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A SCHOOL HISTORY
OF THE
UNITED STATES
BY
JOHN BACH McMASTER
PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
1897
PREFACE
It has long been the custom to begin the history of our country with the
discovery of the New World by Columbus. To some extent this is both wise
and necessary; but in following it in this instance the attempt has been
made to treat the colonial period as the childhood of the United States;
to have it bear the same relation to our later career that the account
of the youth of a great man should bear to that of his maturer years,
and to confine it to the narration of such events as are really
necessary to a correct understanding of what has happened since 1776.
The story, therefore, has been restricted to the discoveries,
explorations, and settlements within the United States by the English,
French, Spaniards, and Dutch; to the expulsion of the French by the
English; to the planting of the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic
seaboard; to the origin and progress of the quarrel which ended with the
rise of thirteen sovereign free and independent states, and to the
growth of such political institutions as began in colonial times. This
period once passed, the long struggle for a government followed till our
present Constitution--one of the most remarkable political instruments
ever framed by man--was adopted, and a nation founded.
Scarcely was this accomplished when the French Revolution and the rise
of Napoleon involved us in a struggle, first for our neutral rights, and
then for our commercial independence, and finally in a second war with
Great Britain. During this period of nearly five and twenty years,
commerce and agriculture flourished exceedingly, but our internal
resources were little developed. With the peace of 1815, however, the
era of industrial development commences, and this has been treated with
great--though it is believed not too great--fullness of detail; for,
beyond all question, _the_ event of the world's history during the
nineteenth century is the growth of the United States. Nothing like it
has ever before taken place.
To have loaded down the book with extended bibliographies would have
been an easy matter, but quite unnecessary. The teacher will find in
Channing and Hart's _Guide to the Study of American History_ the best
digested and arranged bibliography of the subject yet published, and
cannot afford to be without it. If the student has time and disposition
to read one half of the reference books cited in the footnotes of this
history, he is most fortunate.
JOHN BACH McMASTER.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. EUROPE FINDS AMERICA
II. THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES
III. ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD
IV. THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND
V. THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES
VI. THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
VII. THE INDIANS
VIII. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA
IX. LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763
X. "LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS"
XI. THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
XII. UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
XIII. MAKING THE CONSTITUTION
XIV. OUR COUNTRY IN 1790
XV. THE RISE OF PARTIES
XVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY
XVII. STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS"
XVIII. THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE
XIX. PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815
XX. SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES
XXI. THE RISING WEST
XXII. THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE
XXIII. POLITICS FROM 1824 TO 1845
XXIV. EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE AREA
XXV. THE TERRITORIES BECOME SLAVE SOIL
XXVI. PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1840 AND 1860
XXVII. WAR FOR THE UNION, 1861-1865
XXVIII. WAR ALONG THE COAST AND ON THE SEA
XXIX. THE COST OF THE WAR
XXX. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH
XXXI. THE NEW WEST (1860-1870)
XXXII. POLITICS FROM 1868 TO 1880
XXXIII. GROWTH OF THE NORTHWEST
XXXIV. MECHANICAL AND INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
XXXV. POLITICS SINCE 1880
APPENDIX
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
STATE CONSTITUTIONS
INDEX
LIST OF IMPORTANT MAPS
DISCOVERY ON THE EAST COAST OF AMERICA
EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS, 1650
FRENCH CLAIMS, ETC., IN 1700
BRITISH COLONIES, 1733
EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS, 1763
THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764
BRITISH COLONIES, 1776
RESULTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
THE UNITED STATES, 1783
THE UNITED STATES, 1789
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1790
SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790
THE UNITED STATES, 1801
THE UNITED STATES, 1810
NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1820
FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820
THE UNITED STATES, 1826
TERRITORY CLAIMED BY TEXAS IN 1845
THE OREGON COUNTRY
ROUTES OF THE EARLY EXPLORERS
TERRITORY CEDED BY MEXICO, 1848 AND 1853
RESULTS OF THE COMPROMISE OF 1850
THE UNITED STATES IN 1851
EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL, 1790-1860
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION, 1850
THE UNITED STATES, 1861
WAR FOR THE UNION
INDUSTRIAL AND RAILROAD MAP OF THE UNITED STATES
A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE
UNITED STATES
* * * * *
_DISCOVERERS AND EXPLORERS_
CHAPTER I
EUROPE FINDS AMERICA
%1. Nations that have owned our Soil.%--Before the United States
became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various
portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England
claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held
Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of
Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland
once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New
York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The Swedes
had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession.
Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, it is
necessary, therefore, to tell
1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it.
2. How these parts passed from them to us.
3. What effect the ownership of parts of our country by Europeans had on
our history and institutions before 1776.
%2. European Trade with the East; the Old Routes.%--For two hundred
years before North and South America were known to exist, a splendid
trade had been going on between Europe and the East Indies. Ships loaded
with metals, woods, and pitch went from European seaports to Alexandria
and Constantinople, and brought back silks and cashmeres, muslins,
dyewoods, spices, perfumes, ivory, precious stones, and pearls. This
trade in course of time had come to be controlled by the two Italian
cities of Venice and Genoa. The merchants of Genoa sent their ships to
Constantinople and the ports of the Black Sea, where they took on board
the rich fabrics and spices which by boats and by caravans had come up
the valley of the Euphrates and the Tigris from the Persian Gulf. The
men of Venice, on the other hand, sent their vessels to Alexandria, and
carried on their trade with the East through the Red Sea.
[Illustration: Routes to India]
%3. New Routes wanted.%--Splendid as this trade was, however, it was
doomed to destruction. Slowly, but surely, the Turks thrust themselves
across the caravan routes, cutting off one by one the great feeders of
the Oriental trade, till, with the capture of Constantinople in 1453,
they destroyed the commercial career of Genoa. As their power was
spreading rapidly over Syria and toward Egypt, the prosperity of Venice,
in turn, was threatened. The day seemed near when all trade between the
Indies and Europe would be ended, and men began to ask if it were not
possible to find an ocean route to Asia.
Now, it happened that just at this time the Portuguese were hard at work
on the discovery of such a route, and were slowly pushing their way down
the western coast of Africa. But as league after league of that coast
was discovered, it was thought that the route to India by way of Africa
was too long for the purposes of commerce.[1] Then came the question, Is
there not a shorter route? and this Columbus tried to answer.
[Footnote 1: Read the account of Portuguese exploration in search of a
way to India, in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp. 274-334.]
%4. Columbus seeks the East and finds America.%[2]--Columbus was a
native of Genoa, in Italy. He began a seafaring life at fourteen, and in
the intervals between his voyages made maps and globes. As Portugal was
then the center of nautical enterprise, he wandered there about 1470,
and probably went on one or two voyages down the coast of Africa. In
1473 he married a Portuguese woman. Her father had been one of the King
of Portugal's famous navigators, and had left behind him at his death a
quantity of charts and notes; and it was while Columbus was studying
them that the idea of seeking the Indies by sailing due westward seems
to have first started in his mind. But many a year went by, and many a
hardship had to be borne, and many an insult patiently endured in
poverty and distress, before the Friday morning in August, 1492, when
his three caravels, the _Santa Maria_ (sahn'-tah mah-ree'-ah), the
_Pinta_ (peen'-tah), and the _Nina_ (neen'-yah), sailed from the port of
Palos (pah'-los), in Spain.
[Footnote 2: There is reason to believe that about the year 1000 A.D.
the northeast coast of America was discovered by a Norse voyager named
Leif Ericsson. The records are very meager; but the discovery of our
country by such a people is possible and not improbable. For an account
of the pre-Columbian discoveries see Fiske's _Discovery of America_,
Vol. I., pp. 148-255.]
[Illustration: Santa Maria]
His course led first to the Canary Islands, where he turned and went
directly westward. The earth was not then generally believed to be
round. Men supposed it to be flat, and the only parts of it known to
Europeans were Iceland, the British Isles, the continent of Europe, a
small part of Asia, and a strip along the coast of the northern part of
Africa. The ocean on which Columbus was now embarked, and which in our
time is crossed in less than a week, was then utterly unknown, and was
well named "The Sea of Darkness." Little wonder, then, that as the
shores of the last of the Canaries sank out of sight on the 9th of
September, many of the sailors wept, wailed, and loudly bemoaned their
cruel fate. After sailing for what seemed a very long time, they saw
signs of land. But when no land appeared, their hopes gave way to fear,
and they rose against Columbus in order to force him to return.
[Illustration: Nina]
But he calmed their fears, explained the sights they could not
understand, hid from them the true distance sailed, and kept steadily on
westward till October 7, when a flock of land birds were seen flying to
the southwest. Pinzon (peen-thon'), who commanded one of the vessels,
begged Columbus to follow the birds, as they seemed to be going toward
land. Had the little fleet kept on its way, it would have brought up on
the coast of Florida. But Columbus yielded to Pinzon. The ships were
headed southwestward, and about ten o'clock on the night of October 11,
Columbus saw a light moving in the distance. It was made by the
inhabitants going from hut to hut on a neighboring coast. At dawn the
shore itself was seen by a sailor, and Columbus, followed by many of his
men, hastened to the beach, where, October 12, 1492, he raised a huge
cross, and took possession of the country in the name of Ferdinand and
Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, who had supplied him with caravels
and men.[1] He had landed on one of a group of islands which we call the
Bahamas.[2]
[Footnote 1: Columbus called the new land San Salvador (sahn
sahl-vah-dor', Holy Savior), because October 12, the day on which it was
discovered, was so named in the Spanish calendar.]
[Footnote 2: Three islands of this group, Cat, Turks, and Watlings, have
rival claims as the landing place of Columbus. At present, Watlings
Island is believed to be the one on which he first set foot. Read an
account of the voyage in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I., pp.
408-442; Irving's _Life and Voyages of Columbus_, Vol. I., Book III.]
[Illustration: Coat of arms of Columbus]
During ten days he sailed among these islands. Then, turning southward,
he coasted along Cuba to the eastern end, and so to Haiti, which he
named Hispaniola, or Little Spain. There the _Santa Maria_ was wrecked.
The _Pinta_ had by this time deserted him, and, as the _Nina_ could not
carry all the men, forty were left at Hispaniola, to found the first
colony of Europeans in the New World. Giving the men food enough to last
a year, Columbus set sail for Spain on the 3d of January, 1493, and on
March 15 was safe at Palos.
Of the greatness of his discovery, Columbus had not the faintest idea.
That he had found a new world; that a continent was blocking his way to
the East, never entered his mind. He supposed he had landed on some
islands off the east coast of Asia, and as that coast was called the
Indies, and as the islands were reached by sailing westward, they came
to be called the West Indies, and their inhabitants Indians; and the
native races of the New World have ever since been called Indians.
Although Columbus in after years made three more voyages to the New
World, he never found out his mistake, and died firm in the belief that
he had discovered a direct route to Asia.[1]
[Footnote 1: Columbus began his second voyage in September, 1493, and
discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico (por'-to ree'-co), and the islands of the
Caribbean Sea. On his third voyage, in 1498, he discovered the island of
Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela, and saw South America at the mouth
of the Orinoco River. During his fourth and last voyage, 1502-1504, he
explored the shores of Honduras and the Isthmus of Panama in search of a
strait leading to the Indian Ocean. Of course he did not find it, and,
going back to Spain, he died poor and broken-hearted on May 20, 1506.]
%5. The Atlantic Coast explored.%--And now that Columbus had shown
the way, others were quick to follow. In 1497 and 1498 came John and
Sebastian Cabot (cab'-ot), sailing under the flag of England, and
exploring our coast from Labrador to Cape Cod; and Pinzon and Solis,
with Vespucius[2] for pilot, sailing under the flag of Spain along the
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, around the peninsula of Florida, and
northward to Chesapeake Bay. Between 1500 and 1502 two Portuguese
navigators named Cortereal (cor-ta-ra-ahl') went over much the same
ground as the Cabots. For the time being, however, these voyages were
fruitless. It was not a new world, but China and Japan, the Indian
Ocean, and the spice islands, that Europe was seeking. When, therefore,
in 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon, passed around the end of
Africa, reached India, and came back to Portugal in 1499 with his ship
laden with the silks and spices of the East, all explorers turned
southward, and for eleven years after the visit of the Cortereals no
voyages were made to North America.
[Footnote 2: As this man was an Italian, his name was really Amerigo
Vespucci (ah-ma'-ree-go ves-poot'-chee), but it is usually given in its
Latinized form, Americus Vespucius (a-mer'-i-cus ves-pu'-she-us).]
%6. Why the Continent was called America.%--But some great voyages
meantime were made to South America. In 1500 a Portuguese fleet of
thirteen vessels, commanded by Cabral, started from Portugal for the
East. In place of following the usual route and hugging the west coast
of Africa, Cabral went off so far to the westward that one day in April,
1500, he was amazed to see land. It proved to be what is now Brazil, and
after sailing along a little way he sent one of his vessels home to
Portugal with the news.
[Illustration: %DISCOVERY% ON THE EAST COAST OF %AMERICA%]
He did this because six years before, in June, 1494, Spain and Portugal
made a treaty and agreed that a meridian should be drawn 370 leagues
west of the Cape Verde Islands and be known as "The Line of Demarcation"
All heathen lands discovered, no matter by whom, to the east of this
line, were to belong to Portugal; all to the west of it were to be the
property of Spain. Now, as the strange coast seemed to be east of the
line of demarcation, and therefore the property of Portugal, Cabral sent
word to the King that he might explore it.
Accordingly, in May, 1501, the King sent out three ships in charge of
Americus Vespucius. Vespucius sighted the coast somewhere about Cape St.
Roque, and, finding that it was east of the line of demarcation,
explored it southward as far as the mouth of the river La Plata. As he
was then west of the line, and off a coast which belonged to Spain, he
turned and sailed southeastward till he struck the island of South
Georgia, where the Antarctic cold and the fields of floating ice stopped
him and sent him back to Lisbon.
The results of this great voyage were many. In the first place, it
secured Brazil for Portugal. In the second place, it changed the
geographical ideas of the time. The great length of coast line explored
proved that the land was not a mere island, but that Vespucius had found
a new continent in the southern hemisphere,--off the coast of Asia, as
was then supposed. This for a time was called the "Fourth Part" of the
world,--the other three parts being Europe, Asia, and Africa. But in
1507 a German professor published a little book on geography, in which
he suggested that the new part of the world discovered by Americus, the
part which we call Brazil, should be called America.
As Columbus was not supposed to have discovered a new world, but merely
a new route to Asia, this suggestion seemed very proper, and soon the
word "America" began to appear on maps as the name of Brazil. After a
while it was applied to all South America, and finally to North
America also.
%7. The Pacific discovered; the Mexican Gulf Coast explored.%--A few
years after the publication of the little book which gave the New World
the name of America, a Spaniard named Balboa landed on the Isthmus of
Panama, crossed it (1513), and from the mountains looked down on an
endless expanse of blue water, which he called the South Sea, because
when he first saw it he was looking south.
Meantime another Spaniard, named Ponce de Leon (pon'tha da la-on'),
sailed with three ships from Porto Rico, in March, 1513, and on the 27th
of that month came in sight of the mainland. As the day was Easter
Sunday, which the Spaniards call Pascua (pas'-coo-ah) Florida, he called
the country Florida.
[Illustration: Map of 1515][1]
[Footnote 1: Showing what was then supposed to be the shape and position
of the newly discovered lands.]
Six years later (1519) Pineda (pe-na'-da) skirted the shores of the Gulf
from Florida to Mexico.
%8. Spaniards sail round the World.%--In the same year (1519) that
Pineda explored the Gulf coast, a Portuguese named Magellan (ma-jel'-an)
led a Spanish fleet across the Atlantic. He coasted along South America
to Tierra del Fuego, entered the strait which now bears his name, passed
well up the western coast, and turning westward sailed toward India. He
was then on the ocean which Balboa had discovered and named the South
Sea. But Magellan found it so much smoother than the Atlantic that he
called it the Pacific. Five ships and 254 men left Spain; but only one
ship and fifteen men returned to Spain by way of India and Cape of Good
Hope. Magellan himself was among the dead.[1]
[Footnote 1: Magellan was killed by the natives of one of the Philippine
Islands. The captain of the ship which made the voyage was greatly
honored. The King of Spain ennobled him, and on his coat of arms was a
globe representing the earth, and on it the motto "You first sailed
round me."]
%9. Importance of Magellan's Voyage.%--Of all the voyages ever made
by man this was the greatest.[2] In the first place, it proved beyond
dispute that the earth is round. In the second place, it proved that
South America is a great continent, and that there is no short southwest
passage to India.
[Footnote 2: By all means read the account of this voyage by Fiske, in
his _Discovery of America_, Vol. II., pp. 190-211.]
%10. Search for a Northwest Passage; our North Atlantic Coast
explored.%--All eyes, therefore, turned northward; the quest for a
northwest passage began, and in that quest the Atlantic coast of the
United States was examined most thoroughly.
SUMMARY
1. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the Turks cut off the old
route of trade between Asia and Europe.
2. In attempting to find a new way to Asia, the Portuguese then began to
explore the west coast of Africa.
3. When at last they got well down the African coast it was thought that
such a route was too long.
4. Columbus (1492) then attempted to find a shorter way to Asia by
sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed on some islands
which he supposed to be the East Indies.
5. The explorations of men who followed Columbus proved that a new
continent had been discovered and that it blocked the way to India.
6. The attempts to find a southwest passage or a northwest passage
through our continent led to the exploration of the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts.
7. The new world was called America, after the explorer Americus.
8. The voyage of Magellan proved that the earth is round.
CHAPTER II
THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES
%11. The Spaniards explore the Southwest.%--Now it must be noticed
that up to 1513 no European had explored the interior of either North or
South America. They had merely touched the shores. In 1513 the work of
exploration began. Balboa then crossed the Isthmus of Panama. In 1519
Cortes (cor'-tez) landed on the coast of Mexico with a body of men, and
marched boldly into the heart of the country to the city where lived the
great Indian chief or king, Montezuma. Cortes took the city and made
himself master of Mexico. This was most important; for the conquest of
Mexico turned the attention of the Spaniards from our country for many
years, and finally led to the exploration of the Southwest. But the
first explorers of what is now the United States came from Cuba in 1528.
[Illustration: Map of 1530, Sloane MS.[1]]
[Footnote 1: Notice that the two continents begin to take shape, and
that as the result of Magellan's voyage is not generally known, North
America is placed very near to Java.]
In that year Narvaez (nar-vah-eth), excited by Pineda's accounts of the
Mississippi Indians and their golden ornaments, set forth with 400 men
to conquer the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. At Apalachee Bay he
landed, and made a raid inland. On returning to the shore, he missed his
ships, and after traveling westward on foot for a month, built five rude
vessels, and once more put to sea. For six weeks the little fleet hugged
the shore, till it came to the mouth of the Mississippi, where two of
the boats were upset and Narvaez was drowned. The rest reached the coast
of Texas in safety. But famine and the tomahawk soon reduced the number
of the survivors to four. These were captured by bands of wandering
Indians, were carried over eastern Texas and western Louisiana, till,
after many strange adventures and vicissitudes, they met beyond the
Sabine River.[1] Protected by the fame they had won for sorcery, and led
by one Cabeza de Vaca, they now wandered westward to the Rio Grande[2]
(ree'-o grahn'-da) and on by Chihuahua (chee-wah'-wah) and Sonora to the
Gulf of California, and by this to Culiacan, a town near the west coast
of Mexico, which they reached in 1536. They had crossed the continent.
[Footnote 1: Now the western boundary of Louisiana.]
[Footnote 2: Rio Grande del Norte---Great River of the North.]
%12. "The Seven Cities of Cibola."%--The story these men told of the
strange country through which they had passed, aroused a strong desire
in the Spaniards to explore it, for somewhere in that direction they
believed were the Seven Cities. According to an ancient legend, when the
Arabs invaded the Spanish peninsula, a bishop of Lisbon with many
followers fled to a group of islands in the Sea of Darkness, and on them
founded seven cities. As one of the Indian tribes had preserved a story
of Seven Caves in which their ancestors had once lived, the credulous
and romantic Spaniards easily confounded the two legends. Firmly
believing that the seven cities must exist in the north country
traversed by Vaca, Mendoza, the Spanish governor of Mexico, selected
Fray Marcos, a monk of great ability, and sent him forth with a few
followers to search for them. Directed by the Indians through whose
villages he passed, he came at last in sight of the seven Zuni
(zoo'-nyee) pueblos (pweb'-loz) of New Mexico, all of which were
inhabited in his time. But he came no nearer than just within sight of
them. For one of the party, who went on in advance, having been killed
by the Zuni, Fray Marcos hurried back to Culiacan. Understanding the
name of the city he had seen to be Cibola (see'-bo-la), he called the
pueblos the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and against them the next year
(1540) Coronado marched with 1100 men. Finding the pueblos were not the
rich cities for which he sought, Coronado pushed on eastward, and for
two years wandered to and fro over the plains and mountains of the West,
crossing the state of Kansas twice.[1]
[Footnote 1: Do not fail to read a delightful little book called _The
Spanish Pioneers_, by Charles F. Lummis. In it the story of these great
journeys is told on pp. 77-88, 101-143.]
[Illustration: The kind of cities found by Marcos and Coronado in the
Rio Grande valley.]
[Illustration: CORONADO'S EXPEDITION 1540]
%13. The Spaniards on the Mississippi.%--In 1537 De Soto was
appointed governor of Cuba, with instructions to conquer and hold all
the country discovered by Narvaez. On this mission he set out in May,
1539, and landed at Tampa Bay, on the west coast of our state of
Florida. He wandered over the swamps and marshes, the moss-grown
jungles, and the forests of the Gulf states, and spent the winter of
1541 near the Yazoo River. Crossing the Mississippi in the spring of
1542 at the Chickasaw Bluffs, he wandered about eastern Arkansas, till
he died of fever, and was buried in the Mississippi. His followers then
built rude boats, floated down the river to the Gulf, steered along the
coast of Texas, and in September, 1543, reached Tampico, in Mexico.
More than half a century had now gone by since the first voyage of
Columbus. Yet not a settlement, great or small, had been established by
Spain within our boundary. Between 1546 and 1561 missionaries twice
attempted to found missions and convert the Indians in Florida, and
twice were driven away. In 1582 others entered the valleys of the Gila
and the Rio Grande, took possession of the pueblos, established
missions, preached the Gospel to the Indians, and brought them under
the dominion of Spain. But when Santa Fe (sahn'-tah fa') was founded, in
1582, the only colony of Spain in the United States, besides the
missions in Arizona and New Mexico, was St. Augustine in Florida.
[Illustration: A Spanish mission]
%14. St. Augustine.%--St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards in
order to keep out the French, who made two attempts to occupy the south
Atlantic coast. The first was that of John Ribault (ree-bo'). He led a
colony of Frenchmen, in 1562, to what is now South Carolina, built a
small fort on a spot which he called Port Royal, and left it in charge
of thirty men while he went back to France for more colonists. The men
were a shiftless set, depended on the Indians till the Indians would
feed them no longer, and when famine set in, they mutinied, slew their
commander, built a crazy ship and went to sea, where an English vessel
found them in a starving condition, and took them to London.
In 1564 a second party, under Laudonniere (lo-do-ne-ar'), landed at the
St. Johns River in Florida, and built a fort called Fort Caroline in
honor of Charles IX. of France. But the King of Spain, hearing that the
French were trespassing, sent an expedition under Menendez
(ma-nen'-deth), who founded St. Augustine in 1565. There Ribault, who
had returned and joined Laudonniere, attempted to attack the Spaniards.
But a hurricane scattered his ships, and while it was still raging,
Menendez fell suddenly on Fort Caroline and massacred men, women, and
children. A few days later, falling in with Ribault and his men, who had
been driven ashore south of St. Augustine, Menendez massacred 150
more.[1] For this foul deed a Frenchman named Gourgues (goorg) exacted a
fearful penalty. With three small ships and 200 men, he sailed to the
St. Johns River, took and destroyed the fort which the Spaniards had
built on the site of Fort Caroline, and put to death every human being
within it.
[Footnote 1: The story of the French in Florida is finely told in
Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the New World_; also J. Sparks's _Life
of Ribault_; Baird's _Huguenot Emigration_.]
[Illustration: Gateway at St. Augustine[2]]
[Footnote 2: Remaining from the Spanish occupation of Florida.]
SUMMARY
1. From 1492 to 1513 the Europeans who came to America explored the
coasts of North and South America, but did not go inland.
2. In 1513 exploration of the interior of the two continents began.
Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, 1513, and Cortes conquered
Mexico, 1519-21.
3. In 1528 Narvaez made the first serious attempt to enter the
Mississippi valley. He died, and some of his followers, under Cabeza de
Vaca, crossed the continent.
4. When the Spanish governor of Mexico heard their story, he sent Fray
Marcos to find the "Seven Cities of Cibola"; and began the exploration
of the southwestern part of the United States.
5. In 1539-1541 De Soto and his band explored the southeastern part of
the United States from Florida to the Mississippi River.
6. By 1582 two Spanish settlements had been made in the United States
--St. Augustine, 1565, and Santa Fe, 1582.
EUROPE FINDS AMERICA.
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS, 1492-1600.
ATLANTIC COAST.
1492. Columbus. Islands off the coast.
1493. Columbus. Islands off the coast.
1497. John Cabot. North America. Labrador.
1498. John and Sebastian Cabot. Labrador to Cape Cod.
Pinzon and Solis. Florida to Chesapeake Bay.
1500. Cabral. Discovers Brazil.
1501. Vespucius. Explores Brazilian coast.
1500-1502. Cortereals. Explore coast North America.
1513. Ponce de Leon. Discovers and names Florida.
GULF COAST.
1498. Pinzon and Solis. Explore Gulf of Mexico and
coast of Florida.
1519. Pineda. Sails from Florida to Mexico.
1528. Narvaez. Florida to Texas.
1543. Followers of De Soto sail from Mississippi River
to Mexico.
THE INTERIOR.
1519-21. Cortes. Conquers Mexico.
1534-36. De Vaca. From the Sabine River to the Gulf
of California.
1539. Fray Marcos. Search for the Seven Cities. Wanders
over New Mexico.
1540-42. Coronado, Gila River, Rio Grande, Colorado
River.
1539-41. De Soto. Wanders over Florida, Georgia, and
Alabama, and reaches the Mississippi River.
1582-1600. Spaniards in the valleys of the Gila and Rio
Grande.
PACIFIC COAST.
1513. Balboa. Discovers the Pacific Ocean.
1520. Magellan. Sails around South America into the
Pacific.
1578-1580. Drake. Sails around South America and
up the Pacific coast to Oregon. (See p. 26.)
CHAPTER III
ENGLISH, DUTCH, AND SWEDES ON THE SEABOARD
%15. The English Claim to the Seaboard.%--After the Spaniards had
thus explored the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and what is now Arizona,
New Mexico, and Texas, the English attempted to take possession of the
Atlantic coast. The voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497 and 1498
were not followed up in the same way that Spain followed up those of
Columbus, and for nearly eighty years the flag of England was not
displayed in any of our waters.[1] At last, in 1576, Sir Martin
Frobisher set out to find a northwest passage to Asia. Of course he
failed; but in that and two later voyages he cruised about the shores of
our continent and gave his name to Frobisher's Bay.[2] Next came Sir
Francis Drake, the greatest seaman of his age. He left England in 1577,
crossed the Atlantic, sailed down the South American coast, passed
through the Strait of Magellan, and turning northward coasted along
South America, Mexico, and California, in search of a northeast passage
to the Atlantic. When he had gone as far north as Oregon the weather
grew so cold that his men began to murmur, and putting his ship about,
he sailed southward along our Pacific coast in search of a harbor, which
in June, 1579, he found near the present city of San Francisco. There he
landed, and putting up a post nailed to it a brass plate on which was
the name of Queen Elizabeth, and took possession of the country.[3]
Despairing of finding a short passage to England, Drake finally crossed
the Pacific and reached home by way of the Cape of Good Hope. He had
sailed around the globe.[4]
[Footnote 1: For Cabot's voyages read Fiske's _Discovery of America_,
Vol. II., pp. 2-15.]
[Footnote 2: See map of 1515.]
[Footnote 3: The white cliffs reminded Drake strongly of the cliffs of
Dover, and as one of the old names of England was Albion (the country of
the white cliffs), he called the land New Albion.]
[Footnote 4: For Drake read E.T. Payne's _Voyages of Elizabethan
Seamen_.]
%16. Gilbert and Ralegh attempt to found a Colony.%--While Drake was
making his voyage, another gallant seaman, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, was
given (by Queen Elizabeth) any new land he might discover in America.
His first attempt (1579) was a failure, and while on his way home from a
landing on Newfoundland (1583), his ship, with all on board, went down
in a storm at sea. The next year (1584) his half-brother, Sir Walter
Ralegh, one of the most accomplished men of his day and a great favorite
with Queen Elizabeth, obtained permission from the Queen to make a
settlement on any part of the coast of America not already occupied by a
Christian power; and he at once sent out an expedition. The explorers
landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of what is now North Carolina,
and came home with such a glowing description of the "good land" they
had found that the Virgin Queen called it "Virginia," in honor of
herself, and Ralegh determined to colonize it.[1]
[Footnote 1: For Ralegh read E. Gosse's _Raleigh_ (in English Worthies
Series); Louise Creighton's _Sir W. Ralegh_ (Historical
Biographies Series).]
%17. Roanoke Colony; the Potato and Tobacco.%--In 1585, accordingly,
108 emigrants under Ralph Lane left England and began to build a town on
Roanoke Island. They were ill suited for this kind of pioneer life, and
were soon in such distress that, had not Sir Francis Drake in one of his
voyages happened to touch at Roanoke, they would have starved to death.
Drake, seeing their helplessness, carried them home to England. Yet
their life on the island was not without results, for they took back
with them the potato, and some dried tobacco leaves which the Indians
had taught them to smoke.
Ralegh, of course, was greatly disappointed to see his colonists again
in England. But he was not discouraged, and in 1587 sent forth a second
band. The first had consisted entirely of men. The second band was
composed of both men and women with their families, for it seemed likely
that if the men took their wives and children along they would be more
likely to remain than if they went alone. John White was the leader, and
with a charter and instructions to build the city of Ralegh somewhere on
the shores of Chesapeake Bay he set off with his colonists and landed on
Roanoke Island. Here a little granddaughter was born (August 18, 1587),
and named Virginia. She was the child of Eleanor Dare, and was the first
child born of English parents in America.
[Illustration: Roanoke Island and vicinity]
Governor White soon found it necessary to go back to England for
supplies, and, in consequence of the Spanish war, three years slipped by
before he was able to return to the colony. He was then too late. Every
soul had perished, and to this day nobody knows how or where. Ralegh
could do no more, and in 1589 made over all his rights to a joint-stock
company of merchants. This company did nothing, and the sixteenth
century came to an end with no English colony in America.[1]
[Footnote 1: Doyle's _English Colonies in America_, Virginia, pp. 56-74;
Bancroft's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 60-79;
Hildreth's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 80-87.]
%18. Gosnold in New England.%--With the new century came better
fortune. Ralegh's noble efforts to plant a colony aroused Englishmen to
the possibility of founding a great empire in the New World, and
especially one named Bartholomew Gosnold.
Instead of following the old route to America by way of the Canary
Islands, the West Indies, and Florida, he sailed due west across the
Atlantic,[2] and brought up on the shore of a cape which he named Cape
Cod.[3] Following the shore southward, he passed through Nantucket Sound
and Vineyard Sound, till he came to Cuttyhunk Island, at the entrance of
Buzzards Bay. On this he landed, and built a house for the use of
colonists he intended to leave there. But when he had filled his ship
with sassafras roots and cedar logs, nobody would remain, and the whole
company went back to England.[4]
[Footnote 2: By thus shortening the journey 3000 miles, he practically
brought America 3000 miles nearer to Europe.]
[Footnote 3: Because the waters thereabout abounded in codfish. For a
comparison of Gosnold's route with those of the other early explorers
see the map on p. 15.]
[Footnote 4: Bancroft's _United States_, Vol. I., pp. 70-83. Hildreth's
_United States,_ Vol. I., p. 90.]
%19. The Two Virginia Companies.%--As a result of this voyage,
Gosnold was more eager than ever to plant a colony in Virginia, and this
enthusiasm he communicated so fully to others that, in 1606, King James
I. created two companies to settle in Virginia, which was then the name
for all the territory from what is now Maine to Florida.
1. Each company was to own a block of land 100 miles square; that is,
100 miles along the coast,--50 miles each way from its first
settlement,--and 100 miles into the interior.
2. The First Company, a band of London merchants, might establish its
first settlement anywhere between 34 deg. and 41 deg. north latitude.
3. The Second Company, a band of Plymouth merchants, might establish its
first settlement anywhere between 38 deg. and 45 deg..
4. These settlements were to be on the seacoast.
5. In order to prevent the blocks from overlapping, it was provided that
the company which was last to settle should locate at least 100 miles
from the other company's settlement.[1]
[Footnote 1: Over the affairs of each company presided a council
appointed by the King, with power to choose its own president, fill
vacancies among its own members, and elect a council of thirteen to
reside on the company's lands in America. Each company might coin money,
raise a revenue by taxing foreign vessels trading at its ports, punish
crime, and make laws which, if bad, could be set aside by the King. All
property was to be owned in common, and all the products of the soil
deposited in a public magazine from which the needs of the settlers were
to be supplied. The surplus was to be sold for the good of the company.
The charter is given in full in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_,
pp. 1888-1893.]
%20. The Jamestown Colony.%--Thus empowered, the two companies made
all haste to gather funds, collect stores and settlers, and fit out
ships. The London Company was the first to get ready, and on the 19th of
December, 1606, 143 colonists set sail in three ships for America with
their charter, and a list of the council sealed up in a strong box. The
Plymouth Company soon followed, and before the year 1607 was far
advanced, two settlements were planted in our country: the one at
Jamestown, in Virginia, the other near the mouth of the Kennebec, in
Maine. The latter, however, was abandoned the following year (see
Chapter IV).
The three ships which carried the Virginia colony reached the coast in
the spring of 1607, and entering Chesapeake Bay sailed up a river which
the colonists called the James, in honor of the King. When about thirty
miles from its mouth, a landing was made on a little peninsula, where a
settlement was begun and named Jamestown.[1] It was the month of May,
and as the weather was warm, the colonists did not build houses, but,
inside of some rude fortifications, put up shelters of sails and
branches to serve till huts could be built. But their food gave out, the
Indians were hostile, and before September half of the party had died of
fever. Had it not been for the energy and courage of John Smith, every
one of them would have perished. He practically assumed command, set the
men to building huts, persuaded the Indians to give them food, explored
the bays and rivers of Virginia, and for two dreary years held the
colony together. When we consider the worthless men he had to deal with,
and the hardships and difficulties that beset him, his work is
wonderful. The history which he wrote, however, is not to be trusted.[2]
[Footnote 1: Nothing now remains of Jamestown but the ruined tower of
the church shown in the picture. Much of the land on which the town
stood has been washed away by the river, so that its site is now
an island.]
[Footnote 2: Read the _Life and Writings of Captain John Smith_, by
Charles Dudley Warner; also John Fiske in _Atlantic Monthly_, December,
1895; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 31-38. Smith's _True
Relation_ is printed in _American History Leaflets_, No. 27, and
_Library of American Literature_ Vol. I.]
[Illustration: All that is left of Jamestown]
Bad as matters were, they became worse when a little fleet arrived with
many new settlers, making the whole number about 500. The newcomers were
a worthless set picked up in the streets of London or taken from the
jails, and utterly unfit to become the founders of a state in the
wilderness of the New World. Out of such material Smith in time might
have made something, but he was forced by a wound to return to England,
and the colony went rapidly to ruin. Sickness and famine did their work
so quickly that after six months there were but sixty of the 500 men
alive. Then two small ships, under Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George
Somers, arrived at Jamestown with more settlers; but all decided to
flee, and had actually sailed a few miles down the James, when, June 8,
1610, they met Lord Delaware with three ships full of men and supplies
coming up the river. Delaware came out as governor under a new charter
granted in 1609.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read "The Jamestown Experiments," in Eggleston's _Beginners
of a Nation,_ pp. 25-72.]
[Illustration: Vicinity of Jamestown]
%21. The Virginia Charter of 1609% made a great change in the
boundary of the company's property. By the 1606 charter the colony was
limited to 100 miles along the seaboard and 100 miles west from the
coast. In 1609 the company was given an immense domain reaching 400
miles along the coast,--200 miles each way from Old Point
Comfort,--and extending "up into the land throughout _from sea to sea_,
west and northwest." This description is very important, for it was
afterwards claimed by Virginia to mean a grant of land of the shape
shown on the map.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 74, 75.]
[Illustration]
%22. The First Representative Assembly in America.%--Under the new
charter and new governors Virginia began to thrive. More work and less
grumbling were done, and a few wise reforms were introduced. One
governor, however, Argall, ruled the colony so badly that the people
turned against him and sent such reports to England that immigration
almost ceased. The company, in consequence, removed Argall, and gave
Virginia a better form of government. In future, the governor's power
was to be limited, and the people were to have a share in the making of
laws and the management of affairs. As the colonists, now numbering 4000
men, were living in eleven settlements, or "boroughs," it was ordered
that each borough should elect two men to sit in a legislature to be
called the House of Burgesses. This house, the first representative
assembly ever held by white men in America, met on July 30, 1619, in the
church at Jamestown, and there began "government of the people, by the
people, for the people."
%23. The Establishment of Slavery in America.%--It is interesting to
note that at the very time the men of Virginia thus planted free
representative government in America, another institution was planted
beside it, which, in the course of two hundred and fifty years, almost
destroyed free government. The Burgesses met in July, and a few weeks
later, on an August day, a Dutch ship entered the James and before it
sailed away sold twenty negroes into slavery. The slaves increased in
numbers (there were 2000 in Virginia in 1671), and slavery spread to the
other colonies as they were started, till, in time, it existed in every
one of them.
%24. Virginia loses her Charter, 1624.%--The establishment of popular
government in Virginia was looked on by King James as a direct affront,
and was one of many weighty reasons why he decided to destroy the
company. To do this, he accused it of mismanagement, brought a suit
against it, and in 1624 his judges declared the charter annulled, and
Virginia became a royal colony.[1]
[Footnote 1: On the Virginia colony in general read Doyle's volume on
_Virginia_, pp. 104-184; Lodge's _English Colonies in America_, pp.
1-12; of course, Bancroft and Hildreth. For particular epochs or events
consult Channing and Hart's _Guide to American History_, pp. 248-253.]
%25. Maryland begun.%--A year later James died, and Charles I. came
to the throne. As Virginia was now a royal colony, the land belonged to
the King; and as he was at liberty to do what he pleased with it, he cut
off a piece and gave it to Lord Baltimore. George Calvert, Lord
Baltimore, was a Roman Catholic nobleman who for years past had been
interested in the colonization of America, and had tried to plant a
colony in Newfoundland. The severity of the climate caused failure, and
in 1629 he turned his attention to Virginia and visited Jamestown. But
religious feeling ran as high there as it did anywhere. The colonists
were intolerantly Protestant, and Baltimore was ordered back to England.
Undeterred by such treatment, Baltimore was more determined than ever to
plant a colony, and in 1632 obtained his grant of a piece of Virginia.
The tract lay between the Potomac River and the fortieth degree of north
latitude, and extended from the Atlantic Ocean to a north and south
line through the source of the Potomac.[1] It was called Maryland in
honor of the Queen, Henrietta Maria.
[Footnote 1: It thus included what is now Delaware, and pieces of
Pennsylvania and West Virginia.]
[Illustration: ORIGINAL BOUNDARY OF MARYLAND]
The area of the colony was not large; but the authority of Lord
Baltimore over it was almost boundless. He was to bring to the King each
year, in token of homage, two Indian arrowheads, and pay as rent one
fifth of all the gold and silver mined. This done, the "lord
proprietary," as he was called, was to all intents and purposes a king.
He might coin money, make war and peace, grant titles of nobility,
establish courts, appoint judges, and pardon criminals; but he was not
permitted to tax his people without their consent. He must summon the
freemen to assist him in making the laws; but when made, they need not
be sent to the King for approval, but went into force as soon as the
lord proprietary signed them. Of course they must not be contrary to the
laws of England.
%26. Treatment of Catholics.%--The deed for Maryland had not been
issued when Lord Baltimore died. It was therefore made out in the name
of his son, Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, who, like the
first, was a Roman Catholic, and was influenced in his attempts at
colonization by a desire to found a refuge for people of his own faith.
At that time in England no Roman Catholic was permitted to educate his
children in a foreign land, or to employ a schoolmaster of his religious
belief; or keep a weapon; or have Catholic books in his house; or sit in
Parliament; or when he died be buried in a parish churchyard. If he did
not attend the parish church, he was fined L20 a month. But it is
needless to mention the ways in which he suffered for his religion. It
is enough to know that the persecution was bitter, and that the purpose
of Lord Baltimore was to make Maryland a Roman Catholic colony. Yet he
set a noble example to other founders of colonies by freely granting to
all sects full freedom of conscience. As long as the Catholics remained
in control, toleration worked well. But in the year 1691 Lord Baltimore
was deprived of his colony because he had supported King James II., and
in 1692 sharp laws were made in Maryland against Catholics by the
Protestants. In 1716 the colony was restored to the proprietor.
The first settlement was made in 1634 at St. Marys. Annapolis was
founded about 1683; and Baltimore in 1729.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Scharf's _History of Maryland_; Doyle's _Virginia_;
Lodge's _English Colonies_; Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation,_.]
%27. The Dutch on the Hudson.%--Meantime great things had been
happening to the northward. In 1609 Henry Hudson, an English sailor in
the service of Holland, was sent to find a northwest passage to India.
He reached our coast not far from Portland, Maine, and abandoning all
idea of finding a passage, he sailed alongshore to the southward as far
as Cape Cod. Here he put to sea, and when he again sighted land was off
Delaware Bay. In attempting to sail up it, his ship, the _Half-Moon,_
grounded, and Hudson turned about. Running along the Jersey coast, he
entered New York Bay, and sailed up the river which the Dutch called
the North River, but which we know as the Hudson. Hudson's voyage gave
the Dutch a claim to all the country drained by the Delaware or South
River and the Hudson River, and some Dutch traders at once sent out
vessels, and were soon trading actively with the Indians. By 1614 a rude
fort had been erected near the site of Albany, and some trading huts had
been put up on Manhattan Island. These ventures proved so profitable
that numbers of merchants began to engage in the trade, whereupon those
already in it, in order to shut out others, organized a company, and in
1615 obtained a trading charter for three years from the States General
of Holland, and carried on their operations from Albany to the
Delaware River.
[Illustration: View of New Amsterdam in 1656]
%28. Dutch West India Company.%--On the expiration of the charter (in
1618) it was not renewed, but a new corporation, the Dutch West India
Company (1621), was created with almost absolute political and
commercial power over all the Dutch domains in North America, which were
called New Netherland. In 1623 the company began to send out settlers.
Some went to Albany, or, as they called it, Fort Orange. Others were
sent to the South or Delaware River, where a trading post, Fort Nassau,
was built on the site of Gloucester in New Jersey. A few went to the
Connecticut River; some settled on Long Island; and others on Manhattan
Island, where they founded New Amsterdam, now called New York city.
All these little settlements were merely fur-trading posts. Nobody was
engaged as yet in farming. To encourage this, the company (in 1629) took
another step, and offered a great tract of land, on any navigable river
or bay, to anybody who would establish a colony of fifty persons above
the age of fifteen. If on a river, the domain was to be sixteen miles
along one bank or eight miles along each bank, and run back into the
country as far "as the situation of the occupiers will admit." The
proprietor of the land was to be called a "patroon," [1] and was absolute
ruler of whatever colonies he might plant, for he was at once owner,
ruler, and judge. It may well be supposed that such a tempting offer did
not go a-begging, and a number of patroons were soon settled along the
Hudson and on the banks of the Delaware (1631), where they founded a
town near Lewes. The settlements on the Delaware River were short-lived.
The settlers quarreled with the Indians, who in revenge massacred them
and drove off the garrison at Fort Nassau; whereupon the patroons sold
their rights to the Dutch West India Company.[2]
[Footnote 1: The patroon bound himself to (1) transport the fifty
settlers to New Netherland at his own expense; (2) provide each of them
with a farm stocked with horses, cattle, and farming implements, and
charge a low rent; (3) employ a schoolmaster and a minister of the
Gospel. In return for this the emigrant bound himself (1) to stay and
cultivate the land of the patroon for ten years; (2) to bring his grain
to the patroon's mill and pay for grinding; (3) to use no cloth not made
in Holland; (4) to sell no grain or produce till the patroon had been
given a chance to buy it.]
[Footnote 2: Lodge's _English Colonies_, pp. 295-311; Winsor's
_Narrative and Critical History_, Vol. III., pp. 385-411; Bancroft's
_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 501-508.]
%29. The Struggle for the Delaware; the Swedes on the Delaware.%--And
now began a bitter contest for the ownership of the country bordering
the Delaware. A few leading officials of the Dutch Company, disgusted at
the way its affairs were managed, formed a new company under the lead of
William Usselinx. As they could not get a charter from Holland, for she
would not create a rival to the Dutch Company, they sought and obtained
one from Sweden as the South Company, and (1638) sent out a colony to
settle on the Delaware River.[1] The spot chosen was on the site of
Wilmington. The country was named New Sweden, though it belonged to
Maryland. The Dutch West India Company protested and rebuilt Fort
Nassau. The Swedes, in retaliation, went farther up the river and
fortified an island near the mouth of the Schuylkill. Had they stopped
here, all would have gone well. But, made bold by the inaction of the
Dutch, they began to annoy the New Netherlanders, till (1655) Peter
Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherland, unable to stand it any
longer, came over from New Amsterdam with a few hundred men, overawed
the Swedes, and annexed their territory west of the Delaware. New Sweden
then became part of New Netherland.[2]
[Footnote 1: Sweden had no right to make such a settlement. She had no
claim to any territory in North America.]
[Footnote 2: Lodge's _English Colonies_, pp. 205-210; Bancroft's
_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 509, 510; Hildreth's
_History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 413-442.]
SUMMARY
1. After the discovery of the North American coast by the Cabots,
England made no attempt to settle it for nearly eighty years; and even
then the colonies planted by Gilbert and Ralegh were failures.
2. Successful settlement by the English began under the London Company
in 1607.
3. In 1609 the London Company obtained a grant of land from sea to sea,
and extending 400 miles along the Atlantic; but in 1624 its charter was
annulled, and in 1632 the King carved the proprietary colony of Maryland
out of Virginia.
4. Meantime Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch, discovered the
Delaware and Hudson rivers (1609), and the Dutch, ignoring the claims of
England, planted colonies on these rivers and called the country New
Netherland.
5. Then a Swedish company began to colonize the Delaware Bay and River
coast of Virginia, which they called New Sweden.
6. Conflicts between the Dutch and the Swedes followed, and in 1655 New
Sweden was made a part of New Netherland.
CHAPTER IV
THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND
%30. The Beginnings of New England.%--When the Dutch put up their
trading posts where New York and Albany now stand, all the country east
of New York, all of what is now New England, was a wilderness. As early
as 1607 an attempt was made to settle it and a colony was planted on the
coast of Maine by two members of the Plymouth Company, Sir John Popham,
Lord Chief Justice of England, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, governor of
Plymouth. But the colonists were half starved and frozen, and in the
spring of 1608 gladly went home to England.
Six years later John Smith, the hero of Virginia, explored and mapped
the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod. He called the country New
England; one of the rivers, the Charles; and two of the promontories,
Cape Elizabeth and Cape Ann. Three times he attempted to lead out a
colony; but that work was reserved for other men.
%31. The Separatists.%--The reign of Queen Elizabeth had witnessed in
England the rise of a religious sect which insisted that certain changes
should be made in the government and ceremonials of the Established or
State Church of England. This they called purifying the Church, and in
consequence they were themselves called Puritans.[1] At first they did
not intend to form a new sect; but in 1580 one of their ministers, named
Robert Brown, urged them to separate from the Church of England, and
soon gathered about him a great number of followers, who were called
Separatists or Brownists. They boldly asserted their right to worship as
they pleased, and put their doctrines into practice. So hot a
persecution followed, that in 1608 a party, led by William Brewster and
John Robinson, fled from Scrooby, a little village in northern England,
to Amsterdam, in Holland; but soon went on to Leyden, where they dwelt
eleven years.[2]
[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 50-71. The
teacher may read "Rise and Development of Puritanism" in Eggleston's
_Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 98-140.]
[Footnote 2: Read Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 141-157;
Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 71-80; Doyle's _Puritan
Colonies_, Vol. I., pp. 47-81; Palfrey's _New England_, Vol. I.,
pp. 176-232.]
%32. Why the Separatists went to New England%.--They had come to
Holland as an organized community, practicing English manners and
customs. For a temporary residence this would do. But if they and their
children's children after them were to remain and prosper, they must
break up their organization, forget their native land, their native
speech, their national traditions, and to all intents and purposes
become Dutch. This they could not bring themselves to do, and by 1617
they had fully determined to remove to some land where they might still
continue to be Englishmen, and where they might lay the foundations of a
Christian state. But one such land could then be found, and that was
America. To America, therefore, they turned their attention, and after
innumerable delays formed a company and obtained leave from the London
Company to settle on the coast of what is now New Jersey.[1]
[Footnote 1: Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 159-176.]
This done, Brewster and Bradford and Miles Standish, with a little band,
sent out as an advance guard, set sail from the Dutch port of Delft
Haven in July, 1620, in the ship _Speedwell_. The first run was to
Southampton, England, where some friends from London joined them in the
_Mayflower_, and whence, August 5, they sailed for America. But the
_Speedwell_ proved so unseaworthy that the two ships put back to
Plymouth, where twenty people gave up the voyage. September 6, 1620,
such as remained steadfast, just 102 in number, reembarked on the
_Mayflower_ and began the most memorable of voyages. The weather was so
foul, and the wind and sea so boisterous, that nine weeks passed before
they beheld the sandy shores of Cape Cod. Having no right to settle
there, as the cape lay far to the northward of the lands owned by the
London Company, they turned their ship southward and attempted to go on.
But head winds drove them back and forced them to seek shelter in
Provincetown harbor, at the end of Cape Cod.
[Illustration: The Mayflower[1]]
[Footnote 1: From the model in the National Museum, Washington.]
[Illustration: THE MASSACHUSETTS COAST (map)]
%33. The Mayflower Compact%.--Since it was then the 11th of November,
the Pilgrims, as they are now called, decided to get permission from
the Plymouth Company to remain permanently. But certain members of the
party, when they heard this, became unruly, and declared that as they
were not to land in Virginia, they were no longer bound by the contracts
they had made in England regarding their emigration to Virginia. To put
an end to this, a meeting was held, November 21, 1620, in the cabin of
the _Mayflower_, and a compact was drawn up and signed.[1] It declared
1. That they were loyal subjects of the King.
2. That they had undertaken to found a colony in the northern parts of
Virginia, and now bound themselves to form a "civil body politic."
3. That they would frame such just and equal laws, from time to time, as
might be for the general good.
4. And to these laws they promised "all due submission and obedience."
[Footnote 1: The compact is in Poore's _Charters and Constitutions_, p.
931, and in Preston's _Documents Illustrative of American History_, pp.
29-31. Read, by all means, Webster's _Plymouth Oration_.]
[Illustration: Plymouth Rock]
%34. The Founding of Plymouth%.--The selection of a site for their
home was now necessary, and five weeks were passed in exploring the
coast before Captain Standish with a boatload of men entered the harbor
which John Smith had noted on his map and named Plymouth. On the sandy
shore of that harbor, close to the water's edge, was a little granite
bowlder, and on this, according to tradition, the Pilgrims stepped as
they came ashore, December 21, 1620. To this harbor the _Mayflower_ was
brought, and the work of founding Plymouth was begun. The winter was a
dreadful one, and before spring fifty-one of the colonists had died.[1]
But the Pilgrims stood fast, and in 1621 obtained a grant of land[2]
from the Council for New England, which had just succeeded the Plymouth
Company, under a charter giving it control between latitudes 40 deg. and
48 deg., from sea to sea.[3] It was from the same Council that for fifteen
years to come all other settlers in New England obtained their rights
to the soil.
[Footnote 1: In the trying times which followed, William Bradford was
chosen governor and many times reelected. He wrote the so-called "Log of
the Mayflower,"--really a manuscript _History of the Plymouth
Plantation_ from 1602 to 1647,--a fragment of which is reproduced on the
opposite page.]
[Footnote 2: This grant had no boundary. Each settler might have 100
acres. Fifteen hundred acres were set aside for public buildings.]
[Footnote 3: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 80-87; Palfrey's
_New England_, Vol. I, pp. 176-232; Thatcher's _History of the Town of
Plymouth_.]
[Illustration: Fragment of _History of the Plymouth Plantation_.]
%35. A Puritan Colony proposed.%--Among those who obtained such
rights was a company of Dorchester merchants who planted a town on Cape
Ann. The enterprise failed, and the colonists went off and settled at a
place they called Naumkeag. But there was one man in Dorchester who was
not discouraged by failure. He was John White, a Puritan rector. What
had been done by the Separatists in a small way might be done, it seemed
to White, on a great scale by an association of wealthy and influential
Puritans. The matter was discussed by them in London, and in 1628 an
association was formed, and a tract of land was bought from the Council
for New England.
%36. The "Sea to Sea" Grant%.--Concerning the interior of our
continent absolutely nothing was known. Nobody supposed it was more than
half as wide as it really is. The grant to the association, therefore,
stretched from three miles north of the Merrimac River to three miles
south of the Charles River, along these rivers to their sources, and
then westward across the continent from sea to sea.[1]
[Footnote 1: You will notice that when this grant was made in 1628 the
Dutch had discovered the Hudson, and had begun to settle Albany. To this
region (the Hudson and Mohawk valleys) the English had no just claim.]
As soon as the grant was obtained, John Endicott came out with a company
of sixty persons, and took up his abode at Naumkeag, which, being an
Indian and therefore a pagan name, he changed to Salem, the Hebrew word
for "peace."
%37. The Massachusetts Charter, 1629%.--The next step was to obtain
the right of self-government, which was secured by a royal charter
creating a corporation known as the Governor and Company of
Massachusetts Bay in New England. Over the affairs of the company were
to preside a governor, deputy governor, and a council of eighteen to be
elected annually by the members of the company.[2]
[Footnote 2: The charter is printed in Poore's _Charters and
Constitutions_, pp. 932-942, and in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 36-61.]
Six ships were now fitted out, and in them 406 men, women, and children,
with 140 head of cattle, set sail for Massachusetts. They reached Salem
in safety and made it the largest colony in New England.
%38. Why the Puritans came to New England.%--It was in 1625 that
Charles I. ascended the throne of England. Under him the quarrel with
the Puritans grew worse each year. He violated his promises, he
collected illegal taxes, he quartered troops on the people, he threw
those into prison who would not contribute to his forced loans, or
pressed them into the army or the navy. His Archbishop Laud persecuted
the Puritans with shameful cruelty.
Little wonder then that in 1629 twelve leading Puritans met in
consultation and agreed to head a great migration to the New World,
provided the charter and the government of the Massachusetts Bay Company
were both removed to New England. This was agreed to, and in April,
1630, John Winthrop sailed with nearly one thousand Puritans for Salem.
From Salem he moved to Charlestown, and later in the year (1630) to a
little three-hilled peninsula, which the English called Tri-mountain or
Tremont. There a town was founded and called Boston.
The departure of Winthrop was the signal, and before the year 1630
ended, seventeen ships, bringing fifteen hundred Puritans, reached
Massachusetts. The newcomers settled Charlestown, Boston, Roxbury,
Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown (now Cambridge). New England was
planted.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 75-105.
Eggleston's _Beginners of a Nation_, pp. 188-219.]
%39. New Hampshire and Maine.%--When it became apparent that the
Plymouth colony was permanently settled, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, whose
interest in New England had never lagged, together with John Mason
obtained (1622) from the Council for New England a grant of Laconia, as
they called the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers,
and from the Atlantic "to the great river of Canada." Seven years later
(1629) they divided their property. Mason, taking the territory between
the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers, called it New Hampshire because he
was Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire in England. Gorges took the region
between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec, and called it Maine. After the
death of Mason (1635) his colony was neglected and from 1641 to 1679 was
annexed to Massachusetts. The King separated them in 1679, joined them
again in 1688, and finally parted them in 1691, making New Hampshire a
royal colony.
Gorges took better care of his part and (in 1639) was given a charter
with the title of Lord Proprietor of the Province or County of Maine,
which extended, as before, from the Piscataqua to the Kennebec, and
backward 120 miles from the ocean. But after his death the province fell
into neglect, and the towns were gradually absorbed by Massachusetts,
which, in 1677, bought the claims of the heir of Gorges for L1250 and
governed Maine as lord proprietor under the Gorges charter.
%40. Church and State in Massachusetts.%--Down to the moment of their
arrival in America the Puritans had not been Separatists. They were
still members of the Church of England who desired to see her form of
worship purified. But the party under Endicott had no sooner reached
Salem than they seceded, and the first Congregational Church in New
England was founded.
Some in Salem were not prepared for so radical a step, and attempted to
establish a church on the episcopal model; but Endicott promptly sent
two of the leaders back to England. Thus were established two facts: 1.
The separation or secession of the Colonial Church from that of England.
2. That the episcopal form of worship would not be tolerated in
the colony.
In 1631 another step was taken which united church and state, for it was
then ordered that "no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body
politic, but such as are members of some of the churches within the
limits of the same."
This was intolerance of the grossest kind, and soon became the cause of
troubles which led to the founding of Rhode Island and Connecticut.
%41. The Planting of Rhode Island.%--There came to Salem (from
Plymouth), in 1633, a young minister named Roger Williams. He dissented
heartily from the intolerance of the people of Massachusetts, and,
though a minister of the Salem church, insisted
1. On the separation of church and state.
2. On the toleration of all religious beliefs.
3. On the repeal of all laws requiring attendance on religious worship.
To us, in this century, the justice of each of these principles is
self-evident. But in the seventeenth century there was no country in the
world where it was safe to declare them. For doing so in some parts of
Europe, a man would most certainly have been burned at the stake. For
doing so in England, he would have been put in the pillory, or had his
ears cut off, or been sent to jail. That Williams's teachings should
seem rank heresy in New England was quite natural. But, to make matters
worse, he wrote a pamphlet in which he boldly stated
1. That the soil belonged to the Indians.
2. That the settlers could obtain a valid title only by purchase from
the Indians.
3. That accepting a deed for the land from a mere intruder like the King
of England was a sin requiring public repentance.
In the opinion of the people of New England such doctrine could not fail
to bring down on Massachusetts the wrath of the King. When, therefore, a
little later, Endicott cut the red cross of St. George out of the colors
of the Salem militia, the people considered his act a defiance of royal
authority, attributed it to the teachings of Williams, and proceeded to
punish both. Endicott was rebuked by the General Court (or legislature)
and forbidden to hold office for a year. Williams was ordered to go
back to England. But he fled to the woods, and made his way through the
snow to the wigwam of the Indian chief, Massasoit, on Narragansett Bay,
and there in the summer of 1636 he founded Providence. About the same
time another teacher of what was then thought heresy, Anne Hutchinson,
was driven from Massachusetts, and with some of her followers went
southward and founded Portsmouth and Newport, on the island of Rhode
Island. For a while each of these settlements was independent, but in
1643 Williams went to London and secured a patent from Parliament which
united them under the name of "The Incorporation of Providence
Plantations on the Narragansett Bay in New England."
%42. Connecticut begun.%--In the same year that Roger Williams began
his settlement at Providence, several hundred people from the towns near
Boston went off and settled in the Connecticut valley. For a long time
past there had been growing up in Massachusetts a strong feeling that
the law that none but church members should vote or hold office was
oppressive. This feeling became so strong that in 1635 some hardy
pioneers from Dorchester pushed through the wilderness and settled at
Windsor. A party from Watertown went further and settled Wethersfield.
These were small movements. But in 1636 the Newtown congregation, led by
its pastor, Thomas Hooker, walked to the Connecticut valley and founded
Hartford. The congregations of the Dorchester and Watertown churches
soon followed, while a party from Roxbury settled at Springfield. During
three years these four towns were part of Massachusetts. But in 1639,
Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield adopted a constitution and formed a
little republic which in time was called Connecticut. Their "Fundamental
Orders of Connecticut" was the first written constitution made in
America. Their republic was the first in the history of the world to be
founded by a written constitution, and marks the beginning of democratic
government in our country.
%43. The New Haven Colony.%--Just at the time these things were
happening in the Connecticut valley, the beginnings of another little
republic were made on the shores of Long Island Sound. One day in the
summer of 1637 there came to Boston a company of rich London merchants
under the lead of an eloquent preacher named John Davenport. The people
of Boston would gladly have kept the newcomers at that town. But the
strangers desired to found a state of their own, and so, after spending
some months in seeking for a spot with a good harbor, they left Boston
in 1638 and founded New Haven. In 1639 Milford and Guilford were laid
out, and Stamford was started in 1640. Three years later these four
towns joined in a sort of federal union and took the name of the New
Haven colony.[1]
[Footnote 1: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 134-137.]
[Illustration: NEW ENGLAND AND NEW NETHERLAND]
%44. "The United Colonies of New England."%--There were now five
colonies in New England; namely, Plymouth, or the "Old Colony,"
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven.
Geographically, they were near each other. But each was weak in numbers,
and if left without the aid of its neighbors, might easily have fallen
a prey to some enemy. Of this the settlers were well aware, and in 1643
four of the colonies, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New
Haven[1] united for defense against the Indians and the Dutch, who
claimed the Connecticut valley and so threatened the English colonies
on the west.
[Footnote 1: Rhode Island was not allowed to come in, for the feeling
against the followers of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson was still
very strong.]
The name of this league was "The United Colonies of New England," and it
was the first attempt in America at federal government. All its affairs
were managed by a board of eight commissioners,--two from each
colony,--who must be church members. They had no power to lay taxes or
to meddle with the internal concerns of the colonies, but they had
entire control over all dealings with Indians or with foreign powers.
%45. The Year 1643.%--The year 1643 is thus an important one in
colonial history. It was in that year that the New Haven colony was
founded; that the league of The United Colonies of New England was
formed; and that Roger Williams obtained the first charter of
Rhode Island.
%46. New Charters.%--During the next twenty years no changes took
place in the boundaries of the colonies. This was the period of the
Civil War in England, of the Commonwealth, of the rule of Cromwell and
the Puritans; and affairs in New England were left to take care of
themselves. But in 1660 Charles II. was restored to the throne of
England, and a new era opens in colonial history. In 1661 the little
colony of Connecticut promptly acknowledged the restoration of Charles
II. and applied for a charter. The application was more than granted;
for to Connecticut (1662) was given not only a charter and an immense
tract of land, but also the colony of New Haven.[1] The land grant was
comprised in a strip that stretched across the continent from Rhode
Island to the Pacific and was as wide as the present state.[2] In 1663
Rhode Island was given a new charter.
[Footnote 1: In 1660, after the restoration of Charles II., Edward
Whalley and William Goffe (the regicides, "king-killers," as they were
called), two of the judges who had condemned Charles I. to be beheaded,
fled to New Haven and were protected by the people. This act had much to
do with the annexation of New Haven to Connecticut.]
[Footnote 2: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 192-196. Many
of the New Haven colonists were disgusted by the union of their colony
with Connecticut, and in June, 1667, migrated to New Jersey, where they
founded "New-Ark" or Newark.]
In 1684 the King's judges declared the Massachusetts charter void, and
James II. was about to make New England one royal colony, when the
English people drove him from the throne. William and Mary in 1691
granted a new charter and united the Plymouth colony, Massachusetts,
Maine, and Nova Scotia, in one colony called Massachusetts Bay. This
charter was in force when the Revolution opened.
SUMMARY
1. The first colony established by the Plymouth Company (1607, on the
coast of Maine) was a failure.
2. Captain John Smith explored the New England coast and mapped it
(1613), but did not succeed in planting any colonies.
3. The permanent settlement of New England began with the arrival of a
body of Separatists in the _Mayflower_ (1620), who founded the colony
of Plymouth.
4. The Separatist migration from England was followed in a few years by
a great exodus of Puritans, who planted towns along the coast to the
north of Plymouth, and obtained a charter of government and a great
strip of land, and founded the colony of Massachusetts Bay.
5. Religious disputes drove Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson out of
Massachusetts, and led to the founding of Rhode Island (1636).
6. Other church wrangles led to an emigration from Massachusetts to the
Connecticut valley, where a little confederacy of towns was created and
called Connecticut.
7. Some settlers from England went to Long Island Sound and there
founded four towns which, in their turn, joined in a federal union
called the New Haven Colony.
8. In time, New Haven was joined to Connecticut, and Plymouth and Maine
to Massachusetts; New Hampshire was made a royal colony; and the four
New England colonies--Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut--were definitely established.
9. The territory of Massachusetts and Connecticut stretched across the
continent to the "South Sea," or Pacific Ocean.
CHAPTER V
THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES
%47. North and South Carolina.%--You remember that away back in the
sixteenth century the French under Jean Ribault and the English under
Ralegh undertook to plant colonies on what is now the Carolina coast.
They failed, and the country remained a wilderness till 1653, when a
band of emigrants from Virginia made the first permanent settlement on
the banks of the Chowan and the Roanoke. In 1663 some Englishmen from
Barbados began to settle on the Cape Fear River, just at the time when
Charles II. of England gave the region to eight English noblemen, who,
out of compliment to the King, allowed the name of Carolina given it by
Ribault to remain. In 1665 the bounds were enlarged, and Carolina then
extended from latitude 29 deg. 00' to 36 deg. 30', the present south boundary of
Virginia, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
[Illustration: CAROLINA AS GRANTED BY King Charles II]
There was at first no intention of dividing the territory, although,
after Charleston was founded (1670), North Carolina and South Carolina
sometimes had separate governors. But in 1729 the proprietors sold
Carolina to the King, and it was then divided into two distinct and
separate royal provinces.
%48. New York.%--An event of far greater importance than the
chartering of Carolina was the seizure of New Netherland. After the
conquest of New Sweden, in 1655, the possessions and claims of the Dutch
in our country extended from the Connecticut River to the Delaware
River, and from the Mohawk to Delaware Bay. Geographically, they cut the
English colonies in two, and hampered communication between New England
and the South. To own this region was therefore of the utmost importance
to the English; and to get it, King Charles II., in 1664, revived the
old claim that the English had discovered the country before the Dutch,
and he sent a little fleet and army, which appeared off New Amsterdam
and demanded its surrender. The demand was complied with; and in 1664
Dutch rule in our country ended, and England owned the seaboard from the
Kennebec to the Savannah.
The King had already granted New Netherland to his brother the Duke of
York, in honor of whom the town of New Amsterdam was now renamed
New York.
%49. New Jersey.%--The Duke of York no sooner received his province
than he gave so much of it as lay between the Delaware and the ocean to
his friends Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, and called it New
Jersey, in honor of Sir George Carteret, who had been governor of the
island of Jersey in the English Channel. The two proprietors divided it
between them by the line shown on the map (p. 56). In 1674 Berkeley sold
West Jersey to a company of Quakers, who settled near Burlington. A
little later, 1676, William Penn and some other Quakers bought East
Jersey. There were then two colonies till 1702, when the proprietors
surrendered their rights, and New Jersey became one royal province.
%50. The Beginnings of Pennsylvania.%--The part which Penn took in
the settlement of New Jersey suggested to him the idea of beginning a
colony which should be a refuge for the persecuted of all lands and of
all religions.
[Illustration]
Now it so happened that Penn was the son of a distinguished admiral to
whom King Charles II. owed L16,000, and seeing no chance of its ever
being paid, he proposed to the King, in 1680, that the debt be paid with
a tract of land in America. The King gladly agreed, and in 1681 Penn
received a grant west of the Delaware. Against Penn's wish, the King
called it Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woodland. It was given almost
precisely the bounds of the present state.[1] In 1683 Penn made a famous
treaty with the Indians, and laid out the city of Philadelphia.
[Footnote 1: There was a long dispute, however, with Lord Baltimore,
over the south boundary line, which was not settled till 1763-67, when
two surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, came over from England
and located it as at present. In later years, when all the Atlantic
seaboard states north of Maryland and Delaware had abolished slavery,
this "Mason and Dixon's Line" became famous as the dividing line between
the slave and the free Atlantic states.]
%51. The Three Lower Counties: Delaware.%--If you look at the map of
the British Colonies in 1764, you will see that Pennsylvania was the
only English colony which did not have a seacoast. This was a cause of
some anxiety to Penn, who was afraid that the settlers in Delaware and
New Jersey might try to prevent his colonists from going in and out of
Delaware Bay. To avoid this, he bought what is now Delaware from the
Duke of York.
The three lower counties on the Delaware, as the tract was called, had
no boundary. Lawfully it belonged to Lord Baltimore. But neither the
Dutch patroons who settled on the Delaware in 1631, nor the Swedes who
came later, nor the Dutch who annexed New Sweden to New Netherland, nor
the English who conquered the Dutch, paid any regard to Baltimore's
rights. At last, after the purchase of Delaware, the heirs of Baltimore
and of Penn (1732) agreed on what is the present boundary line. After
1703 the people of the three lower counties were allowed to have an
assembly or legislature of their own; but they had the same governor as
Pennsylvania and were a part of that colony till the Revolution.[1]
[Footnote 1: For Pennsylvania read Janney's _Life of William Penn_ or
Dixon's _History of William Penn_; Proud's or Gordon's _Pennsylvania_;
Lodge's _Colonies_, pp. 213-226.]
%52. Georgia.%--The return of the Carolinas to the King in 1729 was
very soon followed by the establishment of the last colony ever planted
by England in the United States. The founder was James Oglethorpe, an
English soldier and member of Parliament. Filled with pity for the poor
debtors with whom the English jails were then crowded, he formed a plan
to pay the debts of the most deserving, send them to America, and give
them what hundreds of thousands of men have since found in our
country,--a chance to begin life anew.
[Illustration]
Great numbers of people became interested in his plan, and finally
twenty-two persons under Oglethorpe's lead formed an association and
secured a charter from King George II. for a colony, which they called
Georgia. The territory granted lay between the Savannah and the
Altamaha rivers, and extended from their mouths to their sources and
then across the country to the Pacific Ocean. Oglethorpe had selected
this tract in order that his colonists might serve the patriotic purpose
of protecting Charleston from the Spanish attacks to which it was
then exposed.
Money for the colony was easily raised,[1] and in November, 1732,
Oglethorpe, with 130 persons, set out for Charleston, and after a short
stay there passed southward and founded the city of Savannah (1733). It
must not be supposed that all the colonists were poor debtors. In time,
Italians from Piedmont, Moravians and Lutherans from Germany, and
Scotchmen from the Highlands, all made settlements in Georgia.
[Footnote 1: The House of Commons gave L10,000.]
%53. The Thirteen English Colonies.%--Thus it came about that between
1606 and 1733 thirteen English colonies were planted on the Atlantic
seaboard of what is now the United States. Naming them from north to
south, they were: 1. New Hampshire, with no definite western boundary;
2. Massachusetts, which owned Maine and a strip of territory across the
continent; 3. Rhode Island, with her present bounds; 4. Connecticut,
with a great tract of land extending to the Pacific; 5. New York, with
undefined bounds; 6. New Jersey; 7. Pennsylvania and 8. Delaware, the
property of the Penn family; 9. Maryland, the property of the heirs of
Lord Baltimore; 10. Virginia, with claims to a great part of North
America; 11. North Carolina, 12. South Carolina, and 13. Georgia, all
with claims to the Pacific.
SUMMARY
1. The English seized New Netherland (1664), giving it to the Duke of
York; and the Duke, after establishing the province of New York, gave
New Jersey to two of his friends, and sold the three counties on the
Delaware to William Penn.
2. Meanwhile the King granted Penn what is now Pennsylvania (1681).
3. The Carolinas were first chartered as one proprietary colony, but
were sold back to the King and finally separated in 1729.
4. Georgia, the last of the thirteen English colonies, was granted to
Oglethorpe and others as a refuge for poor debtors (1732).
BEGINNINGS OF THE THIRTEEN COLONIES
_English_.
Failures:
1579. Gilbert.
1584. }Ralegh, Roanoke Island.
1587. }
Successes:
1606. London Company, Plymouth Company.
1607. Virginia settled.
1609. Boundary of London Company changed. Origin of
Virginia claim.
1620. Landing of the Pilgrims. Plymouth colony.
1622. Grant to Mason and Gorges.
1628. Land bought for Massachusetts Bay colony.
1629. Mason and Gorges divide their grant into Maine
and New Hampshire.
1632. Maryland patent granted.
1639. Connecticut constitution
(Windsor. Hartford. Wethersfield)
1643. New Haven colony organized
(New Haven. Milford. Guilford. Stamford.)
1643. Rhode Island chartered.
1662. Connecticut chartered.
(Connecticut. New Haven.)
1663. Rhode Island rechartered.
1663. Carolina patent granted.
After 1729 North and South Carolina.
1664. New Netherland conquered and New York founded.
1664. New Jersey granted to Berkeley and Carteret.
1681. Pennsylvania granted to Penn.
1682. Three counties on the Delaware bought by Penn.
1691. Plymouth and Maine (and Nova Scotia)
united with Massachusetts.
1732. Georgia chartered.
_Dutch_.
1613. Begin to colonize New Netherland
_Swedes_.
1638. South Company makes settlement on the Delaware.
1655. Conquered by the Dutch.
CHAPTER VI
THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
%54. The Early French Possessions% on our continent may be arranged
in three great areas: 1. Acadia, 2. New France, 3. Louisiana, or the
basin of the Mississippi River.
ACADIA comprised what is now New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and a part of
Maine. It was settled in the early years of the seventeenth century at
Port Royal (now Annapolis, Nova Scotia), at Mount Desert Island, and on
the St. Croix River.
NEW FRANCE was the drainage basin of the St. Lawrence and the Great
Lakes. As far back as 1535 Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence
River to the site of Montreal. But it was not till 1608 that a party
under Champlain made the first permanent settlement on the river,
at Quebec.
The French settlers at once entered into an alliance with the Huron and
Algonquin Indians, who lived along the St. Lawrence River. But these
tribes were the bitter enemies of the Iroquois, who dwelt in what is now
central New York, and when, in consequence of this alliance, the French
were summoned to take the warpath, Champlain, with a few followers,
went, and on the shore of the lake which now bears his name, not far
from the site of Ticonderoga, he met and defeated the Iroquois tribe of
Mohawks in July, 1609.
The battle was a small affair; but its consequences were serious and
lasting, for the Iroquois were thenceforth the enemies of the French,
and prevented them from ever coming southward and taking possession of
the Hudson and the Mohawk valleys. When, therefore, the French
merchants began to engage in the fur trade with the Indians, and the
French priests began their efforts to convert the Indians to
Christianity, they were forced to go westward further and further into
the interior.
[Illustration: EUROPEAN CLAIMS AND EXPLORATIONS 1650]
Their route, instead of being up the St. Lawrence, was up the Ottawa
River to its head waters, over the portage to Lake Nipissing, and down
its outlet to Georgian Bay, where the waters of the Great Lakes lay
before them (see map on p. 63). They explored these lakes, dotted their
shores here and there with mission and fur-trading stations, and took
possession of the country.
%55. The French on the Mississippi.%--In the course of these
explorations the French heard accounts from the Indians of a great
river to the westward, and in 1672 Father Marquette (mar-ket') and Louis
Joliet (zho-le-a') were sent by the governor of New France to search for
it. They set out, in May, 1673, from Michilimackinac, a French trading
post and mission at the foot of Lake Michigan. With five companions, in
two birch-bark canoes, they paddled up the lake to Green Bay, entered
Fox River, and, dragging the boats through its boiling rapids, came to a
village where lived the Miamis and the Kickapoos. These Indians tried to
dissuade them from going on; but Marquette was resolute, and on the 10th
of June, 1673, he led his followers over the swamps and marshes that
separated Fox River from a river which the Indian guides assured him
flowed into the Mississippi. This westward-flowing river he called the
Wisconsin, and there the guides left him, as he says, "alone, amid that
unknown country, in the hands of God."
The little band shoved their canoes boldly out upon the river, and for
seven days floated slowly downward into the unknown. At last, on the
17th of June, they paddled out on the bosom of the Mississippi, and,
turning their canoes to the south, followed the bends and twists of the
river, past the mouth of the Missouri, past the Ohio, to a point not far
from the mouth of the Arkansas. There the voyage ended, and the party
went slowly back to the Lakes.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _La Salle and the Discovery of the Great
West_.]
%56. La Salle finishes the Work of Marquette and Joliet.%--The
discovery of Marquette and Joliet was the greatest of the age. Yet five
years went by before Robert de la Salle (lah sahl') set forth with
authority from the French King "to labor at the discovery of the western
part of New France," and began the attempt to follow the river to the
sea. In 1678 La Salle and his companions left Canada, and made their way
to the shore of Lake Erie, where during the winter they built and
launched the _Griffin_, the first ship that ever floated on those
waters. In this they sailed to the mouth of Green Bay, and from there
pushed on to the Illinois River, to an Indian camp not far from the
site of Peoria, Ill. Just below this camp La Salle built Fort Crevecoeur
(cra'v-ker, a word meaning heart-break, vexation).
[Illustration: %FRENCH CLAIMS% MISSIONS AND TRADING POSTS IN
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY %in 1700%]
Leaving the party there in charge of Henri de Tonty to construct another
ship, he with five companions went back to Canada. On his return he
found that Fort Crevecoeur was in ruins, and that Tonty and the few men
who had been faithful were gone, he knew not where. In the hope of
meeting them he pushed on down the Illinois to the Mississippi. To go on
would have been easy, but he turned back to find Tonty, and passed the
winter on the St. Joseph River.
From there in November, 1681, he once more set forth, crossed the lake
to the place where Chicago now is, went up the Chicago River and over
the portage to the Illinois, and early in February floated out on the
Mississippi. It was, on that day, a surging torrent full of trees and
floating ice; but the explorers kept on their way and came at last to
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. There La Salle took formal possession
of all the regions drained by the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their
tributaries, claiming them in the name of France, and naming the country
thus claimed "Louisiana." The iron will, the splendid courage, of La
Salle had triumphed over every obstacle and made him one of the grandest
characters in history.
But his work was far from ended. The valley he had explored, the
territory he had added to France, must be occupied, and to occupy it two
things were necessary: 1. A colony must be planted at the mouth of the
Mississippi, to control its navigation and shut out the Spaniards. 2. A
strong fort must be built on the Illinois, to overawe the Indians.
In order to overawe the Indians, La Salle now hurried back to the
Illinois River, where, in December, 1682, near the present town of
Ottawa, on the summit of a cliff now known as "Starved Rock," he built a
stockade which he called Fort St. Louis. In 1684, while on a voyage from
France to plant a colony on the Mississippi, he missed the mouth and
brought up on the coast of Texas; and, landing on the sands of
Matagorda Bay, the colonists built another Fort St. Louis. But death
rapidly reduced their numbers, and, in their distress, they parted. Some
remained at the fort and were killed by the Indians. Others, led by La
Salle, started for the Illinois River and reached it; but without their
leader, whom they had murdered on the way.
SUMMARY
1. After the settlement of Quebec (1608) the French began to explore the
regions lying to the west, discovered the Great Lakes, and heard of a
great river--the Mississippi.
2. This river Marquette and Joliet explored from the mouth of the
Wisconsin to the mouth of the Arkansas (1673).
3. Then La Salle floated down the Mississippi from the Illinois to the
Gulf of Mexico, took formal possession of the valley in the name of his
King, and called it Louisiana (1682).
[Illustration: Starved Rock]
CHAPTER VII
THE INDIANS
[Illustration: A typical Indian]
%57%. When Europeans first set foot on our shores, they found the
country already inhabited, and, adopting the name given to the men of
the New World by Columbus, they called these people "Indians."
They were not "Indians," or natives of Asia, but a race by themselves,
which ages before the time of Columbus was spread over all North and
South America.
Like their descendants in the West to-day, they had red or
copper-colored skins, their eyes and long straight hair were jet black,
their faces beardless, and their cheek bones high.
%58. The Villages.%---East of the Rocky Mountains the Indians lived
in villages, often covering several acres in area, and surrounded by
stockades of two and even three rows of posts. The stockade was pierced
with loopholes, and provided with platforms on which were piles of
stones for the defenders to hurl on the heads of their enemies.
Sometimes the structures which formed the village were wigwams--rude
structures made by driving poles into the ground in a circle, drawing
their tops near together, and then covering them with bark or skins.
Sometimes the dwellings had rudely framed sides and roofs covered with
layers of elm bark. Usually these structures were fifteen or twenty feet
wide by 100 feet long. At each end was a door. Along each side were ten
or twelve stalls, in each of which lived a family, so that one house
held twenty or more families. Down the middle at regular intervals were
fire pits where the food was cooked, the smoke escaping through holes in
the roof.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, Vol. I., pp. 17,
18.]
[Illustration: Buffalo-skin lodge]
%59. Clans and Tribes.%--All the families living in such a house
traced descent from a common female ancestor, and formed a clan. Each
clan had its own name,--usually that of some animal, as the Wolf, the
Bear, or the Turtle,--its own sachem or civil magistrate, and its own
war chiefs, and owned all the food and all the property, except weapons
and ornaments, in common. A number of such clans made a tribe, which had
one language and was governed by a council of the clan sachems.
[Illustration: Seneca long house]
%60. The Three Indian Races.%--With slight exceptions, the tribes
living east of the Mississippi are divided, by those who have studied
their languages, into three great groups:
1. The Muskhogees, who lived south of the Tennessee River and comprised
the Creek, the Seminole, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw tribes.
2. The Iroquoian group, which occupied the country from the Delaware and
the Hudson to and beyond the St. Lawrence and Lakes Ontario and Erie,
besides isolated tracts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The chief
tribes were the Iroquois proper,--forming a confederacy in central New
York known as the Five Nations (Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas,
and Mohawks),--the Hurons, the Eries, the Cherokees, and the Tuscaroras.
[Illustration: Moccasin]
3. The Algonquian group, which occupied the rest of what is now the
United States east of the Mississippi, besides the larger part of
Canada. In this group were the Mohegans, Pequots, and Narragansetts of
New England; the Delawares; the Powhatans of Virginia; the Shawnees of
the Ohio valley, and many others living around the Great Lakes.
[Illustration: Flint Hatchet]
%61. Weapons and Implements and Clothing.%--All of these tribes had
made some progress towards civilization. They used pottery and
ornamental pipes of clay. They raised beans and squashes, pumpkins,
tobacco, and maize, or Indian corn, which they ground to meal by rubbing
between two stones. For hunting they had bows, arrows with stone heads,
hatchets of flint, and spears. In summer they went almost naked. In
winter they wore clothing made from the skins of fur-bearing animals and
the hides of buffalo and deer. For navigating streams and rivers, lakes
and bays, they constructed canoes of birch bark sewed together with
thongs of deerskin and smeared at the joints with spruce-tree gum.
%62. Traits of Character.%--Living an outdoor life, and depending for
daily food not so much on the maize they raised as on the fish they
caught and the animals they killed, the Indians were most expert
woodsmen. They were swift of foot, quick-witted, keen-sighted, and most
patient of hunger, fatigue, and cold. White men were amazed at the
rapidity with which the Indian followed the most obscure trail over the
most difficult ground, at the perfection with which he imitated the bark
of the wolf, the hoot of the owl, the call of the moose, and at the
catlike tread with which he walked over beds of autumn leaves the side
of the grazing deer.
[Illustration: Ornamental pipe]
[Illustration: Quiver, with bows and arrows]
Courage and fortitude he possessed in the highest degree. Yet with his
bravery were associated all the vices, all the dark and crooked ways,
which are the resort of the cowardly and the weak. He was treacherous,
revengeful, and cruel beyond description. Much as he loved war (and war
was his chief occupation), the fair and open fight had no charm for him.
To his mind it was madness to take the scalp of an enemy at the risk of
his own, when he might waylay him in an ambush or shoot him with an
arrow from behind a tree. He was never so happy as when, at the dead of
night, he roused his sleeping victims with an unearthly yell and
massacred them by the light of their burning home.
%63. The French and the Indians.%--The ways in which French and
English colonists acted towards the Indian are highly characteristic,
and account for much in our history.
From the day when Champlain, in 1609, joined his Huron-Algonquin
neighbors and went with them on the warpath against the Iroquois, the
French held to the policy of making friends with the Indians. No pains
were spared to win them to the cause of France. They were flattered,
petted, treated with ceremonial respect, and became the companions, as
the women often became the wives, of the Frenchmen. Much was expected of
this mingling of races. It was supposed that the Indian would be won
over to civilization and Christianity. But the Frenchmen were won over
to the Indians, and adopted Indian ways of life. They lived in wigwams,
wore Indian dress, decorated their long hair with eagle feathers, and
made their faces hideous with vermilion, ocher, and soot.
%64. Coureurs de Bois.%--There soon grew up in this way a class of
half-civilized vagrants, who ranged the woods in true Indian style, and
gained a living by guiding the canoes of fur traders along the rivers
and lakes of the interior. Stimulated by the profits of the fur trade,
these men pushed their traffic to the most distant tribes, spreading
French guns, French hatchets, beads, cloth, tobacco and brandy, and
French influence over the whole Northwest. Where the trader and the
_coureur de bois_ went, the priest and the soldier followed, and soon
mission houses and forts were established at all the chief passes and
places suited to control the Indian trade.
%65. The English and the Indians.%--How, meantime, did the English
act toward the Indians? In the first place, nothing led them to form
close relationship with the tribes. The fur trade--the source of
Canadian prosperity--and the zeal of priests eager for the conversion of
the heathen, which sent the traders, the _coureurs de bois_, and the
priests from tribe to tribe and from the Atlantic halfway to the
Pacific, did not appeal to the English colonists. Farming and commerce
were the sources of their wealth. Their priests and missionaries were
content to labor with the Indians near at hand.
In the second place, the policy of the French towards the Indians, while
founded on trade, was directed by one central government. The policy of
the English was directed by each colony, and was of as many kinds as
there were colonies. No English frontier exhibited such a mingling of
white men and red as was common wherever the French went. Among the
English there were fur traders, but no _coureurs de bois_. Scorn on the
one side and hatred on the other generally marked the intercourse
between the English and the Indians. One bright exception must indeed be
made. Penn was a broad-minded lover of his kind, a man of most
enlightened views on government and human rights; and in the colony
planted by him there was made a serious effort to treat the Indian as an
equal. But the day came when men not of his faith dealt with the Indians
in true English fashion.
Remembering this difference of treatment, we shall the better understand
how it happened that the French could sprinkle the West with little
posts far from Quebec and surrounded by the fiercest of tribes, while
the English could only with difficulty defend their frontier.[1]
[Footnote 1: A fine account of the Indians, and the French and English
ways of treating them, is given in Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_,
Vol. I., pp. 16-25, 41-45, 46-56, 64-80.]
%66. Early Indian Wars.%--Again and again this frontier was attacked.
In 1636 the Pequots, who dwelt along the Thames River in Connecticut,
made war on the settlers in the Connecticut River valley towns. Men were
waylaid and scalped, or taken prisoners and burned at the stake.
Determined to put an end to this, ninety men from the Connecticut towns,
with twenty from Massachusetts and some Mohegan Indians, in 1637 marched
against the marauders. They found the Pequots within a circular stockade
near the present town of Stonington, where of 400 warriors all save five
were killed.
%67. King Philip's War.%--During nearly forty years not a tribe in
all New England dared rise against the white men. But in 1675 trouble
began again. The settlers were steadily crowding the Indians off their
lands. No lands were taken without payment, yet the sales were far from
being voluntary. A new generation of Indians, too, had grown up, and,
heedless of the lesson taught their fathers, the Narragansetts,
Nipmucks, and Wampanoags, led by King Philip and Canonchet, rose upon
the English. A dreadful war followed. When it ended, in 1678, the three
tribes were annihilated. Hardly any Indians save the friendly Mohawks
were left in New England. But of ninety English towns, forty had been
the scene of fire and slaughter, and twelve had been destroyed utterly.
%68. The Iroquois.%--Elsewhere on the frontier a happier relation
existed with the Indians. The Iroquois of central New York were the
fiercest and most warlike Indians of the Atlantic coast. But the fight
with Champlain, in 1609, by turning them into implacable enemies of the
French, had rendered them all the more tolerant of the Dutch and the
English, while their complete conquest and subjugation of the Delawares,
or Lenni Lenape, prepared the way for the easy settlement of New Jersey
and Pennsylvania.
%69. Penn and the Lenni Lenape.%--These Indians were Algonquian, and
lived along the Delaware River and its tributaries. But early in the
seventeenth century they had been reduced to vassalage by the Five
Nations, had been forbidden to carry arms, and had been forced to take
the name of Women.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_, Vol. I., pp. 30-32,
80-82.]
When the Dutch and Swedes began their settlements on the South River,
and when Penn, in 1683, made a treaty with the Delawares, the settlers
had to deal with peaceful Indians. No horrid wars mark the early history
of Pennsylvania.
%70. The Powhatans in Virginia.%--Much the same may be said of the
Virginia tribes. They were far from friendly, and had they been as
fierce and warlike as the northern tribes, neither the skill of John
Smith, nor the marriage of Pocahontas (the daughter of Powhatan) with
John Rolfe, nor fear of the English muskets, would have saved Jamestown.
[Illustration: Powhatan Indians at work[1]]
[Footnote 1: From a model.]
On the other hand, the destruction of the tribes in New England and the
feud between the French and the Iroquois saved New England. For the time
had now come for the opening of the long struggle between the French and
the English for the ownership of the continent.
SUMMARY
1. The inhabitants of the New World at the time of its discovery, by
mistake called Indians, were barbarians, lived in rude, frail houses,
and used weapons and implements inferior to those of the whites.
2. The Indian tribes of eastern North America are mostly divided into
three great groups: Muskhogean, Iroquoian, and Algonquian.
3. In general, the French made the Indians their friends, while the
English drove them westward and treated them as an inferior race.
[Illustration: THE BRITISH COLONIES AND EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS 1733]
CHAPTER VIII
THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA
%71. Louisiana, or the Mississippi Basin.%--The landing of La Salle
on the coast of Texas, and the building of Fort St. Louis of Texas, gave
the French a claim to the coast as far southward as a point halfway
between the fort and the nearest Spanish settlement, in Mexico. At that
point was the Rio Grande, a good natural boundary. On the French maps,
therefore, Louisiana extended from the Rocky Mountains and the Rio
Grande on the west, to the Alleghany Mountains on the east, and from the
Gulf of Mexico on the south, to New France on the north. This confined
the English colonies to a narrow strip between the Alleghany Mountains
and the Atlantic Ocean. As the colonies were growing in population, and
as the charters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, and Carolina
gave them great stretches of territory in the Mississippi valley, it was
inevitable that, sooner or later, a bitter contest for possession of the
country should take place between the French and the English in America.
The contest began in 1689, and ended in 1763, and may easily be divided
into two periods: 1. That from 1689 to 1748, when the struggle was for
Acadia and New France. 2. That from 1754 to 1763, when the struggle was
not only for New France, but for Louisiana also.
%72. The Struggle for Acadia and New France; "King William's
War."%--In 1688-89 there was a revolution in England, in the course
of which James II. was driven from his throne, and William and Mary, his
nephew and daughter, were seated on it. James took refuge in France, and
when Louis XIV. attempted to restore him, a great European war
followed, and of course the colonists of the two countries were very
soon fighting each other. As the quarrel did not arise on this side of
the ocean, the English colonists called it "King William's War"; but on
our continent it was really the beginning of a long struggle to
determine whether France or England should rule North America.
The French recognized this at once, and sent over a very able
soldier--Count Frontenac--with orders to conquer New York; but the
colony was saved by the Iroquois, who in the summer of 1689 began a war
of their own against the French, laid siege to Montreal, and roasted
French captives under its walls. Frontenac was compelled to put off his
attack till 1690, when in the dead of winter a band of French and
Indians burned Schenectady, N.Y. Salmon Falls in New Hampshire was next
laid waste (1690), and Fort Loyal, where Portland, Me., is, was taken
and destroyed. A little later Exeter, N.H., was attacked. The boldness
and suddenness of these fearful massacres so alarmed the people exposed
to them that in May, 1690, delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth,
Connecticut, and New York met at New York city to devise a plan of
attack on the French. Now, at the opening of the war, there were three
French strongholds in America. These were Montreal and Quebec in Canada,
and Port Royal in Acadia. In 1690 a Massachusetts fleet led by Sir
William Phips destroyed Port Royal. It was decided, therefore, to send
another fleet under Phips to take Quebec, while troops from New York and
Connecticut marched against Montreal. Both expeditions were failures,
and for seven years the French and Indians ravaged the frontier. In 1692
York, in Maine, was visited and a third of the inhabitants killed. In
1694 Castine was taken and a hundred persons scalped and tomahawked. At
Durham, in New Hampshire, prisoners were burned alive. Groton, in
Massachusetts, was next visited; but the boldest of all was the
massacre, in 1697, at Haverhill, a town not thirty-five miles from
Boston. In 1696, Frontenac, at the head of a great array of Canadians,
_coureurs de bois_, and Indians, invaded the country of the Onondagas,
and leveled their fortified town to the earth.
[Illustration: MAP OF PART OF ACADIA]
%73. The Struggle for Acadia and New France; "Queen Anne's War."%--In
1697 the war ended with the treaty of Ryswick, and "King William's War"
came to a close in America with nothing gained and much lost on each
side. The peace, however, did not last long, for in 1701 England and
France were again fighting. As William died in 1702, and was succeeded
by his sister-in-law Anne, the struggle which followed in America was
called "Queen Anne's War." Again Port Royal was captured (1710); again
an expedition went against Quebec and failed (1711); and again, year
after year, the French and Indians swept along the frontier of New
England, burning towns and slaughtering and torturing the inhabitants.
At last the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, ended the strife, and the first
signs of English conquest in America were visible, for the French gave
up Acadia and acknowledged the claims of the English to Newfoundland and
the country around Hudson Bay. The name Acadia was changed by the
conquerors to Nova Scotia. Port Royal, never again to be parted with,
they called Annapolis, in honor of the Queen.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. I., pp.
1-149.]
%74. The French take Possession of the Mississippi Valley; the Chain of
Forts.%--The peace made at Utrecht was unbroken for thirty years. But
this long period was, on the part of the French in America, at least, a
time of careful preparation for the coming struggle for possession of
the valleys of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Lakes. In the
Mississippi valley most elaborate preparations for defense were already
under way. No sooner did the treaty of Ryswick end the first French war
than a young naval officer named Iberville applied to the King for leave
to take out an expedition and found a colony at the mouth of the
Mississippi, just as La Salle had attempted to do. Permission was
readily given, and in 1698 Iberville sailed with two ships from France,
and in February, 1699, entered Mobile Bay. Leaving his fleet at anchor,
he set off with a party in small boats in search of the great river. He
coasted along the shore, entered the Mississippi through one of its
three mouths, and went up the river till he came to an Indian village,
where the chief gave him a letter which Tonty, thirteen years before,
when in search of La Salle, had written and left in the crotch of
a tree.
Iberville now knew that he was on the Mississippi; but having seen no
spot along its low banks suitable for the site of a city, he went back
and led his colony to Biloxi Bay, and there settled it. Thus when the
eighteenth century opened there were in all Louisiana but two French
settlements--that founded on the Illinois River by La Salle, and that
begun by Iberville at Biloxi. But the occupation of Louisiana was now
the established policy of France, and hardly a year went by without one
or more forts appearing somewhere in the valley. Before 1725 came,
Mobile Bay was occupied, New Orleans was founded, and Forts Rosalie,
Toulouse, Tombeckbee, Natchitoches, Assumption, and Chartres were
erected. Along the Lakes, Detroit had been founded, Niagara was built in
1726, and in 1731 a band of Frenchmen, entering New York, put up
Crown Point.[1]
[Footnote 1: Parkman's _A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. I., pp.
288-314. For the French posts see map on pp. 74, 75.]
The meaning of this chain of forts stretching from New Orleans and
Mobile to Lake Champlain and Montreal, was that the French were
determined to shut the English out of the valley of the Mississippi, and
to keep them away from the shores of the Great Lakes. But they were also
determined at the first chance to reconquer Annapolis and Nova Scotia,
which they had lost by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. As a very
important step towards the accomplishment of this purpose, the French
selected a harbor on the southeast coast of Cape Breton Island, and
there built Louisburg, a fortress so strong that the French officers
boasted that it could be defended by a garrison of women.
%75. The Struggle for New France; "King George's War."%--Such was the
situation in America when (in March, 1744) France declared war on
England and began what in Europe was called the "War of the Austrian
Succession"; but in our country it was known as "King George's War,"
because George II. was then King of England. The French, with their
usual promptness, rushed down and burned the little English post of
Canso, in Nova Scotia, carried off the garrison, and attacked Annapolis,
where they were driven off. That Nova Scotia could be saved, seemed
hopeless. Nevertheless, Governor Shirley of Massachusetts determined to
make the attempt, and that the King might know the exact situation he
sent to London, with a dispatch, an officer named Captain Ryal, who had
been taken prisoner at Canso and afterwards released on parole.[2]
[Footnote 2: The reception of that officer well illustrates the gross
ignorance of America and American affairs which then existed in England.
When the Duke of Newcastle, who was prime minister, read the dispatch,
he exclaimed: "Oh, yes--yes--to be sure. Annapolis must be
defended--troops must be sent to Annapolis. Pray where is Annapolis?
Cape Breton an island! Wonderful! Show it me on the map. So it is, sure
enough. My dear sir [to Captain Ryal], you always bring us good news. I
must go and tell the King that Cape Breton is an island."]
Although Shirley applied to the King for help with which to defend Nova
Scotia, he knew full well that the burden of defense would fall on the
colonies. And with that determination and persistence which always
brings success he labored hard to persuade New Hampshire, Connecticut,
and Rhode Island to join with Massachusetts in an effort to capture
Louisburg. It would be delightful to tell how he overcame all
difficulties; how the young men rallied on the call for troops; how at
the end of March, 1745, 4000 of them in a hundred transports and
accompanied by fourteen armed ships set sail, followed by the prayers of
all New England, and after a siege of six weeks took the fortress on the
17th of June, 1745. But the story is too long.[1] It is enough to know
that the victory was hailed with delight on both sides of the Atlantic,
but that when peace came, in 1748, the British government was still so
blind to the struggle for North America which had been going on for
fifty years, that Louisburg was restored to the French.
[Footnote 1: Read Samuel Adams Drake's _Taking of Louisburg_; Parkman's
_A Half-century of Conflict_, Vol. II., pp. 78-161.]
%76. The French on the Allegheny River; the Buried Plates.%--With
Louisburg back in their possession and no territory lost, the French
went on more vigorously than ever with their preparations to shut the
British out of the Mississippi valley; and as but one highway to the
valley, the Ohio River, was still unguarded, the governor of Canada, in
1749, dispatched Celoron de Bienville with a band of men in twenty-three
birch-bark canoes to take formal possession of the valley. Paddling up
the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, they carried their canoes across to
Lake Erie, and, skirting the southeastern shore, they landed and crossed
to Chautauqua Lake, down which and its outlet they floated to the
Allegheny River. Once on the Allegheny, the ceremony of taking
possession began. The men were drawn up, and Louis XV. was proclaimed
king of all the region drained by the Ohio. The arms of France stamped
on a sheet of tin were nailed to a tree, at the foot of which a lead
plate was buried in the ground. On the plate was an inscription claiming
the Ohio, and all the streams that run into it, in the name of the King
of France.
[Illustration: [1]Half of one of the lead plates]
[Footnote 1: Now owned by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester,
Mass.]
* * * * *
TRANSLATION OF THE ENTIRE INSCRIPTION
In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV., King of France, we,
Celeron, commander of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la
Gallissoniere, commander in chief of New France, to restore tranquillity
in some savage villages of these districts, have buried this plate at
the confluence of the Ohio and ... this ... near the river Ohio, alias
Beautiful River, as a monument of our having retaken possession of the
said river Ohio and of those that fall into the same, and of all the
lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as well as
of those of which preceding kings have enjoyed possession, partly by the
force of arms, partly by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick,
Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle.
* * * * *
A second plate was buried below the mouth of French Creek; a third near
the mouth of Wheeling Creek; and a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum,
where half a century later it was found protruding from the river bank
by a party of boys while bathing. Yet another was unearthed at the mouth
of the Great Kanawha by a freshet, and was likewise found by a boy while
playing at the water's edge. The last plate was hidden where the Great
Miami joins the Ohio; and this done, Celoron crossed Ohio to Lake Erie
and went back to Montreal.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read T. J. Chapman's _The French in the Allegheny Valley_,
pp. 9-23, 187-197; Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 36-62;
Winsor's _The Mississippi Basin_, pp. 252-255.]
%77. The French build Forts on the Allegheny.%--This formal taking
possession of the valleys of the Allegheny and the Ohio was all well
enough in its way; but the French knew that if they really intended to
keep out the British they must depend on forts and troops, and not on
lead plates. To convince the French King of this, required time; so that
it was not till 1752 that orders were given to fortify the route taken
by Celoron in 1749. The party charged with this duty repaired to the
little peninsula where is now the city of Erie, and there built a log
fort which they called Presque Isle. Having done this, they cut a road
twenty miles long, to the site of Waterford, Pa., and built Fort Le
Boeuf, and later one at Venango, the present site of the town
of Franklin.
%78. Washington's First Public Service.%--The arrival of the French
in western Pennsylvania alarmed and excited no one so much as Governor
Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia. He had two good reasons for his
excitement. In the first place, Virginia, because of the interpretation
she placed on her charter of 1609, claimed to own the Allegheny valley
(see p. 33). In the second place, the governor and a number of Virginia
planters were deeply interested in a great land company called the Ohio
Company, to which the King of England had given 500,000 acres lying
along the Ohio River between the Monongahela and the Kanawha rivers, a
region which the French claimed, and toward which they were moving.
As soon, therefore, as Dinwiddie heard that the French were really
building forts in the upper Allegheny valley, he determined to make a
formal demand for their withdrawal, and chose as his messenger George
Washington, then a young man of twenty-one, and adjutant general of the
Virginia militia.
Washington's instructions bade him go to Logstown, on the Ohio, find out
all he could as to the whereabouts of the French, and then proceed to
the commanding officer, deliver the letter of Dinwiddie, and demand an
answer. He was especially charged to ascertain how many French forts had
been erected, how many soldiers there were in each, how far apart the
posts were, and if they were to be supported from Quebec.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read T.J. Chapman's _The, French in the Allegheny Valley_,
pp. 23-47; Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 128-161; Lodge's
_George Washington_, pp. 62-69.]
With that promptness which distinguished him during his whole life,
Washington set out on his perilous journey the very day he received his
instructions, and made his way first to Logstown, and then to Fort Le
Boeuf, where he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter to the French
commandant. The reply of Saint-Pierre--for that was the name of the
French commandant--was that he would send the letter of Dinwiddie to the
governor of Canada, the Marquis Duquesne (doo-kan'), and that, in the
meantime, he would hold the fort.
[Illustration: The French and the English Forts]
%79. Fort Duquesne.%--When Dinwiddie read the answer of Saint-Pierre,
he saw clearly that the time had come to act. The French were in force
on the upper Allegheny. Unless something was done to drive them out,
they would soon be at the forks of the Ohio, and once they were there,
the splendid tract of the Ohio Company would be lost forever. Without a
moment's delay he decided to take possession of the forks of the Ohio,
and raised two companies of militia of 100 men each. A trader named
William Trent was in command of one of the companies, and that no time
should be lost, he, with forty men, hurried forward, and, February 17,
1754, drove the first stake of a stockade that was to surround a fort on
the site of the city of Pittsburg. While the English were still at work
on their fort, April 17, 1754, a body of French and Indians came down
from Le Boeuf, and bade them leave the valley. Trent was away, and the
working party was in command of an ensign named Ward, who, as resistance
was useless, surrendered, and was allowed to march off with his men. The
French then finished the fort Trent had begun, and called it Fort
Duquesne, after the governor of Canada.
%80. "Join or Die."%--Meantime the legislature of Virginia voted
L10,000 for the defense of the Ohio valley, and promised a land bounty
to every man who would volunteer to fight the French and Indians. Joshua
Frye was made colonel, and Washington lieutenant colonel of the troops
thus to be raised. As some time must elapse before the ranks could be
filled, Washington took seventy-five men and (in March, 1754) set off to
help Trent; but he had not gone far on his way when Ensign Ward met him
(where Cumberland, Md., now is) and told him all about the surrender.
Accounts of the affair were at once sent to the governors of Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
[Illustration: JOIN, or DIE.]
In publishing one of these in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, Franklin
inserted the above picture at the top of the account.[1]
[Footnote 1: There is an old superstition, then very generally believed,
that if one cuts a snake in pieces and allows the pieces to touch, the
snake will not die, but will live and become whole again. By this
picture Franklin meant that unless the colonies joined for defense
against the French they would die; that is, be conquered.]
%81. Albany Plan of Union.%--The picture was apt for the following
reason. The Lords of Trade in London had ordered the colonies to send
delegates to Albany to make a treaty with the Iroquois Indians, and to
this congress Franklin purposed to submit a plan for union against the
French. The plan drawn up by the congress was not approved by the
colonies, so the scheme of union came to naught.
%82. Washington's Expedition.%--Meanwhile great events were happening
in the west. When Washington met Ensign Ward at Cumberland and heard the
story of the surrender, he was at a loss just what to do; but knowing
that he was expected to do something, he decided to go to a storehouse
which the Ohio Company had built at the mouth of a stream called
Redstone Creek in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pushing along, cutting as
he went the first road that ever led down to the valley of the
Mississippi from the Atlantic slope, he reached a narrow glade called
the Great Meadows and there began to put up a breastwork which he named
Fort Necessity. While so engaged news came that the French were near.
Washington thereupon took a few men, and, coming suddenly on the French,
killed or captured them all save one. Among the dead was Jumonville, the
leader of the party. Well satisfied with this exploit, Washington pushed
on with his entire force towards the Ohio. But, hearing that the French
were advancing, he fell back to Fort Necessity, and there awaited them.
He did not wait long; for the French and Indians came down in great
force, and on July 4, 1754, forced him, after a brave resistance, to
surrender. He was allowed to march out with drums beating and flags
flying.[1]
[Footnote 1: Lodge's _George Washington_, pp. 69-74; Winsor's _The
Mississippi Basin_, pp. 294-315.]
%83. The French and Indian War.%--Thus was begun what the colonists
called the French and Indian War, but what was really a struggle
between the French and the British for the possession of America.
Knowing it to be such, both sides made great preparations for the
contest. The French stood on the defensive. The British made the attack,
and early in 1755 sent over one of their ablest officers, Major General
Edward Braddock, to be commander in chief in America. He summoned the
colonial governors to meet him at Alexandria, Va., where a plan for a
campaign was agreed on.
%84. Plan for the War.%--Vast stretches of dense and almost
impenetrable forest then separated the colonies of the two nations, but
through this forest were three natural highways of communication: 1.
Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the St. Lawrence River. 2. The Hudson,
the Mohawk, Lake Ontario, and the Niagara River. 3. The Potomac to Fort
Cumberland, and through the forest to Fort Duquesne.
It was decided, therefore, to have four expeditions.
1. One was to go north from New York to Lake Champlain, take the French
fort at Crown Point, and move against Quebec.
2. Another was to sail from New England and make such a demonstration
against the French towns to the northeast, as would prevent the French
in that quarter going off to defend Quebec and Crown Point.
3. The third was to start from Albany, go up the Mohawk, and down the
Oswego River to Lake Ontario, and along its shores to the Niagara River.
4. The fourth was to go from Fort Cumberland across Pennsylvania to Fort
Duquesne.
%85. Braddock's Defeat, July 9, 1755.%--Braddock took command of this
last expedition and made Washington one of his aids. For a while he
found it impossible to move his army, for in Virginia horses and wagons
were very scarce, and without them he could not carry his baggage or
drag his cannon. At last Benjamin Franklin, then deputy
postmaster-general of the colonies, persuaded the farmers of
Pennsylvania, who had plenty, to rent the wagons and horses to
the general.
All this took time, so that it was June before the army left Fort
Cumberland and literally began to cut its way through the woods to Fort
Duquesne. The march was slow, but all went well till the troops had
crossed the Monongahela River and were but eight miles from the fort,
when suddenly the advance guard came face to face with an army of
Indians and French. The Indians and French instantly hid in the bushes
and behind trees, and poured an incessant fire into the ranks of the
British. They, too, would gladly have fought in Indian fashion. But
Braddock thought this cowardly and would not allow them to get behind
trees, so they stood huddled in groups, a fine mark for the Indians,
till so many were killed that a retreat had to be ordered. Then they
fled, and had it not been for Washington and his Virginians, who covered
their flight, they would probably have been killed to a man.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., Chap. 7, pp.
162-187; T.J. Chapman's _The French in the Allegheny Valley_, pp. 60-72;
Sargeant's _History of Braddock's Expedition_.]
Braddock was wounded just as the retreat began, and died a few days
later.
%86. The Other Expeditions.%--The expedition against Niagara was a
failure. The officer in command did not take his army further than
Oswego on Lake Ontario.
The expedition against Crown Point was partially successful, and a
stubborn battle was fought and a victory won over the French on the
shores of that beautiful sheet of water which the English ever after
called Lake George in honor of the King.
%87. War declared.%--Up to this time all the fighting had been done
along the frontier in America. But in May, 1756, Great Britain formally
declared war against France. The French at once sent over Montcalm,[1]
the very ablest Frenchman that ever commanded on this continent, and
there followed two years of warfare disastrous to the British. Montcalm
took and burned Oswego, won over the Indians to the cause of France, and
was about to send a strong fleet to attack New England, when, toward the
end of 1757, William Pitt was made virtually (though not in name) Prime
Minister of England.
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I., pp. 318-380.]
William Pitt was one of the greatest Englishmen that ever lived. He
could see exactly what to do, and he could pick out exactly the right
man to do it. No wonder, then, that as soon as he came into power the
British began to gain victories.
%88. The Victories of 1758.%--Once more the French were attacked at
their three vulnerable points, and this time with success. In 1758
Louisburg surrendered to Amherst and Boscawen. In that same year
Washington captured Fort Duquesne, which, in honor of the great Prime
Minister, was called Fort Pitt. A provincial officer named Bradstreet
destroyed Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. This was a heavy blow to the
French; for with Fort Frontenac gone and Fort Duquesne in English hands,
the Ohio was cut off from Quebec.
An attack on Ticonderoga, however, was repulsed by Montcalm with
dreadful loss to the English.
%89. The Victories of 1759; Wolfe.%--But the defeat was only
temporary. At the siege of Louisburg a young officer named James Wolfe
had greatly distinguished himself, and in return for this was selected
by Pitt to command an expedition to Quebec. The previous attempts to
reach that city had been by way of Lake George. The expedition of Wolfe
sailed up the St. Lawrence, and landed below the city.
Quebec stands on the summit of a high hill with precipitous sides, and
was then the most strongly fortified city in America. To take it seemed
almost impossible. But the resolution of Wolfe overcame every obstacle:
on the night of September 12, 1759, he led his troops to the foot of the
cliff, climbed the heights, and early in the morning had his army drawn
up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham, as the plateau behind the
city was called. There a great battle was fought between the French, led
by Montcalm, and the British, led by Wolfe. The British triumphed, and
Quebec fell; but Wolfe and Montcalm were among the dead.[1]
[Footnote 1: Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Chaps. 25-27; A. Wright's
_Life of Wolfe;_ Sloan's _French War and the Revolution_, Chaps. 6-9.]
[Illustration: European Possessions 1763]
Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been captured a few weeks before.
Montreal was taken in 1760, and the long struggle between the French and
the English in America ended in the defeat of the French. The war
dragged on in Europe till 1763, when peace was made at Paris.
%90. France driven out of America.%--With all the details of the
treaty we are not concerned. It is enough for us to know that France
divided her possessions on this continent between Great Britain and
Spain. To Great Britain she gave Canada and Cape Breton, and all the
islands save two in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Entering what is now the
United States, she drew a line down the middle of the Mississippi River
from its source to a point just north of New Orleans. To Great Britain
she surrendered all her territory east of this line. To Spain she gave
all her possessions to the west of this line, together with the city of
New Orleans. But Great Britain, during the war, had taken Havana from
Spain. To get this back, Spain now gave up Florida in exchange.
At the end of the war with France, Great Britain thus found herself in
possession of Canada and all that part of the United States which lies
between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, the little strip at the mouth
of the river alone excepted.
SUMMARY
We have now come to the time when the third European power was driven
from our country. The first was Sweden when New Sweden was captured by
the Dutch. The second was Holland when New Netherland was captured by
the English. The third was France.
1. The struggle for the French possessions in America may be divided
into two periods: A. That from 1689 to 1748, when the contest was for
Acadia and New France. B. That from 1754 to 1763, when the struggle was
for Louisiana as well as New France.
2. The first war, "King William's," was indecisive, but the second,
"Queen Anne's," ended (1713) in the transfer of Acadia to England.
3. After the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, the French began seriously to take
possession of the Mississippi valley, and began a chain of forts to
stretch from New Orleans and Mobile to Montreal.
4. "King George's War" interrupted this work for a few years
(1744-1748), but in 1749 Celeron was sent to bury plates in the valleys
of the Allegheny and Ohio and claim them in the name of France.
5. The next step after claiming the valleys was to take armed
possession, and in 1752 the French began to build forts.
6. This alarmed the governor of Virginia, who sent Washington to bid the
French leave the Allegheny valley. When they refused, troops were sent
to build a fort on the site of what is now Pittsburg; but these men,
under Trent and Ward, were driven away, as were also the reinforcements
under Washington (1764).
7. Braddock (with Washington) was next sent against the French, who had
built Fort Duquesne. He was surprised by the Indians (July 9, 1755),
defeated, and killed.
8. The "French and Indian War" thus opened was fought with varying
success till 1760, when the British held Quebec, Montreal, Fort
Duquesne, and all the other French strongholds in America. In 1763 peace
was made, and nearly all the French possessions east of the Mississippi
River were surrendered to the British.
* * * * *
THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA:
THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND ACADIA:
King William's War:
1690. Sir W. Phips takes Port Royal.
Sir W. Phips attacks Quebec.
Montreal attacked.
1690-1697. The New York and New England frontier ravaged by the
French and Indians.
1697. Peace of Ryswick. Port Royal given back to the French.
Queen Anne's War. Acadia lost to the French:
1702-1713. Frontier of New England ravaged.
1710. Port Royal again taken.
1711. Quebec again attacked.
1713. Peace of Utrecht. Acadia held by the English.
King George's War:
1744. French attack Canso and Annapolis (Port Royal).
1745. Louisburg (Cape Breton Island) taken.
1748. Louisburg given back to the French.
THE STRUGGLE FOR NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA.
Occupation of Louisiana:
1699. The French at the mouth of the Mississippi.
1701. The occupation of the valley begun.
1701-1748. The chain of forts joining New Orleans and Montreal.
1749. The French on the Allegheny. Celeron's expedition. The buried
plates.
1753. The French fortify the Allegheny valley.
The French and Indian War:
1754-1763. The struggle for final possession.
1758. The capture of Louisburg.
1759. The capture of Quebec.
1760. The capture of Montreal.
1763. The French abandon America.
CHAPTER IX
LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763
%91. Things unknown in 1763.%--Had a traveler landed on our shores in
1763 and made a journey through the English colonies in America, he
would have seen a country utterly unlike the United States of to-day.
The entire population, white man and black, freeman and slave, was not
so great as that of New York or Philadelphia or Chicago in our time. If
we were to write a list of all the things we now consider as real
necessaries of daily life and mark off those unknown to the men of 1763,
not one quarter would remain. No man in the country had ever seen a
stove, or a furnace, or a friction match, or an envelope, or a piece of
mineral coal. From the farmer we should have to take the reaper, the
drill, the mowing machine, and every kind of improved rake and plow, and
give him back the scythe, the cradle, and the flail. From our houses
would go the sewing machine, the daily newspaper, gas, running water;
and from our tables, the tomato, the cauliflower, the eggplant, and many
varieties of summer fruits. We should have to destroy every railroad,
every steamboat, every factory and mill, pull down every line of
telegraph, silence every telephone, put out every electric light, and
tear up every telegraphic cable from the beds of innumerable rivers and
seas. We should have to take ether and chloroform from the surgeon, and
galvanized iron and India rubber from the arts, and give up every sort
of machine moved by steam.
[Illustration: Lamp and sadiron]
[Illustration: Postrider (Footnote: From an old print, 1760)]
%92. State of the Arts, Sciences, and Industry.%--The appliances left
on the list, because in some form they were known to the men of 1763,
would now be thought crude and clumsy. There were printing presses in
those days,--perhaps fifty in all the colonies. But they were small,
were worked by hand, and were so slow that the most expert pressman
using one of them could not have printed so much in three working days
as a modern steam press can run off in five minutes. There was a general
post, and Benjamin Franklin was deputy postmaster-general for the
northern district of the colonies. But the letters were carried thirty
miles a day by postriders on horseback, and there were never more than
three mails a week between even the great towns. Every Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday a postrider left New York city for Philadelphia.
Every Monday and Thursday another left New York for Boston. Once each
week a rider left for Albany on his way to Quebec. On the first
Wednesday of each month a packet boat sailed from New York for Falmouth,
England, with the mail, and this was the only mail between Great Britain
and her American colonies. We put electricity to a thousand uses; but in
1763 it was a scientific toy. Franklin had just proved by his experiment
with the kite that lightning and electricity were one and the same, and
several other men were amusing themselves and their hearers by ringing
bells, exploding powder, and making colored sparks. But it was put to no
other use. If we take up a daily newspaper published in one of our great
cities and read the column of wants, we find in them twenty occupations
now giving a comfortable living to millions of men. Yet not one of these
twenty existed in 1763. The district messenger, the telegraph operator,
the typewriter, the stenographer, the bookkeeper, the canvasser, the
salesman, the commercial traveler, the engineer, the car driver, the
hackman, the conductor, the gripman, the brakeman, the electrician, the
lineman, the elevator boy, and a host of others, follow trades and
occupations which had no existence in the middle of the
eighteenth century.
Run away, the 23d of this Instant _January_, from _Silas Crispin_
of _Burlington_, Taylor, a Servant Man named _Joseph Morris, _by
Trade a Taylor, aged about 22 Years, of a middle Stature, swarthy
Complexion, light gray Eyes, his Hair clipp'd off, mark'd with
a large pit of the Small Pox on one Cheek near his Eye, had on
when he went away a good Felt Hat, a yelowish Drugget Coat with
Pleits behind, an old Ozenbrigs Vest, two Ozenbrigs Shirts, a pair
of Leather Breeches handsomely worm'd and flower'd up the Knees,
yarn Stockings and good round toe'd Shoes. Took with him a large
pair of Sheers crack'd in one of the Bows & mark'd with the Word
[_Savoy_]. Whoever takes up the said Servant, and secures him so
that his Matter may have him again, shall have _Three Pounds_
Reward besides reasonable Charges, paid by me _Silas Griffin._
From a Philadelphia newspaper
%93. Labor.%--On the other hand, if we take up a newspaper of that
day and read the advertisements, we find that a great deal of what
existed then does not exist now. The newspapers were published in a few
of the large towns, and appeared not every day, but once a week. In the
largest of them would be from seventy-five to eighty advertisements,
setting forth that such a merchant had just received from England or the
West Indies a stock of new goods which he would sell for cash; that the
_Charming Nancy_ would sail in a few weeks for Londonderry in Ireland,
or for Barbados, or for Amsterdam in Holland, and wanted a cargo; that a
tract of land or a plantation would be sold "at vendue," or, as we say,
at auction; that a reward of five pistoles would be paid for the arrest
of "a lusty negroe man" or an "indented servant" or an "apprentice lad,"
who had run away from his owner or master. Very rarely is a call made
for a mechanic or a workman of any sort.
[Illustration: From a Philadelphia newspaper]
The reason for this was two fold. In the first place, negro slavery
existed in all the thirteen colonies. In the second place, there were
thousands of whites in many of the colonies in a state of temporary
servitude, which was sometimes voluntary and sometimes involuntary.
Those who served against their will were convicts and felons, not only
men and women who had been guilty of stealing, cheating, and the like,
but also forgers, counterfeiters, and murderers, who were transported by
thousands from the English prisons to the colonies and sold into slavery
or service for seven or fourteen years.[1] Advertisements are extant in
which the masters from whom such servants have run away warn the people
to beware of them.
[Footnote 1: One act of Parliament, for instance, provided that persons
sentenced to be whipped or branded might, if they wished, escape the
punishment by serving seven years in the colonies, and never returning
to England. Another allowed convicts sentenced to death to commute the
sentence by serving fourteen years.]
But all "indented" or bond servants were not criminals. Many were
reputable persons who sold themselves into service for a term of years
in return for transportation to America. Others, generally boys and
young women, had been kidnaped and sold by the persons who stole them.
%94. Indentured Servants.%--In the case of such as came voluntarily,
carefully drawn agreements called indentures would be made in writing.
The captain of the ship would agree to bring the emigrant to America.
The emigrant would agree in return to serve the captain three or five
years. When the ship reached port, the captain would advertise the fact
that he had carpenters, tailors, farmers, shoemakers, etc., for sale,
and whoever wanted such labor would go on board the ship and for perhaps
fifty dollars buy a man bound to serve him for several years in return
for food, clothes, and lodging. Not only men, but also women and
children, were sold in this way, and were known as "indented servants,"
or "redemptioners," because they redeemed their time of service with
labor. Their lot seems to have been a hard one; for the young men were
constantly running away, and the newspapers are full of advertisements
offering rewards for their arrest.
What we call the workingman, the day laborer, the mechanic, the mill
hand, had no existence as classes. The great corporations, railroads,
express companies, mills, factories of every sort, which now cover our
land and give employment to five times as many men and women as lived in
all the colonies in 1763, are the creatures of our own time.
[Illustration: Wigs and wig bag]
[Illustration: Flax wheel]
%95. No Manufacturers.%--For this state of things England was largely
to blame. For one hundred years past every kind of manufacture that
could compete with the manufactures of the mother country had been
crushed by law. In order to help her iron makers, she forbade the
colonists to set up iron furnaces and slitting mills. That her cloth
manufacturers might flourish, she forbade the colonists to send their
woolen goods to any country whatever, or even from one colony to
another. Under this law it was a crime to knit a pair of mittens or a
pair of socks and send them from Boston to Providence or from New York
to Newark, or from Philadelphia across the Delaware to New Jersey. In
the interest of English hatters the colonists were not allowed to send
hats to any foreign country, nor from one colony to another, and a
serious effort was made to prevent the manufacture of hats in America.
People in this country were obliged to wear English-made hats. Taking
the country through, every saw, every ax, every hammer, every needle,
pin, tack, piece of tape, and a hundred other articles of daily use came
from Great Britain.
Every farmhouse, however, was a little factory, and every farmer a
jack-of-all-trades. He and his sons made their own shoes, beat out nails
and spikes, hinges, and every sort of ironmongery, and constructed much
of the household furniture. The wife and her daughters manufactured the
clothing, from dressing the flax and carding the wool to cutting the
cloth; knit the mittens and socks; and during the winter made straw
bonnets to sell in the towns in the spring.
Even in such towns as were large enough to support a few artisans, each
made, with the help of an apprentice, and perhaps a journeyman, all the
articles he sold.
[Illustration: Hand loom[1]]
%96. The Cities.%--If we take a map of our country and run over the
great cities of to-day, we find that except along the seacoast hardly
one existed, in 1765, even in name. Detroit was a little French
settlement surrounded with a high stockade. New Orleans existed, and St.
Louis had just been founded, but they both belonged to Spain. Mobile and
Pensacola and Natchez and Vincennes consisted of a few huts gathered
about old French forts. There was no city, no town worthy of the name,
in the English colonies west of the Alleghany Mountains. Along the
Atlantic coast we find Portsmouth, Boston, Providence, New Haven, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Alexandria, Williamsburg, Charleston,
Savannah, and others of less note. But the largest of these were mere
collections of a few hundred houses ranged along streets, none of which
were sewered and few of which were paved or lighted. The watchman went
his rounds at night with rattle and lantern, called out the hours and
the state of the weather, and stopped and demanded the name of every
person found walking the streets after nine o'clock. To travel on Sunday
was a serious and punishable offense, as it was on any day to smoke in
the streets, or run from house to house with hot coals, which in those
days, when there were no matches, were often used instead of flint and
steel to light fires.
[Footnote 1: From an old loom in the National Museum, Washington.]
[Illustration: Colonial mansion in Charleston]
Travel between the large towns was almost entirely by sailing vessel, or
on horseback. The first stagecoach-and-four in New England began its
trips in 1744. The first stage between New York and Philadelphia was not
set up till 1756, and spent three days on the road.
%97. The Three Groups of Colonies.%--It has always been usual to
arrange the colonies in three groups: 1. The Eastern or New England
Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut).
2. The Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Delaware). 3. The Southern Colonies (Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia). Now, this arrangement is good not only
from a geographical point of view, but also because the people, the
customs, the manners, the occupations, in each of these groups were very
unlike the people and the ways of living in the others.
[Illustration: New England mansion]
%98. Occupations in New England.%--In New England the colonists were
almost entirely English, though there were some Scotch, some
Scotch-Irish, a few Huguenot refugees from France, and, in Rhode Island,
a few Portuguese Jews. As the climate and soil did not admit of raising
any great staple, such as rice or tobacco, the people "took to the sea."
They cut down trees, with which the land was covered, built ships, and
sailed away to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland for cod, and to the
whale fisheries for oil. They went to the English, Dutch, and Spanish
West Indian Islands, with flour, salt meat, horses, oxen; with salted
salmon, cod, and mackerel; with staves for barrels; with onions and
salted oysters. In return, they came back with sugar, molasses, cotton,
wool, logwood, and Spanish dollars with which the New England Colonies
paid for the goods they took from England. They went to Spain, where
their ships were often sold, the captains chartering English vessels and
coming home with cargoes of goods made in England. Six hundred ships are
said to have been employed in the foreign trade of Boston, and more than
a thousand in the fisheries and the trade along the coast.
[Illustration: Dutch House at Albany[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an old print.]
Farming, outside of Connecticut, yielded little more than a bare
subsistence. Manufactures in general were forbidden by English law.
Paper and hats were made in small quantities, leather was tanned, lumber
was sawed, and rum was distilled from molasses; but it was on homemade
manufactures that the people depended.
%99. Occupations in the Middle Colonies.%--In the Middle Colonies the
population was a mixture of people from many European countries. The
line of little villages which began at the west end of Long Island and
stretched up the Hudson to Albany, and out the Mohawk to
Schenectady---the settled part of New York--contained Englishmen,
Irishmen, Dutchmen, French Huguenots, Germans from the Rhine countries,
and negroes from Africa. The chief occupations of those people were
farming, making flour, and carrying on an extensive commerce with
England, Spain, and the West Indian Islands.
[Illustration: Shoes worn by Palatines in Pennsylvania]
In New Jersey the population was almost entirely English, but in
Pennsylvania it was as mixed as in New York. Around Philadelphia the
English predominated, but with them were mingled Swedes, Dutch, Welsh,
Germans, and Scotch-Irish. Taken together, the Germans and the
Scotch-Irish far outnumbered the English, and made up the mass of the
population between the Schuylkill and the Susquehanna rivers. Both were
self-willed and stubborn, and they were utterly unable to get along
together peaceably, so that their settlements ran across the state in
two parallel bands, in one of which whole regions could be found in
which not a word of English was spoken. Indeed, then, and long after the
nineteenth century began, the laws of Pennsylvania were printed both in
English and in German. The chief occupation of the people was farming;
and it is safe to say that no such farms, no such cattle, no such grain,
flour, provisions, could be found in any other part of the country.
Lumber, too, was cut and sold in great quantities; and along the
frontier there was a lively fur trade with the Indians. At Philadelphia
was centered a fine trade with Europe and the West Indies. Had it not
been for the action of the mother country, manufactures would have
flourished greatly; even as it was, iron and paper were manufactured in
considerable quantities.
%100. Occupations in the Southern Colonies.%--South of Pennsylvania,
and especially south of the Potomac River, lay a region utterly unlike
anything to the north of it. In Virginia, there were no cities, no large
towns, no centers of population. At an early day in the history of the
colony the legislature had attempted to remedy this, and had ordered
towns to be built at certain places, had made them the only ports where
ships from abroad could be entered, had established tobacco warehouses
in them, had offered special privileges to tradesmen who would settle in
them, and had provided that each should have a market and a fair. But
the success was small, and Fredericksburg and Alexandria and Petersburg
were straggling villages. Jamestown, the old capital, had by this time
ceased to exist. Williamsburg, the new capital, was a village of 200
houses. There was no business, no incentive in Virginia to build towns.
The planters owned immense plantations along the river banks, and raised
tobacco, which, when gathered, cured, and packed into hogsheads, was
rolled away to the nearest wharf for inspection and shipment to London.
In those early days, when good roads were unknown and wagons few, shafts
were attached to each hogshead by iron bolts driven into the heads, and
the cask was thus turned into a huge roller. With each year's crop would
go a long list of articles of every sort,--hardware, glass, crockery,
clothing, furniture, household utensils, wines,--which the agent was
instructed to buy with the proceeds of the tobacco and send back to the
planter when the ships came a year later for another crop. The country
abounded in trees, yet tables, chairs, boxes, cart wheels, bowls, birch
brooms, all came from the mother country. The wood used for building
houses was actually cut, sent to England as logs to be dressed, and then
taken back to Virginia for use.
[Illustration: Tobacco rolling[1]]
[Footnote 1: From a model in the National Museum, Washington.]
Maryland was in the same condition. Her people raised tobacco, and with
it bought their clothing, household goods, brass and copper wares, and
iron utensils in Great Britain.
In South Carolina rice was the great staple, just as tobacco was the
staple of Virginia, and there too were large plantations and no towns.
All the social, commercial, legal, and political life of the colony
centered in Charleston, from which a direct trade was carried on
with London.
[Illustration: %An old Maryland manor house%]
Labor on the plantations of Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia was
performed exclusively by negro slaves and redemptioners.
%101. Civil Government in the English Colonies.%--If we arrange the
colonies according to the kind of civil government in each, we find that
they fall into three classes:
1. The charter colonies (Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island).
2. The proprietary colonies (Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland).
3. The royal, or provincial, colonies (New Hampshire, New York, New
Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia).
The charters of the first group were written contracts between the King
and the colonists, defined the share each should have in the government,
and were not to be changed without the consent of both parties. In
colonies of the second group some individual, called the proprietary,
was granted a great tract of land by the King, and, under a royal
charter, was given power to sell the land to settlers, establish
government, and appoint the governors of his colony. In the third group,
the King appointed the governors and instructed them as to the way in
which he wished his colonies to be ruled.
With these differences, all the colonies had the same form of
government. In each there was a legislature elected by the people; in
each the right to vote was limited to men who owned land, paid taxes,
had a certain yearly income, and were members of some Christian church.
The legislature consisted of two branches: the lower house, to which the
people elected delegates; and the upper house, or council, appointed by
the governor. These legislatures could do many things, but their powers
were limited and their acts were subject to review: 1. They could do
nothing contrary to the laws of England. 2. Whatever they did could be
vetoed by the governors, and no bill could be passed over the veto. 3.
All laws passed by a colonial legislature (except in the case of
Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland), and approved by a governor,
must even then be sent to England to be examined by the King in Council,
and could be "disallowed" or vetoed by the King at any time within three
years. This power was used so constantly that the colonial legislatures,
in time, would pass laws to run for two years, and when that time
expired would reenact them for two years more, and so on in order to
avoid the veto. In this way the colonists became used to three political
institutions which were afterwards embodied in what is now the American
system of state and national government: 1. The written constitution
defining the powers of government. 2. The exercise of the veto power by
the governor. 3. The setting aside of laws by a judicial body from whose
decision there is no appeal.
%102. The Colonial Governors.%--The governor of a royal province was
the personal representative of the King, and as such had vast power.
The legislature could meet only when he called it. He could at any
moment prorogue it (that is, command it to adjourn to a certain day) or
dissolve it, and, if the King approved, he need never call it together
again. He was the chief justice of the highest colonial court, he
appointed all the judges, and, as commander in chief of the militia,
appointed all important officers. Yet even he was subject to some
control, for his salary was paid by the colony over which he ruled, and,
by refusing to pay this salary, the legislature could, and over and over
again did, force him to approve acts he would not otherwise have
sanctioned. In Connecticut and Rhode Island the people elected the
governors. This right once existed also in Massachusetts; but when the
old charter was swept away in 1684, and replaced by a new one in 1691,
the King was given power to appoint the governor, who could summon,
dissolve, and prorogue the legislature at his pleasure.
%103. Lords of Trade and Plantations.%--That the King should give
personal attention to all the details of government in his colonies in
America, was not to be expected. In 1696, therefore, a body called the
Lords of the Board of Trade and Plantations was commissioned by the King
to do this work for him. These Lords of Trade corresponded with the
governors, made recommendations, bade them carry out this or that
policy, veto this or that class of laws, examined all the laws sent over
by the legislatures, and advised the King as to which should be
disallowed, or vetoed.
In the early years of our colonial history the Parliament of England had
no share in the direction of colonial affairs. It was the King who owned
all the land, made all the grants, gave all the charters, created all
the colonies, governed many of them, and stoutly denied the right of
Parliament to meddle. But when Charles I. was beheaded, the Long
Parliament took charge of the management of affairs in this country, and
although much of it went back to the King at the Restoration in 1660,
Parliament still continued to legislate for the colonies in a few
matters. Thus, for instance, Parliament by one act established the
postal service, and fixed the rates of postage; by another it regulated
the currency, and by another required the colonists to change from the
Old Style to the New Style--that is, to stop using the Julian calendar
and to count time in future by the Gregorian calendar; by another it
established a uniform law of naturalization; and from time to time it
passed acts for the purpose of regulating colonial trade.
%104. Acts of Trade and Navigation.%--The number of these acts is
very large; but their purpose was four fold:
1. They required that colonial trade should be carried on in ships built
and owned in England or in the colonies, and manned to the extent of two
thirds of the crew by English subjects.
2. They provided a long list of colonial products that should not be
sent to any foreign ports other than a port of England. Goods or
products not in the list might be sent to any other part of the world.
Thus tobacco, sugar, indigo, copper, furs, rice (if the rice was for a
port north of Cape Finisterre), must go to England; but lumber, salt
fish, and provisions might go (in English or colonial ships) to France,
or Spain, or to other foreign countries.
3. When trade began to spring up between the colonies, and the New
England merchants were competing in the colonial markets with English
merchants, an act was passed providing that if a product which went from
one colony to another was of a kind that might have been supplied from
England, it must either go to the mother country and then to the
purchasing colony, or pay an export duty at the port where it was
shipped, equal to the import duty it would have to pay in England.
4. No goods were allowed to be carried from any place in Europe to
America unless they were first landed at a port in England.[1]
[Footnote 1: Edward Eggleston's papers in the _Century Magazine_, 1884;
Scudder's _Men and Manners One Hundred Years Ago_; Lodge's _English
Colonies_.]
SUMMARY
1. The men who began the long struggle for the rights of Englishmen
lived in a state of society very different from ours, and were utterly
ignorant of most of the commonest things we use in daily life.
2. Labor was performed by slaves, by criminals sent over to the colonies
and sold, and by "indented servants," or "redemptioners."
3. Manufactures were forbidden by the laws of trade. Nobody was
permitted to manufacture iron beyond the state of pig or bar iron, or
make woolen goods for export, or make hats.
4. Taking the colonies in geographical groups, the Eastern were engaged
in fishing, in commerce, and in farming; the Middle Colonies were
agricultural and commercial; the Southern were wholly agricultural, and
raised two great, staples--rice and tobacco.
5. As a consequence, town life existed in the Eastern and Middle
Colonies, and was little known in the South, particularly in Virginia.
6. Over the colonies, as a great governing body to aid the King, were
the Lords of Trade and Plantations in London. Under them in America were
the royal and proprietary governors, who with the local colonial
legislatures managed the affairs of the colonies.
LIFE IN THE COLONIES IN 1763.
_Social and Industrial Condition_.
Population.
Implements and inventions unknown.
The printing press.
The postal service.
Trades and occupations then unknown.
Labor.}The apprentice.
}The "indented servant."
}The redemptioner.
}The slave.
No manufactures. }Iron making
Acts of trade regulating. }Cloth making.
The cities. }Hat making.
Travel.
The Navigation Acts.
State of agriculture.
_Government_.
The charter colonies.
The proprietary colonies.
The royal colonies.
The colonial governor.
The Lords of Trade and Plantations.
The King.
CHAPTER X
"LIBERTY, PROPERTY, AND NO STAMPS"
%105. The New Provinces.%--The acquisition of Canada and the
Mississippi valley made it necessary for England to provide for their
defense and government. To do this she began by establishing three new
provinces.
In Canada she marked out the province of Quebec, part of the south
boundary of which is now the north boundary of New York, Vermont, New
Hampshire, and Maine.
In the South, out of the territory given by Spain, she made two
provinces, East and West Florida. The north boundary of West Florida was
(1764) a parallel of latitude through the junction of the Yazoo and
Mississippi rivers. The north boundary of East Florida was part of the
boundary of the present state. The territory between the Altamaha and
the St. Marys rivers was "annexed to Georgia."
%106. The Proclamation Line.%--By the same proclamation which
established these provinces, a line was drawn around the head waters of
all the rivers in the United States which flow into the Atlantic Ocean,
and the colonists were forbidden to settle to the west of it. All the
valley from the Great Lakes to West Florida, and from the proclamation
line to the Mississippi, was set apart for the Indians.
%107. The Country to be defended.%--Having thus provided for the
government of the newly acquired territory, it next became necessary to
provide for its defense; for nobody doubted that both France and Spain
would some day attempt to regain their lost possessions. Arrangements
were therefore made to bring over an army of 10,000 regular troops,
scatter them over the country from Canada to Florida, and maintain
them partly at the expense of the colonies and partly at the expense of
the crown.
[Illustration: THE BRITISH COLONIES IN 1764]
The share to be paid by the colonies was to be raised
1. By enforcing the old trade and navigation laws.
2. By a tax on sugar and molasses brought into the country.
3. By a stamp tax.
%108. Trial without Jury.%--In order to enforce the old laws, naval
vessels were sent to sail up and down the coast and catch smugglers.
Offenders when seized were to be tried in some vice-admiralty court,
where they could not have trial by jury.[1]
[Footnote 1: This is one of the things complained of in the Declaration
of Independence.]
%109. The Sugar Act and Stamp Tax.%--The Sugar Act was not a new
grievance. In 1733 Parliament laid a tax of 6_d_. a gallon on molasses
and 5_s_. per hundredweight on sugar brought into this country from any
other place than the British West Indies. This was to force the
colonists to buy their sugar and molasses from nobody but British sugar
planters. After having expired five times and been five times reenacted,
the Sugar Act expired for the sixth time in 1763, and the colonies
begged that it might not be renewed. But Parliament merely reduced the
molasses duty to 3_d_. and laid new duties on coffee, French and East
Indian goods, indigo, white sugar, and Spanish and Portuguese wines. It
then resolved that "for further defraying the expense of protecting the
colonists it would be necessary to charge certain stamp duties in the
colonies."
At that time, 1764, no such thing as an internal tax laid by Parliament
for the purpose of raising revenue existed, or ever had existed, in
America. Money for the use of the King had always been raised by taxes
imposed by the legislatures of the colonies. The moment, therefore, the
people heard that this money was to be raised in future by parliamentary
taxation, they became much alarmed, and the legislatures instructed
their business agents in London to protest.
This the agents did in February, 1765. But Grenville, the Prime
Minister, was not to be persuaded, and on March 22, 1765, Parliament
passed the Stamp Act[1].
[Footnote 1: The exact text of the Stamp Act has been reprinted in
_American History Leaflets_, No. 21. For an excellent account of the
causes and consequences of the Stamp Act, read Lecky's _England in the
Eighteenth Century_, Vol. III., Chap. 12; Frothingham's _Rise of the
Republic of the United States_, Chap. 5; Channing's _The United States
of America, 1765-1865_, pp. 41-50.]
%110. The Stamp Distributors.%--That the collection of the new duty
might give as little offense to the colonists as possible, Grenville
desired that the stamps and the stamped paper should be sold by
Americans, and invited the agents of the colonies to name men to be
"stamp distributors" in their colonies. The law was to go into effect on
the 1st of November, 1765. After that day every piece of vellum, every
piece of paper, on which was written any legal document for use in any
court, was to be charged with a stamp duty of from three pence to ten
pounds sterling. After that day, every license, bond, deed, warrant,
bill of lading, indenture, every pamphlet, almanac, newspaper, pack of
cards, must be written or printed on stamped paper to be made in England
and sold at prices fixed by law. If any dispute arose under the law, the
case might be tried in the vice-admiralty courts without a jury.[2]
[Footnote: The stamps were not the adhesive kind we are now accustomed
to fasten on letters. Those used for newspapers and pamphlets and
printed documents consisted of a crown surmounting a circle in which
were the words, "One Penny Sheet" or "Nine Pence per Quire," and were
stamped on each sheet in red ink by a hand stamp not unlike those used
at the present day to cancel stamps on letters. Others, used on vellum
and parchment, consisted of a square piece of blue paper, glued on the
parchment, and fastened by a little piece of brass. A design was then
impressed on the blue paper by means of a little machine like that used
by magistrates and notaries public to impress their seals on legal
documents. When this was done, the parchment was turned over, and a
little piece of white paper was pasted on the back of the stamp. On this
white piece was engraved, in black, the design shown in the second
picture on p. 113, the monogram "G. R." meaning Georgius Rex, or
King George.]
[Illustration: Stamps used in 1765]
The money raised by this tax was not to be taken to England, but was to
be spent in America for the defense of the colonies. Nevertheless, the
colonists were determined that none should be raised. The question was
not, Shall America support an army? but, Shall Parliament tax America?
%111. The Virginia Resolutions.%--In opposition to this, Virginia now
led the way with a set of resolutions. In the House of Burgesses, as the
popular branch of her legislature was called, was Patrick Henry, the
greatest orator in the colonies. By dint of his fiery words, he forced
through a set of resolutions setting forth
1. That the first settlers in Virginia brought with them "all the
privileges and immunities that have at any time been held" by "the
people of Great Britain."
2. That their descendants held these rights.
3. That by two royal charters the people of Virginia had been declared
entitled to all the rights of Englishmen "born within the realm
of England."
4. That one of these rights was that of being taxed "by their own
Assembly."
5. That they were not bound to obey any law taxing them without consent
of their Assembly.[1]
[Footnote 1: These resolutions, printed in full from Henry's manuscript
copy, are in Channing's _The United States of America, 1765-1865, _pp.
51, 52. They were passed May 29, 1765.]
Massachusetts followed with a call for a congress to meet at New York
city.
%112. Stamp-act Congress.%--To the congress thus called came
delegates from all the colonies except New Hampshire, Virginia, North
Carolina, and Georgia. The session began at New York, on the 5th of
October, 1765; and after sitting in secret for twenty days, the
delegates from six of the nine colonies present (Massachusetts, New
York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland) signed a
"Declaration of Rights and Grievances." [1]
[Footnote 1: This declaration is printed in full in Preston's _Documents
Illustrative of American History_, pp. 188-191.]
%113. Declaration of Rights.%--The ground taken in the declaration
was:
1. That the Americans were subjects of the British crown.
2. That it was the natural right of a British subject to pay no taxes
unless he had a voice in laying them.
3. That the Americans were not represented in Parliament.
4. That Parliament, therefore, could not tax them, and that an attempt
to do so was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of
self-government.
%114. Grievances.%--The grievances complained of were: 1. Taxation
without representation. 2. Trial without jury (in the vice-admiralty
courts). 3. The Sugar Act. 4. The Stamp Act. 5. Restrictions on trade.
%115. The English View of Representation.%--We, in this country, do
not consider a person represented in a legislature unless he can cast a
vote for a member of that legislature. In Great Britain, not individuals
but classes were represented. Thus, the clergy were represented by the
bishops who sat in the House of Lords; the nobility, by the nobles who
had seats in the House of Lords; and the mass of the people, the
commons, by the members of the House of Commons. At that time, very few
Englishmen could vote for a member of the House of Commons. Great cities
like Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, did not send even one member. When
the colonists held that they were not represented in Parliament because
they did not elect any members of that body, Englishmen answered that
they were represented, because they were commoners.
%116. Sons of Liberty.%--Meantime, the colonists had not been idle.
Taking the name of "Sons of Liberty," a name given to them in a speech
by a member of Parliament (named Barre) friendly to their cause, they
began to associate for resistance to the Stamp Act. At first, they were
content to demand that the stamp distributors named by the colonial
agents in London should resign. But when these officers refused, the
people became violent; and at Boston, Newark, N.J., New Haven, New
London, Conn., at Providence, at Newport, R.I., at Dover, N.H., at
Annapolis, Md., serious riots took place. Buildings were torn down, and
more than one unhappy distributor was dragged from his home, and forced
to stand before the people and shout, "Liberty, property, and
no stamps."
%117. November 1, 1765.%--As the 1st of November, the day on which
the Stamp Act was to go into force, approached, the newspapers appeared
decorated with death's-heads, black borders, coffins, and obituary
notices. The _Pennsylvania Journal_ dropped its usual heading, and in
place of it put an arch with a skull and crossbones underneath, and this
motto, "Expiring in the hopes of a resurrection to life again." In one
corner was a coffin, and the words, "The last remains of the
_Pennsylvania Journal_, which departed this life the 31st of October,
1765, of a stamp in her vitals. Aged 23 years." The _Pennsylvania
Gazette_, on November 7, the day of its first issue after the Stamp Act
became law, published a half sheet, printed on one side, without any
heading, and in its place the words, "No stamped paper to be had."
During the next six months, every scrap of stamped paper that was heard
of was hunted up and given to the flames. Thus, when a vessel from
Barbados, with a stamped newspaper published on that island, reached
Philadelphia, the paper was seized and burned, one evening, at the
coffeehouse, in the presence of a great crowd. A vessel having put in
from Halifax, a rumor spread that the captain had brought stamped paper
with him, and was going to use it for his Philadelphia clearance. This
so enraged the people that the vessel was searched, and a sheet of paper
with three stamps on it was found, and burned at the coffee-house.
%118. Non-importation Agreements.%--Meantime, the merchants in the
larger towns, and the people all over the country, had been making
written agreements not to import any goods from England for some
months to come.
The effect of this measure was immense. Not a merchant nor a
manufacturer in Great Britain, engaged in the colonial trade, but found
his American orders canceled and his goods left on his hands. Not a ship
returned from this country but carried back English wares which it had
brought here to sell, but for which no purchaser could be found.
%119. Stamp Act repealed.%--When Parliament met in December, 1765,
such a cry of distress came up from the manufacturing cities of England,
that Parliament was forced to yield, and in March, 1766, the Stamp Act
was repealed. In the outburst of joy which followed in America, the
intent and meaning of another act passed at the same time was little
heeded. In it was the declaration that Parliament did have the right to
tax the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."
%120. The Townshend Acts.%--If the people thought this declaration
had no meaning, they were much mistaken, for next year (1767) Parliament
passed what have since been called the Townshend Acts. There were three
of them. One forbade the legislature of New York to pass any more laws
till it had provided the royal troops in the city with beds, candles,
fire, vinegar, and salt, as required by what was called the Mutiny Act.
The second established at Boston a Board of Commissioners of the Customs
to enforce the laws relating to trade. The third laid taxes on glass,
red and white lead, painter's colors, paper, and tea. None of these
taxes was heavy. But again the right of Parliament to tax people not
represented in it had been asserted, and again the colonists rose in
resistance. The legislature of Massachusetts sent a letter to each of
the other colonial legislatures, urging them to unite and consult for
the protection of their rights. Pennsylvania sent protests to the King
and to Parliament. The merchants all over the country renewed their old
agreements not to import British goods, and many a shipload was sent
back to England.
%121. Colonial Legislatures dissolved.%[1]--The letter of
Massachusetts to the colonial legislatures having given great offense to
the King, the governors were ordered to see to it that the legislatures
did not approve it. But the order came too late. Many had already done
so, and as a punishment the assemblies of Maryland and Georgia were
dismissed and the members sent home. To dissolve assemblies became of
frequent occurrence. The legislature of Massachusetts was dissolved
because it refused to recall the letter. That of New York was repeatedly
dissolved for refusing to provide the royal troops with provisions. That
of Virginia was dismissed for complaining of the treatment of New York.
[Footnote 1: One of the charges against the King in the Declaration of
Independence.]
%122. Boston Riot of 1770.%--And now the troops intended for the
defense of the colonies began to arrive. But Massachusetts, North
Carolina, and South Carolina followed the example of New York, and
refused to find them quarters. For this the legislature of North
Carolina was dissolved. Everywhere the presence of the soldiers gave
great offense; but in Boston the people were less patient than
elsewhere. They accused the soldiers of corrupting the morals of the
town; of desecrating the Sabbath with fife and drum; of striking
citizens who insulted them; and of using language violent, threatening,
and profane. In this state of feeling, an alarm of fire called the
people into the streets on the night of March 5, 1770. The alarm was
false, and a crowd of men and boys, having nothing to do, amused
themselves by annoying a sentinel on guard at one of the public
buildings. He called for help, and a corporal and six men were soon on
the scene. But the crowd would not give way. Forty or fifty men came
armed with sticks and pressed around the soldiers, shouting, "Rascals!
Lobsters! Bloody-backs!" throwing snowballs and occasionally a stone,
till in the excitement of the moment a soldier fired his gun. The rest
followed his example, and when the reports died away, five of the
rioters lay on the ground dead or dying, and six more dangerously
wounded.[1]
[Footnote 1: The soldiers were tried for murder and were defended by
John Adams and Josiah Quincy. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. The
rest were acquitted. On the massacre read Frothingham's _Life of
Warren,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Kidder's _The Boston Massacre_; Joseph Warren's
Oration on March 6, 1775, in _Library of American Literature_, Vol.
III., p. 256.]
This riot, this "Boston Massacre," or, as the colonists delighted to
call it, "the bloody massacre," excited and aroused the whole land,
forced the government to remove the soldiers from Boston to an island in
the bay, and did more than anything else which had yet happened, to help
on the Revolution.
%123. Tea sent to America and not received.%--While these things were
taking place in America--indeed, on the very day of the Boston riot--a
motion was made in Parliament for the repeal of all the taxes laid by
the Townshend Acts except that on tea. The tea tax of 3d. a pound,
payable in the colonies, was retained in order that the right of
Parliament to tax America might be vindicated. But the people held fast
to their agreements not to consume articles taxed by Great Britain. No
tea was drunk, save such as was smuggled from Holland, and at the end of
three years' time the East India Company had 17,000,000 pounds of tea
stored in its warehouses (1773). This was because the company was not
permitted to send tea out of England. It might only bring tea to London
and there sell it at public sale to merchants and shippers, who exported
it to America. But now when the merchants could not find anybody to buy
tea in the colonies, they bought less from the company, and the tea lay
stored in its warehouses. To relieve the company, and if possible tempt
the people to use the tea, the exportation tax was taken off and the
company was given leave to export tea to America consigned to
commissioners chosen by itself. Taking off the shilling a pound export
tax in England, and charging but 3d. import tax in America, made it
possible for the company to sell tea cheaper than could the merchants
who smuggled it. Yet even this failed. The people forced the tea
commissioners to resign or send the tea ships back to England. In
Charleston, S.C., the tea was landed and stored for three years, when it
was sold by South Carolina. In Philadelphia the people met, and having
voted that the tea should not be landed, they stopped the ship as it
came up the Delaware, and sent it back to London.
%124. The Boston Tea Party.%--At Boston also the people tried to send
the tea ships to England, but the authorities would not allow them to
leave, whereupon a band of young men disguised as Indians boarded the
vessels, broke open the boxes, and threw the tea into the water.
%125. The Five Intolerable Acts.%--When Parliament heard of these
events, it at once determined to punish Massachusetts, and in order to
do this passed five laws which were so severe that the colonists called
them the "Intolerable Acts." They are generally known as
1. The Boston Port Bill, which shut the port of Boston to trade and
commerce, forbade ships to come in or go out, and moved the customhouse
to Marblehead.
2. The Transportation Bill, which gave the governor power to send
anybody accused of murder in resisting the laws, to another colony or to
England for trial.
3. The Massachusetts Bill, which changed the old charter of
Massachusetts, provided for a military governor, and forbade the people
to hold public meetings for any other purpose than the election of town
officers, without permission from the governor.
4. The Quartering Act, which legalized the quartering of troops on the
people.
5. The Quebec Act, which enlarged the province of Quebec (pp. 111, 124)
to include all the territory between the Great Lakes, the Ohio River,
the Mississippi River, and Pennsylvania. This territory was claimed by
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia under their "sea to sea"
charters (pp. 33, 46, 52, 156).
%126. A Congress called.%--When the Virginia legislature in May,
1774, heard of the passage of the Boston Port Bill, it passed a
resolution that the day on which the law went into effect in Boston
should be a day of "fasting, humiliation, and prayer" in Virginia. For
this the governor at once dissolved the legislature. But the members met
and instructed a committee to correspond with the other colonies on the
expediency of holding another general congress of delegates. All the
colonies approved, and New York requested Massachusetts to name the time
and place of meeting. This she did, selecting Philadelphia as the place,
and September 1, 1774, as the time.
%127. The First Continental Congress.%--From September 5 to October
26, accordingly, fifty-five delegates, representing every colony except
Georgia, held meetings in Carpenter's Hall at Philadelphia, and issued:
1. An address to the people of the colonies.
2. An address to the Canadians.
3. An address to the people of Great Britain.
4. An address to the King.
5. A declaration of rights.
%128. The Declaration of Rights.%[1]--In this declaration the rights
of the colonists were asserted to be:
1. Life, liberty, and property.
2. To tax themselves.
3. To assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of grievances.
4. To enjoy the rights of Englishmen and all the rights granted by the
colonial charters.
[Footnote 1: Printed in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 192-198. The best
account of the coming of the Revolution is Frothingham's _Rise of the
Republic of the United States,_ Chaps. 5-11.]
These rights it was declared had been violated:
1. By taxing the people without their consent.
2. By dissolving assemblies.
3. By quartering troops on the people in time of peace.
4. By trying men without a jury.
5. By passing the five Intolerable Acts.
Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another Congress
should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action on the result of
the petition to the King.
SUMMARY
1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the
Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did
three things:
A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida,
and the Indian country.
B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing into the
Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the colonial
governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to be made west
of this line.
C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America to take
possession of the new territory and defend the colonies.
2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by
taxing the colonists. This she had never done before.
3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the
colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it.
4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that
body determined to establish its right and passed the "Townshend Acts."
But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parliament repealed
all the Townshend duties except that on tea.
5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India
Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities to
which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back.
6. Parliament thereupon attempted to punish Massachusetts and passed the
Intolerable Acts.
7. These acts led to the calling and the meeting of the First
Continental Congress.
/---------------------------------------------\
France Spain
/----------------\ /-------\
Cape Breton. Florida
Canada.
Louisiana east of
the Mississippi.
\--------------------------------------------
and cuts the new territory (1763) into
Province of Quebec,
East Florida,
West Florida,
Indian country,
and draws proclamation line
limiting colonies in the west.
\-------------------------------/
New colonial policy necessary.
/----------------------------------------------\
Country to be defended by 10,000 royal troops.
Cost of troops to be paid
|
|---------------------------------------------
Partly by crown. Partly by colonies.
|
/----------------------------------
Share of colonies to be raised by
Enforcing acts of trade and navigation.
Taxes on sugar and molasses.
Stamp tax (1765).
/---------------------------^--------------------------------\
Resisted. Principle involved.
Action of Virginia and Massachusetts.
Stamp Act Congress.
Act repealed (1766).
Declaratory Act (1766).
--------------- / \
| | Glass. |
| | Red and white lead. |
--------------- | Painters' colors | Resisted and repealed (1770)
Townshend Acts | Paper. |
(1767). | Tea. /
\
/--------^-------\
Enforced.
Resisted (1773).
Resistance / \
punished by | Five Intoler- | Continental
| able Acts. | Congress called(1774).
\ /
CHAPTER XI
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE
[Illustration: Statue of the Minute Man at Concord]
%129%. When the 10th of May, 1775, came, the colonists had ceased to
petition and had begun to fight. In accordance with the Massachusetts
Bill, General Thomas Gage had been appointed military governor of
Massachusetts. He reached Boston in May, 1774, and summoned an assembly
to meet him at Salem in October. But, alarmed at the angry state of the
people, he fortified Boston Neck,--the only land approach to the city,
and countermanded the meeting. The members, claiming that an assembly
could not be dismissed before it met, gave no heed to the proclamation,
but gathered at Salem and adjourned to Concord and then to Cambridge. At
Cambridge a Committee of Safety was chosen and given power to call out
the troops, and steps were taken to collect ammunition and military
stores. A month later at another meeting, 12,000 "minute men" were
ordered to be enrolled. These minute men were volunteers pledged to be
ready for service at a minute's notice, and lest 12,000 should not be
enough, the neighboring colonies were asked to raise the number
to 20,000.
[Illustration: Map of Country around Boston]
%130. Concord and Lexington.%--Meantime the arming and drilling went
actively on, and powder was procured, and magazines of provisions and
military stores were collected at Concord, at Worcester, at Salem, and
at many other towns. Aware of this, Gage, on the night of April 18,
1775, sent off 800 regulars to destroy the stores at Concord, a town
some twenty miles from Boston. Gage wished to keep this expedition
secret, but he could not. The fact that the troops were to march became
known to the patriots in Boston, who determined to warn the minute men
in the neighborhood. Messengers were accordingly stationed at
Charlestown and told to ride in every direction and rouse the people,
the moment they saw lights displayed from the tower of the Old North
Church in Boston. The instant the British began to march, two lights
were hung out in the tower, and the messengers sped away to do
their work.[1]
[Footnote 1: The ride of one of these men, that of Paul Revere, has
become best known because of Longfellow's poem, _Paul Revere's Ride._
Read it. ]
The road taken by the British lay through the little village of
Lexington, and there (so well had the messengers done their work), about
sunrise, on the morning of the 19th, the British came suddenly on a
little band of minute men drawn up on the green before the meeting
house. A call to disperse was not obeyed; whereupon the British fired a
volley, killing or wounding sixteen minute men, and passed on to
Concord. There they spiked three cannon, threw some cannon balls and
powder into the river, destroyed some flour, set fire to the courthouse,
and started back toward Boston. But "the shot heard round the world" had
indeed been fired.[2] The news had spread far and wide. The minute men
came hurrying in, and from farmhouses and hedges, from haystacks, and
from behind trees and stone fences, they poured a deadly fire on the
retreating British. The retreat soon became a flight, and the flight
would have ended in capture had they not been reenforced by 900 men at
Lexington. With the help of these they reached Charlestown Neck by
sundown and entered Boston.[3] All night long minute men came in from
every quarter, so that by the morning of April 20th great crowds were
gathered outside of Charlestown and at Roxbury, and shut the British
in Boston.
[Footnote 2: Read R. W. Emerson's fine poem, _Concord Hymn._ ]
[Footnote 3: Force's _American Archives,_ Vol. II.; Hudson's _History of
Lexington,_ Chaps. 6, 7; Phinney's _Battle of Lexington;_ Shattuck's
_History of Concord,_ Chap. 7. ]
When the news of Concord and Lexington reached the Green Mountain Boys
of Vermont, they too took up arms, and, under Ethan Allen, captured Fort
Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775.
%131. Congress becomes a Governing Body.%--The first Continental
Congress had been chosen by the colonies in 1774, to set forth the views
of the people, and remonstrate against the conduct of the King and
Parliament. This Congress, it will be remembered, having done so, fixed
May 10, 1775, as the day whereon a second Congress should meet to
consider the results of their remonstrance. But when the day came,
Lexington and Concord had been fought, all New England was in arms, and
Congress was asked to adopt the army gathered around Boston, and assume
the conduct of the war. Congress thus unexpectedly became a governing
body, and began to do such things as each colony could not do by itself.
%132. Origin of the Continental Army.%--After a month's delay it did
adopt the little band of patriots gathered about Boston, made it the
Continental Army, and elected George Washington, then a delegate in
Congress, commander in chief. He was chosen because of the military
skill he had displayed in the French and Indian War, and because it was
thought necessary to have a Virginian for general, Virginia being then
the most populous of the colonies.
Washington accepted the trust on June 16, and set out for Boston on June
21; but he had not ridden twenty miles from Philadelphia when he was met
by the news of Bunker Hill.
%133. Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.%--On a narrow peninsula to the
north of Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water half a mile
wide, was the village of Charlestown; behind it were two small hills.
The nearer of the two to Charlestown was Breeds Hill. Just beyond it was
Bunker Hill, and as the two overlooked Boston and the harbor where the
British ships lay at anchor, the possession of them was of much
importance. The Americans, learning of Gage's intention to fortify the
hills, sent a force of 1200 men, under Colonel Prescott, on the night of
June 16, to take possession of Bunker Hill. By some mistake Prescott
passed Bunker Hill, reached Breeds Hill, and before dawn had thrown up a
large earthwork. The moment daylight enabled it to be seen, the British
opened fire from their ships. But the Americans worked steadily on in
spite of cannon shot, and by noon had constructed a line of
intrenchments extending from the earthwork down the hill toward the
water. Gage might easily have landed men and taken this intrenchment in
the rear. He instead sent Howe[1] and 2500 men over in boats from
Boston, to land at the foot of the hill and charge straight up its steep
side toward the Americans on its summit. The Americans were bidden not
to fire till they saw the whites of the enemy's eyes, and obeyed. Not a
shot came from their line till the British were within a few feet. Then
a sheet of flames ran along the breastworks, and when the smoke blew
away, the British were running down the hill in confusion. With great
effort the officers rallied their men and led them up the hill a second
time, to be again driven back to the landing place. This fire exhausted
the powder of the Americans, and when the British troops were brought up
for the third attack, the Americans fell back, fighting desperately with
gunstocks and stones. The results of this battle were two fold. It
proved to the Americans that the British regulars were not invincible,
and it proved to the British that the American militia would fight.
[Footnote 1: General William Howe had come to Boston with more British
troops not long before. In October, 1775, he was given chief command.]
[Illustration: BOSTON, CHARLESTOWN, ETC.]
%134. Washington takes Command.%--Two weeks after this battle
Washington reached the army, and on July 3, 1775, took command beneath
an elm still standing in Cambridge. Never was an army in so sorry a
plight. There was no discipline, and not much more than a third as many
men as there had been a few weeks before. But the indomitable will and
sublime patience of Washington triumphed over all difficulties, and for
eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while he trained
and disciplined his army, and gathered ammunition and supplies.
%135. Montreal taken.%--Meanwhile Congress, fearing that Sir Guy
Carleton, who was governor of Canada, would invade New York by way of
Lake Champlain, sent two expeditions against him. One, under Richard
Montgomery, went down Lake Champlain, and captured Montreal. Another,
under Benedict Arnold, forced its way through the dense woods of Maine,
and after dreadful sufferings reached Quebec. There Montgomery joined
Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the two armies assaulted
Quebec, the most strongly fortified city in America, and actually
entered it. But Montgomery was killed, Arnold was wounded, the attack
failed, and, six months later, the Americans were driven from Canada.
[Illustration: Bunker Hill Monument]
%136. The British driven from Boston, March 17, 1776.%--After eight
months of seeming idleness, Washington, early in March, 1776, seized
Dorchester Heights on the south side of Boston, fortified them, and so
gave Howe his choice of fighting or retreating. Fight he could not; for
the troops, remembering the dreadful day at Bunker Hill, were afraid to
attack intrenched Americans. Howe thereupon evacuated Boston and sailed
with his army for Halifax, March 17, 1776. Washington felt sure that the
British would next attack New York, so he moved his army there in April,
1776, and placed it on the Brooklyn hills.
%137. Independence resolved on.%--Just one year had now passed since
the memorable fights at Concord and Lexington. During this year the
colonies had been solemnly protesting that they had no thought of
independence and desired nothing so much as reconciliation with the
King. But the King meantime had done things which prevented any
reconciliation:
1. He had issued a proclamation declaring the Americans to be rebels.
2. He had closed their ports and warned foreign nations not to trade
with them.
3. He had hired 17,000 Hessians[1] with whom to subdue them.
[Footnote 1: The Hessians were soldiers from Hesse and other small
German states.]
These things made further obedience to the King impossible, and May 15,
1776, Congress resolved that it was "necessary to suppress every kind of
authority under the crown," and asked the colonies to form governments
of their own and so become states.
On the 7th of June, Richard Henry Lee, acting under instructions from
Virginia, offered this resolution:
Resolved
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.
Prompt action in so serious a matter was not to be expected, and
Congress put it off till July 1. Meanwhile Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were
appointed to write a declaration of independence and have it ready in
case it was wanted. As Jefferson happened to be the chairman of the
committee, the duty of writing the declaration was given to him. July
2, Congress passed Lee's resolution, and what had been the United
Colonies became free and independent states.
[Illustration: Campaigns of 1775-1776]
[Illustration: %The Pennsylvania Statehouse, or Independence Hall[1]]
[Footnote 1: From the _Columbian Magazine_ of July, 1787. The tower
faces the "Statehouse yard." The posts are along Chestnut Street. For
the history of the building, read F. M. Etting's _Independence Hall._]
%138. Independence declared.%--Independence having thus been decreed,
the next step was to announce the fact to the world. As Jefferson says
in the opening of his declaration, "When, in the course of human events,
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands
which have connected them with another ... a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
impel them to the separation." It was this "decent respect to the
opinions of mankind," therefore, which now led Congress, on July 4,
1776, to adopt the Declaration of Independence, and to send copies to
the states. Pennsylvania got her copy first, and at noon on July 8 it
was read to a vast crowd of citizens in the Statehouse yard.[1] When
the reading was finished, the people went off to pull down the royal
arms in the court room, while the great bell in the tower, the bell
which had been cast twenty-four years before with the prophetic words
upon its side, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the
inhabitants thereof," rang out a joyful peal, for then were announced to
the world the new political truths, "that all men are created equal,"
and "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights," and "that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness."
[Footnote 1: The declaration was read from a wooden platform put up
there in 1769 to enable David Rittenhouse to observe a transit
of Venus.]
[Illustration: The royal arms]
%139. The Retreat up the Hudson.%--A few days later the Declaration
was read to the army at New York. The wisdom of Washington in going to
New York was soon manifest, for in July General Howe, with a British
army of 25,000 men, encamped on Staten Island. In August he crossed to
Long Island, and was making ready to besiege the army on Brooklyn
Heights, when, one dark and foggy night, Washington, leaving his camp
fires burning, crossed with his army to New York.
Howe followed, drove him foot by foot up the Hudson from New York to
White Plains; carried Fort Washington, on the New York shore, by storm
(November 16, 1776); and sent a force across the Hudson under cover of
darkness and storm to capture Fort Lee. But the British were detected in
the very nick of time, and the Americans, leaving their fires burning
and their tents standing, fled towards Newark, N. J.
%140. The Retreat across the Jerseys.%--Washington, meanwhile, had
gone from White Plains to Hackensack in New Jersey, leaving 7000 men
under Charles Lee in New York state at North Castle. These men he now
ordered Lee to bring over to Hackensack, but the jealous and mutinous
Lee refused to obey. This forced Washington to begin his famous retreat
across the Jerseys, going first to Newark, then to New Brunswick, then
to Trenton, and then over the Delaware into Pennsylvania, with the
British under Cornwallis in hot pursuit.
[Illustration]
%141. The Surprise at Trenton.%--Lee crossed the Hudson and went to
Morristown, where a just punishment for his disobedience speedily
overtook him. One night while he was at an inn outside of his lines,
some British dragoons made him a prisoner of war. The capture of Lee
left Sullivan in command, and by him the troops were hurried off to join
Washington. Thus reenforced, Washington turned on the enemy, and on
Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm he recrossed the Delaware,
marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a force of Hessians, took 1000
prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania.
The effect of this victory was tremendous. At first the people could not
believe it, and, to convince them, the Hessians had to be marched
through the streets of Philadelphia, and one of their flags was sent to
Baltimore (whither Congress had fled from Philadelphia), and hung up in
the hall of Congress. When the people were convinced of the truth of the
report, their joy was unbounded; militia was hurried forward, the
Jerseymen gathered at Morristown, money was raised; the New England
troops, whose time of service was out, were persuaded to stay six weeks
longer, and, December 30, 1776, Washington again entered Trenton.
Meantime Cornwallis, who had heard of the capture of the Hessians, came
thundering down from New Brunswick with 8000 men and hemmed in the
Americans between his army and the Delaware. But on the night of January
2, 1777, Washington slipped away, passed around Cornwallis, hurried to
Princeton, and there, on the morning of January 3, put to rout three
regiments of British regulars. Cornwallis, who was not aware that the
Americans had left his front till he heard the firing in his rear, fell
back to New Brunswick, while Washington marched unmolested to
Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter.
%142. The Capture of Philadelphia.%--Late in May, 1777, Washington
entered New York state. But Howe paid little attention to this movement,
for he had fully determined to attack and capture Philadelphia, and on
July 23 set sail from New York. As the fleet moved southward, its
progress was marked by signal fires along the Jersey coast, and the news
of its position was carried inland by messengers. At the end of a week
the fleet was off the entrance of Delaware Bay. But Lord Howe fearing to
sail up the river, the fleet went to sea and was lost to sight.
Washington, who had hurried southward to Philadelphia, was now at a loss
what to do, and was just about to go back to New York when he heard
that the British were coming up Chesapeake Bay, and at once marched to
Wilmington, Del.
[Illustration]
It was the 25th of August that Howe landed his men and began moving
toward Washington, who, lest the British should push by him, fell back
from Wilmington, to a place called Chadds Ford on the Brandywine, where,
on September 11, 1777, a battle was fought.[1] The Americans were
defeated and retreated in good order to Chester, and the next day
Washington entered Philadelphia. But public opinion demanded that
another battle should be fought before the city was given up, and after
a few days he recrossed the Schuylkill, and again faced the enemy. A
violent storm ruined the ammunition of both armies and prevented a
battle, and the Americans retreated across the Schuylkill at a point
farther up the stream.
[Footnote: 1 Among the wounded in this battle was a brilliant young
Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette, who, early in 1777, came to America
and offered his services to Congress as a volunteer without pay.]
Congress, which had returned to Philadelphia from Baltimore, now fled to
Lancaster and later to York, Pa., and (September 26, 1777) Howe entered
Philadelphia in triumph. October 4, Washington attacked him at
Germantown, but was repulsed, and went into winter quarters at
Valley Forge.
[Illustration]
%143. New York invaded.%--Though Washington had been defeated in the
battles around Philadelphia, and had been forced to give that city to
the British, his campaign made it possible for the Americans to win
another glorious victory in the north. At the beginning of 1777 the
British had planned to conquer New York and so cut the Eastern States
off from the Middle States. To accomplish this, a great army under John
Burgoyne was to come up to Albany by way of Lake Champlain. Another,
under Colonel St. Leger, was to go up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario
to Oswego and come down to Mohawk valley to Albany; while the third
army, under Howe, was to go up the Hudson from New York and meet
Burgoyne at Albany. True to this plan, Burgoyne came up Lake Champlain,
took Ticonderoga (July 5), and, driving General Schuyler before him,
reached Fort Edward late in July. There he heard that the Americans had
collected some supplies at Bennington, a little village in the
southwestern corner of Vermont, whither he sent 1000 men. But Colonel
John Stark met and utterly destroyed them on August 16. Meanwhile St.
Leger, as planned, had landed at Oswego, and on August 3 laid siege to
Fort Stanwix, which then stood on the site of the present city of Rome,
N.Y. On the 6th the garrison sallied forth, attacked a part of St.
Leger's camp, and carried off five British flags. These they hoisted
upside down on their ramparts, and high above them raised a new flag
which Congress had adopted in June, and which was then for the first
time flung to the breeze.
[Illustration: Flag of the East India Company]
%144. Our National Flag.%--It was our national flag, the stars and
stripes, and was made of a piece of a blue jacket, some strips of a
white shirt, and some scraps of old red flannel.[1]
[Footnote 1: The flags used by the continental troops between 1775 and
1777 were of at least a dozen different patterns. A colored plate
showing most of them is given in Treble's _Our Flag_, p. 142. In 1776,
in January, Washington used one at Cambridge which seems to have been
suggested by the ensign of the East India Company. That of this company
was a combination of thirteen horizontal red and white stripes (seven
red and six white) and the red cross of St. George. That of Washington
was the same, with the British Union Jack substituted for the cross of
St. George. After the Declaration of Independence, the British Jack was
out of place on our flag; and in June, 1777, Congress adopted a union of
thirteen white stars in a circle, on a blue ground, in place of the
British Union. After Vermont and Kentucky were admitted, in 1791 and
1792, the stars and stripes were each increased to fifteen. In 1818, the
original number of stripes was restored, and since that time each new
state, when admitted, is represented by a star and not by a stripe.]
[Illustration: Flag of the United Colonies]
[Illustration: British Union Jack]
%145. Capture of Burgoyne.%--When Schuyler heard of the siege of
Fort Stanwix, he sent Benedict Arnold to relieve it, and St. Leger fled
to Oswego. Then was the time for the expedition from New York to have
hurried to Burgoyne's aid. But Howe and his army were then at sea. No
help was given to Burgoyne, who, after suffering defeats at Bemis
Heights (September 19) and at Stillwater (October 7), retreated to
Saratoga, where (October 17, 1777) he surrendered his army of 6000 men
to General Horatio Gates, whom Congress, to its shame, had just put in
the place of Schuyler. Gates deserves no credit for the capture. Arnold
and Daniel Morgan deserve it, and deserve much; for, judged by its
results, Saratoga was one of the great battles of the world. The results
of the surrender were four fold:
1. It saved New York state.
2. It destroyed the plan for the war.
3. It induced the King to offer us peace with representation in
Parliament, or anything else we wanted except independence.
4. It secured for us the aid of France.
[Illustration: %Flag of the United States, 1777%]
%146. Valley Forge.%--The winter at Valley Forge marks the darkest
period of the war. It was a season of discouragement, when mean spirits
grew bold. Some officers of the army formed a plot, called from one of
them the "Conway cabal," to displace Washington and put Gates in
command. The country people, tempted by British gold, sent their
provisions into Philadelphia and not to Valley Forge. There the
suffering of the half-clad, half-fed, ill-housed patriots surpasses
description.
But the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Then it was that an able
Prussian soldier, Baron Steuben, joined the army, turned the camp into a
school, drilled the soldiers, and made the army better than ever. Then
it was that France acknowledged our independence, and joined us in
the war.
%147. France acknowledges our Independence.%--In October, 1776,
Congress sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to try to persuade the French
King to help us in the war. Till Burgoyne surrendered and Great Britain
offered peace, Franklin found all his efforts vain.[1] But now, when it
seemed likely that the states might again be brought under the British
crown, the French King promptly acknowledged us to be an independent
nation, made a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce (February 6,
1778), and soon had a fleet on its way to help us.
[Footnote 1: For an account of Franklin in France, see McMaster's _With
the Fathers_, pp. 253-270.]
%148. The British leave Philadelphia.%--Hearing of the approach of
the French fleet, Sir Henry Clinton, who in May had succeeded Howe in
command, left Philadelphia and hurried to the defense of New York.
Washington followed, and, coming up with the rear guard of the enemy at
Monmouth in New Jersey, fought a battle (June 28, 1778), and would have
gained a great victory had not the traitor, Charles Lee, been in
command.[2] Without any reason he suddenly ordered a retreat, which was
fortunately prevented from becoming a rout by Washington, who came on
the field in time to stop it.
[Footnote 2: After remaining a prisoner in the hands of the British from
December, 1776, to April, 1778, Lee had been exchanged for a
British officer.]
After the battle the British hurried on to New York, where Washington
partially surrounded them by stretching out his army from Morristown in
New Jersey to West Point on the Hudson.
%149. Stony Point.%--In hope of drawing Washington away from New
York, Clinton in 1779 sent a marauding party to plunder and ravage the
farms and towns of Connecticut. But Washington soon brought it back by
dispatching Anthony Wayne to capture Stony Point, which he did (July,
1779) by one of the most brilliant assaults in military history.
%150. Indian Raids.%--That nothing might be wanting to make the
suffering of the patriots as severe as possible, the Indians were let
loose. Led by a Tory[1] named Butler, a band of whites and Indians of
the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations[2] marched from Fort Niagara to
Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania, and there perpetrated one
of the most awful massacres in history. Another party, led by a son of
Butler, repeated the horrors of Wyoming in Cherry Valley, N.Y.
[Footnote 1: Not all the colonists desired independence. Those who
remained loyal to the King were called Tories.]
[Footnote 2: By this time the Five Nations had admitted the Tuscaroras
to their confederacy and had thus become the Six Nations.]
%151. George Rogers Clark%.--Meantime the British commander at
Detroit tried hard to stir up the Indians of the West to attack the
whole frontier at the same moment. Hearing of this, George Rogers Clark
of Virginia marched into the enemy's country, and in two fine campaigns
in 1778-1779 beat the British, and conquered the country from the Ohio
to the Great Lakes and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi.
%152. Sullivan's Expedition%.--In 1779 it seemed so important to
punish the Indians for the Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres that
General Sullivan with an army invaded the territory of the Six Nations,
in central New York, burned some forty Indian villages, and utterly
destroyed the Indian power in that state.
%153. The South invaded%.--For a year and more there had been a lull
in military operations on the part of the British. But they now began an
attack in a new quarter. Having failed to conquer New England in
1775-1776, having failed to conquer the Middle States in 1776-1777, they
sent an expedition against the South in December, 1778. Success attended
it. Savannah was captured, Georgia was conquered, and the royal governor
reinstated. Later, in 1779, General Lincoln, with a French fleet to help
him, attempted to recapture Savannah, but was driven off with dreadful
loss of life.
These successes in Georgia so greatly encouraged the British that in the
spring of 1780 Clinton led an expedition against South Carolina, and
(May 12) easily captured Charleston, with Lincoln and his army. By dint
of great exertions another army was quickly raised in North Carolina,
and the command given to Gates by Congress. He was utterly unfit for it,
and (August 16, 1780) was defeated and his army almost destroyed at
Camden by Lord Cornwallis. Never in the whole course of the war had the
American army suffered such a crushing defeat. All military resistance
in South Carolina was at an end, save such as was offered by gallant
bands of patriots led by Marion, Sumter, and Pickens.
%154. The Treason of Arnold.%--The outlook was now dark enough;
but it was made darker still by the treachery of Benedict Arnold. No
officer in the Revolutionary army was more trusted. His splendid march
through the wilderness to Quebec, his bravery in the attack on that
city, the skill and courage he displayed at Saratoga, had marked him
out as a man full of promise. But he lacked that moral courage without
which great abilities count for nothing. In 1778 he was put in command
of Philadelphia, and while there so abused his office that he was
sentenced to be reprimanded by Washington. This aroused a thirst for
revenge, and led him to form a scheme to give up the Hudson River to the
enemy. With this end in view, he asked Washington in July, 1780, for the
command of West Point, the great stronghold on the Hudson, obtained it,
and at once made arrangements to surrender it to Clinton. The British
agent in the negotiation was Major John Andre, who one day in September
met Arnold near Stony Point. But most happily, as he was going back to
New York, three Americans[1] stopped him near Tarrytown, searched him,
and in his stockings found some papers in the handwriting of Arnold.
News of the arrest of Andre reached Arnold in time to enable him to
escape to the British; he served with them till the end of the war, and
then sought a refuge in England. Andre was tried as a spy, found guilty,
and hanged.
[Footnote 1: The names of these men were Paulding, Williams, and Van
Wart.]
%155. Victory at Kings Mountain.%--After the defeat of Gates at
Camden, the British overran South Carolina, and in the course of their
marauding a band of 1100 Tories marched to Kings Mountain, on the border
line between the two Carolinas. There the hardy mountaineers attacked
them (Oct. 7, 1780) and killed, wounded, or captured the entire band.
[Map: %CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH 1778-1781%]
%156. Victory at the Cowpens%.--Meantime a third army was raised for
use in the South and placed under the command of Nathanael Greene, than
whom there was no abler general in the American army. With Greene was
Daniel Morgan, who had distinguished himself at Saratoga, and by him a
British force under Tarleton was attacked January 17, 1781, at a place
called the Cowpens, and not only defeated, but almost destroyed.
Enraged at these reverses, Cornwallis took the field and hurried to
attack Greene, who, too weak to fight him, began a masterly retreat of
200 miles across Carolina to Guilford Courthouse, where he turned about
and fought. He was defeated, but Cornwallis was unable to go further,
and retreated to Wilmington, N.C., with Greene in hot pursuit. Leaving
the enemy at Wilmington, Greene went back to South Carolina, and by
September, 1781, had driven the British into Charleston and Savannah.
Cornwallis, as soon as Greene left him, hurried to Petersburg, Va. A
British force during the winter and spring had been plundering and
ravaging in Virginia, under the traitor Arnold. Cornwallis took command
of this, sent Arnold to New York, and had begun a campaign against
Lafayette, when orders reached him to seize and fortify some
Virginian seaport.
%157. Surrender of Cornwallis.%--Thus instructed, Cornwallis selected
Yorktown, and began to fortify it strongly. This was early in August,
1781. On the 14th Washington heard with delight that a French fleet was
on its way to the Chesapeake, and at once decided to hurry to Virginia,
and surround Cornwallis by land while the French cut him off by sea.
Preparations were made with such secrecy and haste that Washington had
reached Philadelphia while Clinton supposed he was about to attack New
York. Clinton then sent Arnold on a raid into Connecticut to burn New
London, in the hope of forcing Washington to return. But Washington kept
straight on, hemmed Cornwallis in by land and sea, and October 19, 1781,
forced the British general to surrender.
%158. The War on the Sea.%--The first step towards the foundation of
an American navy was taken on October 13, 1775. Congress, hearing that
two British ships laden with powder and guns were on their way from
England to Quebec, ordered two swift sailing vessels to be fitted out
for the purpose of capturing them. Two months later Congress ordered
thirteen cruisers to be built, and named the officers to command them.
Meantime some merchant ships were purchased and collected at
Philadelphia, from which city, one morning in January, 1776, a fleet of
eight vessels set sail. As they were about to weigh anchor, John Paul
Jones, a lieutenant on the flagship, flung to the breeze a yellow silk
flag on which were a pine tree and a coiled rattlesnake, with this
motto: "Don't tread on me." This was the first flag ever hoisted on an
American man-of-war.
Ice in the Delaware kept the fleet in the river till the middle of
February, when it went to sea, sailed southward to New Providence in the
Bahamas, captured the town, brought off the governor, some powder and
cannon, and after taking several prizes got safely back to New London.
Soon after the squadron had left the Delaware, the _Lexington_, Captain
John Barry in command, while cruising off the Virginia coast, fell in
with the _Edward_, a British vessel, and after a spirited action
captured her. This was the first prize brought in by a commissioned
officer of the American navy.[1]
[Footnote 1: John Barry was a native of Ireland; he came to America at
thirteen, entered the merchant marine, and at twenty-five was captain of
a ship. At the opening of the war Barry offered his services to
Congress, and in February, 1776, was put in command of the _Lexington_.
After his victory he was transferred to the twenty-eight-gun frigate
_Effingham_, and in 1777 (while blockaded in the Delaware) with
twenty-seven men in four boats captured and destroyed a ten-gun schooner
and four transports. When the British captured Philadelphia, Barry took
the _Effingham_ up the river; but she was burned by the enemy. In 1778,
in command of the thirty-two-gun frigate _Raleigh_, he sailed from
Boston, fell in with two British frigates, and after a fight was forced
to run ashore in Penobscot Bay. Barry and his crew escaped, and in 1781
carried Laurens to France in the frigate _Alliance_. On the way out he
took a privateer, and while cruising on the way home captured the
_Atalanta_ and the _Trepassey_ after a hard fight. As Barry brought in
the first capture by a commissioned officer of the United States navy,
so he fought the last action of the war in 1782; but the enemy escaped.
When the navy was reorganized in 1794, Barry was made senior captain,
with the title of Commodore. In 1798 he commanded the frigate _United
States_ in the war with France. He died in 1803.]
In March, 1776, Congress began to issue letters of marque, or licenses
to citizens to engage in war against the enemy; and then the sea fairly
swarmed with privateers.
In 1777 the American flag was seen for the first time in European
waters, when a little squadron of three ships set sail from Nantes in
France, and after cruising on the Bay of Biscay went twice around
Ireland and came back to France with fifteen prizes. As France had not
then acknowledged our independence, they were ordered to depart. Two did
so; but one of them, the _Lexington_, was captured by the British, and
the other, the _Reprisal_, was wrecked at sea.
%159. Paul Jones.%--Meanwhile our commissioners in France, Benjamin
Franklin and Silas Deane, fitted out a cruiser called the _Surprise_.
She sailed from Dunkirk on May 1, 1777, and the next week was back with
a British packet as a prize. For this violation of French neutrality she
was seized. But another ship, the _Revenge_, was quickly secured, which
scoured the British waters, and actually entered two British ports
before she sailed for America. The exploits of these and a score of
other ships are cast into the shade, however, by the fights of John Paul
Jones, the great naval hero of the Revolution. He sailed from
Portsmouth, N.H., November 1, 1777, refitted his ship in the harbor of
Brest, and in 1778 began one of the most memorable cruises in our naval
history. In the short space of twenty-eight days he sailed into the
Irish Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in the
port of Whitehaven, fought and captured the British armed schooner
_Drake_, sailed around Ireland with his prize, and reached France
in safety.
For a year he was forced to be idle. But at last, in 1779, he was given
command of a squadron of five vessels, and in August sailed from France.
Passing along the west coast of Ireland, the fleet went around the north
end of Scotland and down the east coast, capturing and destroying vessel
after vessel on the way. On the night of September 23, 1779, Jones (in
his ship, named _Bonhomme Richard_ in honor of Franklin's famous _Poor
Richard's Almanac_) fell in with the _Serapis_, a British frigate. The
two ships grappled, and, lashed side by side in the moonlight, fought
one of the most desperate battles in naval annals. At the end of three
hours the _Serapis_ surrendered, but the _Bonhomme Richard_ was a wreck,
and next morning, giving a sudden roll, she filled and plunged bow first
to the bottom of the North Sea. Jones sailed away in the _Serapis_.
[Illustration: Benjamin Franklin]
In the Revolution the British lost 102 vessels of war, while the
Americans lost 24--most of their navy.
%160. Revolutionary Heroes.%--It is not possible to mention all the
revolutionary heroes entitled to our grateful remembrance. We should,
however, remember Lafayette, Steuben, Pulaski, and DeKalb, foreigners
who fought for us; Samuel Adams and James Otis of Massachusetts, and
Patrick Henry of Virginia, who spoke for freedom; Robert Morris, the
financier of the Revolution; Putnam who fought and Warren who died at
Bunker Hill; Mercer who fell at Princeton; Nathan Hale, the martyr spy;
Herkimer, Knox, Moultrie, and that long list of noble patriots whose
names have already been mentioned.
%161. The Treaty of Peace.%--The story is told that when Lord North,
the Prime Minister of England, heard of the surrender of Yorktown, he
threw up his hands and said, "It is all over." He was right; it was all
over, and on September 3, 1783, a treaty of peace (negotiated by
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay) was signed at Paris.
Meantime the British, in accordance with a preliminary treaty of peace
signed in November, 1782, were slowly leaving the country, till on
November 25, 1783, the last of them sailed from New York.[1] Washington
now resigned his commission, and in December went home to Mt. Vernon.
[Footnote 1: They did not leave Staten Island in New York Bay till a
week later. For an account of the evacuation of New York see McMaster's
_With the Fathers_, pp. 271-280.]
%162. Bounds of the United States.%--By the treaty of 1783 the
boundary of the United States was declared to be about what is the
present northern boundary from the mouth of the St. Croix River in Maine
to the Lake of the Woods, and then due west to the Mississippi (which
was, of course, an impossible line, for that river does not rise in
Canada); then down the Mississippi to 31 deg. north latitude; then eastward
along that parallel of latitude to the Apalachicola River, and then by
what is the present north boundary of Florida to the Atlantic.
But these bounds were not secured without a diplomatic struggle. As soon
as France joined us in 1778, she began to persuade Spain to follow her
example. Very little persuasion was needed, for the opportunity to
regain the two Floridas (which Spain had been forced to give to England
in 1763) was too good to be lost. In June, 1779, therefore, Spain
declared war on England, and sent the governor of Lower Louisiana into
West Florida, where he captured Pensacola, Mobile, Baton Rouge, and
Natchez. Made bold by this success, Spain, which cared nothing for the
United States, next determined to conquer the region north of Florida
and east of the Mississippi, the Indian country of the proclamation of
1763. (See map of The British Colonies in 1764.) The commandant at St.
Louis[2] was, therefore, sent to seize the post at St. Joseph on Lake
Michigan, built by La Salle in 1679. He succeeded, and taking possession
of the country in the name of Spain, carried off the English flags as
evidence of conquest. Now when the time came to make the treaty of
peace, Spain insisted that she must have East and West Florida and the
country west of the Alleghany Mountains, because she had conquered it.
France partly supported Spain in this demand. The country north of the
Ohio she proposed should be given to Great Britain, and the country
south to Spain and the United States.
[Footnote 2: It will be remembered that Spain now held Louisiana, or the
country west of the Mississippi. (See Chapter VIII.)]
[Illustration: RESULTS OF THE %WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE% BOUNDARY DEFINED
BY TREATY 1783. AND TERRITORY HELD BY GREAT BRITAIN 1783-1796., AND
SPAIN 1783-1795]
The American commissioners, seeing in all this a desire to bound the
United States on the west by the Alleghany Mountains, made the treaty
with Great Britain secretly, and secured the Mississippi as our
western limit.
Spain at the same time secured the Floridas from Great Britain, and
insisting that West Florida must have the old boundary given in 1764,[1]
and not 31 deg. as provided in our treaty of peace, she seized and held the
country by force of arms; and for twelve years the Spanish flag waved
over Baton Rouge and Natchez.[2]
[Footnote 1: See Chapter X.]
[Footnote 2: Read Hinsdale's _Old Northwest_, pp. 170-191; McMaster's
_With the Fathers_, pp. 280-292.]
The area of the territory thus acquired by the United States was 827,844
square miles, and the population not far from 3,250,000. Apparently an
era of great prosperity and happiness was before the people. But
unhappily the government they had established in time of war was quite
unfit to unite them and bring them prosperity in time of peace.
[Illustration: Washington's sword]
SUMMARY
1. In accordance with one of the Intolerable Acts, General Gage became
governor of Massachusetts in 1774.
2. Seeing that the people were gathering stores and cannon, he attempted
to destroy the stores, and so brought on the battles of Lexington and
Concord, which opened the War for Independence.
3. The Congress of colonial delegates, which met in 1774 and adjourned
to meet again in 1775, assembled soon after these battles, and assumed
the conduct of the war, adopted the army around Boston, and made
Washington commander in chief.
4. Washington reached Boston soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, which
taught the British that the Americans would fight, and he besieged the
British in Boston. In March, 1776, they left the city by water, and
Washington moved his army to the neighborhood of New York.
5. There he was attacked by the British, and was driven up the Hudson
River to White Plains. Thence he crossed into New Jersey, only to be
driven across the state and into Pennsylvania.
6. On Christmas night, 1776, he recrossed the Delaware to Trenton, and
the next morning won a victory over the Hessians. Then on January 3,
1777, he fought the battle of Princeton, and he spent the remainder of
the winter at Morristown.
7. In July, 1777, Howe sailed from New York for Philadelphia, to which
city Washington hurried by land. The Americans were defeated at the
Brandy wine, and the city fell into the hands of Howe. Washington passed
the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge.
8. Meantime an attempt had been made to cut the states in two by getting
possession of New York state from Lake Champlain to New York city, and
an army under Burgoyne came down from Canada. He and his troops were
captured at Saratoga.
9. In February, 1778, France made a treaty of alliance with us and sent
over a fleet. Fearing this would attack New York, Clinton left
Philadelphia with his army. Washington followed from Valley Forge,
overtook the enemy at Monmouth, and fought a battle there. The British
then went on to New York, while Washington stretched out his army from
Morristown to West Point.
10. So matters remained till December, 1778, when the British attacked
the Southern States. They conquered Georgia in the winter of 1778-1779.
11. In the spring of 1780 they attacked South Carolina and captured
General Lincoln. Gates then took the field, was defeated, and succeeded
by Greene, who after many vicissitudes drove the British forces in South
Carolina and Georgia into Charleston and Savannah, during 1781.
12. Meantime a force sent against Greene under Cornwallis undertook to
fortify Yorktown and hold it, and while so engaged was surrounded by
Washington and the French fleet and forced to surrender.
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
CAMPAIGNS OF 1775-1776
_In New England_.
1775. Concord and Lexington.
Continental Army formed.
Washington, commander in chief.
Battle of Bunker Hill.
1775-1776. Siege of Boston.
1776. Evacuation of Boston.
_In Canada_.
1775. Arnold's march to Quebec.
Montgomery's march to Montreal.
Capture of Montreal.
1776. Defeat and death of Montgomery at Quebec.
Americans return to Ticonderoga.
1776. Howe sails for New York.
Washington marches to New York.
The Declaration of Independence.
Capture of New York.
Retreat across the Jerseys.
Surprise at Trenton.
1777. Battle of Princeton.
Washington at Morristown.
Burgoyne and St. Leger move down from Canada to
capture New York state and cut the colonies in two.
St. Leger defeated at Fort Stanwix.
Burgoyne captured at Saratoga.
Howe sails from New York to Chesapeake Bay and
moves against Philadelphia.
Washington moves from New York to Philadelphia.
Battles of Brandywine and Germantown.
Philadelphia captured by the British.
1777-1778. Americans winter at Valley Forge.
1778. Alliance with France.
Fleet and army sent from France.
Clinton leaves Philadelphia and hurries to New York.
Washington follows him from Valley Forge.
Battle of Monmouth.
Washington on the Hudson.
CAMPAIGNS CHIEFLY IN THE SOUTH, 1778-1781.
1778. The South invaded.
Savannah captured and Georgia overrun.
1779. Clinton ravages Connecticut to draw Washington away
from the Hudson.
Wayne captures Stony Point.
Lincoln attacks Savannah.
1780. Clinton captures Charleston.
Campaign of Gates in South Carolina.
Battles of Camden and Kings Mountain.
Treason of Arnold.
1781. Greene in command in the South.
Battle of the Cowpens.
March of Cornwallis from Charleston.
Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Cornwallis goes to Wilmington and Greene to South Carolina.
Cornwallis goes to Yorktown.
Washington hurries from New York.
Surrender of Cornwallis.
1782-1783. Peace negotiations at Paris.
1783. Evacuation of New York.
THE STRUGGLE FOR A GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER XII
UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
%163. How the Colonies became States.%--When the Continental Congress
met at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, a letter was received from
Massachusetts, where the people had penned up the governor in Boston and
had taken the government into their own hands, asking what they should
do. Congress replied that no obedience was due to the Massachusetts
Regulating Act or to the governor, and advised the people to make a
temporary government to last till the King should restore the old
charter. Similar advice was given the same year to New Hampshire and
South Carolina, for it was not then supposed that the quarrel with the
mother country would end in separation. But by the spring of 1776 all
the governors of the thirteen colonies had either fled or been thrown
into prison. This put an end to colonial government, and Congress,
seeing that reconciliation was impossible, (May 15, 1776) advised all
the colonies to form governments for themselves (p. 132). Thereupon they
adopted constitutions, and by doing so turned themselves from British
colonies into sovereign and independent states.[1]
[Footnote 1: All but two made new constitutions; but Connecticut and
Rhode Island used their old charters, the one till 1818, the other till
1842. Vermont also formed a constitution, but she was not admitted to
the Congress (p. 243).]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES WHEN PEACE WAS DECLARED in 1783 SHOWING
THE STATE CLAIMS]
%164. Articles of Confederation.%--While the colonies were thus
gradually turning themselves into the states, the Continental
Congress was trying to bind them into a union by means of a sort of
general constitution called "Articles of Confederation." By order of
Congress, Articles had been prepared and presented by a committee in
July, 1776, but it was not till November 17, 1777, that they were sent
out to the states for adoption. Now it must be remembered that six
states, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia, claimed that their "from sea to sea" charters
gave them lands between the mountains and the Mississippi River, and
that one, New York, had bought the Indian title to land in the Ohio
valley. It must also be remembered that the other six states did not
have "from sea to sea" charters, and so had no claims to western lands.
As three of them, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, held that the
claims of their sister states were invalid, they now refused to adopt
the Articles unless the land so claimed was given to Congress to be used
to pay for the cost of the Revolution. For this action they gave
four reasons:
1. The Mississippi valley had been discovered, explored, settled, and
owned by France.
2. England had never owned any land there till France ceded the country
in 1763.
3. When at last England had got it, in 1763, the King drew the
"proclamation line," turned the Mississippi valley into the Indian
country, and so cut off any claim of the colonies in consequence of
English ownership.
4. The western lands were therefore the property of the King, and now
that the states were in arms against him, his lands ought to be seized
by Congress and used for the benefit of all the states.
For three years the land-claiming states refused to be convinced by
these arguments. But at length, finding that Maryland was determined not
to adopt the Articles till her demands were complied with, they began to
yield. In February, 1780, New York ceded her claims to Congress, and in
January, 1781, Virginia gave up her claim to the country north of the
Ohio River. Maryland had now carried her point, and on March 1, 1781,
her delegates signed the Articles of Confederation. As all the other
states had ratified the Articles, this act on the part of Maryland made
them law, and March 2, 1781, Congress met for the first time under a
form of government the states were pledged to obey.
%165. Government under the Articles of Confederation.%--The form of
government that went into effect on that day was bad from beginning to
end. There was no one officer to carry out the laws, no court or judge
to settle disputed points of law, and only a very feeble legislature.
Congress consisted of one house, presided over by a president elected
each year by the members from among their own number. The delegates to
Congress could not be more than seven, nor less than two from each
state, were elected yearly, could not serve for more than three years
out of six, and might be recalled at any time by the states that sent
them. Once assembled on the floor of Congress, the delegates became
members of a secret body. The doors were shut; no spectators were
allowed to hear what was said; no reports of the debates were taken
down; but under a strict injunction to secrecy the members went on
deliberating day after day. All voting was done by states, each casting
but one vote, no matter how many delegates it had. The affirmative votes
of nine states were necessary to pass any important act, or, as it was
called, "ordinance."
To this body the Articles gave but few powers. Congress could declare
war, make peace, issue money, keep up an army and a navy, contract
debts, enter into treaties of commerce, and settle disputes between
states. But it could not enforce a treaty or a law when made, nor lay
any tax for any purpose.
%166. Origin of the Public Domain%.--In 1784 Massachusetts ceded her
strip of land in the west, following the example set by New York (1780),
and Virginia (1781).
As three states claiming western territory had thus by 1784 given their
land to Congress, that body came into possession of the greater part of
the vast domain stretching from the Lakes to the Ohio and from the
Mississippi to Pennsylvania.[1] Now this public domain, as it was
called, was given on certain conditions:
1. That it should be cut up into states.
2. That these states should be admitted into the Union (when they had a
certain population) on the same footing as the thirteen original states.
3. That the land should be sold and the money used to pay the debts of
the United States.
[Footnote 1: The strip owned by Connecticut had been offered to Congress
in October, 1789, but not accepted. It still belonged to Connecticut in
1785. In 1786 it was again ceded, with certain reservations, and
accepted.]
Congress, therefore, as soon as it had received the deeds to the tracts
ceded, trusting that the other land-owning states would cede their
western territory in time, passed a law (in 1785) to prepare the land
for sale by surveying it and marking it out into sections, townships,
and ranges, and fixed the price per acre.
%167. Virginia and Connecticut Reserves.%--When Virginia made her
cession in 1781, she expressly reserved two tracts of land north of the
Ohio. One, called the Military Lands, lay between the Scioto and Miami
rivers, and was held to pay bounties promised to the Virginia
Revolutionary soldiers. The other (in the present state of Indiana) was
given to General George Rogers Clark and his soldiers. A third piece was
reserved by Connecticut when she ceded her strip in 1786. This, called
the Western Reserve of Connecticut, stretched along the shore of Lake
Erie (map, p. 175). In 1800 Connecticut gave up her jurisdiction, or
right of government, over this reserve in return for the confirmation of
land titles she had granted.
[Illustration: TERRITORY OF THE %UNITED STATES% NORTHWEST OF THE OHIO
RIVER %1787%]
%168. Ordinance of 1787; Origin of the Territories.%--Hardly had
Congress provided for the sale of the land, when a number of
Revolutionary soldiers formed the Ohio Land Company, and sent an agent
to New York, where Congress was in session, and offered to buy 5,000,000
acres on the Ohio River: 1,500,000 acres were for themselves, and
3,500,000 for another company called the Scioto Company. The land was
gladly sold, and as the purchasers were really going to send out
settlers, it became necessary to establish some kind of government for
them. On the 13th of July, 1787, therefore, Congress passed another very
famous law, called the Ordinance of 1787, which ordered:
1. That the whole region from the Lakes to the Ohio, and from
Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, should be called "The Territory of the
United States northwest of the river Ohio."
2. That it should be cut up into not less than three nor more than five
states, each of which might be admitted into the Union when it had
60,000 free inhabitants.
3. That within it there was to be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude except in punishment for crime.
4. That until such time as there were 5000 free male inhabitants
twenty-one years old in the territory, it was to be governed by a
governor and three judges. They could not make laws, but might adopt
such as they pleased from among the laws in force in the states. After
there were 5000 free male inhabitants in the territory the people were
to elect a house of representatives, which in its turn was to elect ten
men from whom Congress was to select five to form a council. The house
and the council were then to elect a territorial delegate to sit in
Congress with the right of debating, not of voting. The governor, the
judges, and the secretary were to be elected by Congress. The council
and house of representatives could make laws, but must send them to
Congress for approval.
Thus were created two more American institutions, the territory and the
state formed out of the public domain. The ordinance was but a few
months old when South Carolina ceded (1787) her little strip of country
west of the mountains (see map on p. 157) with the express condition
that it _should_ be slave soil. In 1789 North Carolina ceded what is
now Tennessee on the same condition. Congress accepted both and out of
them made the "Territory southwest of the Ohio River." In that slavery
was allowed.[1]
[Footnote 1: The only remaining land-holding state, Georgia, ceded her
claim in 1802 (p. 246).]
%169. Defects of the Articles of Confederation.%--While Congress at
New York was framing the Ordinance of 1787, a convention of delegates
from the states was framing the Constitution at Philadelphia. A very
little experience under the Articles of Confederation showed them to
have serious defects.
_No Taxing Power_.--In the first place, Congress could not lay a tax of
any kind, and as it could not tax it could not get money with which to
pay its expenses and the debt incurred during the Revolution. Each of
the states was in duty bound to pay its share. But this duty was so
disregarded that although Congress between 1782 and 1786 called on the
states for $6,000,000, only $1,000.000 was paid.
_No Power to regulate Trade_.--In the second place, Congress had no
power to regulate trade with foreign nations, or between the states.
This proved a most serious evil. The people of the United States at that
time had few manufactures, because in colonial days Parliament would not
allow them. All the china, glass, hardware, cutlery, woolen goods,
linen, muslin, and a thousand other things were imported from Great
Britain. Before the war the Americans had paid for these goods with
dried fish, lumber, whale oil, flour, tobacco, rice, and indigo, and
with money made by trading in the West Indies. Now Great Britain forbade
Americans to trade with her West Indies. Spain would not make a trade
treaty with us, so we had no trade with her islands, and what was worse,
Great Britain taxed everything that came to her from the United States
unless it came in British ships. As a consequence, very little lumber,
fish, rice, and other of our products went abroad to pay for the immense
quantity of foreign-made goods that came to us. These goods therefore
had to be paid for in money, which about 1785 began to be boxed up and
shipped to London. When the people found that specie was being carried
out of the country, they began to hoard it, so that by 1786 none was in
circulation.
%170. Paper Money issued.%--This left the people without any money
with which to pay wages, or buy food and clothing, and led at once to a
demand that the states should print paper money and loan it to their
citizens. Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North and
South Carolina, and Georgia did so. But the money was no sooner issued
than the merchants and others who had goods to sell refused to take it,
whereupon in some of the states laws called "tender acts" were passed to
compel people to use the paper. This merely put an end to business, for
nobody would sell. In Massachusetts, when the legislature refused to
issue paper money, many of the persons who owed debts assembled, and,
during 1786-87, under the lead of Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary soldier,
prevented the courts from trying suits for the recovery of money owed or
loaned.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United
States_, Vol. I., pp. 281-295, 304-329, 331-340; Fiske's _Critical
Period of American History_, pp. 168-186.]
%171. Congress proposes Amendments.%--Of the many defects in the
Articles, the Continental Congress was fully aware, and it had many a
time asked the states to make amendments. One proposed that Congress
should have power for twenty-five years to lay a tax of five per cent on
all goods imported, and use the money to pay the Continental debts.
Another was to require each state to raise by special tax a sum
sufficient to pay its yearly share of the current expenses of Congress.
A third was to bestow on Congress for fifteen years the sole power to
regulate trade and commerce. A fourth provided that in future the share
each state was to bear of the current expenses should be in proportion
to its population.
But the Articles of Confederation could not be amended unless all
thirteen states consented, and, as all thirteen never did consent, none
of these amendments were ever made.
%172. The States attempt to regulate Trade and fail.%--In the
meantime the states attempted to regulate trade for themselves. New York
laid double duties on English ships. Pennsylvania taxed a long list of
foreign goods. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island passed
acts imposing heavy duties on articles unless they came in American
vessels. But these laws were not uniform, and as many states took no
action, very little good was accomplished.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_,
Vol. I., pp. 246-259, 266-280; Fiske's _Critical Period of American
History_, 134-137, 145-147.]
%173. A Trade Convention called to meet at Annapolis,
1786.%[2]--Under these conditions, the business of the whole country
was at a standstill, and as Congress had no power to do anything to
relieve the distress, the state of Virginia sent out a circular letter
to her sister states. She asked them to appoint delegates to meet and
"take into consideration the trade and commerce of the United States."
Four (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) responded, and
their delegates, with those from Virginia, met at Annapolis in
September, 1786.
[Footnote 2: The report of this Annapolis convention is printed in
_Bulletin of Bureau of Rolls and Library of the Department of State_,
No. 1, Appendix, pp. 1-5.]
CHAPTER XIII
MAKING THE CONSTITUTION
%174. Call for the Constitutional Convention.%--Finding that it could
do nothing, because so few states were represented, and because the
powers of the delegates were so limited, the convention recommended that
all the states in the Union be asked by Congress to send delegates to a
new convention, to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, "to take into
consideration the situation of the United States," and "to devise such
further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the
Constitution of the Federal government adequate to the exigencies of
the Union."
%175. The Philadelphia Convention.%[1]--Early in 1787 Congress
approved this movement, and during the summer of 1787 (May to September)
delegates from twelve states (Rhode Island sent none), sitting in secret
session at Philadelphia, made the Constitution of the United States.
[Footnote 1: All we know of the proceedings of this convention is
derived from the journals of the convention, the notes taken down by
James Madison, the notes of Yates of New York, and a speech by Luther
Martin of Maryland. They may be found in Elliot's _Debates_, Vol. IV.]
[Illustration: Independence Chamber[2]]
[Footnote 2: The room where the Constitution was framed.]
%176. The Virginia and New Jersey Plans%.--The story of that
convention is too long and too complicated to be told in full.[1] But
some of its proceedings must be noticed. While the delegates were
assembling, a few men, under the lead of Madison, met and drew up the
outline of a constitution, which was presented by the chairman of the
Virginia delegation, and was called the "Virginia plan." A little later,
delegates from the small states met and drew up a second plan, which was
the old Articles of Confederation with amendments. As the chairman of
the New Jersey delegation offered this, it was called the "New Jersey
plan." Both were discussed; but the convention voted to accept the
Virginia plan as the basis of the Constitution.
[Footnote 1: For short accounts, read "The Framers and the Framing of
the Constitution" in the _Century Magazine_, September, 1887, or
"Framing the Constitution," in McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp.
106-149, or Thorpe's _Story of the Constitution_, Chautauqua Course,
1891-92, pp. 111-148.]
%177. The Three Compromises.%--This plan called, among other things,
for a national legislature of two branches: a Senate and a House of
Representatives. The populous states insisted that the number of
representatives sent by each state to Congress should be in proportion
to her population. The small states insisted that each should send the
same number of representatives. For a time neither party would yield;
but at length the Connecticut delegates suggested that the states be
given an equal vote and an equal representation in the Senate, and an
unequal representation, based on population, in the House. The
contending parties agreed, and so made the first compromise.
But the decision to have representation according to population at once
raised the question, Shall slaves be counted as population? This divided
the convention into slave states and free (see p. 186), and led to a
second compromise, by which it was agreed that three fifths of all
slaves should be counted as population, for the purpose of apportioning
representation.
A third compromise sprang from the conflicting interests of the
commercial and the planting states. The planting states wanted a
provision forbidding Congress to pass navigation acts, except by a
two-thirds vote, and forbidding any tax on exports; three states also
wished to import slaves for use on their plantations. The free
commercial states wanted Congress to pass navigation laws, and also
wanted the slave trade stopped, because of the three-fifths rule. The
result was an agreement that the importation of slaves should not be
forbidden by Congress before 1808, and that Congress might pass
navigation acts, and that exports should never be taxed.
%178. The Election of President.%--Another feature of the Virginia
plan was the provision for a President whose business it should be to
see that the acts of Congress were duly enforced or executed. But when
the question arose, How shall he be chosen? all manner of suggestions
were made. Some said by the governors of the states; some, by the United
States Senate; some, by the state legislatures; some, by a body of
electors chosen for that purpose. When at last it was decided to have a
body of electors, the difficulty was to determine the manner of electing
the electors. On this no agreement could be reached; so the convention
ordered that the legislature of each state should have as many electors
of the President as it had senators and representatives in Congress, and
that these men should be appointed in such way as the legislatures of
the states saw fit to prescribe.
%179. Sources of the Constitution.%--An examination of the
Constitution shows that some of its features were new; that some were
drawn from the experience of the states under the Confederation; and
that others were borrowed from the various state constitutions. Among
those taken from state constitutions are such names as President,
Senate, House of Representatives, and such provisions as that for a
census, for the veto, for the retirement of one third of the Senate
every two years, that money bills shall originate in the House, for
impeachment, and for what we call the annual message.[1]
[Footnote 1: On the sources of the Constitution, read "The First Century
of the Constitution" in _New Princeton Review,_ September, 1887,
pp. 175-190.]
The features based directly on experience under the Articles of
Confederation are the provisions that the acts of Congress must be
_uniform_ throughout the Union; that the President may call out the
militia to repel invasion, to put down insurrection, and to maintain the
laws of the Union; that Congress shall have _sole_ power to regulate
_foreign trade_ and _trade between the states._ No state can now coin
money or print paper money, or make anything but gold or silver legal
tender. Congress now has power to lay taxes, duties, and excises. The
Constitution divides the powers of government between the legislative
department (Senate and House of Representatives); the executive
department (the President, who sees that laws and treaties are obeyed);
and the judicial department (Supreme Court and other United States
courts, which interpret the Constitution, the acts of Congress, and the
treaties).
The new features are the definition of treason and the limitation of its
punishment; the guarantee to every state of a republican form of
government; the swearing of state officials to support the Federal
Constitution; and the provision for amendment.
Among other noteworthy features are the creation of a United States
citizenship as distinct from a state citizenship, the limitation of the
powers of the states; and the provision that the Constitution, the acts
of Congress, and the treaties are "the supreme law of the land."
%180. Constitution submitted to the People.%--The convention ended
its work, and such members as were willing signed the Constitution on
September 17, 1787. Washington, as president of the convention, then
sent the Constitution to the Continental Congress sitting at New York
and asked it to transmit copies to the states for ratification. This was
done, and during the next few months the legislatures of most of the
states called on the people to elect delegates to conventions which
should accept or reject the Constitution.
%181. Ratification by the States.%--In many of these conventions
great objection was made because the new plan of federal government was
so unlike the Articles of Confederation, and certain changes were
insisted on. The only states that accepted it just as it was framed were
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, and Maryland.
Massachusetts, South Carolina, New Hampshire, New York, and Virginia
ratified with amendments. (For dates, see p. 176.)
%182. "The New Roof."%--The Constitution provided that when nine
states had ratified, it should go into effect "between the states so
ratifying." While it was under discussion the Federalists, as the
friends of the Constitution were named, had called it "the New Roof,"
which was going to cover the states and protect them from political
storms. They now represented it as completed and supported by eleven
pillars or states. Two states, Rhode Island and North Carolina, had not
ratified, and so were not under the New Roof, and were not members of
the new Union. Eleven states having approved, nothing remained but to
fix the particular day on which the electors of President should be
chosen, and the time and place for the meeting of the new Congress. This
the Continental Congress did in September, 1788, by ordering that the
electors should be chosen on the first Wednesday in January, 1789, that
they should meet and vote for President on the first Wednesday in
February, and that the new Congress should meet at New York on the first
Wednesday in March, which happened to be the fourth day of the month.
Later, Congress by law fixed March 4 as the day on which the terms of
the Presidents begin and end.[1]
[Footnote 1: The question is often asked, When did the Constitution go
into force? Article VII. says, "The ratification of the conventions of
nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this
Constitution between the states so ratifying the same." New Hampshire,
the ninth state, ratified June 21, 1788, and on that day, therefore, the
constitution was "established" between the nine.]
%183. How Presidents were elected%.--It must not be supposed that our
first presidents were elected just as presidents are now. In our time
electors are everywhere chosen by popular vote. In 1788 there was no
uniformity. In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia the people had a
complete, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire a partial, choice. In
Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia the
electors were appointed by the legislatures. In New York the two
branches of the legislature quarreled, and no electors were chosen.
As the Constitution required that the electors should vote by ballot for
two persons, such as had been appointed met at their state capitals on
the first Wednesday in February, 1789, made lists of the persons voted
for, and sent them signed and certified under seal to the president of
the Senate. But when March 4, 1789, came, there was no Senate. Less than
a majority of that body had arrived in New York, so no business could be
done. When at length the Senate secured a majority, the House was still
without one, and remained so till April. Then, in the presence of the
House and Senate, the votes on the lists were counted, and it was found
that every elector had given one of his votes for George Washington, who
was thus elected President. No separate ballot was then required for
Vice President. Each elector merely wrote on his ballot the names of two
men. He who received the greatest number of votes, if, in the words of
the Constitution, "such number be a majority of the whole number of
electors appointed," was elected President. He who received the next
highest, even if less than a majority, was elected Vice President. In
1789 this man was John Adams of Massachusetts.
[Illustration: Federal Hall, New York[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an old print made in 1797.]
[Illustration: G Washington]
%184. The First Inauguration.%--As soon as Washington received the
news of his election, he left Mount Vernon and started for New York. His
journey was one continuous triumphal march. The population of every town
through which he passed turned out to meet him. Men, women, and children
stood for hours by the roadside waiting for him to go by. At New York
his reception was most imposing, and there, on April 30, 1789, standing
on the balcony in front of Federal Hall (p. 171), he took the oath of
office in the presence of Congress and a great multitude of people that
filled the streets, and crowded the windows, and sat on the roofs of the
neighboring houses.[1]
[Footnote 1: Full accounts of the inauguration of Washington may be
found in _Harper's Magazine_, and also in the _Century Magazine_, for
April, 1889.]
SUMMARY
1. When independence was about decided on, Congress appointed a
committee to draft a general plan of federal government.
2. This plan, called Articles of Confederation, Maryland absolutely
refused to ratify till the states claiming land west of the Alleghany
Mountains ceded their claims to Congress.
3. New York and Virginia having ceded their claims, Maryland ratified in
March, 1781.
4. These cessions were followed by others from Massachusetts and
Connecticut; and from them all, Congress formed the public domain to be
sold to pay the debt.
5. The sale of this land led to the land ordinance of 1785 and the
ordinance of 1787, for the government of the domain and the new
political organism called the territory.
6. The defects of the Articles made revision necessary, and produced
such distress that two conventions were called to consider the state of
the country. That at Annapolis attempted nothing. That at Philadelphia
framed the Constitution of the United States.
7. The Constitution was then passed to the Continental Congress, which
sent it to the legislatures of the states to be by them referred to
conventions elected by the people for acceptance or rejection.
8. Eleven having ratified, Congress in 1788 fixed a day in 1789 (which
happened to be March 4), when the First Congress under the Constitution
was to assemble.
9. The date of the first presidential election was also fixed, and
George Washington was made our first President.
/1776. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode
The Colonies adopt | Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Constitutions and --| Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North
become States. | Carolina, South Carolina.
|1777. New York, Georgia.
\1780. Massachusetts.
/Framed by Congress 1776-1777.
|Adopted by the states 1777-1781.
Articles of |In force March 1, 1781.
Confederation --|Kind of government.
|Defects. Result of the defects.
|Trade convention at Annapolis.
\Constitutional convention called.
/Proceedings of the convention.
|The three compromises.
Constitution of |Sources of the Constitution.
the United States.-|Original features.
|Derived features.
| Ratification by the states.
\The Constitution in force.
/Land claims of seven states.
|Demands for the surrender of \
|the western territory. |
The Territories. --|The cessions by the states. |--The Public
|Ordinance of 1785. | Domain.
|Ordinance of 1787. |
\Territorial government created./
The President. /Manner of electing.
\Inauguration of Washington.
The Congress. /Organization of the First
\under the Constitution.
/The Supreme Court
The Judiciary. --|The Circuit Court
\The District Court
/Secretary of State
The Secretaries. --|Secretary of Treasury
|Secretary of War
|The Attorney-general.
\Origin of the "Cabinet."
CHAPTER XIV
OUR COUNTRY IN 1790
%185. The States.%--What sort of a country, and what sort of people,
was Washington thus chosen to rule over? When, he was elected, the Union
was composed of eleven states, for neither Rhode Island nor North
Carolina had accepted the Constitution.[1] Vermont had never been a
member of the Union, because the Continental Congress would not
recognize her as a state.
[Footnote 1: The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below:
1. Delaware Dec. 7, 1787
2. Pennsylvania Dec. 12, 1787
3. New Jersey Dec. 18, 1787
4. Georgia Jan. 2, 1788
5. Connecticut Jan. 9, 1788
6. Massachusetts Feb. 7, 1788
7. Maryland April 28, 1788
8. South Carolina May 23, 1788
9. New Hampshire June 21, 1788
10. Virginia June 26, 1788
11. New York July 26, 1788
12. North Carolina Nov. 21, 1789
13. Rhode Island May 29, 1790]
[Illustration: The %UNITED STATES% March 4, 1789]
%186. Only a Part inhabited.%--Three fourths of our country was then
uninhabited by white men, and almost all the people lived near the
seaboard. Had a line been drawn along what was then the frontier, it
would (as the map on p. 177 shows) have run along the shore of Maine,
across New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, then south to the
Mohawk valley, then down the Hudson River, and southwestward across
Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then south along the Blue Ridge Mountains to
the Altamaha River in Georgia, and by it to the sea. How many people
lived here was never known till 1790. The Constitution of the United
States requires that the people shall be counted once in each ten years,
in order that it may be determined how many representatives each state
shall have in the House of Representatives; and for this purpose
Congress ordered the first census to be taken in 1790. It then appeared
that, excluding Indians, there were living in the eleven United States
3,380,000 human beings, or less than half the number of people who now
live in the single state of New York.
%187. How the People were scattered.%--More were in the Southern than
in the Eastern States. Virginia, then the most populous, contained one
fifth. Pennsylvania had a ninth, while in the five states of Maryland,
Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia were almost one half of the
English-speaking people of the United States. These were the planting
states, and, populous as they were, they had but two cities--Baltimore
and Charleston. Savannah, Wilmington, Alexandria, Norfolk, and
Richmond were small towns. Not one had 8000 people in it. Indeed, the
inhabitants of the six largest cities of the country (Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, and Salem) taken together were
but 131,000.
[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES FIRST
CENSUS, 1790/]
[Illustration: Boston in 1790[1]]
[Footnote 1: From the _Massachusetts Magazine_, November, 1790.]
%188. The Cities.%--And how different these cities were from those of
our day! What a strange world Washington would find himself in if he
could come back and walk along the streets of the great city which now
stands on the banks of the Potomac and bears his name! He never in his
life saw a flagstone sidewalk, nor an asphalted street, nor a pane of
glass six feet square. He never heard a factory whistle; he never saw a
building ten stories high, nor an elevator, nor a gas jet, nor an
electric light; he never saw a hot-air furnace, nor entered a room
warmed by steam.
In the windows of shop after shop would be scores of articles familiar
enough to us, but so unknown to him that he could not even name them. He
never saw a sewing machine, nor a revolver, nor a rubber coat, nor a
rubber shoe, nor a steel pen, nor a piece of blotting paper, nor an
envelope, nor a postage stamp, nor a typewriter. He never struck a
match, nor sent a telegram, nor spoke through a telephone, nor touched
an electric bell. He never saw a railroad, though he had seen a rude
form of steamboat. He never saw a horse car, nor an omnibus, nor a
trolley car, nor a ferryboat. Fancy him boarding a street car to take a
ride. He would probably pay his fare with a "nickel." But the "nickel"
is a coin he never saw. Fancy him trying to understand the
advertisements that would meet his eye as he took his seat! Fancy him
staring from the window at a fence bright with theatrical posters, or at
a man rushing by on a bicycle!
[Illustration: Philadelphia in 1800 (Arch Street)]
%189. Newspapers and Magazines.%--A boy enters the car with half a
dozen daily newspapers all printed in the same city. In Washington's day
there were but four daily papers in the United States! On the news
counter of a hotel, one sees twenty illustrated papers, and fifty
monthly magazines. In his day there was no illustrated paper, no
scientific periodical, no trade journal, and no such illustrated
magazines as _Harper's, Scribner's_, the _Century, St. Nicholas_. All
the printing done in the country was done on presses worked by hand.
To-day the Hoe octuple press can print 96,000 eight-page newspapers an
hour. To print this number on the hand press shown in the picture would
have taken so long that when the last newspaper was printed the first
would have been three months old!
[Illustration: A Franklin press]
[Illustration: A fire bucket [1]]
[Footnote 1: Original in the Pennsylvania Historical Society.]
%190. The Fire Service.%--the ambulance, the steam fire engine, the
hose cart, the hook and ladder company, the police patrol, the police
officer on the street corner, the letter carrier gathering the mail, the
district messenger boy, the express company, the delivery wagon of the
stores, have all come in since Washington died. In his day the law
required every householder in the city to be a fireman. His name might
not appear on the rolls of any of the fire companies, he might not help
to drag through the streets the lumbering tank which served as a fire
engine, but he must have in his hall, or beneath the stairs, or hanging
up behind his shop door, at least one leathern bucket inscribed with his
name, and a huge bag of canvas or of duck. Then, if he were aroused at
the dead of night by the cry of fire and the clanging of every church
bell in the town, he seized this bucket and his bag, and, while his
wife put a lighted candle in the window to illuminate the street, set
off for the fire. The smoke or the flame was his guide, for the custom
of indicating the place by a number of strokes on a bell had not yet
come in. When at last he arrived at the scene he found there no idle
spectators. Every one was busy. Some hurried into the building and
filled their sacks with such movable goods as came nearest to hand. Some
joined the line that stretched away to the water, and helped to pass the
full buckets to those who stood by the fire. Others took posts in a
second line, down which the empty buckets were hastened to the pump. The
house would often be half consumed when the shouting made known that the
engine had come. It was merely a pump mounted over a tank. Into the tank
the water from the buckets was poured, and it was pumped thence by the
efforts of a dozen men.
[Illustration: Fire engine of 1800[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an old cut]
%191. The Post Office.%--Washington sees a great wagon or a white
trolley car marked United States Mail, and on inquiry is told that the
money now spent by the government each year for the support of the post
offices would have more than paid the national debt when he was
President. He hears with amazement that there are now 75,000 post
offices, and recalls that in 1790 there were but seventy-five. He picks
up from the sidewalk a piece of paper with a little pink something on
the corner. He is told that the portrait on it is his own, that it is a
postage stamp, that it costs two cents, and will carry a letter to San
Francisco, a city he never heard of, and, if the person to whom it is
addressed cannot be found, will bring the letter back to the sender, a
distance of over 5000 miles. In his day a letter was a single sheet of
paper, no matter how large or small, and the postage on it was
determined not by weight, but by distance, and might be anything from
six to twenty-five cents.
At that time postage must always be prepaid, and as the post office must
support itself, letters were not sent from the country towns till enough
postage had been deposited at the post office to pay the expense of
sending them. Newspapers and books could not be sent by mail.
%192. The Franchise.%--Taking the country through, the condition of
the people was by no means so happy as ours. They had government of the
people, but it was not by the people nor for the people. Everywhere the
right to vote and to hold office was greatly restricted. The voter must
have an estate worth a certain sum, or a specified number of acres, or
an annual income of so many dollars. But the right to vote did not carry
with it the right to hold office. More property was required for office
holding than for voting, and there were besides certain religious
restrictions. In New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia, the governor, the members of the legislature, and
the chief officers of state must be Protestants. In Massachusetts and
Maryland they must be Christians. All these restrictions were long since
swept away.
%193. Cruel Punishments.%--The humane spirit of our times was largely
wanting. The debtor was cast into prison. The pauper might be sold to
the highest bidder. The criminal was dragged out into open day and
flogged or branded. From ten to nineteen crimes were punishable with
death. No such thing as a lunatic asylum, or a deaf and dumb asylum, or
a penitentiary existed. The prisons were dreadful places. Men came out
of them worse than they went in.
%194. The Condition of the Laborer; of the well to do.%--Men worked
harder and for less money then than now. A regular working day was from
sunrise to sunset, with an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner.
Sometimes the laborer was fed and lodged by the employer, in which case
he was paid four dollars a month in winter and six in summer. Two
shillings (30 cents) a day for unskilled labor was thought high wages.
[Illustration: %Washington's flute and Miss Custis's harpsichord at
Mount Vernon%]
Even the houses of the well to do were much less comfortable places than
are such abodes in our day. There were no furnaces, no gas, no
bathrooms, no plumbing. Wood was the universal fuel. Coal from Virginia
and Rhode Island was little used. All cooking was done in "Dutch ovens,"
or in "out ovens," or in the enormous fireplaces to be found in every
household. Wood fuel made sooty chimneys, and sooty chimneys took fire.
In every city, therefore, were men known as "sweeps," whose business it
was to clean chimneys.
[Illustration: %Earthenware stove--Moravian%]
[Illustration: %Dutch oven%[1]]
[Footnote 1: The bread, or meat, to be baked was put into the pot, and
hot coals were heaped all around the sides and on the lid, which had a
rim to keep the coals on it.]
[Illustration: a foot stove]
Washington was a farmer, yet he never in his life beheld a tomato, nor a
cauliflower, nor an eggplant, nor a horserake, nor a drill, nor a reaper
and binder, nor a threshing machine, nor a barbed wire fence.
[Illustration: Kitchen in Washington's headquarters in Morristown,
N.J.[1]]
[Footnote 1: This shows a fine specimen of the old-fashioned fireplace.
Notice the andirons, the bellows, the lamp, the spinning wheel, the old
Dutch clock, and the kettles hanging on the crane over the logs.]
[Illustration: A plow used in 1776]
His land was plowed with a wooden plow partly shod with iron. His seed
was sown by hand; his hay was cut with scythes; his grain was reaped
with sickles, and threshed on the barn floor with flails in the hands of
his slaves.
%195. Negro Slavery.%--No living person under thirty years of age has
ever seen a negro slave in our country. When Washington was President
there were 700,000 slaves. When the Revolution opened, slavery was
permitted by law in every colony. But the feeling against it in the
North had always been strong, and when the war ended, the people began
the work of abolition. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire the
constitutions of the states declared that "all men are born free and
equal," and that "all men are born equally free," and this was
understood to abolish slavery. In Pennsylvania, slavery was abolished in
1780. In Rhode Island and Connecticut gradual abolition laws were passed
which provided that all children born of slave parents after a certain
day should be free at a certain age, and that their children should
never be slaves. The Ordinance of 1787 had prohibited slavery in the
Northwest Territory. But in 1790 New York, New Jersey, Delaware,
Maryland, and all the states south of these were slave states. (See map
on the next page.)
Though slaves were men and women and children, they had no civil rights
whatever. They could be bought and sold, leased, seized for a debt,
bequeathed by will, given away. If they made anything, or found
anything, or earned anything, it belonged not to them, but to their
owners. They were property just as oxen or horses were in the North. It
was unlawful to teach them to read or write. They were not allowed to
give evidence against a white man, nor to travel in bands of more than
seven unless a white man was with them, nor to quit the plantation
without leave.
If a planter provided coarse food, coarse clothes, and a rude shelter
for his slaves, if he did not work them more than fifteen hours out of
twenty-four in summer, nor more than fourteen in winter, and if he gave
them every Sunday to themselves, he did quite as much for their comfort
as the law required he should.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE AREA OF %SLAVE AND FREE SOIL IN 1790%]
If the slave committed any offense, if he stole anything, or refused to
work, or ran away, it was lawful to load him with irons, to confine him
for any length of time in a cell, and to beat him and whip him till the
blood ran in streams from the wounds, and he grew too weak to stand.
Old advertisements are still extant in which runaway blacks are
described by the scars left upon their bodies by the lash. When such
lashings were not prescribed by the court, they were commonly given
under the eye of the overseer, or inflicted by the owner himself.
%196. Six Days from Boston to New York.%--Our country was small when
Washington was President. The people lived on the seaboard. The towns
and cities were not actually very far apart; but the means of travel
were so poor, the time consumed in going even fifty miles was so great,
that the country was practically immense in extent. Now we step into a
beautifully fitted car, heated by steam, lighted by electricity, richly
carpeted, and provided with most comfortable seats and beds, and are
whirled across the continent from Philadelphia to San Francisco in less
time than it took Washington to go from New York to Boston.
[Illustration: Old mill at West Falmouth, Mass.[1]]
[Footnote 1: In many parts of the country where there was no water
power, as Cape Cod, Long Island, Nantucket, etc., flour was ground at
windmills. The windmill shown in the picture was built in 1787, and is
still in use.]
If you had lived in 1791 and started, say, from Boston, to go to
Philadelphia to see the President and the great city where independence
had been declared, you would very likely have begun by making your will,
and bidding good-by to your friends. You would then have gone down to
the office of the proprietor of the stagecoach, and secured a seat to
New York. As the coach left but twice a week, you would have waited
till the day came and would then have presented yourself, at three
o'clock in the morning, at the tavern whence the coach started.
The stagecoach was little better than a huge covered box mounted on
springs. It had neither glass windows, nor door, nor steps, nor closed
sides. The roof was upheld by ten posts which rose from the body of the
vehicle, and the body was commonly breast high. From the top were hung
curtains of leather, to be rolled up when the day was fine, and let down
and buttoned when it was rainy and cold. Within were four seats. Without
was the baggage. Fourteen pounds of luggage were allowed to be carried
free by each passenger. But if your portmanteau or your
brass-nail-studded hair trunk weighed more, you would have paid for it
at the rate per mile that you paid for yourself. Under no circumstances,
however, would you be permitted to take on the journey more than 150
pounds. When the baggage had all been weighed and strapped on the coach,
when the horses had been attached, and the waybill, containing the names
of the passengers, made out, the passengers would clamber to their seats
through the front of the stage and sit down with their faces toward the
driver's seat.
One pair of horses usually dragged the coach eighteen miles, when a
fresh pair would be attached, and if all went well, you would be put
down about ten at night at some wayside inn or tavern after a journey of
forty miles. Cramped and weary, you would eat a frugal supper and hurry
off to bed with a notice from the landlord to be ready to start at three
the next morning. Then, no matter if it rained or snowed, you would be
forced to make ready by the dim light of a horn lantern, unknown now,
for another ride of eighteen hours.
If no mishaps occurred, if the coach was not upset by the ruts, if storm
or flood did not delay you at Springfield, where the road met the
Connecticut, or at Stratford, where it met the Housatonic, each of which
had to be crossed on clumsy flatboats, the stage would roll into New
York at the end of the sixth day.
%197. Two Days from New York to Philadelphia.%--And here a serious
delay was almost certain to occur, for even in the best of weather it
was no easy matter to cross the Hudson to New Jersey. When the wind was
high and the water rough, or the river full of ice, the boldest did not
dare to risk a crossing. Once over the river, you would again go on by
coach, and at the end of two more days would reach Philadelphia. In our
time one can travel in eight hours the entire distance between Boston
and Philadelphia, a distance which Washington could not have traversed
in less than eight days.
[Illustration: Stagecoach and inn[1]]
[Footnote 1: From a print of 1798.]
%198. The Roads and the Inns.%--The newspapers and the travelers of
those days complained bitterly of the roads and the inns. On the best
roads the ruts were deep, the descents precipitous, and the passengers
were often forced to get out and help the driver pull the wheels out of
the mud. Breakdowns and upsets were of everyday occurrence. Yet bad as
the roads were, the travel was so considerable that very often the inns
and taverns even in the large cities could not lodge all who applied
unless they slept five or six in a room.
%199. A Steamboat on the Delaware.%--Rude as this means of travel
seems to us, the men of 1790 were quite satisfied with it, and
absolutely refused to make use of a better one. Had you been in
Philadelphia during the summer of 1790 and taken up a copy of _The
Pennsylvania Packet_, you could not have failed to notice this
advertisement of the first successful steamboat in the world:
%The Steam-Boat
Is now ready to take Passengers, and is intended to
set off from Arch Street Ferry in Philadelphia every
_Monday, Wednesday_ and _Friday_, for _Burlington,
Bristol, Bordentown_ and _Trenton_, to return on _Tuesdays,
Thursdays_ and _Saturdays_--Price for Passengers, 2/6 to
Burlington and Bristol, 3/9 to Bordentown, 5/. to
Trenton. June 14. tu.th ftf.%
This boat was the invention of John Fitch, and from June to September
ran up and down the Delaware; but so few people went on it that he could
not pay expenses, and the boat was withdrawn.
%200. To the Great West.%--From Philadelphia went out one of the
great highways to what was then the far West, but to what we now know as
the valley of the Ohio. The traveler who to-day makes the journey from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg is whisked on a railroad car through an
endless succession of cities and villages and rich farms, and by great
factories and mills and iron works, which in the days of Washington had
no existence. He makes the journey easily between sunrise and sunset. In
1790 he could not have made it in twelve days.
%201. Towns beyond the Alleghany Mountains.%--Though the country
between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi had been closed to
settlement from 1763 to 1776 by the King's proclamation, it was by no
means without population in 1790. At Detroit and Kaskaskia and Vincennes
were old French settlements, made long before France was driven out of
Louisiana. But there were others of later date. The hardy frontiersman
of 1763 cared no more for the King's proclamation than he did for the
bark of the wolf at his cabin door. The ink with which the document was
written had not dried before emigrants from Maryland and Virginia and
Pennsylvania were hurrying into the valley of the Monongahela.
In 1769 William Bean crossed the mountains from North Carolina, and,
building a cabin on the banks of Watauga Creek, began the settlement of
Tennessee. James Robertson and a host of others followed in 1770, and
soon the valleys of the Clinch and the Holston were dotted with cabins.
In 1769 Daniel Boone, one of the grandest figures in frontier history,
began his exploits in what is now Kentucky, and before 1777 Boonesboro,
Harrodsburg, and Lexington were founded.
[Illustration: %Model of Fitch's steamboat%[l]]
[Footnote 1: Now in the National Museum, Washington.]
%202. State of Franklin.%--Before the Revolution closed, emigrants
under James Robertson and John Donelson planted Nashville and half a
dozen other settlements on the Cumberland, in middle Tennessee. After
the Revolution ended, so many settlers were in eastern Tennessee that
they tried to make a new state. North Carolina, following the example
of her Northern sisters, ceded to Congress her claim to what is now
Tennessee in 1784. But the people on the Watauga no sooner heard, of it
than under the lead of John Sevier they organized the state of Franklin,
whereupon North Carolina repealed the act of cession and absorbed the
new state by making the Franklin officials her officials for the
district of Tennessee. In 1789 she again ceded the district, and in May
of that year Tennessee became part of the public domain.
%203. Squatters in Ohio.%--The cession to Congress of the land north
of the Ohio led to an emigration from Virginia and Kentucky to what is
now the state of Ohio. As this territory was to be sold to pay the
national debt, Congress was forced to order the squatters away, and when
they refused to go, sent troops to burn their cabins, destroy their
crops, and drive them across the Ohio. The lawful settlement of the
territory began after the Ohio and Scioto companies bought their lands
in 1787, and John C. Symmes purchased his in 1788.
%204. Pittsburg in 1790.%--At Pittsburg, then the greatest town in
the United States west of the Alleghany Mountains, were some 200 houses,
mostly of logs, and 2000 people, a newspaper, and a few rude
manufactories. The life of the town was its river trade. Pittsburg was
the place where emigrants "fitted out" for the West. A settler intending
to go down the Ohio valley with his family and his goods would lay in a
stock of powder and ball, buy flour and ham enough to last him for a
month, and secure two rude structures which passed under the name
of boats.
[Illustration: %The first millstones and salt kettle in Ohio%]
%205. A Trip down the Ohio in 1790.%--In the long keel boat he would
put his wife, his children, and such travelers as had been waiting at
Pittsburg for a chance to go down the river. In the flatboat would be
his cattle or his stores. Two dangers beset the voyager on the Ohio. His
boat might become entangled in the branches of the trees that overhung
the river, or be fired into by the Indians who lurked in the woods. The
cabin of the keel boat, therefore, was low, that it might glide under
the trees, and the roof and sides were made as nearly bullet-proof as
possible. The whole craft was steered by a huge oar mounted on a pivot
at the stern.[1]
[Footnote 1: See the boats in the pictures on next page.]
[Illustration: Map of Ohio]
%206. Towns along the Ohio.%--As the emigrant in such an ark floated
down the river, he would come first to Wheeling, a town of fifty log
cabins, and then to Marietta, a town planted in Ohio in 1788 by settlers
sent by the Ohio Company. Below Marietta were Belpre and Gallipolis, a
settlement made by Frenchmen brought there by the Scioto Company. Yet
farther down, on the Kentucky side, were Limestone (now Maysville) and
Newport, opposite which some settlers were founding the city of
Cincinnati. Once past Cincinnati, all was unbroken wilderness till one
reached Louisville in Kentucky, beyond which few emigrants had yet
ventured to go.
[Illustration: %Cincinnati in 1802 (Fort Washington)%]
%207. Cotton Planting.%--The South, in 1790, was on the eve of a
great industrial revolution. The products of the states south of
Virginia had been tar, pitch, resin, lumber, rice, and indigo. But in
the years following the peace the indigo plants had been destroyed year
after year by an insect. As the plant was not a native of our country,
but was brought from the West Indies, it became necessary either to
import more seed plants, or to raise some other staple. Many chose the
latter course, and about 1787 began to grow cotton.
[Illustration: %Farmers' Castle (Belpre) in 1791%]
%208. Whitney and the Cotton Gin.%--The experiment succeeded, but a
serious difficulty arose. The cotton plant has pods which when ripe
split open and show a white woolly substance attached to seeds. Before
the cotton could be used, these seeds must be picked out, and as the
labor of cleaning was very great, only a small quantity could be sent to
market. It happened, however, that a young man from Massachusetts, named
Eli Whitney, was then living in Georgia, and he, seeing the need of a
machine to clean cotton, invented the cotton gin.[1] Till then, a negro
slave could not clean two pounds of cotton in a day. With the gin the
same slave in the same time could remove the seeds from a hundred
pounds. This solved the difficulty, and gave to the United States
another staple even greater in value than tobacco. In 1792 one hundred
and ninety-two thousand pounds of cotton were exported to Europe; in
1795, after the gin was invented, six million pounds were sent out of
the country. In 1894 no less than 4275 million pounds were raised and
either consumed or exported. Of all the marvelous inventions of our
countrymen, this produced the very greatest consequences. It made
cotton planting profitable; it brought immense wealth to the people of
the South every year; it covered New England with cotton mills; and by
making slave labor profitable it did more than anything else to fasten
slavery on the United States for seventy years, and finally to bring on
the Civil War, the most terrible struggle of modern times.
[Footnote 1: The word "gin" is a contraction of "engine."]
[Illustration: %The cotton gin% _A_. Whitney's original gin. _B_. A
later form.]
SUMMARY
1. When Washington was inaugurated, the United States consisted of
eleven states, with a population of about 3,380,000.
2. These people lived not far from the Atlantic coast. Few cities
existed; not one had 50,000 inhabitants. Even the largest was without
many conveniences which we consider necessaries.
3. Travel was slow and difficult, and though a steamboat had been
invented and used, it was too far ahead of the times to succeed.
4. West of the Alleghany Mountains a few settlements had been made
between 1763 and 1783. But it was after 1783, when streams of emigrants
poured over the mountains, that settlement really began.
6. In the South cotton was just beginning to be cultivated; there all
labor was done by slaves. In the North slavery was dying out, and in
five of the states had been abolished.
State of the Country in 1790
- _On the Seaboard._
The population. {Number.
{Distribution.
{Movement west.
The cities {Size.
{Absence of many conveniences known to us.
{Newspapers and magazines.
Communication between states. {Bad roads. Slow travel.
{The post offices.
{The stagecoaches. The inns.
{The early steamboat.
- _In the Ohio Valley._ {Population. Squatters.
{Pittsburg in 1790.
{A trip down the Ohio.
{Towns in the valley.
- _In the South._ {Slavery.
{Cotton planting.
{Whitney and the cotton gin.
CHAPTER XV
THE RISE OF PARTIES
%209. Organizing the New Government.%--he President having been
inaugurated, and the new government fairly established, it became the
duty of Congress to enact such laws as were needed immediately. The
first act passed by Congress in 1789 was therefore a tariff act laying
duties on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the United States.
Customhouses were then established and customs districts marked out, and
ports of entry and ports of delivery designated; provision was made for
the support of lighthouses and beacons; the Ordinance of 1787 for the
government of the territories was slightly changed and reenacted; the
departments of State, War, and Treasury were established; and a call was
made on the Secretary of the Treasury to report a plan for payment of
the old Continental debt.
%210. The United States Courts.%--The Constitution declares that the
judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court
and such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain
and establish. Acting under this power, Congress made provision for a
Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief Justice and five Associate
Justices, and marked out the United States into circuits and districts.
The circuits were three in number. In the first were the Eastern States;
in the second, the Middle States; and in the third, the Southern States.
To each were assigned two Justices of the Supreme Court, whose business
it was to go to some city in each state in the circuit, and there, with
the district judge of that state, hold a circuit court. The district
courts were thirteen in number, one being established in each state.[1]
Washington appointed John Jay the first Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court.
[Footnote 1: For later changes, see Andrews's _Manual of the
Constitution,_ p. 183.]
%211. The Secretaries.%--During the management of affairs by the
Continental Congress three great executive departments had gradually
grown up and been placed in charge of three men, called the
"Superintendent of Finance," the "Secretary of the United States for the
Department of Foreign Affairs," and the "Secretary of War." These the
Constitution recognized in the expression "principal officer in each of
the executive departments." Congress by law now continued the
departments and placed them in charge of a Secretary of the Treasury, a
Secretary of State, and a Secretary of War. Washington filled the
offices promptly, making Alexander Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury,
Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, and General Henry Knox Secretary
of War.
%212. The "Cabinet."%--It has long been the custom for the President
to gather his secretaries about him on certain days in each week for the
purpose of discussing public measures. To these gatherings has been
given the name "Cabinet meetings," while the secretaries have come to be
called "Cabinet officers." The Constitution, however, never intended to
give the President a body of advisers. Indeed, a proposition to provide
him with a council was voted down in the constitutional convention. But
Washington at once began to consult the Chief Justice, the Vice
President, his three secretaries, and the Attorney-general on matters of
importance. At first he asked their opinions individually and in
writing, but toward the end of his first term he convened a general
meeting of the heads of departments, and by so doing set a custom out of
which, in time, the "Cabinet" has grown.
%213. The Origin of the National Debt.%--As soon as Hamilton was made
Secretary of the Treasury, it became his duty, in accordance with an
order from Congress, to prepare a plan for the payment of the debts
contracted by the Continental Congress. When that body was unexpectedly
called on, in May, 1775, to conduct the war, it had nothing with which
to pay expenses, and was forced to use all sorts of means to
raise money.
[Illustrations: Continental money]
%214. Paper Money.%--The first resort was the issue, during 1775 and
1776, of six batches of Continental "bills of credit," amounting in all
to $36,000,000. These "bills" were rudely engraved bits of paper,
stating on their face that "This bill entitles the bearer to receive
---- Spanish milled dollars, or the value thereof in gold or silver."
They were issued in sums of various denominations, from one sixth of a
dollar up, and were to be redeemed by the states. The amount assigned
each state for redemption was in proportion to the supposed number of
its inhabitants.
%215. Loan-office Certificates.%--In 1776 Congress tried another
means. It opened a loan office in each state and called on patriotic
people to come forward and loan it money, receiving in return pieces of
paper called "loan-office certificates." Interest was to be paid on
these; but after a while Congress, having no money with which to pay
interest, was forced to resort to another form of paper, called
"interest indents."
%216. The Congress Lottery.%--The loan office having failed to bring
in as much money as was needed, Congress, toward the close of 1776, was
driven to seek some other way, and resorted to a lottery. A certain
number of tickets were sold, after which a drawing took place, and all
who drew prizes were given certificates payable at the end of
five years.
%217. More Bills of Credit.%--But the sale of tickets went off so
slowly that Congress had to go back to the issue of bills of credit. In
1777, therefore, the printing press was again put to work, and issues
were made in rapid succession, till more than $200,000,000 in
Continental paper were in circulation.
%218. The "New Tenor".%--Then the Continental bills ceased to
circulate, and in March, 1780, Congress called in the old money and
offered to exchange it for a new issue, giving one dollar of the new
paper money, or "new tenor," for forty dollars of the old. But the
attempt to restore credit by such means was a failure, and by the end of
the year 1781 all paper money ceased to circulate.
%219. Certificates.%--Long before this time officials had been forced
to pay debts contracted in the name of Congress with other kinds of
paper, called certificates, and known as treasury, commissary,
quartermaster, marine, and hospital certificates, according to the
department issuing them. To these must be added the "final settlements,"
or certificates given to the soldiers at the end of the war in payment
of their services.
%220. Foreign Debt.%--Besides the debt thus contracted at home,
Congress had borrowed a great sum in Europe.
%221. The National Debt in 1790.%--Thus the debt contracted by the
Continental Congress consisted of two parts. 1. The foreign debt, due to
France, Holland, and Spain, and amounting, Hamilton found, to
$11,700,000. 2. The domestic or home debt, of $42,000,000. But the
states had also fallen into debt because of their exertions in the war.
Just how great the state debts were could not be determined, but they
were estimated to be $21,500,000.
%222. Assumption and Funding.%--For the redemption of this debt
Hamilton prepared two measures,--the funding, or, as we should say, the
bonding, of the foreign and Continental debt, and the assuming and
funding of the state debts. This was done, and Congress ordered stock
bearing interest to be issued in exchange for the old debts, and so
established our national debt, which in 1790 amounted to $75,000,000.
%223. The National Capital.%--Funding the state debts was strongly
opposed by many congressmen, and was not carried till a bargain was made
by which it was agreed that if enough members from Virginia and
Pennsylvania would support the measure to secure its passage through the
House of Representatives, the national government should be removed from
New York to Philadelphia for ten years, and after that to a city to be
built on the Potomac. This was faithfully carried out, and in the summer
of 1790 the government offices were removed to Philadelphia, where they
remained till the summer of 1800, when they were removed to Washington
in the District of Columbia.
%224. The Bank of the United States.%--The troublesome questions of
funding and assumption thus disposed of, Congress called on Hamilton for
a report on the further support of public credit, and when it met in the
session of 1790-91, received a plan for a great National Bank, with a
capital of $10,000,000. The United States was to raise $2,000,000; the
rest was to be subscribed for by the people. The bank was to keep the
public revenues, was to aid the government in making payments all over
the country. To do this, power was given to the parent bank (which must
be at Philadelphia) to establish branches in the chief cities and towns,
and to issue bank bills which should be received all over the United
States for public lands, taxes, duties, postage, and in payment of any
debt due the government. Great opposition was made; but the charter was
granted for twenty years, and in 1791 the Bank of the United States
began business.
The effect of these two measures, funding the debt and establishing a
bank, was immediate. Confidence and credit were restored. Money that the
people had long been hiding away was brought out and invested in all
sorts of new enterprises, such as banks, canal companies, manufacturing
companies, and turnpike companies.
[Illustration: The first Bank of the United States]
%225. "Federalists" and "Republicans."%--When the Constitution was
before the people for acceptance or rejection in 1788, they were divided
into two bodies. Those who wanted a strong and vigorous federal
government, who wanted Congress to have plenty of power to regulate
trade, pay the debts of the country, and raise revenue, supported the
Constitution just as it was and were called "Federalists."
Others, who wanted the old Articles of Confederation preserved and
amended so as to give Congress a revenue and only a little more power,
opposed the Constitution and wanted it altered. To please these
"Anti-Federalists," as they were a large part of the people, Congress,
in 1789, drew up twelve amendments to the Constitution and sent them to
the states.
With the ratification of ten of these amendments, opposition to the
Constitution ceased. But as soon as Congress began to pass laws,
difference of opinion as to the expediency of them, and even as to the
right of Congress to pass them, divided the people again into two
parties, and sent a good many Federalists into the Anti-Federalist
party.
A very large number of men, for instance, opposed the funding of the
Continental Congress debt at its face value, because the people never
had taken a bill at the value expressed on its face, but at a very much
less value; some opposed the assumption of the state debts, because
Congress, they said, had power to pay the debt of the United States, but
not state debts; others opposed the National Bank because the
Constitution did not give Congress express power in so many words to
charter a bank. Others complained that the interest on the national debt
and the great salary of the President ($25,000 a year) and the pay of
Congressmen ($6 a day) and the hundreds of tax collectors made taxes too
heavy. They complained again that men in office showed an undemocratic
fondness for aristocratic customs. The President, they said, was too
exclusive, and owned too fine a coach. The Justices of the Supreme Court
must have black silk gowns, with red, white, and blue scarfs. The Senate
for some years to come held its daily session in secret; not even a
newspaper reporter was allowed to be present.
As early as 1792 there were thus a very great number of men in all parts
of the country who were much opposed to the measures of Congress and the
President, and who accused the Federalists of wishing to set up a
monarchy. A great national debt, they said, a funding system, a national
bank, and heavy internal taxes are all monarchical institutions, and if
you have the institutions, it will not be long before you have the
monarchy. They began therefore in 1792 to organize for election
purposes, and as they were opposed to a monarchy, they called themselves
"Republicans." [1] Their great leaders were Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
John Randolph, and Albert Gallatin.
[Footnote 1: This party was the forerunner of the present Democratic
party.]
%226. The Whisky Rebellion, 1794.%--One of the taxes to which the
Republicans objected, that on whisky, led to the first rebellion against
the government of the United States. In those days, 1791, the farmers
living in the region around Pittsburg could not send grain or flour down
the Ohio and the Mississippi, because Spain had shut the Mississippi to
navigation by Americans. They could not send their flour over the
mountains to Philadelphia or Baltimore, because it cost more to haul it
there than it would sell for. Instead, therefore, of making flour, they
grew rye and made whisky on their own farms. This found a ready sale.
Now, when the United States collectors attempted to collect the whisky
tax, the farmers of western Pennsylvania drove them away. An appeal was
then made to the courts; but when the marshal came to make arrests he,
too, was driven away. Under the Articles of Confederation this would
have been submitted to. But the Constitution and the acts of Congress
were now "the supreme law of the land," and Washington in his oath of
office had sworn to see them executed. To accomplish this, he used the
power given him by an act of Congress, and called out 12,900 militia
from the neighboring states and marched them to Pittsburg. Then the
people yielded. Two of the leaders were tried and convicted of treason;
but Washington pardoned them.
The insurrection or rebellion was a small affair. But the principles at
stake were great. It was now shown that the Constitution and the laws
must be obeyed; that it was treason to resist them by force, and that if
necessary the people would, at the call of the President, turn out and
put down rebellion by force of arms.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United
States_, Vol. II., pp. 189-204; Findley's _History of the Insurrection
in Pennsylvania_.]
SUMMARY
1. As soon as Washington was inaugurated, Congress proceeded to organize
the new government.
2. The Supreme Court and circuit and district courts were established.
3. The departments of State, War, and Treasury were formed.
4. Twelve amendments to the Constitution were proposed.
5. Three financial measures were adopted:
A. A tariff act was passed.
B. The debts of the states were assumed, and, with that of the
Continental Congress, funded.
C. A national bank was chartered.
6. The price of funding was the ultimate location of the national
capital on the Potomac.
7. The first census was taken in 1790.
8. The result of the financial measures of Congress was the rise of the
Republican party (the forerunner of the present Democratic party).
THE ORIGIN OF POLITICAL PARTIES
/--------------------------------------------------------------------\
Funding the
Continental Debt.
/------------\
/ Money borrowed in \ Shall it be \
Foreign debt. | France, Holland, | funded at | Yes ------+
\ and Spain. / face value? / |
|
/ Bills of credit. \ |
| Loan-office | |
| certificates. | Shall it be \ |
| Lottery | funded at | Yes ----+ |
Domestic debt. | certificates. | face value / | |
| Interest indents. | or market \ | |
| New tenor. | value? / Yes --+ | |
| Certificates of | | | |
| officials. | | | |
\ Final settlements. / | | | \
| | | |
Assumption of / Yes ---------------------------------------+-+ |[1]
state debts. \ No ----------------------------------+ | | |
| | | /
Establishment / Yes -----------------------------------------+
of a national | | |
bank. \ No ------------------------------------+ |
| | |
Internal revenue / Too heavy ----------------------- \ | | |
taxes. \ | | | |
| | | |
/ / President too | | | |
| | exclusive. | | | | \
| Aristocratic | Secret sessions | | | | |
Administration | customs. | of the Senate. |--+-+-+ |[2]
not democratic. | | Gowns of the | |
| \ justices. | /
| Monarchial / Great debt. |
| institutions. | National bank. |
\ \ Heavy taxes. /
\ / Leaders.
[1]---| Federalists | Washington.
/ | Adams.
\ Hamilton.
\ / Leaders.
| | Jefferson.
[2]---| Republicans | Madison.
| | Monroe.
| | Randolph.
/ \ Gallatin.
CHAPTER XVI
THE STRUGGLE FOR NEUTRALITY
%227. Trouble with Great Britain and France.%--From the congressional
election in 1792 we may date the beginning of organized political
parties in the United States. They sprang from differences of opinion as
to domestic matters. But on a sudden in 1793 Federalists and Republicans
became divided on questions of foreign affairs.
Ever since 1789 France had been in a state of revolution, and at last
(in 1792) the people established the French Republic, cut off the heads
of the King and Queen (in 1793), and declared war on England and sent a
minister, Genet, to the United States. At that time we had no treaty
with Great Britain except the treaty of peace. With France, however, we
had two treaties,--one of alliance, and one of amity and commerce. The
treaty of alliance bound us to guarantee to France "the possessions of
the crown of France in America," by which were meant the French West
Indian Islands. When Washington heard that war had been declared by
France, and that a French minister was on his way to America, he became
alarmed lest this minister should call on him to make good the guarantee
by sending a fleet to the Indies. On consulting his secretaries, they
advised him that the guarantee applied only when France was attacked,
and not when she was the attacking party. The President thereupon issued
a proclamation of neutrality; that is, declared that the United States
would not side with either party in the war, but would treat both alike.
%228. Sympathy for France; the French Craze.%--Then began a long
struggle for neutrality. The Republicans were very angry at Washington
and denounced him violently. France, they said, had been our old friend;
Great Britain had been our old enemy. We had a treaty with France; we
had none with Great Britain. To treat her on the same footing with
France was therefore a piece of base ingratitude to France. A wave of
sympathy for France swept over the country. The French dress, customs,
manners, came into use. Republicans ceased to address each other as Mr.
Smith, Mr. Jones, Sir, or "Your Honor," and used Citizen Smith and
Citizen Jones. The French tricolor with the red liberty cap was hung up
in taverns and coffeehouses, which were the clubhouses of that day.
Every French victory was made the occasion of a "civic feast," while the
anniversaries of the fall of the Bastile and of the founding of the
Republic were kept in every great city.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read McMaster's _History of the People of the United
States_, Vol. II., pp. 89-96; _Harpers Magazine_, April, 1897.]
%229. England seizes our Ships; the Rule of 1756%.--To preserve
neutrality in the face of such a public sentiment was hard enough; but
Great Britain made it more difficult yet. When war was declared, France
opened the ports of her West Indian Islands and invited neutral nations
to trade with them. This she did because she knew that the British navy
could drive her merchantmen from the sea, and that all trade between
herself and her colonies must be carried on in the ships of
neutral nations.
Now the merchants of the United States had never been allowed to trade
with the French Indies to an unlimited extent. The moment, therefore,
they were allowed to do so, they gladly began to trade, and during the
summer of 1793 hundreds of ships went to the islands. There were at that
time four questions of dispute between us and Great Britain:
1. Great Britain held that she might seize any kind of food going to a
French port in our ships. We held that only military stores might be
so seized.
2. Great Britain held that when a port had been declared to be
blockaded, a ship bound to that port might be seized even on the high
seas. We held that no port was blockaded unless there was a fleet
actually stationed at it to prevent ships from entering or leaving it.
3. Great Britain held that our ships might be captured if they had
French goods on board. We held that "free ships made free goods," and
that our ships were not subject to capture, no matter whose goods they
had on board.
4. Great Britain in 1756 had adopted a rule that no neutral should have
in time of war a trade she did not have in time of peace.
The United States was now enjoying a trade in time of war she did not
have in time of peace, and Great Britain began to enforce her rule.
British ships were ordered to stop American vessels going to or coming
from the French West Indies, and if they contained provisions, to seize
them. This was done, and in the autumn of 1793 great numbers of American
ships were captured.
%230. Our Sailors impressed.%--All this was bad enough and excited
the people against our old enemy, who made matters a thousand times
worse by a course of action to which we could not possibly submit. She
claimed the right to stop any of our ships on the sea, send an officer
on board, force the captain to muster the crew on the deck, and then
search for British subjects. If one was found, he was seized and carried
away. If none were found, and the British ships wanted men, native-born
Americans were taken off under the pretext that one could not tell an
American from an English sailor. Our fathers could stand a great deal,
but this was too much, and a cry for war went up from all parts of
the country.
But Washington did not want war, and took two measures to prevent it.
He persuaded Congress to lay an embargo for thirty days, that is, forbid
all ships to leave our ports, and induced the Senate to let him send
John Jay, the Chief Justice, to London to make a treaty of amity and
commerce with Great Britain.
%231. Jay's Treaty, 1794.%--In this mission Jay succeeded; and though
the treaty was far from what Washington wanted, it was the best that
could be had, and he approved it.[1] At this the Republicans grew
furious. They burned copies of the treaty at mass meetings and hung Jay
in effigy. Yet the treaty had some good features. By it the King agreed
to withdraw his troops from Oswego and Detroit and Mackinaw, which
really belonged to us but were still occupied by the English. By it our
merchants were allowed for the first time to trade with the British West
Indies, and some compensation was made for the damage done by the
capture of ships in the West Indies.
[Footnote 1: The Senate ratified this treaty in the summer of 1795.]
%232. Treaty with Spain.%--About the same time (October, 1795) we
made our first treaty with Spain, and induced her to accept the
thirty-first degree of latitude as the south boundary of our country,
and to consent to open the Mississippi to trade. As Spain owned both
banks at the mouth of the river, she claimed that American ships had no
right to go in or out without her consent, and so prevented the people
of Kentucky and Tennessee from trading in foreign markets. She now
agreed that they might float their produce to New Orleans and pay a
small duty, and then ship it wherever they pleased.
%233. The Election of Adams and Jefferson, 1796%.--Washington had
been reelected President in 1792, but he was now tired of office, and in
September, 1796, issued his "Farewell Address," in which he declined to
be the candidate for a third presidential term. In those days there were
no national conventions to nominate candidates, yet it was well
understood that John Adams, the Vice President, was the candidate of the
Federalists, and Thomas Jefferson, of the Republicans. When the votes
were counted in Congress, it was found that Adams had 71 electoral
votes, and Jefferson 68; so they became President and Vice President.
[Illustration: John Adams]
%234. Trouble with France.%--Adams was inaugurated on March 4, 1797,
and three days later heard that C. C. Pinckney, our minister to the
French Republic, had been driven from France. Pinckney had been sent to
France by Washington in 1796, but the French Directory (as the five men
who then governed France were called) had taken great offense at Jay's
treaty: first because it was favorable to Great Britain, and in the
second place because it put an end for the present to all hope of war
between her and the United States. The Directory, therefore, refused to
receive Pinckney until the French grievances were redressed.
The President was very angry at the insult, and summoned Congress to
meet and take such action as, said he, "shall convince France and the
whole world that we are not a degraded people humiliated under a
colonial spirit of fear and sense of inferiority." But the Republicans
declared so vigorously that if a special mission were sent to France all
would be made right, that Adams yielded, and sent John Marshall and
Elbridge Gerry to join Pinckney as envoys extraordinary. On reaching
Paris, three men acting as agents for the Directory met them, and
declared that before they could be received as ministers they must do
three things:
1. Apologize for Adams's denunciation of the conduct of France.
2. Pay each Director $50,000.
3. Pay tribute to France.
When the President reported this demand to Congress, the names of the
three French agents were suppressed, and instead they were called Mr. X,
Mr. Y, Mr. Z. This gave the mission the nickname "X, Y, Z mission."
%235. "Millions for Defense, not a Cent for Tribute."%--As the
newspapers published these dispatches, a roar of indignation, in which
the Federalists and Republicans alike joined, went up from the whole
country. "Millions for defense, not a cent for tribute," became the
watchword of the hour. Opposition in Congress ceased, and preparations
were at once made for war. The French treaties were suspended. The Navy
Department was created, and a Secretary of the Navy appointed. Frigates
were ordered to be built, money was voted for arms, a provisional army
was formed, and Washington was again made commander in chief, with the
rank of lieutenant general. The young men associated for defense, the
people in the seaports built frigates or sloops of war, and gave their
services to erect forts and earthworks. Every French flag was now pulled
down from the coffeehouses, and the black cockade of our own
Revolutionary days was once more worn as the badge of patriotism. Then
was written, by Joseph Hopkinson of Philadelphia,[1] and sung for the
first time, our national song _Hail, Columbia!_
[Footnote 1: The music to which we sing _Hail, Columbia!_ was called
_The President's March_, and was played for the first time when the
people of Trenton were welcoming Washington on his way to be inaugurated
President in 1789. For an account of the trouble with France read
McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_, Vol. II, pp.
207-416, 427-476.]
%236. The Alien and Sedition Acts.%--Carried away by the excitement
of the hour, the Federalists now passed two most unwise laws. Many of
the active leaders and very many of the members of the Republican party
were men born abroad and naturalized in this country. Generally they
were Irishmen or Frenchmen, and as such had good reason to hate England,
and therefore hated the Federalists, who they believed were too friendly
to her. To prevent such becoming voters, and so taking an active part in
politics, the Federalists passed a new naturalization law, which forbade
any foreigner to become an American citizen until he had lived fourteen
years in our country. Lest this should not be enough to keep them
quiet, a second law was passed by which the President had power for two
years to send any alien (any of these men who for fourteen years could
not become citizens) out of the country whenever he thought it proper.
This law Adams never used.
For five years past the Republican newspapers had been abusing
Washington, Adams, the acts of Congress, the members of Congress, and
the whole foreign policy of the Federalists. The Federalist newspapers,
of course, had retaliated and had been just as abusive of the
Republicans. But as the Federalists now had the power, they determined
to punish the Republicans for their abuse, and passed the Sedition Act.
This provided that any man who acted seditiously (that is, interfered
with the execution of a law of Congress) or spoke or wrote seditiously
(that is, abused the President, or Congress, or any member of the
Federal government) should be tried, and if found guilty, be fined and
imprisoned. This law was used, and used vigorously, and Republican
editors all over the country were fined and sometimes imprisoned.[1]
[Footnote 1: The Alien and Sedition acts are in Preston's _Documents_,
pp. 277-282.]
%237. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.%--The passage of these Alien
and Sedition laws greatly excited the Republicans, and led Jefferson to
use his influence to have them condemned by the states. For this purpose
he wrote a set of resolutions and sent them to a friend in Kentucky who
was to try to have the legislature adopt them.[2] Jefferson next asked
Madison to write a like set of resolutions for the Virginia legislature
to adopt. Madison became so interested that he gave up his seat in
Congress and entered the Virginia legislature, and in December, 1798,
induced it to adopt what have since been known as the Virginia
Resolutions of 1798.
[Footnote 2: Kentucky had been admitted to the Union in 1792 (see p.
213).]
Meantime the legislature of Kentucky, November, 1798, had adopted the
resolutions of Jefferson.[3]
[Footnote 3: E. D. Warfield's _Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions_. The
Resolutions are printed in Preston's _Documents_, pp. 283-298;
_Jefferson's Works_, Vol. IX., p. 494.]
Both sets declare 1. That the Constitution of the United States is a
compact or contract. 2. That to this contract each state is a party;
that is, the united states are equal partners in a great political firm.
So far they agree; but at this point they differ. The Kentucky
Resolutions assert that when any question arises as to the right of
Congress to pass any law, _each state_ may decide this question for
itself and apply any remedy it likes. The Virginia Resolutions declare
that _the states_ may judge and apply the remedy.
Both declared that the Alien and Sedition laws were wholly
unconstitutional. Seven states answered by declaring that the laws were
constitutional, whereupon Kentucky in 1799 framed another set of
resolutions in which she said that when a state thought a law to be
illegal she had the right to nullify it; that is, forbid her citizens to
obey it. This doctrine of nullification, as we shall see, afterwards
became of very serious importance.[1]
[Footnote 1: The answers of the states are printed in Elliot's
_Debates_, Vol. IV., pp. 532-539.]
%238. The Naval War with France.%--Meantime war opened with France.
The Navy Department was created in April, 1798, and before the year
ended, a gallant little navy of thirty-four frigates, corvettes, and gun
sloops of war had been collected and sent with a host of privateers to
scour the sea around the French West Indies, destroy French commerce,
and capture French ships of war.[1] One of our frigates, the
_Constellation_, Captain Thomas Truxton in command, captured the French
frigate _Insurgente_, after a gallant fight. On another occasion,
Truxton, in the _Constellation_, fought the _Vengeance_ and would have
taken her, but the Frenchman, finding he was getting much the worst of
it, spread his sails and fled. Yet another of our frigates, the
_Boston_, took the _Berceau_, whose flag is now in the Naval Institute
Building at Annapolis. In six months the little American twelve-gun
schooner _Enterprise_ took eight French privateers, and recaptured and
set free four American merchantmen. These and a hundred other actions
just as gallant made good the patriotic words of John Adams, "that we
are not a degraded people humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and
sense of inferiority." So impressed was France with this fact that the
war had scarcely begun when the Directory meekly sent word that if
another set of ministers came they would be received. They ought to have
been told that they must send a mission to us. But Adams in this respect
was weak, and in 1800, the Chief Justice, Oliver Ellsworth, William R.
Davie, and William Vans Murray were sent to Paris. The Directory had
then fallen from power, Napoleon was ruling France as First Consul, and
with him in September, 1800, a convention was concluded.
[Footnote 2: For an account of this war, read Maclay's _History of the
United States Navy_, Vol. I., pp. 155-213.]
%239. The Stamp Tax; the Direct Tax and Fries's Rebellion,
1798.%--The heavy cost of the preparations for war made new taxes
necessary. Two of these, a stamp tax very similar to the famous one of
1765, and a direct tax, greatly excited the people. The direct tax was
the first of its kind in our history, and was laid on lands, houses, and
negro slaves. In certain counties of eastern Pennsylvania, where the
population was chiefly German, the purpose of the tax was not
understood, and the people refused to make returns of the value of their
farms and houses. When the assessors came to measure the houses and
count the windows as a means of determining the value of the property,
the people drove them off. For this some of the leaders were arrested.
But the people under John Fries rose and rescued the prisoners. At this
stage President Adams called out the militia, and marched it against the
rebels. They yielded. But Fries was tried for treason, was sentenced to
be hanged, and was then pardoned. Thus a second time was it proved that
the people of the United States were determined to support the
Constitution and the laws and put down rebellion.
%240. Washington the National Capital.%--In accordance with the
bargain made in 1790, Washington selected a site for the Federal city
on both banks of the Potomac. This great square tract of land was ten
miles long on each side, and was given to the government partly by
Maryland and partly by Virginia.[1] It was called the District of
Columbia, and in it were marked out the streets of Washington city.
[Footnote 1: In 1846 so much of the District as had belonged to Virginia
was given back to her.]
Though all possible haste was made, the President's house was still
unfinished, the Capitol but partly built, and the streets nothing but
roads cut through the woods, when, in the summer of 1800, the
secretaries, the clerks, the books and papers of the government left
Philadelphia for Washington. With the opening of the new century, and
the occupation of the new Capitol, came a new President, and a new party
in control of the government.
[Illustration: The National Capitol as it was in 1825]
%241. The Election of Thomas Jefferson.%--The year 1800 was a
presidential year, and though no formal nomination was made, a caucus of
Republican leaders selected as candidates Thomas Jefferson for
President, and Aaron Burr for Vice President. A caucus or meeting of
Federalist leaders selected John Adams and C. C. Pinckney as their
candidates. When the returns were all in, it appeared that Jefferson had
received seventy-three votes, Burr seventy-three votes, Adams sixty-five
votes, Pinckney sixty-four votes. The Constitution provided that the man
who received the highest number of electoral votes, if the choice of
the majority of the electors, should be President. But as Jefferson and
Burr had each seventy-three, neither had the highest, and neither was
President. The duty of electing a President then devolved on the House
of Representatives, which after a long and bitter struggle elected
Jefferson President; Burr then became Vice President. To prevent such a
contest ever arising again, the twelfth amendment was added to the
Constitution. This provides for a separate ballot for Vice President.
March 4, 1801, Jefferson, escorted by the militia of Georgetown and
Alexandria, walked from his lodgings to the Senate chamber and took the
oath of office.{1} He and his party had been placed in power in order to
make certain reforms, and this, when Congress met in the winter of 1801,
they began to do.
[Footnote 1: For a fine description of Jefferson's personality, read
Henry Adams's _History of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 185-191. As
to the story of Jefferson riding alone to the Capitol and tying his
horse to the fence, see Adams's _History_, Vol. I, pp. 196-199;
McMaster's _History_, Vol. II., pp. 533-534.]
%242. The Annual Message.%--While Washington and Adams were
presidents, it was their custom when Congress met each year to go in
state to the House of Representatives, and in the presence of the House
and Senate read a speech. The two branches of Congress would then
separate and appoint committees to answer the President's speech, and
when the answers were ready, each would march through the streets to the
President's house, where the Vice President or the Speaker would read
the answer to the President. When Congress met in 1801, Jefferson
dropped this custom and sent a written message to both houses--a
practice which every President since that time has followed.
%243. Republican Reforms.%--True to their promises, the Republicans
now proceeded to repeal the hated laws of the Federalists. They sold all
the ships of the navy except thirteen, they ordered prosecutions under
the Sedition law to be stopped, they repealed all the internal taxes
laid by the Federalists, they cut down the army to 2500 men, and
reduced the expenses of government to $3,700,000 per year--a sum which
would not now pay the cost of running the government for three days. As
the annual revenue collected at the customhouses, the post office, and
from the sale of land was $10,800,000, the treasury had some $7,000,000
of surplus each year. This was used to pay the national debt, which fell
from $88,000,000 in 1801 to $45,000,000 in 1812, and this in spite of
the purchase of Louisiana.
[Illustration: Thomas Jefferson]
%244. The Purchase of Louisiana.%--When France was driven out of
America, it will be remembered, she gave to Spain all of Louisiana west
of the Mississippi River, together with a large tract on the east bank,
at the river's mouth. Spain then owned Louisiana till 1800, when by a
secret treaty she gave the province back to France.[1]
[Footnote 1: Adams's _History of the United States, _Vol. I., pp.
352-376.]
For a while this treaty was really kept secret; but in April, 1802, news
that Louisiana had been given to France and that Napoleon was going to
send out troops to hold it, reached this country and produced two
consequences. In the first place, it led the Spanish intendant (as the
man who had charge of all commercial matters was called) to withdraw the
"right of deposit" at New Orleans, and so prevent citizens of the United
States sending their produce out of the Mississippi River. In the second
place, this act of the intendant excited the rage of all the settlers in
the valley from Pittsburg to Natchez, and made them demand the instant
seizure of New Orleans by American troops. To prevent this, Jefferson
obtained the consent of Congress to make an effort to buy New Orleans
and West Florida, and sent Monroe to aid our minister in France in
making the purchase.
When the offer was made, Napoleon was about going to war with England,
and, wanting money very much, he in turn offered to sell the whole
province to the United States--an offer that was gladly accepted. The
price paid was $15,000,000, and in December, 1803, Louisiana was
formally delivered to us.
%245. Louisiana.%--Concerning this splendid domain hardly anything
was known. No boundaries were given to it either on the north, or on the
west, or on the south. What the country was like nobody could tell.[1]
Where the source of the Mississippi was no white man knew. In the time
of La Salle a priest named Hennepin had gone up to the spot where
Minneapolis now stands, and had seen the Falls of St. Anthony (p. 63).
But the country above the falls was still unknown.
[Footnote 1: In a description of it which Jefferson sent to Congress in
1804, he actually stated that "there exists about one thousand miles up
the Missouri, and not far from that river, a salt mountain. This
mountain is said to be one hundred and eighty miles long and forty-five
in width, composed of solid rock salt, without any trees or even
shrubs on it."]
%246. Explorations of Lewis and Clark.%--That this great region ought
to be explored had been a favorite idea of Jefferson for twenty years
past, and he had tried to persuade learned men and learned societies to
organize an expedition to cross the continent. Failing in this, he
turned to Congress, which in 1803 (before the purchase of Louisiana)
voted a sum of money for sending an exploring party from the mouth of
the Missouri to the Pacific. The party was in charge of Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark. Early in May, 1804, they left St. Louis, then a
frontier town of log cabins, and worked their way up the Missouri River
to a spot not far from the present city of Bismarck, North Dakota, where
they passed the winter with the Indians. Resuming their journey in the
spring of 1805, they followed the Missouri to its source in the
mountains, after crossing which they came to the Clear Water River; and
down this they went to the Columbia, which carried them to a spot where,
late in November, 1805, they "saw the waves like small mountains rolling
out in the sea." They were on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. After
spending the winter at the mouth of the Columbia, the party made its way
back to St. Louis in 1806.
%247. The Oregon Country.%--Lewis and Clark were not the first of our
countrymen to see the Columbia River. In 1792 a Boston ship captain
named Gray was trading with the Pacific coast Indians. He was collecting
furs to take to China and exchange for tea to be carried to Boston, and
while so engaged he discovered the mouth of a great river, which he
entered, and named the Columbia in honor of his ship. By right of this
discovery by Gray the United States was entitled to all the country
drained by the Columbia River. By the exploration of this country by
Lewis and Clark our title was made stronger still, and it was finally
perfected a few years later when the trappers and settlers went over the
Rocky Mountains and occupied the Oregon country.[1]
[Footnote 1: Barrows's _Oregon_; McMaster's _History_, Vol. II., pp.
633-635.]
[Illustration: Mouth of the Columbia River]
%248. Pike explores the Southwest.%--While Lewis and Clark were
making their way up the Missouri, Zebulon Pike was sent to find the
source of the Mississippi, which he thought he did in the winter of
1805-06. In this he was mistaken, but supposing his work done, he was
dispatched on another expedition in 1806. Traveling up the Missouri
River to the Osage, and up the Osage nearly to its source, he struck
across Kansas to the Arkansas River, which he followed to its head
waters, wandering in the neighborhood of that fine mountain which in
honor of him bears the name of Pikes Peak. Then he crossed the mountains
and began a search for the Red River. The march was a terrible one. It
was winter; the cold was intense. The snow lay waist deep on the plains.
Often the little band was without food for two days at a time. But Pike
pushed on, in spite of hunger, cold, and suffering, and at last saw,
through a gap in the mountains, the waters of the Rio Grande. Believing
that it was the Red, he hurried to its banks, only to be seized by the
Spaniards (for he was on Spanish soil), who carried him a prisoner to
Santa Fe, from which city he and his men wandered back to the United
States by way of Mexico and Texas.
[Illustration: %EXPLORATION OF THE SOUTHWEST% BY ZEBULON M. PIKE
%1806-1807%]
%249. Astoria founded.%--The immediate effect of these explorations
was greatly to stimulate the fur trade. One great fur trader, John Jacob
Astor of New York, now founded the Pacific Fur Company and made
preparations to establish a line of posts from the upper Missouri to the
Columbia, and along it to the Pacific, and supply them from St. Louis by
way of the Missouri, or from the mouth of the Columbia, where in 1811 a
little trading post was begun and named Astoria. This completed our
claim to the Oregon country. Gray had discovered the river; Lewis and
Clark had explored the territory drained by the river; the Pacific Fur
Company planted the first lasting settlement.
SUMMARY
1. In 1793 France made war on Great Britain. The United States was bound
by the treaty of alliance of 1778 to "guarantee" the French possessions
in America.
2. This treaty, and the coming of the French minister, forced Washington
to declare the United States neutral in the war.
3. His proclamation of neutrality was resented by the Republicans, who
now became sympathizers with France. The Federalists, who were strongest
in the commercial states, became the anti-French or English party.
4. When France declared war on England, she opened her ports in the West
Indies to the merchant trade of the United States.
5. England held that we should not have a trade with France when at war,
for we had not had it when France was at peace. This was an application
of the "Rule of 1756." In 1793-1794, therefore, England began to seize
our ships coming from the French ports.
6. This so excited the Republicans that they attempted to force the
country into war with England.
7. To prevent war, Washington sent Jay to London, where he made our
first commercial treaty with Great Britain.
8. This offended the French Directory, who refused to receive our new
minister and sent him out of France.
9. War with France now seemed likely. But Adams, in the interest of
peace, sent three commissioners to Paris to make a new treaty. They were
met with demands for tribute and came home.
10. The greatest excitement now prevailed in the country. The Navy
Department was created, a navy was built by the people, and a
provisional army raised. The old French treaties were suspended, and a
naval war began.
11. The popular anger against the Republicans (the French party) gave
the Federalists control of Congress, whereupon they passed the Alien and
Sedition laws.
12. Against these Virginia and Kentucky protested in a set of
resolutions.
13. In the election of 1800 the Federalists were defeated, and the
Republicans secured control of the Federal government.
14. In 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to France, whereupon the Spanish
official at New Orleans shut the Mississippi to American commerce.
15. The whole West cried out against this and demanded war. But
Jefferson offered to buy West Florida from France. Napoleon thereupon
offered to sell all Louisiana, and we bought it (1803).
16. The new territory as yet had no boundaries; but it was explored in
the northwest by Lewis and Clark, and in the southwest by Pike.
17. The discovery of the Columbia River in 1792, the exploration of the
country by Lewis and Clark, and the founding of Astoria established our
claim to the Oregon country.
FRANCE A REPUBLIC, 1792.
------------------------
|
______________|________________
DECLARES WAR ON ENGLAND (1793).
|
______________________|___________________________
| |
| |
Opens her ports |
to neutral trade. Sends a minister to the United States.
------------------------- ---------------------------------------
1. England asserts rule This brought up the questions:
of 1756. 1. Shall he be received?--Yes.
2. Seizes our ships in 2. Is the old alliance applicable
the West Indies. to offensive war?--No.
3. Impresses our sailors. 3. Shall the United States
| be neutral?--Yes.
|
| Washington issues a proclamation
| of neutrality.
| |
--------------------------------
|
Struggle for neutrality.
-----------------------------------------------
| |
Republicans oppose it. Federalists support it.
Attempt retaliation on Great Britain. Lay embargo.
Are aided by Federalists. Prepare for war.
| |
-----------------------------------------------
|
Washington sends Jay to England. Jay's treaty made (1794).
|
-------------------------------------------
| |
1. France takes offense. Violently opposed by the Republicans.
2. Rejects Pinckney.
3. Republicans demand a special mission.
4. Adams yields and sends X, Y, Z mission.
5. Insulted by Directory.
6. Excitement at home leads to
|
_________________________|__________________________________
Establishment of Navy Department. Creation of a navy.
Provisional army. Washington, Lt. Gen.
Naval war with France.
Alien and Sedition laws. Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
Increased taxation. The direct tax.
Fries's rebellion.
Defeat of Adams and election of Jefferson (1800).
|
----------------------------
Introduces reforms.
Annual message.
Buys Louisiana.
Exploration of the Northwest.
CHAPTER XVII
STRUGGLE FOR "FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS"
%250. France and Great Britain renew the War.%--The war between
France and Great Britain, which had been the cause of the sale of
Louisiana to us, began in May, 1803. The United States became again a
neutral power, but, as in 1793, was soon once more involved in the
disputes of France.
Towards the end of the previous war, Great Britain had so changed her
ideas of neutrality that the merchants of the United States, according
to her rules,
1. Could trade directly between a port of the United States and the
ports of the French West Indies.
2. Could trade directly between the United States and ports in France or
Europe.
3. But could not trade directly between a French West India island and
France, or a Spanish West India island and Spain, or a Dutch colony
and Holland.
To evade this last restriction, by combining the voyages allowed in
numbers 1 and 2, was easy. A merchant had but to load his ship at New
York or Philadelphia, go to some port in the French West Indies, take on
a new cargo and bring it to Savannah, enter it at the customhouse and
pay the import duties. This voyage was covered by number 1. He could
then, without disturbing his cargo in the least, clear his vessel for
France, and get back from the collector of customs all the duty he had
paid except three per cent. He was now exporting goods from the United
States and was protected by number 2. This was called "the broken
voyage," and by using it thousands of shipowners were enabled to carry
goods back and forth between France and her colonies, by merely stopping
a few hours at an American port to clear for Europe. So universal was
this practice that in 1804 the customs revenue rose from $16,000,000 to
$20,000,000.
In May, 1805, however, the British High Court of Admiralty decided that
goods which started from the French colonies in American ships and were
on their way to France could be captured even if they had been landed
and reshipped in the United States. The moment that decision was made,
the old trouble began again. British frigates were stationed off the
ports of New York and Hampton Roads, and vessels coming in and going out
were stopped, searched, and their sailors impressed. Before 1805 ended,
116 of our ships had been seized and 1000 of our sailors impressed.
%251. Orders in Council, 1806.%--In 1806 matters grew worse. Napoleon
was master of Europe, and in order to injure Great Britain he cut off
her trade with the continent. For this she retaliated by issuing, in
May, 1806, an Order in Council, which declared the whole coast of
Europe, from Brest to the mouth of the river Elbe, to be blockaded. This
was a mere "paper blockade"; that is, no fleets were off the coast to
keep neutrals from running into the blockaded ports. Yet American
vessels were captured at sea because they were going to those ports.
%252. The Berlin Decree.%--Napoleon waited to retaliate till
November, 1806, when he issued the Berlin Decree,[1] declaring the
British Islands to be blockaded.
[Footnote 1: So called because he was at Berlin when he issued it.]
%253. Orders in Council, 1807.%--Great Britain felt that every time
Napoleon struck at her she must strike back at him, and in January,
1807, a new Order in Council forbade neutrals to trade from one European
port to another, if both were in the possession of France or her allies.
Finding it had no effect, she followed it up with another Order in
Council in November, 1807, which declared that every port on the face
of the earth from which for any reason British ships were excluded was
shut to neutrals, unless they first stopped at some British port and
obtained a license to trade.
%254. The Milan Decree, 1807.%--It was now Napoleon's turn to strike,
which he did in December, 1807, by issuing the Milan Decree.[1]
Thenceforth any ship that submitted to be searched by British cruisers
or took out a British license, or entered any port from which French
ships were excluded, was to be captured wherever found.
[Footnote 1: So called because he was in Milan at the time, and dated it
from that city.]
As a result of this series of French Decrees and British Orders in
Council,[2] the English took 194 of our ships, and the French almost
as many.
[Footnote 2: On the Orders in Council and French Decrees, read Adams's
_History of the United States_, Vol. III., Chap. 16; Vol. IV., Chaps. 4,
5, and 6; McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 219-223;
249-250; 272-274.]
%255. Jefferson's Policy; Non-importation Act.%--The policy by which
Jefferson proposed to meet this emergency consisted of three parts:
1. Lay up the frigates and defend our coast and harbors by a number of
small, swift-sailing craft, each carrying one gun in the stern. In time
of peace they were to be hauled up under sheds. In time of war they were
to be shoved into the water and manned by volunteers. Between 1806 and
1812, 176 of these gunboats were built.
2. Make a new treaty with Great Britain, because that made by Jay in
1794 was to expire in 1806. Under the instructions of Jefferson,
therefore, Monroe and Pinckney signed a new treaty in December, 1806.
But it said nothing about the impressment of our sailors, or about the
right of our ships to go where they pleased, and was so bad in general
that Jefferson would not even send it to the Senate.[3]
[Footnote 3: No treaty can become a law unless approved by the President
and two thirds of the Senate.]
3. The third part of his policy consisted in doing what we should call
"boycotting." He wanted a law which would forbid the importation into
the United States of any article made, grown, or produced in Great
Britain or any of her colonies. Congress accordingly, in April, 1806,
passed what was called a "Non-importation Act," which prohibited not the
importation of every sort of British goods, wares, and merchandise, but
only a few which the people could make in this country; as paper, cards,
leather goods, etc. This was to go into force at the President's
pleasure.
%256. The Chesapeake and the Leopard.%--Such an attempt to punish
Great Britain by cutting off a part of her trade was useless, and only
made her more insolent than before. Indeed, just a week after the
President signed the non-importation bill, as one of our coasting
vessels was entering the harbor of New York, a British vessel, wishing
to stop and search her, fired a shot which struck the helmsman and
killed him at the wheel.
About a year later, June, 1807, an attack more outrageous still was made
on our frigate _Chesapeake_. She was on her way from Washington to the
Mediterranean, and was still in sight of land when a British vessel, the
_Leopard_, hailed and stopped her and sent an officer on board with a
demand for the delivery of deserters from the English navy. The captain
of the _Chesapeake_ refused, the officer returned, and the _Leopard_
opened fire. To return the fire was impossible, for only a few of the
guns of the _Chesapeake_ were mounted. At last one was discharged, and
as by that time three men had been killed and eighteen wounded,
Commander Barron of the _Chesapeake_ surrendered. Four men then were
taken from her deck. Three were Americans. One was an Englishman, and he
was hanged for desertion.[1]
[Footnote 1: Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Vol. I., pp. 305-308;
McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 255-259.]
%257. The Long Embargo.%--The attack on the _Chesapeake_ ought to
have been followed by war. But Jefferson merely demanded reparation from
Great Britain, and when Congress met in December, 1807, asked for an
embargo. The request was granted, and merchant vessels in all the ports
of the United States were forbidden to sail for a foreign country till
the President saw fit to suspend the law. The restriction was so
sweeping and the damage done to American farmers, merchants, and
shipowners so great, that the people began to evade it at once. They
would send their vessels to New Orleans and stop at the West Indies on
the way. They would send their flour, pork, rice, and lumber to St.
Marys in Georgia and smuggle it over the river to Florida, or take it to
the islands near Eastport in Maine and then smuggle it into New
Brunswick. Because of this, more stringent embargo laws were passed, and
finally, in 1809, a "Force Act," to compel obedience. But smuggling went
on so openly that there was nothing to do but use troops or lift the
embargo. In February, 1809, accordingly, the embargo laws, after
fourteen months' duration, were repealed. Instead of them the
Republicans enacted a Non-intercourse law which allowed the people to
trade with all nations except England and France.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 279-338; Adams's
_History_, Vol. IV., Chaps. 7, 11, 13, 15.]
%258. Jefferson refuses a Third Term.%--During 1806, the states of
New Jersey, Vermont,[2] Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland,
Georgia, and North Carolina invited Jefferson to be President a third
time. For a while he made no reply, but in December, 1807, he declined,
and gave this reason: "That I should lay down my charge at a proper
period is as much a duty as to have borne it faithfully. If some
termination to the services of the Chief Magistrate be not fixed by the
Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years,
will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that
degenerates into an inheritance." This wise answer was heartily
approved by the people all over the country, and with Washington's
similar action established a custom which has been generally followed
ever since.
[Footnote 2: Vermont was admitted into the Union in 1791 (p. 243).]
As Jefferson would not accept a third term, a caucus of Republican
members of Congress met one evening at the Capitol in Washington and
nominated James Madison and George Clinton. The Federalists held no
caucus, but agreed among themselves to support C.C. Pinckney and Rufus
King. Madison and Clinton were easily elected, and were sworn into
office March 4, 1809.
[Illustration: James Madison]
%259. The Macon Bill; Non-intercourse.%--When Congress met in 1809
one more effort was made to force France and England to respect our
rights on the sea. Non-importation had failed. The embargo had failed.
Non-intercourse had failed, and now in desperation they passed a law
which at the time was called the "Macon Bill," from the member of
Congress who introduced it. This restored trade with France and England,
but declared that if either would withdraw its Decrees or Orders, the
United States would stop all trade with the other.
%260. Trickery of Napoleon.%--And now Napoleon came forward and
assured the American minister that the Berlin and Milan Decrees should
be recalled on November 1, 1810, provided the United States would
restore non-intercourse with England. To this Madison agreed, and on
November 1, 1810, issued a proclamation saying that unless Great Britain
should, before February 1, 1811, recall her Orders in Council, trade
with her should stop on that day. Great Britain did not recall her
Orders, and in February, 1811, we once more ceased to trade with her.
Trade with France was resumed on November 1, 1810, and of course a great
fleet of merchants went off to French ports. But they were no sooner
there than the villainy of Napoleon was revealed, for on December 25, by
general order, every American ship in the French ports was seized, and
$10,000,000 worth of American property was confiscated. He had not
recalled his Decrees, but pretended to do so in order to get the
American goods and provisions which he sorely needed.
It is surprising how patient the Americans of those days were. But their
patience as to Great Britain now gave out, and our minister at London
was recalled in 1811. This alarmed the British, who promptly began to
take steps to keep the peace, and offered to make amends for the
_Leopard-Chesapeake_ outrage which had occurred four years before (June,
1807). They agreed to replace the three American sailors on the deck of
the _Chesapeake_ and did so (June, 1812). But the day for peaceful
settlement was gone. The people were aroused and angry, and this feeling
showed itself in many ways.
%261. The President and the Little Belt.%--In the early part of May,
1811, a British frigate was cruising off the harbor of New York with her
name _Guerriere_ painted in large letters on her fore-topsail, and one
day her captain stopped an American vessel as it was about to enter New
York, and impressed a citizen of the United States. Three years earlier
this outrage would have been made the subject of a proclamation. Now,
the moment it was known at Washington, an order was sent to Captain
Rogers of the frigate _President_ to go to sea at once, search for the
_Guerriere_, and demand the delivery of the man, Rogers was only too
glad to go, and soon came in sight of a vessel which looked like the
_Guerriere_; but it was half-past eight o'clock at night before he came
within speaking distance. A battle followed and lasted till the stranger
became unmanageable, when the _President_ stopped firing; and the next
morning Rogers found that his enemy was the British twenty-two-gun ship,
_Little Belt_.
%262. The War Congress.%--Another way in which the anger of the
people showed itself was in the election, in the autumn of 1810, of a
Congress which met in December, 1811, fully determined to make war on
Great Britain. In that Congress were two men who from that day on for
forty years were great political leaders. One was John C. Calhoun of
South Carolina; the other was Henry Clay of Kentucky.
Clay was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, and under his
lead preparations were instantly begun for war, which was finally
declared June 18, 1812. There was no Atlantic cable in those days. Had
there been, it is very doubtful if war would have been declared; for on
June 23, 1812, five days after Congress authorized Madison to issue the
proclamation, the Orders in Council were recalled.
The causes of war, as set forth in the proclamation, were:
1. Tampering with the Indians, and urging them to attack our citizens on
the frontier.
2. Interfering with our trade by the Orders in Council.
3. Putting cruisers off our ports to stop and search our vessels.
4. Impressing our sailors, of whom more than 6000 were in the British
service.
SUMMARY
1. One reason which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana was his determination
to go to war with England. This he did in 1803.
2. Renewal of war in Europe made the United States again a neutral
nation, and brought up the old quarrel over neutral rights.
3.In 1806, Napoleon, who was master of nearly all western Europe, cut
off British trade with the continent. Great Britain in return declared,
by an Order in Council, the coast from Brest to the Elbe blockaded; that
is, shut to neutral trade.
4. Later in the year 1806 Napoleon retaliated with the Berlin Decree,
declaring the British Islands blockaded.
5. Great Britain, by another Order in Council (1807), shut all European
ports, under French control, to neutrals.
6. Napoleon struck back with the Milan Decree.
7. Our commerce was now attacked by both powers, and to force them to
repeal their Decrees and Orders in Council, certain commercial
restrictions were adopted by the United States.
A. Non-importation, 1806.
B. Embargo, 1807-1809.
C. Non-intercourse, 1809.
8. Each of them failed to have any effect, and in 1812 war was declared.
[Illustration]
%1803. Renewal of War between France and Great Britain%
-----------------------------+-------------------------------
|
-------------+--------------
The United States a neutral.
-------------+--------------
|
+----------------+-------------------+----------------------------------+
| | |
_British views of _American views._ _Napoleon's view._
neutrality._ ------------^----------- ------------^----------
------------^------------------ Free ships, free goods. Shall be no neutrals.
The broken voyage. No paper blockades. -------------^-------------
The new Admiralty ruling. No search. Attacks neutral commerce by
Stations vessels off our ports. No impressment. -------------v-------------
Retaliates for French Decrees -----------v----------- |
by | |
--------------v---------------- -----------^----------- |
| / Non-importation. \ French decrees.
| | Long embargo. | -------^-------
Orders in Council. }---------< Non-intercourse with >-------------/ 1806. Berlin.
| France and Great | \ 1807. Milan.
\ Britain. /
-----------v-----------
|
+---------------------------+
|
---------------^---------------
Great Britain denies that French \ / France pretends to lift Berlin
Decrees are lifted, and / -- -------------------- < and Milan Decrees.
Refuses to revoke the Orders \ \ Trade with France is restored.
in Council. |
Tampers with Indians. > --------------+
Insists on the right of search | |
and impressment. / |
|
%DECLARATION OF WAR BY UNITED STATES, 1812.%
CHAPTER XVIII
THE WAR FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE
%263. Fighting on the Frontier.%--"Mr. Madison's War," as the
Federalists delighted to call our war for commercial independence,
opened with three armies in the field ready to invade and capture
Canada. One under Hull, then governor of the territory of Michigan, was
to cross the river at Detroit, and march eastward through Canada. A
second, under General Van Rensselaer, was to cross the Niagara River,
take Queenstown, and join Hull, after which the two armies were to
capture York, now Toronto, and go on eastward toward Montreal. Meantime,
the third army, under Dearborn, was to go down Lake Champlain, and meet
the troops under Hull and Van Rensselaer before Montreal. The three were
then to capture Montreal and Quebec, and complete the conquest
of Canada.
The plan failed; for Hull was driven from Canada, and surrendered his
army and the whole Northwest, at Detroit; Van Rensselaer, defeated at
Queenstown, was unable even to get a footing in Canada; while Dearborn,
after reaching the northern boundary line of New York, stopped, and the
year 1812 ended with nothing accomplished.
The surrender of Hull filled the people with indignation, aroused their
patriotism, and forced the government to gather a new army for the
recapture of Detroit. The command was given to William Henry Harrison,
who hurried from Cincinnati across the wilderness of Ohio, and in the
dead of winter reached the shores of Lake Erie. General Winchester, who
commanded part of the troops, was now called on to drive the British
from Frenchtown, a little hamlet on the river Raisin, and (in January,
1813) tried to do so. But the British and Indians came down on him in
great numbers, and defeated and captured his army, after which the
Indians were allowed to massacre and scalp the wounded.
[Illustration: The Canadian Frontier and Vicinity of Washington]
And now the British became aggressive, invaded Ohio, and attacked the
Americans under Harrison at Fort Meigs, and then at Fort Stephenson,
where Major Croghan and 160 men, with the aid of one small cannon,
defeated and drove off 320 Canadians and Indians.
%264. Battle of Lake Erie.%--Again the Americans in turn became
aggressive. Since the early winter, a young naval officer named Oliver
Hazard Perry had been hard at work, with a gang of ship carpenters, at
Erie, in Pennsylvania, cutting down trees, and had used this green
timber to build nine small vessels. With this fleet he sailed, in
September, in search of the British squadron, which had been just as
hastily built, and soon found it near Sandusky, Ohio. His own ship he
had named the _Lawrence_, in honor of a gallant American captain who had
been killed a few months before in a battle with an English frigate. As
Perry saw the enemy in the distance, he flung to the breeze a blue flag
on which was inscribed, "Don't give up the ship" (the dying order of
Lawrence to his men), sailed down to meet the enemy, and fought the two
largest British ships till the _Lawrence_ was a wreck. Then, with his
flag on his arm, he jumped into a boat, and amidst a shower of shot and
bullets was rowed to the _Niagara_. Once on her deck, he again hastened
to the attack, broke the British line of battle, and captured the entire
fleet. His dispatch to Harrison is as famous as his victory: "We have
met the enemy, and they are ours--two ships, two brigs, one schooner,
and one sloop."
%265. Battle of the Thames.%--Perry's victory was a grand one. It
gave him command of Lake Erie, and enabled him to carry Harrison's
soldiers over to Canada, where, on the Thames River, Harrison defeated
the British and Indians. These two victories regained all that had been
lost by the surrender of Hull.
Along the New York border little was done during 1813. The Americans
made a raid into Canada, and to their shame burned York. The British
attacked Sacketts Harbor and were driven off. The Americans sent an
expedition down the St. Lawrence against Montreal, but the leaders got
frightened and took refuge in northern New York.
%266. Campaign of 1814.%--In 1814 better officers were put in
command, and before winter came the Americans, under Jacob Brown and
Winfield Scott, had won the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane, and
captured Fort Erie. But the British returned in force, burned Black Rock
and Buffalo in revenge for the burning of York, and forced the Americans
to leave Canada.
The fighting along the Niagara River, by holding the army in that place,
prevented the Americans from attacking Montreal, and enabled the
British to gather a fleet on Lake Champlain, and send an army down from
Quebec to invade New York state just as Burgoyne had in 1777. But the
land force was defeated by General Macomb at Plattsburg, while Thomas
McDonough utterly destroyed the fleet in Plattsburg Bay. This was one of
the great victories of the war.
%267. The Sea Fights.%--While our army on the frontier was
accomplishing little, our war ships were winning victory after victory
on the sea. At the opening of the war, our navy was the subject of
English ridicule and contempt. We had sixteen ships; she had 1200. She
laughed at ours as "fir-built things with a bit of striped bunting at
their mastheads." But before 1813 came, these "fir-built things" had
destroyed her naval supremacy.[1] With the details of all these
victories on the sea we will not concern ourselves. Yet a few must be
mentioned because the fame of them still endures, and because they are
examples of naval warfare in the days when the ships fought lashed
together, and when the boarders, cutlass and pistol in hand, climbed
over the bulwarks and met the enemy on his own deck, man to man. During
1812 the frigate _Constitution_, whose many victories won her the name
of "Old Ironsides," sank the _Guerriere_; the _United States_ captured
and brought to port the _Macedonian_; and the _Wasp_, a little sloop of
eighteen guns, after the most desperate engagement of the whole war,
captured the British sloop _Frolic_.
[Footnote 1: One reason for the success of the American navy was the
experience it had gained in the clash with France, and also in a war
with Tripoli in 1801-1805. At that time the Christian nations whose
ships sailed the Mediterranean Sea were accustomed to pay annual tribute
to Tripoli and other piratical states on the north coast of Africa,
under pain of having their ships seized and their sailors reduced to
slavery. A dispute with the United States led to a war which gained for
our ships the freedom of the Mediterranean.]
When these sloops were some two hundred feet apart, the _Wasp_ opened
with musketry and cannon. The sea, lashed into fury by a two days'
cyclone, was running mountain high. The vessels rolled till the muzzles
of their guns dipped in the water. But the crews cheered lustily and
the fight went on. When at last the crew of the _Wasp_ boarded the
_Frolic_, they were amazed to find that, save the man at the wheel and
three officers who threw down their swords, not a living soul was
visible. The crew had gone below to avoid the terrible fire of the
_Wasp_. Scarcely was the battle over when the British frigate
_Poictiers_ bore down under a press of sail, recaptured what was left of
the _Frolic_, and took the _Wasp_ in addition.
During 1813 the _Constitution_ took the _Java_; the _Hornet_ sank the
_Peacock_; the _Enterprise_ captured the _Boxer_ off Portland, Maine.
These and many more made up the list of American victories. But there
were British victories also. The _Argus_, after destroying twenty-seven
vessels in the English Channel, was taken by the _Pelican_; the _Essex_,
after a marvelous cruise around South America, was captured by two
frigates. The _Chesapeake_ was forced to strike to the _Shannon._
The _Chesapeake_ was at anchor in Boston harbor, in command of James
Lawrence, when the British frigate _Shannon_ ran in and challenged her.
Lawrence went out at once, and after a short, fierce fight was defeated
and killed. As his men were carrying him below, mortally wounded, he
cried, "Don't give up the ship!" words which Perry, as we have seen,
afterwards put on his flag, and which his countrymen have never since
forgotten.[1]
[Footnote 1: On the naval war read Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Part
Third; Roosevelt's _Naval War of 1812_; McMaster, Vol. IV., pp. 70-108.]
%268. The British blockade the Coast.%--Never, in the course of her
existence, had England suffered such a series of defeats as we inflicted
on her navy in 1812 and 1813. The record of those years caused a
tremendous excitement in Great Britain, all the vessels she could spare
were sent over, and with the opening of 1814, the whole coast of the
United States was declared to be in a state of blockade.[1] In New
England, Eastport (Moose Island) and Nantucket Island quickly fell. A
British force went up the Penobscot to Hampden, and burned the _Adams_.
The eastern half of Maine was seized, and Stonington, in Connecticut,
was bombarded.
[Footnote 1: All except New England had been blockaded since 1812; and
in 1813 the coast of Chesapeake Bay had been ravaged.]
%269. Burning of Washington.%--Further down the coast a great fleet
and army from Bermuda, under General Ross and Admiral Cockburn, came up
the Chesapeake Bay, landed in Maryland, and marched to Washington. At
Bladensburg, a little hamlet near the capital, the Americans made a
feeble show of resistance, but soon fled; and about dark on an August
night, 1814, a detachment of the British reached Washington, marched to
the Capitol, fired a volley through the windows, entered, and set fire
to the building. When the fire began to burn brightly, Ross and Cockburn
led the troops to the President's house, which was sacked and burned.
Next morning the torch was applied to the Treasury building and to the
Departments of State and War. Several private houses and a printing
office were also destroyed before the British began a hasty retreat to
the Chesapeake.[1]
[Footnote 1: Adams's _History_, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 5, 6; McMaster's
_History_, Vol. IV., pp. 135-148; _Memoirs of Dolly Madison_, Chap. 8.]
%270. Baltimore attacked.%--Once on the bay, the army was hurried on
board the ships and carried to Baltimore, where for a day and a night
they shelled Fort McHenry.[2] Failing to take it, and Ross having been
killed, Cockburn reembarked and sailed away to Halifax.
[Footnote 2: Francis S. Key, an American held prisoner on one of the
British ships, composed the words of _The Star-Spangled Banner_ while
watching the bombardment.]
%271. The Victory at New Orleans.%--The army was taken to Jamaica in
order that it might form part of one of the greatest war expeditions
England had ever fitted out. Fifty of the finest ships her navy could
furnish, mounting 1000 guns and carrying on their decks 20,000 veteran
soldiers and sailors, had been quietly assembled at Jamaica during the
autumn of 1814, and in November sailed for New Orleans.
News of this intended attack had reached Madison, and he had given the
duty of defending New Orleans to Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, one of the
most extraordinary men our country has produced. The British landed at
the entrance of Lake Borgne in December, 1814, and hurried to the banks
of the Mississippi. But Jackson was more than a match for them.
Gathering such a force of fighting men as he could, he hastened from the
city and with all possible speed threw up a line of rude earthworks, and
waited to be attacked. This line the British under General Pakenham
attacked on January 8, 1815, and were twice driven back with frightful
loss of life. Never had such a defeat been inflicted on a British army.
The loss in killed, wounded, and missing was 2036 men. Jackson lost
seventy-one men. Five British regiments which entered the battle 3000
strong reported 1750 men killed, wounded, and missing.[1]
[Footnote 1: Adams's _History_, Vol. VIII., Chaps. 12-14; McMaster, Vol.
IV., pp. 182-190]
%272. Peace.%--For a month after this defeat the British lingered in
their camp. At last, in February, the army departed to attack a fort on
Mobile Bay. The fort was taken, and two days later the news of peace put
an end to war. The treaty was signed at Ghent in December, 1814; but it
did not reach the United States till February, 1815.
In the treaty not a word was said about the impressment of our sailors,
nor about the right of search, nor about the Orders in Council, nor
about inciting the Indians to attack our frontier, all of which Madison
had declared to be causes of the war. Yet we gained much. Our naval
victories made us the equal of any maritime power, while at home the war
did far more to arouse a national sentiment, consolidate the union, and
make us a nation than any event which had yet occurred.
SUMMARY
1. The land war may be divided into:
A. War along the frontier.
B. War along the Atlantic coast.
C. War along the Gulf coast.
2. War along the Canadian frontier resulted in a gain to neither side.
In 1812 Americans were beaten at Detroit and at Queenstown, and failed
to invade Canada. In 1813 the Americans were beaten at Frenchtown, but
defeated the Canadians at Forts Meigs and Stephenson, and at the Thames
River, and recovered Detroit. Perry won the battle of Lake Erie. The
Americans failed in the attempt to take Montreal. In 1814 the battles of
Chippewa and Lundys Lane were won, and Fort Erie was taken. But the
British burned Buffalo and Black Rock and drove the Americans out of
Canada. McDonough won the battle of Lake Champlain.
3. During 1812-13 the British blockaded the coast from the east end of
Long Island south to the Mississippi. New England was not blockaded till
1814. Then depredations began, and during the year Washington was taken
and partly burned, and Baltimore attacked.
4. Later in the year the British, after the attack on Baltimore, went
south, and early in 1815 were beaten by Jackson at New Orleans.
5. The navy won a series of successive victories. The defeats were about
half as numerous as the victories.
6. Peace was announced in February, 1815.
[Illustration]
/ / / / 1812. Hull surrenders Detroit.
| | | | 1812. Harrison attempts to recover it.
| | | Detroit . . < 1813. Frenchtown.
| | | | Battle of Lake Erie.
| | The | | Harrison invades Canada and wins
| | expeditions | \ the battle of the Thames.
| | against |
| | Canada. < / 1812. Van Rensselaer repulsed.
| War | | | 1813. York taken and burned.
Second | on < | Niagara . . < 1814. Battles of Chippewa and Lundys
War for | land | | | Lane, and capture of Fort Erie.
Independence < | | \ Americans driven from Canada.
| | |
| | | / 1813. Expedition against Montreal.
| | | St. Lawrence < 1814. British come down from Canada.
| | \ \ Defeated on Lake Champlain.
| |
| | / 1812. Blockade of the coast south of Rhode Island.
| | War on | 1813. Ravages on the coast of Chesapeake Bay.
| | the | 1814. Entire coast blockaded.
| | Seaboard. < New England attacked.
| | | Washington taken and partly burned.
| | | Baltimore attacked.
| \ \ 1815. Victory at New Orleans.
|
| War on / The ship duels.
\ the sea. \ The fleet victories on the Lakes.
CHAPTER XIX
PROGRESS OF OUR COUNTRY BETWEEN 1790 AND 1815
%273.% Twenty-five years had now gone by since Washington was
inaugurated, and in the course of these years our country had made
wonderful progress. In 1790 the United States was bounded west by the
Mississippi River. By 1815 Louisiana had been purchased, the Columbia
River had been discovered, and the Oregon country had been explored to
the Pacific. In 1790 the inhabitants of the United States numbered less
than four millions. In 1815 they were eight millions. In 1790 there were
but thirteen states in the Union, and two territories. In 1815 there
were eighteen states and five territories.
%274. The Three Streams of Westward Emigration.%--Sparse as was the
population in 1789, the rage for emigration had already seized the
people, and long before 1790 the emigrants were pouring over the
mountains in three great streams. One, composed of New England men, was
pushing along the borders of Lake Champlain and up the Mohawk valley. A
second, chiefly from Pennsylvania and Virginia, was spreading itself
over the rich valleys of what are now West Virginia and Kentucky.
Further south a third stream of emigrants, mostly from Virginia and
North Carolina, had gone over the Blue Ridge Mountains, and was creeping
down the valley of the Tennessee River.[1]
[Footnote 1: For an account of the movement of population westward along
these routes, see _The First Century of the Republic_, pp. 211-238.]
For months each year the Ohio was dotted with flatboats. One observer
saw fifty leave Pittsburg in five weeks. Another estimated that ten
thousand emigrants floated by Marietta during 1788. As this never-ending
stream of population spread over the wilderness, building cabins,
felling trees, clearing the land, and driving off the game, the Indians
took alarm and determined to expel them.
%275. The Indian War.%--During the summer of 1786 the tribes whose
hunting grounds lay in eastern Tennessee and Kentucky took the warpath,
sacked and burned a little settlement on the Holston, and spread terror
along the whole frontier. But the settlers in their turn rose, and
inflicted on the Indians a signal punishment. One expedition from
Tennessee burned three Cherokee towns. Another from Kentucky crossed the
Ohio, penetrated the Indian country, burned eight towns, and laid waste
hundreds of acres of standing corn. Had the Indians been left to
themselves, they would, after this punishment, have remained quiet. But
the British, who still held the frontier post at Detroit, roused them,
and in 1790 they were again at work, ravaging the country north of the
Ohio. They rushed down on Big Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and swept
it from the face of the earth. St. Clair, who was governor of the
Northwest Territory, sent against them an expedition which won some
success--just enough to enrage and not enough to cow them.
%276. St. Clair; Wayne.%--Not a settlement north of the Ohio was now
safe, and had it not been for the men of Kentucky, who came to the
relief, and in two expeditions held the Indians in check till the
Federal government could act, every one of them would have been
destroyed. The plan of the Secretary of War was to build a chain of
forts from Cincinnati to Lake Michigan, and late in 1791 St. Clair set
off to begin the work. But the Indians surprised him on a branch of the
Wabash River, and inflicted on him one of the most dreadful defeats in
our history. Public opinion now forced him to resign his command, which
was given to Anthony Wayne, who, after two years of careful
preparation, crushed the Indian power at the falls of the Maumee River
in northwestern Ohio. The next year, 1795, a treaty was made at
Greenville, by which the Indians gave up all claim to the soil south and
east of a boundary line drawn from what is now Cleveland southwest to
the Ohio River.
%277. Kentucky and Vermont become States.%--These Indian wars almost
stopped emigration to the country north of the Ohio, though not into
Kentucky or Tennessee. For several years past the people of the District
of Kentucky had been desirous to come into the Union, but had been
unable to make terms with Virginia, to which Kentucky belonged. At last
consent was obtained and the application made to Congress. But the
Kentuckians were slave owners, were identified with Southern and Western
interests, and cared little for the commercial interests of the East,
and as this influence could be strongly felt in the Senate, where each
state had two votes, it was decided to offset those of Kentucky by
admitting the Eastern state of Vermont.
What is now Vermont was once the property of New Hampshire, was settled
by people from New England under town rights granted by the governor of
New Hampshire, and was called "New Hampshire Grants." In 1764, however,
the governor of New York obtained a royal order giving New York
jurisdiction over the Grants on the ground that in 1664 the possessions
of the Duke of York extended to the Connecticut River. Then began a
controversy which was still raging bitterly when the Revolution opened,
and the Green Mountain Boys asked recognition as a state and admission
into the Congress, a request which the other states were afraid to grant
lest by so doing they should offend New York. Thereupon the people chose
delegates to a convention (in 1777), which issued a declaration of
independence, declared "New Connecticut, alias Vermont," a state, and
made a constitution. In this shape matters stood in 1791, when as an
offset to Kentucky Vermont was admitted into the Union. As she was a
state with governor, legislature, and constitution, she came in at once.
Kentucky had to make a constitution, and so was not admitted till 1792.
Four years later (1796) Congress admitted Tennessee.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES AND TERRITORIES July 4, 1801.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE]
%278. The New Territories; Ohio becomes a State.%--The quieting of
the Indians by Wayne in 1794, the opening of the Mississippi River to
American trade by Spain in 1795, coupled with cheap lands and low
taxes, caused another rush of population into the Ohio valley. Between
1795 and 1800 so many came that the Northwest Territory was cut in twain
and the new territory of Indiana was organized in 1800. The acceptance
by Spain in 1795 of 31 deg. north latitude as the boundary of the Floridas,
gave the United States control of the greater part of old West Florida,
which in 1798 was organized as the Mississippi Territory. Hardly a year
now elapsed without some marked sign of Western development. In 1800
Congress, under the influence of William Henry Harrison, the first
delegate from the Northwest Territory, made a radical change in its land
policy. Up to that time every settler must pay cash. After 1800 he could
buy on credit, pay in four annual installments, and west of the
Muskingum River could purchase as little as 320 acres. This credit
system led to another rush into the Ohio valley, and so many people
entered the Northwest Territory, that in 1803 the southern part of it
was admitted into the Union as the state of Ohio.
[Illustration: Cincinnati in 1810[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an old print.]
In 1802 Georgia ceded her western lands, which were added to the
Mississippi Territory. From the Louisiana purchase there was organized
in 1804 the territory of Orleans, and in 1805 the territory of Louisiana
(see p. 247). In 1805, also, the lower peninsula of Michigan was cut off
from Indiana and organized as Michigan Territory. In 1809 the territory
of Illinois was organized (p. 247). In 1812 the territory of Orleans
became the state of Louisiana.
The third census showed that in 1810 the population of the United States
was 7,200,000, and that of these over 1,000,000 were in the states and
territories west of the Alleghanies.
%279. Indian Troubles; Battle of Tippecanoe.%--As the settlers north
of the Ohio moved further westward, and as more came in, their farms and
settlements touched the Indian boundary line. In Indiana, where, save a
strip sixty miles wide along the Ohio River, and a few patches scattered
over the territory, every foot of soil was owned by the Indians, this
crowding led to serious consequences. The Indians first grew restive.
Then, under the lead of Tecumthe, or Tecumseh, they founded a league or
confederacy against the whites, and built a town on Tippecanoe Creek,
just where it enters the Wabash. Finally, when Harrison, who was
governor of Indiana Territory, bought the Indian rights to the Wabash
valley, the confederacy refused to recognize the sale, and gave such
signs of resistance that Harrison marched against them, and in 1811
fought the battle of Tippecanoe and burned the Indian village. For a
time it was thought the victory was as signal as that of Wayne. But the
Indians were soon back on the old site, and in our second war with Great
Britain they sided with the British.
[Illustration: The United States and Territories in 1813]
%280. Industrial Progress.%--In 1789 our country had no credit and no
revenue, and was burdened with a great debt which very few people
believed would ever be paid. But when the government called in all the
old worthless Continental money and certificates and gave the people
bonds in exchange for them, when it began to lay taxes and pay its
debts, when it had power to regulate trade, when the National Bank was
established and the merchants were given bank bills that would pass at
their face value all over the country, business began to revive. The
money which the people had been hiding away for years was brought out
and put to useful purposes. Banks sprang up all over the country, and
companies were founded to manufacture woolen cloth and cotton cloth, to
build bridges, to construct turnpike roads, and to cut canals. Between
1789 and 1795 the first carpet was woven in the United States, the first
broom made from broom corn, the first cotton factory opened, the first
gold and silver coins of the United States were struck at the mint, the
first newspaper was printed in the territory northwest of the Ohio
River, the first printing press was set up in Tennessee, the first
geography of the United States was published, and daily newspapers were
issued in Baltimore and Boston. It was during this period that a hunter
named Guinther discovered anthracite coal in Pennsylvania; that Whitney
invented the cotton gin; that Samuel Slater built the first mill for
making cotton yarns; that Eli Terry started the manufacture of clocks as
a business; that cotton sewing thread was first manufactured in the
United States at Pawtucket, R.I.; and that the first turnpike in our
country was completed. This extended from Philadelphia to Lancaster, a
distance of sixty-two miles.
%281. The Period of Commercial and Agricultural Prosperity.%--Just at
this time came another change of great importance. Till 1793 we had
scarcely any commerce with the West Indies. England would not allow our
vessels to go to her islands. Neither would Spain, nor France, except to
a very limited degree. It was the policy of these three countries to
confine such trade as far as possible to their own merchants. But in
1793 France, you remember, made war on England and opened her West
Indian ports to all neutral nations. The United States was a neutral,
and our merchants at once began to trade with the islanders. What these
people wanted was lumber, flour, grain, provisions, salt pork, and fish.
All this led to a demand, first, for ships, then for sailors, and then
for provisions and lumber--to the benefit of every part of the country
except the South. New England was the lumber, fishing, shipbuilding, and
commercial section. New York and Pennsylvania produced grain, flour,
lumber, and carried on a great commerce as well. So profitable was it to
raise wheat, that in many parts of Virginia the people stopped raising
tobacco and began to make flour, and soon made Virginia the second
flour-producing state in the Union. Until after 1795 the people of the
Western States were cut off from this trade. But in that year the treaty
with Spain was made, and the people of the West were then allowed to
float their produce to New Orleans and there sell it or ship it to the
West Indies. Kentucky then became a flour-producing state.
As a consequence of all this, people stopped putting their money into
roads and canals and manufactures, and put it into farming,
shipbuilding, and commerce. Between 1793 and 1807, therefore, our
country enjoyed a period of commercial and agricultural prosperity. But
with 1807 came another change. In that year the embargo was laid, and
for more than fifteen months no vessels were allowed to leave the ports
of the United States for foreign countries. Up to this time our people
had been so much engaged in commerce and agriculture, that they had not
begun to manufacture. In 1807 all the blankets, all the woolen cloth,
cotton cloth, carpets, hardware, china, glass, crockery, knives, tools,
and a thousand other things used every day were made for us in Great
Britain. Cotton grown in the United States was actually sent to England
to be made into cloth, which was then carried back to the United States
to be used.
%282. "Infant Manufactures."%--As the embargo prevented our ships
going abroad and foreign ships coming to us, these goods could no longer
be imported. The people must either go without or make them at home.
They decided, of course, to make them at home, and all patriotic
citizens were called on to help, which they did in five ways.
First, in each of the cities and large towns people met and formed a
"Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufactures." Every
patriotic man and woman was expected to join one of them, and in so
doing to take a pledge not to buy or use or wear any article of foreign
make, provided it could be made in this country.
In the second place, these societies for the encouragement of domestic
manufactures, "infant manufactures," as they were called, offered prizes
for the best piece of homemade linen, homemade cotton cloth, or
woolen cloth.
In the third place, they started "exchanges," or shops, in the cities
and large towns, to which anybody who could knit mittens or socks, or
make boots and shoes or straw bonnets, or spin flax or wool, or make
anything else that the people needed, could send them to be sold.
In the fourth place, men who had money came forward and formed companies
to erect mills and factories for the manufacture of all sorts of things.
If you were to see the acts passed by the legislatures of the states
between 1808 and 1812, you would find that very many of them were
charters for iron works, paper mills, thread works, factories for making
cotton and woolen cloth, oilcloth, boots, shoes, rope.
In the fifth place, the legislatures of the states passed resolutions
asking their members to wear clothes made of material produced in the
United States,[1] offered bounties for the best wool, and exempted the
factories from taxation and the mill hands from militia and jury duty.
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_,
Vol. III., pp. 496-509.]
Thus encouraged, manufactures sprang up in the North, and became so
numerous that in 1810, when the census of population was taken, Congress
ordered that statistics of manufactures should be collected at the same
time. It was then found that the value of the goods manufactured in the
United States in 1810 was $173,000,000.
%283. Internal Improvements: Roads; Canals; Steamboats.%--But there
was yet another great change for the better which took place between
1790 and 1815. We have seen how during this quarter of a century our
country grew in area, how the people increased in number, how new states
and territories were made, how agriculture and commerce prospered, and
how manufactures arose. It is now time to see how the people improved
the means of interstate commerce and communication.
You will remember that in 1790 there were no bridges over the great
rivers of the country, that the roads were very bad, that all journeys
were made on horseback or in stagecoaches or in boats, and that it was
not then possible to go as far in ten hours as we can now go in one. You
will remember, also, that the people were moving westward in
great numbers.
As the people thus year by year went further and further westward, a
demand arose for good roads to connect them with the East. The merchants
on the seaboard wanted to send them hardware, clothing, household goods,
farming implements, and bring back to the seaports the potash, lumber,
flour, skins, and grain with which the settlers paid for these things.
If they were too costly, frontiersmen could not buy them. If the roads
were bad, the difficulty of getting merchandise to the frontier would
make them too costly. People living in the towns and cities along the
seaboard were no longer content with the old-fashioned slow way of
travel. They wanted to get their letters more often, make their journeys
and have their freight carried more quickly.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States,_
Vol. III., pp. 462-465.]
About 1805, therefore, men began to think of reviving the old idea of
canals, which had been abandoned in 1793, and one of these canal
companies, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, applied to Congress for
aid. This brought up the question of a system of internal improvements
at national expense, and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury,
was asked to send a plan for such a system to Congress, which he did.
Congress never approved it.
%284. The National Pike.%--Public sentiment, however, led to the
commencement of a highway to the West known as the National Pike, or the
Cumberland Road. When Ohio was admitted into the Union as a state in
1803, Congress promised that part of the money derived from the sale of
land in Ohio should be used to build a road from some place on the Ohio
River to tide water. By 1806 the money so set apart amounted to $12,000,
and with this was begun the construction of a broad pike from Cumberland
(on the Potomac) in Maryland to Wheeling (on the Ohio) in West
Virginia.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. III., pp. 469-470.]
[Illustration: Phoenix[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an oil painting.]
%285. Steamboats.%--This increasing demand for cheap transportation
now made it possible for Fulton to carry into successful operation an
idea he had long had in mind. For twenty years past inventors had been
exhibiting steamboats. James Rumsey had exhibited one on the Potomac.
John Fitch had shown one on the Delaware in 1787. (See p. 190.) In 1804
Robert Fulton exhibited a steamboat on the Seine at Paris in France;
Oliver Evans had a steam scow on the Delaware River at Philadelphia; and
John Stevens crossed the Hudson from Hoboken to New York in a steamboat
of his own construction. In 1806 Stevens built another, the
_Phoenix_.[1]
[Footnote 1: Preble's _History of Steam Navigation _, pp. 35-66;
Thurston's _Robert Fulton_ in Makers of America Series.]
These men were ahead of their time, and it was not till the August day,
1807, when Robert Fulton made his experiment on the Hudson, that the era
of the steamboat opened. His vessel, called the _Clermont_, made the
trip up the river from New York to Albany in thirty-two hours.
[Illustration: Model of the Clermont[2]]
[Footnote 2: Made from the original drawings, and now in the National
Museum.]
Then the usefulness of the invention was at last appreciated, and in
1808 a line of steam vessels went up and down the Hudson. In 1809
Stevens sent his _Phoenix_ by sea to Philadelphia and ran it on the
Delaware. Another steamboat was on the Raritan River, and a third on
Lake Champlain. In 1811 a boat steamed from Pittsburg to New Orleans,
and in 1812 steam ferryboats plied between what is now Jersey City and
New York, and between Philadelphia and Camden.[3]
[Footnote 3: On the early steamboats see McMaster's _History of the
People of the United States_, Vol. III., pp. 486-494.]
%286. The Currency; the Mint.%--Quite as marvelous was the change
which in five and twenty years had taken place in money matters. When
the Constitution became law in 1789, there were no United States coins
and no United States bills or notes in circulation. There was no such
thing as a national currency. Except the gold and silver pieces of
foreign nations, there was no money which would pass all over our
country. To-day a treasury note, a silver certificate, a national bank
bill, is received in payment of a debt in any state or territory. In
1789 the currency was foreign coins and state paper. But the
Constitution forbade the states ever to make any more money, and as
their bills of credit already issued would wear out by use, the time was
near when there would be no currency except foreign coins. To prevent
this, Congress in 1791 ordered a mint to be established at Philadelphia,
and in 1792 named the coins to be struck, and ordered that whoever would
bring gold or silver to the mint should have it made into coins without
cost to him. This was _free coinage._ As both gold and silver were to be
coined, the currency was to be _bimetallic_, or of two metals.[1] The
ratio of silver and gold was 15 to 1. That is, fifteen pounds' weight of
silver must be made into as many dollars' worth of coins as one pound of
gold. The silver coins were to be the dollar, half and quarter dollar,
dime and half dime; the gold were to be the eagle, half eagle, and
quarter eagle. Out of copper were to be struck cents and half cents. As
some years must elapse before our national coins could become abundant,
certain foreign coins were made legal tender.
[Footnote 1: The first silver coin was struck in 1794; the first gold,
in 1795; the first cent and half cent, in 1793.]
%287. "Federal Money."%--The appearance of the new money was followed
by another change for the better. In colonial days the merchants and the
people expressed the debts they owed, or the value of the goods they
sold, in pounds, shillings, and pence, or in Spanish dollars. During the
Revolution, and after it, this was continued, although the Continental
Congress always kept its accounts, and made its appropriations, in
dollars. But when the people began to see dollars, half dollars, and
dimes bearing the words "United States of America," they knew that
there really was a national coinage, or "Federal money," as they called
it, and between 1795 and 1798, one state after another ordered its
treasurer to use Federal money instead of pounds, shillings, and pence;
and thereafter in laying taxes, and voting appropriations for any
purpose, the amount was expressed in dollars and cents. The merchants
and the people were much slower in adopting the new terms; but they came
at last into general use.
%288. Rise of the State Banks.%--Had the people been forced to depend
on the United States mint for money wherewith to pay the butcher and the
baker and the shoemaker, they would not have been able to make their
payments, for the machinery at the mint was worked by hand, and the
number of dimes and quarters turned out each year was small. But they
were not, for as soon as confidence was restored, banks chartered by the
states sprang up in the chief cities in the East, and as each issued
notes, the people had all the currency they wanted.
In 1790, when Congress established the National Bank, there were but
four state banks in the whole country: one in Philadelphia, one in New
York, one in Boston, and one in Baltimore. By 1800 there were
twenty-six, in 1805 there were sixty-four, and in 1811 there were
eighty-eight.
In that year (1811) the charter of the National Bank expired, and as
Congress would not renew it, many more state banks were created, each
hoping to get a part of the business formerly done by the National Bank.
Such was the "mania," as it was called, for banks, that the number rose
from eighty-eight in 1811, to two hundred and eight in 1814, which was
far more than the people really needed.
Nevertheless, all went well until the British came up Chesapeake Bay and
burned Washington. Then the banks in that part of the country boxed up
all their gold and silver and sent it away, lest the British should get
it. This forced them to "suspend specie payments"; that is, refuse to
give gold or silver in exchange for their own paper. As soon as they
suspended, others did the same, till in a few weeks every one along the
seaboard from Albany to Savannah, and every one in Ohio, had stopped
paying coin. The New England banks did not suspend.
%289. No Small Change.%--The consequences of the suspension were very
serious. In the first place, all the small silver coins, the dimes, half
dollars, and quarter dollars, disappeared at once, and the people were
again forced to do as they had done in 1789, and use "ticket money." All
the cities and towns, great and small, printed one, two, three, six and
one fourth, twelve and one half, twenty-five, and fifty-cent tickets,
and sold them to the people for bank notes. Steamboats, stagecoaches,
and manufacturing companies, merchants, shopkeepers--in fact, all
business men--did the same.
In the second place, as the banks would not exchange specie for their
notes, people who did not know all about a bank would not take its bills
except at very much less than their face value. That is, a dollar bill
of a Philadelphia bank was not worth more than ninety cents in paper
money at New York, and seventy-five cents at Boston. This state of
things greatly increased the cost of travel and business between the
states, and prevented the government using the money collected at the
seaports in the East to pay debts due in the West.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 280-318.]
%290. The Second Bank of the United States.%--Lest this state of
affairs should occur again, Congress, exercising its constitutional
"power to regulate the currency," chartered a second National Bank in
1816, and modeled it after the old one. Again the parent bank was at
Philadelphia; but the capital was now $35,000,000. Again the public
money might be deposited in the bank and its branches, which could be
established wherever the directors thought proper. Again the bank could
issue paper money to be received by the government in payment of taxes,
land, and all debts.
The Republicans had always denied the right of Congress to charter a
bank. But the question was never tested until 1819, when Maryland
attempted to collect a tax laid on the branch at Baltimore. The case
reached the Supreme Court of the United States, which decided that a
state could not tax a corporation chartered by Congress; and that
Congress had power to charter anything, even a bank.
SUMMARY
1. The census returns of 1790 showed that population was going west
along three highways.
2. As a result of this movement, Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792),
Tennessee (1796), and Ohio (1803) entered the Union.
3. The population of the country increased from 3,380,000 in 1790 to
7,200,000 in 1810; and the area from about 828,000 to 2,000,000
square miles.
4. The period 1790-1810 was one of marked industrial progress, and of
great commercial and agricultural prosperity. It was during this time
that manufactures arose, that many roads and highways and bridges were
built, and that the steamboat was introduced.
5. A national mint had been established. The charter of the National
Bank had expired, and numbers of state banks had arisen to take its
place. These banks had suspended specie payment, and the government had
been forced to charter a new National Bank.
PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1709 TO 1815
_Territorial Changes. 1790-1812.
_ Movement of Population into the West._
Northern Stream. Checked by Indian war.
Indians quieted by Wayne.
Population again moved westward.
New states. 1791. Vermont.
1792. Kentucky.
1796. Tennessee.
1803. Ohio.
1812. Louisiana.
New Territories. 1798. Mississippi.
1800. Indiana.
1802. Mississippi enlarged.
1804. Orleans.
1805. Michigan.
1805. Louisiana (called Missouri
after 1812).
1809. Illinois.
_Expansion of Territory._ 1795. Spain accepts 31 deg. as the boundary.
1802. Georgia cedes her western territory.
1803. Louisiana purchased from France.
_Industrial Progress_
First carpet mill.
First brooms.
First United States gold and silver coins.
First press in Tennessee.
Daily newspapers.
Discovery of hard coal.
Cotton gin.
Manufacture of clocks.
Sewing thread.
Rise of manufactures.
Dependence of United States on Great Britain before 1807.
Effect of the embargo.
Manner of encouraging manufactures.
_Agricultural Progress_
Effect of the French war.
State of agriculture in
New England.
New York and Pennsylvania.
The South.
_Improvements in Transportation_
Demand for roads and canals.
The national pike.
Steamboats.
Early forms.
Fitch's.
Fulton's.
Stevens's.
Rapid introduction of.
_Financial Condition_
Federal money.
The United States mint established.
Free coinage.
Bimetallism.
Coins struck.
Federal money comes slowly into use.
State Banks.
What led to the chartering of state banks.
Their rapid increase.
Effect of the expiration of the charter of the Bank of the
United States.
General suspension in 1814.
Reason for chartering the second Bank of the United States.
CHAPTER XX
SETTLEMENT OF OUR BOUNDARIES
%291. Monroe inaugurated.%--The administration of Madison ended on
March 4, 1817, and on that day James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins were
sworn into office. They had been nominated at Washington in February,
1816, by a caucus of Republican members of Congress, for no such thing
as a national convention for the nomination of a President had as yet
been thought of. The Federalists did not hold a caucus; but it was
understood that their electors would vote for Rufus King for
President.[1]
[Footnote 1: In 1816 there were nineteen states in the Union (Indiana
having been admitted in that year), and of these Monroe carried sixteen
and King three. The inauguration took place in the open air for the
first time since 1789.]
[Illustration: on the right of the previous paragraph, with caption
"James Monroe"]
%292. Death of the Federalist Party.%--The inauguration of Monroe
opens a new era of great interest and importance in our history. From
1793 to 1815, the questions which divided the people into Federalists
and Republicans were all in some way connected with foreign countries.
They were neutral rights, Orders in Council, French Decrees,
impressment, embargoes, non-intercourse acts, the conduct of England,
the insolence of the French Directory, the triumphs and the treachery of
Napoleon. Every Federalist sympathized with England; every Republican
was a warm supporter of France.
But with the close of the war in 1815, all this ended. Napoleon was sent
to St. Helena. Europe was at peace, and there was no longer any foreign
question to divide the people into Federalists and Republicans. This
division, therefore, ceased to exist, and after 1816 the Federalist
party never put up a candidate for the presidency. It ceased to exist
not only as a national but even as a state party, and for twelve years
there was one great party, the Republican, or, as it soon began to be
called, the Democratic.
%293. The "Era of Good Feeling."%--A sure sign of the disappearance
of party and party feeling was seen very soon after Monroe was
inaugurated. In May, 1817, he left Washington with the intention of
visiting and inspecting all the forts and navy yards along the eastern
seaboard and the Great Lakes. Beginning at Baltimore, he went to New
York, then to Boston, and then to Portland; where he turned westward,
and crossing New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain, made his way
to Ogdensburg, where he took a boat to Sacketts Harbor and Niagara,
whence he went to Buffalo, and Detroit, and then back to Washington.
Wherever he went, the people came by thousands to greet him; but nowhere
was the reception so hearty as in New England, the stronghold of
Federalism. "The visit of the President," said a Boston newspaper,
"seems wholly to have allayed the storms of party. People _now meet in
the same room_ who, a short while since, _would scarcely pass along the
same street_". Another said that since Monroe's arrival at Boston "party
feeling and animosities have been laid aside, and but one great
_national feeling_ has animated every class of our citizens." So it was
everywhere, and when, therefore, the Boston Sentinel_ called the times
the "era of good feeling," the whole country took up the expression and
used it, and the eight years of Monroe's administration have ever since
been so called.
%294. Trouble with the Seminole Indians.%--Though all was quiet and
happy within our borders, events of great importance were happening
along our northern, western, and southern frontier. During the war with
England, the Creek Indians in Georgia and Alabama had risen against the
white settlers and were beaten and driven out by Jackson and forced to
take refuge with the Seminoles in Florida. As they had been the allies
of England, they fully expected that when peace was made, England would
secure for them the territory of which Jackson had deprived them. When
England did not do this, they grew sullen and savage, and in 1817 began
to make raids over the border, run off cattle and murder men, women, and
children. In order to stop these depredations, General Jackson was sent
to the frontier, and utterly disregarding the fact that the Creeks and
Seminoles were on Spanish soil, he entered West Florida, took St. Marks
and Pensacola, destroyed the Indian power, and hanged two English
traders as spies.[1]
[Footnote 1: Parton's _Life of Jackson_, Chaps. 34-36; McMaster's
_History_, Vol. IV., pp. 430-456.]
%295. The Canadian Boundary; Forty-ninth Parallel.%--This was
serious, for at the time the news reached Washington that Jackson had
invaded Spanish soil and hanged two English subjects, important treaties
were under way with Spain and Great Britain, and it was feared his
violent acts would stop them. Happily no evil consequences followed, and
in 1818 an agreement was reached as to the dividing line between the
United States and British America.
When Louisiana came to us, no limit was given to it on the north, and
fifteen years had been allowed to pass without attempting to establish
one. Now, however, the boundary was declared to be a line drawn south
from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods to the
forty-ninth parallel of north latitude and along this parallel to the
summit of the Rocky Mountains.
%296. Joint Occupation of Oregon.%--The country beyond the Rocky
Mountains, the Oregon country, was claimed by both England and the
United States; so it was agreed in the treaty of 1818 that for ten years
to come the country should be held in joint occupation.
%297. The Spanish Boundary Line.%--One year later (1819) the boundary
of Louisiana was completed by a treaty with Spain, which now sold us
East and West Florida for $5,000,000. Till this time we had always
claimed that Louisiana extended across Texas as far as the Rio Grande.
By the treaty this claim was given up, and the boundary became the
Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to 32 deg., then a north line to the
Red River; westward along this river to the 100th meridian; then
northward to the Arkansas River, and westward to its source in the Rocky
Mountains; then a north line to 42 deg., and then along that parallel to the
Pacific Ocean.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_,
Vol. IV., pp. 457-480.]
%298. Russian Claims on the Pacific.%--The Oregon country was thus
restricted to 42 deg. on the south, and though it had no limit on the north
the Emperor of Russia (in 1822) undertook to fix one at 51 deg., which he
declared should be the south boundary of Alaska. Oregon was thus to
extend from 42 deg. to 51 deg., and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. But
Russia had also founded a colony in California, and seemed to be
preparing to shut the United States from the Pacific coast. Against all
this John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested, telling the
Russian minister that European powers no longer had a right to plant
colonies in either North or South America.
%299. The Holy Allies and the South American Republics.%--This was a
new doctrine, and while the United States and Russia were discussing the
boundary of Oregon, it became necessary to make another declaration
regarding the rights of European powers in the two Americas.
Ever since 1793, when Washington issued his proclamation of neutrality
(p. 206), the policy of the United States had been to take no part in
European wars, nor meddle in European politics. This had been asserted
repeatedly by Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe,[1] and during all the
wars from 1793 to 1815 had been carefully adhered to. It was supposed,
of course, that if we did not meddle in the affairs of the Old World
nations, they would not interfere in affairs over here. But about 1822
it seemed likely that they would interfere very seriously.
[Footnote 1: See Washington's _Farewell Address_; Jefferson's _Inaugural
Address_, March 4, 1801; also his message to Congress, Oct. 17, 1803;
Monroe's _Inaugural Address_, March 4, 1817, and messages, Dec. 2, 1817,
Nov. 17, 1818, Nov. 14, 1820; see also _American History Leaflets_,
No. 4.]
[Illustration: %NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824%]
Beginning with 1810, the Spanish colonies of Mexico and South America
(Chile, Peru, Buenos Ayres, Colombia) rebelled, formed republics, and in
1822 were acknowledged as free and independent powers by the United
States. Spain, after vainly attempting to subdue them, appealed for help
to the powers of Europe, which in 1815 had formed a Holy Alliance for
the purpose of maintaining monarchical government. For a while these
powers (Russia, Prussia, Austria, France) held aloof. But in 1823 they
decided to help Spain to get back her old colonies, and invited Great
Britain to attend a Congress before which the matter was to be
discussed. But Great Britain had no desire to see the little republics
destroyed, and in the summer of 1823, the British Prime Minister asked
the American minister in London if the United States would join with
England in a declaration warning the Holy Allies not to meddle with the
South American republics. Thus, just at the time when Adams was
protesting against European colonization in the Northwest, England
suggested a protest against European meddling in the affairs of Spanish
America. The opportunity was too good to be lost, and Adams succeeded in
persuading President Monroe to make a protest in behalf of the nation
against both forms of European interference in American affairs. Monroe
thought it best to make the declaration independent of Great Britain,
and in his annual message to Congress, December 2, 1823, he announced
three great guiding principles now known as the
%300. Monroe Doctrine.%--
1. Taking up the matter in dispute with Russia, he declared that the
American continents were no longer open to colonization by
European nations.
Referring to the conduct of the Holy Allies, he said,
2. That the United States would not meddle in the political affairs of
Europe.
3. That European governments must not extend their system to any part of
North or South America, nor oppress, nor in any other manner seek to
control the destiny of any of the nations of this hemisphere.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _With the Fathers_, pp. 1-54; Tucker's _Monroe
Doctrine_.]
The protest was effectual. The Holy Allies did not meddle in South
American affairs, and the next year (1824) Russia agreed to make no
settlement south of 54 deg. 40'.
SUMMARY
1. At the presidential election of 1816 the Federalist party, for the
last time, voted for a presidential candidate. Party politics were dead,
and the "era of good feeling" opened.
2. Many important matters which were not settled by the Treaty of Ghent
were disposed of:
A. The forty-ninth parallel was made the boundary from a
point south of the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains.
B. Oregon was held in joint occupation.
C. The line 54 deg. 40' was established.
3. The boundary between the United States and the Spanish possessions
was drawn, and Florida was acquired.
4. The Monroe doctrine was announced.
* * * * *
SOME RESULTS OF THE WAR.
_Death of the Federalist party_ ...
End of the European war.
Disappearance of old party issues.
Monroe elected President.
The "era of good feeling."
_Seminole War_ ...
Creek Indians join the English.
Driven out of Alabama by Jackson.
Take refuge with Florida Seminoles.
After the war rise against the settlers in Georgia.
Destroyed by Jackson.
_The boundaries_ ...
1818. Northern boundary of Louisiana
settled to the Rocky Mountains.
1819. Treaty with Spain settled the south
boundary of Louisiana.
1818. Joint occupation of Oregon.
1824. North boundary of Oregon established at 54 deg. 40'.
_The Monroe Doctrine._
The Holy Allies.
The South American republics.
Proposal of the Holy Allies to reduce the
South American republics.
The Monroe Doctrine announced (1823).
CHAPTER XXI
THE RISING WEST
%301. Rush into the West.%--The settlement of our boundary disputes,
especially with Spain, was most timely, for even then people were
hurrying across the mountains by tens of thousands, and building up new
states in the Mississippi valley. The great demand for ships and
provisions, which from 1793 to 1807 had made business so brisk, had kept
people on the seaboard and given them plenty of employment. But after
1812, and particularly after 1815, trade, commerce, and business on the
seaboard declined, work became scarce, and men began to emigrate to the
West, where they could buy land from the government on the installment
plan, and where the states could not tax their farms until five years
after the government had given them a title deed. Old settlers in
central New York declared they had never seen so many teams and sleighs,
loaded with women, children, and household goods, traveling westward,
bound for Ohio, which was then but another name for the West.
As the year wore away, the belief was expressed that when autumn came it
would be found that the worst was over, and that the good times expected
to follow peace would keep people on the seaboard. But the good times
did not return. The condition of trade and commerce, of agriculture and
manufactures, grew worse instead of better, and the western movement of
population became greater than ever.
%302. Rapid Growth of Towns.%--Fed by this never-ending stream of
newcomers, the West was almost transformed. Towns grew and villages
sprang up with a rapidity which even in these days of rapid and easy
communication would be thought amazing. Mt. Pleasant, in Jefferson
County, Ohio, was in 1810 a little hamlet of seven families living in
cabins. In 1815 it contained ninety families, numbering 500 souls. The
town of Vevay, Ind., was laid out in 1813, and was not much better than
a collection of huts in 1814. But in 1816 the traveler down the Ohio who
stopped at Vevay found himself at a flourishing county seat, with
seventy-five dwellings, occupied by a happy population who boasted of
having among them thirty-one mechanics of various trades; of receiving
three mails each week, and supporting a weekly newspaper called the
_Indiana Register_. Forty-two thousand settlers are said to have come
into Indiana in 1816, and to have raised the population to 112,000.
Letters from New York describe the condition of that state west of Utica
as one of astonishing prosperity. Log cabins were disappearing, and
frame and brick houses taking their place. The pike from Utica to
Buffalo was almost a continuous village, and the country for twenty
miles on either side was filling up with an industrious population.
Auburn, where twenty years before land sold for one dollar an acre, was
the first town in size and wealth west of Utica, and land within its
limits brought $7000 an acre. Fourteen miles west was Waterloo, on the
Seneca River, a village which did not exist in 1814, and which in 1816
had fifty houses. Rochester, the site of which in 1815 was a wilderness,
had a printing press, a bookstore, and a hundred houses in 1817.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_,
Vol. IV., pp. 381-386.]
%303. Scenes on the Western Highways.%--By 1817 this migration was at
its height, and in the spring of that year families set forth from
almost every village and town on the seaboard. The few that went from
each place might not be missed; but when they were gathered on any one
of the great roads to the West, as that across New York, or that across
Pennsylvania, they made an endless procession of wagons and
foot parties.
A traveler who had occasion to go from Nashville to Savannah in January,
1817, declares that on the way he fell in with crowds of emigrants from
Carolina and Georgia, all bound for the cotton lands of Alabama; that he
counted the flocks and wagons, and that--carts, gigs, coaches, and
wagons, all told--there were 207 conveyances, and more than 3800 people.
At Haverhill, in Massachusetts, a train of sixteen wagons, with 120 men,
women, and children, from Durham, Me., passed in one day. They were
bound for Indiana to buy a township, and were accompanied by their
minister. Within thirteen days, seventy-three wagons and 450 emigrants
had passed through the same town of Haverhill. At Easton, Pa., which lay
on the favorite westward route for New Englanders, 511 wagons, with 3066
persons, passed in a month. They went in trains of from six to fifty
wagons each day. The keeper of Gate No. 2, on the Dauphin turnpike, in
Pennsylvania, returned 2001 families as having passed his gate, bound
west, between March and December, 1817, and gave the number of people
accompanying the vehicles as 16,000. Along the New York route, which
went across the state from Albany to Buffalo, up Lake Erie, and on by
way of Chautauqua Lake to the Allegheny, the reports are just as
astonishing. Two hundred and sixty wagons were counted going by one
tavern in nine days, besides hundreds of people on horseback and
on foot.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_. Vol. IV., pp. 387, 388.]
%304. Life on the Frontier.%--The "mover," or, as we should say, the
emigrant, would provide himself with a small wagon, very light, but
strong enough to carry his family, provisions, bedding, and utensils;
would cover it with a blanket or a piece of canvas or with linen which
was smeared with tar inside to make it waterproof; and with two stout
horses to pull it, would set out for the West, and make his way across
Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then the greatest city of the West, with a
population of 7000. Some, as of old, would take boats and float down the
Ohio; others would go on to Wheeling, be ferried across the river, and
push into Ohio or Indiana or Illinois, there to "take up" a quarter
section (160 acres) of government land, or buy or rent a "clearing" from
some shiftless settler of an earlier day. Government land intended for
sale was laid out in quarter sections of 160 acres, and after being
advertised for a certain time was offered for sale at public auction.
What was not sold could then be purchased at the land office of the
district at two dollars an acre, one quarter to be paid down, and three
fourths before the expiration of four years. The emigrant, having
gathered eighty dollars, would go to some land office, "enter" a quarter
section, pay the first installment, and make his way in the two-horse
wagon containing his family and his worldly goods to the spot where was
to be his future home. Every foot of it in all probability would be
covered with bushes and trees.
[Illustration: Distribution of the Population of the United States
Fourth Census, 1820]
%305. The Log Cabin.%--In that case the settler would cut down a few
saplings, make a "half-faced camp," and begin his clearing. The
"half-faced camp" was a shed. Three sides were of logs laid one on
another horizontally. The roof was of saplings covered with branches or
bark. The fourth side was open, and when it rained was closed by hanging
up deerskin curtains. In this camp the newcomer and his family would
live while he grubbed up the bushes and cut down trees enough to make a
log cabin. If he were a thrifty, painstaking man, he would smooth each
log on four sides with his ax, and notch it half through at each end so
that when they were placed one on another the faces would nearly touch.
Saplings would make the rafters, and on them would be fastened planks
laid clapboard fashion, or possibly split shingles.
An opening was of course left for a door, although many a cabin was
built without a window, and when the door was shut received no light
save that which came down the chimney, which was always on the outside
of the house. To form it, an opening eight feet long and six feet high
was left at one end of the house, and around this a sort of bay window
was built of logs and lined with stones on the inside. Above the top of
the opening the chimney contracted and was made of branches smeared both
inside and out with clay. Generally the chimney went to the peak of the
roof; but it was by no means unusual for it to stop about halfway up the
end of the cabin.
[Illustration: Log cabin[1]]
[Footnote 1: The birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, restored (reproduced,
together with the first picture on the next page, from Tarbell's _Early
Life of Abraham Lincoln_, by permission of the publishers, S.S.
McClure, Limited).]
If the settler was too poor to buy glass, or if glass could not be had,
the window frame was covered with greased paper, which let in the light
but could not be seen through. The door was of plank with leather
hinges, or with iron hinges made from an old wagon tire by the nearest
blacksmith or by the settler himself. There was no knob, no lock,
no bolt.
In place of them there was a wooden latch on the inside, which could be
lifted by a person on the outside of the door by a leather strip which
came through a hole in the door and hung down. When this latch string
was out, anybody could pull it, lift the latch, and come in. When it was
drawn inside, nobody could come in without knocking. The floor was made
of "puncheons," or planks split and hewn with an ax from the trunk of a
tree, and laid with the round side down. The furniture the settler
brought with him, or made on the spot.
[Illustration: Hand mill [1]]
The household utensils were of the simplest kind. Brooms and brushes
were made of corn husks. Corn was shelled by hand and was then either
carried in a bag slung over a horse's back to the nearest mill, perhaps
fifteen miles away, or was pounded in a wooden hominy mortar with a
wooden pestle, or ground in a hand mill. Chickens and game were roasted
by hanging them with leather strings before the open fire. Cooking
stoves were unknown, and all cooking was done in a "Dutch oven," on the
hearth, or in a clay "out oven" built, as its name implies, out
of doors.
[Illustration: Corn-husk broom [1]]
[Illustration: Kitchen utensils [1]]
[Footnote 1: From originals in the National Museum, Washington.]
%306. Clearing and Planting.%--The land about the cabin was cleared
by grubbing the bushes and cutting down trees under a foot in diameter
and burning them. Big trees were "deadened," or killed, by cutting a
"girdle" around them two or three feet above the ground, deep enough to
destroy the sap vessels and so prevent the growth of leaves.[1]
[Footnote 1: For a delightful account of life in the West, read W. C.
Howells's _Recollections of Life in Ohio_ (edited by his son, William
Dean Howells).]
In the ground thus laid open to the sun were planted corn, potatoes, or
wheat, which, when harvested, was threshed with a flail and fanned and
cleaned with a sheet. At first the crop would be scarcely sufficient for
home use. But, as time passed, there would be some to spare, and this
would be wagoned to some river town and sold or exchanged for
"store goods."
If the settler chose his farm wisely, others would soon settle near by,
and when a cluster of clearings had been made, some enterprising
speculator would appear, take up a quarter section, cut it into town
lots, and call the place after himself, as Piketown, or Leesburg, or
Gentryville. A storekeeper with a case or two of goods would next
appear, then a tavern would be erected, and possibly a blacksmith shop
and a mill, and Piketown or Leesburg would be established. Hundreds of
such ventures failed; but hundreds of others succeeded and are to-day
prosperous villages.
[Illustration: Mississippi produce boat[1]]
[Footnote 1: From a model in the National Museum at Washington.]
%307. The New States._--While the northern stream of population was thus
traveling across New York, northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and into
Michigan, the middle stream was pushing down the Ohio. By 1820 it had
greatly increased the population of southern Indiana and Illinois, and
crossing the Mississippi was going up the Missouri River. In the South
the destruction of the Indian power by Jackson in 1813, and the opening
of the Indian land to settlement, led to a movement of the southern
stream of population across Alabama to Mobile. Now, what were some of
the results of this movement of population into the Mississippi valley?
In the first place, it caused the formation and admission into the Union
of six states in five years. They were Indiana, 1816; Mississippi, 1817;
Illinois, 1818; Alabama, 1819; Maine, 1820; Missouri, 1821.
%308. Slave and Free States.%--In the second place, it brought about
a great struggle over slavery. You remember that when the thirteen
colonies belonged to Great Britain slavery existed in all of them; that
when they became independent states some began to abolish slavery; and
that in time five became free states and eight remained slave states.
Slavery was also gradually abolished in New York and New Jersey, so that
of the original thirteen only six were now to be counted as slave
states. You remember again that when the Continental Congress passed the
Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory lying between the
Ohio River and the Great Lakes, Pennsylvania and the Mississippi River,
it ordained that in the Northwest Territory there should be no slavery.
In consequence of this, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were admitted into
the Union as free states, as Vermont had been. Kentucky was originally
part of Virginia, and when it was admitted, came in as a slave state.
Tennessee once belonged to North Carolina, and hence was also slave
soil; and when it was given to the United States, the condition was
imposed by North Carolina that it should remain so. Tennessee,
therefore, entered the Union (in 1796) as a slave state. Much of what is
now Alabama and Mississippi was once owned by Georgia, and when she
ceded it in 1802, she did so with the express condition that it should
remain slave soil; as a result of this, Alabama and Mississippi were
slave states. Louisiana was part of the Louisiana Purchase, and was
admitted (1812) as a slave state because it contained a great many
slaves at the time of the purchase.
Thus in 1820 there were twenty-two states in the Union, of which eleven
were slave, and eleven free. Notice now two things: 1. That the dividing
line between the slave and the free states was the south and west
boundary of Pennsylvania from the Delaware to the Ohio, and the Ohio
River; 2. That all the states in the Union except part of Louisiana lay
east of the Mississippi River. As to what should be the character of our
country west of that river, nothing had as yet been said, because as yet
no state lying wholly in that region had asked admittance to the Union.
%309. Shall there be Slave States West of the Mississippi
River?%--But when the people rushed westward after the war, great
numbers crossed the Mississippi and settled on the Missouri River, and
as they were now very numerous they petitioned Congress in 1818 for
leave to make the state of Missouri and to be admitted into the Union.
The petitioners did not say whether they would make a slave or a free
state; but as the Missourians owned slaves, everybody knew that Missouri
would be a slave state. To this the free states were opposed. If the
tobacco-growing, cotton-raising, and sugar-making states wanted slaves,
that was their affair; but slavery must not be extended into states
beyond the Mississippi, because it was wrong. No man, it was said, had
any right to buy and sell a human being, even if he was black. The
Southern people were equally determined that slavery should cross the
Mississippi. We cannot, said they, abolish slavery; because if our
slaves were set free, they would not work, and as they are very
ignorant, they would take our property and perhaps our lives. Neither
can we stop the increase of negro slave population. We must, then, have
some place to send our surplus slaves, or the present slave states will
become a black America.
%310. The Missouri Compromise.%--Each side was so determined, and it
was so clear that neither would yield, that a compromise was suggested.
The country east of the Mississippi, it was said, is partly slave,
partly free soil. Why not divide the country west of the great river in
the same way? At first the North refused. But it so happened that just
at this moment Maine, having secured the consent of Massachusetts,
applied to Congress for admission into the Union as a free state. The
South, which had control of the Senate, thereupon said to the North,
which controlled the House of Representatives, If you will not admit
Missouri as a slave state, we will not admit Maine as a free state. This
forced the compromise, and after a bitter and angry discussion it
was agreed
1. That Maine should come in as a free, and Missouri as a slave, state.
2. That the Louisiana Purchase should be cut in two by the parallel of
36 deg. 30', and that all north of the line except Missouri should be free
soil[1]. This parallel was thereafter known as the "Missouri
Compromise Line."
[Footnote 1: The Compromise was violated in 1836, when the present
northwest corner of Missouri was taken from the free territory and added
to that state. See maps, pp. 299 and 348]
[Illustration: AREAS OF FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1820]
The admission of Maine and Missouri raised the number of states to
twenty-four.[1] No more were admitted for sixteen years. When Missouri
applied for admission as a state, Arkansas was (1819) organized as a
territory.
[Footnote 1: For the compromise read Woodburn's _Historical Significance
of the Missouri Compromise_ (in _Report American Historical
Association_, 1893, pp. 251-297); McMaster's _History of the People of
the United States_, Vol. IV., Chap. 39.]
%311. The Second Election of Monroe.%--This bitter contest over the
exclusion of slavery from the country west of the Mississippi shows how
completely party lines had disappeared in 1820. In the course of that
year, electors of a President were to be chosen in the twenty-four
states. That slavery would play an important part in the campaign, and
that some candidate would be put in the field by the people opposed to
the compromise, might have been expected. But there was no campaign, no
contest, no formal nomination. The members of Congress held a caucus,
but decided to nominate nobody. Every elector, it was well known, would
be a Republican, and as such would vote for the reelection of Monroe and
Tompkins. And this almost did take place. Every one of the 229 electors
who voted was a Republican, and all save one in New Hampshire cast votes
for Monroe. But this one man gave his vote to John Quincy Adams. He said
he did not want Washington to be robbed of the glory of being the only
President who had ever received the unanimous vote of the electors.
March 4, 1821, came on Sunday. Monroe was therefore inaugurated on
Monday, March 5.
SUMMARY
1. The dull times on the seaboard, the cheap land in the West, the love
of adventure, and the desire to "do better" led, during 1814-1820, to a
most astonishing emigration westward.
2. The rush of population into the Mississippi valley caused the
admission of six states into the Union between 1816 and 1821.
3. The question of the admission of Missouri brought up the subject of
shutting slavery out of the country west of the Mississippi, which ended
in a compromise and the establishment of the line 36 deg. 30'.
MOVEMENT OF POPULATION.
_Northern Stream._
Effect of hard times in the East.--
Scenes along the highways.--Arrival
of the emigrants in the West.--The
half-faced camp.--The log cabin.--
Household utensils.--Clearing the
land.--Growth of towns.
_Middle Stream._
Moves down the Ohio valley,
across southern Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, and pushes up
the Missouri.
_Southern Stream._
The defeat of the Creek Indians
opens their lands in
Mississippi Territory to settlement.
* * * * *
This settlement of the West leads to:
Admission into the Union of:
1816. Indiana.
1817. Mississippi.
1818. Illinois.
1819. Alabama.
Admission of these states brings up the question of slavery.
1820. Maine.
1821. Missouri.
Organization of new territories.
1819. Arkansas.
1822. 1823. Florida.
_Status of slavery after 1820_.
FREE STATES.
N.H.,
Vt.,
Mass.,
R.I.,
Conn.
N.Y.,
N.J.,
Pa.,
Ohio,
Ind.,
Ill.,
Maine.
SLAVE STATES.
Del.,
Md.,
Va.,
N.C.,
S.C.,
Ga.,
Ala.,
Miss.
La.,
Ky.,
Tenn.,
Missouri.
_Country west of the Mississippi._
1804. Not settled.
1819. Attempt to make Missouri a slave state.
1820. The compromise.
CHAPTER XXII
THE HIGHWAYS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE
%312. Improvement in Means of Travel%.--We have now considered two of
the results of the rush of population from the seaboard to the
Mississippi valley; namely, the admission of five new Western states
into the Union, and the struggle over the extension of slavery, which
resulted in the Missouri Compromise. But there was a third result,--the
actual construction of highways of transportation connecting the East
with the West. Along the seaboard, during the five years which followed
the war, great improvements were made in the means of travel. The
steamboat had come into general use, and, thanks to this and to good
roads and bridges, people could travel from Philadelphia to New York
between sunrise and sunset on a summer day, and from New York to Boston
in forty-eight hours. The journey from Boston to Washington was now
finished in four days and six hours, and from New York to Quebec in
eight days.
[Illustration: Bordentown, NJ.[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an old engraving. Passengers from Philadelphia landed
here from the steamboat and took stage for New Brunswick.]
[Illustration: map: OLD ROUTE FROM NEW YORK TO PITTSBURG]
In the West there was much the same improvement. The Mississippi and
Ohio swarmed with steamboats, which came up the river from New Orleans
to St. Louis in twenty-five days and went down with the current in
eight. Little, however, had been done to connect the East with the West.
Until the appearance of the steamboat in 1812, the merchants of
Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and a host of other towns in the
interior bought the produce of the Western settlers, and floating it
down the Ohio and the Mississippi sold it at New Orleans for cash, and
with the money purchased goods at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York,
and carried them over the mountains to the West. Some went in sailing
vessels up the Hudson from New York to Albany, were wagoned to the Falls
of the Mohawk, and then loaded in "Schenectady boats," which were
pushed up the Mohawk by poles to Utica, and then by canal and river to
Oswego, on Lake Ontario. From Oswego they went in sloops to Lewiston on
the Niagara River, whence they were carried in ox wagons to Buffalo, and
then in sailing vessels to Westfield, and by Chautauqua Lake and the
Allegheny River to Pittsburg. Goods from Philadelphia and Baltimore were
hauled in great Conestoga wagons drawn by four and six horses across the
mountains to Pittsburg. The carrying trade alone in these ways was
immense. More than 12,000 wagons came to Pittsburg in a year, bringing
goods on which the freight was $1,500,000.
[Illustration: Boats on the Mohawk[1]]
[Footnote 1: From an old print.]
[Illustration: THOMAS HARPER, AGENT FOR INLAND TRANSPORTATION]
With the appearance of the steamboat on the Mississippi and Ohio, this
trade was threatened; for the people of the Western States could now
float their pork, flour, and lumber to New Orleans as before, and bring
back from that city by steamboat the hardware, pottery, dry goods,
cotton, sugar, coffee, tea, which till then they had been forced to buy
in the East[1].
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History of the People of the United States_,
Vol. IV., pp. 397-410, 419-421.]
This new way of trading was so much cheaper than the old, that it was
clear to the people of the Eastern States that unless they opened up a
still cheaper route to the West, their Western trade was gone.
[Illustration: The Erie Canal]
%313. The Erie Canal.%--In 1817 the people of New York determined to
provide such a route, and in that year they began to cut a canal across
the state from the Hudson at Albany to Lake Erie at Buffalo. To us, with
our steam shovels and drills, our great derricks, our dynamite, it would
be a small matter to dig a ditch 4 feet deep, 40 feet wide, and 363
miles long. But on July 4, 1817, when Governor De Witt Clinton turned
the first sod, and so began the work, it was considered a great
undertaking, for the men of those days had only picks, shovels,
wheelbarrows, and gunpowder to do it with.
Opposition to the canal was strong. Some declared that it would swallow
up millions of dollars and yield no return, and nicknamed it "Clinton's
Big Ditch." But Clinton was not the kind of man that is afraid of
ridicule. He and his friends went right on with the work, and after
eight years spent in cutting down forests, in blasting rocks, in
building embankments to carry the canal across swamps, and high
aqueducts to carry it over the rivers, and locks of solid masonry to
enable the boats to go up and down the sides of hills, the canal was
finished.[1]
[Footnote 1: McMaster's _History_, Vol. IV., pp. 415-418.]
[Illustration: Model of a canal packet boat]
Then, one day in the autumn of 1825, a fleet of boats set off from
Buffalo, passed through the canal to Albany, where Governor De Witt
Clinton boarded one of them, and went down the Hudson to New York. A keg
of water from Lake Erie was brought along, and this, when the fleet
reached New York Harbor, Clinton poured with great ceremony into the
bay, to commemorate, as he said, "the navigable communication opened
between our Mediterranean seas [the Great Lakes] and the
Atlantic Ocean."
%314. Effect of the Erie Canal%.--The building of the canal changed
the business conditions of about half of our country. Before the canal
was finished, goods, wares, merchandise, going west from New York, were
carried from Albany to Buffalo at a cost of $120 a ton. After the canal
was opened, it cost but $14 a ton to carry freight from Albany to
Buffalo. This was most important. In the first place, it enabled the
people in New York, in Ohio, in Indiana, in Illinois, and all over the
West, to buy plows and hoes and axes and clothing and food and medicine
for a much lower price than they had formerly paid for such things. Life
in the West became more comfortable and easy than ever before.
In the next place, the Eastern merchant could greatly extend his
business. How far west he could send his goods depended on the expense
of carrying them. When the cost was high, they could go but a little way
without becoming so expensive that only a few people could buy them.
After 1825, when the Erie Canal made transportation cheap, goods from
New York city could be sold in Michigan and Missouri at a much lower
price than they had before been sold in Pittsburg or Buffalo.
%315. New York City the Metropolis.%--The New York merchant, in other
words, now had the whole West for his market. That city, which till 1820
had been second in population, and third in commerce, rushed ahead and
became the first in population, commerce, and business.
The same was true of New York state. As the canal grew nearer and nearer
completion, the people from other states came in and settled in the
towns and villages along the route, bought farms, and so improved the
country that the value of |
