, the fourth and last colonial war with Spain
Cession
of Flor- began. This power came into the contest as the
ida.    ally of France, in America even more than in
Europe, the object being to prevent the English expelling
the French from  their American possessions, and then
turning against the Spaniards, as was apprehended, and
expelling them from theirs. But the French were already
driven out; and nothing interfered with a vigorous onset of
the English upon the Spaniards.  New England and New
York contributed to the capture of Havana in the opening year of the war, (1762.)  The treaty of Paris, begun
upon in the same, though not formally completed till the




116                PART II. 1638-1763.
following year, restored Havana to Spain.  But it gave
an immense accession of territory to England and her
colonies.  What France surrendered will appear hereafter.
Spain ceded Florida, once the whole of North America,
but now little more than a peninsula of' the southern coast,
(1763.) A royal proclamation of' the same year gave
names and boundaries to East and West Florida, the latter
province embracing the French cessions east of the Mississippi. Twenty years after, the Floridas reverted to Spain,
to be again separated from it at a later period.
To make some amends to Spain for her losses in
Spain in
Louisiana attempting the rescue of France, the latter kingand Cali- dom gave up her colony of Louisiana. To this
fornia.
we shall revert. At nearly the same time that the
Spaniards took possession of their acquisition in the east,
they extended their settlements in the vest by establishing
missions at San Diego and Monterey, California, (1769.)
But the Spanish wars, so far as our country was
Character
of the  concerned, were over.  They had never arisen, exSpanish  cept in the case of the last brief war, from  any
wars.
consideration of American interests.  Nor had they
called forth any development of American energies either
in crowded battles or extended campaigns. But they had
continued, if we date from the first encounters, for nearly
a century.








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CHAPTER VI.
FRENCH POSSESSIONS.
French    THE great rival of the English race upon our
race.  soil reappears. It is time to turn back beyond
Spanish, Dutch, and Indian wars, nay, beyond the growth
of the English colonies, to trace the progress of the French
in America. No other nation, it will be found, not even
the English, asserted claims or projected achievements of
equal vastness.
New      We left the French the masters of New France
France. - a name of vague extension originally, but subsequently confined, as will be remembered, to Acadie and
Canada. Acadie being itself shorn of its original dimensions, the province of Canada remained the chief division
of New France.
System    The French, like the English colonies, were not
of gov- always under the immediate government of the
ernment. mother country. An intermediate authority, vested
in the Company of New France, prevailed for thirty-five
years, (1627-62.) For twelve years more, a French West
India Company was commissioned to administer the affairs
of the colony, (1663-75.) But with these bodies were
associated -some officers of royal appointment, so that there
was no time when the colony was wholly removed from
the oversight of the sovereign. Nor was the season during
which the two companies lasted by any means so long or
so decisive as the periods of the royal government.  New
(117j




118               PART II. 1638-1763.
France, like Old France, was essentially a monarchy, and
a monarchy in which the monarch was growing out of' all
proportion to the people. Its institutions were of the past.
A governor general, representing the monarch, with an
intendant for a prime minister, a council of notables for a
nobility, and a host of ecclesiastics, with a bishop at their
head, (from 1659,) constituted the authorities of the colony. The ruling class amongst the people was that of the
seigneurs, or lords of the manor; their tenants, called
habitans, holding land of them  by feudal tenure.  No
press was allowed; no learning of a liberal nature was
encouraged. The education of the province was in the
hands of the religious orders, whose names and numbers
were almost as manifold as in the mother-land. Under
these influences, the colony could not but be greatly restricted. The main body of the people were necessarily
dependent, unable to act for themselves or for their country,
the few alone having the will and the power to urge on the
work of colonization and of dominion.
Such were the internal drawbacks upon the progRelations
with In- ress of New  France.  Of those which we may
dians and call external, the chief were the relations of the
English.
French with the Indians and the English. Those
with the Indians were of two kinds - with the friendly and
with the unfriendly tribes.  Now it may seem  that the
amicable intercourse of the French with the large proportion of the natives around them must have been entirely
conducive to their prosperity. But it did not prove to be
so, on account, principally, of the tendency of the French
settlers to sink to the level of their Indian allies, rather
than to raise these to themselves. The Frenchman, whether missionary or soldier, explorer or trader, appeared to
find a fascination in savage life which he could not resist;
and yet it was the vices rather than the virtues of the




FRENCH POSSESSIONS.                119
Indian character which he admired and imitated. He
became indolent, treacherous, morosely cruel, in many instances far more of a savage than any Indian. As to the
hostile tribes, it is enough, at the present moment, to name
the Five Nations, with whom, as will appear hereafter, the
French were at war fbr a century. As to the English, it
must be left to the next chapter to set forth the obstacles
which they presented to French advancement. It is sufficient to observe that these hinderances fiom without, joined
to those fiom  within, formed a bristling barricade over
which all the ardor and all the discipline of the French
character would find it difficult to mount. The stronger
must have been the impulses to have extended the limits of
New France so far as we shall now find them.
The boundaries of Acadie stretched f'omu the
Acadie,
including northern coasts, through all the east of Maine, as far
Maine.  as the Kennebec, the French asserted; as far as the
Penobscot, the English allowed. With the portions of the
province in the north we have no further concern than to
observe that they included all now called Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and Cape Breton, together with indefinite regions beyond. Maine was but feebly held by the French.
Missions at the mouth of the Penobscot and on the Kennebec, with a post or two for trade, comprised all that could
be called settlements. But for the towns and forts of the
neighboring parts of Acadie, the east as well as the west of
Maine would have fallen into English hands.
Passing over the cities and fortresses of Central
including Canada, as foreign to our soil, but not without reYewr    membering their importance, let us pursue the
York,
Wiscon- Canadian settlements that were made or attempted
sinMich-gan   upon actual United States territory.  The first to
advance was, as usual, a missionary, Le Moyne,
who, with a few associates, labored amongst the Five Na



120               PART II. 1638-1763.
tions, then at peace. A colony was founded in Western
New York, but only to be abandoned on account of renewed
warfare between the French and Indians, (1656-58.)  A
few years later, Allouez, another missionary, led the way
up the lakes, and founded the mission of St. Esprit, on the
southern shore of Superior, in the present Wisconsin,
(1666.)  Two years after, Dablon and Marquette established a mission at Sault Ste. Marie, in the present Michigan, (1668.) Other missions arose in the adjoining forests
and on the contiguous shores. After the missionary came
the trader, and after the trader generally the soldier; so
that to the mission house there were added dwellings, barracks, and, in time, a fort, whose sounding title frequently
drowned the peaceful name of the mission. Thus was
Canada extended beyond the St. Lawrence and its tributaries, beyond all neighborhood of the English colonies, into
the valleys and the wildernesses of the west.
The Mis- Still more distant realms were reached. Father
sissippi. Marquette, of the Michigan mission, hearing of a
Illinois. great river towards the setting sun, resolved to find
and to explore it. Before he started, his brethren, Allouez
and Dablon, penetrated into the interior of Wisconsin and
Illinois, (1672.)  Marquette, with a few companions, found
the Mississippi, as he had been directed by the natives, and
sailed upon its waters as far down as Arkansas, (1673.)
On his return, he established a new mission near the present
Chicago in Illinois.
The tidings from the Mississippi kindled new
Louisiana. plans of trade, new visions of dominion. To begin
upon them, there soon appeared a Frenchman, La Salle, -
in youth a Jesuit, in manhood a trader and an adventurer of
the highest stamp amongst the colonists of New France.
Repairing to the French court, he obtained a commission to
complete the discovery of the great western river, in consid



FRENCH POSSESSIONS.               121
eration of which the monopoly of the fur trade was to be his
owl, (1677.)  He soon engaged in his enterprise; but four
ye)'ars of exertion and of disappointment passed over him,
before he descended the Mississippi to its mouth and to the
adjacent coasts. It did not matter that the Spaniard De Soto
had been the discoverer of the river a century and a half before the French. They hailed themselves possessors of the
waters and of the shores, under the name of Louisiana, (1682.)
French    Thus was New France extended fiom north to
dominion. south, and from east to west. While the Swedes
and the Dutch had yielded their hold upon our soil, while
the Spaniards had contracted theirs to the single corner of
Florida, while the English had only their New England,
New York, New Jersey, TMaryland, Virginia, and Carolina,
the whole together forming not much more than a broken
beach upon the Atlantic, the French dominion stretched
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, over vale, and prairie, and
mountain, far round by the western waters, to the Gulf of
Mexico. It still needed time, vigor, wisdom, to make this
mighty empire a reality as well as a name.
Colony in  No time was lost in sending La Salle, who had
Texas. gone to France to tell his adventurous story, with a
colony of two hundred, to make a settlement in Louisiana.
Missing the mouth of the Mississippi, the party were landed
on what is now the Texan shore, near the present MIatagorda, where they built a fort with the name of St. Louis,
(1685.)  But things went hard with them, and when they
were reduced to less than a fifth of their original number,
La Salle found it time to seek relief in Canada. On his
way, thither, with half of his surviving comrades, he was
foully murdered by one of them, (1687.)  The colony of
St. Louis soon vanished from the earth.
Twelve years passed before another trial to colonize
Louisiana. A twofold attempt was then made, one by the
11




122               PART II. 1638-1763.
Colony in English and one by the French. The old grant of
Missis-  Carolana having been bought up by one of the later'~PPi'   New Jersey proprietors, Coxe, he sent, under permission of his sovereign, a small squadron to take possession of
the Mississippi.  One of the vessels, sailing up the river,
was met by a band of Frenchmen, who, by assuring the
Englishmen that they were in a part of Canada, and not in
Louisiana, prevailed upon them to turn about at a bend still
called the English Turn - Detour aux Anglais. So the
English retired, and the French held their own. They
were a party of two hundred in number, under Lemoine
D'Iberville, a Canadian of greater gallantry than prudence,
who, intent upon mines and treasures rather than upon the
substantial resources of a colony, chose the sands of Biloxi,
in what is now Mississippi, for the site of his fort, (1699.)
The next year, an expedition in search of mines travelled
up the river as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, first visited
by some of La Salle's companions twenty years before.
Colony in  The mines receded; the sands of Biloxi remained.
Alabama. D'Iberville, returning from France, whither lie went
twice in quest of supplies, transferred the main body of the
settlers to Mobile, in the present Alabama, (1702.)  But
D'Iberville, who, like La Salle, was the life and the soul of
his company, died, (1706,) and left the colony in a very
precarious condition.  "Nothing," says the French chronicler,  "was more feeble."  The truth was, that France was
at this time too much occupied in Europe, to say nothing
of the north of America, to rear a great colony in the wilderness of Louisiana.
Grant. to   At length the province, extendling from the mouth
Crozat.  of the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, and from the
English Carolina and the Spanish Florida to the New
Mexico of Spain, was made over, for the term of fifteen
years, to Antoine Crozat, a French merchant prince. He




FRENCH POSSESSIONS.                123
was to receive a large sum every year from the royal treasury towards the expenses of the colonial government, besides
the monopoly of trade to and from the colony. In return,
he was to send a certain number of vessels and settlers,
year by year, in order to keep up and to increase the colonial settlements, (1712.)  A faint flush of vigor seemed to
overspread the struggling colony.
Meanwhile the settlements in the north-west had
Western
ettle-rn been extended. The missions of Kaskaaskia, (about
ments.  1695,) and Cahokia, (about 1700,) in our Illinois,
and the settlement of Vincennes, in our Indiana,
(about 1705,) had confirmed the occupation of that region.
A military post was planted at Detroit, the central point in
the great are now formed by the French possessions, (1701.)
Loss of    But we have reached a period when the French
Acadie. possessions were beginning to be contracted. The
war in the north, to which we must recur,,had ended with
the surrender, according to the treaty of Utrecht, of Acadie
to England, (1713.) What was thus cut off at the end of
the line was more than equal, in point of' population and of
settlement, to all that had been added to the middle or to
the lower end.
Nor was there any reaction to compensate for the
rtennsy- loss.  Canada, it is true, roused herself; building
vania and forts upon New York territory, at Niagara, (1 26,)
Ohio. 
and Crown Point, (1731.) Western Pennsylvania
was dotted with fortifications, at the same time that others
were raised through the Ohio valley, (1753.) But the
most to be gained by these posts was a communication with
the valley'of the Mississippi and with Louisiana, where
there was little to make the communication of any sensible
importance.
Louisiana, soon resigned by Antoine Crozat, had passed
under the control of the Company of the West, otherwise




124                PART II. 1638-1763.
Mississip. known as the Mississippi Company, (1717.) Durpi Compa- ing the frenzy of its speculations, both the colony
ny: New  In
Orleanrs. and the mother country were inflated, merely to
collapse with disappointment and disaster.  Otherwise, the
only office rendered by the company to the colony was the
establishment of its capital at New Orleans, (1718-23.)
The company soon returned the colony upon the royal
hands, (1730.)
Our narrative ends with the final outbreak of hosMissouri:
the thir- tilities between the French and the English in
teen of  America, (1754.)  Forty years had passed since
the treaty of Utrecht began the rupture of the
French possessions; but how much was there still left!
Beyond the limits of the United States the domains of the
French were far more valuable, within the same limits
they were far more extensive, than those of England.
Over and above the colonies and posts that have been mentioned, the first essays were made, at the epoch in question,
towards the occupation of our Missouri.  Counting by the
states of a later period, we have thirteen of French* to
match with the thirteen of English parentage.
Vastness   Enough has been said, however, to explain how
and weak- easily the French possessions were extended by adness.   venture, and yet how slightly they were either held
or developed by actual settlement. The French dominion
was as weak as it was vast.  It spread over America like a
cloud brilliant with the morning sunshine; but, unsubstantial as a cloud, it was swept by the breeze and rent asunder
by the storm.
* Three of each division were the same. The French list comprised
Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania, with Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois,
Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri.




CHAPTER VII.
FRENCH WARS.
THE  earliest wars in which the colonies of
Wars
with In- France engaged were those with the Indians.
dians   They were also the longest.  From  the time
the north.
when Champlain headed a war party of Algonquins against the Five Nations of New York, (1609,) this
great confederacy was at war with the French, some intervals of peace excepted, for more than a century. To
describe the descents upon the Canadian settlements, the
wild cries and the wilder deeds of battles, the waste and
the agony of homes, would be but to repeat our previous
sketches of Indian warfare.  Not until the treaty of
Utrecht restored peace for a time between France and
England did the Five Nations, then the allies of the
English, bury the tomahawk that had so long gleamed
above the heads of the French, (1713.)
In the    Later wars with  Indians broke out in the
south.  south. The Natchez were beaten, (1729-30,) but
the Chickasaws could not be subdued, (1736-40.)  These
conflicts, however, were of moment chiefly to Louisiana.
They did not affect the destinies of the French possessions
generally.
Strife be-   Except the brief contest with the Spaniards of
tweenl the Florida, described in the last chapter but one, the
Flrench
and the F]rench had no wars to conduct against any EuroEnglish. pean race besides the English in America. This,
11 *                         (125)




126               PART II. 1638-1763.
it is true, was enough for the French to contend with.
Enemies for ages past in Europe, these nations turned to
America in rivalry and contention. It was to outvie each
other, in a great degree, that they made their settlements;
claiming the same lands at the beginning, and extending
themselves in the same directions as time went on. The
strife between the two great combatants began at an early
period, as long ago related, when England, or rather England's colony of Virginia, destroyed the French settlement
of St. Sauveur, (1613.) Continued by England herself,
(1628-30,) war produced no effect; her conquests, as was
mentioned, being surrendered, (1632.)
Indeci-    The wars of the next half' century were not a
sive wars. whit more decisive. One, during the English commonwealth, (1652-56,) reduced Acadie for a time beneath
the sway of England.  Another, after the restoration,
(1666-67,) brought about nothing except a proposal to
the New England colonies that they should conquer Canada. Peace restored Acadie, as far as the Penobscot, to
France, leaving once more no results from the passion and
the hostility that had been aroused.
King     Acts of violence did not cease on either side.
william's An English trader on Lake Huron was seized, as
"ware    a trespasser, by the French, (1687.)  At the other
extremity of New France, the governor of New England,
Sir Edmund Andros, made an assault upon the trading
post of a Frenchman on the Penobscot, (1688.)  Each
race was determined to hold, and, if possible, to increase
its own. A fresh trial of their strength - the fourthkin all,
but the first in which the colonies of either nation took an
active part —began with the war called King William's
by the English colonists, (1689.)  As far as concerned
England, then under William III., the chief cause of the
war was the support given by Louis XIV. to the lately




FRENCH WARS.                    127
dethroned James II. But Louis had excited in one way
or another the greater part of Europe.  England was supported by the German Empire, Holland, Spain, and Savoy.  From Europe the strife extended to Asia, as well as
to America.
Its char-   The difference between the contending parties in
acterand America soon appeared.  On one side was the
course. mother country rather than the colony, the streligth
of France rather than the weakness of Canada and Acadie.
On the other side was the increasing vigor of New England and New York, supported at one time by grants fiom
Maryland and Virginia, and thus presenting an array of
colonies, rather than a single mother-land.  Both sides
were alike in the allies gathered fiom the forest and the
prairie; the Indians of' Canada, Acadie, and Maine following the French, while the English were assisted by the
forays of the Five Nations along the Caniadian lines.
Indeed, the war was more of an Indian than of a European one in character.  It began with the descents of
French and Indian war parties upon Schenectady in New
York, Salmon Falls and Casco in New England, (1690.)
An expedition fiom  Massachusetts against Acadie, and
another, partly from New England and partly from New
York, against Canada, were more  regular operations,
(1690.)  The latter scheme was prepared in a convention
of delegates from  Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut,
and New York, held in the last-named colony; and although Canada was not invaded, the plans all failin(r, the
colonies were united, at least for a season, by new bonds.
The.Massanchusetts force, under Sir William  Phips, succeeded in ravaging Acadie, and even in seizing the eastern
part of Maine, where a fort was presently constructed at
Pemaquid, (1692;) but this was retaken in a few years
by the French under D'Iberville, (1696,) the same who




128               PART II. 1638-1763.
appeared in the south at a later time. Peace being made
between the French and the Five Nations, - who were
really far more formidable enemies than the English, —
while the Abenakis of Miaine still swept the frontiers of
New England, a general invasion of the northern colonies
was planned by the French, (1696-97.)  But the apprehensions of the English were happily relieved by the
treaty of Ryswick between the mother countries, (1697.)
The war, though lasting eight years, had produced no
sensible effect upon the relative strength of the parties
engaged in it, nor had it decided any of the differences
that had led to it, or that would lead to fresh strife in the
future.
Religious One of these differences has not yet been brought
differ-  out as it should be. Between the French and the
ences. English there existed the widest and the deepest
gulf that ever opens between man and man or between
nation and nation. It was the chasm between opposing
creeds. Both professed to be Christians; but the French
were Catholic, the English Protestant. To the former the
latter were heretics, the rightful objects of human enmity
as of divine. To the English Protestant, on the contrary,
the French Catholic was the minister of a superstition and
an oppression as hateful to God as to man. It may be
conceived how much these feelings contributed to whet the
swords and to blunt the sensibilities of the warriors on
either side.  Sad, indeed, is the grouping of the two nations
upon the American page, staining it with the passions of
the old world, the more hateful in the new, because allied,with the sava(re and the heathen.
Queen    No marvel, then, that warfare was soon renewed.
Anne's  Four years after the peace of Ryswick, Queen
War.   Anne's war began, on account, as. has been — elated,
of the designs of Louis XIV. upon the Spanish crown,




FRENCH WARS.                   129
(1702.)  In America, the same Indian alliances were
formed, the same Indian hostilities were excited, as in the
preceding contest, except that the Five Nations did not
take up the hatchet against the French until the war was
two thirds over, (1709.) There were also the same attacks
upon the border settlements; Deerfield (1704) and Haverhill (1708) being both wasted by the French, while the
French territory about the Penobscot was scoured by the
English, (1704.) But the war, as a whole, was characterized by greater and more decisive operations. Two expeditions were directed from New England against Port
Royal; the first laying waste the adjoining country, (1707,)
the second capturing the town; the very name of which
disappeared in that of Annapolis, (1710.) The first permanent settlement of the French, it was also the first permanent conquest from them by the English. Two expeditions, likewise, were planned by New England, New
York, and New Jersey, against Canada; the first being
merely planned, (1709,) and the second, though attempted,
failing through the inefficiency of the admiral conducting
the English force in aid of the enterprise, (1711.) As in
the last war, so in this, the northern colonies of England
were arrayed against France rather than her colonies.
The English colonies of the centre were inactive; those
of the south were occupied at this period, as must be
remembered, with Spanish and Indian hostilities. Twelve
years having passed in warfare, peace was made at Utrecht,
and France surrendered Acadie to England, (1713.)  The
war was the first of the five between the two nations to
make any change in their American possessions.
Collisioil New points of collision were appearing in the
in the  west. As early as the beginning of the last war,
west.   a treaty with members of the Five Nations was
made the basis of an English claim to vast territories,




130               PART II. 1638-1763.
(1701.) To explain the claim on any principles is not
very easy. It not only made out the Five Nations to be
the masters of the west, far beyond their own borders, but
also made out the English king to be the master of the
Five Nations. A quarter of a century afterwards, a new
treaty with the same tribes actually transferred to the
English a portion of the country claimed by them, (1726.)
Meanwhile the pretensions of the English to the entire
interior, from  the coast on which their colonies were
planted to the Pacific, had never been cabandoned. It was
their right, they alleged, to possess the western, if they
occupied the eastern shores. To aid the English advance
towards the west, a trading post had been established at
Oswego. It now became a fort, (1727.)  But where it
stood, and where its range, so to speak, was meant to
extend, the French claimed the sovereignty.
And in    There were also difficulties, both old and new,
the east. arising in the east. The war between the English
and the Abenakis, in which French missions were assailed,
and a French missionary was murdered, threatened fresh
hostilities, (1724.) The French, on their side, exasperated,
perhaps, by the loss of Acadie, were inclined to infringe
upon English rights. Acadie, they argued, was only the
peninsula, or what is now called Nova Scotia. But the
English replied with reason, that it was not only the peninsula, but the adjoining mainland, and even the surrounding islands. Yet to these the French held fast, especially
to Cape Breton, where stood their stronghold of Louisburg,
by far more important in their eyes, and in those of their
adversaries, than any of the inconsiderable posts upon the
territory that had been surrendered.
Kinlg    At length, after a third of a century of nominal
George's peace, war was renewed, (1744.) It was called
ar    King  George's by the  English  colonists, from




FRENCH WARS.                  131
George II. His interposition in favor of Austria and Sardinia, then combined against France and Spain with other
powers, led to a French declaration of war; Spain, as may
be recollected, being already at war with England. France
was now under Louis XV. The French being at peace
with the Five, now the Six Nations, and the Indians within
the English limits being much diminished in numbers and
in spirits, the European races fought their battles more by
themselves.  An expedition, proposed by Massachusetts,
and supported by men from Connecticut, New Hampshire,
and subsequently Rhode Island, as well as by supplies from
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, all under the
command of William Pepperell, of Maine, and all accompanied by a fleet from England, accomplished the reduction
of Louisburg in less than two months, (1745.) A still
more extensive campaign was projected for the following
year, when New England, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, with a grant from Pennsylvania, and an
armament from England, were to invade Canada; but the
English force did not appear, and rumors of a French
descent upon New England broke up the colonial ranks,
(1746.)  France did little of any kind. Her troops at
Crown Point made some incursions into Massachusetts
and New York, but the meditated invasion of New England was an utter failure. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
closed the war, four years after its outbreak, restoring Cape
Breton and Louisburg to France, (1748.)
Peace was soon broken. An attack upon the
Blood
shed in French at Chignecto, on the Isthmus of Nova
Nova Scotia, caused the first blood to be shed, (1750.)
8cotii.
Forts rising in various places betokened additional
conflicts. It was evident that the troubles in the east were
far from being allayed.
Nor was the prospect calmer in the west. At the expi,




132               PART IT. 1638-1763.
The Ohio ration of the last war, a number of individuals,
Companly partly Englishmen and partly colonists, associated
as the Ohio Conlpany, obtained a grant of half a million
of acres on the eastern bank of the Ohio River, (1749.)
Virginia, whose governor was interested in the enterprise,
took the lead in the treaties with the Indians and the negotiations with the French required by the plans of the company.  But the French were not to be made friends of on
that ground. They attacked an Indian settlement where
some English traders had found refuge, and seized them as
prisoners, (1752.) They then assailed the troops of the
Ohio Company. A Virginia party, sent to construct a fort
at the head of the Ohio, was driven back by a French
force, who completed the fortification, and called it Fort
Du Quesne, (1753-54.)
A larger band, already on the march from VirBshed   ginia to the disputed territory, was soon engaged in
Pennsyl- battle with the French upon Pennsylvanian soil.
vania.
George  The first encounter between detachments from both
Washing- sides resulted in the defeat of the French; but
ton.
the second, between the main bodies at the Great
Meadows, ended in the retreat of the Virginians. They had
been bravely led, their leader being George Washington.
An envoy of peace to the French before he thus appeared
as an officer in war, he was the same in character, if not
in experience, that he showed himself to be in after years.
He was now but twenty-two.
The final It was the final struggle that had thus begun on
struggle. the shores of Nova Scotia and in the forests of
Pennsylvania. The mother countries came into collision
in the following year, (1755.)  Then the English fleet took
some French transports off Newfoundland, and followed up
the attack by scouring the seas. The land forces were
equally active. One army, partly of colonial and partly




FRENCH WARS.                   133
of English troops, marched under General Braddock to
defeat near Fort Du Quesne. Another, exclusively colonial, first under General Lyman, and then under Sir William  Johnson, with Mlohawks in the train, routed the
French under Baron Dieskau at Lake George, and built
Fort William Henry.  But they made no attempt at the
reduction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, against which
they had originally started on their march. Another colonial force under the English General Shirley, setting out
to reduce Fort Niagara, ventured no farther than Oswego.
The only expedition to succeed was one that even the
victors might afterwards wish to have failed. Not content
with forcing the French troops to evacuate their forts on
the Isthmus of Nova Scotia, which was done by a force
from Massachusetts, aided by a few hundred English soldiers, the conquerors decided to drive the entire population
of the territory into exile.  Seven thousand miserable
creatures, separated from their families, and bereft of their
possessions, were thrown upon the charity of the English
colonies, where every association, religious andi social,
national and individual, was against them. Thus opened
the war, (1755.)  It was formally declared in the spring
of the following year, (1756.)
Like the last of the Spanish wars, which broke
Extent.
out in connection with this, the last French war
sprang from American causes, at least to a great degree.
Actual hostilities occurred in America near six years
sooner than in Europe.  But Europe did not sit looking
across the seas. She armed herself for her Seven Years'
VWarl as it was styled. Prussia was on the side of England,
Austria on that of France.  Russia and Sweden took
part against Prussia, rather than for England.  After
Spain came in on the French side, Portugal declared in
favor of the English.  Germany was the chief scene of
12




134               PART II. 1638-1763.
action in Europe. Asia and Africa also furnished battle
grounds.
Losses   American operations were for some time yet
of tile more adverse to the English than those already
described.  Niagara, Crown Point, and Du Quesne
continued the objects of attack and of defence; but far
from being able to take them, the English were unable to
defend their own posts. The fort at Oswego yielded to the
Marquis of MIontcalm the same year that war was declared,
(1756.)  The next year, (1757,) Montcalm was the master
of Fort William Henry. Thus, after four campaigns, (1754
-57,) the English were retiring before the French. Yet
the resources of the English had been infinitely greater
than those of their foes.  Canada, which bore the brunt of
war, did not contain more than twenty thousand effective
troops; and even these were in danger of becoming ineffective by their isolation from the mother country, on which
the French colonists were ever wont to rely.
It was not surprising, therefore, that the renewed
Their
subse-  exertions of England, and above all of her colonies,
ques.   by which alone twenty thousand men were now
victories.
raised, should repair the losses of the preceding
years. Louisburg was the first prize, the whole Gulf of
St. Lawrence being taken possession of immediately.  Fort
Frontenac, on the northern shore of Ontario, and Fort Du
Quesne were found deserted. Amongst those who marched
against the latter fortress, only to see it in ruins, was Washington, then at the head of the Virginian forces. There,
where he had fought his first battles, where he had been
-twice obliged to retreat, once in command and once in
Braddock's stafl he now made his last appearance in the
war.  His strength was reserved for a greater conflict.
All these acquisitions of the English were made in one
year, (1758.)  The next brought the abandonment of




FRENCH WARS.                   135
Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Niagara, and more momentous still, the surrender of Quebec, after the great
MIontcalm's defeat by the troops whom the greater Wolfe
had led to amazing victory, (1759.)   The two years,
together, decided the war.
Conclo-    But it continued a year or two to come. An
sion of  attempt of the French to regain Quebec being
the war.
repulsed, Montreal soon after capitulated to the
English, who were acknowledged conquerors of Canada,
(1760.) All but a few posts in the farther west were
surrendered to them within the following year, (1761.)
Meanwhile operations, previously commenced, were renewed against the French West Indies by an armament
composed in part of colonial troops; the islands of the
Caribbean group being all captured, (1759-62.) There
was no such thing as fighting against reverses like these.
After twelve years of actual warf:ire, the French made
peace; the treaty of Pari's ceding to England all east of
the Mississippi save three little islands, St. Pierre and the
MIiquelons, in the north, and New Orleans in the south;
this last, with all west of the same river, being transferred
to Spain, whose part in the war has been previously
described, (1763.)
Thlle    The French colonists were loath to give up the
French  territory which their mother country had surrenreire. dered. Such of the western posts as were not
t1; already in possession of the English did not come
under their new masters for a year or two, (1765.) Indeed, it was some months after the treaty that a French
party under Pierre Laclcde established a new settlement
at St. Louis, in our Missouri, upon the lands ceded to Spain.
(1764.) Several years more passed before the Spaniards
installed themselves in Western Louisiana, (1768.)  But
the French nation had played its part as a power on United




136                PART II. 1638-1763.
States territory. Not the less lasting, however, were the
influences that had arisen from its possessions and its wars
while they endured.
The issue of the French wars needs little cornFrench
and Eng- ment after what has gone before.  The English, in
lishcom- their compact colonies, resembled a man in full
pared.
armor, in contending with whom, the French, scattered over their disjointed settlements, were like a knight
protected by nothing but fragments of his coat of mail.
The Englishman, moreover, stood strong in himself, strong
in his colony even more than in his mother land; but the
Frenchman leaned upoiJ the distant France, with all his
enterprise a dependent colonist, with all his gallantry a
submissive subject. So much for the causes and contrasts
that were at work in A merica. If we return to Europe,
we shall find France teo much engaged in ambition and in
battle there to put forth her strength for the defence of
colonies as languishing s' fdct as they were magnificent
in form.




CHAPTER VIII.
COLONIAL DEVELOP~MENT.
THE English territory was immi-ensely increased
Developmentof by the successful wars that have been described.
territory. Nor were its limits extended solely at the expense
of neighboring domains.  Within the boundaries already
belonging to the colonies of England, there had been a large
accession to the lands formerly occupied. New fields were
brought into cultivation; new  towns were formed; new
means of communication were opened between the old habitations and the new.
of occu-    The development of territory arose chiefly from
pation. the development of occupation. As the numbers
and wants of the colonists multiplied with time, they found
fresh ways of employing and of enriching themselves.  The
seaboard was lined with merchants and traders; the interior
was filled with farmers and planters; while around them
all were clustered the artisans and the laborers whose services were needed to complete the circle of toil.  Few men,
or even women, in the early period, were without some
laborious pursuit; few, as wealth increased and individuals
grew to be above the necessity of labor, laid aside industry
altogethei.  In one light, the entire people is seen exerting
itself to improve the soll, to build up the dwellingc, to enlarge
the limits of commerce, of trade, and of manufacture.  How
successful these exertions were, appears fiorm  the steady
growth of the colonies in resources and in possessions.
12 *                           (137)




138                PART II. 1638-1763.
orhabits The habits of the colonists wert. long of the simDf life. plest nature. Little space for liberality or for luxury could be found in a new land crowded with its everrecurring demands for sobriety and for self-denial.  Wherever men lived, in the little knot of cottages that was called
a town, in the scattered villages of the country, in the isolated posts of the frontier, they had a narrow life before
them.  Afterwards things changed, and in many a spacious
enclosure there arose dwellings of greater comfort and of
greater pretension. As the strict rules of the primitive
period were loosened, there was also more frequent and
more genial intercourse amongst men and amongst women.
Without falling into extravagance, the wealthy found new
objects of expenditure.  Without yielding to idleness, the
poorer classes found new means of relaxation. The change
was for the better, physically and mentally. It relieved the
nerves that had been tightly strung.  It enlarged the interests that had been closely confined.  If it did away with
the primitive simplicity, it also did away with the primitive
ruggedness of life. Time was gained for thought, for culture, for expansion.
Of educa- The sources of education had been opened at an
tion.   early period.  The first laws of Massachusetts provided for the schoolmaster and the school, each township of
fifty families being bound to maintain a teacher of reading
and writing, while each of a hundred families was called
upon to set up a grammar school, (1645-47.)  The example was generally imitated throughout New  England.
Some of the central colonies were equally on the alert,
pennsylvania, especially, making provision from the first for
public schools, (1685-89.)  Maryland was much later in
the field, proposing schools long before she established them,
and laying them, when established, under the restriction of
being taught only by members of the church of England,




COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT.                139
(1723.)  The southern colonie(s were mostly bellindhand
in the matter of education.  South Carolina was amongst
the earliest to organize public schools, (1721;) but these,
like the schools of almost all the country, were of a very
limited design. Private instruction being preferred by the
richer colonists, the schools were left to the middle and
lower classes, whose interest was not strong enough to support them.
The patronage of the upper classes turned to the
Colleges colleges which began with Harvard, in Massachusetts. Virginia, after depending upon a Latin school at
New Amsterdam, bestirred herself to have a seminary of
her own. At the instance of the Bishop of London's commissary, - the ecclesiastical head of the province, - James
Blair, the long-sleeping project of a college was revived.
The aid of the king was invoked; and he granted a charter,
with donations in money and lands, to create a corporation,
whose chief charge it should be to provide instruction for
such as proposed to take orders in the established church.
A department was also to be organized for the education of
Indians.  The royal names of William and Mary, then king
and queen, were bestowed upon the rising institution,
(1691.) Connecticut soon had her Yale College, (1700;)
New Jersey her College of New Jersey, (1738-46;) New
York her King's College, (1754;) and Pennsylvania her
Academy, (1750,) afterwards the University of Pennsylvania. These institutions became the centres of quite an
amount of intellectual activity.
Of the    The printing press had long been at work. The
press. first to be set up was at Cambridge in AMassachusetts, (1639.) But it was under so much restraint that it
can hardly be said to have exerted any general influence.
The importation of books was under similar hinderances,
certain volumes being absolutely prohibited, (1 54.) NotP




140               PART II. 1638-1763.
withstanding, the trade seemed to flourish, there soon being
as many as four bookstores in Boston, while libraries were
gathering on a small scale, (1686.)  The first newspaper
of the colonies was a diminutive sheet, issued once a week,
under the title of the Boston News Letter, (1704.) No other
press kept pace with that of Massachusetts.  The royal
governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, made it a boast
that under him "there are no free schools nor printing."
" God keep us," he profanely added, " from both! " (1671.)
Not many years after, the owner of a press introduced into
the colony was bound over to make no use of it until the
royal pleasure could be consulted. The royal pleasure
turned out to be, that the press and its proprietor should
leave Virginia, (1682-83.)
Official in- The increasing activity of the press is proved by
terference. nothing more clearly than the continued interference to which it was subject from the colonial officials. In
time, the governors of the royal provinces were regularly
instructed to allow no printing without their special license,
(1702.) It was virtually the same in all the colonies. In
Pennsylvania, a printer was called to account for one of his
publications in such a way as to suggest a retreat to New
York, (1692.) Thirty years subsequently, the publisher of
the Philadelphia 3Mercury, the only newspaper out of Boston, was obliged to apologize for an article displeasing to
the governor and the council, (1722.) "I'll have no printing of your address," says Governor Shute of Massachusetts to the House of Representatives, on their remonstrating
against his proceedings; "the press is under my control."
But he did not succeed in preventing the printing, or even
in bringing the printers to trial, (1719.) It was not because
the Massachusetts press was free. On the contrary, within
a very few years, Benjamin Franklin, then a boy of seventeen, was admonished by a joint committee of the council




COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT.                141
and the house for certain articles of his in his brother
James's paper, the New England Courant; James himself
having been thrown into jail for a month in consequence of
publishing animadversions upon the colonial administration,
(1723.)  Cosby, governor of New York, went farther than
Shute against the fireedom of the press.  His council, with
whomn he was having a violent dispute, took to a newspaper, the Weekly Journal, of which John Peter Zenger was
the p)ublisller.  The governor, although he had his organ in
the New York Gazette, determined that the council should
be deprived of theirs, and that Zenger should be punished.
After an imnprisonment of eight months, Zenger was tried
for libel, and escaped condemnation only by the exertions of
his counsel, Andrew Hamilton, of Pennsylvania. The little
sympathy that there was with Zenger on the score of a free
press may be conceived from the fact that, though acquitted, he was left to bear the losses of his imprisonment,
(1732-33.)
Editionsof  It was la Striking proof of advancing energies
the Bible. that the Boston press gave in issuing an edition of
the Bible, the privilege of printing the English version
being a monopoly of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The Boston edition bore the imprint of the kin g's
printer in London, (about 1752.) A German Bible had
been already printed in Germantown, Pennsylvania, (1743.)
Intellec-   The intellectual development of the colonies was
tul de- altogether of a grave cast. To trace it in action,
elrt: in we are obliged to follow the men of the time into
c.tion.  circumstances where exertion, anxiety, and devouring care exclude all lighter aspects. We seldom find the
gracetul mind or the sportive spirit; it is all solemn deliberation, weighty argument, the natural methods of dealing
with subjects so serious and relations so momentous as
those in which the colonists were involved.




142                PART II. 1638-1763.
In litera-   Pass from men of action to men of contemplation,
ture.   and the same signs appear.  The primitive writings
treat of matters of life and death to their authors.  Whether
it is the chronicler, like Governor Bradford, of Plymouth,
or the  traveller, like John  Lederer, in Virginia, each
wears a sober countenance and tells a sober story.  If we
penetrate into the mazes of witchcraft literature, as much
of the early New England writings may be styled, we find
that what look to us like the wildest hallucinations then appeared the sternest facts.  Imagination, it is true, had much
to do with them; but it was imagination excited to that
degree in which the unreal seems more true than the real.
At a later time, the colonial literature assumed lighlter
forms. There were writers of travels, of essays, even of
poems, to some of which we shall presently advert.  But
the chief men of letters were still of grave mien; indeed,
there was hardly one out of the clerical ranks.  The influence of clergymen upon literature as upon life was very
sensible for many years beyond the period of which we
treat.  At the head, perhaps, of the colonial writers, was the
theologian and the metaphysician Jonathan Edwards, a
native of Connecticut and a minister of Western Massachu.
setts, whose treatise on the Freedom of the Will reads like a
plea for all the gravity of learning as well as for all the
severity of dogma then vanishing away.
In sci-    Science found its earnest votaries.  There was
ece.-  one, indeed, whose inquiries were so resolute and so
brilliant as to throw lustre over the whole country.  Benjamin Franklin, a student and a writer from his early youth,
at the same time that he was a hard-working printer, solved
the mysteries of the thunder cloud, into which, frequently
as it appeared, science had not then actually pelnetrate(l,
(1752.)  Nor were his electrical discoveries the only re-.sults of his scientific attainments.  A sometime neighbor of




COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT.                 143
Franklin, John Bartram, of Pennsylvania, whom the great
Linnae.us called "the first natural botanist in the world,"
was the creator of a botanic garden near Philadelphia, and
at the same time the explorer of tlhe whole country from
Canada to Florida, (1751-66.) His son, W~illiam Bartram, continued the work begun by the father, leaving an
account of his own journeyings as full of freshness as the
forests and the plains which lie explored.  Another branch
of science was nobly cultivated by John WVinthrop, a descendant of the Massachusetts governor, who occupied the
chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard
College. His astronomical observations, continued for many
years, (1740-79,) enlarged the sphere of knowledge in
Europe as well as in America.
Art, even in its lower forms, was hardly recogIn at.  nized.  The dramatic exhibitions, attempted at a
late day in Boston, were instantly interrupted by the Puritan authorities, (1749.)  In the towns and colonies more
tolerant of amusement, there was nothing better than a
strolling company, which was obliged to wander in turn
from Newport to Williamsburg, (1752.)  The first dramatic
composition of the country was the Prince of Partbia,
(1759,) a tragedy by Thomas Godfrey, a native of  Philadelphia, whose poetic aspirations were much more successful than those of his countrymen before him. A few musical instruments, a piece or two of ordinary sculpture, a
larger proportion of paintings, might be found in the more
refined mansions.  The first organ for a church encountered
so great opposition in Boston that it remained unpacked for
several rhonths after its arrival firom  England, (1713.)
Thirty years afterw ards, an organ of considerable excellence
was constructed in Boston itself by Edward Bromfield,
(1745.)  The musical publications of the period, beginning
with " The Cantus or Trebles of twenty-eigllt Psalms,"




144                PART II. 1638-1763.
under the supervision of Rev. Jol-h  Tufts, of Newbury,
(1710,) were clli(efly conlhined to 1,)salmody.  Portrait painters were making their appearance; the first two, Watson
and Snmybert, beingi both fiom Scotland.  John Singleton
Copley, a native of Boston, and Benr.jamin West, a native
of Springfieldl, in Pelnsylvania, gave better promise of the
art that was yet to walk in beauty through the nation.
The intellectual progress of the colonies was
cesfrom sensibly affected by influences from  abroad.  Not:ro"d-. merely that the literature, the science and the art of
other countries were within the reach of the new people,
but that they were actually brought to its door, so to speak,
by sojourners from beyond the sea. An English naturalist,
Mllark Catesby, was a visitor to Virginia and South Carolina, (1712-22.) A Swedish man of letters, Peter Kalm,
travelled tlrough all the central colonies, (1748-51.)  His
name still dwells amongst us in the kalmia, a genus of
plants embracing our beautiful mountain laurel.  A group
of clerical visitors came at about the same time.  George
Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, spent some years
(1729-31) at Newport, spreading around him the influences
of a cultivated and a devout spirit.  He tarried there on
the way to the Bermudas, where he hoped in vain to found
a college for the youth, Indian and English, of America.
Georgia was visited by the Wesleys, John and Charles,
(1736-37,) then just entering upon their efforts as reformers in the English church.  George WThitefield, at first the
churchman and then the sectary, traversed the whole land
from north to south; his appeals to the people resulting in
revivals, as the phrase went, which were repeated until the
charm begaln to lose its power, but not before it had greatly
loosened the hold of ancient doctrines, (1738-70.)
Liberality   Of all the progress that we have to notice, no
in religion. point is more remarkable than the increasing lib



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT.               145
erality in religion. It was beginning to be seen that men
might be fellow-Christians without being fellow-churchmen
or fellow-Puritans.  Dissenters found toleration in the
church-province of Virginia, (1698.)  On the other hand,
the Puritan churches made peace with their antagonists.
Cotton Mather, preaching at the ordination of a Baptist,
expresses " our dislike of every thing which looked like persecution in the days that have passed over us," (1718.)
Churchmen in Massachusetts were released from  Puritan
tithes, (1727.)  Baptists and Quakers were both released
from the same tithes in Massachusetts, (1728,) New I-Iampshire, (1729,) and Connecticut, (1729,) the last colony,
however, continuing the restrictions upon separate places of
worship. Even the Roman Catholics had their crumb of
toleration. On their celebrating mass in Philadelphia, the
governor proposed to enforce the penalties of' the English,
not the Pennsylvanian, law against them; but the council
opposed the proceeding, on the ground that the Roman
Catholics were protected in the charter of the colony,
(1734.) The air seems to grow freer as we meet with such
a record. But it was not yet purified. Charles Carroll, a
Roman Catholic of Maryland, found himself so hemmed in
by illiberality, that he petitioned the French government
for a grant in Louisiana, (1751.)
Church of The church of' England —the moderate church
England. Of the reformation - was the mean, as formerly described, between the extremes of the Roman and the Protestant sides. But, as the Roman church was hardly represented in the colonies, the church of England appeared to
occupy, not so much a mean as an extreme position, the
opposite to the extreme of Puritanism. It was, therefore,
the great foe of Puritanism, just as Puritanism was its
great foe. Both the churchman and the Puritan found it
hard to bear and to forbear with each other, the more so as
13




146               PART II. 1638-1763.
the church of England increased, and assumed the lead.
John Checkley, preparing to be a church missionary, threw
the Puritan clergy of Boston into quite an excitement, by
taking upon himself to say that there could be "no Christian minister without episcopal ordination," (1724.)  So,
when the Massachusetts ministers, headed by Cotton Mather,
petitioned the General Court that a synod of their churches
might be convened, as in former days, the church clergy
appealed to England for the suppression of the proposed
assembly, (1725.) It was not merely ill will that these
proceedings kindled; it was apprehension of oppression.
Project of  Dissenters generally, but with the Puritans still
bishops. in the van, stood arrayed against a project in which
the church of England was deeply interested.  As early as
the reign of Charles II., a bishop for Virginia had been
nominated at the instigation of the prime minister Clarendon, (1672.)  It proved merely a nomination.  Thirty
years passed, when the Society for Propagating the Gospel
in Foreign Parts (1701) took up the matter, partly in consequence of applications from the churchmen of the colonies,
(1703.)  It was twelve years more before the society, after
petitions to and answers from Queen Anne, undertook "a
draught of a bill, proper to be offered to the Parliament,
for establishing bishops and bishoprics in America," (1715.)
The queen's death interfering with the execution of these
projects, they were laid aside, resumed, and then laid aside
again until some of the English prelates, members of the
society still, espoused the cause so full of interest to them
and to their church. Their plan, drawn up by Bishop
Butler, of Durham, was not one, it would seem, to provoke
opposition.  It suggested the limitation of the episcopal
power to the clergy in orders, declaring, at the same time,
that "no bishops are intended to be settled in places where
the government is in the hands of dissenters, as in N'ew




COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT.                147
England," &c. Such, however, were the difficulties attending the scheme, even in this modified form, that it failed,
(1750.)  Its advocates, joined or succeeded by others, did
not give up the hope of carrying their point at a future
time. But the passions of the colonists, as well from political as from religious causes, ran too high to admit of further
provocation. Nor were dissenters only arrayed against the
plan of the episcopate. Churchmen were almost equally
earnest, on account, chiefly, of the jealousy entertained in
relation to the mother country. So that when, at a later
time, the Bishop of London's commissary for Virginia
called a convention of his clergy, to discuss an address to
the king, " upon an American episcopate," certain clergymen, who protested against the proposal, received the
thanks of the House of Burgesses for their course, (1771.)
The clergy of Virginia, however, and the Burgesses had
long been on poor terms, in consequence of certain acts
passed by the latter to the detriment of clerical revenues,
indeed, to the violation of clerical rights, (1755-58.)  The
church of England, it must be confessed, was far from being
a church of peace in the colonies.
Classes:   The classes in the colonies remained the same as
the slaves. heretofore.  But the relations between them were
varying with their members and their numbers.  Amongst
the echoes from those distant years we catch the sounds of
sympathy for the enslaved. Some German, not English,
Quakers of Pennsylvania began by declaring against the
whole system of slavery, (1688.) An English Quaker of
the same colony was stirred to makle the same declaration;
but his remonstrance was mingled with fanaticism and sedition, (1692.) A few years later, Pennsylvania pronounced
against the importation of Indian bondmen, (1705.)  MIassachusetts passed a similar prohibition, (1712.) But when
Pennsylvania, or a portion of its people, petitioned for




148               PART II. 1638-1763.
the general emancipation of the slaves in the provfince, the
assembly rejected the proposal, (1712.)  The slaves did
not every where sit still while the masters legislated. New
York was thrown into terror by a negro plot to fire the
city, (1712.) South Carolina was twice threatened by a
negro massacre, (1730, 1738.)  It was not to be expected,
with all the advantages or all the alleviations of slavery in
the English colonies, that the system was to escape the
dangers and the wrongs to which it had led in every land
and in every age of its history. One earnest voice was
lifted up against it in the colonies by John Woolman, of
New Jersey, a Quaker of singular refinement as well as
singular simplicity, who published Some Considerations
on the Keeping of Negroes, towards the close of the period, (1753.)  Woolman's Journal of his life and his devotions should be mentioned as one of the most attractive
works in our early literature.
Colonies: Between colony and colony there were new bands
Union.  of union. Suggestions of combining them in some
common organization had appeared from  time to time.
The first project of the sort, on the part of the colonies,
was of William Penn's proposal. He urged a congress of
twenty members, to be elected by the colonial assemblies,
with a president appointed by the king. This body was to
keep the peace amongst the colonies, to regulate their commerce, and to secure their defence, (1697.) A quarter of a
century later, Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, brought forward
a plan of much the same nature, (1722.) Thirty years
later, the deputies of seven colonies  the four of New
England, New York, Pennsylvania, and' Maryland — met
at Albany on the recommendation of the secretary of state
in England, (1754.) The subjects before this assembly
were the relations of the colonies with the Indians and with
one another, referring chiefly to the war then opening
between England and France. It was to promote the mil



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT.                149
itary rather than the civil union of the colonies, that Benja.
min Franklin, a deputy from  Pennsylvania, laid his proposals before the convention.  He suggested a council of
forty-eight, apportioned to the contributions of each colony,
who were to conduct the affairs of war, and, to a certain
extent, the affairs of peace; the members, chosen for three
years, by the colonial assemblies, to elect their own speaker,
but to be under a president, or governor general, nominated
by the crown. This system suited neither those who favored
nor those who opposed the interests of the colonies, the appointing power and the veto, with which the president was
armed, being deemed as unfavorable to colonial liberty as
the rights of the council were to royal prerogative. It was
at the same time that the king commanded one of his ministers, the Earl of Halifax, to prepare a plan of colonial
union. Each colony was to elect, by common consent of
assembly, council, and governor, a single commissioner to
a federal body, by which a revenue was to be raised and
the general defence assured. A commander-in-chief was
to be placed at the head of the government, which, as we
see, was a merely military organization.  Union was not
to be achieved by a fluctuating succession of projects like
these.
ontribu-   The sympathy existing amongst the colonies aptionsto pears on another record than that of systems or
Boston. assemblies. A great fire, breaking out in Boston,
caused immense loss and immense distress, (1760.)  What
Boston itself could do was promptly done; its people were
not in the habit of' giving up, however severe the trial.
But there came a large sum from New York, another from
Pennsylvania, besides one from Nova Scotia, and various
subscriptions from England. The colonial contributions to
Boston proved that there were bonds, if not yet drawn
together, still capable of being tightened, closely and lastingly, amongst the colonies.




CHAPTER IX.
THE MOTHER COUNTRY.
As the colonies passed through the struggles of
Views
of the infancy into the promises of manhood, they wore a
mother  new look in the sight of the mother country.  Somecountry.               n
thing more than had been anticipated was to be
hoped, something more also was to be feared from them. It
seemed as if they might be able to contribute largely to the
resources of Great Britain; and yet it seemed as if they
might think themselves able to withhold as well as to contribute. Strange symptoms of insubordination had appeared.
The crown, the parliament, and the officials by which both
were represented, had been confronted, here and there, with
amazing boldness. It was high time, so thought the English
rulers, to take the colonies in hand, to tighten the reins of
government, and to confine them to the course marked out,
as it was thought, by the interests of the mother country.
Board of   Chief of the agencies put in operation was the
trade. board of trade, consisting of a president and seven
members, entitled the Lords Commissioners for Trade and
Plantations, (1696.) To this body were committed the
functions hitherto exercised by committees of the privy
council, but now magnified into large powers of administration. It was intrusted with the execution of the navigation
acts, to which were at thi-s time appended fresh and oppressive provisions of colonial Courts of Admiralty. It was also
empowered to carry out the new acts by which not merely
(150)




THE MOTHER COUNTRY.                151
the trade but the administration of the colonies was to be
brought under stricter control. The royal approval of all
colonial governors, and the conformity of all colonial laws
to the statutes of Parliament, were amongst the first steps to
be taken. The board entered heartily into its mission. It
proposed the appointment of a captain general with abso.
lute power to levy and to organize an army without reference to any colonial authority, (1697.)  It laid a prohibition
upon the exportation of colonial woollens, even from one
colony to another, (1698.)  It actually went so far as to recommend the resumption of the charters that remained to
some of the colonies, (1701.) Time and again, a bill was
brought into Parliament to declare the charters void; but,
for one reason or another, the design was postponed. The
board of trade, approving itself by its zeal, became a sort of
ministerial body on being attached to a secretary of state as
its chief, (1714.)  Its course, however, was not improved.
The secretary longest in office (1724-48) - the Duke of
Newcastle - supposed New England to be an island. The
board of trade acted as if they thought all the colonies a
broken cluster off the British coast.
African    About the same time that the board of trade was
Company. organized, the Royal African Company, previously
a monopoly, was so enlarged as to allow general participation in its operations. WVhat these were appears from its
name. But the name gives no indication of the near connection of the company with the American colonies, of
their restiveness, and of its oppressiveness. " Give due
encouragement," say the royal instructions of Queen Anne
to the governor of New York and New Jersey, "to merchants, and, in particular, to the Royal African Company,"
(1702.)  "The slave trade," reechoes Parliament, half a
century afterwards, in making the trade independent of the
African Company, " is very advantageous to Great Britain,"




152                PART IT. 1638-1763.
(1750.) It was, in fact, a cardinal point in the treaties of
England with the European powers.  The treaty of Utrecht
contained a contract on the part of Spain that her colonies
should be provided with slaves by Great Britain alone,
(1713.)  The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was followed by a
convention indemnifying Great Britain, to the amount of a
hundred thousand pounds, for relinquishing the monopoly
of the slave trade with the Spanish colonies, (1750.)  The
closer was the gripe upon the English colonies.  Vainly
did Virginia and South Carolina, for instance, lay a prohibitory duty upon the importation of slaves; their acts were
annulled by the royal command. And by what reasoning,
it will be asked, were the advantages of the traffic upheld
in the mother country?  The answer is simple.  In the
first place, the profits of the African Company and of the
private slave traders were enormous. In the second place,
the dependence of the colonists in agriculture, manufacture,
and trade, as well as in government, was assured, so long
as they were kept to slave labor. This was openly avowed
in England; so that, resist as they would, the colonies were
at the mercy of the Royal African Company as long as it
endured.
Colonial   The boards and companies of the mother country
govern- found congenial instruments in the governors of the
ors.    various colonies.  All but those whom the colonists
were able to elect for themselves, as in Connecticut and
Rhode Island, may be said, as a general remark, to have
been the main stays of the policy pursued by the English
authorities.  A needier, greedier set of men was never sent
forth to rule than the spendthrift courtiers, the brokendown officials, and the cringing colonists, who successively
appeared in the scramble after colonial spoils.
An illustration offers itself in the career of Edward
Hyde, Lord Cornbury, grandson of the great Earl of Clar



THE MOTHER COUNTRY.               153
Cornbury endon, and cousin to Queen Anne, by whom he was
in New  appointed governor of New York, (1702.)  His
York.  arrival was greeted with delight by a faction then
suffering from the reaction consequent upon Leisler's cruel
fate, ten years before. The party opposed to Leisler and
his adherents, now getting the upper hand, voted an enthusiastic grant to his lordship the governor, and doubled his
salary besides. He was not contented; but, on the vote of
a large sum, in the ensuing year, for the fortification of the
Narrows, he appropriated it to himself without leave or
license. This drove the assembly to insist upon having a
treasurer of its own -a demand that was afterwards allowed
by the queen, (1705.)  Cornbury became more and more
odious to those who had welcomed him with rapturous
obedience. One assembly after another was dissolved for
not meeting his multiplied requisitions. Two Presbyterian
missionaries from England were prosecuted by him on no
other charge than their creed, but were triumphantly acquitted by the jury, (1707.) His course was much the
same in New Jersey, then under the New York governor,
where, after violent assaults upon the political and religious
privileges of the colony, he was met face to face in the
assembly by charges of oppression and corruption, (1707.)
Such proceedings as Cornbury's were too wanton to be tolerated even in England. He was recalled, but without any
other amends besides the recall, for the indignities from
which New York and New Jersey had suffered during
seven bitter years, (1709.)
Burnet   Some years pass, and the then governor of New
and    York, Colonel Cosby, complains to the board of
Belcher
in Massa- trade of "the example of the Boston people,"
chusetts. (1732.) With his views and with the views of the
board there was ample motive for complaint. William
Burnet, formerly governor of New York, now of Massa



154               PART II. 1638-1763.
chusetts, had made it a point, from his first entrance upon
his new government, to obtain a permanent salary, (1728.)
The House of Representatives would not hear of such a
thing, much preferring their usual mode of a yearly vote.
This the governor scorned, and hinted at the loss of the
charter in case he was denied his will. A town meeting
of the Bostonians sustained the house with so much effect
that Burnet held the next General Court at Salem. Boston is the proper place for our sessions, declared the sturdy
representatives. "Then meet in Cambridge the next time,"
rejoined the governor, (1729.)  Burnet dying, one of the
agents sent to complain of him in England, Jonathan
Belcher, was appointed his successor. But the colonist was
soon involved in the same disputes as the Englishman, both,
in the present case, obeying instructions rather than following their own desires. After a two years' controversy,
Belcher obtained leave from England to accept a salary for
the year, (1731.) Even this was cut off, on his opposing,
as he was instructed to do, the further issue of paper money,
already a sore subject in Massachusetts.  Belcher wrote to
the board of trade that a crisis was at hand. The house,
on the other side, wrote to request the king to recall the
governor's instructions, (1732.)  On the king's refusal, the
agents of the house made the same request to Parliament.
" This is a high insult," replied that body, "upon his majesty's government, and tending to shake off the dependency
of the colonies," (1733.) The House of Representatives
restored the salaries which it had suspended; but some
fresh disputes arising, the removal of Belcher was asked
for and obtained, (1740.)
Clinton's   A few years later, and Governor Clinton of New
appeal. York, failing to obtain a grant for five years, appealed to the secretary at the head of the board of trade
" to make a good example for all America," (1748.) What




THE MOTHER COUNTRY.                    155
his idea was, appeared more clearly when he begged that
Parliament would impIose certain taxes to provide "tlhe
civil list," (1750).)  It was the natural result of the exactions and the clamors of the previous half century.  But
even before the half century began, Clinton's appeal had
been anticipated by a scheme of parliamentary taxation,
brought forward at the time when the board of trade was
entering upon its career, (1696.)
Meantime Parliament had not left the adminisParlianlentary tration of the colonies entirely in other hands.  It
interfer- extended the post office of Great Britain to Amerence.
ica, (1710.)  It regulated the system of naturalization, until then different in the different colonies, by requiring a probation of seven years, and an oath of allegiance,
together with the profession of some form of Protestantism,
(1740.)  It interfered with questions of currency and of
banking,* in which, indeed, the colonies had got far beyond
their depth, (1740-51.)
Commer-   All the while, Parliament maintained its authorcial rule. ity over the colonial trade.  Never, in truth, had it
gone so far as when it passed what was called the " molasses
act," laying duties on molasses, sugar, and rum imported
from any but the British West India Islands, (1733.)  "It
is divesting the colonists," said the agent of New York in
England, "of their rights as the king's natural born subjects and Englishmen, in levying subsidies upon them
against their consent." Parliament was also extending its
interference with manufactures in the colonies.  It crowned
its acts on this score by prohibiting the exportation of hats,
(1732,) and the erection of mills for slitting or rolling iron,
and of furnaces for making steel, (1750.) The commer* It was the way with most of the colonies, beginning with South
Carolina, (1712,) to issue bills which were loaned to individuals as a
borrowed capital.




156               PART II. 1638-1763.
cial rule, commenced by the navigation acts of a century
before, was thus approaching its completion.
Military   Another rule was beginning to appear. The
rule,   wars in which the colonies were involved led to
their subordination beneath the military and naval commanders of the mother country. It was inevitable that
the English officers should assume a superiority which
would be felt, not merely in the field, but in the town - not
merely amongst the soldiers, but amongst the citizens of
the colonies.
Impress   Wild work was that which Commodore Knowles
Impressment at made in undertaking to fill up his fleet by the imBoston. pressment of Bostonians. The people seized his
officers who happened to be on shore, and, retaining them
as hostages, took such an attitude of fury and of strength,
that Governor Shirley withdrew to the Castle in the harbor.
Knowles threatened the bombardment of the town. The
upper classes, through their representatives in the house,
and in a town meeting of their own, abjured all connection
with the so-called populace. But they who had risen for
the sake of saving their brothers and their neighbors from
outrage, though wholly deserted, were not wholly unsuccessful.  The greater part of the men who had been
pressed were surrendered by the commodore, and peace
ensued. Yet there was more parade at the return of the
governor than at the rescue of the artisans and the sailors
of the town from their captivity, (1747.)
A corn-    Clouds were gathering heavy with menace and
mander- with ruin.  An order went forth from the board
in-chief.of the of trade to the colonial governors, directing them
colonies. to raise a fund for the general expenses of the
colonies, then driving, with the mother country, into the
fiercest of the wars with France. At the same tile, the
mutiny act, providing for the discipline and the quarters




THE MOTHER COUNTRY.                157
of the English army, was extended to the colonies, (1754.)
The next year (1755) brought over the Earl of Loudoun,
governor of Virginia, and commander-in-chief of the whole
thirteen. As the general fund to support his authority did
not appear, Parliament addressed the colonial assemblies
with the assertion that " the claim of right in an assembly
to raise and apply public money by its own act alone is
derogatory to the crown and to the rights of the people of'
Great Britain," (1757.) Both the property and the freedom of the colonists were thus involved in the establishment of a military rule.
Judicial   The signs were dark in all directions. MIost of
tenure. the colonial judges had long been appointed by the
crown, or by its representatives the governors; but once
appointed, they were independent, as they held office during good behavior.  But Chief Justice Pratt, of New
York, received a commission to continue only " at the
king's pleasure." In vain he remonstrated with the governor of the province; in vain the governor supported the.remonstrance in an appeal to the board of trade. " Your
good behavior," answered the board, " is a pernicious proposition." So the secretary at the head of the board maintained, in instructing the colonial governors to issue no
commissions " but during pleasure." All this was stranger
and more threatening than any previous act of the powers
in England.  New York showed its sense of the danger
by refusing any salary to the chief justice. He, however,
procured from the board of trade a grant, to be paid out
of the royal quitrents of the province, (1761-62.)
Writs of   With all the game now in view, the authorities
assist-  still stuck to their " acts of trade."  Francis Berance-  nard, lately governor of New Jersey, and at present
of Massachusetts, had but just assured the latter colony of
the "blessings from their subjection to Great Britain,"'
14




158               PART II. 1638-1763.
when they were thrown into alarm by an application of
the custom house officials to the Superior Court for writs
of assistance, authorizing search after merchandise imported in defiance of the acts of trade. The hearing came on
before Chief Justice Hutchinson, who was also the lieutenant governor. All that legal skill, as well as official
influence, could do to obtain the writs, was done; but the
counsel whom the Boston merchants had retained stood out
to the last- Oxenbridge Thacher, "soft and cool;" James
Otis, " a flame of fire."  "Every man," says one who was
present, "of an immense crowded audience appeared to
me to go away as I did, ready to take up arms against
writs of assistance." Of course, the writs were granted,
but they were little used, (1761.) The same spirit that
had resisted them broke out against the schemes of taxation with which the acts of trade were now connected.
" Government," argued James Otis, " must not raise taxes
on the property of the people without the consent of them
or their deputies."  It was not the plea of the politician
alone. "I do not say," exclaimed the Boston clergyman
Jonathan Mayhew, " our invaluable rights have been struck
at; but if they have, they are not wrested from us,"
(1762.)
English   It was amidst these controversies that the French
dominion. were conquered, and the English dominion rose to
its height in America. In the north, it extended over the
three provinces of St. John's, or Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, and Quebec, the new name for Canada. In the
centre, it embraced the thirteen colonies, in which had lain
the germ of its present growth. In the south, it comprehended the two provinces of East and West Florida,
together with a large portion of the- West Indies. So
vast an empire overtopped all other dominions in the
western world.




THE MOTHER COUNTRY.                159
Effects    And now, to mark the effects of the victories upon
on the  the victors.  First, upon the colonists. They had
colonies.
passed through agonizing times, when losses of
friends and of resources weighed upon almost every household, when alternations of grief and of revenge racked
almost every breast.  As a community, likewise, each
colony had met its trials and its reverses. Notwithstand
ing the reimbursements received from England, the colonies were in debt to the amount of more than ten million
dollars, one quarter of which stood against Massachusetts
alone, at the expiration of the last war with France.
Debts, however, were nothing compared to the diminution
of the means of paying them, or of gathering new resources.
The sacrifices of warfare are not to be measured by any
single schedule; roll after roll must be inscribed with
losses, and even then the losses of the future, if they can
be calculated, remain to be appended. On the other hand,
the colonists were not without their compensations. They
had rid themselves of an enemy whose neighborhood had
been a constant source of peril, both from French and from
Indian warfare, for a century and a half, (1613-1763.)
They had proved their strength in repeated efforts and
repeated successes.  Better still, they had proved their
union amongst themselves, especially in the final conflict
which brought every colony of the thirteen shoulder to
shoulder. Best of all, they had proved their patriotism,
their love of their own land, hitherto overpowered by the
affections that bound them to the other side of the sea, but
now rising in solemn strength from out the battles and the
agonies by which they had defended their country, and
made it the first object of their devotion.
Upon the Next, to trace the effects of victory upon the
mother mother country. Here we find the marks of sorcountry. row and of calamity, but they are lost in the blaze




160               PART II. 1638-1763.
ofi glory which seemed to have been kindled. "England,"
the king is said to have exclaimed, " never signed such a
peace before."  The king was George III., then in the
third year of his reign. The aristocracy, still in power,
thought with the king. They were dazzled by their success. It made them believe that their sway was irresistible, that their colonies were to be ruled, burdened, and
crushed as they pleased. Only a few, of keener vision
and of truer principle, saw that the conquest of the French
colonies, if resulting in the issues to which it seemed to be
leading, would entail the loss of the English colonies.
Tempo-    But for the moment, the English of England
rary   and the English of America were one. The exulunity. tation of triumph over a common foe, the assurance
of prosperity under a common king, just risen in his youth
to the throne, blended with the ties of a common law, a
common literature, and a common ancestry. New hopes
for both were appearing in the west. The Indian humbled,
every race from Europe conquered, the English were the
undisputed possessors of the far-stretching, the rich-promising land.




PART II1
INDEPENDENCE.
1763-1797.
14 *                         (161)








CHAPTER I.
PROVOCATIONS.
Old trou-   THE old troubles between the mother country
bles ex- and the colonies remained. They were now extended. tended. To enforce the commercial rule of Great
Britain, her fleet upon the American coast was turned into
a revenue squadron. To keep up the military rule, the
colonies were organized in divisions, with British commander-in-chief, British officers, and British troops, in short, a
standing army. To maintain the whole system, commercial
and military, the authorities of the mother country soon
lent themselves to graver measures.
The great majority of the British people regardParties
iPan the ed the American colonists as countrymen, who could
mother not suffer without their suffering, or prosper without
country.
their prospering.  But the majority of the people
was powerless, or comparatively so. The dominion over
the mother country, as well as over her colonies, was with
the aristocracy, with men who, whether liberal or not,
- according to the phrase, — whether whig or tory, were
of almost one and the same mind in regarding the colonists
as their subjects. So thought the king, at this time the
head of the aristocracy rather than the sovereign of the
nation. So thought the Parliament, at this time the representative assembly of the aristocracy rather than of the
nation. So thought the successive ministries, the common
representatives of the king and of the Parliament, to whom
(163)




164              PART III. 1763-1797.
attached the credit or the discredit of any general course
or of any particular measure that might be adopted in the
councils of Great Britain. Thus it was but a portion of
the nation - and this the smaller, although the more powerful portion - which was prepared to deal rigorously with
the colonies.
Views    So the colonies perceived. If they had thanks
of the to offer for occasional acts of liberality, they gave
colonies. them to the nation, knowing that in any liberal
measures the nation must be united. But if there were
complaints to make, if there were outcries of indignation
and agony to utter, the object of them was not the nation.
The colonies knew that the nation, as a whole, was on
their side, and that it was the king, the Parliament, or the
ministry who alone, as a general rule, deserved reproach.
Hence the emphasis upon the word ministerial in relation
to the system upheld in Britain, and opposed in America.
The colonies themselves were not a unit. Even
Parties
in the the old thirteen, with which we are concerned, precolonies. sented by no means an unbroken front. The very
number of their inhabitants — near two millions (1763)
-implied differences and separations.  A  considerable
part consisted of slaves and of servants scattered in varying proportions amongst the various colonies. Of the freemen themselves, a very considerable proportion was more
accustomed to subjection than to independence.  There
were certainly many who were wholly unfit to defend their
liberty, many more who were wholly unfit to raise it to a
position of security. Happily there was a large and an
increasing body of men, women, and children, whose natures and whose principles were of a higher stamp. On
these the colonies relied as much against the weaknesses
that were within, as against the oppressions that were
without.  The same class was prominent in the pre.




PROVOCATIONS.                 165
ceding period; here, more than ever, is it in the foreground.
The two   Thus, then, in the story of the provocations dividsides. ing the mother country and the colonies, we have
not England, not Great Britain, pitted against America,
but the ruling class in the mother country opposed to the
better class in the colonies. The distinction is important.
Nothing else could explain the amount of blundering on
one side, or the amount of wisdom, comparatively speaking,
on the other. Nor could any thing else so clearly indicate
the difference between the principles at stake- the principles of an old aristocracy on the one hand, and on the
other those of a young commonalty, all fervent with vigor
and with hope.
Ministries The ministers representing the British side may
of the be noted in this place. The Earl of Bute, prime
period. minister at the beginning of the period, (1763,)
was succeeded by George Grenville in the same year;
then by the Marquis of Rockingham, (1765;) then by
William Pitt, made Earl of Chatham, (1766;) then by the
Duke of Grafton, (1768;) and then by Lord North,
(1770.) The Rockingham and Chatham ministries alone
were comparatively liberal, not even these being liberal
in the true sense of the term.,,Point England was laboring under the increased debts
of taxa- occasioned by the late war with France. It was
tion.   not her part, argued the aristocracy, to bear them
alone; they had been incurred, in a great degree, on account of the colonies, and the colonies should bear their
share. The argument proceeded upon a strange forgetfulness of the fact that the colonies were already bearing
their share, and more than their share, of debts and difficulties in consequence of the war. Not the less determined to increase the burdens of America, the authorities




166              PART III. 1763-1797.
in England cast about for the means of accomplishing their
purpose. There was but one, and this taxation. Now,
taxation of a certain sort was nothing new to the colonies.
They had long borne with taxes for the so-called regulation
of trade. But the ministry and their supporters, not content with the old taxes, were for raising new ones - taxes
for revenue as well as for regulation of trade. Substantially, there was no difference; taxes were taxes, whether laid
upon imports or upon any thing else; but the colonies
were persuaded at the time, and for some time after, that
there was a difference, and a vital one.
Discus-    When, therefore, Parliament voted, in the beginSionl.   ning of the year, (1764,) that it had "a right to
tax the colonies," implying in any way whatever, the colonies took alarm. The Massachusetts House of Representatives ordered a committee of correspondence with the
other colonies. James Otis, in a pamphlet on the Rights
of the British Colonies, exclaimed, "that by this [the
British] constitution, every man in the dominions is a free
man; that no part of his majesty's dominions can be taxed
without their consent."  "The book," said Lord Mansfield,
chief justice of the King's Bench, "is full of wildness."
But it did not satisfy many of the colonists, and wilder
still, as the chief justice would have said, became their
assertions of independence. It was not long before the
right of Parliament to lay any taxes whatsoever was
discussed and denied.
Sugar    But for the moment, the colonies were willing to
act.   bear with taxation under one name, provided it was
not levied under another. The ministry, however, adopted'the very style which the colonies disliked, and passed an
act laying duties upon sugar and other articles of colonial
import, with the expressed understanding that " it is just and
necessary that a revenue be raised in America for defray~




PROVOCATIONS.                  167
ing the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the
same."  In other words, both the commercial and the military sway over the colonies was to be supported and carried
out by a course of taxation. Thus decided George Grenville and his party by the sugar act of 1764. It was a
momentous decision.
Stamp    The earnest remonstrances of the colonies, esact.   pecially of New York and Rhode Island, produced
no effect, except to precipitate measures in England. Ten
months after the sugar act, a series of acts far more decisive was passed. A stamp act, proposed some time before,
was enacted without any other serious opposition than that
of English merchants in the American trade. By this act,
all business papers and certificates, as well as newspapers,
required a stamp, similar to that already used in Great
Britain. At the same time, the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court was extended, to. the exclusion, therefore, of
juries in many cases previously brought before them.
Together with these new burdens upon the colonies, an
old one was revived in the quartering act, by which
quarters and various supplies were demanded from the
colonies fobr the British troops amongst them. But neither
the provisions for the troops nor those for the admiralty
had any significance to be compared with the stamp duties,
so unwonted and so unbearable, (1765.)
Resist-    They roused the colonies with a general start.
ance.   "This unconstitutional method of taxation," was
the comment of George Washington, who, for the last six
years, had been a burgess of Virginia. " That parliamentary procedure," was the subsequent language of Jonathan
Mayhew, of Boston, "which threatened us and our posterity with perpetual bondage and slavery." Virginia was
the first to speak out, as a colony, in resolutions proposed
by Patrick Henry. " Those Virginians," responded Oxen



168              PART III. 1763-1797.
bridge Thacher, of Mhssachusetts, the associate of Otis in
opposing the writs of assistance, -" those Virginians are
men." The response of Massachusetts, as a colony, was
the vote of her representatives, on the proposal of James
Otis, that the colonies should be invited to send committees
of their representatives or burgesses to meet at New York.
South Carolina, led by Christopher Gadsden, was the first
to appoint a committee to the proposed assembly.
The first congress of the colonies met on the
7th of October, 1765.  South Carolina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and
Maryland sent committees of their respective assemblies,
according to the original plan; the committees of New
York, New Jersey, and Delaware being otherwise appointed. New Hampshire and Georgia, without sending committees, promised to adhere to the decisions of the congress.
Virginia and North Carolina were absent and silent, but
not from want of sympathy. Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, an officer in the late war with France, was chosen
president; amongst the members were James Otis and
Christopher Gadsden, the two prime movers in the creation
of. the congress. Otis, like the other Massachusetts members, came instructed by the House of Representatives "to
insist upon an exclusive right in the colony to all acts of
taxation." This instruction sounds like the key note of
the congress.
Declara-   All' other doings of the body, whether petition
tion of to king or addresses to Lords and Commons of
rights
and liber- Great Britain, sink into comparative insignificance
ties. by the side of a declaration of rights and liberties.
This document, acknowledging the allegiance due by the
colonies to the crown, dwells with peculiar emphasis upon
their claim "to all the inherent rights and liberties of
natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain."




PROVOCATIONS.                       169
The rights especially demanded by the colonies are those
of taxation by their own assemblies, and of trial by their
own juries; the two, as will be remembered, assailed by
the stamp act. The injustice and impolicy of the recent
proceedings in the mother country are pointed out, with an
earnest demand that all the obnoxious statutes should be at
once repealed. The importance of the declaration must be
evident. Preferring no claim to independence, it preferred
claims to privileges which, in the existing relations between
the colonies and the mother country, could not be secured
without independence. The Declaration of Rights, dated
the 19th of October, 1765, foretells the birth of the new
nation as near at hand.*
* With the exception of a few lines in the preamble, here follows in
full the
DECLARATION  OF RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES.
The members of this congress esteem it our indispensable duty to make
the following declaration of our humble opinion respecting the most
essential rights and liberties of the colonists, and of the grievances under
which they labor by reason of several late acts of Parliament.
I. That his majesty's subjects in these colonies owe the same allegiance to the crown of Great Britain that is owing from his subjects born
within the realm, and all due subordination to that august body, the
Parliament of Great Britain.
II. That his majesty's liege subjects in these colonies are entitled to
all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects within
the kingdom of Great Britain.
III. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and
the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them
but with their own consent, given personally or by their representatives.
IV.'That the people of these colonies are not, and, from their local
circumstances, cannot be represented in the House of Commons in Great
Britain.
V. That the only representatives of the people of these colonies are
persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been
or can be constitutionally imposed on them but by their respective legislatures.
VI. That all supplies to the crown being free gifts of the people, it is
15




170                  PART III.  1763-1797.
Effect.    The declaration was not made by every colony.
But though signed by the representatives of only
six colonies,* it was virtually the act of all but two, Virginia and North Carolina; and as such, it went forth to
convince  the mother country, nay, the colonies themselves,
unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of the British
constitution for the people of Great Britain to grant to his majesty the
property of the colonists.
VII. That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every
British subject in these colonies.
VIII. That the late act of Parliament entitled " An act for granting
and applying certain stamp duties and other duties in the British colonies
and plantations in America," &c., by imposing taxes on the inhabitants
of these colonies, and the said act, and several other acts, by extending
the jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty beyond its ancient limits, have
a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonists.
IX. That the duties imposed by several late acts of Parliament, from
the peculiar circumstances of these colonies, will be extremely burdensome and grievous, and, from the scarcity of specie, the payment of them
absolutely impracticable.
X. That as the profits of the trade of these colonies ultimately centre
in Great Britain, to pay for the manufactures which they are obliged to
take from thence, they eventually contribute very largely to all supplies
granted there to the crown.
XI. That the restrictions imposed by several late acts of Parliament
on the trade of these colonies will render them unable to purchase the
manufactures of Great Britain.
XII. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these colonies
depend on the full and free enjoyments of their rights and liberties, and an
intercourse with Great Britain mutually affectionate and advantageous.
XIII. That it is the right of the British subjects in these colonies to
petition the king or either House of Parliament.
Lastly. That it is the indispensable duty of these colonies, to the best
of sovereigns, to the mother country, and to themselves, to endeavor by a
loyal and dutiful address to his majesty, and humble applications to both
Houses of Parliament, to procure the repeal of the act for granting and
applying certain stamp duties, of all clauses of any other acts of Parliamnent whereby the jurisdiction of the admiralty is extended as aforesaid,
and of the other late acts for the restriction of American commerce.
* Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey,
and Delaware.




PROVOCATIONS                   171
that they were no longer separate settlements, but a single
country. So bold was the whole course of the congress, so
startling the effect, in English eyes, that the Lord Chancellor Northington exclaimed, " I declare as a lawyer, they
have forfeited all their charters." It was all done in a
three weeks' session.
Thus far the colonies appear to have met their
Riots.
provocations with all the composure of men who
knew the right to be upon their side. But it was not
always so. When one of the New Jersey representatives,
who had declined signing the acts of the congress, returned
home, he was hanged and burned in effigy by his constituents.
The mob spirit had shown itself, months before, in Boston
and in Providence, where effigies were paraded and houses
sacked amidst violence the most abhorrent to all the better
class of the townspeople.  When the stamp act went into
operation, just after the close of the congress, a great riot
broke out in New York, although there, as elsewhere, not a
stamp officer remained to execute the provisions of the act.
It is wiser to pass by such things with regret than to pause
Aver their details as if they were the deeds of heroes.
They sprang from strong feelings, we must allow, but not
from strong principles; and so far from aiding the colonies
in obtaining justice, did more than any thing besides to increase the oppressiveness of the mother country. Bitterly,
therefore, were they deplored by men like those who met
in the congress or approved its acts of magnanimity. But
such is ever the effect of oppression. It overturns the
reason of the feeble; it overthrows the influence of the
strong.
The outbreak in New York led to one result of
Non-importation value. An agreement to suspend importations from
and non- Great Britain was fortified by the resolution to enconsumpt;on.   courage manufactures at home, even by such means




172               PART III. 1763-1797.
as eating no lamb or mutton, so that there might be wool
enough for the country. All this being communicated by a
committee of correspondence to the other colonies, there
ensued a general, though not a universal, abstinence from
British goods. Non-importation and non-consumption became the watchwords of the colonies; and though broken
again and again, they were again and again renewed during
the ensuing years.  The great change that resulted in the
outward looks of society harmonized with the transformation of feelings which was going on every where.
Repeal    Meanwhile the want of stamp officers, and the
of stamp indisposition of the colonial authorities to enforce
act.   the stamp act by themselves, had left it in a lifeless
condition. Demands that it should be put out of existence
altogether came, not from the colonies alone, but from a
large number of merchants in England. Pitt and Burke,
the greatest of English statesmen at the time, took up the
opposition; and as the act had but augmented the expenditures of the kingdom without increasing its revenues,* the
ministry, then professing to be a liberal one, listened to the
general clamor for repeal.  Amidst the throngs of tradesmen and merchants, politicians and statesmen, discussing
the question, we see the colonial agents all alive to the
interests with which they were charged. Foremost stood
Benjamin Franklin, for several years t the agent of Penn.
sylvania, and now called before the House of Commons,
where he assured his questioners that the colonies would
never submit to the stamp act, nor to any similar statute
however much they might yield upon the point of duties
to regulate commerce. The repeal was carried, accomr
* It had cost the treasury ~12,000, of which but little more than a
twelfth part was returned from duties levied in Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, Quebec, Florida, and the West Indies.
t Since 1757, but with an interval.




PROVOCATIONS.                 173
panied, however, by a declaratory act, "for the better
securing the dependency of his majesty's dominions in
America upon the crown and Parliament of Great Britain
in all cases whatsoever." This was the answer of England
to the congress of America; the stamp act was laid aside;
but the power of taxation was more tightly grasped than
ever.
American  It was now the spring of 1766. And never had
rejoicings. that season been so full of bloom as in the gladness
which it now brought to the colonies. The fact that their
rejoicings over the repeal of the stamp act were unmingled
with any apparent misgivings as to the purpose of the declaratory act, shows the warmth of their attachment to the
mother country. Statues to Pitt and to the king, with indemnities to those who had suffered from the riots of the preceding year, were voted amidst a turbulence of congratulation such as no event had ever occasioned in America.
Forebodings returned with the following year.
The Parliament of 1767 created a board of revenue
commissioners for America; passed a tea act, by which
duties were imposed upon tea and other imports into the
colonies, for the purpose not only of providing for troops as
before, but of securing fixed salaries for the royal governors
and the royal judges; then pronounced the New York
assembly incapable of legislation until the quartering act
of 1765 was obeyed by that body, hitherto resisting its execution.  Here were three measures more comprehensive
and more oppressive than any parliamentary legislation had
as yet been.
Resist-    They were met as might have been expected.
ance   A "Let us complain to our parent," wrote John Dickagain. inson, a native of Maryland, and a representative of
Pennsylvania, in his Letters from a Farmer, " but let our
complaints speak at the same time the language of affliction
15 *




174               PART III. 1763-1797.
and veneration," (1767.) The beginning of the next year
(1768) brought out the sterner voice of Massachusetts
through her representatives, inveighing against all the enactments of Parliament, and calling upon the colonies to join
in one firm front of resistance. This measure the next
house was called upon to rescind, and by no less an authority than that of the ministry; but in vain. The same spirit
showed itself in all classes. The students of Harvard College declared the proceedings of their tutors unconstitutional, and called a tree by the name of Liberty. The
Boston Cadets —a volunteer guard of the governor — refused to appear if the revenue commissioners, who had their
head quarters at Boston, were invited to join a procession.
The commissioners were soon flying fiom a riot occasioned
by the seizure of John Hancock's sloop for a fraudulent
entry at the custom house.  Such was the prevailing confusion, that British troops were ordered to the town, (1768.)
This was too much for Boston. A town meeting
Massachusetts called upon the governor to convene the General
cov"en- Court.  On his refusal, the meeting advised the
tion.
people to get their arms ready, on account, it was
said, "of an approaching war with France;" then summoned
a convention from all Massachusetts.  This gathered, and
again requested the governor to summon the legislature.
He again refused, and hinted at treason in the convention,
with reason, indeed, considering the entire novelty of such
a body to him and to the colony. The convention, not very
full of fire, deprecated the displeasure of the governor, and
addressed a petition to the king. Just as the convention
was separating, the troops arrived, but without finding the
quarters that were demanded for them from Boston, sturdier
as a town than Massachusetts as a colony. " 0 my countrymen! " exclaimed Josiah Quincy, Jr., one of the truesthearted young men of Boston; "what will our children say




PROVOCATIONS.                  175
when they read the history of these times, should they find
we tamely gave away, without one noble struggle, the most
invaluable of earthly blessings?"  This was no appeal to
violence. "To banish folly and luxury," continued the
Christian patriot, "correct vice and immorality, and stand
immovable in the freedom in which we are free indeed, is
eminently the duty of each individual at this day," (1768.)
The new year (1769) began with a new provocaAct concerning tion, in the shape of an act directing that all cases
trials in of treason, whether occurring in the colonies or not,
England.
should be tried in the mother country. This was
worse than any taxation, worse than any extension of admiralty courts, any demand for quarters, any creation of
revenue commissioners, any suspension of assemblies; it
struck a blow at the safety of the person as well as the freedom of the subject. The planter at Mount Vernon, hitherto
calm, exclaims with indignation that "our lordly masters in
Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the
deprivation of American freedom." " That no man," he
writes, " should scruple or hesitate a moment to use arms in
defence of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion.
Yet arms, I would beg leave to add, should be the last resource."  The Virginia assembly, of which Washington
was still a member, passed resolutions of kindred spirit.
_Massachusetts was more than ready to follow. The Suffolk
grand jury indicted the governor of Massachusetts, the
commander-in-chief of the colonies in general, with the revenue commissioners and officers of the customs, for libelling
the province to the ministry. Joseph Hawley, representative from Northampton, declared in the house that he knew
not "how Parliament could have acquired a right of legislation over the colonies." Thus for every fresh provocation was there a fresh resistance, denying more and more
of the power that was more and more oppressive.




176                PART III. 1763-1797.
Colonial   The New York assembly now made its submisdivisions. sion to the quartering act. In doing so it gave
great offence to many of the people, one of whom was
thrown into prison for his violent denunciation of the assembly. Neither he nor the assembly showed much wisdom in
thus contending at a time when union was so much required.
But there were parties amongst the colonists, just as there
had been, indeed, from the beginning, but now more distinctly
marked and more widely separated.  No less than five
divisions existed, the central and the most substantial being
that of the class already mentioned as chief in the colonies.
This was flanked, on one side, by two orders more or less
inclined to submit to the mother country, and on the other
side by two orders more or less inclined to defy the mother
country. To begin with the royalists, their name explaining itself; then came the neutrals, as they may be styled,
neither precisely royalist nor precisely colonist; next the
colonists proper, in their close and resolute ranks - the men
on whom the issue depended more than on any others; and
after them the more excited parties, first of the Sons of Liberty, as they called themselves,* and second of the rioters.
Thus, with royalists and neutrals on one wing, and with
Sons of Liberty and rioters on the other, the main body of
the colonists had but a weary and an anxious march.
Boston   The difficulties of the case were nowhere more
massacre. apparent than in Boston. A constant tendency to
riot on the part of a portion of the townspeople required as
much energy on the part of the better class as any provocations from abroad against which they were contending.
While the wiser Bostonians were endeavoring to procure
-* From the words of Barres famous speech of 1765. Many of the
original Sons of Liberty were of the class described as the better one of
the time; but, at the present period, the order was made up of the more
turbulent spirits, yet not the most turbulent of all.




PROVOCATIONS.                  177
the withdrawal of the troops quartered amongst them, a
party of men and boys involved themselves in a quarrel
with the soldiers, the end of which was blood. This Boston
Massacre, as it was called, did but add to the burden of the
moderate and the effective citizens. The soldiers who had
fired upon the people required to be defended upon a charge
of murder; the authorities in England required to be convinced that the violence of the populace was as much deplored as the musketry of the soldiery. It marks the
increasing passions of the times, that the two advocates
retained by the English officer in command on the night of
the affray, though they were no less tried patriots than
John Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr., should have fallen
under censure for undertaking the defence. Happily for
the fame of Boston, they secured the safety of the accused,
only two out of nine being brought in guilty, and those of
manslaughter alone, for which they were branded in the
hand and then discharged, (1770.)
Other    Boston was not alone in these disturbances. North
disturb- Carolina saw a large portion of her interior settlers
ances.  banded together as Regulators * against the colonial
government; nor were they brought to reason without a
battle, in which they were defeated by a volunteer force
from the orderly portion of the colony, (1771.) In the
north, again, the burning of storehouses at Portsmouth, and
the destruction of the revenue schooner Gaspe in Narraganset Bay, kept up the flames of rashness and of outrage,
(1772.) The Gaspe, or its officers, however, had done all
that was possible to provoke its doom.
The mother country had been pursuing a comparatively
gentle course. The repeal of the duty upon many arti* A name first applied in South Carolina to a party undertaking to
execute the laws for themselves; in modern phrase, Lynch-law men.




178               PART III. 1763-1797.
cles imported into the colonies showed a disposition
Additional act con- to conciliate, (1770.)  Two years passed before any
cerning act appeared in relation to the colonies; nor could
trials.
that then enacted be called a provocation. In consequence of the occurrence at Portsmouth, a bill passed
Parliament to secure the trial in England of any incendiaries of the royal stores or ships in America, (1772.) It did
not please the colonists, not even the great party of moderation, to think that they had brought this sentence upon
themselves. The truth was, that the less moderate the
course of things, the fewer moderate men there were to
bring things back to moderation. What was done only by
the violent was upheld in many instances by the prudent; a
common sympathy was fast fusing all parties. So Boston
now held its town meeting, and put forth its memorial not
only against the acts of which it had to complain, but
against those which it seemed to have to apprehend.
Tea de-    The next year showed how fast the colonies were
stroyed indriving on. It began with resolutions from VirBoston. ginia, where a committee was appointed to correspond with the other colonies. To the closer union thus proposed, Rhode Island was the first to adhere, but without
immediate results. Yet, as the year advanced, the colonists found themselves the better prepared to combine in
resistance to the introduction of large quantities of tea, still
subject to duty. It was the plan partly of the East India
Company and partly of the ministry; the former hoping to
dispose of their swollen stock, the latter to obtain some of
the taxes that appeared to have been levied in vain upon
the colonies. Philadelphia was the first to take the field by
town meeting against tea and taxation. Boston soon followed; and when the proceedings of town meetings, both
ordinary and extraordinary, came to nought, as the governor
stood fast for the East India Company and the ministry,




PROVOCATIONS.                    179
the three vessels that had come in with tea were boarded,
and their cargoes thrown into the dock. It was a sad event
for many even of the more resolute citizens; but the majority, under the lead of Samuel Adams, was now composed
of the rash as well as the resolute; a party from the country
having been most active in the destruction of the tea, (December, 1773.)  A few weeks later, a smaller quantity of
tea, imported to private order, was also destroyed at Boston,
(February, 1774.)
And else- The same thing happened at New York and Anwhere. napolis. But the larger portion of the tea received
at New York, and all received at Philadelphia, was swiftly
returned to England. This returning the tea, or the storing it where it would soon lose its virtue, as in Charleston,
was a far wiser course than destroying it.  The process of
destruction was also the less bold. It was effected by men
disguised, or else so maddened as to scorn disguise.
Slave    It has already appeared how small a part of the
trade. provocations to the colonies consisted in mere measures of taxation. A signal instance of the comprehensive
inflictions from the mother country came up in the midst of
the transactions lately occurred.  The repugnance of the
colonies to the slave trade, reviving in these times of struggle, brought out renewed expressions of opposition and
abhorrence. Virginia attempted by her assembly to lay
restrictions on the traffic; but the royal governor was at
once directed by the authorities at home to consent to no
laws affecting the interests of the slave dealers, (1770(.)
The efforts of other colonies met with similar obstacles.
Bills of assemblies, petitions to the king, called forth by
the startling development of the trade,* were alike ineffect* In less than nine months, 6431 slaves were imported into the single
colony of South Carolina, from Africa and the West Indies.




180               PART III. 1763-1797.
ual. "It is the opinion of this meeting,"-thus ran the resolves of the county of Fairfax, George Washington chairman, -"that during our present difficulties and distress, no
slaves ought to be imported into any of the British colonies
on this continent; and we take this opportunity of declaring
our most earnest wishes to see an entire stop forever put to
such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade," (1774.)
Provocations were gathering heavily and rapidly.
Chastisement of Massachusetts and Boston, foremost in the tea trouMassat-  bles, and, soon after, in the disturbances occasioned
and Bos- by royal salaries to the governors and judges of the
toin.    colonies, were singled out for peculiar chastisement.
The Boston port bill closed the harbor of that town to all
importation and exportation.  Then General Gage, commander-in-chief of the British forces in the colonies, was
appointed governor of Massachusetts.  Not content with
creating this state of siege, the ministry brought in a bill
for the better regulating the government of Massachusetts
Bay, by which the colony was virtually deprived of its
charter. The councillors and superior judges were all to be
appointed by the crown; the inferior judges and other officers being left to the nomination of the governor, who was
invested with a sort of absolute authority.  No town meetings were to be held, except for elections, unless the governor saw fit to make any further exceptions.  No juries
were to be summoned, except by the sheriffs, that is, by the
officers of the governor. To crown the whole, a third bill
provided that persons charged with murder in sustaining
the government, should be sent to another colony or to England for trial — a shrewd precaution, considering the certainty of collision between the people and the government
under the system about to be enforced. Such were the
measures by which Massachusetts was to be crushed and
her sister colonies overawed. The crisis had come with
the spring and summer of 1774.




PROVOCATIONS.                   181
Quebec    Another proceeding of the same period was inact.   tended to separate the thirteen colonies from their
neighbors on the continent.  The French settlers in the
west had shown some signs of sympathy with the English
colonies,- not, indeed, by any direct cooperation, or even
intercourse, but by the same irrepressible instincts after
liberty. When their petition for a form of government in
which they could have some share was met by a system in
which none but the royal officials had any part, the French
in the Illinois country protested against it with all the fervor of their nature, (1773.) To keep such spirits down,
especially to keep them from combining with the kindred
spirits of the English colonies, seems to have been the main
object of the Quebec act, by which that province, extended
from  the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, was
placed under a government mostly of royal officials. At
the same time, the French were conciliated by the restoration of their law and of their church, (1774.)
Thus cut off from *their northern and western
conven- neighbors, the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies
tions and
Provin- gathered together against the mother-land.  A circial Congress in cular from  Boston to the towns of' Massachusetts
Massa-  called upon them to make common resistance to the
chusetts.
recent acts. Several of the towns, or rather counties, met by delegates in convention at Boston to resolve
upon measures of defence, amongst which "the military
art" and "a Provincial Congress" were prominent. A convention of Middlesex county at Concord resolved that " to
obey them," that is, the acts of Parliament, "would be to
annihilate the last vestiges of liberty in this province,"
(August.)  Ten days after, (September,) a convention of
Suffolk county at 3Milton recommended that the detested
acts " should be rejected as the attempts of a wicked administration to enslave America." The next month, (October,)
16




182              PART III. 1763-1797
the House of Representatives voted itself a Provincial Congress. This was decisive. But that it was done, must be
ascribed not merely to the inherent independence of {Massachusetts, but to the pervading sympathy of the sister
colonies.
NTationaIl    Has not this," wrote WVashington, nearly three
bpirit. months before, in relation to the acts of Parliament
and the proceedings of Governor General Gage, " has not
this exhibited an unexampled testimony of the most despotic
system of tyranny that was ever practised in a free government?...  Shall we supinely sit, and see one province after another fall a sacrifice to despotism?
Mly nature recoils at the thought of submitting to measures
which I think subversive of every thing that I ought to hold
dear and valuable." Such was the tone of every true voice,
the feeling of every true heart. A national spirit was
aroused.
Continen-  More than a year previously, Benjamin Franklin
tal Con- — now agent not only for Pennsylvania, but for
gress.  Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia —wrote
officially to the Massachusetts House of Representatives,
recommending a General Congress, (1773.) But it was not
until ten months afterwards that the project was taken up,
and then not in Massachusetts, but in Rhode Island. Virginia followed close, recommending that the Congress should
be annual, and voting that " an attack upon one colony was
an attack upon all British America," (May, 1774.)  Rhode
Island was the first to appoint delegates; Massachusetts
doing the same almost immediately, and the other colonies,
Georg;ia excepted, imitating these examples. The method
of appointment varied from choice by the assembly, or by a
convention of the whole colony, to choice by committees,
county and town, or by a single committee. It was a noble
body that met at Philadelphia on the 5th of September,




PROVOCATIONS.                    183
1774.  Samuel Adams and John Adams were there from
Massachusetts; John Jay from  New York; John Dickinson  from  Pennsylvania;  George Washington, Patrick
Henry, and Richard Henry Lee, from Virginia; Christopher Gadsden and John Rutledge from South Carolina.
"If you speak of eloquence," said Patrick Henry, on being
asked about the greatest man in Congress, "Mr. Rutledge
is by far the greatest orator; but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is
unquestionably the greatest man on that floor." It needed
all that the leaders, all that the members as a body, could'command, to meet the exigencies of the time. The Congress
that met to reject the stamp act, nine years before, had but
child's play to go through, compared with the work of the
present Congress - the Continental Congress, as it was
called.
Taxation had been the substance of three acts of
Its work. Parliament, or, at the most, of four.* There were
twice or thrice that number t upon other points to be opposed. Against all these provocations the Continental Congress put forth their declaration of colonial rights. In this,
much the same ground as to the allegiance and the general
rights of the colonies was taken as had been held by the
earlier Congress. It is therefore a document of secondary
importance in the progress of our history.
Not so the American Association.  This was a
American
Associa- body of articles, by which a stop was to be put, after
tion.   certain dates, to all importation from or exportation
* The sugar, the stamp, and the tea acts, with the act creating revenue commissioners.
t The quartering acts, the act suspending the New York assembly,
the acts concerning trials for treason and incendiarism, the three acts
against Massachusetts, the Quebec act, besides those portionsof the stamp
and tea acts relating to Admiralty Courts and royal salaries.




184               PART III. 1763-1797.
to Great Britain and its dependencies, so long as the oppressive acts of Parliament were not repealed.  "We will
neither import nor purchase any slaves imported after the
first day of December next," was one of the articles; " after
which time we will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor
will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manufactures, to those who are concerned in it." Thus humane
as well as bold, considerate for their inferiors as well as resolute towards their superiors, or those claiming to be such,
the members of the Continental Congress signed the American Association. The date was October 20, 1774. It was
the birthday of the nation.
Petition Together with the Association and the declaraand ad- tion, there came from Congress a petition to the king
dresses. and addresses to the people of Great Britain, British America, and Canada, besides letters to Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia, and the two Floridas.  These various documents being adopted, and the debates on all the stirring
questions of the time being concluded, not altogether with
unanimity, Congress separated, (October 26,) having provided that another Congress should be convened, if necessary, in the ensuing spring.
Peace or   "More blood," wrote Washington, during the session of Congress, " will be spilled on this occasion,
if the ministry are determined to push matters to extremity,
than history has ever yet furnished instances of in the annals
of North America." "After all," wrote Joseph Hawley from
Massachusetts to John Adams in Congress,-" after all, we
must fight." Adams read the letter to his colleague from
Virginia, the fervid Patrick Henry, who burst out with the
exclamation, "I am of that man's mind! "'It was not the
opinion of every one. Richard Henry Lee parted from
Adams with the assurance that "all the offensive acts will
be repealed.... Britain will give up her foolish project."




PROVOCATIONS.                  185
Prepara-   Come peace or come war, the Americans, as they
tion.   are hereafter to be called, were prepared. Not, it
is true, with armies or fortresses, not with the material
resources which they seemed to require, but with the spirit
that was of far greater importance, the source of all outward
strength and success. This spirit was not without its supports, intellectual or physical.  The struggles with the
mother country had called out orators and statesmen; whose
minds were daily making some fresh contribution to the
thought and the power of humanity. Physically, the
Americans were increasing their stores and extending their'domains. The road to the great west was opened with the
first settlement made in the present Tennessee, (1768.) If
old weaknesses lingered, if the disputes between colony and
colony continued, now on a question of boundary, now on
one of doctrine, they were lost in the union that had been
achieved, in the nation that had been born.
16*




CHAPTER II.
WAR.
Arming   THE very day that the Continental Congress
of Massa- separated, - October 26, 1774, - the Provincial
chusetts. Congress of Massachusetts took a step decisive of
war. This was the organization of the militia, consisting
of all the able-bodied men of the colony, one fourth of
them being constituted minute men, bound to take up arms
at a minute's warning. Soon afterwards, provision was
made for supplying the equipments and munitions of an
army. The whole was placed under the direction of a
committee of safety, with John Hancock for a chairman.
The arming of the colony had not been unproNot unprovoked voked. Two months before, General Gage, the
or unan- commander-in-chief and the governor, had begun
ticipated.
to fortify the land approach to Boston.  He had
also seized upon some stores of powder belonging to the
province at Charlestown. Such was the temper excited
against him, that Christopher Gadsden, the representative
of South Carolina in the Continental Congress, proposed an
immediate attack upon the British head quarters in Boston.
Neither was the arming of Massachusetts altogether unanticipated. No colony, indeed, had gone so far; but many
a town, many a band of individuals, was prepared for conflict. A rumor that Boston was bombarded by the British
brought out numbers of the Connecticut militia to the
rescue of their countrymen. Years before, when the stamp
(186)




%:XV~,,....'','.b9
zt:, i -"~!%.....








WAR.                     187
act was rousing the land to resistance, some ardent New
Yorkers had voted "to march with all despatch
to the relief of those who should or might be in danger
from the stamp act or its abettors," (1765.) The juncture
thus prepared for arrived when Massachusetts armed herself. From  that day, war was inevitable. The British
authorities would never sit by while such things were going
on, nor could they attempt any measures of repression
without arousing the colonists to use the weapons which
they had assumed.
Arming    The example of Massachusetts was soon followed.
of other Far and near, the colonies, by act of'assembly, or
colonies of convention, or of individual resolution, took up
the posture of defence. All the while, the national spirit
was sustained by the American Association, and by the
committees appointed to enforce it. Though not universally
prevalent, the Association had extended itself more widely
and more deeply than any previous bond of union amongst
the colonies. Earnest to maintain their ties and their
rights, the Americans drew out their lines. It was no
great show in a military point of view.  In point of
courage, of sacrifice, it was sublime.
courseof  The year was closing in England with a new
Parlia-  Parliament, in which the majorities for the ministry
ment.
t   were irresistible. Amongst the members was a
native of New York, Henry Cruger, who, having settled
as a merchant at Bristol, was elected mayor, and returned
to Parliament. In the prime of manhood, flushed with
generous emotion for the country of his birth, although
opposed to its revolutionary courses, he rose to make his
maiden speech against the severities with which the ministry was threatening America. "Can it be believed," he
cries, " that Americans will be dragooned into a conviction
of this right of parliamentary taxation? " The plea was




188              PART III. 1763-1797.
taken up by men of greater influence. As the new year
(1775) opened, Chatham and Burke devoted themselves to
obtaining justice for America. In vain; the petition of the
Continental Congress to the king was refused a hearing;
rebellion was declared to exist in Massachusetts, and to be
abetted by other colonies. The " New England restraining
act" cut off the New England colonies from the fishery and
from all trade, save to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies. The prohibition was soon extended to
the other colonies; New York, North Carolina, and Georgia
being spared on account of their expected submission. At
the same time, Lord North, the prime minister, brought out
what he called a conciliatory proposition, to the effect that
the colonies should not be taxed by Parliament, if they
would tax themselves, and therewith raise the sums which
Parliament should deem  necessary.  "They complain,"
was the decisive reply of Edmund Burke, "that they are
taxed without their consent; you answer that you will fix
the sum at which they shall be taxed. That is, you give
them the very grievance for the remedy." The proposition,
thus clearly seen through by an Englishman, was not likely
to blind Americans. Out of Parliament, there were few to
take any active part in relation to America. We should
not, however, pass over the suggestion of Dr. Tucker, Dean
of Gloucester, that Parliament should declare the colonies
separated from the mother country until they humbled
themselves to ask for forgiveness and for restoration. Had
the dean's idea been adopted, how much wrong, how much
blood, might have been saved!
First    But the Americans and the British were now to,collision. meet in arms. A party of one hundred and fifty
troops, sent from Boston to seize some cannon at Salem,
not finding it there, marched on towards Danvers. On their
way, they came to a bridge, occupied at first by a few coun



WAR.                     189
try people, but presently by a company of militia under
Colonel Pickering. As the draw was up, the British attempted to cross the stream in boats, and in doing so, used
their bayonets freely enough to wound the men who kept
the boats from them. A serious conflict would have ensued but for the mediation of Mir. Barnard, a clergyman
of Salem, who prevailed on the British officer, Lieutenant
Colonel Leslie, to return in case the troops were allowed
to cross the bridge. This was agreed to on the American
side; the troops crossed, advanced a few rods, then faced
about, and retired without the cannon of which they had
come in search. The date was February 26, 1775.
Its sig-   The collision is memorable as the first of the
nificance. war. It is also to be remarked as strikingly significant of the collisions that followed. The same paucity
of numbers, the same restriction of movements, the same
ineffectiveness of results, characterize the whole strife between Great Britain and America. WVe must be prepared
for operations on a small scale, and with a small effect, each
taken alone. Taken together, however, the operations of
the war bear a nearer proportion to the greatness of the
stakes at issue.
The next encounter was more serious. It took
Lexington and place in the early morning of April 19. A force
Concord. 
of eight hundred troops, marching from Boston to
Concord, for the purpose of destroying the military stores
collected in that place, met not quite a hundred minute
men at Lexington. The British fired; the minute men
returned the fire, but, of course, retreated, leaving a few
of their number killed and wounded. The men of Concord
retired before the troops without attempting resistance; but
from the surrounding towns there came other minute men
so numerous and so spirited as to engage with the British,
and compel them to retreat. The retreat became a flight;




1 3 0           PART III. 1763-1797.
nor would the fugitives have escaped but for the reinforcements which met them at Lexington. The number of the
Americans being also on the increase, the retreat, resumed
at Lexington, proved very difficult. Had it been protracted, the arrival of fresh parties of minute men would have
cut it off altogether. As it was, the British, out of seventeen hundred troops, lost nearly three hundred in killed,
wounded, and prisoners. The Americans, amounting in all
to several hundred, lost less than one hundred.
" An inhuman soldiery," wrote Joseph Warren,
Effect.
Mlecklen- president of the Provincial Congress, to the comburg dec- mittees of safety throughout Massachusetts, "enlaration.
raged at being repulsed from the field of slaughter,
will, without the least doubt, take the first opportunity in
their power to ravage this devoted country with fire and
sword. We conjure you, therefore, that you give all assistance possible in forming an army."  Massachusetts voted
that at least thirty thousand men ought to be raised by
New England, herself furnishing nearly half the number.
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire soon responded, but not quite so liberally as the sister colony had
desired. Out of New England, the agitation was the same.
"The once happy and peaceful plains of America," wrote
Washington from Philadelphia, "are either to be drenched
with blood or inhabited by slaves.  Sad alternative! But
can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice? "  The news,
travelling slowly, reached the town of Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, where a county convention
was in session. It lent resolution to the delegates, who.adopted some resolves, which have been called a declaration of independence, but which, in their more authentic
form, simply declare the colonial constitution, as it had
been, to be suspended, and the legislative and executive power to be vested for the time in the Provincial
and Continental Congresses, (May.) This declaration of




WAR.                      191
Mecklenburg county was communicated to the Provincial
Congress of the colony, without, however, obtaining the
sympathy of that assembly. It was also forwarded to the
North Carolina representatives in the Continental Congress;
but so little did it move them, that they did not even lay it
before their colleagues.
tWar in    The troops of New  England were gathering
Massa- about Boston. The people of Massachusetts sent
ehusetts. an address to the people of Great Britain. " Appealing to Heaven," they declared, " for the justice of our
cause, we determine to die or to be free." Repelling a
Connecticut offer of mediation between herself and her
governor, General Gage, Massachusetts voted him  "an
unnatural and inveterate enemy" - a compliment which he
afterwards returned by pronouncing the Massachusetts
people "rebels and traitors."  The breach yawned wide,
and wider still, as the passions and the outrages of war
poured in.
So far the Americans had acted on the defensive.
Ticonder- But now a band of volunteers from Connecticut
oga and
crown  and the Green Mountains, led by Ethan Allen and
Seth Warner, with whom went Benedict Arnold,
under a Massachusetts commission, surprised the small garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, (May 10-12.)
Descending thence against various places on Lake Champlain, the adventurous band secured a large booty, and then
separated, leaving a considerable portion of their number
in possession of the Point and Ticonderoga.
Proceed- The spirit aroused in action appeared in deliberaings in  tion likewise. When the new Congress assembled
Congress. at Philadelphia in the spring, (May 10,) it began
upon measures more determined by far than those of the
former body. The members were mostly the same; but
the circumstances in which they met were as different as




192              PART III. 1763-1797.
peace and war. Massachusetts opened the way to new res.
olutions, by recommending the creation of an American
army, and by asking instruction as to the form of government under which she should place herself.  Congress an.
swered the request by advising the election of a council and
an assembly, who should administer the colony by themselves, until a governor should appear to take his part according to the charter of 1691. Soon afterwards, the Provincial Congress of MIassachusetts gave way to a General
Court or assembly. The recommendation of an army was
followed by Congress in adopting the troops before Boston
as the American continental army. To this were also
summoned a few companies of riflemen from the southern
colonies.
Washing-   The creation of an army required the creation
ton aP- of a commander. No act of Congress could be
pointed
command- more important, none proved more successful, than
er-in-chief. the appointment of Colonel George Washington,
representative from Virginia. "We, the delegates of the
United Colonies,"- thus runs the commission of WVashington, -" reposing special trust and confidence in your patriotism, conduct, and fidelity, do by these presents constitute
and appoint you to be general and commander-in-chief of
the army of the United Colonies.... And you are
hereby vested with full power and authority to act as you
shall think for the good and welfare of the service." Rapid
as these outlines of events must be, they will bear repeated
testimony to the unequalled, indeed the hitherto unconceived
devotion of Washington to the cause of his country. His
acceptance of the commission. itself the greatest act of sacrifice that he could make, was accompanied by the refusal
of all pecuniary compensation for his services. It was a
memorable day when this devoted career begarn -June 15.
1775.




WAR.                      193
Bunker   As if to do honor to the general thus given them,
1Ri11   the New England troops, just declared the continental army, furnished a detachment of one thousand, under
Colonel Prescott, to take possession of Bunker's Hill, a
point of great importance to the lines around Boston. He,
through a mistake assisted by the ardor of his character,
threw up his redoubt upon Breed's lIill, an eminence considerably nearer to the town. ReSnforced by a thousand
men, the party completed their fortifications in time to receive the three thousand British troops assailing them fiom
Boston. Twice was the advance of the enemy repelled;
but the failure of ammunition obliged the Americans to
retreat, leaving one of their most heroic hearts, President
and Major General Joseph Warren, dead upon the field.
Four hundred and fifty of them in all were killed or wounded; the British losing more than twice that number. The
battle of Bunker Hill, as it was afterwards called, has been
greatly magnified beyond the importance attached to it at
the time. But there can be no question of its having done
much to mortify the British, who had always boasted that
the Americans would fly before them, as well as much to
elate the Americans, although they had always boasted that
they would resist their foes, (June 17.)
TWashington heard of the battle at New York, on
ton at the his way to the army. Hastening his journey, he
head of arrived at Cambridge, which was to be his head
the army
quarters, and assumed the command. On the next
day, July 4, he issued an order to the forces. "The Continental Congress," he proclaimed, "having now taken all
the troops of the several colonies, which have been raised
Dr which may be hereafter raised for the support and defence of the liberties of America, into their pay and service,
they are now the troops of the United Provinces of North
America; and it is hoped that all distinctions of colonies
17




194               PART III. 1763-1797.
will be laid aside, so that one and the same spirit may animate the whole.... The general requires and expects
of all officers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine service, to implore the blessings of Heaven
upon the means used for our safety and defence." Thus
appealing to the love of country and to the fear of God,
Washington called upon his countrymen to do their duty in
the war.
Difficul.   Not every one was disposed to hear him. Inties.   deed, there were but few who came up to the standard of their chief, either as soldiers or as men. When we
read of their deficiencies and of his embarrassments, we
must remember that he and those like him were the representatives of the better class of Americans, already described
as most prominent and most wise during the struggles of
the preceding years. They, on the other hand, who fell
short of the demands upon them, were of the other classes,
the rash or the timid, the too presumptuous or the too submissive.
Siege of   Washington at once determined to lay regular
Boston. siege to Boston. His first object was merely to
shut up the British in the town, (July.) Presently, he
tried to bring on an attack from  the enemy against the
American lines, (August.) This failing, he formed the purpose of attacking the British in their own lines, (September.)  He deferred to the objections of his officers, and put
off the assault, without, however, abandoning his designs.
All the while, he had no arms, no ammunition, no pay for
his troops from Congress; no general support from his officers or men; no obedience even, at times, from the soldiers
or from the crews of the armed vessels acting in concert
with the army. It was very difficult to fill the ranks to any
degree at all proportioned to the operations of the siege.
"' There must be some other stimulus," he writes to the




WAR.                     195
president of Congress, "besides love for their country, to
make men fond of the service." " Such a dearth of public
spirit," he laments to a personal friend, " and such want of
virtue, such stockjobbing and fertility to obtain advantages
of one kind and another, I never saw before, and pray
God's mercy that I may never be witness to again.
I tremble at the prospect....   Could I have foreseen
what I have experienced and am likely to experience, no
consideration upon earth should have induced me to accept
this command." Such were the circumstances, and such
the feelings, in which the commander-in-chief found himself
conducting the great operation of the year.
General   By this time there was not only an army, but a
govern- government of America. The Continental Conment.
gress, declaring themselves to be acting "in defence
of the freedom that is our birthright," took all the measures, military, financial, and diplomatic, which the cause
appeared to require. The organization of the army was
continued; that of the militia was attempted. A naval
committee was appointed, and a navy - if the name can be
used on so small a scale- was called into existence. Hospitals were provided. Several millions of continental currency were issued, and a treasury department created. A
post office was also organized. Several of the colonies who
had applied for advice upon the point were recommended to
frame governments for themselves. The Indian relations
were reduced to system. A last petition to the king, with
addresses to Great Britain and London, Ireland and Jamaica, was adopted. More significant than all else was the
appointment of a committee of secret correspondence with
Europe. In short, the functions of a general government
were assumed by Congress and recognized throughout the
colonies.
At the beginning of August, Georgia signified her acces



196              PART III. 1763-1797.
The thir- sion to the other colonies, thus completing the thirteen com- teen. A fourteenth offered itself in Transylvania,
plete.  the present Kentucky, where one or two small settlements had just been made. But Congress could not
admit the delegate of a territory which Virginia claimed as
under her jurisdiction. The nation and the government
remained as the Thirteen United Colonies.
Military   Military operations, apart from the siege of Bosoperations. ton, were numerous, if not extensive.  The landing
of a British party at Gloucester was repelled. The fort
near Charleston was seized by the Americans, who also
drove the British ships out of the harbor. Norfolk, for
some time in the hands of the British, was recovered after
a gallant action. On the other hand, Stonington, Bristol,
and Falmouth were not saved from bombardment, Falmouth (now Portland) being nearly annihilated.  The
Americans, in return, sent out their privateers; those commissioned by Washington, especially his "famous Manly,"
as he called one of his captains, doing great execution in
Massachusetts Bay. Offensive operations were pursued on
land. A projected expedition against Nova Scotia was
given up, chiefly on account of the friendly feeling of that
province. But a twofold force, partly from the New York
and partly from the Maine side, marched against Canada.
St. John's and Montreal were taken by the Americans under
General Montgomery, who fell in an assault on Quebec the
last day of the year. Arnold, the same who had gone
against Crown Point and Ticonderoga, kept up the show of
besieging Quebec through the winter, but in the spring the
Americans retreated within their own borders. One of the
most successful operations of the period was towards the
close of winter, when fifteen hundred Highllanders and Regulators, who had enlisted under the royal banner in North
Carolina, were defeated by two thirds their number of




TAR.                     197
Americans, under Colonel Moore. It saved the province
to the country.
The mention of those enlisted in the royal cause
suggests the increasing divisions amongst the Americans. A large number, who had looked on or even joined
in the proceedings of former days, drew off, if they did not
take a hostile position, in these days of war. Companies
and regiments of royal or loyal Americans began to abound.
Some of these loyalists, as they were styled, were roughly
handled by their indignant neighbors, who spared neither
person nor property. One of the New York Sons of Liberty, Isaac Sears, impatient at the moderate course pursued
by the committee of safety, brought in an armed band from
Connecticut, to destroy the press of Rivington's Gazetteer,
a journal in the British interest. Such doings were more
likely to introduce dissensions amongst the patriots than to
subdue the loyalists. But when did riot fail to go hand in,
hand with war?
Great Britain, on her part, was united. Few
Great
Britain and faint were the voices raised in defence of the
deter- Americans, since the news of Lexington and Bunmined.
ker Hill. Edmund Burke and one or two of the
same spirit continued to plead for the American cause, but
all unavailingly. The last petition of Congress to the king
was rejected. A bill of confiscation, as it may be called,
was passed against the trade, the merchandise, and the shipping of the colonies; whatever crews might be captured
were to be impressed into the British navy. The army in
America was augmented to forty thousand, partly by British
and partly by German troops. In fine, the reduction of the
colonies was the one great object with the larger part of the
people, as with the rulers of Great Britain.
All the while, Washington was before Boston. But his
attention was not wholly concentrated there. On the con17*




198              PART III. 1763-1797.
Washing- trary, his voice was to be heard in all directions, on
ton before the march to Canada, in the posts of New York, on
Boston.
board the national cruisers, at the meetings of committees and assemblies, in the provincial legislatures, within
Congress itself, every where pointing out what was to be
done, and the spirit in which it was to be done. They who
doubt his military ability or his intellectual greatness will
do well to follow him through these first months of the war;
if they do it faithfully, they will doubt no more. The
activity, the judgment, the executive power, and above all
the moral power of the great general and the great man
are nowhere in history more conspicuous than in those
rude lines before Boston.
Recovery   To add to the difficulties of the siege, the army
of the  went through a complete process of disbanding and
town.  recruiting, on account of the general unwillingness
to serve for any length of time. Without men and without
munitions, Washington sublimely kept his post, until, after
months of disappointment, he obtained the means to take
possession of Dorchester Heights, whence the town was
completely commanded. The enemy, under General Howe,
had long meditated the evacuation of the place; and they
now the more readily agreed to leave it on condition that
they should be unmolested. The 17th of AMarch, 1776,
eight months and a half from the time that Washington
undertook the siege, his generalship and his constancy were
rewarded with success.
The vic-   It was certainly an amazing victory. "I have
tory.   been here months together," he wrote to his brother,
"with what will scarcely be believed, not thirty rounds of
musket cartridges to a man... We have maintained
our ground against the enemy under this want of powder,
and we have disbanded one army, and recruited another,
within musket shot of two and twenty regiments, the flower




WAR.                      199
of the British army, whilst our force has been but little, if
any, superior to theirs; and, at last, have beaten them into
a shameful and precipitate retreat out of a place the strongest by nature on this continent, and strengthened and fortified at an enormous expense." Such being the result of
the only operation in which the Americans and the British
met each other as actual armies, there was reason for
Washington and his true-hearted countrymen to exult and
to hope.
Increas-   But the country was in danger. An attack was
ingperils. feared at New York; another at Charleston: the
whole coast, indeed, lay open and defenceless. The year
of warfare ended in greater apprehensions and in greater
perils than those in which it began.




CHAPTER III.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
Transfor-  THE colonies were fighting at a disadvantage.
fation Not only were their resources, in a military point
of colonies to of view, inferior to those of their great antagonist;
states.
this was but a minor consideration with them. They
were taxed with rebellion; they were branded with the
name of rebels by their enemies, nay, by those of their
own people who opposed the war. On many, these epithets
made no impression; they were rather acceptable than
otherwise to the more ardent and the more violent. But
to the moderate and to the calm, it was intolerable to be
charged with mere sedition. They to whom the nation
owed all that was prudent, as well as valiant in its present
situation, were men of law and order in a peculiar degree.
The earliest care with those of Massachusetts, after the
affair of Lexington, had been to prove that the British
troops were the first to fire; in other words, that the people
were defending, and not transgressing, their rights. So
now it became a matter of the highest interest to set the
war in its true light, by raising the Americans from the
position of subjects to that of a nation. There was but
one way, and this the transformation of the colonies into
states.
Idea of    The idea of independence, however, was of slow
independ- growth. The Mecklenburg declaration, as we have
ence.  read, found no favor.  The general, if not the
(200)




DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.            201
universal, sentiment was still in favor of reconciliation.' During the course of my life," said John Jay in later
years, " and until after the second petition of Congress in
1775, I never heard an American of any class or of any
description express a wish for the independence of the
colonies." But when that petition of Congress to the king
was rejected, when the English government, in consequence,
pledged itself to continue its system of oppression, then the
resolution of the colonies rose, all the more determined for
having been delayed.
Nearly a year had elapsed since the North Carocarolina linians of Mecklenburg county made their declraand Yir- tion, when the North Carolinians of the entire
ginia.
colony united in authorizing their delegates in Congress to concur with those of the other colonies in declaring
independence, (April 23, 1776.) A few weeks afterwards,
(May 15,) the Virginians instructed their delegates to
propose a declaration of independence to Congress.
Congress had already committed itself. Its recCongress. ommendations of the year previous to some of the
colonies, that they should set up governments for themselves, had just been extended to all. It had also voted
"that the exercise of every kind of authority under the
crown should be totally suppressed," (May 15.)  What
else was this than to pronounce the colonies independent
states? Subsequent resolutions and declarations were but
the carrying out of the decision already made.
Hesita-    But as it had not been made, so it was not cartion.   ried out without hesitation. More than one earnest
mind, bent upon independence in the end, considered the
course of things thitherward to be much too hurried. "My
countrymen," wrote Washington, (April 1,) "'from  their
form of government, and their steady attachment heretofore to royalty, will come reluctantly into the idea of inde-.




202              PART III. 1763-1797.
pendence; but time and persecution bring many wonderful
things to pass."  He was right; the spirits and numbers
of those resolved upon immediate independence increased
apace
Lee's res- The instructions of Virginia were soon obeyed.
olution. Upon the journals of Congress, under date of June
7, there occurs an affecting entry of " certain resolutions
respecting independency being moved and seconded." No
names are mentioned, no words of the resolutions are
recorded. It is as if Congress had felt its own feebleness
in comparison with the solemnity of the cause, and so
deVply, as to hold its breath and give no sign of what was
passing. The mover was Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia,
the seconder John Adams, of Massachusetts; and the resolution was, " That these United Colonies are, and of right
ought to be, free and independent states; that they are
absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that
all political connection between them and the state of Great
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."
Opposition was immediate and resolute. At its
head stood John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, whose
ten years' championship of colonial rights was assurance
of his present faithfulness. The ground common to him
and to the other opponents of the resolution was simply the
prematureness of the measure. Nor does it seem that they
were altogether mistaken. Whatever was urged by the
advocates of the resolution, there were but seven colonies,
the barest possible majority, to unite in favor of a proceeding so decisive, (June 10.) Instead of pressing their views,
~the party in favor of the resolution were wise enough to
postpone its final disposition for several weeks. On the
otheraide, the opposing party, so far from exciting the
country against the resolution, appear to have decided that
it should have a fair consideration, and that if the colonies




DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.            203
rejecting it could be brought to favor it, they would be
satisfied by the delay that had been interposed for deliberation
At the same time, a committee was appointed to
Commitee mit- prepare a declaration according to the tenor of the
declara- resolution.  Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, John
tion.
Adams, Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania, Roger
Sherman, of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston, of New
York, constituting the committee, united upon a draught by
Jefferson.  "Whether I had gathered my ideas," he said
at a later time, " from reading or reflection, I do not know.
I know only that I turned to neither book nor pamphlet
while writing it. I did not consider it as any part of my
charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no sentiment which had never been expressed before." Truth to
be told, there was neither originality nor novelty in the
production. Its facts, so far as they related to the course
of Britain or of the British king, were peculiar to the
cause at issue. But the principles of human and of colonial rights were substantially such as Englishman after
Englishman, as well as American after American, had
asserted. The merit of the document was its appropriateness, its harmony with the ideas of a people who had risen
to defend their birthright, rather than to win any thing not
already theirs. The committee reported the declaration to
Congress, (June 28.)
Ilesolu- Its adoption depended upon the adoption of the
tion   resolution of which it was but the expression. The
adopted. resolution was therefore called up, (July 1.) A
day's debate ensued; nor was the decision unanimous.
Four delegations hung back; one, New York, because it
had received no instructions to vote upon so grave a question; the other three, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South
Carolina, on account of their own reluctance. The South




204               PART III. 1763-1797.
Carolinians asked the postponement of a definitive vote
until the next morning. When the morning came, they
withdrew their opposition.  The Pennsylvanian and Delaware delegates — some members retiring and others coming in-gave their voices likewise to the resolution.  It
thus received the unanimous vote of all the colonies, New
York excepted, and she only for a few days, until her delegates could be instructed to concur with their colleagues,
(July 9-15.)  It was the 2d of July, 1776, the true date
of American independence.*
The declaration followed as a matter of course.
And the
declara- It was delayed only to receive a few amendments,
tion.
tion when it was adopted by the same vote as the resolution, (July 4.)
Thie     Thus were the colonies of Great Britain transUnited  formed into the United States of America.  "As
States.  free and independent states," were the words of the
declaration, "they have full power to levy war, conclude
peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all
other acts and things which independent states may of right
do."  No longer the subjects of Great Britain, but an
equally independent nation, the United States were no
longer open to imputations upon their course from abroad,
or to doubts of it amongst themselves.  When Admiral
Lord HIowe, and his brother, the general, commander-inchief of the British army, offered amnesty in the king's
name to all Americans who would return to their allegiance,
the offer was regarded as a national insult by Congress.
What had Great Britain to forgive, or who had asked for
forgiveness?
The day after a committee had been appointed to draw
* As the utmost discrepancy exists amongst the later histories as to
these votes and dates, it seems advisable to state that Jefferson and
Adams are the authorities followed in the text.




DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.            205
Plan of up the declaration, another, and a larger one, reconfod-  ceived the charge of preparing a plan of confedera.
eration.
tion, (June 12.)  This was reported a week after
the adoption of the declaration, but no action was taken
upon it, (July 12.) Circumstances postponed any decision;
nor were the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual
Union, as they were styled, actually adopted by Congress
until more than a year later, (November 15-17, 1777,)
when they were recommended to the states for adoption.
A long time elapsed before all the states complied.
Meanwhile Congress continued to be the uniting
Unity                    
in Con- as well as the governing authority. Its members,
gress. renewed from time to time by their respective constituencies, met together as the representatives, not merely
of the different states, but of the common nation. It was
imperfectly, as we shall perceive, that Congress served the
purpose of a central power.  Its treaties, its laws, its
finances, its armaments, all depended upon the consent and
the cooperation of the states. But it continued to be the
body in which the states were blended together, however
variously, in one.
State    iThe states were every where forming governconstitu- ments of their own. Massachusetts took the lead,
tions.
as was observed, in the early summer of 1775.
Six or seven months afterwards, New Hampshire organized
her assembly and council, with a president of the latter
body, (1776.) the same year brought about the establishment of state authorities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina.
Of the other states, Rhode Island and Connecticut were
naturally content with the liberal governments which already existed under their ancient charters. New York
and Goorgia set up their governments a year subsequently,
(1777.) But the original forms underwent numerous and
18




206               PART II1. 1763-1797.
repeated modifications; each state amending its constitution
or constructing a new one, according to its exigencies. As
a general thing, each had a governor, with or without a
council, for an executive; a council, or Senate, and a House
of Representatives, for a legislature; and one or more
judicial bodies for a judiciary. Indeed, the states were
much more thoroughly organized than the nation.
Both constitutions and declarations had arisen
Divisions
amongst amidst the most distracting divisions. The differthe peo- ences in Congress, or amongst the leading class
throughout the country, were trifling in comparison
with the factions of the people as a whole. On this side
were flaming patriots, who thought nothing done unless
outcry and force were employed; on that were selfish and
abject spirits, thinking that nothing should be done at all.
Tories, or loyalists, abounded in one place; in another,
rioters and marauders; every where dark plots were laid,
dark deeds perpetrated.  The greater was the work of
those, the few, the wise, and the devoted, who -led the
nation through its strifes to independence.




CHAPTER IV.
WAR, CONTINUED.
SECOND PERIOD.
Three    THE war of independence naturally divides itself
periods.  into three periods. Of these, the first has been described in a preceding chapter, as beginning with the arming of Massachusetts, in October, 1774, and extending to
the recovery of Boston, in March, 1776 — a period of a
year and a half, of which something less than a year, dating from the affrays at Lexington and Concord, was actually
a period of war. We are now to go through the second
and third periods.
Charac-   The second period is of little more than two years
teristics -from  April, 1776, to July, 1778.  The chief
of the second peri- points to characterize it are these, namely, that the
od.    main operations were in the north, and that the
Americans fought their battles without allies.
Reception The Declaration of Independence was transmitted
of the Dee- to the commander-in-chief, with the request of Conlaration.
laration gress to "have it proclaimed at the head of the
army." It was what both commander and army had been
waiting for. " The general hopes "- thus ran the order of
the day -" that this important event will serve as a fresh
incentive to every officer and soldier to act with fidelity and
courage, as knowing that now the peace and safety of his
country depend, under God, solely on the success of our
(207)




208              PART III  1763-1797.
arms, and that he is now in the service of a state possessed
of sufficient power to reward his merit and advance him to
the highest honors of a free country," (July 9.)  On the
same day, Washington wrote to the president of Congress:
"I caused the Declaration to be proclaimed before all the
army under my immediate command, and have the pleasure
to inform Congress that the measure seemed to have their
most hearty assent; the expressions and behavior, both of
officers and men, testifying their warmest approbation of it."
The adhesion of the army was one thing; their obedience
to the inspiration which their commander suggested was
another. But, for the moment, a new impulse seemed to be
felt by all.
A brilliant feat of arms had preceded the deeDefence of
Charles- laration. The anticipated descent upon the southton.   ern coast was made off Charleston, by a British
force, partly land and partly naval, under the command of
General Clinton and Admiral Parker. The Americans,
chiefly militia, were under General Lee. Fort Sullivan,* a
few miles below Charleston, became the object of attack.
It was so gallantly defended, the fort itself by Colonel
Moultrie, and an adjoining battery by Colonel Thomson,
that the British were obliged to abandon their expedition
and retire to the north, (June 28.) A long time passed
before the enemy reappeared in the south.
Loss of    Meanwhile Washington had transferred his quarNew   ters from Boston to New York, (April 13,) which
York.  he was busy in fortifying against the expected foe.
Troops from Halifax, under General Howe, joined by
British and Hessians under Admiral Howe, and by the discomfited forces of the southern expedition, landed at various
times on Staten Island, to the number of between twenty
* Afterwards Fort Moultrie.




WAR, CONTINUED.                 209
and thirty thousand. The number of the Americans was
considerably less. After long delays, the enemy crossed to
Long Island, and routed the American detachments under
General Putnam, (August 27.) A speedy retreat to New
York Island alone saved the Americans from a surrender.
A fortnight after, the British crossed in pursuit, the advanced posts of the Americans actually flying before them,
(September 15.) The city of New York was at once evacuated by Washington, who led his forces towards the north.
" We are now encamped," he writes, " with the main body
of the army on the Heights of Haerlem, where I should
hope the enemy would meet with a defeat in case of an
attack, if the generality of our troops would behave with
tolerable bravery. But experience, to my extreme affliction, has convinced me that this is rather to be wished for
than expected."  He did not write thus without good reason. Little besides incompetency and desertion on the part
of his men had attended his vain attempt to save New
York.
Loss succeeded loss.  Two defeats on  Lake
Loss of
Lake   Champlain drove the Americans, under Benedict
lan and Arnold, not only from the lake, but from the fortress
the lower of Crown Point, (October 11-14.) In the neighHudson. borhood of New York, Washington was obliged to
abandon one position after another; the defeat of White
Plains (October 28) making still farther retreat necessary.
The forts upon the Hudson were presently lost; Fort Washington being taken with its garrison, (November 16,) and
Fort Lee being evacuated, (November 20.)  W~ith a diminishing army, in which, moreover, he had lost his confidence, the commander-in-chief decided to fall back fiom the
banks of the Hudson into New Jersey.
Loss of    At the same time that the Americans were reNewport. treating from New York, another of their chief
18 *




210               PART III. 1763-1797.
towns upon the seaboard was captured. A large detach.
ment from the British army took possession of Newport
without a blow, (December 8.) The island was overrun,
and Providence blockaded.
Losses increased defections.  "Between you and
Defence of
New Jer- me," writes Washington oin his retreat, "I think our
sey.   affairs are in a very bad condition, -not so much
from the apprehension of General Howe's army, as from
the defection of New York, the Jerseys, and Pennsylvania.
In short, the conduct of the Jerseys has been most infamous.... If every nerve is not strained,... I think the
game is pretty nearly up," (December 18.) Disheartening
as were the circumstances, he called around him his more
faithful officers, and with them planned an achievement
which seemed to require all the encouragements of prosperity and of sympathy. Followed by his handful of twenty-four hundred, while other detachments failed to keep up
with him, he crossed the Delaware amid the ice and the
cold of Christmas night, and on the following morning took
a thousand Hessian prisoners at Trenton.  The British
immediately advanced against him. He could not meet
them; for it would be destruction to his inferior numbers.
He would not retreat before them; for it would be despair
to his gallant adherents. To avoid either alternative, he
marched, after a slight engagement, upon the rear of the
hostile army at Princeton, (January 3.) Three hundred
prisoners, the safety and the increased animation of his soldiers and his countrymen, were his reward. The only drawvback was the loss of many brave spirits, amongst whom none
was braver than General Mercer.  Had Washington had
-but a few hundred fresh troops, he would have pushed on
to Brunswick and destroyed the entire stores of the enemy.
As it was, the rising of the militia, and the continued activity of Washington, even in his winter quarters, cleared the




WAR, CONTINUED.               211
state of the invaders, excepting at Brunswick and Amboy.
Six months after, it was totally evacuated, (June 30, 1777.)
All the time that Washington was thus retreating
Organization of and advancing, he was enforcing the lesson of his
army.  experiences upon the government. He could do
comparatively little, as he repeatedly informed Congress,
for want of no less essential an instrument than an army.
The American forces, during the campaign, had consisted in
part of continental, or regular, and in part of militia troops,
all raised on different terms, -that is, by different bounties
and under different appointments, - by the different states.
What Washington wanted, what the country needed, was
an army recruited, officered, equipped, and paid upon a
national system. Nor was Congress insensible to the necessity. Before the declaration of independence, a board of
war and of ordnance had been chosen from the members of
Congress, to direct the military affairs of the nation. Afterwards, when the calamities of the autumn were weighing
heavily, Congress ordered the formation of a continental
army. But the wants, thus attempted to be supplied, continued. It was left entirely to the states to raise the troops
and to appoint all but the general officers, while the pay
and the term of enlistment proposed by Congress were
wholly inadequate to the emergencies on which Washington
insisted. "The measure was not commenced," wrote he to
his brother, "till it was too late to be effected, and then in
such a manner as to bid adieu to every hope of getting an
army from which any services are to be expected." " The
unhappy policy of short enlistments," the need of "some
greater encouragement" in pay, "the different states' nominating such officers as are not fit to be shoeblacks," the
tendency of the states to fall back from regular troops upon
the militia, " a destructive, expensive, and disorderly mob,"
— all these complaints from the commander-in-chief show
that there was still no organization of the army.




212               PART i11. 1763-1797.
Dictator-   Alarmed by the disasters of the time, Congress
ship.  resolved, "that General Washington shall be, and
he is hereby, vested with full, ample, and complete powers"
to raise, officer, and equip an army. To provide for its
necessities, he was authorized "to take, wherever he may
be, whatever he may want for the use of the army, if the inhabitants will not sell it, allowing a reasonable price for the
same."  He was also commissioned " to arrest and confine
persons who refuse to take the continental currency, or are
otherwise disaffected to the American cause," (December
27, 1776.)  This commission of a dictatorship, the last
resort of the ineffective Congress, and yet one of that body's
wisest deeds, was to continue six months. It was afterwards renewed in much the same terms. But the powers
were too dictatorial for such a man as Washington to exercise fully; nor did the partial use which he made of them
effect the object of so great importance in his eyes. The
war went on without any thing that could be called an a.ctual
army on the American side.
Paper    The want of an army sprang, to a great degree,
money. from the want of a treasury.  Congress, voting all
sorts of appropriations, had no way of meeting them but by
continued issues of paper money. These soon began to
depreciate; the depreciation required larger amounts to be
put forth; and then the larger amounts added to the depreciation. When the value of the bills had sunk very low,
an attempt was made to restore the currency by recalling
the old issues and sending out new ones; but these, too,
depreciated fast. Then lotteries were resorted to, and
loans, both at home and abroad. The states were called in,
and taxes raised by them were substituted for the national
bills. But Mhe embarrassments of the finances were irreparable. Every year added to the debt and to the poverty of
the nation.




WAR, CONTINUED.                 213
Arrival   In the midst of trials so various and so profound,
of Lafay- there was a thrill of hope. It was caused by the
ette   arrival of a Frenchman, not yet twenty years old,
who came bearing the sympathies of the old world to the
new. "It was the last combat of liberty," wrote Lafayette,
as he afterwards recalled his early inspirations.  While he
was hastening his departure from France, the news of the
defeats in New York arrived, to throw the American cause
into the shade, even in the eyes of the commissioners who
had been sent to seek supplies in France. They would
have dissuaded the young Frenchman from his projects.
"' We must be of good cheer," he replied; " it is in danger
that I like best to share your fortunes." Escaping the pursuit of the government, who would have prevented a man
of so high a rank as the Marquis de Lafayette from coinpromising them with the English by joining the Americans;
tearing himself from a brilliant home, and a wife as young
in years as he, Lafayette crossed the sea in his own vessel,
and reached the coast of Carolina in safety. He hastened
to Philadelphia to offer his services to Congress, which,
more and more wont to be behindhand in its mission, gave
him a cold welcome through the committee of foreign
affairs. " The coldness was such," he wrote, " as to amount
to a rejection; but without being disconcerted by the manner of the members, I begged them to return to the hall,
and to read the following note:' After the sacrifices which
I have made, I have the right to demand two favors: one
is to serve at my own expense, the other to commence as a
volunteer.'   Congress was touched, and appointed the
generous'stranger a major-general, (July 31, 1777.)  He
found no hesitation in the welcome which he received from
Washington on their first meeting. "Make my head quarters your home," was the warm and appreciative greeting
from the commander-in-chief to the young major-general.




214              PART III. 1763-1797.
The army and the people imitated Washington's example,
and gave their confidence to the noble Frenchman, with joy
that their cause had attracted such a champion.
Defe~at The spring of 1777 was marked only by some
of Bur- predatory excursions from the British side into Congoyne. necticut, and from the American into Long Island.
The summer brought about the evacuation of New Jersey,
as has been mentioned. But the British retired only to
strike harder elsewhere.  A well-appointed army under
General Burgoyne was already on its march from Canada
to Lake Champlain and the Hudson. As this descended, it
was the plan of the British in New York to ascend the
Hudson, meeting the other army, and cutting off the communication between New England and her sister states.
It was a promising scheme, and the first movements in it
were successful. Burgoyne took Ticonderoga, and swept
the adjacent country, menacing Northern New York on his
right, and the Green Mountain region on his left. General
St. Clair, who had evacuated Ticonderoga, could make no
resistance; nor was his superior officer, General Schuyler,
the commander of the northern army, in any position to
check the advance of the enemy. But Schuyler bore up
bravely; and the officers under him did their part. A
British detachment against Bennington was defeated by
John Stark and his New England militia, (August 16.)
Fort Schuyler was defended by continental troops, the
British retiring on the approach of reenforcements under
Arnold, (August 22.) Just as these reverses had checked
the advance of Burgoyne, the gallant Schuyler was ousted
of his command to make room for General Gates, a very'inferior man, if not a very inferior general. He, profiting
by the preparations of his predecessor, met the British, and
defeating them in two actions near Saratoga, (September
19, October 7,) compelled them to surrender. Nearly six




WAR, CONTINUED.                215
thousand troops laid down their arms; but more than twice
that number were now collected on the American side,
(October 16.)
While this triumph was won, losses were still
Loss of
the lud- occurring elsewhere. The advance of the British
SOnil igh- from New York, after being strangely delayed, belands.
gan with the capture of the forts which protected
the Highlands, (October 5-6.) But on proceeding some
way farther up the river, the enemy found it advisable to
return to New York.
Loss of   The main army of Great Britain was that which
Philadel- Washington had to deal with in New Jersey and
phia.  the vicinity. " If General Howe can be kept at
bay," wrote the commander-in-chief, " and prevented from
effecting his principal purposes, the successes of General
Burgoyne, whatever they may be, must be partial and temporary." After much uncertainty as to the intentions of
the British general, he suddenly appeared in the Chesapeake, and landing, prepared to advance against Philadelphia, (August 25.)  Washington immediately marched his
entire army of about eleven thousand to stop the progress
of the enemy.  Notwithstanding the superior number —
about seventeen thousand-opposed to him, Washington
decided that battle must be given for the sake of Philadelphia. After various skirmishes, a general engagement took
place by the Brandywine, resulting in the defeat of the
Americans, (September 11.) But so little were they dispirited, that their commander decided upon immediately
fighting a second battle, which was prevented only by a
great storm. Washington then withdrew towards the interior, and Howe took possession of Philadelphia, (September 26.)  Not yet willing to abandon the city, Washington
attacked the main division of the British encamped at
Germantown. At the very moment of victory, a panic




216              PART III. 1763-1797.
seized the Americans, and they retreated, (October 4.)
There was no help for Philadelphia; it was decidedly lost.
The contrast between the defeat of Burgoyne
Washington's em- and the loss of Philadelphia was made a matter
barrass- of reproach to the commander-in-chief.  Let him
ments.
make his own defence. "I was left," he says, " to
fight two battles, in order, if possible, to save Philadelphia,
with less numbers than composed the army of my antagonist.... Had the same spirit pervaded the people
of this and the neighboring states,... as the states
of New York and New England,... we might before this time have had General Howe nearly in the
situation of General Burgoyne, with this difference —that
the former would never have been out of reach of his ships,
whilst the latter increased his danger every step he took."
More than this, Washington conducted his operations in a
district where great disaffection to the American cause cut
off supplies for the army, and intelligence of the enemy.
To have done what he did, notwithstanding these embarrassments, was greater than a victory. It was felt to be so
at the time.  " Nothing," said the French minister, the
Count de Vergennes, to the American commissioners in
France, —" nothing has struck me so much as General
Washington's attacking  and  giving battle to General
Howe's army: to bring an army, raised within a year,
to this, promises every thing."
Loss of    The enemy were not yet secure in Philadelphia,
the Dela- the Delaware below the city being still in the posware.  session of the Americans. Nor did they give it up
without a struggle. Fort Mercer, upon the Jersey shore,
was gallantly defended under Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Greene against a Hessian attack, (October 22;)
but when Fort Mifflin, upon an island in the river, gave
way after a noble struggle, under Lieutenant Colonel Sam



WAR, CONTINUED.                 217
uel Smith, (November 15,) Fort Miercer was evacuated,
and the Delaware was lost, (November 20.) An attack
meditated by the Americans upon Philadelphia, and one
attempted by the British upon the American camp at
Whitemarsh, (December 5-8,) resulted in nothing. The
operations of 1777 were ended.
Wickes's   One enterprise of the year is not to be passed
cruise.  over.  Captain Wickes, of the cruiser Reprisal,
after distinguishing himself in the West Indies, sailed for
France in the autumn of 1776. Encouraged by his success in making prizes in the Bay of Biscay, Wickes started
on a cruise round Ireland in the following summer, (1777.)
Attended by the Lexington and the Dolphin, the Reprisal
swept the Irish and the English seas of their merchantmen.
But on the way to America, the Lexington was captured,
and the Reprisal, with the gallant Wickes and all his crew,
was lost on the coast of iNewfoundland. It was for the
navy, of which Wickes was so great an ornament, that a
national flag had been adopted in the summer of his cruise,
(June 14.)
" I see plainly," wrote Lafayette to Washington,
Cabal
against at the close of the year, " that America can defend
Washing- herself, if proper measures are taken; but I begin
ton.
to fear that she may be lost by herself and her own
sons. When I was in Europe, I thought that here almost
every man was a lover of liberty, and would rather die
free than live a slave. You can conceive my astonishment,
when I saw that toryism was as apparently professed as
whiggism itself." " We must not," replied Washington, " in
so great a contest, expect to meet with nothing but sunshine." These mournful complaints, this cheerful answer,
referred to an intrigue that had been formed against Washington, for the purpose of displacing him from his command.  Generals Gates and Mifflin, both members of the
19




218              PART III. 1763-1797.
board of war, lately organized, with Conway, a foreign
general in the service, were at the head of a cabal, which
was secretly supported by some members of Congress.
Had their unworthy plots prevailed, had their anonymous
letters to the civil authorities, and their underhand appeals
to military men, succeeded, Washington would have been
superseded by Gates or by Lee, it was uncertain which,
both of British birth, both of far more selfishness than
magnanimity, of far more pretension than power. Gates,
as we shall read hereafter, met the most utter of all the
defeats, Lee conducted the most shameful of all the
retreats, in which the Americans were involved.  I1appily
for the struggling nation, these men were not its leaders.
The cabal in which they were involved fell asunder; yet
without crushing them beneath its ruins. They retained
their offices and their honors, as well as Washington.
Army     The army was full of quarrels.  Sectional jealquarrels. ousies were active, the northern man distrusting the
southern, and the southern the northern. National jealousies were equally rife, the American officers opposing
ile foreign, and the foreign officers the American.  More
serious, because more reasonable, were the angry feelings
excited in the army against Congress, now for its interference, and now for its neglect. Much ill will on both
sides was excited by the question of half pay for life to the
officers; it being opposed in Congress, and settled only by
a compromise of half pay for seven years after the conclusion of the war. Washington contended with all the intellectual and moral strength of his nature against the jealousy which Congress unhappily entertained of the army.
"' The prejudices of other countries," as he says, "have
only gone to them [the troops] in time of peace..
It is our policy to be prejudiced against them in time of
war; though they are citizens, having all the ties and
interests of citizens."




WAR, CONTINUED.                  219
Army     The experience of the past twelvemonth had
suffer-  given Washington more confidence in his soldiers.
ings.
ifgs.   He had had time to learn their better points, their
enthusiasm, their endurance, their devotion. The winter
following the loss of Philadelphia was one of cruel sufferings, and the manner in which they were borne formed a
new link between the troops and the commander. His
remonstrances against the jealousies of Congress are accompanied by representations of the agonies of the army.
"Without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth,
it may be said that no history now extant can furnish an
instance of an army's suffering such hardships as ours has
done, bearing them with the same patience and fortitude.
To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lie on, without shoes, (for the want of
which their marches might be traced by the blood from
their feet,) and almost as often without provisions as with
them; marching through frost and snow, and at Christmas
taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the
enemy, without a house or hut to cover them, till they
could be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a proof
of patience and obedience which, in my opinion, can scarce
be paralleled." This story, at once so heroic and so sad, is
dated from Valley Forge.
Aspect    Congress, meanwhile, though finding time to abet
of Con- the enemies of Washington, and to suspect his faithgress. ful followers, was far from active in promoting
the interests of the nation.  Great chances had taken
place in the composition of the assembly. Many of the
earlier members had retired, some to the offices of their
respective states, some to the field, some to diplomacy, some
to private life. But a very small number attended the
sessions; twenty-five or thirty making what was now considered quite a full Congress. " America once had a representation," wrote Alexander Hamilton, one of Washington's




220               PART III. 1763-1797.
aids, from head quarters, " that would do honor to any age
or nation. The present falling off is very alarming and
dangerous."
Treaty    The question of foreign alliances had been started
with   at an early date. It met with very considerable
France. opposition. The more earnest spirits thought it
humiliating to court the protection of the European powers. They also thought it more likely to increase the dangers than the resources of the country to be drawn into
the interests and the intrigues of the old world. But as
time passed, and the difficulties of the war increased, the
tendency to foreign connections grew stronger.  Befbre
the declaration of independence, Silas Deane was sent
to France, as an agent, with hints of an alliance. Ere he
reached his destination, a secret subsidy had been promised
to the Americans. Meanwhile a committee of Congress
was appointed " to prepare a plan of treaties to be proposed
to foreign powers," (June, 1776.) Their plan being adopted, Deane, Benjamin Franklin, and Arthur Lee, of Virginia, were appointed commissioners to France, (September;) others being sent to Spain, Prussia, Austria, and
Tuscany, (December.)   The  French  envoys, amongst
whom Deane gave place to John Adams, devoted quite
as much attention to their own disputes as to the negotiations with which they were intrusted. But the disposition
of France against her old enemy of England was too
decided to require much diplomacy on the part of America.
After a year's delay, a treaty between the French king,
Louis XVI., and the United States was made, (January 30,
February 6, 1778,) and ratified, (Mlay 5.)
British    The news of the treaty broke like a thunderbolt
concilia- upon the British ministry. Three years had their
tion.   armies, superior both in discipline and in number,
contended against the so-called rebels; and what had been
gained? A few towns on the seaboard, New York, New



WAR, CONTINUED.                2 21
port, Philadelphia, the islands near New York, the island
on which Newport stands, the lower banks of the Hudson
and of the Delaware. This was all. Niothing had been,
nothing, it must have almost seemed, could be, gained except upon the coast; the interior was untenable, if not
unconquerable. And what had been lost? Twenty thousand troops, hundreds of vessels, millions of treasure; to
say nothing of the colonial commerce, once so precious, and
now so worthless. It might well strike the ministry, that
they must win back their colonies by some other means
than war, especially if the French were to be parties in the
strife. Accordingly, Lord North laid before Parliament a
bill renouncing the purpose of taxing America, and another
providing for commissioners to bring about a reconciliation,
(February 17.)  The bills were passed, and three commissioners were appointed to act with the military and the
naval commanders in procuring the submission of the
United States. To their proposals Congress returned an
answer on the anniversary of Bunker Hill, refusing to enter
into any negotiations until the independence of the nation
was recognized. The commissioners appealed from Congress to the states; but in vain. Their mission was fiuitless, except in proving that the United States would never
relapse into British colonies.
Desirous of concentrating his forces before the
Recovery
of Phila,- French appeared in the field, Sir Henry Clinton,
delphia. now the British commander-in-chief, evacuated
Philadelphia, (June 18.)  Washington instantly set out
in pursuit of the enemy. Coming up with them in a few
days, he ordered General Lee, commanding the van of' the
army, to begin the attack in the morning. Lee began it
by making a retreat, notwithstanding the remonstrances of
Lafayette, who had held the command until within a few
hours. But for Washington's coming up in time to arrest
19*




222               PART III. 1763-1797.
the flight of the troops under Lee, and to protect the advance of his own soldiers, the army would have been lost.
As it was, he formed his line and drove the British from
the field of Monmouth, (June 28.)  They stole away in the
night, and reached New York with still more loss from desertion than from battle.
Posses-    At about the same time, a Virginia expedition,
sion of under the command of Major Clarke, surprised the
Illinois British garrison at Kaskaskia, (July 4,) and took
possession of the surrounding villages. The more important
post of Vincennes was afterwards secured by the aid of its
French inhabitants.* The country was organized as a part
of Virginia, under the name of Illinois county.
End of    Thus the end of the period finds the Americans
the    conquerors as well as the British.  If the latter have
period.  New York and Newport, with their neighborhoods,
the former are in possession of Illinois. The main forces on
either side are again where they were at the beginning of the
period, save that the British are now in New York, and
the Americans waiting their opportunity to retake the city.
"It is not a little pleasing, nor less wonderful to contemplate," wrote Washington from  his camp at White Plains,
"that after two years' manoeuvring, and undergoing the
strangest vicissitudes that perhaps ever attended any one
contest since the creation, both armies are brought back to
the very point they set out from, and that the offending
party at the beginning is now reduced to the use of the
spade and pickaxe for defence. The hand of Providence
has been so conspicuous in all this, that he need be worse.than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that
has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations."
* It was subsequently surprised by a British party, but recovered by
Clarke in the beginning of the following year.




CHAPTER V.
WAR, CONTINUED.
THIRD PERIOD.
Charac-   THE third and last period of the war extends
teristice from July, 1778, to January, 1784, five years and a
half. Its characteristics are, the alliance of the French
with the Americans, and the concentration of the more
important operations in the Southern States. These points,
it is to be noted, are precisely the opposite of those which
characterized the preceding period.
Failure to The first minister of France to the United States,
recover M. Gerard, came accompanied by a fleet and army,
Newport. under D'Estaing, (July.)  "Unforeseen and unfavorable circumstances," as Washington wrote, " lessened the
importance of the French services in a great degree." In
the first place, the arrival was just late enough to miss the
opportunity of surprising the British fleet in the Delaware,
not to mention the British army on its retreat to New York.
In the next place, the French vessels proved to be of too
great draught to penetrate the channel and cooperate in an
attack upon New York. Thus disappointing and disappointed, D'Estaing engaged in an enterprise against Newport, still in British hands. It proved another failure.
But not through the French alone; the American troops
that were to enter the island at the north being greatly behindhand. The same day that they took their place, under
(223)




224              PART III. 1763-1797.
Sullivan, Greene, and Lafayette, the French left theirs at
the lower end of the island in order to meet the British fleet
arriving from New York, (August 10.)  A severe storm
prevented more than a partial engagement; but D'Estaing
returned to Newport only to plead the injuries received in
the gale as compelling his retirement to Boston for repairs.
The orders of the French government had been peremptory
that in case of any damage to the fleet it Cdhould put into
port at once. So far was D'Estaing from avoiding action
on personal grounds, that when Lafayette hurried to Boston to persuade his countrymen to return, the commander
offered to serve as a volunteer until the fleet should be refitted. The Americans, however, talked of desertion and of
inefficiency, -so freely, indeed, as to affront their faithful
Lafayette. At the same time, large numbers of them imitated the very course which they censured, by deserting
their own army. The remaining forces retreated from their
lines to the northern end of the island, and, after an engagement, withdrew to the mainland, (August 30.)  It
required all the good offices of Lafayette, of Washington,
and of Congress, to keep the peace between the Americans
and their allies. D'Estaing, soothed by the language of
those whom he most respected, was provoked, on the other
hand, by the hostility of the masses, both in the army and
amongst the people. Collisions between his men and the
Bostonians kept up his disgust; and, when his fleet was repaired, he sailed for the West Indies, (November.)
The summer and autumn passed away without
British
and In- any further exertions of moment upon the American
dian ray- side. On the part of the British, there was nothing
ages.
attempted that would not have been far better unattempted. Marauding parties from  Newport went against
New Bedford and Fairhaven.  Others from New York
went against Little Egg Harbor. Tories and Indians



WAR, CONTINUED.                225
a collection of banditti," as they were rightly styled by
Washington, descended from the northern country to wreak
mnassacre at Wyoming and at Cherry Valley. The war
seemed to be assuming a new character: it was one of
ravages unworthy of any cause, and most unworthy of such
a cause as the British professed to be.
e Affairs were at a low state amongst the AmeriDecline of
American cans. " The common interests of America," wrote
affairs.  Washington at the close of 1778, "are mouldering
and sinking into irretrievable ruin."  Was he who had
never despaired at length despairing? There was reason
to do so. "If I were to be called upon," he said, " to draw
a picture of the times and of men, from what I have seen,
heard, and in part know, I should in one word say that idleness, dissipation, and extravagance seem to have laid fast
hold upon most of them; that speculation, peculation, and
an insatiable thirst for riches seem to have got the better
of every other consideration, and almost of every order of
men; that party disputes and personal quarrels are the
great business of the day; whilst the momentous concerns
of an empire, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances,
depreciated money, and want of credit, which, in its consequences, is the want of every thing, are but secondary considerations, and postponed from day to day, from week to
week, as if our affairs wore the most promising aspect.
After drawing this picture, which from my soul I believe to
be a true one, I need not repeat to you that I am alarmed,
and wish to see my countrymen roused." This gloomy
sketch is of the government- Congress and the various
officials at Philadelphia. What was true of the government was true of the people, save only the diminishing
rather than increasing class to which we have frequently
referred, as constituting the strength of the nation.
A border warfare had been carried on during two suc



226              PART III. 1763-1797.
Loss of cessive summers, (1777-78,) between East Florida
Georgia. and Georgia. The British authorities sent parties
from their garrisons, on one side, and on the other, the
Americans, chiefly Georgians and Carolinians, mustered
their militia. Nothing, however, but alarm and bloodshed
had been accomplished, when, at the close of 1778, a serious
invasion of Georgia was planned by the British commander.
Twenty-five hundred troops from New York, under the
command of Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, landed near Savannah. Hardly nine hundred Americans, under General
Howe, were there to oppose them; and, after a short encounter, the town was taken, (December 29.)  A few days
later, the only other strong place upon the seaboard, Sunbury, surrendered to a force of two thousand British, advancing, under General Prevost, from Florida. Prevost,
taking command of the united forces of the British, sent
Colonel Campbell against Augusta. The expedition, successful at first, was soon so threatened by the operations of
various partisans, and by those of General Lincoln, the
commander of the continental troops, that Campbell evacuated Augusta after a fortnight's possession. Prevost then
advanced from  Savannah.  An American force, under
General Ashe, was routed at Brier Creek, and Georgia was
lost, (March 4, 1779.) A few months later, Sir James
Wright, the royal governor at the beginning of the war,
returned and set up the provincial government once more.
Defence of  The conqueror of Georgia aspired to become the
Charles- conqueror of Carolina. With chosen troops, and a
ton.   numerous body of Indians, Prevost set out against
Charleston. He wAs met before that town by the legion
under Count Pulaski, a Pole Who had been in the American
service for nearly two years; but Pulaski's men were scattered, and Prevost pressed on. The militia, assembled for
the defence of the place, were under the orders of Governor




WAR, CONTINUED.                 227
Rutledge; the continental troops under those of Charleston's
earlier defender, iMoultrie.  But the disparity of forces was
fearful, and proposals for surrender were under consideration, when the approach of General Lincoln with his army
compelled the British to retire, (May 12.)  It was more
than a month, however, before they left the adjacent country. They then withdrew to Savannah and St. Augustine.
The Americans were by no means disposed to
Failure to
recover acquiesce in the loss of Georgia. On the reappearSavan- ance of the French fleet, under D'Estaing, after a
successful cruise in the West Indies, he consented to
join General Lincoln in an attack on Savannah, (September.) But he was too apprehensive of being surprised by
the British fleet, as well as too desirous of getting back to
the larger operations in the W~est Indies, to be a useful ally.
The impatience of D'Estaing precipitated an assault upon
the town, in which Pulaski fell, and both the French and
the Americans suffered great loss, (October 9.)  The
French sailed southward; the Americans retired to the interior, leaving Savannah to the enemy.
Invasion   Previously to the events last described, Virginia
of Vir-  had been invaded. An expedition from New York,
ginia. landing at Portsmouth, plundered that town and all
the neighboring country. Not a blow was struck against
the foe. But booty rather than conquest being their object, they withdrew, (fMay.)
perations The operations in the north during the year were
in the   of altogether inferior importance.  As the main
north.
body of the British continued at New York, Washington kept his small army in that vicinity. But he had no
plans of decisive action. On making his preparations at
the beginning of the year, he resolved upon an offensive
course towards the Indians of Western New York, whose
repeated hostilities, in conjunction with the British, were




228               PART III. 1763-1797.
chastised by an American expedition under General Sullivan, (August and September.)  In relation to the British,
WVashington could hold only a defensive attitude.  Yet,
when Stony Point and Verplanck Point were taken, to the
great peril of the Highland fortifications, as well as to the
great interruption of intercourse with New England, Washington decided upon striking a blow. A  gallant party,
under the gallant Wayne, surprised the strong works which
the British had constructed at Stony Point, (July 15,) and,
though obliged to evacuate them, destroyed them, and recovered the Hudson, that is, the part which had been
recently taken from  the Americans.  The fortification of
West Point was undertaken, as an additional safeguard. In
other directions, beyond the immediate reach of Washington, although never beyond his interest and his influence, the
movements of the year were still less effective. Connecticut was invaded by a British force from  New  York,
and great was the devastation, yet not without resistance,
(July.)  At the same period, a force from Massachusetts
assailed a post which the British had taken on the Penobscot, but with great loss. Some months later, apprehensions of the French fleet induced the British commander
to draw in his outposts on the Hudson and to evacuate
Newport, (October.)  These movements, effected without
loss, or even collision, were the only ones of any strong
bearing upon the issue of the war.
Jones's    Far away, upon the coasts of Great Britain itself,
cruises. the war was now extended. Following in the track
of the brave WVickes, John Paul Jones sailed in the Rangcer
from France to the coast of England and Scotland, entering
Whitehaven, where he took the fortifications and fired the
shipping of the fort. This was in the spring of 1778. In
the spring of the following year, Jones being then in
France, it was proposed that he should take the naval com



WAR, CONTINUED.                 229
mand of an expedition in which Lafayette was to be the
general-in-chief, the object being nothing less than the invasion of England. This project failing, Jones got to sea in
summer, with a squadron of seven sail, from a French port.
Although much embarrassed by the insubordinate conduct
of one of his chief officers, Jones pursued his cruise with
great success along the Scotch coast. Thence descending
on the eastern side of England, he encountered a fleet of
merchantmen, under convoy of two vessels of war. The
two were at once engaged —the larger, the Serapis, by
Jones's Bonhomme Richard, and the smaller, the Countess
of Scarborough, by the Pallas, under Captain Cottineau.
It was a fearful and a remarkable action. Jones was exposed not only to the fire of his antagonist, but to that of one
of his own vessels, from the treachery or the incompetency
of its commander; and so completely battered was his ship,
the Bonhomme Richard, that it went down sixteen hours
after the surrender of the Serapis. The other British vessel also surrendered, (September 23, 1779.)  The brave
victor made his way safely to Holland.*
Spain in   The war was gathering fresh combatants. Spain,
the war. after vainly offering her mediation between Great
Britain and France, entered into the lists on the side of the
latter power, (June, 1779.) There was no thought of the
United States in the transaction. John Jay, hastily appointed minister to Spain, (September,) could not obtain a
recognition of American independence.  But the United
States hailed the entrance of a new nation into the arena.
It was so much against their enemy, however little it was
for. themselves.
The beginning of 1780 beheld large detachments from
the British at New York, under Clinton, the commander-in* He did not return to America till the beginning of 1781.
20




230               PART III. 1763-1797.
Loss of chief himself, on their way southward. Charleston,
South  twice already assailed in vain, was the first object.
Carolina. The siege began with five thousand British against
fifteen hundred Americans, (April 11;) the numbers afterwards increasing to eio-ght thousand on the British side and
three thousand on the American.  The naval forces of the
attack and the defesnce were still more unequal.  Lincoln,
yet in command of the southern army, made a brave resistance, but was of course overpowered.  The loss of Charleston ('May 12) was followed by the loss of the state, or the
greater part of it.  Three expeditions, the chief under Lord
Cornwallis, penetrated into the interior without meeting any
repulse. So complete was the prostration of South Carolina, that Clinton returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis
to retain and to extend the conquest which had been made,
(June.)
Failure toAll was not yet lost. The partisans of South
recover  Carolina, like those of Georgia, held out in the
upper country, whence they made frequent descents
upon the British posts.  The namej of Thomas Sumter
and Francis Marion recall many a chivalrous enterprise.
Continental troops and militia were marching from the north
under De Kalb, the companion of Lafayette in his voyage,
and under Gates, who assumed the command in North Carolina, (July.)  Thence entering South Carolina in the
hope of recovering it from its conquerors, Gates encountered
Cornwallis near Camden, and, although much superior in
numbers, was routed,- the militia of North Carolina and
Virginia leaving the few continental troops to bear the
brunt of the battle in vain. The brave De Kalb fell a sacrifice upon the field, (August 16.)  Two days afterwards,
Sumter was surprised by the British cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton, and his party scattered.  Marion
was at the same time driven into North Carolina.




WAR, CONTINUED.                231
Abandon- It seemed as if the south were given up to the
mentof foe.  So little exertion to defend it was made
thesouth. in the other portions of the country, that a rumor
gained ground of an intention to abandon South Carolina and Georgia altogether.  The French minister, De
La Luzerne, wrote home of still greater sacrifices in contemplation. He mentions the possibility of a proposal from
the British that the other states should be acknowledged to
be independent if the Carolinas, both North and South, and
Georgia, were surrendered. Such a proposition was never
made; but it must have been thought of and talked about.
Such, too, were the sectional divisions in and out of Congress, that there were some to whom the abandonment of
the south wore no look of horror or of wrong.
Its de-    Fortunately there were others, and a far greater
fence. number, who never hesitated at the necessity of defending their southern brothers. Washington, still on the
watch about New York, turned anxious glances to the operations at the south. "The affairs of the Southern States,"
he wrote to the president of Congress, "seem to be so exceedingly disordered, and their resources so much exhausted,
that whatever may be undertaken there must chiefly depend
on the means carried from hence. If these fail, we shall be
condemned to a disgraceful and fatal inactivity." When
Gates proved incompetent to the work, Washington appointed his best officer, Major General Greene, to save the
invaded states and to keep the country whole, (October.)
Darkness It was a dark time, even in the north. Washingin the  ton had looked forward, at the opening of the year,
north, to an active campaign; but the hopes of his heart
died out one by one. Lafayette, returning from a year's
absence in France, where he had been unwearied in upholding the interests of America, announced the coming of an
armament, both land and naval, from his country. This




232              PART III. 1763-1797.
arrived at Newport, (July,) and there it remained during the rest of the year, blockaded by a British fleet.
Washington's plans of an attack with the French upon New
York fell through, to his great disappointment. What the
French thought of the state of things may be gathered from
a despatch of their commander, the Count de Rochambeau,
to the government. "Upon our arrival here," he writes,
" the country was in consternation. The paper money had
fallen to sixty for one.... I landed with my staff
without troops; nobody appeared in the streets; those at
the windows looked sad and depressed.... Sencld us
troops, ships, and money, but do not depend upon this people or upon their means." * It was soon afterwards that
Washington wrote, " If either the temper or the resources
of the country will not admit of an alteration, we may expect soon to be reduced to the humiliating condition of
seeing the cause of America in America upheld by foreign
arms."  "But I give it as my opinion," he wrote again,
"that a foreign loan is indispensably necessary to the continuance of the war." lThe autumn came, and Benedict
Arnold, one of the officers upon whom the military fortunes
of the nation had most depended, all but succeeded in
betraying West Point to the enemy, (September.) He
escaped, leaving Major Andre, with whom he had been
treating, to die the death of a spy. A descent, partly of
British, partly of loyalist Americans, and partly of Indians,
surprised the fortresses and devastated the fields of Northern
New York, (October.)  Disaster was succeeding disaster,
when Congress, listening to the exhortations of the commander-in-chief, again addressed itself to the organization
of an army. It proposed enlistments of soldiers to continue
* Mr. Sparks's translation, in Washington's Writings, vol. vii. pp.
504-506;




WAR, CONTINUED.                  233
during the war, and half pay of officers to continue afterwards and for life; but it was only a proposal.  More effective were the exertions of the women of Pennsylvania,
under the guidance of Mrs. Reed, the wife of the Pennsylvanian president, and those of New Jersey, led by Mrs.
Dickinson, who raised generous subscriptions * to meet the
necessities of the American army.  "The spirit that animated the members of your association," wrote Washington
to the ladies of Philadelphia on the death of Mrs. Reed,
" entitles them to an equal place with any who have preceded them in the walk of female patriotism. It embellishes
the American character with a new trait."
Light in   Cornwallis, conqueror of South Carolina, prethe    pared to march upon North Carolina.  To secure
south. the upper country, he detached a trusted officer,
Major Ferguson, with a small band of regular troops and
loyalists, in addition to whom  large accessions were soon
obtained from  the tory part of the population.  These
recruits, like all of the same stamp, were full of hatred
towards their countrymen on the American side; and fierce
were the ravages of the party as Ferguson marched on.
Aroused by the agony of the country, a considerable number of volunteers gathered, under various officers - Colonel
Campbell, of Virginia, Colonels Cleaveland, Sevier, and
Shelby, of North Carolina, and others. Nine hundred chosen
men hastened to overtake the enemy, whom they found encamped in security on King's Mountain, near the frontier of
South Carolina. The Americans never fought more resolutely. Ferguson was killed, and his surviving men surrendered
at discretion, (October 7.)  The march of Cornwallis was
instantly checked; instead of advancing, he fell back. Nay,
* In paper money, upwards of $300,000; but in specie from $5000 to
$7000.
20*




234               PART III. 1763-1797.
more; a force which had been sent from New York to establish itself in Virginia was summoned by Cornwallis to his aid.
Holland   The year had been marked by important moveill the  ments in Europe. The Empress Catharine of Ruswar.
sia put forth a declaration of independence, as it
may be styled, in bhlia'lf of the neutlrli states, by proclaiming their right to carry on their commerce in time of war
exactly as in time of peace, provided they conveyed no contraband articles. This doctrine was wholly at variance
with the rights of search and of blockade, as asserted by
England in relation to neutral nations. But it prevailed;
and a league, by the name of the Armed Neutrality, soon
comprehended nearly the whole of Europe. Little, however, was effected by it; the Empress of Russia herself
called it her Armed Nullity. Yet the circle of hostility
against England went on widening.  On the accession of
Holland to the Armed Neutrality, Great Britain, having
just before captured a minister to the Dutch from the United
S tates, - Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, - declared war
at the close of 1780.  But Holland no more became an
ally of the United States than Spain had done.
Final    The "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual
adoption Union between the States," adopted by Congress
of the
Confed- towards the end of 1777, were still in abeyance.
eration. The states to whom they were sent for approval had
found many objections to the plan of union. Some of the
larger states disliked the right of the smaller states to an
equal vote with themselves in Congress. Tile smaller opposed the claims of the larger to the unoccupied lands of the
country, alleging that what was won by common exertion
should be turned to common advantage. One state - New
Jersey —had the wisdom to object that Congress, or the general government, was not endowed with sufficient power
especially on the matter of regulating the trade of the coun




WAR, CONTINUED                 235
try. These and other difficulties were but slowly surmounted. When all the rest had been removed, the question of the unoccupied lands was still a point upon which
the articles hung motionless. The magnanimity with which
this last obstacle was removed is a bright episode in the
history of the times. New  Jersey was the first of the
smaller states to come into the Confederacy, relying upon
the justice of her more powerful sisters, (November 20,
1778.) First of the landed states to cede her claims for
the general welfare was New York, (February 19, 1780.)
Her generosity, and the confidence of such states as New
Jersey, induced the hitherto reluctant Maryland to waive
her objections and sign the Articles. The thirteen were
then complete, (March 1, 1781.)
Its inef-   Congratulations were general, and well founded,
ficiency. SO far as they related to the closer union of the
states. But nothing had been gained on the score of a national government. On the contrary, something had been
lost; the powers of Congress being rather diminished than
incredsed under the Articles of Confederation. Before their
adoption, a majority of states decided a question; now, nine
out of the thirteen must be united to carry any measure.
The half pay for life, for instance, that had been voted to
the officers of the army, was reconsidered and refused by
the Congress of the Confederation, for want of nine states to
vote for its fulfilment. All this had been foreboded and
lamented. "A nominal head, which at present is but another name for Congress, will no longer do," -thus wrote
Washington. His aide-de-camp, Hamilton, wrote that Congress must be clothed with proper authority, "by resuming
and exercising the discretionary powers originally vested
in them," or "by calling immediately a convention of all
the states, with full authority, to conclude finally upon a
general confederation," (1780.) Just before the adoption




286              PART III. 1763-1797.
of the Articles, the legislature of New York presented a
formal memorial to Congress, saying, " We shall not presume to give our opinion on the question whether Congress
has adequate powers or not. But we will without hesitation declare that, if they have not, they ought to have them,
and that we stand ready on our part to confer them." If
all these things could be said before the ratification of the
Confederation, they could of course be repeated with even
greater truth afterwards. A specimen of the inefficiency
of the government occurs in relation to a proposal of import
duties to be laid by Congress. Rhode Island refused to
grant the necessary power to the government, and Virginia,
after granting it, retracted it, (December, 1782.)
Defence   In the mean time events were hastening to a crisis
of the in the field. General Greene, taking command of
Carolinas. the southern army, with several American officers
and the Pole Kosciuszko in his train, determined to save
the Carolinas. He was confirmed in his purpose by his
brigadier, General Morgan, who, distinguished in various
actions, won a decisive victory over Tarleton at the Cowpens, in South Carolina, (January 17.) Two months later,
Greene and Morgan having retreated in the interval, the
main bodies of the armies, British and American, met at
Guilford, in North Carolina, (March 15.)  Both retired
from the field; the Americans first, but the British with the
greater loss. Cornwallis withdrew towards Wilmington,
pursued by Greene, who presently dashed into South Carolina. There he was opposed by Lord Rawdon, who at once
defeated him in an engagement at Hobkirk's Hill, near
Camden, (April 25.) This was a cruel blow to Greene's
-hopes of surprising South  Carolina.  " This distressed
country," he wrote, " cannot struggle much longer without
more effectual support." But it was not in Greene's nature
to despair. While he advanced against the stronghold of'




WAR, CONTINUED.                237
Ninety-Six, in South Carolina, he detached a body of troops
under Lieutenant Colonel Lee to join a band of Carolinians
and Georgians who were besieging Augusta. The result
was the surrender of that town, (June 5.) But the fort at
Ninety-Six held out against repeated assaults, and Greene
was obliged to retire before the superior force which Rawdon was leading to raise the siege, (June 19.) For a time,
the war subsided; then Greene reappeared, and fought the
action of Eutaw Springs. He lost the field of battle, (September 8;) but the British, under Colonel Stuart, were so
much weakened as to give way, and retreat precipitately
towards Charleston. Thus from defeat to defeat, without
the intermission of a single victory, in the common sense,
Greene had now marched, now retreated, in such a brave
and brilliant way, as to force the enemy back upon the seaboard. The successes of the militia and of the partisan
corps had been equally effective. All the upper country,
not only of the Carolinas, but of Georgia, was once more
in the American possession.
The cen- At the time when things were darkest at the
tral'states south, greater perils arose at the centre of the
in danger. country. Virginia was invaded in the first days
of 1781 by a formidable force, chiefly of loyalists under the
traitor Arnold. He took Richmond, but only to leave it
and retire to Portsmouth, where he bade defiance both to
the American militia and the French vessels from Newport,
(January.) Soon after, two thousand British troops were
sent from New York, under General Phillips, with directions to march up the Chesapeake against Maryland and
Pennsylvania, (March.) This plan embraced the twofold
idea of cutting off the Carolinas from all assistance, and
of laying the central states equally prostrate. At about
the same time, Cornwallis, baffled by Greene in North
Carolina, set out to join the forces assembled in Virginia.




233              PART III. 1763-1797.
They, meanwhile, had penetrated the interior, swept the
plantations and the towns, and taken Petersburg, (April.)
The arrival of Cornwallis completed the array of the
enemy, (May.)  The very heart of the country was in
danger.
" Our affairs," wrote Washington before the conCrisis.
centration of the enemy in Virginia, " are brought
to an awful crisis."  "Why need I run into details," he
wrote again, " when it may be declared in a word, that we
are at the end of our tether, and that now or never our
deliverance must come?"  " But we must not despair," he
urged, as dangers accumulated; " the game is yet in our
own hands; to play it well is all we have to do, and I trust
the experience of error will enable us to act better in
future. A cloud may yet pass over us, individuals may be
ruined, and the country at large, or particular states, undergo temporary distress; but certain I am that it is in our
power to bring the war to a happy conclusion."
American  The nation was far from being up to the emerprepara- gency. A spirit of weariness and selfishness was
tions.
prevailing among the people. The army, ill disciplined and ill paid, was exceedingly restless. Troops of
the Pennsylvania and New Jersey lines had broken out
into actual revolt at the beginning of the year. The government was still ineffective, the Confederation feeble, Congress inert, not to say broken down. When one reads that
this body stood ready to give up the Mississippi to Spain,
nay, to waive the express acknowledgment of American
independence as an indispensable preliminary to negotiations with Great Britain, -when one reads these things, he
may well wonder that there were any preparations to meet
the exigencies of the times. The German Baron de Steuben, collecting troops in Virginia at the time of the invasion, was afterwards joined by Lafayette, whose troops had




WAR, CONTINUED.                239
been clad on their march at his expense. By sea, the
French fleet was engaged in defending the coasts against
the invader. It seemed as if the stranger were the only
defender of Virginia and of America. But on the southern border was Greene, with his troops and his partisan
allies. At the north was Washington, planning, acting,
summoning troops from the states, and the French from
Newport, to aid him in an attack upon New York, as the
stronghold of the foe, until, convinced of the impossibility
of securing the force required for such an enterprise, he
resolved upon taking the command in Virginia, (August
14.) Thither he at once directed the greater part of his
scanty troops, as well as of the French. The allied army
was to be strengthened by the French fleet, and not merely
by that of Newport, but by another and a larger fleet from
the West Indies.
The British under Cornwallis were now within
Defeat
of Corn- fortified lines at Yorktown and Gloucester, (August
allis. 1-22.) There they had retired under orders from
the commander-in-chief at New York, who thought both
that post and the Virginian conquests in danger from the
increasing activity of the Americans, and especially the
French. Little had been done in the field by Cornwallis.
He had been most gallantly watched, and even pursued
by Lafayette, whose praises for skill, as well as heroism,
rang far and wide. Washington and the French General
Rochambeau joined Lafayette at Williamsburg, (September 14.) A great fleet under Count de Grasse was already
in the Chesapeake. As soon as the land forces arrived,
the siege of Yorktown was begun, (September 28.) The
result was certain. Washington had contrived to leave Sir
Henry Clinton impressed with the idea that New York was
still the main object. Sir Henry, therefore, thought of no
reinforcements for Cornwallis, until they were too late,




240              PART III. 1763-1797.
until, indeed, they were out of the question in consequence
of the naval superiority of the French. In fact, an expedition to lay waste the eastern part of Connecticut was
occupying Clinton's mind. He placed the loyalists and the
Hessians despatched for the purpose under the traitor Arnold, who succeeded in destroying New London, (September.) Thus there were but seven thousand five hundred
British at Yorktown to resist nine thousand Americans and
seven thousand French, besides the numerous fleet. In
less than three weeks, Cornwallis asked for terms, (October
17,) and two days afterwards surrendered.
The blow was decisive. The United States were
Effect. transported. Government, army, people were for
once united, for once elevated to the altitude of those noble
spirits, who, like Washington, had sustained the nation
until the moment of victory. " The play is over," wrote
Lafayette, " and the fifth act is just finished."  "0  God! "
exclaimed the English prime minister, on hearing of the
event. " It is all over- all over! "
It was Washington's earnest desire to avail of
Prospects.
the French fleet in an attack on Charleston. De
Grasse refused. Then Washington urged him to transport
troops to Wilmington. But De Grasse alleged his engagements in the West Indies, and sailed thither. The French
under Rochambeau went into winter quarters at Williamsburg, while the Americans marched, a part to reenforce the
southern army, and a part to the various posts in the north.
Prospects were uncertain. It was evident that the war
was approaching its close, but none could tell how nearly.
Washington implored his countrymen to be on the alert.,Again and again he rebuked the inaction into which they
were falling, as if their work was done. The British still
held their post by the Penobscot. They were still strong
at New York. Wilmington was evacuated by them; but




WAR, CONTINUED.                241
Charleston, the chief town of the south, and Savannah,
remained in their hands. Lafayette wrote from France,
whither he went at the close of the year, that " the evacuation of New York and Charleston are as far from British
intentions as the evacuation of London."
It turned out differently. A vote of Parliament
tion of that the king be requested to bring the war to a
the south.
close, (February 27, 1782,) led to a change of
ministry. Determining to recognize the independence of
the United States, and to concentrate hostilities against the
European powers, the new ministry sent out Sir Guy
Carleton as commander-in-chief, with instructions to evacuate New York, Charleston, and Savannah; in a word, the
entire seaboard. Savannah was evacuated in the summer,
(July 11,) Charleston in the early winter, (December 14.)
It was the result of past campaigns, not of any present one.
The Americans were without armies, without supplies, at
least without such as were indispensable for any active
operations. When the French under Rochambeau reached
the American camp on the Hudson in the autumn, they
passed between two lines of troops clothed and armed by
subsidies from France. It was a touching tribute of gratitude, and an equally touching confession of weakness. All
but a single corps of the French embarked at the close of
the year. The remainder followed in the ensuing spring.
Peace was then decided upon.  It had been
The European brought about by other operations besides those
combat- which have been described. The contest in Amerants.
ica, indeed, was but an episode in the extended
warfare of the period. Upon the sea, the fleets of Britain
hardly encountered an American man-of-war. The opposing squadrons were those of France and Spain and Holland. By land, the French opposed the British in the
East Indies, upon the coast of Africa, and in the West
21




242              PART III. 1763-1797.
Indies. They also aided the Spaniards to conquer Minor -
ca, in the Mediterranean, and to assail, but in vain, the
great stronghold of Gibraltar. The Spanish forces were
also active in the Floridas. Holland, alone of the European combatants, made no stand against Great Britain. In
the Indies, both East and West, and in South American
Guiana, the Dutch were immense losers. What was gained
from them, however, did not compensate for what was lost
to others by the British. The preliminaries of peace, at
first with America, (November 30,) and afterwards with
the European powers, (January 20, 1783,) were signed to
the general contentment of Great Britain, of Europe, and
of America.
Cessation   Hostilities soon ceased. In America, Sir Guy
of hostili- Carleton proclaimed their cessation on the part of
ties.   the British, (April 8.)  Washington, with the consent of Congress, made proclamation to the same effect.
By a singular coincidence, the day on which hostilities were
stayed was the anniversary of that on which they were
begun at Lexington, eight years before, (April 19.)
Release    Measures, already proposed by the British comof pris- mander, were at once taken on both sides for the
oners.  release of prisoners.  The treatment and the exchange of these unfortunate men had given rise to great
difficulties during the war. Even where actual cruelty did
not exist, etiquette and policy were too strong for humanity.
The horrors of the British jails and prison ships were
bywords, and when their unhappy victims were offered in
exchange for the better treated prisoners of the other side,
the Americans hesitated to receive them. The troops that
surrendered at Saratoga, on condition of a free passage to
Great Britain, were detained, in consequence of various
objections, to be freed only by desertions and slow exchanges after the lapse of years. In short, the prisoners




WAR, CONTINUED.                 243
of both armies seem to have been regarded in the light of
troublesome burdens, alike by those who had captured
them and those from whom they were captured. Individual
benevolence alone lights up the gloomy scene. At the
close of the war, we find Congress voting its thanks, on the
the recommendation of Washington, to Reuben Harvey, a
merchant of Cork, and on that of Franklin, to Thomas
Wren, a minister of Portsmouth, for their humane succors
to American prisoners.
Treaties   Negotiations fbr peace met with many interrupof peace. tions. So far as the United States were concerned,
the questions of boundary, of the St. Lawrence and Newfoundland fisheries, of indemnity to British creditors, as
well as to American loyalists, were all knotty points; the
more so, that the four negotiators — Franklin, John Jay,
John Adams, and Henry Laurens - were by no means
agreed upon the principles by which to decide them.
Some of the envoys, moreover, were possessed of the
idea that France was disposed to betray her American
allies; and so strong was this feeling that the consent of
the French government, the point which had been agreed
upon as the essential condition of making peace, was not
even asked before the signature of the preliminaries already mentioned. It was before the preliminaries were
signed that all these embarrassments appeared; and they
continued afterwards. At length, however, definitive treaties
were signed at Paris and at Versailles between Great
Britain and her foes, (September 3.) *  America obtained
her independence, with all the accompanying privileges
and possessions which she desired.  She agreed, however,
aigainst her will, to make her debts good, and to recommend
the loyalists, whose property had been confiscated, to the
favor of the state governments. Spain recovered the Flor* The treaty with Holland was not concluded until the following spring.




244               PART III. 1763-1797.
idas. The other terms of the treaties - the cessions on one
side and on the other - do not belong to our history. The
treaty between Great Britain and the United States was
formally confirmed by Congress at the beginning of the
following year, (January 14, 1784.)
Evacua-   After long delays, the British withdrew from
tion of their post on the Penobscot. New York was evacthe north.
nated, (November 25, 1783,) and ten days later,
the remaining forces embarked from Staten Island and
Long Island, (December 4-6.)   A  few  western  posts
excepted, the territory of the United States was free.
The disposal of the American army had long
Troubles
in the been a serious question. A year before, the army
American had addressed Congress on the subject of the pay,
army.
then months, and even years, in arrears, (December, 1782.)  Congress was powerless.  The army was
incensed. When, therefore, anonymous addresses to the
officers were issued from the camp at Newburg, proposing
the alternative of redress or of desertion,* the worst consequences appeared inevitable.  The more so, that the
excitement was greatest amongst the better class of sol,
diers, the "worthy and faithful men," as their commander
described them, "who, from  their early engaging in the
war at moderate bounties, and from their patient continuance under innumerable distresses, have not only deserved
well of their country, but have obtained an honorable distinction over those who, with shorter times, have gained
large pecuniary rewards."  Washington, and Washington
alone, was equal to the crisis. He had repelled with unutterable disdain the offer of a crown from certain individuals
in the army a year before, (May, 1782.)  He now rebuked
the spirit of the Newburg addresses, and by his majestic
* " If peace [comes], that nothing shall separate you from your arms
but death; if war, that.  you will retire to some unsettled country."




WAR, CONTINUED.                 245
integrity, quelled the rising passions of those around him.
But he entered with all the greater fervor into the just
claims of the army. His refusal at the outset of the war,
renewed at the close,* to receive any compensation for his
services to the country, placed him in precisely the position
from which he could now appeal in behalf of his officers
and soldiers to Congress and the nation. His voice was
heard. The army obtained a promise of its pay, including
the commutation to a fixed sum of the half pay for life
formerly promised to the officers at the expiration of the
war, (March, 1783.) All was not yet; secure. But three
months later, and a body of Pennsylvanian troops marched
upon Congress itself in Philadelphia. Washington denounced the act with  scorn.   "These Pennsylvania
levies," he says, "who have now mutinied, are recruits
and soldiers of a day, who have not borne the heat and
burden of the war." He at once sent a force to reduce
and to chastise them, (June.)
Disband-   "It is high time for a peace," Washington had
ing.   written some months previously. The army was
slowly disbanded, a small number only being left when the
formal proclamation of dissolution was made, (November
3.) A few troops were still retained in arms. Of these,
and of his faithful officers, the commander-in-chief took his
leave at New York, (December 4.) Thence he repaired
to Annapolis, where Congress was in session, and there
resigned the commission which he had held, unstained and
glorious, for eight years and a half, (December 23.)
It seems as if he left no one behind him. The
Government of town and the state, each had its authorities; but
the na- the nation was without a government, at least with
tion.
nothing more than the name of one. Yet the, Just after resigning his commission, he declined the overtures of
Pennsylvania to propose a national remuneration for his sacrifices.
21 *




246               PART III. 1763-1797.
need of a directing and a sustaining power had never been
greater or clearer. If the war itself was over, its consequences, its burdens, its debts, its wasting influences, were
but begun.
No one saw this more plainly, no one felt it more
Washington's   deeply, than the retiring commander-in-chief.  At
counsels. no time had he been absorbed in his military duties.
In his relations to Congress, to the states, even to the citizens, as well as in those to foreigners, whether allies or
enemies, he had been almost as much the civil as the military head of the country. The arm that had led the nation
through the field was now lifted to point out the paths that
opened beyond. " According to the system of policy the
states shall adopt at this moment," -thus Washington wrote
to the governors of the states, on disbanding the army, —
" they will stand or fall; and by their confirmation or lapse,
it is yet to be decided whether the revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse; a blessing or a
curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will
the destiny of unborn millions be involved." " There are
four things," he continued, " which I humbly conceive are
essential to the well being, I may even venture to say, to
the existence, of the United States as an independent power.
" First. An indissoluble union of the states under one
federal head.
"Second. A sacred regard to public justice.
"Third. The adoption of a proper peace establishment.
And
" Fourth. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly
disposition among the people of the United States which
will induce them to forget their local prejudices and policies; to make those mutual concessions which are requisite
to the general prosperity; and in some instances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the
community."




WAR, CONTINUED.                247
And      "I now make it my earnest prayer," concluded
prayers. the Christian hero, " that God would have you, and
the state over which you preside, in His holy protection;
that He would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate
a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to
entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for
their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served them in the
field; and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased
to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean
ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of
mind, which were the characteristics of the divine Author
of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of
whose example in these things we can never hope to be a
happy nation."




CHAPTER VI.
THE CONSTITUTION.
Foreign    ONE loves to dwell upon the sympathy from
sympa-  abroad for the infant nation.  What had been
thy.   repressed while the states were still claimed as the
colonies of Great Britain broke forth after the claim was
set aside. From all parts of Europe, from all parts of
Great Britain itself, there came congratulations and applauses. Even sovereigns did homage to the republic.
The King of France continued its friend. The King of
Spain, recognizing its national existence, sent gifts and
compliments to its great leader, Washington.
Lafay-    No proof of regard was dearer to Washington or
ette's  to the nation than one which came from the friend
visit.
and the champion of many years, the devoted
Lafayette. He had spent two years and a half in generous exertions at home, when he crossed the seas to join in
the American rejoicings at the definite establishment of
independence. The whole people welcomed him. Divided
on many points, they were united in the grateful affection
which he had inspired. Soldiers and citizens, the wild
borderers and the plodding townspeople, the inhabitants of
every section, thronged together with a common desire of
doing honor to Lafayette. He was feasted in all the principal places. Congress gave him a public reception. Washington crowned him with love and parental gratitude at
Mount Vernon. After a six months' tour, he left America
(248)




THE CONSTITUTION.                 249
Io shaae in the struggles of his native country, (August,
1784-January, 1785.)
Wants of  IIe left the country of his adoption in the midst
America. of struggles of its own. It was contending against
manifold wants, some common to any youthful nation, others
peculiar to itself, to a nation so unique in its history, and
especially in the history of the last twenty years.  It
is to these wants, and to tile manner in which they were
supplied, that we are to turn.
Ogan.-    Chief of them all, the one, indeed, in which they
ization. will be found to have been comprehended, like
segments in a circle, was organization. The sharp points,
the intersecting lines, the clashing fbrms of different districts and of different institutions, needed to be reduced to
order within the curve, at once enfolding and harmonizing,
of a national system. There was hardly a political principle upon which the entire country agreed. There was not
one political power by which it was governed. Interests
were opposed to interests, classes to classes; nay, men to
men. When the officers of the army, for instance, formed
into a society, under the name of the Cincinnati, for the
purpose of keeping up their relations with one another, and
more particularly of succoring those who might fall into
distress, a general uproar was raised, because the membership of the society was to be hereditary, from father to son,
or from kinsman to kinsman. It was found necessary to
strike out this provision, at the first general meeting of the
Cincinnati, (1784.) Even then, though there remained
nothing but a charitable association, it was inveighed
against as a caste, as an aristocracy; as any thing, in short,
save what it really was. It is easy to say that all this is a
sign of republicanism, of a devoted anxiety to preserve the
institutions for which loss and sufferings had been endured.
But it is a clearer sign of the suspicions and the collisions




250              PART III. 1763-1797.
which were rending the nation asunder. There was but a
single remedy. The people were to be united; the country
was to be made one.
The states were absorbed in their own troubles.
The 
states. The debts of the Confederation lay heavy upon
Internal them, in addition to those contracted by themselves.
troubles
Their citizens were impoverished, here and there
maddened by the calamities and the burdens, private and
public, which they were obliged to bear together. At
Exeter, the assembly of New Hampshire was assailed by
two hundred men with weapons, demanding an emission of
paper money. All day, the insurgents held possession of
the legislative chamber; but in the early evening, they
were dispersed by a rumor that Exeter was taking up
arms against them, (1786.)  The same year, the courts of
Massachusetts were prevented from  holding their usual
sessions by bodies of armed men, whose main object it was
to prevent any collection of debts or taxes. So general
was the sympathy with the movement, not only in Massachusetts, but in the adjoining states, that twelve or fifteen
thousand were supposed to be ready to do the same.
Nearly two thousand were in arms at the beginning of
the following year, (1787.) The horror excited in the
rest of the country was intense. Congress ordered troops
to be raised, but as it had no power to interfere with the
states, the pretext of Indian hostilities was set up. MIassachusetts was fortunate in having James Bowdoin for a
governor. Under his influence chiefly, - for the legislature
was partly paralyzed and partly infected, — the danger
was met. One or two thousand militia, under the command
of General Lincoln, marched against the insurgents, at the
head of whom was Daniel Shays, a captain in the continental army. Already driven back from Springfield, where
they had attacked the arsenal, the insurgents retreated to




THE CONSTITUTION.                 251
Petersham, and were there put to rout.  Of all the prisoners, fourteen alone were tried and condemned, not oone being
executed.  The insurrection had lasted about six months,
(August, 1786-February, 1787.)
Dismem-   Nor were such insurrections the only ones of the
bermlents. time. A body of settlers in Wyoming, principally
emigrants from New England, held their land by grants
from Connecticut, long the claimant of the territory. When
Connecticut gave way to Pennsylvania, and the latter state
insisted upon the necessity of new titles to the settlements
of Wyoming, the settlers armed themselves, and threatened
to set up a state of their own, (1782-87.)  What was
threatened there was actually executed elsewhere. The
western counties of North Carolina, excited by being ceded
to the United States, organized an independent government,
as the state of Franklin or Frankland, (1784.)  But the
people were divided, and the governor, Colonel Sevier, of
King's Molintain fame, was ultimately compelled to fly by the
opponents of an independent organization, (1788.)  Meanwhile old projects of independence had been revived in the
Kentucky counties of Virginia. Petitions and resolutions
led to acts of the Virginia legislature consenting to the
independence of Kentucky on certain conditions, (178586.)  Kentucky soon after petitioned Congress for adlmission to the Union, but without immediate effect, (1787-88.)
All these instances of dismemberment, proposed or accomplished, relate to frontier settlements, where independence
was suggested as much by the position as by the character
of the settlers.  But the older districts were stirred in the
same way.'MIaine again and again strove to be detached
from Massachusetts, (1786.)
Case of    The case of Vermont was one apart. It came
Vermont. up near the beginning of the war, when the inhabitants of that district, then known as the New Hampshire




252              PART III. 1763-1797.
grants, declared it the State of Vermont, (January, 1777,)
and asked admission to the Union, (July.) The request
was denied, on account of the claims of New York to the
territory. A number of towns in the valley of the Connecticut, and partly within the limits of New Hampshire,
afterwards formed themselves into the State of New Connecticut, (1779.) This soon fell through, leaving its predecessor, Vermont, to be enlarged by the New Hampshire
towns on the eastern banks of the Connecticut, together
with the New York settlements as far as the Hudson,
(1781.) Overtures were then made to the British authorities in Canada, with whom the Vermonters might well
wish to be on good terms, so long as they were excluded
from the Union. Congress took alarm, as Vermont expected, and proposed to grant admission, provided the recent
annexations from New Hampshire and New York were
surrendered. This was done; but Congress still kept Vermont at a distance, (1782.) A member of the body, James
Madison, explains the reasons why a promise, so long delayed, was finally violated. The Eastern States, except New
Hampshire, and the Central States, except New York,
advocated the entrance of Vermont, while New York and
the Southern States opposed it, as Mr. Madison relates,
through "first, an habitual jealousy of a predominance of
eastern interests; secondly, the opposition expected from
Vermont to western claims; thirdly, the inexpediency of
admitting so unimportant a state to an equal vote in deciding a peace, and all the other grand interests of the Union
now depending; fourthly, the influence of the example on
a premature dismemberment of the other states." So Vermont remained aloof, contented, one may believe, to be free
from the troubles of the United States.
The strife exhibited in the case of Vermont was nothing
new or temporary. Disputes between state and state arose,




THE CONSTITUTION.                  253
as we have had occasion to observe, in the midst
Diaputes
between of war, and peace had not put them to rest.  When
state and Mr. Madison speaks of sectional interests, he alludes
state.
to the varieties of occupation and of investment
which distinguished one state from  another.  Such things
could not but lead to different systems in different parts of
the country, the more so, especially in the north and in the
south, that there were differences of character, and even of
principle, to enhance the differences of pursuits or of possessions. The allusion to the western territory is to a
subject already noticed in our pages. Partially settled at
the time when the Confeleration was completed, the question of the unoccupied lands was still undecided.  It united
the smaller states, as a general rule, against the larger ones,
by whom the western regions were claimed.  Besides these
great divisions between north and south, and between the
larger and the smaller states, there were others of' more
limited nature. Boundary questions came up, some to be
determined, and others to be left undetermined, but none to
subside immediately. Variances as to the share of the
national debt, and more particularly as to the method of
meeting it, endured from year to year.  In short, the thirteen states, instead of being intertwined, were set against
one another on almost every point of importance that arose
amongst them.
Geneiral The general government continued in the same feegovern- ble state that has been repeatedly observed. If there
ment.  was any change, it was that the Confederation and
its Congress had sunk to a still lower degree of inefficiency.
There was even less attention to its wants on the part of the
states; its requisitions went almost unanswered, their obligations almost unregarded.  The superintendent of finance,
Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, by whose personal exertions
and advances the country had been forced through the last
22




254                PART III. 1763-1797.
years of the war, laid down his office in despair, after a
year of peace.  His creation of a bank-the Bank of
North America (1781) -  was recommended by Congress
to the states, with the request that branches should be
established; but in vain.  Congress renewed its petition, as
it may be styled, for power to lay a duty on imports, if
only for a limited period, (1783.)  After long delay, a
fresh appeal was made Wvith really piteous representations
of the national insolvency.  New York refused to comply
upon the terms proposed, and Congress was again humiliated, (1786.)  During its efforts on this point, Congress
had roused itself upon another, and asked for authority
over foreign commerce.  Such was the urgency of the
interests at stake, that Congress went so far as to appoint a
commission for the purpose of negotiating commercial treaties with the European powers, (1784.)X  But the supplications of Congress to the states were once more denied,
(1784-86.)
Organi-   1On one point alone was Congress worthy to be
zation   called a government.  It orgaaized the western
of the
f orth   territory, after having prevailed upon the states,
west ter- or most of them, to abandon their pretensions to
ritory.
regions so remote from themselves.  Virginia having followed the earlier example of New York, a plan was
brought forward by one of her delegates, Thomas Jefferson,
for the division and constitution of the western territory.
The plan, at first, embraced the organization of the entire
western territory, out of which seventeen states, all free,
were to be formed.  The proposed prohibition of slavery
was at once voted down; otherwise the project was adopted,
* A treaty was made with only one of them, (Prussia,) but it contained
substance enough for a score of old treaties, in prohibiting privateering,
and sustaining the liberty of neutral commerce in case of war, (1785.]
See the next chapter.




THE CONSTITUTION.                   255
(April, 1784.) But the cessions of the states not yet covering the whole of the region thus apportioned, its organization was postponed until the national title to the lands could
be made complete.  Massachusetts (1785) and Connecticut
(1786) ceded their claims, the latter state, however, with a
reservation.  Treatie.s with various tribes disposed in part
of the Ip4dian titles to the western territories, (1784-86.) *
All these cessions completing the hold of the nation upon
the tract north-west of the Ohio,t that country was definitely organized as the North-west Territory, by an ordinance
of Congress, (July 13, 1787 )  This intrusted the government of the territory partly to officers appointed by Congress, and partly to an assembly to be chosen by the settlers
as soon as they amounted to five thousand; the inhabitants
and the authorities being alike bound to the observance of
certain articles of compact between the old states and the
new ones that might arise within the territory. These
articles provided for religious liberty; for habeas corpus,
trial by jury, and kindred privileges; for the encouragement of religion and education, and for justice towards the
Indians; for the equal rights and responsibilities of the
new states and the old; for the division of the territory
into states; and lastly, for the prohibition of slavery.
Under so liberal an organization, surveys, sales, and settlements followed fast.  A colony from Massachusetts was the
first to occupy Ohio, at Marietta, (1788.)
Dimffcul- Singular enough, while Congress was taking these
ties with steps to preserve the western domains, it was taking
Spail. others to endanger them. Eager to secure a treaty
* It was many years before the Indian title was completely extinguished
t The south-west territory, though ceded in great part by the Indians,
was not yet ceded by the states on whose borders it lay. South Carolina
was the first to give up her claims, (August, 1787.)




256               PART III. 1763-1797.
of commerce with Spain, the Northern and Central States
assented to surrender the navigation of the Miississippi to
that power, (1786.) In this they had no less an authority
upon their side than Washington, who appears to have
attached more importance to internal communication between the west and the east alone than to that wider intercourse which the west would possess by means of its mighty
river. Jefferson, then the American minister at Paris, was
farther sighted. "c The act," he wrote, "which abandons
the navigation of the Mississippi, is an act of separation
between the eastern and western country," (1787.) Suppose the right to the Mississippi waived, even for a limited
period, and the probability is, that a large number of the
western settlers, conceiving themselves sacrificed, would
have separated from their countrymen, and gained a passage
through the stream either in war or in alliance with Spain.
Relations with Great Britain were still more disAnd
Great  turbed than those with Spain. Nor were they less
Britain.
threatening to the west. The treaty of peace exacted the surrender of the western posts by Britain. But
America was required at the same time to provide for the
debts of great magnitude due to British merchants. This,
however, was not done. Congress was unable, and the
states were unwilling, to effect any thing; five states,
indeed, continuing or commencing measures to prevent the
collection of British debts. When, therefore, John Adams,
the first minister to Great Britain, entered into a negotiation for the recovery of the posts which the British still
held, he was met at once by the demand that the American,part in the treaty should be fulfilled, (1786.)  The subject
of debts was not the only one on which the states were
violating the treaty. But it was the chief infraction; and
against it chiefly was directed a remonstrance which Congress addressed to the states, altogether in vain, (1787.)




THE CONSTITUTION.                   257
Dark     "t The consideration felt for America by Europe,"
times.  wrote Lafayette, " is diminlishing to a degree truly
painful; and what has been gained by the revolution is in
danger of being lost little by little, at least during an interval of trial to all the friends of the nation."  " I am mortified beyond expression," wrote Washing-ton, " when I view
the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that
ever dawned upon any country."
Old foun-   Amid this tottering of the national system, the
dations. old foundations stood secure.  The laws that had
been laid deep in the past, the institutions, political and
social, that had been reared above them, remained to support the present uncertainties. Every strong principle of
the mother country, every broad reform of the colonies,
contributed to the strength and the development of the
struggling nation.
Nor were recent superstructures wanting. The
Recent
super-  states, in forming and reforming their constitutions,
struc-   set up many a great principle, undeveloped, if not
tures.
unknown, in earlier times.  Nothing, for instance,
could be more novel, as well as more admirable, than the
indemnity * voted by Pennsylvania to the proprietary family
of which she had cast off the dominion.  It was a recognition of rights belonging to rulers, that had never been
made by subjects in a successful revolution.  The law of
inheritance was another point of new proportions. The
claim of the eldest son to a double share of his father's
property, if not to all the prerogatives of primnogeniture,
was gradually prohibited, Georgia taking the lead. Suffrage was extended in several states,t from holders of real
~ ~130,000 sterling, in addition to all the private domains of the
family. Maryland made no such indemnity; but the representative of
her proprietor was an illegitimate son.
t New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, and, partially) North Carolina
22'




258               PART III. 1763-1797.
or personal property to all tax-paying freemen. Personal
liberty obtained extension and protection. The class of
indented servants diminished. That of slaves disappeared
altogether in some of the states. Massachusetts, declaring
men free and equal by her Bill of Rights, was pronounced
by her Supreme Collrt to have put an end to slavery within
her limits, (1780-83.)  Pennsylvania, New  Hampshire,
Rhode Island, and Connecticut forbade the importation of
slaves, and the bondage of any persons thereafter born
upon their soil. Other states declared against the transportation of slaves from state to state, others against the
foreign slave trade; all, in fine, moving' with greater or
less energy in the same direction, save only South Carolina
and Georgia. Societies were formed in many places to
quicken the action of the authorities. In making exertions,
and in maintaining principles like these, the nation was
proving its title to independence.
Religious   Nothing, however, was more full of promise than
privileges. the religious privileges to which the states consented.
Rhode Island, who, as formerly mentioned, had no disposition to change her existing institutions, made one alteration by striking out the prohibitory statute against Roman
Catholics, (1784.)  But Rhode Island was no longer alone
in her glory.  The majority of the state constitutions
allowed entire religipus liberty. The only real restrictions
upon it were those to which the Puritan states still clung
in enforcing the payment of taxes, and the attendance upon
services in some church or other; the old leaven not having
entirely lost its power.  Particular forms of faith were here
and there required, if not from  the citizens, at any rate
Tfom  the magistrates; Roman Catholics being excluded
from office in several states of the north, the centre, and
the south.
As there was no single fold into which the Christians of




THE CONSTITUTION.                259
the United States would enter, it was of the highest
fcclesiastical importance that their separate folds should be
organiza-  marked out and governed upon definite principles.
tions.
Nothing else was likely to prevent collision among
the more zealous, or straying away among the more lukewarm. The American branch of the church of England,
deserted by the loyalists, and suspected, if not assailed, by
the patriots, had but just survived the revolutionary struggle. It obtained its first bishop, Samuel Seabury, by ordination in Scotland, (1784,) his first associates, White and
Provoost, being consecrated in England, (1787.) A convention of several states at New York declared their church the
Protestant Episcopal church of the United States, (1784.)
The Methodist Episcopal church, strongest in the centre and
the south, obtained its first bishop, Thomas Coke, (1784.)
Two years afterwards, the first Roman Catholic bishop, John
Carroll, was appointed to the see of Baltimore, (1786.)
The Presbyterians then formed their synods for the Central
and the Southern States, (1788.) In the north, the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists, uniting to a certain
degree, continued their ancient institutions. All over the
country, ecclesiastical systems were reducing themselves to
form and law.
sugges-   It was time for the nation to profit by the examtions of ples and the principles that have been enumerated,
a national Consti- - time for it to guard against the conflicts and the
tution. perils that have been described. Alexander Hamilton, as mentioned in a former chapter, conceived the idea
of a Convention for forming a national Constitution as early
as 1780. Other individuals advocated the same measure,
in private or in public.  The legislature of New York
supported it in 1782. The legislature of Massachusetts
supported it in 1785.
In the spring of the same year, (1785,) a number of




260              PART III. 1763-1797.
Conven- commissioners from Maryland and Virginia assemtions at bled at Alexandria, for the purpose of regulating
Alexan- the navigation of the Chesapeake and the Potomac.
dria and
Annapo- They also met at Mount Vernon. James Madison
was one of their number, and he suggested the
appointment of commissioners with additional powers to
act, with the assent of Congress, in organizing a tariff for
the two states. This being recommended by the commission at Alexandria, the Virginia legislature enlarged the
plan, by appointing commissioners to meet others, not only
from Maryland, but from all the states, and " to take into
consideration the trade of the United States." Five states
were represented in a Convention at Annapolis in the
autumn of the following year, (1786.) They were wise
enough to see two things: one, that five states could not act
for the whole; and the other, that the subject of trade was
but a drop in the ocean of difficulties with which the nation
was threatened. At the proposal of Alexander Hamilton,
one of the commissioners, and the same who had urged the
formation of a Constitution six years before, the Convention
at Annapolis recommended a national convention at Philadelphia in the ensuing month of May, " to take into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such
further provisions as shall appear necessary to render the
Constitution of the federal government adequate to the
exigencies of the Union, and to report such an act for that
purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as,
when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the
legislature of every state, will effectually provide for the
same."
Action of The first to act upon this proposal from AnnapoVirginia. lis was the state so often foremost in the cause of
the country. Thus spoke Virginia: " The General Assembly of this commonwealth, taking into view the actual




THE CONSTITUTION.                261
situation of the Confederacy,... can no longer doubt
that the crisis is arrived at which the good people of America are to decide the solemn question whether they will, by
wise and magnanimous efforts, reap the just fruits of that
independence which they have so gloriously acquired, and
of that union which they have cemented with so much of
their common blood, or whether, by giving way to unmanly
jealousies and prejudices, or to partial and transitory interests, they will renounce the auspicious blessings prepared
for them  by the revolution... The same noble and
extended policy, and the same fraternal and affectionate
sentiments which originally determined the citizens of this
commonwealth to unite with their brethren of the other
states in establishing a federal government, cannot but be
felt with equal force now, as motives to lay aside every
inferior consideration, and to concur in such further concessions and provisions as may be necessary to secure the
great objects for which that government was instituted, and
to render the United States as happy in peace as they have
been glorious in war." Thereupon the legislature appointed
its deputies to join with those of the other states " in devising and discussing all such alterations and provisions as
may be necessary to render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of the Union."
The noble example thus set was at once followed
Of other
states  by New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and
and of  Delaware.  By the time these states declared themCongress. selves, (February, 1787,) Congress, after many
doubts as to the propriety of the course, came out with a
call of its. own. Instead, however, of taking the broad
ground on which Virginia set herself, Congress limited
its summons to a convention " for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation."  The other
states, Rhode Island excepted, went on to appoint their del



*262              PAItP III. 1763-1797.
egates. The credentials of some representations supported
the liberal views of Virginia; those of others the narrower
purpose of Congress. Only one state, Delaware, laid its
representatives  under a positive restriction, namely, to
maintain the right of the state, the smallest but one in the
Union, to an equal vote in any government that might be
framed.
The same hall in which the Declaration of IndceOpening
of the  pendence had been adopted, more than eleven years
Conven- before, and in which Congress had continued to sit
tion.
during the greater part of the intervening period, in
the State House at Philadelphia, was chosen for the sessions of the Convention. The day fixed for the opening
arrived.  "Such members as were in town "- runs the
diary of Washington, who had consented, against his inclination, to sit in the Convention —" assembled at the State
House; but only two states being represented, namely, Virginia and Pennsylvania, agreed to meet to-morrow," (May
14, 1787.) It must have been with anxious thoughts that
the few who met found themselves obliged to separate day
after day, without being able to make so much as a beginning in the work before them. At length, eleven days
after the appointed time, the representatives of seven states
-a bare majority -assembled and opened the Convention.  As a matter of course, George Washington was
elected president, (May 25.)
The United States of America never wore a more
Aspect.
majestic aspect than in the Convention, which gradually * filled up with the delegates of every state except
Rhode Island. The purpose of the assembly was sufficient
to invest it with solemnity. To meet in the design of
strengthening instead of enfeebling authority, of forming a' New Hampshire was not represented till July 23.




THE CONSTITUTION.                263
government which should enable the nation to fulfil, instead
of eluding its obligations alike to the citizen and the stranger, - to meet with these intentions was to do what the
world had never witnessed. It is scarcely necessary to say
that lower motives entered in; that the interests of' classes
and of' sections, the prejudices of narrow politicians and of
selfish men, obtruded themselves with ominous strength.
Mi[any of the members were altogether unequal to the national duties of the Convention. But they were surrounded
by others of a nobler mould - by the venerable Franklin,
lately returned from his French mission, the representative
of the later colonial days; by various members of the
Stamp Act Congress, of the Congress that declared independence, and of the subsequent Congresses before and
during the Confederation; by several representatives of
the younger class of patriots, notably. by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, who bad been conspicuous in the
movements preliminary to the Convention; and by many
more whose names do not depend upon a volume like the
present for reverential recollection.
Plans of   The rules of the Convention ordered secrecy of
a consti- debate and the right of each state to an equal vote.
tution.  Governor Randolph, of Virginia, then opened the
deliberations upon a constitution by offering a series of resolutions proposing a national legislature of two branches, a
national executive, and a national judiciary of supreme and
inferior tribunals.  Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina,
offered a sketch of government, based on the same principles as Randolph's, but developed with greater detail.
Both the plans were referred to a committee of the whole;
but Randolph's, or the Virginia plan, as it was rightly
called, engrossed the debate. At the end of a fortnight the
committee reported in favor of the Virginia system.
Things had not gone so far without opposition, to the ele



264               PART III. 1763-1797.
ments of which we will revert immediately. On the report of the committee, a new plan was offered by William
Patterson, of New Jersey, embodying the views of Connecticut, New York, Delaware, and Maryland, as well
as New Jersey delegates.  This New  Jersey plan, so
styled, proposed a government of much more limited powers
than that of the Virginia pattern. The two were referred
to a committee of the whole.  Soon after, Alexander Hamilton broached a plan of his own, going to the very opposite
extreme of the New Jersey system.  He was for taking the
British constitution as " the best model the world has ever
produced," and for creating a national government, of which
the executive and the higher branch of the legislature, as
well as the judiciary, should all be elected to serve during
good behavior or life. Hamilton presented his plan as an
exposition of his personal convictions rather than as a subject for debate, confessing that it was " very remote from
the idea of the people."  The question, therefore, lay between the Virginia and the New Jersey plans.
Question   But there was anotler question to be previously
of powers. decided, if not by formal vote, at least by the course
of opinions. Doubt existed about the powers of the Convention. Some insisted that it could do no more than
revise the Articles of the Confederation; in other words,
that it might reform, but not displace, the existing government. These members were of course the supporters of the
New Jersey plan. They called it by the name of federal,
in opposition to the system, at the time styled anti-federal,
of their opponents. The anti-federal -that is, the national
men   maintained the necessity of a new government as
sufficient to authorize the Conventio6n to frame one, even if
the power to do so had not been expressly given. They
urged this the more, in that the Convention would not
create the government, but simply recommend its creation




THE CONSTITUTION.                 265
to the nation.  The difference between the two sides was,
as we see, immense. As the one or as the other prevailed,
so followed the fate not merely of the Virginia and the
New Jersey plans, but of the Constitution and the nation.
A atiollal  It was, therefore, a turning point in the movesystem   ments of the Convention, when the committee of the
adopted. whole reported once more in favor of the Virginia
plan. The labors of construction and of detail were all to be
gone through. But the one guiding and assuring principle
of a national system was gained, (June 19.)
Parties were by this time but too distinctly deParties: fined. The federal side was taken, as a general
small
states and rule, by the representatives of the small states, the
states.  national by those of the large.  Whatever was upheld by the large states, especially Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, and, above all, Virginia, was, as if for this
simple reason, opposed by the small ones. There was a
constant dread of the dominion which, it was supposed,
would be exercised by the superior states to the disadvantage and the disgrace of those of inferior rank.  Perhaps
the tone assumed by the large states was such as reasonably
to inspire suspicion. Certain it is, that the breach between
the two parties grew wider and wider, particularly when
the committee and the Convention pronounced in favor of
the national plan.  Within ten days afterwards, Franklin,
shocked by the altercations around him, moved that prayers
should be said every morning.  The motion was parried,
partly, it was said, to prevent the public from surmising the
divisions of the Convention.
i   The starting point, so far as theory was conY'iews of"'D
state gov- cerned, of the two parties, was the government by
ernment. states. In this, the federal members argued, resides the only principle of sovereignty, and to this recourse
must be had for the life and breath of a government for the
23




266               PART III. 1763-1797.
nation. Hence the name of federal, implying the support
of a league - that is, a league between the states - as the
true form of a general government. All this the national
party opposed.  We are not met, they reasoned, to fashion
a Constitution out of the states or for the states, but to
create a Constitution for the people; it is the people, not
the states, who are to be governed and united; it is the
people, moreover, from whom the power required for the
Constitution is to emanate. At the same time, the national
members, with a few exceptions, were far from denying the
excellence of state governments.  These, they urged, are
precisely what we want to manage the local affairs of the
different portions of the country; in this capacity, the states
will be truly the pillars of the Union.
Votes of   These views had entered largely into the debates
states.  already decided by the adoption of a national plan
for the Constitution. They were again brought forward,
and with renewed earnestness, in relation to a question now
coming up for decision. Before the Confederation, and
after it, the votes of the states in Congress had been equal,
each state having a single vote, and no more. This was
the rule, as has been mentioned, of the Convention. But
when the point was reached in the constitutional debates,
the national party insisted upon an entirely different system. The votes to be taken in the legislative branches of
the new government are not, it was asserted, the votes of
the states, but the votes of the people; let them, therefore,
be given according to the numbers of the people, not of the
states. Not so, replied the federal members,- and they
had reason to be excited, for it was from apprehension on
this very point that they had opposed the national plan,not so, they replied, or our states, with their scanty votes,
will be utterly absorbed in the larger states.  One of the
small states, Delaware, sent her representatives, as may




THE CONSTITUTION.                267
be remembered, with express instructions to reserve her
equal vote in the national legislature. But the federal
party, already disappointed, found itself doomed to a fresh
disappointment.  Abandoning, or intimating that it was
willing to abandon, the claim  of' an equal vote in both
branches of the legislature, it stood the firmer for equality
in one of the branches-the Senate of the Constitution.
Even this more moderate demand was disregarded by the
majority, intent upon unequal votes in both the branches.
Great agitation followed. "We will sooner subAgitation.
mit to foreign power!" cried a representative from
one of the small states.  But for the reference of the
matter to a committee, who, at the instance of Franklin,
adopted a compromise, making the votes of the states equal
in the Senate, the work of the Convention would have come
to a sudden close. As it was, the report of the committee
hardly allayed the tumultuous passions that had been
aroused. It but partly satisfied the small states, while it
kindled the wrath of the large, secure as these thought
themselves, upon the point which they were now required
to yield. "If no compromise should take place," asked
Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, " what will be the consequence?  A  secession will take place, for some gentlemen seem decided on it."  It was the federal party that
talked of secession.  The national party, no wiser, as a
whole, spoke of the dismemberment and absorption of the
smaller states, hinting at the sword. Two of the New
York delegation, incensed or dejected by the triumphant
course of the national members, deserted the Convention.
"We were on. the verge of dissolution," said Luther Miartin,
a member from  Maryland, "scarce held together by the
strength of a hair."  Fortunately, peace prevailed.  The
compromise was accepted, and both national and federal
members united in determining on an equal vote in the
Senate and an unequal vote in the House that were to be.




268               PART Ill. 1763-1797.
Parties:   Another division besides that between the large
north and and the small states had now appeared. It sepasouth.  rated the north  from  the  south.  How  many
reasons there were for the separation has been remarked;
but the reason of all, the one so strong as to lead men to
acknowledge that the division between the north and the
south was wider than any other in the Convention, - the
great reason was slavery. This system, pierced, if not
overthrown, in all the Northern and in some of the Central
States, was still cherished in the south. The scanty numbers of the free population in the Southern States seemed
to make slaves a necessity there.
The first struggle upon the point arose with reApportionment spect to the apportionment of representation. It
of repre- was to be decided how the people were to be representation.
sented, in what proportions, and in what classes.
Upon this subject all other questions yielded to one,
namely, whether slaves should be included with freemen, not, of course, as voting, but as making up the number entitled to representation.  The extreme party of the
south said that they must be, and on the same terms, being
equally valuable as the free laborers of the north. On the
other hand, the extreme party of the north declared that
slaves should never be taken into account until they were
emancipated, as they ought to be. The necessity for compromise was again evident. The moderate members of
either side came together, and agreed that three fifths of
the slave population should be enumerated with the whole
of the white population in apportioning the representatives
amongst the different states.
The slave  A graver point was raised. In the draught of the
trade.   Constitution now under debate, there stood a clause
forbidding the general government to lay any tax or prohibition upon the migrations or the importations authorized




THE CONSTITUTION.                  269
by the states. This signified that there was to be no interference with the slave trade.  "It is inconsistent," exclaimed Martin, of Maryland, "with the principles of the
revolution, and dishonorable to the American character, to
have such a feature in the Constitution!"  " Religion and
humanity," answered John Rutledge, of South Carolina,
"have nothing to do with this question.  Interest alone is
the governing principle of nations. The true question at
present is, whether the Southern States shall or shall not
be parties to the Union." Charles C. Pinckney, calmer than
his colleague, took broader ground. " If the states be left at
liberty on this subject, South Carolina may perhaps by degrees do of herself what is wished, as Virginia and Maryland
have already done." The opposition to the claims of the
extreme south came from the Central States, especially from
Virginia, not from the north. The north, intent upon the
passage of acts protective of its large shipping interests,
was quite ready to come to an understanding with the
south. The consequence was that, instead of imitating the
example of earlier years and declaring the slave trade at an
end, the Convention protracted its existence for twenty
years, (till 1808.) At the same time, the restriction upon
acts relating to commerce was stricken from the Constitution. Dark as this transaction seems, it was still a compromise. To extend the slave trade for twenty years was
far better than to leave it without any limit at all. It was
at the close of these discussions that the draught of the clause
respecting fugitive slaves was introduced, and accepted
without discussion. The word slaves, however, was avoided
here, as it had been in all the portions of the Constitution
relating to slavery.
Details    There is no occasion in this place for dwelling
and dis- upon the details and the discussions of the ConvenCussions. tion. Wherever there was a detail, there was aJ23 *




270               PART III. 1763-1797.
most invariably a discussion; but the interest in the debates
generally was altogether subordinate to that excited by the
questions which have been mentioned. On these, as the
questions involving compromise, it was felt that the Constitution depended.  "The Constitution which we now present" -thus ran the draught of a letter proposed to be addressed to Congress- "is the result of a spirit of amity
and of that mutual deference and concession which the
peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable."
"I can well recollect," said James Wilson to his constituents of Pennsylvania, "the impression which on many occa.
sions was made by the difficulties which surrounded and
pressed the Convention. The great undertaking sometimes
seemed to be at a stand; and other times its motions
seemed to be retrograde."
At length, after nearly four months' perseverance
Aption through all the heat of summer, the Convention
Constitu- agreed to the Constitution, (September 15.)  As
tion.
soon as it could be properly engrossed, it was signed
by all the delegates, save Gerry, of Massachusetts, —who
hinted at civil war being about to ensue, - Randolph and
George Mason, of Virginia, (September 17.)  As the last
members were signing, Franklin pointed to a sun painted
upon the back of the president's chair, saying, " I have often
and often, in the course of the session and the vicissitude
of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun
behind the president, without being able to tell whether it
was rising or setting; but now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun."
Opposiion   The dawn was still uncertain.  Presented to
Opposition
in the na- Congress, and thence transmitted to the states, to
tion.
be by them  accepted or rejected, the Constitution
was received with very general murmurs. Even some
members of the Convention, on reaching home, declared,




THE CONSTITUTION.                271
like Miartin, of Maryland, "I would reduce myself to indigence and poverty,.. if on those terms only I could
procure my country to reject those chains which are forged
for it." The words imply the chief cause of the opposition
excited throughout the nation. It was thought that the
Constitution was too strong, that it exalted the powers of
the government too high, and depressed the rights of the
states and the people too low. This was the opinion of the
anti-federalists - a name borne rather than assumed by
those who had constituted, or by those who succeeded to, the
federal party in the Convention. On the other side stood
the federalists, the national party of the Convention, with
their adherents throughout the country. But the names,
like most party names, rather obscured than explained the
relations of those to whom they were attached. The federalists were no advocates of a simple league between the
states. Nor were the anti-federalists the opponents of such
a league, but, on the contrary, its supporters. They opposed, not the union, but what they called the subjection of
the states, proposed by the Constitution.
Constitu- One who acted for the Constitution at the time,
tional  and who wrote of it in after years, - Jeremy Belwritings. knap, then a clergyman of Boston, —tells a story
illustrating the changing tempers of the period. A man has
a new pair of small-clothes brought home to him. " It is too
small here, says he, and wants to be let out; it is too big
here, and wants to be taken in. I am afraid there will be a
hole there, and you must put on a patch; this button is not
strong enough —you must set on another." But, taking
his wife's advice, he tried on the garment, and found himself satisfied. The constitutional writingS, as they may be
called, of the twelvemonth succeeding the Convention, were
far in advance of any preceding productions of America.
The greatness of the cause called forth new powers of




272              PART III. 1763-1797.
mind, nay, new powers of heart. Washington's letters
upon the subject overflow with emotions such as his calm
demeanor had seldom betrayed before. Under the signature of Publius, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and
John Jay united in the composition of the Federalist. It
was a succession of -essays, some profound in argument,
others thrilling in appeal, and all devoted to setting forth
the principles and foretelling the operations of the Constitution. Under the signature of Fabius, John Dickinson -
the same whose Farmer's Letters had pleaded for liberty
twenty years before —now pleaded for constitutional government. It was not merely the Constitution that was thus
rendered clear and precious. The subject was as wide as
the rights of man.
Adoption So strong and so wise exertion was not in vain.
by the  State after state, beginning with Delaware, (Destates.
cember 7, 1787,) assented to the Constitution, some
by large, some by exceedingly small majorities. In most
of the bodies by which the ratification was declared, a series
of amendments was framed and passed. North Carolina
assented only on condition of her amendments being adopted. In one of the state Conventions, New York, the recommendation of another general Convention was pressed upon
the nation. New York was the scene of more decided
demonstrations.  The list of what can be called riots
throughout the country, at the time, begins and ends with a
collision between two bands of the rival parties, at Albany,
and the destruction of the type in an anti-federalist newspaper establishment at New York, (July 4-27, 1788.)
The project of a second Convention found favor in Pennsylvania. It was then taken up by the assembly of Virginia,
but after the Convention of that state had accepted the Constitution. In seeing these states arrayed in greater or less
strength against the Constitution, one is struck by their




THE CONSTITUTION.                 273
being large states, to which the Constitution was supposed
to be particularly acceptable. The other of the largest
states, Massachusetts, had but a bare majority to give in
favor of the Constitution. On the other hand, several of
the small states were now the most earnest supporters of
federalist principles. The causes of this revolution were
chiefly local. But, actuated by different motives, the large
states, or rather the parties in the large states, opposing the
unconditional adoption of the Constitution, were unable to
combine with any effect. The generous impulses and the
united exertions of their opponents carried the day. Only
North Carolina and Rhode Island stood aloof, and the
former but partially, when Congress performed the last act
preliminary to the establishment of the Constitution, by
appointing days for the requisite elections and for the organization of the new government, (September 13, 1788.)
Thus was completed  the  most extraordinary
of the transaction of which merely human history bears
transac- record.  A  nation  enfeebled, dismembered, and
tion.
dispirited, broken by the losses of war, by the dissensions of peace, incapacitated for its duties to its own citizens or to foreign powers, suddenly bestirred itself and
prepared to create a government. It chose its representatives without conflicts or even commotions. They came
together, at first only to disagree, to threaten, and to fail.
But against the spells of individual selfishness and sectional
passion, the inspiration of the national cause proved potent.
The representatives of the nation consented to the measures
on which the common honor and the common safety depended.  Then the nation itself broke out in clamors.
Still there was no violence, or next to none. No sort of
contention arose between state and state. Each had its own
differences, its own hesitations; but when each had decided
for itself, it joined the rest and proclaimed the Constitution.




274               PART III. 1763-1797.
Stympa- The work thus achieved was not merely for the
thy for  nation that achieved it.  In the midst of their
mankind. doubts and their dangers, a few generous spirits, if
no more, gathered fresh courage by looking beyond the
limits of their country. Let Washington speak for them.
"I conceive," says he, " under an energetic general government, such regulations might be made, and such measures
taken, as would render this country the asylum of pacific
and industrious characters from all parts of Europe," — " a
kind of asylum," as he says in another place, "for mankind."  It was not, therefore, for America alone that her
sons believed themselves to have labored, but for the world.
Literature It has already appeared that the writings of the solof the diers and the statesmen of the period were, in many
revolution and instances, as important as their actions.  There
the Con- were other writers, who stood conspicuous, solely or
stitution.
almost solely, on account of their literary exertions.
Such was Thomas Paine, an Englishman, whose pamphlet
of Common Sense (1776) had so great an effect that its
author, though then but a few months in the country, pretended afterwards to have started the revolution. His
later pamphlets, issued during the war under the name of
the Crisis, were of equal power. Amongst the American
authors were John Trumbull, of Connecticut, whose poem
of McFingal (begun 1774) was a satire at once upon his
countrymen and upon their foes; Francis Hopkinson, of
Philadelphia, who, after various productions in prose and in
rhyme relating to the war, came to the aid of the Constitution in an allegory entitled the New Roof; and Philip Freneau, of New York, whose verses upon the battles of the
~revolution were amongst the most popular and the most
artistic compositions of the times. The influence of such a
literature may be conceived. It spread the stirring spirit
of the camp and of the council around the fireside and




THE CONSTITUTION.                 275
within the closet, kindling sympathy, arousing action, and
thus contributing largely to the national redemption.
The mu-   Nor should we forget, in this connection, the insic of Bil- fluence of the first of our composers, William  Billings. lings, a Bostonian. Such was his enthusiasm at
once for his art and for his country, that, though almost
uneducated as a musician, he moved many a spirit by his
ardent strains. His melodies were heard on the march and
on the battle field as well as in the choir; such as his Independence and his Columbia may be called psalms of the
revolution and of the Constitution.




CHAPTER VII.
WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.
Washing-  THE name of Washington was almost a part of
ton pres- the Constitution. "The Constitution would never
ident.  have been adopted,"- thus Edmund Randolph, by
no means a strong adherent to Washington, wrote to him
afterwards, -" but fiom a knowledge that you had once
sanctioned it, and an expectation that you would execute
it."  "The Constitution," Lafayette wrote at once from
Paris, " satisfies many of our desires; but I am much mistaken if there are not some points that would be perilous,
had not the United States the happiness of possessing their
guardian angel, who will lead them to whatever still remains
to be done before reaching perfection."  Such was the
universal voice of the nation, and of the nation's well
wishers.  The presidential electors gave in their votes
without a single exception in favor of Washington; and he
consented to what he had reason to call " this last great
sacrifice." " I bade adieu to Mount V-rnon," he writes in
his diary, "to private life, and to domestic felicity; and
with a mind oppressed with more anxious at'd painful sensations than I have words to express, set out with the best
disposition to render service to my country in obedience
to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations."
The two houses of Congress had been organized in New
(276)




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.            277
York, after a month's delay.*  A day or two before
Organization of  Washington's arrival, John Adams took his place as
govern- vice president.  The inauguration of the presiment.
dent, postponed a few days after he was ready for
the ceremony, at length completed the organization of the
government, (April 30, 1789.)
Solemni-  It was one thing for Washington to receive the
ty of the homages of his countrymen, on his journey to the
work.
seat of government, and on his entrance into office
there; all this was smiling to the eye, and full of promise
to the ear. But it was another thing to remember the
weaknesses and the divisions of the nation; to behold the
present sources of peril; and to feel that the Constitution
was still an untried instrument, unmoved, perhaps unmovable. Whatever has been said of the solemnity of former
periods, or of former duties, must be repeated with stronger
emphasis of the work now  before Washington and his
coadjutors. Of far greater difficulty than the formation of
the Constitution was the setting it in operation. Washington knew it all. And almost the first words which broke
from his lips, as president of the United States, were words
of prayer. " It would be peculiarly improper," he said at
the beginning of his inaugural speech, " to omit in this first
official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being
who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils
of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every
human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the
liberties and happiness of the people of the United States,
a government instituted by themselves for these essential
purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its
* March 4 being the appointed day; and the House not having a
quorum till March 30, the Senate none till April 6.
24




278                PART III. 1763-1797.
administration to execute with success the functions allotted
to his charge."
Washing-  In the same spirit Washington invoked the supton to his port of those around him, not merely as his fellowfelloW-h
Chrlis-  countrymen, but as his fellow-Christians.  Among
tians.   all the addresses hailing his accession to the presidency, from political and industrial, from literary and scientific bodies, none seemed to please him more than those
received from religious organizations. In his replies, he
remarks upon his need of their sympathies and prayers.
Convinced that nothing could so bind the nation together
as charity amongst the different branches of Christians, he
insists upon it with peculiar earnestness.  In an address to
his own church, the Protestant Episcopal, he expresses his
joy "to see Christians of different denominations dwell
together in more charity, and conduct themselves in respect
to each other with a more Christian-like spirit, than ever
they have done in any former age or in any other nation."
To the church that had been an object of persecution
through the whole colonial period, the Roman Catholic,
the president wrote as follows: " I hope ever to see
America among the foremost nations in examples of justice
and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-citizens
will not fbrget the patriotic part which you took in the
accomplishment of their revolution, and the establishment
of their government."
The na-    These principles, so far above any of a merely
tion.   political character, were to be applied to a nation
now numbering nearly four millions.* This was the population. of all the thirteen states. The Constitution, as will
be recollected, went into operation with the assent of but
* The census of 1790 gave, whites, 3,172,464; free blacks, 59,466;
slaves, 697,897: total, 3,929,827.




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.            279
eleven. North Carolina acceded in eight months, (November 13;) Rhode Island in fifteen, (Mlay 29, 1790.)
The great feature of the opening years of WashWork of
congress. ington's administration was the work of Congress,
Tle de- the body upon whose laws the government dependpartments  ed for movement, if not for life. The departments
and the were organized; one of state, one of the treasury,
and one of war; each being under the control of a
secretary. The three secretaries, with an attorney general,
constituted the cabinet of the president; the postmaster
general not being a cabinet officer until a later period.
Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson the first secretary
of state, Alexander Hamilton the first secretary of the
treasury, Henry Knox the first secretary of war, Edmund Randolph the first attorney general, and Samuel
Osgood the first postmaster general, (September, 1789.)
At the same time, he made his appointments for the offices
of the judiciary; Congress having created a Supreme
Court, with Circuit and District Courts appended. John
Jay was the first chief justice of the United States.
Congress had already launched into constitutionments to al discussions. The amendments to the Constituthe Con- tion, proposed by the different states, were numerous
stitution.
enough - fifty and upwards - to call for early attention. It was not suggested either by the states or by
their congressional representatives, to make any fundamental alterations in the Constitution. The old federal, now
the anti-federalist party, from whom most of the amendments came, asked for no subversion of the national system.
They were. contented with a few articles, declaring the
states and the people in possession of all the powers and
all the rights not otherwise surrendered to the general
government. These articles, to the number of ten, were
adopted by Congress, and accepted by the states.




280               PART III. 1763-1797.
A far more vital matter was the revenue.  To
Revenue.
this Congress addressed itself in the first weeks of
the session. The result of long and difficult debates was
the enactment of a tariff, intended to serve at once for
revenue and for protection of domestic interests. A tonnage duty, with great advantages to American shipping,
was also adopted. Some time afterwards, indeed towards
the close of the first Congress, an excise was laid on domestic spirits. These measures were modified at intervals.
But beneath them, in all their forms, there continued the
principle, that the duties upon imports were to provide for
government in the shape of a revenue, and for the nation
in the shape of protection. It was no time for free trade.
It fell to the first Congress, likewise, to provide
for the public credit. The debts of the Confederation amounted to fifty-four millions of dollars, or to eighty
millions if the debts of the states, incurred for general
objects, were added. It was the plan of Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, that these debts should be taken as a
whole to be assumed and funded by the new government.
All sorts of opinions were started. Agreeing that the
foreign debt should be treated in the manner proposed, the
members of Congress were altogether at variance upon the
subject, first, of the domestic debt due from the Confederation itself, and second, of the debt due from the separate
states of the Confederation. On the first point, it was
argued by a large number, that the certificates of the
public debt were no longer in the hands of the original
holders, and that to fund them at their par value was
simply to put money into the pockets of speculators to
-whom the first holders had transferred them at great sacrifices. On the second point, that of assuming the state
debts, the opposition was still more earnest, especially from
the representatives of those states whose exertions during




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.          281
the war of the revolution had been comparatively limited.
It was a matter, moreover, to be supported or opposed
according to the various views of the state and the national
governments. They who, like the proposer of the system,
desired to see the national government strong, advocated its
being made the centre of'the public credit; while they
who inclined to the rights of the states, preferred to have
the debt remain in state rather than in national stocks.
Manner   The question was not decided upon any abstract
of de-  grounds. It had been a bone of contention where
Cision*  the seat of the general government should be located, some going for one place and some for another. When
the House of Representatives decided against assuming the
state debts, the advocates of the assumption hit upon the
plan of securing the necessary votes from some of the
Virginian or Maryland members, by consenting to fix the
projected capital on the Potomac.* The bait was snapped
at, and a measure on which the honor of the states, if not
of the nation, depended, passed by means of unconcealed
intrigue. The state debts were then assumed, not in mass,
but in certain proportions. This being the chief object of
altercation, the funding of the domestic and foreign debt of
the general government was rapidly completed, (August 4,
1790.) The transaction was by no means to the satisfaction of the entire nation. Even Virginia, whose representatives had voted for the scheme, considering their state to
be amply repaid by- the location of the capital on the
Potomac, declared against the whole system, save only that
part relating to the foreign debt. The funding of the
general domestic debt was pronounced to be " dangerous to
the rights, and subversive of the interests, of the people;"
while that of the state debts was " repugnant to the Constitution." The opposition did not end here.
* Philadelphia to be the capital until 1800.
24*




282              PART III. 1763-1797.
National   The public creditors, on the other hand, were de.
bank.  lighted. All the moneyed interests of the country,
indeed, were quickened, the public bonds being so much
additional capital thrown into the world of industry and of
commerce. The creation of a national bank, with the design
of sustaining the financial operations of government, took
place in the early part of the following year, (1791.) On
the opening of the subscription books, a signal proof of the
confidence now placed in the national credit was given, the
whole number of shares offered being taken up in two
hours. At the same time, the number and the earnestness
of the party averse to these movements of the government
were increased by the success with which they were attended.
It had been made a question in the very cabinet of the president, by Jefferson and Randolph, whether the charter of the
bank was not beyond the limits of the Constitution. Washington himself had hesitated to approve the act of Congress.
The construction of the Constitution was one of
Parties.
the points on which parties were now contending.
It was a natural principle with the federalists that the Constitution should be interpreted freely; that is, in such a
way as to give the government the full measure of its
powers. On the other hand, the anti-federalists were for
limiting the provisions of the Constitution, if not as far as
possible, at least as far as they thought required by the
independence of the states and of the people. Every subject brought before Congress excited questions of congressional powers. The organization of the government, the
creation of a tariff, of a national debt, and, as just mentioned, of a bank, all were argued for or against, according
to the different views of the work to be done by Congress.
Party spirit, however, was by no means confined to constitutional arguments. It appeared on every occasion, charging the federalists, now the dominant class, with monarchi



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.         283
cal schemes as their ends, and with corrupt dealings as their
means; while the anti-federalists, who took the name of republicans, were accused of tendencies to intrigue and to
sedition. So violent was the temper on both sides, that the
cry went up of separation from the Union. This, too,
when the Union was but just formed.
Especially  But of all the passions so prematurely exploding,
north and none were so threatening as those of the north and
south.  the south. The same division that had been observed to be wider than any other before the Constitution,
continued wider than any still. Even the controversies
between the federalists and the republicans were not so
great or so absorbing as to crowd out the matters of dissension between the Southern and the Northern States.
Nay, the divisions of the two portions of the country were
rather enhanced by those between the two parties; for
although there were many republicans in the north and
many federalists in the south, yet the south, as a general
rule, was republican, and the north federalist. This was
inevitable. The interests of the northern industry, its shipping, its commerce, and its manufactures, called for a very
different policy on the part of the government from that
demanded by the southern agriculture.
The great line of distinction was run by slavery.
Points
concern- The points of this thorny subject, so far from being
ing sla  smoothed by the compromises of the Constitution,
very.
stood up as bristling as ever. In the very first year
of the new government, there came petitions from  the
Quakers of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, asking for the abolition of the slave trade. With this, as stated
in the account of the Convention, Congress had no power to
interfere for a period of twenty years. But the introduction of the subject brought up a storm, as it was called by
a member from Georgia, which lasted for days and even




284                PART III. 1763-1797
weeks, until the adoption of a committee's report that Congress had no authority over the slave trade, except with
foreign countries, until 1808, the date prescribed by the
Constitution. At the same time, all pretensions to control
the treatment or the emancipation of slaves, in the states
where they existed, were expressly abjured by Congress.
This did not prevent an earnest Delaware Quaker from
petitioning some two or three years afterwards for the abolition of slavery. The petition was returned to the petitioner, (November, 1792.) A later memorial, (January,
1794,) from a convention of societies for the abolition of
slavery, held at Philadelphia, asking Congress to take such
measures as the Constitution allowed against the slave
trade, resulted in an act prohibiting the trade with foreign
lands. So far as related to the slave trade, there seems to
have been no opposition on the part of the Southern States
to its suppression. They were all moving more or less
actively in the same direction.*  What they opposed was
the interference of Congress with slavery within the limits
of the country.
s to th~e   On this particular point the opposing theories of
territo-  after years were not yet distinctly formed.  But
ries.   there was an evident foreboding of future divisions.
It was generally agreed that Congress had no power in
relation to slavery in the states. But it was generally
urged on one side, and by no means generally repelled on
the other, that the existence of slavery, as of any other system, in the territories, did depend upon Congress. There
were the clauses of the Constitution - " The Congress
shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules
and regulations respecting, the territory or other property
* The traffic was prohibited in all the states by 1798. South Carolina,
however, revived it in 1804.




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.            285
belonging to the United States;" "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union." On these the opponents of slavery relied, as empowering Congress to exclude
the system from any territories to be organized, or any
states to be admitted. The great precedent of the Northwest Territory, where slavery was expressly prohibited by
the Congress of the Confederation, was ratified by the first
Congress under the Constitution. It claimed - so the north.
ern men felt-to be not only ratified, but followed. That it
might be followed, was distinctly amongst the apprehensions
of the southerners, the more naturally from its having been
proposed by one of themselves, Thomas Jefferson, as we
have read, to exclude slavery from all the unsettled territories. When North Carolina ceded her western lands to the
Union, she did so on the express condition "' that no regulation made or to be made by Congress shall tend to the
emancipation of slaves," (1789.)
Here was the starting point of all future strife.
Sintrtin  It was in the power of Congress to reject the profuture posed condition on the ground that its authority
strife.
over the territories was not thus to be trammelled.
Or it might have taken exactly the opposite ground, and
declared that it had no right to impose any conditions
upon the territories. Supposing either position to have
been taken permanently, the question of slavery in the territories might have come up again. But the constitutional
principle on which it could be decided as often as it recurred, would have been established. Of all this there
seems to have been little or no perception.  Not even
Washington —he who was so fixed against all sectional
divisions —exerted himself to close this prolific source of
bitterness and of contention. Congress accepted the cession
of North Carolina, and organized the district as the Territory South of the Ohio, (1790.)




286               PART III. 1763-1797.
Presiden-  Meanwhile the unity of the country, despite its
tial tours. parties and its broils, had been happily illustrated
in the tours of the president. He first visited the New
England States, Rhode Island excepted,* (October, November, 1789;) then Rhode Island, (August, 1790;) and,
lastly, the Central and Southern States, (April-June,
1791.) No earthly potentate had ever received such homage as the republican magistrate, the revolutionary chief,
the Christian man, all blended in Washington. It was a
homage offered principally to the individual, but the light
which shone about him was diffused over the nation of
which he was the head and the representative.
Work of   The states had not been idle. They were learnthe    ing their new relations to the general government,
states. and, through this, to one another. Within their
own borders, much was to be done to set up the law that
had been shaken and the order that had been disturbed for
the ten, twenty, or even thirty years before. Many of the
late Constitutions were remodelled, and some new ones
were framed.
New      New states were presenting themselves for admisstates. sion into the line of the thirteen. The consent of
New York having been obtained, Vermont was admitted,
(March 4, 1791.) Provision was already made for the entrance of Kentucky in the following year, (June 1, 1792.)
The Territory South of the Ohio was subsequently admitted
as the State of Tennessee, (June 1, 1796.)
But the interest of the period was concentrated
Dependence upon on the general government. By this, it was felt,
Washing-' and not by any local authorities or any local movetdn.
ments, the difficulties of the nation were to be met
and overcome. The general government itself was concen* Not then a member of the Union.




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.           287
trated in Washington. They who deny him power of character, acknowledging his excellence and his judiciousness,
without acknowledging his inspiration of thought and his
energy of action, may turn to the group gathered at Philadelphia, the capital, and see the eyes of their heroes, federalist or republican, northerner or southerner, all fixed on
Washington for protection, especially as the four years of
his presidency drew to a close. Jefferson, the head of the
republicans, wrote to him, "The confidence of the whole
Union is centred in you. Your being at the helm will be
more than an answer to every argument which can be used
to alarm and lead the people in any quarter into violence or
secession. North and south will hang together, if they
have you to hang on."  "It is clear," wrote Hamilton, the
leader of the federalists, "that a general and strenuous
effort is making in every state to place the administration
of the national government in the hands of its enemies, as
if they were its safest guardians; that the period of the
next House of Representatives is likely to prove the
crisis of its permanent character; that, if you continue in
office, nothing materially mischievous is to be apprehended
— if you quit, much is to be dreaded." Randolph, the
attorney general, - a sort of leader to a middle party,
neither wholly federalist nor wholly republican, - was
equally pressing. "The fuel," he wrote to Washington,
"which has been already gathered for combustion, wants
no addition. But how awfully might it be increased, were
the violence which is now suspended by a universal submission to your pretensions let loose by your resignation!"
Thus urged, Washington could do no less than accept the
unanimous summons to another term of labor for his country. Adams was again chosen vice president, (1792-93.)
There was one thing over which Washington had no
influence. The animosity of parties had spared him, but




288               PART III. 1763-1797.
Animo- without being checked by him. He vainly exerted
ity of par- himself to keep the peace, even in his own cabinet.
ties.   Jefferson and Hamilton were at swords' points, and
at swords' points they remained until Jefferson retired,
(1794.)  In Congress, all was uproar. The slightest question sufficed to set the northerner against the southerner,
the federalist against the republican. Out of Congress, the
tumult was increasing. Influences to which we must revert
had swelled the dissensions of the nation with " very different views," as Washington wrote, " some bad, and, if I
might be allowed to use so harsh an expression, diabolical."
A new party, chiefly from the republican ranks, had gathered, under the name of democrats, in societies of which
the model was taken from abroad, and which, as Washington wrote, might " shake the government to its foundation."
The fearful passion of the time at length broke
I[nsurrection in out in insurrection. In consequence of the excise
venasyl- upon domestic spirits, some parts of the country
where distillation was common had been greatly
discontented. North Carolina and Pennsylvania, or rather
the interior counties of those states, had been agitated to
such a degree, that the president deemed it necessary to
issue a proclamation, calling upon his fellow-citizens to
support the laws, (1792.) The excitement gradually subsided, except in Pennsylvania, where, after various acts of
violence, an armed convention, seven thousand strong, met
at Braddock's Field, (August, 1794.)  The president of
this assembly was a Colonel Cook, the secretary, Albert
Gallatin, a Swiss emigrant; and the commander of the
troops a lawyer named Bradford. Of course, the objects
of so large a body were various; some being intent merely
upon suspending the collection of the excise, while others
meditated the possession of the country, and separation
from the Union. The president at once put forth a procla



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.           289
mation, "warning the insurgents to desist from their opposition to the laws." Commissioners were at the same time
appointed to proceed to the scene of disturbance, and persuade the actors to return to their duty. It being found,
however, that nothing but force, or the show of force, would
put down the insurrection, another proclamation was published, announcing the march of fifteen thousand militia
from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia.
The president himself took the field for a few days; but
finding that the insurgents had disappeared before the
approach of his troops, he left his officers - General Henry
Lee, governor of Virginia, being commander-in-chief - to
complete the work that was no sooner begun than it was
ended. A considerable number of prisoners was taken;
but no executions followed, (November.) Enough had
been done to decide " the contest," as Washington described
it, "whether a small proportion of the United States shall
dictate to the whole Union."
Indian    The same year (1794) witnessed the suppression
wars.  of a danger, half domestic and half foreign —a
long-continued Indian war. It broke out, four years before,
on the attempt of various western tribes to recover the
country as far as the Ohio. A thousand men, partly United
States troops, and partly militia from Pennsylvania and
Kentucky, were sent into the heart of the hostile region.
Two detachments, under Colonel Hardin, fell into ambuscades; while the main body, under General Harmer,
marched, countermarched, and at length retreated, (1790.)
The next year, after several incursions of volunteers into
the Indian territory, an army of some two thousand, under
General St. Clair, started, late in the autumn, to reduce the
enemy. Delayed by the construction of forts, the troops
were advancing but slowly, when they were surprised in
camp, and utterly routed by the Indians, (1791.) Two
25




290              PART III. 1768-1797.
years passed in fruitless attempts at negotiation. An army
of three or four thousand, slowly enlisted under the command of General Wayne, the hero of Stony Point, at
length proceeded to more decisive measures. Spending the
winter and the spring in camp, Wayne took the field in the
following summer. Securing his rear by forts along the
route which he pursued, he overtook and completely vanquished the Indians, driving them from their posts, and
laying waste their fields, (1794.) A treaty made with
Wayne a year afterwards (1795) renounced the claims
which had led the unhappy Indians into war. There still
remained upon the south-western borders the restless tribes
that had taken up arms from time to time during the war
with their brethren of the north-west. Peace with them
was made a year later, (1796.) In both treaties, the United
States took an attitude never before assumed by the whites,
as a nation, towards the red man. The truth that the
Indians were not the aggressors so much as the borderers,
nay, the United States themselves, seems to have been
tacitly recognized by the indemnities to the conquered or
the pacified tribes.
Indian    It was equally new in the history of the Indian
interests. race, that the white men should unite nationally in
supplying their wants and improving their relations. No
part of Washington's administration, domestic or foreign,
was more original or more benign than the policy which he
constantly urged towards the Indians of the United States.
To save them from the frauds of traders, a national system
of trade was adopted. To protect them from the aggressions of borderers, as well as to secure them in the rights
allowed them by their treaties, a number of laws were prepared. " I add with pleasure," said the president in one
of his later addresses to Congress, " that the probability of
their civilization is not diminished by the experiments which




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.           291
have been thus far made under the auspices of government.
The accomplishment of this work, if practicable, will reflect
undecaying lustre on our national character, and administer
the most grateful consolation that virtuous minds can know,"
(December, 1795.)
Among the agents employed by the administraIIeckewelder, tion in dealing with the Indians was a remarkable
the mis- man.  John Heckewelder, born in England, of
sionary.
German parentage, came to Pennsylvania in his
youth, and there in his early manhood became a missionary
of the United Brethren, or Moravians, amongst the Delawares and the Mohegans, (1771.)  His life thenceforward
was devoted to the Indians. He preached to them, that
they might be converted to God. He wrote of them, that
they might be respected of men.  "I still indulge the
hope," he wrote in his old age, " that this work [for the
Indians] will be accomplished by a wise and benevolent
government."
A far more savage foe than the Indian was
Tribute                  n
to Al-  appeased at the same period, but with much less
giers.
credit, it must be added, to the nation. This was
the Dey of Algiers, who, with a number of neighbors like
himself, was wont to sweep the seas with piratical craft.
Singular to say, the sway of these buccaneering potentates
was acknowledged by the European states, who paid an
annual tribute on condition of their commerce being spared.
Ten years before the present date, the freebooters of the
Dey of Algiers had captured two American vessels, and
thrown their crews into bondage. He now (1795) consented to releasehis captives, and to respect the merchantmen
of the United States, on the reception of a tribute like that
received from the powers of Europe. Three quarters of
a million were paid down; an annual payment of full
fifty thousand dollars being promised in addition. Other




292               PART III. 1763-1797.
treaties of the same sort with Tripoli and Tunis were
under way.
Foreign    The relations of the United States with civilized
relations. nations were hardly more satisfactory.  The monarchies of Europe looked down, if they looked at all, upon
the infant republic, of which many of them really knew
almost nothing. What was of vast moment to a people
rising out of depression and of obscurity, was a trifle in the
eyes of old states, accustomed to deal with great interests
and with great resources. Their relations with America
were matters of little concern to them. On the other hand,
the relations of America to them, oi. to some of them,
formed the chief point of attention and of exertion with
the American nation for a quarter of a century.
commer-   We must go back to days over which we have
cial trea- passed, in order to see how the United States preties.   sented themselves to the older nations.  " Our
fathers," said John Quincy Adams, himself a foreign minister under Washington, " extended the hand of friendship
to every nation on the globe." Their first treaty, the one
with France, in which the affairs of commerce and of peace
were mingled with those of alliance and of war, was followed by one with Prussia, (1785.)  "This," remarked
Adams, " consecrated three fundamental principles of foreign intercourse. First, equal reciprocity and the mutual
stipulation of the commercial exchanges of peace; secondly, the abolition of private war on the ocean; and thirdly,
restrictions favorable to neutral commerce upon belligerent
parties with regard to contraband of war and blockades.
These principles were assumed as cardinal points of the
policy of the Union." It was a policy, however, in perpetual collision with the usages and prerogatives of the
European powers; so much so, that, though the young
nation held out an open hand, it was met by contracted




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.            293
grasps. The state of things will appear as we go on to the
negotiations of Washington's administration.
Treaty    One of the first to come into more settled rela.
with  tions with the new government was Spain. That
Spain. power, through its colonial authorities in Florida,
had been supposed to be tampering with the southern
Indians. On the other hand, it was notorious that several
expeditions from the southern and western frontiers were
planned against the Spanish territory. All the while, the
dividing line between Florida and the United States was
unsettled, and the claim to the navigation of the Mississippi undetermined. Finally, a special envoy, Thomas
Pinckney, was sent to Spain. It took him nearly a year
to bring about a treaty defining the Florida boundary,
and opening the Mississippi to the United States, (1795.)
Even then the Spaniards delayed to fulfil provisions in
which they took but small interest.,elations The relations with Spain were bad enough. But
with   those with Great Britain and France were worse.
Britain  We must speak of these nations together, since it
and    was their common, rather than their separate, influFrance.
ences which operated to the extent that is to be
described. Side by side, in the first place, were the feelings
of amity to France and of animosity to Britain; the seeds
were planted in war, and their growth was not checked in
peace. Britain continued to wear the aspect of an antagonist, keeping her troops upon the United States territory
until her demands were satisfied, while on the other side
of the sea she laid one restraint after another upon commerce, as if she would have kept the Americans at a
distance from her shores. France, on the contrary, was
still the friend of the rising nation, and not only as its
patron, but as its follower. The same year that Washington entered the presidency, the French revolution began.
25 *




294              PART III. 1763-1797.
Its early movements, professedly inspired by those that
had taken place in America, kindled all the sympathies of
American hearts. Hitherto, the bond between them and
the French was one of gratitude and of dependence; now
it was one of sympathy and of equality.
But we are not to imagine our fathers to have
Parties                       n
there-  harmonized upon these points any more than upon
po"'- the others that have been noticed. The nation was
by no means unanimous against Great Britain, by no means
unanimous for France. Deep, indeed, but still in action,
were the sentiments of former times when France was the
foe, and Britain the mother-land. To these a new impulse
was given by the early excesses of the revolution. With
their ideas of law and order, the Americans could not go
along with the French, rioters from the first, and soon
destroyers and murderers, rather than freemen.  Many
paused, and turning with distrust from the scenes of which
France was the unhappy theatre, looked with kinder emotions towards the sedater and the wiser Britain. It would
be too much to say that this led to a British party; but it
did lead to a neutral one, while, on the other hand, a
French party, applauding the license as well as the liberty
of the revolution, clapped their hands the more enthusiastically as the spectacle became wilder and bloodier. This
party was the republican; its more impetuous members
being the democratic republicans. Their opponents were
the federalists. The new dissensions came just in time to
keep up the division between the two. Mere federalist and
republican questions might have waned; they were already
less glowing than they had been. They were revived by
the strife of the French with the anti-French party.
Few had spoken of doing more than looking on at the
events in Europe. Yet there were some so excited, so
maddened, as to be ready for any extremities, especially




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION,            295
Washing- when the France whom they worshipped declared
ton pro- war against the Britain whom they abhorred. More
claims
neutral- divided than ever, the nation was again close upon
ity.   the breakers, when WVashington - never greater,
never wiser - issued his proclamation of neutrality, making it known "that the duty and interest of the United
States require that they should with sincerity and good faith
adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial towards
the belligerent powers," (April 22, 1793.) It is a memorable act in our history.
Point    Its purpose is not always rightly estimated.
proposed. Look at the nation tasked to its utmost, one may
almost say, to subdue a few Indian tribes, obliged to pay
tribute to the Algerines, unable to keep the Spaniards to
their obligations, and we shall not behold a power that could
enter safely into European wars. If such a thing were
attempted, it would be at the hazard of the independence
that had been achieved. There were two risks; one arising from the certainty that the United States must be a
subordinate ally in any war to which it became a party;
and the other, —a still graver one, - that the passions
aroused by a foreign would find no vent but in a civil war.
It was, as he said, " to keep the United States free," that
Washington proclaimed neutrality.
Mission    The system was soon put to trial. France, havof Genet. ing baptized herself a republic in the blood of her
king, Louis XVI., sent a new minister to the United States
in the person of citizen Genet. An enthusiastic representative of his nation, Genet excited a fresh enthusiasm in
the French party of America.  Feasted at Charleston,
where he landed, (April, 1793,) and at all the principal
places on the route northward, he was led to imagine the
entire country at his feet, or at those of the French republic. He began at Charleston to send out privateers, and to




296              PART III. 1763-1797.
order that their prizes should be tried and condemned by
the French consuls in the United States. It was a part of
the treaty of commerce between the two nations, that the
privateers and prizes of the French should be admitted to
the American ports. But Genet was soon to be checked.
HIe had not merely a divided people to deal with, but a
government; and although the government itself had its
divisions, it was so far accordant as to oppose the ambassador, to whom, on his arrival at Philadelphia, it stood ready
to declare that whatever the treaty provided for, it did not
provide for the commission of privateers or the condemnation of prizes within American limits. This is not the
place to describe the proceedings of so wild a personage
as Genet.  He did battle for his privateers and his
courts; appealed from the executive to Congress and
the people; and pursued so extreme a course as to set his
supporters and his opponents bitterly at variance. The
French party now went openly for war against England.
"Marat, Robespierre, Brissot, and the Mfountain," says Vice
President Adams, " were the constant themes of panegyric
and the daily toasts at table.... Washington's house
was surrounded by an innumerable multitude from day to
day, huzzaing, demanding war against England, cursing
Washington, and crying,' Success to the French patriots
and virtuous republicans.' Frederic A. Aluhlenberg, the
speaker of the House of Representatives, toasted publicly,'The Mountain: may it be a pyramid that shall reach the
skies.'"  " I had rather be in my grave," exclaimed Washington one day in great excitement, " than in my present
situation." He was equal, however, and more than equal,
to his duty and, supported by his cabinet, he sent to request
the reca.A of Genet, (August.)  As the party by which
Genet had been commissioned had sunk to ruin, their successors readily appointed a minister of their own - citizen
Fauchet.




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.            297
Great    But the troubles of the time were too compliBritain cated to be reached by a mere change of ministers.
and
France France had pronounced against the neutrality of
Amdean America, — not, indeed, by direct menace or vioneutral- lence, but by ordering that neutral vessels, containity.   ing goods belonging to her enemies, should be captured, (MIay 1, 1793.)  An embargo was then laid upon
the shipping at Bordeaux. Both these measures were
decided violations of the treaty with America. The most
that France did, however, was as nothing compared with
the extremes to which her chief enemy, Great Britain,
resorted. France had ordered that the goods of an enemy
were liable to capture. Great Britain now ordered that
the goods of a neutral power, if consisting of provisions
for the enemy, were to be captured or bought up, unless
shipped to a friendly port, (June.)  This was followed
by an order that all vessels laden with the produce of a
French colony, or with supplies for the same, were lawful prizes, (November;) a decree so arbitrary that it was
soon modified by the nation that issued it, (January, 1794.)
Worse than all, Great Britain claimed the right to impress
into her service every seaman of British birth, wherever
he might be found; so that the ships of the United States
would be stopped, searched, and stripped of their crews,
at the pleasure of the British cruisers. It often happened that American sailors, as well as British, were the
victims of this impressment. A thrill of indignation and
of defiance against such proceedings ran through the
Americans. They would have been less than freemen,
less, even, than men, to have borne with such injuries in
silence:
Threat-    The course of Great Britain is easily explained.
ened war
with   Its rulers regarded the United States merely as a
Great  commercial people who were contributing to the
Britain.




298               PART III. 1763-1797.
resources of the enemy. Did they look upon the nation
in any political light, they felt sure —thus Washington
was informed from  London -" that there was a party so
decidedly in the British sentiment that bearing and forbearing would be carried to any length." But they were mistaken. The very party most opposed to France were
earnest in sustaining the necessity of preparations for war,
defensive, indeed, but still war with Great Britain. A
temporary embargo upon the American ports was voted by
Congress, for the purpose of suspending commercial intercourse, (March, 1794.)  The House of Representatives
passed an act prohibiting all trade with Great Britain and
her colonies, until she redressed the wrongs which she had
perpetrated; the act would have passed the Senate likewise, but for the casting vote of the vice president, (April.)
The partisans of the French were all alive for further
action; their opponents were hardly prepared to resist it.
One step on the part of the executive, one hint that Washington, the still trusted though still slandered magistrate,
was in favor of arming, and the nation would have armed.
With Great Britain, in all her might, for a foe, and with
France, in all her blood-red despotism, for an ally, what
would have been the war!
Mission    One of Washington's secretaries, Jefferson, had
of Jay. lately resigned his post, leaving his personal as well
as political opponent, Hamilton, the head of the cabinet.
To him, as the most eminent member of the administration,
the president would have confided the special mission which
it was proposed to send to Great Britain.  But Hamilton,
as an extreme federalist, was too unacceptable to the great
body of Congress and of the nation to be employed upon a
service which of itself was an object of general distrust and
aversion. Washington therefore selected Chief Justice Jay,
(April, 1794.)  It was a fitting choice, far more so than




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.             299
that of Hamilton.  The secretary would have been the representative, not of the nation alone, but of the party which
acknowledged him as its leader; he was always a party
man, whether in office or out of office. But the chief justice, though a federalist, was no partisan.  Amongst all the
prominent figures of the time, Jay's is almost, perhaps altogether, the only one that stands close to Washington's, aloof
from the tarnishes and the collisions of opposing parties.
No other man was so fit to join with Washington in rescuing the nation from its prcent perils.
His      Accordingly, Jay proceeded  to England, and,
treaty. after some months of anxious diplomacy, obtained a
treaty, (November.) It was not much to obtain. The
United States agreeing to indemnify their British creditors,
Great Britain consented to surrender the posts which she
had so long held in the west.* She also promised indemnity to the sufferers from her system of search and of capture; yet the system itself, though partially modified, was by
no means renounced. A few concessions to the claims of
American commerce were also made; but the rigid policy
of Britain, especially in relation to her colonial trade, was
strongly maintained.  In short, the treaty did not acknowledge the rights of the Americans as neutrals, or their privileges as traders; both matters of the highest importance to
their commercial interests.  At the same time, the earlier
poirons of controversy were determined, and from the later
ones the sting was taken away, at least in some degree.  So
Jay thought, so Washington, though neither considered the
treaty decidedly satisfactory. It was better, at any rate,
they reasoned, than war. Thus, too, reasoned the Senate,
who, convened in special session, advised the ratification of
the treaty, (June, 1795.)
* The surrender to take effect June 1, 1796.




300               PART III. 1763-1797.
Oppos.    Not thus, however, the nation.  If the necessity
tion.    of the treaty, even as it stood, needed to be proved,
the proof was the general insanity which it provoked.
Meetings were held every where; harangues were made,
resolutions passed; copies of the treaty were destroyed; Jay
was burned in effigy.  The French and the American flags
waved together over these scenes; while the British ensign
was dragged through the dirt and burned before the doors
of the British representatives.
Ratifica-   All this, and more, if intended to intimidate govtion.   ernment, had a precisely contrary effect.  "I have
never," wrote Washington, "since I have been in the administration of the government, seen a crisis which is pregnant with more interesting events, nor one from  which
more is to be apprehended."  "Did the treaty with Great
Britain," he asked afterwards, "surrender any right of
which the United States had been in possession? Did it
make any change or alteration in the law of nations, under
which Great Britain had acted in defiance of all the powers
of Europe?  If none of these, why all this farrago?"  The
French party were of course the active leaders in all disturbances. Their antagonists, certainly not a British party
now, kept themselves in the background at first, but presently rallied, not as a British, or even as an anti-French, so
much as an American party, to the support of the president, assuring him and his government of the unabated confidence of the nation. At the same time, Jefferson's successor, Randolph, being suspected of intrigue with the French
minister, resigned his office, and in the reaction thus excited."gainst the influence and the partisanship of France, the
cabinet advised the ratification of the British treaty. It
was done, (August.)
Continued   Opposition continued.  The Virginian legislaopposition. ture, approving the stand of their senators against




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.            301
the treaty, refused to pass a vote of undiminished confidence
in the president. If Virginia could thus turn away from
the son to whom she had hitherto clung with all a mother's
pride, the tone in other states may be conceived to have
been even more expressive of disapprobation.  But Virginia was strongly republican and strongly French, consequently strongly anti-British. So far did the legislature go
in its wrath, as to propose an amendment of the Constitution, to the effect of requiring the assent of the House of
Representatives before a treaty could be ratified, (November.)  The example of Virginia was imitated even in Congress, where the phrase of' undiminished confidence " was
stricken from  an address of the house to the president,
(December.)  As the session progressed, a fierce struggle
arose with respect to the bills for carrying out the British
treaty. The opponents of the treaty made it their first
effort to obtain the papers relating to the transaction, on the
plea that it lay with the House to consent or to refuse to execute the provisions of the treaty. A three weeks' debate
terminated in a call upon the president for the specified
documents. He and his cabinet being alike of opinion that
the House had transgressed its powers, the call was refused.
The House took the denial with a better grace than might
have been anticipated; the leaders of the opposition now
throwing their whole weight upon the point of defeating the
bills on which the execution of the treaty depended. Nor
was it until after a fortnight's debate, in which Fisher
Ames distinguished himself above all his colleagues in
defending the treaty, that a vote, by a bare majority, determined that. the House would proceed to its duty, (SMarch,
April, 1796.)  By this time the frenzy out of doors had
died away.
The point  Thus terminated the great event of WYashington's
gained. administration. Its course, so far as he was con26




302              PART III. 1763-1797.
cerned, followed precisely the principles with which he had
entered office.  In face of the parties that divided the
country, in face of their feelings and their relations to Great
Britain and France, Washington saw but one alternative
peace or war. And not peace or war with the stranger
alone, but between citizen and citizen. Enough has been
already said on the interests and the dangers involved in
the decision. The proclamation of neutrality was the first
decisive step, the treaty with Great Britain was the second,
and, for the present, the last. The point thus gained may
be called the starting point of the infant nation in its foreign
relations. But hear Washington himself: "My ardent desire is, and my aim has been, to keep the United States
free from political connections with every other country, to
see them independent of all and under the influence of none.
In a word, I want an American character, that the powers
of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves, and not
for others. This, in my judgment, is the only way to be
respected abroad and happy at home; and not, by becoming
the partisans of Great Britain or France, create dissensions,
disturb the public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps forever, the cement which binds the Union."
Continued Things were far, however, from going smoothly.
embarrass- What Washington wrote a few months before was
ments:
from    still true: "This government, in relation to France
abroad. and England, may be compared to a ship between
the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis." The treaty being ratified, Charybdis was avoided. But Scylla, rose the more
frowningly. If the French party of the United States, if
the minister of the United States to France, James Monroe, were indignant at the British treaty, it was but natural
that France should be the same. The French government
announced to Mr. Monroe that they considered their alliance with the United States to be at an end, (February,




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.           303
1796.)  The chief reason was the treaty with Great
Britain; but the list of grievances, then and afterwards
filled out, comprehended all the measures by which American neutrality had been sustained. To prove that they
were in earnest, the authorities of France, in addition to
their previous orders of capture and embargo, decreed
that neutral vessels were to be treated exactly as they were
treated by the British; that is, stopped, searched, and
seized upon the seas, (July.) This was subsequently made
known to the United States by a communication from the
French envoy, Adet, (October,) who improved the opportunity by appealing to the people to take part with France
and against Great Britain, (November.) To restore matters, as far as possible, to a better position, Washington had
sent out Charles C. Pinckney as minister to France, in the
place of Monroe, (September.) But the clouds that had
been dissipated on the side of Great Britain were more
than replaced by the ominous signs in the direction of
France.
And at   It was still worse at home. The parties —northhome.  ern and southern, federalist and republican, antiFrench and French   that racked the nation were never
so much agitated. "Until within the last year or two,"
wrote Washington, "I had no idea that parties would,
or even could, go to the length I have been witness to."
Congress was a continual battle ground. The federalist
party, falling into the minority in the House, and in danger
of losing their majority in the Senate, fought, it may be
literally said, on one side; their opponents, the republicans,
animated with the hope of the superiority, being equally
pugnacious on the other. Newxvpapers, especially those
published at Philadelphia, carried the hostile notes from
Congress to the nation, and echoed them back to Congress.
It is difficult, without having room for extracts, to convey




304              PART III. 1763-1797.
any idea of the virulence of political writing at the time
Statesmanship disappears in partisanship, the love of country in the hatred of countrymen. All this, while it demonstrated the wisdom of the administration or of its head,
rendered the course of the administration doubtful and
imperilled. In fact, both the administration and its head
were objects of the fiercest assault.
Abuse of  Washington wrote with natural indignation of
Washing- the abuse which he, " no party man," as he truly
ton.   called himself; had received, " and that, too, in such
exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied
to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket."  It was amidst these outrages that Washington
sent forth his Farewell Address to the people of the United
States, (September 17, 1796.)  Soon afterwards, Congress
came together, and showed that many of its members were
violent against the retiring president. On the proposal of
an address of grateful acknowledgments from the House
of Representatives, a man from WVashington's own state,
William B. Giles, of Virginia, took exception to the more
expressive passages, saying, " If I stand alone in the opinion, I will declare that I am not convinced that the administration of the government for these six years has been
wise and firm. I do not regret the president's retiring
from office."  Giles was not alone. The same attitude was
taken by a considerable number, and amongst them Andrew
Jackson, of Tennessee, (December.)  "Although he is
soon to become a private citizen," wrote Washington of
himself, (January, 1797,) "his opinions are to be knocked
down, and his character reduced as low as they are capable
of sinking it."  Two months later, in the last hours of his
administration, he said, "To the wearied traveller, who sees
a resting place, and is bending his body to lean thereon, I
now compare myself; but to be suffered to do this in peace,




WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.           305
is too much to be endured by some." If Washington could
thus excite animosity and wrong, what must it have been
with ordinary men? The country seemed unwilling to be
pacified, unwilling to be saved.
Washington retired. He had done even greater
Retirement of things at the head of the government than he had
Washing- done at the head of the army. But it was beyond
ton.
his power to change the character of the nation.
He left it as he found it - divided and impassioned. Yet
he left it as he had not found it - with a Constitution in
operation, with principles and with laws in action - on
the road to increase and to maturity. "I can never be,
lieve," were almost his last words as president, "that Providence, which has guided us so long, and through such a
labyrinth, will withdraw its protection at this crisis." The
day after writing this, he saw his successor, John Adams,
inaugurated, (March 4, 1797.)
One who had hailed the administration at its
Lafayette.
beginning was not amongst those to behold its
close. Lafayette was a prisoner at Olmutz, under the
power of Austria. But he was not forgotten. It is refreshing amidst the angry chaos of foreign controversies and of
domestic struggles, to encounter Washington, not as the
president, but as the American, writing his "private letter,"
as he termed it, to the Emperor of Germany, " to recommend Lafayette to the mediation of humanity," and "to
entreat that he may be permitted to come to this country,"
(May, 1796.)  The effect of the appeal is not known; but
Lafayette was liberated not long afterwards.
26 *








PART IV.
UNION.
1797-1872.
(307)








CHAPTER I.
PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS.
Parties in  WASHINGTON'S administration was our only realpower. ly national one. The administrations of his successors were those of parties rather than of presidents.
With John Adams (1797) the federalists were in power;
with Thomas Jefferson (1801) and James Madison (1809)
the republicans. The struggles of these parties upon
questions of domestic and foreign policy make up our history for the next twenty years.
Missions  At the outset, the relations with France occupy
toFrance. the foreground.  Charles C. Pinckney, accredited
by Washington to negotiate with the French government,
was refused an audience at Paris; and not only that, but
was ordered to depart the French territory, (December,
1796 — February, 1797.)  Notwithstanding this, notwithstanding the rapidly following decrees against American
ships and American crews, President Adams sent outt a
new mission, consisting of Pinckney, John Marshall, and
Elbridge Gerry, with moderate instructions, which, however, availed nothing. Pinckney and Marshall, incensed
by the intrigue as well as the insolence of which they were
the objects, (October, 1797-April, 1798,) shook off the
dust of France from their feet, being followed in a few
months by Gerry, who had undertaken to do alone what
he had not been able to do with his colleagues.
(309)




310              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Before the withdrawal of Pinckney and MarArming
of the  shall, the intelligence of their treatment had thrown
United the United States into a great excitement. The reStates.
publicans taunted their opponents with the failure
which they said they had predicted for the French missions.
All the more bitter were the federalists, who inveighed
against the venality of the French government, some even
going so far as to call for a declaration of war. The president leaned to the side of his party. HIe had no mind to
declare war, but he recommended Congress to put the
country in a state of defence, (March, 1798.) The recommendation was at once opposed by the republican leaders.
According to Vice President Jefferson, indeed, the president
was aiming at a dissolution of the Union or at the establishment of a monarchical government. But the federalists
upheld the president, and carried a series of measures providing for the organization of a provisional army, as well
as of a naval department, by which the existing navy might
be more efficiently managed, (May.) Orders were issued,
directing the national ships to seize all armed vessels
engaged in hostile acts against American shipping; while
merchantmen were authorized to arm themselves, and
capture their assailants upon the seas. But to prevent
hostilities, as far as possible, commercial intercourse with
France and her colonies was formally prohibited, (June.)
Soon after, Washington was appointed to the command
of the provisional army, (July.) The United States were
fairly in arms.
War followed at sea. No declaration was made;
War.
the most that was done being to proclaim the treaties with France void, and then to authorize the president
to send out national and to commission private vessels for
the purpose of capturing any armed ships of the French,
whether participating or not in hostilities, (July.)  The




PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS               311
seas were at once overrun with American ships, by which
the French privateers were taken or driven from the coast.
No actual engagement between national vessels, however,
occurred, until the beginning of the following year, when
Commander Truxtun, in the Constellation, forced the
French frigate L'Insurgente to strike, (February, 1799.)
Hostilities were continued chiefly by privateers, the profits
to whose owners were the principal results of the war.
Still it pleased the party by whom it was favored. 1' A
glorious and triumphant war it was! " exclaimed Adams,
in after years.  "The proud pavilion of France was
humiliated."
Strain    But against the deeds of battle must be set the
upon the measures of government which disclose the real
nation. strain upon the nation. To provide ways and
means, stamp duties and taxes on houses and slaves were
voted, besides the loans that were procured. To keep
down party opposition, alien and sedition acts, as they were
called, were passed. The first authorized the president to
banish all aliens suspected of conspiracy against the United
States. This was more of a party manceuvre than appears
on the face of it; inasmuch as many of the most ardent
spirits among the republicans, especially the democratic republicans, were aliens. The sedition act denounced fine
and imprisonment upon all conspiracies, and even all publications, "with intent to excite any unlawful combination
for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or
any lawful act of the president." It was at midsummer
that party spirit rose so high as to demand and to enact
these urgent laws, (June -July, 1798.)  Both of them
however, were to be but temporary.* The alien act was
* The alien to be in force for two years, the sedition until March 4,
1801, the end of Adams's administration.




312              PART IV. 1797-1872.
never put in operation. But the sedition act was again
and again enforced, and almost, if not altogether, invariably upon party grounds. It may safely be said that the
nation was straining itself too far.
Nullifi-   So thought the party opposing the administration
cation. and the war. Strongest in the south and in the
west, the republican leaders threw down the gauntlet to
their opponents, nay, even to their rulers. The legislature
of Kentucky, in resolutions drawn up for that body by no
less a person than Vice President Jefferson, declared the
alien and sedition laws " not law, but altogether void and
of no force," (November, 1798.) The note thus sounded
was taken up in the Virginia legislature, whose resolutions,
draughted by James MIiadison, declared the obnoxious laws
" palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution,"
(December.) Both sets of resolutions, as they came from
the hands of their framers, were stronger still. Jefferson
bad written, "' Where powers are assumed which have not
been delegated, a nullification of the act is the right remedy,
and every state has a natural right, in cases not within
the compact, [the Constitution,] to nullify of their own
authority all assumptions of power by others within their
limits."  Madison, after stating " that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not
granted by the compact, the states, who are the parties
thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for correcting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits the authorities, rights,
and liberties appertaining to them," had made his resolutions declare the acts in question "' null, void, and of no
force or effect." But it was an early day for nullification;
and neither Kentucky nor Virginia went the length prescribed for them. They went far enough, as has been seen,
to excite very general opposition from their sister states,




PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS.             313
especially those of the centre and the north, where legislature after legislature came out with strong and denunciatory denials of the right of any state to sit in judgment
upon the national government.
Another Things were in this seething state, when the
mission president nominated as minister to France Wilto France. lian Vans Murray, to whom he afterwards joined
Oliver Ellsworth, then chief justice, and William R. Davie,
as colleagues, (February, 1799.) The reason assigned for
a fresh attempt at negotiation was the assurance that had
been received through the minister at the Hague, of the
willingness of the French government to treat with a new
mission. The din upon these nominations was tremendous,
particularly among the more active federalists, and even
the principal members of' the cabinet, Timothy Pickering
and Oliver Wolcott. The president was suspected of urging, the mission, in some degree, out of spite against the
federalist party, by whom, or by whose extreme members,
he considered himself badly used. "' The British faction,"
he wrote afterwards, " was determined to have a war with
France, and Alexander Hamilton at the head of the army,
and then president of the United States. Peace with
France was therefore treason." The envoys reached their
destination in the beginning of the following year, (1800.)
They found Napoleon Bonaparte first consul. With his
government, after some difficulty, they concluded a convention, providing in part for mutual redress, but leaving
many of the questions between the two nations for future
settlement, (October.) When brought before the Senate
of the United States, the convention was modified by cancelling the provision for additional negotiations. This was
assented to in France, on condition that the claims forindemnities on either side should be abandoned. The
effect was soon seen in claims for French spoliations pre27




-314                PART IV. 1797-1872.
sented to the government of the United States. But the
treaty sufficed to restore peace.
Mississippi  Important events had occurred at home.  The
Territory: Mississippi Territory was formed, including at
slavery
underde- first the lower part of the present Alabama and
bate.    Mississippi, (1798.)  This organization excited
a debate concerning slavery, which, as the organizing act
provided, was not to be prohibited in the territory. Here
was no such plea as had existed in the case of the Territory South of the Ohio. No cession from a state, no
conditions laid any restraint upon Congress. Yet but
twelve votes were given in favor of an amendment proposed by George Thacher, of Massachusetts, prohibiting
the introduction of slavery into the territory. The most
that Congress would agree to, was to forbid the importation of slaves from abroad; a concession, inasmuch as the
slave trade, it will be remembered, was still allowed by the
Constitution. So, for the second time, and this time without its being required by terms with any state,* the decision of the national government was given in favor of
slavery.
But Congress took the other side, likewise. The
Territory
of Indiana: western portion of the North-west Territory soon
aglaveinry   needed to be set off as the Territory of Indiana,
embracing  the present Indiana, Illinois, and
Michigan, (1800.)  There slavery was already prohibited.
But this went against the interests of the inhabitants, as
they thought, and they petitioned Congress, within three
and again within seven years after the organization of the
* The part of the territory at this time organized was claimed by the
Uuited States as a portion of the old Florida domain. Georgia likewise
claimed it as hers; and when she surrendered what was allowed to be
hers, that is, the upper part of the present Alabama and Mississippi, she
made it a condition that slavery should not be prohibited, (1802.)




PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS.              315
territory, to be allowed to introduce slaves amongst them.
Once a committee of Congress reported adversely; but
twice a report was made in favor of the petition. Reports and petitions, however, were alike fruitless. Congress would not authorize slavery where it had been
prohibited.
Death of   No domestic event compared in interest with
Washing- the death of Washington, which occurred unexton.    pectedly on the 14th of December, 1799. His
last service had been the organization of the provisional
army against France, of which one can hardly say that it
was the crowning act of such a life. Party passions ran
so high as to affect the serenity of his declining years, and
it may not have been too soon for his peace or his fame
that he was taken away. Beside his grave, his countrymen stood united for a moment, but no longer.
Fallofthe  The presidential election of 1800 reduced the
federal- federalists to a hopeless minority. They had
ists.   done more for the country than for themselves.
During TWashington's administration, they had sustained
his great measures, and originated great measures of their
own; but during Adams's, they had spent their strength
in quarrelling with him or among themselves, and his
defeat and theirs followed almost of course. Their fall
was their own work, rather than that of their opponents.
They had started as the more aristocratic party of the two,
and every year had developed a distrust of the people which
was sure to overthrow them at no distant day. Tilhe
daughter of one of their most amiable and eminent leaders,
Theodore Sedgwick, tells us that her father habitually
spoke of the people as "' Jacobins and miscreants," and he
was by no means singular in his expressions. It seems
strange that the party which may be said to have founded
our government was not able to administer it; but the very




316              PART IV. 1797-1872.
characteristics which fitted it to do the one work may have
unfitted it to do the other. As between Adams and Jefferson, personally, there is no such comparison to be made as
may be drawn between their parties. Both were identified
with the independence and the organization of the nation,
and both were qualified in the highest degree for its chief
magistracy.
Acquisi-   Theoretically, the federalists had gone for intion of creasing the authority of the general government,
Louisiana. while the republicans had made a stand to check it.
But the chief measure of Jefferson's administration implied
a readiness to stretch the powers of the government, and
particularly of the executive branch, far beyond federalist
theories. This was the acquisition of Louisiana, by which
we are to understand, not the present state, but a region
extending indefinitely to the west and north on the farther
side of the Mississippi.  Spain had acquired this territory
from France in 1763; she restored it to France in 1800.
Before the Spanish authorities withdrew, they excluded
the citizens of the United States from INew Orleans as a
depot for the commerce of their western states, and France
was credited with entertaining the same unfavorable designs. It was proposed in the United States Senate to
seize New Orleans; but this was too extreme a course.
Left to his own counsels, the president instructed the envoys
to France, Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe, to
purchase the part of Louisiana which included New Orleans; but finding the French government disposed to sell
the whole, they bought the whole for fifteen millions of
dollars, (April 30, 1803.) Jefferson allowed this to be
"an act beyond the Constitution," and hinted at a constitutional amendment which should justify it. The great
importance of the acquisition, securing the Mississippi to
its mouth, and freeing the western territory from all possi



PARTY AD]MINISTRATIONS.             317
ble interference from France or Spain, was a convincing
argument, and  the Senate confirmed  the negotiation,
(October 20.)  The chief argument that might have been
brought against it was the extension of slavery by the
annexation of foreign territory containing upwards of fifty
thousand slaves, and open to fifty times as many in the
future; but this was hardly touched.  The federalists opposed the purchase simply as a republican measure, and as
the republicans themselves were divided upon it, party
bitterness was intensified.
The immense region thus acquired was divided
Organion ofa- into two portions, (1804.) The southern, in which
Louisiana all the settlements of any importance were included,
territories.
was called the Territory of Orleans. It comprehended the present State of Louisiana, but with very indefinite boundaries on the west. North of this lay the District
of Louisiana, embracing the present Arkansas and Missouri, with as much more as could be brought within its
elastic limits on the north and west, its principal settlement
being St. Louis. This district was made a part of the same
jurisdiction with the Indiana Territory, from which, however, it was soon detached, (1805.) At the same time, the
provisions for the Territory of Orleans, complained of by
some of the inhabitants, were rendered more liberal. The
terms of the treaty concluding the purchase had been these:
" The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as
soon as possible, according to the principles of the federal
Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages,
and immunities of citizens of the United States; and in the
mean time shall be maintained and protected in the free
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which
they profess." Treaties of this kind were not every-day
27*




318               PART IV. 1797-1872.
occurrences with Napoleon. But the inhabitants for whom
he required this pledge were only a part, and a small part,
of the Louisianians; he did not interfere in behalf of their
fifty thousand slaves.
Other ter-  The, new State of Ohio was already admitted to
ritorial the Union, (November 29, 1802.)  l New  territoand state
orania-te ries- Michigan  (1805)  and  Illinois  (1809)tions. were subsequently formed from out of the Indiana
Territory.  The signs of expansion were written every
where, but nowhere so strikingly as along the western
plains.
Burr's   There they were such as to kindle projects of a
projects. new empire.  Aaron Burr, vice president during
Jefferson's first term, but displaced in the second term by
George Clinton, (1805,) -branded, too, with the recent
murder of Alexander Hamilton in a duel, - was generally
avoided amongst his old associates. Turning his face westward, he there drew into his net various men, some of position and some of obscurity, with whose aid he seems to have
intended making himself master of the Mississippi valley, or
of Mexico, one or both, (1806.)  Whatever his schemes
were, they miscarried. A handful only of followers were
gathered round him on the banks of the Mississippi, a
hundred miles or more above New Orleans, when he surrendered himself to the government of the Mississippi Territory, (January, 1807.) Some months afterwards he was
brought to trial for high treason before Chief Justice Marshall, of the Supreme Court, with whom sat the district
judge for Virginia; the reason for trying Burr in that state
being the fact that one of the places where he was charged
with having organized a military expedition was within
the Virginian limits. The trial, like every thing else in
those days, was made a party question; the administration
and its supporters going strongly against Burr, while its




PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS.              319
opponents were disposed to take his part. He was acquitted for want of proof; and for the same reason he was
again acquitted when tried for undertaking to invade the
Spanish territories.
Frowning high above all these domestic dangers
Difficulties with were those from abroad which sank in one direcGreat tion only to rise the more threateningly in another.
Great Britain was now extending impressment even
to the American navy, whose vessels were once and
again plundered of their seamen by British men-of-war.
Another subject on which Great Britain set herself against
the claims of the United States, was the neutral trade, of
which the latter nation engrossed a large and constantly
increasing share during the European wars. France was
equally adverse to American commerce. If Great Britain
led off by declaring the French ports, from Brest to the
Elbe, closed to American as to all other shipping, (May
16, 1806,) France retorted by the Berlin decree, so called
because issued from Prussia, prohibiting any commerce
with Great Britain, (November 21.) That power immediately forbade the coasting trade between one port and
another in the possession of her enemies, (January 7,
1807.) Not satisfied with this, she went on to forbid all
trade whatsoever with France and her allies, except on
payment of a tribute to Great Britain, each vessel to pay
in proportion to its cargo, (November 11.) Then followed the Milan decree of Napoleon, prohibiting all trade
whatsoever with Great Britain, and declaring such vessels
as paid the recently demanded tribute to be lawful prizes
to the French marine, (December 17.)
Affair of  The heaviest blow was struck by Great Britain.
tle ches-The American frigate Chesapeake, sailing from
apeake. Hampton Roads, was hailed off the capes of Chesapeake Bay by the British frigate Leopard, the captain of




820               PART IV. 1797-1872.
which demanded to search the Chesapeake for deserters.
Captain Barron, the commander of the Chesapeake, refused; whereupon the Leopard opened fire. As Barron
and his crew were totally unprepared for action, they fired
but a single gun, to save their honor; then, having lost
several men, struck their flag. The British commander
took those of whom he was in search, three of the four
being Americans, and left the Chesapeake to make her
way back dishonored, (June 22, 1807.) The president
issued a proclamation, ordering British men-of-war from
the waters of the United States. Instructions were sent
to the American envoys at London, directing them, not
merely to seek reparation for the wrong that had been
done, but to obtain the renunciation of the pretensions to a
right of search and of impressment, from which the wrong
had sprung. The British government recognized their
responsibility, by sending a special. minister to settle the
difficulty at Washington.  It was four years, however, before the desired reparation was procured, (1811.) The
desired renunciation was never made. One can scarcely
credit his eyes, when he reads that the affair of the Chesapeake was made a party point. But so it was. The
friends of' Great Britain, the capitalists and commercial
classes, generally, murmured at the course of their government, as too decided, too French, they sometimes called
it; as if resistance to Great Britain were subordination to
France.
The ad-   " In the present maniac state of Europe," wrote
ministra- Jefferson, a little later, " I should not estimate the
tion
against point of honor by the ordinary scale. I believe we
war.  shall, on the contrary, have credit with the world
for having made the avoidance of being engaged in the
present unexampled war our first object." To this end,
the president hit upon the most self-denying of plans. The




PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS.              821
aggressions of the European powers were directed against
the rights of owners and of crews. That these might be
secured, the president recommended, and Congress adopted,
an embargo upon all United States vessels, ande upon all
foreign vessels with cargoes shipped after the passage of
the act in United States ports, (December 22, 1807). In
other words, as commerce led to injuries from foreign
nations, commerce was to be abandoned. France, on
whose side the violent federalists declared the embargo to
be, answered by a decree of Napoleon's from Bayonne,
ordering the confiscation of all American vessels in French
ports, (April 17, 1808.) Great Britain soon after made
her response, by an order prohibiting the exportation of
American produce, whether paying tribute or not, to the
European continent, (December 21.) So ineffective abroad,
so productive of discontent at home, even amongst the supporters of the administration, did the embargo prove, that
it was repealed, (March, 1809.) But its place was taken
by non-intercourse or non-importation acts as restrictive
as the embargo, so far as the designated nations were concerned, but leaving free the trade with other countries.
The administration, now Madison's, amused itself with
suspending the restrictions, in favor first of Great Britain,
(1809;) and then of France, (1810,) hoping to induce
those powers to reciprocate the compliment by a suspension of their own aggressive orders. There was a show
of doing so. Napoleon had recently issued a decree from
Rambouillet, ordering the sale of more than a hundred
American vessels as condemned prizes, (MIarch 23, 1810.)
But on the news from America, eager to involve another
nation in hostilities, he intimated his readiness to retract
the decrees of which the United States complained. But
not, he made it known, except on one of two conditions;
either the British orders must be recalled, or else, if they




322               PART IV. 1797-1872.
were not, the United States must enforce their claims.
To this Great Britain replied, that when the French
decrees were actually, and not conditionally, revoked, her
orders should be revoked likewise. It was but a mockery
on both sides; and America, mortified, but not yet enlight.
ened, returned to her prohibitions. They were scoffed at
by her own people.
Oppo-    It is difficult to catch the hue and cry, on the
sition. part of the opposition, against the embargo and the
subsequent acts. Whatever discontent, whatever nullification had been expressed by the republicans against the
war measures of Adams, was rivalled, if not outrivalled,
by the federalists against the so-called peace measures of
Jefferson and Madison. Town meetings, state legislatures, even the courts in some places, declared against the
constitutionality of the embargo. The federalists of Massachusetts were charged with the design of dissolving the
Union. It was not their intentidn, but their language had
warranted its being imputed to them. " Choose, then,
fellow-citizens," their legislature exclaimed, " between the
condition of a free state, possessing its equal weight and
influence in the general government, or that of a colony,
free in name, but in fact enslaved by sister states."
Indian   iWhile affairs, domestic and foreign, were thus
hostili- agitated, there came a fresh outbreak of Indian
ties.   hostilities.  It was under Jefferson that the plan
of removing the Indians westward was begun, (1804,) but
the first effect was disastrous.  Two chiefs of the Shawanoes, Tecumseh and his twin brother, styled the Prophet,
for some time settled on the Tippecanoe River, in the
Indiana Territory, had set themselves at the head of a sort
of confederacy among the western races. One great point
was to secure the title of the Indians, as a whole, to the
lands of which the whites were getting possession,. by




PARTY ADMINISTRATIONS.              323
bargains with individuals or with individual tribes. Another was the prohibition of the ardent spirits with which
the traders were destroying the Indians, body and soul.
But to support these principles, the confederates, or their
leaders, relied upon treachery and terror, superstition and
blasphemy. The governor of Indiana Territory, William
H. Harrison, marched against them with a force of a few
hundred. Tecumseh was absent at the time, but his
brother and his confederates were overtaken. To the
last, they professed peace, then fell upon the camp of the
Americans. They were expected, however, and were
routed, (November 7, 1811.)
Loulsi-   The steel was glistening upon the southern fronana and tier. An insurrection against the Spanish auFlorida. thority in West Florida had been followed by a
presidential proclamation declaring the territory on the east
bank of the Mississippi a portion of Louisiana, (October,
1810.) Soon after, (January, 1811,) Congress authorized
the acquisition of the entire province of Florida, provided
either that Spain consented to it, or that any other power
attempted to take possession. The next year, Louisiana,
with a large portion of Florida, according to the Spanish
claim, was admitted a state, (April 8, 1812.) Another
slice of Florida was annexed to the Mississippi Territory,
while an insurrection within the remaining Florida limits
was stimulated by an American functionary; a demonstration being made against St. Augustine. This was promptly disavowed by the government at Washington; but the
troops were not withdrawn until the following year, nor
then entirely, Mobile being retained by way of compensation for what was surrendered, (1813.)
It was plain that war was becoming popular in the
United States. As for that, it had long been so; when
Washington opposed it, he was abused; when Adams




324               PART IV. 1797-1872.
Warlike favored it, he was extolled; when Jefferson avoided
prepara- it, he risked even his immense influence over the
tinst nation.  Congress now took up the question, and
ragainst
Great  voted one measure after another, preparatory to
BritainU hostilities with Great Britain, (December -   Iarch
1812.)  The president hesitated; he was no war leader by
nature or by principle. But his party, or the more active
portion of it, was all for arms; when he doubted, they
urged; when he inclined to draw back, they drove him
forward. It being the time when the congressional caucus
was about to nominate for the presidency, Madison received a direct intimation that if he was a candidate for reelection, he must come out for war.  He then sent a message to Congress, recommending an embargo of sixty
days.  Congress received it, according to its intention, as
a preliminary to war, and voted it, though far from unanimously, for ninety days, (April 4, 1812.)




CHAPTER II.
WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.
Declara-  ANOTHER message from the president, (June 1,)
tion.   and war with Great Britain was voted by Congress,
(June 18,) and then declared by the president, (June 19,
1812.)
Cause    The United States went to war for two great
Cause
of the  principles; one, the rights of neutrals, the other,
United the rights of seamen; both involving the honor and
States,.
the independence of the nation. The former principle was at once secured; for when France unconditionally repealed her decrees, Great Britain withdrew her orders
in council just as the war was declared, (June 23.)  The
other principle could be secured, so Great Britain insisted,
it the United States would take measures to prevent
British seamen from  enlisting in the American service.'' We must fight," cried the war party, " if it is only for
what has been, for the seizure of nine hundred American
vessels and six thousand American seamen, for the injuries which are beyond redress by negotiation." If the
party had been frank, it would have added, "' We must fighlt,
if it is only for ourselves, and for the position which we
have staked on war."  The cause of the United States
was, primarily, the cause of a party, nominally headed by
Madison, the president, by James Monroe, the secretary
of state, by Albert Gallatin, (the same who appeared in
the Pennsylvania insurrection of Vashington's time,) the
28                           (325)




326               PART IV. 1797-1872.
secretary of the treasury, and by others supporting the administration; but the real leaders were younger men, some
risen to distinction, like Henry Clay, speaker of the House
of Representatives, and John C. Calhoun, member of the
same body, but many more aspiring to place in council or
in camp, to place any where, so that it promised the fame
or the game for which they yearned. As such it was
opposed by the party out of power. The signal, given by
a protest from the federalist members of Congress, was
caught up and repeated in meetings and at hearth-stones.
Even the pulpit threw open its doors to political harangues,
and those not of the mildest sort.  " The alternative then
is," exclaimed a clergyman at Boston, " that if you do not
wish to become the slaves of those who own slaves, and
who are themselves the slaves of French slaves, you must
either, in the language of the day, cut the connection, or
so far alter the national Constitution as to secure yourselves a due share in the government.  The Union has
long since been virtually dissolved, and it is full time that
this portion of the United States should take care of itself."
W'ar at   The war began at home. The office of a federalhome.  ist paper, the Federal Republican, conducted by
Alexander Hanson, at Baltimore, was sacked by a mob,
who then went on to attack dwellings, pillage vessels, and,
finally, to fire the house of an individual suspected of partialities for Great Britain, (June 22, 23.)  A month later,
Hanson opened another office, and prepared to defend it,
with the assistance of his friends, against the assault which
he felt sure his boldness would provoke.  The mob came,
and, after a night of horror, forced the party in the office
to yield themselves prisoners on a charge of murder. The
next night the prison was assailed; Hanson and his friends,
excepting some who escaped, being beaten and tortured
with indescribable fury. General Henry Lee, a revolu



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.               327
tionary hero, who had taken the lead in the measures of
defence, was injured for life. Another soldier of the revolution, General Lingan, was actually slain; a fate which
would have been shared by many, but for the exhaustion
of the destroyers, (July 26, 27.)  All this was done with
nothing more than the show of interference on the part of
the authorities.  Even at the subsequent trial of the ringleaders in the mob, they were acquitted.  Hanson kept up
his paper only by removing to Georgetown.
Such being the passions, such the divisions infortthe ternally, the nation needed more than the usual
war.   panoply to protect itself externally. But it had
less. The colonies of 1775 did not go to war more unprepared than the United States of 1812. There was no
army to speak of. Generals abounded, it is true, Henry
Dearborn, late secretary of war, being at the head of the
list; but troops were scanty, a few thousand regulars and
volunteers constituting the entire force. As to the militia,
there was a general distrust of it, at the same time that the
power of the government to call it out was denied by some
state authorities.* If the army was small, the navy was
smaller, embracing only eight or ten frigates, as many
more smaller vessels, and a flotilla of comparatively useless gunboats. The national finances were in a correspondingly low condition. The revenue, affected by the
interruptions to commerce during the preceding years,
needed all the stimulants which it could obtain, even in
time of peace.  It was wholly inadequate to the exigencies
of war.  Accordingly, resort was had to loans, then to
direct taxes and licenses, (1813.)  In fine, the country had
The Constitution authorized Congress "to provide for calling forth
the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and
repel invasions."




328               PART IV. 1797-1872.
hardly another resource than its numbers merely, which
were now increased to six millions free."
Position Fortunate, therefore, was it that Great Britain
of Great was otherwise occupied. Her mighty struggle with
Britain. Napoleon was at its height when the United States
declared war, a declaration sounding much the same in
British ears as the wail of a child amid the contentions
of men.
The war.  Notwithstanding all want of means, the United
Losses States government determined to carry the war
on north- 
western into the enemy's country. For this purpose, Wilfrontier. liam Hull, general and governor of Michigan Territory, crossed from Detroit to Sandwich, in Canada, with
about two thousand men, (July 12.) In a little more than
a month he had not only retreated, but surrendered, without a blow, to General Brock, the governor of Lower
Canada, (August 16.)  The British, already in possession
of the northern part of Michigan, were soon masters of the
entire territory. So far from being able to recover it,
General Harrison, who made the attempt in the ensuing
autumn and winter, found it all he could do to save Ohio
from falling with Michigan. A detachment of Kentuckians yielded to a superior force of British at Frenchtown,
on the River Raisin, (January, 1813;) whereupon Harrison took post by the Maumee, at Fort Meigs, holding out
there against the British and their Indian allies, (April,
May.)  The same fort was again assailed and again defended, General Clay being at that time in command,
(July.) Fort Stevenson, on the Sandusky, was then attacked, but defended with great spirit and success by a,small garrison under MIajor Croghan, (August.) Yet
Ohio was still in danger.
* The census of 1810 gave a total of 7,239,814, of which 1,191,364 were
slaves.




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.               329
Perry's  It was rescued  by different operations from
victory those as yet described.  Captain Chauncey, after
on Lake gathering a little fleet on Lake Ontario, where he
Erie.
achieved some successes, appointed Lieutenant Oliver H. Perry to the command on Lake Erie. Perry's first
duty was to provide a fleet; his next, to lead it against
the British vessels under Captain Barclay. At length the
squadrons met off Sandusky, the British to suffer total defeat, the Americans to win complete victory, (September
10, 1813.)  It was in more than official language that the
president communicated  this achievement to Congress.
" The conduct of Captain Perry," he said, " adroit as it
was daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles them to the admiration and gratitude
of their country, and will fill an early page in its naval annals with a victory never surpassed in lustre, however
much it may have been in magnitude." It was a victory
on a small scale. Yet its importance immediately appeared.  Taking on board a body of troops from Ohio and
Kentucky, under Harrison, Perry transported them to the
neighborhood of Sandwich, on the Canada shore, the same
spot against which Hull had marched more than a twelvemouth before. The British having retired, Harrisont
crossed to Detroit. Recrossing, he advanced in pursuit of
the much less numerous enemy, whom he defeated on two
successive days, (October 4, 5.) The latter action, on the
bank of the Thames, was decisive; the British General Proctor making his escape with but a small portion of his troops,
while his Indian ally, Tecumseh, was slain. Ohio was thus
saved, and Michigan recovered, though not entirely.
Opera-  On the frontier of New York the chief movement
tionson was an attack against Queenstown, on the Canada
New
York  shore of the Niagara River. Advanced parties
frontier. gained possession of a battery on the bank, but
28 *




330              PART IV. 1797-1872.
there they were checked, and at length obliged to surrender, for want of support from their comrades on the
American side. General Van Rensselaer was the American, General Brock the British commander; the latter
falling in battle, the former resigning in disgust after the
battle was over, (October 13, 1812.)  In the following
spring, General Dearborn and the land troops, in conjunction with Chauncey and the fleet, took York, (now
Toronto,) the capital of Upper Canada, burning the Parliament House, and then proceeding successfully against the
forts on the Niagara River, (April, May, 1813.) At this
point, however, affairs took an unfavorable turn. The
British mustered strong, and, though repulsed from
Sackett's Harbor by General Brown, at the head of some
regular troops and volunteers, they obtained the command
of the lake, making descents in various places, and reducing the American forces, both land and naval, to comparative inactivity, (June.) Months afterwards, the land
forces, now under the lead of General Wilkinson, started
on a long-proposed expedition against Miontreal; but encountering resistance on the way down the St. Lawrence,
went straight into winter quarters within the New York
frontier. A body of troops under General Hampton, moving, in the same direction from Lake Champlain, met with
a feint of opposition, rather than opposition itself, from the
British; it was sufficient, however, to induce a retreat,
(November.)  Both these armies far outnumbered the
enemy, Wilkinson having seventy-five hundred, and Hampton forty-five hundred men under them. On the western
border of New York, things went still worse. General
Xi'Clure, left in charge of the Niagara frontier, was so
weakened by the loss of men at the expiration of their
terms of service, and at the same time so pressed by the
enemy, as to abandon the Canada shore, leaving behind




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.             331
him the ruins of Fort George and the village of Newark.
Parties of British and Indians, crossing the frontier at different places, took Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the river,
and swept the adjacent country with fire and sword as far
as Buffalo, (December.) Glutted with success, the invaders retired, save from Fort Niagara, which they held
until the end of the war. In the following spring, (AMarch,
1814,) General Wilkinson emerged from his retreat, and,
with a portion of his troops, undertook to carry the approaches to Canada from the side of Lake Champlain.
But on coming up with a stone mill held by British troops,
he abruptly withdrew.
On Niag- As the war, thus pitiably prosecuted, entered
arafron- into its third year, (1814,) a concentration of eftier,  forts, both American and British, took place upon
the Niagara frontier. General Brown, the defender of
Sackett's Harbor, obtained the command, and with such
supporters as General Scott and other gallant officers,
resolved upon crossing to the Canada side. There, with
an army of about thirty-five hundred men, he took Fort
Erie, (July 2,) gained the battle of Chippewa, (July 5,)
and drove the enemy, under General Riall, from the frontier, save from a single stronghold, Fort George. The
British, however, on being reinforced, returned under
Generals Riall and Drumnmond, and met the Americans at
Bridgewater, within the roar of Niagara. Begun by Scott,
in advance of the main body, which soon came up under
Brown, the battle was continued until midnight, to the advantage of the American army, (July 25.) But they were
unable to follow up or even to maintain their success, and
fell btck upon Fort Erie. Thither the British proceeded,
and after a night assault, laid siege to the place, then
under the command of General Gaines. As soon as
Brown, who had withdrawn to recover from his wounds,




332              PART IV. 1797-1872.
resumed his command at the fort, he at once ordered a
sortie, the result being the raising of the siege, (September
17.) He was soon after called away to defend Sackett's
Harbor, the enemy having the upper hand on the lake.
His successor in command on the Niagara frontier, General Izard, blew up Fort Erie, and abandoned the Canada
shore, (November.)
Meanwhile the American arms had distinguished
Defence
of Lake themselves on the side of Lake Champlain. ThithCham- er descended the British General Provost with
plain. twelve thousand soldiers, lately arrived from Europe, his object being to carry the American works at
Plattsburg, and to drive the American vessels from the
waters. He wastotallyunsuccessful. Captain McDonough,
after long exertions, had constructed a fleet, with which
he now met and overwhelmed the British squadron. The
land attack upon the few thousand regulars and militia
under General lMlacomb was hardly begun before it was
given over in consequence of the naval action, (September
11.) No engagement in the war, before or after, was
more unequal in point of force, the British being greatly
the superiors; yet none was more decisive.
British    The British  superiority observable at Lake
superi- Champlain and elsewhere requires a word of exority. planation. Napoleon, fallen some months before,
had left the armies and fleets of Great Britain free to act
in other scenes than those to which they had been so long
confined. The troops transported to America - some to
Canada, as we have seen, more to other places, as we
shall soon see - were superior to the Americans generally
in numbers, and always in appointment and discipline.
They were the men to whom France had succumbed; it
must have seemed impossible that the United States should
resist them.




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.               333
Successes  The apprehensions of the enemy, aroused by
at sea. some of the operations on land, had been highly
excited by some of those at sea. Before the gallant actions
upon the lakes, a succession of remarkable exploits had
occurred upon the ocean. It had been the policy of the
republican administration to keep down the navy, which
their federalist predecessors had encouraged. But the
navy, or that fragment of one which remained, returned
good for evil. The frigate Essex, under Captain Porter,
took the sloop of war Alert off the northern coast, (August
13, 1812;) the frigate Constitution, Captain Isaac hIull,
took the frigate Guerriere in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
(August 19;) the sloop of war Wasp, Captain Jones, took
the brig Frolic, both, however, falling prizes to the seventyfour Poictiers, not far from the Bermudas, (October 13;)
the frigate United  States, Captain  Decatur, took the
frigate Macedonian off the Azores, (October 25;) and the
Constitution again, now under Captain Bainbridge, took
the frigate Java off Brazil, (December 29.) This series
of triumphs was broken by but two reverses, the capture
of the brig Nautilus by the British squadron, and that of
the brig Vixen by the British frigate Southampton, both
off the Atlantic coast. Nothing could be more striking
than the effect upon both the nations that were at war.
The British started at defeat, particularly on the sea; and
the war assumed an aspect not before admitted on their
side. The Americans were proportionately animated. " I
never felt the national feeling so strongly aroused," wrote
Washington Irving, " for I never before saw, in this country, so true a cause for national triumph."
Subse-    Here, however, the impulse ceased, or began to
quent cease. The navy was too inconsiderable to conreverses. tinue its victories, the nation too inactive to recruit
its numbers and its powers. The captures of the succeed



334               PART IV. 1797-1872.
ing period of the war, though made with quite as much
gallantry, were of much less importance; while one vessel
after another, beginning with the frigate Chesapeake, off
Boston harbor, (June 1, 1813,) was forced to strike to the
enemy. Many of the larger ships were hemmed in by tile
British blockade, when this, commencing with the war, was
extended along the entire coast. The last glimmer of naval
victory for the time was the defeat of the sloop of war
Avon by the Wasp, Captain Blakely, off the French coast,
(September 1, 1814.) But a few weeks later, the Wasp
was lost with all its crew, leaving not a single vessel of the
United States navy on the seas. Every one that had
escaped the perils of the ocean and of war was shut up in
port behind the greatly superior squadrons of Great Britain.
Losses   The coast, from the first blockaded, and occaupon the sionally visited by invading parties of the British,
coast.  was in an appalling state, (1814.)  Eastport was
taken; Castine, Belfast, and Machias were seized, with
claims against the whole country east of the Penobscot
Cape Cod, or some of the towns upon it, had to purchase
safety; Stonington was bombarded.  Fortifications were
hastily thrown up wherever they could be by the Americans; the militia was called out by the states, and the
general government was urged to despatch its regular
troops to the menaced shores. It was officially announced
by the British Admiral Cochrane that he was imperatively
instructed " to destroy and lay waste all towns and districts
of the United States found accessive to the attack of
British armaments." This was not war, but devastation.
Capture   The Chesapeake, long a favorite point for the
of Wash- British descents, was now  occupied by a large,
in-ton
and Alex-indeed a double fleet, under Admirals Cochrane
andria.  and Cockburn, with several thousand land troops
and marines under General Ross.   This body, landing




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.              335
about fifty miles from Washington, marched against that
city, while the American militia retreated hither and
thither, making a stand for a few moments only at Bladensburg, (August 24.)  On the evening following this rout,
the British took possession of Washington, and next day
proceeded to carry out the orders announced by the admiral.
Stores were destroyed; a frigate and a sloop were burned;
the public buildings, including the Capitol, and even the mansion of the president, were plundered and fired. Against
this " unwarrantable extension of the ravages of war," as
it is styled by a British writer, the United States had no
right to complain, remembering the burning of the Parliament House at York, or the destruction of Newark, in the
preceding year, although both these outrages had been
already avenged on the New York frontier. A few hours
were enough for the work of ruin at Washington, (August
25), and the British returned to their ships. The same
d-r,August 29) some frigates appeared off Alexandria,
and extorted an enormous ransom for the town. Every
thing on the American side was helplessness and submission. The president and his cabinet had reviewed the
troops, which mustered to the number of several thousands;
generals and officers had been thick upon the field; but
there was no consistent counsel, no steadfast action, and
the country lay as open to the enemy as if it had been
uninhabited.
]Defence   It is a relief to turn to Baltimore.  Fresh from
of alti- their marauding victories, the British landed at
nore.  North Point, some miles below that city. They
were too strong for the Americans, who retired, but not
until after'a bravely contested battle, in which the British
commander, General Ross, was slain, (September 12.) As
the army advanced against the town, the next day, the fleet
bombarded Fort MIcHenry, an inconsiderable defence just




336               PART IV. 1797-1872.
below Baltimore. But the bombardment and the advance
proving ineffectual, the invaders retreated.  They had been
courageously met, triumphantly repelled.  North Point and
Fort McHenry are names which shine out, like those of
Erie and Champlain, brilliant amidst encompassing darkness.
Indian    As if one war were not enough for a nation so
foes.   hard pressed, another had broken out. The Indians
on the north-west, the followers of Tecumseh, and others
besides, were but the allies of the British.  Independent
foes, fighting altogether for themselves, uprose in the Creeks
of the Mississippi Territory, where they surprised some
hundreds of Americans at Fort Mimms, (August, 1813.)
Numerous bodies of border volunteers at once started for
the haunts of the enemy, chief amongst the number being
the troops of Tennessee, under General Jackson. Penetrating into the heart of the Creek country, after various
bloody encounters, Jackson at length routed the main body
of the foe at a place called Tohopeka, (Marchll 27, 1814.)
A few months after, he concluded a treaty, by which the
Creeks surrendered the larger part of their territory.
National   Enough remained, as has been seen, to keep the
straits. nation in sad straits. There were various causes to
produce the same effect. To raise the very first essential
for carrying on a war, a sufficient army, had been found
impossible, notwithstanding the increase of bounties and the
enlistment of minors without the consent of their parents or
masters; * all allurements failed. The chief reliance of the
government was necessarily upon the militia, about which
the same controversies continued as those already mentioned
between the federal and the state authorities. Yet, to show
* Rejected, when first proposed to Congress, but afterwards carried,
(December, 1814.)




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.               337
the extent to which the opposition party indulged itself in
embarrassing  the government, an alarm  was sounded
against the national forces, small though they were, as
threatening the liberties of the country.  But the army
was not the only point of difficulty. To prevent supplies
to the forces of the enemy, as well as to cut him off fiorn
all advantages of commerce with the United States, a new
embargo was laid, (December, 1813.)  So severe were
its restrictions, affecting even the coasting trade and the
fishery, that Massachusetts called it another Boston port
bill, and pronounced it, by her legislature, to be unconstitutional.  It was repealed in a few months, and with it
the non-importation act, which, in one shape or another,
had hung upon the commercial interests of the nation for
years, (April, 1814.)  MIore serious by far were the
financial embarrassments of the government. All efforts
to relieve the treasury had been wholly inadequate. Loan
after loan was contracted; tax after tax was laid, until
carriages, furniture, paper, and even watches, were assessed, while other help was sought, as in a new national
bank, the earlier one having expired according to the provisions of its charter. But the state to which the finances at
length arrived was this, that while eleven millions of
revenue were all to be counted upon, —ten from taxes,
and only one from custom duties, — fifty millions were
needed for the expenditures of the year, (1815.)  It did
not change matters when a large number of the banks of
the country suspended specie payments, (August, 1814.)
Party    The opposition to the war had never ceased.  Itcontro- rested, indeed, on foundations too deep to be lightly
vrsies. moved. Below the points immediately relating to
the war itself, were earlier questions. Such old topics as
the relations of the national and the state government
came up for fresh controversy.  " The governments of the
29




338               PART IV. 1797-1872.
United States," declared the federalist chief magistrate of
lIassachusetts, " is founded on the state governments, and
must be supported by them."  There might be a change
of sides; federalists might stand where republicans had
stood, and republicans where federalists had done; but
the divisions were the same. Even those between the north
and the south reappeared, and with wider lines, in the midst
of the war, which, as a general rule, the south supported
and the north opposed.
Hartford   The idea of a convention of the party, or, as the
Conven- phrase ran, of the states opposing the war, was
tion.   started in Massachusetts.  So little countenance did
it receive, as to be dropped for several months, when
increasing trials led to increasing struggles. It was then
renewed, but in the more modest guise of "a conference
between those states the affinity of whose interests is closest,
and whose habits of intercourse from local and other causes
are most frequent;" in other words, the New England
States; but action upon subjects of a national nature was
to be left, should the conference deem  it expedient, "to a
future convention from all the states in the Union."  The
Massachusetts legislature appointed twelve delegates to
represent her in the conference, and invited her sister states
of New England to do likewise, (October, 1814.) Connecticut responded by appointing seven delegates, and designating Hartford as the place for the conference to meet.
Rhode Island appointed four delegates; two counties in
New Hampshire and one county in Vermont, one delegate
each. Twenty-six were chosen, all but two of whom were
present on the opening of the conference at Hartford,
(December 15.) The other two afterwards appeared, constituting, with the secretary, an assembly of twenty-seven.
Charges of    So small was the body to which an immense
disunion. importance was attached at and after the time, but




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.                339
rather by its opponents than its adherents. The latter regarded it just as it was, a meeting of men to whom the
greater part of New England was glad to intrust its shattered interests, but without any deep-seated expectation of
succor, so strong against them  was the majority of the
nation.  To this majority, however, or to its mouthpieces,
the assembly at Hartford wore a different aspect. It was
the last desperate stake, the administration party urged, of
the opposition; lost or won, it hastened the issue of disunion
so long suspected as prepared. Whatever extremes the federalists may have fallen into, there is no proof of their
intending to separate from their countrymen. The call of
the Massachusetts authorities for this very conference at
Hartford proposed such deliberations and such measures,
only, as were "not repugnant to their obligations as members of the Union." That they were in earnest appears
from the proceedings of the conference, or the Convention,
as it is generally called.
The Convention, of which George Cabot, of MasProceedings of the sachusetts, was the president, and Harrison Gray
Colven- Otis, also of Massachusetts, the leading member,
tion.
addressed itself to its work with prayer.  It found
two classes of " dangers and grievances," as it entitled them,
to be considered: one which required present relief, the
other which might be left for future redress.  Of the first,
the chief were the illegal course of the government in relation to the militia and the destitution of all defensive resources in which New England was left. To meet these
difficulties, the Convention suggested that the New England
States might.be allowed to assume their own defence, and,
further, that a reasonable portion of the taxes assessed upon
them  by the general government should be retained by
them to cover the expenses of defending themselves. As
to the second class of complaints, embracing most of the




340              PART IV. 1797-1872.
matters that had been urged against the republican administrations by the federalists, the Convention set forth seven
amendments to the Constitution. These were all prohibitory: one against any representation' of slaves; another
against any embargo of longer duration than sixty days;
three others against any law of non-intercourse, any war,
unless it were defensive, any admission of a new state, except by a two thirds vote in Congress; a sixth against the
eligibility of persons " hereafter to be naturalized" to Congress or to any civil office under the United States; and a
seventh against the reelection of a president, or the election
of two successive presidents from the same state. In proposing these amendments, the Convention declared " that no
hostility to the Constitution is meditated." After providing
for a second Convention at Boston, in case "peace should
not be concluded and the defence of these states should be
rejected," the Convention adjourned, having been three
weeks in session, (January 5, 1815.)
The results were almost null. They might be
Results said to have been altogether so, but for a law passed
by Congress without any apparent reference to the Convention, ordering that militia should " be employed in the
state raising the same or in an adjoining state, and not elsewhere, except with the assent of the executive of the state
so raising the same," (January.)  Otherwise, nothing followed the much dreaded Convention. The commissioners
appointed to apply to the general government on the part
of Massachusetts, for leave to carry out the recommendations of the Convention touching the self-defence of the
states, found the war at an end when they reached Washington. The constitutional amendments were rejected by
the states to which they were proposed.
Meanwhile proceedings on which far less stress has been
laid than upon those of the Hartford Convention, had




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.               341
Nullifica- occurred in Connecticut and 1Massachusetts.  The
tion in legislatures of those states passed acts in direct
Connecticut and conflict with a recent statute of the United States
Massa- regarding the enlistment of minors.  So far was
chusetts. this contradicted by the measures in question, that
the parties engaged in enlisting minors were subjected to
fine and imprisonment, (January, 1815.)  It was not the
first time that these states had set themselves against the
Union. Both had taken ground against the embargo, Connecticut by statute and Massachusetts by her judicial
tribunals.  Massachusetts had more lately resisted the
measures of the government, as we shall see, in relation
to British prisoners. Nullification was far beyond the
doctrines of the Convention. That body had declared
itself in this wise:' That acts of Congress in violation of
the Constitution are absolutely void is an undeniable position. It does not, however, consist with the respect and
forbearance due from a confederate state towards the
general government, to fly to open resistance upon every
infraction of the Constitution." But passions were high,
and nullification came naturally to New England.
Defence   Late in the summer preceding the Hartford Conof Louis- vention, a British party landed at Pensacola, whose
iana.   Spanish possessors were supposed to be inclined to
side against the United States. An attack, in the early
autumn, upon Fort Bowyer, thirty miles from Mobile, was
repelled by the small but heroic garrison under MIajor
Lawrence, (September 15.) A month or two afterwards,
General Jackson advanced against Pensacola with a force
so formidable that the British withdrew, Jackson then
resigning the town to the Spanish authorities, and repairing
to New Orleans, against which the enemy was believed to
be preparing an expedition, (November.) There he busied
himself in raising his forces and providing his defences,
29 *




842              PART. IV. 1797-1872.
until the British arrived upon the coast. After capturing a
feeble flotilla of the Americans, they began their advance
against the capital of Louisiana, (December.) They were
ten thousand and upwards; the Americans not more than
half as numerous. Jackson, on learning their approach,
marched directly against them, surprising them in their
camp by night, and dealing them a blow from which they
hardly seem to have recovered, (December 23.) They
soon, however, resumed the offensive under Sir Edward
Pakenham, advancing thrice against the American lines,
but thrice retreating. The last action goes by the name of
the battle of New Orleans. It resulted in the defeat of the
enemy, with the loss of Pakenham and two thousand besides, the Americans losing less than a hundred, (January
8, 1815.)  The British retired to the sea, taking Fort
Bowyer, the same that had resisted an attack the autumn
before, (February 12.) Louisiana had been nobly defended, and not by the energy of Jackson alone, nor by the
resolution of her own people, but by the generous spirit
with which the entire south-west sent its sons to her
rescue.
Martial Jackson had hesitated at nothing in defending
law atNew New Orleans.  Upon the approach of the British,
Orleans. he proclaimed martial law; he continued it after
their departure. The author of a newspaper article reflecting upon the general's conduct was sent to prison to await
trial for life. The United States district judge was arrested
and expelled from the city for having issued a writ of
habeas corpus in the prisoner's behalf; and on the district
attorney's applying to the state court in behalf of the judge,
he, too, was banished. On the proclamation of peace, martial law was necessarily suspended. The judge returned,
and summoning the general before him, imposed a fine of
one thousand dollars. The sum was paid by Jackson, but




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.                   343
was offered to be repaid to him  by a subscription, which
proved public opinion to sustain his determined course.*
It was characteristic of the man and of his adherents in
after years.
Reappear   While these events were going on by land, the
ance of sea was for a time abandoned, at least by all nathe navy. tional vessels. Privateers continued their work of
plunder and of destruction - a work which, however miserable to contemplate, doubtless had its effect in bringing the
war to a close. But the navy of the nation had disappeared
from the ocean. It presently reappeared in the shape of its
pride and ornament, the Constitution, which, under her new
commander, Stewart, got to sea from Boston, (December,
1814.) The President, Hornet, and Peacock did the same
from New York, the President being immediately captured,
though not without a severe combat, by the British cruisers,
(January, 1815.) Her loss was avenged by the sister vessels; the Constitution taking two sloops of war at once -
the Cyane and the Levant - off Madeira, (February 20;)
the Hornet sloop taking the Penguin brig off the Island of
Tristan  d'Acunha, (March 23;) and the Peacock sloop
taking the Nautilus, an East India Company's cruiser, off
Sumatra, (June 30.)t All these actions were subsequent
to a treaty of peace.
The war had not continued a year when the administration accepted an offer of Russian mediation, and despatched
* Refusing to receive the subscription, he was reimbursed, near thirty
years afterwards, by order of Congress.
t " Thus terminated at sea," says the British historian Alison, towards
the close of an account by no means partial to the American side, " this
memorable contest, in which the English, for the first time for a century
and a half, met with equal antagonists on their own element; and in recounting which, the British historian, at a loss whether to admire most
the devoted heroism of his own countrymen or the gallant bearing of
their antagonists, feels almost equally warmed in narrating either side of
the strife."




844              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Peace  envoys to treat of peace. The chief points to be
prelimi. provided for, according to the instructions, were,
naries. first, impressments, of which the settlement had
been facilitated by an American law prohibiting the enlistment of British seamen in the service of the United
States, and next, the matter of blockades, the only part
of the anti-neutral system which had not been abandoned
by the British, (March, 1813.) Great Britain declined
the mediation of Russia, but offered to enter into negotiations either at London or at Gottenburg. The American government chose the latter place, and appointed five
commissioners - John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard,
Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin -
to negotiate a treaty, under much the same instructions as
before, (January, February, 1814.)  But on the news of
the triumph of Great Britain and her allies over Napoleon,
the demands of the United States were sensibly modified.
The opposition alleged it to be from fear of the foe, whose
power was so much increased by the issue of the European
war. But the administration and its party declared that
the pacification of Europe did away with the very abuses
of which America had to complain; in other words, that
there would be no blockades or impressments in time of
peace. At all events, the envoys were directed to leave
these points for future negotiation, confining themselves at
present to the conclusion of a general treaty. They were
also authorized to treat at London, if they thought the
arrival of British commissioners at Gottenburg was likely
to be delayed, (June.) The new instructions found the
commissioners of both nations in session at Ghent, (August 8.)
TreatS of Four months and a half elapsed before coming to
Ghent. terms. The British demands, especially on the
point of retaining the conquests made during the war, were




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.               345
altogether inadmissible.  Fortunately, they were yielded;
the disposal of the American question being desirable in
the uncertain state of European affairs.  "Some of our
European allies," wrote Lord Liverpool, British premier,
to Lord Castlereagh, British ambassador at the Congress of Vienna, then in session, " may not be indisposed
to favor Americans, and if the Emperor of Russia should
be desirous of taking up their cause, we are well aware
that there is a most powerful party to support him." The
command of the British forces in America was pressed
upon the Duke of Wellington. He consented in case the
war should be continued, but advised peace, being satisfied,
as he said, that there was "' no vulnerable point of importance belonging to the United States " which could be held
by the British' except New Orleans."  N or even this, as
Sir Edward Pakenham soon afterwards found. Castlereagh wrote from Vienna that the American war made
little sensation there. But when it was terminated by the
negotiations at Ghent, those at Vienna were carried forward with much less difficulty than Great Britain had previously experienced. The treaty of Ghent restored the
conquests on either side, and provided commissioners to
arrange the boundary aud other minor questions between
the nations, (December 24.) As for the American objects
of the war, according to the declarations at its outbreak,
they were not mentioned in the articles by which it was
closed; yet the United States did not hesitate to ratify
the treaty, (February 18.) Within a week afterwards,
the president recommended " the navigation of American
vessels exclusively by American seamen, either natives or
such as are already naturalized;" the reason assigned being
" to guard against incidents which, during the periods of
war in Europe, might tend to interrupt peace."




346               PART IV. 1797-1872.
Though much was waived for the sake of peace,
tion of one principle, if no more, had been maintained for
foreign- our country. In the first year of the war, the
ers.
British had set out to treat some Irishmen taken
while fighting on the American side, not as ordinary prisoners of war, but as traitors to Great Britain.  On their
being sent to be tried for treason in England, Congress
aroused itself in their behalf, and authorized the adoption
of retaliatory measures.  An equal number of British captives was presently imprisoned, and when the British
retorted by ordering twice as many American officers into
confinement, the Americans did the same by the British
officers in their power. The British government went so
far as to order its commanders, in case any retaliation was
inflicted upon the prisoners in American hands, to destroy
the towns and their inhabitants upon the coast. It was at
this juncture that nMassachusetts, as already alluded to,
appeared in the lines of nullification.  The federalist majority in Massachusetts, caring little for the fate of the
Irish prisoners, forbade the use of the state prisons for the
British officers now ordered to be confined, (February,
1814.) The matter was set at rest by the retraction of
the British government, who consented to treat the Irishmen as prisoners of war. Proclamation was made pardoning all past offences of the sort, but threatening future
ones with the penalties of treason; a threat never attempted to be fulfilled, (July.)
Indian    Some months after the treaty of Ghent, a treaty
treaty. was made with the Indians of the north-west. Such
as had been at war agreed to bury the tomahawk, and to
join with such as had been at peace in new relations with
the United States, (September.)
Algerine Another treaty had been made by this time. It
treaty. was with the Dey of Algiers, who had gone to war




WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN.               347
with the United States in the same year that Great Britain
did. The United States, however, had paid no attention
to the inferior enemy until relieved of the superior. Then
war was declared, and a fleet despatched, under Commodore Decatur, by which captures were made, and terms
dictated to the Algerine. The treaty not only surrendered
all American prisoners, and indemnified all American
losses in the war, but renounced the claim of tribute on
the part of Algiers, (June.)  Tunis and Tripoli being
brought to terms, the United States were no longer tributary to pirates.
Exhaus-  Madison was reelected president, with Elbridge
tion.   Gerry as vice president, in the first year of the war.
If he really consented to war as the price of his re-election, he had his reward. The difficulties of his second
term, more serious than those of any administration before
him, weighed upon him heavily. He welcomed peace, as,
his party welcomed it, - in fact, as the whole nation welcomed it, — with the same sensations of relief that men
would feel if the earth, yawning at their feet, should suddenly close.  To see from what the government and the
nation were saved, it is sufficient to read that systems of
conscription for the army and of impressment for the navy
were amongst the projects pending at the close of the war,
and that the public debt had been increased by one hundred and twenty millions- a far larger sum in those
days than in these. Some parts of' the country had suffered more than others; some industries, like those of
commerce, had vanished. But as a whole, the people were
in a state of temporary exhaustion.
Indepen- It was not so much in vain as it sometimes seems.
dence. Indirectly, almost unconsciously, our fathers had
perfected their independence of other nations. Never
after, as before the treaty of Ghent, did the United States




348               PART IV. 1797-1872.
hang in suspense upon British orders or French decrees;
never again did the people, or their parties, shape their
course merely according to foreign movements. Not the
war itself, so much as what went before, bore this fruit;
the war was merely the forcing process by which the fruit
was ripened.




CHAPTER III.
MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
Recovery. TnE depression at the close of the war was not
so great as the elation at the return of peace. Men every
where resumed their old enterprises, or entered upon new
ones, without fear of the past or the future. The government addressed itself at once to the restoration of national
prosperity. A new tariff was adopted, partly to increase
the revenue, and partly to protect domestic manufactures.
Internal taxes were gradually abolished. A new Bank
of the United States was chartered, (MIarch, 1816.) All
this was not done in a day; nor was the revival of the
nation uninterrupted. But the general tendency was towards recovery from  the disorders into which the country
had been plunged by the recent war.
Adminis-  3Madison's troubled administration came to an
trations. end. James Monroe was the president for the
next eight years, (1817-25,) with Daniel D. Tompkins as
vice president.  Monroe, once an extreme, but latterly a
moderate republican, so far conciliated all parties as to be
reelected with but one electoral vote against him.  Old
parties were dying out.  The great question of the period,
to be set forth presently, was one with which republicans
and federalists, as such, had nothing to do.
Seminole  The new administration had but just opened, when
war.  the Seminole war, as it was styled, broke out with
the Indians of Georgia and Florida. It began with mas(349)




350              PART IV. 1797-1872.
sacres. on both sides, and ended with a spoiling, burning.,
slaying expedition, half militia and half Indians, under
General Jackson, the conqueror of the Creeks in the preceding war, (March, 1818.)  On the pretext that the
Spanish authorities countenanced the hostilities of the
Indians, Jackson took St. Mark's and Pensacola, not
without some ideas of seizing  St. Augustine.  He also
put to death, within the Spanish limits, two British subjects accused of stirring up the Indians, (March, May.)
So that the war, though called the Seminole, might as
well be called the Florida war. The Spanish minister
protested against the invasion of the Florida territory, of
which the restitution was immediately ordered at Washington, though not without approbation of the course pursued
by Jackson.
Florida was a sore spot on more accounts than
tion of one. The old trouble of boundaries had never
Florida. been settled; but that was a trifle compared with
the later troubles arising from fugitive criminals, fugitive
slaves, smugglers, pirates, and, as recently shown, Indians,
to whom Florida furnished not only a refuge, but a starting
point. The Spanish authorities, themselves by no means
inclined to respect their neighbors of the United States,
had no power to make others respect them. "L-This country," said President Monroe, referring to Florida, " had, in
fact, become the theatre of every species of lawless adventure."  Matters there were not improved by the uncertain
relations still continuing between the United States and
Spain. Former difficulties, especially those upon American
indemnities, were not settled; while new ones had gathered
in consequence of South American revolutions, and North
American dispositions to side with the revolutionists. The
proposal of an earlier time to purchase Florida was renewed
by the United States. Its acceptance was impeded chiefly




MISSOURI COMPROMISE.               351
by differences on the boundary between Louisiana and the
Spanish Mexico, but this being settled to begin at the Sabine River, a treaty was concluded.  On the payment of
five millions by the American government to citizens who
claimed indemnity from Spain, that power agreed to relinquish the Floridas, East and West, (February 22, 1819.)
It was nearly two years, however, before Spain ratified
the treaty, and fully two before Florida Territory formed
a part of the United States, (1821.)
New      The State of Connecticut, hitherto content with
states. her charter government, at length adopted a new
constitution, in which there was but little improvement
upon the old one, except in making suffrage general and
the support of a church system voluntary, (1818.)  New
constitutions and new states were constantly in process of
formation.  Indiana, (December 11, 1816,) Mississippi,
(December 10, 1817,) Illinois, (December 3, 1818,) and
Alabama,* (December 14, 1819,) all became members of
the Union.
Proposal  Before the actual accession of Alabarna, Misof Mis- souri was proposed as a candidate for admission.
sourl. It was a slaveholding territory. But when the bill
authorizing it to frame a state constitution was before Congress, a New York representative, James W. Tallmadge,
moved that no more slaves should be brought in, and that
the children of those already there should be liberated at
the age of twenty-five. This passed the House of Representatives, but failed in the Senate.  Then another New
York representative, John W. Taylor, moved to prohibit
slavery in the entire territory to the north of latitude 36~
30'; but this, too, was lost. A bill setting off the portion
of Missouri Territory to the south of the line just named,
* The eastern half of the Mississippi Territory became the Territory
of Alabama in 1817.




352              PART IV. 1797-1872.
as the Territory of Arkansas, was passed. But nothing
was done towards establishing the State of Missouri,
(February, March, 1819.)
Intense   Had it been an outbreak of hostilities, had it been
agitation. a march of one half the country against the other,
there could hardly have been a more intense agitation.
A large number felt that the time had come to make a
stand against the extension of slavery.  On the other
hand, the attempted prohibition of slavery was denounced
as violating the rights of the slaveholding states; nay,
more, as the preliminary to a negro massacre, a civil
war, a dissolution of the Union. The aged Jefferson wrote,
despondingly, " The Missouri question is a breaker on
which we lose the Missouri country by revolt, and what
more God only knows. From the battle of Bunker's Hill
to the treaty of Paris we never had so ominous a question." John Adams was more sanguine: " I hope it will
follow the other waves under the ship, and do no harm."
Public meetings were held; those at the south to repel the
interference of the north, those at the north to rebuke the
pretensions of the south. The dispute extended into the
state tribunals and legislatures, the northern declaring that
Missouri must be for freemen only, the southern that it
must be for freemen and their slaves.
Question  It was certainly a great question. "Scarcely
of sla-  ever," said a Massachusetts representative, " was
very.  so great a question before a human tribunal."
Not only MIIissouri, but the rest of that vast region originally called Louisiana, was to be opened or closed to slavery. Not only the few thousand slaves within the territory claiming to become a state, but the thousand thousands
to follow them, in the state and beyond it, were to be disposed of by the decision that must soon be reached. The
party of freedom insisted upon the right and the duty of




MISSOURI COMPROMISE.              353
Congress to make Missouri free; the party of slavery was
equally urgent that Congress lhad no right to interfere, that a
state alone could determine whether it would be slaveholding or not in any case, and that in this particular case it
had no option, being bound by the treaty under which Missouri, as a part of Louisiana, had been acquired, and bywhich
the inhabitants, being admitted to all the rights of United
States citizens, had been admitted to all the rights of
United States slaveholders.  There was also a numerical
argument. The Union now consisted of twenty-two states,
eleven free, eleven slaveholding; and as the last, Alabama,
had been slaveholding, the next ought to be free. When
Congress re-assembled, and Maine sought to be received as
a state, Massachusetts consenting, (1820,) the argument
front numbers was turned, and Missouri was to be slaveholding, because Maine was to be free.
The Com- The Senate united Maine and Missouri in the
promise. same bill and on the same terms; that is, without
any restriction upon slavery. But a clause introduced on
the motion of Jesse B. Thomas, of Illinois, prohibited the
introduction of slavery into any portion of the Louisiana
Territory as yet unorganized, leaving Louisiana the state
and Arkansas the territory, as well as Missouri, just what
they were; that is, slaveholding. The line of 36~ 30', proposed the year before, was again proposed, save only that
Missouri, though north of the line, was to be a Southern
State. This was the Missouri Compromise.  It came
from the north. On the part of the north, it yielded the
claim to Missouri as a free state; on the part of the south,
it yielded the claim to the immensely larger regions which
stretched above and beyond Missouri to the Pacific. Thus
the Senate determined, not without opposition from both
sides. The House, on the contrary, adopted a bill admitting Mlissouri, separately from  3Maine, and under tho
30*




354               PART IV. 1797-1872.
northern restriction concerning slavery.  Words continued
to run high. Henry Clay, still in the House, wrote that
the subject " engrosses the whole thoughts of the members, and constitutes almost the only topic of conversation." A committee of conference led to the agreement of
both Senate and House upon a bill admitting Missouri,
after her constitution should be formed, free of restrict
tions, but prohibiting slavery north of the line of 36~ 30',
(March 3, 1820.)  Maine was admitted at the same time,
(March 3-15.)
Different The Compromise prohibited slavery in the desiginterpre- nated region forever. This was the letter; but it
tations. was under different interpretations.  When President Monroe consulted his cabinet upon approving the act
of Congress, all but his secretary of state, John Quincy
Adams, inclined to read the prohibition of slavery as applying only to the territories, and not to the states that
might arise beyond the prescribed boundary. This was
not a difference between northern and southern views, but
one between strict and liberal constructions of the Constitution; the strict construction going against all power in
Congress to restrict a state, while the liberal took the
opposite ground. So with others besides the cabinet.
Among the very men who voted for the Compromise were
many, doubtless, who understood it as applying to territories alone, The northern party, unquestionably, adopted
it in its broader sense, preventing the state as well as the
territory from establishing slavery. That there should be
two senses attached to it from the beginning was a dark
presage of future differences.
~A~dmis- Present differences were not yet overcome. Mission of souri, rejoicing in becoming a slaveholding state,
Missouri. adopted a constitution which forbade the legislature to emancipate slaves or to allow the immigration of




MISSOURI COMPROMISE.                355
free negroes. On this being brought before Congress,
towards the close of the year, (1820,) various tactics were
adopted; the extreme southern party going for the immediate admission of the state, while the extreme northern
side urged the overthrow of state, constitution, and Compromise, together. Henry Clay, at the head of the moderate men, succeeded, after long exertions, in carrying a
measure providing for the admission of Missouri as soon
as her legislature should solemnly covenant the rights of
citizenship to " the citizens of either of the states," (February, 1821.) This was done, and Missouri became a
state, (August 10.)
Slave    While the nation thus refused to arrest slavery
trade, within its limits, it resisted the extension of the
slave trade. Upwards of fourteen thousand slaves were
said to have been imported in a single year, (1818.)
Upon this an act of Congress attached fresh and severer
penalties to the slave dealer, and provided for the return of
his unhappy victims to their native country, (1819.) An-.
other act denounced the traffic as piracy, (1820.)




CHAPTER IV.
THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
Independ- THREE years after the treaty of Ghent, the forenceof eign secretary of the British government asked
Central
and South the American minister, Richard Rush, at London,
America. what the United States would do about Spanish
America.  He meant the colonies of Spain in Central
and South America, which had some time before declared
their independence, and afterwards maintained it in arms,
but which the European powers desired to see restored to
their former colonial condition. It was a time of reaction against freedom throughout Europe and European
possessions. The Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia, and
Austria, to which France and Great Britain more or less
adhered, had undertaken to remove all traces of the French
revolution and its kindred movements; and of these the
rising throughout Spanish America was one. The confidence of the American minister in the independent spirit
of the government he represented, appeared in his reply
to the question of the British secretary, that " the only
basis" upon which the United States would negotiate concerning the Spanish colonies was their " independence."
Four years later, this independence was formally recognized by the United States government, (1822.)
The      It was a brave act. The European allies were
Monroe evidently preparing to interfere, first with Spain
Doctrine. herself, where fresh revolutions had broken out,
(356)




THE MONROE DOCTRINE.               357
and then with her revolted colonies. Only Great Britain
was drawing back, and from her alone could the United
States expect any sort of acquiescence in the recognition
of the American  states.  Her foreign secretary, then
George Canning, proposed to Mr. Rush, still minister at
London, a concurrent declaration of Great Britain and
the United States in opposition to the course of the continental powers. In a later interview, Canning spoke of
the question as "a new and complicated one in modern
affairs," and, while seeking action, seemed to fail in finding
any which could be adopted, or, if adopted, be effectual.
A month or two later, (December 2, 1823,) President
Monroe sent his seventh annual message to Congress, and
here announced that, in negotiations with Russia, his administration had asserted, " as a principle in which the
rights and interests of the United States are involved, that
the American continents, by the free and independent
position which they have assumed and maintained, are
henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." " We owe it," continued the president, " 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 extend 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 the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards




-358             PART IV. 1797-1872.
the United States." Such was what has since been called
the Monroe Doctrine.
Author-  If it had borne the name of its immediate author,
ship.  it would have been called after John Quincy Adams,
then secretary of state, rather than the president. But
the real authorship is to be traced, beyond any individual,
to the nation, or to the thinking part of the nation. Such
were the times, and such the politics of Europe, so adverse
to every political principle which an American republican
held dear, that he longed to have his government committed to a better course.  " There will be, I trust," said
Daniel Webster, " an American policy."  As he was
speaking a month after the message, he might have said,
There is an American policy.
Its purpose, as far as the Monroe Doctrine went,
Purpose.
was twofold.  It showed the intention of the
United States to prevent the European powers from extending their system across the Atlantic either to destroy
free institutions where they existed, or to set up their own
institutions wherever a spot could be found. The first
point was to protect the republics of Central and South
America. The second was to protect the yet unoccupied
regions of the entire continent. As to the first, Mr. Rush
wrote home from London, that it was expected and well received; but as to the second, he declared that it was unexpected, and would not be acquiesced in by England. It was
of much greater consequence that the purpose of the Doctrine should be sustained at home. Congress declined to
take any formal action; but, as Webster said, some time
later, the tone of the president's message "' found a corresponding response in the breasts of the free people of
the United States."
Aid to    The same message which spoke for freedom in
Greece. the new world spoke for. it in the old. Two




THE MONROE DOCTRINE.               359
years before, the Messenian Senate had appealed to the
United States for aid to the Greeks in their struggle
against the Turkish yoke.  Sympathy had been won,
subscriptions and personal services had been given by individluals, and now the message expressed the national concern. Webster followed it up by one of' his great speeches
in the House, urging the appointment of a commissioner
to Greece, and all the moral support that could be lent to
a righteous cause.
Lafayette's A few months later Lafayette arrived, on navisit.  tional invitation, to behold the work which he had
aided in his youth. The French government, as its ambassador at London confessed, did not like the invitation,
or the American frigate that was placed at the disposal of
the guest, for the government was of the then prevailing temper, while Lafayette was identified with all that was liberal,
or, as his opponents would say, revolutionary in Europe.
His visit, therefore, was not merely a proof of American
gratitude towards himself; but of American sympathy with
the principles which he represented more than any other
man alive.  " The other day," he says,.' at Boston, God
was prayed to give liberty to the two hemispheres; and a
devotion like this suits me better than the anti-revolutionary anathemas of Europe." From the day of his landing
(August 16, 1824) to that of his departure, (September 7,
1825,) a period of more than a year, he was, as he described himself, " in a whirlwind of popular kindnesses
of which it was impossible to have formed any previous
conception, and in which every thing that could touch and
flatter one was mingled."  "A more interesting spectacle,
it is believed," said President Monroe, "was never witnessed, because none could be founded on purer principles,
none proceed from higher or more disinterested motives."
To make some amends for his early sacrifices, pecuniary as




360              PART IV. 1797-1872.
well as personal, in the American cause, Congress voted
Lafayette a township of the public domain, and a grant of
two hundred thousand dollars.
Congress When John Quincy Adams had risen to the
of Pan- presidency, (1825,) an invitation was received by
ama.  the government from  some of the Central and
South American states to unite in a congress at Panama.
The objects, ranging from mere commercial negotiations
up to the Monroe Doctrine, were rather indefinite; but
Adams appointed two envoys, whom the Senate confirmed,
and for whom the House made the necessary appropriations, though not without great opposition, (December,
1825 - March, 1826.) One of the envoys died, the other
did not go upon his mission; so that the congress began
and ended without any representation from the United
States, (June - July.)  It adjourned to meet at Tacubaya, near Mexico, in the beginning of the following year.
The ministers of the United States repaired to the appointed place, and at the appointed time, but there was no congress.




CHAPTER V.
TARIFF COMPROMISE.
Nullifica-  THE alleged right of a state to nullify any act
tion.   which it deemed unconstitutional on the part of
the general government was but another form of asserting
that the state, and not the nation, was the sovereign
authority according to the Constitution.  It had been
maintained, as we have seen, by Jefferson and Madison in
1798, and by the New England federalists in 1814 and
1815. It was now renewed, and became the great question before the country during the administrations of
Adams and Jackson.
In       Many years before, Georgia had ceded her
Georgia. western lands, covering the present Alabama and
Mississippi, on condition that the United States government would buy and transfer to her the large tracts still
held by the Creeks and Cherokees within her borders.
This the government began to do; but some difficulty with
the Creeks, who had not been fairly dealt with, delayed
the execution of the contract. The governor of Georgia
hinted at anti-slavery motives on the part of the administration, and called upon the adjoining states to stand by
their arms. President Adams communicated the matter
to Congress, asserting his intention "to enforce the laws,
and fulfil the duties of the nation by all the force committed for that purpose to his charge."  Whereat the governor wrote to the secretary of war, "From the first
31                          (361)




362               PART IV. 1797-1872.
decisive act of hostility, you will be considered and treated
as a public enemy," (1827.)  Fortunately, the winds
ceased. The state that had set itself against the nation
more decidedly than had ever yet been done returned to
its senses.  As for the unhappy Indians, not only the
Creeks, but all the other tribes that could be persuaded to
move, were gradually transported to more distant territories in the west.
Other causes were operating to excite the states,
Tariffs.
or some of them, against the general government.
The tariff of 1816, intended to assist the nation in recovering from the losses of war, had also been intended to protect domestic manufactures against importations from
abroad. It was urged by the Southern States in the
opinion that cotton would command higher prices if manufactured at home, and was resisted by the Northern,
especially the New England States, whose interests were
then commercial rather than manufacturing or agricultural.
But after the adoption of the tariff, the Northern and
Middle States devoted more and more of their capital to
manufactures, while the cotton-growing states continued to
raise the raw material without attempting to manufacture
it; so that the northern and southern sections gradually
changed front, until the southern became violently opposed
to protective duties, by which, as one of its chief leaders
declared, its interests had been shamefully sacrificed, while,
on the other hand, the manufacturers, not merely of cotton,
but of woollen, hemp, iron, and other materials, in the Eastern and Middle States, demanded protection; "and it matters not," they said at a convention in Harrisburg, (1827,)
"'if it amounts to prohibition."  The controversy resulted
in the triumph of the protective, or, as its supporters called
it, the American, system in the tariff of 1828.




TARIFF COMPROMISE.               363
Exposi-   Several of the Southern States declared this to
tion and be unconstitutional. South Carolina did more, and
protest
of South her legislature issued an Exposition and Protest,
Carolina. in which the resistance of the state to the general
government was not only threatened, but justified, (December, 1828.)  "The existence," it was argued, " of the
right of judging of their powers, clearly established from
the sovereignty of the states, as clearly implies a veto or
control on the action of the general government on contested points of authority; and this very control is the
remedy which the Constitution has provided to prevent the
encroachment of the general government on the reserved
rights of the states.....  There exists a case [the
tariff] which would justify the interposition of this state,
and thereby compel the general government to abandon an
unconstitutional power." It was at this same time, " in
December, 1828," wrote Daniel Webster, "I became
thoroughly convinced that the plan of a southern confederation had been received with favor by a great many of the
political men of the south."  Secession was the inevitable
consequence of nullification.
Jackson's Andrew Jackson succeeded to the presidency,
first acts. (1829.)  His first act was to remove hundreds of
public officers in order to provide for his followers. In
this he had no example among his predecessors, for all the
six together had made just sixty-four removals from office,
and no more. His next act of importance was to recommend Congress to modify the tariff of the year before,
which was the same as to recommend concession to the
demands of. South Carolina and other discontented states.
Some months later, (MIay, 1830,) Congress adopted a few
modifications, that would have been unimportant but for
the precedent of giving way on the part of the nation.




'364              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Web-    But before this action was taken, the nation and
ster's de- its sovereignty had been nobly defended in the
fence of
the na- Senate of the United  States.  Senator Foot, of
tion.   Connecticut, offered a resolution at the close of the
previous year, (1829,) concerning the disposition of the
public lands; but these were soon lost sight of in the debates which followed concerning the relative powers of
the states and the national government. Robert Y. H-Iayne,
a senator from South Carolina, appeared in support of
the theories to which his state was committed; but every
one knew that he was speaking for a greater leader, John
C. Calhoun, vice president of the United States under
Jackson, as he had been under Adams, and yet more influential as the head and front of nullification. HI-ayne's
first speech on this question (January 19, 1830) was
answered by Webster the next day, and with such effect
that Hayne's rejoinder was not completed for several days,
when Webster spoke the second time, (January 26,) and
with greater effect than had or has ever been witnessed in
either house of Congress. His purpose was to lay the axe
at the root of nullification; and this he did by a close and
decisive argument that the national government is not a
compact among sovereign states, but a government established by the people, and to be resisted, if at all, only by
appeal from one of its branches to another, or by the right
of revolution against them all. " I trust," said the great
orator, to whom the proud title of Defender of the Constitution was given by his grateful countrymen, " the crisis
has in some measure passed by," (1831.)
Bad      But not even Webster could then see how periltemper. ous the crisis continued. A visitor at Washington,
early in 1831, describes the temper in Congress; and the
temper there prevailed elsewhere: " When we entered the
House, there was a debate going on relative to reduction




TARIFF COMPROMISE.               365
of duty on salt. Some southern members spoke with great
vehemence, but nobody on the floor paid any attention to
them. They spoke of their oppression, of throwing themselves on the sovereignty of their states, of being goaded
to rebellion, of the time being near when Vengeance should
stalk about these halls. It was melancholy to see such
feelings aroused among our countrymen, and more painful
to see them quite disregarded."
South    A year and more later, the storm long brewing
Carolina broke upon the country. Congress, having reduced
nullifies. the high duties upon some articles, but left them
upon others, refused to abandon protection in the new tariff
of 1832. The South Carolina members of Congress immediately united with Vice President Calhoun in an address
declaring their conviction " that the protecting system
must now be regarded as the settled policy of the country,"
and recommending "a struggle" to transmit to posterity
"the rights and liberties received as a precious inheritance
from an illustrious ancestry." The legislature of South
Carolina summoned a convention of the state, which met
at Columbia, under the presidency of Governor Hamilton,
(November 19.) A few days sufficed to pass an ordinance
declaring "' that the several acts, and parts of acts, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties on importation..
are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States,
and violate the true intent and meaning thereof, and are
null and void, and no law, nor binding upon the State of
South Carolina, its officers and citizens;... and that
it shall be the duty of the legislature to adopt such measures
and pass such acts as may be necessary to give full effect
to this ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest
the operation of the said acts, and parts of acts, of the
Congress of the United States within the limits of the
state," (November 24.)
31*




366              PART IV. 1797-1872.
And     In all this there was nothing new. But South
threatens Carolina went further than any of her predecessors
to secede. in nullification.'" We, the people of South Carolina," concluded the ordinance of the convention, " do
further declare that Awe will not submit to the application
of force, on the part of the f'ederal government, to reduce
this state to obedience, but that we will consider the passage by Congress of any act... to enforce the acts
hereby declared to be null and void, otherwise than through
the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the
longer continuance of South Carolina in the Union; and
that the people of this state... will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government."
If the state was resolute, the general government
Resolution of was no less so. The president was in his element.
govern- A crisis which he was eminently adapted to meet
mentl. had arrived. It called forth all his independence,
all his nationality. Other men- more than one of his predecessors-would have doubted the course to be pursued;
they would have staid to inquire into the powers of the
Constitution, or to count the resources of the government;
nay, had they been consistent, they would have inclined
to the support, rather than to the overthrow, of the South
Carolina doctrine. Jackson did not waver an instant. He
took his own connsel, as he was wont to do, and declared
for the nation against the state; then ordered troops and a
national vessel to the support of the government officers in
South Carolina. " No act of violent opposition to the laws
has yet been committed," —thus the president declared in.a proclamation; " but such a state of things is hourly apprehended; and it is the intent of this instrument to proclaim
not only that the duty imposed on me by the Constitution,
to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, shall be
performed,... but to warn the citizens of South Car



TARIFF COMPROMISE.               367
olina... that the course they are urged to pursue is
one of ruin and disgrace to the very state whose right they
affect to support," (December.) The appeal to the South
Carolinians was the more forcible in coming from one of
themselves, as it were; Jackson being a native of their
state. Addressing Congress in an elaborate message, (January 16, 1833,) the president argued down both nullification and secession, maintaining that "' the result of each is
the same; since a state in which, by a usurpation of power,
the constitutional authority of the federal government is
openly defied and set aside, wants only the form to be independent of the Union." He then proceeded to recount the
measures which he had taken, and to propose those which
he considered it necessary for Congress to take. Congress
responded, after some delay, by an enforcing act, the primary object of which was to secure the collection of the
customs in the South Carolina ports. To this Calhoun,
who had resigned the vice presidency in order to represent
South Carolina in the Senate, opposed himself in vain;
while Webster argued against him as he had done against
Hayne two years before, (February.)
Resolu-   The government did not stand alone. One after
tion of another the states, by legislative or by individual prostates.  ceedings, came out in support of the national principle. The principle of state sovereignty, that might have found
support but for the extremity to which it had been pushed,
seemed to be abandoned. South Carolina was left to herself, even by her neighbors, usually prone to take the same
side. Only Virginia came forward, appealing to the government as- well as to South Carolina to be done with strife.
As if to show her sympathy for the cause of the state, Virginia appointed a commissioner to convey her sentiments to
the people of South Carolina. Otherwise the states ranged
themselves distinctly, though not all actively, on the side
of the nation.




868              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Tariff    But on one point there was a decided reservation
compro- with many of the states. The tariff was openly
mise. condemned by North Carolina, Alabama, and
Georgia; the last state proposing a southern convention, to
take some measures of resistance to the continuance of a
system so unconstitutional. Henry Clay took the matter
up in the Senate. He had been the advocate of the Missouri Compromise, and now, in consultation with others,
brought forward a tariff compromise. This proposed that
the duties on all imports exceeding twenty per cent. should
be reduced to that rate by successive diminutions through
the next ten years, (till June 30, 1842.)  Unlike the Missouri question, the tariff question was disposed of without protracted struggles. The advocates of protection
opposed the compromise as a financial measure, but far
graver objections were brought against it as a political
measure. Webster considered it as "' yielding great principles to faction," and others thought with him that it was
no time to waive the national supremacy at the moment
that a state was in open rebellion against it. But the compromise became a law, (March 2.) "The lightning," as one
of Clay's correspondents wrote to him, was "' drawn out
from the clouds lowering over the country," and South
Carolina returned to her former position. But that was
full of insubordination, and the clouds still lowered.
The president never ceased to regret that he had
The president's not done as he threatened, and arrested Calhoun
regret. for high treason. It was a regret in which many
shared, believing that the time had come to test the strength
of the national government, and that the trial of its second
officer, on the charge of conspiring against it, would have
been a better opportunity of settling the relations between
the nation and the state than could be found'-in enforcing
acts or compromises.




CHAPTER VI.
ANTI-SLAVERY.
Calhoun's CALHOUN, escaping trial, went home to tell his
basis.  people that the south could not be united against
the north on the tariff question.  " The basis.of southern
union," he said, " must be shifted to the slave question."
Two      This question had then (1833) entered upon its
periods later phase. In the history of the movement against
in the  l
anti-  slavery in the United States, two periods are easily
slavery observed.  The first is from the beginning of the
rment.  government to the year 1831, during which antislavery meant opposition to an evil from which all parts of
the country were suffering, and to the relief of which all
must contribute. Slavery was to be removed gradually,
and with compensation to the owners of slaves who might
be emancipated. As a general rule, societies were the instruments to be employed in bringing about the desired
results, the subject being too delicate, or too vast, or both,
for individual action. All this changes in the second period, from 1831 forward. Slavery is the sin for which
those only who tolerate it are to pay the penalty; it is to
be wiped out at once, and without compensating those who
have upheld it; and as its abolition is to be effected only
at great risks and in defiance of powerful traditions, it
must be the work of individuals, who, though combined
in associations, are mostly engaged in individual action.
(369)




370              PART IV. 1797-1872.
It was a natural consequence of this contrast that while the
South cooperated in anti-slavery movements before 1831, it
set itself against them afterwards. Of one hundred and
forty-four anti-slavery societies in 1826, one hundred and
six were southern. Of the comparatively few, ten years
later, all were northern.
South-    The dividing line between the two periods is
ampton marked by the Southampton massacre. This hapmassacre. pened in the Virginia county of that name in
August, 1831. Its leader was a slave of fanatic character,
named Turner; its first victims were sixty whites, its last
one hundred blacks, who fell before the state militia and
United States troops sent against them. In December of
the same year, the legislature of Virginia, discussing the
massacre, went on to discuss its cause, and the possibility
of removing it by emancipation. Various plans were proposed, and though none was adopted, though all were
opposed by the eastern members, the tone of the debate
was generally anti-slavery. " The hour of the eradication
of the evil is advancing," said T. J. Randolph, a grandson
of Jefferson; " it must come."  It was the last time that
any southern legislature, or assembly of any kind, suffered
slavery to be treated in this style.
Lundy    Already the changed character of the anti-slavery
and    movement had appeared.  Benjamin Lundy, a meGarrison. chanic of Quaker parentage, began his journal, entitled Genius of Universal Emancipation, in 1821, and
three years later, removed its office from Ohio to Maryland. There, at Baltimore, in a slaveholding community,
he continued to urge the immediate abolition of slavery,
and, not content with his labors as a journalist, travelled
north and south to meet men face to face, and increase the
number of his fellow-laborers.  In Boston, he found a
a young printer, William L. Garrison, working in the




ANTI-SLAVERY.                  371
same cause, and willing to follow him to Baltimore. Soon
after Garrison's arrival, however, an article which he
wrote exposed him to arrest and fine, and being unable to
pay the fine, he was imprisoned until set free by a fiiend
at a distance.  He made his way back to Boston, and to
its better opportunities of writing freely, and at the beginning of 1831 established the Liberator, a paper of
more outspoken and unshaken hostility to slavery than
any which went before or followed after.  "A  greater
revolution in public sentiment," it declared, "is to be
effected in the free states, particularly in New England,
than at the south.... Let southern oppressors tremble; let their northern apologists tremble....   On this
subject I do not wish," said the determined editor," to
speak or write with moderation."
The new school of abolitionists was neither nuAmerican
Anti-   merous nor influential at the beginning. A few
Slavery local societies were formed, and their meetings and
Society publications increased the volume rather than the
power of the movement. It gathered fresh strength from
the abolition of British colonial slavery by Parliament in
the summer of 1833, and early in the following winter
the leading abolitionists met at Philadelphia and organized
the American Anti-Slavery Society. The declaration of
this body, compared by its members to the Declaration of
Independence adopted in the same city fifty-seven years
before, was drawn by Garrison. It recognized the right
of states to legislate exclusively on slavery within their
own limits, but asserted the right of the general government to suppress the slave trade from state to state, and
to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and the
territories. It insisted upon the duty of the government
and the people, particularly in the free states, " to remove
slavery by moral and political action, as prescribed in the




372               PART IV. 1797-1872.
Constitution of the United States." In every respect the
declaration was imperative; and as not only expressing, but
inspiring, the strongest anti-slavery convictions of the time,
it must be forever memorable in our history. The poet
Whittier said, thirty years afterwards, " I set a higher
value on my name as appended to the anti-slavery declaration of 1833 than on the title page of any book."
The abolitionists were soon beset.  Men pointed
Reaction
amongy at them  as if' they were mad or wicked.  Mobs
thile    broke into their meetings and laid violent hands
people. upon their leaders, who were sometimes rescued
only by being taken to prison. The legislature of Georgia offered five thousand dollars fbr the arrest and conviction of the editor or publisher of the Liberator.  Not
Georgia alone, but Alabama, North and South Carolina,
and Virginia, called upon the free states to make antislavery publications penal offences, and to suppress antislavery societies.  These demands were supported  by
those in office and those out of office throughout the north.
At Charleston, S. C., the United States post-office was
attacked, and papers brought by mail from the north were
seized and  burned, (1835.)  Instead of defending his
charge, the postmaster ordered similar mail matter to be
stopped thereafter, and the postmaster general of the
United States, though confessing that he had no authority
to ratify such an act, refused to condemn it.
In the    The government followed the lead of the people.
govern- President Jackson's message of December, 1835,
nient. suggested the passage of a law to prohibit the circulation of " incendiary publications" through the mails.
Two months later, Calhoun, chairman of a Senate committee, reported a bill providing that when a state declared
publications to be incendiary, Congress must prohibit their
circulation; but this fell through, (April, 1836.) Its fail.




ANTI-SLAVERY.                  373
ure was more than made up, however, by the adoption, in
the House of Representatives, of a rule which was maintained for several years, that "'all petitions relating in
any way to slavery be laid on the table without being
printed or referred," (May 11.) These first concessions to
slavery were ominous not to the slave alone, but to the free.
Murder   Among the few who stood firm on the other side
of     was Elijah P. Lovejoy, a young New England minLovejoy. ister, who had become the editor of the Observer,
at St. Louis.  He was a man of broader nature and better
education than any who had become conspicuous in the
anti-slavery cause.  I-e did not profess to be an abolitionist, or to devote himself exclusively to a crusade against
slavery; but his sympathies were all on the side of freedom,
and he never hesitated to express them. If lie was a
champion of any one principle, it was of free speech, which,
as we have seen, had fallen into great peril since the governiment and the people united against it.  " So long as I
am an American citizen," said Lovejoy, " so long as American blood runs in these veins, I shall hold myself at liberty to speak, to write, and to publish whatever I please on
any subject, being amenable to the laws of' my country for
the samne."  He removed his paper firom  St. Louis to Alton, Illinois, that he might be in a free state; but the state
was not free to him, or to brave men like him.  Repeatedly
assailed by mobs, his house stoned, his printing presses
destroyed, he was in arms with a few friends to defend a
new press from threatened violence, when he was shot about
midnight, (November 7, 1837.)  Such was the spirit of
the country,- that a meeting to express some natural sentiment at this murder was held with great diffiliculty in Faneuil
Hall, and, when held, was obliged to listen to a defence of
the murderers from the attorney general of M3assachusetts.
32




374               PART IV. 1797-1872.
Violence  All this drove the abolitionists to a new and
of aboli- extreme position.  " The grand rallying point,"
tionists. according to Garrison and his associates, was the
repeal of the Union, (1842.)  Other repeals were proposed
- that of the pulpit, which had not thundered as it ought
against slavery, that of the churches, which had not forced
their pulpits to thunder. These passionate demands threw
back abolitionism, instead of advancing it.  Men willing to
act against slavery were not willing to act against their
country or their church, and instead of becoming abolitionists they became anti-abolitionists.  Another party would
have to be formed to take the lead, and this could not be
done in a day.
For twenty years and more, colored sailors arriving
Massachusetts in a port of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
missions. and Louisiana, had been subject to imprisonment
during the stay of the vessel in which they came. William
Wirt, Attorney General of the United States, gave the
opinion that the act of South Carolina, where this practice
originated, was unconstitutional, and incompatible with
the rights of other nations, (1824.)  But though South
Carolina yielded as far as British seamen were concerned,
she refused to yield with regard to Americans; and in this
she, with her sister states, was upheld by Congress when
that body refused, by a large majority, to interfere, (1842.)
In 1844 the Massachusetts legislature authorized the governor to appoint agents to inquire into the imprisonment
of Massachusetts seamen in Charleston and New Orleans,
the two great ports of the Southern States. The governor
sent Samuel Hoar to Charleston, and Henry Hubbard to
New Orleans, but both were driven off. Soutli Carolina
asserted her right to exclude "' seditious persons or others
whose presence may be dangerous," and on this ground the
Massachusetts agent was expelled. The state had previous



ANTI-SLAVERY.                  375
iy contented itself with shutting out colored citizens; it
now shut out white.  " Has the Constitution of the United
States," asked the expelled agent in his report to the State
of Massachusetts, " the least practical validity or binding
force in South Carolina, except where she thinks its operation favorable to her?"
Our narrative has not been too brief to show
Necessity
of anti- how great a necessity the anti-slavery movement
slavery. had become, and how certain, therefore, it was to
grow and spread, notwithstanding all the weakness of its
friends and all the strength of its foes.




CHAPTER VII.
ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.
United    TURNING back to some events which we have
States  passed by, we enter upon a controversy no less
Bank.  severe than that between freedom and slavery. It
is between President Jackson and the democratic party on
the one side, and on the other the United States Bank
and the whig party, then in opposition, and under the
leadership of Clay and Webster. After putting a veto on
the renewal of the bank charter, (1832,) the president, now
in his second term, (1833,) directed the secretary of the
treasury to remove the treasury deposits from the bank;
and when the secretary then in office declined to do so, he
was displaced by another, Roger B. Taney, who consented.
The Senate charged the president with violating the Constitution, and Webster called upon " all who mean to die
as they live, citizens of a free country," to "' stand together
for the supremacy of the laws." The question was political as well as financial, and thus excited universal interest.
Financially, the country was in a singular condiFinances.                                 n
tion. The public debt was paid off, (1835,) and
twenty-eight millions of surplus revenue were distributed  among the states, (1837.)  But the course of
trade; the speculations and disorders among business men,
brought about a commercial crisis, from which almost
every body suffered — capitalists failing, laborers losing
employment, and families sinking into want. Specie pay.
(376)




ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.               377
ments were suspended by the banks, first of Niew York,
then of other cities; and a deputation waited upon the
president, now Martin Van Buren, to ask the suspension
of payment in specie to the treasury, and the summons of
Congress in an extra session. The extra session was held
in September, but the president's proposal of a system by
which the public moneys should be deposited in public
offices, instead of banks, was not adopted until a later
time. It was not for the government, but for the people
themselves, to restore their broken fortunes.
State in- One great obstacle was the financial condition of
solvency. the states. In the two years preceding the crisis,
state debts had been, contracted to the amount of nearly
one hundred millions.  It soon became difficult to meet
even the interest on these obligations. Indiana, Arkansas,
and Illinois stopped paying interest; Maryland and Pennsylvania paid only by certificates, and by those only in
part. Michigan and Louisiana ceased not merely to pay,
but also to acknowledge their debts, while Mississippi repudiated five millions at once, on the ground that the bank
in whose favor her bonds had been issued had sold them
on terms contrary to its charter.  Eight states and a territory (Florida) thus became bankrupt, or worse than
bankrupt, in the course of eighteen months, (1841-2.)
Civil war  Rhode Island met with a peculiar trial.  Its
in Rhode charter government, now a century and a quarter
Island.
I   old, had long been the object of reform. Two new
constitutions were proposed, (1841,) one by a convention
called by a Suffrage Association, the other by a convention
whichthe legislature had summoned. The latter was rejected; the former was accepted by popular vote; but not
having been fiamed according to the forms of law, it was
opposed by the state authorities.  Its supporters chose
Thomas W. Dorr governor, who, with an armed force,
32 -




378               PART IV. 1797-1872.
attacked the arsenal at Providence, and, failing there, af.
terwards threw up intrenchments, ten miles off, at Chepachet.  Three thousand volunteers marched against this
post, but found it abandoned; and so the civil war ended,
(June, 1842.)   A few months later, a new constitution,
providing for the reforms which Dorr and his party had
sought through strife, was adopted.
Other states were organizing themselves more
New 
states  peaceably.  Arkansas, the first state admitted since
and terri- Missouri, (June 15, 1836,) was followed by Michitories.
gan, (January 26, 1837.)  Wisconsin, organized
as a single territory, (1836,) was presently divided as
WVTisconsin and Iowa, (1838.) Then Iowa was admitted
a state, (March 3, 1845,*) and at the same date Florida
became a member of the Union.
Indian    Relations with the Indians were frequently diswars.  turbed.  A war with the Sacs and -Foxes, under
Black Hawk, broke out on the north-west frontier, but
was soon brought to an end by a vigorous campaign on the
part of the United States troops and the militia, under
Generals Scott and Atkinson, (1832.) Another war arose
with the Seminoles, under their chief Osceola, in Florida.
It was attended by serious losses from the beginning,(1835.)
On the junction of the Creeks with the Seminoles, affairs
grew still worse, the war extending into Georgia and Alabama, (1836.)  The Creeks were subdued under the directions of General Jessup; but the Seminoles continued in
arms amidst the thickets of Florida for many years.
The standing grievance of the United States
Foreign
relations: against the European powers consisted in the inFranceC demnities long due for spoliations of' American
commerce.  These were ht last settled with Denmark,
Portugal, Spain, and Naples, (1830-4.)  But with France
* Again in 1846, but not actually entering until 1848.




ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.              379
there were some high-sounding phrases before our claims
were satisfied. A treaty with the government of Louis
Philippe fixed the amount at about five millions; but the
Chamber of Deputies refused to provide the money, and
the draft of the United States government for the first instalment was protested, (1834.) The president proposed to
Congress to authorize reprisals upon French property;
whereupon the French minister at Washington was recalled, and the American minister at Paris was offered his
passports. More phrases followed. Great Britain offered
mediation, and it was accepted; but, without waiting for
it, the French government paid the five millions, (1836.)
Great    Not long after this, we were in trouble with Great
Britain. Britain. On the outbreak of an insurrection in
Canada, (1837,) some of our people undertook to join it,
and encamped on Navy Island, a British possession in the
Niagara River, to which they transported arms and stores
in a steamer called the Caroline. This steamer, though
at the time on the American bank of the river, was destroyed by a British detachment accompanied by Alexander McLeod, sheriff of Niagara; and an American citizen
lost his life in the fray. Three years afterwards, McLeod,
being in New York, was arrested on a charge of murder
by the state authorities. The British government demanded his release, and were sustained by the United States
administration, on the ground that he had acted as an
agent or soldier of Great Britain. But the authorities of
New York held fast to their prisoner, and brought him to
trial. Had harm come to him, his government stood
pledged to declare war; but he was acquitted for want of
proof, (1841.) Congress subsequently passed an act requiring that similar cases should be tried only before United States courts. The release of McLeod did not settle
the burning of the Caroline on the American shore; this




380               PART IV. 1797-1872.
still remained. There had been other difficulties with
Great Britain upon the Maine frontier, where the boundary line was undetermined. Collisions took place, and
the Maine militia and the British troops had been but just
prevented from fighting, (1839.)  Nor was this all. Far
away, upon the African coast, British cruisers were claiming a right to visit American vessels, ill carrying out the
provisions for the suppression of the slave trade. The
right was asserted in a quintuple treaty, to which Great
Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia were parties,
(October, 1841;) but the United States denied it altogether.
Treaty Meanwhile William Henry Harrison, the choice
Treaty
of Wash- of the whig party, had succeeded to the presidency,
ington. (March 1841.) On his death, a month after, John
Tyler, vice president, became president. His secretary of
state, Daniel Webster, proposed to the British minister at
Washington to take up the question of the north-eastern
boundary. The offer led to the appointment by the British
government of a special envoy in the person of Lord Ashburton, (1842.)  Conferences between him and the American secretary were shared by commissioners from Maine
and Massachusetts upon all subjects pertaining to the
boundary, but other points in controversy were separately
considered. The treaty of Washington, ratified by the
Senate four months afterwards, (August 20,) settled the
north-eastern boundary; put down the claim to a right
of visit, and in such a way as to lead to the denial of the
claim by European powers who had previously admitted
it; provided for the mutual surrender of fugitives from
justice; and as to the affair of the Caroline, the British
envoy made an apology, or what amounted to one. Even
the old quarrel about impressment was put to rest, not by
the treaty, but by a letter from Webster to Ashburton,




ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.              381
repeating the rule originally laid down by Jefferson, " that
the vessel being Amrerican shall be evidence that the seamen on board are such," adding, as the present and future
principle of the American government, that " in every
regularly  documented American  merchant vessel, the
crew who navigate it will find their protection in the flag
which is over them." In short, every difficulty was settled
by the treaty, or by the accompanying negotiations, except
one, the boundary of Oregon, on which no serious difference had as yet appeared. " I am willing," said Webster
in the Senate, nearly four years subsequently, " to appeal to
the public men of the age, whether, in 1842, and in the city
of Washington, something was not done for the suppression
of crime, for the true exposition of the principles of public
law, for the freedom  and security of commerce on the
ocean, and for the peace of the world."
Republic  The field was now clear for renewing the agitaof Texas. tion of a measure that had been planned for many
years. On the south-western frontier, there lay a province
of Mexico, unoccupied until emigrants from the United
States began to settle there under MIexican authority,
(1821.)  Time and prosperity increased their numbers,
and they formed a constitution, with which they sought
admission, as a federal state, into the republic of Mexico,
(1833.)  The Mexican government refused, and sent a
force to arrest the officers who had been elected under the
constitution, and to disarm the people.  War, or revolution, or both, ensued. The Texan Lexington was Gonzales, where the first resistance was made, (September 28,
1835.)  The Texan Philadelphia was a place called Washington, where a convention declared the independence of
the state, (March 2, 1836,) and adopted a constitution,
(March 17.)  The Texan Saratoga and Yorktown, two in
one, was on the shores of the San Jacinto, where General




382              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Houston, commander-in-chief of the insurgents, gained a
decisive victory over the Mexican president, Santa Anna,
(April 21.) Six months afterwards, Houston was chosen
president of the republic of Texas, (October.)
Project   In his inaugural speech, he expressed the desire of
ofannex-the people to join the United States. Nothing could
ation.  be more natural. With few exceptions, they came
from the land to which they wished to be reunited. It was
but natural, for the same reason, that a large number of
those whom they had left behind them should wish their
return. There were other motives.  Though the Florida
treaty of 1819 acknowledged the Spanish claim to Texas,
the United States government did not lose its desire to
possess the region, and twice attempted to buy it from
Mexico, into whose possession it had passed. It could
now be had without buying. Above all, Texas had established slavery where Mexico had abolished it, and where
the interest of the American slave states, as they thought,
required it to exist. It was more certain, they reasoned,
to exist if Texas became one of them. But though these
impulses were strong, others were stronger for a time.
That portion of the American people which was set against
the extension of slavery was, therefore, set against annexing Texas. That larger portion which adhered to public
principle, and knew that to annex Texas was to despoil
Mexico, also stood out against annexation. The independence of Texas was recognized by the United States, (1837.)
But the same year its application for admission to the
Union was rejected and withdrawn.
ied.  It was frequently revived. As the anti-slavery
Revived.
movement deepened, nothing seemed more fit to
stem it than the increase of slaveholding territory; and this
lay close at hand in Texas. If it were not taken, it might
cease to be slaveholding; for Great Britain, as the great




ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.               383
abolitionist power, was supposed to entertain the design
of getting Texas under her control, and abolishing slavery
there.  " Few  calamities," wrote our secretary of state,
Upshur, in 1843, "could befall this country more to be
deplored than the abolition of domestic slavery in Texas."
"To this continent," wrote Upshur's successor, Calhoun,
in 1844, " the blow would be calamitous beyond description."  It thus became more and more of a settled purpose
with the south to force Texas upon the north, or, as one
of the South Carolina districts presented the alternative,
" either to admit Texas into the Union, or to proceed
peaceably and calmly to arrange the terms of a dissolution
of the Union." But to this there was something to be said
on the northern side; and it was said earnestly, that the
character of the Union as a republic, founded for freedom
and for free institutions, would be lost by acquiring territory expressly for slavery. A fresh conflict for and against
slavery ensued, in which the numbers against it were evidently on the increase. What the abolitionists could not
do, the slaveholders and their adherents did, by opening
the eyes of the people and showing them how near they
were to the brink of the precipice.
The majority went forward blindly. A treaty
Effected
of annexation, concluded by Calhoun as secretary
of state, was rejected by the Senate in June, 1844. Its
supporters instantly carried the measure into the presidential election of that year, casting aside Van Buren, who
was a candidate for renomination by the democratic party,
and nominating James K. Polk, chiefly because he was
corpmitted to immediate annexation. The whigs nominated Clay because he had opposed annexation, and when
he wrote a letter showing himself to be halting between
two opinions, the life was taken out of his party, and they
lost the election. As soon as Congress met, resolutions




384               PART IV. 1797-1872.
to annex Texas were proposed.  Even southern whigs
objected. " A dangerous and revolutionary precedent,"
said Rives of Virginia.  "At the sacrifice of the peace and
harmony of the Union," said Berrien of Georgia.  "If
we admit that the general government can interpose to
extend slavery as a blessing, we must also admit that it
can interfere to arrest it as an evil," said Rayner of
North Carolina.  What the north, or the true representatives of the north, had to object, need not be repeated.
The joint resolutions of the two houses of Congress were
adopted, (March 1, 1845,) approved by the president,
(March 2,) and accepted by Texas (July 4,) which was
finally admitted to the Union, (December 29.) -No other
shadow crossed the triumph of slavery than a merely verbal provision that in any states formed out of Texan territory north of the Missouri Compromise line, " slavery
shall be prohibited." As Texas had no territory north of
the Compromise line, the prohibition had no value.




CHAPTER VIII.
WAR WITH MIEXICO.
As soon as the United States government resolved to annex Texas, the Mexican minister at
Washington demanded his passports.  " War was the only
recourse of the Mexican government."  A  few  months
later, (August, 1845,) American troops were moved to Corpus Christi, and, six months afterwards, (March, 1846,)
to the Rio Grande, with orders " to repel any invasion of
the Texan territory which might be attempted by the
Mexican forces."  On the other side, Mexico protested
altogether against the line of the Rio Grande. The River
Nueces, according to Mexican authority, was the boundary of Texas. Even supposing Texas surrendered by
the Mexicans, which it was not, they still retained the territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande - a territory containing but few settlements, and those not Texan,
but purely Mexican. In support of this position, the
Mexican General Arista was ordered to cross the Rio
Grande and defend the country against the invader, (April,
1846.)
Hostili-   As the American troops, some three thousand
ties.   strong, under General Taylor, approached the Rio
Grande, the inhabitants retired; at one place, Point Isabel,
burning their dwellings. This certainly did not look much
like Taylor's being on American or on Texan ground.
But he, obedient to his orders, kept on, until he took post
33                    (385)




386               PART IV. 1797-1872.
by the Rio Grande, opposite the Mexican town of Matamoras,(March 28, 1846.) About a month later, (April 24,)
a Mexican force was sent across the stream, when a squadron of United States dragoons, reconnoitring, fell in with
a much superior force, and, after a skirmish, surrendered.
The next day but one, Taylor, as previously authorized by
his government, called upon the states of Texas and Louisiana for five thousand volunteers. As soon as the news
reached Washington, the president informed Congress that
" war exists, and exists by the act of Mexico herself,"
(May 11.)  Congress took the same ground, and gave the
president authority to call fifty thousand volunteers into the
field, (May 13.) It was ten days later, but of course before
any tidings of these proceedings could have been received,
that Mexico made a formal declaration of war, (May 23.)
The question as to which nation began hostilities, must
depend upon the question of the Texan boundary. If this
was the River Nueces, the United States began the war
the summer before. If, on the contrary, it was the Rio
Grande, the Mexicans, as President Polk asserted, were
the aggressors.
At the very time that these hostilities opened
Oregon
contro- there was serious danger of a rupture between the
versy. United States and Great Britain. It sprang from
conflicting claims to the distant territory of Oregon. Those
of the United States were based, first, upon American
voyages to the Pacific coast, chiefly one made by Captain
Gray, in the Columbia, from which the great river of the
north-west took its name, (1792;) secondly, upon the acquisition of Louisiana with all the Spanish rights to the
western shores, (1803;) and thirdly, upon an expedition
under Captain Lewis and Lieutenant Clarke, of the United
States army, by whom the Missouri was traced towards its
source, and the Columbia followed to the Pacific Ocean,




WAR WITH MEXICO.                387
(1804-6.) Against these, the British government asserted
various claims of discovery and occupancy. Twice the
two nations agreed to a joint possession of the country in
dispute, (1818, 1827;) twice the United States proposed
a dividing line, once under Monroe, and again under Tyler.
The rejection of the latter proposal had led to a sort of
war cry, during the presidential election then pending,
(1844,) that Oregon must be held. President Polk renewed the offer, but on less favorable terms, and it was
rejected, (1845.) The next year, when matters looked
darkest, Great Britain made proposals, by which the line
of forty-nine degrees was made the boundary, and the
right of navigating the Columbia was secured to the British, (June 15, 1846.) Thus vanished the prospect of a war
with Great Britain, in addition to the war with Mexico.
Conquest  General Taylor engaged the enemy at Palo Alto,
of north- (May 8,) and Resaca de la Palma, (May 9,) with
east of a force so inferior, that great alarm had been felt
Mexico.
about it, and yet he camne off victor in both actions.
The Mexicans at once recrossed the Rio Grande, and Taylor
followed as far as Matamoras, (May 18.)  A long pause
ensued, to wait for reinforcements, and indeed for plans;
the war being wholly unprepared for on the American side.
At length, with considerably augmented forces Taylor set
out again, supported by Generals Worth and Wool among
many other eminent officers. Monterey, a very important place in this part of Mexico, was taken after a three
days' resistance under General Ampudia, (September 2123.) An armistice of several weeks followed. Subsequently, Taylor marched southward as far as Victoria; but
on the recall of a portion of his troops to take part in other
operations, he fell back into a defensive position in the
north, (January, 1847.)  There, at Buena Vista, he was
attacked by a comparatively large army under Santa Anna,




388               PART IV.' 1797-1872.
then generalissimo of Mexico; but he was again victorious,
(February 22, 23,) and Santa Anna left him master of
all the north-eastern country. Six months later, Taylor
sent a large number of his remaining men to act elsewhere,
(August;) then, leaving General Wool in command, he
returned to the United States, (November.)
Conquest  An expedition, headed by Colonel Doniphan,
of Clii- marched down upon Chihuahua, taking possession
huahua. of El Paso, (December 27, 1846,) and then, after
a battle with the Mexicans at the pass of Sacramento,
(February 28, 1847,) of Chihuahua, the capital, (March 1.)
Doniphan presently evacuated his conquest, (April.)
Early in the following year, Chihuahua became the object of another expedition, under General Price, who
again occupied the town, (March 7, 1848,) defeating the
Mexicans at the neighboring Santa Cruz de las Rosales,
(March 16.)
Conquest  Both Doniphan and Price made their descents
of New from New Mexico, which had been taken possession
Mexico. of by the Americans under General Kearney in
the first months of the war, (August, 1846.) Some months
after, when Kearney had gone to California, and Doniphan,
after treating with the Navajo Indians, had marched against
Chihuahua, an insurrection, partly of Mexicans and partly
of Indians, broke out at a village fifty miles from Santa
Fe. The American governor, Charles Bent, and mlany
others, both Mexicans and Americans, were murdered;
battles, also, were fought, before the insurgents were reduced, by Price, (January, 1847.)
Ere the tidings of the war reached the Pacific
Conquest 
of Cali- coast, a band of Americans, partly trappers and
fornia. partly settlers, declared their independence of Miexico at Sonoma, a town of small importance not far from
San Francisco, (July 4, 1846.) The leader of the party




WAR WITH MEXICO.                 389
was John C. Fremont, a captain in the United States
Engineers, who had recently received instructions from his
government to secure a hold upon California. A few days
after their declaration, Fremont and his followers joined
the American Commodore Sloat, who, aware of the war,
had taken Monterey, (July 7,) and entered the Bay of San
Francisco, (July 9.) Sloat was soon succeeded by Commodore Stockton; and he, in conjunction with Fremnont, took
possession of Ciudad de los Angeles, the capital of Upper
California, (Allgust 13.) All this was done without opposition from the scattered Mexicans of the province, or from
their feeble authorities.  But some weeks later, a few
braver spirits collected, and, driving the Americans from
the capital, succeeded likewise in recovering the greater
part of California, (September, October.) On the approach
of General iearney from New MlIexico, a month or two
afterwards, he was met in battle at San Pasqual, (December 6,) and so hemmed in by the enemy as to be in great
danger, until relieved by a force despatched to his assistance by Commodore Stockton. The commodore and the
general, joining forces, retook Ciudad de los Angeles, after
two actions with its defenders, (January 10, 1847.)  A
day or two later, Fremont succeeded in bringing the main
body of Mexicans in arms to a capitulation at Cowenga,
(January 13.)  California was again, and more decidedly
than before, an American possession. Lower California
was afterwards assailed, but under different commanders.
La Paz and San Jos', both inconsiderable places, were occupied in the course of the year. On the opposite shore,
Guaymas was taken by a naval force under Captain Lavalette, (October,) and MlIazatlan by the fleet under Commodore Shubrick, (November.)  It was all a series of skir.
mishes, fought in the midst of lonely mountains and on farstretching shores.
33 *




390               PART IV. 1797-1872.
And now to return to the eastern side. From the first, a
blockade of the ports in the Gulf of Mexico was but poorly
maintained.  Then the American fleet embarked upon various operations. Twice was Alvarado, a port to the
Operations in south of Vera Cruz, attacked by Commodore ConGulf of ner, and twice it was gallantly defended, (August 7,
Mexico.,
October 15, 1846.)  Then Commodore Perry went
against Tobasco, a little distance up a river on the southern
coast; but, though he took some prizes and some hamlets,
he did not gain the town, (October 23-26.) The only
really successful operation was the occupation of Tampico,
which the Mexicans abandoned on the approach of their
enemies, (November 15.)
March    Early in the following spring the fleet and the
upon city army combined in an attack upon Vera Cruz. AnofMexico. ticipations of success, however high amongst the
troops and their officers, were not very generally entertained
even by their own countrymen. Vera Cruz, or its castle of
San Juan d'Ulloa, had been asserted, in Europe as well as
America, to be impregnable; but a few days' bombardment
obliged the garrison, under General Morales, to give up
the town and the castle together, (March 23-26, 1847.)
Once masters there, the Americans beheld the road to the
city of lINLexico lying open before them; yet here, again,
their way was supposed to be beset by insurmountable
difficulties. They pressed on, nine or ten thousand strong,
General Scott at their head, supported by many officers of
tried and untried reputation. Elsewhere, the war had
been carried into remote and comparatively unpeopled
portions of the country. Here the march lay through a
region where men would fight for their homes, and where
their homes, being close at hand, would give them aid as
well as inspiration. The march upon Mexico was by all
means the great performance of the war.




.WAR WVITH M5EXICO.              391
Battles   Its difficulties soon appeared. At Cerro Gordo,
on the sixty miles from Vera Cruz, Santa Anna posted
way.  thirteen thousand of his Mexicans in a mountain
pass, to whose natural strength he had added by fortification. It took two days to force a passage, the Americans
losing about five hundred, but inflicting a far greater loss
on their brave opponents, (April 18-19.) Here, however,
they paused; a part of the force was soon to be discharged,
and Scott decided he would make his dismissals and wait
for the empty places to be filled. He accordingly advanced
slowly to Puebla, while the Mexicans kept in the background, or appeared only as guerillas, (MIay 28.) The
guerilla warfare had been foretold as the one insuperable
obstacle to the progress of the American army; it proved
harassing, but by no means fatal. During the delay ensuing on land, the fleet in the gulf, under Commodore
Perry, took Tuspan and Tobasco, both being but slightly
defended, (April 18-June 15.)  At length reenforcements
hlaving reached the army, making it not quite eleven
thousand strong, it resumed its march, and entered the valley of Mlexico, (August 10.)
In valley   There the Mexicans stood, Santa Anna still at
of Mexico. their head, thirty-five thousand in their ranks,
regular troops and volunteers, old and young, rich and
poor, men of every profession and trade, -all joining in
the defence of their country, now threatened at its very
heart. Behind the army was the government, endeavoring
to unite itself, yet still rent and enfeebled to the last degree.
Even the clergy, chafed by the seizure of church property to meet the exigencies of the state, were divided, if
not incensed. It was a broken nation, and yet all the
more worthy of respect for its last earnest resistance to
the foe. Never had armies a more magnificent country to
assail or to defend than that into which the Americans had




892              PART IV. 1797-1872.
penetrated. They fought in defiles or upon plains, vistas of
lakes and fields before them,mountain heights above them,
the majesty of nature everywhere mingling with the contention of man. Fourteen miles from the city, battles began at Contreras, where a Mexican division under General
Valencia was totally routed, (August 19-20.) The next
engagement followed immediately, at Churubusco, six miles
from the capital, Santa Anna himself being there completely
defeated, (August 20.)  An armistice suspended further
movements for a fortnight, when an American division
under Worth made a successful assault on a range of buildings called Molino del Rey, close to the city. This action,
though the most sanguinary of the entire war, - both Mexicans and Americans surpassing their previous deeds, - was
without results, (September 8.) A few days later, the
fourth and final engagement in the valley took place at
Chapultepec, a fortress just above Molino del Rey. Within the lines was the Mexican Military College, and bravely
did the students defend it, mere boys outvying veterans in
feats of valor; but the college and the fortress yielded together, (September 12-13.) The next day Scott, with
six thousand five hundred men, the whole of' his army remaining in the field, entered the city of Mexico, (September 14.)'Wilmot   The war had not continued three months, when
proviso. the United States made an overture of peace, (July,
1846.) It was referred by the Mexican administration to
the National Congress, and there it rested. In announcing
to the American Congress the proposal which he had made,
President Polk suggested the appropriation of a certain
sum, as an indemnity for any Mexican territory that might
be retained at the conclusion of the war. In the debate
which followed, an administration representative from Pennsylvania, David Wilmot, moved a proviso to the proposed




WAR WITH MEXICO.                  393
appropriation: "that there shall be neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude in any territory on the continent of
America which shall hereafter be acquired by or annexed
to the United States by virtue of this appropriation, or in
any other manner whatsoever."  The proviso was hastily
adopted in the Iouse; but it was too late to receive any
action in the Senate before the closing of the session, (August.)  In the following session the proviso again passed
the House, but was abandoned by that body on being rejected by the Senate.
MlIexican   When the American commissioner, N. P. Trist,
proviso. met the commissioners on the part of Mexico, he
found them reluctant to yield any territory.  It went especially against their will to open any to slavery; their instructions being quite positive on the point that any treaty to
be signed by them must prohibit slavery in the ceded country.  "No president of the United States," replied Commissioner Trist, " would dare to present any such treaty
to the Senate."
Trist was recalled, but he took it upon himself
to remain where he was, and to treat with new
commissioners, two months after the entrance of the American army into the city of Mexico. The result of battles
rather than of negotiations was a treaty signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a suburb of the capital.  By this instrument
Mexico ceded Texas, iNew Mexico, and Upper California,
while the United States agreed to surrender all other conquests, and to pay for those retained the sum of fifteen
millions, besides assuming the claims of American merchants against Mexico to the amount of more than three
millions, (February 2, 1848.) Ratifications were finally
exchanged at Queretaro, (May 30,) and peace proclaimed
at Washington, (July 4.)  The Mexican territory - that
is, the portion which remained - was rapidly evacuated.




CHAPTER IX.
COMPROMISE OF 1850.
Old      THE former domain of the United States was
domain. gradually organized. Wisconsin came in quietly as
a state, (May 29, 1848.) Oregon was established as a
territory after frequent debate upon the exclusion of slavery, and an attempt to extend the line of the Missouri
Compromise to the Pacific, so that the territory south of
36~ 30' might be considered slaveholding. A trouble of
quite a different sort broke out in connection with Oregon;
the Indians of that territory taking up arms. to the great
peril of its settlers, in the year of its organization, (1848.)
The next year another territory was peaceably organized
in Minnesota, (1849.)
New      But with regard to the new domain, there were
domain. grave difficulties. Eight hundred thousand square
miles of territory had been added by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the two millions previously belonging to
the United States. To any nation this would have been
an embarrassing accession; to ours it was almost overwhelming, on account of its relation to slavery.  The
southern people claimed the war as of their making; its
spoils, therefore, were for them. Northern men, who
-stoodfor freedom, declared the war a sufficient evil in itself,
without entailing the greater evil of slavery extension.
So one section set itself against the other on the borders of
the new domain.
(394)




COMPROMISE OF 1850.                395
Free-soil  That the feeling in the north had become much
party.  stronger, was proved by the formation of a new
party on the side of freedom. The presidential canvass
began, and the whig and democratic parties entered into
it with no other special purpose regarding fieedom or
slavery than to let both alone. But the free-soil party, in
convention at Buffalo, (August, 1848,) announced " the
duty of the federal government to relieve itself from all
responsibility for the existence or continuance of slavery,"
and " the only safe means of preventing the extension of
slavery... to prohibit its extension by act of Congress."
Public opinion was touched.  The whig party, or some of
its northern leaders, made a show of liberal principles.
The democrats, in spite of being aided by all the patronage of the administration, lost ground.  Though not carrying a single state, or a single electoral vote for their own
candidate, the free-soilers had much to do with determining
the election of the whig candidate, Zachary Taylor, as less
hurtful to freedom than his competitor.
Root's    When Congress met, in December, the House of
resolu- Representatives, on motion of Joseph MI. Root, of
tion.   Ohio, instructed its committee on territories to report a bill or bills providing territorial governments for
New Mexico and California, " excluding slavery." A bill
for California passed the House, but was blocked in the
Senate on account of the restriction against slavery.
Conven-   Calhoun, still a senator, prepared an address of
tion of the southern members of Congress to their constitusouthern
members ents, (January, 1849.)  It inveighed against the
of Con- aggressions of the north, particularly its evasion of
gress.  the fugitive slave law, and its abolitionism.  "We
ask not," wrote Calhoun, " as the north alleges we do, for
the extension of slavery. That would make a discrimination in our favor as unjust and unconstitutional as the dis



396               PART IV. 1797-1872.
crimination they ask against us in their favor.
What, then, we do insist on is, not to extend slavery, but
that we shall not be prohibited fiom immigrating with our
property into the territories of the United States because
we are slaveholders." John M. Berrien, a senator from
Georgia, proposed an appeal to the people of the United
States, instead of one to the south alone; but the original
address was adopted, (January 22.)
Califor-   Soon after President Taylor entered office, (March,
niaconsti- 1849,) he suggested, or adopted the suggestion of
tution. others, that the true way to meet the issue was, for
the Californians to frame a state constitution; and, to encourage this, a special agent was despatched from Washington, (April.) A convention was held in California,
(October,) and a constitution framed, prohibiting slavery.
The president communicated it to Congress, according to
the usual form, (February, 1850.) Why California took
precedence in these movements, and why the interest in
her course was much greater than that felt for New Mexico, or any other part of the national territory, was plain
enough. In the very same month that California was
ceded to the United States, gold was found on a branch of
the Sacramento.  The whole country was excited.  Emigration to the gold fields, speculation in their products, or
in the supplies which their workers required, building up
San Francisco and other cities, became the great business
enterprises of the time. Such a region -so rich, so attractive, and bidding fair to be so powerful - was a prize
beyond any for which the free and the slave states had
heretofore contended.
Before the California constitution was sent in,
resolu- Henry Clay had presented some resolutions in the
tions. Senate, (January.) They proposed the admission
of California as a free state, and the prohibition of the




COMPROMISE OF 1850.               397
slave trade in the District of Columbia, as concessions to
freedom, while the other side was to gain the organization
of the territories without restriction concerning slavery, the
continuance of slavery in the District, and the enforcement
of the fugitive slave law. Upon these a long debate ensued. Webster supported them, chiefly on the ground
that slavery was already excluded from the territories by
" the law  of nature, of physical geography."  William
H. Seward, senator from New York, opposed the resolutions, because their principles were repudiated, as he said,
by " the law of nature written on the hearts and consciences
of freemen."
Compro- The Senate appointed a committee of thirteen,
mise.  Clay being chairman, by whom  the substance of
his resolutions was reported in three bills. The first admitted California as a state, organized New Mexico and
Utah as territories without any provision for or against
slavery, and arranged the disputed boundary between New
Mexico and Texas by a large indemnity to the latter. The
second provided for the recovery of fugitive slaves.  The
third abolished the slave trade in the District of Columbia,
(May 8.)
Its adop- At the height of the controversy over these bills,
tion.   President Taylor sickened and died, (July 9.)  Ile
was succeeded by the vice president, Millard Fillmore, who
called about him a new cabinet, Webster at the head, and
threw the whole weight of the administration in favor of
the compromise.  It was at first rejected.  But, on the
substitution of separate bills for each of the measures proposed, they Mwere successively adopted by both houses.
California was admitted a state; New Mexico and Utah
were constituted territories, and the payment of ten millions
to Texas, in consideration of the boundary and other questions, was voted; all on the same day, (September 9.)
34




398               PART IV. 1797-1872.
Nine days after, the fugitive slave bill became a law,
(September 18;) and two days later still, the slave trade
in the District of Columbia was suppressed, (September 20.)
Fugitive   The main feature of this compromise was no
Fugitive
slave   compromise at all.  In tile fugitive slave act, freeact.   dom yielded every thing.  There was no occasion
for a new law about fugitives; only one thousand slaves, or
one thirtieth of one per cent. of the slave population,
escaped during this very year.  The author of the law now
passed was believed to have drawn it in terms which would
render its execution impossible, partly to humiliate the north,
partly to exasperate the south by fresh instances of northern
unfaithfulness to southern claims.  The constitution was
explicit, that a person held to service in one state, escaping
into another, should be delivered up on claim of the party
to whom such service might be due; but it was equally explicit that no person should be deprived of liberty without
due process of law.  But the act of 1850 provided no process except the hearing of the claim, without admitting
the testimony of the alleged flugitive, or allowing him the
benefit of a jury.  Its character roused the free states
from end to end.  Whether for slavery or for fireedom
elsewhere, they were, by a large majority, for freedom on
their own soil; and now their soil was no longer free to
those who could be claimed as fugitive slaves.  Any
body could be claimed, as experience soon proved; free
men and free women could be, whites could be, and they
could be carried off as slaves.  MIore seizures followed
throughlout the free states in one year from the passage
of this act than had taken place in all the sixty years
before.
Last of   One of our most eminent statesmen has said that
the com- the compromise of' 1850 was a proof of infatuapromises. tion. It was wonderful that the north should sub



COMPROMISE OF 1850.               399
mit to it; it was impossible that such submission should
continue. The compromise was the last of its line. Calhoun died before it was carried, (March.)  Clay and
Webster followed the next year but one, (1852.)  The
leaders perished, and their work soon perished after them.




CHAPTER X.
KANSAS.
en  TE ten years following the Compromise of
years' 1850 witnessed greater aggression on the part of
struggle. slavery, and greater resistance on the part of freedom. It was a struggle of which the aspect varied from
year to year, almost from day to day, favorable now to one
side and now to the other, and leaving the issue uncertain
except to those who believed that the right must win at
last.
Tempo-   At first the Compromise seemed to succeed.
rary suc- Fugitive slaves were arrested and re-enslaved.
cess of
compro- Slavery in the District of Columbia was undisturbed.
rise.   The new territories were open to slaveholders and
their human possessions. The south, it is true, complained
that her interest had been sacrificed, particularly in regard
to California, and South Carolina held a convention to
consider the expediency of secession, (1851.) On the
other hand, the northern lovers of liberty felt themselves
and their country disgraced by the concessions that had
been made, and would have unmade them, were it possible, without delay. But the people generally accepted the,situation, and, in the election of 1852, gave a large majority to the democratic candidate, Franklin Pierce, as
pledged to the execution of the Compromise. It was, at
least, a temporary success.
(400)




KANSAS.                    401
lepeal of Singularly enough, the first of the important
the   -measures to follow it was the repeal of the Missouri
Missouri Compromise. Under the leadership of Stephen A.
mise.  Douglas, democratic senator from  Illinois, Congress took up a bill organizing the territories of Kansas
and Nebraska on'" the principle established by the Compromise of 1850," namely, " that all questions relating to
slavery in the territories and in the new states to be formed
therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people residing
therein," or, as it was also styled, " the principle of nonintervention by Congress with slavery in the states and
territories." To give this principle free play, Douglas
thought he must do away with the intervention in which
Congress had formerly indulged, and three weeks after the
proposal of his bill, he proposed an amendment, by which
the Missouri Compromise, " being inconsistent with nonintervention," was " declared inoperative and void." The
bill, as amended, passed the Senate, (March, 1854,) and
the IIouse, (May,) and thus the territory, which had been
promised to freedom in return for giving up Missouri, was
laid open to slavery.
Ostend    Foreign territory was in request for the same
mani-  purpose. Just as the Kansas cloud rose in the
festo.
west, another cloud appeared in the east. By direction of the secretary of state, Marcy, the United States
ministers at London, Paris, and Madrid, met at Ostend to
consult about the acquisition of Cuba, (October, 1854.)
The island was wanted for the same reason that Texas
had been wanted, and that Kansas and Nebraska were
then -wanted, by our slaveholders. The three ministers
united in a despatch to their principal, urging the purchase
of Cuba from Spain, and declaring that if Spain should
refuse to sell, and Cuba, being in her possession, should
"seriously endanger our internal peace,... then, by
34 *




402               PART IV. 1797-1872.
every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in
wresting it from Spain."  This manifesto, as it was called,
received no rebuke from our government. But the republican convention, entering upon the next election for the
presidency, pronounced it a "highwayman's plea," and
" in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy."
Imma-  Meanwhile the question between freedom  and
Immigration to  slavery in Kansas and Nebraska was passing from
Kansas.
the hands of politicians to those of the people. Immigration set in strongly towards Kansas, the southern
territory, and therefore the better suited for occupation by
slaveholders. One column entered chiefly from the neighboring Missouri, calling themselves Sons of the South, but
called by their opponents Border Ruffians; their object
being not so much to settle in the territory as to take up
all the best land and control the elections whenever held.
Where they struck, there the free-state men, or abolitionists, as termed by their adversaries, determined to make a
stand.  This column, mostly of New  Englanders, came
for the purpose of settling as well as controlling Kansas,
in order that it might be a home to them and to the freemen
coming after them. As they had a long way to travel, and
many difficulties to encounter from the Missourians, in addition to all the ordinary difficulty of making distant settlements, an association, with headquarters in Boston, was
formed to aid them; and time soon showed how much
the aid was needed. It was a grave crisis, not only for
Kansas, but for the whole country. As that territory cast
in its lot with fieedom or slavery, so, it seemed, would
Nebraska, so would many another territory as yet unnamed.
The first elections went against the free-state
Elections.
party. Hundreds crossed the border from Missouri,
voted, triumphed, and recrossed it to their homes.  Law



KANSAS.                     403
rence, the chief settlement of the New Englanders,- had
three hundred and sixty-nine legal voters. But at the
election for members of the territorial legislature, (MIarch,
1855,) seven hundred and eighty-one votes were cast for
the pro-slavery candidates by a party of Missourians arriving the evening before, and encamping, with arms and
cannon, on the outskirts of the town. Such means secured
a pro-slavery legislature, but were far from overthrowing
the free party. On the contrary, the governor of the territory, Reeder, though appointed at Washington in the
interest of slavery rather than freedom, sided with the
settlers against the borderers, and came out strongly for
making Kansas a free state. A constitution to that purpose was framed at Topeka, (October, 1855,) but without
any immediate hope of its going into operation. A few
months later, (March, 1856,) a special committee of the
House of Representatives, sent to investigate affairs in
Kansas, reported that the elections had been carried by
organized invasion, the legislature was illegally constituted,
and the constitution embodied the will of a majority of
the people.  Whereupon the House admitted Kansas as a
free state; but the Senate did not agree.
Left to themselves, the opposing elements in
Civil war.
Kansas broke out in civil war. From May to
September, (1856,) the conflict continued, irregular and
feeble, yet passionate and destructive.  Lawrence was
attacked by a force of Missourians, South Carolinians, and
Georgians; its printing offices were sacked, and its freestate hotel was fired, (May 21.) Other towns and villages
were treated in the same manner, and a few skirmishes
took place. It was not the extent of the struggle, but its
mere existence, that alarmed the country.  Slavery was
exciting civil war, and not in Kansas alone.




404              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Assault   Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, was elected
upon   as a free-soiler to the United States Senate in 1851.
Senator From the day he took his seat, he contended, someSumner.
times single-handed, sometimes with a few adherents, in behalf of the principles which now, more than
ever, needed all the championship they could command.
Just as the war in Kansas was breaking out, he delivered
a speech which he entitled " The Crime against Kansas,"
and in which he arraigned, with pitiless severity, the slavestate party and its supporters, (May 19, 20.) Two days
after, being the next day after the attack upon Lawrence,
(May 22,) as Mr. Sumner was sitting at his desk, though
the Senate had adjourned, he was assaulted from behind,
beaten over the head and back, and thrown senseless upon
the floor. A representative from South Carolina, abetted
by two colleagues, another South Carolinian and a Virginian, was the assailant. H-e was fined three hundred dollars by a Washington court, censured by the House of
Representatives, and having resigned in consequence of
the censure, was reelected by his constituents without opposition. On the other hand, the Massachusetts senator,
whose term was soon to expire, obtained his reelection
with far less opposition than would have arisen but for the
wrong he had suffered. Slavery was not wise in its modes
of warfare.
Election   The deeper feeling excited throughout the free
of 1856. states appeared in the presidential election of 1856.
All that the free-soil party did at the election of 1852 was
to throw 157,000 votes, without carrying a single state,
against the Compromise of 1850. Its successor, the republican party, strong in accessions from the broken whigs,
stronger still in the reaction against Kansas and Ostend,
numbered 1,350,000 voters, and carried eleven states.
]But the democrats were still in the majority, and elected




KANSAS.                    405
James Buchanan, the same who, as minister to London,
had taken part in the Ostend circular.
Dred     Soon after his entrance upon office, (March,
Scott  1857,) an opinion, which had been reached the year
case.   before, but reserved, probably for political reasons,
was pronounced by the Supreme Court of the United States;
two judges, McLean and Curtis, dissenting.  Dred Scott,
a slave, carried by his master from MIissouri to Illinois
and Minnesota, married on free soil, had one child born
there, and was taken back to slave soil, with wife and
child. After some time he sued for his liberty and theirs.
The state Circuit Court of Missouri gave sentence in his
favor; but appeals were taken to the state Supreme and
United States Circuit Courts, both of which decided against
him; and his case was then carried before the United
States Supreme Court, at Washington.  There the court
decided that it had no jurisdiction, because no slave, or
descendant of a slave, could become a citizen of the United
States, and therefore sue at its tribunals. But though
without jurisdiction, the court proceeded with an opinion,
that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and
consequently, that a slave did not cease to be one by being
carried to territory where the Compromise prohibited
slavery. This opinion committed the judiciary to the same
course to which the executive and legislature, with occasional exceptions in the House of Representatives, were
already pledged against freedom.
Personal But while the general government became proliberty  slavery, many of the state governments were belaws.  coming anti-slavery. Public sentiment throughout
the free states was deeply moved by the Kansas struggle,
and it was not calmed when the president took part with
the borderers against the settlers, and endeavored to enforce
a slave-state constitution. But public sentiment had been




406               PART IV. 1797-1872.
still more deeply moved by events in the free states themselves, under the very eyes of their people, whenever the
fugitive slave law was put into execution; and this they
determined to resist.  Every state in New Englald, and
some of the Western States, from 1850 onwards, passed acts
which were known as Personal Liberty laws, and by which,
generally, the state officers were forbidden to aid in the
arrest or imprisonment of a fugitive slave.
Commer-  Another shadow crossed the country in the comcial    mercial crisis of 1857.  Like that of twenty years
crisis. before, it was the result of speculation carried beyond all bounds of prudence, not to say honesty. Specie
payments were again suspended, and all material interests
suffered.
The territory of Utah, organized under the Compromise of 1850, had been occupied only by Mormon settlers. On the appointment of a governor, and other
territorial officers,(1857,) the Mormons refused obedience,
but yielded on the approach of a large body of troops,
(1858.)
Mont-    Meanwhile the gulf between freedom and slavery
gomery was growing greater.  At a commercial convention
conven- of slaveholding states, in Montgomery, Alabama,
tion.                                 " ZD
(May, 1858,) nothing excited more interest than the
report of a committee in favor of re-opening the African slave
trade. The south needed more slaveholders; to have them
she must have more slaves. She was losing Kansas and
the national territories because she could not occupy them;
her slave population being needed at home, there was
none to spare for emigration. It did not suit slaveholders to lower the value of their property in slaves by
importation, and the majority voted to lay the report on
the table.




KANSAS.                    407
Lincoln's  Almost at the same time, (June,) a speech was
asnerd, made at Springfield, Illinois, by Abraham Lincoln,
Seward's
predic-  as the republican candidate for a seat in the United
tions.   States Senate.  His position was the more striking, because his competitor, Douglas, was identified with
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and its bitter consequences. "' I believe," said Lincoln, at the outset, " this
government cannot permanently endure half slave and half
free."  His firiends entreated him to suppress the prediction,
but he would not, and in after years declared that it was
one of his wisest actions. A few months later, (October,)
Mr. Seward made another prediction, at Rochester, N. Y.
" It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must
and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation or entirely a free-labor nation."
John     Early in the same year, one of the Kansas freeBrown's state leaders, John Brown, told his fiiends in New
raids.  England that he had been intending for twenty
years to make a descent among slaveholders for the purpose of liberating their slaves. At the end of the year,
(December, 1858,) he made his first attempt on the borders of Missouri, and, as he said, "without the snapping
of a gun on either side," took eleven slaves, whom he conducted to Canada. Although this act was disapproved even
by his neighbors in Kansas, who had suffered so much
from Missouri slaveholders, Brown was encouraged to repeat it in another quarter and on a larger scale.' Twenty
men in the Alleghanies," he had stated, " could break
slavery in pieces in two years;" and he now had twentyone, W'homr he led towards the Alleghanies, seizing H-Iarper's
Ferry and its arsenal on the way, (October 16, 1859.)
"' I never," he said afterwards, " did intend murder, or
treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite slaves to




408                PART IV. 1797-1872.
rebellion or to make insurrection." His design, he insisted,
was " to free the slaves." He held the arsenal for thirtythree hours, when, almost all his followers being killed,
wounded, or scattered, and the troops, United States marines, and Virginia militia, gathering in overwhelming force,
he surrendered. He was imprisoned, tried, and executed,
(December.)  A few years before, and such an act as his
would have been all but universally condemned. Now,
through the fiee states, it was, to a great degree, excused,
and to some degree admired.
New      The nation made a fresh purchase of territory
states. in 1853, when the Mesilla Valley, or southern Arizona, containing about thirty thousand square miles, was
bought of Mexico for ten million dollars. Minnesota was
admitted a state in 1858, Oregon in 1859, and Kansas, without a slave, in January, 1861.  But before the admission of
Kansas to the Union, the Union had been broken.




CHAPTER XI.
SECESSION.
Lincoln   ABRAHAM LINCOLN was nominated by the repubelected  lican party, and, after a most stirring canvass, was
president. elected, over three competitors, to the presidency,
(November 6, 1860.)  His election signified the restoration of the executive branch of the government to the side
of freedom.
As such, it roused the other side to desperate
South
Carolina action.  The legislature of South Carolina, meetprepares ing, the day before the election, to cast the electoral
to  secede.-'
vote of that state, received a message from the governor recommending the immediate call of a convention
to adopt the only alternative within reach, and take the
state out of tile Union.  Speeches in and out of the legislature expressed the same opinion, and when the news of
Lincoln's election arrived, (November 7,) it was hailed
with rejoicing, as opening the way to secession, not only in
South Carolina, but in all other southern states.  Five days
later, (November 12,) the legislature called a convention
to meet in the middle of December.'Wc~arn- The legislature of Georgia assembled the day
inig in but one after the election, (November 8.) Many of
Georgia, its members were impatient to follow the lead of
South Carolina; but others hesitated, some refused. The
majority were able to carry a bill appropriating a million
to arm the state, (November 13,) and everything appeared to
35                        (409)




410               PART IV. 1797-1872.
be in train for secession. At this point, Alexander H.
Stephens, who had long represented Georgia in Congress,
came before the legislature to warn them against proceeding farther.  " In my judgment," he said, " the election
of no man, constitutionally chosen to the presidency, is
sufficient cause for any state to separate from the Union.
~.. The president can do nothing unless he is backed
by power in Congress.  The House of Representatives is
largely in the majority against Mr. Lincoln. In the Senate
he will also be powerless.... Why, then, I say,'
should we disrupt the bonds of this Union when his hands
are tied?... Let the fanatics of the north break the
Constitution if such is their fell purpose;..    but let
not the south, let not us, be the ones to commit the aggression." Yet, against his own warning, and as if to render
it ineffectual, Mr. Stephens proposed a convention, and
four days after (November 18) a bill calling such a body
was passed.
Presi-    Other states were doing, or preparing to do, likedent's  wise, and the whole country was conscious of peril
message. close at hand, when Congress met, and received
the annual message of the president, (December 3.) Few,
if any, could have expected help from it; few, therefore,
were disappointed.  Mr. Buchanan argued that the election which had just occurred was no sufficient cause for
the movements in South Carolina and elsewhere. But
they might be regarded as justified by the personal liberty laws, and could certainly be accounted for by the agitation against slavery in which many of the people had
long allowed themselves to share.  As for the means to
meet the existing danger, the president thought that Congress had no power to coerce a state, that is, to prevent its
secession or compel its return to the Union. But Congress could adopt some amendments of the Constitution,




SECESSION.                   411
and recommend their adoption by the states, securing
slavery, not only in the slave states, but in the territories,
and, so far as fugitives were concerned, in the free states
themselves. But the message fell dead as soon as delivered.
Critten- Congress plunged into the conflict. The southern
den cornm- members spoke with pride of what their constitupromise. ents were doing, and the more reckless their course,
the nobler it seemed. On the other hand, the northern
members faltered; what their constituents were doing was
uncertain, what they might do was more uncertain still,
and every thing on their side continued in suspense.
After a fortnight of wrangling, a joint resolution was laid
before the Senate by John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky.
This proposed to amend the Constitution, in order to restore the line of 36~ 30' between the free and the slave
states, and to extend it to the Pacific shore, and further, to
secure the execution of the fugitive slave law, and to provide, that when it could not be executed, the value of the
fugitive should be paid to the claimant from the United
States treasury. This was called a compromise.
Secession On tlhe same day that Crittenden brought forof South ward his resolution, (December 17,) the convenCarolina. tion of South Carolina assembled. Southerners
from almost every state, commissioners from Alabama and
Mississippi, came to urge haste; only an address from fiftytwo members of the Georgia legislature urged delay, and
this address was not made public.  No one doubted the
result.'" The secession of South Carolina," as a member
of the convention said, "is not an event of a day. It is
not any thing produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by
the non-execu.tion of the fugitive slave law. It has been
a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years."
Four days from the opening, a committee reported, and




412              PART IV. 1797-1872.
the convention adopted, without a dissenting vote, " an
ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of South
Carolina and other states united with her under the compact entitled the Constitution of the United States of
America." In the evening of the same day, the governor
and legislature being invited to witness the ceremony, the
ordinance was signed by every delegate, and then proclaimed by the president of the convention, who declared
that " the State of South Carolina is now and henceforth
a free and independent commonwealth." Greater exultation never sat upon southern lips than at the moment when
South Carolina threw herself into the abyss of secession,
and called it independence.
Anderson  The same spirit prevailed throughout the south.
at Fort It suffered no check from Washington, where the
Sumter. national authorities made less ado about the secession
of a state than they had been wont to make about the admission of one. In many of the public offices, and throughout
the capital, more was said for South Carolina than against
her attempt to destroy the Union. Only in one spot where
the government was represented, and that the nearest to
the scene of insurrection, was the will of the insurgents
opposed. Major Robert Anderson had been for two
months in command of a garrison numbering little more
than eighty men, including a band, at Fort Moultrie, not
quite four miles from Charleston. After the calling of the
convention, he asked the war department to occupy Castle
Pinckney, close by Charleston, and Fort Sumter, on an
island in the harbor, three miles and a half from the city.
General Scott, the head of the army, advised compliance;
but the majority of the cabinet refused, and the secretary
of state, Lewis Cass, resigned in indignation. After the
secession ordinance, Anderson wrote, suggesting Fort
Sumter as a stronger position than that he held at Fort




SECESSION.                   413
Moultrie, and, receiving no reply from Washington, took
the responsibility, and moved his garrison, with the women
and children belonging to them, to Fort Sumter, on the
evening of the day after Christmas.  " He has opened
war," said one of the Charleston journals.  " His holding
Fort Sumter is an invasion of South Carolina," said another. The new commonwealth ordered the other forts
to be occupied, the arsenal, post-office, custom-house, and
revenue cutter, in short every remaining possession, to be
seized. This relieved the president, as he said, from the
necessity he at first thought himself under of ordering
Anderson out of Sumter, and on his refusing to give such
an order, the secretary of war, a Virginian, resigned,
and a patriotic Kentuckian, Joseph Holt, was appointed,
from whom Anderson received a despatch approving his
act as " every way admirable, alike for its humanity
and patriotism, as for its soldiership," (December 31.)
A week later a resolution of similar tone was passed by
the House of Representatives. Major Anderson had taken
the first step towards preserving the Union.
Star of   Under the inspiration of what he had done, the
the    government determined upon sending him reenforcewest.  ments; and in order to avoid publicity, they were
embarked at New York, upon a passenger steamer, the
Star of the West. On its arrival off Charleston harbor,
it tried to pass the bar with the soldiers under hatches;
but its mission had been betrayed, and though it bore the
United States flag, fire was opened from Fort Moultrie
and Morris Island, as well as from an armed vessel. Anderson, being under orders not to fire unless attacked,
could not interfere, and the Star of the West, being unable
to return fire or to pass the batteries, put back to sea,
(January 9, 1861.)
35 *




414               PART IV. 1797-1872.
Secession On the selfsame day, Mississippi seceded, folof other lowed in the course of the same month by Florida,
states. Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana, and on the first
of February by Texas. None of the conventions in these
states were unanimous in favor of secession, and that in
Alabama threw a vote of'thirty-nine out of one hundred
against it. The secession of Texas was followed by the
most shameless treachery, even of those treacherous days.
General Twiggs, next in rank to General Scott, and intrusted with nearly half the army of the United States,
besides posts of great importance, and stores of great value,
surrendered the whole to commissioners appointed by the
Texan convention, (February 18.) Out of all the twentyfive hundred whom  Twiggs betrayed, not one common
soldier deserted to the seceders. Many officers were faithless, as many both of the army and navy, at home and
abroad, had already proved, and continued to prove.
Peace    On the last day of January, when six states had
conven- left the Union, and a seventh was just leaving, a
tions. convention assembled at Albany. It was called
as a democratic state convention, but other parties, past
or present, were represented in it.  " We meet here," said
the president, Judge Parker, " as conservative men.
The people of this state," he continued, "' demand the
peaceful settlement of the questions that have led to disunion. They have a right to insist that there shall be
conciliation, concession, compromise."  "i We are advised,"
said Governor Seymour, " that if force is to be used, it
must be exerted against the united south.... Let us
see if successful coercion by the north is less revolutionary
than successful secession by the south." Such was the
sentiment of conservative men throughout the country.
If they condemned secession, they also condemned every
measure by which it could be resisted. One more effort




SECESSION.                  41~
of pacification was made in a peace conference, representing twenty-one states, at Washington. Meeting on the
4th of February, and continuing until the 27th, the conference debated various projects, and finally determined
upon recommending Congress to submit to the States
an amendment of the Constitution, substantially the same
as the Crittenden compromise.
Confeder- Another body met on the 4th of February, at
ate gov- Montgomery, Alabama.  Six states, soon seven,
ernment. were represented in a congress, by which a constitution was framed, and an executive appointed, Jefferson
Davis, of Mississippi, being elected president and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, vice president, of the Confederate States of America. The acceptance of the vice
presidency by a man who had resisted secession less than
three months before, shows how thoroughly the Union feeling in the seceded states was extinguished.  The president
had been a secessionist from. the start. As he now travelled towards Montgomery, he spoke again and again to
shouting crowds of their brilliant prospects.' If war
must come," he said, " it must be upon northern, and not
upon southern soil....W e will carry war where it
is easy to advance, where food for the sword and torch
awaits our armies in the densely populated cities." But
he did not believe the north would fight, while he was sure
that all the slaveholding states wolld join the Confederacy,
and that their independence would be recognized by England and France. In his inaugural address, the probability of war was admitted.  "WYe have entered upon a
career of independence, and it must he inflexibly pursued
through maiy years of controversy with our late associates
of the Northern States."  In the month following, when
Vice President Stephens returned from Montgomery, he
spoke concerning his government to a great meeting at




416              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Savannah.  " Its foundations are laid," he said; 4 its corner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not
equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the
superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This
our new government is the first in the history of the
world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and
moral truth....  May we not look with confidence to
the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon
which our system rests?"
Lincoln   While the president of the Confederate States
on the journeyed to Montgomery, the president elect of
Wa Ysngthe United States was on his way to Washington.
ton.   He took leave of his neighbors at Springfield, Illinois, in one of the most touching speeches ever made,
saying that he was assuming a burden greater than had
been laid upon any before him  except Washington, and
that he must depend upon Divine assistance.  As he travelled on, he spoke sometimes gayly, but oftener gravely, of
the situation, insisting that " nobody is suffering any thing,"
and that " the people on both sides must keep their self-possession." As he raised the American flag over Independence
Hall, in Philadelphia, on Washington's birthday, he said,' I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or
idea it was that kept this confederacy so long together;"
he was alluding to the revolution.  " It was not the mere
matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother
land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this
country, but I hope to the world for all future time...
If this country cannot be saved without giving up that
principle, I was about to say that I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it." He was aware at
that moment of a plot to assassinate him as he passed
through Baltimore, and to avoid the danger he made the
rest of the journey to Washington by night.




SECESSION.                   417
Inaugu-   His inauguration was protected by an unusually
ration. large body of troops against the violence which
was believed to be intended, (March 4.) The most striking passage in the president's address was the following:
"' Ve find the proposition that in legal contemplation the
Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union
itself. The Union is mluch older than the Constitution.  It
was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774.
It was matured and continued in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith
of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Conf'ederation in 1777; and finally in 1787, one of the declared
objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was
to form a more perfect union.  But if the destruction of
the Union, by one or by a part only of the states, be lawfully possible, the Union is less than before.... I
therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the
laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly
enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the states." He concluded, " In your
hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine,
is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will
not assail you....    We are not enemies, but friends.
We must not be enemies."
History has few such contrasts as this between
the chief magistrate of the United States and the
leaders of the seceded states.  In all their positions, in
their views of their own principles and of the principles
which they must combat, in their purposes and their expectations, there is something of the same difference as
that dividing the day and the night.  That such a man as
Abraham Lincoln represented the Union, and stood ready




418              PART IV. 1797-1872.
to live or die for it, was one of the greatest blessings which
God has bestowed upon this nation.
Attempt  A week after the new administration began, two
at nego- men, claiming to be commissioners from the govtiation. ernment of the Confederate States, informed the
secretary of state, 1Mr. Seward, that they were instructed
to make overtures for the opening of negotiations. To
their letter the secretary replied in a memorandum, the
main point being that he " cannot act upon the assumption,
or in any way admit, that the so-called Confederate States
constitute a foreign power with whom diplomatic relations
ought to be established," (March 15.)
Relief of  A more anxious question had come up the
Fort  very day after the inauguration.  Major Anderson
Sumter. was still in Fort Sumter. He had sent away
the women and children towards the end of January. All
around the fort, on both sides of the harbor, extended
the batteries of the South Carolinians and their comrades
from other states. Thousands in arms kept watch upon
the eighty men within the fort, to whom no succor had
been sent since the Star of the West had been driven back.
At the end of February, Anderson wrote to the war department that twenty thousand men would be needed in
order to reenforce him before his provisions were exhausted, and this letter was laid before the cabinet. General
Scott concurred in the opinion, and stated that the government had no such force at its control, and could have none
in season to relieve the garrison. The president seems to
have acquiesced, but only for a time; giving up Fort
Sumter, as he afterwards declared, was " our national destruction commenced."  He sent an officer directly to
Major Anderson, who said that he could hold out till the
15th of April; and on receiving this assurance, the president determined to relieve him. A few days later, (April 4,)




SECESSION.                  419
a written order was given, and a message was sent to
inform the governor of South Carolina that, if provisions
were suffered to reach the fort, no troops would be introduced. Several vessels, with both troops and provisions,
sailed from New York and Norfolk within the next few days.
They arrived, (April 11, 12,) uncertain whether they were
bringing peace or war, and found war before them.




CHAPTER XII.
CIVIL WAR.
FIRST PERIIOD. -APRIL, 1861, TO JANUARY, 1863.
Fall of   ALL the other forts and possessions of the United
Fort   States that had been seized'by the seceders, were
Sumter. like dust in their imouths while Fort Pickens, near
Pensacola, under Lieutenant Slenimer, and Fort Sumter
held out against them.  The news that an attempt would be
made to provision Fort Sumter determined the confederate
authorities to order its reduction by General Beauregard,
in command of the forces at Charleston.  " Unless you
sprinkle blood in the face of the people of Alabama," said
an Alabamian to Jefferson Davis, " they'll be back into
the old Union in less than ten days." Beauregard at once
called upon Anderson to surrender, and on being met by a
refusal, renewed the demand, with notice that unless it
were complied with, fire would be opened. At half past
four on the following morning, (April 12,) the first shot
was fired, and for thirty-three hours, one hundred and
twenty cannon kept up the bombardment. Anderson made
no reply till seven in the morning, and closed his portholes at dark, renewing fire early the next day; but though
husbanding his strength, it was worn down, not only at
the guns, but amidst the flames which repeatedly broke out
within the walls. On the second day, the men breathed
only by covering their faces with wet cloths; and to save
(420)








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CIVIL WAR.                    421
themselves from utter destruction they were forced to throw
over the powder which had been taken from the magazine,
while but three cartridges were left, and no more could be
made on account of the fiery shower to which every part
of the fort was now exposed.  The vessels sent to relieve
the garrison had been seen off the harbor at noon on the
first day, but they could bring no other relief than the
sense of their being comparatively near, and the garrison
fought on. At-half past one in the afternoon of the second
day, a volunteer flag of truce appeared, and various messages followed between Anderson and Beauregard. The
major would not surrender, but would evacuate; that is,
he would leave the fort with company and private property, and, above all, the flag, which he must have the privilege of saluting when it was lowered. To these terms
Beauregard at length consented. They were carried into
effect the following day, (April 14.) Anderson saluted
his flag, and embarked his men on a Charleston steamer,
by which they were taken to the United States steamer
Baltic, off the harbor, while Te Deums were sung in the
Charleston choirs, and sermons of victory were preached
from the pulpits; for it was Sunday. But the rejoicings
of the Carolinians had begun the night before, when their
governor bade them exult that the flag which had triumphed for seventy years had been " humbled before the
glorious little State of South Carolina." There was at
least one reason to rejoice —that the bombardment had not
cost a human life on either side.
Uprising. A proclamation, dated April 15, by the president, called forth the militia of the several states
to the number of 75,000, " in order to suppress combinations" in the seceded states, and also summoned both
houses of Congress to meet on the 4th of July. The
militia instantly obeyed. First to reach Washington were
36




422              PART IV. 1797-1872.
three Pennsylvania companies, but these came unarmed,
(April 18;) the first to come armed were the Massachusetts
sixth, which received enthusiastic greeting along the route
until reaching Baltimore, where a mob opposed their march,
and lives were lost in forcing a passage through the city.
Massachusetts blood, first to be shed in the war for independence, was the first to be shed in the war for union,
and on the same day of the year, April 19. Other regiments followed; but the way through Washington was
blocked, and until another was opened by the Chesapeake
and from Annapolis, Washington was cut off from its communications. Difficulty and danger only increased the
spirit of the loyal people. While the militia gathered, and
went forward to the capital, other men subscribed, labored,
and served as efficiently as if under arms. Women aided
in making up supplies, and children brought their offerings.
The national flag was raised on every public, and almost
every private building; national badges were every where
worn; national songs were every where sung. Meetings
were held, and if speeches could have saved the country,
it was safe. All spoke alike; the conservative and the
radical for once used the same language, and speakers and
listeners united in one universal expression of fidelity to
the Union. This was the uprising of the north. That of
the south was the same in fervor. Derisive laughter
greeted the president's proclamation at Montgomery. Defiance was the reply to it from every point in the seceded
states, and almost every point in the slaveholding states
which had not seceded. One hundred guns were fired at
Richmond to celebrate the fall of Fort Slumter. A few,days later, and the Virginia convention, which had been
in session two months, resolved that an ordinance of secession should be submitted to popular vote. But without
waiting for the vote, the secessionists seized the national




CIVIL WAR.                  423
arsenal at Harper's Ferry and the national navy-yard at
Norfolk, and placed the state in immediate hostility to
the Union. It was considered a great triumph that Virginia, with all her associations and resources, should enter the Confederacy, and her capital become the capital of
the new government. Nothing now remained in the south
under the flag of the United States but Fortress Monroe
in Virginia and three forts in Florida - Fort Pickens near
Pensacola, Fort Taylor at Key West, and Fort Jefferson
in the Tortugas. These, it was believed, would soon fall,
and more than these. Vice President Stephens, as he
hastened to Richmond, divulged the purpose of an attack
on Washington, and the confederate secretary of war
promised that the confederate flag should float over the
dome of the Capitol before the first of May.
More se- The secession of Virginia was followed, after
cession. some delay, by Arkansas, Tennessee, and North
Carolina, (May.)  All of them had been out of the Union
in spirit long befbre they left it in the letter. Every slaveholding state was now gone but Delaware, Maryland,
Kentucky, and Missouri, and the last two of these were in
danger of going, while the first two showed little resolution
in staying.
Rebellion Before all the eleven had seceded, - in fact from
or war. the moment that fire opened upon Fort Sumter,
a question arose as to the character of the conflict. If the
government could treat it purely as a rebellion, not as a
war, then the seceders would be in danger of being regarded by foreign powers as rebels without the rights which
international law accords to belligerents. But the presideut.allowed them these rights without intending it, when
he proclaimed the determination of the government to
blockade the southern ports, (April 19,) for a government
is considered to close its own ports, but to blockade only




424               PART IV. 1797-1872.
the ports of another power with whom it is at war. The
proclamation of blockade was therefore held to involve
the recognition of the Confederate States as belligerents on
the part of the United States, and to justify other nations
in making the same recognition.  Great Britain was the
first to make it. Without waiting the arrival of the newlyappointed American minister, Charles Francis Adams,
though he was known to be on his way to London, the
queen's proclamation of neutrality  (May 13) gave the
same belligerent rights to the disloyal as to the loyal states
of the Union.  France took the same course, (June 11.)
Her ruler, Napoleon III., was soon known to be in favor
of even stronger action, and to press upon the British government the recognition of confederate independence; but
to this length Great Britain refused to go.
Two pe-   The war thus opening may be divided into
riods of two periods; tile first fiom April, 1861, to January,
the war. 1863, when the cause of the struggle was reached
by the emancipation of the slaves in the seceded states;
and the second to April, 1865.  We can here observe only
the salient movements of the two.
Lyon's    The first marked success on the national side
Lyon's
defence of was gained by Captain Nathaniel Lyon. He held
Missouri. the United States arsenal at St. Louis with a garrison of a few hundred regulars, and on receiving authority from the president, lie enlisted several thousand volunteers, chiefly among the German population, who were
readier than the native citizens to defend their state against
secession. The governor of Missouri, sympathizing with
the native, not the German spirit, ordered the state militia to
encamp near St. Louis, with ill-concealed designs against
the Union troops.  On hearing that guns and ammunition
had been brought to the state camp, Lyon drove thither in
disguise, satisfied himself that the report was true, and




CIVIL WAR.                   425
returned to lead out his force at once against the militia.
They yielded to his superior numbers, and surrendered
themselves, their munitions and their camp, without a slhot
in resistance. But as Lyon was bringing back his prisoners, a mob from St. Louis fired upon his men, who fired in
return, and but for his orders to cease firing, many would
have lost their lives.  Among those who fell was an officer,
to whose widow Lyon said, "Since my boyhood it has always been my highest wish to die as your husband has;"
and the words were fuel to the patriotic flame he had already kindled. The effect of Lyon's mastery over the
Missouri secessionists was heightened by the associations
of the day, for it was the anniversary of that on which
Ethan Allen and his comrades mastered Ticonderoga,
May 10, 1775, the first marked success of the revolution.
Lyon was promoted to be a general, and continued to def{end Missouri against secession, until his life-long wish
was gratified, and he fell in battle at Wilson's Creek,
(August.) H-e left all his property to the government
which he had heroically served.
WestVir- Down to the secession of Virginia, the seceding
ginia for states had appeared to be a unit.  If opposition
tlheUnion. was tried, it soon broke down and vanished, sometimes because the Unionist believed it to be his duty to
obey his state, but more frequently because he was outnumbered or overborne. But a large portion of Virginia,
embracing the western counties, where soil and climate
were unfavorable to slave labor, refused to be dragged out
of the Union.  Two conventions were held at Wheeling,
the first before the ordinance of secession was ratified, the
seconid afterwards, and in this West Virginia was declared
independent of Virginia, and placed under a provisional
state government, (June.)  Meantime the Union arms had
been successful against the confederates, who vainly en36 *




426               PART IV. 1797-1872.
deavored to keep their hold on what they considered a
rebellious population, and the campaign continued unfavorable to them, (July.)  General McClellan was in command
of the national forces. The civil movement, however,
was far more striking than the military, and gave much
greater encouragement to the governmlent and its supporters. West Virginia was formally admitted to the Union
in June, 1863.
East Ten- The same character of soil and climate extends
nessee. south-west from West Virginia to East Tennessee.
There, too, the loyalty of the people was unbroken; and
though they did not declare, they really maintained their
independence of the state authorities which joined the
confederates. It was late in the course of the war before
the Union armies occupied East Tennessee.
Extreme   The war had but begun when its pressure bemeasures. came unexpectedly severe. Volunteers were soon
(May 3) called for, to serve for three years, instead of the
three months required of the militia. Large numbers of
vessels were taken up for transportation and blockade,
while plans of a new navy were rapidly prepared. Vast
quantities of arms, munitions, clothing, and stores were
ordered, and demands upon the national resources increased
beyond all previous experience. Yet greater sacrifices
were thought necessary, and the government laid its grasp
upon some of the highest rights of the citizen. In all the
chief cities of the loyal states, at one and the same moment, the telegraphic messages received at the different
offices during the previous year, were seized by United
States marshals, (April 20,) in order to alarm, if not actually'punish, such as had been accomplices in secession.
A week later (April 27) the president authorized General
Scott to suspend the privilege of habeas corpus, on the
military line between Philadelphia and Washington. Un



CIVIL WAR.                   427
der this warrant, the officer in command of' Fort McHenry,
near Baltimore, refused to obey a writ directing him to
produce the person of a Maryland militia-man, (May 14.)
Still more resolute was the action of General Cadwallader,
commanding the Maryland department, in refiusing to
obey the writ of the chief justice of the United States in
favor of John Merryman, a member of the Maryland legislature and when the chief justice issued a second writ,
directing the United States marshal to arrest the general
for contempt of court, the marshal was not allowed to
enter Fort McHenry, (May 215.) These were the first
measures in a course which many of the most loyal men
in the country lamented. The constitution provides that
habeas corpus may be suspended in case of rebellion, but
not by whom it may be suspended. Whether the president
possessed the power of suspension was questionable; but
he continued to exercise it, and Congress ultimately sustained him. Another measure was received with more
general approbation. The secretary of war directed General Butler, in command of Fortress Mlonroe, to refrain
from surrendering to alleged masters any persons who
might come within his lines, (May 30.)  This was in
answer to advices from the general that he had refused to
surrender certain fugitives from Hampton, because employed, or about to be employed, on confederate fortifications. " They are contraband of war," he said, at another's
suggestion; " set them at work within our lines."  By a remarkable coincidence, this first step towards emancipation
was taken where slaves had first been brought to our shores.
Congress   Congress met on the 4th of July. Twentyand the three states were represented in the Senate, twentypresident's two in the House of Representatives. The presimessage. dent's message recommended " the legal means for
making this contest a short and decisive one... at least




428              PART IV. 1797-1872.
four hundred thousand men and four hundred million dollars."
It stated, "' This is essentially a people's contest. On the
side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining that form
and substance of government whose leading object is to
elevate the condition of men.... It is worthy of note
that while large numbers of those in the army and navy
favored with offices have resigned, not one common soldier
or common sailor is known to have deserted his flag....
Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled -
the successful establishing and the successful administering of it. One still remains — its successful maintenance
against a formidable internal attempt to overthrow it...
And having thus chosen our course, without guile and
with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go
forward without fear and with manly hearts." Congress
passed one bill authorizing a loan of two hundred and fifty
million dollars, another calling out five hundred thousand
volunteers, and a third providing that slaveholders forfeited
all claim to slaves employed in aiding insurrection or resisting laws of the United States. The things to be done, said
a member, are to tax, fight, and emancipate.
More than a month passed before the troops
gathering at Washington were sent over the Potomac, (May 23.) There fortifications were thrown up, and
preparations for further marches were made. Many of
the loyal people became very impatient, and clamored for
an advance against Richmond, now the capital of the Confederate States. But between it and the national capital
lay the.principal confederate army, drawn from Charleston
aind other quarters, and threatening Washington with the
fate which confederate authorities had openly predicted.
At length, the Union army being forty thousand strong at
Washington, with eighteen thousand besides not far from




CIVIL WAR.                   429
Harper's Ferry, General McDowell received orders to move
at the head of about thirty thousand men, (July 15.) General Beauregard had twenty-six thousand confederates under
his command at Manassas Junction, thirty miles southwest of Washington, and General Johnston had eight
thousand more at Winchester. It was McDowell's object
to engage with Beauregard before Johnston could join
him, and he therefore marched directly upon Manassas.
An engagement was brought on by an attempt to turn the
confederate right at Union Mills on Bull Run, a small
stream emptying into the Potomac, but this proved unimportant, (July 18.) Three days later, (July 21,) the battle
of Bull Run was fought on either side of Young's Creek,
which flows into the run. The Union army endeavored to
turn the confederate left, and at first succeeded, about
noon.  "' They're beating us back," said the confederate
General Bee. " We'll give them the bayonet," replied
Jackson, as he held a ridge towards which the Union
troops were advancing.  " Form, form," cried Bee to his
disordered line; " there's Jackson, standing like a stone
wall." Beauregard hurried reinforcemrnents to the same
point, and thither, at half past three, came four thousand
of Johnston's men from Winchester, pouring out of the
railway train which brought them, to strike the Union right,
and drive it back in terrible disorder.  Rout followed, and
then, as the masses crossed Bull Run on the retreat towards
Centreville, a panic set in., and all was lost. A small force
of United States regulars prevented the confederate cavalry from pursuing, and the confederate infantry were too
much disordered themselves to leave the field. Their
loss was the greater; three hundred and seventy-eight
killed and fourteen hundred and eighty-nine wounded, to
four hundred and eighlty-one killed and one thousand and
eleven wounded on the Union side. But the Union army




430               PART IV. 1797-1872.
lost a large number taken prisoners, and twenty-seven
out of twenty-eight cannon which had crossed Bull Run;
in fact, lost everything.  The confederates made little use
of their victory, except to boast of it.  " Our troops,"
said General Johnston, " believed the war ended,... and
left the army in crowds to return to their homes."  On
the other hand, the Union troops rallied. Their defeat
was ascribed to causes over which they had no control,
to the clamor which had obliged them to move though
unprepared, to the heat, dust, and exhaustion of the midsummer day on which they fought, and, above all, to the mismanagement which allowed Johnston to reenforce Beauregard. It was fortunate that such excuses could be made,
or the spirit of the people might have sunk under the blow.
As it was, they bore up against it, and learning the lesson
taught, addressed themselves more seriously to the war
which they saw before them.
Carolina The blockade of the southern coast proved far
and Geor- more efficient than could have been hoped or
gia coast. feared. Notwithstanding the immense extent over
which it required to be maintained, not many vessels succeeded in running it. Among these were a few commissioned as privateers, one of which, the steamer Sumter,
did great havoc among United States merchantmen. To
enforce the blockade, two expeditions, military and naval,
were sent southward; one in August, reducing Forts
Clark and Hatteras, at Hatteras Inlet; the other in September, reducing Forts Beauregard and Walker, at the
entrance of Port Royal harbor, between Charleston and
Savannah. Beaufort was occupied, and Tybee Island,
commanding the mouth of the Savannah River, (December.)
These victories were bravely won, but feebly used.
The     One of the successful blockade runners carried
Treat.  two commissioners from  the confederate govern



CIVIL WAR.                   431
meut, Mason of Virginia, and Slidell of Louisiana, the
former to Great Britain, the latter to France. At Havana
they took passage in the British mail steamer Trent, and
made about two hundred and fifty miles, when the vessel was stopped by the United States sloop of war San
Jacinto, to which the commissioners, with their secretaries,
were transferred, (November 8,) and brought to the
United States.  The commander of the San Jacinto, Captain Wilkes, had acted on his own responsibility; but he
was congratulated by the secretary of the navy, thanked
by the House of Representatives on the first day of the
session, (December,) and honored by almost every possible form of public and private gratitude. But the president
saw what must follow.  " We must stick," said he, on
hearing of the capture, " to American principles concerning
the rights of neutrals.... If Great Britain demands,
we must give up the traitors." Great Britain demanded it
immediately, in a despatch to Lord Lyons, minister at
WVashington, and without waiting a reply ordered troops
and arms to Canada, ships and munitions to the North
American and West India squadrons, while English journals stormed, and Englishmen seemed to lose their reason.
The prince consort insisted on moderation, and the party
led by Cobden and Bright took a rational position, to
which more and more of their countrymen were attracted
as the first flash of passion passed. Meantime, Mr. Seward
had written to Mr. Adams that as Captain Wilkes had not
acted under instructions, his government was free to receive any suggestion from  the British government, (November 30..)  Not quite four weeks later, Mr. Seward
communicated to Lord Lyons a letter addressed to Mr.
Adams, in which he argued that if Captain Wilkes had
brought the Trent itself into port, to be adjudged a prize
or liberated by a court of admiralty, he would have acted




432              PART IV. 1797-1872.
in accordance with British principles concerning neutrals;
but that not having done this, and not having any warrant
in American principles to interfere with a neutral as he
had, his prisoners must be released by the United States.
"' We are asked," says the secretary of state, " to do to
the British nation just what we hlave always insisted all
nations ought to do unto us." On new year's day, the
confederate commissioners and their secretaries were delivered to a British gunboat at Provincetown, Mass. The
London Times, which had led the assault on Captain
Wilkes and his government, now said that England would
have done just as much for two negroes.  Although the
commissioners succeeded in reaching the capitals to which
they had been accredited, they did not succeed in negotiating with either government.
Military  Immediately after Bull Run, General McClellan
prepara- was called from  West Virginia to take command
tions.  of the broken troops at Washington. These were
reorganized as the army of the Potomac, and very largely  increased  through the summer and autumn; but
nothing followed, except a bloody repulse of a detachment
at Ball's Bluff, (October 21.)  General Scott resigned,
and General McClellan succeeded as commander-in-chief,
(November 1,) but was relieved in little more than four
months. I-is successor, appointed the following summer,
was General Halleck. But the only real commander-inchief was Edwin M. Stanton, who took charge of the war
department in January, 1862, and held it in a grasp of iron
till victory was won. He was charged by many of the
Union generals with prejudice and wilfulness, but few
doubted his capacity, none doubted his energy or his loyalty. Under his direction the recruiting service never
flagged; as fast as the armies were reduced by disease or
battle, they were filled by the unwearying devotion of the
people.




CIVIL WAR.                   433
Cam-     From  the battle of Wilson's Creek, in which
paigns in Lyon fell, a succession of engagements under rapthe west.
idly increasing commanders kept the balance in
Missouri generally inclined towards the Union side. The
confederates marched into Kentucky, and fortified various
points on the Mississippi River, in the early autumn, and
their repulse became a leading object with the government
and its forces in the west. The victory of MIill Spring,
gained by General Thomas, one of our best and most serviceable generals, on the 19th of January, 1862, was the
first in the series of actions by which Kentucky, and the
greater part of Tennessee were recovered. Fort Henry,
on the Tennessee River, was taken by the Union gunboats,
(February 6,) and Fort Donelson, with twelve thousand men,
by the army under General Grant, after very hard fighting
for twoQ days, (Febrluary 16.) Nashville was immediately occupied, while the confederate posts on the Mississippi were,
one after another, abandoned or surrendered, (3Iarch, April.)
The battle of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, near the southern border of Tennessee, was lost the first day, and won the
second day, by General Grant, much aided by General
Sherman of his own army, and reinforced by General
Buell at the head of another army; but though very destructive, twenty thousand being killed or wounded on
both sides, no results followed, (April 7, 8.) After long
delays and numerous reenforcements, the army advanced
under General Halleck as far as Corinth, Mississippi, which
the confederates had first fortified and then evacuated,
(May.)  Meanwhile operations had been actively prosecuted on the Mississippi, and after several important successes, under Commodore Foote and General Pope, the
Union flotilla, under Captain Davis, routed the confederates
near 3MIemphis, and took possession of that city, (June 6.)
This freed the Mississippi as far south as Vicksburg.
37




434               PART IV. 1797-1872.
It was also free to the same point from  the
Recovery
of New mouth. A greater naval and military armament
Orleans. than had as yet been equipped, was directed towards New  Orleans.  It appeared almost impracticable
to reach the city; the army, under General Butler, could
not march thither without support from the fleet, and the
fleet, under Commodore Farragut, found the river strongly
defended by two forts, St. Philip and Jackson, with a fleet
in the stream, while a chain, supported upon hulks, was
stretched from  one bank to the other. The chain was
broken, but the forts held out unshaken by a bombardment
of several days. Farragut ran by them in the night,
under a cannonade which hardly any commander before him would have braved, escaped the fire-vessels sent
against him, vanquished the confederate fleet, and on the
day after moved his squadron abreast of New Orleans,
(April 25.)  The forts below surrendered, (April 28,) and
the city was occupied by the Union army, (May 1.) General Butler remained in NTew Orleans, while Farragut
ascended the Mississippi, taking Baton Rouge and Natchez,
and running the Vicksburg batteries to meet the Union
fleet above them, then running them again on his return to
New Orleans.
Fort Pu-  Batteries being planted on Tybee Island by Caplaski.  tain Gillmore, they opened upon Fort Pulaski, and
compelled its surrender on the second day, (April 11.)
Roanoke,  Higher up the coast the forts on Roanoke Island
Newvbern,fell before an expedition under General Burnside
and Fort and Commodore Goldsborough, (February 7, 8.)
3Macon.
The confederate fleet in Albemarle Sound was soon
mastered, (February 10.)  The next month, (March 14,)
Newbern was captured, and the next, (April 25,) Fort
IMacon, so that a great part of the North Carolina coast
was recovered.




CIVIL WAR.                   435
Ierrimac When Norfolk came into the hands of the Virand    ginia secessionists, they found, among other very
Monitor. valuable spoils, the steam frigate Merrimac, sunk
by the officers of the navy-yard, but easily raised and converted into an iron-plated ram by her captors. Her appearance in Hampton Roads, where Union ships of war and
transports were always lying, had long been feared, when
she came, with five smaller vessels in her train, in the
afternoon of March 8. At half past three she struck
the sloop of war Cumberland, which sank discharging
her guns, and carrying down her sick, wounded, and
killed. At half past four she compelled the surrender of
the frigate Congress, already attacked by her consorts.
She then turned against the steam frigate Minnesota, that
had run aground, but without immediately attacking this
vessel. The Roanoke and St. Lawrence were also grounded. Enough was done for one day, and the Merrimac
withdrew towards Norfolk, to return when she pleased,
and to do, as it seemed, what she pleased. Hampton
Roads lay at her mercy, and beyond, the sea, the Potomac,
Washington, Philadelphia, New  York  or Boston, any
harbor, any fleet, any shore upon which she might descend. But one night changed everything by bringing the
Monitor to the scene of action. This was a low iron-clad,
constructed under John Ericsson's direction in New York,
and armed with heavy guns in a movable turret, which
had been invented twenty years before by Theodore R.
Timby. These are names and facts which deserve to be
remembered, for the vessel thus fashioned proved the
safety of the-Union fleets and the Union shores. Lieutenant
Worden commanded, and he laid his tub, as it appeared,
full in the path of the huge Mierrilnac, as she came to complete her work of devastation on the morning of the 9th
of March.  The action was decisive, and the Monitor
drove her antagonist back to Norfolk.  On the abandon



436              PART IV. 1797-1872.
ment of that place by the confederates, early in May, they
blew up the Merrimac. The Monitor foundered at sea in
September. Her brave commander, in the action with
the Merrimac, received severe injuries, and as he lay helpless in Washington, the president wept over him with
pathetic gratitude.
ninsu-  We have now to follow the Union forces to dePeninsular cam- feat, and that where it told the most against them
paign. and their cause. The army of the Potomac, under
General McClellan, was transported to the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, at the beginning of
April. It was occupied a month by the siege of Yorktown, and then led forward in such a way as to expose
a part of it to great peril at Williamsburg, (May 5.)
Most of its fighting was done between May 27, at Hanover
Court House, and July 1, at Malvern Hill; and in the
course of these five weeks, it passed from one extreme,
where its advance was within four miles of Richmond, to
the other, where it fought only to save itself from total
destruction before reaching the James River in retreat.
Fair Oaks, (May 31, June 1,) Mechanicsville, (June 26,)
Gaines' Mill, (June 27,) White Oak Swamp, (June 30,)
- these, with others just mentioned, are the names of its
battles, all gallantly delivered, and all vainly, so far as
related to the purpose of the campaign. Thousands upon
thousands of brave men, as brave as any the country had,
fell by disease or wounds; and when all was over, Richmond looked safer than Washington. The general threw
the blame upon the government for not regnforcing him,
and the government blamed the general; the army and
the people were divided in opinion. But the campaign
had been determined in very much the same manner,
though on a much larger scale, as the battle of Bull Run.
The confederate general known as Stonewall Jackson
entered the Shenandoah Valley, where General Banks was




CIVIL WAR.                 437
in command, drove him with great loss out of the valley,
(May 23-26,) then beat General Fremont at Cross Keys,
(June 8,) and General Shields at Port Republic,(June 9,) -
both of whom had been sent to intercept him, - and having
thus alarmed Washington and the north, he prevented
troops from being forwarded to General McClellan, and
brought his force to swell the army defending Richmond,
now under the command of General Lee; when Lee, thus
strengthened, turned on the Union lines, and forced their
withdrawal to the River James.
Northern  Lee and Jackson proved a more serious combiVirginia. nation than had as yet confronted the Union generals. The forces near Washington and in the Shenandoah
Valley, augmented at first by troops from West Virginia
and the Carolina coast, and afterwards by the Army of the
Potomac from the James River, were organized as the
army of Virginia, under General Pope, and directed
towards Richmond from the north. It was a brief and
pitiful movement, beginning with the defeat of General
Banks at Cedar Mountain, (August 9,) and ending with
the defeat of General Pope at Bull Run, (August 29,) and
Chantilly, (August 31,) from which he sought safety within
the fortifications of Washington. Again had Jackson's
swift marches on the flank and rear of our army resulted
in its overthrow. To match such a general with one like
Pope was like matching the Mississippi with a creek.
Yet Pope's defeat was not wholly his own work; he
suffered from  military jealousies among the officers who
should have supported him for the sake of the country.
Defence   The relics of the summer campaigns, and the new
of Mary- regiments hurrying to the front, were gathered as
land.  the army of the Potomac, and intrusted to General
McClellan. He was soon on the road in pursuit of Lee,
who, flushed with repeated victories, crossed the Potomac,
(September 3-6,) and called upon the people of Maryland




438               PART IV. 1797-1872.
to throw off their " foreign yoke," by which he meant the
government of the United States. Ready as individuals
were, the great body of Marylanders had no mind to join
the confederates, and the army was disappointed in the
accessions and supplies which had been confidently expected. It order to take Harper's Ferry, Lee ran the great
risk of dividing his forces; but it was run safely, and
Jackson, after taking the Ferry and twelve thousand men
garrisoning it, (September 15,) rejoined his commander.
McClellan won the battle of South Mountain on the 14th,
and might have turned it into a great victory, had he followed it up before Jackson's return. But he did not, and
accordingly had to fight both Lee and Jackson at Antietam,
on the 17th, where they suffered sufficiently to decide their
retreat to Virginia. This, in the circumstances, was equivalent to a Union victory, and the relief to the loyal country
was immense, though there was great disappointment because the confederate retreat was not molested.
Defence   Just before this advance into Maryland, two
of Cincin- confederate divisions entered Kentucky. One of
nati.   them, under General E. K. Smith, defeated a body
of Union troops at Richmond, (August 30), and marched
towards Cincinnati. General Lewis Wallace took upon
himself the almost hopeless defence of the city, and ordered all places of business to be closed, ferry-boats to
stop, and citizens to work on intrenchments and enlist in
an improvised army.  " Any how," he proclaimed, " it
must be done. The willing shall be properly credited; the
unwilling promptly visited. The principle adopted is -
citizens for the labor, soldiers for the battle," (September 1.)
Forty thousand came forward, and in three days a line of
earthworks ten miles long, armed and manned, on the
southern bank of the Ohio, looked so formidable that when
the confederates arrived, (September 12,) they made no




CIVIL WAR.                   439
attack, but retreated.  The other confederate division,
under General Bragg, defeated a Union force at Memfordsville, (September 17,) and being joined by Smith, retreating from Cincinnati, Bragg also retreated southward,
engaging in a battle at Perryville with the Union army
under General Buell, (October 8.) Of all these movements in Kentucky and Maryland, nothing stands out in
such relief as the defence of Cincinnati. It was better
than any battle as a proof of the resolution with which the
loyal people were now armed.
Their resolution was put to the test by repeated
Reverses.
reverses as the year drew to a close. General
McClellan gave place to General Burnside as commander
of the army of the Potomac, (November 7,) and he led his
brave troops to fruitless slaughter in attempting to storm
Lee's works at Fredericksburg, (December 13.) General
Buell gave place to General Rosecrans as commander of
the Army of the Cumberland, and he, marching against
the confederates, was attacked by them at Stone River,
near Murfreesboro', and but for General Thomas and the
centre of his army, would have been routed, (December
31.) General Grant, succeeding General Halleck in command of the army at Corinth, held that post against the
confederates, and on his marching westward, General
Rosecrans defended it in a well-fought battle, (October 4.)
But Grant's expedition against Vicksburg was a failure.
As he advanced from the east, the officer in charge of his
stores surrendered, and left him no alternative but to fall
back, (December 20,) while his lieutenant, General Sherman, advancing from the north, was repulsed in battle at
Chickasaw Bayou, (December 29.)
Emanci-  Light was breaking from  another quarter than
pation. the battle-field. The first rift in slavery was very
narrow, merely emancipating slaves employed in aiding




440               PART IV. 1797-1872.
insurrection. But it was sure to widen. General Fremont,
commanding the department of Missouri, issued a general
order freeing the slaves of " all persons in the State of
Missouri who shall take up arms against the United
States," (August 30, 1861.)  This, the president directed,
must be " so construed as to conform with, and not to transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the
act of Congress," a few weeks earlier, by which only such
slaves were freed as were themselves employed in aiding
insurrection.  The next spring, (May 9,) another general
order was issued by General Hunter, in command of the
department of the south, or Georgia, Florida, and South
Carolina:' The persons in these states, heretofbre held
as slaves, are declared forever free."  This, too, was met
by the president. " The supposed proclamation now in
question," he asserted, " whether genuine or false, is altogether void.....  I further make known that whether it
be competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army
and navy, to declare the slaves of any state or states free,
and whether at any time or in any case it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the
government to exercise such supposed power, are questions
which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and
which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of
commanders in the field," (May 19.)  The president goes
on to state that he had recommended (March) Congress to
adopt a joint resolution, and that it had been adopted
(April) by large majorities in both branches, declaring it
the duty of the United States to coiperate, by pecuniary
aid, with any state undertaking the gradual abolishment
of slaivery. Here, as may be remarked, he took the early
anti-slavery ground in favor of a gradual and compensated
emancipation.  This, he continued, "' now  stands an authentic, definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the




CIVIL WAR.                   441
states and people most interested in the subject matter.
To the people of those states, now, I mostly appeal.
You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the
times." These signs were indeed plain. Congress had
already abolished slavery in the District of Columbia on
the principle of compensation to the slaveholder, (April 16.)
It soon abolished slavery in the territories, without compensation, (June 19.) It soon after (July 17) passed an
act to seize and confiscate the slaves of persons engaged
in rebellion, which was what Fremont had attempted the
previous year. But a greater measure than any of these
was now in contemplation by the president. Early in the
summer he read to his cabinet the draft of a proclamation
emancipating all slaves in the seceded states. The secretary of state objected not to the act, but to the time of
doing it; let it be done, he said, after victory. Time
passed, bringing no victory, but deeper and deeper defeat,
and at last the confederates were in Maryland. "' I made
a solemn vow before God," said the president afterwards,
"that if General Lee was driven back from Maryland, I
would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the
slaves." To a deputation from Chicago, which waited on
him at this time, (September 13,) to urge emancipation,
as if it were their measure, not his, he meekly replied,
" The subject is on my mind by day and by night more
than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will,
that I will do."  Antietam  was fought, Lee was driven
back, and then, on the 22d of September, came forth the
president's proclamation, " That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or
designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then
be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then,
thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive gov



442              PART IV. 1797-1872.
ernment of the United States, including the military and
naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the
freedom of such persons."
Effet of   Those few words lifted the load under which
the proc- the nation had staggered from  its birth. The
lamation. slaves in the states which had rebelled would
be free at the beginning of another year, and it could
not be long after when the slaves in the slaveholding
states which had not rebelled would also be free. Mien
could look into an early future, and see no slave in all the
national domain. It did not please them all; for the moment, it did not please most of them. In the elections
which soon followed throughout the loyal states, the republican majorities of the presidential vote were changed
to a democratic majority against the administration; and
though various causes were assigned, such as the condition
of trade and the currency, the growing taxes, the arrests
on political charges, and the reverses of the campaign,
there can be no doubt that the most effective cause of all
was the emancipation policy to which the administration
stood committed.  The British minister, Lord Lyons,
wrote home of " a change in public feeling among the
most rapid and complete that have ever been witnessed even
in'this country." Moreover the army and navy, or many
officers and men, grumbled that the war for the Union
should be turned into a war for the slave. As the president afterwards said, the good results of emancipation were
not so immediate as was expected.  But he stood firm, and
though it was often predicted that the first of January
would come and go without a second proclamation from
him to give effect to the first, it brought out the following:
" I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves
within said designated states and parts of states Ithat is,
under confederate rule] are, and henceforward shall be,




CIVIL WAR.                   445
free....  And.I hereby enjoin upon the people so de.
dared to be free to abstain from all violence unless in ne.
cessary self-defence..... And I further declare and
make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will
be received into the armed service of the United States.
~.. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act
of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind
and the gracious favor of Almighty God."




CHAPTER XIII.
CIVIL WAR - CONTINUED.
SECOND PERIOD. —JANUARY, 1863, To APRIL, 1865.
LONG before this, the means of paying for the war
Finances,
became a serious question. Prosperous as was the
nation, particularly the loyal part of it, when the conflict began, it could not continue so, while wealth was poured out on
every side, and labor was largely turned to the battle-field.
The banks sounded the first note of alarm by suspending specie payments in 1861. Congress gave the next in February,
1862, by authorizing the issue of United States treasury
notes, without redemption, to the amount of'$150,000,000
at first, and afterwards of $400,000,000; and these notes
were declared to be legal tenders in payment of debts.
The volume of irredeemable currency, thus expanding, produced its inevitable effects. In order to obviate them in
very small degree, the national bank system was established early in 1863. By this the banks, hitherto state
institutions, became national, and their notes were secured
by deposits of government bonds at Washington. The
circulation was thus materially improved, and bank notes
from all parts of the country passed current every where.
-But the value of the currency remained that of mere paper
money, irredeemed and irredeemable. It therefore soon
declined. More paper dollars were needed to buy what
was before bought by gold and silver, or by paper redeemable in gold and silver. Prices therefore rose, and
(444)




CIVIL WAR- CONTINUED.              445
persons of limited income found it more limited than ever,
while some sank gradually into poverty. On the other
hand, those who could profit by the times rose to sudden
riches. Government contracts, and the speculations encouraged by the unsettled state of the money market, were
turned to the creation of new fortunes. Many made money
by dealing in government bonds, of which millions followed millions, as loan followed loan.  By March, 1864,
the national debt had reached fifteen hundred millions, and
this proved just about one half of the amount expended by
the nation, not counting state or local expenditures, upon
the war.  The secretary of the treasury, Mr. Chase,
thought his operations highly successful; but the price of
gold reached 195 (paper dollars for one hundred gold) in
May, 1864, and 285 in July, declining afterwards.
Of all the military and naval movements of the
Vicksburg.
war, none had hitherto come nearer its object
than that which aimed at getting possession of the
Mississippi River.  One great obstacle remained, indeed
more than one; but if one could be overcome, no other
would cause any serious difficulty.  This one was Vicksburg, once a quiet town, now a noisy stronghold, with long
lines of batteries upon its cliffs, and earthworks in its rear,
on the holding of which the confederates set a very high
value, but not at all higher than its strategic importance
merited. General Grant had failed, as we have seen,
in his attempt at the close of 1862; but the new year
found him intent upon the same object, and after sending
a successful expedition up Arkansas River, (January, 1863,)
he concentrated his efforts upon Vicksburg. All that he
could do on the north and west, or river, sides of the place
seemed unavailing, and when he had met with more than
enough disappointment to check a commander of average
firmness, he resolved upon trying an approach upon the
38




446              PART IV. 1797-1872.
south and east. This was so hazardous a plan that his
most trusted subordinate, General Sherman, protested
against it, while Grant delayed reporting it to Washington
until interference from that quarter would be too late.
I-He proposed carrying his army down the river, landing
on the eastern bank, marching towards the interior, and
then back towards Vicksburg, without any line of coimmunication with the point from which he started, or any
other point which he could fix upon as a base of operations. To do this merely with an army was impossible, but
with the gunboats on the river, and aid from them throughout the movement, it might be executed. On two different nights, several gunboats ran the confederate batteries,
eight miles long, and though suffering from the fire, were
soon repaired and ready for service below the fortifications.
At the same time, cavalry to the number of seventeen hundred, under Colonel Grierson, were sent to break up the
railroads and telegraphs connecting with Vicksburg, and
those brave riders made their way through six hundred
miles of a hostile country, arriving at Baton Rouge in sixteen days from La Grange, Tennessee.'" The Confederacy is a mere shell," reported Grierson. General Slier-,nan was next directed to make a feint of attacking Vicksburg on the north, and then to join Grant on the south.
All these precautions having been taken, Grant led his
army down the western bank of the Mississippi, crossed at
Bruinsburg, (April 30,) defeated the confederates in five
battles, (May 2-17,) on the march, first to Jackson, the
capital of Mississippi, then to Vicksburg, and more than
all prevented General Johnston, commanding the army
outside, from effecting a junction with General Pemberton,
commanding inside the fortress. On gaining the position
which had been intended, Sherman had the magnanimity
to confess his mistake in having opposed the plan of his




CIVIL WAR-CONTINUED.               447
superior, while Grant was equally magnanimous in saying
nothing of Sherman's objections, or amends. Two assaults
were made, both unsuccessfully, and then reenforcements
were asked for and obtained. Siege was laid, and in six
weeks Vicksburg fell, with all its garrison and munitions.
The surrender took place upon the 4th of July.
Port    The surrender of Port Hudson followed, (July 8.)
Hudson. This was a stronghold lower down the river, which
an army under General Banks, now of the Louisiana department, had been assailing for some time. It could not
hold out when Vicksburg yielded. The Mississippi, from
source to mouth, was recovered by the Union, and the
Confederacy was cut in two. In the early autumn, an expedition from Vicksburg took Little Rock, the capital of
Arkansas, (September 10.)
Chancel-  The army of the Potomac, discouraged by relorsville. verses, changes of generals, and political controversies, was placed under the command of General Hooker,
(January 26.)  He undertook to reorganize it, and three
months later to lead it to victory. He had hardly crossed
the Rappahannock, and taken the offensive against Lee, than
he suddenly changed to the defensive, waiting for the enemy,
as he a.id, to give him battle on his own ground, at Chancellorsville. But his right was suddenly attacked on the flank
by Stonewall Jackson, (May 2,) and with such effect as to
determine the defeat of the whole army, though the battle
was kept up for two days more, (May 3, 4.) On the next
day, Hooker returned to the north side of the Rappahannock.
leaving behind him thousands of killed, wounded, and prisoners. The confederates also suffered very heavily, and
in Jackson, who was fired on in the dark from his own
lines, they lost a general to whom they owed this and
many a preceding victory.'" He was as good," they said,' as ten thousand men." The army of the Potomac was




448              PART IV. 1797-1872.
soon yet more reduced by the discharge of troops whose
period of enlistment expired. On the other hand, Lee's
army of Northern Virginia was ready, as one of its best
officers, General Longstreet, said, to undertake anything.
Gettys-  Its temper was put to trial. Notwithstanding the
burg.  yet fresh experience of the previous autumn, the
confederate authorities resolved upon another expedition
into the loyal states, and within a month from Chancellorsville, Lee began to move northward, (June.) As soon as
this was known, Hooker followed, keeping between the
enemy and Washington, and crossed the Potomac the day
after Lee. Great was the alarm, not only at the capital,
or in the parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania immediately threatened, but at Philadelphia, and even New
York, both within striking distance, if Lee were again
victorious.  The disaffection of certain classes in the
larger cities, and their threatened resistance to the
draft which the government was about to make, added
to the fears of a confederate attack; and many a flight,
many a case of valuable effects, was directed to some faroff place of security. Means of defence did not abound.
As soon as the president became aware of Lee's purpose,
he called for one hundred thousand militia from New
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio;
but scarcely half that number responded, and most of those
who did were ill prepared to meet the army of Northern
Virginia. It did not encourage public confidence to learn
that just at this crisis, when the confederates were entering Pennsylvania, the army of the Potomac was changing
commanders; but General Hooker resigned, and General
Meade, a tried and efficient officer, was appointed. He
pressed forward without delay, and Lee, finding his communications threatened, turned from  the road towards
Harrisburg, and moved south-eastward to Gettysburg.
Here was the watershed between the Susquehanna Valley




CIVIL WAR-CONTINUED.              449
on the north, and the Potomac on the south, and here a
battle between northern and southern armies might seem
intended to be decisive. General Reynolds, commanding
the Union advance, was ordered to march on Gettysburg
from the south, at the same moment that the foe approached
from the west; and there he engaged in the forenoon of
July 1, and while winning the first advantage, fell mortally
wounded. At this time the main body of Meade's army
was very far off, but being hurried forward, and well posted
on a double ridge south of the town, it was ready for
the fiercer conflict of the second day. It proved very
difficult to resist the attack which the rashness of General
Sickles invited on the Union left, and which, for some
hours, threatened the whole army with defeat, while the
Union right was also turned, and danger in that quarter
became imminent. But Meade and his brave men stood
fast, and when, on the third day, the confederates charged
the left centre under General Hancock, and threw all
their passionate vigor into one convulsive effort, they were
met, broken, and compelled to give up the hard-fought field.
Seventeen thousand Union soldiers, and more than twenty
thousand confederates, were killed or wounded in this great
battle. It was won on the same afternoon of July 3 when
Pemberton was arranging the terms of his surrender to
Grant at Vicksburg.  On the evening of the day of
that surrender, Lee began his retreat, and ten days later,
amid great disorder and suffering, his army, reduced by
almost one half, recrossed the Potomac. It was a great
disappointment to loyal men that he should have been allowed to get back into Virginia; but the army of the Potomac was in no condition to pursue with any zeal or effect.
The president called upon the people to observe a day for
national thanksgiving, praise, and prayer, invoking Almighty God'" to lead the whole nation, through paths of
38 *




450               PART IV. 1797-1872.
repentance and submission to the Divine will, back to the
perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace."  The
day was kept on the 6th of August. Three mouths later,
(November 19,) a part of the Gettysburg battle-field was
dedicated as the burial-place of those who had there fallen
in defence of the Union. The president was there, and
when the ceremonies were performed, and the funeral oration
was delivered by Edward Everett, he stood up and uttered
a few words, consecrating the living to the great task which
the dead had left, and saying, " Here let us resolve that
they shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall,
under God, have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall
not perish from the earth."
As in 1862, so in 1863, when Lee advanced in
Attempt
on Indi- the east, a simultaneous attempt was made to penaa and etrate the loyal states of the west.  Thirty-five
Ohio.  hundred cavalry, under General Morgan, who expected to be joined by a force then in East Tennessee,
passed through Kentucky at the beginning of July, crossed
into Indiana, and on beings resisted there, turned into
Ohio, but were pursued, and finally (July 26) captured,
with the exception of a few hundred. It was more than
twice as large a party as that under Grierson, which had
made its way across two of the Southern States in April
and May; but while Grierson swept all before him, Morgan
himself was swept before his pursuers. The governors of
Indiana and Ohio both called for volunteers, Cincinnati
was placed under martial law, as in the year before, and all
the country round rose to repel the foe.
Draft.    Conscription had been the chief means of filliug
the confederate armies from the beginning of the
second year of war. It was a year later (May 8) when
the president of the United States announced a draft to be




CIVIL WAR-CONTINUED.               451
made in July, according to an act of Congress in March.
To this measure there was great opposition, open and secret. An association, called Knights of the Golden Circle,
was believed to intend revolution in the Middle and Western States. Riots broke out in New York, and for three
days and nights (July 13-15) all was anarchy. Governor
Seymour stood on the steps of the City Hall, calling the
rioters his friends, and telling them he had sent his adjutant general to Washington " to have the draft stopped."
The riot, of course, continued, until the police and rapidly
gathering militia put it down, after more than four hundred, chiefly colored persons, had been killed or wounded.
Disturbances broke out elsewhere, and an epidemic of' disorder seemed impending. But the army of the Potomac,
in saving the nation from the evil of defeat, saved it from
the greater evil of sedition. The president had received
formal authority from Congress to suspend the privilege of
habeas corpus, (March 3,) and he now (August 19) suspended it.
Fort     The occupation of many points along the southern
Sumter. coast proved highly serviceable to the blockade. It
also led to various attempts upon other points not yet occupied, sometimes successful, but generally the reverse.
Fort Sumter, where the war began, was like a thorn in
the side of more than one commander. It was first assailed
by sea alone, when (April 7, 1863) Admiral Dupont
brought up his fleet of seven monitors and two iron-clads;
but heavy as was their fire, it proved unavailing against
that of Sumter and its encircling fortresses and batteries,
so that in forty minutes the fleet withdrew, considerably
injured. In the summer, Admiral Dahlgren took command, while General Gillmore was appointed to the military department in which Sumter lay. He thought it
could be reached by operations on shore, the fleet assisting, and began with a few thousand men, all he had for




452              PART IV. 1797-1872.
the purpose, on Folly Island. Hence a party was sent,
under General Strong, to Morris Island, at the northern end of which stood Fort Wagner, and this was assaulted, but unsuccessfully, (July 11.) Works were then
thrown up on the island, and under their cover a second
assault was tried, but with even more disastrous result.
Strong fell mortally wounded, and other brave officers were
killed, among them  Colonel Shaw of the Massachusetts
54th, a colored regiment, (July 19.) More works were
constructed, and after a long bombardment, a third assault was about beginning, when Fort Wagner was found
to be evacuated, (September 7.) Fort Sumter, bombarded
at the same time, was much injured, but not evacuated, and
a boat attack by night (September 8) was repelled with
great loss. The only result of these destructive operations
was to close the harbor of Charleston to blockade-runners.
Colored   The Massachusetts regiment, which fought as
troops. bravely as the bravest at Fort Wagner, was the
first recruited among the colored people of the north.
Those of the south began to enlist the year before, in
South Carolina and Louisiana, and Congress authorized
the president to receive them into the service, (July,
1862.) But they did not generally enter it until after the
emancipation of January, 1863. Willing as they were,
they were hindered both by their own habitual submission
and by the inveterate prejudices of their white fellowcountrymen. When the Massachusetts 54th was sent from
Boston, it was by sea, in order to avoid any possible indignities in the streets of New York or other cities. Many
of their white comrades shrank from them, many more
treated them as inferiors, who might share in the hardships,
but not in the honors, of the war. Strong as these feelings
were, they yielded - they could not but yield - before the
great qualities which the colored troops displayed. As
the president wrote, in August, 1863, " There will be




CIVIL WAR - CONTINUED.             453
black men who will remember that with silent tongue, and
clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet,
they have helped on." Of course, the wrath of the confederates overflowed, at times in threats, at times in cruelties, as when a garrison at Fort Pillow, near Memphis,
was put to the sword, the blacks for being black, and the
whites for being their comrades, (April, 1864.)
Great    Relations with Great Britain, disturbed by her
Britain proclamation of neutrality, and yet more by her
and confederate behavior in the Trent affair, were again stormy.
cruisers. Iron steamers, built at Liverpool and Glasgow,
were easily turned into confederate cruisers, and employed
against United States merchantmen. One called the Oreto,
afterwards the Florida, was armed at Mobile; but most
of them never entered a confederate port, but were equipped
like the "290," afterwards the Alabama, which sailed to
the Azores, and there received its armament from one British
vessel, and its crew from another. These rovers generally
hoisted the British flag as they approached a vessel, and
then, running up the confederate, used British guns and
British gunners to capture or to destroy their victims. All
this had been going on for a year, and exciting the utmost
indignation among American merchants and the whole
American people, when it became known that two ironclad rams, the most powerful ships of war that could be
built, were in construction at the same ship-yard which had
sent out the Alabama; and there could be no doubt of
their destination. The United States minister, Mr. Adams,
had done his best to prevent the sailing of the cruisers;
he now  attempted to prevent the sailing of the rams.
On being told by the British foreign secretary that " the
government cannot interfere," Mr. Adams wrote, (September 5, 1863,) " It would be superfluous for me to point
out that this is war." By taking this position, he carried
the day, and the rams were detained.




454              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Chatta-   The defeat of the army of the Cumberland, under
nooga. General Rosecrans, at Stone River, at the close of
1862, was redeemed at the opening of 1863, at Murfreesboro'. But though the confederate general Bragg retreated from this battle-field, he did not retreat far, nor did
Rosecrans follow  for six months afterwards.  He then
started, his principal object being to hold Chattanooga on
the southern border of East Tennessee, while General
Burnside, with the army of the Ohio, was to cross the
northern border, and recover that loyal region. Without
a battle, Rosecrans so moved as to compel the evacuation
of East Tennessee by the confederates, whom Bragg soon
found he needed in his own army; and further, to force
Bragg and all his troops out of Chattanooga, (September 8.)
Burnside entered Knoxville, (September 3,) amid a rejoicing population, men, women, and children joining in the
welcome, and in offers of hospitality to the army. Nothing
like it had been seen in the course of the war, for nowhere
else had a people held so long, unaided, to the Union.
Rosecraus, not content with what had been gained, pressed
on, and without sufficient knowledge of the enemy's movements. Bragg was reenforced by Longstreet and a large
body of troops from the army of Northern Virginia. With
these he turned upon Rosecrans, marching by the Chickamauga, with the intention of throwing himself between the
Union army and Chattanooga, which lay at no great distance.' Thomas. in command of the Union left, opened
the battle on the 19th, and closed it on the 20th, the centre
and the right having broken and fled, Rosecrans with them.
Retreatto Chattanooga was inevitable, and with the army
there, and the enemy on Missionary Ridge and Lookout
MIountain, - heights which commanded its communications, if not the town itself, - the campaign seemed utterly
lost. So, indeed, it was; but another campaign succeeded




CIVIL WAR- CONTINUED.             455
under other direction, and the loss was repaired. A new
department, the Mississippi, was created, and General Grant
was appointed to its command. Under him, his army of
the Tennessee, Shermnan commanding, the army of the
Cumberland, Thomas commanding, the army of the Ohio,
Burnside commandinr, and twenty odd thousand men
brought from the army of the Potomac, twelve hundred
miles in seven days, with H-looker at their head, all constituted an effective force, and Grant was an effective
leader. Here the interest of the war wvas for a time concentrated; nor were circumstances wanting to give it peculiar intensity — on the one hand, the situation of the Union
forces, virtually besieged in Chattanooga, and actually besieged at Knoxville,where Longstreet brought superior numbers against Burnside; on the other hand, the successive
stages in their relief, Grant's arrival, (October 23,) then
Sherman's, (November 15,) then the great victory of Chattanooga, part of it above the clouds on Lookout Mountain,
and the whole planned and executed with extraordinary
ability, (November 23-25), in consequence of which Bragg
retreated from his position, and Longstreet from his at Knoxville. The combinations of the general and the achievements of the army had won a triumph as romantic as it
was complete.
The victorious commander was soon appointed
Grant
Lieuten- to a still higher charge. Congress revived the
ant Gen- grade of lieutenant general, which had been held
cral.
only by Washington, and the president immediately nominated Ulysses S. Grant. Ten days later, an executive order was issued appointing Lieutenant General Grant
to thle command of the armies of the United States, (March
10, 1864.) The new chief soon made it known that he
had two purposes above all others of a military naturethe first, that the armies of the east and the west must




456              PART IV. 1797-1872.
act together, and the second, that they must act directly
against the confederate armies.
Red     Neither purpose was served by an expedition
liver.  previously planned.  Louisiana, or that part in
Union possession, had been the starting-point of several
military adventures, and one more was now directed against
Shreveport, on Red River. It was joined by troops from
the army of the Tennessee, and gunboats and iron-clads from
the Mississippi. General Banks was in command, with General Franklin as his lieutenant and adviser. The whole thing
failed. The army was routed at Sabine Cross Roads, (April
8,) and compelled to retreat precipitately; while the fleet,
caught in low water above the falls at Alexandria, would
have been lost there but for the engineering ability of
Lieutenant Colonel Bailey, who, by a series of dams across
the rocks, raised the water so that the vessels could pass
down, (May 9-13.) The expedition ended with the removal of General Banks, General Canby succeeding.
France    Before entering upon Grant's campaign we catch
and Mex- sight of a new danger. In the first year of the
ico. vvwar, France, Great Britain, and Spain united in a
convention, of which the ostensible object was to compel
Mexico to resume the payment of her foreign debt. From
this Great Britain and Spain withdrew in the following
year; but France, or rather the Emperor Napoleon, pressed
on with the intention of conquering Mexico, and creating
an empire which should be more or less tributary to his
own. The French arms soon prevailed, and the Austrian Archduke Maximilian became Emperor of Mexico.,There -could be but one opinion about this among the
loyal citizens of the United States. The French emperor
was their enemy, as well as the Mexicans'; he was
known to favor the dissolution of the Union, and but
for the prospect of that event, and the struggle against




CIVIL WAR-CONTINUED.              457
it in which the Americans were involved, he would never
have exposed his troops or his government in a Mexican
expedition. Resolutions were twice offered in the United
States Senate declaring the expedition an act unfriendly to
the United States; but the Senate would not debate them.
The House of Representatives passed a resolution, (April
4, 1864,) " that it does not accord with the policy of the
United States to acknowledge a monarchical government
erected on the ruins of any republican government in
America, under the auspices of any European power."
The French minister at Washington immediately demanded an explanation of the secretary of state, while the
American envoy at Paris was asked by the French foreign
minister if he brought peace or war. Although the French
government professed to be satisfied with the representations it received, the danger of rupture between it and the
United States continued as long as occupation of Mexico
by the French continued.
Lieutenant General Grant made his headquarters
virginia.
with the army of the Potomac, which remained under the immediate orders of General Meade. With this
army, in three corps, commanded by Generals Hancock,
Warren, and Sedgwick, a fourth corps commanded by
General Burnside, and the cavalry under General Sheridan,
Grant began his campaign against Lee on the 4th of May.
The same day, the army of the James, under General
Butler, moved from Fortress Monroe towards Richmond,
but was soon checked and thrown out of the combined
movement. For two months Grant was in the thick of battle. The Wilderness, (May 5-12,) Spottsylvania, (12-21,)
the North Anina, (21-31,) Cold Harbor, (June 1-10,) and
Petersburg, (10-30,) were the centres from which circles
of slaughter successively radiated.. The army of Northern
Virginia, reinforced from the south, never fought more
39




458               PART IV. 1797-1872.
stubbornly, or, considering the difference in its antagonist,
more successfully. It was in its own country, strong in
its defences, and moving in shorter distances than the
Union army. Every attempt to pierce it, or to flank it,
f:ailed, and Grant, though proposing, on the sixth day, "to
fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," changed
his line on the fourteenth day, and on the thirty-second
utterly abandoned it for a line on the south side of the
James, which he held all summer, autumn, and winter,
with headquarters at City Point.  Here his first object
was the capture of Petersburg; his second, to break in between Petersburg and Richmond; his third, to extend his
intrenchments on the left, that is, to the south-west, in order
to seize the railroad communications of the enemy. The
third alone was partially gained by seizing the Weldon
railroad, (August 18.) It was now nearly three months
and a half since the campaign began, and this was the first
positive success. Blood had flowed like water; ten thousand
men had been killed, - General Wadsworth and General
Sedgwick among the earliest to fall, -and fifty thousand
more were wounded, many of them past recovery, on the
Union side alone. The enemy, far from being absorbed in
resisting Grant, was able to send a force of twenty thousand, under General Early, into Maryland and Pennsylvania, (July.) Baltimore and Washington were threatened,
Chambersburg was burned, the country all around was
ravaged, and Early retired to the Shenandoah Valley.
There he was followed by General Sheridan, and thrice
defeated, at Opequan, (September 19,) Fisher's Hill, (September 21.) and Cedar Creek, (October 19,) the last action
beginning with the defeat of the Union troops, in Sheridan's absence, and ending with their victory when he
placed himself at their hlead. Such, in its main features,
was the Virginia campaign of 1864; and the closing year




CIVIL WAR - CONTINUED.             459
found Grant still before Petersburg, and still endeavoring
to extend his lines to the south-west, while Lee held Petersburg, and Richmond behind it, apparently secure.
Georgia. Yet Lee had been weakened not only by the immediate pressure of Grant, but by other movements
at a distance. The next day but one after the army of the
Potomac began to move, General Sherman led the three
armies of the Tennessee, the Cumberland, and the Ohio, -
the first under McPherson, the second under Thomas, and
the third under Schofield, - against the confederate army
under Johnston, (May 6.)  The army was Sherman's immediate object; his final object being Atlanta, in Georgia,
a centre of supplies to the confederates, and about one
hundred and fifty miles, by lines of march, from Chattanooga. By constantly flanking the enemy, and frequently
fighting him, Sherman crossed the Alleghany range and the
Chattahoochee River —a success so great, in the opinion
of the confederate authorities, that Johnston was removed,
and Hood put in his place, (July 17.) IHe was a bold, if
not a skilful commander, and attacked Sherman in three
successive engagements near Atlanta, (July 20, 22, 28,)
McPherson falling in the second, but the Union troops victorious in all three. Then followed a month's siege of
Atlanta by Sherman, then his movement towards the south,
culminating in the victory of Jonesboro', (August 31,)
and the evacuation of Atlanta by the confederate army,
(September 2.)  " Atlanta is ours, and fairly won," Sherman telegraphed to Washington. lIe ordered the inhabitants to leave the city, destroyed the manufactories and
machine shops which had been supplying the confederate
forces;, and hleld it simply as a military position. Finding
that the enemy intended to break his communications, and
move towards Tennessee, Sherman sent back his best general, Thomas, to defend that state, and afterwards despatched




460              PART IV. 1797-1872.
a large part of his army for the same purpose. Meantime,
he followed Hood northward and westward, until satisfied
with regard to the preparations for meeting him, when he
turned back to Atlanta, destroying the railroads, cutting
the telegraph wire, and finally firing Atlanta, as he started
on a march to the sea, (November 14.) This was his own
plan, and one to which General Grant had been slow to
consent. Sherman led three divisions, General Howard
commanding the right, or the army of the Tennessee; General Slocuml the left, or army of Georgia; and General
Kilpatrick the cavalry; in all, sixty-five thousand men,
moving in four columns. The distance was between two
hundred and fifty and three hundred miles, and it was
traversed in four weeks, without any severe fighting or
serious loss.  Savannah  was invested December 12;
Fort McAllister was taken by assault, under General
Hazen, on the next day; and communications were opened
with the fleet by General Sherman in person. On the 22d,
Savannah surrendered, and on the 26th, the triumphant
general telegraphed to the president, " I beg to present you,
as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah."  His objects
had been completely obtained, the Georgia railways being
broken up, the manufactories, crops, and cattle of the people being swept away, 1" as well as," he said, " a countless
number of slaves." Nor was this all. Thomas had done
his part. As Hood marched northward, he was checked,
in a severe battle, at Franklin, by Schofield, or rather by
one of Schofield's brigadiers, Opdycke,' (November 30;)
and Schofield joining Thomas, the enemy pressed on to
Nashville.  Grant became impatient, and started from the
James River, but on reaching WVashington received such
information from Thomas as quieted his apprehensions.
That general took the offensive, and falling on Hood's left
wing, defeated his whole army at Nashville, in a battle




CIVIL WAR — CONTINUED.              461
which lasted two days, (December 15, 16,) and was followed by a pursuit of the broken confederates for two hundred miles. Their Georgia army was no more.
Kearsarge From the military operations of this year we turn
and Ala- to the naval. Foremost stands the victory of the
bama.  Kearsarge over the Alabama. This steamer which
sailed from Liverpool in the summer of 1862 had been
for nearly two years capturing and destroying American
vessels on the Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the
Indian seas. While she was lying in the French port of
Cherbourg, the United States steamer Kearsarge, Captain
Winslow, arrived in pursuit, and Semmes, in command of
the Alabama, accepted the opportunity of battle, (June 19,
1864,) confident that his vessel of British build, and his
guns manned by gunners from a British ship of war, would
win. It was, in fact, an engagement between British and
American steamers, and the sympathies not only of Great
Britain, but of France, were on the side of the Alabama.
But in vain. An hour's conflict, off Cherbourg, and the
Alabama ran up the white flag, then sank beneath the
waters of the Channel, her commander escaping in a British yacht, to be honored with a public dinner and the gift
of a sword by his admirers in England. The tribute to
Winslow and his men was the gratitude of every heart
among their loyal countrymen.
Mobile    On the 5th of August, in the early morning, AdBay.   miral Farragut brought his fleet against three forts
and a confederate squadron defending the entrance to
Mobile Bay. The ram Tennessee was one of the squadron,
and a more powerful vessel than any of the assailants,
while the channel was obstructed with piles and torpedoes.
It mattered not to Farragut. Lashed to the maintop of
his flagship, the Hartford, and giving his orders through
a speaking tube to the deck, the admiral led the way to
39 *




462               PART IV. 1797-1872.
victory, destroying or scattering the confederate fleet in
less than four hours, causing the abandonment of one of
the three forts immediately, and the surrender of the other
two upon the appearance of a land force. The closing of
Mobile left but one port, Wilmington, where the blockade
could be run.
Reelec-   In the midst of war a new state, Nevada, was
tion of admitted to the Union, (October 31.) The presiLincoln. dential election followed, (November 8.) This was
justly regarded as deciding whether the war should be continued or stopped. The democratic party, or the majority
of them, wanted it stopped, and declared it a failure. They
put forward, however, a candidate, General McClellan,
who might think it a failure, but could not wish it stopped
until it succeeded. Mr. Lincoln was the republican candidate, nominated not without open and secret opposition,
and receiving a half-hearted support from many of the most
earnest men in the party. But he stood for the Union, and
the Union chose him its president for another term, by two
hundred and twelve out of two hundred and thirty-three
electoral votes, and a popular majority of more than four
hundred thousand. All things considered, the long sufferings and the life-long losses of the war, and the uncertainty
in which its issues were still involved, the will of the people to continue it is as really sublime as any thing in our
history.
Thirteenth  It soon appeared how much more than the elecamend-  tion itself had been at stake. Congress repealed
ment.  the fugitive slave law before the election, (June,
1864,;) but only the Senate would consent to the proposition of an amendment to the Constitution  prohibiting
slavery within the United States.  After the election, the
House adopted it by more than a two thirds' vote, amid
rejoicings which have few parallels in congressional annals,




CIVIL WAR —CONTINUED.              463
(January 31, 1865.)  This amendment, known as the
Thirteenth, was ratified in the course of the year by three
fourths of the state legislatures, and became a part of the
Constitution.
Slavesen- Singular as it may seem, the confederate Conlisted by gress itself was moving towards emancipation. We
the con- have passed over the straits to which the governfederates.
ment at Richmond was gradually reduced - its want
of means, its want of men. As the campaign of 1864 became more and more disastrous, the measures to which it
brought the confederates became more and more remarkable. At length, Jefferson Davis proposed, and General
Lee recommended, the employment of slaves as soldiers,
and that those so employed should be freed, either on entering or quitting service. A bill was brought before Congress, adopted by the House, rejected by the Senate, but
on the Virginia senators voting for it, in obedience to the
legislature of that state, the bill was carried, (February,
1865.)  " It is an abandonment," said one of the senators
from Virginia, " of the ground on which we seceded from
the old Union....   If we are right in passing this
measure, we were wrong in denying to the old government
the right to interfere with the institution of slavery and to
emancipate slaves." There could be no clearer proof that
the confederates were vanquished.
Fort    But battles remained to be fought. One had
Fisher. already occurred at the mouth of the Cape Fear
River, where Fort Fisher and other strong fortifications
protected the approach to Willnington. This it became
important to.reduce, not merely to complete the blockade
at the only point where it was incomplete, but to prepare
for General Sherman's advance from  Georgia through
the Carolinas. The first attempt failed. The fleet under
Admiral Porter bombarded the fort vigorously; but General




464              PART IV. 1797-1872.
Butler, taking command of the troops, though it was intended that they should be led by one of his subordinate
generals, allowed only one part of them to be disembarked,
and returned with the whole to James River, (December
24-25, 1864.) General Grant then ordered General Terry
to take them back, and he landed them above the fort, intrenched their position, and then led them to a severe and
successful assault, the fleet aiding by a continuous bombardment, (January 13-15, 1865.) Fort Fisher was surrendered, and all the other works at the mouth of the Cape
Fear were abandoned.
Sherman Sherman was all the while preparing to march
in the  northward.  His instructions were to embark his
Carolinas. army at Savannah for the James River, in order to
combine with the forces there; but he was anxious to march
by land, which would bring up the troops in better condition, and at the same time inflict a mortal blow upon the
Carolinas, particularly the one which began the war. " At
one stride," he promised, he would " make Goldsboro',
and open communications with the sea by Newbern."
Grant consented, and by the 1st of February, Sherman's
army was in motion towards Columbia. It was a far
more difficult march than that to Savannah. The weather
was wet and cold, the roads were under water, the rivers
were swollen; " we must all turn amphibious," said Sherman. But he reached his first point, the capital of South
Carolina, and it was surrendered, (February 17.) On the
same night Charleston was evacuated, the confederates no
longer regarding it as tenable, and on the next morning
the Union troops in that neigborhood entered the city and
took possession of Fort Sumter, (February 18.) Both
cities were fired by the confederates, and both would have
been utterly destroyed but for the exertions of the Union
soldiers. Sherman kept on, and crossed the line between




CIVIL WAR - CONTINUED.             465
the Carolinas, (March 8,) then entered Fayetteville, (March
11,) and communicated with the Union army on the coast.
This was now under General Schofield, who, with a considerable force, had come from Tennessee, by way of Washington, to Fort Fisher, taken Wilmington, (February 22,)
and moved to the interior in order to join Sherman. The
junction was soon effected at Goldsboro', (MIarch 21,) but
not before Sherman had some severe encounters with the
enemy, now  concentrated from  various quarters under
General Johnston. Railroad communication was immediately established between Goldsboro' and Newbern, and
Sherman left his army for a few days in order to meet the
president and General Grant at City Point, and concert the
final operations which were evidently at hand.
The armies on the north and south side of the
Grant's
victory James held their positions through the winter unover Leechanged' until the left was extended as far as
Hatcher's Run, (February 6.) A few weeks later General
Sheridan was directed to bring a strong body of mounted
men from Winchester, in the Shenandoah Valley, across
the northern and western communications of Richmond,
either to Sherman's or to Grant's headquarters.  He came
to Grant's, (March 27,) having excited great alarm at the
confederate capital. Then Grant began decisive movements. The army of the Potomac had just repelled the
last effort of Lee to break its line, (March 27,) and now
turned upon his lines. He could not hold them, but he
must be attacked before retreating, and prevented from
joining Johnston, as he was believed to intend. To turn
his right was Grant's first object, and Sheridan gained
it in the battle of Five Forks, (April 1.) To break
Lee's lines was Grant's next object, and the whole army
gained it by a common and irresistible assault, in consequence of which Lee sent word to Jefferson Davis that




466               PART IV. 1797-1872.
Richmond must be evacuated, (April 2.)  It was so, amid
confusion and horror, all order lost, while flames, kindled
by direction of the war department, were threatening the
whole city with ruin, as the Union troops came in, and
instantly set about extinguishing the fire, (April 3.)  That
day, one long, broad thrill of exultation ran through the
loyal states. The end, they knew, was near; the sacrifices,
in order to attain it, were not in vain. Grant was in pursuit of the retreating army. Broken as it might be, it was
still an army, still his great object; and while others made
their entry into Richmond, he, and M3eade, and Sheridan,
and the rest, pressed on for six days more, when, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered the army of Northern
Virginia, (April 9.) Again the loyal states exulted, and
as day succeeded day, with fresh evidences of the great
victory that had been won, the country seemed secure.
Assassi-  Every thing was again plunged into insecurity
nation of by the assassination of the president. He had visthe pres- ited Richmond, and returned to Washington full
ident.
of kindly purposes towards the conquered, when an
actor, named Booth, entered the box where he sat in a
theatre, and shot him through the head. He lingered, unconscious, for several hours, and died early on the following morning, (April 15.) The life of the secretary of
state was attempted by another hand the same night, and
other high officers of government, it was believed, had been
in peril. Andrew Johnson, vice president, succeeded to
the presidency; but his character was not such as to reassure those who mourned  for Lincoln.  They were
millions. If ever the heart of the nation was moved as one
man, it was then; and the grief was all the deeper in contrast with the joy that had just gone before.
Close of   The day before the president's assassination, the
the war. secretary of war announced his intention " to stop




CIVIL WAR —CONTINUED.              467
all drafting and recruiting in the loyal states," (April 13.)
This was the same as to declare the war ended; and so it
proved. Mobile, after a severe siege, surrendered to General Canby on the 12th of April, and the same day General
Wilson entered Montgomery, once the confederate capital.
Johnston's army surrendered to Sherman on the 26th, and
would have done so much sooner but for an effort to
cover other than military objects. In the following month,
(May,) Taylor and E. K. Smith surrendered their armies
in the south-west to General Canby. The last hostility by
land was an engagement near Palo Alto, in Texas, (May 13.)
The last by sea was the burning of a whaling fleet, in the
Northern Pacific, by the cruiser Shenandoah, (June 28.)
We have reserved to the close some of the lights
and shadows in the story of the war. Among the
shadows, none fell farther than the treatment of the Union
prisoners by their captors. There were difficulties in the
way of exchanging prisoners, at first because the government shrank firom so far acknowledging the insurgents
as belligerents, and afterwards because the confederates
would exchange white prisoners alone, claiming a right to
deal with the blacks and their white officers as criminals.
These delays would have been hard enough for the prisoners and their friends in any circumstances, but in those of
the southern prisons they were heart-rending. At Richmond and elsewhere, in jails, warehouses, and covered
railway bridges, — at Andersonville and other places, in
pens, - thousands upon thousands of Union prisoners were
exposed to barbarities almost exceeding belief. " Terrible
beyond description," are the words applied to the Richmond prisons in a report of a confederate congressional
committee to the secretary of war, in September, 1862.
"A reproach to us as a nation," reports a confederate
adjutant and inspector-general to the same official, in




468               PART IV. 1797-1872.
August, 1864, respecting Andersonville.  A committee of
the United States Sanitary Commission, after thorough inquiry, reported in September, 1864, that " tens of thousands
of helpless men have been, and are now being, disabled
and destroyed by a process as certain as poison.
This spectacle is daily beheld and allowed by the rebel
government..... The conclusion is unavoidable that
these privations and sufferings have been designedly inflicted." According to the statistics of the war departient, one hundred and twenty-six thousand nine hundred
and fifty soldiers were taken prisoners, and twenty-two
thousand five hundred and seventy of these died in prison.
It was often proposed to retaliate upon confederate prisoners, but better counsels prevailed.
~Sanitary    Nothing was brighter through these sad years
and Chris- than the persevering devotion of the people to those
tian Com- who fought their battles. Men had no sooner
missions.
sprung to arms than other men, and women in
great number, began to minister to their wants and those
of their families.  Several Soldiers' Aid Societies were
formed, and out of these grew the United States Sanitary
Commission, or, as it was styled in the order from the
secretary of war, " a commission of inquiry and advice
in respect of the sanitary interests of the United States
forces," (June 1861.) It was not to do what the government was doing, but rather to do what the government
was leaving undone, and as there was a great deal of this,
the Commission was kept busy. Its headquarters were in
New York, its posts all over the loyal states, its members
and work-people, men and women, in every camp and
every hospital, watching the well, nursing the sick, transporting the wounded, protecting the discharged, supplying
medicine, food, clothing, books, and even games along the
Union lines. Another organization, the Christian Com



CIVIL WAR —CONTINUED.               469
mission, was formed (November, 1861) with immediate
reference to the spiritual wants of the soldiers; but its agents
became as active as those of the Sanitary Commission
in the relief of physical necessities.  Side by side, the
commissions distributed what the nation gave, all kinds of
supplies and subscriptions in one steady stream, sometimes
from a poor woman, sometimes from  a man worth millions, in individual offerings, or in various combinations.
Fairs in INew York, Philadelphia, and Boston were successful in raising the largest sums. At least thirty millions,
in money and stores, passed through the agencies of the
two Commissions.
Cost of   The pecuniary cost of the war to the government
the war. and the loyal states, without counting a dollar expended by the confederates, could not have been less than
five thousand millions.  Indirectly it involved heavy losses
in production and productive force, as every war has done;
but these cannot be accurately estimated.  The great cost
of the war was personal - the death of thousands in battle,
and hospital, and, after their discharge, of wounds or diseases contracted in service, and the pain and privation occasioned by their loss to thousands upon thousands more.
Here was the real sacrifice, and in this the dying and the
living shared.  Yet few would have drawn back from it,
had they the power; for, much as the war cost them, it
repaid them with the sense of suffering in a great cause,
and of contributing to great ends —the emancipation of
four million slaves, the union of forty million freemen.
40




CHAPTER XIV.
REUNION.
Difficul-  PEACE had its difficulties no less than war. The
ties.   conquered were ready to confess their defeat, the
conquerors to use their victory without abusing it. But
here was a nation, split in two, to be reunited; here was
a society, quivering with agitation, to be calmed. One great
class -the slaveholding- was broken up. Another-the
slave — was suddenly thrown from slavery into freedom.
The whole people were accustomed to war, and to all its
consequences, public and private. Civil authority had outgrown its old traditions. The president and his cabinet,
Congress, the state and municipal governments, were in the
habitual exercise of more or less arbitrary powers. Large
appropriations and expenditures of money were too common to excite a healthful concern. Habits and ideas were
every where changing, and not at once for the better. On
the contrary, the high qualities which the danger of the
country called out seemed sinking beneath the corruption
and indifference which set in like a flood when the danger
passed. In these circumstances, reunion was not only
difficult; it might be impracticable, and many predicted
that it would be.'isarm-   The first obstacle in its way was removed by the
ing.   disarming of the nation. In May, 1865, the army
was more than a million strong. On the 22d and 23d of
that month more than two hundred thousand soldiers
(470)




REUNION.                    471
passed in review before the president, at Washington.
Fresh from their great victories, they looked as if they
could do what they pleased with their unarmed countrymen. Nor were they all. The thousands who manned
the national fleets were equally strong in the position they
had won. Yet all these numbers dwindled, all these armies
and crews were disbanded with as much ease as if they
had been vanquished instead of victorious. The secretary
of war reported eight hundred thousand troops mustered
out in six months, while material of every kind, stores,
transports, railroads and their trains, telegraphs, were
disposed of, and the army placed upon a peace footing.
The same reduction was effected in the navy. Soldier or
sailor, the volunteer disappeared in the citizen.
Freed-    The next obstacle to reunion could not be so rapmen.   idly removed. Three or four million freedmen
were to be snatched from  their former masters, or those
who now threatened to master them, and trained to selfcontrol, before the nation to which they belonged could be
properly considered as united. Just as the war was closing,
Congress established in the war department a bureau of
freedmen, refugees, and abandoned lands, to continue during
the war, and one year thereafter, (March, 1865.) A commissioner, with an assistant for each state in insurrection
and a number of clerks, was charged with all subjects relating to freedmen. Until the army was reduced so that it
could no longer spare its officers, it supplied commissioners
to the bureau. Their functions, originally, were to provide for the sick and needy, and to distribute abandoned
lands among the freedmen; but few lands proved to be
abandoned, and this part of the work fell through. Relief
was administered in every possible form - food, clothing,
shelter, and protection. When differences arose between
fieedmcu and their employers, the commissioners served




472               PART IV. 1797-1872.
as arbitrators, and this service was as useful as any which
they rendered. In July, 1866, the bureau was continued
for two years longer, and its duties were enlarged so as
to include education of the freedmen and their children.
In this good work individuals and associations had been
engaged here and there for several years, but it was now
extended all over the Southern States.  In 1868 the bureau
was again continued, and in 1869 it reported twenty-five
hundred and seventy-one schools, thirty-two hundred and
sixty-two teachers, and one hundred and sixteen thousand
one hundred and ten scholars. In 1870 it came to an
end, having stood between the freedmen and their trials,
and enabled them to cross the gulf between their old condition and their new.
Recon-    A third obstacle to reunion was the position of
struction the states that had seceded.  Whether they were
of states. states or not, in the Union or out of it, excited a
great deal of discussion to little purpose. Practically, they
were separated from the states which had not seceded, and
it was necessary to bring the separation to an end. As
this involved all the authorities, confederate and state, all
the army and navy, all the classes which had been in insurrection, it was far the most severe task before the nation.
Unhappily, its severity was increased by divisions between
the two branches of the government employed in it; the
president insisting upon one course, and Congress upon
another, until both were on the brink of failure. President
Johnson entered upon office with loud threats of avenging
the assassination of his predecessor, and punishing the
treason that had excited civil war. Vengeance, however,
was not in the minds of the people, and Mr. Johnson's tone
soon softened. He issued a proclamation of amnesty to
" all persons who have directly or indirectly participated
in the rebellion," excepting the higher civil, military, and




REUNION.                    473
naval officers of the confederate service, together with
various other classes, provided that all availing themselves
of the amnesty should take and keep an oath of fidelity to
the Constitution, the Union, and the laws and proclamations of emancipation. Next, the president appointed provisional governors of the seceded states, with instructions
to call conventions, in order to amend the state constitutions, and enable the loyal people to recover their constitutional relations to the Union. This was done in each
state, the conventions declaring the secession of the state
null and void, and prohibiting slavery within its borders.
Then the state legislatures assembled and ratified the
thirteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United
States. This was the president's plan of reconstruction.
It left the states very much in the hauds of those who had
taken them out of the Union, without any other proviso in
behalf of their colored people than the acceptance of emancipation. Congress met in December, 1865, and instantly
began upon another plan. A joint committee, commonly
called the Reconstruction Committee, was appointed, and
entered upon long investigations.  At the end of six
months, (June, 1866,) it reported as a basis of reconstruction a fourteenth constitutional amendment. This provides
that all persons born or naturalized in the United States
are citizens; that the privileges of citizenship shall not be
abridged by any state; that if a male citizen, being twentyone years old, is denied the right to vote, he cannot be
counted in the number to be represented in Congress;
that no person who has broken his oath to support the
Constitution, and engaged in insurrection, can hold office;
that the validity of the public debt of the United States
shall not be questioned, but that any debt in aid of insurrection, or any claim for the loss of a slave, shall be illegal.
On this plan, it is evident that the hitherto ruling class at
40 *




474               PART IV. 1797-1872.
the south would retain a very limited share of authority,
while the freedmen would be put in a position of political
security. Freedmen were, in the first place, full citizens
of the United States. If they were not full citizens of the
state in which they lived, the state would suffer in its congressional representation, and would therefore be under
pressure to give them full citizenship - in other words, the
right to vote.  Here was the essential difference between
the presidential and the congressional plans; the latter
sought suffrage for the freedman, the former avoided it.
The legislature of Tennessee immediately accepted the
fourteenth amendment, and the state was thereupon readmitted to the Union, July 23, 1866. With regard to the
other states, a long delay ensued. The quarrel between
the president and Congress became bitterer, and as he
encouraged the states seeking re-admission to hold to his
policy instead of yielding to that of Congress, they remained where they were.  Congress gave suffrage to the
freedmen in the District of Columbia, (January, 1867,)
and admitted the state of Nebraska only on condition that
it should not deny suffrage to the freedmen within its
limits, (March 1.) These, and many other acts, were
passed over the president's veto. More decisive than any
other measure, the reconstruction act of March 2, 1867,
divided the ten states waiting admission into military districts, each with its commanding officer, and so to remain
until a convention of delegates "elected by male citizens
twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color,
or previous condition," excepting those disqualified by the
fourteenth amendment, should frame a state constitution,
which, being ratified by the people and approved by Congress, should go into operation, and the legislature thereupon elected should adopt the fourteenth amendment, and
it should become a part of the United States Constitu



REUNION.                   475
tion. All this came to pass with seven of the states in
the following year, when North Carolina, South Carolina.
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, (June 25, 1868,)
and Arkansas, (June 22,) were re-admitted. For many,
if not all these states, it was a cruel experience. They
were released from military rule to pass under a civil
rule exercised largely not by their own people, but by
mere adventurers who had come among them with sordid
purposes, and whose success came very near being the ruin
of the states where they succeeded. Nearly two years
more passed before the other three states were re-admitted,
Virginia in January, Mississippi in February, and Texas
in March, 1870.
A year before this last date President Johnson's
Impeachment of troubled term had closed. He had taken a posiPresident tion so antagonistic to Congress, that Congress
Johnson.
may be excused for all its antagonism  to him.
But the extreme to which it went in impeaching him can
be justified on no other than party grounds. An act of
1867, regulating the tenure of certain civil offices, was
intended to prevent the president from removing their
incumbents, as had been the rule, without the consent of
the Senate.  On the president's disregarding this act, and
removing the secretary of war without consulting the
Senate, his opponents thought they had their opportunity of
impeaching him, and he was accordingly impeached by the
House of Representatives, to be tried by the Senate for
high crimes and misdemeanors, (February, 1868.) After
a trial lasting nearly two months, a few senators were independent enough to vote against their party, and he was
acquitted, (May 26.)
Four-     The fourteenth amendment was officially proteenth and claimed a part of the Constitution in July, 1868.
fifteenth
amend- In the following February, a fifteenth amendment
ments. was adopted by Congress, to the intent that the




476              PART IV. 1797-1872.
right to vote should not be denied by the United States or
by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. In March, the adminstration of President Grant began, and at the end of a year, in March, 1870,
he announced the final adoption of the amendment in a
special message to Congress as completing " the greatest
civil change that has occurred since the nation came into
life." The freedman was now fully a citizen.
Enforcing Such changes as benefited him were not accepted
the four- by many of his neighbors as benefiting them. In
teenth
amend- numerous parts of the Southern States the colored
ment.  people were much harried by the whites, who
often turned upon their own people likewise. An association called the Ku-Klux spread in various quarters, and
violence was on the increase, when Congress passed an act
to enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment,
authorizing the president to suspend the privilege of habeas
corpus, that is, to use military power wherever the constituted authorities did not suppress unlawful combinations,
(April, 1871.) It may be questioned whether the remedy
was not worse than the disease; but Congress had become
wonted to high-handed rule. The president made proclamation exhorting " the people of those portions of the
country to suppress all such combinations by their own
voluntary efforts through the agency of local laws." Reluctant as President Grant was to exercise the powers
which the act conferred, he suspended habeas corpus in
certain parts of South Carolina, (October.) But this was
not helping a real reunion.
A better step was taken in May, 1872, when ConAmnesty.
gress removed all legal and political disabilities, except from senators and representatives of the thirty-sixth
and thirty-seventh Congresses, (1859-63,) officers in the
judicial, military, and naval service, heads of departments,




REUNION.                    477
and foreign ministers, who had violated their oath to support the Constitution. This left a very small number,
comparatively, to pay the penalty of rebellion, and completed, as far as legislation could complete, the work of
reconstruction.
Financial The public debt did not reach its full proportions
adminis- until some time after the close of the war.  Many
tration. doubted the power, many more doubted the will, of
the nation to bear so heavy a burden, without attempting
to lighten it at the expense of those to whom it was due.
It was, therefore, a great relief when the House of Representatives, on the day after it assembled in December,
1865, voted, one hundred and sixty-two to one, that the
public debt is sacred and inviolable, and that any attempt
to impair it shall be promptly rejected. But the difficulty
of wisely administering the national finances was very
great. The best measures involved immediate sacrifices,
which financiers, public and private, were unwilling to make.
Taxation was a trouble that could be remedied by means
of reductions and improvements, until an easier system
was established. The debt could be diminished by paying
off instalments from the surplus revenue. But the paper
money, which constituted the only currency, and which
affected all prices and all habits of living throughout the
country, could not be redeemed, or even brought near to
redemption, without some temporary losses; and these were
too great for the moral force of the government, as for that
of the nation.  The financial administration of seven years
of peace left the people almost as far from a sound financial condition as it found them.
Civil-    One administrative  reform  was begun upon.
service. Congress authorized the president to prescribe such
rules and regulations for the admission of persons into the
civil service as would promote its efficiency, (March, 1871.)




478              PART IV. 1797-1872.
The president appointed a commission, and received from
them a scheme of rules which he communicated to Congress, (December.) That body was disposed to be inactive.
The civil service, as it stood, was at congresssional disposal; its offices were filled or.vacated, generally speaking,
according to the demands of members of Congress, each
managing his own locality, or claiming his share in general appointments. This patronage would cease with the
reform of the civil service; delay in reforming it was
therefore inevitable. The commission recommended the
competitive examination of candidates for office, and the
probationary appointment of those who succeeded at examination, together with securities for the tenure and promotion of deserving officers. It was a system vitally
needed.
Another great reform was carried farther.  It
Indians.
was the president's planning and the president's
doing.  He brought it forward in his inaugural address,
(March, 1869,) and followed it up by active measures. A
board of commissioners was created to take supervision of
the Indians.  In place of the agents hitherto appointed,
officers of the army and persons nominated by different
religious societies were intrusted with a charge which had
been long abused. Some reservations were placed entirely
under the immediate control of the Society of Friends
and other bodies which had sent missionaries among the
Indians.  " I have attempted," said President Grant, " a
new policy towards these wards of the nation with fair results so far as tried."  Indian hostilities did not cease.
They had broken out during the civil war, and after its
close. They broke out again after the new policy was tried.
But with this policy there came a hope, that had not come
before, of winning over the Indians to civilization and
peace.




REUNION.                    479
In turning to foreign relations, we go back to
and   the Johnson administration.  Early in 1866, Mr.
France. Seward wrote to the French minister at Washington, reminding him that the United States desired the withdrawal of the French troops from Mexico.  As the Emperor Napoleon was weary of' keeping them there, he not
unwillingly promised to withdraw them, and, after making
some changes in his plan, finally executed it in the first
months of 1867.  It was the strongest assertion of the
Monroe Doctrine that had been made by our government;
hardly a stronger one could be made.
Alaska    On the 30th of March, 1867, a treaty with RusandRus- sia transferred Alaska from  that power to the
sia.    United States, on the payment of a little more than
seven millions. This great territory, though nominally colonized for nearly a century, contained less than five hnundred
Russians and Siberians in a total population of twentynine thousand. It can hardly be said to have a history.
The first Russians to reach it came in 1731; the first to
explore it came in 1741, under Behring, who soon died on
the island named after him. Voyages led to trading-posts
and the establishment of Russian companies for the prosecution of the fur trade, in which American merchants and
seamen also engaged.  There was little besides the fur
trade to characterize the territory, or to render it a desirable acquisition, when it was transferred to General Rousseau, representing the United States, (October, 1867.)
Alabama  The claims of the United States against Great
claims. Britain, for the depredations of the Alabama and
other vessels in the confederate service, formed the subject of long-continued negotiations.  A  treaty was concluded with the British government by the American minister, Reverdy Johnson, at the beginning of 1869, but
rejected by the United States Senate.  Two years later,




480              PART IV. 1797-1872.
the British minister at Washington proposed a joint high
commission of the two governments to settle some questions concerning the North American fisheries, and other
matters relating to the British Possessions.  Mr. Fish,
secretary of state, suggested the consideration of the Alabama claims by the same commission, and this was accepted. Accordingly five commissioners of each government, ten in all, met at Washington on the 27th of February, 1871, and on the 8th of May signed the treaty of
Washington, which was ratified by the United States
Senate on the 24th of May, and by both governments on
the 17th of June. By this all the Alabama claims were
referred to a tribunal of arbitration, consisting of five
members, one named by the president, one by the queen,
one by the king of Italy, one by the president of the Swiss
Confederation, and one by the emperor of Brazil. For a
basis of arbitration, three rules were laid down as binding
a neutral to prevent, 1st, the equipment or departure of
any vessel to carry on war against a friendly power; 2d,
the use of its ports or waters as a base of naval operations,
or for the renewal of supplies against a friendly power;
and 3d, the violation of the fbregoing obligations. Furthermore, the British commissioners were authorized to
express regret for the escape of the Alabama and other
vessels from British ports, and for the depredations committed by those vessels.  As to other claims between the
two governments, or their subjects or citizens, the treaty
referred them  to a commission of three members, one
appointed by Great Britain, one by the United States, and
one by both powers, to sit at Washington.  This was a
great advance upon all previous negotiations, and as the
negotiators announced, " the method of adjustment is such
as will set a noble example to other governments in the
interest of the peace of the world." In December, 1871,




REJUNION.                  481
the board of arbitration met at Geneva, in Switzerland,
the United States being represented by Charles Francis
Adams, who had served as minister to Great Britain for
seven years from the beginning of the civil war. At this
meeting the American and British cases were presented,
and the arbitrators then adjourned, to re-assemble in June,
1872. Before that date, the treaty and the tribunal both
came very near dissolution. A  paragraph was found in
the American case urging what was known as the indirect
claims, or, as they were vaguely understood, the liability
of Great Britain for all the expenses of the civil war after
the battle of Gettysburg; because, after that, as was alleged,
the offensive operations of the insurgents were conducted
only at sea through the cruisers, and the war was prolonged for that purpose.  Happily, the indignation excited
by these suggestions in England was not sustained by any
support to them from the American people, who had little
mind to follow up such claims. The board of arbitration met on the 15th of June, 1872, and on the 28th set
the indirect claims aside.  On the 14th of September they
gave their decision, -the British arbitrator dissenting, -
that Great Britain should pay fifteen and a half million
dollars as indemnity to the United States. In this decision
the two governments and the two nations acquiesced.
Settle-    Abroad and at home, the immediate consequences
ment.  of the war were now settled. Legislation and negotiation had rendered the reunion of the American people
possible. Only the virtue of the people themselves could
render it real.
41




CHAPTER XV.
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.
Three    THE period from 1797 to 1872 forms a large
quarters part of our history. Three quarters of a century
of a century.  iS a long time in any national life, and particularly
in such a one as ours. In 1797, the United States, sixteen
in number, were just beginning to reach over the Alleghanies towards the basins and prairies of the west; they had
not even begun to approach the Gulf of Mexico. The
people numbered five millions. Independent, they were
yet dependent; they accepted the half subordinate position
accorded to them by the European powers, and pursued a
policy towards some of these powers which may almost be
described as colonial, rather than national. Within their
own borders, they were not altogether masters; the soil
had not yet yielded half its treasures; the rivers, even of the
east, were but partly navigated; the great lakes undotted
by a sail; the highways rough and infrequent; the mails
slow, though light; the resources of the nation hardly
touched, in fact, hardly known. In 1872, the states numbered thirty-seven. The territory embraced three million
square miles, stretching from ocean to ocean, besides more
than five hundred thousand in the north-west of the continent.
The population reached all but forty millions. Immigration
brought in eight millions during the period, and their children and descendants swelled the increasing numbers. The
nation stood face to face with the greatest states of Europe
(482)




NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.                483
on equal terms. It handled its own possessions with
vigor, cultivating its lands, working its mines, multiplying
its fabrics, covering its waters with vessels, traversing its
plains with railways, multiplying its facilities, and using
its opportunities. There had been interruptions. Wars
broke out, and commercial crises occurred at intervals, but
the injuries they caused seemed to be repaired by the prosperity which soon followed them. The three quarters of
a century, taken as a whole, was one long growth in size,
and strength, and riches.
Causes    Nothing like it was to be seen elsewhere. Europe
at work. grew, and European colonies grew, but not as the
United States, not as rapidly, not as widely. Indeed, the
difference is so great, the growth of the United States is so
wonderful, that there has been some difficulty in accounting
for it.  The Americans are not so evidently braver, or
wiser, or more industrious, or more ambitious, than their
contemporaries, as to be fitted to outstrip them. Nor is
the country so much more productive, or any of its natural
advantages so superior, as to explain its exceptional development. The causes at work have been partly physical,
but chiefly political. The climate, soil, extent of territory
waiting occupation, easy communication from one part to
another, have all contributed to the great result. But it
would never have been so great had it not been yet more
furthered by the national institutions, and particularly by
the principle of self-government on which they rest. Of
all people, ancient or modern, none have been left to govern themselves so much as the American. None have
been trained to such independence, to such mobility, to
such power of improving the circumstances in which they
may be placed. It is this which has remedied, as well as
produced, the defects in the national character, and the
errors in the national life; it is this, more than any other




484               PART IV. 1797-1872.
single cause, which has brought the national development
to its present point.
Public    The self-relying spirit of the nation is fed by the
schools. public schools, as a streAm by its fountain. 1. As
a system of administration, the schools, being left to local
management, favor the exercise of local authority. The
only schools under control of the general government are
those in the District of Columbia, the Military Academy at
West Point, (1802,) and the Naval Academy at Annapolis,
(1845.) A Bureau of Education, recently connected with
the department of the interior, has no other function than
to collect and distribute educational information.  All that
the government has to do with the schools throughout the
country is to make over that share of the public land in
each township which Congress has reserved for the support of public education. The state governments, as a rule,
control only the normal and charitable schools of their
foundation, and by no means all of these. The great mass
of schools is under municipal administration. 2. As a
system of instruction, the public schools tend to develop
the national traits in their scholars. They give the same
privileges to every child, training the native and the foreigner, the Teuton, the Celt, and the African, on equal
terms. After the emancipation of 1863, and more particularly after the extension of the Freedmen's Bureau in
1866, provision for that great class before unprovided for
was made first by the national, afterwards by local authority, and children of color were taken into the schools.
The instruction of all classes at the south was much encouraged by the munificence of George Peabody, who
placed three and a half millions in the hands of trustees in
order to promote southern education, (1866-9.)  There
still remain great gaps, not in any one section, but almost
every where; yet the general working of the school systeg''~J'^"  7J -' — ~~'~" " --— Y




NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.                485
is beneficial to a degree that can hardly be overestimated.
It gives a stamp to the mind and life of its children which
it is difficult to see how they would otherwise receive. It
fits them if native born, and doubly fits them if foreign
born, for the citizenship that awaits them, for the selfgovernment to which, one by one, and all together, they
are called.
Higher    Institutes, colleges, and universities - the latter
education. including professional and scientific schools - are
chiefly of private foundation. Here, too, in more or less
connection with the common schools, the self-governing
principle is maintained.  The higher institutions of learning were very few and very feeble at the beginning of the
period. They have become more numerous and more
vigorous; but they are still in a state of transition to better
things.
Public    Till within the last quarter of a century, libraries
libraries. were private, or belonged to private corporations,
except those of Congress and the state governments. The
Astor Library, founded by its first librarian, Joseph G.
Cogswell, rather than by the merchant who endowed it,
led the long line of public libraries which have arisen in
many of our smallest towns as well as our largest cities.
Though not always wisely collected or wisely used, they
have supplied what was always needed to accompany or to
follow the studies of the schools.
Art mu-  Just as the period closes, a new movement beseums. gins with the foundation of art museums in New
York and Boston. These, also, will supply a great want
in education.
The literature that produced but little in the sevLetters.
enteenth and eighteenth centuries continued to produce but little in the early part of the nineteenth; then it
became more fruitful. Washington Irving was the first of
41 *




486               PART IV. 1797-1872.
our men of letters, properly so called. He wrote history,
biography, travels, and legendary and sentimental tales,
all in a sunshiny style, which gave our literature a new
charm. Cooper wrote his stories of Indians and backwoodsmen, seamen and soldiers, with a fervor which made
one forget the unnaturalness of his characters. Maria
Brooks wrote the impassioned verse of Zophiel; Lydia
Sigourney was less poetic, but perhaps more winning in
her simpler strains. Percival and Halleck were happy in
their lyric efforts.  William  Croswell wrote poems as
flowers dropped along the path of priestly offices; yet, had
they been his work, instead of his pastime, he would not
have lived in vain.  Almost the same thing may be said
of Andrews Norton, whose little cluster of hymns will
move many a heart beyond the reach of the theological
and critical labors in which he spent his days. Webster's
speeches were the great landmark in our political literature. None of our public men compared with him in
breadth of thought or force of language. Everett's orations were the graceful work of a rhetorician rather than a
statesman. Kent and Story were the great expounders
of our laws. Jared Sparks gave his honest toil to the history and biography of the nation. His editions of Washington's and Franklin's Writings revived the interest in
them and their times. Prescott turned to the brilliant episodes of Spain, and the Spanish possessions in America,
and gave them so picturesque a treatment, as to win readers every where, at home and abroad. Ticknor was the
historian of Spanish literature, and on so comprehensive a
plan, as to set a new example to American scholars. Nathaniel Hawthorne sought out a mythical background for
his creations, and then filled in their wavering outline with
deep color and solemn shade. Fiction became more and
more attractive to our writers, and they wrote with in



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.               487
creasing mastery. Poetry put on a new aspect as it was
interpreted by Bryant and Longfellow, Whittier, Emerson,
and Lowell, to whom the nation owes a very large proportion of what is best in its intellectual life. History continued to find followers, and Bancroft, Motley, Palfrey, and
Parkman were among the most successful.
Scientific culture was very greatly on the increase.
science.
Its two foremost names are of foreign origin. John
James Audubon, born in Louisiana long before its acquisition by the United States, was the author of a work on
the Birds of America, far surpassing any similar publication before attempted in this country. Audubon belongs
to the former half of the period under review, Agassiz
to the latter. This eminent naturalist, not so much a
Swiss as an American, has published important volumes
on the natural history of the United States; but his most
important work is the foundation of the Museum of Comparative Zoilogy at Cambridge. Nathaniel Bowditch deserves to be remembered as the translator and commentator of the Mecanique Celeste of La Place. The United
States Coast Survey and Observatory have been of great
benefit to science. Universities and scientific schools, or
those upon their staffs who have been active in research,
have stimulated scientific studies in almost every direction.
Gilbert Stuart was the great portrait painter, not
only of his own day, but of the whole period. His
faces live and speak like those of the greatest masters.
Washington Allston was at once the portrait and the historical painter, the landscape and the ideal artist, in whom
all that is most sublime and all that is most delicate found
full expression. He stands in our artistic, like Irving in
our literary history, the first to give American art its
charm. Crawford came later, the most imaginative of
our sculptors, but with less power to execute his concep



488               PART IV. 1797-1872.
tions than they deserved. Greenough and Powers, Story
and Ball, have all won high places in sculpture. Cole,
Kensett, Hunt, and many more, form a group of
painters to whom the country is more indebted than it
knows. Music has taken strong hold upon some of our
communities.  It has come with the musically educated
immigrants, and grown among the American born, particularly since it was introduced into the public schools.
But it has as yet inspired no great composers of our own.
Inven-    The best American ideas are often said to be
tions. those of our inventors. Eli Whitney's cotton gin,
Hoe's printing press, McCormick's and other reapers,
Howe's and other sewing machines, the numerous improvements in all sorts of machinery and manufactures, -
these are levers by which the national development has
been very greatly promoted. Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, appeared on the Hudson in 1807. First of our railways was the Quincy, in Massachusetts, a single track
between three and four miles long, for transporting granite
from a quarry to the water's edge, (1827.)  First of our
locomotives was one upon the Hudson and Mohawk Railroad in New York, (1832.) First of our and all other
electric telegraphs was that constructed by Morse between
Washington and Baltimore, and its first message was,
"' What hath God wrought!" (1844.)  The first Atlantic
cable was laid in 18,58, but failed after a momentary success; the second parted in mid-ocean, (1865,) and the third
succeeded, (1866.)  No one man deserves the credit of
this great enterprise so much as Cyrus W. Field.
Expedi-   The expeditions of survey and discovery, mostly
tions.-  undertaken by the government, form  a striking
feature of the period. That of Lewis and Clarke, to which
we referred in connection with Oregon, was a very remarkable achievement for the time. It occupied more




NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.               489
than two years (1804-6) and crossed the continent from
the Mississippi to the mouth of the Columbia. Thirty
years later (1838-42) an exploring expedition, consisting
of several vessels under the comnmand of Lieutenant
Charles Wilkes, and carrying a corps of scientific men,
sailed on a long cruise through the Antarctic and Pacific
Oceans. Lieutenant William F. Lynch, of the navy, made
exploration of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, (1847.)
Two Grinnell expeditions, so called from Henry Grinnell,
through whose liberality they were mainly fitted out, sought
for the English voyagers under Sir John Franklin, then
missing in the Arctic Seas.  The first was commanded by
Lieutenant De Haven, of the navy, (1850-51;) the second
by Dr. Kane., also of the navy, who had served on the
first as surgeon, (1853-5.)  A squadron, under Commodore Perry, brother of the Perry of Lake Erie, was sent
to Japan to negotiate a treaty, by which the ports of that
country were opened to American commerce, (1852-4.)
Later expeditions explored our western and south-western
territories, or traversed Central America and the Isthmus
of Darien, with the view of cutting a canal to connect the
Atlantic with the Pacific. Of all the expeditions, none have
honored the nation or humanity more than those which
carried succor to foreign lands. When Ireland was starving, in 1847, Madeira, in 1852, and the cotton manufacturing shires of England, in 1862, supplies were sent from
our people as to fellow-countrymen.  In some of these succors the government shared by providing vessels from the
navy to carry the food fiurnished by private benevolence.
Our national charities began at home. Societies
Chaiifies.
to relieve the poor, the sick, and the prisoner, existed in the foregoing century; they were largely extended
in this. Schools and asylums were opened fbr all suffering classes, beginning with thre Amllerican Asylum for the




490               PART IV. 1797-1872.
Deaf and Dumb in Hartford, (1817,) the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind in Boston,
(1832,) and the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feebleminded Youth, also in Boston, (1848.)  Associations for
the care of destitute or vicious children, erring women,
and the aged of both sexes, have done their various work
in all quarters.  Missions to the ignorant and outcast have
been unwearied in reclaiming them.  Bible and tract societies have distributed their publications wherever an
opening could be found.  Besides these organizations, individuals have labored, openly or secretly, in relieving the
spiritual and physical necessities of their neighbors. Could
it be fairly described, the ministry to every form of want
and crime would make the best pages in our history.
Draw-    To all this national development there have been,
backs. and there still are, very serious drawbacks. They
spring, to a great degree, from the development itself.
Corruption follows hard upon growth in society, as in nature, and its effects are as fatal in one as in the other.
Wealth grows, and the passion for it grows faster. Labor
struggles not only with capital, but with labor; trade is
tainted with dishonest practices; life itself is lowered by
the readiness with which men forsake its higher callings
because they are less lucrative than the lower. Power increases, and the lust for it increases likewise.  Candidates
for office stoop to mean conditions. Office-holders stoop
yet lower, and whether in town or city, state or national
government, degrade themselves and their authority. For
some of our forms of disgrace, new words, or words with
new meaning, are required, and strangers and children
ask what is a ring, or a lobby, and sometimes fail to understand it when explained.  If the results of political corruption were confined to those who indulge in it, the injury
would be far less formidable.  But they spread on every




NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.               491
side, they infect our institutions, they poison the spirit of
our people. These evils are not new. They were lamented when the nation was born, in the very throes of the
revolution, while such as loved the country were pledging
to it their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors, and
others were making money out of its trials, or turning its
agonies to their own preferment. It is only that the evils
are more apparent than they used to be. They have a
larger area, a more numerous following; and so the
shadows which they cast seem to shut out more of the light
that should be shining. There is but one way to dispel
them - by consecrating the nation to a higher servi-e, and
giving ourselves to it, one and all.








A.          Alloue, Claud  D     E  X120.
A.                Allouez, Claude, 120.
Allston, W., 487.
Abenakis, 49, 99, 101, 128, 130. Amendments to  Constitution,
Abolitionist societies, 284, 370,   279, 340, 462, 473, 475.
371.                         American Anti-slavery Society,
Abolitionists, early, 369.       371.
Abolitionists, later, 370, 374.   American Association of 1774,
Acadie, 10, 11, 13, 119, 123.    183, 187.
Adams, Charles..F., 424, 431, American system, 362.
453, 481.                    Ames, Fisher, 301.
Adams, John, 177, 183, 184, 202, Amnesty, 472, 476.
203, 220, 243, 256, 277, 287, Anderson, Robert, 412, 418, 420,
296.                           421.
Adams, John, President, 305, Andr6, Major, 232.
309.                         Andros, Sir Edmund, 88, 90,
Adams, John, afterwards, 352.    100, 126.
Adams, John Quincy, 292, 344, Antietam battle, 438.
354, 358.                    Anti-slavery  movement, 369,
Adams, John Quincy, President,   371.
360, 361.                    Argal, 43.
Adams, Samuel, 179, 183.       Arizona, 408.
Addresses of Congress to Great Arkansas, 352, 378, 423, 475.
Britain, 168, 184, 195.      Armed Neutrality league, 234.
Admiralty jurisdiction, 167.   Army of the revolution, 192,
African Company, 151.            193, 211, 218, 244, 245.
Africans, 52.                  Army of 1812, 327, 336.
Agassiz, L., 487.              Army of the civil war, 426, 428,
Alabama, 122, 351, 414, 475.     et seq. 455, 470, 471.
Alabama cruiser, 453, 461.     Army of the Potomac, 432, 436,
Alabama claims, 479, 481.        437, 439, 447, 448, 449, 457,
Alaska, 479.                     465.
-Albany Convention, 414.        Arnold, Benedict, 191, 196, 209,
Algiers, tribute to, 291.        232, 237, 240.
Algiers, war with, 346.        Art, 143, 478.
Algonquins, 11, 48, 49.        Art Museums, 485.
Alien Act, 311.                Assemblies, colonial, 71.
Allen, Ethan, 191.             Astor Library, 485.
42                                493




494                      INDE X.
Atlanta taken, 459.            Board of revenue commissionAudubon, J. J., 487.             ers, 173.
Aviles, Menendez de, 6, 9.     Board of Trade, 150.
Bonhomme Richard, 229.
Boston, 29, 30, 91, 149, 156, 174,
B.                  178, 186.
Boston massacre, 176, 177.
Bacon, Nathaniel, 87.          Boston port-bill, 180.
Bailey, Colonel, 456.          Boston, siege of, 194, 198.
Bainbridge, Captain, 333.      Bowditch, N., 487.
Ball, T., 488.                 Bowdoin, James, 250.
Ball's Bluff battle, 432.      Bowne, John, 108.
Baltimore, Lord, 82.           Boyle, Robert, 95.
Baltimore, Benedict, Lord, 59. Braddock's defeat, 132, 133.
Bancroft, G., 487.             Bradford, William, 25, 26, 27,
Banking, colonial, 155.          44, 142.
Banking, national, 444.        Bradstreet, Simon, 84, 89.
Bank of North America, 254.   Bragg, General, 454, 455.
Bank, United States, 282, 349, Brainard, David, 104.
376.                         Brandywine battle, 215.
Banks, General, 436, 437, 447, Bridgewater battle, 331.
456.                         Brier Creek battle, 226.
Baptists, 73, 74, 145.         Brooks, Maria, 486.
Barron, Captain, 320.          Brown, General, 330, 331.
Bartram, John, 143.            Brown, John, 407, 408.
Bartram, William, 143.         Bryant, W. C., 487.
Bayard, James A., 344.         Buchanan, James, President,
Bayonne decree, 321.             405, 410.
Beauregard, General, 420, 429. Buell, General, 433, 439.
Belcher, Jonathan, 154.        Buena Vista battle, 387.
Belknap, Jeremy, 271.          Bull Run battle, 428.
Bennington battle, 214.        Bull Run, second, 437.
Berkeley, George, 144.         Bunker Hill, 193.
Berkeley, Lord, 61.            Burgoyne, surrender of, 214.
Berkeley, Sir William, 87, 88, Burke, Edmund, 188, 197.
140.                         Burnet, William, 153.
Berlin decree, 319.            Burnside, General, 434, 439,
Bernard, Francis, 157.           454, 455, 457.
Berrien, John M., 384, 396.    Burr, Aaron, 318.
Bible, colonial editions, 141.    Butler, General, 427, 434, 457,
Billings, William, 275.          464.
Bishops for the colonies, 146.
Black Hawk, 378.                            C.
Blackstone, William, 32.
Bladensburg battle, 335.       Cabal against Washington, 217.
Block, Adrian, 40.             Cabot, George, 339.
Blockade, president's proclama- Cabot, John, 14.
tion of, 423.                Cabot, Sebastian, 15, 40.
Blockade, following, 430, 451, California, 7, 116, 388, 393, 396,
463.                           397.




INDEX.                           495
Calhoun, John C., 326, 364, 365, Churches, 72, 259, 278.
367, 368, 369, 372, 383, 395, Church of England, 145.
399.                          Churubusco battle, 392.
Calvert, Sir George, 19, 35.    Cincinnati, defence of, 438.
Camden battle, 230.             Cincinnati Society, 249.
Canada, 11, 13, 119, 134, 135.   Civil service reform, 477.
Canada, expedition against, 196. Clarke, John, 73.
Canby, General, 456, 467.       Classes in the colonies, 66, 164.
Canonchet, 99.                  Clay, Henry, 326, 344, 354, 355,
Canonicus, 97.                    368, 383, 396, 397, 399.
Captain-Generals of colonies, Clayborne, William, 37.
151.                         Clinton, George, 318.
Carleton, Sir Guy, 241.         Clinton, Governor, 154.
Carolana, 37, 59, 122.          Clinton, Sir Henry, 221, 229,
Carolina, 6, 9, 16, 59, 69, 112.    239.
Carolina, North, 59, 177, 201, Cogswell, J. G., 485.
205, 272, 279, 285, 423, 475.   Cold Harbor battle, 457.
Carolina, South, 59, 113, 205, Cole, T., 488.
363, 365, 374, 410, 411, 475.   Colleges:
Carolina steamer, 379.              Harvard, 21, 74, 77, 174.
Carroll, John, Bishop, 259.         Henrico, 21.
Carteret, Sir George, 61.           King's, 139.
Cartier, 9.                         New Jersey, 139.
Carver, John, 26.                   Pennsylvania, 139.
Cass, Lewis, 412.                   William and Mary, 139.
Catesby, Mark, 144.                 Yale, 139.
Cedar Creek battle, 458.        Colored troops, 452, 453.
Cedar Mountain battle, 437.     Columbus, 3, 4, 14.
Central American republics rec- Commander-in-chief,  colonial,
ognized, 356.                   157, 163.
Cerro Gordo battle, 391.       Commerce, treaties of, 292.
Champlain, 11, 125.            Committees of Correspondence,
Chancellorsville battle, 447.     172, 178.
Charities, 489.                 Committees of Safety, 186.
Charleston, defence of, 208, 226. Companies:
Charleston, loss of, 230.           Dutch, 40, 41.
Charleston, recovery of, 241.       French, 117, 124.
Charleston post-office, 372.        London, 18, 19, 34.
Charleston taken in civil war,      Massachusetts Bay, 29.
464.                              New England, 24, 33.
Charter governments, 30, 69.        Plymouth, 18, 23, 34.
Chattanooga battle, 455.            Swedish, 46.
Checkley, John, 146.           Compromises of the ConstituCherokees, 102, 361.             tion, 267, 268, 269.
Chesapeake and Leopard, 319.  Compromise of 1850, 397, 398,
Chesapeake and Shannon, 334.    400, 401.
Chickamauga battle, 454.       Conant, Roger, 28.
Child, Robert, 72.              Conciliation, Lord North's bills,
Chippewa battle, 331.            221.
Christian Commission, 468.     Concord battle, 189.




496                      INDE X.
Confederate government, 415.   Crozat, Antoine, 122.
Confederation, Articles of, 205, Cruger, Henry, 187.
234, 253, 261, 264.          Cuba, acquisition of, 401.
Congress, Stamp Act, 68.       Culpepper, Lord, 58.
Congress, Continental, 182.
Congress of the revolution, 191,
195, 205, 219, 235. -                     D.
Congress in the civil war, 427,
444, 457.                    Dablon, Claude, 120.
Congress after the civil war, Dahcotas, 48.
471, 472, 473, 474, 475, 476, Dalhlgren, Admiral, 451.
477.                         Dare, Virginia, 16.
Congress of Panama, 360.       Davenport, John, 33.
Congress of Vienna, 345.       Davie, William R., 313.
Connecticut, 32, 44, 57, 85, 89, Davis, Captain, 433.
90, 205, 338, 341, 351.      Davis, Jefferson, 415, 463, 465.
Conner, Commodore, 390.        De Ayllon, 6.
Constellation and L'Insurgente, De Cabrillo, 6.
311.                         De Cancello, 6.
Constitution, National, 259 et De Coligny, 9.
seq.                         De Espejio, 7.
Constitutions, state, 205.     D'Estaing, Comte, 223, 224, 227.
Constitution, Cyane and Levant, De Gourgues, 10.
343.                         De Grasse, Comte, 239, 240.
Constitution and GuerriSre, 333. De Haven, Lieutenant, 489.
Constitution and Java, 333.    D'Iberville, Lemoine, 122, 127.
Contraband -slaves, 427.       De Kalb, Baron, 230.
Contreras battle, 392.         De Monts, 10.
Conventions:                   De Narvaez, 6.
Alexandria, 260.           De Saussaye, 11.
Annapolis, 260.            be Soto, 6.
Philadelphia, 260, 262etseq. Deane, Silas, 220.
Cooper, J. F., 486.            Dearborn, General Henry, 327,
Copley, J. S., 144.              330.
Cornwallis, Lord, 230, 233, 236, Debt, public, 280, 281, 347, 376,
238, 239.                      428, 444, 445, 477.
Coronado, Vasquez, 6.          Debts due British merchants,
Cortereal, 5.                    256.
Cowpens battle, 236.           Decatur, Captain, 333, 347.
Coxe, Daniel, 122, 148.        Declaration of rights and liberCrawford, T., 487.               ties by Stamp Act Congress,
Creeks, 361, 362, 378.           168, 169.
Crisis of 1837, 376.           Declaratory Act, 173.
Crisis of 1857, 406.           Defender of the Constitution,
Crittenden, John J., 411.        364.
Crittenden  compromise, 411, Delaware, 63, 205, 272.
415.                         Delawares, 102.
Cross Keys battle, 437.        Democrats, 288.
Croswell, William, 486.        Dickinson, John, 173, 183, 202,
Crown, allegiance to, 83.        272.




INDEX,                          497
Dickinson, Mrs. J., 233.       Federalist, The, 272.
Dictatorship  of  Washington, Federalists, fall of, 315.
212.                         Federal Republican newspaper,
District of Louisiana, 317.      326.
Doniphan, Colonel, 388.        Field, C. W., 488.
Dorr, Thomas W., 377.          Fifteenth Amendment, 475.
Douglas, Stephen A., 401, 407. Fillmore, Millard, President,
Draft, 450.                      397.
Draft riots, 451.              Fish, Hamilton, 480.
Drake, Sir Francis, 15, 16.    Fisher's Mill battle, 458.
Dred Scott case, 405.          Five Nations, 49, 101, 125, 127,
Drummond, William, 88.           128, 129, 130, 131.
Dunster, Henry, 74.            Fletcher, Benjamin, 90.
Dupont, Admiral, 451.          Florida, 5, 6, 8, 9, 112, 113, 116,
Duties laid by Parliament, 86,   243, 293, 323, 350, 378, 414,
155, 157, 166.                 475.
Foot's Resolution, 364.
Foote, Commodore, 433.
E.                Forts:
Beauregard, 430.
East Tennessee, 454.               CasiBowyer, 341, 342.
Eaton, Theophilus, 33.             Christina, 47, 109.
Education, 138, 484, 485.          Clark, 430.
Edwards, Jonathan, 104, 142.       Donelson, 433.
Eliot, John, 32, 84, 93, 94, 96.   Du Qtcsne, 132, 134.
Ellsworth, Oliver, 313.            Erie, 331, 332.
Emancipation, 439, 440.            Fisher, 463.
Emancipation proclamations,        George, 331.
441, 442.                        Hatteras, 430.
Embargo, 298, 321, 324, 337.       Henry, 433.
Emerson, R. WV., 487.              Jackson, 434.
Endicott, John, 28.                Lee, 209.
Enforcing Acts, 367, 476.          Macon, 434.
Ericsson, John, 435.               McAllister, 460.
Essex and Alert, 333.              McHenry, 335, 427.
Eutaw Springs battle, 237.         Meigs, 328.
Everett, Edward, 450, 486.         Mercer, 216.
Expeditions, 488.                  Miffin, 216.
Mimnms, 336.
Monroe, 423, 427.
F..Moultrie, 208, 4i2.
Ninety-Six, 237.
Fair Oaks battle, 436.             Pickens, 420, 42b.
Farragut, Commodore and Ad-        Pillow, 453.
miral, 434, 461.                 Pulaski, 434.
Federal and anti-federal, 264,     Schuyler, 214.
266.                             St. Philip, 434.
Federalist and anti-federalist,    Stevenson, 328
274, 282.                        Sullivan, 208.
42 *




498                       INDEX.
Fort Sumter, 412, 413, 418, 420, Gerry, Elbridge, 267, 270, 309,
421, 451, 452, 464.             347.
Wagner, 452.                Gettysburg battle, 448, 450.
Walker, 430.                Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 15, 16.
Washington, 209.            Giles, W. B., 304.
Fourteenth  Amendment, 473, Gillmore, General, 451.
475, 476.                     Godfrey, Thomas, 143.
France and the United States, Goldsborough, Commodore, 434.
220, 293, 297, 302, 309, 310, Gomez, 6, 40.
313, 319, 378, 379, 424, 456, Gookin, Daniel, 95.
457, 479.                     Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 23, 27,
Frankland, or Franklin, 251.      28, 30, 55.
Franklin battle, 460.           Gorton, Samuel, 79.
Franklin, Benjamin, 140, 142, Gosnold, Bartholomew, 17, 19.
149, 172, 182, 203, 220, 243, Government, United States, or263, 265, 270.                  ganized, 276, 277, 279.
Franklin, General, 456.         Governor-Generals of New EngFredericksburg battle, 439.       land, 35, 36.
Freedmen, 471, 474, 476.        Grant, U. S., General, 433, 439,
Freedmen's Bureau, 471, 472.      445, 446, 455.
Free-soil party, 395, 404.      Grant, U. S., Lieutenant-GeneFremont, John C., 389, 437, 440.   ral, 455, 457, 458, 459, 460,
Frenchtown battle, 328.           464, 465, 466.
Freneau, Philip, 274.           Grant, U. S., President, 476,
Fugitive Slave Act, 398, 462.     477, 478.
Fulton, R., 488.                Gray, Captain, 386.
Great Britain and the United
States, 244, 256, 293, 297, 319,
320, 323, 325 et seq., 379, 386,
(Yr.                 424, 431, 453, 479.
Great Meadows battle, 132.
Gadsden, Christopher, 168, 183, Greece, aid to, 359.
186.                          Greene, Colonel Christopher,
Gage, General, 180, 182, 186,   216.
191.                          Greene, General Nathanael, 231,
Gaines, General, 332.             236.
Gaines' Mill battle, 436.       Greenough, H., 488.
Gallatin, Albert, 288, 325, 344.  Grenville, Sir Richard, 16.
Garrison, William L., 370, 371, Grierson, Colonel, 446, 450.
374.                          Grinnell, H., 489.
Gaspe, revenue schooner, 177.  Guilford battle, 236.
Gates, General, 214, 217, 230.
Genet's mission, 295, 296.
Geneva, Board of Arbitration                  HI.
at, 481.
Georgia, 63, 114, 195, 205, 361, Habeas corpus, 69.
414, 475.                     Habeas corpus in the civil war,
Georgia, loss of, 226.            426, 427, 451.
Georgia, recovery, 241.         Habeas corpus afterwards, 476.
Germantown battle, 215.         Hakluyt, Richard, 19.




INDEX.                           499
Halleck, F.-G., 486.                           I.
Halleck, General, 432, 433.
Hamilton, Alexander, 219, 235, Illinois, 120, 222, 318, 351.
259, 260, 263, 264, 272, 279, Impressment, 297, 319, 325, 344,
287, 298, 318.                  345, 380.
Hamilton, Andrew, 141.          Imprisonment of colored seaHampton, General, 330.            men, 374.
Hancock, General, 449, 457.    Incendiaries, act for trial of,
Hancock, John, 174, 186.          178.
Hanover Court House battle, Indented servants, 66.
436.                          Independence, ideas of, 190, 201.
Hanson, Alexander, 326, 327.   Independence, resolutions of,
Harper's Ferry, 423, 438.         202, 203.
Harrisburg Convention, 362.    Independence, declaration  of,
Harrison, William H., 323, 328,   203, 204, 207.
329.                          Indian missions, 291.
Harrison, William H., President, Indian policy of Washington's
380.                            administration, 290.
Hartford Convention, 338, 339, Indian policy of Grant's, 478.
340.                          Indiana, 123, 318, 351.
Harvey, Reuben, 243.            Indirect claims, 481.
Hawley, Joseph, 175, 184.       Institutions, colonial, 20, 21, 26,
Hawthorne, N., 486.               30, 31, 36, 38, 68, 118.
Hayne, Robert Y., 364.          Inventions, 488.
Hazen, General, 460.            Iowa, 378.
Heath, Sir Robert, 37.          Irish prisoners protected, 346.
Heckewelder, John, 291.         Iroquois, 11, 48, 49.
Hendrickson, Cornelius, 41.    Irving, Washington, 333, 485.
Henry, Patrick, 167, 183, 184.  Izard, General, 332.
Hoar, Samuel, 374, 375.
Hobkirk's HIill battle, 236.
Holt, Joseph, 413.                            J.
Holy Alliance, 356.
Hood, General, 459, 460.        Jackson, Andrew, 304, 336, 341,
Hooker, General, 447, 448, 455.   342, 350.
Hopkinson, Francis, 274.        Jackson,  Andrew, President,
Ilornet and Penguin, 343.         363, 366, 367, 372, 376.
Houston, Samuel, 381, 382.      Jackson, Stonewall, 429, 436,
Howard, General, 460.             438, 447.
Howe, Admiral, 204, 208.        Jamestown, 19, 88.
Howe, General, 204, 208, 210, Jay, John, 183, 201, 229, 243,
215.                            272, 279, 298.
Hubbard, Henry, 374.            Jay's treaty, 299, 300.
Hudson, HI-enry, 39, 40.        Jefferson, Thomas, 203, 254,
Hull, Captain Isaac, 333.         256, 279, 285, 287, 288, 310,
Hull, General William, 328.       312.
Hunt, William, 488.             Jefferson, Thomas, President,
Hunter, General, 440.             309, 316, 320; and later, 352.
Hutchinson, Anne, 32.           Johnson, Andrew, President,
Hyde, Lord Cornbury, 152.         466, 472, 473, 475.




500                        ND E X.
Johnson, Isaac, 29.             Lee, General Henry, 289, 326.
Johnson, Reverdy, 479.          Lee, General R. E., 437, 438,
Johnson, Sir William, 133.        447, 448, 449, 463, 465, 466.
Johnston, General J. E., 429, Lee, Richard H., 183, 184, 202.
430, 446, 459, 465, 467.     Leif, the Icelander, 3.
Jones, John Paul, 228.          Leisler, Jacob, 89, 153.
Jonesboro' battle, 459.         Le Moyne, 119.
Judges, colonial, 157.          Lenni-Lenape, 49.
Leverett, John, 86, 100.
Lewis and Clark expedition, 386,
488.
Lexington battle, 189.
Kalm, Peter, 144.               Liberator, 371, 372.
Kane, E. K., 489.               Libraries, public, 485.
Kansas, 401, 402, 408.          Ligonia, 55.
Kansas civil war, 403.          Lincoln, Abraham, 407.
Kearney, General, 388, 389.    Lincoln, President, 409, 416,
Kearsarge, victory  over Ala-   417, 427, 431, 440, 441, 442,
bama, 461.                     449, 450, 452, 465.
Kensett, J. R., 488,            Lincoln, re-elected, 462.
Kent, J., 486.                  Lincoln, assassinated, 466.
Kentucky, 196, 251, 286.        Lincoln, General, 226, 227, 230,
Kentucky resolutions, 312.        250.
Kilpatrick, General, 460.       Line of 370 30', 351, 352.
King's Mountain battle, 233.    Lingan, General, 327.
King Philip's War, 98.          Literature, 142, 485.
King's Province, 57, 85.       Livingston, Robert R., 203, 316.
Knights of the Golden Circle, Locke, John, hns model for Car451.                            olina, 69.
Knowles, Commodore, 156.        Long Island battle, 209.
Knox, Henry, 279.              Longfellow, H. W., 487.
Kosciusko, 23.                 Longstreet, General, 448, 454,
Ku-Klux, 476.                     455.
Louisburg, 130, 131, 134.
Louisiana, 116, 120, 125, 135,
I,.                 317, 323, 414, 475.
Louisiana, purchase of, 316.
Laclede, Pierre, 135.           Lovejoy, Elijah P., 373.
Lafayette, 213, 217, 224, 231, Lowell, J. R., 487.
239, 240, 241, 248, 257, 276, Loyalists, 197.
305, 359.                    Lundy, Bcenjamlin, 370.
Lake Champlain victory, 332.   Lynch, Lieutenant, 489.
Lake Erie victory, 329.         Lyon, Captain and General, 424,
La Salle, Robert Cavelier, 120.    425.
Laurens, Henry, 234, 243.
Lavalette,' Captain, 389.                    M.
Lawrence, Kansas, 402, 403.
Lederer, John, 142.             Macomb, General, 332.
Lee, Arthur, 220.               Madison, James, 252, 260, 263,
Lee, General Charles, 218, 221.   272, 312.




INDEX.                          501
Madison, James, President, 309, Mexico and the United States,
321, 324, 325, 347.            385, 392, 393.
Maine, 11, 23, 27, 55, 119, 251, Mexico, city of, taken, 392.
353, 354.                    Mexico, French in, 456, 457,
Malvern Hill battle, 436.        479.
Manhattan, 40, 42.             Miantonimoh, 97, 98.
Manhlattans, 106.              Michigan, 120, 314, 378.
Manufactures, colonial, 155.    Milan Decree, 319.
Mariana, 27.                   Militia of 1812, 327, 340.
Marion, Francis, 230.          Militia of the civil war, 521, 422,
Marquette, Jacques, 120.         448.
Marshall, John, 309, 318.      Mill Spring battle, 433.
Martial law at New  Orleans, Ministries, British, 165.
342.                         Minnesota, 394, 408.
Martin, Luther, 267, 269, 271.  Minuit, Peter, 42, 44, 47.
Maryland, 35, 36, 58, 91, 96, Mississippi, 122, 314, 323, 351,
205.                           414, 475.
Mason, George, 270.            Mississippi, navigation of the
Mason, John, 27, 28.             river, 238, 256, 293.
Massachusetts, 29, 55, 56, 69, Missouri, 124, 135, 351, 355,
72, 83, 85, 127, 154, 166, 168,   424.
174, 180, 181, 186, 190, 192, Missouri Compromise, 353, 354,
250, 257, 273, 338, 341, 374.    401, 405.
Massachusetts missions to pro- Mobile Bay battle, 461.
tect colored seamen, 374.    Mobile taken, 467.
Massachusetts Sixth in Balti- Mobilians, 48, 50.
more, 422.                   Molasses Act, 155.
Massasoit, 98.                 Molino del Rey battle, 392.
Mather, Cotton, 77, 146.       Monitor, 435, 436.
Mather, Increase, 77.          Monmouth battle, 222.
Mayhew, Jonathan, 158, 167.   Monroe, James, 302, 316, 325.
Mayhew, Thomas, 94.            Monroe, James, President, 349,
McClellan, General, 426, 432,   250, 354, 359.
436, 437, 438, 439, 462.     Monroe Doctrine, 357, 358, 479.
McClure, General, 330.         Monterey battle, 387.
McDonough, Captain, 332.       Montgomery Convention, 406.
McDowell, General, 429.        Montgomery, General, 196.
McLeod, Alexander, 379.        Morgan, General Daniel, 236.
McPherson, General, 459.       Mormons, 406.
Meade, General, 448, 449, 457, Morris, Robert, 253.
466.                         Morse, S. F. B., 488.
Mechanicsville battle, 436.    Morton, Thomas, 34.
Mecklenburg declaration, 190, i Motley, J. L., 487.
200.                         Moultrie, Colonel, 208, 227.
Mercer, General, 210.          Muhlenberg, F. A., 296.
MecrMimac, 435.                Mumfordsville battle, 439.
Merryman, John, 427.           Murfreesboro' battle, 454.
Mesilla Valley purchase, 408,   Murray, William V., 313.
Metacomet, 98.                 Mutiny Act, 156.




502                       INDEX.
N.                North Point battle, 335.
North-west Territory, 254, 255,
Narraganset war, 97.              285.
Nashville battle, 460.          Norton, Andrews, 486.
National bank system, 444.      Norton, John, 84.
Naval Academy, 484.             Nullification, 312, 341, 346, 361,
Navigation Acts, 86.              365.
Navy of the revolution, 195,
217.                                        O.
Navy of 1812, 327, 333, 343.
Navy of the civil war, 426, 435,  Observer, 373.
446, 456, 461, 471.           Oglethorpe, General, 63, 64, 114.
Nebraska, 401, 402, 474.        Ohio, 123, 255, 318.
Neutrality of United States, 295, Ohio Company, 132.
302, 325.                     Opdycke, General, 460.
Neutrality, queen's proclama- Opequan battle, 408.
tion of British, 424.         Orders in Council, 319, 321, 325.
Nevada, 462.                    Oregon, 386, 408.
New Albion, 15, 37.             Organs, first in colonies, 143.
New Amstel, 109.                Osceola, 378.
New Amsterdam, 42, 108, 111.  Osgood, Samuel, 279.
New  England Restraining Act, Ostend Manifesto, 401.
188.                          Otis, Harrison Gray, 339.
New England, 23, 55..   Otis, James, 158, 166, 168.
New  England, United Colonies
of, 80.
New France, 9, 13, 117.                       P.
New Hampshire, 28, 56, 205,
250.                          Paine, Thomas, 274.
New Holland, 40.                Palfrey, J. G., 487.
New Jersey, 61, 153, 205, 234, Palo Alto battle, 387.
235.                          Paper money, 212, 444.
New Mexico, 7, 388, 393, 397. Parkman, F., 487.
New Netherland, 40, 60, 111.   Parliament, 85, 155, 163, 164,
New Orleans battles, 342.         188, 221.
New Orleans taken, 434.         Parties, colonial, 176.
New Somersetshire, 28, 55.      Parties, time of the Constitution,
New Sweden, 47, 108.              265, 268, 271, 274.
New York, 60, 89, 90, 91, 119, Parties, time of Washington's
153, 154, 173, 176, 205, 235,   administration, 283, 294, 300,
272.                            303.
New York, loss of, 208.         Patterson, William, 264.
New York, recovery, 244.        Patroons, 42, 43, 107.
Newburg addresses, 244.          Peabody, George, 484.
Newport, loss of, 209, 223.     Peace Conference, 415.
Newport, recovery, 228.         Peacock and Nautilus, 343.
Newspapers, 140.                Penn, William, 62, 82, 148.
Non-consumption, 172.           Pennsylvania, 62, 70, 82, 123,
Non-importation, 171.             205, 288.
North Anna battle, 457.         Pensacola, 113.




INDEX.                           503
Pepperell, Sir William, 131.    Price, General, 388.
Pequot war, 97.                 Princeton battle, 210.
Percival, J. G., 486.           Pring, Martin, 17.
Perry, Captain Oliver H., 329.  Prisoners during revolutionary
Perry, Commodore, 390, 391,   war, 242.
489.                         Prisoners in civil war, 467.
Perryville battle, 439.         Proprietary  governments, 36,
Persecution, 32, 72, 77, 108, 145.   69.
Personal liberty laws, 405.     Pulaski, Count, 226, 227.
Petersburg battles, 457, 458.    Puritans, 24, 28, 31, 77, 78, 91,
Petitions of Congress to king,   145.
168, 184, 188, 195, 197, 201.
Petitions relating to slavery, 373.          Q
Philadelphia, loss of, 215.
Philadelphia, recovery, 221.
Quakers, 75, 78, 108, 145.
Pi,  m, 13.  Quakers against slavery, 147,
Pickering, Timothy, 313.          283
Pierce, Franklin, President, 400.
Quartering Act, 167.
Pinckney, Charles C., 263, 269, Quartering Act, 167.
303, 309.
Quincy, Josiah, Jr., 174, 177.
Pittsburg Landing battle, 433.
Plans of Constitution:
Hamilton's, 264.                         R.
New Jersey, 264.
Virginia, 263, 265.        Railway, first, 488.
Plowden, Sir Edward, 37.       -Raleigh, Sir Walter, 16.
Plymouth, 24, 25, 35, 55.       Randolph, Edmund, 263, 270,
Polk, James K., President, 383,   276, 279, 287, 300.
386, 387, 392.               Randolph, T. J., 370.
Ponce de Leon, 5.               Rasles, Sebastian, 101.
Pontiac, 103.                   Reconstruction, 472, 474.
Pope, General, 433, 437.        Reed, Esther, 233.
Population:                     Regulators, 177.
1763, 164.                 Religious liberty, 258.
1790, 278.                 Republicans, early, 283.
1797, 482.                 Republican party, 404.
1810, 328.                 Repudiation, 377.
1872, 482.                 Resaca de la Palma battle, 387.
Port Hudson, 447.               Revenue, 280, 311, 327, 337.
Port Republic battle, 437.     Revolution, American, Periods
Port Royal (Annapolis), 10, 129.   of, 207.
Porter, Admiral, 463.           Reynolds, General, 449.
Porter, Captain, 333.           Rhode Island, 33, 57, 78, 81, 857
Powers, H., 488.                  89, 205, 279.
Pratt, chief justice of New York, Rhode Island civil war, 377.
157.                         Richmond battle, 438.
Prescott, Colonel William, 193. Richmond taken, 466.
Prescott, W. H., 486.           Riots, time of revolution, 171.
Press, 139, 140.                Riots, time of civil war, 451.




504                      INDEX.
Roanoke Island, 434.           Sedition Act, 311.
Robinson, John, 94.            Self-government in the United
Rochambeau, Comte de, 232,   States, 483.
239, 240.                    Seminoles, 378.
Roman Catholics, 77, 145.      Seminole war, 349.
Root, Joseph M., 395.          Sergeant, John, 104.
Rosecrans, General, 439, 454.   Sevier, Colonel, 233, 251.
Royal provinces, 70.           Seward, William  H., 397, 407,
Ruggles, Timothy, 168.           418, 431, 466, 479.
Ruiz, 7.                       Shaw, Colonel, 452.
Rush, Richard, 356, 357, 358.   Shawomet, 79.
Russell, Jonathan, 344.        Shays's rebellion, 250.
Rutledge, John, 183, 247, 269.  Sheridan, General, 457, 458, 465,
466.
Sherman, Roger, 203.
S.                Sherman, General W. T., 433,
439, 446, 455, 459, 460, 464,
Sabine Cross Roads battle, 456.   465.
Sackett's Harbor, 330, 332.    Shubrick, Commodore, 389.
Sacramento Pass battle, 388.    Sigourney, Lydia, 486.
Sacs and Foxes, 378.           Slavery:
San Pasqual battle, 389.         Colonial, 20, 52, 67, 147, 151.
Salem, 28, 29.                   United States, 258, 268, 283.
Salem, collision of Americans      District Columbia, 397.
and British, 188.                Louisiana, 317, 318.
Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 74.      Mexico, 293, 382.
Sanitary Commission, 468.          Missouri, 351, 352, 353, 354,
Santa Anna, General, 382, 388,       355.
391, 392.                        New Mexico, 394.
Santa Cruz de las Rosales battle,  Territories, 255, 284, 285,
388.                               314.
Santa Fe, 7.                       Texas, 382, 383.
Saratoga battles, 214.           Brought to an end, 427, 428,
Savannah battles, 226, 228.        439 et seq.
Savannah  taken  by  General Slave question, 369.
Sherman, 460.                Slave representation, 268.
Schofield, General, 459, 460, Slave trade, 151, 179, 184, 258,
465.                           268, 283, 284, 355, 406.
Schools, 138, 484.             Slaves enlisted in civil war, 452,
Schuyler, General, 214.          463.
Science, 142, 487.'        Sloat, Commodore, 389.
Scott, General Winfield, 331, Slocum, General, 460.
378, 390, 391, 392, 412, 426, Smith, John, 19, 20, 23.
432.                         Society for Propagating the GosSeabury, Samuel, bishop, 259.    pel in New England, 95.
Search, right of, 380.         Sons of Liberty, 176.
Sears, Isaac, 197.             South American republics recSecession, 366, 409 et seq.      ognized, 356.
Sedgwick, General, 457, 458.   South Mountain battle, 438.
Sedgwick, Theodore, 315.       Southampton massacre, 370.




IND EX.                         505
Spain and the United States, 229, Tea Act, 178.
248, 293, 356.               Tea destroyed, 178.
Sparks, J., 486.               Tecumseh, 322, 329.
Specie  payments  suspended, Telegraph, first, 488.
337, 376, 406, 444.          Telegraphic messages seized,
Spottsylvania battle, 457.       426.
St. Augustine, 7, 112, 113.    Tennessee, 185, 251, 286, 423.
St. Clair, General, 289.       Tennessee, East, 426, 454, 455.
Stamp Act, 167, 172.           Territory of Orleans, 317.
Standish, Miles, 26.           Territory south of the Ohio, 285,
Stanton, Edwin M., 432.          286.
Star of the West, 413.         Terry, General, 464.
Stark, John, 214.              Texas, 121, 381.
State Constitutions, 205.          Independence, 381, 382.
State debts, 377.                  Annexation, 382, 383, 394.
States, as governments, 265.       Afterwards, 397, 414, 475.
Steamboat, first, 488.         Thacher, George, 314.
Stephens, Alex. H., 410, 415, Thacher, Oxenbridge, 158, 167.
423.                         Thames battle, 329,
Steuben, Baron, 238.           Thirteenth Amendment, 462.
Stockton, Commodore, 389.      Thomas, General George H.,
Stone River battle, 439.         433, 439, 454, 455, 459, 460.
Stony Point, 228.              Thomas, Jesse B., 353.
Story, J., 486.                Ticknor, G., 486.
Story, W. W., 488.             Ticonderoga, 191.
Stoughton, Israel, 32.         Timby, T. R., 435.
Stoughton, William, 76.        Tohopeka battle, 336.
Strong, General, 452.          Tompkins, Daniel D., 349.
Stuart, G., 487.               Topeka Constitution, 403.
Stuyvesant, Peter, 108, 109, Towns, 70.
110.                         Transylvania, 196.
Sugar Act, 166.                Treason, act for trial of, 175.
Sumner, Charles, 404.          Treaties:
Sumter, Thomas, 230.               Aix-la-Chapelle, 115, 131,
Surplus revenue, 376.                152.
Breda, 111.
Commerce, 292.
T.                    France, 220.
Ghent, 345.
Tallmadge, James W., 351.          Guadalupe  Hidalgo, 393,
Taney, R. B., 376.                   394.
Tariff, 280, 349, 362, 363, 368.   Japan, 489,
Tariff Compromise, 368.            Jay's, 299.
Taxation, 280, 311, 337, 349.      Paris, 115, 135, 160.
Taxation of colonies, 165, 166,    Paris and Versailles, 242,
183.                               243.
Taylor, John W., 351.              Quintuple, 380.
Taylor, Zachary, 385, 386, 387.    Ryswick, 128.
Taylor, Zachary, President, 395,    Seville, 114.
396, 397.                        Spain, 293, 351.
43




506                       INDEX.
Treaties:
Utrecht, 114, 123, 125, 129,
132.
Washington, (1842,) 380.   Wadsworth, Captain, 90.
Washington, (1871,) 480.   Wadsworth, General, 458.
Trent affair, 430, 431.         Wallace, General Lewis, 438.
Trenton battle, 210.            Walloons, 42.
Trist, N. P., 393.              Warner, Seth, 191.
Trumbull, John, 274.            Warren, Joseph, 190, 193.
Tucker, Dean, his plan of sep- Warren, General G. K., 457.
aration, 188.                 Wars:
Tufts, John, 144.                   Dutch, 43, 44, 110, 111.
Tuscaroras, 101.                    French, 11, 113, 114, 115,
Twiggs's treason, 414.                 126.
Tyler, John, President, 380.        King William's, 126.
Queen Anne's, 128.
uKing George's, 130.'U.                   Final, 132.
Uncas, 97, 99.                      Indian, with English, 87,
Union of colonies, 148.                96-104, 127, 128, 129.
United Provinces, 193.              With Dutch, 106, 107.
United States, 204.                 With French, 125, 127, 129.
United States and Macedonian,       With Spanish, 113, 114.
333.                            Of the revolution, 186 etseq.
Upsall, Nicholas, 75.               United States with Algiers,
Upshur, A. P., 383.                  W
PWith Florida, 350.
Utah, 397, 406.                     With France, 310.
With Great Britain, 325V.                       345.
With Indians, 289, 322, 336,
Valley Forge, 219.                     349, 378, 394.
Van Buren, Martin, President,       With Mexico, 385-393.
377, 383.                         Civil, 420 et seq.
Van der Donck, Adrian, 107.   Warwick, Earl of, 80.
Van Rensselaer, General, 330.  Washington, before the revoluVera Cruz taken, 390.             tion, 132, 134, 167, 175, 180,
Vermont, 57, 251, 286.            182, 183, 184.
Verrazzano, 9, 40.              Washington, during the revoluVespucci, Amerigo, 4.             tion, 190, 192, 193, 194, 198,
Vicksburg, 439, 445, 446, 447.    201, 207, 210, 212, 216, 222,
Vinland, 3.                       225, 235, 238, 244, 245, 246,
Virginia, 16, 19, 58, 91, 96, 132,   247.
167, 201, 205, 260, 272, 281, Washington, after the revolu301,.367, 370, 422, 423, 475.    tion, 256, 257, 262, 274.
Virginia, patent of, 18.        Washington, President, and laVirginia resolutions, 312.        ter, 276-305, 310, 315.
Virginia, West, 425, 426.       Washington, the capital, 281.
Vixen and Southampton, 333.   Washington, capture of, 335.
Vizcaino, 7.                   | Wasp and Frolic, 333.




INDEX.                          507
Wasp and Poictiers, 333.        Wilson's Creek battle, 425.
Wasp and Avon, 334.             Winslow, Captain John, 461
Wayne, General, 228, 290.       Winslow, Edward, 85.
Webster, Daniel, 358, 359, 363, Winthrop, John, 29, 73.
364, 367, 368, 376, 380, 381, Winthrop, John, Jr., 33, 57, 111.
397, 486.                    Winthrop, John, Professor, 143.
Wesley, Charles and John, 144. Wirt, William, 374.
West, Benjamin, 144.            Wisconsin, 120, 378, 394.
West Indies, 4, 5.              Witches, 76.
West Point, 228, 232.           Wolcott, Oliver, 313.
West Point Academy, 484.        Wolfe, General, 135.
Weymouth, George, 17.           Woolman, John, 148.
Whiskey insurrection, 288.      Worden, Lieutenant, 435, 436.
White Oak Swamp battle, 436.  Wren, Thomas, 243.
White Plains battle, 209.       Writs of Assistance, 157.
Whitefield, George, 144.        Wyoming, 225, 251.
Whitney, Eli, 488.
Whittier, J. G., 372, 487.
Wickes's cruise, 217.                        Y.
Wilderness battle, 457.
Wilkes, Captain, 431, 489.      Yamassees, 102.
Wilkes, Captain, exploring ex- Yeardley, Sir George, 21.
pedition, 489.                York, burning of, 330.
Wilkinson, General, 330, 331.   Yorktown, siege and surrender,
Williams, Roger, 32, 33, 57, 78,   239.
97.
Williamsburg battle, 436.                    Z.
Wilmot proviso, 392.
Wilson, James, 270.             Zenger, John Peter, 141.