UC-NRLF $B SH flSI WAAj 1 l^Xv PRIMARY HISTORY tyfi ft J OF THE ITpn STATFS BOOK B E R K LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA T/ n&pck Co- A PRIMARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES BY JOHN BACH McMASTER PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 3XXC NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY Copyright, 1901, by JOHN BACH McMASTER. fci'WTEBED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDOK MoM. Pr. H. E-P 5 EDUC.- D SYCH. , | pf Em . ■ -i A PREFACE rc\ ry This book has been written in the belief that a primary history of the United States should be short, as interesting as possible, and well illustrated ; that it should be a narrative of events, not a series of biographical sketches ; that it should touch on all matters of real importance in the founding and building of our country; and that it should leave unnoticed such questions as are beyond the understanding of the pupils for whose use it is intended. Those who leave school after but one year's work in history will thus obtain a fair general knowledge of so much of our history as every American ought to be ashamed not to know, while those who pursue the study further will have made a good beginning. The illustrations are historically authentic. Such pictures are far more valuable than imaginary ones, and it is believed that in this book, as in the School History, they will be found to be more interesting. The pronunciation of difficult names is shown in the Index. JOHN BACH McMASTER. Philadelphia. 403 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGB I. How Europeans found America 7 II. The Indians and their Way of Life 16 III. The Spaniards in the South 24 IV. The French in the Valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi 31 V. The English in Virginia ........ 44 VI. The English in New England 56 VII. Pioneer Life in New England 64 VIII. The Middle Colonies 72 IX. The Southern Colonies 83 X. Shall France or England rule in America ? 89 XL Shall France or England rule in America? (Continued) . . 100 XII. The Colonies quarrel with the Mother Country . . . .110 XIII. The Long Fight for Independence 120 XIV. The Long Fight for Independence (Continued) .... 134 XV. A Better Government needed 144 XVI. Trouble with France and Great Britain 150 XVII. Building the West 161 XVIII. The Question of Slavery begins to make Trouble . . . .174 XIX. The Discovery of Gold and the Consequences .... 182 XX. The Slavery Question brings on Civil War 190 XXI. The War for the Union on the Land 195 XXII. The War for the Union on the Water 206 XXIII. Rebuilding the Southern States 213 XXIV. The Rise of the New West 220 XXV. The Close of the Century 228 XXVI. The Events of Recent Years 237 Index 245 6 PRIMARY HISTORY CHAPTER I HOW EUROPEANS FOUND AMERICA Four hundred and fifty years ago the people of western a new route Europe were getting silks, perfumes, shawls, ivoiy, spices, and n e ed e d n jewels from southeastern Asia, then called the Indies. But the Turks were conquering the countries across which these goods were carried, and it seemed so likely that the trade would be stopped, that the merchants began to ask if somebody could not find a new way to the Indies. The King of Portugal thought he could, and began sending his sailors in search of a way around Africa, which extended southward, nobody knew how far. Year after year his ships sailed down the west coast, the last captain going further south than the one before him, till one of them at last reached the southern end of the continent and entered the Indian Ocean. But long before this man found the Cape of Good Hope, the merchants said the new route to the Indies would be too long, 7 HOW EUROPEANS FOUND AMERICA Christopher Columbus § V ^ r ^U'""""" The Queen of Spain i , helps him ■E*"!~2 "■'-' Birthplace of Columbus and asked the question, Can not somebody find a shorter way? This question Christopher Colum- bus tried to answer. Columbus was born at Genoa, in Italy, and from boyhood was fond of the sea, fond of study, and especially fond of geography. When he was fourteen years old, he went to sea. Now, the more he traveled, and talked with sailors, and studied geography, the surer he became that the men who said the world is round were right. Very few people then believed this ; but Columbus did, and, believing it, he thought that he could reach the Indies by sailing westward over the oce?n as well as by traveling eastward over the land. All this was clear enough to him; but it was hard to make others think as he did, and years passed before he succeeded. He went to Portugal; he sent his brother to England ; and he talked and argued for eight years in Spain before Queen Isabella agreed to help him. Grit, self-reliance, and perseverance won at last, and he set out for the little town of Palos, in Spain, with orders for ships and sailors. HOW EUROPEANS FOUND AMERICA 9 westward Little won- When it was known at Palos what the Queen's orders were, Columbus there was almost a riot. The Atlantic Ocean, on which Colum- D bus was to sail — an ocean which is now crossed every year by thousands of men, women, and children, — was then almost unknown. Men called it the " Sea of Darkness." der, then, that the people of Palos were dis- mayed when they heard that they must furnish ships and sailors to explore this dreaded ocean. But the royal order must be obeyed, and so the officers of Palos set about the matter. Prisoners were set free from jail if they would agree to go with Columbus- Other men had debts for- given them, or suits at law stopped, if they too would go. Three small ships or car avels were seized without the owners' consent. In the ^ ~" largest, called the Santa Maria, Columbus went. Another was the Pinta. The smallest was called the Nina, which means Bahy. On board the three were exactly ninety men. Just before sunrise one summer morning, the little fleet set The voyage sail on the greatest voyage of discovery made by man. All sorts of terrors filled the minds of the sailors. When they were at the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa, a volcano burst into eruption, and they were sure this was a sign of bad luck. When the last of the Canaries disappeared behind them, they wept and wailed as if their hearts would break. Then the Santa Maria 10 HOW EUROPEANS EOUND AMERICA compass needle began to act queerly, and they were sure it was bewitched. Next the wind for days blew from the east, and they were sure they would never be able to sail home against Painting by li. Balacu Departure of Columbus Columbus discovers land it. But Columbus calmed their fears, explained the sights they did not understand, hid from them the true distance they had sailed, and went calmly on. At last signs of land began to appear. Now a tuft of grass ; now some seeds ; now a branch with some berries on it ; now a piece of wood cut and carved by a human hand, floated by. Then land birds flew over the ship. Finally, one night in October, Columbus saw a light moving, as if somebody were running along shore with a torch. Next a sailor saw land dis- tinctly, and then all saw a long, low beach a few miles distant. He thought it Columbus thought he had reached one of the islands of the part of the & indies Indies, and early the next morning went on shore, and in the HOW EUROPEANS FOUND AMERICA 11 presence of his men took possession of the island in the name claims the of the King and Qneen of Spain, and called it San Salvador, g^f* for which means Holy Savior. At the sight of the Spaniards in their glittering steel armor and bright-colored clothes, the natives fled to the woods; but finding no harm was done them, they soon gathered about the strangers, gazed at them in wonder, and at last grew bold enough to touch the whiskers, hands, and faces of the new- comers. The natives seemed nearly as strange to the Span- The natives iards. Their straight black hair, naked copper- colored bodies painted, some black, some white, some red, told Colum- bus at once that he had found a people quite unlike the curly-headed, black negroes of Africa, and made him feel sure that he was near the island of Cipango, a part of the long-sought Indies. The day of this dis- covery was October 12, 1492, and the island was one of a group we know as the Bahamas. After giving the people red caps, glass beads, hawk's bells, and other trinkets, and receiving in return parrots, and balls of cotton yarn, Columbus set sail to explore, and reached the coast of the island we call Cuba. A month and more was now island Columbus Point {First land seen by Columbus, 1U92) Columbus finds another 12 HOW EUROPEANS POUND AMERICA Columbus finds a third island Armor of Columbus Returns to Spain spent sailing along its shores. The Spaniards landed here and there to seek for gold, and on one occasion Columbus sent a party of men into the interior to search for a great city and a king who ate from dishes of gold. But the explorers found instead little villages of palm huts, from which the people fled as they ap- proached. At this stage of the voyage, Pinzon, the captain of the Pinta, deserted Columbus and sailed away to seek for gold on his own account. Columbus, however, went on along the coast of Cuba to the eastern end and soon beheld another island, whose beauty so reminded him of Spain that he named it Hispaniola, or " Little Spain." And now another disaster befell him, for while off Hispan- iola, or Haiti, the Santa Maria, with Columbus on board, was wrecked, and the crew were forced to go on shore. The natives were so kind, and the life of idleness so enjoy- able, that when the time came for Columbus to go back to Spain the sailors begged to be left behind. Some were left in charge of a rude fort, and so became the first colony of Span- iards in the New World, though they were soon killed. The voyage home in the Nina was a stormy one : again and again the little ship seemed about to sink, but in time it reached Palos in safety, and Columbus became the hero of the hour. Crowds followed Kind of huts Columbus saw HOW EUROPEANS FOUND AMERICA 13 Columbus thought he had reached the Indies him wherever he went; the King and Queen received him with great honor at court, listened eagerly to all he said, and gave him great power over the lands he had discovered or might discover ; and he was promptly sent on a second voyage to the west. In all, Columbus made four voyages, discovered Jamaica, But a continent blocked the way to the Indies 14 HOW EUROPEANS FOUND AMERICA Porto Rico, the islands of the Caribbean Sea, and even reached the coast of South America, and sailed along the shores of Honduras and the Isthmus of Panama. But the fact that he had discovered a new world, that a great continent blocked his way to India, never en- tered his mind. He thought he had reached Asia and some islands off the coast of Asia, and so the lands were called the Indies, and the inhabitants Indians. Long afterwards, when his mistake was found out, these islands were named West Indies, and those near Asia East Indies. As soon as Columbus had shown the way, others were quick to follow, and the Explorers new coasts were visited by Spaniards, Portuguese, Frenchmen, and Englishmen. Notice what then happened : Statue of Columbus, Barcelona follow Columbus Results of 2. exploration These explorations proved that not the coast of Asia, but a new world, had been found. This was called America, after Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian who explored the coast of South America for the King of Portugal. When it was shown that a continent blocked the way to Asia, a search was begun for a passage through or around it. In the course of this search, first for a southwest passage, and then for a northwest passage, the coast of America was still further explored. These explorations gave Spain, France, England, and Hol- land claims to parts of what is now our country. HOW EUROPEANS POUND AMERICA 15 Painting Reception of Columbus at Barcelona SUMMARY 1. Four hundred and fifty years ago the people of western Europe were trading with the East Indies. 2. The Turks began to cut off this trade, and the merchants of Europe needed a new route to the East. 3. Columbus (1492) set off from Spain to find this route by sailing west- ward across the Atlantic. 4. He landed on one of the Bahama islands, discovered Cuba and Plaiti, and claimed them for Spain. 5. Columbus having shown the way, other explorers followed him. 6. After many years they proved that not India, but a great continent blocking the way to India, had been discovered. 7. Then came attempts to find a way around it, which resulted in the explo- ration of the Atlantic coast of North and South America. 16 THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE The Indians Arms and implements Indian warrior CHAPTER II THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE When the first white men came to our shoras, they found the country thinly inhabited by the people Columbus had named Indians. They had copper-colored skin, coarse, jet-black hair, high cheek bones, thick lips, small eyes, and no whiskers. For a long time it was believed that in their wars with the whites they had become greatly reduced in number. But this is not the case. There are quite as many liv- ing in the United States /My to-day as then lived in the same terri- AgW t°ry. Two hun- dred and fifty years ago, the In- Mm? dians were scattered all over the country, from the /W Atlantic to the Pacific. Now few dwell east of the /iSf Mississippi River ; the great mass are far to -, ,jffr^ the west of it# A11 have greatly changed their fj^ypF mode of life, and many have learned to live like /^^S^fe white men. The Indians / ^SK^whom the early settlers met near the east coast / i |j^ / ^ nad never seen a gun, nor a sword, nor a metal knife, ^^nor an ax. They killed ani- mals and one stone another with stone tomahawks or hatchets, arrowhead an d stone- or bone-tipped arrows which they shot from wooden bows. As they knew nothing of iron or steel or brass, all their tools were made from wood or stone or the bones of animals. Thus, out of fish bones, they made fishhooks and needles, and out of flint, knives and hatchets. Bone fishhook THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE 17 ....■'• Making a birch-bark canoe In the northern part of our country, where birch trees were abundant, they made canoes of birch bark, sewing it together with strips of deerskin, and covering the seams with spruce tree gum to make them watertight. In the South they used trunks of great trees hollowed out by fire. Along the Atlantic seaboard the country was heavily Food wooded, and in the woods there were plenty of deer, elk, bears, foxes, wolves, and small ani- mals, which the Indians A du s out hunted and killed for food. West of the Appalachian Moun- tains was the region of the great treeless prairies, over which MCM. PR. H. 2 18 THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE Snowshoe The bark house The wigwam roamed immense herds of bison or buffalo, whose meat, shaggy hair, and hides served the redskins for many purposes. The meat was dried and kept for food, the hair was woven into cloth or twisted into ropes, and the hide was tanned and cut into ropes or worn as a blanket. The sea or the rivers sup- plied fish, beavers, and otters, and in the woods were found wild turkeys, and berries and other fruits. Besides food obtained by hunting and fishing, many tribes raised Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. They also raised tobacco. Their only domestic animal was the dog. A tribe was a number of Indians speaking the same language, and generally spread over a wide region. Each tribe was divided into smaller groups living in villages, which were often surrounded by high stockades or fences for purposes of defense. Within such walls there were either long houses of bark, in each of which a dozen or more families lived together; or wigwams, in which single families dwelt. A wigwam was usually made by thrust- ing thin poles into the ground in a circle and bending the tops together and tying them. Over the poles were then placed bark or the skins of animals, especially buffalo hide. On the ground in the middle of the wigwam was the fire, the smoke of which went out through a hole in the top which served as a chimney. Matches being unknown, Buffalo-skin wigwam THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE 19 Clay bowl Wooden dish the Indian lighted his fire by pressing a pointed stick against Fire and a piece of wood and making it turn around rapidly. To give cookmg it this motion he would take a little bow, wrap the string once around the stick, and move the bow quickly back and forth till the heat produced by the revolving stick set fire to the wood. Over the fire thus made, the In- dian women would broil fish laid across sticks raised above the flame, and in the ashes would roast corn, squashes, or sweet potatoes. Such as knew how to make clay pots would put them on the fire and boil meat and vegetables in them. Such as used wooden vessels filled them with water and threw in hot stones till the water was hot enough to cook whatever they wished. Indian corn when dried was pounded into meal, mixed with water, and baked in the ashes. Neither men nor women wore much clothing. Deerskin clothing moccasins or shoes embroidered with shell beads and quills of the porcupine, deerskin leggings (in winter), a strip of deerskin about the waist, and a deerskin cloak over the shoulders completed the dress of the men in northern parts. The women wore deerskin aprons and beaver- skin mantles. In the South mantles were woven from a plant called silk grass. About the neck as ornaments were claws of bears, eagles, or hawks, and strings of beads made from sea- shells and called wampum. This wampum was highly prized and was used not only for ornament, but also as money, and was woven into belts to be given as presents when treaties Moccasins 20 THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE What the men did were made. Indeed, for many years after the colonies were founded, the white settlers used wampum as money. The duty, of the Indian man, or "brave," was to hunt, fish, and fight. He would make arrows, bows, canoes, and stone tools, but he thought any other kind of work was beneath him. No young Indian was of any importance till he had killed an enemy and brought home the scalp ; and the more scalps he brought home, the greater " brave " he was thought to be. As the scalp was the proof of victor}^ each warrior wore a scalp lock as a challenge to his enemies, and defended it with his life. The lock was made by shaving the hair close except on the crown of the head, where it was allowed to grow long, and was ornamented with feathers. The Indian's way of fighting was to the white man dishonorable. The fair and open fight had no charm for the redskins. To their minds it was the height of folly to kill an enemy at the risk of their own lives, when they might shoot the foe from behind a tree, or waylay him in Manner of ambush as he hurried along a forest trail, or at the fighting d ea( j f night rouse their sleeping victims with the hideous war whoop and kill them in cold blood. The Indians were very skillful in laying an ambush, that is, in hiding themselves so that they could attack the enemy when he did not expect it. Digging up the hatchet meant preparing for war. Going on the warpath meant waging war. Burying the hatchet *- meant making peace. A warrior's scalp lock Wampum THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE 21 Squaw carrying papoose Labor of all sorts was done by the women, or what the squaws." They planted and pounded the corn, ^J^e/did brought the water, dressed the skins, made the clothing, and, when the band traveled from one place to another, carried the household goods and belongings. Taking care of the children, or " papooses," was a simple matter. Till a child was old enough to run about, it was carefully wrapped up in skins and tied to a wicker framework, and hung up on the branch of a tree, or leaned against the trunk, or car- ried on the mother's back. Once able to go alone, the boys were taught to shoot with arrows at a mark, to fish, and to make stone arrowheads and tools ; and the girls, to weave, make pottery and baskets, and do all the things they would be expected to do as squaws or wives of the braves. In the eastern part of our country, all along the seaboard, Indians in the Indians lived in villages and wandered about very little. Hunting parties and war parties traveled great distances, but each tribe had its home. Thus the Massachusetts dwelt along the east coast of our state of Massachusetts; the Pequots, in east- ern Connecticut ; and the Iroquois, in central New York. So it was in the Ohio valley. But on the great plains of the Northwest the Indians were wanderers, having no fixed homes, but roving the plains with their women, chil- dren, and all their belongings. Papoose 22 THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE Indians in In the far Southwest, where are now Arizona and New wes Mexico, dwelt still another sort of Indians. They did not live in wigwams of skin, or huts of bark, but in great fort- like houses of adobe, or sun-baked clay. These houses the Spaniards called pueblos, a word meaning villages or towns, for they were really huge hotels in each of which lived the people of a whole village. Some were two, some were four, and one seven stories high. The second story was set back from the first, the third from the second, and the fourth from the third, thus leaving in front of each story a broad space like a street. There were no doors. The Indians climbed by ladders from story to story, and entered the pueblo through holes in the roofs of the different stories. Many of the pueblos which were standing when the white man first saw these Indians, more than three hundred years ago, have since then crumbled away. But the Indians of to-day still live in the same sort of houses, little changed in appear- ance. Several such pueblos may be seen in the southwestern part of our country. Now, these houses have doors; but _ _ , . the Indians still go from story to story by lad- Zuni woman making ° J J J pottery ders. Now, the Indians have flocks and herds, obtained of course from the Spaniards, who first brought horses, hogs, and cows to our country. They raise corn, wheat, barley, and fruit, make pottery, spin and weave THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAY OF LIFE 23 A pueblo cloth, and make baskets. Yet they are the same kind of Indians that the Spaniards met when they first entered the land that is now the United States. SUMMARY 1. When Columbus discovered America he thought he was on the coast of the Indies, and called the inhabitants Indians. 2. At that time they lived all over our country ; now most of them live in the West. 3. They knew nothing of iron and steel, and made their hatchets, knives, fishhooks, etc., out of stone or bones, and their canoes of bark or tree trunks. 4. They lived by hunting, fishing, and growing Indian corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. West of the Appalachian Mountains were many buf- faloes, which the Indians hunted. 24 THE SPANIARDS IN THE SOUTH 5. Horses, cows, sheep, and pigs were unknown to the Indians. They had dogs, and wild turkeys from which our tame turkeys are descended. Most of the labor was done by the squaws. The braves did little else than hunt, fish, and fight. The Indians in the eastern part of our country did not wander much ; but the Indians of the plains were rovers. 8. In the Southwest were the Pueblo Indians. 6. 7. >>»<< CHAPTER III Ponce de Leon's search THE SPANIARDS IN THE SOUTH The Spaniards following in the track of Columbus took possession of Cuba and Haiti, Porto Rico, and the other West Indies, and sent explorers from these islands (map, p. 43). One of these Spaniards, Ponce de Leon, got it into his head, from something the Indians told him, that on an island to the northward was a fountain of youth, and that whoever drank of its waters would never grow old. Nothing would do but he must find it, and with his king's leave he accordingly set out from Porto Rico. On Easter Sunday, which in Spanish is Pascua Florida, he came in sight of a coast which, in memory of that day, has ever since been Discovers called Florida. He landed near the present town of St. Florida Augustine, and, not finding his fountain of youth, turned back. Later he tried again, but the Indians drove him off. Spanish treasure ships THE SPANIARDS IN THE SOUTH 25 He called it the ^ s for — .>-. Spanish soldier Another Spaniard, while sailing along the coast of the Gulf Narvaez *■ • • • t-> • TT -n-i-iji- seeks fo of Mexico, entered the Mississippi River River of the Holy Spirit, and brought back such wondrous stories of the Indians and their gold orn ments that a third Spanish soldier, named Narvaez, sailed from Spain to occupy the country which seemed so rich in gold. With several hundred reckless followers at his back, he landed on the west coast of Florida, and, leaving his i ships, marched inland. But as he pushed on through the woods and swamps, food grew scarce and some of his men died of hunger. Hostile Indians shot others from behind trees and bushes. Swamps, lakes, and many streams made prog- ress slow, and more soldiers died of fevers. At last the army, with ranks thinned by hunger, sickness, and fights with the red men, turned back and reached the coast far to the west of their ships. Bv dint of ereat labor five rude boats were made and launched, Meets J « -, -i -> , , i 4- disaster and in these what was left of the band put to sea and went westward. But their sufferings at sea were as great as on land. Storms scattered and wrecked the boats. Two of them with all on board went down. The others crossed the mouth of the Mississippi where it rushes into the Gulf, and were driven on what the explor- ers called, truly enough, Misfortune Island. There they passed the winter, and in the spring those who Spanish cannon 26 THE SPANIARDS IN THE SOUTH Sees 1 • hunch back cows ' ' were still alive, sixteen in number, determined to escape. But when the time came to go, several were too sick to move and were left behind. The rest reached the mainland somewhere in Texas, and all save three were slain by the Indians. Of the men left on the island one died, another disappeared, and vaca another, named Vaca, lived six horrible years among the m Texas i n( ji ans# jj e was p asse( j a bout from tribe to tribe. He was sometimes a slave, sometimes an outcast, always a nuisance to the poor savages. He could not be a warrior because he was too weak. He could not gather wood or draw water be- cause none but women did such things. He could not hunt because he did not know how to track animals. He could walk, however, and would wander off and trade with the northern Indians. He would take shells and shell beads from the seashore tribes and exchange them for skins, red clay, and flint with the northern inland tribes. In the course of these trading trips Vaca saw "hunchback cows." They were the bison or buffalo then roaming by millions over the plains, and he was the first European to see them. But he also heard of his three companions, and at last found them. These four wretched beings, all that were left of the many whom Narvaez had led in search of gold and conquest, then tried to escape from the Indians. After several months, led by Vaca, they succeeded, and set out toward the west. Their way was across - Buffalo THE SPANIARDS IN THE SOUTH 27 Texas, and as they went on from tribe to tribe, noticed that the Indians they met were more and more civilized. The tribes on the coast were wanderers, living on roots, berries, and fish, and had little clothing. Far back from the coast, the Indians dwelt in sod houses, raised beans and pumpkins, and wore cotton clothes which they washed with a soapy root. Once the four Spaniards met a native with the buckle of a sword belt hung around his neck, who told them of white men like themselves. Then they met a band of Spaniards, and aided by them pushed on till they came to the west coast of Mexico, and wandering down the shores of the Gulf of California, reached a Spanish town. They had walked across our continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of California. When the Spanish ruler of Mexico heard the wonder- ful story of Vaca, he sent another explorer, Brother Marcos, to find out more about the country of which Vaca had so much to tell. As Marcos trudged along he came to an Indian village where he was told of seven The buffalo ag the Spaniards drew him Wonderful Cities with houses {From an old print) they Wanders westward Spanish armor 28 THE SPANIARDS IN THE SOUTH Coronado in the Southwest of stone. Following the directions given, he started off, and on the western edge of New Mexico came upon the seven pueblos of Zuhi. A pueblo, as we have said, was a very large house of adobe or sun-baked clay, several stories high, and holding a great many people. Some pueblos were high forts big enough to hold an entire tribe. Some were built on the plains ; others were perched on cliffs that rose high above the plain. But Marcos had no more than a glimpse of one of them ; for the Zuhi killed one of his party there, and he hurried back home. What he saw was enough to make others want to see more. All the reckless and adventure-loving spirits were eager to conquer this wonderful country with its seven cities. So the governor of Mexico sent them off under Coro- nado with orders to stay they had found the seven went along as guide. and never come back until wonderful towns. Marcos Working their way on foot across the great dry plains, the party came to the Zuhi pueblos and captured them, and then sent out men to visit the towns near by- One of these parties came to a "sky city" called Acoma, perched on the summit of a lofty mass of rock whose sides rise like the walls of a room for three hundred and fifty feet above the level plain. There was only one entrance, by a kind of stairway, and at the top of this was a great pile of huge stones ready to be rolled down on the heads of any enemy who might attempt to climb up. Not very far away on Zuni woman weaving a belt THE SPANIARDS IN THE SOUTH 29 the plain was a town, or fort, which had seven stories, and near this another, of four stories, now in ruins. Winter coming on, the Spaniards marched to what was then a pueblo, but is now a pretty village on the Rio Grand( in New Mexico, and there passed the winter. When spring came, Coronado set off north- eastward in search of a land which the Indians told him was rich in gold. In his search he wandered across the dry plains into what is now Kansas. He crossed miles and miles of sun-baked plains with scarcely a tree on them ; he saw thousands and thousands of buffalo ; he met bands of fierce roaming Indi- ans ; but he found no city and no gold, and went back disheartened to Mexico, where the governor, angry at his return, punished him. In the West the Spaniards had thus explored Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and had reached Kansas. While Coronado and his men were searching for a golden De Soto city on the plains of the Southwest, De Soto was making a like g^heast search in the swamps and forests of the South. Landing in Florida, he led his men across Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the Mississippi River, crossed it, and somewhere on the western bank died of fever. His followers buried him at night in the great river, and, having built boats as quickly as possible, floated downstream to the Gulf of Mexico, and coasted westward along Texas to Mexico. The death of De Soto on the Mississippi and the return of claims of Coronado to Mexico took place just fifty years after the dis- Spain covery of the New World by Columbus. What had the Spaniards done in our country during this half century ? Ponce de Leon, De Soto, and others had explored the country A Mexican Indian 30 THE SPANIARDS IN THE SOUTH from Florida to the Mississippi ; and Coronado and other Spaniards had marched over much of the land in the South- west. By right of discovery and exploration, Spain thus secured a claim to all the southern part of our country. But as yet the Spaniards had not founded a city nor a town nor so much as a village anywhere within the limits of what is now our country ; and many years went by before they began to build the first towns, — St. Augustine in Florida and Santa Fe The oldest house in Santa Fe in New Mexico. SUMMARY 1. The Spaniards, having taken possession of Cuba, Haiti, and Porto Rico, began to explore the mainland. 2. Ponce de Leon discovered and named Florida, but was driven out by the Indians. A little later Narvaez led an army into Florida, but was driven out, and sailing westward, was wrecked ; soon only four of his men were left alive. 3. These four made a wonderful march across the continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of California. 4. After hearing their story, the governor of Mexico sent out an explorer who discovered the Zuni pueblos. This expedition was followed by the more remarkable one of Coronado. 5. De Soto and his men wandered from Florida northwestward and dis- covered the Mississippi River. 6. All this gave Spain a claim to what is ROW 'the southern part of the United States. THE FRENCH IN THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 31 CHAPTER IV THE FRENCH IN THE VALLEYS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE AND THE MISSISSIPPI The time was now at hand when, ^__ in addition to Spain, another European nation was to lay claim to parts of our country. Very soon after Columbus made his famous voyage, the fishermen of the west coast of France crossed the Atlantic in search of new fishing grounds. Sailing westward, they came to the shores of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Law- rence (map, p. 43), and found that the sea there was full of codfish. A great fishing industry grew up, and year after year little fleets of fishing boats went back and forth between France and America. While the Spaniards were hunt- ing for gold mines and a fountain of youth, the French were French catching codfish, which readily sold for gold in the Old World fisheries markets. They had found a real ^ ^ gold mine in the sea. For a time France made no attempt to explore America ; she could not, however, long remain inactive while every year added to the possessions and glory of Spain, so at last a great French sailor, named Cartier, was sent to find a northwest passage to the Indies. Costume of a French gentleman Cartier discovers the St. Lawrence The Indian village THE FRENCH IN THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY Following the way taken by the French fisher- men, he sailed north of the island of Newfound- land, crossed the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and entered the river of the same name. Going up this river, he came to the cliffs now crowned by the city of Quebec, and found them occupied by a few bark cabins. The Indians who lived there were delighted to see the French, and told them of a greater town far up the river ; but urged them not to go on. Cartier, however, with a few sailors in small boats, went on till he came near the spot where now stands the city of Montreal. There he beheld crowds of Indians, who danced, and sang, and paddled out to greet him in canoes loaded with corn and fish. Led by the delighted red men, Cartier and his band landed and marched through the dense forest to a clearing, where, in the midst of cornfields, stood the Indian village. Around it was a high fence or stockade of tree trunks. Passing through the narrow entrance, the French found themselves in an open space surrounded by long houses of bark, from which women and children came in crowds. They touched - the whiskers of the men, and felt their faces and their strange armor. Then the women Indian long house of bark Indian bow, arrows and quiver THE FRENCH IN THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 33 Quebec {From an old print) and children were pushed aside, and the lame, the old, and the blind were brought to be touched and healed by the white strangers, whom the Indians thought to be gods. >.-^~ After an exchange of presents, Cartier sailed back to the site of Quebec, and ii the early summer of the next year went home to France. Because of this voyage up the St. Lawrence, the French King now claimed the country round about that river, and made some attempts to settle it. But one after another they failed, until, after many years, Champlain sailed up the St. Lawrence River and founded champiain Quebec (1608). He made friends with the neighboring Indi- 1°™^ ans, who, when they saw the wonderful things the French could do with their guns, begged him to go with them to fight the Iroquois Indians, who lived in what is now central New York. So with them Champlain went to the lake which now bears his name, and there one night beheld in the distance a mass of dark moving objects which he knew to be canoes filled with the foe. ■ fa The Iroquois at Champlain once made Defeat of the Iroquois at Lake Champlain {From an old print) McM. PR. H. 3 for the f ndthe Iroquois shore and passed the night in putting up such rude de- fenses as they could. In the morning the Canadian Indians landed and marched into the forest till they came near their 34 THE FRENCH IN THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY Early French pistol Hatred of Iroquois French missionaries enemy. Champlain then advanced, and fired his musket. The woods rang with the report. One chief fell dead, and another rolled on the ground wounded. Then arose, says Champlain, a yell like a thunderclap, and the air was full of whizzing arrows. But when another and another gunshot came from the bushes, the Iroquois fled like deer. They had never seen nor heard a musket before, and did not understand what it was. They only knew that it suddenly made a terrible noise and smoke and that at the same time one or more of their men fell down dead or wounded. The musket of the white man had done its work. The victory was won, but it made the Iroquois hate the French for many years afterward. These Indi- ans lived in the region south of Lake Ontario and were the fiercest and most powerful tribes in America. !(/ Because of the hatred of the Iroquois, & the French never made settlements south of Lake Ontario ; but pushed their explorations westward across Canada to Lake Huron and beyond. First of French explorers went brave Catholic priests and missionaries. With cru- cifix, Bible, and altars on their backs, they walked through forests and paddled up rivers where no white man had been before, building bark chapels in the woods, and trying to teach and convert the French priests journeying through the wilderness THE FRENCH IN THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 35 French soldier natives. The Indians were often hostile and some- times treated the missionaries with great cruelty, even burning them to death; but neither these savage foes nor the cold of winter, neither hunger nor the hardships of the wilderness, could stop the brave and devoted priests. For half a century after the founding of Quebec, French settlers came to Canada but slowly. Then the King of France, deeply in- terested in the welfare of Canada, began to send over at least three hundred men a year. By and by shiploads of young women came, that every unmarried man might have a wife. The life of an early colonist was a hard one. His home was a log hut. His food and that of his family was such vegetables as he could Early French raise on the little piece of land he had cleared of trees, such game as he could kill, and eels, fresh in the summer, but smoked and dried in winter. During the long, cold season of ice and snow he cut timber and made planks and shingles which he ex- changed at Quebec for clothing and other articles he must have, as powder, bullets, tools. Besides encouraging farming, the gov- ernment tried to get more people engaged in fishing for cod and in catching whales. But the only sort of trade that really flour- ished in Canada was the trade with the Indians for furs. Everybody wanted to buy and sell beaver skins. Each year a settlers The fur trade Costume of French woman 36 THE FRENCH IN THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY Flintlock pistol and powder horn Coureurs de bois great fair was held at Montreal to which the Indians came by the hundred from the western lakes in their bark canoes. Merchants from Quebec and Mont- real would arrange their goods along the outside of the palisades, and their bright-colored cloth, beads, blankets, kettles, and knives were exchanged for beaver skins. All these merchants had to obey the orders of the King's officers ; and the officers used their power unfairly, and so got nearly all the profits of the fur trade. Numbers of hardy young men, therefore, took to the woods and traded with the Indians far beyond the reach of the officers. In hope of stopping this, the governor forbade any one to trade with the savages in the forest unless he had permission, which he must buy from the governor. Some merchants obeyed, and paid the price. But the young men went on trading as before. By so doing they became outlaws, and if caught, might be whipped and marked with a red-hot iron. But they were not often caught, for they lived with the Indians, and seldom went near the white settlements. They were called wood rangers, or coureurs de bois. They built forts at many places in the West and North- west. One of these early forts was at Detroit. But their great meeting place, and the center of the beaver trade, was a mission station on the Strait of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan Missions joins Lake Huron. From there, in twos and threes, they would and forts ge ^ f 0T fa an( j roam the forests, trapping beaver. Wood ranger THE FRENCH IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 37 Great Lakes The wood rangers often married Indian women, and this went a long way to make the Indians of the Northwest friendly toward the French. The English, on the other hand, fought the Indians and did not marry into their tribes. As the priests and traders went further and further westward, French on they planted trading posts, stockaded forts, and mission stations along the shores of Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior, and explored all the country , \ round about. Our Central States are covered with French names, which con- stantly remind us that France once owned i great part of our country. When, in the course of their wander- m ^ ings, the priests /: >'•;: ■HEa Wrwml PoBK-* »JHP BIB ^^^IiL^^HIpI 0|9^PI| '^ IjmsKSSi bp^5 i J^^^Hf^P^jS^ssWHIKflHrQlLwitf ^ jJm'- '^^m| m[' .#iiB BsSKSS-^^S ? - .1 ffina ifl inting 6(/ Henry Bruecknar Marriage of Pocahontas 48 THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA Tobacco raising and they decided to leave Jamestown forever. Then the huts were stripped of everything worth taking away, and the set- tlers, boarding the ships, sailed down the river. Such, how- ever, was not to be the end of Jamestown. As the settlers neared the sea they met three well-stocked vessels from Eng- land, and turning back reoccupied the huts just abandoned, and began a new struggle for a living. And a struggle it was. The newcomers were quite unfit for life in the wilderness, and the colony can not be said to have become prosperous till the colonists began to raise tobacco, which greatly changed the whole course of events in Virginia. In the first place, when the people found what good prices tobacco brought in England, they raised it rather than corn or wheat, and it became the chief crop. In the second place, when men in England saw that money was to be made by tobacco growing in Virginia, they came over to engage in planting, and the colony drew to itself a better class of settlers. In the third place, tobacco became a sort of money, and the price of food, of clothes, of articles of all sorts, and even wages, were paid in pounds of tobacco. In the fourth place, as the colony grew in num- bers, and tobacco planting became more and more the chief business of the colony, people lived on plantations rather than in towns and cities. About the time the Virginians may be said to have fairly started on their career of prosperity (when the colony was twelve years old), an odd thing happened, — a wives for shipload of young women arrived in search of husbands. Of the men who had heretofore come over very few had wives Tobacco plant settlers THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA 49 iiii'WvIK^^ A fH ■iiit'-^ . : H| .« If IF III. 1 ■K ■BBBKBH i Westover, a Virginia colonial bouse and children. The company which man- aged affairs in Vir- ginia knew very well that without homes and children and family ties, their colony could never become prosperous. The company there- fore decided to pro- vide wives, and find- ing ninety young women willing to go, sent them out to Jamestown. Each one was free to choose her husband. But the girls were so much sought for, that the company sent out shipload after shipload, and then each man had to pay the passage of his wife, which was one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco. During the same year in which these young women arrived, Negro slaves another ship, bearing a very different sort of people, touched at Jamestown. It was a Dutch man-of-war, and from it twenty negroes were sold to the colonists. These were the first negro slaves in our country, and from their introduction dates the beginning of slavery, which in time brought about much trouble. Many years went by, however, before slaves became numer- indented ous, and in the meantime much of the labor was performed servants by white persons called indented servants or redemptioners. These were men, women, and children who had been sold for a certain number of years, and who would not be free till they had worked that length of time for their masters. Some of them were persons who had sold themselves in this way, in 50 THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA Great tobacco plantations No roads order to pay their passage to America ; some of them were criminals, or persons guilty of some little offense, who had been sold for a time instead of being punished in any other way ; some of them were boys or girls who had been stolen from their homes and carried off by force, something like the negro slaves. These indented servants could be bought and sold like slaves or cattle, but only for the time dur- ing which 'they were bound to serve. When that time was up, they no longer had to work with- out pay, but might work for wages, or might get small plan- tations of their own. Some, how- ever, were lazy and became beg- gars and thieves. With the cultivation of tobacco, the arrival of the maids, and the coming of more emigrants from England, the settled part of Virginia was greatly increased. By the time the colony was twenty years old, large plantations were scattered along the banks of the York and James rivers, and Virginia had begun to be a new kind of country. There were no roads, scarcely any villages, and tobacco planting had become the chief industry. There were no roads because the plantations generally lay along some river or stream, and it was easier to pass from one to another by water than by land. There were no towns (save a few very small ones, such as Henricus and Bermuda), because almost everybody lived on plantations, and because all trade and commerce were carried on at the planter's own door. Main gateway at Westover THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA 51 The ships that came from England for the tobacco would sail up the rivers to the planters' wharves, take on board what tobacco was for sale, and pay for it with articles brought from the mother country. Tables, chairs, knives, saws, axes, nails, hammers, clothing, shoes, — almost everything the planter needed for his family, his house, his plantation, and his serv- ants, came from abroad. The Virginians bought all these things from England, not Little because they were too lazy to make them for themselves, but be- jj^j 1 * fac cause they were so busy planting and curing tobacco, and because they had very few good work- men. So general was tobacco plant- ing, so completely did it take men away from other pursuits, that when Virginia was about twenty-five years old, a law was made forbidding brick- makers, carpenters, turners, sawyers, and joiners to plant or farm. Another effect of the Virginian way of living on plantations was, as we have said, the small number Few towns of towns. This, too, the Virginia lawmakers tried to remedy. Ruins of the church at Jamestown 52 THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA They ordered each county to build one brick house in James- town, and required all the tobacco raised within a certain region to be sent there. But the law was not obeyed, and Jamestown never contained more than a church, a courthouse, and a few houses. To-day its site is a farm, and, save the ruined tower of the church, and some tombs and graves, little remains to show where it once stood. Yet another law required towns to be built at certain places, and offered all kinds of favors to persuade people to live in them. But this, too, was a failure, and it was a long time before the present cities of Vir- ginia struggled into the shape of villages. There were other towns established by law in each county as Siihiey Early houses places in which to try lawsuits and punish criminals, but they rarely consisted of more than the courthouse, the jail (near which stood the stocks, the pillory, and the whipping post), a wretched inn for the use of the judges and lawyers, and some- times a church. Such a place was called a " Court House " and was named from the county in which it was situated, as Hanover Court House, Culpeper Court House, and the like. In early times the houses of the Virginia settlers were of logs and built without iron. Wooden pegs were used in place THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA 53 of nails ; leather was used for hinges ; and a wooden latch with a leather string to lift it answered all the purposes of our door knob and lock. So valuable were nails that a common practice of settlers in later times when leaving their farms was to burn down the house and pick the nails out of the ashes ; and in the hope of stopping this custom Virginia offered to give the mover as many nails as were believed to be in the house, pro- vided he left it standing. As the people became more prosperous, log houses gave place to long, narrow board houses with huge stone or log chimneys at each end, and partitions plas- tered with mud and whitewashed. Some- times the windows were furnished with glass ; but more often only shutters were used to keep out the wind and rain. The great planters had fine houses, a few of which, built two hundred years ago, Great are still standing. They are of brick or wood, have names, P lanters ' as Shirley, or Lower Brandon, or Sabin Hall, or Westover, and are fine examples of their kind. Around the Hall, and separate from it, were the kitchen, with its huge fireplace and curious cooking utensils ; the offices, the vegetable garden, the ware- houses for tobacco and grain, the stables, the cattle pens, the dairy, and the cluster of little log cabins where the slaves lived, known as the negro quarters. The slaves and white redemptioners, of which on the great MoM. PR. H. — 4 Negro quarters 54 THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA Lord Baltimore Maryland settled plantations there were generally several hundred, did all the work. Some were coopers and made barrels in which the tobacco was packed and rolled to the wharf or warehouse ; others were blacksmiths,, carpenters, sawyers, spinners ; some • s were weavers and knitters who made coarse cloth and stockings for the negroes. But this was at a time when Virginia was a hundred years or more old. Long before that time the London Company which at first controlled Virginia had been broken up, so that the colony came under the control of the English King. Then, about twenty-five years after the founding of Jamestown, King Charles I. cut off a piece of Virginia and gave it to Lord Baltimore. This nobleman had attempted to plant a colony in New- foundland, but the French attacked him, and the climate was so cold and the winters so long and the soil so poor that he applied to the King for a piece of Virginia. The great tract given him he called Maryland after the Queen. For it he was to pay the King two Indian arrows every year, which meant that the King did not give up all authority over the colony. About this time the first Lord Baltimore died ; but his son went on with the work, and sent out a body of colonists, who landed on a little island not far from the mouth of the Potomac River. Later they moved to the banks of the river and started the town of St. Marys. Hallway at Shirley THE ENGLISH IN VIRGINIA 55 Though Maryland was a Catholic colony, Lord Baltimore opened it to all Christians ; and soon members of several Protestant churches made their homes on its soil. What has been said of life in Virginia is just as true of life Life in in Maryland. There too people raised tobacco, lived on large Mar y land plantations rather than in towns, traveled about by water rather than by land, and cultivated their plantations by in- dented white servants and negro slaves. There were no large cities to which the planters could send their crops to be sold and shipped abroad. Each plantation had, if possible, frontage on some river or the bay, and to its wharf or " landing " would come the English merchant ships to exchange the knives, saws, silks, and muslins of the Old World for the tobacco of the New. When the plantation was not on a stream deep enough to float a great ship, the tobacco or grain would be loaded on a raft and pushed down to the ship. When ^ ^ % there was no stream, an axle would iiifT^ri] *w be made fast to each cask of tobacco, which was then rolled along to market. The first town in _ s Maryland was St. Marys. ~ Rollin S tobacco to market The second, Annapolis, rose to be the most important in the colony, and remained so till Baltimore was founded when Maryland was nearly a hundred years old. SUMMARY 1. A few years after the voyage of Columbus, Cabot sailed along the coast of North America and gave the English a claim based on discovery. 2. About a hundred years later attempts were made by Ralegh to found an English colony on Roanoke Tsland, but failed. 56 THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 3. At last the London Company planted Jamestown, in Virginia (1607), the first successful settlement by the English in our country. 4 The company sent out shiploads of young women to marry the men; and numbers of laborers, called redemptioners ; while a Dutch ship brought the first negro slaves introduced into our country. 5. In Virginia in early times there were a great number of tobacco planta- tions, and hardly any towns. 6. When Jamestown was about twenty-five years old, the King gave a large tract of land to Lord Baltimore. This new colony was called Maryland. 7. Lord Baltimore made Maryland a Roman Catholic colony ; but people of any Christian sect were welcome to settle there and were not molested. CHAPTER VI THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND why the While the Virginia settlers were passing their first year in leftBngiand * ne New World, a number of men and women in England who had begun to worship God in a manner not allowed by the laws of that time, and had been harshly treated, fled to Hol- land, where they might worship as they pleased. They were glad enough to find such a place of refuge. But if they and their children after them were to remain in Holland, they would forget their native land, forget their native lan- guage, lay aside the manners and customs of Englishmen, and at length become Dutchmen. As they were not willing to do this, they resolved to move to some part of the world where they might still be Englishmen, and yet be free to worship God in their own way. There was then only one such land, and that was America. To America, therefore, they turned, formed a company, and having obtained leave to settle on the coast of what is now THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 57 New Jersey, a little band of Pilgrims sailed from Holland to pilgrims sail England. There others joined them, and the company thus forAmenca increased in number started in two ships, the Speedwell and the Mayflower, for the New World. But they had not gone far from land when the Speedwell sprung a leak, and both returned to port. Some repairs were made, after which the two again set sail and had crossed three hundred miles of water, when the Speedwell leaked so badly that they were once more du.tj by Chas. \Y. Co M Pilgrims leaving Holland forced to put back. A few of the band now gave up all idea of going, and remained in England. The rest, just one hun- dred and two men, women, and children, crowded on board the other vessel, the Mayflower, and once more started for America. 58 THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND The weather was so bad and the wind so high that nine weeks passed before they came in sight of land, which proved to be the shore of Cape Cod, far from the Jersey coast for which they had started. The Mayflower was therefore turned southward. But head winds drove her back, \ <\ and the Pilgrims were forced to seek shelter in what is now Prov- incetown harbor, behind The Mayflower Cape Cod. The country round about was so poor a place for a settlement that par- ties were sent to find a better one, and five weeks were spent in exploring the shores. At last one party, under Captain Miles Standish, entered a harbor so at- tractive that it was chosen for the settlement. To this harbor the Mayflower was brought with all on board, and a few days Plymouth before Christmas, 1620, the Pilgrims went on shore to begin the building of a town, which was named Plymouth. As usual with settlers in a new country, the sufferings of the Pilgrims during the first winter were terrible. Before spring half of them died. But the rest were steadfast, and, guided by the wisdom of William Bradford and defended by the skill and courage of Miles Standish, the colony passed through all the perils of the wil- derness. Relics of Miles Standish Pilgrims settle THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 59 One day in the early spring an Indian walked into Plymouth Pilgrims and and astonished the people by saying " Welcome ! " in good English. He was Samoset, and had learned the word from some fishermen who visited the coast before the Pilgrims. By and by he paid another visit with four companions, one of whom was called Squanto. Squanto had been carried away by one of the early explorers, had been taken to England, and had at last been brought back to his old home near Plymouth Bay. During his long stay abroad Squanto had learned to speak Eng- lish, and now he be- came a most important man in Plymouth. He acted as interpre- New England ter between the Pilgrims and the Indians. He taught the what squanto settlers how to fish, how to catch eels, and how to plant and tau s ht cultivate corn, and told them to put a fish in each hill of corn, as manure. On his first visit Squanto said that Massasoit, chief of a neighboring tribe, was coming to see the colonists. The Pilgrims received this chief with great ceremony, and a treaty was made, binding each to help the other and to trade as friends. Not every chief was as friendly as Massasoit, and presently the head of another near-by tribe sent a messenger to Plymouth 60 THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND Rhode Island settled with a rattlesnake skin wrapped about a bundle of arrows. Nobody knew what this meant. But the next time Squanto came to Plym- outh he said it was a chal- lenge to fight. When Brad- ford heard this, he filled the snake skin with powder and bullets, and sent it back. Then the hostile chief de- cided not to fight, after all. But the Pilgrims were not the only people who could not live in England. Others, known as the Puritans, were now so harshly treated that they too turned to America. Coming over in great num- bers, they founded Salem and Boston, and other towns near by, and thus planted a new colony called Massachusetts Bay. In a little while, however, disputes arose in the new colony over church matters, and numbers of the settlers went off under different leaders and built other towns. One of them, a young minister named Roger Williams, was so disliked that he was ordered to go back to England. Instead of going to England, Williams fled to the village of Massasoit, passed a winter there, and in die spring built a house near by at a place he called Providence. This was the beginning of the colony of Rhode Island. Fainting by C. H. Houghton Puritans going to church THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 61 About the same time another very famous minister, Thomas Connecticut Hooker, left Massachusetts Bay with a great many of his settled congregation. They started westward, walk- ing through the forests, driving their cattle before them, till they came to the banks of the Connecticut, where they founded Hart- ford. Other bands soon followed the example of Hooker's party, and built two more towns near Hartford. These were the beginnings of Connecticut. Two years later another colony was started at New Haven. The arrival of settlers in the Connecticut valley led the chief of the Pequot Indians to attempt to drive out the whites, and he began by trying to persuade other tribes to join him on the warpath. Hearing of this, the settlers begged Roger Williams to do his best to prevent such a union of powerful tribes. Williams had little reason to love the people who had driven him into exile ; but he was too noble a man to seek revenge, and by his influence the union of the tribes was prevented. Left to themselves, the Pequots now Pequotwai attacked the settlers. Men were killed on their way to the fields, people were scalped, and girls were carried off. Such things were not to be endured, and as 1 soon as possible a little band of whites, with some friendly Indians, set off to attack the Pequots. Monument over Plymouth Rock The flag of New England 62 THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND Destruction of the Pequots King Philip's War Pequot village Their village, which stood not far from Stonington, was a collection of wigwams surrounded by a circular fence or i stockade of tree trunks set firmly on end in the ground. The trunks touched each other, leav- ing chinks through which the Indians, when attacked, could fire. It was a bright moonlight night in May when the army came in sight of the village, within which were several hundred savages. At the sight of the stockade, the Indian allies of the English were filled with fear and slunk back. So the little band of white men went on alone to attack the whole Indian vil- lage. As they drew near, the barking of the dogs aroused the Pequots; but some of the white men guarded the two entrances, and shot down every one who attempted to escape. Others guarded the stockade and flung burning torches over it, setting fire to the wigwams. Of the many Indians who were in the village, only five escaped death. The Pequot tribe was destroyed, and for nearly forty years no other Indians dared lift a hand against the whites. During these years of peace the colo- nists increased rapidly in number, built new towns, and crowded the Indians more and more. The loss of their land of course angered the savages, and they would gladly have killed all the settlers. But they remembered the fate of the Pequots and kept quiet till a chief called King Philip dug up the hatchet, and began Chair of the first governor of Plymouth THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 63 (1675) a three years' war for the purpose of | driving the white man from the country. For a time it seemed as if the people on the frontier would all be killed. Village after village was attacked and fearful deeds were done. Out of ninety towns twelve were burned to the ground, and forty were at- tacked and many of their inhabitants slaugh- tered. More than a thousand white men and scores of women and children perished be- fore Philip was killed and the war ended. And what of the red man ? As a power the Indian was destroyed, and, except when aiding the French in their border wars, disappears from New England history. Dreadful as these things were, they ought to be remembered, know what sort of people founded our states, and at what a cost in life and suffering. King Philip's War had scarcely ended when King Charles II. New made another New England colony. Much of the Ham P shire country included in what is now Maine and New Hampshire once belonged to Ferdi- nando Gorges and John Mason. In time the heir of Gorges sold Maine to Massachusetts. But the heirs of Mason neglected New Hampshire, and the few towns in it were gov- Cradle of the first Pilgrim baby -11 ■»» 1 ,, ..,, P . erned by Massachusetts till alter King Philip's War, when the King made it a separate royal province. Not long after this Plymouth, or " the Old Colony," was 1°™*™ added to Massachusetts. As the New Haven colony was colonies An early flax spinning wheel We ought to 64 PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND already joined with Connecticut, there were then but four New England colonies left — Massachusetts Bay, New Hamp- shire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. SUMMARY 1. The first permanent English settlement in New England was made at Plymouth (1620) by the Pilgrims, as they were called. 2. After suffering great hardships, the Plymouth colony began to prosper, and its success led to a great Puritan immigration. The Puritans founded the colony of Massachusetts Bay, to which, after many years, Plymouth and Maine were annexed. 3. Religious differences soon led to the founding of a new colony by Roger Williams, which we know as Rhode Island, and to the planting of three towns in the Connecticut River valley. 4. The arrival of these people in the Connecticut valley was the cause of the Pequot War and the almost utter destruction of the Pequot Indians. 5. New Haven was settled as a colony by itself, but afterwards became part of Connecticut. 6. For many years there was peace with the Indians. But in time a long and bloody struggle, known as King Philip's War, occurred, during which the Indian power in New England was broken. 7. Just at the end of this war New Hampshire was made a colony separate from Massachusetts. CHAPTER VII PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND Many towns In our study of Virginia we noticed that plantations were many and large, and towns few and very small. Just the opposite of this is true of New England, where there were no plantations, but many towns. Almost everybody lived in or near a town. On the frontier and in remote places, it is true, there were detached farms ; but these were the exceptions. PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 65 A blockhouse The church, the blockhouse, and the town house stood near together in the center of the village. Around them were the dwelling of the minister, the inn, the store, the shops of the blacksmith, the shoemaker, and all the other tradesmen, and about these in turn were the farmhouses, some near and some far away. The towns that were on the frontier, or so situated as to be open to Indian attack (and few in early colonial days were not), were always guarded by block- houses surrounded by high stockades. There might be three or more blockhouses to each village, and to these at night the families of the settlers whose homes were not thus protected Defenses came to sleep. When daylight returned, if all was found to be safe, the great gate was unbarred and the men and women went back to their daily work, and at sunset returned to the blockhouses. To such little forts the name "garrison houses" was given. Their thick sides of logs were bullet proof. The upper story projected over the lower, and in place of windows were loop- holes. The walls of some were of stone. Most of these block- houses have long since disap- peared, but a few, changed into dwelling houses with windows, still remain. Small towns of twenty or thirty houses were often entirely surrounded by a .stockade with wooden towers called "flankers," in which the oirntinels kept watch from sunset to sunrise. Garrison houses Pattens worn over shoes in wet weather 6Q PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND The houses of the first-comers were of logs. The builder would begin by cutting down trees and chopping them into logs about fourteen feet long and notching the end halfway through. When enough had been cut he would place four on the ground in the shape of a square, taking care to leave an open space in one side for a doorway, and an- other at one end for a huge fire- place. On top of these he would put a second set of logs, and then Houses of a third and a fourth, and so on till the walls were as high as N< tti ^ nglaQd ne w i sne d them to be. For the roof he used log rafters, placed saplings across them, and on the saplings laid marsh grass or straw, or bark of trees like shingles, or shingles themselves if he had time to make them. Between the wall logs of course would be chinks or open spaces, because the tree trunks, being of different shapes, would not everywhere touch each other. These chinks were filled with chips covered with mud or clay. Outside the great fireplace was the chimney, made either of stones, or of branches of trees covered with clay on the inside to keep them from taking fire. Stoves and ranges were un- known. As the towns along the seacoast grew in wealth and population, better houses were built, and some of these, two hundred and fifty and more years old, are still standing in New England. Their food Quite as important to the first-comers as their houses, was their food. We have seen the Jamestown colonists starving t*. Toaster PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 67 learned from Indians Iron lantern death in a land of plenty because they did not know how to get things to eat. In New England matters were better managed, though the soil there was less fertile, and the winters were colder. The Pilgrims landed in midwinter, but when spring came, they took their first lesson in New World farming from Squanto, that good friend of the white man. The lesson taught at Plymouth has never been Lessons forgotten, and the New England boy or girl who to-day sees a cornfield with the same number of stalks in each hill, with bean vines clinging to the stalks, and pumpkin vines winding in and out through the hills, beholds exactly the kind of corn patch that Squanto showed the Pilgrims how to plant. But Squanto did more than this. He taught them how to dry and pound and cook the corn, and to prepare dishes which we still call by the Indian names of succo tash and supawn. Having no mills in which to grind corn, the settlers used the Indian method of pounding. A tree would be chosen and cut off three feet above the ground ; a hole would be chopped or burned into the top of the stump ; and a heavy block of wood — the pestle — shaped to fit the hole, would be .^ -jgw/; suspended from a young tree near by. After putting his corn into the hole, the farmer, or more likely his wife or daughter, would pull down I Pounding corn the pestle with a bang, and then relax the pull on it slightly, when the tree would lift it up ready for another blow, and so on till the corn was pounded into meal. 68 PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND Hous Dusehold manufactur- ing From the Indians also came the pump- kin, the squash, the potato, and the sweet potato. To them were of course added such vegetables and fruits as the settlers knew in England. From the Indians, ,i Old house (1650) again, came the snow- v J ' shoe, the moccasin, and the canoe, each of which has played an important part in the history of our country. From the very start household articles were made in New England far more generally than in any of the other colonies. We have seen how dependent Virginia was on the mother country for things to use, to wear, and to work with indoors and out. New England was not so much so. Furniture, utensils, tools of many sorts, — such as hay forks, rakes, oxbows, ox yokes, sleds, flails, scythe handles, and ax handles, — were made by the farmer and his sons. Not a boy but put his jackknife to useful purpose. He made brooms Implements for lighting {Lard-oil lamp, iron for pulling up the wick, and combined Under box and candlestick) a Yankee dies from red cherry. boy's work after the Indian fashion from the birch tree ; bowls and dippers, skimmers and bot- tles, from gourds ; shoe pegs from maple wood ; butter pad- He platted flags for door mats, and whittled rake teeth, cheese hooks, and every toy he owned, from a whistle to a water wheel. Such an education made PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 69 Wooden tankard a handy man, and a Yankee who was not handy was of no account. Almost everything was made of wood in those days. Hinges for cupboard, closet, and even shed doors ; latches, plows and harrows, spoons, tankards, and a hundred other things now made of metal, were of wood. Many more which even in our time are wooden but are purchased " at the store " were then made at home : as pails, firkins, buckets, tubs, bread troughs, wagon wheels. A wheelwright in those days was a man who made spinning wheels, not cart wheels. On the women of the household fell very many duties. They made the soap, molded or dipped he candles, broke the flax and spun it, wove and bleached the linen and made it into clothes. They carded wool, spun the yarn, dyed the cloth, knit mittens and stockings, made straw hats and baskets, and found time to bring up families of fifteen children. Long after this period, when the colonies were well-to-do, a bright Yan- kee girl who kept a diary used to record her daily work. From these entries it appears that she washed, cooked, knitted, weeded the garden, picked the feathers from live geese for pillows and feather beds, and did a dozen things MCM. PR. H. 5 Spinning flax Women's work A Yankee girl's diary 70 PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND no girl of our time thinks of doing. As put down day by day, her entries read : " Spun short thread. Fix'd two gowns for Welsh's girls. Carded tow. Spun linen. Worked on cheese basket. Hatchel'd flax with Hannah, we did 51 lbs. apiece. Pleated and ironed. Read a sermon of Doddridge's. Spooled a piece. Milked the cows. Spun linen, did 50 knots. Made a broom of Guinea wheat straw. Spun thread to whiten. Set a red dye. Had two scholars from Mrs. Taylor's. I carded two pounds of whole ^® wool and felt nationly [tired]. Spun harness _^^^r\ twine. Scoured the pewter." 1 Tableware Had ^0mmmjr this industrious young woman lived ^j|P!|JJJp^ in the early colonial times instead of just at their close, there would probably have been no pewter for her to scour. There were of course a few pewter dishes. Some belonging to Miles Standish, the Captain of Plymouth, are now to be seen at that town. But the mass of the early settlers used wooden table ware. Forks, it is said, were unknown in England till the year after Jamestown was founded. The first in our country, we are told, came to Gov- ernor John Winthrop of Massachusetts, twelve years after the founding of Plymouth. People ate with their fingers or with wooden spoons off wooden trenchers instead of plates. A trencher was a block of wood three inches or so in thickness, hollowed or scooped out on one side like a saucer. Table Spoons were of wood, or pewter, or, for such as could afford it, of silver. Glass tumblers were not in use, nor was it cus- tomary to have a drinking cup for each person at the table. 1 These extracts are given by Mrs. Alice Morse Earle in a delightful book called " Home Life in Colonial Days," to which the author is much indebted. customs PIONEER LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND 71 One large cup or tankard was enough, and each drank from it in turn or when he pleased ; and it might be of wood, or leather, or pewter. Could we have entered the house of a well-to-do settler a settler at dinner time, we should probably have seen a long, narrow board laid across X supports. This was the table or » board," which was " spread." The spreading consisted of the cloth; dinner table Colonial kitchen fireplace a large saltcellar in the middle of the board ; the wooden trenchers (not always one for each, but often one for two members of the family) ; wooden or pewter spoons, and knives, but no forks, no china, no glass ; a huge pewter platter heaped with meat and vegetables mixed together, and a wooden or pewter tankard for water. To the board thus simply spread children were scarcely wel- Children come. In many families they were not allowed to sit during a 72 THE MIDDLE COLONIES meals, but must stand either beside the table or at a sideboard ; must eat their meals as quickly as possible and leave the room, change in As prosperity came to the colonies, many of these customs and much of this simplicity disappeared; but they were by no means wholly gone when our country became the United States. customs SUMMARY 1. In New England the people lived in towns, and not on large plantations. 2. Each New England frontier town was either surrounded by a stockade, or was provided with garrison houses, for the Indians were more war- like than in Virginia. 3. Because the winters in New England were colder and the soil less fertile than in the South, the houses, the occupations, and the whole manner of life were very different in the two sections. CHAPTER VIII THE MIDDLE COLONIES At the very time that Champlain was getting ready to go with the Canadian Indians to fight the Iroquois of New York, and while the Eng- lish at Jamestown were struggling with famine and sickness in Virginia, an Englishman named Henry Hudson appeared off the coast of Maine. He came in a Dutch ship, the Half-Moon, from the Netherlands or Holland, in search of a northwest passage through or around America to the Indies. Not finding one, Hudson sailed southward and came presently to the entrance to Delaware Bay Hudson's (map, page 77), up which he went a little way ; but soon turned about, and coasting along the New Jersey shore, went into Dutch merchant voyage THE MIDDLE COLONIES 73 s -" - _ The Half-Moon on the Hudson New York Bay and sailed far up river that came down from the north (1609). The beauty of the scen- ery, the magnificence of the Palisades, the mountains, and the lofty hills impressed Hudson so strongly that he named the stream River of the Mountains, though we now call it Hudson River. But the chance for a trade in furs was likewise noticed, and when Hudson made his report after returning to Hol- land, merchants of Amsterdam sent ships to exchange beads, knives, and red cotton cloth for skins of the beaver and the otter. A few years later, the Dutch West India Com- pany was formed, and then serious efforts were made to settle the country. Fort Nassau, which had been built south of Albany, was moved to the site of Albany and called Fort Orange. Another Fort Nassau was built on the Delaware River, where Gloucester, N. J., is now, and a third fort, Good Hope, on the banks of the Connecticut where Hart- ford is. Manhattan Island (now a part of New York city) was next bought from the Indians for a few dollars' worth of goods, and Fort Amsterdam, a blockhouse with a high stockade backed with earth, was erected on the south end of it. Outside the fort was Dutch soldier a row of log huts. The Dutch fur trade Dutch forts 74 THE MIDDLE COLONIES Dutch settlers Extent of New Nether- land Early view of New Amsterdam {From an old print) As yet but few people came to settle and farm ; almost all the inhabitants were traders who intended to go back to Hol- land as soon as they had made some money in the fur trade. The West India Company therefore offered a great induce- ment to settlers. Any man who within four years established a colony of fifty persons was to receive an immense tract of land. The owner of such a tract was called a patroon, and in a little while a number of patroons were settled along the Hud- son River and on the Delaware. The Delaware settlements were short-lived, for the Indians drove the Dutch away. But those on the Hudson throve, and soon others were made on Long Island and on the banks of the Connecticut River. Thus it came about that New Netherland, as the Dutch called their American possessions, extended from the Delaware to the Connecticut River, and included most of Long Island and the valley of the Hudson River. After a time, some of the officers of the Dutch West India Company, disgusted at the way its affairs were managed. THE MIDDLE COLONIES 75 formed the South Company and went to Sweden for settlers. Swedish They sent out a colony of Swedes, founded a town on the settlers Delaware, on the site of Wilmington, and called the country New Sweden. This alarmed the Dutch. They were afraid the Swedes were going to have the country, so they built a fort on the Delaware River just above the Swedish fort. Thereupon the Swedes went higher up the river and built another fort, near the present city of Philadelphia. Not content with this, they next attempted to make things so uncomfortable for the Dutch that they would leave. But the governor of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, a fiery, energetic man, came over from New Amsterdam with a band of soldiers, took possession of all the Swedish land, that is, a strip west of Delaware River and Bay, and added it to New Netherland. Stuyvesant also had trouble with the English in New Eng- land ; but here he thought it best not to use soldiers, and Trouble with the English Old Swedes' church, Wilmington at last the English settlers crowded the Dutch out of the Connecticut valley. The presence of the Dutch on the Hudson, the Delaware, and Long Island was dangerous to the English. It would never do to have New England cut off from Virginia and the country south of it by the Dutch colony of New Netherland. 76 THE MIDDLE COLONIES :H:^ The English take New Netherland So King Charles II. of England raised the old claim to the whole Atlantic coast, and gave New Netherland to his brother the Duke of York (who afterward became King James II.). A fleet wae. next sent to en- force this claim, and one fine day the English ships dropped anchor off the little Dutch town of New Amsterdam. The Englishman in com- mand of the fleet promptly sent a letter to Governor Stuyvesant, asking him to surrender the town. Stuy- vesant was for righting. " I would rather be carried out dead," said he, "than give up the fort." But nobody would help him. The people saw that it would be useless to resist, the Dutch flag on Fort Amsterdam came down, the English flag went up, and New Netherland became the property of the Duke of York (1664). Because of this high- handed act, a war followed between Holland and England. When it was over, England gave some islands in the East Indian seas to Holland, and kept New Netherland. New Amsterdam now became New York, and Fort Orange was named Albany. A few years later England and Holland were again at war, and one August morning a fleet of Dutch ships Stuyvesant's pear tree, New York (Fro7n an old print) THE MIDDLE COLONIES 77 anchored off the city of New York, six hundred Dutch soldiers came ashore, and the province was once more under Dutch rule. Before a year had passed, however, peace was made, and the province a second time became English. The province of New York, as it was called, at first New York included Delaware, New Jersey, Long Island, Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard, and all the country from the Connecticut boundary to the sources of the Hudson, the Mohawk, and the Delaware rivers. ^ The same year in which the Dutch made their first surrender to England, the Duke of York gave a great piece of his province to two of his friends, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. It was called New Jersey because Car- teret had been gov- ernor of the island of Jersey in the English Channel. New Jer- sey was next divided into two parts, called East Jersey and West Jersey, which were bought by two com- panies of Friends or Quakers. Afterwards the Jerseys were united again, and formed one royal province or colony controlled by the King. fl ATLANTIC OCEAN SCALE OF MILES New Jersey The Middle Colonies 78 THE MIDDLE COLONIES William Penn Friends or Quakers Wooden plow -^ One of the members of the company of Friends that pur- chased East Jersey was William Penn, who became so deeply interested in America that he made up his mind to plant a colony of his own. Penn was the son of an English admiral who had served his coun- try well and had been a true friend to the King in time of need. Moreover, a great sum of money, due by the King to Penn's father at the time of his death, was still unpaid. When, there- fore, Penn proposed to take as payment of the debt a tract of wilderness on the Delaware, King Charles II. very willingly consented, gave him the land, and named it Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woodland, in honor of the admiral. For this, Penn was to pay to the King of England two beaver skins each year. This tribute was duly paid by the Penn family for ninety-nine years, or until about the time that the colony of Pennsylvania became an independent state, when the United States became free from Great Britain. The Friends taught that all men should live peaceably ; that there should be no armies, no wars, no lawsuits. Such a people, it would seem, might have been allowed to go about their business unmolested. But they were not. In England they were imprisoned, flogged, even put to death. One of Penn's purposes, therefore, was to do for the Friends in Pennsylvania what the Puritans had done for themselves in William Penn THE MIDDLE COLONIES 79 Penn's house (Now standing in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia) New England ; that is, found a colony where they could live and worship as they pleased. But he did more ; . he opened his colony to men of every religion and every nation. If you look on the map, you will notice that Pennsylvania has no sea- coast. Penn, therefore, bought from the Duke of York what is now Dela- ware state, and added it to Pennsylvania. As soon as Penn re- ceived his land, three ships with colonists set sail. One was driven by storms into the West Indies. The others reached the Delaware and anchored off the little Swedish town of Upland, or Chester, as it is now called, and were there locked in the ice. The Swedes did all they could for the comfort of the newcomers ; but many, unable to get other shelter, dug caves in the ground or built earth huts, and there Penn found them when he came over in the follow- ing autumn. Though Penn was absolute owner of Penn and the soil, he believed the Indians had some theIndians rights, and soon after arriving in Penn- sylvania he sent . for the neighboring chiefs. They met him on the banks of the Delaware, under a huge elm, bargained for the sale of a great tract of land, smoked the pipe of peace, and made a Straw bee hive 80 THE MIDDLE COLONIES Philadelphia Welsh settlers Penn wampum belt treaty that was never broken. The two parties then exchanged presents. That from the Indians was a wampum belt on which are the figures of an Indian and a white man hand in hand. Three agents sent with the colonists had meanwhile chosen the site for a great town which Penn called Philadelphia, and to this spot twenty-three ships filled with settlers came during the following summer. For nearly twenty years most of the people who came to Philadelphia were Welsh. Penn gave these people a great tract of country west of the Schuylkill River. This was called the Welsh Barony, but is now known as the Welsh Tract. It may be found on a large map of Pennsylvania by the Welsh names of the towns. 1 After 1700, very few Welsh people came to Pennsylvania ; but each year brought more and more English, German, and Scotch-Irish settlers. Emigrants from Hol- land and Germany came over almost as soon as Penn himself and planted Germantown, then on the outskirts but now within the city of Philadelphia. 1 Such as Bryn Mawr, Radnor, Merion, Narberth, Gladwyne. An old Germantown house (Chew House) THE MIDDLE COLONIES 81 The great German immigration, however, did not begin till German some years later. Queen Anne was then on the British throne, and the rulers of Great Britain, thinking it was not wise to allow so many Englishmen to go to the colonies, began to look abroad for immigrants. In a certain part of Germany known as the Palatinate, the people, oppressed by war and poverty, were at that time most unhappy, and to them the British rulers turned. Books were written telling all about America and distributed among them. On the covers of each book were a picture of Queen Anne and some gold letters, which gave it the name of the Golden Book. The effect of these books was so great that in two years thirty thousand Germans crossed to England. They were sheltered in tents on the fields near London and taken as quickly as possible, some to Ireland, but most to Pennsylvania, New York, and the Carolinas. Thus started, a regular trade in emigrants grew up, and became so profitable that the custom arose of sending men to Germany to urge and persuade peo- ple to emigrate. All sorts of wicked lies were told the peasants, and if they could not afford to pay their passage they were induced to go as redemp- tioners. About seventy-five years before Penn founded his colony, The a great number of Scotchmen went from Scotland to Ireland. Scotch - Insh They were encouraged to go and live on land taken from Irish- men who had rebelled against Queen Elizabeth and James I. A little later, when England was ruled by Oliver Cromwell, more Irish land was seized and still other Scotchmen and some Englishmen were induced to go over to Ireland and live there. The descendants of these people were the Scotch-Irish, and about twenty years after Pennsylvania was founded they began to Warming pan 82 THE MIDDLE COLONIES scotch-irish come to the colonies in America. Some went to Maryland, others to Virginia, others to New Hampshire. Indeed, they were to be found scattered along the whole frontier from New Hampshire to Georgia. But Pennsylvania was the favor- ite colony of the Scotch-Irish, and to it they came in far greater num- bers than to any other. Once there, they were brought in contact with * the Germans, and the meeting was anything but peaceful. So serious did their quarrels become, that the agent of Penn was told to keep the two races Scotch-Irish were sent to live along the A corn sheller separate, and the Maryland border and on the western frontier. SUMMARY 1. Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch, entered New York Bay and sailed up the river that now bears his name (1609). 2. The Dutch sent traders to the Hudson valley, made large grants of land to men who would bring out settlers, claimed the country from the Delaware to the Connecticut River, and called it New Netherland. 3. Some Swedes settled on the Delaware River and called their country New Sweden, but New Sweden was soon taken by the Dutch. 4. Then the English took New Netherland from the Dutch. It was given to the Duke of York, who named it New York. 5. The Duke gave a piece of it to two friends, who established the colony of New Jersey. 6. William Penn obtained from the English King a grant of land and founded Pennsylvania. He also bought some land at the mouth of the Delaware River, which is now the state of Delaware. f* . The liberal policy of Penn attracted many Welsh, German, and Scotch- Irish settlers, as well as English, to Pennsylvania. THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 83 CHAPTER IX THE SOUTHERN COLONIES For a long time Maryland and Virginia were the only southern colonies. But some thirty years after the gift of Maryland to Lord Baltimore, King Charles II. made a new colony south of Virginia, which he called Carolina and gave to eight of his friends (1663). Emigrants from Virginia had already settled on Albemarle Early Sound. Others, from Barbados Island in the West Indies, se " lem f nts " in Parnlma came to Cape Fear in Carolina River about the time King Charles made the grant ; and to these two settlements the proprietors soon added a third, at Charleston. But as time passed Charles- ton grew and throve, and the Cape Fear settlement dwindled till it completely dis- appeared, and there were left but two set- tlements : the one on Albemarle Sound, and the other lying about Charleston. Besides the English settlers, there came also, in time, Huguenots from France, Swiss, Ger- mans, and Scotch Highlanders. Between the Albemarle and Charleston settlements was a SCALE OF MILES The Carolinas and Georgia 84 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES North vast stretch of wilderness; neither colony cared about the and south otner; t hey } iac i been founded by two very different sorts of people, and soon began to be spoken of as North Carolina and South Carolina. But it was many years before Carolina was actually so divided into two distinct provinces. The two were very unlike. In North Caro- lina the people lived on small plantations, where fcorn and tobacco were raised by a few slaves. In South Carolina the white population was not so numerous as in North Carolina, but was much richer, and owned immense plantations, where great gangs of slaves raised indigo and rice. Then, too, the wealthy planters lived chiefly in Charleston, carried on a brisk trade with Europe, and sent their sons to England to be educated. In one other respect Huguenot gentleman mi \[^Q their sister colo- warcl. During some years fested by pirates. About the English were settling at James- Massachusetts, there appeared in the islands of the West Indies a graceless rovers called buccaneers, or Brethren of the they called themselves. From their island holds they sallied forth to make attacks on the of the West Indies and even of South America, ing and plundering towns and doing all manner of hor acts, and capturing the merchant ships of all nations. When these things had gone on for half a century and more, England and Spain thought it was time to The buccaneers \ the Carolinas were nies to the north- they were in- time when the town and in waters and set of sea Coast, as strong- coasts Rice THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 85 put a stop to buccaneering; and about the time Charleston was founded a treaty was made for that purpose. It was called the Treaty of America. But to put down these desperate free- The pirates booters was not easy, and when settlements sprang up on the m Carolma Carolina coast the pirates found it easy to win over the people to their side. They brought goods and articles of all sorts that the settlers could not get in any other way; were liberal with their gold, and paid good prices for the rice, tobacco, and other things they wanted. More- over, the people and the rulers were afraid of them. Men who thought nothing of tossing the crew of a cap- tured vessel into the sea, who were known to have cut off the heads of pris- oners for mere sport, and had taken and plundered towns better defended and many times larger than Charleston, were not to be trifled with. As a result, Charleston became a *"* favorite haunt of the pirates, and would have continued to be so had they not begun to plunder the ships that came to South Carolina for rice. Then the planters realized that if this plundering went south on, the ships would keep away ; that if vessels did not come, c their rice could not be sent to Europe ; and that if it did not get to Portugal and Holland, they might better not raise it at all. Now, as rice was the chief crop of South Carolina, the pirates were thenceforth looked on as enemies, and every year numbers of them were to be seen swinging in chains from the gallows in Charleston. Indigo plant expels pirates MtM. PR. H. 86 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES The pirate Blackbeard Driven from South Carolina, the buccaneers found refuge in the island of New Providence, one of the Bahamas, and in the sounds and rivers of North Carolina, where the people were still glad to see them. But when a British fleet drove the pirates from New Providence, they returned to South Carolina, not as friends, but as enemies. One of them was a wretch whose name was Robert Thatch, but who was generally known as Black- beard. He was the very ideal of a pirate chief. His brow was low, his eyes were small, his huge shaggy beard, black as coal, came far down on his breast, and over his shoulder hung three braces of pistols. He had been the terror of the coast for years before he appeared one day off the port of Charleston with a fine frig- ate of forty guns and three sloops well armed and manned by four hundred desperadoes. Despite his presence in the neighborhood, a number of ships set sail from Charles- ton in hopes that he might not catch them. But all were taken, and in one were several citizens of importance. These made a rich prize, and before Levies tribute giving them up, Blackbeard forced the governor of South Caro- on Charleston ]j na ^ senc [ him a full supply of such medicines and provisions as he stood in need of. Then he went off to North Carolina. Blackbeard THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 87 The affair with Blackbeard seems to have made the governor vigilant, and later in the same summer, hearing of another pirate on the coast, he sent two armed ships in pursuit. The newcomer was none other than the famous Stede Bonnet. He was found at the mouth of Cape Fear River, where a fight began, in the course of which all the ships went aground. The first to float was one of the govern- or's ships, and just as her captain was preparing for a hand-to-hand fight, the pirate surrendered, and with all his crew was hanged in chains. Just about the time that piracy disappeared from our southern coast, the last of the thirteen colonies was created Adjustable candlestick Colonial china closet was created by King George II. It was then the cus- English /-< i t> -j_ • j_ • debtors' torn m Great Britain to imprison prisons men and women for debt and to keep them in jail till they died, even though the sum of money they owed was but a few pennies. Now it so happened that James Oglethorpe, a gallant sol- sti dier and officer of dis- tinction, having lost a friend in the debtor's prison at London, gave his attention to the jails and the suf- fering of the prisoners. Oglethorpe was so horrified at what he saw that he made up his mind 88 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES The thirteenth colony- planned Creek Indian Georgia settled to help these unfortunate people, and persuaded the government to set them free provided they settled in America. He might have taken them to one of the thinly inhabited old colo- nies, but he thought it best to make a new colony, and it so happened that just at that time a new one was much needed. Great Britain claimed our coast as far south as the St. Johns River in Florida ; but the strip be- tween the Savannah and the St. Johns was wholly uninhabited by white men and was in dan- ger of being occupied by the Spaniards, who still held St. Augustine. Oglethorpe, as an old soldier, saw the need of keeping the Spaniards out, and decided to plant his colony south of the Carolinas, and make it serve three purposes. First, it would be a home for distressed debtors, and give them a chance to begin life anew. Second, it would be a shield or buffer for South Carolina against the Spaniards. Third, it would open a fur trade with the Creek Indians. Some rich men were next interested in the plan, a company was formed, the King granted the country between the Savannah and the Altamaha rivers, and Oglethorpe with a band of settlers sailed across the Atlantic to Georgia, as he called the new colony, and founded the city of Savannah. People from New Colonial mirror SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 89 England, Germans, and Scotch Highlanders soon followed, and to Savannah, in the course of a few years, were added three other settlements, and Augusta, a little fortified post in the heart of the Indian country. There the English came in con- tact with French traders who had wandered all the way from Canada in search of furs. Both in Georgia and the Carolinas the attempt of associ- change in ations of men to manage colonies did not succeed. The pro- gov prietors of Carolina sold their province back to the King a few years before Georgia was founded, and finally Georgia also was returned to him. Thus all the colonies south of Maryland were royal provinces. SUMMARY 1. For a long time there were no colonies south of Virginia, when King Charles II. gave a tract of land called Carolina to eight of his friends. 2. These proprietors or owners founded Charleston. 3. At first North Carolina (where some Virginians had settled) was not cut off from South Carolina; but in time the great province of Carolina was divided into two. 4. During their early years these colonies were infested by pirates. 5. About the time the pirates were driven off, James Oglethorpe obtained a grant of land from King George and founded a colony called Georgia. CHAPTER X SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? Thirteen colonies had now been planted along the Atlantic The thirteen coast by the English or had come under English control. colonies These were the four New England Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut ; the four Mid- dle Colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 90 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? Delaware ; and the five Southern Colonies of Maryland, Vir- ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They were settled mostly by Englishmen, but also by Dutch, Swedes, Germans, Welsh, Scotch-Irish, and French Huguenots. Flintlock pistol ' & We have seen that some of these colo- nies were owned by the King, as the Carolinas ; others by pro- prietors — Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. We have seen the reasons why people came to this country ; as, a desire to worship God as they pleased, or a desire for trade, or a hope of bettering their worldly condition. We have seen, also, some of the hardships and dangers that the early settlers met. Massachusetts We must now notice a few of the famous events in colonial Kmg hi stor y ? an( j i earn something about a few famous men. We shall see that Indian wars and the dangers and hardships of frontier life were not the only things that troubled the New England people. Rulers who should have been their best friends were little better than enemies, and one such ruler was King Charles II. As we have seen (page 63), he took away New Hampshire from Massachusetts and made it a separate royal colony. He next demanded that Maine, which Massa- chusetts bought from the heir of Gorges, should also be given up to him. He was willing to buy it, but the people of Massachusetts would not sell. Thereupon for this and other reasons he took away their charter. a charter To understand what this charter was, we must remember 1. That all the land in America claimed by the English was supposed to belong at first to the King to do with as he pleased. SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 91 2. That it had pleased the King to give the soil of Massachu- setts to the Massachusetts Bay Company, and also to give this company, or the settlers, the right to govern themselves. 3. That the boundaries of the land he gave, and the rights the people should have, wcr* writter, &ot ; cm a piece of parchment and signed In ill* King. Now, this written and signed parchment was the charter, and when the King took away the charter, he claimed that the peo- ple had lost the right to govern themselves, and that he was free to rule them as he pleased. Indian tomahawks King Charles II. was a tyrant, and was beginning to govern Governor harshly when he died. His brother James (the owner of New Andros York) then became king and demanded the charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut. Rhode Island gave up her charter; but Connecticut did not, and when Sir Edmund Andros, the royal governor of New England, came to Hartford and de- manded the parchment, an amusing thing happened. The rulers of Connecticut were determined that he should not have it, and kept up the discussion with Andros till it was dark and the candles had been lighted. Then, upon a sudden, the candles were put out, and when they were lighted again, the charter, which had been lying on the table, was gone. Captain The charter Wadsworth had carried it off, and, it is said, hid it in the hollow of an oak tree, known ever after as the Charter Oak. The tree blew down many years ago, and the spot is now marked by a monument. 92 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA ? * 1 ,# •(L-'rfiM.V ^'?., ;m a y N e ^v l .-< ; ^ V< '^/^ E 1 * SCALE OF MILES 200 New England and Acadia Charters restored Though Andros did not get the charter, he ruled Connecti- cut as he pleased, and the King soon placed the whole country from New Jersey to Maine under his control. But James did not remain king long. The people of England drove him from the throne, and made his nephew William and his daughter Mary king and queen (1689). Then Connecticut and Rhode Island again governed them- selves under their old charters, and Massachusetts was given a new one. King James went to France, and the French King made war war begun on England. In our country this war was called King William's War, and was soon followed by other wars between the French and the English. Thus in this country there was fighting for nearly forty years to decide whether the French, who owned Canada and the valley of the Mississippi, or the English, who held the Atlantic seacoast, should rule over America. SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? England frontier The fighting began a year before William became king with some attacks by the English on the Indians in Maine. The Indians of course attacked the English settlements in return, and even had William never been king there would surely have been a great war with them and their French friends. But just then France and England went to Avar over the exiled King James, and the conflict in America began in earnest. If you will take a map of our country and draw a line from The New Penobscot Bay, in Maine, to Albany, in New York, you will have the New England frontier at this time. Now, if you notice where the rivers of this region rise and in what direction they flow, you will see how easy it was for the French and Indians to follow down these river valleys from Canada to attack the English frontier towns and settlements. One of these w T as Dover in New Hampshire, then on the very edge of the frontier. Like most such settlements, it was an open village guarded b} r blockhouses, to which the people were to come in times of danger. At these blockhouses some squaws appeared one evening in January, 1689, asked leave to stay all night, and were admitted. But in the dead of night, when all was still, they rose quietly, undid the bars, opened the doors, and gave a loud whistle. Instantly a band of war- riors that had crept into the village sprang up, rushed into the houses, and began a horrible massacre. Then, after plundering and burning the houses, they marched twenty-nine captives off to Canada and sold them to the French as slaves. This was in return for the English custom of selling Indian prisoners into slavery. a squaw 94 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? Among the prisoners was a little girl named Sarah Gerrish, seven years old. Once started on their homeward journey, the Indians, as was their custom, first divided their prisoners, and then split up into separate bands. The band to which little Sarah belonged took her to their village, where her owner sold her to another Indian, who went off with her to Canada. On the way she suffered much from cold and hunger. At Quebec the wife of a French officer, moved by pity, bought her and placed her in a convent, colonists What happened at Dover was repeated at several other Quebec - pl aces Dv Indian war parties sent by the governor of Canada. The colonists then struck back by sending soldiers and a fleet of ships from Boston to take Quebec. They failed, but the commander of the fleet rescued little Sarah Gerrish by giving a French prisoner in exchange. In this way the war went on for eight years. Town after town was laid waste ; men, women, and children were slain, tortured, or carried into captivity. One day in the early spring of 1697, as a farmer named Thomas Dustan was riding from his Haverhm home in Haverhill to his farm, he saw Indians in the distance. At his home, a mile from the nearest garrison house, were his wife Hannah Dustan, a nurse Mary Neff, and eight children. Turning about, he had just time to gallop home and bid the children run for the blockhouse, when the Indians were upon him. Keeping the enemy at bay with his gun till the children had gone some distance, Mr. Dustan then rode after them, turned about, and again kept back the pursuers while his little family trotted bravely on, and repeated these tactics till all were safe in the garrison house. The Indians burned the farmhouses, and, leaving many murdered settlers lying in the smoking ruins of their homes, plunged into the woods with thirteen captives. Mrs, Dustan SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 95 8L and Mary Neff were among them, and fell to the lot of an Hannah Indian family of two braves, three women, seven children, and an English lad, Samuel Leonardson, who for a year and a half had been a prisoner in their hands. The presence of this boy made escape seem possible, and Mrs. Dustan deter- mined to make the attempt. The next night, accordingly, when the Indians were sleep- ing, the two white women and Leonardson rose, hatchet in hand, and in a few minutes' time killed all save one old squaw and one boy. Gathering up the guns and tomahawks, they next destroyed all the canoes except one, in which they paddled down the Merrimac River to Haverhill. The story of their adventures spread through all the colonies and every- where the people praised them. The peace which ended King William's War lasted but a little while. The French and the English were soon fighting once more, and, as Queen Anne was then on the throne, the colonists called the long strug- gle of twelve years Queen Anne's War. Again the French and Indi- ans swept along the New Eng- land frontier year after year, burning, torturing, massacring. Haverhill was again laid waste ; Deerfield in the Connecticut valley was burned, and many of its inhabitants were killed or car- ried into captivity. Monument to Mrs. Dustan Queen Anne's War 96 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? Old "Indian house," Deerfield Deerfiew As Deerfield lay in the valley of a great river which rose near Canada and , offered an easy highway for hostile bands of French and Indians, most of the forty houses of Deerfield had been surrounded with a high stockade. But long freedom from attack had made the in- habitants careless. The stock- ade had fallen somewhat into decajr, and, as the winter of 1704 was very severe, the settlers believed they were quite safe. They had allowed the snow to pile up in great drifts against the stockade, and kept no watch at night. But cold and bitter as the winter was, it did not prevent a band of Indians and Cana- dians from marching down the valley to destroy Deerfield. On arriving at the town and finding no watch, a few Indians in the dead of night climbed one of the snowdrifts, dropped inside the stockade, undid the bars of the gate, and let in their companions, who rushed in, screeching and whooping like so many fiends, and began the work of slaughter. The captives The horrors of that fearful night and the sufferings of the long march to Canada have been told by one of the captives, John Williams, in a very famous book, " The Redeemed Cap- tive Returning to Zion " ; and in a museum at Deerfield is still kept a door, through which the Indians chopped a hole in order to shoot the people in the house. Only two houses were left standing ; the rest were burned, and in or around them lay the bodies of nine and forty settlers. A hundred others were car- ried off as prisoners. In time sixty were exchanged, and among SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 97 them Mr. Williams. But strangely enough, his ten-year-old daughter was adopted by one of the tribes, lived with it, married an Indian, and refused to return to her own people. Success, however, was not wholly with the French. The English attacked the eastern coast of Maine (then held by the French), and before the war ended, captured the Acadian town of Port Royal, which they named Annapolis, and still hold. When peace came, the French gave up Acadia, or most of what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Deserted by their allies, the Indians made peace and signed a treaty binding them never again to harm the settlers. A long peace of thirty years now followed for France and Great Britain, but not for the New England frontier. The war over, great numbers of settlers moved eastward to rebuild the desolated towns of Maine, and to make new settlements upon the rivers. The arrival of these settlers, building forts, blockhouses, and homes on land the Indians claimed as their own, made new trou- ble, and again and again brought on border wars in Maine. But for the country in general there was peace, and France turned it to good use. It was clear she could not con- quer the colonies. She must therefore confine them to the Door of old "Indian house" {Noio in the Deerfield Museum) English take Acadia A period of peace 98 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? Growth of New Orleans coast, else in time they would surely cross the mountains into the Mississippi valley. We left the story of the French in our country, you will remember, after learning that La Salle had explored the Mis- sissippi to its mouth, and that the French had occupied Mobile Bay, and started New Orleans. The site of New Orleans was chosen by Bienville, one of those great French explorers, soldiers, and frontiersmen who did so much to spread French rule in America. The spot when he first saw it was a piece of low land on the banks of the Mississippi River, covered with cypress swamp and liable every year to be flooded with the waters of the great river. But Bienville felt that a city must be built on the river somewhere near its mouth, and as no other site was more favorable he selected this, sur- rounded it with a high, strong bank of earth to keep out the waters, and with a strange band of French criminals and workmen and a few merchants from Canada, made a clearing, put up a few cabins, and named the place New Orleans. Unpromising as was its start, the place grew, and by the end of ten years some sixteen hundred people were within its mud walls. With a few exceptions they were men — soldiers, trappers, galley slaves, or redemptioners. Very few women as yet found a home in the town. The French King therefore determined to do for New Orleans what the Virginia Company did a hundred years before for Jamestown, and sent over a ship loaded with sixty young women to become the wives of the better sort of the population. They were in the charge of casket gins nuns and had each received from the King a little trunk full of clothing. Later other shiploads of maidens came, and the French soldier SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 99 girls with trunks were long known by the proud name of " casket girls." While these things were happening at New Orleans, the The chain French were equally busy up the val- ley of the Mississippi, planting towns, and building, on the high bluffs and along the shores of the Great Lakes, a line of forts which in time ex- tended from Mobile and New Orleans to Montreal and Que- bec. The purpose of this chain „ . .. „ . . . . 1 ? Sally port, old French fort, Annapolis of forts was to shut the British out of the Mississippi valley and all approaches to it. But the French were also determined to recapture Annapolis and Nova Scotia if they could, and as a step toward this they built the fortress and town of Louisburg on a fine harbor on the south- east coast of the island of Cape Breton. The fortress was very large and was so strong that the French believed it could never be captured. It took twenty-five years to build the fortress Louisburg, King George' and soon after it was finished, France declared war on Great War Britain (1744). There was fighting both in Europe and in America ; but the war on this side of the ocean was called by the colonists King George's War, because George II. was then King of Great Britain. The struggle dragged on during four years, and in the course of it Louisburg, which the French Louisburg boasted could be defended by women, was besieged and cap- tured by New England militiamen. But their toil and blood- shed was all wasted, for on the return of peace Great Britain gave Louisburg back to France, and affairs in America were left much the same as before. 100 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? The French claim the Ohio valley CHAPTER XI SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? (Continued) With their flag once more waving over Louisburg, and no territory in the New World lost, the French again made ready to keep the British out of the Mississippi valley. As the Brit- ish were planning to settle the Ohio valley, the governor of Canada sent a band of sol- diers to take formal posses- sion of that region. Starting from a place near Montreal, the party in twenty -three birch canoes paddled up the St. Lawrence, crossed Lake Ontario to the Niagara River, carried their canoes on their backs around Niagara Falls, and paddled some distance along the southeastern shore of Lake Erie. At the mouth of a small creek the party left Lake Erie, moved their The upper Ohio valley food, canoes, and baggage across to Chautauqua Lake, and paddled down the lake and its outlet to the Allegheny and so to the Ohio. Once on the Allegheny, the work of taking possession began. As the party floated along it would stop at the mouths of big streams to nail a tin plate to a tree and bury a lead plate in the earth at its roots. On the plates fastened to trees were the arms of France ; on those hidden in the ground were inscrip- SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 101 tions stating that the King of The lead France owned the Ohio River and pa its branches, and all the land that shed water into them. The French arms were probably soon pulled down from the trees ; but two of the buried plates have since been found. One day, about fifty years afterward, while some boys were swimming in the Ohio, they saw a great plate of lead stick- ing out from the bank of the river. What it was they did not know; but it was made of lead, and taking it home they melted half of it to make bullets. The other half is now carefully preserved, and is shown in this picture. Another of Half of one of the lead plates the lead plates, unearthed by a freshet, was likewise found by a boy who was playing on the river bank. But the French knew very well that something more than French forts burying plates was needed to keep out the British, so they began to build log forts. One was put up where the city of Erie now stands, and two others on the upper waters of the Allegheny River. When the governor of Vir- / ginia heard of this, he was greatly alarmed, because Vir- ginia claimed to own the Alle- gheny valley. He decided to WffiiS Fort Le Boeuf, in the Allegheny valley MCM. PR. h. — 7 102 SHALL TRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? command the French to leave, and finally chose as his messen- ger a } r oung Virginian, George Washington. George This man, whom we know as the most honored of Americans, as mgton wag ^ 0YR Qn February 22, 1732, in Virginia. He was a big, strong, active boy, fond of outdoor life, afraid of nothing, and much given to doing whatever he had to do in the best way he knew how. For a while he thought of going to sea, in the hope that he might some day become the captain of a trading vessel. But the idea was not carried out, and Washington fitted himself to be a land surveyor. Now there lived in Virginia at that time an English noble- man named Lord Fairfax, who owned a vast estate on what was then the fron- tier. Attracted by the manly qualities of the 3 T oung sur- veyor, Lord Fairfax employed him to survey his lands, and works as a at sixteen years of age Washington plunged into the wilderness and began his work. So well did he do it that Lord Fairfax procured for him the place of public surveyor and the rank of major in the militia, and started him on his career. But he was soon called to pub- lic service of a greater sort. When it was known that the French were in the Allegheny valley, Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent a messenger to warn them to depart. But the messenger was not equal to the task. He was afraid, and, when one hundred and fifty miles away from the French forts, turned back. Plainly a brave man was needed, and, on looking about Greenaway Court, home of Lord Fairfax surveyor SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 103 for one, the governor was advised by Lord Fairfax to choose Washington. The advice was taken, and Washington was chosen. He set out at once with a few followers, made his way across Takes swollen streams and through dense, unbroken forests, found the French the French, delivered the governor's letter, and started home in the dead of winter. New difficulties now beset him. The Indians tried to kill him and came near doing so. He was almost drowned while crossing a river and nearly frozen when he got out. But he escaped all dangers and brought back a report of what he saw at the French forts, which in- creased the alarm of the governor of Virginia. It was clear that if the British wanted the valley of the Ohio they must do as the French were doing. They must build forts in it and hold it by force of arms. This the governor of Virginia determined to do, and a regiment of troops were hurried off to establish a fort just where the city of Pittsburg stands to-day. Of this regiment Washington was lieutenant colonel. But the colonel died on the way, and Washington took command. While the regiment was getting ready to march through the wilderness, a small party went on in advance to build the fort and have it ready when the soldiers arrived. But one day in April, 1754, while they were hard at work, the French came down the Allegheny Biver and drove them away. The messenger bearing this bad news met Washington and his troops making their way through the forest, cutting the first road that ever led down the western slope of the Appa- lachian Mountains. Some men would have gone back. But Be e ins Washington pushed on, defeated a small party of the French, Indian war French soldier 104 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? Braddock's expedition and then retired to a narrow glade in southwestern Pennsylvania, called the Great Meadows. There he built Fort Necessity, where the French attacked him and forced him to surrender, on the 4th of July, 1754. He was allowed to go back to Virginia. Thus was started one of the most important wars in our history. The colonists called it the French and Indian War because they fought Frenchmen and Indians. But it was really the last struggle between the French and the British for the possession of America. We have seen how the Dutch conquered the Swedes in the Delaware valley. We have seen how the English conquered New Nether- land. Now the British and the French were to fight for the greater part of North America. Both sides knew this and made ready for the The French prepared to defend their land. The British made the attack, and sent over Braddock, one of their best generals, to command the British and American troops. He came to Virginia ; made Washington one of his aids ; and started to capture Fort Duquesne, as the French called the post they had taken from the Virginians. Southwestern Pennsylvania was then a wilderness. No road led through the woods, so Braddock was forced to have one cut by the troops as they went along. This made the march very slow. Nothing happened till the army was about eight miles from the fort, when suddenly the road choppers saw what looked like an Indian leaping and bounding through the bushes in front of them. He was not an Indian, but a French officer in Indian dress, and was leading an army to attack the British. Waving his hand in the air, he disappeared ; British soldier struggle. SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 105 and in a moment his French and Indians, hidden in bushes and Braddock's behind trees, fired on Braddock's men. The British fought bravely ; but Braddock would not let them hide behind trees in Indian fashion, and their red coats were a fine mark for their enemy. So many were shot that a retreat was ordered. Then Braddock fell wounded, and the retreat became a flight ; and had it not been for Washington and the Americans, who checked the enemy, all the British would probably have been killed. A few days later, Braddock died of his wound. And now for three years the French and Indians had the best of the fighting. Then the tide turned, and the British British began to win victory after victory. They took Fort Duquesne, vlctones which was soon named Fort Pitt in honor of a great man then prominent in the British government. They took the for- tress at Louisburg a second time. Finally a young officer named Wolfe captured Que- bec. The fortress of Quebec stood on the top of a very high hill whose steep sides Quebec rose from the edge of the river. To climb the heights in the face of an enemy would have been impossible. But Wolfe sent his ships and troops up the river above Quebec, and one night in September, 1759, he and his soldiers got into boats, floated downstream to the foot of the bluff, climbed up, and in the morning his army stood ready for battle on the Plains of Abra- ham, as the level land behind the city was called. The French, Modern Quebec 106 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA ? led by Montcalm, came out to attack the British, and one of the great battles of the world was fought. The British won, and Que- bec was taken ; but among the dead were Wolfe and Montcalm. Painting by Benjamin West Death of General Wolfe France loses all in America Montreal was next taken, and the struggle for America be- tween France and Great Britain was ended. When the war began, France owned Canada and claimed all the valley of the Mississippi River, from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rockies, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. When the war ended, France gave Great Britain all of Canada (except two little islands near Newfoundland) and all of our country which she claimed east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans and a small region about it (1763). SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 107 Up to this time Spain owned Florida. But in the war she had taken sides with France, and Great Britain had captured Havana. To get back Havana, Spain now gave Great Brit- ain Florida in ex- change. But France repaid Spain for this loss by giving her Oldest house in St. Augustine New Orleans and the country round about, and all the country west of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains. So North America was then divided between Spain and Great Britain, with the Mississippi as the boundary, down to New Orleans. And now again peace between France and Great Britain was Trouble with not followed by peace for all the colonies. In the region given up to Great Britain between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi, dwelt many tribes of Indians, old friends of the French and bitter haters of the English. The moment these Indians heard that the French must leave their country, and the English were coming in, they were easily persuaded to join in a war to drive the English back. The leader in the new border war was Pontiac, one of the Pontiac's greatest Indians known to history, and nobody saw more clearly than he did the difference between the two white races in the way they behaved in the Indian country. The French built rude forts, made friends with the Indians, married Indian women, and supplied the tribes with whatever was wanted in return for furs. The English built villages, killed the game, woodsmen 108 SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? cut down the forests, made roads, planted farms, and looked on the Indian as a wild beast. To Pontiac the coming of the English meant the ruin of his race, and with wonderful skill he quickly roused the tribes of the Northwest, took the warpath, and swept the country from Lake Michigan to Pennsylvania. The back- Along the frontier of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, were then scattered a hardy class of men who were by turn farmers, hunters, and fighters, as occasion required. Rough, brave, daring ; caring nothing for the refine- ments of city life ; dressed in moccasins, leggings, and hunting shirt of deerskin, they made their clearings, built their log huts, and, rifle in hand, ranged the forest at will. Here and there at long intervals small stockaded forts, with a few cabins and houses, or thick-walled buildings like the garrison houses of New England, had been built, to which, in times of danger, the settlers came for refuge ; but along the Pennsylvania frontier even these rude defenses were few. A backwoodsman Now that the Erench had been driven from America, these backwoodsmen supposed that a long period of peace was be- fore them, and had gone back to their farms and clearings, had planted their crops, and were cutting their hay, when Indian war parties burst upon them from every valley. It was the old story of surprise, treachery, massacre, burning, and torture. The general commanding the British forces in the colonies, with all the haste he could make, sent relief expeditions to Port Niagara, to Detroit, and to Fort Pitt. That sent to Fort SHALL FRANCE OR ENGLAND RULE IN AMERICA? 109 Battle of Bushy Run Pitt was in the charge of Colonel Henry Bouquet, a bold and daring soldier. Hearing of the coming army, the Indians who were attack- ing Fort Pitt instantly slipped away, and, hurrying eastward some twenty miles to Bushy Run, hid in the bushes to await the troops, who came upon them one scorching afternoon in August, 1763. The battle which followed was most desper- ate ; but the Indians were put to flight, and the army went slowly on to Fort Pitt. This cleared the frontier of Pennsylvania. Another army The Indians sent the following year along the lake frontier to Detroit quieted the Indians in that region. But to sweep back the red men, recover the sites of the burned ^^v forts, and rebuild and garrison the block- houses was not enough. The strong hold of the enemy must be invaded. Bouquet accord- ingly took up the task, and in the autumn of 1764 led an army from Fort Pitt into what is now Ohio, forced the Indians to submit, made them give up two hundred prisoners, and went back -*•'- "" • „ in triumph to Fort Pitt. Redoubt at Fort Pitt, still standing SUMMARY 1. The King of England took away the charters of Massachusetts and Rhode Island ; and for a short time the whole country from New Jersey to Maine was placed under one royal governor — Andros. 2. When William and Mary came to the English throne, war broke out be- tween the French and the English colonies, and was known as King William's War. 110 COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 3. This was soon followed by Queen Anne's War, dur- ing which the English colonists captured Nova Scotia from the French. 4. During the peace which fol- lowed, France made ready to shut the British out of the Mississippi valley, and was building a chain of forts from New Orleans to Montreal, when King George's War opened. 5. After peace France built a chain of forts in the Alle- gheny valley from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. 6. This alarmed the British and brought on the French and Indian War, in which the French were forced to abandon North America, giving to the British Canada and the part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. 7. Spain was forced to give Florida to Great Britain, but received from France the Mississippi valley west of the river, with New Orleans. 8. The departure of the French from the Mississippi valley and the Great Lakes was followed by an Indian uprising led by Pontiac. Old tower, Fort Marion, Florida o>*Zc CHAPTER XII THE COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY New The greater part of the country France surrendered to provinces Q- rea £ Britain in 1763 was a wilderness in which very few white men lived. But some parts of the new British posses- sions were inhabited by white men, and the first thing Great COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 111 Britain did was to make, out of these, the three provinces of Quebec, East Florida, and West Florida. She next drew a line around the sources of the rivers which flow into the Atlantic Ocean from New England to Florida, and forbade the Americans to settle west of that line. The country west of the The Indian line was set apart for the Indians. country Great Britain did these things in order that her colonies and provinces might be more easily governed. She also wanted the people to stay , near the seaboard and not wander into the Stamp used in 1765 region beyond the mountains. If hemmed in near the coast, it was thought, the colonies would in time become thickly settled and would buy great quantities of British manufactures. But the colonies and provinces must not merely be governed, Plans for they must also be defended. The Indians must be kept in anarmy order, and everything must be in a state of defense in case France and Spain tried to get back their lost territory. Great Britain proposed, therefore, to send over an army of regular soldiers to be scattered over the country. This would cost a great deal of money, and King George III. and SSjgJ^ Parliament decided that part of the money should be V^A raised in two ways : by forcing the colonists to pay f w ft C \ taxes on all the molasses, sugar, and coffee they im- 1 1 Cl}ny| ported ; and by requiring them to print all newspa- Vj^m£CJ/ pers and write all legal documents on paper made in — - England and stamped and sold by government offi- cials. The law requiring this was the Stamp Act. ^iJfc* The colonies then had agents in London, and one of them was Benjamin Franklin. He was born at Boston nearly sixty years before this time, and was the son of a candle maker. 112 COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY Benjamin When he was ten years old his school days were over, and for a Franklin w ]^ e ] ie CU £ w icks, molded candles, tended shop, ran on errands, and talked of going to sea. But the father opposed this, and bound Benjamin as apprentice to an elder brother, under whom he learned ni ,— to set type and did his share in print- ing the second newspaper in America. When seventeen he left his brother, and made his way to New York, in search of work. Finding none, he crossed to the Jersey shore and walked to the Delaware River, where he boarded a boat and rowed to Philadelphia. There in time he opened a printing house of his own, published one of the best newspapers in all the colonies, issued every year a very famous Printing press of Franklin's time ^^ book knQwn all over the colo . nies as Poor Richard's Almanac, and took an active part in everything that benefited his fellow-citizens. He founded a library, and an academy which has since grown to be a great university. He proved that lightning in the clouds and the electricity by which we ring bells, are one and the same ; and invented the lightning rod and a stove still known by his name. The King appointed him deputy postmaster for the northern colonies ; his fellow-citizens elected him to the legis- lature, and when somebody was needed to plead the cause of Pennsylvania in London, the legislature sent Franklin to do it. Agent for In company with agents from other colonies Franklin now Pennsylvania appearec i before the minister and did all he could to prevent the passage of the Stamp Act, but in vain. " Depend upon it, my good neighbor," he wrote home, " I took every step in my COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 113 power to prevent the passage of the Stamp Act. But Accepts the the tide was too strong against us. We might as well Stamp Act That we could not do. But have hindered the sun's setting, since 'tis down, my friend, and it may be long be- fore it rises again, let us make as good a night of it as we can. We may still light candles." But the people were not willing to accept dark- ness and " light candles " as Franklin said. When the news came that the Stamp Act had passed Parliament, and would be a law in the colonies on the first day of November, 17C>5, there was great ex- citement everywhere. In Virginia a famous scene occurred. The legisla- ture was debating a set of resolutions declaring the stamp tax unjust. One of the speakers was Patrick Henry, Patrick and a greater orator did not then live in the thirteen colonies. Henry Henry was born in Virginia a few years after Washington, grew up on one of the smaller plantations, and seems never to have given the slightest sign of being more than a very ordinary boy. He hated study and loved the woods and streams, and when he was ten had made so little progress at school that his father became his teacher till he was fifteen, Benjamin Franklin Ill COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY when lie was apprenticed to a storekeeper, and then started with his brother in a store of his own. But he was quite unfit for business. Instead of making money he lost it, and was next placed on a small farm. He proved to be a poor farmer, and went back to storekeeping and once more failed to succeed. Those who knew him might now have thought him good for nothing. But like many another man great in our history, he had not yet found what he could do. In desperation Henry now turned to law, and after reading a few legal books went before the lawyers to be examined for permission to practice law, and with great difficulty got it. But now at last he had found his true work. Business came to him, and when one day a case was brought to him because no other lawyer would argue it, he took it, and made so elo- quent a speech that all who heard him knew that a great orator had arisen among them, what Such was the fame of this case that Henry was elected to Virginia did ^q Virginia legislature just at the time of the Stamp Act troubles. The question before it was, Shall the law be obeyed ? The wealthy and important men thought they would say yes, and were much displeased when Henry said no. His speech was not written down, so we know little of it, but those who were present Old Capitol of Virginia describe it as wonderful, and have {Where Patrick Henry made his preserve( i f or us one sentence. Recall- famous speech) * ing to his hearers the fate of tyranni- cal rulers who had been killed in old times, he said, " Csesar had his Brutus ; Charles the First his Cromwell ; and George the COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 115 Third " — " Treason ! treason ! treason ! " shouted the mem- bers ; — u and George the Third," continued Henry, "may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it." The legislature finally passed a resolution that the Virgin i- ansfwere not bound to obey the law. In Massachusetts the people were so much in earnest that stamp Act the legislature asked the colonies to send delegates to a con- Congress gress at New York. This body of men (known as the Stamp Act Congress) adopted, signed, and issued a Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which stated : — 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 Eng-" lishmen and the liberty of self-government. Meanwhile certain men had been appointed in the colonies The stamp to sell^the stamped paper. The people next called on these Actresisted men to refuse to sell the paper, and, if they would not, used force to make them do so. The merchants in the great cities next signed an agreement not to import any goods from Great Britain, and the people pledged themselves not to buy any British goods for some months to come. This hurt the British manufacturers, and they raised such a clamor that Parliament repealed the stamp tax, that is, stopped it. When the colonists heard of this, they were greatly pleased. All trouble, they thought, was now over. But they were much mistaken, for the very next year Parlia- ment laid taxes on glass, paint, oils, and tea imported into New taxes the colonies. 11(3 COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY Tea at Boston Thus the right to tax the colonies was once more claimed, and the people again made ready to resist. But how should they resist ? By refusing to buy British goods. Such action had led to the repeal of trie stamp tax. Like action would surely lead to the repeal of the new taxes. The old agree- ment not to import and not to use British goods was there- fore renewed all over the colonies. Parliament stood out for three years; but then it took off all the taxes except that on tea. At that time a company, called the East India Company, had the sole right to bring tea to Great Britain.' But it could not send any to America. It must sell the tea and let others take it to the colonies. But the Americans had stopped buying tea from the British mer- chants, who for this reason bought less tea from the East India Company, and an immense quan- tity was lying in its warehouses. Parliament, in order to help the company, now gave it leave to send tea to America. The company accord- ingly sent over shiploads of tea to Boston, New York, Philadel- phia, and Charleston. But it was required to pay a duty of three pence a pound ; the tea, therefore, was taxed, and the Americans would have none of it; "If Parliament may tax one article, it may tax all," said they. When the first tea ship arrived at Boston, she was made fast to a dock and guarded by the people, who insisted that her captain should take her back to London. This he was quite ready to do ; but the officers of the King would not give her a paper called a " clearance," and without a clearance the ship would not be permitted to pass the fort and the men-of-war in the harbor. Under the lead of Samuel Adams the people then asked the governor to order the officers to let the ship go. Flag of the East India Company COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 11' Samuel Adams was a native of Boston, was about fifty years old at this time, and had long been prominent in public affairs. For twenty years past he had been serving his native town in all manner of ways — as a tax collector, as a fire warden, as moderator of the town meeting, as one of a committee to visit Samuel Adams schools, and see that chimneys were prop- and that due care was taken to prevent small pox, and as member of the legislature Services like these made him well known, which he discharged his duties made people and when the stormy times of ^Ke Revolu- fellow-townsmen naturally turaie>l to him sought his counsel, and listinedVto his wrote articles for the newspaper ex acts and aims of Great Britain, defend- ple, and pointing out the kind of /resist- should make ; and now when resisfe^ioe made, it was Samuel Adams th The governor, however, refu customs officers to let the ship go} while the people were meeting and discussing what next to do, two more tea ships arrived. This made the people more excited than be- fore, and at a great meeting at the Old South Meetinghouse one morning in December, 1773, it was resolved that the ships must go out of Boston harbor that very afternoon. A committee was then sent to the customhouse to demand a clearance, and when the officers again refused, the owner of one of the ships was sent to ask a pass from the governor. erly inspected, the spread of of the colony. The way in trust in him, tion came, his a^ to a leader, advice. He plaining the ing the peo- ance they was to be the way. order the Old South Meetinghouse MOM. PR. H. 118 COLONIES QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY •„: Kill \XI-Jiw;.: ■!■ : ■:. i «•- r.uu jUvaa where they shut in Gage and the British army. When the Second Continental Congress met at Philadelphia in May, 1775, Massachusetts asked it to adopt the men gathered about Boston, as a Continental Army. Concord Bridge and Monument There were New Hamp- The slanders, and men from Each band was a sort of little army with its own shire men, Massachusetts men, Rhode Islanders, and men from c° ntinental __ m Army- Connecticut. commander. Congress, seeing that the war had really opened, did as it was asked and formed these bands into a Continental Army; 124 THE LONG FIGHT EOK INDEPENDENCE General Washington Flintlock mus- ket and car- tridge box " Battle of Bunker Hill ' and appointed George Washington as commander in chief. He started at once for Boston. But he had not ridden far from Philadelphia when he heard that a great battle had been fought near Bunker Hill. A short distance north of Boston, and just behind Charlestown, were two small hills. The nearer of the two to the American army was Bunker Hill. Just beyond it and nearer to Boston was Breeds Hill. The Americans, hearing that the British intended to fortify the hills, sent a body of soldiers, under Colonel Prescott, one night in June, to take possession of Bunker Hill. But Prescott went on to Breeds Hill, and quickly built a large earth- work. At daylight the British fired on it from their ships, but the Americans worked on, making a long trench and bank to protect themselves in the coming fight. About three o'clock in the afternoon the British, having come over from Boston, formed in line at the foot of Breeds Hill and began to march up. The Americans had very little powder. Prescott and General Israel Putnam, who were in command, urged them not to waste any. " Save your powder," was the order. " Men," said Putnam, " you are all marksmen. Don't one of you fire till you see the whites of their eyes." On came the forms, their faces, ute. They were British, nearer and nearer. Their uni- grew plainer and plainer every min- within three hundred feet, two hun- dred feet, one hundred feet, before the order " Fire ! " rang out, Then the Americans fired, killing so many British that the rest hurried Putnam's plow down the hill in disorder. But the British officers rallied their men, and led them back up the hill. They were again thrown THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 125 into disorder by obliged to re- a third time A third time powder of the bayonets, they muskets and could end in forced to re- Although Hill, as this Bunker Hill Monument the steady fire of the Americans, and tire. Their courage was splendid, and their officers led them to the attack, the Americans met them. But now the Americans was gone, and, having no fought desperately with the butt ends of with stones. Such an unequal tight but one way. The Americans were treat. the British won the battle of Bunker Result of the fight is called, their loss was dreadful. " Two more such victories, and Great Britain will have no army left in America," said a great French statesman. " Did the militia fight ? " exclaimed Washington, when on his way to Boston he heard of battle HPsSP 3 the battle of Bunker Hill. When assured fought splendidly, he said, "Then the liberties of the country are safe." And this was the great lesson of Bunker Hill : that the American farmers would fight for their rights and would fight against the regular troops of Great Britain. During the next eight months the Continental Army, with Washington in command, surrounded Boston. It took a long time to drill the men and collect cannon and powder. But at last Washington was ready to drive L that they Washington Elm at Cambridge {Where Washington toot command of the army) 126 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE new govern ments British leave the British out of the town, and was just about to do it, when, under General Howe, they boarded their ships and sailed away, colonies form All authority of the King and Parliament was now ended in the colonies. The royal governors had fled, or had been put into prison. The patriots in every colony, hoping that the ^i^'fe^^T sg ^ ~— - King might yield, had established tem- '•' rf y^Q^O.iil^!inl?K T : porary governments, which they called Committees of Safety, 1 ro- f F ,|;\ vincial Congresses, or Provincial • — Assemblies. But now it was very PSU: certain that unless the colonies were \ty beaten in the war they never again would be under the British Crown. The Continental Congress, there- fore, advised the colonies to set up permanent governments. One by one they did so, and thus turned them- selves from British colonies into American states. Up to this time there had been thirteen colonies ; now there were thirteen states. But these state governments independence were to be made without consent of the King. What did that mean ? It meant that the states were to be independent of the King. Then why not say so ? Why not tell it to the whole world ? They decided to do so, and on July 2, 1776, Congress passed this resolution, moved by R. H. Lee of Virginia : — "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." Where the Declaration was signed {Independence Hall, Philadelphia) THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 127 This settled the matter. The colonies were now independ- Declaration of ent. The next step was to tell or declare that fact to the ^dependence world, and so a declaration of independence, which had already been drawn up, was next voted on. " When, in the course of human events," sa} r s the Declaration, "it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have con- nected them with another ... a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes." It was this decent respect which had led Congress to select Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston to prepare the Declaration of Independence, telling the world why the United States were independent of Great Britain. Jefferson wrote the Declaration, and on the 4th of July, 1776, Congress adopted it, and ordered copies sent to the states. To declare independence was one thing ; to force Great Britain to acknowledge it was another thing, and more than five years passed before the last . . , . , n er 7 son f. es .„ x J r (On tDhich Declaration was wrttten) British army surrendered to Washington. When General Howe and the British troops sailed away from British take Boston, Washington did not know where they would go next. NewYork But he thought it might be to New York, so he hurried there with his army. Sure enough, after several weeks the British fleet sailed up the bay. Howe found the Americans intrenched on Brooklyn Heights. His first attempt to drive them away failed, and before he could make a second, Washington crossed the river under cover of a fog, and retreated up the Hudson. While the British were encamped near Brooklyn, Washing- ton wished to know how many soldiers there were in the enemy's camp, and how they were arranged. To get this 128 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Nathan Hale information, somebody must go into the camp and look about him. Such a man would be a spy, and, if caught, would be hanged. But a young officer named Nathan Hale volunteered to go. Leaving the American headquarters near New York city, he went to Connecticut and from there crossed the Sound to Long Island. Making his way to Brooklyn, he spent a few days in the British camp taking notes, and then returned to the north shore of Long Island to await a chance to cross the Sound to Connecticut. One day, seeing a boat coming toward shore, he went down to meet it, thinking it was from Connecti- cut, but he was recognized by a relative who sided with the British, and was delivered to Howe. Hale was treated with great harshness. He was not allowed to send a letter to his mother, nor to read his Bible, nor to have a minister visit him. He was a spy, and he was hanged like a criminal. When about to die he said, " I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." These words are now carved on the pedestal of a statue erected to his memory not far from the spot in New York city where he died. Hale is known as the Martyr Spy of the Revolution. From New York Washington passed up the Hudson a few miles, crossed the river, and led his army through New Jersey. The British pressed him hotly. Discouraged by cold, hunger, and defeat, many of the soldiers deserted, and the ranks grew thinner every mile. But Washington reached the Delaware River in safety, and crossed into Pennsylvania. Affairs were now in a desperate state, and Washington seemed almost disheartened. Statue of Nathan Hale Americans who took the side of the King THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 129 were called Loyalists or Tories, and there were plenty of them The Tories in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The army got so little help from the people that the patriot cause seemed likely to "remain for some time under a cloud," as Washington wrote to his brother. But the cloud, dark as it was, soon lifted. To prevent the British from crossing the Delaware after him, Washington collected all the boats for miles along the river. So the British commander, when he reached the Delaware, finding no means of crossing, resolved to wait till the river was frozen and then march over on the ice. But while he waited Washington acted, and on Christmas night, 1776, recrossed the Delaware to make an attack on some German soldiers who had been hired by the King to fight for him ; — as many of these soldiers were victory at from a part of Germany called Hesse, they are known as Hes- Trentoa sians. The night was bitterly cold, and the river was full of great blocks of floating ice. But with splendid courage Wash- ington crossed with his little army, and at daylight fell on the Hessians at Trenton, beat them, and took one thousand prisoners. A week later Washington won another victory, at Princeton, Princeton ten miles from Trenton, and then marched on to the hills at Morristown, where his army passed the winter. Hudson and Delaware valleys 130 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Burgoyne's surrender The new ^-tff-' ^Si^ ^ ^ During the following summer (June, w 1777) the Continental Congress adopted the stars and stripes as our national flag. The first flag of this kind was made by Betsy Ross at her house on Arch Street, Philadelphia. The building still stands and is carefully preserved as the birthplace of " Old Glory." The British now (1777) at- tempted to get possession of the Hudson River, and so cut off New England from the rest of the states. But when an army, under Burgoyne, came down from Canada by way of Lake Cham- plain, the Americans, under General Gates, captured it near Saratoga, New York, and the attempt failed. Meantime another British army sailed from New York to take Philadelphia. Washington hurried across New Jersey and met the enemy below the City ; but was de- British take feated on Brancly- Philadelphia • ^ , ■, , . wine Creek, and later at Germantown. The British then passed the winter in the city, while Washington and his army were camped not far away, at V alley b orge. Washington's headquarters at Morristown Betsy Ross house THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 131 The suffering of the American army during the winter was The suffering terrible ; but let those who were there tell of it : " The army p^g lley has been hi great distress since you left," General Greene wrote to General Knox ; "the troops are getting naked. They were seven days without meat and several days without bread." " The men," said Baron Steuben, a brave German who came over to help us, " were literally naked, some of them in the fullest extent of the word." "For some days past there has been little less than a famine in camp," Alexander Hamilton wrote to the gov- ernor of New York. " I am now con- vinced beyond a doubt," said Wash- ington, " that unless some great change takes place this army must starve, dissolve, or disperse in order to obtain provisions." But these grand heroes would not disperse. They would Patience of starve rather than desert, Well did John Laurens say, "I c would cherish these dear ragged Continentals, whose patience will be the admiration of future ages." "To see men," said Washington, " without clothes to cover their nakedness, with- out blankets to lie upon, without shoes (for want of which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet), and almost as often without provisions as with them, marching through the frost and snow, and, at Christmas time, taking up their winter quarters without a house or a hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a Washington's headquarters at Valley Forge soldiers 132 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Franklin in France proof of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled." The winter at Valley Forge was the darkest period of the war. But the darkest hour, as the proverb says, is just before dawn. And so it was in 1778 ; for, while the army was starv- ing and freezing at Valley Forge, France came to the aid of the Americans. In the year 1776, Franklin and two other men were sent to France to ask for arms and money. Their arrival in France was followed by an outburst of welcome. Everywhere French- men were talking of the Stamp Act, Concord, Lexington, Bunker Hill. One young nobleman, Lafayette, left France against his king's orders, came to the United States, and served under Washington till the end of the war. Lafayette was not the only foreigner who took up arms on our side. Others of his countrymen did so, as well as the German baron, De Kalb, and Steuben, " the drill- master of the revolu- tionary army ; " and the Poles, Pulaski and Kosciusko. When Kosciusko was asked what he could do to help us, he answered quickly, u Try me," which greatly pleased Washington. Great as was the interest Frenchmen took in our struggle, Franklin was unable to get much aid from France till the arri- val of the news of the capture of Burgoyne. It was then cer- Foreigners fight on our side |T n: : ;y\Mm : fig ' - : ; : -A '■'■s^'MSMj£* US ggg|p£^- $£$s3MS&&k. i§ Intrenchments at Valley Forge THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 133 Franklin at the French court {From an old engraving) tain that the Americans could fight, and early in 1778 the French France King acknowledged that the United States were no longer Brit- and aids^s ish colonies, and made two treaties with the new country. War between France and Great Britain followed at once ; and when General Clinton, who now commanded the British in Philadelphia, heard that a French fleet was coming over, he started for New York. Washington hurried from Valley Forge and chased him across New Jersey to Monmouth, where Monmouth another battle was fought. Neither side won ; but during the night the British went on to New York. Washington followed and stationed his soldiers at several places about New York, in order to watch the British and be ready for whatever they might do next. In this way these HCH. PK. H. 9 134 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Wayne takes two generals and their armies spent many months without stony point figging an y great battles. Once Clinton grew bold enough to come out of New York and build a fort at Stony Point, on the Hudson River. It looked as if Clinton were about to push up the river to the American camp at West Point. Washington wished to prevent this, so he sent for Anthony Wayne, one of the most daring soldiers in the -army, and asked him if he could storm Stony Point. Wayne said he could, and one dark night with a gallant band of men he did storm it, and carried off guns and prisoners, besides destroying the fort. >XKc Kentucky and Tennessee settled CHAPTER XIV THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE (Continued) During the year 1778, while great things were taking place in Paris and in New Jersey, events of perhaps even greater importance were happening among the Indians on the far western frontier. Great Britain no sooner acquired the eastern half of the Mississippi valley from France, than backwoodsmen from Virginia and North Carolina began to cross the mountains to hunt and trap and make settlements in what are now Kentucky and Tennessee. Some, under Revolutionary jy {l Boone, formed Boonesboro, in Kentucky. swords J Others, under James Harrod, built Harrodsburg. Others, under William Bean and James Robertson and John Sevier, put up their cabins on a branch of the Tennessee River called the Watauga, in Tennessee. These settlements were not farms or little villages, but frontier forts or sta- tions. THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 135 When a number of families went out under some leader to a frontier settle in the wilderness, they would select their ground, cut fort down the trees, and begin The Ohio valley to build a fort, in the form of a square. One side of the square was formed by a row of log cabins. Around the other three sides, and between the cabins, was a stockade or high fence of huge logs placed side by side with one end thrust into the ground. In each of these sides were cut loopholes, and in one of them was a great door or gate that could be strongly barred when necessary. At the four corners of the stockade were two-story blockhouses. Within the stockade were the cabins whose backs formed one side of the fort, the sheds where cattle and provisions could be kept, and in the center of the square a strong blockhouse. This was the place of last resort. If the gate was beaten down, or if the stockade was destroyed by fire, it was to the central blockhouse that the inmates fled to defend themselves or die. To such stations the settlers came in time of war or when an Indian rising was feared. In time of peace they dwelt in log cabins on their farms or clearings, which were scat- tered over the country for miles around the fort. But peaceful days were few. The pioneers lived in con- stant war or dread of war with the Indians. Small bands of savages were generally lurking around the forts, killing the men as they hunted in the woods or worked in the 136 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Wooden canteen war with fields, and ready to carry off the women and children at the Indians £ rg j. c h ance# Xhe history of those days is full of thrilling adventures, narrow escapes, and deeds of heroism. Thus some Indians attacked Fort Henry, on the Ohio River, one day when there were only twelve men and boys in the fort, besides a number of women and children. The white men fought bravely, firing through the loopholes and driving back the Indians at every attack. But after a while their powder was nearly all used up. Then the commander asked for a volunteer to go to a house outside the fort, where a keg of powder was stored. To go meant almost certain death ; but four young men at once offered. While they were disputing about it, a young girl named Elizabeth Zane said : " Let me go for the powder. You can not spare even one man. There are too few in the fort now. But if I am killed, you will be as strong as ever." As she persisted, the gate of the stockade was opened just wide enough to let her slip out. She ran to the house, filled her apron with powder, and started to return, before the Indi- ans guessed what she was doing. Then they fired at her again and again, till she got inside the gate. She was unhurt, and the fort was saved, for there was now powder enough to last till more white men came and drove the Indians away. The country north of the Ohio River was claimed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia; but in reality the region was as much British as the province of Quebec, to which it had been added by the King four years before. Over Country north of the Ohio Revolutionary cannon THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 137 it roamed some of the strongest and fiercest of the Indian tribes. It contained a few old French towns, — such as Detroit, Kas- kaskia, Vincennes, — and a few forts garrisoned by the British, whom the Indians looked upon as the successors of the French and the rulers of the land. At these forts and towns the Indians obtained their muskets and powder, and were aroused to attack the backwoodsmen of Kentucky and Tennessee. Anybody might see that these towns and forts ought to be George Rogers taken, that the country ought to be held by the United States, and that the Indians ought to be made to stop helping the British. But it was left for a young Virginian, George Rogers Clark, to make the attempt to do this. Clark began by sending spies to find out the strength of the garrisons ; then he formed a plan for a secret expedition to attack them suddenly and unexpectedly, and finally laid his plan before Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia, and a few others. They gave him what aid they could, which was little enough, J ' . Powder house, Virginia and Clark with a hundred and eighty men went down the Ohio one thousand miles from Pittsburg, hid his boats near the mouth of the river, marched across the prairies, and took the town and fort of Kaskaskia without Takes French resistance (1778). The French settlers, hearing from Clark that France was aiding us in the war, made him welcome, and Cahokia and two other towns likewise submitted. A Catholic priest then carried the news to Vincennes and persuaded the French in that town to surrender. The British governor at Detroit, learning of these things, set out with five hundred men, Indians and regulars, to conquer 138 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Importance of Clark's conquest British attack Charleston British take Savannah the country again. After a long march through the wilderness, the troops appeared before Vincennes and occupied the fort. But Clark was equal to the emergency, and marching overland, in the dead of winter, he attacked the fort so vigorously that the British surrendered, and the governor and his soldiers became prisoners of war. Clark, acting for the state of Virginia, had now conquered the country around the Wabash and Illinois rivers. The con- quest was most timely, for, a few months later, a band of Span- iards marched from St. Louis to the head of the Illinois River, captured the British post of St. Joseph, and claimed the whole Northwest in the name of the King of Spain. Now let us see what, in the meantime, had happened in the East. Having failed to conquer the Middle States in 1776-1778, the British next sent armies against the Southern States. Once before (in 1776), a fleet had appeared off Charleston, South Carolina, to attack it. But the British found Colonel Moultrie and his men behind two rows of palmetto logs with sand between, and after firing at this Fort Moultrie for a long time and doing no harm, the ships sailed away. While the battle was hottest the flag- staff was struck by a cannon ball, and flag and all fell outside the fort. Instantly a sergeant named William Jasper jumped down, picked up the flag, fastened it to a ramrod used to load one of the cannon, climbed back, and planted it firmly on the fort. The British were successful in their second attack on the Southern States, however, and Savannah was easily captured Jasper monument, Charleston THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 139 Part of the South (end of the year 1778). But before they could do more, a French fleet and an American army came to retake the town. While the ships bombarded from the water, the army, commanded by General Lincoln, tried to storm the British works by land. They were driven back, and among the dead were the brave Polish officer Pulaski, and Sergeant Jasper, who fell hold- ing in his hand the flag given him at Fort Moultrie. Georgia was now overrun by the British take British. Charleston was then taken charleston and South Carolina overcome. Thereupon Congress sent Gen- eral Gates against the British. But they beat him at Camden in South Carolina, where the German officer, De Kalb, who was fighting for us, received eleven wounds, of which he died. It is said that when the British minister heard of the capture of Charleston and Savannah, he said, "We look on America as at our feet." But there were plenty of fighting men in the South who -*• did not intend to be "at his feet." Led by ;%- Marion, Sumter, and Pickens, the men hid in the swamps and fought the enemy in every way they could. Marion's men were especially active. Their guns were such as hunters used. Their swords were made of pieces of saws from the saw- mills. They had no cannon, no forts, no place of safety but the woods and swamps. Indeed, the British called Marion "the Swamp Fox." From such hiding places he would come out One of Marion's men 140 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Arnold the traitor suddenly, attack a party of the enemy, and hurry back into the woods. When a strong force was sent to take him he could not be found. But in a little while he would appear in another place. With the British in possession of Savannah and Charleston, and all of South Carolina and Georgia in their hands, the out- look for the patriots was gloomy enough. But just at this moment an Ameri- can officer, Benedict Arnold, turned trai- tor and made it gloomier still. No officer had rendered greater services than Arnold. He had joined the army when it was before Boston ; had led a terrible march through the Maine woods to attack Quebec in the first year of the war ; had distinguished himself for bravery in the attempt to capture that city ; and had fought desperately in a battle near Saratoga, thus doing much to capture Burgoyne. But in 1778 Arnold was put in command of Philadelphia, where he governed so un- justly that he was condemned to be reprimanded by Washing- ton. He was brave and daring in battle, but he lacked moral courage ; and, thirsting for revenge, he laid a deep scheme to injure the patriot cause. As part of this scheme he asked Washington for the com- mand of West Point, the great stronghold on the Hudson Ruins of a fort at West Point THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 141 House at Tappan where Major Andre was imprisoned River. He received it, and at once formed a plan to give up the post to General Clinton, commanding the British at New Major Andre York. Clinton's agent, Major John Andre, met Arnold near Stony , Point one day in September, ,_ 1780, to finish the plan. But as Andre was going back to New York he was stopped, searched, and seized by patriot soldiers. In his - stockings were found papers in Arnold's handwriting which revealed the plot. News of the arrest of Andre was at once sent to Arnold. It reached him as he sat at breakfast ; instantly rising from the table, he told his wife of his danger, and fled with all speed to a British ship down the Hudson. West Point was saved to the Americans. Andre was tried, convicted, and hanged as a spy. And now the dark hours of the war were over. Five days victory of after the hanging of Andre, a band of Tories, who were over- fountain running South Carolina, were met at Kings Mountain by a swarm of hardy Southern mountaineers, and every one of them was killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. Victory then followed victory, and in a few months General General Greene, who had been sent to succeed Gates, drove the Brit- ish into Charleston and Savan- nah and recovered most of South Carolina and Georgia. A large British army, under Corn- Powder hom wallis, that had invaded Virginia, was Greene 142 THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE End of the war next forced to make a stand at York- town, which it began to fortify. While it was so engaged, Washington hurried from the neighbor- hood of New York, and with American and French troops surrounded the place by land, while a French fleet, under was arranged) ^ -\ r^ Count de Grasse, hemmed it in by sea, and forced Cornwallis to surrender, October 19, 1781. This was the last battle of the war. The British gave up the struggle, and in 1783 a treaty of peace was signed at Paris by agents of Great Britain and the United States. The men who represented us were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay. By this treaty certain things were secured : Moore house ( Where, the Cornwallis surrende) Terms of peace sovereign, as fully as Our country was admitted by Great Britain to be free, and independent." The boundaries of our country were stated possible. Citizens of the United States might catch fish in the waters of Nova Scotia and Canada just as they had done when British subjects. Great Britain was to take away her troops. In November the last of the British army sailed away from New York city. THE LONG FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE 143 SUMMARY 1. War with Great Britain began in New England with the battles of Lexington and Concord and the shutting up of the British in Boston (1775). 2. The Continental Congress adopted the troops around Boston as the Con- tinental Army, and made George Washington commander in chief. 3. On his way to take command, Washington heard of a great battle at Bunker Hill, which showed that Americans could fight. 4. The colonies now formed themselves into states, and these thirteen states were declared free and independent of Great Britain July 4, 1776. 5. The British left Boston by water, and Washington hurried his army to New York. There he was attacked and driven up the Hudson, and finally across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. 6. From Pennsylvania he crossed the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776, captured a thousand prisoners at Trenton, fought a battle at Prince- ton, and passed the winter at Morristown. faulting by Rossiter and Miynot Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon ■4- 44 A BETTER GOVERNMENT NEEDED 7. When summer came, the British sent an army under Burgoyne from Canada. The Americans captured it near Saratoga, New York. This led France to aid us. 8. Meantime a British army sailed from New York to attack Philadelphia. Washington hurried to meet it; was defeated in two battles; and spent the winter at Valley Forge (1777-78). 9. As the British in the Northwest incited the Indians to repeated attacks on the American frontier settlements in Kentucky, George Rogers Clark led a band of Virginians into the wilderness north of the Ohio River and captured most of the British posts in that region (1778-79). 10. The British finally turned their arms against the Southern States. In Georgia and the Carolinas they were successful at first, but afterwards were driven away by General Greene. At last a great army, under Cornwallis, was captured at Yorktown, Virginia, and the war ended in the fall of 1781. CHAPTER XV A BETTER GOVERNMENT NEEDED The treaty which ended our old troubles with Great Britain brought us new ones with Spain. You remember that during the French and Indian War, Spain fought against Great Britain; that Great Britain captured Havana ; and that to get it back, Spain gave her Florida in exchange, what Spain Now when France joined us in our war with Great Britain, Spain saw a chance to get Florida again, so she also declared war on Great Britain, in 1779, and sent two little armies to conquer the Gulf coast and the Mississippi valley. One went from New Orleans and took the British forts at Baton Rouge, Natchez, Mobile, and Pensacola (see map, p. 43). The other went from St. Louis, in the dead of winter, marched across what is now Illinois, captured the fort at St. Joseph, and took away the flags as proof of conquest. did A BETTER GOVERNMENT NEEDED 145 Our country's first boundary Having done all these things, Spain claimed that she owned what Spain the country from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi, c aime and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. When, therefore, the time came to make a treaty of peace at Paris, she insisted that the western boundary of the United States should be very nearly what is now the west boundary of Pennsylvania, Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia. We were quite willing to let Spain have Florida, but noth ing more; so when the treaty was made, Great Britain gave her Florida and a strip along the Gulf of Mexico as shown in white on the sec- ond map on page 232. The great region from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from Spanish Florida to the Great Lakes and Canada, became the United States. But, as we shall see later on, Spain for a time still claimed part of this territory. The immense wilderness won from Great Britain and Spain was claimed by seven of the thirteen states : Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The other six states had about their present limits. At the request of Congress, however, the states one by one western lands gave what were called their back lands to Congress. These .^J^ were to be sold, and the money used to pay the debts owed by the United States. The back lands were to be governed by the Congress, or in some way that Congress should decide upon. Monro Castle, Havana 146 A BETTER GOVERNMENT NEEDED Stagecoach Where the people lived Now it so happened that the lands given by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New- York, and Virginia lay between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, Pennsylvania and the Mississippi. Congress made this entire tract a territory, which it called the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio. Except at Detroit and Macki- nac, and a few other places where the French had settled, the territory was without white inhabitants, and was roamed over by Indians and wild beasts. As a matter of fact no part of our country was thickly settled. There are to-day more people in the city of New York than lived in the whole United States in 1783. Most of the people then dwelt in the cities, towns, and villages, and on the farms and plantations, of the states lying along the Atlantic coast, and the different states had very little communication with one another. Travel, except by sea, was very slow and dangerous. There were no railroads, no steam- boats, no good roads, and no bridges over the wide rivers. Now, it takes five hours to go from Boston to New York. Then, it took six or even nine days. Now, you may go from New York to Philadelphia in two hours; then, it required two days. The chief occupations of the people were cod fishing, ship- of the people buii^g^ an( j commerce, in New England; lumbering, agricul- ture, and commerce, in the Middle States; and, in the Southern -States, growing tobacco, rice, and indigo, and making tar, pitch, and resin. Each one of the thirteen states had its own government, as it has to-day. But the control of the Indians, and some of our Occupations A BETTER GOVERNMENT NEEDED 147 dealings with foreign nations, as making war and peace, were Powers of the intrusted to the Continental Congress. congress * There was no President of the United States in those days. The Congress was composed of a few men sent by the legisla- tures of the thirteen states. These men could do many things, but a little experience showed that they could not do nearly enough for the good of the country. Congress, for instance, could not tax the people for money with which to pay the country's debts. It could merely ask the states for what it wanted. But the states did not give all that was needed. Congress, in the next place, could not regulate trade with foreign nations; could not force them to treat us fairly. Neither Spain nor Great Britain would make a treaty of com- merce with us. Congress had no power to regulate trade between the states. As a consequence each state regulated its trade as it pleased. New York, for instance, treated Connecticut and New Jersey as foreign countries and laid heavy taxes on firewood that came from the one and on vegetables that came from the other. This angered New Jersey, who sent word to Congress that unless it forced New York to take off the taxes, she would not pay her annual share of the cost of the continental government. Each state had its own paper money, and this was not good in other states. Except gold and silver, of which very little was to be seen, there was no money ^j that people all over the country would take. More than one state had to pass a law to force its citizens to use the paper money it issued. 148 A BETTER GOVERNMENT NEEDED The Constitutional Convention Congress asked the states to give it power to remedy all these defects. For a while they would not ; but matters be- came so bad that, in 1787, delegates from twelve states met in Independence Hall at Philadelphia to consider what new powers should be given to Congress. These delegates were the most distinguished men in the country, and the names of many of them are still familiar. Among them were Washington and Madison, who afterwards became Presidents ; Elbridge Gerry, a future Vice President ; Ellsworth, who in time became Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court ; Alexander Hamilton, a famous Secre- tary of the Treasury; Robert Morris, who had helped to raise the money needed to carry on the Revolu- tionary War ; Ben- jamin Franklin and others who had signed the Declara- tion of Independ- ence ; and many others who after- wards held impor- tant places under the United States gov- ernment. Washington was made the president of the convention. The These men drew up what is known as the Constitution of constitution ^ 1G United States. The Constitution is a written document which describes the plan of the general government under which we live. It fixes the powers of the President and tells how he shall be elected. It provides for a Congress composed Old windmill, Massachusetts {Still used) A BETTER GOVERNMENT NEEDED 149 Pennsylvania Statehouse, or Independence Hall, in Philadelphia of two bodies of men — a Senate and a House of Representa- tives ; and it provides for United States courts. Congress has now all the power the Continental Congress ever asked for, and more too. It does not have to ask the states for money ; it lays taxes and has the sole power of coin- ing money, and it may regulate commerce with foreign nations and between the states. After the Philadelphia convention had made the Constitu- The new tion, copies were sent by Congress to the legislatures of the Jg V ®™ ment states. Each state government then called a convention to con- sider the new plan and approve or disapprove of it, as seemed best. When nine states had in this manner approved it, the MOM. PR. H. 10 150 TROUBLE WITH FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN Constitution was to be supreme law as to the nine. Eleven approved within a year, and the two others a little later ; and the Constitution took the place of the Articles of Confederation, which had described the powers of the Continental Congress. The place of meeting of the new Congress was New York city, and there, in 1789, Washington was made the first President of the United States. SUMMARY Chair used by Wash- ington at his in- auguration 1. By the treaty of peace we acquired the territory be- tween the Atlantic and the Mississippi, the Great Lakes and Florida. 2. The population was small and scattered along the coast, travel was dif- ficult and slow, and trade between the states was of little value. 3. Each state had its own government as at present. But over all was a weak general government carried on by the Continental Congress. 4. The plan of the general government was defective in many ways, and was finally replaced by the present Constitution of the United States. >xx< CHAPTER XVI TROUBLE WITH FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN Our country's capital When Washington was made President, Congress met in New York city. But it was decided that a square tract of land, ten miles on a side, should be obtained somewhere, and on this tract a federal city should be built as a home for the government. In it were to be the President's house, the build- ing in which Congress should meet to make laws, and any other buildings that might be needed. Congress having decided that the federal city should be on the banks of the Potomac, the ^ 151 152 TROUBLE WITH FRANCE Trouble with France tract was laid out partly in Maryland and partly in Virginia, and was called the District of Columbia. The city was named Washington. But it would take some years to erect the buildings and form the city. Congress therefore decided that it would meet in Philadelphia for ten years before it went to Washington, where all sessions of Congress have been held since 1800. Not long after Congress met in Philadelphia a war broke out between France and Great Britain. Our country did not take sides with either. But France tried hard to force us to side with her, and, when she found we would not, she treated us so shamefully that when John Adams was President the whole country cried out for war. An army was raised and General Washington was called from his home at Mount Vernon and put in command. The people in the large seaports gave money for war ships, and volunteered to build forts and earthworks. In the midst of the excitement our national song " Hail Washington's home at Mount Vernon, on the Potomac TROUBLE WITH FRANCE 153 French naval vessel Columbia" was written. Philadelphia, as the seat of govern- "Hail merit, was a most intensely excited city. The citizens were Colum ia divided into two bodies, each distinguished by cock- ades worn on their hats. Such as hated the Presi- dent and upheld France wore the red, white, and blue, or tricolor cockade. Those who sided with the President and resisted the French insolence , wore the black cockade of the Revolution. So high did feeling run that if two excited men of opposite parties met in the street, each was pretty sure to try to snatch the other's cockade. In the evenings at the theater one party would call for " Yankee Doodle," and the other for a song that had been popular in France. This suggested to one of the actors the idea of finding some one to write a new patriotic song, and accordingly he applied to Mr. Joseph Hopkinson, who wrote " Hail Columbia " to suit a very popular piece of music called " The President's March," to which we sing it to this day. It was sung for the first time at Philadelphia one night in 1798, was printed in the newspapers the next day, and at once became a national song. Among other things, France demanded a tribute from us as if Naval war we were a conquered nation. The popular cry therefore became Wlth France "Millions for defense, not a cent for tribute," and when the navy began to beat the French in the West Indies, it was said we were giving them the only kind of tribute they deserved — shot and shell. The war was entirely on the sea, and after four of her naval vessels had been captured or destroyed, and great num- bers of merchantmen burned, France made peace with us in 1800. 154 TROUBLE WITH GREAT BRITAIN Impressment of American sailors Our troubles with Great Britain and France having been thus settled, it seemed as if people might look forward to a long period of peace and quiet. But this was not to be. In a few years Great Britain and France were again at war, and the old troubles returned in a worse form than ever. British armed vessels came over to our coast, stopped our ships as they went in and out of our ports, and searched them for British sailors. An American packet or trader would sail from Boston or New York or Baltimore for Europe or the West Indies. But long before she reached her destination a British cruiser would appear and fire a signal gun. If no attention was paid, a shot would soon come skipping over the water and across the pack- et's bow, forcing her to stop. A boat would then put off, and an officer and a band of armed men would clamber upon the deck and order the captain to muster his crew. When the sailors were all in line, the British officer would pick out such men as pleased him, claim them as subjects of the King, and drag them off to his ship. This was called " impressment," because the men were " pressed " or forced to serve against their will. The patience Chesapeake with which we submitted to this treatment made the British and Leopard j^^ anc [ one jay as an American frigate called the Chesa- peake was on her way to the Mediterranean Sea she was fol- lowed by a British vessel, the Leopard, was fired on and Monticello, Jefferson's home (in Virginia) TROUBLE WITH GREAT BRITAIN 155 forced to surrender, after which four seamen were taken from her deck. But impressment was not the only cause for complaint, interference Great Britain meddled with our trade and commerce. She ^ h t ^ n ' ordered our merchants not to deal in certain kinds of goods, and stopped and searched their vessels to see that they obeyed. She forbade them to go to a great number of ports in Europe, and tried to seize such ships as continued to go to these ports. Nor did Napoleon, then Emperor of France and master of half Europe, treat us any better. He commanded our mer- chants not to send their ships to any port that was under the British flag. He seized numbers of our vessels in his own ports, and he declared that any vessel that submitted to be searched by a British cruiser should be captured wherever found. By 1807 matters had come to such a pass that our ships and goods were liable to be captured by somebody wher- ever they went. There was just one of two things then to do. We must fight for our rights on the sea, or we must abandon the sea. Upon the advice of Jefferson, who was then President, Congress decided to abandon the sea, and for The long more than a year an embargo was placed upon all merchant embar s° shipping ; that is, no trading ships were allowed to go from an American port to any foreign country, Schoolhouse where Jefferson went to school 156 TROUBLE WITH GREAT BRITAIN The War of 181a It was supposed that this embargo, this O-grab-me, as the people called it, by spelling the name backwards, would force Napoleon and Great Britain to treat us better. The British and French could not buy our cotton, lumber, pork, flour, and other products, which were of great value to them. They could not sell their cloth, china, glass, hardware, tools, silks, wines, and a hundred other things in our cities. Yet the embargo had no good effect. Matters grew worse instead of better, and in 1812, when James Madison was President, Con- gress declared war against Great Britain. ■ To fight Great Britain was a bold thing to do. For nearly twenty years she had been at war with France and with Napo- leon. In her navy were more than a thousand armed vessels. In her army were hundreds of thousands of soldiers. We had no army, and a navy of but sixteen ships. Yet the war dragged along for more than two years, and both on land and on sea the greatest triumphs were ours. The British cap- tured Detroit and got control of the North- west. But Perry captured the British fleet on Lake Erie ; McDonough destroyed another fleet on Lake Champlain ; Gen- eral Macomb beat the British at Plattsburg in New York ; and General W. H. Harrison beat them again on the Thames River in Canada, and recovered Detroit and the Northwest. At sea during the war thirteen important captures were made and but four serious defeats were suffered. One of the Part of the northern frontier TROUBLE WITH GREAT BRITAIN 157 Painting by IV. II. Powell Perry's victory on Lake Erie American ships captured was the unlucky frigate Chesapeake that six years before had been attacked by the Leopard and had had four sailors taken from her deck. She was now captured by the Shannon. Toward the end of the war, Great Britain sent over a fleet British and blockaded the whole coast, shut our vessels in port, and so put an end to our sea victories. One part of this fleet captured eastern Maine ; another with an army on board sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, where the troops landed and marched to Washington and burned the Capitol, the President's house, and some other public buildings. Returning to their ships, the soldiers were carried to Balti- more, which was attacked by land and water. It was during the bombardment of a fort defending Baltimore that Francis Scott Key wrote " The Star-Spangled Banner." Under a flag of truce he had gone on board one of the British ships to secure " The Star- Spangled Banner " 158 TROUBLE WITH GREAT BRITAIN Andrew Jackson the release of some prisoners taken by the British, and was himself held prisoner during the bombardment, which lasted all one day and part of a night. The scene from the deck of the enemy's vessel must indeed have been inspiring, and aroused by it he wrote the poem which has since been a national song. The opening lines describe the scene : — O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, On the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ; And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O say, does the star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Finding they could not take the fort and capture Baltimore, the British again went on board their ships, sailed away, and joined another fleet and army that was to attack New Orleans. But the Americans, under General Andrew Jackson, were more than a match for them. Andrew Jackson was born in North Carolina, and when a boy of fourteen was taken prisoner by a band of British troops and Tories who were roving about the state during the Revolutionary War. One of the officers, wishing to have his boots cleaned, ordered young Jackson to do it ; an order which the lad stoutly re- fused to obey. In- The Hermitage, Jackson's home (in Tennessee) TROUBLE WITH GREAT BRITAIN 159 Table of Jackson's time stead of admiring the pluck of the boy, the officer aimed a blow at him with a sword. Jackson drew up his arm to ward off the blow, and received a gash, the scar of which he car- ried through life. After the War for Inde- pendence Jackson removed to Nashville, then a little stock- aded fort far out on the frontier, and was soon known as a man of courage and determination. For a while after Tennessee %Ba^me a state he was a member of Congress. Next he was a judge*, and when the war with Great Britain opened, he raised a regiment of volunteers. But his services as a soldier began when the Creek Indians took the warpath and attacked the whites. These Creeks lived in what is now Alabama, and had long The Creek War been preparing for an attempt to drive out the whites ; and in 1813 they dug up the hatchet and drove the settlers from their farms to the little frontier forts. Into one of these, called Fort Mims, not far from Mobile, were gathered sev- eral hundred men, women, and children, when a thousand Indians, painted, naked, well armed, and led by their prophets carrying red sticks and bags of magic, suddenly attacked it. The defense was desperate ; but the In- dians won, and massacred nearly all of the inmates. As soon as news of the / awful deed reached Tennessee, troops were called out, Jackson was put in Calashj a woman>s headdress command, and in a few months' time worn in Jackson's time 160 TROUBLE WITH GREAT BRITAIN Battle of New Orleans he destroyed the Indian power and made peace on his own terms. This exploit made Jackson so famous that he was put in command of the army along the Gulf of Mexico ; and he was in New Orleans when the British landed in the swamps below the city. Two little fights took place at once. But the famous battle, the anniversary of which is celebrated even in our day, was fought on January 8, 1815. The Americans were behind a long line of intrenchments, and were, shots with Treaty of peace almost every one of them, frontiersmen and fine a rifle. The British were veteran troops, were led by able generals, and came bravely on to the attack. But the Americans Sb* delivered a dreadful fire, which drove % the British back with terrible slaugh- ter. It was the old story of Bunker Hill, with a happier ending, for the British were defeated and after a while sailed away. One of the results of the victory of New Orleans was to make General Jackson well known to the peo- ple, so that, fourteen years later, he was elected President of the United States. When the battle was fought, a treaty of peace with Great Britain had already been signed at Ghent in Holland. But ocean travel was slow in those days, and news of peace did not reach the United States for a month after Jackson's victory at New Orleans. This treaty of Ghent said nothing at all about the impressment of sailors or about the rights of trading ships ; but since then our ships and sailors have not been illtreated as they were before the war. Battle of New Orleans monument BUILDING THE WEST 161 SUMMARY 1. France and Great Britain were at war, and France illtreated us because we would not side with her. At last war with France began ; but after a few naval battles in the West Indies she made peace with us. 2. The United States had three complaints against Great Britain. She " impressed " our sailors ; searched our ships ; interrupted our com- merce. Failing to get satisfaction for these wrongs, we went to war. 3. The fighting was along the Canadian border ; along the Atlantic coast ; on the ocean ; and at New Orleans. 4. Along the Canadian border the British were at first victorious. But the American victories of Perry on Lake Erie, of Harrison on the Thames River in Canada, of McDonough on Lake Champlain, and of Macomb at Plattsburg, more than made up for the defeats. 5. Along the seacoast the British blockaded the ports, burned the public buildings at Washington, attacked Baltimore, and seized part of Maine. 6. On the sea many British ships were defeated or captured. 7. At New Orleans General Andrew Jackson won a great battle. CHAPTER XVII BUILDING THE WEST From a very early time in colonial days the people had Moving to been moving slowly westward from the coast. Under the new Kentuck y government of the United States, this march of population became rapid. One stream of emigrants went up the Mohawk valley, in New York. Another took possession of Tennessee. But the favorite land was Kentucky. Into it every year went thousands of men and women from Virginia and Pennsylvania. Some went over the mountains, with their goods on the backs of horses, driving their flocks and herds before them. Others went by way of the Ohio. They would go to Pittsburg or Wheeling and there buy or build a boat of some kind, put 162 BUILDING THE WEST Ohio River keel boat Three new states their household goods and cattle on board, and float down the river to their settlement. The boat, generally a flat boat made like a square box, or a longer keel boat, was broken up at the end of the voyage and used in build- ing a house. It must not be supposed that the Indians looked quietly on while this stream of settlers spread over their hunting grounds. They did their best to drive the white men out, and the early history of Kentucky is an almost continuous story of murder and massacre. But neither the hardships of frontier life nor the horrors of Indian war kept out population. Year after year the settlers poured in, and in 1792 Kentucky became a state in the Union, and was followed four years later (1796) by Tennessee. With the exception of Vermont, which was admitted to the Union in 1791, these were the first new states added to the original thirteen. North of Kentucky, from the Ohio River to the Lakes, and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi, — that is, in the Northwest Territory, — most of the land belonged to the United States, and was offered for sale to the people in order to pay the cost of the War for Independence. Though the • United States owned the land, the British and their Indian allies really occupied it. The British 4** held the forts along the Great Lakes, traded with the savages, and sold them Conestoga wagon guns and powder. **-.. BUILDING THE WEST 163 With guns and powder so obtained, the Indians tried to Ohio settled drive out the people who were settling north of the Ohio. Concealed in the woods along the banks, the redskins attacked the boats as they floated by ; they even put out in canoes and climbed on board to massacre the immigrants. Sometimes when a boat was seen coming down the Ohio, the Indians would force a white prisoner to stand at the water's edge and beg piteously to be taken on board ; and when the immigrants stopped to help him, the savages would kill every man, woman, and child on the boat. When the whites in return attacked the Indians and burned their towns, a war broke out and raged during six years. One army was badly beaten ; another was almost de stroyed ; but a third, under General Anthony Wayne, broke the power of the Indians and gave peace to the frontier. About the same time, Great Britain surrendered the fron- tier forts she had so long been holding. Then the settlers came in such numbers that after a few years a piece of this terri- . «. j j . . Blockhouse at Erie, Pa. tory was cut off and made into the state {Built hy Wayne) of Ohio (1803). Ever since the close of the Revolution the Spaniards had Trouble with been doing on our southern boundary what the British did pam along our northern. They occupied forts on the banks of the Mississippi in our territory, and refused to give them up ; made allies of the Indians ; and so really held what is now the greater part of the states of Alabama and Mississippi. More than this, Spain had refused to allow citizens of the United States to go down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. She owned the country all around the mouth of the river. Therefore she claimed the right to say who should use its waters, and many 164 BUILDING THE WEST Scythe The Louisiana purchase years passed before she agreed to permit our people to take their produce to New Orleans, and promised to withdraw her soldiers from our soil. The crowding of Spain out of Mississippi alarmed France. As a great Frenchman said, "Americans seemed determined to rule America." By and by they would force Spain out of the country alto- gether. That would never do. He proposed, therefore, that Spain should give back to France the Louisiana which France in 1763 had given to Spain. If so, France would promise never to let the United States have it. After much persuasion Spain agreed to this, and in 1800 returned Louisiana to France. But as soon as the Spanish officials at New Orleans heard of it, they again shut the Missis- sippi to our western people and would not let them trade at New Orleans. The whole West of course cried out, and Con- gress was asked to send an army to take possession of the mouth of the river before France could occupy the country. But President Jefferson preferred peace, and finally our gov- ernment bought Louisiana from France for $ 15^000,000. This nearly doubled the size of our country, as shown by the first map on page 233. As nobody knew anything about most of Louisi- ana, Congress asked the President for information, and received a most curious description. Jeffer- son of course did not write it, but had it writ- I ten, and merely sent it to Congress. Among other things the writer told of a great salt mountain which existed, he said, one thou- sand miles up the Missouri. The length of the mountain was one hundred and Broadax BUILDING THE WEST .165 eighty miles; the width forty- five miles ; and there was not a tree nor so much as a bush on it ; but, all glittering white, it rose from the prairie a solid mountain of salt, with streams of salt water flowing from its base. When such stories were seriously told to Congress there was much need of real information, and this was soon to be supplied by a party of explorers led by Meriwether Lewis and Wil- liam Clark. Starting from St. Louis, which was then a frontier town, these explorers made their way up the Mis- souri River to a place in the present state of North Dakota, and there spent the winter with the Indians. Early the next spring (1805), the explorers set out again, followed the Missouri to its sources, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and went down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean. The next year they came back to St. Louis. Lewis and Clark were the first of our countrymen to explore Discovery of the Columbia ; but the river had been discovered and named the Columbia several years before by Captain Gray, of Boston. While en- gaged in trading for furs on the Pacific coast, he sailed into the mouth of the river, and named it after his ship, the Columbia. The discovery of the Columbia gave the United States a claim to all the country it drained, and this country, when A trail in Idaho (Used by Lewis and Clark, and still in use) MoM. PR. H. 11 166 BUILDING THE WEST Florida purchase Moving to the West Frontier houses added to that purchased from France, extended the territory of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Along the Gulf of Mexico we as yet owned only the region about the mouth of the Mississippi. All the rest of the Gulf coast belonged to Spain till 1819, when she sold us Florida. The money paid for it was not given to her, but to citizens of the United States to whom she Wooden piggin was indebted. At the same time, Spain and the United States settled our southwestern boundary, as shown on the second map on page 233. The West was now fairly swarming with settlers. The hard times in the East which followed the war with Great Britain sent many thousands over the mountains every year. Never before had such a migration taken place in our country. Men of all sorts, farmers, mechanics, tradesmen, seemed crazy to go west. Once there, the "mover," the "newcomer," would secure his land, cut down a few small trees, and make a half-faced camp. This was a shed with three sides of logs and the fourth side open. When it rained, the open side was closed by hang- ing up deerskins. In a half-faced camp the settler lived till his log cabin was finished. If he made his home in a place where there were other settlers, they would all come and help build the cabin. These frontier homes rarely had more than one window and one door. As glass was scarce and costly, the window frame was often covered with greased Wooden pail BUILDING THE WEST 167 k paper, which let in the light but could not be seen through. The tables and chairs were made by the settler. His brooms and brushes were of corn husks, and many of his utensils were cut out of tree trunks. If the man was industrious, he would of course get a better house in time. But in pioneer days a large part of the settlers lived and died in log cabins, such as are described on page 66. In just such a house in Indiana there was growing up at this time a boy named Abraham Lincoln. He was born in a little log hut in Ken- tucky, February 12, 1809. His father was a restless, shiftless, ^^ seeking the easiest way Cornhusk broom Abraham Lincoln's boyhood ne'er-do-well man, always to make a living, who, in dering from place to place, when Abraham was seven but a child, Abraham and set to work to help the half-faced camp lived for a year, no door (■ Lincoln's broadax the course of his wan- . moved into Indiana years old. Though was given an ax clear the ground for in which the family The cabin, when built, had a doorway, but a window, but no oiled paper or glass ; and nothing but the bare earth for a floor. Little Abraham's bed was a heap of dry leaves in the loft, to which he climbed by pegs driven into the cabin wall. As he grew older he learned all the things a frontier settler's boy must know. He could --'■ plow, cut grain with a sickle, thrash it with a flail, and clean ^ it with a sheet ; he could chop wood, split rails, drive teams, and "" vi ^^^^\.1 J=^ M handle carpenter's tools, and could Birthplace of Lincoln 168 BUILDING THE WEST Cabinet made by Lincoln The settler's farm do all so well that when his father did not need his help he could hire him out to a neighbor for more than ordinary wages. Abraham learned to read, write, and cipher at a school taught by some of the schoolmasters who in those days wan- dered about the country from town to town. He went to school, as he said, " by littles"; in all, his schooling did not amount to more than a year. As soon as he could read he began to borrow every book he heard of, — among them iEsop's " Fables," Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," " Robinson Crusoe," a " Short History of the United States," and Weems's " Life of Wash- ington." This last book got wet, and he bought it of the owner by " pulling fodder " for three days. For a slate he used the wooden fire shovel, or shingles, when they were to be had, scraping them clean when they were covered with sums. His pencil was a charred stick. From the borrowed books he copied long extracts, using brierwood ink and a quill pen made from a turkey buzzard's feather. When paper was not to be had, he wrote the extracts on shingles or bits of board. After Lincoln grew up, he moved to Illinois and became a lawyer, and before he died, the whole world had heard of him. When the land about a cabin was wooded, the settler would clear it of bushes and would cut down and burn the small trees. The larger trees were Lincoln's law-office chair BUILDING THE WEST 169 killed by cutting a deep " girdle " around them near the ground. In the fields thus laid open to the sun would be planted corn, potatoes, and wheat. At first the crops raised would be scarcely enough to feed the family, but by and by they would be much larger, and part of them could be taken to a river town and there sold for " store goods." These river towns were often little shipping ports, from which flour, pork, lumber, and provisions of all sorts would be sent to New Orleans. The Ohio River was now a great highway of trade teeming Ohio River with life. Up and down it went odd craft of many sorts. There were Orleans boats, loaded with flour, hogs, and £2<±£& produce ; great fleets of timber rafts from the Appalachian Mountain streams, manned ,,. by fifty boatmen ; pirogues, dug out of the trunks of huge trees ; broadhorns, guided by great oars called sweeps ; arks carrying whole families of immigrants with their cattle and household goods ; steamboats that stopped anywhere and everywhere to get wood, or take on goods, or land passengers ; and floating stores. These stores were little one- story houses built on the deck of a boat, and fitted up just as if they were on land. As a boat of this sort floated along down the river, the captain would blow a horn the moment a farmhouse or a village came in sight. The people would then hurry to the river bank, the boat would make fast to a tree, and in a few moments the store would be crowded. Dry goods, hardware, iron pots, farm implements, and many other things were for sale. But they were not bought with money. The farmers gave grain, flour, pork, bacon, in exchange, and Ohio River flatboat trade boatmen 170 BUILDING THE WEST these the storekeeper sold for money to somebody who would ship them to New Orleans. Mississippi The Mississippi was quite as crowded as the Ohio ; for into it came boats of all sorts from the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Missouri, loaded with goods going to New Orleans. A traveler who saw one of the Mississippi towns at this time tells us that often a hundred craft arrived and departed in a day. There would be gathered lumber from the forests of Pennsylvania, Yankee notions from New England, pork and flour, hemp and rope from Kentucky, corn, apples, and potatoes from Ohio, cattle and horses from Illinois, lead and poultry from Missouri, and barges carrying nothing but turkeys. The river As the boats lay side by side, the crews would wander from one to another, seeking old friends and making new acquaint- ances. At dusk all would go ashore to have a good time. But by midnight all would quiet down. At the first streaks of dawn bugle after bugle would ring out, the boats would again be astir, and long before the sun was up the whole flotilla would once more be on its way down the river. Then they would no longer go singly, but, lashed together in little fleets of eight or ten, would float on toward New Orleans, while the boatmen whiled away the time with dancing, singing, music, and story- telling. At New Orleans the produce and lumber would find a ready sale, after which the boatmen would work their passage up the Mississippi as deck hands on the steamboats. New western As people continued to come into the West by thousands year after year, the country began to be pretty well settled, and between 1812 and 1821, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, and Missouri were made states. To trade with the people in these Western States was a matter of great importance to the merchants and manufao States BUILDING THE WEST 171 turers in the Atlantic seaboard states. But in order to send them clothing, hardware, farm implements, and other things, there must be some easy way of getting to the West. The people of New York state decided that their easy way should The Erie be a canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, and after eight Copyright, l'JOO, by C. Klackner Travel by canal years of hard work they completed and opened (1825) the Erie Canal from end to end. This stirred up the people of Pennsylvania, who began to join Philadelphia and Pittsburg by a highway partly canal and partly railroad. In many ways it was nOw much easier to go about the coun- try than it was when the War for Independence ended. Many of the large rivers were crossed by bridges. Between the chief towns better roads had been made. Over them the stage- coaches, drawn by good horses, passed more swiftly than of old. A traveler could go just about twice as far in a day in 1825 as he could in Washington's time, and with about the same risk ; for now and then a stage would upset, as in earlier days. The greatest progress had been made in travel on the water, The for the steamboat was now in use on many bays and rivers steamboat 172 BUILDING THE WEST through the water by steam was old. Sev- The railroad The idea of driving a boat means of a machine moved by eral men had invented such ma- chines and moved boats. But the successful use of such boats dates from one August day in 1807, when Robert Fulton made a trip up the Hudson from New York to Albany in the Clermont. The next great improvement in the means of travel was the building of a railroad, that is, a roadway with rails, over which Early type of locomotive heavily loaded cars could body thought very much Early type of locomotive be drawn by horses. But no- about railroads till an English- man named George Stephenson invented the steam locomotive and showed that it could move long trains of cars much faster than horses could. There were soon built a few short railroads in our country, on which horses were at first used to draw the cars. But after 1831 the steam locomotive came into general use here, and many railroads were built. SUMMARY 1. The arrival of settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains was the cause of a long and bloody warfare with the Indians. But the Indians could not drive back the whites. Settlers came in greater numbers than ever, and three Western States soon entered the Union : Kentucky in 1792, Tennessee in 1796, and Ohio in 1803. Vermont in the East had entered the Union in 1791. BUILDING THE WEST 173 2. Until 1800 Spain owned Louisiana (New Orleans and the valley of the Mississippi west of the river) and all our Gulf of Mexico coast. In 1800 she gave Louisiana to France, from whom, in 1803, we bought it. 3. The Columbia River was discovered some years before this by an Ameri- can sea captain named Gray. 4. The new territory purchased from France and the Columbia River coun- try were explored by Lewis and Clark. 5. Florida was purchased from Spain in the year 1819, and at the same time Spain and the United States agreed on a definite boundary from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. 6. After the second war with Great Britain more people went west from the seaboard states. Life in the log cabins on the frontier was hard at first, but the settlers came by thousands every year. Copyright, 1894, by E. L. Henry Early railroad travel 7. The Ohio and the Mississippi became great highways, crowded with craft of every sort, from flatboats and rafts to steamboats. 8. The effect of this immigration was to build up six new Western States, admitted between 1812 and 1821 : Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illi- nois, Alabama, and Missouri. 9. Trade with the people in the Western States was very important to the people of the East, and led to the construction of the Erie Canal across New York and of canals and railroads across Pennsylvania. 174 SLAVERY QUESTION BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE CHAPTER XVIII THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE Slavery When our country was under the British Crown there were three great classes of laborers, — freemen, redemptioners, and slaves. Free laborers were those who were paid for their work. What redemptioners were was told in Chapter V., where men- tion was also made of the negro slaves that were early brought to America from Africa. A slave belonged absolutely to the owner. He could be sold, or given away, or hired out, exactly as a horse or an ox. He could not own anything, even if he found or made it, nor could he leave the plantation where he belonged without per- mission. It was not lawful to teach a slave to read or write, and to set him free was a very difficult matter. A slave woman's children were slaves. Down to the opening of the War for Independ- ence Great Britain forced the colonies to allow slavery. Several of them tried to abolish it, but this was always prevented. After the war the states were able to do as they pleased, and in time those from Pennsylvania east- ward to New Hampshire abolished slavery. The people in the states south of Pennsylvania would probably in time have done the same had they not begun to grow cotton in great quantities. Before 1790 it did not pay to raise cotton because of the difficulty of cleaning it. Raw cotton, or cotton cotton wool, grows inside of a pod on a bush. When the pod is ripe, it splits open and shows the cotton with a number of seeds in it, which must be picked out before it can be spun SLAVERY QUESTION BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE 175 into threads. To pick them out by hand was so slow I and costly that a machine to do the work was greatly y needed, and this machine Eli Whitney invented. ^ pj |* ) Whitney was born in Massachusetts. When a \. | *, e Whitney's young man he went to Georgia to teach, and while Nfj at Savannah heard of the difficulty of cleaning /^M jV cotton and set about removing it. He was a ^J^jj ! born inventor and mechanic, had used tools from boyhood, and soon made a machine which . ^^ he called a cotton gin, the word "gin" being ^L \ a short term for " engine." -„ Wi fifr ,p After the invention of Whitney's machine, ^|5p^ cotton raising became very profitable. But '^onDv the greater the quantity grown, the greater J the demand for negro slaves to plant the seed and gather the cotton wool, and slavery became more firmly established than ever before in the Southern Cotton States where cotton was grown. In the Northern States, where cotton was not raised, the The dispute people were much opposed to slavery, and when at last Mis- over Mlssoun souri asked for admission into the Union, Northern men insisted that she must be a free state, that is, one in which slavery was not allowed. The Southern people, on the other hand, demanded that she enter as a slave state. Of the new states already admitted to the Union, those north of the Ohio were free and those south of it slaveholding, so that in the whole Union of twenty-two states there were eleven of each kind. During the discussion in Congress about admitting Missouri, Massachusetts gave her consent that Maine should become a state. Up to this time Maine had been part of Massachusetts. When the consent of this state to a separation was given, Maine applied to Congress for leave to enter the Union. 176 SLAVERY QUESTION BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE The Missouri Compromise Henry Clay's home (in Kentucky) Boundary of slave territory The Abolitionists But there were no slaves in Maine. The South, therefore, made use of this fact, and said to the North, if Maine comes into the Union as a free state, Mis- souri must come in as a slave state. And so it was finally arranged. Maine was ad- mitted in 1820, and Missouri in 1821. But at the same time it was agreed that in all the country purchased from France in 1803, north of the parallel of 36° 30', except Missouri, there should be no slavery. This was called the Missouri Compromise, and was brought about through the influence of Henry Clay, a very distinguished member of Con- gress from Kentucky. This compromise, it was hoped, would put an end to all dis- putes about slavery. If you start at the Delaware River and follow the south and then the west boundary of Pennsylvania to the Ohio River, then go down that river to the Mississippi, then up the Mississippi and around the north and west bound- ary of Missouri to the parallel of 36° 30', and then along that parallel to the meridian of 100°, you will have the line which in 1821 separated the slaveholding from the free part of the United States. In all the region south of this line slavery existed. In all the country north of it slavery had been abolished or was prohibited. In the opinion of Mr. Clay and many other people this settled the matter. But there were others who insisted that it did not, and that slavery ought to be abolished by Congress ; that it ought not to exist anywhere in our country. These SLAVERY QUESTION BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE 177 were the Abolitionists, and their most celebrated leader was William Lloyd Garrison. One of the ways used to arouse a feeling against slavery Antisiavery was to scatter antisiavery newspapers, pamphlets, pictures, agJ a lon books, and handbills all over the South. The South declared that such things were dangerous, as they were likely to make the slaves rebellious, and called on the North to stop their publication, and put down the antisiavery societies. There- upon, in many Northern cities, mobs broke up the meetings of the antisiavery people, and destroyed antisiavery news- paper offices. Violence made matters worse. The feeling against slavery grew stronger and spread wider, and in 1840 a new politi- cal party, afterwards called the Liberty Party, was organized, and pledged to work for the freeing of the slaves. In 1840 William Henry Harrison was elected President by the party called Whigs, had been : — Free and slave territory in 1821 Up to that time our Presidents The first ten Presidents George Washington . 1789-1797 James Monroe 1817-1825 John Adams 1797-1801 John Qnincy Adams . 1825-1829 Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809 Andrew Jackson 1829-1837 James Madison . 1809-1817 Martin Van Bnren 1837-1841 But Harrison had been President only a month when he died, and the Vice President, John Tyler, succeeded him. 178 SLAVERY QUESTION BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE With the stormy politics of Tyler's term we need not be concerned. But there is one event connected with the story of slavery and the growth of country which must be mentioned. Some twenty years before this time, citizens of the United States went in large numbers to settle in Texas, then a part of Mexico. Although Mex- ico had been made a republic patterned after the United States, its government was much less free than ours and in many respects was really very cruel and tyrannical. For Mexicans and Ameri- cans to live quietly together under such a govern- ment as that of Mexico was impossible. They soon disagreed, quarreled, went to war, and in 1836 the Americans made a declaration of independence, and Texas became a republic. A fashionable man Xhe Texans then wished to bring their repub- lic into our Union as a state. People who wanted Annexation more slave states approved of this because there was slavery in Texas. Those who did not want more slave states opposed it, and so the question of the annexation of Texas was a very serious one for some years. At last, in 1844, when a new President was to be elected, the Democratic Party declared for the annexation of Texas. This meant that if their candidate, James K. Polk of Tennessee, was elected, and if they had a majority in both houses of Congress, they would admit Texas as a new state. When, therefore, Polk was chosen, President Tyler urged Congress without delay to take the steps necessary to admission, and in the last days of his term Congress did so, and in 1845 Texas became the twenty-eighth state in the Union. Since the admission of Maine and Missouri, the states of Arkan- sas, Michigan, and Florida had been admitted. SLAVERY QUESTION BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE 179 At the same time that the Democrats declared for the annex- The Oregon ation of Texas, they demanded a settlement of our dispute with country Great Britain over the ownership of the Columbia River valley, or the Oregon country, as it was called. You will recall that we claimed this country, first by rea- son of Captain Gray's discovery of the Columbia River (1792), and second by its exploration by Lewis and Clark some years later. A third claim was based on its settlement, for John Jacob Astor of New York had sent out settlers and founded Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia. For certain reasons Great Britain disputed our claims, and in 1818 it was agreed that for ten years to come the country should be open to the people of both nations. r:v When the ten-year period was drawing to \ ^ a close, the question of occupying the Ore- - gon country was discussed in Congress. But Oregon seemed so far away, so un- '■ i 1 :::., likely to be settled for many years, that the old agreement with Great Britain was renewed without a time limit, and this was the state of affairs in 1842. Now, it happened that in 1842 another boundary dispute with Great Britain, which I had been going on for sixty years, was finally settled. Ever since the end of the War , for Independence, Great Britain had claimed ' that the northern half of Maine belonged to her. We claimed that it did not and insisted on a boundary north of the present line. Several attempts were made to end the dis- pute, but it was not till 1842 that a treaty A fashionable woman was agreed on and the line determined. about 1840 M 180 SLAVERY QUESTION BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE boundary When it was known that the dispute about Oregon had not been settled at the same time, the people were much displeased, and the Democrats thought it wise to demand a settlement. Northwestern Texas was slave soil ; Oregon would surely be free soil. It was good policy, therefore, when adding to our slaveholding area, to add at the same time a piece of territory to our free area. So they called for occupation of Oregon up to 54° 40'. " The whole of Oregon or none " was the cry ; " Fifty-four forty or fight." Happily, it was not necessary to fight, and the two countries in 1846 agreed to make the 49th parallel, from the Rocky Mountains to the coast, the boundary of Oregon. Meantime the annexation of Texas was causing trouble for us with Mexico, for two reasons. First, though Texas was really an independent republic, Mexico refused to admit the fact, and insisted that Ave had no right to annex the country. Second, Texas claimed the Rio Grande as a boundary, while Mexico denied this and would have placed the dividing line at the Nueces River, farther east. Now, Congress having annexed Texas, which claimed the Rio Grande as its west boundary, President Polk sent troops under Zachary Taylor to take position on the banks of that river. There in 1846 the Mexicans attacked Taylor and were beaten. War with Mexico followed at once. Our armies were commanded by Generals Scott, Taylor, and Kearny, and in the course of the war did some wonderful fighting and marching. Taylor beat the enemy in battle after battle near the Rio Grande. Scott marched from the seacoast across the enemy's country to the city of Mexico and captured it, having War with Mexico SLAVERY QUESTION BEGINS TO MAKE TROUBLE 181 won many victories on the way. Kearny marched from Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri River to Santa Fe in New Mexico, a distance of eight hun- dred miles, captured the city, and then went on across the continent to California. There he found that Commodore Stockton and Captain Fremont had already con- quered California. When peace was made in 1848, we held the territory thus acquired and paid Mexico Terms of -115,000,000, besides paying claims of our citizens against peace Mexico to the amount of $3,500,000. Our country then had the shape shown in the first map on page 234. The hill castle of Chapultepec {The Americans under Scott carried Chapultepec by storm, in order to capture Mexico city) SUMMARY 1. Before the War for Independence slavery existed in all the colonies. After it some of the states abolished slavery. Others would have done so had it not been for the cotton gin invented by Whitney. This made slaves more profitable in the cotton-growing states. 2. East of the Mississippi, slavery was allowed in the new states south of the Ohio, but was forbidden in the territory north of the Ohio. When Missouri applied for admission into the Union, the question of slavery west of the Mississippi was discussed and finally settled by the Com- promise of 1820. 3. About the time Maine and Missouri were admitted we bought Florida from Spain and agreed with her as to the boundary between Mexico (which then included Texas) and the United States. MOM. PR. II. — 12 182 DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES 4. 5. 6. Mexico soon became free from Spain. Many American settlers went to Texas with their slaves, but would not live under the Mexican govern- ment, and so made Texas an independent republic. The Texans wished to be annexed to the United States. This was opposed for some time by those who were opposed to slavery, but in 1845 Texas was made a state in the Union. The northern boundaries of Maine and Oregon were fixed in 1842 and 1846, thus peaceably settling two long disputes with Great Britain. A dispute as to the southeast boundary brought on a war with Mexico. As one result of the Mexican War we acquired an immense piece of ter- ritory stretching from the upper Rio Grande to the Pacific. :>XK< CHAPTER XIX THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES Captain Sutter A PART of the vast region acquired from Mexico was called California, and in this country, near the Sacramento River, lived Captain J. A. Sutter, a Swiss settler. He had obtained from the Mexican governor of California a great tract of land and on it had built a fort. Sutter's Fort, as it was called, stood at the junction of the American and Sacramento rivers, on the site of the present y Sutter's Fort about 1850 DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES 183 city of Sacramento. In it Sutter lived like a little king. of cattle, thousands of mules. In his and around his Americans. Over his domain roamed thousands sheep, and thousands of horses and employ were hundreds of laborers, fort were settled a number of As Sutter used a great deal of employed a man named Marshall lumber, he Sutter's mill Sutter's mill sawmill for him at a place called Coloma, some fifty miles away. The saws were to be moved by a water wheel. But when the wheel was finished and the water turned on, it was found that the ditch to carry off the water was too small. To make it larger, water was washed through it, and as a conse- quence a bed of mud and gravel was formed at the end of the ditch. One day in January, 1848, as Marshall looked at this bed of gravel he Saw in it Part of California ^ vtc %} / '-ft San Francisco^ scale OF miles ! Gold "^ ° { \ h b '° ■ l6 ° discovered 184 DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES Sutter's Fort as it is now The rush to the gold fields Digging and washing gold some glitter- . ing particles, which he picked up, examined, and believed / were gold. Gathering more, he carried them to Sutter, who easily proved that gold --^ they were. To keep the discovery secret was impossible. Sutter and Marshall acted so strangely that a workman watched them and found some gold himself. Then the news spread fast. Everybody that could, dropped work and rushed to the gold fields. Laborers left their fields, tradesmen their shops, and sail- ors their ships as fast as they arrived on the coast. One of the San Francisco newspapers ceased to appear because the editor, the typesetters, and the printer's devils had gone to the gold fields. Another journal had the same experience a few weeks later, and California was without a newspaper. The . publisher of one of these papers stated that while traveling through the gold fields to see the sights he gathered without the aid of a shovel, pick, and pan, from forty-four 0) to one hundred and twenty- eight dollars a day in gold. At the diggings the hill- sides were dotted with can- vas tents and bush arbors & that served as houses for the miners. The gold was obtained .; by washing. Some men worked with tin pans, some with close woven Indian baskets, but the greater Washing gold DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES 185 part had a rude machine known as a cradle. This was a box six or eight feet long, on rockers. It was open at the foot, and at its head had a coarse grate. Four men were usually required to work the machine ; one dug the ground, another carried it to the cradle and emptied it on the grate, a third gave a violent rocking motion to the cradle, while a fourth dashed on water from a stream. By November, 1848, reports from California had reached the Gold seekers East and set people crazy. It was then too late to go overland from the East to the gold fields. But before February, 1819, more than a Prairie schooner hundred ships with thousands of " Argonauts," as the gold seekers were called, had started for California. Some went to the Isthmus of Panama, which the gold hunters crossed, and took ships on the Pacific coast. Others sailed around South America. When spring came, thousands of men were hurrying to Mis- The overland souri to make the journey from there across the plains. Com- ^lifornia ing from all parts of the country, these men would usually assemble at Independence on the Missouri River, where they would "fit out" ; that is, they would buy food, guns, ammuni- tion, oxen, canvas-covered wagons (prairie schooners), and 186 DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES whatever else was necessary, and would make up parties for defense against the Indians. The road was up the valley of the Platte and over the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada in California. The suffering, both of man and beast, was ter- rible ; for on the wide, dry, sun-baked plains there was neither food, water, nor trees. Hunger and thirst caused the death of hundreds, and along the route for many years might be seen the skeletons of horses and oxen and the wrecks of wagons that had broken down on the way. Yet no danger, no suffering, no fear of hostile Indians, could stop the emigrants. They went by thousands, and California by 1849 had a population so great that the people formed a state government and applied for admission into the Union. The slavery In the newly made state constitution of California slavery California 11 was forbidden ; and this was a serious matter, for just then the whole question of slavery was before Congress and the country. The annexation of the slave state of Texas and the purchase of more territory brought it up in a new form. Hitherto the question was, Shall slavery be abolished ? Now it became, Shall slavery be extended ? Shall it be allowed in the country purchased from Mexico ? As this land had been made free soil by Mexico, many people in the North insisted that it should remain free, and formed a political party called the Free Soil Party, pledged to prevent the spread of slavery. " No more slave states " was their cry. The South insisted that the newly acquired country was the common property of the states, that any citizen might go there with his slaves, and that Congress had no right to prevent him. Besides this, the South insisted that there ought to be at least as many slave states as free states. Since the admission of Florida and Texas the two free states of Iowa and Wisconsin had been added, so that now the numbers were equal — fifteen slave states and fifteen free. DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES 187 Some threats were made that the slaveholding states would leave the Union if Congress sought to shut out slavery in the territory gained from Mexico. That a state might secede, or withdraw from the Union, had The question long been claimed by a party led by John C. Calhoun of South ° secessi0n Carolina. Daniel Webster had always opposed this doctrine and stood as the representative of those who held that our Union can not be broken. Once (in l|ig|ft -,i-'^- 5 f ^ff 1832) South Carolina went so ^^^jjflY.^lll^l^W^ro far as to nullify a certain tax law of the United States ; that is, she refused to allow this law Webster ' s home (in Massa <*» s *« s ) to be enforced on her soil, and she threatened to secede if the government used force against her. On that occasion a very famous debate took place in the Senate between Webster and Calhoun on this very question of secession. The dispute was finally settled by a compromise, largely through the influence of Henry Clay ; South Carolina gave up her attempt to nullify the law, but Congress made important changes in the law. Now in 1850 Clay undertook to end this latest quarrel TheCompro- between the states, as he had that over Missouri (in 1820), miseofl85 ° and that with South Carolina (in 1833). Again a great debate occurred, in which Webster, Calhoun, and Clay (the most dis- tinguished senators then living) took part, and once more a compromise resulted. We need not learn all its details. It is enough to know that, as part of it, — 1. California was admitted as a free state. 2. Texas received her present boundary, giving up her claim to the land now lying between the state of Texas and the Rio Grande. 188 DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES Out of part of the country bought from Mexico were made two territories — Utah and New Mexico, in which slavery was not prohibited. The Mormons Migrations of the Mormons Guidepost In New Mexico were some old Spanish settlements founded long before an English colony was planted in our country, and the curious Indian villages or pueblos of the Zulii. In Utah were the Mormons. Twenty years before, a man named Joseph Smith founded in New York state a new reli- gious sect. The members of this sect were commonly called Mormons because of their new " Book of Mormon," which they believed to be as holy as the Bible. From New York they went in time to Ohio, then to Missouri, and then to a little town which they built in Illinois on the bank of the Mississippi River. There they came to blows with the state officers, and in 1846 the Mormon leaders decided to move their people out of the United States and into Mexico. The plan was not to go in one great body, but in a series of parties, and to select the to mark the plains Mormon guidepost Others would as the first of these crossed the plains site for a new city, it used curious methods way for those that came after. The in those days were dotted with buffalo skulls bleached by long exposure to the sun and air. Taking one of these from time to time, the leader would paint across the skull the date and the number of miles made, and set it up as a guidepost or marker of a be hung on the branches of camping place. trees and . filled with letters to the members of the party next to follow. DISCOVERY OF GOLD AND THE CONSEQUENCES 189 After three months of hard and wearisome travel, this band salt Lake city of pioneers climbed over a big mountain and beheld below them the broad valley of the Great Salt Lake. Going down j Mormon houses in the desert into it, they took possession, and some ten miles from the shore of the lake made the beginning of Salt Lake City. Later in the year (1847), several thousand people arrived, and still more in 1848. When the Mormons entered Utah, the country belonged to Mexico, but finding themselves again within the United States as a result of the Mexican War, they formed the state of Deseret, and (1849) asked for its admission into the Union. The request was not granted, and for many years this part of our country remained the territory of Utah. SUMMARY 1. The Mexican War was scarcely ended when news reached the East that gold had been discovered in California. 2. A great rush of gold hunters followed. Some sailed around South America, or crossed the Isthmus of Panama. Many went overland. 3. In California sailors left their ships, laborers and tradesmen dropped work, and all hurried to the gold fields. 4. Men came in such numbers that in 1849 a state government was estab- lished and Congress was asked to admit California as a state. 5. A dispute broke out as to whether it should be a free or a slave state. It was finally made as a free state under Clay's Compromise of 1850. 190 THE SLAVERY QUESTION BRINGS ON CIVIL WAR CHAPTER XX THE SLAVERY QUESTION BRINGS ON CIVIL WAR The Compromise of 1850, as it was called, was supposed by those who made it to be a final settlement of all the troubles growing out of slavery. But when Kansas and Nebraska were made territories (1854), the old quarrel Cannon used in forts during the ■. AT ,, , c , ., , , Civil War between North and South broke out anew. The Missouri You will remember that by the Compromise of 1820 (page re wleT 186 176 )' there WaS t0 be n ° slavei T in a11 tliat P art of the old Louisiana territory north of 36° 30', except in Missouri. Kan- sas and Nebraska were in this free part of the old Louisiana. But Congress, under the lead of Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, now repealed the Compromise of 1820 and opened these territories to slavery. The effects of this law (1854) were : — 1. That any man might emigrate to Kansas or Nebraska with his slaves and live there and not have them set free. 2. When the time came to admit Kansas or Nebraska into the Union as a state, the people were to decide whether it should be a free or a slaveholding state. 3. Whether Kansas and Nebraska should finally become slave- holding or free states depended, therefore, on whether the slaveholders or the settlers opposed to slavery were the more numerous. The struggle Both sides now made great efforts to settle and control for Kansas Kansas. People pledged to make Kansas a free state hurried THE SLAVERY QUESTION BRINGS ON CIVIL WAR 191 in from the North and settled at Lawrence, Topeka, and else- where. Immi- grants pledged to make Kansas a slave state Musket used during the Civil War came in from Missouri and the South and founded Atchison, Lecompton, Leavenworth, and other towns. The struggle that followed was dreadful. Lawrence was plundered and burned, men were murdered, and during several years a civil war raged in Kansas. Lawless bands of both parties, called Jayhawkers, roamed about the country, and when they met, fought. One who lived in Kansas during this time tells us that farming was almost neglected ; that men went out to till the soil in bands of ten or twelve fully armed, and that whenever two strangers met they came up pistol in hand ; that their first salutation was, " Free-state or pro-slave ? " and that often the next sound was the report of a pistol. As the people north and south watched this civil war in Kansas, the feeling of the two sections grew more and more intense and bitter. In the midst of this excitement over Kansas the time came Lincoin- to elect a senator for Illinois to re- A ^ debate 8 place Stephen A. Douglas, and the question arose, Shall he be re- elected, or shall some other man be chosen in place of him ? Mr. Douglas, you remember, had secured the passage of the law creating the two territories of Kansas and Ne- braska, which allowed anybody to take slaves into those territories. The Republicans, whose motto was in use during the Civil War 192 THE SLAVERY QUESTION BRINGS ON CIVIL WAR Abraham Lincoln "No more slave states, no more slave territories," wanted Douglas defeated, and nominated Abraham Lincoln for sena- tor. The Democrats nominated Mr. Douglas, and during the autumn of 1858 these two candidates traveled over the state of Illinois, discussing the question of slavery from the same platform night after night. This Lincoln-Douglas debate created great interest. In the end Douglas was reelected, but fo^pJe^dent Lincoln became so famous that in 1860 the Republicans nomi- im86o nated him for President of the United States. The Democrats THE SLAVERY QUESTION BRINGS ON CIVIL WAR 193 were divided ; one part nominated Douglas, and the other Mr. John C. Breckinridge. A fourth party, whose motto was to save the Union at any cost, put forward John Bell. The Presidents since Van Buren had been : — Millard Fillmore . . 1850-1853 Franklin Pierce . . 1853-1857 James Buchanan . . 1857-1861 William H. Harrison . 1841 John Tyler . . . 1841-1815 James K.Polk . . 1845-1849 Zachary Taylor . . 1849-1850 The last two of these Presidents were Democrats and had secession of not opposed slavery. The Southern States now (1860) said l™^™ that if Lincoln were elected, slavery would be destroyed, and that rather than have this happen they would leave the Union. When, therefore, Lincoln was elected, they began one by one to secede, that is, declared that they were no longer members of the Union known as the United States of America. First went South Carolina, and then Georgia, Florida, Ala- bama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Delegates from these six states next met at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a new union which they called the " Confederate States of America." Jefferson Davis was elected its President, and Alexander H. Stephens its Vice Presi- dent. And now Texas joined the Confederacy. When South Carolina „ 1 „ ' . Fort Sumter seceded, there was within her bounds much property belonging to the United States. Forts, etc. There were lighthouses, courthouses, post offices, customhouses Jf South where duties on imported goods were collected, and two impor- tant forts, Moultrie and Sumter, which guarded the entrance to Charleston harbor, and were held by a small band of United States troops under the command of Major Robert Anderson. 194 THE SLAVERY QUESTION BRINGS ON CIVIL WAR SCALE OF MILES Charleston Harbor What Anderson did Fort Sumter attacked by Confederates As soon as the state seceded, a demand was made on the United States for a surrender of this property. The partner- ship called the Union, it was said, having been dissolved by the withdrawal of South Carolina, the land on which these forts, arsenals, magazines, and build- ings stood belonged to the state ; but the buildings being the property of the United States should be paid for by the state. Agents were accordingly sent to Washington to arrange for the purchase. Troops, meantime, were being enlisted and drilled, and Major Anderson, fearing that if the agents sent to Washington did not succeed, the forts would be taken by force, cut down the flagstaff and spiked the guns in Fort Moultrie, and moved his men to Fort Sumter, which stood on an island in the harbor, and could be more easily defended ; and so the matter stood when Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, March 4, 1861. Fort Sumter was now in a state of siege, his men could get no food from Charleston, while the troops of the Confederacy had planted cannon with which they could at any time fire on the fort. Either the troops must very soon go away or food must be sent to Part of Fort Sumter after bombardment Anderson and j*fc— ;;• gSM? liillll WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND 195 them. Mr. Lincoln decided to send food. But when the ves- sels with food, men, and supplies reached Charleston they found that the Confederates had already begun to fire on Sumter. What then happened is best told by Major Anderson : " Hav- ing defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quar- ters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door closed from the effects of heat, four barrels and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, I accepted terms of evacuation Fortsumter offered by General Beauregard . . . and marched out of the surrendered fort Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with colors flying and drums beating. ..." SUMMARY 1. A law was passed (1854) establishing the two territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and repealing the Missouri Compromise. 2. The law provided that when these territories became states, their people should decide whether or not the new states should be free soil. The result was a bloody struggle for the possession of Kansas. 3. After Lincoln was elected President (1860), seven of the Southern States seceded from the Union and formed a new Confederacy. 4. A dispute over the possession of the forts in Charleston Harbor led to a successful attack by the Confederates on Fort Sumter. CHAPTER XXI THE WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND The moment the news of the fall of Sumter reached the North, the people knew that all hope of a peaceable settlement of the dispute with the South was gone. Mr. Lincoln at once 196 WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND L FtuJor^O F MEXICO The Confederate States President calls called for 75,000 soldiers to serve for three months. Some of for troops ^ ^^ q£ thig were 1. The secession of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, making eleven states in the Confederacy. 2. The removal of the seat of government of the Confederacy from Montgomery in Alabama to Richmond in Virginia. 3. The separation of the western part of Virginia from the eastern part. Out of this was afterwards formed the state of West Virginia. 4. The gathering of the Union army along Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River, around Washington, along the Ohio River, and in Missouri. WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND 197 5. The gathering of a Confederate army to oppose the Union army. There were thus two great armies drawn up in various places on opposite sides of a line stretching from near the mouth of James River in Virginia up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River to Harpers Ferry, then along the mountains to western Virginia, and then westward through Kentucky and Missouri. To break through this line and drive the Confederate forces back was the aim of the Union commanders. Just southwest of Washington, and between it and Rich- BuiiRun mond, was a Confederate force, and with this, in July, 1861, a Union army fought the famous battle of Bull Run. The Union soldiers were defeated and put to flight. General McClellan was now placed in command of the Union Forts troops near Washington, and while he was drilling them an ^oneiso^ attempt was made to break through the Confederate line west of Virginia. Where the line crossed the Cumberland and Ten- nessee rivers, just south of Kentucky, were two forts called Donelson and Henry. Against these two forts General Ulysses S. Grant advanced with an army, and Flag Officer Foote with a fleet. Grant was born in a little town in Ohio, at a time when that part of our country was very near the frontier. While a MCM. PR. H. 13 Part of the battlefield of Bull Run I 198 WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND Ulysses S. Grant Battles in Tennessee Opening the Mississippi boy he did much hard work on his father's farm, besides going to school a few weeks each winter. When he was seventeen he became a cadet in the Military Academy at West Point, and during the Mexican War he served under General Taylor and then under General Scott. A few years after the war he left the army and went to live on a farm near St. Louis ; and the log cabin in which he lived he built with his own hands. But he did not succeed very well as a farmer, so he went to St. Louis and became a real estate agent. This venture also failed, and he became a clerk in his father's leather and hardware store in Illinois. There he was when Lincoln made the first call for troops to defend the Union. Grant at once offered his services and showed himself so able a soldier that early in 1862 he was sent with Flag Officer Foote to make the attack on the Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson. The attempt was successful. Foote took Fort Henry, and Grant took Fort Donel- son ; and the Confederate line was cut in two. The Southern troops retreated southward to a place called Corinth, in Missis- sippi. Grant followed, and in April, 1862, was attacked at Shiloh. The fight raged for two days, when the Confederates fell back again to Corinth, and a few weeks later they retreated still farther. Memphis now surrendered, and the Mississippi River was opened as far south as Vicksburg. It was also opened near Confederate Capitol, Richmond WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND 199 the Gulf ; for in April, 1862, a fleet under Flag Officer Farragut forced its way up the Mississippi, passing the Confederate forts near its mouth, captured New Orleans, and landed an army to hold the city. Now let us see what had happened in the East inl862. As Richmond was the capital of the Confed- erate States, the North insisted that it should be captured, and early in 1862 preparations were made to attack it. One army was sent into the Shenandoah valley in western Virginia to pre- vent the Confederates from coming down that valley to attack Washing- ton from the west. An- other was stationed in front of Washington to prevent an attack from the south. A third, under McClellan, was taken in ships Peninsular down Chesapeake Bay to a point near famous old Yorktown, Cam P ai s n where General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in 1781. After capturing this place McClellan advanced up the peninsula between the York and James rivers, fighting as he went, till he came to a place called White House Landing, whence he moved westward toward Richmond. But McClellan was forced back by General R. E. Lee to a place on the James River, whence his army was taken by boat to the Potomac River near Washington. SCALE OF MILES . 10 20 .30 40 50 Country around Washington 200 WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND Lee's home, at Arlington Robert E. Lee Lee was a native of Virginia, had been edu- cated at West Point, and down to the time when Virginia seceded had been an officer in the army of the United States. He had served on the frontier and in the war with Mexico, had been for three years at the head of the Mili- tary Academy at West Point, and was a soldier of great ability. Just before the outbreak of the war, Lee, who was then a colonel serving in Texas, was called to Washington ; and after the attack on Sumter he was offered the command of the Union troops. But Virginia at once seceded, and Lee resigned his place in the army of the United States and was put in com- mand of the troops of Virginia. Soon afterwards he was made a Confederate general, but it was not till McClellan was mov- ing upon Richmond that Lee was given command of a large army. The Confederate general who at first was pitted against McClellan (General Joseph E. Johnston) was wounded in the fighting near Richmond, and then Lee took command of the Confederate army and forced McClellan back. When McClellan sailed away, Lee attacked the Union army that had been stationed in front of Washington, beat it in a second battle of Bull Run, and crossing the Potomac entered Maryland. McClellan gave chase, overtook Lee, and fought a Antietam desperate battle at Antietam Creek, after which Lee returned to Virginia. McClellan was now removed from command and General Burnside was put in his place. But before the year WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND 201 ended Burnside was badly beaten in an attack on Fredericks- Battles in burg, and a few weeks later General Hooker was given Virgima command. "Fighting Joe," as Hooker was called, took the field in the spring of 1863, led his army against Lee, and was beaten at Chancellorsville. Lee now repeated his attempt of the pre- vious summer : he rushed around Hooker, crossed the Potomac, crossed Maryland, and marched into Pennsylvania as far as Gettysburg. As the Union army hurried along in pursuit, Gettysburg General Meade was put in command in place of Hooker. At Gettysburg, on July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, was fought the great and decisive battle of the war. The fighting was desperate. The loss on each side was terrible. But Lee was beaten and went back to Virginia ; and in the East no more great battles were fought till the following spring. Tm$tikitor~zSHL ,- jj||feyp~ i *' WQJmm ^^■R^V - IsS K r ^'%E~i Battlefield of Gettysburg The field of Gettysburg is now dotted over with beautiful monuments marking the positions held by the Union regi- ments during this greatest battle of the war. On the hill 202 WAK FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND The Mississippi opened behind the village, on a part of the field fought over, is a national cemetery where lie buried more than 3500 Union dead. On July 4, 1863, the day after the end of the battle of Get- tysburg, General Grant captured Vicksburg. Fort Hudson next fell ; the Mississippi was all in Union hands and the Con- federacy was cut in two. It was now the turn of the Confederates to win a victory. An army of them had been driven from Tennessee into the extreme northwest corner of Georgia, where they were en- chickamauga camped near a little creek called the Chickamauga. Having received more troops, General Bragg, who com- manded them, attacked the Union army under General Rose- crans (September 19 and 20) and beat it so badly that it would have been put to flight had it not been for the skill of General George H. Thomas. His firmness on that disas- trous field won him the name of the Rock of Chickamauga. The Union army, however, was forced to retreat to Chattanooga, in Tennessee ; and then General Bragg posted his troops on the hills and mountains about the town, and shut in General Rosecrans. More troops were now sent and General Grant was put in chattaLog" command, and then the situation changed. The Confederates were attacked and driven from their positions, in three days of fighting. As the second day was cold and rainy, the clouds had settled down on the mountain sides so that fighting actually occurred above them, and the battle of Lookout Mountain is often called the Battle above the Clouds. After the great Lookout Mountain Th WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND 203 Sherman did battle of Missionary Ridge, on the third day, the Confeder- ates retreated to Georgia, and the command of their army was given to General Joseph E. Johnston. The Confederates had now but two great The union armies in the held, — the one under Lee in plan in l864 Virginia, and the other under Johnston in northern Georgia. To meet these, two Union generals were selected. General Grant was put at the head of all the armies of the United States, with the rank of Lieutenant General, and to him was assigned the duty of beating Lee. General W. T. Sherman was given a large army in the West, and his duty was to crush the forces of General Johnston. Each began his task on the same day, May what 4, 1864. Sherman attacked Johnston, and drove him step by step through the mountains to Atlanta. President Davis therefore removed Johnston and put in command General Hood, who, after trying in vain to beat Sherman, turned and started back toward Tennessee, hoping to draw Sherman after him. But Sher- man sent Thomas, the Rock of Chickamauga, to deal with Hood, and Thomas destroyed Hood's army in a terrible battle at Nashville in December, 1864. In the meantime Sher- man started to march from Atlanta to the sea. The army advanced in four columns, cover- ing a stretch of country sixty miles wide, and living on the country as they went. They tore up the railroads, destroyed the bridges, and in December, 1864, occupied Savannah, a Confederate soldier A Union soldier 204 WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND ^WBt ^gp^ »^„~ . /Ir* • •. BIL s^3 /' ' p^^?*i Bf-^ |pLlV^ l | 3^HM^^& v ^^W^^iyj*iBr tSw^BSIbS i" -^8I*^BB5 Tn-rwr:.. ^ -Slf- Painting by F. O. C. Barley Sherman's march to the sea What Grant did There Sherman stayed for a month, during which his soldiers became impatient. " Uncle Billy," they would call out as he went by them, " I guess Grant is waiting for us at Richmond." February 1, 1865, the march was resumed, and was continued across South Carolina to Goldsboro in North Carolina. Grant, according to agreement, began his attack on Lee in Virginia the same day that Sherman marched against Johnston in Georgia. Starting from a place called Culpeper Court House, Grant's army entered the Wilderness, a tract of coun- try covered with a dense growth of oak and pine, and after much hard fighting made its way around Richmond and laid siege to Petersburg. After a time Lee saw that he could no longer hold these cities, and in April, 1865, he left Richmond and marched westward. Grant followed, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surren- WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE LAND 205 dered his army at Appomattox Court House. Johnston sur- rendered to Sherman near Raleigh in North Carolina about two weeks later ; Jefferson Davis was taken prisoner in May. This ended the war ; the Confederacy fell to pieces ; and End of the the Union was saved. Once more there was but one govern- w ment for the United States. SUMMARY 1. With the firing on Sumter the Civil War began, and Union and Con- federate armies were soon gathered at various places along the Poto- mac River, in western Virginia, in Kentucky, and in Missouri. 2. 1861, July. A Union army tried to drive back the Confederates in Virginia, but was defeated in the battle of Bull Run. 3. 1862, February. The Union forces in the West took Forts Henry and Donelson, after which they pushed southward across Tennessee. 4. 1862, April to August. General McClellan moved up the Peninsula from Yorktown, but failed to take Richmond, and returned north by sea. 5. 1862, August-September. The Confederates under Lee now started to invade the North, but turned back after a great battle at Antietam. 6. 1862, December; 1863, May. The Union army in the East twice advanced against the Confederates, and was beaten at Fredericksburg and at Chancellorsville. 7. 1863, June-July. Lee began a second invasion of the North, but was beaten at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 8. 1863, July. Vicksburg and Port Hudson were captured, and the Mis- sissippi River was now in Union hands. 9. 1863, September ; November. The Confederates in the West de- feated the Union army at Chickamauga, but General Grant took command and defeated them near Chattanooga. 10. 1864, May, to 1865, April. General Sherman fought his way from Tennessee to Atlanta and marched across Georgia to Savannah, and then north to Raleigh. At the same time General Grant carried on a bloody campaign against Lee, and at last forced him out of Rich- mond and compelled him to surrender at Appomattox Court House. 206 WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE WATER CHAPTER XXII THE WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE WATER Duties of the On the Union navy, during the war, fell duties of five Dnionnavy kinds: — 1. 4. 5. The blockade It blockaded the coast from Chesapeake Bay to the Rio Grande in Texas. It helped to capture the seaports and forts scattered along this great coast line. It got control of the bays and sounds along the coast, as Chesapeake, Albemarle, Pamlico, Mobile, Galveston. It aided the army in opening the rivers, as the Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Red. It tried to protect the commerce of the United States on the ocean, and to destroy all Confederate cruisers. A seaport is blockaded by keeping, off the entrance, armed ships to fire on any vessel that tries to go in or come out. To blockade all the bays, sounds, and harbors of our coast, from Norfolk to Texas, was a hard task and required a great number of ships. Trad- ing ships, river steamboats of all sizes, tugs, and ferryboats were therefore bought by the government, and the blockade began. To make it as complete as possible, the hulks of old whalers were taken from New England to some of the Southern ports, filled with stone, and were sunk in the channels. Trade with the South was thus ended unless vessels could run the blockade, and that is just what they did. An old whaler WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE WATER 207 The South raised millions of bales of cotton, which were sold Blockade to manufacturers in Great Britain and made into cotton cloth. running Great Britain depended on the South for cotton, and in order to get it, blockade running became a regular business and was engaged in by many trading firms in Liverpool. Some had as many as fifteen vessels. At first __ they were old craft, so that if they were captured the loss would not be great. But speed soon became so important that ships were especially built for the work. They were long, low steamers, drawing but a few feet A blockade runner of water, and having great speed. They burned hard coal, which made no smoke, and were painted a dull gray, so as not to be easily seen. The port of Nassau in the British island of New Providence, off the coast of southern Florida, was selected as the place from which the runners were to start, and to it were brought arms, salt, gunpowder, medicine, boots, clothing, whatever the Con- federates wanted. At Nassau the goods were loaded on a blockade runner, whose departure was so nicely timed that the vessel would be off the port of Wilmington, North Carolina, on a night when the moon did not shine and when the tide was high. Then, trusting to the darkness, the runner would dash through the line of blockading warships and by daylight would be safe in Confederate waters. After landing the smuggled cargo the vessel would be loaded with cotton, and during a dark night or storm would run out and steam back to Nassau. Some blockade runners went to Charleston instead of Wilmington. As neither of these cities was captured till near the end of the war, this blockade running grew to be a large business. 208 WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE WATER Confederate cruisers Another way in which Great Britain helped the South was by allowing the Confederates to fit out vessels in England for the purpose of capturing or sinking the trading ships of the United States. Several of these commerce destroyers were fitted out, but the Alabama was the most famous of them. The Alabama was built for the Confederacy at Liverpool, Eng- land, and in spite of the protests of the United States minister at London was allowed to go to sea. Off the Azores Islands she was met by a British vessel hav- ing on board her guns and ammunition, and by a steamer with I'amtvng by J. O. Davidson The Alabama and the Kearsarge Copyright, 18U2, by C. Klackner her crew and Captain Raphael Semmes. Sailing leisurely across the Atlantic the Alabama burned twenty vessels, cap- tured a mail steamer in the West Indies, destroyed one of the warships blockading Galveston, and took her place off the east coast of Brazil in the pathway of ships homeward bound from the East Indies and the Pacific. Here ten prizes were taken, after which the Alabama went to the Cape of Good Hope, and WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE WATER 209 then to the China Sea ; then back once more to the Cape of Good Hope and by way of Brazil and the Azores to the port of Cherbourg in France, having captured sixty-six vessels during her cruise. While the Alabama was anchored in the harbor of Cherbourg, the United States cruiser Kearsarge entered the port. A chal- lenge to fight was sent and accepted, and one Sunday morning in June, 1864, the two ships met in combat off the coast of France, and when the battle ended the Alabama sank to the bottom of the sea. Most of the other Confederate cruisers in one way or another fell into the hands of United States authorities. After the war Great Britain was forced to pay $15,500,000 for the damage she did to American shipping by allowing the Con- federate cruisers to leave her ports. Another very famous ship duel was that of the Monitor and the Merrimac. When the war opened in 1861, one of the finest navy yards The Merrimac in the United States was near Norfolk, Virginia. Having no means to defend it, the officer in command set fire to the shops, houses, and ships, and tried to blow up the great dry dock. One of the vessels which burned to the water's edge and then sank was the steam frigate Merri- mac ; but the Confederates found that her eno-mes and the hull under water were not damaged, so they raised her and made her into an ironclad ram. Her deck was almost level with the water, and on it was built a sort of long, low house with The Merrimac 210 WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE WATER sloping sides covered with thick plates of iron. In the sides were holes for the guns. At the bow, about two feet under water, was a cast-iron ram. what the To make these changes was slow work, so it was March, 1862, before the Virginia, as the Merrimac was renamed by the Con- federates, steamed out upon the broad sheet of water called Hampton Roads. Just across the Roads lay at anchor the Union war vessels, Cumberland and Congress, toward which she now made her way. As she drew near, the guns on the Cumber- land and the Congress opened lire ; but their shot glanced from her iron sides like pebbles, and keeping steadily on, the Merrimac drove her ram into the side of the Cumberland, crushed it like an eggshell, and, backing away, left a hole " wide enough to drive in a horse and cart." Through this the water poured till the gallant ship filled and sank, her flag flying and her guns booming as she went down. Turning to the Congress, the Merrimac, after an hour's fight- ing, forced her to surrender and set her on fire. As it was now late in the afternoon, the Merrimac drew off and left a third ship, the Minnesota, to be destroyed in the morning ; but when morning came, there lay beside the Minnesota a small, odd-looking craft, that had arrived at Hampton Roads the The Monitor ^J^ night before. It was the Moni- tor, designed by Captain John ofe^ ~/ ^~~* Ericsson, built at New York, Side view of the Monitor aild Sent r0Ulld ^ Sea - Her broad deck was almost as low as the surface of the water, and was plated with sheets of iron. On the deck was an iron cylinder or turret which could be made to revolve by machinery, and in this were two very large guns. The Monitor's voyage from New York was a terrible one. The waves swept the deck, and rolled completely over the WAR EOR THE UNION ON THE WATER 211 of the Monitor little pilot house in the bow, sending floods of water through The voyage the sight holes and once knocking the helmsman from the wheel. Torrents of water came down the smokestack, and poured in streams through cracks and crannies into the hull. The fires were nearly put out and the engine room so tilled with gas that no man could live there. More than once it seemed certain that the little craft must founder in the sea. But she kept afloat, and as she rounded Cape Henry late on the after- noon of March 8, 1862, the distant booming of guns told the crew that a tight was ra- ging, for the Merrimac was then engaged in the destruc- tion of the Congress. Dark- ness came on before the scene of action was reached, but as the Monitor came up the Roads those on board saw the Congress burning. About eight o'clock the next morning, the Merrimac was seen coming across the Roads to finish the work she had left undone the evening before. Whether or not that work was to remain undone, depended solely upon the insignificant little craft flying the Union flag and looking, it was said, "like a cheese box mounted on a raft," which now swung free from her moorings and started forth to Painting by J. O. Davidson Burning of the Congress 212 WAR FOR THE UNION ON THE WATER The first battle of ironclads battle. During four hours the fighting raged without either ship being able to harm the other seriously. The Merrimac then withdrew, and the Monitor went back to her place beside the Minnesota. In one sense neither ship won ; but as the pur- pose of the Merrimac was to destroy the Minnesota, and the purpose of the Monitor was to prevent it, the victory was with the Monitor. Yet the fight was the greatest in modern times. Never before in the world's history had two ironclad ships engaged in battle: and when it was over, the days of wooden navies were gone, and all warships had to be built anew out of iron or steel. J'atitlui'j by II '. // Farragut in Mobile Bay In May, 1862, when the Confederates left Norfolk, the Mer- rimac was destroyed by her crew. And in January, 1863, the Monitor was lost in a storm at sea. on rivers and bays REBUILDING THE SOUTHERN STATES 213 But it must not be supposed that the services of the navy Naval battles ended with the blockade of the coast and the defeat of the Ala- bama and Merrimae. Desperate battles were fought and victo- ries won on the western rivers and in the bays of the southern coast. It was Farragut's fleet that ran past the forts on the lower Mississippi and captured . New Orleans ; it was Foote's flotilla that took Fort Henry on the Tennessee ; it was Davis's fleet that cleared the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to Memphis (1862). Porter's fleet ran by the forts at Vicks- burg to assist the army under Grant (1863), and Farragut destroyed the Confederate fleet in Mobile Bay (1864). The fleet under Dupont, aided by the army, captured Port Royal (1861). All along the Atlantic coast of the Confederate States the services of the navy were conspicuous. SUMMARY 1. The navy had five duties. 2. The blockade of Southern ports cut off the cotton supply of Great Britain and led to blockade running. 3. The South obtained several commerce destroyers. The most famous of these, the Alabama, was sunk in a fight with the Kearsarge. 4. Another famous sea fight was that of the Monitor and the Merrimae. 5. Other naval victories were won for the Union on the Mississippi River; at New Orleans ; in Mobile Bay ; and along the Atlantic coast. CHAPTER XXIII REBUILDING THE SOUTHERN STATES There is another side to the war besides the fights on land and sea, and that is the cost in life and moneyo While the war was going on, President Lincoln called twelve times for volunteers. To these calls there were about 2,770,000 McM. PR. H. 14 214 REBUILDING THE SOUTHERN STATES What the war cost in life What the war cost in money Union Cemetery at Arlington responses ; each time many thousands of men left their homes and occupations, and served in the defense of the Union. This does not mean that there were 2,770,000 soldiers in the field at any one time. Some served for three months, some for six, some for a year, others for three years. Very often the same men would enlist again when their term was out. The greatest number of men in the army was in April, 1865, when 1,000,000 were under pay, and of these 650,000 carried arms. During the four years of fighting about 360,000 men died in defense of the Union. As the Confederate loss was probably as great, we may believe that the war cost the lives of 700,000 citizens. To understand fully the cost in money is out of the question. 1. There was the national debt, amounting in 1865 to over $2,800,000,000. Nearly all of this money had been spent on the war. 2. Between 1862 and 1865 there was raised by taxation nearly $800,000,000. The greater part of this also went for war purposes. 3. There was interest to pay on the national debt, and pensions for the disabled soldiers and sailors, and for the widows and orphans of the men who lost their lives. REBUILDING THE SOUTHERN STATES 215 Between 1861 and 1879 our national government spent on account of the war more than $6,000,000,000. The states also spent large sums of money, and so did the cities and towns. Their war expenditure amounted to more than $450,000,000. You are not expected to remember these figures. Nobody can understand what $6,000,000,000 means. The sums spent are given in order that you may know in a general way what the people of the North did in order that our Union might be preserved, that, as Mr. Lincoln said, " government of the peo- ple, by the people, for the people, may not perish from the earth." What have we gained by the war ? 1. We have shown that our Union is firm and can not be broken. 2. We have increased respect for our government at home and abroad. There are no more threats of seces- sion ; no more fears that government by the peo- ple can not endure ; no more doubts that when- ever necessary the peo- ple will rally to its sup- port and defense. 3. Slavery, which made so much trouble for eighty years, has been abol- ished. The negro now has the " inalienable rights " of man men- tioned in the Declara- tion of Independence. What the war accomplished Monument to Confederate dead, Richmond 216 REBUILDING THE SOUTHERN STATES Lincoln murdered Johnson and the Congress Mr. Lincoln was reelected President in the autumn of 1864, and a second time sworn into office on the 4th of March, 1865. It was only a few weeks after this that Lee surrendered (April 9) ; and on the 14th of April, four years after the attack on Fort Sumter, the old flag was again raised over the ruins. On the evening of that day Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater, Washington, by an actor named John Wilkes Booth. Booth belonged to a party of conspirators, one of whom that same night made his way into the home of Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, and stabbed him as he lay on a sick bed. Lincoln died the next day, but Sew- ard recovered. Booth was tracked to his hiding place in Virginia and was shot. Four other conspirators were hanged, and still others were imprisoned for life. On the death of Lincoln, the Vice- President, Andrew Johnson of Tennes- see, became President, and took up the work of reconstructing the Confederate States. The governors and other officers of these states, — men who had helped the Confederacy, — were put out of office, and Union men were elected or appointed to take their places. The states then chose senators and repre- sentatives to sit in the Congress of the United States. Like Lincoln, President Johnson believed that no state had a right to leave the Union. Therefore, he said, none ever had left the Union, and now the war was over, the states that had belonged to the Confederacy had as much right as ever to send senators and representatives to Congress. Congress denied this, and when the Southern members came refused to admit them to seats. Congress said that the eleven Ford's Theater REBUILDING THE SOUTHERN STATES 217 Birthplace of President Johnson seceded states must do certain things before they could be entitled to representation. Johnson then declared that if they were not represented, Congress had no right to make laws affecting them. In this manner a quarrel began (between the President and Congress), which went on from bad to worse. At last Johnson, having purposely broken a law, and having traveled about the country making speeches abusing Con- * gress, was impeached and g' brought to trial in order that if found guilty he might be removed from the office of President. He was not found guilty, and served out his term. But no seceded state was admitted to representation till it had done as Congress demanded. Meantime the condition of affairs in the reconstructed states was dreadful. When the war began, the people of the North were intent The abolition on saving the Union ; but as the strife went on, the feeling of slaver y became general that there never could be a lasting Union so long as slavery existed in any of the states, and great efforts were made to secure its abolition. It was abolished in the territories and the District of Columbia by act of Congress. On the 1st of January, 1863, President Lincoln freed all slaves within the Confederate lines. But this merely gave freedom to certain negroes and did not affect the right of white men to hold slaves. Moreover, the emancipation proclamation, as it is called, was not heeded in the Confederate States till after 218 REBUILDING THE SOUTHERN STATES - 5!M£&,.h Lincoln Emancipation Statue the war ; nor did it ever free any slaves in the Union States of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, nor in Tennessee and certain parts of Louisiana and Virginia. The right of a state to permit its citi- zens to hold slaves was not taken away till after the war, when, by an addition (amendment) to the federal Constitution, slavery was ended forever in our country. The position of the negroes was greatly changed when they were set free, for they were also given the right to vote, and, having this right, they elected men of their own race to office. Ignorant negroes, un- able to read or write or understand the The negroes' meaning of a law, were sent to make laws for the whites as well as themselves. Not knowing what to do, they easily fell under the lead of bad white men, who thus got control of the Southern States. The whites, the old citizens, being out- numbered by the negroes, began to prevent the negroes from voting. Negroes were paid money not to go to the polls, or were frightened away. Sometimes force was used. Many people now felt that to set the slaves free was not enough. The freed- men, as they were called, must be protected. Ac- cordingly two more additions were made to the federal Constitution. They were intended to secure to the negroes all the rights white men Negro cabin REBUILDING THE SOUTHERN STATES 219 have in our country, and to prevent any state from taking away the negroes' right to vote. In spite of these amendments, which are part of the su- preme law of our land, the suppression of negro votes went on. Congress then passed a law to pun- ish those engaged in such unlawful acts. But even this law had to be enforced by the use of the army. Not till 1877, twelve years after the war ended, did affairs in the South quiet down, and the country show signs of being really reunited. The term of Andrew Johnson and the two terms of President Grant (who followed Johnson in office) are therefore in some ways the darkest in our history. Grant's tomb, New York SUMMARY 1. The war had not quite ended when President Lincoln was murdered and Andrew Johnson became President. 2. The question next to be settled was, Shall the states lately in the Con- federacy be allowed to send senators and representatives to Congress? 3. . The President thought they should be allowed to do so. Congress thought they should not until they were reconstructed. 4. Out of this grew a quarrel, in the course of which Johnson was impeached, but not found guilty. 5. The states were now reconstructed on the congressional plan, and three changes were made in the federal Constitution. 220 THE RISE OF THE NEW WEST CHAPTER XXIV THE RISE OF THE NEW WEST The We have seen, in the course of our story, that from the time migration tne English colonies were planted on the Atlantic coast the people began moving westward. At first the migration was slow. But it went steadily on till at last the English began to crowd the French in the Allegheny valley, and so brought on the French and Indian War. The frontier was then east of the Appalachian Mountains. To the As a result of that long struggle the French were driven faney SiPP1 from our countl T' ancl English colonists went into Kentucky and Tennessee. After the War for Independence, the people moved into Ohio, and pushing steadily westAvard soon occupied much of our country east of the Mississippi River. By 1821 they had crossed that river and made the state of Missouri. The frontier was then in Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana. During a long time no other states were formed west of the Mississippi, but between 1836 and 1846 Arkansas, Texas, and Iowa were admitted into the Union. to the So far the movement westward had been a natural one. But Pacific coast with ^ dj scover y f g \^ ' m IS4S, we enter on a period when the precious metals play a chief part in the rush of people west- ward. The same thirst for gold which sent the early Spaniard wandering over New Mexico and Arizona in the days of Coronado, sent our people in 1849 to California, and ten years later into what we know as Colorado. Colorado The territory of Kansas then included part of what is now Colorado, and there, in 1858, a party of gold hunters came upon some rich mines. As the news spread, men rushed to Kansas just as they did to California, and in a few months a THE RISE OF THE NEW WEST 221 busy little town called Denver sprang up near Pikes Peak (map, p. 223). These miners needed supplies and connection with the East, and to get them, some enterprising men started a line of stages which ran daily between Denver and Leavenworth. Even this was not enough for the restless, daring, enterprising people. A better mail service was wanted between California and the East. Sena- tor Gwin of Cali- fornia therefore urged the stage company to send a pony express across the two thousand miles which separated the city of Sacramento from the Missouri River, and in the year 1860 this was done. As the purpose of the express was to carry the mail, speed The pony was to be considered. But to gain speed the distance run by a express pony must be short. Stations were therefore established every fifteen or twenty-five miles, and at these were fresh horses for the riders. Mounted on his pony, a mail carrier would start every day from each end of the line, ride at a gallop to the first relay, leap on the back of a fresh horse standing ready, hurry on to the second station, mount another pony almost without stopping, and ride off at breakneck speed for the third station. There, sitting in the saddle, would be found a second rider. Dashing up to him, the first would deliver the mail pouch, and in a moment the fresh carrier would be off. By day Pony express 222 THE RISE OF THE NEW WEST The overland stage and by night, in sunshine and in rain, in summer and in winter, over prairie and mountain, these brave men made their perilous rides with the precision of a railroad train. As two hundred and fifty miles must be made each day, not a pound of extra weight was allowed. Every letter must be written and every news- paper printed on the thinnest tissue paper, and on each of them five dollars must be paid as the cost of carriage. No service was ever more dangerous, and not a rider but could tell of fights with the Indians, of hardships suffered, and of hairbreadth escapes from death. After an existence of two years, the pony express came to an end ; for a telegraph line had then been completed across the continent, and all important news went over the wire. Next came the overland stage, carrying passengers, letters, and packages. From the first the stages were objects of hatred The overland stage to the Indians, who made a stage ride across the continent a journey full of danger. Finally, in 1862, while our country was struggling for its very life, Congress authorized the building of THE KISE OF THE NEW WEST 223 a railroad connecting the Missouri River with the state of The first California. Two companies were to do the work ; the Central rallro ^ d Pacific, starting at Sacramento in California, was to build eastward ; the other, the Union Pacific, beginning at Omaha, Nebraska, was to push westward till the two met. Work was not begun in earnest till Lee had surrendered and the Union had been saved. But then it went on so rapidly that in May, 1869, the two lines met near Ogden, Utah. The all-rail route from the Atlantic to the Pacific was finished. Miners, settlers, ranchmen, now hurried to the West, and in 1876 Colorado, which fifteen years before was little better than a howling wilderness, became a state in the Union. It was the thirty-eighth state ; for between 1858 and 1867 there had been admitted Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, and Nebraska. But one railroad to the Pacific was not enough. The northern The Northern part of our country must have one also, and in 1870 the build- ing of the Northern Pacific, from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, was begun. On the day the first rail was laid that marvelous and beautiful region was almost without white settlers. Duluth Pacific J2 C ''\°V SCM.E of miles ■ : m :f . y'<\ ;, %M^B*es Peak' - "~ ~ -^ «*«k» _ { ° 100 \200 360 1' 460 y ' \ \ I "^^-—L^K^A/S^ A S The northwestern part of our country 224 THE RISE OF THE NEW WEST had just been founded. Superior city was a collection of huts in the woods on the lake shore. Westward of these places, not a town existed for a thousand miles. Save a few military posts and trading stations, not a white man's house could be found between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains, where some pioneer miners were opening the gold mines of Montana. From the Missouri to the mountains the whole region was held by the Indians. It was their buffalo hunting grounds, to which each year came tribes from the north and from the south to lay in their winter store of buffalo jerked meat and skins. At the falls of the Missouri was Fort Benton, a frontier post. To it, when the water was high, steamboats came, bringing supplies for the Indian reservations and the Montana miners, and taking back gold, buffalo robes, and cattle. Two hundred miles westward, in the mountains of Montana, was a community of miners and ranchmen who had come there during the war and founded Helena and several oth^r towns. Some were miners, some raised grain and vegetables, and others herded cattle. Beyond the Rockies, in the valleys of rivers running into the Columbia, were more miners ; but no large settlement existed east of Oregon. As the railroad pushed on across this wilder- ness, all began to change. Settlers came in, towns were founded, and farming was begun on an immense scale. To-day this region, once thought of small account, is a great wheat- growing section of our country. The white man now occupied most of the continent. Let us see what had become of the Indians. Indian wars We have seen how from the very start they resisted the in the East com j n g f t ] ie w hite man, and how in spite of all they could do they were pushed steadily westward. We have seen the Pequots destroyed in Connecticut, and other eastern Indians THE RISE OF THE NEW WEST 225 An Indian home crushed for the aid they gave King Philip. We have seen the Indians as allies of the French fighting along the whole frontier for nearly seventy-five years (1689-1763), in a desperate effort to keep back the English. We have seen them (after the French were driven from America) fighting under Pontiac, in the vain attempt to drive the white man out of the valley of the Mississippi, as Philip and his successors had striven to drive them out of New England ; and we have seen the long struggle in Kentucky, a struggle so fierce that the region was well named " the dark and bloody ground." What thus went on in the colonial days went on for a Indian wars hundred years more. Scarcely had the early settlers in Ohio in0hl ° put up their cabins at Marietta and Cincinnati when the near-by tribes dug up the hatchet and began a war of extermination. They beat one army under General Harmar, cut to pieces another under General St. Clair, and spread terror along the border, till General Anthony Wayne destroyed their power in a great battle in northwestern Ohio. During seventeen years the settlers were unmolested. But Tecumsen the steady stream of white men ever moving westward, cutting down the forests, killing the beaver, the buffalo, and other game, and forcing the Indians to new hunting grounds, at length aroused another great chief, Tecumseh. He, too, attempted 226 THE RISE OF THE NEW WEST Removal of the Indians West of the Mississippi what Philip and Pontiac had tried in vain : he sought to join all the tribes in one grand attack on the frontier, in one desper- ate effort to drive back the white man. But General William Henry Harrison broke his power in the battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana (1811), and three years later the great chief lost his life in the battle of the Thames in Canada. Meantime the southern Indians, aroused by Tecumseh, took the warpath, and in their turn were crushed by General Jack- son in Alabama and in Florida. It was now quite clear that all the strong tribes of Indians must go from the country east of the Mississippi River, and when Jackson was President a region west of that river (Indian Territory) was set apart for their use, and the work of removal was begun. Some went quietly, others resisted, and two more wars followed before the last tribe crossed the great river : the short struggle of Black Hawk in Illi- nois and Wisconsin (1832) and the seven years' war by Osceola and others in Florida (1835-1842). Over the vast wil- derness covering most of the territory be- tween the Mississippi and the Rocky Moun- tains it seemed as if the Indians might roam unmolested. But gold and silver were discovered ; the white man was soon rushing over the plains and mountains, and the Indians were again in the way. Some had been sent Party of northwestern Indians THE RISE OF THE NEW WEST 227 Recent to Indian Territory. Others were moved to reservations in the Northwest, only to be moved again and again, as the farmer, the miner, the cattleman, the railroad, closed in around them. As in the past, so now a desperate struggle followed. The Sioux (1862) rose in Minnesota and began the most horrid Indianwars massacre the country had known since colonial days. They were put down, but the discovery of gold in the Sioux reserva- tion in Montana (1866) aroused Red Cloud, and another war fol- lowed. The outbreaks made by the chief Black Kettle, by Crazy Horse, and by Spotted Tail ; the massacre of General Custer and his men by the Sioux in southern Montana ; the Modoc War, growing out of an attempt to move the Modocs from California to Oregon ; and the long struggle of the Nez Perces led by the ablest of modern Indian war- riors, Chief Joseph, were some of the last desperate efforts of the Indians to drive back the white man. To-day there are in our country, scattered over reservations of all sizes, some 200,000 Indians. As of old, they are still divided into many tribes, speaking different languages and living in vari- ous stages of civilization. Some, as the Sioux, live in wigwams and are brave, smart, and dan- gerous. Some, as the Cherokees, are well off, dwell in good houses, and dress much as we do. Others, as the Shoshonees, are ignorant, shiftless, and dirty, and wander about in bands like tramps. Others, as the Zuili, make pottery, or as the Navajos, weave beautiful blankets. Most of the Indians, even the fiercest of them, are absolutely under the control of the reservation agents. Every Indian may, however, become a citizen, if he will leave his tribe and live as white men do. The Indians to-day Zuni Indian 228 THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY SUMMARY 1. The discovery of gold near Pikes Peak in 1859 led to the founding of Denver and the settlement of Colorado. 2. Communication with the East and the Pacific was provided at first by the pony express and the overland stage ; but these primitive means of transportation were replaced by a railroad finished in 1869. 3. In 1870 a second railway across the continent to join Lake Superior and the Pacific was begun ; and the Northwest was opened to settlement. 4. The Indians, who for two hundred and fifty years had been steadily pushed westward, now tried again to withstand the white man, and a series of Indian wars and uprisings occurred in the Northwest. CHAPTER XXV THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY The history of our country since cen- tennial year (1876) is the familiar one of steady growth and increasing prosperity. The building of the railways across the continent made a new West and a new Northwest. The buf- faloes that roamed over the plains by millions in 1870 were all but exterminated in 1880, and in their place came herds of cattle, sheep, and horses. Grain farms, cattle ranches, mining towns, and prosperous villages covered the great plains once Western cattle ranch THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 229 thought little better than a desert, and seven more states (between 1889 and 1896) were admitted into the Union : North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, IMMIGRANTS The waves of immigration and Utah. Three of these, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, did not exist as geographical divisions in 1860, and their names are not to be found on the map of our country of that date. All this means that in the course of a century our country- men have spread over the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But they are not the only people who moved west- ward, for thousands on thousands have come to us from the Old World. Before 1820, not more than 10,000 immigrants came over each year, but thereafter for a long time more and more arrived nearly every year, till about 100,000 landed on our shores in the course of twelve months. Then the number fell off slightly. But in a little while famine in Ireland, and hard times in Germany, sent over a great wave of immigration, MCM. PR. H. 15 Our immigrants 230 THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY People of the Northwest swelling up year after year, till more than 400,000 foreigners came to us in one year. Then the wave spent itself, and the tide went down, only to turn into a second wave greater than before. By this time sailing vessels had given place to steam- ships. The voyage was ten days instead of twenty-four ; the cost was less ,* the Northwest was growing ; our government was giving farms to men and women who would really live on them and cultivate them. Under the influence of these causes this wave of immigrants rolled toward us, till in 1873 the number that came over was 460,000. The wave then went down, fewer people coming every year. But it soon rose again to 789,000 in 1882, after which it went down once more and then rose again. Since the year 1789 more than 20,000,000 people have come to our country from the Old World. Most have come from Ireland, Germany, England, Norway and Sweden, and Italy. As the cost of travel across the ocean became lower and lower, the steamship companies sought emigrants to bring out, and the cities and countries of Europe began to send over beg- gars, paupers, and criminals. Laws have therefore been made to exclude such persons, and also the Chinese, who are consid- ered by the people of the Pacific coast as most undesirable im- migrants. While the settlers in the Northwest are chiefly from the Eastern States, vast numbers of them are Germans, Swedes, Harvester THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 231 the East Modern newspaper printing press and Norwegians. In Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, there are large stretches of country where almost every inhabitant is a Norwegian or a Swede. In the old states the changes of a quarter century have been changes in even more marked. There, too, popu- lation has increased with astonish- ing rapidity, and cities which were small in 1870 grew to be great in 1900. New in- dustries have arisen, old ones have been immensely enlarged, and many occu- pations that were unknown when the Civil War ended give employment to hundreds of thousands of men and women. A little more than four hundred years have now passed since Four periods Columbus landed on the shore of San Salvador. As we look back over these centuries the history of our country falls natu- rally into four periods. 1. The first period, 1492-1600, was the age of discovery. Discovery Explorers from Europe sailed along our coast, touching it here and there, and so laying the foundation for claims to ownership by several European countries. Spain in this way obtained claims to Florida and all the Gulf coast, England to our Atlantic shore, and France to the river and gulf of St. Lawrence. Now and then some bold adventurer, as De Soto or Coronado, went into the interior and established for his country a claim to territory far from the seaboard. But when the period closed no settlements by Europeans existed within our bounds on the mainland, save at St. Augustine and Santa Fe\ 2. The second period, 1600-1700, was that of occupation occupation and settlement. It was during these years that England planted settlement 232 THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY all her colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, save Georgia ; that the Dutch and Swedish settlements were made on the Hudson and the Delaware ; that France took possession of the St. Lawrence valley ; and that Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle explored the Mississippi. The struggle 3. The third period, 1700-1800, is memorable for the long or possession s ^ rU gg} e f or possession. Before 1700 the Dutch had conquered the Swedish colony, and the English had conquered the Dutch; but during the period 1700-1800 the English conquered the Colonies before the Revolution United States in 1783 French, and acquired Florida from Spain, so that all of our country east of the Mississippi, save a little piece about New Orleans, came under the British Crown. The new colonial policy adopted by Great Britain after this expansion of terri- tory brought on the war between the colonies and the mother country, which ended with the overthrow of British rule and the establishment of the republic of the United States. Independence secured and a definite territory acquired, the struggle for a better government began. After a few years' trial, the old Articles of Confederation were abandoned, the Constitution was framed and adopted, and the century closed with our country fairly started on its marvelous career of prosperity. THE CLOSE OE THE CENTURY 233 4. When the fourth and last period, 1800 to the present, Growth of opened, our country lay between the Atlantic Ocean on the east our country and the Mississippi on the west ; between Canada on the north and Florida (which had been given back to Spain) on the south : the states were but sixteen in number, and the entire popula- tion, men, women, and children, black and white, free and slave, was less than is now to be found in the state of Pennsyl- vania or of New York. But our country went on expanding the people went on increasing in number, and state in area United States in 1803 United States in 1819 after state was added to the Union. By the purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803; by the purchase of Florida from Spain in 1819 ; by the acquisition of the Oregon country ; by the annexation of Texas in 1845 ; and by the cession from Mexico in 1848, our country spread steadily westward till by 1850 it stretched across the continent from ocean to ocean (see the next map). There were then thirty-one states in the Union, inhabited by twenty-three million people. The fron- tier, which in 1800 had just crossed the Appalachian Mountains, was in 1850 on the plains beyond the Mississippi. Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, St. Louis, which thirty years our country before were little frontier villages, were now towns of impor- in l8s ° tance. The older cities of the East had not only grown in size, 284 THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY but had greatly changed in appearance. Omnibuses and street cars and gas were in use. The free common schools had become an American institution, and many inventions and dis- coveries had done much for the happiness, comfort, and pros- perity of the people. The steamboat was now on river, lake, and ocean, and joined the Old World with the New. The railroad pushing westward had almost reached Chicago, and the tele- graph was coming into general use. During the last half of the nineteenth century our area was United States in i* United States in 1853 still further expanded by the Gadsden purchase in 1853 (south- ern New Mexico and Arizona), by the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, by the annexation of the Hawaiian Republic, and by the acquisition of Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, in U i«x> Untry an( ^ °f a ^ ew °t ner islands, so that in 1900 our flag floated over territory stretching halfway around the globe. Our states then numbered forty-five, and our people seventy-six million. We have become a great world power : we have tested and proved the possibility of what Mr. Lincoln grandly called government of the people, by the people, for the people. We have shown that it is possible for millions of people, living in a country of vast size, to grow rich and prosperous without the rule of king or emperor. THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 235 The spread of our country's population {The dots shoto where the most people lived at each dale) SUMMARY 1. The history of our country falls naturally into four periods : a. Discovery and exploration of the new continent, 1492-1600. b. Colonization of North America, 1600-1700. c. The long struggle for possession, ending with the establishment of the United States of America, 1700-1800. d. The expansion and the industrial and political development of our country, 1800 to the present. 236 THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY 2. During the nineteenth century there were nine important acquisitions of territory, as follows : — 5. Mexican cession . 1848 6. Gadsden Purchase . 1853 7. Alaska . . . 1867 8. Hawaii . . . 1898 1. Louisiana . 1803 2. Florida 1819 3. Texas 1845 4. Oregon country 1846 9. Porto Rico, Guam, the Philippines . 1899 Longitude 12C East 180 Longitude West 120 from The United States and its possessions (shown by the heavy shading) 3. Six of these pieces of new territory were purchased ; two were republics which we annexed with their consent. One was acquired by discovery, exploration, and settlement. The fifth and ninth acquisitions of terri- tory were the direct result of wars. The rest were gained by peace- ful means. 4. Between 1800 and 1900 our population rose from 5,000,000 to 76,000,000, and our states increased in number from sixteen to forty-five. During this period of our history 20,000,000 emigrants came to us from the Old World. THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS 237 CHAPTER XXVI THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS In the last chapter mention was made ^ The Hawaiian of our annexation of the Hawaiian Islands and our acquisition of Porto ,,- Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Archipelago. Many years ago, when the natives of the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands were heathen, mis- sionaries from our country went out there and labored earnestly to convert the na- tives to Christianity and to civilize them. They suc- ceeded so well that numbers of white men came to the Hawaiian Islands for purposes of trade and commerce. In 1893, the descend- ants of these early settlers, with others that came later, were so dissatisfied with the government of the native queen that they deposed her, formed a republic, and asked to be joined to the United States. Mr. Cleveland, who became President shortly after this, was opposed to annexation, so nothing was done for five years, when (1898) Hawaii was formally joined to the United States. It has since (1900) been made a territory. Meantime a revolution of a dreadful sort was going on in Rebellion another island much nearer our coast. Early in 1895 the mCuba people of Cuba rebelled against Spain and founded a republic. .JET Hawaiian scene 238 THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS Key West •'••" Nassau^ *. S< 8CALf . QF M „_ ES £| . 4 V ^ - 6 100 200 300 Havana ISLE OF Pines m Santiago de Cuba i~ ■' '^w'p^w, °** ,/*'•>'* West Indies The Afa/7?e A cruel and barbarous Avar followed, which deeply interested our countrymen for sev- eral reasons. Large sums of American money were invested in Cuban mines, rail- roads, and planta- tions ; we were forced to police our coasts to prevent the Cubans from carrying arms and military supplies from our country to the insurgents ; our commerce with the island was almost ruined ; and we were shocked at the cruel way in which Spain carried on the war. For some years past our country had been trying to per- suade Spain to allow the Cubans to govern themselves ; but Spain would not consent to such a thing. In February, 1898, our battleship Maine, which was lying in the harbor of Havana, was blown up and sunk, with two hundred and sixty officers and men killed. Then all hope of a peaceful ending of our troubles with Spain j disappeared, and in April, 1898, Con- gress demanded that Spain should leave Cuba, and authorized the President to use force to make her do so, if necessary. And now war began in earnest. One fleet, which had been gath- ering at Key West in Florida, went off under Admiral Samp- son to blockade the port of war with Havana. Another under Commodore Dewey sailed from Spain begins china to destroy the Spanish fleet in the Philippine Islands. The battleship Maine THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS 239 This group of islands, many hun- v dred in number, lies off the east coast of Asia. They were discovered by Magellan (1521) during the first voyage that was ever r made around the world. Jjjj As Magellan's expedition was in the Spanish serv- ice, Spain claimed the Philippines (which were so named from King Philip II. of Spain) and in 1898 she had owned Scene in the Philippines Blockade of Santiago these islands for more than three hundred and fifty years. In the harbor of Manila, on May 1, 1898, Dewey found the The battle ships of the enemy. Passing the forts at the entrance, he Bay entered the bay, destroyed the entire Spanish fleet of ten ships, winning a great victory, and blockaded Manila. General Mer- ritt, with twenty thousand soldiers, was then sent across the Pacific to take j possession of the Philippines. A second Spanish fleet, under Admiral Cervera, meantime had started for Cuba from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and after a time our ships found it in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, a port on the south coast of the island. The entrance Dewey's flagship Olympia was by a long and narrow channel between high hills bristling with forts and batteries. To go in and attack the Spanish ships was impossible. But 240 THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS Battles near Santiago they must be kept there till troops should come over from Florida and capture the city. In order, therefore, to prevent the escape of Cervera, the harbor was closely blockaded by the fleets under Rear Admiral Sampson and Commodore Schley. Besides this, Lieutenant R. P. Hobson with a crew of seven men took a coal ship into the channel, blew holes in her sides, and sank her, amidst a rain of shot and shell. The gallant band were unhurt, but were taken prisoners and were after- wards exchanged. An army under General Shafter was now hurried from Florida to Cuba, and landed a few miles from Santiago. Seri- wms. IS'; mm Copyright, 1898, by W. R. Hearst Wreck of the Spanish ship Oquendo ous fighting followed ; but the success of our troops made the capture of the city so certain that Admiral Cervera was ordered to break through our fleet and put to sea. On the morning of THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS 241 Sunday, July 3, 1898, the attempt was accordingly made, for it was thought that on Sunday our officers would be less watch- ful. But Cervera found them fulty prepared. A desperate Street in Porto Rico fight ensued, and in a few hours every one of the six ships of the enemy was either sunk or stranded or*a burning wreck on the coast of Cuba. All hope of successful resistance to our army was now over, and July 14, General Toral surrendered Santiago and all the east end of Cuba. A week later General Miles set off with a small army to cap- Porto Rico ture the island of Porto Rico. He landed on the south coast, 242 THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS took Ponce, and was marching across the island toward San End of the Juan, when at the request of Spain all fighting ceased, and a war preliminary treaty of peace was signed at Washington. Spain promised to leave Cuba, and to surrender to us Porto Rico and one of the islands in the Ladrones. It was also agreed that we should hold the city and harbor of Manila till a perma- nent treaty of peace should dispose of the Philippines. News of peace was sent to Manila as fast as possible, but before it came, the city was attacked and captured by the army under General Merritt and the fleet under Admiral Dewey. Terms of According to the final treaty of peace, Spain withdrew from Cuba ; Porto Rico, and the island of Guam in the Ladrones, were delivered to us ; and the Philippines were sold to us for $20,000,000. While the treaty was under consideration, General Otis, who had succeeded General Merritt, occupied Manila ; but the natives under Aguinaldo held the rest of the island of Luzon, on which the city is situated. The Aguinaldo considered himself an ally of the United States, insurrection ano ^ now that Spanish rule was at an end, insisted that we should leave the Philippines to the Filipinos. This we refused to do, whereupon, on the night of February 4, 1899, Aguinaldo attacked our troops in Manila and brought on an insurrection against our authority that has with difficulty been put down. The Chinese And now we became involved in strife with China. There is in that country a popular society called The Boxers, whose motto is "Kill all Foreigners." Early in 1900, the Boxers, feeling sure that the Chinese Empress was in sympathy with them, rose and began the work of destruction. Native Chris- tians were massacred ; missionaries were killed, mission stations were burned ; railways were torn up ; and even at Pekin, the capital of China, all foreigners were forced to take refuge disorders THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS 243 Copyright, 1901, by J. C. Hemmenl Legation Street, Pekin under the roofs of the ministers who represented their respec- tive countries. It now became necessary to rescue these people, who were besieged by Boxers and Chinese troops ; and as quickly as possible an allied army of British, Germans, French, Russians, Japanese, and Americans was gathered in China, and marched against the cities of Tientsin and Pekin. Both were captured and most of the Europeans were saved. In 1900 President McKinley was reelected. Since the death Presidents of Mr. Lincoln our Presidents have been : since the Civil War Andrew Johnson . Ulysses S. Grant . Rutherford B Hayes James A. Garfield . Chester A. Arthur . 1865-1869 1869-1877 1877-1881 1881 1881-1885 Grover Cleveland . Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland . William McKinley 1885-1889 1889-1893 1893-1897 1897- 244 THE EVENTS OF RECENT YEARS SUMMARY 1. In 1898 the Republic of Hawaii became part of the United States. 2. A rebellion in Cuba, the cruel treatment of the Cubans, and the serious injury to the interests of Americans, forced our country to intervene, and brought on a war with Spain. When it ended, Cuba was free, and Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands were possessions of the United States. 3. Our occupation of the Philippines was followed by a revolt of some of the natives, under the lead of Aguinaldo. 4. Just as the insurrection in the Philippines was dying out, the rebellion of the Boxers in China involved us in trouble with that country. INDEX Key to Pronunciation. — Vowels : a in late, a in fat, a in care, a in far, a in last, a in fall, a in was, au in author ; e in me, e in met, g in vgil, e in term ; T in fine, ! in tin, i in police ; o in note, 6 in not, 6 in son, 6 in for, o in do ; u in tune, u in nut, u in rude, u in full ; y in my, y in hj r mn. Consonants: c in cent, € in can ; g in gem, g in get; n = ny in barnyard, n = ng, N = ng but is silent ; qu = kw ; § = z ; th in this. Italic letters are silent. PAGE Ab-o-li'tion-ists 176, 177 A 'bra-ham, Plains of 105,106 A -ca'di-a, taken by English 97 A'co-mii 28 Ad'ams, John, President 152, 177 signs Declaration of Independence . . . 127 signs treaty of Paris 142 Adams, John Quincy, President 177 Adams, Samuel 116, 117, 121 A-do'bg, houses of 22 A-gw'i-naTdo 242 Al-a-ba'ma, admitted to Union 170 Creek war in 159 joins Confederacy 193 Alabama, cruise of 208, 209 claims settled 209 A-las'ka •. 234, 236 Al'ba-ny, founded 73 becomes English 76 Al'be-marle Sound 83, 206 A17e-g7tg-ny valley, French and British claims 100-102 Al-ta-ma-ha* Kiver 88 A-mg-ri'go Ves-puc'ci (-poot'chee), America named for 14 An'der-son, Major Robert, at Fort Sum- ter 193-195 An'drg, Major John, story of 141 An 'dros, Sir Edmund 91,92 An-nap'o-lis, Maryland 55 Annapolis, Nova Scotia 97, 99 An-tie'tam, battle of 200 An-ti-slav'er-y agitation 177 Ap-pa-la'chi-an Mountains 17, 103 Ap-po-mat'tox Court House, Lee surrenders at 205 " Ar'go-nauts " of California 1S5 PAGE AVi-zo'na, Indians in 22 Ar'kan-sas, admitted to Union . . . 178, 220 joins Confederacy 196 Arkansas River, discovered 38 Ar'nold, Ben'e-dict, bravery of 140 turns traitor 141 Ar'thur, Chester A., President 243 Ar'ti-cles of Confederation 150 As'tor, John Jacob 179 As-to'ri-a, founded 179 Atch'i-son, founded 191 At-lan'ta, Sherman's march from , . 203, 204 Au-gus'ta, Georgia, founded 89 A-zore§' Islands, Alabama at 208 Back' woods men 108, 137 Ba-ha'masj, discovery of 11 pirates in 86 Bal'ti-morg, attacked by British 157 founded 55 Baltimore, Lord, proprietor of Maryland . . 54 Bar'ba-dos Island 83 Bar-ce-lo'na 14 Bat'on Rouge (roozh), captured by Span- iards 144 " Battle above the Clouds " 202 Bean, William 134 Beau're-gard (bo -), General, at Fort Sum- ter 195 Ben 'ton, Fort, trading at 224 Berke'ley, Lord, proprietor of New Jersey . 77 Ber-mu'da, Virginia 50 Bienville (be-aN-veel'), at New Orleans . . 98 Bil-ox'i, settlement at 41 Bi'son, or buffalo 18, 26, 29 extermination of 228 Black Hawk, Indian chief 226 McM. PR. H. 16 245 246 INDEX PAGE Black Kettle, Indian chief 227 Blockade, of Cuban ports 238, 240 of Southern ports 206, 207 Blockhouses in New England 65 Bon 'net, Stede, pirate 87 Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky 134 Boones'bor-o, founded 134 Booth, John Wilkes, murders Lincoln . . 216 Bos'ton, British in 120, 126 founded 60 port closed 119 tea ships at 116-118 Boston Tea Party 118 Boundary line 232-234 northeastern 179 northwestern 180 southern 163 southwestern 166, 234 Bow-quet (-ka'), Colonel Henry 109 Box'ers, of China 242, 243 Brad'dock's expedition 104, 105 Brad'ford, William, of Plymouth . . . 58,60 Bragg, General, at Chickamauga .... 202 Bran'dy-wine, battle of 130 Breck'in-ridge, John C 193 Breeds Hill, Prescott at 124 British. See Great Britain and England. Bryn Mawr' 80 Buc-ca-neer§', in the Carolinas .... 84-87 BueA-an'an, James, President 193 Buf fa-lo 18, 26, 29, 224 extermination of 228 Bull Run, first battle 197 second battle 200 Bun 'ker Hill, battle of ...... 124,125 Bur-goyne', General, surrender of ... . 130 Burn 'side, General, commander of Army of Potomac 200, 201 Bush'y Run, battle of 109 Cab'ot, voyages of 44 Ca-ho'ki-a, taken by Clark 137 Cal-hown', John C, advocates secession . . 187 Cal-i-for'ni-a, admitted to Union . . . 186, 187 conquest of 181 gold discovered in 183-186 Can'a-da, ceded to Great Britain . . . .106 French settlers in 35, 36 Ca-na'ry Islands, Columbus at 9 Cape Brdt'on 99 Car'a-vel§ seized for Columbus 9 Car-ib-be'an Islands, discovered 14 Car-o-H'na, colony of 83-87, 89 Ca-ron'de-lfi* 37 PAGE Car'pen-ters' Hall, first Continental Con- gress at „ H9 Car'ter-et, Sir George, proprietor of New Jersey . . 77 Car-tier' (-tya'), explorations of . . . . 31-33 Casket girls 9g, 99 Cer-vg'ru (ther-), Admiral, at Santiago 239-241 Cham-plain', and the Iroquois 33 founds Quebec . . 34 Champlain, Lake, battle of 156 Chan'cel-lor§-ville, battle of 201 Cha-pul-tg-pec', battle of 181 Charles/ton, blockade running at .... 207 British attack 138 founded 83 pirates in '...... 85, 86 taken by British 138-140 tea ships at 116, 118 Char'ter Oak 91 Charters, colonial 90, 91 Chat-ta-noo'ga, siege of 202 Chaw-tau'qua Lake 100 Cher'bourg, battle of Kearsarge and Ala- bama near 209 Cher-o-kee' Indians 227 Ches a-peake, British fire upon 154 captured 157 Chesapeake Bay 45 Chick-a-mau'ga, battle of 202 Chi'na, disorder in 242, 243 Chi-nese', exclusion of 230 Cin-cin-na'ti, founded 225 Ci-pan'go 11 Civil War 193-213 causes of 190-193 cost of 214 results of 215 Clark, George Rogers, conquests of . 137, 138 Clark, William, explorations of 165 Clay, Henry, effects Compromise of 1S50 . . 1S7 effects Missouri Compromise 176 Cler-m&nt' , first successful steamboat . . 172 Clove 'land, Grover, President . . . 237, 243 Clin'ton, General, at Monmouth .... 133 Col'o-nies, the thirteen S9-91 become states 126 Col-o-ra'do, admitted to Union 223 gold discovered in 220 Co-lum'bi-a, District of 150, 152 Columbia River, discovered 165 Co-lum'bus, Christopher 8-14 Com'pro-uilse, Missouri, adopted . . . .176 repealed 190 Compromise of 1850 187, 190 INDEX 247 PAGE Cone 'ord, battle of 122,123 C6n-es-to'ga wagon 162 Con-fed'er-a-cy 193 See Civil War. Confederate states, reconstruction of . 216, 217 Con fed-er-a'tion, Articles of 150 Con'gress, Continental. See Continental Congress. Congress, destroyed 210, 211 Congress, Stamp Act 115 Congress of the United States 148 Con-nect'i-cut, colony of . . . 61, 62, 91, 92 gives " back lands " to Congress . . . .145 Con-sti-tu'tion of United States . . . 148-150 Constitutional Convention 148 Con-ti-nen'tal Army, formed 123 Continental Congress 119,123 adopts Declaration of Independence . 126, 127 adopts national flag 130 " back lands " given to 145 powers of 146-148, 150 Corn-wal'lis, General, invades Virginia 141, 142 surrenders 142 Co-ro-na'do (-fhd), explorations of . . 28, 231 Cotton gin invented 175 Cotton industry in South 174, 175 Cou-reurs' de bois (deh bwii'), in Canada . . 36 Crazy Horse, Indian chief 227 Creek Indians, trade with 88 war of 159 Cu'ba, discovered 11, 24 rebellion in 237, 238 Spanish-American War in . . 238, 239, 241 Cul'pep-er Court House 52 Cum' ber-land, Merrimac destroys . . .210 Cus'ter, General, death of 227 Da'vis, Jefferson, President of Confederacy . 193 taken prisoner 205 Dec-la-rii'tion of Independence . . . 126,127 Deer'field, massacre at 95, 96 De Kalb', in Revolutionary War . . 132, 139 Del 'a-ware, settlement of 75, 79 Den'ver, settled 221 Dg So'to, in the Southeast 29, 231 De-troit', fort at 36 Dew'ey, Admiral, in battle of Manila . . . 239 sails to Philippines 238 takes Manila 242 Din-wid'tfie, Governor 102, 103 District of Columbia, formed .... 150, 152 Don 'el-son, Fort, taken 197 Doug'las, Stephen A 190-193 Do'ver, massacre at 93 PAGE Du-luth', founded 223 Du-pont', captures Port Royal 213 Duquesne (doo-kan'), Fort 104,105 Diis'tan, Hannah, captivity of 95 Dutch settlers in New Netherland .... 74 Dutch West India Company 73,74 East India Company, sends tea to Amer- ica 116, 118 Ells'worth, Chief Justice, at Constitutional Convention 148 E-man-ci-pa'tion Proclamation . . . 217, 218 Em-bar go, the long 155, 156 England, claims part of America 44 colonies of 45-72, 76-92 wars with France in America .... 92-107 wars with Holland in New Netherland . . 76 See also Great Britain. English settlers, in the Carolinas 83 in Georgia 88 in Maryland 55 in New England 56-72, 75 in Pennsylvania 78-80 in Virginia 45-54 Er'ics-son, Captain John, designs Monitor . 210 E'rie Canal, built 171 Erie, Lake, battle of 156 Fair'fax, Lord, and Washington 103 Far'ra-gut, Flag Officer, captures New Or- leans 199, 213 in battle of Mobile Bay 213 Fil-i-pi"nos, insurrection of 242 Fill 'more, Millard, President 193 Flag, national, making of 130 F16r'i-da, admitted to Union 178 British province 107, 111 discovered 24 joins Confederacy 193 Narvaez in 25 purchased by United States 166 Spain regains 144, 145 Foote, Flag Officer, takes Fort Henry . 198, 213 Ford's Theater, Lincoln murdered in . . . 216 Fort Am 'ster-dam, built 73 Fort Don 'el-son, taken 198 Fort Duquesne (doo-kan') 104,105 Fort Good Hope, built 73 Fort Hen'ry, Tennessee, taken . . . 198, 213 Fort Henry, Virginia, Indians attack . . . 136 Fort Leav'en-worth 181 Fort Le Boeuf, built 101 Fort Mar'i-on, old tower of 110 Fort Mims, massacre at 159 248 INDEX PAGE Fort Moul'trle, Anderson leaves 194 British attack 138 Fort Nas'sau, built ' 73 Fort Ne-ces'si-ty, Washington builds . . .104 Fort Ni-ag'a-ra, relief sent to 108 Fort Or'ange, built at Albany 73, 76 Fort Pitt 105 in Pontiac's War 108, 109 Fort St. Lou'ls, built 40, 41 Fort Sum 'ter 193-195 Forts, frontier 134, 135 France, gives Louisiana to Spain .... 107 helps United States ...... 132, 133, 142 interferes with American trade .... 155 loses American possessions . . . 106, 107 naval war with United States 153 regains Louisiana, and sells it to United States 164 wars with England 92-107 Frank'lin, Benjamin 111-113 at Constitutional Convention 148 helps frame Declaration of Independence 127 in France 132 opposes Stamp Act 112, 113 signs treaty of Paris 142 Fred'er-icks-burg, battle of 201 Fre-mont', Captain, in California . . . . 1S1 French, hatred of Iroquois for 34 in America 31-43, 92-107 in Mississippi valley .... 37-41, 98, 99 in Ohio valley 100, 101, 103 missionaries 34 New Orleans founded by 98 on the Great Lakes 37 settle in Canada 35, 36 French and English Wars 92-107 French and Indian War 103-107 Friends, or Quakers 78, 77 Fron'tier forts 134, 135 Frontier houses 166, 168 Ful'ton, Robert, and the steamboat . . .172 Fur trade, in Canada 35, 36 in New Netherland 73 Gads/den Purchase 234 Gage, General 120, 121, 123 Gar'field, James A., President 243 Gar'ri-son, William Lloyd, opposes slavery 177 Garrison houses, in New England .... 65 Gates, General, at Saratoga 130 # in South Carolina 139 Geor'gi-a, founded 88, 89 gives "back lands" to Congress . . . .145 joins Confederacy 193 PAGE Ger'man settlers 230 in Carolina 81,83 in Georgia 89 in Pennsylvania 81 Ger 'man-town, battle of 130 _ founded 80 Ger'rish, Sarah, captivity of 94 Ger'ry, Elbridge 148 Get'ty§-burg, battle of 201 Ghent, treaty of 160 Gil'bert, Humphrey, death of 44 Glad'wyne 80 Glbuces 'ter, Fort Nassau built at .... 73 Gold, in California 183-186, 220 in Colorado 220 in Montana 224, 227 G6r'ge§, Fer-di-nan do, proprietor of Maine 63 Grant, U-lys'se§ S iy7, 198 campaign against Richmond 204 Lee surrenders to 205 Lieutenant General 203 President 219, 243 takes Fort Donelson 198 takes Vicksburg 202 Grasse, Count de, at Yorktown 142 Gray, Captain, discovers Columbia River, 165, 179 Great Brit'ain, assigns land to Indians . . Ill Boston Port Bill 119 boundary disputes with 179, 180 helps Confederacy 207-209 impresses American sailors . . . . 154,156 in French and Indian War .... 103-107 in War of Independence 120-142 in War of 1812 156-160 interferes with American trade .... 155 pays Civil War damages 209 Stamp Act 111-113,115 surrenders frontier forts 1G3 treaties with 142. 1 60 Greene, General, at Valley Forge .... 181 in Georgia and South Carolina 141 Guam 234, 236, 242 "Hail, Columbia,"' written 152,153 llai'ti, Columbus at 12 Hale, Nathan 128 Half-faced camps 166 Half-Moon, Hudson's ship 72 Ham'il-ton, Alexander, at Constitutional Convention 148 at Valley Forge 131 Hamp'tou Roads, naval battles on . . 210-212 Han'cock, John, at Lexington 121 Har'mar, General, in Indian war .... 225 INDEX 249 PAGE Har'ri-son, Benjamin, President 243 Harrison, William H., at Tippecanoe . . .226 in battle of Thames River 156 President 1W Har'rod, James 134 Har'rods-burg 134 Hart'ford, Dutch at 13 English found 61 Ha-van'a, blockaded 238 captured by British 107 Ha'ver-Aili, massacres at 94, 95 Hii-wrti'ian Islands 234, 236, 237 Hayeg, RiWer-ford B., President .... 243 Hel'e-na, founded 224 Hen-ri'cus, town of 50 Hen'ry, Fort, Tennessee, taken . . . 193, 213 Henry, Fort, Virginia, Indians attack . . . 136 Henry, Patrick, Governor of Virginia . . .137 opposes Stamp Act 113, 114 His-pan-io'la (-yo -), discovered 12 Hob'son, Lieutenant R.P 240 II til'land, founds colony in America . . 72-75 Pilgrims sail from 56 wars with England 76 Hon-du'ras, Culumbus discovers .... 14 Hook'er, General, commander Army of Po- tomac 201 Hooker, Thomas, founds Hartford .... 61 House of Rep-re-sent'a-tives 149 Howe, General, leaves Boston 126 takes New York 127 IIM'son, Henry, voyage of 72, 73 Hudson River, discovered 73 Hii'gwe-nots, settle in Carolina 83 Hu'ron, Lake 34 I'da-ho, admitted to Union 229 Il-li-nois', admitted to Union 170 Indian war in 226 Im 'mi-grants from Old World . . . 229, 230 Im-press'ment of American sailors . . 154,155 In-dent'ed servants, in Virginia 49 In-de-pend'ence, Declaration of . . . 126, 127 Independence, Missouri 185 In-di-iin'a, admitted to Union 170 Indian reservations 227 Indian Territory 226 Indian wars 224-227 in Alabama (Creek War) 159 in Kentucky and Tennessee . . . 135-138 in New England 61-63, 93-97 Pontiac's War 107-109 In'di-ang 16-23, 27, 224-227 and Pilgrims 59 PAGK Indians, and William Penn 79 Great Britain assigns land to Ill sold into slavery 93 villages of 18, 22, 32 In'dieg, West, named 14 I'o-wa, admitted to Union 186, 220 Irish settlers 81, 280 Ironclads, first battle of 210-212 Ir-o-quois' 21 defeated on Lake Champlain . . . . 33, 34 hatred of, for French 34 Is-a-bel'la, Queen, helps Columbus .... 8 I-tal'ian settlers 230 Jack 'son, Andrew 158-160 at battle of New Orleans 160 in Indian Wars 226 President 177, 226 Ja-nnu'ca, discovered 13 James'town, settlement of . . . 45,47,48,52 Jiis'per, William 138, 139 Jay, John, signs treaty of Paris 142 Jay'hawk-ers, in Kansas 191 Jef fer-son, Thomas, President . 155, 164, 177 writes Declaration of Independence . . . 127 John'son, Andrew, President. . . . 216,243 impeachment of 217 John'ston, Joseph E., at Richmond . . . 200 in Georgia 203 surrenders to Sherman 205 Joliet (zho-le-a'), explorations of . . . . 37-39 Jo'seph, Indian chief 227 Kiin'sas, admitted to Union 223 civil war in 191 slavery question in 190, 191 Spaniards in 29 territory of 190 Kas-kas'ki-a, taken by Clark 137 Kear'ny, General, in Mexican War . . 180, 181 Kearsarge (ker'sarj), sinks Alabama . . 209 Ken-tuck'y, admitted to Union 162 emigration to 161, 162 frontier life in 135-138 settled 134 Key, Francis Scott 157, 158 Kings Mountain, battle of 141 iTnox, General, at Valley Forge 131 Kos-ci-us'ko, in Revolutionary War . . . 132 La-drdnes/ 242 La-fa-yette\ at Mount Vernon 143 in Revolutionary War 152 Lake Cham-plain', battle of 156 250 INDEX PAGE Lake E'rie, battle of 156 La Mile', explorations of ... . 3T, 39-41 in Texas 41 Lau'rens, John, in Revolutionary "War . . 131 Lead plates, French claim territory with 100, 101 Leav'en-worth 181,221 Le-cornp'ton, founded 191 Lee, Robert E 200, 199 at Gettysburg 201 surrenders to Grant 204 Lee, R. H., in Continental Congress . . . 126 Leon'ard-son, Samuel, captivity of . . . .95 ZSop'ard, fires on Chesapeake 154 Lew'is, Mer'i-weth-er, explorations of . . 165 Lewis and Clark, expedition of . . . 165, 179 Lex'ing-ton, battle of 122, 123 Liberty Party, organized 177 lAn'eoln, Abraham 167, 168 calls for army 196,213 debate with Douglas 191, 192 elected President 193 Emancipation Proclamation 217 inaugurated 194 murdered 216 reelected 216 Lincoln, General, at Savannah 139 Liv'er-pool, blockade running business at . 207 Liv'ing-ston, Robert, helps frame Declara- tion of Independence 127 Lo'co-mo-tives, steam 172 L6n'don Company, controls Virginia . . 45, 54 Look'out Mountain, battle of 202 Low'is-burg, built and taken 99 taken again 105 Lott-i'-si-a'na, admitted to Union . . . . 170 claimed by France 40 ceded to Spain 107 ceded to France 164 joins Confederacy 193 purchased by United States 164 Lu.-zon', insurrection in 242 McClel'lan, General, at Antietam .... 200 commander of Army of Potomac .... 197 in Peninsular campaign 199 McDbn'ough, in battle of Lake Champlain . 156 Mack'i-nac, Strait of 36 McKin'Iey, William, President 243 Ma-com&', General, at Plattsburg .... 156 Mad'i-son, James, President .... 156, 177 Ma-gel 'Ian, discovers Philippines . . . .239 Mail service, in far West 221-223 Maine, admitted to Union 175, 176 border wars in 97 PAGE Maine, bought by Massachusetts .... 63 boundary dispute 179 Maine, destruction of 238 Man-hat'tan Island, purchased 73 Ma-nil'a, battle of 239 surrenders 242 Mar'cos, explorations of 27, 28 Ma-ri-et'ta, settled 225 Mar'i-on, in Revolutionary War 139 Marquette (miir-ket'), Father, explorations of 37-59 Mar'shall, discovers gold 183, 184 Mar'thas Vine'yard 77 Ma'ry-land (mer'-) 54, 55, 108 Ma'son, John, proprietor of New Hampshire 63 Mas-sa-chu'setts, charter troubles ... 90, 92 English colony 56-60 gives " back lands " to Congress .... 145 opposes Stamp Act 115 prepares for war 120 Mas'sa-soit, Indian chief 59, 60 May'flow-er, voyage of 57, 58 Meade, General, at Gettysburg 201 Mem'phis, surrendered 198 Mer'i-on 80 Mer'ri-mac 209, 210 battle with Monitor 210 212 destroyed by Confederates 212 Mer'ritt, General, at Manila .... 239, 242 Mex'i-can War 180, 1S1 Mich'i-gan, admitted to Union 178 MIle§, General, captures Porto Rico . 241, 242 Min-ne-so'ta, admitted to Union .... 223 Mis'sion-a-ry Ridge, battle of 203 Mis-sis-sip 'pi, admitted to Union . . . .170 joins Confederacy 193 Mississippi River, discovered . . . .25, 37, 38 life and trade on 170 Mis-s English colony 77 New Mex'i-co, old settlements in .... 188 pueblos of 22 territory formed 18S New Neth'er-land, Dutch colony . . . . 74,75 given to Duke of York 76 taken by English . 76 New 6r'le-ans, battle of 160 British attack 158-160 Farragut captures ' 199, 213 founded 41, 98, 99 given to Spain 107 New Swe'den 75 New York, English colony 77 gives "back lands" to Congress . . . .145 New York city, British leave 142 taken by British 127 tea ships at 118 Washington inaugurated in 150 Ng? Per cgs Indians 227 Ni-ag'a-ra, Fort 108 Wi'nd, Columbus's ship 9, 12 PAGB Nor'foZk Navy Yard, burned 209 North Car-o-li'na, colonial life in 84 gives " back lands " to Congress .... 145 joins Confederacy 196 pirates in 86 North Da-ko'ta, admitted to Union . . . .229 Lewis and Clark in 165 Northwest, opened to civilization . . 223-227 the new 228-231 Northwest Territory 146 lands sold to settlers 162 Nor-we'gi-an settlers 230, 231 No'va Seo'tia (.-shi-a) 97, 99 Nug'ces River 180 Nul-li-fi-ca'tion Act 187 O'gle-thorp^, James 87, 88 O-hi'o, admitted to Union 163 Ohio River, life and trade on 169 Ohio valley, French and English in 100, 101, 103 " Old Colonv," Plymouth called 63 Old North Church 121 Old South Meetinghouse 117 O-lym'pi-a, Dewey's flagship 239 O'ma-ha, railroad built from 223 On-ta'ri"-o, Lake 34 Oquendo (o-ken'do), wreck of 240 Or'e-gon, admitted to Union 223 boundary dispute 179, 180 Os-ce-o'la, Indian chief 226 O'tis, General, in Manila 242 Ot'ta-wa 40 Pa-cif ic railroads 223 Pa'los, Columbus at 8, 9, 12 Pam'li-co Sound 206 Pan-a-ma', Istbmus of, discovered .... 14 Par 'is, treaty of 142 Pas'cu.-ii Flo-ri'da 24 Pa-troon§' 74 Pe-kin', allied armies capture 243 Pen-in'su-lar Campaign in Civil War . . . 199 Penn, William, proprietor of Pennsylvania 78, 80 and the Indians 79 buys Delaware 79 Penn-syl-va'ni-a, backwoodsmen of . . . 108 Scotch-Irish settlers in 81, 82 settlement of 78-82 Pe-nob'scot Bay 93 Pen-sa-co'la, taken by Spain 144 Pe'quot Indians, war with 61, 62 Per'ry, in battle of Lake Erie 156 Pe'terg-burg, siege of 204 252 INDEX PAGE Phil-a-del'phi-a, Congress meets in 119, 126, 152 Constitutional Convention at 148 founded 80 tea ships at 116,118,119 Phil'ip-pine Islands 236, 239 acquisition of 234, 242 insurrection in 242 Phil'ip, Indian king, War of 62, 63 Pick'eng, in Revolutionary War 139 Pick'er-ing, Colonel 121 Pierce, Franklin, President 193 Pikes Peak 221 Pil'grims, and the Indians 59, 6T found Plymouth 58 sail from Holland 56 Pin'td, Columbus's ship 9, 12 Pinzon (peen-thon') deserts Columbus. . . 12 Pirates, in the Bahamas 86 in the Carolinas 84-87 Pitts 'burg (Fort Pitt) 103,105,108 Plains of Abraham, battle of Quebec on 105, 106 Platte River 186 Platts'burg, battle of 156 Plymouth, added to Massachusetts ... 63 Pilgrims settle 58 Po-ca-hon'tas, story of 46, 47 Pfiflc, James K., President . . . 178, ISO, 193 Pon'ce (-tha), General Miles at 242 Ponce de Leon (da. lu-6n'), in Florida ... 24 Pon'ti-ac's War 107-109 Pony express, in the far West .... 221, 222 Poor Richard's Almanac 112 Por'ter, on the Mississippi 213 Port IIM'son, battle of 202 Port Roy'al, captured by Dupont .... 213 Port Royal, Nova Scotia, captured by English 97 Por'to Ri'co 14, 24, 236 acquisition of 234, 242 General Miles captures ....... 241 Po-to'mac 199 Pow-ha-tan', Indian chief 46 Pra«'r?'e du Chien' 37 Pres'cott, Colonel, at Bunker Hill . . . .124 Presidents, list of 177,193,243 Prov'i-dence, founded 60 Pueb'log (pweb'-) 22, 28 Pu'get Sound 223 Pu-las'ki, death of 139 in Revolutionary War 132, 139 Pu'ri-tans, settle Massachusetts 60 Put'nam, General Israel, at Bunker Hill . . 124 Quak'ers, or Friends 77, 78 Que-bec', attacked by colonists 94 PAGE Quebec, fall of 105, 106 founded 33 province of Ill Rad'nor 80 Railroads, introduced 172 Pacific, built 223 Ra'legh (raw'ly), Sir Walter, settlements "of 45 Ha'\e\g7i, Johnston surrenders at .... 205 Red Cloud, Indian chief 227 Re-demp'tion-ers, in Virginia 49.54 Re-pub 'li-can Party, nominates Lincoln . . 192 Re-vere', Paul, ride of 121, 122 RAode Island, charter troubles . . . . 91, 92 colony established 60 Rich'mond, Confederate capital 196 EI'5 Gn'in'de. 29, 180 Ro-a-noke' Island, first settlements on . . 45 Rob'ert-son, James, builds frontier fort . . 134 Rolfe, John, marries Pocahontas .... 47 Ro'se-crans, General, at Chickamauga . . . 202 Ross, Betsy, makes first national flag . . . ISO Sab'inHall 53 Sac-ra-men'to, pony express to . . . 221, 222 Sacramento River, settlement on .... 182 St. Au'giis-tine, built 30 St. Clair', General, in Indian War .... 225 St. Law'rence River, Cartier discovers . . 32 St. Low- 'is 37 St. Mu'ryg, founded 54, 55 Sa'lem, British at 120 founded 60 Salt Lake City, built 189 Sam'o-set, Indian chief 59 Samp'son, Rear Admiral, blockades Havana 238 blockades Santiago 240 San Juan (hoo-an-') 242 San Siil-va-dor' 11 San'tii Fe, founded 30 Kearney captures 181 Sdn'ld Md-r'i'd, Columbus's ship . . . 9, 12 San-ti-a*go d§ Cu'bii, battle of 240 blockaded 239 surrender of 241 Sar-a-to'ga, battle of 130 Sault Ste. (sent) Ma'ria 37 Sa-van'nah, British capture .... 138-140 founded 88 Sherman at 203 Schley, Commodore, at Santiago .... 240 SeAuyl'kill River, Welsh settlers on ... 80 Scotch High'land-ers, in Carolina .... 83 INDEX 253 PAGE Scotch Highlanders, in Georgia 89 Scotch-Irish settlers 81 Scott, General, in Mexican War . . . 180, 181 Se-ces'sion, of Southern States . . . 193, 196 Secession, question of 187 Semmeg, Captain Eaphael 208 Sen'ate 149 Se-v«er', John, builds frontier fort .... 134 Sew'ard, Secretary, attacked 216 Shaf ter, General, in Cuba 240 Shan'non, captures Che$ct]>eake .... 157 Shen-an-do'ah 199 Sher'man, Roger, helps frame Declaration of Independence 127 Sherman, William T., march to the sea 203, 204 Johnston surrenders to 205 ShI'loh, battle of 198 Sho-sho'nees 227 S'i-er'ra NG-va'da 186 Sioux wars 227 Slav'er-y 174-178 abolished in North 174 abolished in United States .... 215-219 proposed in California 186, 187 struggle for, in Kansas 190, 191 Slaves, emancipated 217 in Virginia 49, 54 Smith, Captain John, at Jamestown . . 45, 46 Smith, Joseph, founds Mormon sect . . . 188 South Ciir-o-li'na, colonial life in 84 gives " back lands " to Congress . . . .145 federal property in 193, 194 joins Confederacy 193 Nullification Act of 187 pirates expelled from 85 South Company formed 75 South Da-ko'ta, admitted to Union .... 229 Southern States, cotton industry in . 174, 175 denied representation in Congress . 216, 217 reconstruction of 216, 217 secession of 193, 196 tobacco cultivation in 48, 50 Spain, border trouble with 163 cruelty to Cubans 238 cedes Louisiana to France 164 claims in our country 30, 138 loses Florida 107 receives Louisiana 107 regains Florida 144, 145 sells Florida to United States 166 war with United States 238-242 Spaniards (-yerdz), in New World . . . 24-30 Spanish-American War 238-242 Spotted Tail, Indian chief 227 PAGE Squan'to, Indian friend of Pilgrims ... 59, 67 Stamp Act 111-115 Stamp Act Congress 115 Stand'ish, Captain Miles 58 "Star-Spangled Banner," written . . 157,158 Starved Rock 40 Steamboats, first successful .... 171, 172 Ste'phens (-venz), Alexander H., Vice-Presi- dent of Confederacy 193 Steu'ben, Baron, at Valley Forge . . 131, 132 Stock'ton, Commodore, in California . . . 181 Ston'ing-ton 62 Stony Point, Wayne takes 134 Stwy've-sant, Peter 75, 76 Sum 'ter, in Revolutionary War 139 Sumter, Fort, Anderson at .... 193-195 siege and fall of 194, 195 Sut'ter, Captain J. A 182-184 Sutter's Fort 182, 184 Swedish settlers, in Delaware 75 in the West 230,231 Swiss settlers, in Carolina 83 Tax-a'tion, of the colonies 111-119 under the Articles of Confederation . . .147 under the Constitution 149 Tay'lor, Zachary, in Mexican War . . . .180 President 193 Tea Party, Boston 118 Tea ships 116-118 Te-cum'seh, Indian chief 225, 226 Ten-nes-see', admitted to Union . . . .162 emigration into 161 frontier life in 135-138 joins Confederacy 196 settled 134 Ter're Haute (hot) .37 Tex'as, admitted to Union ... 178, 180, 220 Indians of 27 joins Confederacy 193 settled 178 Vaca in 26 Thames (temz) River, battle of . . . 156, 226 Thatch, Robert, pirate 88, 87 TAom'as, George II., at Chickamauga . . . 202 at Nashville 203 Ti-en'tsin, captured 243 Tip-pe-ca-noe', battle of 226 To-bac'co, cultivation of in South . . .48, 50 Indians raise 18 Tobacco plantations, in Maryland .... 55 in Virginia 50 To-pG'ka, founded 191 To-raT, General, surrenders Santiago . . .241 254 INDEX PAGE Travel, facilities for 146, 171, 172 Treaty, of America 85 of Ghent 160 of Paris 142 Spanish-American 242 Tren 'ton, battle of 129 Turks, interfere with Eastern trade ... 7 Ty'ler, John, President 177, 178 United States, growth 232-236, 164, 166, 178, 181 occupations of people 146,231 U'tah, admitted to Union 229 Mormons in 188, 189 territory formed 188 Va'ca, in Texas 26 reaches Gulf of California 27 Val'ley Forge, American Army at . . 130-132 Van Bu'ren, Martin, President 177 Ver-mont', admitted to Union 162 Ves-puc'ci (-poot'chee), A-mg-ri'go, America named for 14 Vicks'burg, fall of 202 Vin-cennes/ 37, 137 battle at 13S surrender of 137 Vir-gin'i-a, backwoodsmen of 10S colony of 45-54 divided 196 first slaves brought to 49 gives " back lands " to Congress .... 145 indented servants in 49 joins Confederacy 196 opposes Stamp Act 114,115 women sent to 49 Wadg'worth, Captain, hides Connecticut charter 91 Wam'pum, uses of 19, 20 War, Civil 193-213 Creek Indian 159 French and Indian 103-107, 220 King George's 99 King Philip's 62, 63 King William's 92-95 Mexican 180, 181 Modoc 227 naval, with France 153 PAGE War, of 1812 156-160 Pequot 61 Pontiac's 107-109 Sioux 227 Spanish-American 23S-242 Wash'ing-ton, admitted to Union . . . .229 Washington, George 102, 103 at Constitutional Convention 148 in French and Indian War .... 103-105 in Revolutionary War .... 124-133, 142 President 150,' 177 recalled to command of army 152 Washington city, British burn 157 founded 152 Wa-tau'ga River 134 Wayne, Anthony, in Indian war . . . 163,225 takes Stony Point 134 Web'ster, Daniel, debate with Calhoun . . 187 Welsh Bar'o-ny, in Pennsylvania .... SO Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania 80 West, great migrations to 220 mail service in 221-223 settlement of 220-227 West India Company 73, 74 West In'dtG§, explorations in 24 West Point, in Revolution .... 140, 141 West Virginia, admitted to Union . . . .223 formation of . 196 Wheat growing in the West . . 224, 229, 230 Whit'ney, Eli, invents cotton gin ... . 175 Wilderness, battle of the 204 Wil'liams, John, captivity of 96, 97 Williams, Roger, founds Rhode Island . . 60 prevents union of Indian tribes .... 61 Wil'ming-ton, blockade runners at ... . 207 Win 'throp, Governor John 70 Wis-con'sin, admitted to Union 186 Indian War in 226 Wolfe, death of 106 takes Quebec 105 Wy-o'ming, admitted to Union 229 " Yan'kee Doo'dle," national song .... 153 York'town, battle of . 142 McClellan captures 199 Zane, Elizabeth 136 Zii'ni Indians 22, 23, 28, 227 Supplementary Reading FOR ELEMENTARY GRADES FAMOUS STORIES FIFTY FAMOUS STORIES RETOLD. By James Baldwin 35 cents This is a collection of the most famous tales of ancient and modern times ; some historical and some legendary. Among them are the stories of King Alfred and the Cakes, Robin Hood, Bruce and the Spider, George Washington and his Hatchet, William Tell, How Napoleon Crossed the Alps, and other favorite stories for the young. The stories are told in a form that is easily intelligible to children, yet in no way distorted from the established versions. OLD STORIES OF THE EAST. By James Baldwin . . 45 cents The stories contained in this book are taken from the Hebrew Scriptures, and are among the most famous and most intensely inter- esting that the world has ever known. While it is neither possible nor desirable to omit allusions to their Scriptural origin, great care has been taken not to trespass on the domain of the religious teacher. OLD GREEK STORIES. By James Baldwin . . . 45 cents No other stories have been told more often or listened to with more pleasure than these classic tales of ancient Greece. They have become so incorporated into our own language and thought and so interwoven with our literature that they form almost as important a part ®f our intellectual life as they did that of the Greeks. DEFOE'S ROBINSON CRUSOE Adapted to School Purposes by Kate Stephens . . 50 cents From the date of its first appearance this has been one of the most widely read books in English fiction. It has here been made suitable for school and supplementary reading, but the editor has taken great care that the essential features of the work should in no way be changed. STORIES FROM THE ARABIAN NIGHTS Edited by M. Clarke 60 cents Of all the famous stories handed down to us from the past none has afforded more entertainment and delight to young and old of every land than these. Although the oldest stories in existence they are as fresh and interesting to-day as when they were first told. The best of these are here related with such skill as to preserve all their original charm and attractiveness, while adapting them in form and expression 4 or school and home reading. r opies of any of these books will be sent, prepaid^ to any address on receipt of the price. American Book Company New York ♦ Cincinnati ♦ Chicago (13) Carpenter's Geographical Readers By Frank G. Carpenter North America. Cloth, i2mo, 352 pages . . 60 cents South America. Cloth, 121110, 352 pages . . 60 cents Asia. Cloth, i2mo, 304 pages . . . .60 cents These new Geographical Readers are by far the most attractive and instructive books of their kind ever pub- lished. They are not mere compilations of other books or stories of imaginary travels, but they are the results of the author's actual journeys through the different coun- tries, with personal observations of their native peoples, just as they are found to-day in their homes and at their work. These journeys and visits are described in such simple and engaging manner as to make the books as entertaining as stories, while conveying in this attractive way, useful knowledge and information. While they are written in easy familiar style, and in language not above the comprehension of children, they are strictly accurate in every detail and statement. The books are well supplied with colored maps and illustrations, the latter mostly reproductions from original photographs taken by the author on the ground. They combine studies in geography with stories of travel and observation in a manner at once attractive and instructive. Their use in connection with the regular text-books on geography and history will impart a fresh and living interest to their lessons. Copies of Carpenter s Geographical Readers will be sent, prepaid, to any address on receipt of the price by the Publishers : American Book Company New York ♦ Cincinnati ♦ Chicago 05) Historical Readings FOR ELEMENTARY GRADES Eggleston's Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans Eggleston's Stories of American Life and Adventure Guerber's Story of the Thirteen Colonies Guerber's Story of the Great Republic Guerber's Story of the English . Guerber's Story of the Greeks . Guerber's Story of the Romans . Guerber's Story of the Chosen Peopl Clarke's Story of Troy Clarke's Story of Ulysses . Clarke's Story of Aeneas Clarke's Story of Caesar Johonnot's Grandfather's Stories Johonnot's Stories of Heroic Deeds Johonnot's Stories of Our Country Johonnot's Stories of Other Lands Johonnot's Stories of Olden Time Johonnot's Ten Great Events in History Rolfe's Tales of Chivalry Rolfe's Tales from English History Rolfe's Tales from Scottish History Shaw's Discoverers and Explorers Persons's Our Country in Poem and Prose Markwick and Smith's The True Citizen $0.40 .50 .65 .65 .65 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60 .45 .45 .27 .30 .40 .40 .54 .54 .36 .36 .50 35 50 .60 Copies of any of the above books will be sent, prepaid, to any address on receipt of the price by the Publishers : American Book Company New York ♦ Cincinnati ♦